Put this over here. Mike, you gave up the NBA dream too. It's tough. All right, good morning everybody. It's been a good morning so far. Thank you for having us and letting us be a part of this year after year. I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bible to Philippians chapter number four, please. Philippians chapter four. just as like a launching off point, really. Philippians chapter four. When you get there, just say amen. Amen, amen, amen. As he's trickling there. All right. The initial amen is strong, and then the other people are still flipping, like, do I still say amen? Then it's a little weird. I'm just gonna go full nerd on you to get started, but there was this physicist named Max Planck, and if you're in a physics class in high school and you have to look up the Planck's constant and dump that into an equation, nerd moment. But this famous physicist, Max Planck, he said one time, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And Planck was alluding to the power of perspective. Perspective, I mean, perspective is everywhere. It affects everything. Sometimes perspective becomes reality to people. I mean, in sports, I mean, I do like sports. I don't play them well, but I like watching my children play them. In sports, high-level athletes are taught to visualize for success. You know, why? So they develop a perspective on the game and a perspective on what they're supposed to do out there on the court. In business, you're told to mentally rehearse important meetings. Why? To strengthen your perspective, to develop your perspective. Even in the military, I was reading about special forces. They will work to change the way they look at adversity, the way they see failure, because perspective is so, so powerful. And in Philippians chapter number four, look what the Holy Spirit writes, because in the Bible, God commands you. He doesn't suggest to you, God commands you to change the way you look at everything. The Bible talks about a renewing of your mind, a different way to think, a different perspective to adopt. And in Philippians 480 says, from a jail cell, by the way, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. There are eight things there that God tells you to think about. Eight is the number of a new beginning. So if you wanna change your life and enjoy this new life, you've gotta think differently. And as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're saved, give me one amen. Amen. All right, that was a little weak, but we'll work up to it. As a believer in Jesus Christ, one more time. Amen. Okay, we're getting there, that's like a four out of 10. You need to change the way you look at yourself. You need to change the way you look at yourself. Because when you see yourself the way God sees you, you'll change the way you see yourself. And part of being rooted and grounded, like we're talking about, like it's on the back of your T-shirts, part of that is seeing your identity in Christ from God's perspective, from God's vantage point. And Ephesians 3.17, that's probably on the back of your neighbor's, or the person in front of you's chair, says rooted and grounded in love. See, the thing you've got to get rooted and grounded in is your relationship with Jesus Christ. And your relationship with Jesus Christ is a love affair. It's a love affair. And there is a book that I like, and Dave Steen knows it. The Song of Solomon is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And I'm going to be adventurous and at a youth camp talk about it. Because it's a book all about a love affair between a man and his bride. And it is a beautiful picture of the love affair that is supposed to be your relationship between Christ and His church. There's all these beautiful pictures in it. Now, I know a lot of you don't read it. because it's mysterious, it's a little bit cryptic. Went down to the Valley of the Nuts to see the fruits. I don't know what that's about either. It might have something to do with a part of the country, but I'm not sure. It's a mysterious book because love is a little hard to understand sometimes. It's a little mysterious, it's a little cryptic, it's a little hard to wrap your mind around it. So God gave us a book in the New Testament to be the companion of the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, and that book is the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians is the New Testament companion, because the book of Ephesians is all about you seeing yourself in Christ. You seeing what God sees when he looks at you. And the way God sees you should change the way you see yourself, and if you change the way you see yourself, if you change your perspective, you'll change the way you live. You'll change the way you live. So when you look at yourself in my Father's eyes and your Father's eyes, when you see yourself in Christ and what God has really done for you, it will change your life forever. So I don't really have a message of rebuke. I really want to exhort you today, and I want to preach a message called In My Father's Eyes. I want to show you what you look like when God looks at you, because if you could see what you look like from heaven's perspective, it'll change your life down here. So let's pray and we'll just jump in here a little bit. Father, we love you today. I do thank you, Lord, for saving my wretched soul out of the pit. But Lord, I'm not the person I should be, but I'm not the person I used to be. And Lord, that's all because of your son that we sang about and that power of the cross. So Lord, if you choose not to give him any glory, you can let this message flop. But Lord, if you choose to lift your son up and draw your children to himself, I pray, Lord, you let this go out clear and plain. Even though we might look at some verses that might be in a book that's somewhat hard to be understood, You're the teacher, and you can guide us into all truth. And I pray you do that now, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. So I'm not going to run you all over the Bible today. We're going to look at the Song of Solomon, and we're going to look at the book of Ephesians. So let's go to the book of Song of Solomon, chapter number four, all right? Song of Solomon, chapter four. If the pages are stuck together, just gently peel them apart. Song of Solomon, chapter number four. And I want to tell you some things about how you look in my Father's eyes. Number one, if you're taking notes or you just want to know how long before I'm done. Number one, in my Father's eyes, in Christ, you are spotless. You are spotless. Song of Solomon chapter four, the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, is talking to his bride. That's all of you if you're saved. And in Song of Solomon 4-7, he says to his beautiful bride, he says, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Woo! I mean, when the bridegroom sees his bride, he doesn't see any spots. He doesn't see any blemishes. He doesn't see any wrinkles. And when the father looks at you in Christ, he doesn't see any of your spots. He doesn't see any of your sins. You say, how can that be? It's simple. Love is blind. Love is blind. And God's love covereth all sins, Proverbs 10 tells us. And God's love is so powerful that it blinds the Father to anything that's wrong with you. Because in Christ, you're spotless. You're spotless. You know, when you go outside, if we go outside today and we're out in an open field somewhere, when the sun is bright, it