Mike Bickle emphasizes that God loves us with all of His heart, illustrating that the love shared within the Trinity is the foundation of our understanding of divine love. He highlights that Jesus invites us to abide in this love, which is as intense as the love the Father has for the Son. Bickle encourages believers to study and experience this love deeply, as it is the source of our worth and joy, and to recognize that our love for God is a response to His love for us. He reminds us that God's love is unwavering and fully expressed, regardless of our spiritual maturity. Ultimately, the sermon calls us to embrace our identity as beloved children of God, cherished and invited into a profound relationship with Him.

Turn to John chapter 15, if you would. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for your word. Lord, I ask you by the Holy Spirit that you would mark our heart in a new and a fresh way today by the hearing and the speaking of your word. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I'm continuing on this series I'm calling Abiding in Love, which is a phrase from John chapter 15 verse 9. And we're just systematically going through the key ideas related to this glorious subject. I want to just take a real brief moment and give a review of what we've covered in the first two sessions before we begin the new material here on session 3. Paragraph A, those of you that are following along with the notes, I'll highlight the paragraphs. The Bible states emphatically one of the premise statements of the scriptures that God is love. And I like to throw in the the extra word. He's wholehearted love. Because God expresses wholehearted love in all of his relationships and context to his family. That's the only way that God loves is with all of his heart. The Father loves the Son with all of his heart, all of his mind. The Son loves the Father and the Son loves the Spirit, etc. Now the scripture makes clear, there's one God in three persons. And there's a dynamic fellowship in relationship between those three persons in the one God that the scripture makes clear. And that's the epicenter, and that's the source of all love in the kingdom of God. Now from eternity past, the Father has loved the Son with all of his heart. From eternity past, the Son has loved the Father with all of his mind and all of his power. Paragraph B, I've, in the last two sessions, I've outlined these five different expressions of what I call this burning heart of God. God burns in his heart with love and the fellowship that he shares, the three persons within the Trinity, this fellowship, he beckons the believers into it. And the first expression of that love is the way God loves God. We just mentioned it. The second expression of that love is the way God loves people, his own people. He loves us in the same intensity that he loves himself. Number three, the way that he beckons us, the way that he calls us to love him. He says, I love you with all of my heart, and it's only natural that he would want us to love him back with all of his heart. And then number four, we'll talk about in one of the future sessions, loving ourselves in the grace of God. Jesus said, love your neighbor as you love yourself. There's a wrong way to love ourself outside of the will of God, and there's a right way in the grace of God to love ourselves. That's a future session. And then that love in these four expressions overflows, and we love one another in the overflow of that love. Now paragraph C is our focus of our session today. Two of the most dramatic and significant statements in the whole of the Word of God. They were spoken in the same context in the night before Jesus's crucifixion, and he spoke them. I mean, they are so startling. They're so massive that they, the weight of them challenges our ability to believe them and receive them. Starts off, I mean the first one I'll highlight is John 17 verse 23. He says that the world will know. He's praying now to the Father. He says, Father that the world will know that you love them in the same intensity that you love me. Beloved, that's breathtaking. He says, Father that the nations will know that you love your people in the same scope, in the same intensity that you love me. Now this is building on an Old Testament premise from Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 14, a very famous verse, that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Now that's filling of the earth with the glory of God. It actually begins in this age. Throughout church history that's been happening in part. But it's going to come to completion in the age to come when Jesus actually returns to the earth to physically rule the earth, and in that context in the Millennial Kingdom, the fullness of this passage will come to pass that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Well, that's the print. I mean, that's the foundational premise that Jesus is relating to in this prayer. But he contextualizes the earth being filled with the glory of God to the way that the Father loves his people. He sets the glory of God into a relational paradigm, and he says this in essence, that your glory will fill the earth in this way, that all the earth will see the intensity of how you love your people. It is the same way you love me. That is a most remarkable statement. Now he makes the statement in John 15 verse 9. He makes it two times on the night before his death. John 15 verse 9 he says, As the Father loved me, I have also loved