Core Strength Workout - Joy Pt. 3

Music

Alright, so we continue with Co-Strength Joy.

If you go to Psalm 45 verse 7,

Psalms 45:7

Mae is not here because she is in New York,

Sue is not here because I think she is in Victoria.

Both are attending some meetings they had to go for.

Yeah, so Psalm 45 verse 7, it says,

Psalms 45:7

you have, where did my notes disappear?

It should have been a very short sermon.

Too bad, you guys didn't.

Okay, Psalm 45, 7.

Here's what it says, you love what is right,

and you hate what is evil.

Now what happens when you love what is right and you hate what is evil?

Here's what happens, so God has anointed you,

so God has anointed you with the oil of joy

and set you above your companions.

Yeah, so here's the condition, therefore or so,

if you want to be anointed with the oil of joy,

here's the catch, you love.

It's not you must do what is right,

because that's how sometimes Christianity ends up,

we end up doing what is right,

but there's something else before that, you must love,

you must love what is right.

Therein lies the catch, if you get that,

joy, and you love what is right,

if you get that, joy is a heaven sent outcome,

and it says it's the oil of joy and that it's an anointing,

as in the Spirit of God smothers you and floods you,

smothers you outside, smothers you outside,

and floods you inside.

Any questions before we go on?

It's crazy, it's like a key, eh?

Any questions?

Psalm 45, verse 7, it's very straightforward,

Psalms 45:7

if you love what is right and you hate what is evil,

so your God has placed you above your companions,

he has filled you with joy by pouring on you the sacred,

pouring the sacred oil on your head, love what is right.

So we talked about this earlier,

doing is always the fruit,

love or loving is the root,

and joy is the lifeblood.

Can't change this, say you change this,

and Christianity becomes every other religion,

because almost every other religion you can imagine

just has one simple principle, do.

Do for different reasons, do to appease God,

do to prevent trouble, do because he'll keep you safe,

do because he'll be happy, so it's always doing,

and so was Judaism, the Old Testament was basically doing,

it was live righteous lives by following the law,

so doing is always the fruit, loving is the root,

joy is the lifeblood, and this applies to any relationship,

any relationship, any relationship this is the key.

Husband, wife, lovers, father, son, father, daughter,

this lies at the root of it.

Love is the root, it all has to stem from there,

and when it doesn't, that's when our Christian lives

or our Christian practice and religion eventually deteriorates

into tradition, boredom, and fear,

because you can live righteous, you can live righteous,

you can live righteous lives without loving righteousness,

and when that happens, gladness or joy is absent,

and therefore Christianity turns into something

that eventually is a duty in that area or a tradition

in that area that you do not have joy,

and eventually leads to fear, boredom,

and once it gets to boredom, then a whole series

of other things start which we'll talk about.

So it is possible to live a righteous life

without loving righteousness, and if you go to Micah

Micah 6:8

chapter 6 verse 8, it says, how should one walk before God,

and then he gives you three options, he says,

not three options, he gives you three requisites

for righteous living, and he says, act justly,

walk humbly, love mercy, those are the three things

that are in Micah 6, 8, strangely enough,

it doesn't say show mercy, it says love mercy,

that's another thing we get caught in,

we show mercy, but do you love mercy,

we show, we act justly, but do you love justice,

it changes everything once you love that nature of God,

but till I love that nature of God, all I'm doing

is a revamped version of the Old Testament with grace in it,

to love mercy is to have a tender hearted compassion

for those that are continuously failing or doing you wrong,

do you love that, or do you show that,

it doesn't say show mercy, it says love mercy,

and when I act justly, do I love justice,

you can see the difference between people who love justice

and who act justly.

So, one of the ways to step into and be sustained in joy,

and remember we said this, that at the end of the day,

why is joy so important, it is because there's the ultimate purpose

of God in all his works is joy, this is unthinkable for us,

we don't even think like this, the ultimate purpose of God

in all his works is joy, in everything he wants you to be,

the message puts it this way, I have more joy than those

that go to malls for a shopping spree, my mouth is so full of joy

that the best of marrow could not help me get more joyful,

and he's talking about joy and happiness together,

it's not even some kind of spiritual joy,

he's talking about being rich in joy like marrow,

because God is the most joyous being that exists,

in him is only joy, he had to come as a man of sorrows

to take away sorrow so that he could replace it with joy.

We spoke about scripture from Matthew that the reward for faithfulness is what?

The wealth and good and faithful servant enter into my joy,

enter into my joy, that's the reward, what is heaven like,

what was Eden like, Eden, what's the meaning of Eden, delight or pleasure,

what are we heading back to, delight and pleasure,

where there is no mourning, there is no tear, there is no fear,

there is no sadness, therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion and what shall be upon their head,

everlasting joy shall be upon their head, where is Zion,

Zion is both a people and a place, we are Zion and there is a place that awaits us,

yes there will be sadness in this world,

but in the middle of that can a people show that they belong to a God who is only joyful,

when Jesus was born what did the angels sing,

behold we bring you good news of great joy,

Nehemiah 8, what is your strength church, your strength is?