could be blinding. You know what? The Son of God has blinded the Father to your sins. His sacrifice is so powerful, His holiness is so pure, His atonement is so sufficient that if you're in Him, the Father sings that song, what sins are you talking about? I can't see them anymore. They're all gone. Now look at chapter five of Song of Solomon. Let me show you your Savior now. Now here's the bride, the lady, talking about her bridegroom. And she says in Song of Solomon chapter five verse 10, she says, my beloved is white and ruddy. White there is not the color of his skin, it's the content of his character. His skin was ruddy and red brown, he was from the Middle East, but his character was pure. Your savior is absolutely pure as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And He's so perfect and so holy and so pure, and His sacrifice is so sufficient that it's like a blinding sunlight. It blinds the Father to your sins when you get in Christ, when you get into the Son. Now you might sit there and say, I don't feel spotless. Well, join the club. Look at chapter one of Song of Solomon. Let me show you what this lady says. She doesn't feel spotless. She feels dirty, like you might feel dirty. She feels insufficient, like you might feel insufficient. Look at Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse six. Here's that lady talking like we talk about ourselves. She says, look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. She's saying, my beloved is white, he's pure, he's holy, he's absolutely spotless. She looks at herself, she says, I'm weathered, I'm worn. The sun is dark in me. You get those sunspots when you stay out in the sun too long. You might feel like that, right? Like that woman in the passage, that woman knew she was anything but pure. She's like, I'm anything but perfect. I'm anything but white. I'm anything but spotless. You know why? Because the sun of this world had only made her darker, only made her weathered, only made her spotted. Doesn't that do it to you? The world's sun, people freaking out right now, spraying themselves with SPF 70, and they go out into the sun in a radioactive suit or something like that, cleaning up a hazmat site. They're so afraid of sunspots and sun this and what's the sun going to do to us, and the world does that to you, right? The world just wears you down, soils your character, you hear that dirty joke, you didn't wanna hear it, you go to work, you see something you didn't wanna see, and it just dirties you, it just soils you. And that's what she's saying, she's like, the sun has looked upon me, I've been out here working in the field, and the field is the world, Jesus said, and she's like, I'm dirty, don't even look at me, I'm dirty. You feel like that sometimes. But if you look at verse number five, you wanna see what she says above that? She says, I am black, but comely. She says, you know what? I am black, but I'm beautiful. Because somebody sees me as beautiful. That bridegroom sees me as beautiful. So even though when I look at myself in the mirror, all I see is failure, all I see is just insufficiency, all I see is a hot mess, Jesus Christ looks at you and the Father looks at you in Christ and says, you are absolutely beautiful. Wouldn't that be a change of perspective? The son of this world makes you spotted, and the son of this word makes you spotless. That son of God that you read about, that we sang about, he makes you wholesome, he makes you beautiful, he makes you spotless. That's amazing. Look at Ephesians chapter one. Let's look at the counterpart now in the New Testament. Go to Ephesians chapter one. If you're saved, let me say amen now. All right, you're getting there. See, you're warming up. That's good, that's good. All right, Ephesians chapter one. Like I said, I'm just trying to tell you the truth here, and I just wanna, I wanna tell you this, folks. If you're saved, listen, when Jesus Christ washed your sins away in his precious blood, if he did that for you, one more amen. You became spotless. your record became spotless. It didn't just get closed. It got expunged. It got thrown. It's gone. In Ephesians 1, verse 6, the Bible says this. The Bible says, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us, these dirty, rotten sinners, these dirty, sunspotted vessels, these filthy, weathered people of the world, he hath made us accepted In the beloved, in Christ, I became accepted, not rejected. In Christ, I became spotless, not spotted. And then he says, how? In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Folks, when Jesus Christ washed your sins away, he washed them away past, he washed them away present, he washed them away future. He could say, you are all fair. There is no spot in me. Now you don't believe that like I don't believe that. We just gotta say, let God be true. That's what he says of you in Christ. Now we'll get to you down here in a little bit. You know, John Newton wrote that great old hymn, right? Amazing grace. Isn't it amazing grace that God saved you? That's pretty amazing. That's amazing grace. John Newton was a slave trader. and God changed his life, and he says, once I was a libertine, and now I'm preaching the gospel I once sought to destroy. And he said this, I am a great sinner. You can say amen if you want. I'm a great sinner, but Christ is a great savior. His mercy is greater than all my sins, and his forgiveness reaches even the darkest corners of my heart. That's some serious spot remover, that blood of Christ. It doesn't just, you know, whether you're smoking or chewing or going with them, that doing, it doesn't just get rid of those outward sins, it gets rid of those inward sins. That envy, that pride, that anger, that lust that really is gonna mess you up, it gets down even there. Somebody said, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. His blood speaks a better word, offering forgiveness and peace with God. And D.L. Moody, you heard of Crazy Moody, that great preacher? He said, the voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder. It's louder, man. That's how powerful that blood of Christ is. And that's what God says to you when you look in his mirror, that Bible. When you look in that Bible, he says, you're washed. You're sanctified. You're justified. He told that to the Corinthians that had all kinds of licentious sins going on in their camp. He says, you guys are washed. You guys are sanctified. You guys are justified. Folks, what do you say to yourself when you look at yourself in your mirror? How do you see yourself? Does the flesh make you feel you're too dirty to stop what you're doing? You say, I got to get this stuff out of my life. I got to drop this habit. I got to stop doing this. I got to stop hooking up with that. I got to stop doing that. I got to stop. And the flesh just says, you can't stop. It feels too good. You can't stop. You've been doing this and hiding this from your preacher for years. You can't stop. See, it's all about perspective. God's over here saying, you are absolutely stunning. You're beautiful. And the flesh says, you're dirty. You're no good. Just stay with the no goods. Has the world made you think you're one of them because you share their spots? Now I got three wonderful children that I think are the greatest people on planet Earth next to my wife. And they might do some things that other people do that I don't approve of, but that doesn't mean they're not my children anymore. And just because you might, you