you. Then he calls them to abide in that love, or to lock into that reality, and never ever move on from a life focus on that truth. So he tells us in chapter 17 23, The Father loves you the way the Father loves me, Jesus speaking. Then he says in chapter 15, I love you the way the Father loves me. Both Father and Son, their love for us is compared to the way they love each other. The measure of how God loves us is the way God loves God. What Jesus is saying in essence, study how the Father loves me, and you will gain insight into how I love you. That's what he's saying here. Now we can study the way the Father loves the Son best in the four Gospels. Although the entire Word of God gives us insight on that. But we are called by this very, these two statements to become students of how God loves God, how the Father loves the Son. Now these statements seem so big, even unrealistic, out of our reach. But I want to remind you that nobody has more authority to comment and teach on the love of God than Jesus. And though we may not feel the truth of this love, the scope of this, it does not lessen the reality of it because we don't feel it. So the invitation, the challenge and invitation, he's beckoning us here at the end of chapter 15 verse 9. He says abide in that love. Let's look at paragraph D. Now this is the main exhortation in this series that I'm giving called abiding in love. What he means when he says abide in this love, he's saying I want you to stay focused on this love all of your days. I want you to live in it, but I want you to go deep in it. I want you to search it out. I want you to talk about it. I want you to pray about it. Don't ever be content unless you're growing in the knowledge and the experience of this love. That's what he's saying in essence. Now John the Apostle went on later and wrote in 1st John chapter 3 verse 1. He said behold the manner of love the Father has for us. And when he says behold the manner of love, he's in essence saying study and focus on the quality of love the Father has for you. So beloved, this is our our life mandate from the Word of God. We are to lock in and to seek to understand the quality of the love the Father has for us. This is not a passing theme in the kingdom. This is the primary truth of which the whole kingdom of God is built on. And again, we need to become students of God's emotions. Students of how the Father loves the Son and therefore gaining insight on how God loves us. Paragraph E When we study the relationship within the Godhead, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, again one God in three persons, the great mystery of the Trinity. When we study that which was the focus of our last session, we gain insight into how God loves God, how God loves us, and then how we overflow and respond in loving Him back. And so I won't cover that ground again, but we looked at that in our last session. Paragraph F Now one of the premises of understanding the being of God, in the little that we do, is that God never ever suspends one attribute while He exercises another. He never suspends one of His attribute ever, even when He exercises that very attribute. And what I mean by that, never for one moment does God love less than a hundred percent. Never for one moment is God less than a hundred percent just. Never for a moment is He less than a hundred percent wise. Never for a moment is He less than a hundred percent merciful. His mercy can be rejected, but the mercy is extended. God can't be anything less than who He is or He denies Himself. So He is fully God in all of His attributes all of the time. So that means He always loves in fullness. Now that's within the boundary lines of His redemption. Because in order to receive that fullness, we have to come to Him on His terms as described in Redemption. He never loves part partly. He only loves fully. Because again, He would deny Himself if He even one percent of His attributes that He was deficient in. And that's impossible. He never diminishes in love. He never grows in love. A million years from now, Jesus won't surprise us with the testimony, I grew in love in the last million years, even one percent. His love is infinite in measure. His love is eternal in duration. Now in our spiritual life, when we are in our spiritual immaturity, He never loves us less. When we are spiritually immature, then He will love us a million years from now in the perfection of the resurrection. When we have resurrected bodies and absolute perfection, He will not love us more then than He does the very first day we were born again. Because He only loves in fullness. Now the reason I say that, is that when Jesus makes these startling statements, the Father loves you the way He loves me. I love you the way the Father loves me. As shocking and as vast as those statements are, when we take a step back, it only makes sense. Because God can only love with all of His heart. That's the only way. Now though when in our spiritual immaturity, He does not love us less, it's true that we experience less. He doesn't experience less, but we do. So when we're spiritually mature or immature, it doesn't affect the way He relates to us. It affects our ability to experience it. Now God is grieved at times by various activities in our life. The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as grieved. But like parents raising a teenager, they might be grieved at an area in their life while still fully engaged in the relationship with that son or