Mike Bickle | 7 Churches in Rev 2-3: A Church after God's Heart | Pt 9

father we thank you for your presence and Lord we thank you for this spirit of worship in this first 30 minutes and we just thank you the way you inspire us Holy Spirit to love Jesus how you tenderizes how you remind us and call us over and over again to the beautiful man the bridegroom King the god man Christ Jesus we love him we ask you to inspire us more to love him let us see more that we would love more we thank you in Jesus name Amen well this is session 9 and for the I hope you students this is their final session for this class but for those that come on Friday night and our interns I'm gonna continue on the book of Revelation the seven churches for the next number of weeks maybe five six seven eight weeks you know I don't know for quite a while for June and July and mostly through there there's so much gold to mine in these three chapters I mean I think of these three chapters revelation one two and three it's one unit as one of the most significant passages in the Word of God I mean it's Jesus revealing himself in his glory eyes like burning fire face like the Sun and then it's Jesus describing what he wants in the church and he was talking obviously to the Church of that day but he was talking to the church in context that will experience the book of Revelation his endtime leadership planned to purify the church and transition the earth to the indicated to the age to come I mean the book of Revelation is his plan and he's gonna reveal his glory and purify his church in that plan so when he's talking to these seven churches he surely is talking to them but he is talking to a billion believers at the end of the age saying in context to this fiery time in history this challenging time this great outpouring of the spear right body of Christ you must know these things about me you must know what I want in the church and so in context of that you just don't want to run through the seven churches and be done with those seven those three chapters and we've given a little bit on each one of the seven churches so in the weeks to come I'm gonna compare the churches what how he revealed himself and put all those descriptions together the eternal rewards the the warnings the affirmations we're gonna look at them quite a bit more in deep boat and depth we're gonna put them together from all seven churches over the weeks to come so we're gonna begin tonight with just seeing the real message the real message to the seven churches and that is to love God with all their heart we say well that seems pretty obvious but I think the the message that the Holy Spirit is gonna establish the first commandment in first place that message is not on the minds of millions hundreds of millions of believers though it seems self-evident and obvious it's number one on God's agenda but it's probably on the back end of the top ten in the church it's not at the top it's not on most people's minds and so I don't want to ever just run past this subject I don't think we can repeat it or say it too many times and remind the body of Christ or call our own hearts to it and so I wanted tonight just take a snapshot of why he's calling that you're I mean of the fact that he's calling the church to the first commandment and how he called three of the seven churches in a very specific way he was really saying this make the first commandment first take time to connect your heart to me don't be so busy even in the revival ministry and forget me that's what he's saying to three of the churches and that's what he's telling the endtime Church I have no question that globally the Church of the seven churches globally the church of the seven that describes the body of Christ in the earth not just the Western world but in the earth is the Laodicean Church and the great mist I mean the great miracle at the end times is the Holy Spirit's gonna transform the layout you see in Church of this at this hour into the prepared bride now what is going to happen to have a billion people they're not all described by lotuses but the majority what is going to happen that makes that kind of transformation in one generation and of course part of the storyline is right here in the book of Revelation it's pretty intense but there's a bigger story line than just revival in trouble the trouble that's increasing the pressure and the great revival there's a bigger story line he's after our heart he's preparing a bride for his son's return when we lose sight of a bridegroom King preparing a bride then the book of Revelation just becomes a book debating endtime charts and facts and events beloved it's about a bridegroom King beckoning a layout as a church of the laodiceans attitude to completely be transformed that he would come for her as a prepared bride and that as I call it the greatest miracle in human history in terms of the human population I mean the greatest miracles Jesus coming and raising from the dead and returning that's the greatest one but in terms of the human experience the greatest miracle of human history is the transformation of the endtime Church from a passive layoffs to seeing spirit to a prepared bride and beloved I believe that there are people in this room people alive today that will see the culmination of this in their lifetime I don't know that I will and I might I don't know but I believe we're in the early days of that generation and this this message to these seven churches is of utmost importance it's not like well with hey we do the seven churches someone said what we're gonna do next I go man we barely wisp about these seven churches just win over him ever so brief and I can't think of anything more important than what Jesus says to these churches revealing his glory his burning eyes his shining face and so the reason I'm giving this long introduction on this is I want you going okay okay yeah I don't think we did do it I don't think we have it yet that's that's the