Getting love right: the foundational principle

All of life begins in affection. The conception of a baby begins in the affection of a man and woman. In creation, life begins in affection. The Father looked upon his creation and saw that it was good. It is not an easy thing for a parent to turn off affection for a baby. The framework of our life reorients around the love of God when we experience his affection for us. Join Joshua Hoffert as he dives into the affection of the Father.

For more about Joshua Hoffert visit: https://www.windministries.ca/

Transcript

00;00;23;22 - 00;01;08;05
Joshua Hoffert
That's the whole point. Being treated through the lens of a culture that's worked harder and as opposed to a culture that said see him through the grand jury and everything that's really different. You really do. That's where the whole of my aim is to get to the place where I get my own fear. Worries disappear, not because I've worked through them all and perfectly understand perfectly understand why they are not because I've worked through them all.

00;01;08;08 - 00;01;33;28
Joshua Hoffert
It's not because I've worked through them all and perfectly understand why they're all there. Because that's what that's what. That's kind of the lie that we've been told. Right. As long as you want. If you have the anxieties and you have the fears and you have the cares and the worries and the frustrations and despair and depression and all that, work through it all and understand where it came from, and that will give you that what you need to find healing and overcoming.

00;01;34;01 - 00;01;54;15
Joshua Hoffert
That's kind of what we're told. I'm not saying that there's not an element of truth to that one. I understand why I am the way I am or what's happened to me. There can be a measure of freedom, but my aim is not to understand myself. My aim is to understand him. And sometimes my desire to own. I understand myself gets in the way of my desire to understand him, because I think I've been realizing this more and more and more.

00;01;54;15 - 00;02;12;04
Joshua Hoffert
The Lord said to me recently in a moment of prayer, He says, Josh, when are you going to start talking? When, when can And this was said so lovingly to hear it, right? It was said so lovingly. Josh, when are we going to stop talking about you so we can start talking about me? And it was so loving when he said it, right?

00;02;12;04 - 00;02;33;12
Joshua Hoffert
Because he want because he goes, I want to reveal myself to you. But you keep getting in the way because I realize what I have done in my life is I thought the purpose of prayer was for God to reveal myself to me and or I would go like this, right? I would sit down for prayer and I'd go like in the context of why do you write?

00;02;33;12 - 00;02;56;25
Joshua Hoffert
Like if I'm preparing for speaking or whatever, or even just like a day of meetings or whatever. Okay, I just need to get up before the Lord and get into this place of peace so that as I go through my day, like I'm I'm moving from this place of peace. And it was like all of a sudden it dawned on me that prayer's about me and I've just I've just turned everything back and it's all about me.

00;02;56;27 - 00;03;29;13
Joshua Hoffert
And, and the funny thing about the Lord is that he's so gracious. I'll work with that. He's so loving and kind and tender. He'll work with that. But he goes, Let's get past you so I can reveal me. Not because I've worked through them all and perfectly understand why they are there, but rather because my gaze has my gaze has so reoriented towards the heart of the father and the love of God that He is all I see.

00;03;29;16 - 00;03;57;23
Joshua Hoffert
I no longer see myself, not because I've become inferior, but because I've entered the realm of gazing at the father and total love. When I have that kind of vision, I don't need to think of submission, surrender or obedience. I don't need to think of surrender. When my wife says, Come hither or your spouse. You don't win when you're passionate.

00;03;57;25 - 00;04;29;19
Joshua Hoffert
It's not. I don't have to think about being disciplined like, Oh yes, of course, when my gaze is reoriented. Colossians three to the old the old king James has this great translation of caution. ST three You know, Colossians three two says many of you be familiar with the verse. Set your mind on things above the old King James says it this way because again, it's where we get screwed up with the English language and the translation of things.

00;04;29;21 - 00;05;03;23
Joshua Hoffert
The old King James. Anybody have an old King James Bible with you? It doesn't count if you didn't bring it that some of you are going. Jacks, bring it up on his phone. Yeah, that's. You brought it only because it's. So what does it say? Old King James. Colossians three to I can give you a page number because it's an app so much like all the kingdoms that your mind on things about.