Joy, the strength, the joy of the Lord is your strength,

what are three key ingredients of being people of the kingdom,

the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking but is a matter of righteousness,

peace and joy, that's why you've righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

that's why it talks about the oil of gladness,

you pour upon someone oil and it's an anointing, the anointing comes from the Holy Spirit

and he yearns for this, he yearns to do this for us,

but he wants us to love what he's trying to impart to us from the nature of God,

he doesn't want you to have it because it is a fruit of the Spirit,

he wants you to have it because you're deeply in love with Jesus,

and therefore because the root is loving Jesus, the fruit of joy shows, the fruit of gentleness shows,

we've got to take this back to the simplicity of I'm in love with someone,

because it is possible to live a righteous life without absolutely being in love with the righteous one,

it's absolutely possible, any questions?

It sounds impractical, sounds unreachable because we've been accustomed to not being that way,

and we'll go there, or it's not a daily minute by minute way of living, questions?

Any questions?

So when you, if you go down this road here, what usually happens,

you can live righteous lives without loving righteousness or the righteous one,

meaning Christ,

and if gladness or joy is absent, duty, tradition, fear and boredom, replace it eventually,

I'm talking about not your entire life, in whatever area, I mean long ago when I didn't know much,

I came up with this principle that I've tried to live by, and it was very simple,

I will not do anything for God if it is not from a place of I like you, therefore I will.

Ages ago, 30 years ago, I decided I will not do it unless I like you,

I didn't want to do anything Christian except because I liked him,

so be it singing a song or raising my arms or speaking or teaching or sitting with somebody,

doesn't matter what activity or what display of God's character it was,

it had to come from one place only, I like him therefore I will,

because you must understand that God knows every time I do something, not out of willingness but out of obedience,

and in Isaiah chapter 1 it says that you shall eat the good of the land when you are both willing and obedient,

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

can you imagine Jesus coming to die for us because he was obedient and not willing,

but he had to obey his father,

you wouldn't have Hebrews 12 too for the joy that was set before him,

because why? Joy is the life blood.

So when that is absent, duty, tradition, fear and boredom,

boredom is the worst day in Christianity when you are just bored of living this Christian life,

and pretty bored of God also, even though he is the most attractive personality in the universe,

when that happens you begin to ignore the Holy Spirit habitually,

there is disobeying the Holy Spirit, there is grieving the Holy Spirit,

but this thing is poison, this thing is real poison, it's like fertilizer that kills things,

ignore the Holy Spirit habitually,

where in certain areas of my life I begin to ignore him habitually,

it becomes a habit to ignore him,

and when you ignore him habitually three things happen,

your conscience is seared, your mind is dulled and your heart is hardened,

your conscience is seared,

these are all biblical terms, Ephesians 4, 17, 18 and I think 19 talk about it,

your conscience is seared, your mind is dulled and your heart is hardened,

those are the three things that happen when I ignore him habitually,

you know what habitually means, it's when you've created a habit of it,

of ignoring him for different reasons, maybe it's difficult, maybe you were ignorant,

maybe it's just sheer disobedience, maybe it's inconvenient,

and you begin to ignore him habitually,

and so when that happens, three things happen,

one, your conscience is seared, Ephesians 4, 17, 18 and maybe 19,

your conscience is seared,

your mind is dulled and your heart is hardened,

what do you mean conscience is seared?

Conscience is seared is when it doesn't bother you anymore,

this is terrible, I think we all have areas like this in our lives, at least I do,

where when the conscience is seared, what happens is in certain areas,

when you do what is wrong, it does not bother you anymore,

it doesn't bother you, there are certain areas where if you do wrong, you feel terrible,

as soon as you do it, you want to go and say, oh shucks, Lord, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it,

there's grief, there's hurt, there's, ah shucks, I messed up again,

there's that kind of a feeling, and then there are areas in my life where,

I've done it so many times now that it doesn't prick me,

I can go pray for it later and ask the Lord to forgive me and all that stuff,

but in that area, the conscience no longer is so sensitive that it just shrinks every time I do it,

and the heart gets hardened, sclerosis, where the heart is okay with it,

it doesn't bother it so much, and the mind gets dull or darkened,

it lives under the shadow of that thing that I'm doing over and over again,

thank God for solutions for all this, one of the things God loved doing,

and he prophesied it in Ezekiel, through Ezekiel, when he said,

hey, I'll change your hard hearts to hearts of flesh,

and then in Romans 12 it says, I will renew your mind, I'll show you how to renew your mind,

and then when it comes to conscience, yeah, he's able to resensitize my conscience,

resensitize it.

So can you take a minute and think about some of these areas in your life where it's become that?

It's not that you particularly enjoy the sin.