attitude that I'm taking I don't have this yet lord I want to go deep in these chapters not that six or eight more weeks we've quote gone deep but at least we've went beyond just a quick drive-by I mean at least we're looking at it more intently and those of you that are students that are back home for the summer I encourage you to join us on Friday nights or to check in with the archives and stay with this study because many of you the Lord's got your attention on it and don't let that attention just kind of evaporate over the summer this is a really important passage to pray it to sing it to preach it to disciple it the study at Revelation chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 well look at paragraph a that the book of Revelation is called now much of this is review tonight we've covered this at various times but I don't apologize for that because it's more than yeah I I've heard that before it's got to be before us in a focused attentive way these truths these topics they need to be before our hearts and our attentiveness well the book of Revelation the whole storyline of 22 chapters is actually called the unveiling of Jesus or the revelation of Jesus you could put the term the unveiling of Jesus it's the revealing of a beautiful man and his plan now many people read the book of Revelation and they focus on the plan and the plan is important that's why it's written in the book but it's the man behind the plan that is most important and the man is a king but he's more than a king we find out at the end of the book he's a bridegroom King and he's coming back for his people more than just an empire of obedient servants he's coming back for a cherish bride who's equally yoked in love so more than a king coming back for his servants that had been faithful but a bridegroom King coming back for his cherished bride and she sees herself differently now through seeing who he is in this book and through walking through the the challenges and the outpouring of the spirit described in the book of Revelation she changes the way she sees him and she changes the way she sees herself and she's transformed I've said many times but it's just good to remember that we love more by seeing more when we see more we feel more and were changed more I don't encourage people to try harder to obey I encourage them to spend more time to see more see more clearly and you will love more dearly you want to grow in love put your energy not on don't try to grit your teeth and try to love fill your heart with understanding and love will arise if you see more you'll love more that's the key and so here we are we have the book the whole book is called the revelation or I like to use the word the unveiling of the beauty of the man Christ Jesus paragraph B John shares this vision chapters 1 2 & 3 is one vision he has here highlighting 30 descriptions of Jesus and 22 eternal rewards huh these 30 descriptions now I want to say on what I'm saying next I'm saying in a positive way it might sound negative but I mean it in a most positive way these 30 descriptions are mostly not known or recognized by the church today but they have to be central to the church that gets transformed to a prepared bride and so these 30 descriptions I don't want to just look at them and say those are strange terms Lord what do what meaneth ow this eye compare the word with the word and ask the Holy Spirit to help us and I want to find out more about those thirty descriptions because these thirty descriptions Jesus believes is essential to the church loving more because they see him more clearly so he he gives thirty descriptions of himself and you could add up the number in different ways and categorize it a little differently different people could and twenty to eternal rewards well as we've looked at in the last eight or nine weeks these rewards some of our big cryptic sounding and the Lord would say compare the word with the word and you'll gain more understanding and I'll give you Holy Spirit insight don't give up or easy I mean don't give up too quickly on reading these descriptions and saying these rewards and saying oh I got him know there's something more that meets the eye that's why after every one of the seven churches he said he that has ears let him hear which means there's more than with that which meets the eye there's deeper things here pay attention he says that seven times after each of the seven churches there's more than what meets the eye don't do a quick read and move on that's what he's saying here in this passage here okay so paragraph B the end of the book it's a prepared bride it's a bride that's transformed at the end of the age and so every one of these thirty descriptions he's twenty-two rewards I believe are essential paragraphs see where what's the description of the church at the end of all of the events of the book of Revelation that challenging troubles and the outpouring of the spirit because there's two things it's a mighty outpouring is coming of the Spirit the greatest in history but the greatest trouble it's the two together it's not one or the other well the net result is that church is in a bridal identity in the place of crying out to Jesus she's in a spirit of prayer she's crying come Lord Jesus she's not too big to engage him in that hour there'll be more pressures than any time of history but the church will be more engaged with his heart in the time where it will be the most difficult to engage with his heart because there'll be so many pressures they will be gripped fascinated with his love and his beauty absolutely fascinated they will be in a bridal identity the church and they will be engaging come Lord Jesus come bridegroom King not too busy to engage even with all the difficulties mounting up around the earth that's a glorious reality now the church in two thousand years has never seen herself not universally as a bride the church has seen herself as an army as a family as a kingdom as priests as a temple