daughter. And if we can do it, how much more can God do it? God can separate His grief over an area from the overall relationship that He's deeply committed to, and that He loves us with all of His heart. Top of page two. First John 4.9 John declares how the love of God works in terms of our personal experience. He says, we love Him because He first loved us. And what He means by that, we love Him to the degree that we understand that He loves us. We'll only love God to the measure that we see He loves us. In other words, the source of our love for God is rooted in our growing understanding of how much He loves us. Our love for God is actually a response to revelation of His love for us. Our worship of God is a response to revelation of the love of God. We love more, we worship more when we see more. When we gain more revelation, more insight, I use the word revelation and insight interchangeably. When we gain more insight, we love more, we worship more. So whenever our love is weak, which mine is continually, I will focus my attention on gaining more understanding of how God feels about me. Because when I see the way God loves me, it tenderizes me. It changes the way I see myself. It changes the way I see you. The answer is always rooted in gaining more understanding, seeing more. I urge young people in their quest to love God with all their heart. I urge them, I say don't try harder, but see more. Focus on seeing more. Put your energy on gaining more understanding of the heart of God towards you instead of trying harder to love. Don't grit your teeth and determine this time you really mean it for real. Put your energy in seeing more because when you see more, you'll feel differently. You'll see yourself different. You'll see people different. On the inside, you'll feel different when you feel this glorious free love of God that he gives towards us. Paragraph B. Now, let's go back to John 15 verse 9 again. Verse 9 to 11. Look at it just a little bit more. Jesus said, as the Father loved me, as He loved me, that's the way I love you. Now, I want you to stay, abide in that love, lock into this. Don't graduate from this focus, even though we might have other assignments in the kingdom and even study focuses. We study everything and do every ministry assignment through the paradigm or the grid of the love of God. Whenever we're studying another subject and we separate it from the way the Father loves the Son as the measure of how He loves us, we're going to get off on that subject. So even when we're studying something else, we continue to abide in this truth. We read every doctrine through this grid, through this paradigm. Now, beloved, the way that the Father loves us and the way the Son loves us, that's the ultimate statement of our worth. I mean, the reason we are worth so much, the reason we are so valuable, because we're so valuable to Him. That is the root and the source of our value. Now, He goes on in verse 11 and notice this. He says, now I've taught you these things about the love of God so that your joy would come to fullness inside of you. Now, He says, I've taught you, verse 9. He outlines three things, but He's talking more than just verse 9, but verse 9 is the absolute foundation of this. He's saying, the way the Father loves me, that intense love, the way that I love you, that same intensity and your ability to experience it, those three together are foundational to walking in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Now, paragraph C. This joy is a deep sense of well-being, but with confidence in God. This joy is again, rooted in the intense way the Father loves the Son, the intense way the Son loves us, and our even beginning experience of that reality, abiding in love. Verse 9 is where our joy is anchored. Now, biblical joy is powerful. It's very, very powerful. In context, remember, John 15 is the night before His crucifixion. Now, take a step back and see the context. Now, Jesus understands fully the context. They don't. But He's describing a joy that will empower them to have victory and to prevail in some soon-coming, very devastating experiences. Meaning, the next day, the most devastating setback of their entire life, the one they love, the Messiah, is suddenly killed. Now, Jesus had been telling them for a while, I'm gonna die. None of, all the men were shocked. The women got it. None of the men got it. He said it for quite a while. But they were shocked. I mean it, the devastation of that setback is beyond what we can imagine. They did not grasp it. Compound that setback, that profound sense of disappointment with the fact of shame because they all denied Him in that very night. So now they have shame. Now, it's more complex than that because the authorities, the political authorities of the city that killed Jesus, now want to kill them and throw them in prison and kill them. So now they have the threat of prison and martyrdom. Put on top of that, just the normal temptations of life. So they have this devastating setback, profound disappointment, shame from denying the Lord, being chased by the authorities, and now they have temptations in their life. That's the context where Jesus said, my joy will sustain you. The reason I say that, because the joy he's talking about is profound. It's deep. It's sacred. It's not a superficial, silly substitute for joy. The reason I say that, and I want to say this tenderly, but in the last 10 or 15 years over the body of Christ, the subject of the joy of the Holy Spirit