Living with the Assurance that God Enjoys Us | Mike Bickle

chapter 15 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible and jesus in this passage he gives three parables and we're only going to look at one of the three parables very briefly but these three parables all have the same message and i want you aware of how significant luke chapter 15 is again 40 plus years later of pastoring i have looked at taught on luke 15 almost as much as any other passage in the bible it's that significant because it transformed my life when i was 17 18 19 years old many years ago this message in luke 15 is for people like me when i was a teenager i was going hard for the lord i loved jesus when i was 15 and 16. i i was in the youth group and i was going hard but i seemed to continually fall short and my story is i felt like a failure i didn't like reading the bible i didn't like i hated prayer just to be honest i hated prayer meetings if if an angel would appeared to me when i was 16 and said yeah young man of god you will lead 24 7 prayer i would have collapsed with despair i would not have said yay i would have said no anyway and my failure wasn't just in those areas i just felt like a failure that was my story let me tell you what the enemy's plan for your life is the enemy wants you to relate to god based on how much you have failed that's what he's committed to he is going to twist your understanding any way possible so you come to jesus based on how much you have failed recently and that's the main thing in your mind when you come to him that's what the enemy wants for you the holy spirit wants exactly the opposite he wants you to come to jesus with confidence even in your weakness and your brokenness confidence that he loves you and delights in his relationship to you and when that connects in your heart and it began to connect with me about 17 or 18. it was like this is too good to be true that god not just loves me he didn't just stamp my passport so i go to heaven when i die he actually delights in his relationship with me when that connected with me just a little 17 18 and then more 20 21 22 and it was luke chapter 15. this was the first chapter that absolutely marked my heart and i've never got over it what 50 years later however long it was since those early days i've never got over luke chapter 15. and so i want you if you're not that familiar with this chapter or even if you're a little familiar i want you to become absolutely addicted to the truth in this chapter so you go okay you know i never thought much about luke 15. if it's that big of a deal maybe i'm gonna go look at this chapter again well i got good news to you it's that big of a deal paragraph a jesus is giving three parables telling the nation of israel what god the father is like and this shocked them because their idea of god the father was he was powerful and awesome and if you did wrong he would judge you and destroy you and jesus he's got all the pharisees these religious leaders he's they're there as he's talked giving these parables and he goes and he looks at the the main sinners in the city and he walks over to them and all the religious leaders are watching them and he says i want to tell you something about my father that you don't know and the message in one sentence is he delights in his people even in their failure and brokenness i don't mean that he's promoting their failure but if they're sincere towards him i'm talking to sincere believers now but stumbling but when they stumble they stand back up and they declare their sin and they resist it and they receive god's forgiveness and they push to lead and they come before god but it's not just i'm convinced i'm saved they know they have the assurance here it is that god actually enjoys them and when he's telling this to these the worst sinners in the city he's giving this message he's looking over to religious leaders and they're so mad at him that he's teaching this because he's saying they're thinking you are deceiving the sinners the broken people of course those pharisees were broken people too but they didn't think they were in these three parables i'm still in paragraph a jesus revealed how the father pursues people to restore them to forgive them to delight in them how he enjoys them how he shows him mercy look at this passage in micah chapter 7. god delights in mercy he doesn't just give mercy reluctantly going you know my son paid the price so because he died i am going to go ahead and forgive you no that's not how it is i mean our the forgiveness is connected to jesus dying and paying the price for us before the father but the father says i delight in this i enjoy giving you mercy i'm not reluctant kind of well i guess i have to now that my son paid the price no he said i delight in it not only does he like delight giving it to us he delights seeing it when it connects with our heart i remember in those early days when it connected mercy and god lavishes and i went i love you and the lord could say i love it when it impacts my people this way i delight in mercy paragraph b the way that we view god's heart the way that you think god thinks about you let's just stop for a second how does god think about you today what's he thinking about you right now what's he thinking about you a week ago a month ago or before that when you stumbled in some area that was grievous to your heart what was he thinking about you then the way that you answer this question paragraph b is one of the most significant questions in your life because most believers sincere believers that grew up in the church when they think about god they think that he's mostly mad at them or mostly sad when they when he relates to them most believers that i've talked to over the years they think oh i come to god and i know he forgave