Go ahead, Zia.

Yeah, yeah, so his question is, if my conscience gets here to a point where now it's become second nature,

and you don't even want to pray about it, what do you do?

And that's the rest of the sermon.

So, thank you for asking, yeah.

If at the end of the sermon it's still not spoken of, then you can ask again.

So, okay, so,

when I was in school, I was a con man.

I could con myself anytime, every time, and brilliantly.

And when I became a believer, it didn't automatically go away.

And the word con had now to be changed to lie.

So, when you're a Christian, when you're not a Christian, words like con and shrewd and all that comes in.

Once you become a Christian, you've got to change the word to con is no longer a con, it's a lie.

And so, one of the things that happened is that I would lie without feeling like it was a big deal.

Everybody lies. These are the ways we justify it.

Whenever your conscience is seared, you'll be surprised at how you justify things.

I even remember coming here in 1993 and having a dream where God is showing me a belt, and the belt was torn.

It started tearing.

A leather belt that I had began to tear in the dream.

And the next morning I woke up and you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

You just had to be a belt maker.

And so, I knew what God was saying. Listen, belt of truth, it's tearing.

Pay attention to it. But it did not matter because my conscience had become dull to it.

It's okay. Just a small lie here, another small lie there, a con here, or whatever you want to call it,

till someone had to confront me with it and say, hey, you've got a problem in this area.

And God sends people to confront you openly about it only after spending quite a long time trying to convince you otherwise.

He treasures your, he cherishes your privacy.

He only brings correction in a way from others when all other methods of helping you with the Holy Spirit have failed.

And now the Holy Spirit uses someone else's words to convict you because our hearts have become so hardened

that in that area we cannot even hear him trying to correct us.

And then when you correct the person, if the person's heart is really hardened, they'll be offended for a while.

Because a hard heart is always offended when truth is spoken.

Any other questions? Can I be resensitized? Yeah.

In my conscience, can I have a heart of flesh? Man, I'm telling you, God loves giving you a heart of flesh.

Please examine right now, just for two minutes while I try and stay quiet. Please examine right now

whether there are areas like this where your conscience has been seared, where your heart has kind of hardened in those areas.

Doesn't have to be a scenario, guys. It can be just how you live.

Just think of it for a minute and a half, eh?

A minute and a half, eh?

I have.

Yes.

The first place to start is an admission that, yeah, what we were doing just now, yeah,

my heart is hard and conscience seared in these areas.

So what is it? Is it habitual pride?

Or control? Or stubbornness?

Is it lying? Is it going in and out of porn?

Or lust? Is it gossip that can morph into slander?

Is it anger that wants retribution?

Or just plain, sharp anger?

What happens is when it's habitual, it's kind of becoming a lifestyle.

It's one of the things pornography does, eh?

Because porn has the ability to trap, what happens is you go in and out of it.

And what happens when we go in and out of porn or in and out of lust is that there is a dullness that takes over.

And no longer is the conscience affected by it.

You'll have to take a nail and drive it through your foot before you realize, oops, I've got a nail in my foot.

It's no longer a thin little pin or a thorn that'll do it.

It's like our feet, eh, you won't know it.

Dhillon and I and Kamal know what it is to have 55-year-old feet.

Yeah? The heel gets a little hard.

So the first part is an admission that, yeah, I'm struggling with this.

So that's what we were trying to do here.

And you can go home and you have time to work on it, eh?

Any questions on the first step?

Yes, absolutely.

An orphan's spirit has become a way of thinking.

So the mind is dulled.

It lives under the shadow of it.

Yeah.

And a pastor who is an orphan can only raise orphans.

Or a dad or a mom who is an orphan can only raise orphans.

And by orphans, I don't mean biological orphans.

I'm talking about orphan spirit as in never convinced of the father's love and goodness.

Always working for it, always striving for it, always unsure of it.

He is upset and everybody suffers from that.

We come into Christianity as pathetic orphans.

And then over 10, 20, 25 years, hopefully it will begin to change where you get secure in the father.

And some of the questions, simple questions will reveal it.

One simple question is, Jacob, when you go and ask for forgiveness from God, why are you asking him forgiveness for?

What are you asking him forgiveness for?

Is it to remove guilt?

Or is it because it brings you close to God and you enjoy him again?

Which one?

Simple question.

And it just exposes your heart.

When you pray for protection, why do you pray for protection?

Is it because you're scared that God will take away your guilt?

Is it because you're scared that if you don't pray for protection, something will happen?

Or is it because you're thrilled in the fact that your God protects you and you want to acknowledge it and speak it out?

Which one is it?

Go ahead, Zia.

You mentioned that it doesn't have to be a sin, right?

And then something that becomes second nature in terms of sin, and you are someone like, you hear it from someone or like somebody,

God tells you that, okay, this is wrong, you're sorry, right?

And then you realize, okay, it's a sin, so you know that's wrong and everything.