00;05;03;23 - 00;05;24;22
Joshua Hoffert
What's the old King James say? I set your affection on things above. Wow. Set your affection on things about again getting out of this. Okay. I need to like when we read it, when we read it in the modern translation, sit your mind on things above. We think, okay, all right, I need to. I'll make a list of all the things I need to think about.

00;05;24;24 - 00;05;38;23
Joshua Hoffert
And then and then I'm going to try and think about them all the time. And then, you know, 30 seconds. And I realize I'm not thinking about them anymore. Oh, God, I failed miserably. I'm not thinking about you anymore. Haven't set my mind on things about I haven't kept my mind state on you. So now I'm not a perfect piece and now I'm not focused on you.

00;05;38;23 - 00;05;59;22
Joshua Hoffert
And all my life is falling apart. And now I'm back into chaos and anxiety. Right? Right. Because that the cycle of shame and despair just goes very quickly. Right? You can spiral in a second because I constantly feel like a failure, because we read this through the lens of a dangling carrot, like, okay, set your mind off things above and things will go well with you.

00;05;59;22 - 00;06;20;18
Joshua Hoffert
Not set your affection. One element, desire. Now I'm in hard language. I'm no longer in rational language trying to rationalize my way to the father, but I'm in hard language that draws me outside of myself when I'm in mind. Language I'm trying to put got into me and I'm trying to wrestle with who he is. But I can never understand him because he's mysterious and beyond my comprehension.

00;06;20;20 - 00;06;43;12
Joshua Hoffert
When I'm in heart language, I can grasp him because he's made himself available because he loves me. John didn't perfectly understand everything about Jesus, right? Peter Jesus didn't ask Peter Jesus didn't ask. John Who do people say that I am? He asked Peter, Who do people say that I am? And it's Peter who gave this incredible reply. You're the Christ, you're the son of the living God.

00;06;43;18 - 00;07;15;19
Joshua Hoffert
You didn't ask John that, John. I'd hazard a guess that John was going to take a little while to work it out. It's not like we have this kind of misconception that when we have everything figured out or when we're finally fully healed, or when we've finally come to grips with what's happened to us, then the father will come to us because if I set my mind on things above, then I'm the one who started it.

00;07;15;25 - 00;07;43;09
Joshua Hoffert
But if I set my affection on things above and he's the one that started it because he's the one who reveals himself to me and that's where my affection comes from, is the revelation of him to me. But if it starts with me, it's going to fail because I can't do it. That's the whole point. But we read it through the lens of a culture that says, Work harder and you'll be transformed, as opposed to a culture that says See him to a greater degree and everything will change in your life.

00;07;43;11 - 00;08;07;07
Joshua Hoffert
That's really different, Really different. That's where the whole love part of this comes from. You know, we have to when we get love, not even when we get it right, because it's not about right or wrong. But once we start, once we start evaluating whether ideas are right or wrong, we've already started walking up the wrong tree, right?

00;08;07;08 - 00;08;27;25
Joshua Hoffert
We're already trying to figure out good from evil. Once we try it, figuring out does this idea bring life and does it convey the life of the father? Now I'm starting to operate from that place of who is he and how is he revealing himself. So it's not even about getting love, right. Because, you know, when I say to you all this love, right, it means, okay, well, all right, now we need to feed the poor.

00;08;27;25 - 00;08;46;07
Joshua Hoffert
We need it. So we get we immediately go to works immediately. We're going to words. We need to work all the things rightly so, that we love. Rightly. No, no, no. I don't mean that. I mean once we get love as a foundational principle and it becomes the principle, and that just means that I've reoriented my gaze and I find passion for him and desire for him.

00;08;46;07 - 00;09;26;17
Joshua Hoffert
So my framework of my life is set towards him. Now everything else can come from there. I have this thought that I can't have shared with you guys or not, but this one important because I'll share it anyway, is that I probably have, but it's bears repeating is that all of life begins in affection. Okay. If you think about this, the the conception of a baby starts in the affection of a husband and a wife or a mother and a father, even outside of wedlock.

00;09;26;17 - 00;09;45;27
Joshua Hoffert
It's a man and a woman having an affection for each other. Right? So it conception starts in affection. So the beginning of life is affection. The beginning of life in Genesis one is affection. God looked on creation and saw that it was good right? So the beginning of life starts with affection and affection was let us make man in our image.