various things but the church never in two thousand years has the church then the majority there's always a few here and there have they seen themselves as a cherished bride but the spirits going to emphasize it but it's going to emphasize it as he reveals these thirty descriptions of Jesus these thirty descriptions of Jesus when we see these facets it's meant to lead us to see ourself as a cherished bride that's the point if you read the thirty descriptions and study them out separated from where the church is at the end of the age is a church bride you're missing what these thirty descriptions are about you're missing some of the key so whatever it's talking about it's always referring to something that awakens the bride in love and to see her valued as a cherished bride and to engage with him more so because of those very points I look at this passage and I go I'm just ravenously hungry to understand this more if this is the key to see more clearly and to loving more dearly I want to go deep in this passage and so that's what I'm doing here in these first minutes just what we're not gonna get very far in the notes I can tell but I want to really grip you with thee with the value of going deep in these three chapters here paragraph D there's a bridegroom revival coming it's not just a great endtime revival it is it's more than a the greatest revival in history it will be the greatest revival in history it's I call a bridegroom revival because in this we're gonna see him for the first time body of Christ the whole world I mean a billion believers or whatever the number is now a bridegroom is that Revelation is far more invasive than the king the king wants faithful service the bridegroom wants all of your heart this is invasive meaning he's coming in deep for everything many of the revivals in past you know I don't know all there is to know about all the revivals I study them a bit over the years the revelation of the lordship of Jesus the king who wants faithful servants to do his will that's fantastic but the bridegroom revivals gonna have that but he says I want all of your heart I want the secret imaginations the things you dream and think about I want I'm coming after all your heart but the good news is I'm gonna reveal more of my heart to you than I've ever done to the church in history that is that's a remarkable real there is coming a revelation and an impartation of his fiery heart his burning eyes like no time in history and because I believe that I study this I really believe there's coming an impartation and a revelation of his burning heart that's what makes me look into this because I'm convinced the Spirit is prepared to release it even in these early days paragraph II one of the most significant statements and all the scripture we know it by heart love God with all of your heart mind and soul strength but like Sigma are so familiar with that we say okay yeah that's that's cool here's the significant part verse 38 well the first 37 is too but Verdi verse 38 Jesus said this is the highest priority to God it's first and it is what God calls greatest if you miss out on a number of other things but you pursue this God says your life is the greatest this is a radical revelation if the church gets verse 38 alone it would transform them because they will cease to define their life by what others in the body of Christ define is successful they will define their life by growing in love in a way that nobody else could even define about them because nobody can see the secret growth of your heart and love or the secret exchanges I mean not that it's all secret but it's in your heart and they look at you thinking well I don't know he is he isn't I don't know the Lord says I'm seeing it I'm watching your heart this is one of the most significant statements in history I mean in the Bible that Jesus right before he would go to the cross Matthew 22 is right before the cross a couple days before the cross his final public message his final public message is Matthew 22 after this he rebukes the leadership of Israel then everything else is in private here's his final public message he says this thing of loving me God calls an absolute top priority I tell people whatever the Spirit is saying to you he sang this to you first God's calling me to go to this and do that and to do miracles and make money and impact people and reach this group I believe that but that second he's calling you to something else first and if you think your primary calling is to go to that group and do those miracles and make that much money and give it to the kingdom and touch these people if you think that's first that's gonna burn you out and it's gonna bruise your heart if you think that second and your first your first calling your greatest calling the highest priority of the word spirits word of your life is to love him with all of your heart then you can make sense of things when the delay of promises when problems come when people treat you bad you go yeah but I'm on track I'm still fulfilling the highest calling the first commandment paragraph two Jesus called it the greatest commandment when you choose to love him and cultivate love because our love is weak but our love is real even when it's weak but when I set my heart to take time to cultivate love because you don't cultivate love on the run it takes time to cultivate a heart response of love and tenderness to the Lord you won't get that on the run and if you're like most believers if you're content with Christianity on the run like serving Jesus and occasionally blowing him a kissing I love you get back with you later oh I love you so much and you're you're content with that style of Christianity I want to assure you which is the is the norm and the body of Christ and it sounds like I'm putting down the body of Christ that's not where my heart is my heart is saying we need to know he's got another agenda he's saying there's something greater don't try to cultivate love on the