But what if it's not a sin?

Then how do you realize it?

God will point things out, man.

One of the things the Spirit of God wants to do is keep making you like Jesus.

So every time, in every area that I'm not like Christ, He'll try to change me.

James 4, verse 5 says it so beautifully in the, I'll just read the passion translation of James 4, 5,

James 4:5

which isn't, I realize it's a translation, but it conveys what I believe God is trying to say.

James 4, verse 5, it says,

James 4:5

Does the Scripture mean nothing to you that says the Spirit that God breathed into our hearts

is a jealous lover who intensely desires to have more and more of us?

As He desires this, can I change you into who Christ is?

Because that's why He's here.

He's here to make us more like Him.

The fruit of the Spirit is the nature of God being brought up and brought out through us.

So this is the first place to start.

Any questions about this before we go on?

Okay, second.

How many of these things do we have? Only three.

So don't worry.

It's only 534.

Second, I'm on the right time zone, right?

Okay.

Second, you love righteousness by longing for the righteous one.

Jesus Christ.

And that's also how you develop a hatred or a dislike for what violates your relationship.

We all have to move from where we are to just living by this standard.

So the second way we love righteousness, and why are we talking about this?

Because the Bible says in Psalm 45, verse 7, that because you love righteousness and you hate wickedness,

Psalms 45:7

therefore God your God has poured upon you sacred oil or has anointed you with the oil of joy or with such gladness that you're far superior than your companions are.

That's what we're trying to get at because it's the core strength.

So the second way you love righteousness is by longing for the righteous one.

Longing, not obeying, not revering, not submitting, but first longing for the righteous one.

Longing for him.

This is where Psalms like Psalm 63, 1 and Psalm 45, 1 kick in.

My heart overflows with a poem to my King, and my hand is the hand of a writer, and I shall now begin to write to my King.

Or Psalm 63, 1, which I quoted two weeks ago.

Oh God, you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you.

My soul longs for you.

My body thirsts for you.

Like a man who's roaming in a desert which is parched and weary.

How different, eh, this kind of living would become?

Longing for the righteous one.

And as you begin to long for him, a strange thing happens.

You begin to have such strong hatred or dislike for the things that he dislikes.

Because not to dislike that violates your relationship.

Haven't many of you men changed because of the strong dislike?

Your wife or your spouse or someone you love has towards different things.

You changed.

You even changed friendships because she thought there was something wrong with that.

It was hard, but you still changed.

Any questions?

Guys, we're trying to bring us back to the longing for the righteous one.

Longing.

Yearning.

Those are the words.

And these words must become part of our vocabulary.

Words are important.

Words are highly expressive.

And these words must be used in our conversation with God.

Can I get to a place where I can actually say,

Gosh, I yearn for you.

This is not enough.

You can say that to your spouse.

Strangely enough, he's more real than your spouse.

Even though she is visible.

Guys, here's the truth, though.

This is an important distinction.

Longing comes from being loved.

This is critical.

Longing comes from being loved.

You long for someone when that person loves you.

Longing comes from being loved.

One of the reasons we find our relationship with God so sterile in terms of emotions

is because we haven't experienced him loving us for our hearts to long after him.

Longing comes because you are loved.

One who is not loved will not long for the person they had begun chasing.

You won't.

I mean, honestly, I used to love a girl every six weeks when I was in college.

I have written so many songs, it's crazy.

The last girl I loved was one called Kathy, and that was a very sad song

because each song gets sadder and sadder.

And I would sit there, I would look at her, I would think that everything was good

when I would have coffee with her.

I even played this game of, I wasn't a believer, but I would ask God,

Is this the one for me?

And then if the secondhand needle was on the right hand of the watch,

it would be she's for me, and I would look at it and it would be on the left hand.

Then I'd say, best of three, oh God, best of five.

It didn't matter how many times I did it, nothing would work,

but the songs would get sadder and sadder.

But the reason it didn't bother me was because there was no love from that side, man.

Longing is only sustained when you are loved.

And so one of the reasons we don't know what it is to long after God

is because we haven't tangibly been able to capture, to taste, to enjoy, to bask in, to rest,

to settle, to know, to sometimes feel what it is to be loved

by the only person in the universe that invented love.

You think and I think that in some form or the other,

God's love is some kind of agape, I hate that word.

Not because it's a bad word, not because it's not a Christian word.

I hate that word because it means nothing to me. Agape.

It's some kind of thing where, no, he's someone who invented the word love.

He's someone who invented it for Adam and Eve.

He's someone who invented it for Christ and the bride.

He's someone who invented it for the father and the prodigal son.

He's someone who invented it for the Shulamite woman and Solomon.

He's someone who invented it for David and Jonathan.

He's someone who invented it for Paul and the church.

He's someone who invented it for you and your spouse.

He invented it. There is nothing outside of him called love.

He is it. Every pore of his, if he had pores, would ooze just this one thing.