has been reduced to superficial, silly stuff. People say that's joy, and I say that's not the biblical joy the Holy Spirit is talking about. That's not the joy the Bible's talking about. It's a joy that sustains us under devastation, under overcoming our shame, standing before persecution or the threat of it, and even before the temptations of lust or laziness or pride. That's the joy with confidence that sustains us. And the only reason I point that out is that I don't want people to accept the superficial substitute, and they say I walk in the joy of God because I act silly at meetings. And I say no, there's something so much more glorious within your reach by the Holy Spirit. It is profound. It will give you the ability to look temptation right in the eye and to have a sense of well-being and confidence in your relationship with God and actually say no to it. It will empower you when you're mistreated to stay steady in love. That's the kind of joy that he's talking about. So never ever be content with the substitute. Go for the deep and the profound. That is the joy that the Word of God talks about. Paragraph E. Now the same night. It's the same context. It's at the Last Supper. Jesus's prayer is so insightful. John 17 verse 24. He cries out to the Father in prayer. We see his heart. He says Father I desire. I mean catch this breaking out this burst of emotion and passion in his heart. He's about to face the most devastating thing imaginable. He's going to go to the cross and be crushed by the wrath of God for our sin and that's coming within a day within 24 hours. But he cries out but Father I desire them. I'm doing that. I want them with me where I am Father. Father this is why I'm doing this. Now that's not the only reason that he did it. But it was paramount on his heart and the night before his death. I want them to be with me where I am. Beloved this is the great why behind the what of redemption. Yes. He created the heavens and the earth and yes, he redeemed us. That's the what. But why did he create and why did he redeem? Verse 24 gives us insight. I desire them that they would be with me. That's the deep why that motivates the what that God does in the context of his people. Look at chapter 14 verse 3. He's talking again the same night the same context. Now he's talking about the second coming in verse 3. He goes I will come again. Now again, the men don't even know he's going. They don't know he's dying the next day. You're coming again. What do you mean? And he says I'm going to tell you why I'm coming back to the earth with a physical resurrected body. I'm going to tell you why. Because where I am there I want you to be with me also. So he would come again and visit them even in his resurrection. But he would also come again at the time of the second coming in the full global sense. And he gives us context for both of those situations where he appears to them after the resurrection. But also when he comes to receive all of his people in the broader sense, he does it that his people would be with him where he is. It's this phrase that you would be with me. That's the dominant primary thought. I want you with me where I am. I want you to experience the glory. I want you to experience the nearness to my heart. Paragraph F. Now Jesus's glory includes many facets of his greatness. When I think of the greatness of who Jesus is, like I said in our last session, when I think of Jesus's greatness, I immediately go to a relational paradigm of greatness. He's great in love. Many people when they think of his greatness, they only think he's great in power. And that is glorious. We will be awestruck by his power forever. But the one who is most high, Jesus, whom the angels tremble before, who we will tremble by the sheer power of his greatness and majesty. I mean when John the apostle saw him, he felt like a dead man before him when Jesus unveiled his glory at a level John had never seen before. But beloved, the one that is so high, the most high, is the one that went so low for the sake of love. But why did the most high go so low? The answer that he would bring us so near to himself. He says many times in scripture directly and through the inspired writers of scripture that we will reign with him. We will rule with him. He goes, I want you to participate fully in the mandate I have from the father to fill the earth with the glory of God. I want you near me and I'm going to share my authority with you. He will always have all the authority and we will have just an expression of it. He's infinitely superior over all of his people, but even in that he brings his people so near to his heart. Now some people when they are captured rightfully so by this grand authority that Jesus calls us into, they they capture this the proximity to his authority, but let me tell you there's actually a bigger truth than being in proximity to his authority. That's being in proximity to his heart. When he talks about us ruling and reigning, it's mostly we're doing it with him. And yes, the authority is released through us and I don't want to minimize the glory of that reality that his authority will actually be released through us. But I don't want to lose sight of the bigger storyline. It's the proximity of nearness to him that is the main storyline of scripture. I mean, it's so glorious. So I have written here in paragraph F. The one who is so high, the most high. He went so low in love and humility to draw us so near to his heart in proximity to