run it takes time to cultivate a responsive heart you're not gonna do it on the run a little bit I mean we still need to be serving him we can't I mean if we love him we're gonna love people some folks say well I'm really into loving people too I say you love him you think you're gonna love the lion and not love the people he loves are you kidding he will devour everything in your life that gets in the way of love believe me if you love him he'll be on fire for people you don't have to worry about loving people if you run into him he is the ultimate lover of human beings and you you touch that lions heart he will devour everything that gets in the way of loving other people so I'm not talking about the dichotomy of loving him or loving people that's a false dichotomy that's that's not even real you love him you love people I'm talking about such active such activism that you blow kisses to him and you imagine you're cultivating love while you're on the run without stopping to be intentional won't happen I could tell you 40-plus years of ministry of watching it and in my own life it has to be intentional it has to be intentional to cultivate a responsive art the most natural thing is not to grow in love the most natural thing is for the weeds to grow in the garden Chak love the most natural thing is to diminish the love but by intentionality we cultivate a responsive heart that's what will mean we won't get to it but you'll see it on the notes there he tells the Church of Ephesus and you're involved in the greatest revival never in Ephesus you don't love me like you used to he tells the Church of Sardis you got a reputation you're on fire for God you're alive you're anointed but you're dead you're not responding at the heart level like you like you did in the early days he tells Laodicea you think you're rich because God is blessed with money and opportunities and all kinds of open doors and he says but you're lukewarm and it hurts my heart it says I'll vomit you but most translations my heart is grieved over the way that you've been content to just minimize your walk with me to quote serve me I don't want you doing tasks that causes you more disconnected from me so three of the churches he's saying the same thing from a different angle you can't cultivate a responsive heart on the run I'm serving serving serving serving serving serving a lot of people are over serving because they're establishing their own identity their own reputation their networking the garnering ways of human favor more open doors and those things aren't bad in themselves but a lot of folks imagine their over work is all about Jesus and a whole lot it's about their identity as being seen as being radical and available and helpful and the Lord says get your identity from loving me not from people applauding you and your works don't if you do that you'll end up burned out at the end of the day you'll end up bruised because the people applauding you today won't always applaud you tomorrow and if that's where your the strength of your heart well again I can just tell you I play the the old man card 40 plus years later Manny on fire people stay on fire three to five years and they get bit in the in the heart level by the human responses to the people who are serving and they just say well that's how the church is and I don't know the church will always be human and weak and tell those very final hours but catch your identity in being loved in being a lover that's where your identity is not in being the man of God of power for the hour that does the most diligent that a gets your identity in being loved and being a lover and then when folks disappoints you when the promises are delayed when the provision is delayed you still have a narrative burning in your heart you're loved in your lover and that's burning in your heart because the promises many of them end up being delayed and when the promises are delayed I've got some serious promises from the Lord that have been confirmed supernaturally I've been waiting on 3540 years they go Lord hey me one man yeah I know well we're good I go wives just thinking these things would have happened a long time ago no we're good we're good we're fine and so I know what it means to face delayed promises delayed provision I know what it means to face people that you're serving and then they're not so happy later my point isn't that's bah-humbug the whole body of Christ faces that and their love if it's not intentional and if we're not making it a primary thing or love diminishes and so I want to tell you the great commandment the great commandment the one that moves God the greatest the one that moves you the greatest is that you would intentionally cultivate a responsive heart of love he says this verse here in Matthew chapter 5 that is absolutely I'm have preached on there's so many times here's somebody been around for years you've heard it over and over I just can't get over it he says whoever teaches these things and does them will be Great God will call their life choices great on the last day can you imagine God calling your life choices great on the last day because you did these things and you taught them he's well in context he said about the eight Beatitudes right before it and he's time out the general spirit of the word of God the Sermon on the Mount is sums up the law in the prophets the eight Beatitudes here in the Sermon on the Mount and then the law of the then the the six six plus five I don't know the certain amount right now stuff might get back focus anyway the Sermon on the Mount I'll just leave it there it's one of my favorite passages he says whoever embraces this lifestyle they do it from the heart and they teach it God will call their life great now the reason this verse staggers me it staggers may beyond measure because of the word whoever because we they gets the rich and the famous ministries of the body of Christ that have hundreds of thousands or millions that they're touching