29th January 2012

Enjoying God

This is the 29th day of the year – we have 337 to go! With so much of the year still ahead, I thought I should tell you what my great purpose is for 2012. The one superior aim that I have … I aim to enjoy God! I’ve already started.

Remember Revelation 4:11 You are worthy of praise for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are created. I’ve been created for his pleasure … God created me to enjoy me! So I’ve decided that I’m going to enjoy him back.

Eighty six times in my New King James New Testament I come across the word blessed. However, when the British Biblical scholar, Joseph Rotherham, started his work of translation 150 years ago  - he did some Etymology (in Entomology they dissect and study insects, in Etymology they do the same with words). As a result he translated 50 of these 86 occurrences – happy.

This is very helpful when one makes his great aim in life to enjoy God – because we normally read that we’re blessed when persecution comes, blessed when endurance is required, blessed when people don’t reward you properly, blessed when you enter a conflict zone to bring peace – but I see now that this blessed state is not a “serene atmosphere of ecclesiastical quiet’.

It’s happiness, it’s an utter enjoyment.

This is good because it’s hard to enjoy a person who is stoically journeying through life, a good Christian, blessed with spiritual blessings … however, enduring, hoping for better times and appreciating the odd moment of enjoyment – usually from the telly. Honestly, these are people are hard to enjoy – and God has created them for his enjoyment!

So my great resolution for 2012 is to be a huge target for God’s enjoyment.

Listen, God finished the work of creation over 6000 years ago. And he finished the work of saving mankind on the cross 2000 years ago – he said it is finished.

So I’ve figured that God must looking for something to do; and if that’s true, it will most likely have to do with enjoying what he has done, taking pleasure in what he has made. It’s how he wants to use his time now … enjoying you!

But we think that God is really not that interested in little ol’ us, that he somewhat ignores us. But let me tell you how interested God is in you right now … He is as interested in you as your head is interested in your body!

That’s the example he used. He said I’m the head, you’re the body. I’ve yet to meet the person who ignores their body, who is not interested in the neck-down … who doesn’t feed it, take it for a walk, clothe it, wash it, anoint it with Rexona, trundle it off to the doctor, want it to be hugged, warm it when it’s cold, rest it when it’s weary. O yes – your head is super-interested in your body.

This leads us to another example of just how much Jesus wants to enjoy you and you enjoy him back.

Ephesians 5:28-29 Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

When you hear some preacher talk about an intimate relationship with God – think “fun”, think “pleasure”, think “utter enjoyment”. Yesterday I was watching a little TV with Jesus. I thought he might’ve been into Shine TV, but no, he really enjoyed the Aussie Open Tennis.

Psalm 139:7-12 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,  even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"  even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Enjoying God implies his nearness – in fact we know that he is not just near, he is in us and we are in him! This means he fills me up internally and surrounds me completely externally. In him we live and move and have our being. We have an effortless union with God – the happy God.

Now some of you may still be chewing on a bone I tossed your way a moment ago – I said ‘God finished the work of saving mankind on the cross’ … let me come back to that.

Did you think – isn’t there still a lot of mankind to be saved? Well the answer is both “yes” and “no”. 2 Corinthians 5 helps explain …

(19-20 Amp) It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favour with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them],

Where did this happen? On the cross – that’s where God, personally present in Christ, reconciled the world with himself and cancelled the world’s trespasses. The salvation of every man, woman and child was finished right there … but Paul continues:

and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favour). So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us.

Having reconciled the world with himself and cancelled their trespasses, God now announces (that’s the message) and appeals to people through the men and women and kids who have received this restoration to favour and are subsequently living in the enjoyment of it. You are a billboard of the good news … the atmosphere, the radiance, the glory that emanates from the person who is enjoying God full-time … is God’s appeal to the world.

I have found that the enjoyment of God is a consuming thing, it is a thing that moves in to dominate the landscape, other features on the landscape tend to become small – things that need to become small. Enjoying God has a way of displacing things – things that need to be displaced or put in their place.