his authority in his heart. Why? And here's the main takeaway. Here's the why behind the what. Because we're so dear. He brings us so near because we're so dear to him. Revelation chapter 3 verse 21. He makes probably the most dramatic statement about our function in the age to come. He says, I mean this is just indescribable in its vastness. He says, I will grant to the one that overcomes. He's talking about to his believers. They will sit with me on my throne. This is so intense. Beloved, we don't just have authority. We are actually, well, we're operating in that authority right now at this age from the day we're born again, but that will come to fullness in the age to come. I mean in a way beyond what we can even imagine. I mean we need to operate in that authority a lot more now, but beloved, it's going to just keep going up and up and up and up. He says you'll operate in my very, from my very throne. That doesn't mean a billion believers all sit on the same chair, the same throne. He's talking about my throne. The authority of my throne will be expressed to all the nations through you. But he says the most remarkable thing. He goes, you will sit with me. The angels must have shuddered. Because in heaven they stand in the presence of God or they lie just straight overcome in his presence. Just prostrate right before him. But sitting in the presence of God, I mean that's an unthinkable idea. But he goes, that's how near you will come to me. To the very holy of holies in my heart. And I'm going to share with you in this partnership. I'm calling you to partnership. I want you to have ownership with me. I don't want you to be hired hands. I don't want you to be just a workforce. I want you to have deep ownership in your heart that you're going to be with me and transforming the whole world in this age and then in fullness the age to come. Paragraph G. We matter so much to him. We are so dear. He wants us again, not just to put our hand to the task. He wants deep ownership in our heart. That's why there's so many promises in the bible about us ruling and reigning because he's making a statement of how dear we are and the proximity to his heart and his authority that he has planned from the beginning. He's making a statement not just it's going to be fun to rule but the glory and the dignity of what that implies ruling together with him. Beloved, who are we to him? That's the message we are to walk away with. We're not to be disassociated spectators at a distance. But he says to the angels who watch before him, I mean he says to the believers that the angels stand at a distance and serve me, but you must come closer, come closer still, yet closer still to me. He doesn't give that invitation to the angels. He calls us to the very holy of holies of being in the family of God. I mean in the real sense of the word, father, son, holy spirit, and then the body of Christ. I mean the mystery of the glory of all of this but the word of God makes so clearly, proclaims so clearly that it's called salvation. Now look here in first corinthians chapter 3. Paul captures this. He says everything is yours in verse 21. First corinthians 3 21. He goes everything is yours. He goes it was in the plan of God from the beginning. It would all be yours all things pertaining to the earth in the age to come as well as this age. He goes whether it's the world, the realm of the earth, whether it's life, the realm of the spirit, the anointing of God, even if it's death itself, it will work to your benefit ultimately. He said whether it's things in this age or things in the age to come. He says it again. Everything is yours because that's how Jesus wanted it from the beginning. It was always in his heart. Meaning there's more than ruling involved. He wants complete deep ownership of our heart with him in this whole thing. We're not just hired hands or a workforce at a distance. Look at top of page 3. Now notice the word all. Because that's the language of love. He says all things are yours. He says it twice in first corinthians 3. We just looked at. That word all keeps showing up in passages related to the great plan that God has for us to be involved in the transformation of the earth. Back in genesis 1 at the very beginning. This was God's plan that human beings would be in the primary leadership role over the earth in time and eternity. His plan was always to fill the earth with his glory. Back at 2 14, the passage we mentioned earlier. This was an eternal decree to Adam and Eve. He says the whole earth is under you. All the earth. Notice the word all again. Paragraph I. Psalm 8. Verse 4. King David, he has a glimpse into this glorious reality. I mean, it's undoubtedly a life-changing moment for him. When he's considering the glorious partnership that God has with the redeemed. He was overwhelmed. Verse 4. Undoubtedly thinking about himself as well as the rest of the redeemed. He goes, what is man? That you are so mindful of him. He goes, who are we anyway? That you think so deeply. You think so consistently about us. You think so comprehensively. You left no detail. Unnoticed. Why do we fill your mind? You are mindful. Your mind is filled with goodness for us. David goes, I know my own life and my own brokenness. I know the sin of the people around me. He goes, what is it? That moves you so deeply towards us. Beloved, I believe I know the answer to that. It's not inherently our goodness, but it's the quality of who he is. It's simply who he is. The very essence