he says it could be them but it's whoever if they've got a million people that they're impacting but they're not doing the eight Beatitudes and teaching them I love them but their life isn't great before me they may have a big profile but if they're not teaching the eight Beatitudes and pursuing them I don't I still appreciate their service I still appreciate their love I love them but it's not what I call great and the thing that I've that excites me about Jesus but troubles me a little bit as well but excites me more he never changes you can't get him to change I don't care who the most famous guy in the world when you stand before that man with burning eyes and say no do you know what I did for you he will look unmoved you can't move him not 1% I love that about him but you there's no point in thinking he's gonna evaluate us differently he says whoever take that guy I like to I like to tell the hypothetical guy this guy didn't exist by the way so don't start crying in the middle of it when I'm describing he doesn't exist but there's this guy he has no gifts at all no gifts operate in his life none he has no education can't read or write has no friends good hey nobody listens to him has no money he lives on the street lives under the bridge he doesn't exist so wipe the chera you're right no friends no gifts no training no money no following no place on the org chart at the church ministries nothing lives under the bridge not really but he says Jesus I'm trying to do these a Beatitudes nobody will listen but I'm teaching them to the ones and twos when I get a chance Jesus has got it your life is great it will be the shock of his life when lords as I said anybody anybody who will do those and teach them teach them one I want tell them to the you know the eight-year-olds next door to you you know to say hey mister what are you doing I'm trying to like walk out the eight Beatitudes what's the B attitude I mean you know does it matter how old it doesn't matter who the people are you're teaching you're taking a stand for I'll give you a little hint though for those of you that are new in the kingdom I thought that doing the eight Beatitudes and the serve on that was the hard part wait till you start teaching it it will create a storm of controversy will you teach the Sermon on the Mount I found teaching it it's more challenging than doing it I thought it but whoa people will scream and shout all kinds of Bible rhetoric in the face of the Sermon on the Mount but so I think having taught her too over the years I went mmm that teaching that's a tricky one because that seems like the easy one that's that will but you only will stay with it for one reason because you love him and he knows it he knows that he'll call that life great because nobody will stay with that lifestyle they made five ten years they might give it a shot but I'm talking about over the decades only one thing will keep them locked in that's the intentionality love they'll draw back and want to quit the promises are delayed the provisions delayed the people aren't responding the work is mundane and like I don't do this and they look I go I love you I need you love me I'm gonna keep doing this do you love me and I love you and jesus knows that is involved in this first right here because when he says whoever doesn't teach us he means in the continual it's the continual it's that continuous present tense keep on keep doing keep on teaching staying with it more than a semester or summer more than a year to staying with a decade after decade beloved when I see this word great and Jesus said God will call that person's life still great boy you dad that's gold right there Matthew 5:19 is gold and you put that together with what he called great in Matthew 22 and he said if you love me that is the greatest thing because you'll never do Matthew five the hearse to serve on the mountain I think I just said it without connecting it to love well let's make a few more another little bit further and you know me I'm never in a hurry to get done with something and we're gonna be around for a while and the Bible's here and we're gonna just devour you week by week year by year I'm in no hurry well let's look at paragraph G loving God with all of our heart I'm ski give a sentence or two on each one of them and not spend a whole lot of time on each one and then probably we'll come back and look at some more of this next week actually what I really want to get to is the thirty descriptions and the twenty-two rewards I want to get to teasing them out a bit more and I want to do it to serve you but I want to do it cuz I want I'm hungry to get it more too I want to get it inside be and I find that when I search it out and share it with others I get in a flow that pulls my heart in that direction so I pick topics I asked the Lord what's on your heart but I also picked off but topics on Friday night that my heart needs to be pulled into and a new and a renewed way I go Lord I need to drink deeper of these so I'm gonna take the next 12 or 18 weeks and I'm just gonna go for it and only always over the years I look back go ah you touched me more than I thought and so some of this is sanctified selfishness I'm just kind of doing it for myself and let you eavesdrop but part of its my pastor's heart because I care about you so it's both and not either/or well paragraph G loving him with all your heart he wants us to pursue loving him with zeal it's not no it's the misty song how far will you let me go how abandon will you let me be it's not the question in the body of Christ today do I have to do that to be on fire where's that in the by wrong question completely if your question is do I have to do that I mean that's a legitimate question sometimes but they can't be your main question your question is how far will you let me go Lord how abandoned will you let me be and so the person loving God with all their heart they're engaging at the heart level and they don't want to be you