So to think that he can't convey love is crazy.

It's just we got so used to it, man. We live in such fleshly realms.

So how do we then go about it? How do we, if longing for him can only happen if he loves me,

hey, how does a child long for the parent? Who loves whom first?

The parent loves the child. The child begins to long for the parent.

Have you met children who don't long for their parents? Do you know why?

Because they haven't been loved or they've not known love or they've been abused.

They don't run to their parents then.

Now you can see why Jesus said in 1 John that perfect love casts out fear

because whenever there's any fear or torment in love, you'll always be scared, just like a little child.

And our love that we receive from God is always filled with fear and torment because of our human relationships.

And yet he's saying, hey, I can do this every day.

And you will be a people.

That will be so changed. People will beg to taste.

So how do we go about it?

I mean, you do understand that longing, allow me to come back to it for just one minute.

You do understand that longing cannot be sustained if you're not loved.

A spouse who is not loved cannot sustain longing.

The person can go into, I will love you because I swore at the altar that through sickness and death and all this stuff, I'm going to love you anyways.

That's when it shifts to agape.

But it wasn't supposed to be just agape.

Agape is unconditional love. Doesn't matter what happens you love.

So when I said I dislike the word agape, I didn't mean that it's a wrong kind of love.

It's a purest, finest kind of love.

But that's not how relationships are supposed to be.

They are supposed to be packed with unconditional love.

They're supposed to be packed with emotional love.

They're supposed to be packed with intimacy.

And in the case of spouses, sexual love too.

But at the end of the day, to take everything out and be left with agape, gosh man, that was never God's desire for you.

If that was the case, the Bible wouldn't have huge sections in it.

So longing can only be sustained if I am loved.

If Anilay does not love Tuni on a regular basis, Tuni's longing for Anilay will have to turn into agape.

So you'll have to change his email to atho agape Tuni.

So you'll have to change his email to atho agape Tuni.

But thank God, Anilay likes him.

We don't understand this, but she likes him.

Mysterious are the ways of the Lord.

So how do we go about it?

So here are some questions.

So first, in terms of being loved, can you trust that he does want to be loved?

To love you in a far more tangible way than at present.

Can you trust that?

Can you trust that?

I'm not even asking you to believe that because believing can be one thing.

But I'm just asking that this God who invented love, who's written about it, who says that I put my spirit in you and my spirit longs to,

my spirit like a jealous lover, longs to have you have more of me.

Can I trust him?

Now this is his desire, not once a week, not twice a week, many times a day.

Can you trust him for this?

It's so hard, but can you trust him?

Because if we don't begin there, we'll settle for once a week.

Even if you don't feel very good about yourself, I mean there's this scripture in Song of Songs, Chapter 1, Verse 6,

Song of Solomon 1:6

where the woman thinks she's too dark and here's what she says,

do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.

My mother's sons were angry with me.

They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.

And so she's ashamed to go in front of him.

And yet it's after that that Solomon then comes and begins to talk about,

listen, your skin is this and your skin is that and you use, you don't need any beauty products.

That's where Solomon goes with it.

So at the end of the day, you and I need to understand that this is something he desires.

So that's the first question.

Second question.

Can you trust that he can convey it?

Can you trust that he can convey it?

Can you trust that he can convey it?

Sometimes this will help us also to convey love.

Some of us find it hard.

It's not that we are incapable, but we find it hard to convey love in ways that the other person can feel.

That changes too.

So the second question is, can you trust that he is able to convey it?

Convey it very specifically to you.

The way God knows Hamadi needs to be loved is very different from how Jill needs to be loved.

It's very different from how Rhonda needs to be loved.

It's very different from how Jain needs to be loved.

And he has the ability to convey it.

Can you trust that?

And if you trust that, can you go and say, I believe this.

Show me how.

Forty years I've lived, I'm out of practice.

Fifty years, in Dilna's case, 55 years he's lived.

It just keeps coming up in every sermon, every line.

I don't know why, Dilna.

It's Sheldon's fault, you know, right?

Oh, was it?

So at the end of the day, I've lived this different way, but please can you start?

Because I absolutely trust you to be able to convey it.

Guys, trust pleases God.

Without faith it is impossible to please him.

It pleases him that you actually think he's able.

And he is.

That's why I like the last song.

I thank my God.

I thank my Jesus.

I thank my Savior.

I thank my God.

For what?

For picking me up and turning me around.

For cleansing me of sin, for changing my name.

I love that.

Change your name.

He blooming changes your name.

You begin to hear him call you strange things.

And you love it.

I mean, I was in Bahrain and I found out the things that people call each other.

So one guy calls his wife Bo.

And so another guy calls his wife Bo Bo.

Then I found out a third guy calls his wife Boo Boo.

And I'm thinking how many variations of B and O can you do?

And then the best one, and if he hears this, he'll probably text me, so I won't name him.

One wife calls her husband Burger.

Hun Burger.