of his being is this quality and this intensity and this scope of love. It's who he is. That's the reason he loves like he loves. I look at you and me. I said, we're not the reason. What is the reason? Because God is love. He is wholehearted love. But David says in verse 6, he quotes Genesis 1 26 about dominion. He goes, you put everything under us, but which translates from the larger testimony of scripture, we are going to be in partnership with you, with your son, the messiah, in everything that he does. We will be deeply related to it. He goes, I just can't imagine the worth and the value and the dignity of the redeemed David is overcome by this. Beloved, there's that life-changing moment in our own lives when that strikes us for the first time, how real this is, and then you reinterpret who you really are before God. Paragraph J, the truth of our worth to him, the truth of our identity, the true identity of who you are and what your value is and what your worth is, is only found in his eyes and in his words. We could try in vain to discover our worth and value and many other substitutes, but there's only one that has the key and the mystery to the true value and worth of who you are. And he gave everything because we were that valuable to him. I mean, he paid with his life. He backed it up with who he, with what he did by the way that he viewed us. Look at paragraph J in the middle. The revelation of Jesus's worth to us. I mean, what a glorious theme. We will sing forever of the worthiness of the lamb. We will never ever exhaust the fullness of that subject. The worthiness of the lamb. But let me tell you this. The worth of the lamb, the quality of the man that he is, fully God and fully man, it's actually magnified when we see our worth to him. When we see the quality and the intensity, the way he loves us, it gives us insight into the quality of person that he is. Ephesians chapter 2. Paul brings all of these thoughts together very precisely in Ephesians 2 verse 6 and 7. He makes reference to the truth in Revelation 3 21. We'll sit on a throne with Jesus. The phrase we looked, the verse we looked at earlier, Jesus said, you will sit with me on my throne. I mean, that's unthinkable in terms of our function. Paul references that, verse 6. He goes, he made us to sit together with Christ. That is true. We're going to have proximity to his heart. We're going to have proximity to his authority. We're going to have proximity to his presence far beyond the angels. That's the what. The authority is just indescribable that he gives us. It's his own authority. Now verse 7, he tells us the why. Verse 6 tells us the what. Verse 7 tells us the why. Paul says, do you know why God's doing this? So that in the ages to come, now notice the word ages is plural. There's the millennial kingdom for a thousand years coming after the second coming. Then there's the eternal age that has ages in it. I don't know. I end with that. I end my insight on it with just that point, ages. There's a message he wants to proclaim. There's a truth he wants to demonstrate for ages. What is that truth? The exceeding richness of how kind he is. He wants to put in open display through our experience with him the burning kindness that's in his heart. It has to be displayed. Because it's true. God devised a plan that his kindness could be openly displayed forever. Beloved, he does it through you in this age and in fullness in the age to come. Now he goes on, I don't have this in the notes, but in Ephesians 3.10, he says the principalities and powers, both the good and the bad, the angels and the demons. Ephesians 3.10 says they're trying to figure out God's plan, but when they look at the church, they understand the plan God wanted to display his kindness forever in the way he relates to us. Because his kindness must be demonstrated because it's the truth of who he is. Beloved, he gave us a premier place of authority for this reason. We have a premier place in his heart. That's why we have a premier place of function. Let's look at paragraph k. In seeing who we are to him, we gain insight into his majesty. Who would love us so much? What kind of man loves at this depth and this quality? Beloved, it's an insight about him more than it is about us. You've heard the phrase that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And what that means is what a person esteems as beautiful gives you insight into his personality. I mean, I saw this on a documentary once. A world-class scientist had this mathematical equation, some great breakthrough, and it was so beautiful to him, that whiteboard with this equation. I looked like, that doesn't look that pretty to me. Beauty's in the eyes of the beholder gives you insight into what's in that man's personality. Well, the quality of our love or the quality of love gives insight into the one who loves. Beloved, great love shows forth the greatness of the one who loves. When we see the quality of his love, his majesty becomes more clear when we see the quality and the intensity of the way that he loves us. So around the throne, they will declare the worth of the lamb. But beloved, and I say this with caution, but I say this with great respect, but it's true. The whole story is not the worth of the lamb. The lamb's story is how much we're worth to him. That's part of the story. That's the glory of the kind of person that he is. He wouldn't die for angels. He wouldn't become an angel for angels to redeem them when they said they're lost forever, but for humans. I mean, it's indescribable the value we have. That's part of the storyline forever. You read the hymns of revelation and so often they talk about God so high, Jesus so magnified. Then they talk about how low he went in his death. And then a number of them talk about how high he exalted his people in the light of how low he went. Beloved, do you know your value to him? David said it. What is man that we are so valuable? Look at Roman numeral three. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 18, just real briefly. Now I'm just going to make just another moment or two. We're going to bring this to an end. But in Ephesians 3, we see the infinite measure of love. Paul gives four dimensions of love. The width, length, depth, and height from Ephesians 3 18. We see the scope of the love of God in these four dimensions. Now each one of them have many facets. I just put like a phrase for each one just to kind of get you started down the journey of these four to think on and meditate on if this passage is new to you. The width of his love. His love is so wide. He opens the door of his heart for all people, personalities, tribes, tongues, every different life situation. He goes, you're invited. My love is wider than you. The length of his love. No matter what the depth of our failure, the depth of our sin, the depth of our difficult situation. He says my love reaches further than even your sin reaches if you'll take my love. The depth of his love. Again, there's many dimensions to each. There's many aspects to each one of these four dimensions. Tells us how deep the depth to which Jesus descended for the sake of love. The height of his love. How highly he exalted us because he loves us that much because of the quality of man that he is. Again, fully God, fully man. Says in paragraph C. He says this love passes your knowledge. It passes human knowledge. What he means by that many things actually, but one he says there's more in this love than you think. There's more there than you know forever. Even a million years from now, you will still be discovering it. It's beyond human comprehension in its full, I mean to completely exhaust the subject. Top of page four. I want to focus mostly on paragraph A. I just want to say this. That our natural response to this is our negative emotions. We hear these truths. We have naturally have unbelief. We naturally have shame. We naturally have rejection. We naturally have a dull spirit. By the Holy Spirit, we overcome these, but we read these truths. And our temptation is to give our emotions more authority than what God says about how he loves us, what the word of God says. Beloved, we may not feel the truth of these, but it doesn't lessen the reality of them. And I don't want to just experience these in the resurrection. I want to walk in this now. So we, in order to grow in this truth, because growth in this is not automatic. Growth in this involves, it requires our involvement. We search it out. We study it. But even more than that, when the negative emotions hit us, shame, rejection, failure, all of these normal emotions, we quote the word of God. We say, like Jesus said to the devil, we say to darkness, it is written. And some of the passages I have here in this handout, you can say it. It is written. He loves me. Jesus loves me like the father loves him. It's written. It is written. I am an object to display his kindness forever. It is written. Devil, you're a liar. It is written that he desires me, that I would be with him where he is. It is written one by one. When the negative emotions hit us, we don't just endure them. We stand up and say, we're giving the word of God more authority than our negative emotions. Paragraph B and C. Not going to comment on, but Luke 15. I just described in Luke 15, which is the premier chapter of how God relates to the weak and broken, how he enjoys us even in our immaturity. So read those passages on your own. Paragraph E E and F. I'll just comment on this. John the apostle, you know, he wrote these passages. I mean, he was at the last supper and he said, I'm going to run with this. I'm going to apply this to my life. I mean, when I meet Peter one day in the resurrection, I'm going to say, Peter, you were at the table when Jesus said he loves you like God loves him. Why didn't you write that in first and second Peter? I'm sure he'll have a good answer. John said, I put it in my, I put it a couple times. But it's more than that. You can read those in paragraph E and F later. When John writes about himself in the gospel of John, he only refers to himself one way, the man that God loves, the one that God loves. Beloved, that's for every one of us to take hold of. John says, I run with that. I'm the guy that God loves. He goes, that's who I am. That's how I see myself. I'm going with it. I put it in the Bible. I like John. I'm following him. In paragraph G, the hymns of revelation bring all of these together. There's a number of hymns. I just pick one, verse 9, chapter 5. Worthy is the Lamb, the Most High God. He was slain by blood. He went so low. He made us kings and priests. He brought us so near to Him because we are so dear to Him. Another one, Revelation chapter 1, verse 5 and 6 says the same thing. It says, because He loved us, He made us kings and priests and shed His blood. Beloved, this is our story. This is how God sees us. I don't want to be content with anything less than walking in more of this revelation. Amen and amen.