know just uh naive and just kind of a sucker for anybody that comes along with a new idea I want to do it to love God know you want to brood it in the word and you wanted to be soundly established in the word but I'm saying the question isn't how can I get out of it the question is how can you strengthen me to do it more that's the great question and in our weakness I mean I never go as far as I want to go because my human weakness keeps showing up but I keep saying I don't want to go I wanna i want to reengage you at that level and it goes yeah you've been saying that for a long time stay with it though stay with it so I don't look at my weak love and write it off because as I've said many times weak still sincere love he doesn't only look at our love when it's mature he looks at our love when it's intentional even when it's weak it matters to him well some people they're content we're still in paragraph G with being dutiful as long as they're active and they're serving and you know it sees hate some people getting blessed I'm helping and that's good I'm not putting that down at all earlier I was putting down the over activism that disconnected your heart from him I'm not I'm really into serving serving is really important matter of fact that's great in the kingdom but when you over serve where you disconnect at the heart level from the Lord then something's gonna break pretty soon and you're gonna quit serving actually at the end of the day a lot of folks are content being dutiful they'll serve him hard and they'll sweat and you know the end of the day die of I mean go to bed and exhaustion but he says I want more than dutiful I want engaged I went from your heart yeah I appreciate your hands but I want I want there to be a a conscious growing of the conversation between our hearts Psalm 90 91 the psalmist says because this is the Lord speaking because this man set his love upon me now I tell you this is a great passive as a great truth there's a moment in a person's life not every believer I know in my life it was a moment I've had to renew the moment a thousand times but there was a moment I remember his ears ago when I determined the primary dream of my life was not to have a big ministry and a happy family those that was my dream to have a powerful impact in ministry and to have a godly family with deep Fritton with deep relationship so that's still important to me but I remember the day I shifted and said walking in the anointing of the first commandment is actually my first dream I don't know how to do it I was it was some years ago she's just a young pastor in my 20s I go I don't know how to do it but now that's the thing I'm gonna search out more than anything and I've lost my way a handful of times over the years it had to realign realign realign but there was a date I meant it where I set my heart the primary dream of my heart was an economic blessing which I like I could own blessing was it a godly family which that's way the help of my list and godly relationships and friendships who I really care about godly Kingdom for chips well it isn't to have a big ministry and to have God's power and impact I want to impact people the power of God I love that but that's not number one and it was for a few years those things all my friendships and family I shifted it intentionally I said God what would it look like to spend the next number of decades you know is in my 20s you know I don't know you don't know how are you gonna live but what would it look like to make pursuing the first commandment first what would it look like and the answer was I didn't get an answer just do it and you'll learn over the years and I wish you know near 40 years later I would have learn more I mean III wish I would have learned more but I've learned a lot but not enough I want to learn more way more and I thought by now I would be further than I am but that's neither here nor there meaning you don't measure it you just keep signing it for it I quit measuring years ago someone goes how are you doing better than before I go though no don't care what I care about is I'm doing it hard today I don't know how to measure yesterday yesterday already push the lead on yesterday I'm going hard today and hard does it mean that's what I don't mean that hard I mean focused I want to encounter him I want to do his will I want to search out his work that's what I mean by hard and so I'm not talking about a frenzied emotion that's that I mean by heart I mean they focused I'm gonna go hard tomorrow I'm gonna be focused and then they tomorrow comes she gained ground oh I'm gonna go hard tomorrow though and I found that's the secret and I don't know how much gap ground I gained it doesn't even make it doesn't matter if I know all that matters is that you sign up again tomorrow to go with all of your heart and just do with that but that was the most significant choice of my spiritual life I've been in the kingdom I got bored again was radically saved in 1971 so I'm moving on 50 years said a few years at it from now and been going hard for the Lord by the grace of God since then since 1971 and I don't know how far I've gained I don't even know I don't overly care I just know I'm gonna sign up tomorrow and do it again but the most important decision I've made in those however many years it is since 1971 this was the most important decision I ever made as a believer when again our early 20s I said I'm gonna make I'm gonna set my heart to love you this verse here I'm gonna make the first commandment the number one dream to walk in that anointing more than ministry than godly friendships and financial prosperity blessing godly family again I want all those things more than impact what would that look like and the answer is I didn't get an answer I don't know what it looks like it just go sign up every day failures disappointments setbacks weariness hit delete and sign up again that's the key right there it's probably the most important thing I'll