know, shoot off the mouth the wrong way, or do something inappropriate, or say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, be the wrong thing, like the world does, that doesn't mean you're a part of the world. That just means you might be dancing with them a little too long, but God says, you're mine, you're mine, you're mine. Folks, did the serpent convince you to give up? Because you think God would never love anyone like you? like he loves the Hudson Taylors and the Melsa Bacchus and the Gladys Allwards and the great people we read about. Folks, those people put their pants on one leg at a time just like you do. Those people's farts smell just as bad as yours done, and I've been smelling them this weekend, I can testify, right? Folks, it's the same God. He doesn't change. And the God that delivered them and helped them and helps me and helps your neighbor is the same God that wants to help you. You've got to change your perspective, folks. You may look guilty and no good in your eyes, but you're spotless in my father's eyes. You're spotless. And maybe, just maybe, Maybe if you saw how clean you are in Christ, you wouldn't be so quick to dirty yourself down here. If you were as careful with your walk as some of you are with your sneakers, we'd have revival. I know, right? You put the Air Force Ones on, or what do you put on? They're white, they're all seagull white. You're like, is it gonna rain today? You know, do I have to walk across any muddy, grassy spots? You're so careful when you walk, when you got your kicks on, because some of your sneaker heads, you know, you're just like, I can't, you know, I can't go out there. I can't wear these shoes there. You're so careful about your walk, because you see how beautiful and dazzling those off-whites are that you spent way too much money to get, and you're walking with these sneakers, and you're, somebody had those, somebody left a pair of off-whites in my classroom this week. And I just left them under the desk, and my other teacher, who's young, not like I am, she's like, I need to put these and lock these away, because those are like $500 sneakers. They look to me like I got them out of the bargain bin at like Walmart. I'm like, those are $500 shoes? But somebody's putting them on, and you're just walking like, I can't go. There could be no mud. There could be no rain. I don't want to seek all these things again. They're so white and dazzling. You're so careful about the soles of your feet. What about the soul that's inside your body? Could you imagine if you saw how clean you were in Christ, and then you went out in the world, you'd be like, I better not go there. I might dirty my mind. I better not watch that. I might dirty my eyes. I better not listen to that. I might dirty my ears. Because you're clean in Christ. You're clean and spotless. And if you were as careful with your walk with God as your walk with some pair of sneakers, we'd have revival. Number two, go to Song of Solomon again. Number one, in my Father's eyes, in Christ, you look spotless. Let me show you something else. Song of Solomon chapter two. Song of Solomon chapter two. Number two, I wanna say this. In my Father's eyes, you are spiritual. You are spiritual. Say, oh no, I'm carnal, man. I didn't do any verses this week. I'm stealing tickets from little kids. I'm carnal. God says, no, are you saved? Let me get that amen one more time. Are you saved? You're a spiritual being. In my Father's eyes, you are spiritual. We say, oh, Pastor Mike, Pastor Dean, those are spiritual people. You're spiritual. According to my father. Song of Solomon chapter two, verse 14. This is the bridegroom talking to you. This is Jesus talking to you. He says, oh my dove. that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice. Let's look at another one. Look at chapter five. Ready? Chapter five. Here's the bridegroom. Now we hear what the bridegroom's saying to his lady, saying to his bride. She says, I sleep, but my heart waketh. One day, you're gonna hear the voice of your savior, and it's gonna wake the dead. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Look at chapter six, verse nine, six, nine. There's the bridegroom talking to you again. There's Jesus Christ talking to you again. He says, my dove, my undefiled. Over and over again, the bridegroom calls his bride a dove. A dove, more than any book in the Bible, the word dove appears in Song of Solomon, more than any book in your Bible, why? Because throughout the Bible, we'll give you a little edumacation here, throughout your Bible, the dove is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. The first mention of a dove is back there in Genesis 8, and that dove is carrying an olive leaf and branch in its mouth. Olive oil is a type of the Holy Spirit of God. At Jesus Christ's baptism in Matthew 3, it says he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove. You got me? And if the bride in Song of Solomon pictures the church, you're called a dove because you are a spiritual creature. You're a spiritual organism. You're a spiritual body. Everything about you is spiritual, man. Right? You're not connected to this earth. This world is not our home, that's why we sing it. Because we're spiritual, we have a spiritual inheritance. Everything about us is spiritual. Philippians 3.20 says, our conversation is in heaven. That's where our life really is, right? Peter calls us strangers and pilgrims in the earth. I know some of you are strange, but I mean the fact that you're down here, you don't belong down here. This isn't your home. Colossians says your life is hid with Christ in God. That's where you're really living. Have you heard of John Wesley? John Wesley said, I am a creature of a day. passing through life as an arrow through the air. You ever seen, my son's got a crossbow, he's ready for the apocalypse, he's got a crossbow, and that thing is going like hundreds of miles an hour in like a second, 100 feet in a second. And Wesley says, my life, I'm like an arrow just shooting through the air. He said, I'm a spirit come from God and returning to God, just hovering over the great gulf till a few moments hence, I am no more seen. This life is like, I remember when some of you, I taught, where's Josiah, where's Josiah? I remember when Josiah was getting tied up in the woods at a youth camp, and now he's standing up here preaching. I remember Matt Manella marching him into the woods, and I'm like, I should probably be stopping this, but I don't see it. But you know what, and now Josiah's standing up here giving a testimony that took my heart off. Right? You're just here for this little moment. Time goes so fast. It's like, swoop, swoop, swoop, like arrows. The Bible talks about the youth as arrows in the hand of a mighty man. God's got a target. He's just trying to just fire you out there at CSI or wherever you live. He's just trying to fire you out there. But you're really just, you're just hovering over this little space for a moment until you hit the mark. And then it's all over. Look at Song of Solomon, chapter one. Now watch this. You with me so far? Say amen. Look at chapter one, look at chapter one of Song of Solomon. Look at what it says of this bride again. Here he is talking to you, he says, behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair, thou hast dove's eyes. See that? She's not just a dove, she's got dove's eyes. Look at chapter four, look at chapter four. Here he says it to her again. Chapter four, chapter four. Chapter four, verse one. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks. Folks, if Christ's church is a spiritual body, we should have spiritual vision. We should have dove's eyes. We should see things the way the Spirit of God sees things. We should have that perspective. You know who sees things the right way? Go to chapter five. In chapter five, she's talking about her bridegroom. She's talking about her hubby. It's the church talking about Jesus Christ. You know what it says about Jesus Christ in Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse 12? It says, his eyes are as the eyes of doves. See, Jesus Christ always saw things from a spiritual perspective. and we should see things the way our Savior sees them. He says, you got dove's eyes, I got dove's eyes. I want you to see things the way I see them. I want you to see things from a spiritual perspective. Those guys that people that you roll with that are lost, see them from a spiritual perspective. If the trumpet sounded or God forbid something happened, you'd go to heaven and they'd go to hell. I think about people that go off and they're saved and they walk away from God and then they marry a lost person. I was thinking of a young lady that used to come to camp years ago. Paul would know who I was if I said that name. And I'm thinking about her married to this lost guy and I'm like, dear God, I hope she's told him about Jesus Christ. Because I'm watching them go here and go there and enjoy life and I can't imagine the horror when she ascends and he descends. He doesn't get saved. You say, oh man, that's a buzz kill. But that's a spiritual perspective, man. I wish you could see, like, fooling around from a spiritual perspective, what it does to soil your heart and dirty your mind and just mess up your soul. If you could see it more than just a roll in the hay that would feel good for a day, and if you could see it as the defilement that it is to your heart, your mind, your being, if you could see it that way, from a spiritual perspective, you'd stop, you'd run the other way when they said, can I come upstairs? You'd run the other way. You say, no way! Oh, the bad that it's gonna bring to me. If you saw church and youth group and college and career as heaven practice that it's supposed to be, and a chance to sharpen iron like it's supposed to be, and a chance to be around like-minded brethren, not to drink the Kool-Aid and indoctrinate ourselves, but to insulate ourselves so we're better when we go out there, you wouldn't be so quick to skip. You wouldn't be so quick to blow it off. You wouldn't think, ah, it's just youth group. You say, no, it's heaven practice. Our church is heaven practice. You see how messed up we are? How God says, you got to change your perspective, guys. Jesus Christ, he could walk around and not get fazed and not get rattled because he always had a spiritual perspective. He could look at the city and weep because he knew the judgment they were under. He'd look at people and bless, because he knew how badly they needed him. It was always a spiritual perspective. Go to Ephesians chapter one. Folks, can I tell you everything about you spiritual? I know you're walking around a physical body and you're gonna go to a new Jerusalem that I know is real. I don't think you're gonna float around in the ether somewhere. But Ephesians 1.3, which is our companion, says that all your blessings are spiritual. Look at Ephesians 1.3. Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Folks your blessings are spiritual because you can't take the worldly ones with you we had a We have a dear lady in our church, and our granddaughter passed away a few weeks ago. Her name was Caitlin. She had been suffering from cancer from the time she was 13 to the time when she succumbed to cancer in her early 20s. She was not even 25 years old, I think. And we went to the wake, and all the rocker friends were there. I mean, there was like a contact high when you walked into the room, and some of you liked that, but I'm not normal for that. But it was just like, it was just a weird, just a weird place, and everybody, and by the casket were all the trinkets, right? the guitar she played, action figures of her favorite Marvel characters. All these assorted trinkets. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I know it's cathartic for the family to do that. It's not wrong. That's not evil. That's not wicked. That's not what I'm saying. That's the best way these lost people knew to try to bless her and try to help her from this life to the next. And we trust, we think she might have been saved. I trust she was saved. She made a profession of faith. She was in a coma. She came out of a coma. One of our young men got to visit her in the hospital and she made a profession of faith and then she died the next day. But all these accoutrements, all these accoutrements, she didn't take any of them with her. She wasn't in that casket. She had left several days prior. But all these, she couldn't take them with her. Queen Elizabeth I of England said one time on her deathbed, all my possessions for a moment in time. She just says, she had the kingdom, the sun never set on the British crown under Elizabeth. And she's like, I would trade it all for just one more breath and one more minute. Because all this stuff we can't take with us. Look at Ephesians chapter two. Folks, all your blessings are spiritual and your home is not down here. Look at Ephesians two verse one. And you have be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. I know some of you got saved when you were five or nine. I was 20. I remember when God flipped the circuit breaker on my soul. I remember going from death to life. I remember when the lights came on, I was like, oh, that's why Jesus died. Oh, that's what this is all about. I remember that. You were dead in trespasses and sins. Everybody's the same way. They're just trying to get more stuff. Just get more stuff. They live to get more stuff. And they get more stuff to store their stuff, right? It's all this stuff and then they gotta move and you realize, oh my goodness, I got so much stuff. It's all this stuff. And everybody's like that. And sometimes we get like that. Sometimes we get that even in the church. It's gotta be bigger, it's gotta be flashier, it's gotta be fuller. God is all about individuals. When the crowds were pressing on him, he'd be like, I'm gonna go talk to this blind guy over here. I gotta go meet this lady at a well. Don't get, and Mary and Joseph, they lost Jesus in the crowd. You could lose Jesus in the crowd. He's all about individuals, all right? So don't bring that philosophy into the church that bigger and louder is better. It's spiritual. We're measuring spiritual things. And it says in verse four, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved, and hath raised us up together and made us past tense. Sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know when God looks at you? He already sees you in heaven. He's like, you're already there. That's your home. That's where you really live. You don't really live down here. You're just an arrow passing through the air. And then you hit the target. That's the target. New Jerusalem is your home. Not the earth, and not even out, that's your home. That's your home up there. You know what the Lord does? He likens his bride to the moon. The moon doesn't touch the earth. Nothing about you is connected to the