me i know i'm gonna go to heaven i'm sure of that but when he looks at my actual everyday life he's mostly mad going there you go again and here you are repenting same old same old you're just a hypocrite i'm gonna assure you that's the voice of the devil accusing you that's not the voice of the word of god or the voice of the spirit telling you about the father they think he's mostly mad or maybe he's not mad but he's just so sad like it's you again mike that's my name and i gotta forgive you again i'm just so sad about you i just you break my heart every day and that's how i thought god thought about me when i was in my teen years and the problem with that if you think that and most believers i know think that when they stumble they run from god instead of run to god and that's exactly what the enemy wants there's a spiritual principle i have in paragraph b that if you as a believer i'm talking about a believer that has sincerely repented though you may stumble again in that very area but you're sincere you hate that or you're trying to get out of that area you're not trying to get away with it you're trying to get free from it if you come before the lord and you feel dirty you will live dirty but if you come before the lord and you understand his heart and his word and you feel clean even as a young believer you'll live clean and the enemy knows that he does not want you to have confidence that you're clean in god's sight paragraph c what i well i got the answer there but don't look down and see i'm gonna ask a question what do you think the greatest emotional need of all human beings what is that the greatest emotional need we all have a several intrinsic emotional needs that god designed us with when we were created we have a number of emotional needs i'll tell you the number one emotional need you have the assurance that god enjoys you if that need is being met even a little bit at a time just little by little beloved it will radically change your spiritual life we have other emotional needs now we could use the word that we know god loves us and that would be a true way to say it but i don't say it that way because if people say well god has to love us i mean he's love he kind of has to doesn't he so i want to use the word love and say it differently that he enjoys you at age 15 at age 50. he enjoys you even in your weakness that truth will revolutionize your life i'm talking to again sincere believers i'm talking to believers that are basing their life on a pursuit of the lord and the lord wants us to know that he enjoys us even in our weakness now we can all imagine a mom and dad parents enjoying their 12 year old daughter or son and we me and my wife we have two sons they're in 39 and 40 so they but they were when they were 8 9 10 and 12 we enjoyed our relationship with them but there were areas of their life we did not approve of some actions they did but we didn't write off the entire relationship because of some an area in their life where they were struggling we saw that area for what it was and we addressed that area but we enjoyed the relationship with them and most believers go well that makes sense i mean millions of parents would say the same thing well here's my question if weak and broken human beings as parents can do that to their children how much more can god do that to his children we think well any mom and dad could see through that one area of their child's life and still enjoy the relationship even though they don't agree that area but when it comes to god we think no way would he actually relate to us in that way it's like a paragraph d hebrews chapter 10. i want you to look at this passage verse 19 and 22. this passage sums up the message of luke chapter 15 in the chapter we're on we're not going to get very far in this chapter i just more am i adverse advertising the chapter to you the chapter is real easy to understand so i don't have to break it down when you read it it's straightforward i just want to grab your attention to how significant this chapter is so you read it with a new attentiveness well hebrews 10 verse 19 of 22 sums up the message of luke chapter 15 the chapter we're looking at so clearly look what it says in verse 19 we have boldness to enter the holiest the holy place by the blood of jesus let us draw near notice with a true heart that means a sincere heart of obedience that doesn't mean you have the breakthrough in every area but there's a sincerity in your heart to be obedient in that area though the breakthrough's not fully there and to come with full assurance now here's what i want you to see when it says having boldness i want you to put the word confidence boldness and confidence is the same thing here's what the lord wants he wants you to have confidence to come into his presence by the blood of jesus verse 22 he wants you to draw near to run to him not to run from him when you stumble he wants you to get up and say you're the only one who fully understands me and you're the most tender loving being that exists and because we know the word of god the foundational principle we run to him we don't run from him but it says here with a sincere heart and with full assurance the word the phrase full assurance that's the word confidence again so he in essence says verse 19 with confidence press into god verse 22 draw near with a true heart and with confidence confidence is critical that's the number one thing the enemy does not want you to have as a sincere believer is confidence what do you mean by confidence i have written here i caught the phrase we use a lot around here and i'd love for you to use it a lot in your own life and in your own when you encourage other people and disciple other people i mean if you're 18 16 17 18 you might be pouring into 12 year olds i want you to understand