00;09;45;27 - 00;10;15;03
Joshua Hoffert
Meaning God was thinking about himself and thinking about someone to love. So even the even creation begins in affection, but the genesis of life begins in affection. And then when a baby is born, the very I mean, it's very difficult to turn off affection for a baby like this is a biochemical response in parents, especially mothers. This would be very you would have to it would take a very, very wounded, broken individual to turn off affection.

00;10;15;05 - 00;10;34;01
Joshua Hoffert
Like like I don't I think you could probably talk to most women that have been in dire straits and had to give up a child to to like adoption or something like that. And they would that as broken as those systems would be, You know, so I know some of you here have kids in the foster system is broken as those people would be on some deep level.

00;10;34;01 - 00;10;53;20
Joshua Hoffert
There's still an affection for that child is you can't turn it off. You can't turn off human affection. You can twist it and warp it and break it and and and do everything possible. But you can't turn it off. It's impossible. You can do everything. You can to quash it now personally, but you can't turn it off on some level.

00;10;53;20 - 00;11;20;19
Joshua Hoffert
It's going to come out. All of life begins in affection, whether it's the birth of a baby, whether it's the affection of a man and a woman, whether it's affection of the father over creation. All of life begins in affection. Everything that starts, begins in affection, every good idea and affection, what brings life and what brings life abundantly.

00;11;20;21 - 00;11;57;06
Joshua Hoffert
What helps reorient me to affection. You know, it's funny. In in the Old Testament, we know this narrative, right? Like in the Old Testament, you know how many prophets there were in the Old Testament? That's a good answer, Dorothy. A lot. Who counted them all? Yeah. You've got the 12 major and minor prophets, right? Or 12 minor prophets, the four major province.

00;11;57;08 - 00;12;30;15
Joshua Hoffert
So we got 16. Okay, so it's 16 there. We've got the named ones, Elijah, Elijah, Samuel and a bunch of other ones. Micaiah is another one. He's the one that talked about the lying spirit going to the king. David operates as a prophet. Abraham is called the prophet. Moses is called a prophet. So, you know, we can we can just on a cursory glance, get up into the thirties, probably without even kind of searching through the historical books and finding them all.

00;12;30;17 - 00;12;46;05
Joshua Hoffert
But there's a lot, right? And then and then we know, like we get everything gets thrown up into thrown into disarray because we know that the Lord says to Elijah, I've had some thousand prophets, right? So okay, so now we're just blowing up all the numbers that we think we can figure out, right? So there's a lot of prophets, right?

00;12;46;07 - 00;13;01;20
Joshua Hoffert
And the prophets consistently did what prophesied. The other great answer. Yeah.

00;13;01;22 - 00;13;29;24
Joshua Hoffert
What were the people doing that made a prophet necessary to make Yes. What were they doing? What were the prophets doing? What the prophets doing? The prophets weren't doing, Their profits weren't sinning. Hopefully there were some that did and they didn't end well for them. So what were the prophets doing? Calling people back to the father and calling people back and back to God, calling for reformation, calling it.

00;13;30;00 - 00;14;02;08
Joshua Hoffert
This is what the prophets consistently do, and sometimes there's some semblance of success. You've got someone like Hezekiah, there's there's reformation that happens to the nation, but it's very generally very short lasting, the reformation that happens in the history of Israel, right? So that so we've got well, now we've at least got 7030 and each one of them essentially has a message that calls the people back to back to the father, back to God.

00;14;02;10 - 00;14;39;06
Joshua Hoffert
And were they successful? Yeah, Yeah, kind of. Right. But come see, comes all right. That's kind of is that's all you can say is were the prophets successful in calling the people back to the father? Not really. Well, okay, well, so why did God send them? That's one of. Yeah, because just what John the Baptist says. Right. We're preparing the way for Jesus.

00;14;39;06 - 00;15;13;29
Joshua Hoffert
Yes. Okay. So were the people ever successfully called back to the father for a time? Yeah, but. Okay, now we're now let's blow it up beyond the Old Testament, where the people ever successfully called back to the father. What's on? We're here. Exactly. We're here. So we're the people ever successfully called back to the Father? Yeah. How? Through Jesus.