earth. You got that? Some of you are gonna get sick. Some of you are gonna lose your wealth. Some of you are gonna lose your health. And it doesn't mean God's judging you. It just means God's doing something with you. We're not all gonna be healthy and wealthy. We Americans think that way. We think we deserve that. Well there are Christians in Saudi Arabia running for their lives. Well there are Christians in North Africa hiding for their lives. Well there are Christians just as saved as you in parts of Chiapas, Mexico who worship under cover of darkness because they're not as loved by God by you. They're not as blessed as you. Oh, I think they might be blessed the more. Because they know they got nothing down here. They know this ain't it. They're just waiting for the Calvary call to get them home. This world is not our home, folks. And maybe, just maybe, if you saw yourself the way God sees you, you'd see this world differently. Maybe, just maybe, if you saw where your life really is, if like the song we sang last night, if you knew your name was there and could really see your title clear, maybe then you wouldn't love this world so much. Folks, you might think a hotel is beautiful, right? Like this summer, the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent us to Hawaii. It was beautiful. I loved it. I was on the beach asking God to call me to Hawaii. I looked at Waikiki. I said, multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision. I said, Lord, here am I. Send me. He said, no, I want you to go to Jersey Shore. I said, all right, OK. But folks, you might think a hotel is beautiful, but you don't get too attached to the stuff because you're leaving in the morning. Oh, it's a nice view. Now, some of you steal the towels, don't do that, but it's a nice this, it's a nice that, but you don't really get that attached because you know you're leaving. Folks, if you're only spending the night here, should your drip be more important than your devotion? Some of you just like, you know, respect the drip. You know, I obviously don't, but you know, just, you know, it's all about the drip. We gotta accessorize, this has got the laces, gotta match the T-shirt. You know, I just gotta, the hat's gotta sit the right way. It's all, I mean, the drip, come on! Do you spend that much time getting ready to meet God? Right? You see perspective? If this world is not your home, should your screen time top your Savior time? I don't want to look at your screen time on your phone back in your cabin. I teach high school. I had a girl say, I have 22 hours and 53 minutes. I said, what, do you read it when you're sleeping? How does your screen time, 22 hours and 53, I read a lot of books. In your sleep? I said, my goodness, wow. If you're a spiritual creature, should your body take precedence over this body? Well, I got liberty. Like Keith preached, I'm going to do what I want to do. How can your body and your urges and your wants, if you're spiritual, take precedence over this thing that God inhabits called the church? Perspective, people. Change your perspective and you'll change your life. No, I'm not telling you to wear burlap and go live out in the woods somewhere. I'm not telling you to do that. First Corinthians 731 says, use this world as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world, pass it away. Hey, enjoy life. Enjoy the sunsets. Enjoy the vacations. Enjoy the times you can go to a restaurant. Enjoy it, just don't get too attached to it. Because this isn't it. This isn't it. Try to make your treasure in heaven, because I heard somewhere that where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Start esteeming your Bible a little more highly. Start esteeming fellowship a little more significantly. Start esteeming sin a little more filthy. Start esteeming your relationship as the only eternal thing you've got. Your relationship with Christ goes on forever. Your relationship with maybe the guy at work does not, if he's not saved. You hold in your hands the only eternal thing you can touch on planet Earth. That Word of God is eternal truth. You can touch it. I like to kiss my Bible sometimes. They call me crazy. I'm fine. Just don't call me late for dinner. I'm fine. You don't want to do whatever you want. But this right here, as a preacher said one time, this is the kiss of God on my soul. This changed my life. And I've read a lot of books. I'm a nerd. I got a lot of books, Shakespeare, and Kant, and Nietzsche, and all the knuckleheads. I got them all. I've read them all. They're boring. Read it once, throw it out. Read it once, put it on the shelf. Read this 100 times, and it's unsearchable riches. And it's so foreign to you because you're so carnal. You're supposed to be spiritual. You're a spiritual creature. Somebody said this, the man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him. You may never have that boat. You may never have that second home. You may never have that whatever. Or if he's allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. You see, when you get God where He's supposed to be, you can handle stuff. Maybe God doesn't give you the stuff because He knows your heart would get set too much on them. So enjoy life, but don't love the blessings more than the blesser. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Thirdly, quickly, go back to Song of Solomon. As I complete my charge message. Song of Solomon, chapter six. I don't even know what it is. I had to do a funeral with somebody, not in our church, and she's like, can you do the benediction, the invocation, the blah, blah, blah? I'm like. Yeah, I could do all of that. I didn't even know what she was talking about. I didn't know what it was. I was like, like Keith said, I'm gonna get up there and preach out of the Bible. Is that okay? Okay, you know. But anyway, Song of Solomon, chapter six. Can I say this one to you now? Thirdly, you are spotless in Christ. You are spiritual in Christ. And thirdly, in my father's eyes, you are special. You are special. Song of Solomon 6, 9 is that dear bridegroom, Jesus Christ, talking about you. Yes, if you think I'm talking about you, I'm talking about you if you're saved. He says, my dove, my undefiled is but one. She's the only one of her mother. She is the choice one of her that bear her. You know what the bridegroom is saying? That his bride is the only girl for him. She's different. She's special. You know, my wife and I, we just, by the grace of God and her patience with me, celebrated 22 years of marriage last Sunday. Hallelujah, right? What a savior. You know what our wedding song is? I only have eyes for you. There's other girls and there's other guys, but we have eyes for each other, right? My bride is different. She's special. She's the only one for me. She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me after Jesus Christ. That's why some of us who are youth leaders say, stop just shopping and wait for God to bring the right one to you. Because when he does, you know it. When you sit in the Bowman's old house and this beautiful brunette sits across the couch from you at a singles meeting and says, just starts talking to you, you'll know. You'll walk out of there and your friend will say, what just happened there? I'm like, I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. I think I just met my wife. I don't know what happened. I'm totally freaked out right now. I was freaked out. Freaked out. Because you know what? It was different. It was