that when we are confident in love our life will be dramatically changed when we're confident in love when we're confident in love and that's what this verse 19 boldness means and verse 22 full assurance it means confident and the idea is you're confident in love what does it mean to be confident in love it means two things number one you're confident that he loves you or enjoys you even in your weakness again the enemy will tell you exactly opposite but the word of god says no take the testimony of the word of god about my heart don't take the devil's lies about my heart the spirit would say confident that god enjoys you even in your weakness but it's more than that it's confident that he sees your love for him as genuine see it's one thing for me to believe that god loves me when i'm weak but it's an entirely different thing to believe he is moved by my love because my love's weak i go my love's weak and the lord says it moves me i see your love is genuine well lord it's not mature and the lord would answer weak love is not false love weak love is just that it's weak it will grow but it moves me even when it's weak again going back to the parents i know many parents that the weak immature love of their children whether 5 or 15 whatever age their love is not perfected it moves the parents and if parents can be moved like that how much more can our father be moved by that so here's what i want i want this you to go back home i've talked to the teens and those some of you are locals here with a new awareness called confidence in love and someone said what do you mean i'm confident that he enjoys me even in my weakness but more i'm confident he's moved by my love even when my love is weak it's still real because weak love is still real love because god sees with perfect understanding he doesn't say your love is only real when it's as mature as paul the apostle your love is real when you set your heart towards him but the enemy does not want us to have a true heart look at verse 22 a sincere heart meaning a heart that says i i sincerely desire to obey you that's a true heart it doesn't have the breakthrough in every area but it's sincere it's real well once a believer becomes sincere the devil has one big object to make sure they don't get confident because a sincere believer who's not confident in love is still a very ineffective believer a sincere believer who's not confident in love filled with guilt and shame and condemnation most of all of their internal conversation with god is i'm bad i'm bad give me more chance please please forgive me one more time the lord says you're my child i love you let's talk about us together but a sincere believer without confidence can't talk in that conversation with god their whole internal processes is about somehow proving to god i'm real give me one more chance if i go on spiritual probation for a few months and suffer for a while then will you believe in me and the lord says no that's not how i relate to you i want a relationship with confidence because the enemy knows if you're sincere still he doesn't like that but you're not going to be very effective you're no threat to his kingdom if you're just sincere i mean he still hates you but if you get confident you will be a threat to the kingdom of darkness because at age 15 17 25 85 you will run to him with an open heart but if you're sincere but not confident you will guard your heart and you'll retreat from him and you'll never ever grow vibrant in the spirit paragraphy i got good news for you there's no condemnation for a believer who's sincere that means no guilt no shame this the the guilt the condemnation the i'm finished i've gone too far god's done with me that is a total lie from the pit you can speak romans 8 verse 1 over your heart thus says the word of god it is written there is no condemnation again to a sincere believer someone with a true heart yet look at revelation 12 verse 10 the devil what an interesting title he's called the accuser of believers of the brethren but that means believers he accuses you night and day why does he accuse you night and day because it's so effective he doesn't even need a different strategy if he'll accuse you and accuse you and accuse you and you listen to the accusation even though you're sincere you'll draw back draw back guard your heart you won't be open with god and finally you'll quit it's like the devil says i don't need a different strategy accusation works millions of believers i've cut their spiritual life off by telling them lies about accusation how god's finished with them let's look at paragraph g look at this this is amazing hebrews 1 is describing jesus did you know jesus was anointed or inspired or empowered or whatever word you want to put that with joy more than any other man that walked on the earth that's what that verse means with gladness jesus and his personality just like the father has a gladness and a joy at the core of his being that is shocking to us when it finally dawns on us jesus was the gladdest man that says more than all your companions he meant of the human race of humanity no man ever walked in greater joy and gladness than jesus did that's the god that you're repenting before and receiving and he's looking at us he's not taking our sin lightly but he has extravagant mercy he just him and the father have the exact same heart so if i talk about the father or talk about the son you can interchange because their their personality is exactly the same jesus has a heart of gladness look at this other passage psalm 16 verse 11. this to me is one of the most shocking statements i can imagine david said it psalm 16. said in the presence of god around the throne of god in heaven think of the throne of god in heaven all the millions of angels revelation 4 says there's a