ever tell you if you've been here for a few years push delete and sign up again that's it right there but I looked at my life that would be one of the most important sentences I could tell you top of page 2 we're gonna make it to the middle page 2 I can see loving God with all your mind you know how you love God all your mind you know you don't just love him by engaging your heart you love God by what you put in your mind did you know that when you take time to put things in your mind because it takes time to put them in your mind whether you're watching them on a media situation whether you're in a meeting with you in a conversation the prayer room we have personal study whether you're walking and meditating I mean there's a hundred ways to put it in your mind do you know that when you put things in your mind that inspire you to love God that's called loving God with your mind very practical it takes time to do it what you put in your mind affects your ability to receive love and to express it back to God to people if you put certain things in your mind you will receive the love of God in a greater capacity and you will express it to him into people if you put other things in your mind that diminish your capacity to receive and express love it will just do that it will diminish your capacity some folks think well I've made a commitment to love God and then they spend hours putting things in their mind the whole the whole social media craze all the media stuff I mean the media thing is gonna be so gigantic in 10 or 20 years I'm thinking of the population of the earth in 20 years that is far more in a date with media than today we can't even imagine it compared to 10 years ago where the inundation of media in 20 and 30 years who knows but here's my point it requires turning things off and turning away from things on top of events activities to take time to put things in your mind that inspire love and I've talked about the reward of God I'm talking about not just Bible knowledge it's more than that investing your time to put things in your mind because when you see more you love more it inspires your heart refusing to put things in your mind that's inspire lust and we're in a generation where the pornography is exploding in the last 10 years and where it will be in the next 20 years I cannot even imagine but it's gonna be an intentional decision because Jesus is not coming back for a church weighed down with a Laodicean spirit he's coming back for a church that's prepared right there gonna be a billion of them I again I never know the real number but there's gonna be a billion who are gonna choose love with their mind a billion and your your choices to be one of them you and your children and maybe their children I mean we don't know how much time we have job's said it clearly job 31 because I've made a covenant with my eyes and what he says he means here I won't look on situations that are stir up lust in my heart that's what he's talking about y'all have made a covenant I'm not going to look on situations that arouse lust whether it's male female this that or the other I mean there's a hundred expressions that's the idea beloved we're in an hour where the enemy has raised up a spirit of lust in pornography as a direct attack against the first commandment to love God with our minds it really matters what we do with our minds I mean it really matters paragraph I love God with our strength to love God with your strength as your is your natural resources your time your money your energy your loving God with your strength by being in a meeting like this if I had you raise your hand how many of you are tired believe me a whole lot of here you go I'm tired but you're here you're in a meeting and you're doing your best to lean forward to learn beloved you're loving God with your strength right now some of you were in a meeting you know yesterday or the day before I don't necessarily mean a Bible study but you're in a meeting you're talking to somebody you'd rather be home chilling but you're there you're talking to them and you're talking to them encouraging them and pouring yourself out of them you're spending your strength to get that person to love God God says your loving me with your strength with your time your energy or words words are exhausting time I mean there's lots of times you don't feel like it but you do it because you're loving God with your strength many times I'm tired and this is not the other and say Lord I want to love you with my strength I want to bring my energy into the relationship and to get other people to love you look says no got it got it all my book I got it already out here and so my point is I'm wanting you to connect what you're doing right now is living off your strengths of mine literally right now and what you're doing tomorrow and the next day the next day is not about Bible studies a little bit but it's about many activities where you use your strengths and your money to love God there's a handful of people and the weekends at IHOP and the immerse program they paid $1,000 I just made up that number some say mourneth got on an airplane fly across got a hotel rented a car to go hear teachings to go sit in a room and cried a prayer room very investing their strength to love God that's what's going on that's amazing to do that Bible School students you're investing your strength but far beyond that when you're supporting the missionary you're investing your strength in them to love God to help them love God to help others love God it goes on and on and on we're gonna end with this the love God with all your soul to love God all your soul before I talk about what it is some of you've heard this over the years this is this is the most challenging of all of the for love of God your heart your mind your strength to me this is the most challenging but first I want to make the premise point for a minute that our primary success our primary identity the Lord wants it to be found and