different. I didn't get saved in Sunday school. I was a, as Pastor Dean would say, I was a junkyard dog. I grew up just, what are we gonna do tonight? Let's go chase some tail. What are we gonna do next week? We're gonna chase some more tail. Let's see if we can hook up. Let's see if we can do this. Let's see if we can do that. Long before Riz, right? Was that negative aura? Don't tell me. But folks, when Jesus Christ looks at you, he only, not to sound irreverent, he only has eyes for you. Church, because you're different, you're special, you're his girl. You know, of all the fathers out there, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they're called the fathers, right? The fathers. You know only Isaac, who's a type of Christ, he's the only one that only took one bride. He only had one bride, because Jesus Christ, you're the only bride of Jesus Christ. You're his only girl. Folks, you take his breath away. He can't wait for the Father to give that signal to come take his girl home. He can't wait. I think Isaac stood there on the edge of that field just waiting for Rebecca, waiting for Rebecca, waiting for Rebecca. And the Father, Jesus Christ, I think is just waiting. He's just dusting off the steed, getting her out of the stable, just saying, can I get her now? Can I go get her now? He wants to see you. Now look at Ephesians 2. We'll go a few more verses here. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, look at verse 19. Isn't that amazing to think about? I know I can come here and rip your face off, but I don't feel led to do that. I want to tell you, you're special. You're important. You're different. And if you could really see yourself the way he sees you, it would change the way you see yourself, and it would change the way you live. If you could see yourself in my father's eyes. Look at Ephesians 2.19. You know what you are? You're the building God lives in. Ephesians 2.19 says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and pilgrim foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. You know that? I know He lives in your body, but He also dwells in our midst. That's why the Bible says don't defile this, because that makes God very angry. If you came into my house and started throwing mud balls on the wall, I'd get pretty pissed at you. If you walk into the church fellowship and you start throwing your mud around, God says, I'll destroy you. First Corinthians chapter three, 16, you can look it up, is if you defile the temple, that's not just your body, that's the fellowship of the saints. God's gonna take it out of your hide. That's what he says. God doesn't inhabit the UN. God does not inhabit the White House. God does not inhabit St. Peter's. God inhabits, he's here. This is where he lives, in the church corporate, right? Now, Ephesians 3 and 4 says your body, you are the body God is building. You're not just the building God lives in, you're the body God is building. He's not building a nation. I hate to break that to you. I think on November 4th or whatever the date is, God's gonna yawn. God's gonna yawn. We're gonna be like, on the edge of our seats, tracking, watch parties, what's going on? What's this one say? Hey, blah, blah, blah. And I might do that too, but you know what God's doing? What's going on with my people? God's not building a nation. Now I think as a nation honors God, he honors them, but that's not God's main concern. He's on a spiritual program now. He's on a spiritual track. He's not building a movement. He's not building a team. In chapter 3, verse 5, chapter 3 of Ephesians, verse 5, look at that, 3, 5, he says about this body that he's building and forming, he says, in other ages, it wasn't made known. Folks, this body he's building is so special, the Lord kept it a secret. Like an amazing surprise, he pulled on everybody. Watch this. And he revealed it in time. Look at chapter four. In chapter four, this body is so special that God's growing it to be just like Jesus Christ. This is God's masterpiece. This is his magnum opus. He says, I'm trying to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ and grow this body up into Christ. Ephesians 411 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. That's a historical, right? That's in the order as they were in history. We don't have apostles anymore. Some did. We don't have prophets anymore. Some did. We got now evangelists and pastors and teachers. for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro." I think the opposite of that would be rooted and grounded. and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him. In all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Woo, he's building you up to become Jesus Christ. That's the one in whom he's well pleased. That's his masterpiece. And in chapter five, you're a building God inhabits, you're a body God forms, and you're a bride he's getting ready to take. 529, 529 of Ephesians, that this body, this building is so special, Christ made you his bride. He loves you. He loves you. Ephesians 529 says, For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord The church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Just like Jesus Christ is gonna leave and one day be joined to you. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Wow. What a perspective. Maybe, just maybe, just maybe this out with me. Maybe if you saw yourself the way God sees you, you wouldn't waste your life on the ordinary because you're special. Because you're special. If you saw how special you are, maybe you would change things. You know, folks, can I be forward a little bit here? Not that I haven't already. But you don't have to do those things in the dark to earn anybody's affection. If they love you, they'll love you. If you've got to put out to earn their love, slap him or her down in the face and walk on down the road. They're whoremongers. They're animals just following urges. You know what, can I say this too to you? Because I've been around teenagers for 25 years almost. You don't have to hurt yourself to feel alive. I've spotted the marks on kids' arms Why'd you do it? That just gives me a rush. You don't have to do that, because you're special already. You don't have to imitate anybody to be accepted. You're already accepted in the beloved. And you don't have to listen to those voices telling you nobody understands and nobody cares. That's not true. There's one that does. There's one that loves you. Spurgeon said, Christ loved his church not for what she was in herself. But for what he meant to make her, his own blessed bride. You see, the world, they may make you feel insignificant, I get it. But Jesus says, you're special. You're special. You know, some people, not me, but some people, they got a way of looking at you and making you feel special. You know people like that? Mel Zabaka was like that. Now, I don't have the stories and that pedigree that Pastor Dean has. I had limited interactions with him. But man, there was a time, one of the 17 years I was at Institute, he was the guest speaker. And he came down, he taught a little something, something. And then he went around the room, because he knew some of us a little bit, and he was like, you know what you're going to be? You're going to be this. You know what you're going to be? You're going to be that. And my goodness, I felt like I could have charged hell with a squirt gun after he said that. I sang a special. And it was authentic. It wasn't like blowing smoke. It