And I thought to myself, hmm, if I find a wife like that.

So if we humans can do it.

Do you want to go around asking the room what each one calls each other?

We won't, yeah.

If we humans can do that.

What, Derek, you want to say anything?

All good?

Okay.

Can you trust that he can convey it?

Third one.

Do you have time?

Do you have time?

Do you have time?

This one's on you.

This one's on you.

All the others he'll do.

This one's on you.

Do you have time?

We don't.

He's usually a pigeon in the park that we feed crumbs to after the day is done.

Do you have time?

Here's a crazy thing.

Once this process starts, you'll have time.

You'll have time.

Because you'll want what you've tasted.

Once this process starts, he becomes a priority not because he's God, but because you like him so much.

Isn't it great when someone has time for their spouse not because the guy is their husband, but because they like him so much?

That's what I meant by saying last two weeks ago that we are in love with a person.

We're not in love with God.

We are in love with a person.

God makes it like husband.

If Iris comes and says, my husband, my husband, I love my husband, I'll begin to question her.

What's his name?

I love Derek.

Aaron, stop me.

Was it Aaron or no?

Joe.

Fourth question.

Can you search for him?

Can you search for him?

Can you search for him in the word?

It's just seeking.

I had a friend called Sharon Williams.

The only thing I used to envy him for is his dad was a colonel.

Every day when his dad comes back from work, they had a big house.

His dad would try to hide somewhere in the house and the boys would have to find him.

It was the one thing I desired my dad to do, but our house was small so I found him easily.

So that was a disadvantage.

This guy had a two-story house with many rooms and Colonel Williams would come home.

He had this colonel mustache and he would sneak in through the back, through side entrance, sometimes under the fence, and he would go and hide.

And both these brothers had to go find him.

But they used to enjoy it thoroughly and I used to absolutely envy it because it used to be so much fun seeking out to dad.

Do you have...

Can you search for him in the word, in seeking?

Can you search for him?

Because we give up too easily.

We give up too easily.

Search for him.

What are you looking for?

Are you looking for a feeling?

Sometimes.

Are you looking for sudden contact in your spirit?

Yes.

Are you looking for some satisfaction in your soul?

Yes.

But Jacob, he's invisible.

What about when your husband writes a letter to you and you open it?

What happens to you?

What about when he turns up on a WhatsApp message and says, boo boo?

We just don't think this can happen with God.

We're so accustomed to it, guys.

But it's real.

Can you search for him?

And to search for him, you need time, right?

I got four minutes.

If I don't find you, well, I'll pray a prayer while driving.

Everyone here is capable of this because this is who he is.

Go to Song of Songs chapter 3, verse 2 to 4.

Song of Solomon 3:2–4

Now, when you search for him, you will find him because he's always said, anyone who seeks me will find me.

You will find me in the word.

You behold me in the word, you will be changed.

Guaranteed, Corinthians 3, 18 talks about it.

Go to Song of Songs 3.

She goes searching for him.

On my bed by night I sought him, whom my soul loves.

Beautifully, I sought him but found him not.

I will rise now.

So she doesn't then decide, eh, try it, then work, go to sleep.

No.

Then she says, I will rise now and go about the city in the streets and in the squares.

I'll seek him whom my soul loves.

I sought him but found him not.

The watchman found me as I went about in the city.

Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

Scarcely had I passed him and I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him.

I would not let him go until I brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

Crazy, eh?

Twice she gets stymied in her search for him.

Can't find him.

But she doesn't stop because she knows the one her soul loves.

This is why it says, Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

It doesn't say, Oh pray and see.

And it's in the blooming Old, sorry not blooming Old Testament.

It's in the Old Testament.

It's in the Old Testament.

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

And it's in the Old Testament.

It's in the Old Testament.

It's in the Old Testament.

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

He's more real now.

He lives in me man, in his fullness.

Next question.

Can you drop everything?

Can you drop everything and respond when he searches for you?

Crazy, eh?

Can you drop everything and respond when he searches for you?

There'll be times when you know it.

And trust me man, the Spirit of God will always convey it.

Till you die you will know.

When he does that, can you drop everything?

Why?

Because he's someone you love so much it is unimaginable not to do it.

Go to Song of Songs chapter 5.

Song of Solomon 5 · chapter mention

Let's read from the New Living Translation.

Song of Songs chapter 5 verse 3 to 5.

Song of Solomon 5:3–5

Song of Songs chapter 5 verse 3 to 5 reading from the NLT, New Living Translation.

Song of Solomon 5:3–5

Let's start at verse 2.

I slept but my heart was awake when I heard my lover knocking and calling.

Open to me my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one.

That's him speaking, eh?

Open to me my treasure, my darling, my love, my perfect one.

My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.

But I responded.

I have taken off my robe should I get dressed again.

I have washed my feet should I get them soiled.

My lover tried to unlatch the door and my heart thrilled within me.

