THE JOY FILLED LIFE
What do you want to be for your children? What do you want to receive from your children? Good example-obedience-good provider-to be appreciated?
I want to be the kind of dad my children enjoy and that they know it! This on steroids is God toward you. God wants to enjoy you and for you to enjoy Him
His love for you far exceeds the love parents have toward newborns, if you can imagine that. We were created to enjoy God (Westminster Catechism)
Deep meaning of enjoyment: authentic enjoyment is the experience & expression of joy
ENJOYING GOD
Already/Not Yet at work
None of us know what we are being raised up for
· Proof: Authority, healing, casting out demons, nature bending to His word
· Cast out & needing to be cast out- 16th & Mission
· Jesus: Forfeited this age to the devils dominion so how do we find enjoyment?
· Viewed all people as sinful
· Summoned all to repentance & discipleship
A bad decision made in faith is better than a good decision made in doubt. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Double-mindedness is the enemy of ministries/ministers A double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8)
True joy is the outward manifestation of the inner grip of grace on my soul as it grants us assurance and confidence to move into our destiny. Enjoying God begins with the delight of knowing God and receiving His unmerited favor and unqualified love.
We rejoice with unrestrained praise for who He is: we respond with uncontrollable adoration for all He has done: we receive with unlimited gratitude His gifts of power/guidance/wisdom and hope through Holy Spirit
THE DELIGHT OF GOD
Do you want to know what delights the LORD the most? But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord (Jeremiah 9:24). No greater joy in life than in delighting God.
The secret of delight, discovering where your love has areas that delight them and figuring out ways to satisfy those needs. His delight is that we know Him. Why? Because of
RELEASING THE JOY
The difference between the Kingdom & the World
· Greatest good cannot be found at creations level
· Mark 8:36-Profits nothing to gain the whole world (cosmos) & lose the soul For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
· Kingdom seeking is the #1 priority
· God blesses through His creation
· Balance needs to exist between the two (already/not yet)
A new commission has been given (Matthew 10:7-8) And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give
Holy Spirit has been given (John 20:22) And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit
Empowerment has been achieved: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)
· Jesus: didn’t view the creation as evil
· Rejected Greek dualism: Body=bad; Soul=good
· Attempt to free self from the material as much as possible
· Worldview: Substance was ipso facto evil
· Hebrew view: World was God’s creation
· Plagued by man’s evils
· Inherently good
· Jesus shared the Hebrew view
· Nothing created is inherently bad
· Modern Christianity teeters close to the Greek view
· The Kingdom is supernatural
· It is the dynamic activity of God
· It is God’s benevolent deed to us