wasn't glazing. It was real. It was like, it was real. It was like, I really think you're going to be this. One time, I sang a special. Don't hate on me. One time, I sang a special with my sister-in-law. And he's coming over. And he's, oh, brother, oh, brother this, brother that, oh, I see you doing this for the Lord. Go get him, blah, blah, blah. I'm telling you, I felt like I could have run through walls. Because he was just so, I don't know, he walked with God. I think the Spirit of God doesn't wanna beat you down. I think the Spirit of God wants to build you up. I know sometimes we kick you in the pants when we're preaching. You gotta be negative sometimes, I get it. But the goal is to build you up, to get you up, to say, go get him, guys. You could be this, you could be that. Folks, if you could see yourself in my father's eyes, you'd feel like the aristocracy of heaven that you are. you'd keep your chin up or keeping your pride low as you walk through this world. They say a woman is most beautiful when she is loved. And brethren, I'm here today to tell you, you are loved by Jesus Christ himself. Finally, quickly go to Song of Solomon again. My last thing here, Song of Solomon six. I hope it's making some sense to you. What do you preach about? Song of Solomon, right? I thought I wasn't allowed to read that. Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon 610. So in my father's eyes, you are spotless, you are spiritual, you are special, and in my father's eyes, you are strong. You are strong. Song of Solomon 610, Jesus Christ is looking at His church and He says, When the bridegroom looks at his prize, he sees an army, strong and mighty, conquering, militant. When Jesus Christ looks at you, he sees the army you should be and you could be coming back with him to topple the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon. Wow! I mean, forget Braveheart. Wow! Forget Gladiator. Wow! Forget, you know, John Wick, forget it all. Wow! That's a fight scene, man. I mean, if you have any red blood in you boys, what boy hasn't wanted a lightsaber? I mean, who has not picked up a sword, a play sword or a toy gun, and just longed to be the hero in a battle? Longed to just ride out there and, you know, ride out with me. All right, guys, let's do it. Who has not watched Two Towers on the Lord of the Rings series and just been like, yeah, the Battle of Helm's Deep, let's do it. Is this all you got, Saruman? Go! It just gets your blood pumping. Folks, you're going to get your chance. you're going to get your chance. The battle of the ages, you're going to get your chance, and Jesus Christ is going to say, ride out with me. And we're going to ride out, and I'm going to watch him stomp them. I'm going to watch him melt people's eyeballs in their sockets. I'm going to watch him mow those enemies down. I'm going to watch that valley get filled with blood, and the horse just trampling out, and the blood coming up to the bridles. And I'm going to see him raise that sword, you know, victory, victory. I'm going to see him walk on that throne and sit down. I mean, that is the battle of the ages. And He sees you like that. He sees you as an army coming. Now go to Ephesians 6. We'll finish over there in Ephesians. Familiar ground here in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6.10. Our counterpart says in Ephesians 6 10, after telling you all about who a saint is in chapter one, in chapter two, in chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, then you get to Ephesians 6 and he tells you the soldier you're supposed to be. Because you were not just called to be a saint, you were called to be a soldier. That's the goal. That's the mark. That's the target. And he says in Ephesians 6, 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Folks, that's the goal. If you're a saint by faith in Christ, can I get an amen? Oh, it's getting a little better. Okay, one more time. If you're saved, amen. Like an army, right? If you're a saint, God sees you as a mighty soldier in his army. Keep reading, verse 12. but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, that's not anybody running for office, that's somebody a lot higher up the food chain, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, because of this fight you're in, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand, to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Folks, God gives you the complete armor for combat. to wrestle these enemies, not so you can have a cute VBS. Right? I dressed up like a knight this summer. That's not the goal, right? Well, you know, I think a couple of years ago, First Bible did something similar like that. We all teach the kids, the Christian in complete armor. I'm in the Lord's army. Yes, sir. And that's cute. Thanks, Matt. That's cute. It's all that's cute. The kids know that. What about the adults? You're in the Lord's army. You've got armor to prepare for battle. We preach it to kids. We need it. He tells us in 1 Timothy 6, 12, fight the good fight of faith. He tells us in 1 Timothy, war, a good warfare. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 9, 26, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. It's a real fight. He tells us in Romans 8, 37, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. It's a victorious fight. The battles fought, the victories won. It is finished, my Lord cried. You see that? Maybe, just maybe, just maybe. Maybe if you saw yourself the way my Father sees you as a soldier, you'd fight more for Jesus Christ. Jesus is up there in front of Pilate, that punk, he's in front of Pilate, and Pilate's trying to give him the riot act, and Jesus says something to Pilate that always struck me. He says, my kingdom's not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then will my servants fight? And it always convicted me because, answer out loud with an amen. Are you in God's kingdom? Amen. Do you aspire to be his servant? Amen. Oh yeah, watch the dip, did you hear the dip? Where's he taking me? He's leading me, he's leading me. You don't have to answer this one. If that's true, are you fighting? Jesus said, my servants fight. Are you fighting? Are you doing your best to endure temptation? Are you just giving in to sin so easily? Too easily. I'm gonna try next time, I'm not gonna do it, next time I'm not gonna do it, and then it's like, oh. Like a pig just jumping into the mud, right? By God's grace, folks, by God's grace, because we have no strength of our own, by God's grace, do you resist the devil, or do you just surrender to his ways? Well, that's the way the world thinks, that's what the world says, I'm just gonna do it. Right? You trying to go against the grain at all? Are you rooted and grounded enough to stand your ground? Or will you fall on the evil day? Of course, it's a coming. The storm be a coming, folks. The storms are coming. The world's getting darker. The storms are coming. You better be putting some roots down deep because those of us up here aren't going to live forever. And if God's on a different plan than we are, I hope he's not. But if he's on a different plan than we are, you're the future. You're the future. Better put some roots down. You better remember that creator in the days of our youth while the evil days come not because they be coming. They be coming. You might walk out of a doctor's office and they're there. You might walk through something in your life and they're there. You might see something happen in your