00;15;13;29 - 00;15;49;01
Joshua Hoffert
Right. So here's. Okay, here's my point. Love. Prophecy. In the Kingdom of God, the prophets didn't accomplish it, okay? The spiritual gifts didn't accomplish it. The manifestations of power didn't accomplish it. They tried over and over and over and over and over and over again. And the people refused to listen. What accomplished? Did the image of God manifest in the flesh, revealing himself the picture of Christ called the people back to the Father?

00;15;49;03 - 00;16;09;10
Joshua Hoffert
Right. This is exactly why we have to get love first. Because if we get if prophecy comes first, we're no better than the Old Testament guys. And we're going to fail at our callback because we're and we're going to end up frustrated with the culture, not in love with the people, because we're going to be frustrated at our own failings.

00;16;09;12 - 00;16;40;18
Joshua Hoffert
No, no. Old Testament prophet was successful in reforming the nation on an on a on a broader degree only Christ. So this means prophetic ministry absent the revelation of Christ. And we'll get into this, absent the revelation of Christ is ineffective at best, damaging at worst, because it doesn't have, at its core, the revelation of who the father is.

00;16;40;21 - 00;17;22;21
Joshua Hoffert
We'll talk about that more tomorrow. Probably because we don't we don't come to know what let's do this. Let's just this is turn with me in your Bibles. I know. And we'll we'll just spend a couple minutes here and then I want to maybe do a short little exercise or turn with me the Song of Solomon. That's where I was going to say, anxiously awaiting like the bride.

00;17;22;23 - 00;18;19;09
Joshua Hoffert
Very good, anxiously awaiting. It's starting. Chapter one adverse, one Song of Solomon. So some of you it's song of songs, it's the same thing. Verse one. Okay, this is the enter. Okay. This book, right. You guys are familiar with the book, the like, if I won't say that, that's just disparaging. Okay. Inner monologue. This book is on on depending on who you talk to.

00;18;19;09 - 00;18;43;03
Joshua Hoffert
But some people would say this is the picture of love between a husband and wife. And it obviously is. It definitely is. And some people would say that it stops there. Right. There's no allegory. There's no interpretation that it stops there. The predominantly in church history, it's been treated on one of two levels either and this isn't usually an either or.

00;18;43;03 - 00;19;09;24
Joshua Hoffert
This is both in either the picture of the the individual's journey with Christ as the Shulamit bride, picturing each one of us and the beloved picturing the pursuit of Christ with us, or as the shoes of my bride representing the church. And and so there's I think there's you can see both in both layers, which I think both are there.

00;19;09;24 - 00;19;32;02
Joshua Hoffert
I think all three layers are there, husband and wife and the beauty of love and the beauty of erotic love, the way it's the way it's described in Song of Solomon. But but the beauty of Christ's pursuit of us and the beauty of Christ's pursuit of his church and so on, on the level of Christ's pursuit of you and Christ's pursuit of his, his bride.

00;19;32;02 - 00;19;49;15
Joshua Hoffert
When we say bride, when we ten when we say church, we tend to think of our local congregation. And what makes you a church is not the fact that you are a local congregation. It is what makes you a church is at your heart of a connected group of people belonging and participating in the life of the father.

00;19;49;18 - 00;20;17;12
Joshua Hoffert
And so that's the Church of Summerside, not just Summerside Community church. It's the church API. Anyway, that's that's a topic for maybe tomorrow night, but so on the level of his pursuit of you and his pursuit of his bride, the church says this verse one, verse two actually let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than mine.

00;20;17;15 - 00;20;39;28
Joshua Hoffert
So the first thing we note about the passionate pursuit of Christ is that our response is a passive one because all she's doing is saying, Let him do it. She did not notice. There's not an appeal right this and this is where we have to get this right. It's the it's not the dangled carrot of intimacy. It's he's already doing it.

00;20;39;28 - 00;21;02;11
Joshua Hoffert
She's not. And let him not shouldn't say this, like, okay, if I'm having a conversation with Jack, Right. Do I say to Jack and I want Jack to give me $5, okay. Do I say let him give me $5? But they'll be weird to see that, right? If I'm talking with Jack, Right. If I'm talking with Dorothy. However.