1. •It’s so hard to be a worry-wart when you’re enjoying God.
   

2. •It’s so hard to be afraid of the future when you’re enjoying God.
   

3. •It’s so hard to be depressed and enjoy God at the same time.
   

As I thought about this I realised that my enjoyment of God was a reminder of his constant presence with me, his intense interest in me and his pleasure in me – and this led me to see that it was in that awareness that faith was being generated.

And believing seemed to fill me up.

Then that faith increased my God enjoyment.

It’s an ever growing spiral of God-enjoyment and faith and

God-enjoyment and faith and God-enjoyment and faith.

And then I remembered Romans 15:13

(ISV) Now may God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It’s my No.1 aim … to enjoy God, and faith swells in me as I do.

Faith has a way of speaking – it speaks to mountains, it speaks to the impossible, it says we are well able to overcome it, let us go up and possess it at once … often it’s words are thoughts, but it’s still talks away of that which is noble, that which is just, of things that are pure and lovely, it’s language is that of a good report.

When you get into a atmosphere of enjoying God you’ve got yourself in an atmosphere of faith. As a fish is to water, this is the environment where the new creation is perfectly at home.

Matthew 22:2-14 (Message)

"God's kingdom," Jesus said, "is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn't come! "He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, "Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!'

This is the Father setting up the most enjoyable feast and celebration of love – and wanting us there. He invites us to come.

1. •But David, isn’t this an eschatological parable concerning the last days?
   

2. •No! It’s an invitation to enjoy God and feast with him through every day of your life – no matter what you’re doing. But look …
   

"They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.

I know that in seasons where I’ve allowed the cares of this world to take over the atmosphere around me, that, like weeds, they choke and destroy the things God has sent to bring me good news – God’s word of promise and grace and love and hope – get’s murdered.

"Then he told his servants, "We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests.

You don’t even have to bring a plate. God has it all ready. He just wants you to show up. The feast, the celebration, it’s hanging in the air all around you, everywhere, just waiting for you to take up the invitation.

The ones I invited weren't up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.' The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless.

I love it that bad people can have this. I love it that good people don’t miss out (these are the most likely ones to miss out). I love it that God never stops making his appeal to mankind. I love it that it’s for everyone they laid eyes on.

And so the banquet was on- It’s ON!

Here’s some ways I show up at he banquet – three practical applications I use in enjoying God.

1. Have a Continual Feast.

Don’t compartmentalise prayer, devotions, etc. Suzanne is a living,

enjoyable presence in my life with whom I interact constantly. Pray, worship and read devotionally for sure, but as features of a continual feast.

2. Use Pet Phrases Randomly.

“I enjoy you God” and “You’re enjoying this aren’t you Jesus” (this one is

great when doing dishes or watching TV).

3. Loud, Joyful Moments.

You’ve just got to break those personal sound barriers! Throw into your day loud, joyful moments – laugh out loud for no apparent reason, shout, woop, sing.

Wondering at His word / looking for the ‘wonder’ in people / marvelling at creation …

I’m not giving you formula’s, just peeks at a few of many things that aid my enjoyment of God. Basically, you’ve got to be bold, imaginative and offensive to your own mind.

- every place filled. "When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn't properly dressed. He said to him, "Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!' The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, "Get him out of here--fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn't get back in.' "That's what I mean when I say, "Many get invited; only a few make it.'"

We choose our own feast.

Rob Bell – writes about hell as being unconditionally and extravagantly loved but refusing to acknowledge it. It’s a feast where there’s no love being enjoyed.

This man was in there at the king’s party, but not there. He was dressed like he was somewhere else, he was somewhere else – he simply ended up in the place that matched the clothing he chose.

So I’ve made a choice for 2012. I’m going to enjoy God. It’s my No. 1 thing. And I just love a piece of prime rib – and that’s just one item on the banquet buffet table.

It’s on!