marriage and they're there. And if you don't have your roots down, you're gonna fall, you're gonna stand. God says, I'm putting all this on you so that you stand, and having done all to stand. Or as Isaac Watts put it more eloquently than me, are you a soldier of the cross? A follower of the lamb? The lamb is the one that died for you, that shed his blood for you, remember that? You know, you weren't alive, I think, most of you. But when those towers came down, September 11, 2001, I was in the city. I was in the vicinity. I watched them come down with my own eyes. And when those towers came down, people sprang into action. Young men enlisted in the army, in the service. When Pearl Harbor got attacked, guess what? People joined the service. Out of that, whoa, the fight is on, I'm in, I'm in. My buddy Jason, you know Jason Mancini, he was thinking about being in the army, he was thinking about going in, and he saw those towers come down, he said, that sealed the deal for me. I was ready, let's go. Folks, how could you look at the old rugged cross? How could you look at the battle your captain is fighting for you every day and won for you on that cross? How could that not compel you to want to fight, to want to stand, to want to be counted with him? Folks, we got too many believers out there who've gone AWOL, absent without leave. I didn't hear the work bell sound. I didn't hear the captain say cease fire. I don't care what Washington says. I don't care what the UN says. I don't care what your neighbor says. I don't care what religion says. The fight is still on. It's still the same fight as 2,000 years ago. Fight the good fight of faith. We've got too many believers who've gone AWOL and worse, defected to the enemy lines. Traitors. Heady, high-minded. The Bible says in the last days, we'd have traitors. You're supposed to stand for Christ, and you're there dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight? That's you? If my research is correct, you do that in the service down here, and you lose your freedom, and you get a dishonorable discharge. You do that in his service, and you lose your liberty and your rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. You think God's some dumb, stupid grandpa? He's just up there like, I just want everybody to be here up here, hey. No, he says, I want you to fight. And some people pick up a gun, some people carry bullets, but everybody's supposed to fight. We're supposed to be strong. You see, folks, your perspective will either become your prison or your passport. It will either confine you to the way things are or launch you into the way things were meant to be. And we've got an identity crisis. I'm closing my Bible. Don't get nervous and don't leave on me. Don't run. Hold it, okay? Hold it for five minutes. But guess what? We've got an identity crisis among us. We're not seeing who we are anymore. And you know what Christians like to do? We like to get all hopped up on gender dysphoria. or eating disorders, right? Especially gender dysphoria. We see this boy that looks at himself and says, well, I think I see a girl or a girl that looks at herself and says, I think I see a boy. We say, oh, the sky is falling. The heavens are falling. Look at this. I can't believe this. Call Mr. Dobson. Get on focus on the family. I can't believe this is happening. We got to petition the government. That's not the crisis. That's not the crisis. We say, look what they're doing to themselves. They're hurting themselves. Their distorted image of themselves is causing them to do irreparable damage to themselves. And we all go, oh, crazy, crazy. And we rattle the spears, and we amen, and we hold our Bibles up, King James, Black Back 66, hallelujah, amen, premillennial, amen, yes, sir, amen. That's not the tragedy. The tragedy is believers who don't know who they are anymore in Christ. That's the tragedy. and the damage you're doing to yourselves and the cause because you don't see yourself the right way. That's a tragedy of magnanimous proportions. Now, the preacher, I can't drive you to follow Jesus Christ. We often try. I wish I could grab some of you by the nose and drag you along with me. But I can't do that. We try, but when you read the Pauline epistles that are written to the church, they spend chapter after chapter after chapter describing who you are in Christ. So your state can line up with your standing. Cause you got a standing and you got a state. You got a standing in Christ and a state down here. Your standing is spotless. Your standing is spiritual. Your standing is, I forgot the third point. Your standing is special and your standing is your strong. You're perfect in Christ. And that's a gift that is eternal, that'll never change in the heavens. And then you gotta state, because tomorrow you go home. And you gotta live what's up there about you down here. Your state is not a gift, your state takes work. You gotta read, you gotta pray, you gotta deny. Your state is something on earth that you're gonna live out that's different. But you know how you fix it? If you just get your eye on your standing, your state starts to follow. If you spent more, your body will go where your eyes lead it. When you're driving, if you go, oh, look at that deer over there, your car is going off the road. If you're running a race like this, you're going sideways. But if you were looking where you're supposed to be going, you'll go in the right direction. Folks, if you could see yourself in your father's eyes, Your day-to-day would start matching what's up there. And those two things would start getting more in harmony and your life wouldn't be such a shipwreck. You know what we need, folks? We need the Holy Ghost to anoint our eyes that you might see who you are in your Father's eyes. Let's stand for prayer and bow our heads. Keith, you can get ready. Let's stand together, folks. I want to read something to you, and then I'll turn it over to Keith. Folks, here it is. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes. I'm going to ask you just to bow your heads. And I just want you to meditate on how you look in your father's eyes, how you look to God. Just think about it. From a distance, he'd be watching me. And I guess somehow he knew that in my heart I longed to be like him. In time, the closer we became, the more it seemed I grew. I'd fall, and he'd pick me up, and I'd try again. He loves me even when I do the things I shouldn't do, and when I fail to do the things I should. I've heard it said that love is blind, and I've come to know it's true. He forgets the bad and remembers all the good. In my father's eyes, there's no wrong I've done. In my father's eyes, I am the perfect son. He must see someone I can't see. And it makes me want to try to be like the son that's in my father's eyes. And when this life is over, my last trial I've gone through, It will be worth it all just to hear him say, well done. Maybe then I'll understand just what he saw in me. But I'm sure I'll find that he was blinded by the sun. In my father's eyes, there's no wrong I've done. In my father's eyes, I am the perfect son. He must see someone I can't see. And it makes me want to try to be like the son that's in my father's eyes. Father, we love you today. We pray, Lord, you take this invitation, take however you wanted to take it. But may some folks, whether they come forward, kneel, pray, whatever, May they just get a good look of how they see, how they are in your eyes. Amen. Jesus name.