00;21;02;18 - 00;21;21;22
Joshua Hoffert
Right. I might say let him give me $5. Right. And you, she'd say, go ahead. Right. Well, I should ask for more than I guess, but I will. Yeah, do. 52. 50. Right. All right, we're there. All right. We'll go for coffee afterwards.

00;21;21;24 - 00;21;59;19
Joshua Hoffert
So let let saying, let him means she's not asking him to do it. That's my point. This isn't an appeal to the beloved to kiss her. He's already kissing and she's entering in. She's saying let it happen. I think she's speaking to herself. This is John saying I'm on the breast. I'm already there because I'm loved. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth is already his passion.

00;21;59;19 - 00;22;25;19
Joshua Hoffert
It's already his delight. It's already his desire is already is affection. My goal is just to be there. Let him do this. And this is my my point is, see, sometimes the entrance into Christianity is sold on a on a story of fear, fear of wrath, fear of judgment. And I'm not saying those things don't exist. Like no one wants to get kicked out for all of eternity.

00;22;25;21 - 00;22;47;06
Joshua Hoffert
I'm not saying those things, only I'm not a universalist or anything. I'm not saying those things don't exist. But this would be a great point for, okay, I'm going to let him kiss me because I don't want to miss it. But she's she's so caught up in the majesty of what's in front of her. All she can say is let him do it.

00;22;47;09 - 00;23;17;17
Joshua Hoffert
This is a this is the moment of salvation. The moment of salvation is simply responding to something he's already doing. It's not asking him to do something you don't. And this may be controversial, but salvation is not you asking him to save you. Salvation is entering into the salvation he's already offered for God. So love the world he gave is only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him shall be saved or shall be given.

00;23;17;17 - 00;23;34;06
Joshua Hoffert
Eternal life shall be a participant in the life of the age to come is a better rendition of that. But innocence and those who don't believe have already entered into judgment. He doesn't even judge you if you don't believe they've already entered into judgment because their works are darkness. And it proves that they love darkness more than they love light.

00;23;34;11 - 00;24;04;20
Joshua Hoffert
That's John three 1718, 19. So the whole thing is he's not even judging you for not believing he's the judgments already happened because he's already judged darkness which disintegrates and destroys and ruins human life. So he's already judged that he judged that at the fall. It's already been judged. So the point is, the invitation is freely given. It's not if I don't get there, he's going to see this is where we think if I don't get there, he's going to judge me individually.

00;24;04;20 - 00;24;30;03
Joshua Hoffert
No, if I don't get there, I've already entered into a participation of I've already participating with something that's already been judged. The invitation is free. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And then the very next thing that happens. Look, I mean, look at this, right? Let him kiss through the kisses of his mouth. For your love is better than wine because of the fragrance of your good ointments.

00;24;30;03 - 00;25;02;06
Joshua Hoffert
Your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore the virgins love you. Draw me away. So he's kissed me. I've encountered his love. I'm realizing the nature of who he is. The the sweet fragrance of his presence. Draw me away. I want to run after you. Okay. Now this. I mean, look at this. The daughters of Jerusalem, those who are walking or those who are listening, just listening to her describe the beauty of the beloved.

00;25;02;09 - 00;25;48;16
Joshua Hoffert
What do they say in verse four, Draw me away. What's the very next thing? Let's run, Let's run it, since we will run after you, that actually that you is feminine, singular. No. Sorry. Masculine. Singular. Yes. Sorry that you is masculine. Singular. So what is this? What does this mean? This means in your life. Okay? You are touched by God.

00;25;48;18 - 00;26;25;09
Joshua Hoffert
You catch a vision of his beauty. It marks you. Everything about you begins changing. And you say to the father, Draw me away. And people see it and say, We're going to pursue him too, because they see what he's done in you. Draw me away. Let me run after you and other people say we're going to run to not because and here's the kicker of it, not because they have encountered the same thing, but because they've seen your life and how marked you are and they want to be marked.