being in our relationship with him when my primary success is in the fact that I know he loves me and I love him back if that's what makes me valuable and successful then my identity is established right if my primary success in the way I evaluate my life is if you applaud my ministry it's gonna bruise my life if my identity is found in you being encouraged and blessed by what I do in my ministry because sooner or later that's not going to hold in my heart steady because people weren't gonna be blessed and other than there's always setbacks when we confess I'm loved by God and I'm a lover of God I'm not just a worker for God I'm a lover of God too I love God he loves me therefore I am success beloved our identity I have here in paragraph age is determined by how we define why we are valuable and successful am i valuable if I hope gets bigger am i successful if I hope gets bigger no I'm not I'm successful if my heart gets bigger if I hop gets smaller but my heart gets bigger I'm successful and if I can content connect with that and stay with that and put it in any situation you want put it in a family situation put it in ministry market place academic achievement sports whatever you want to put if your success is when that gets better and there is success in that arena but that's a secondary success in your life I'm talking about the primer success and a lot of people get confused by the primary success and value of their life and the secondary I want to be successful in the secondary ways but I'm not gonna sell out my primary success for the secondary ones I'm not gonna do it and I do sometimes but I when I catch it I go uh I did it again I repent Lord when our identity is rooted in what we achieve and who applauds us finances academics military political office marketplace gross athletic again musical if what you do to get people applaud you is why you're important your life is going to be bruised and burned out many many times in the years ahead because you can't sustain God didn't create the human heart to be able to sustain itself by that audience but he goes no you're successful because of our relationship I love you but you know what God loves billion believers but not all of them are pursuing loving him so their life isn't fully successful yet he loves them and that's good that's fantastic actually but until they respond to love him back I mean even in their weakness they set their hurt there their life isn't successful yet no matter how big their ministry is or how big their business is or how big their whatever is so here's the point paragraph J Thea when we express loving God with our soul here's what we're doing we're exerting the emotional energy to realign our heart and base our identity in our relationship with God meaning when I love God with my soul when things are going out they're good or bad in my life I don't know I'm gonna realize myself and it takes exerting emotional energy to do it I go stop you love me I love you and I've made that the goal of my life therefore I'm successful so I can come back and go to work at IHOP like people say I've had people of the year say is it hard is it easy as it fun is it exciting is this your dream because I had IHOP I mean we had 35 years ago whatever the number was we put a sign in our church 24/7 prayer you know with singers and musicians or we said the spirit of the tabernacle of David but it means it was singers and musicians because God spoke that audibly 36 years ago we put a sign on our church so I was in a church for some years and 17 years I pastored before I started I hop many people sell that sign and then 20 years ago you know where our 20 year anniversary now I resigned the church started IHOP and so I hop has grown and this and that and our footprint is touching this amount of people here and there and the social media or whatever whatever and the big one thing conferences so I've run into my church members we had three four thousand people to church I'll see them at weddings and funerals in SA Mike amazing amazing that Faden with that site on the wall that I hopped sign that prayer thing you were gonna do all those years cuz it was for 16 years we hit that sign 15 16 years something like that your dream had happened and I love just tell them not arrogant not brash I go I have slip my dream having a big one thing covers in my dream having extra denim Willian people touch being touched by as in my dream are you kidding I appreciate it I'd rather go good than bad I promise you that's not my dream though my dream is the anointing to walk in the first commandment I hop real big or real little can't touch the dream of my heart all the men in the earth and unity for me or against me they can't touch the dream of my heart the devil can't touch the dream of my heart by causing problems in my circumstances there's a dream in my heart that no human can touch I go that's not the dream my heart to go no you know all those people that becomes like a pheasant my dream that's my assignment I appreciate it I'll tell you I like it when it goes better than worse I mean I do but I'm not gonna make that to dream of my heart and but I have to loving God with my soul that's why I stopped and realign my identity that's not who I am that's not my value when it's bad or good that's not who I am you love me I love you therefore in successful that's who I am that's loving God with your soul amen let's stand

Channel: Mike Bickle Official

Views: 5,043

Rating: 4.9101124 out of 5

Keywords: Mike Bickle, End-Times, Revelation, Book of Revelation, Seven Churches, Church, Jesus, Revelation of Jesus, God’s Heart, End-Times Church, EGS, IHOPKC, IHOP, One Thing, Onething, Kansas City, Beauty of Jesus, Eternal Rewards, Rewards, Son of Man, Leadership, Angel, Letters, Letters to the Church, Salvation, Israel, International House of Prayer, Forerunner, House of Prayer, Message

Id: WThiM6ERhv4

Length: 54min 28sec (3268 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2019