emerald rainbow around the throne the 24 elders of millions of angels you know the seraphim the cherubim they're all there and the throne of god it's awesome it is it's awesome but let's let me tell you something in at the presence of his throne is the fullness of joy it's the epicenter of joy for the created realm the created order gets true joy from that throne now most of us think that the throne of god is terrifying and it is terrifying beauty is what i call it majesty terrifying beauty but there is gladness but not just gladness look at what else it says at his throne at his right hand that's the same thing as his throne is pleasure forevermore did you know there's pleasure and joy around the throne those that are closest to the throne have most pleasure and most their hearts are vibrant in gladness and overflowing when i mean joy some people think of joy as just kind of being silly or giddy or superficial no it's a profound sense of of a contentment and a sense of well-being and gladness and there's times to to express it in other ways but joy don't think of don't reduce it just to being you know someone is being silly or getting oh they got the joy and that might be true but joy's way bigger than that can you imagine the very epicenter of the created order the throne is filled with pleasure and joy that's the god that we're coming to i could just picture jesus when he was walking through the israel back in the day he would walk into a town and the kids didn't know him i mean they didn't have internet and they didn't have you know social media and oh the guy from nazareth he finally got here they don't know him the crowds are coming and the kids they look at him at his countenance what do you think his countenance looked like they ran up to him kids you can't fake out children they said hey that guy likes me i can tell he likes me mom says no no you know billy probably his name isn't billy a little jewish boy stay back stay back no he left he looked at him he winked at me he likes me and jesus saw them and it moved his heart i mean i can picture these kids running up to jesus first they go by the disciples the disciples are acting like bodyguards crowds stay back from the man of god stay back for the man of god and the kids run up and look at him we don't know who those guys are but why they don't like me and we don't i don't like them then they got past the apostles the disciples then they ran to the pharisees they went horrible but when they saw jesus they said something's real that he likes me my point is this is the jesus we're worshiping and talking to this is the jesus that holds our destiny this is the jesus that relates to us in our failure paragraph h this is so powerful it says in isaiah 62 god says your new name and you can read the passage later on your own the whole passage your new name is hefzabal what it's a hebrew word and it means god delights in you or actually this way god likes you here's your new name god enjoys you that's your new name beloved isaiah 62 right here this is so amazing to me i love to tell the story and it was in november 1995. so that was a long time ago i had a powerful dream at night and in this dream i'm on this big stage how many of you ever been to our one thing conference at the okay bunch of okay a bunch of you then and so we some of you don't know what that is that are just visiting here we had a conference for 18 years we last year was our last year the lord just told us to just rest from that for a few years or we don't know when we'll start it again but we'd have often 20 sometimes 25 000 young people come and i was at that place this is before we ever went to our conference center downtown this is a few years before ihop ever started before we ever had these conferences and i was on that platform i didn't know how i got there i'm on this dream and the thunderous voice of god i remember was coming from the right over there the thunderous voice i'm looking at this massive number of young people you know 20 30 40 000. i didn't know the number it was massive and the thunderous voice said call them hefsaba call them hefsaba for i delight in them i delight in them and i woke up from this dream and the spirit was resting on me and i thought what is what hefzaba and the lord showed me in that dream he said he's going to change the emotional chemistry that's a funny phrase the emotional makeup of young people many of them will be changed in a moment not totally healed in a moment sometimes that happens but some healing at the heart level often is the process that some stages but there would be a radical advancement in a short in a moment when this connected with them then i have these other verses he's rejoicing over you i'm going to pray over you for just for a minute here that i'm going to give a few more minutes lord i just pray over these young people hefsaba your name is hefzabo says the lord the devil is a liar you're not a hopeless hypocrite you haven't gone too far god has not given up on you you're not disqualified your name is hefsaba hefsabo the lord says i delight in you i like you i like you more than you like you i delight in you more than you delight in you i know more about you than you know about you yes you see your weakness but i see the cry of your heart for me and i see your destiny for billions of years i know much more about you than you know about you i declare your name is hefzaba lord i ask that you'd mark hearts and shift people again in this dream they were not the majority were not totally healed in one minute but they were set on a new path in one hour the next day they had a a new way of looking at god and they smiled when they looked up and they didn't think of god as mostly mad or mostly sad but god is mostly glad when he looks at us how about page two well