00;26;25;09 - 00;26;50;27
Joshua Hoffert
Do the way you describe him. I want to do it that way. That's what they're saying, the way you describe him. I want to know him that way. I've got a vision of him because something he's done in you is so beautiful because he tells his story through your story, because you've been marked by his love. And everything changes because the frame of who I am is reoriented towards him and I let it rest on its breast.

00;26;50;27 - 00;27;22;05
Joshua Hoffert
And I hear I hear him because I know I'm loved and because I run after him. And people go, I want that. And then she says, I mean, I love how quickly this transpires. The king has brought me into his chambers like this means she okay, you realize she hasn't done anything. And in fact, if you get just a little bit further down, she's pretty insecure.

00;27;22;07 - 00;27;44;15
Joshua Hoffert
I'm dark. I kind of am starting to see something good about myself. I'm dark yet lovely, but I'm dark, so she's a bit insecure. She's a bit anxious. She says, I don't want you to look on me. So she's not perfect. That's the whole point. She's not perfect. In fact, you think she has lots of flaws, But guess what?

00;27;44;15 - 00;28;18;17
Joshua Hoffert
He doesn't care. He brought her into the chamber regardless because union is something he does because he delights in us. Union is something he does, not something you work towards. All you all her. All she said was let him. All she said was let him. And everything else started. From there the kiss came. The description comes, the experience comes, union comes all in a moment.

00;28;18;19 - 00;28;43;11
Joshua Hoffert
Because she said, Let him. And it marks her and other people see it and want to run the same way she's running. But she's not perfected. She's still wrestling with her self. She goes down. I'm dark but lovely. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem like the tense of cheder, like the curtains of Solomon. It's interesting kind of the analogies they use back then.

00;28;43;13 - 00;29;19;08
Joshua Hoffert
Would you ever describe yourself as a 10th machine? How about a cabin? Yeah, one of my favorite ones, actually. This is just a total site. The one of my favorite ones is like, this would get any man in trouble. Only bridegroom can get away with this. Oh, where is. It's right in here. This is my favorite one that the beloved says It's all woman to get it.

00;29;19;08 - 00;29;42;08
Joshua Hoffert
Oh, there it is. The beloved theme to the praise of chapter six, verse four. Just bear with me for a second because I'm humoring myself. Praise of the Shoe of Mice Beauty. Any man this is like, don't do this, the beloved. Oh, my love, you are as beautiful as it turns out. That's a city lovely as Jerusalem. Awesome.

00;29;42;08 - 00;30;18;08
Joshua Hoffert
This is such a man compliment. Awesome as an army with banners. It's awesome. I can get behind that one. I like that. I'm awesome as your Jodi. You're awesome as an army with banners. Okay. That's right. See, we get it. That's right. I wonder if she went okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Your hair is like a flock of goats.

00;30;18;11 - 00;30;51;12
Joshua Hoffert
All right? I love it. I love it. Just. It. Maybe that's where it may be. A the marriage covenant, love and everything, but it's not a manual on. Don't use the exact same compliments for your spouse. Oh, yeah. Well, apparently that worked at one point, so. Okay, but get this verse five. Getting back to serious business. Verse five I'm dark but lovely.

00;30;51;12 - 00;31;09;13
Joshua Hoffert
Oh, daughters of Jerusalem like the tense of guitar, like the curtains of Solomon. Then this do not look on me because I am dark, right? Like, look, here's the thing. The experience of him already marked her and they're already looking. They already want to know what's happened. Right? So it's her who says, I'm not sure that I want this attention.

00;31;09;16 - 00;31;28;09
Joshua Hoffert
I don't want people to look at me because I'm still dealing with my own image and my own anxiety about who I am and how I look. I don't think I'm lovely. I'm start to the degree of my because I'm living so much based on my outer life. It's dark because she's literally sunburned. I'm dark. I don't want you looking on me.

00;31;28;09 - 00;31;48;26
Joshua Hoffert
I'm not attractive. But he already marked you for his glory. But get this because the sun has tan. We don't look up upon me because I'm dark. Because the sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They may be keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I've not kept so. So I'm dark because of what other people have treated me.