I jumped up to open the door for my love.

My hands dripped with perfume.

My fingers dripped with lovely myrrh as I pulled back the bolt.

I opened to my lover but he was gone.

My heart sank.

I searched for him but could not find him anywhere.

Here is a situation where it's am I willing to drop everything to respond when he searches for me?

Or will it be but I've already worn my pj's.

It's already midnight.

I got to wake up.

I can't do this right now.

Not right now.

It's in the middle of cooking.

This roast will become really roast or whatever.

But roasts take long anyways, right?

Let's not go there.

So the point being that at the end of the day, when he can you drop everything to respond.

These are the ways we find an ability to dash to him.

And guys, we have to do this.

Otherwise, it's only a matter of time where things become duty, tradition, boredom.

When love is gone, isn't that what happens to marriages?

Any questions?

I'll skip the third thing.

We'll do the third thing next time.

Any questions?

No, I wish I hadn't said that I hate the word agape because it's coming out wrong.

It's almost as if it doesn't have any value.

Agape is what sustains us when times are hard.

Otherwise, we get caught only in this and when times get hard or when time is short,

then this thing just falls apart.

Agape is unconditional.

It loves regardless of whether there's a return or not.

It loves regardless of what the circumstances are.

That's what sustains us through difficult times.

Oh God, oh God, why have you forsaken me?

But he still won't get off the cross.

Even though we were his enemies, he still stretched out his hand in friendship.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, even though we were enemies.

But he wants us to enjoy beyond unconditional love because at some point, I mean, simple question.

If I took Brielle and, what's your name, Iris, or if I took Rennie and Joey, or Rachel and any of her kids,

isn't there unconditional love?

There is.

But doesn't one love so that one can be loved back too?

Isn't there longing?

There is.

Leave alone with spouses too.

Unconditional love is a solid, firm foundation that this grows in.

So I apologize sincerely for saying I dislike it.

I dislike it because everybody gets stuck there and then we don't have this.

I mean, this is not there.

Slowly it becomes duty, obligation because we don't know Agape like he does.

Any other questions?

So if you learn how to, and we have to learn, if you learn how to long or yearn,

one of the things that will begin to happen is rendezvous will take place between you and God.

There are many moments during a day between you and his presence.

Yeah.

It will happen often.

If you learn how to long or yearn for him this way,

you will experience life altering, you'll experience the life altering nature of God's reckless, overwhelming love.

The life altering nature of, guys, any boy, any girl who knows the love of their parents

will be ridiculously bold in both their dreaming, their action, and their generosity.

I guarantee any child who is confident of the love of their dad or mom

will be ridiculously bold in their action, in their generosity, and in their dream.

Joseph was favored by his father. He began to dream.

Any area where I'm confident of God's love, gosh, doesn't matter how,

and the boldness will come with giftedness or no giftedness.

I have seen people who are in love with God who can't sing a note, and they'll be the loudest singers.

And you think to yourself, my God, I wish you wouldn't be so deep in love, but they don't care.

So it's not boldness that comes with giftedness. It's just a sheer boldness.

I love it when I see kids who know their dad and mom love them.

They come walking into the church as if it's their building, and then they make noise while they're coming in too.

And one last statement and we'll stop and do the third one next week.

This kind of yearning or longing after God is not to fill a void,

but to make you strong, to make you strong and overflow.

This is not for, please don't think that this kind of love I need because there's a void in my life.

That's not what it's for. It's so that you become really strong in God.

That's the boldness in generosity, the boldness in action, the boldness in dreaming.

That is why we need this. It's not so that a void be filled in my life till I get married.

No. This is not comfort love. Yes, that's part of God's agape, but that's not the reason.

That's not the reason. When it says in Daniel chapter 10 that those who know their God will do mighty deeds,

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

one of the knowing of God's is knowing him as one that you long after and that loves you.

Go for this man. And if you don't make an attempt, you'll...

How many of you learned to ride a bike in just the first attempt?

Zia, you did, huh? Okay. There are some things you might be exceptional at.

Biking is just one of them. Anyone else who learned to bike in one attempt?

You both too? Oh my Lord.

All right, moving on. This was not my experience.

Okay. Maybe it's normal. For me, it was so blooming difficult.

You would sit on the bike and you'd go about six thing and then my body would start leaning this way and I'd be on the floor.

The number of scrapes I've had. So maybe this is normal for you.

Forget the example. It is a bad example. Yeah? Let's rewind.

At the end of the day, any questions before we end? Any questions?

Can you attend this? Mark, what do you think? My turn to ask questions.

What do you think of this, Mark? Chava, you're next. So start thinking.

We don't need a mic for this. Yeah.

Don't worry about it. God doesn't care. I'm just saying His intent is to make you strong.

But if you want His love for comfort, hey, more love on you so that you feel comforted.

Yeah, because comfort can make you strong too. So be not to worry about that.

Chava.

I think all good makes sense.