there's three parables i'm only going to mention the third one all three parables have the same message but i want to tell you this become i don't know experts not the right word but let me just say experts anyway become experts on luke 15 whatever the word i really need to say really know this chapter well don't read it once read it once a week for maybe the next 52 weeks literally i challenge you to read luke 15 once a week for one year beloved this changed my life when i was uh 17 18 years old luke 15. i never heard of luke 15. before that i went where did this come from well we know the story all three parables say the same thing the message is god rejoices in his people not just his mature people while they're in brokenness because all three parables are depicting his people in brokenness it's not a problem to believe that god delights in paul the apostle the most mature believer whatever whatever that's not so hard to believe but he delights in forgiving and restoring and recovering he delights in the relationship he likes it well let's look at parable number three how the father responds to a son this is a believer who is stumbling now often the pro the parable of the prodigal son we think of it as how god feels about unbelievers and he does but this is a believer who stumbled and i've talked to pastors over the year i go over the years it's not enough to convince our people god fills this way towards unbelievers that's good i love that this is how he feels towards believers too this goes on and on and on because of what his heart's like his personality is filled with tenderness now we mostly know the story so i'm going to summarize it and some of you maybe that have never read luke 15 maybe there's a few of you most of you if you're in a youth group you've heard this over the years but there's a man a very wealthy man he has two sons verse 12 i'm just going to paraphrase it as we go the younger son said to his dad hey father give me my portion of the family wealth and the dad says well son i got 10 million dollars i'm making that number up and you and your older brother are each gonna get five million dollars just wait you know be on the family farm and the family business and our love together and i will get you each get five million dollars and verse 12 the younger son says give me tell you what give me a million now and we'll call it even in other words dad i can't really wait for you to die because i got things i want to do right now so i'll take a million we'll call it even verse 13. so the younger son took the million and he wasted it all he took the blessing of his father and wasted it all this is a picture of a believer who has the father's blessing but they just live in that lifestyle and it's still described there i won't go into the details verse 14 he spent it all he wasted all of the father's blessing on his life he squandered it paragraph b verse 17. then the younger son said this is insanity i have a loving father who's very wealthy and now i lost the million dollars i spent it on all kinds of it's called riotous living parties and immorality and drunkenness and drugs having a having a ball for you know just a for a year just a party party party spent the whole million dollars and again i'm making up the numbers verse 17 he came to himself one translation says he came to his census and he goes why am i doing this he goes if i go back home my dad is so nice and he's got so much money he could hire me he'll pay me double minimum wage he's paying the others minimum wage she'll pay me double so i still won't be have the family inheritance already threw it away so verse 18 i'm gonna rise i'm gonna walk all the way home look at the three things he said verse 18. he's going to say three things it's important to get these three things three things father i've sinned that's important to be clear with god that's good admit it don't blame shift it well i had a hard time no no call since then god knows it anyway he can handle it trust me he can handle it i sinned he says okay number two i'm not worthy i'm not deserving of family blessing that's true but then he makes the third statement the third statement's the trouble statement hire me let me earn the family blessing hire me let me work for you and earn the family blessing and family status now you're going to find out in a minute that when he came to his father in verse 21 to 22 he said father i have sinned he said number one statement i'm not worthy i don't deserve to be in the family that was true then he was about to say hire me and let me earn my way back and the father cut him off i'm not gonna let you earn your way back in i'm gonna give it to you as an abundance of my love for you see a lot of folks when they admit they sin and they're not worthy of forgiveness we're not worthy it's not about us being worthy it's about jesus being worthy god didn't relate to me based on my track record but based on his trust it's what he did for me that gives me access to the father but the enemy wants us to go work for god to earn our way back in and i tell you that's the lie that fuels dead religion and the spirit of condemnation and guilt and shame now he's all prepared to earn his way back but you find out in verse 21 and 22 the father says no i'm not going to even let you say that and he cuts it off and he blesses him paragraph c well verse 20 he came to his father he's still a great way off the father's out on the front porch this is how i picture it maybe it wasn't but that's how i picture it every night the father would sit out there on the rocker looking at over the horizon over the hill he says i know my son i know he's gonna waste all the money i know him well and i know he'll come back the father was waiting for him and so night after night the father would sit there waiting