00;31;48;29 - 00;32;19;28
Joshua Hoffert
Because of the anger and the hurt that people have inflicted upon me. And because I've neglected my own self care. I'm I'm, I. So she's disqualifying herself from the role that the lover has already put her in. But but she's got a vision because she also says I'm lovely. So she's starting to see something. This is the last point I'll make.

00;32;20;01 - 00;32;47;10
Joshua Hoffert
Just move down with me to verse 15, because they go kind of back and forth where she's she's talking with the beloved and she's sitting at his table, and so she's invited into this place of deep intimacy and deep union. And in verse 15, the beloved says to her, Behold, you are fair, my love, You are fair. Okay, this is important.

00;32;47;12 - 00;33;21;00
Joshua Hoffert
One. He's one. He says, behold. So anytime it says behold, it doesn't just mean like look over there to behold means to look and gaze and continue gazing. So this means he's captivated. This means he's captivated. And he says, you are fair. Okay, I'm just going to look at something really quick. If you have a if you have a concordance with you, did anybody bring their strong concordance?

00;33;21;02 - 00;34;00;03
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah. Should be in your in your Bible app verse 15. Behold you are fair. Okay let's look what does fair mean. Fair is is derived from the Hebrew word Yaffa. And it means to be bright. And the implication of being bright is that you're beautiful. Do you understand what he's saying? What did she say? What did he say?

00;34;00;06 - 00;34;32;04
Joshua Hoffert
You're light. You're. I am dark. And he said, No, you're not. No, you're not. You are not dark. You may think you are, but that's not how I see you when I look at you, I see beauty. So her self-talk, the very thing designed to disqualify her from the place he's invited her to is the very thing he speaks deep to her wound of insecurity.

00;34;32;06 - 00;35;04;27
Joshua Hoffert
I am dark, you are bright, you are fair, you are beautiful. And he doesn't just say it once, he says it twice, he repeats it. Why do you think he repeated it? Because she needed to hear it. How many of ever been given a compliment and hear it a second time? Because you didn't quite believe it the first time she says.

00;35;05;00 - 00;35;27;18
Joshua Hoffert
He goes right to the core of what drives her insecurity, how you would edge him out and speaks deeply and tenderly to that place of affection. It says, You may think you don't deserve this, but I'm telling you, it has nothing to do with you and it has everything to do with me. Because. Because behold, you are fair, my love.

00;35;27;20 - 00;36;08;01
Joshua Hoffert
Because I already chose to love you. You already get to on the breast. It's already right there because of my love. Your role is just to say yes, because we're not. We don't come to know the heart of God because we read it in a book. This directs us and this orients us in this point sense. But this book is an invitation.

00;36;08;04 - 00;36;29;12
Joshua Hoffert
This book is an invitation to be marked by the one who authored it, to be seen by him, to be known by him and to know him that he might abide in you. And at least throughout this whole thing, his deep and great affection for you. And he's the one who does the drawing. He's the one that does the wooing.

00;36;29;15 - 00;36;59;23
Joshua Hoffert
He does it all. And yes, there there is there are times I mean, you like there's moments where he shows like you're looking through the whole narrative of Song of Solomon. There's moments where she recognizes that he's not there anymore. And so she gets up to pursue. There are those moments in your life I'm not saying there's not those moments in your life, but he initiates everything, even when she recognizes in chapter four, when she says, I slept with my heart was awake, the beloved shows up and invites her.

00;36;59;25 - 00;37;28;06
Joshua Hoffert
That's when she realizes she needs to get up and go. So even when she realizes he's not there, it's at his invitation. Everything he initiates, everything he starts because it's who he is. It's what he's done. He did it from the beginning and he and no part of him, he he there's no part of him that ever expected your perfection before he would come.

00;37;28;09 - 00;37;59;29
Joshua Hoffert
No part of him expected that. It's I mean, it's impossible. I love I love the Brennan Manning's kind of catch phrase is God loves you just as you are, not as you should be, because you're never going to be as you should be. It's just who he is. And the more we come to grips with that, the deeper that the reality of that arrests our heart, the more everything changes.

00;38;00;04 - 00;38;36;06
Joshua Hoffert
And all the shackles that we put like, like, you know, we never expect perfection. All he wants is, you know.