I love this. I should do it every week. I think all good makes sense.

Yeah, when a Sodor graduate says that, it must be really good.

Prashant, what do you think?

Crazy, no? That's such a key to this. You don't find the time. This remains theory.

And it's one of the hardest things to do, eh? Find time. Because everything is instant, right?

Rhonda, what do you think?

What Prashant said, time. Yeah.

Yeah. Guys, create time. Sorry. Yeah, create time for this.

I know you're on busy lives. I know. And then you went and had children too.

And so I realize it's busy. But this is so critical for your children too.

Creating time? Okay.

Spend one week doing this knowingly. And you will find it enough of a priority to...

And as soon as it becomes a priority, you'll create time for it.

Guys, time is always created by priorities. Time is always created by priorities.

Whatever you prioritize, you have time for. Always.

And so to prioritize this, you have to taste it.

If you've never watched hockey, you will not prioritize hockey.

But once you watch it, oh my God, three and a half hours of your life is always available.

It's the same thing. Taste it for one week. For one week, decide.

Or if you're the duller type, take two weeks.

Sorry, that didn't come out right. Let us all take two weeks, yeah?

So two weeks, decide that for two weeks, I am going to create not a limited time,

but a time that may be only 15 minutes, maybe one hour, 15 minutes.

But I'm going to try this for just two weeks.

And in the process, you will find that it is tasty enough to prioritize.

That's the way. And as soon as you prioritize it, you will find the time for it.

And then it will be very hard to steal it from you.

Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus was not a one-off.

That was not the first time she did it.

She had been probably hanging out with Jesus on many different occasions

because that was one of Jesus' favorite homes to go to for meals.

The Bible gives evidence for that.

And so she must have gotten so used to it that as soon as he comes in, what does she do?

Plunk herself at his feet.

Try it for two weeks.

Any other questions? Nick, what do you think?

You need to watch more Romcoms, okay.

But I'd like to say to you that you're the kind of guy who can fall madly in love with Jesus, man.

That's your very makeup.

You're just a ridiculous romantic.

You have no hope if you go in here.

Xavier?

You can't take Prashant's line anymore.

Diana?

Praise God.

Marie, you want to add anything?

You want to add anything? You're okay now.

Just in all, Shreena.

Shreena, okay.

Yeah, to give back once you receive it.

Don?

Very good.

Jill?

That says it all. You go for it, girl.

Rachel?

Any comment? Anything you want to say?

Sorry?

Yeah.

That the dullness needs to be broken off slowly.

Yeah.

That the dullness needs to be broken off to start to enjoy this.

And so if you went back in the notes, you'll find that one of the things he does when he does this is he breaks the dullness off, eh?

Our hearts need to be revived, guys.

Because in a church like this, you can easily be revived by a whole lot of other things.

Good worship, good teaching, good friends, good great pastor, and so on.

But you can't be revived by a person who's not a good person.

And so you need to be a good pastor and so on.

But at the end of the day, nothing can take away the dullness like he does, eh?

Crystal, anything you want to add?

Not a lot of churches talk about it.

I think we need to, because if we can get this, it'll be so much fun, man.

If we are like this now, imagine what it'll be to be like that.

It'll be nuts.

Okay, anything you want to say, given that... yeah.

Yeah, not to give up too easily.

Guys, as you try this, don't give up too easily.

Always go back to those six questions I asked.

Does he want to do this?

Can he convey it?

Can he be uniquely personal?

Don't give up on this.

None of us would get married if we gave up easily.

Tuni would still be single.

Single and?

Single and bald.

Did you say... sorry, did you say bald or bald?

Okay, okay.

All right, before we go any further with this line of thinking, let's close, yeah?

Derek, you want to say anything?

I want to see what life really looks like when this is done in a consistent basis for a long period of time.

Yeah, yeah.

I want to see what life looks like if he does it consistently for a long period of time.

Guys, I've been trying to practice this for a while now, and it's changing my life.

And if my life is changing, you will get affected by it too.

You will get affected by it too.

Last, let me ask Ann if she wants to add anything.

You want to come up?

Ann, Ann, the 55-year-old man's wife.

Go ahead, Ann.

Explain.

Explain.

Yeah.

To run after him. Cool.

Delian, you want to end?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I think it would be amazing to see how life changes, how art, the visual image and the affective effects.

Get here.

Remember guys, pleasure is the joy you have over a treasure that you set your heart on and will sell everything for.

Beautiful, eh? Not my line.

Pleasure is the joy that you have over a treasure that your heart is set on and that you'll sell everything for.

In your presence is pleasure forevermore.

What's he trying to say?

Pleasure is the joy that you have over a treasure your heart is set on and you'll sell everything for it.

Cool.

There are no songs that will capture this whole thing.

It will have to be a song written by someone in the world because those songs capture this really well.

But perhaps if I sing that, this church will lose its reputation.

So let's conclude.

What song would you sing?