for him that one day hundreds of yards away way in the distance there's this guy walking just that way the father was oh my he's here i can tell by the way he's walking it's my son can't see his face catch his clothes but i i can't miss that walk look what the father does now jesus is describing what god the father does that's the point don't miss the point in verse 20. verse 20 is the grand verse of this chapter there's five things that's talking about how god the father responds to a son who threw away all the father's blessing for a season the father saw him because you know why the father saw him because he was earnestly day by day watching with expectation for him to come back then he felt compassion father had tender feelings he didn't say that little brat he wasted a million dollars and brought shame in our family community the father says no no no i love my son i love my son he felt tender the father jumps out of the chair and runs the kids walking oh my goodness never saw dad run before because in the jewish culture particularly a wealthy aristocrat like a i mean he's a wealthy man in the community a man of honor they would never get up and run so he's running and the kid's going uh not a hundred percent sure what's going on here he got to his son and the sun's kind of like hi dad long time no see and the dad embraces him and the sun's a little startled began to kiss him and restores him by that kiss to the family favor no probation that's the strange part no probation you're in the family and i tell you beloved when we've had a hard season i'm talking about different believers they're thinking god they go nah i'm just a hypocrite i'm stuck in this i've repented a thousand times it's not gonna ever work god's finished with me the devil's been telling you you're finished your hopeless hypocrite it's over i'm you'll be startled and it might not be you in here but undoubtedly there's a few in the room this really applies to but many of you you may never have a season like that of gross disobedience but you'll minister to people that do you need to know this verse it needs to mark your heart between you and god but it needs to be one of the verses you use to recover people and when he hugged his son it shocked the sun i mean the the sun just shocked him i don't even know dad just no this is a little too much the lord says no it's complete forgiveness and he hugged him and kissed him restored him to the family to the family business in the family favor paragraph d here he is verse 21. he's going to say all three sentences i sinned verse 18. he said that verse 18. i'm no longer deserving to be in the family that's true you don't deserve it i want to be a hired person i want to earn and the father cuts him off the father's not going to let you earn your way to the family you know why you didn't get in the family in the first place because you earned it you got into the family because of who he is and what his heart's like and what jesus did that's the foundation stone of the gospel paragraphy the father verse 22 won't let him give the third statement hire me let me work my way back give me a year let me pay off the debt i'll pay interest i'll live in the barn for a year or two i'll prove the father says no no interest no payback no living in the barn for a year with all the servants no verse 22 bring out the best robes wait you give the best robes to the noble men who visit from far away places the the wealthy powerful men of society from another city the best the best robes the you know the hired hands in the air going wow go to the very most expensive robes i tell you beloved that he puts on the best robes on you is called the robe of righteousness purchased by the blood of jesus for your life he puts the best robe on you he says bring the ring the ring the signet ring of a family that's the that's the family checking account if you had the signet ring you could go to the bank and with by putting the ring because they they would have a wax uh thing there and they put the signet ring in it which equaled the signature of the father in the family business he goes you have the right to draw money from the bank that's what the ring means the older brother is freaked out because i appreciate your happy do you know what he did with the million dollars he's gonna do it again it's son my son's back he gets the ring he gets the code to the family bank account boy that older brother was mad can we put sandals on his feet bring the fatted calf that a calf really expensive thousands of dollars potentially let's have the biggest feast because we're all happy we're together now you'll read the older son got really mad because there's the older sons in the kingdom of god that have never touched the father's generosity well they have but they've never they don't know they have and they think their favor in their families because of how good they are instead of what the father's heart is like and there's a lot of older brothers in the body of christ and they go why is god anointing her after what she did let's put her on probation for a few years let's let her learn her lesson father says no no that's not how we do it because the essence of the story is not a son who lost his inheritance that's the second message the essence of the story is a father who lost his son that's the story and how the father feels about recovering his son well amen and amen let's just end with that let's stand before the lord

Channel: Mike Bickle Official

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Keywords: Mike Bickle, IHOPKC, Intimacy, Fancis Chan, John Piper, Prayer Room, End Times, Misty Edwards, Lou Engle, Equip Project

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Length: 43min 40sec (2620 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020