Enjoying God

Honor nick supan.

On these Thursdays, we are talking about prayer, were taking about worship

What is prayer? Heartbeat of the church

THEME OF WRATH AND JOY. I am trying to get you to see that they go hand in hand. AND THAT IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE THE JOY OF GOD WITHOUT THE WRATH OF GOD.

Isaiah 66:2 “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Im going to share my testimony

I woke up that very next morning. And i opened my bible just to enjoy Him. To spend time with Him

We can spend so much time talking about Him and never spend any time enjoying Him.

“I want to be with you, God. You make me glad more than anybody.” God is honored when I say that and feel that.

Enjoying God

In Los Angeles, why is it that most people aren’t worshipping anywhere, why? What do most people say? They say, i had an upbringing in the church, but im in LA, now i want to have fun. Now i want to enjoy life. I did the religious thing. But now i want to have fun. Is that your view at all? Is there any part of you that views Christianity that way? Really, thats Christianity? To just say no, to just suck it up. Keep your nose clean, stay out of trouble. I know its a grind but if you want to stay out of trouble thats what you gotta do. Is that your view of Christianity? Is there even a small portion of you that believes that?

I want us to be freed from this mentality because its demonic.

David said, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And in your presence is the fullness of joy. Like the fullest measure of joy. If you want that, you have to fo to Him. Youre not gonna find that in LA culture. Youre not gonna find that in the world. All you’ll get are dusty dollar tree replicas. You want real joy? You want the real thing. Hey hollywood!! Come here! Its here!!

THEME FOR ENCOUNTER NIGHT : COMMUNION

Lets turn to John 2:1-12

John 2:1–12 ESV

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

If you are single like jesus is, what do you tend to think of? Your own wedding. When you go to a wedding you think, what will my wedding by like, who will it be with? But if jesus is really thinking of a wedding, then his thoughts of his wedding would stir him far deeper than it stirs us. You know what he thinks about when he thinks about his wedding day? The marriage of himself to His bride. This was the beginning of his ministry. He was 3 years out from dying for us. But he knew exactly what was to come. You know what He did next? He made water into wine!! IMAGINE HIS SENTIMENT, I DONT WANT THIS TO END! If this is representative of my wedding day, i don’t want it to end! Lets feast!

GOD IS LORD OF THE FEAST. HE BROUGHT OUT THE CHOICE WINE.

He said, woman. My time has not yet come.

But the literal translation is HOUR. We know that hes referring to his death. Look at john 7:30, 8:20, 12:23, 13:1. The hour means the hour of his death. The only way i am going to go to my wedding feast is to go through the HOUR of my death. These werent just any water jars. The water jars were used by jews to enter into the temple for ceremonial washing. Years ago, God through moses turned water into blood as a curse, but now jesus turned water into blood as a promise. This cup of wine is my blood. Jesus is sitting in the midst of all this joy sipping the coming sorrow

The symbolism continues

But this isn’t just referring to the hour of his death, but also the hour of his second coming

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭24‬:‭36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This is also referring to the second coming.

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand. He also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

‭‭Revelation 14:9–10 “And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

“There is no way that jesus can think of the cup of joy that he will give his children without thinking about the cup of wrath that the rest of the world will take.

In order for us to drink the cup of joy, He must drink the cup of sorrow.

DON'T YOU EVER TAKE FOR GRANTED WHAT HE HAS DONE

Throughout church history, the church would establish catechisms

The shorter Westminister catechism (is a statement of faith that was written in 1647) They recited the catechisms in the midst of a corrupt and heretical church in order to keep good doctrine. Sometimes I think we need that today

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever- shorter Westminster catechism. Ps. 86:9; Isa. 60:21; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31; Rev. 4:11, Ps. 16:5-11; 144:15; Isa. 12:2; Luke 2:10; Phil. 4:4; Rev. 21:3-4

Created for the glory of God Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.””

Worship was never supposed to be a genre, its a life. I have no longing to do the whole worship industry thing. What is a worship industry? It sounds to me like its a system of trying to make our name great rather than God’s, every ounce of glory we steal from God is an ounce of glory He does not receive.

Purification of the church

By the end of that speech, all the crowds had left, and only twelve men remained. Jesus apparently wasn’t interested in marketing himself to the masses. His invitations to potential followers were clearly more costly than the crowds were ready to accept, and he seemed to be okay with that. He focused instead on the few who believed him when he said radical things. And through their radical obedience to him, he turned the course of history in a new direction

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”1 Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples’ faces. “No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We’ll never get on the list of the fastest-growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you.”

Soon I realized I was on a collision course with an American church culture where success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings. I was now confronted with a startling reality:

Jesus actually did the opposite of the things that my church culture said were most important.

In john 6, jesus said eat my flesh and drink my blood.

How can God recieve the highest praise? When we enjoy Him most.

The cross was the most meaningful thing in all of history, but they left Him.

WE MUST ENJOY HIM

MISSIONS EXIST BECAUSE WORSHIP DOES NOT

DELIVERANCE MINISTRY EXISTS BECAUSE ENJOYMENT DOES NOT

We have deliverance ministry because we don’t know how to worship

We Address the source and not the fruit. The reason we need deliverance is because we have become attached to things not of Him.

John piper says, Being happy in God more than I am happy in anything else is the key to holiness and fruitfulness to the glory of God.

Read that again.

Refuse to be happy if you are not in God. Refuse to be happy when you are doing something that doesn’t please God. And you will always find yourself at His feet like Mary saying lord how can i give you everything.

“IF HE CALLS ME TO DIE, MAKE MY DAY”

I recently heard john piper talk about, when you tell someone to go to the mission field. its not mainly, get ready to die. Mainly its, “GET A NEW HEART SO THAT YOU LOVE THE WILL OF GOD. You cant imagine a happier place than on the streets of Hollywood walking by poop and homeless people for the will of God. YOU CANT IMAGINE A MORE SIGNIFICANT, HAPPY, SATISFYING LIFE. A LIFE OF FRUITFULNESS AND HOLINESS THAN IN A SHACK IN CHINA BEING PERSECUTED FOR THE GOSPEL. I WANT A NEW WILL, SO WHAT MAKES HIM HAPPY MAKES ME HAPPY. IF HE CALLS ME TO DIE, MAKE MY DAY.

IF WE JUST DESIRED GOD!! Like if we got this!! Then deliverance ministry would NOT be needed!! If we truly desired God more, we would never go to the things of this world, and if that was true, there would be nothing in our lives to be delivered from!!

Deliverance ministry is responsive to something we are doing wrong, so rather than trying to spend decades of our life learning how to do deliverance right, can we just learn to desire Him rightly! Deliverance ministry wont be needed if we got this ministry right. What ministry? WORSHIP

James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

Enjoying God is different than believing in Him.

Demons can look at God and know He is real. but they could NEVER tremble before Him IMPOSSIBLE for demons to enjoy Him. It is impossible for demons to savor Him and stand in awe of His majesty.

Communion

communion is about God — the one, true, personal God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

Communion with God may lead us to the valley of the shadow of death or to green pastures, But it never destroys our joy. It is our joy. Psalm 43:3

The one who has the bridegroom is the bride

Luke 24

Quote

But the most obvious fact about praise — whether of God or any thing — strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least . . .

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what ever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. (Reflections on the Psalms)

The root of every sin is the lie that God is witholding something from us

Verses

Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. (Psalm 32:11)

Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. (Psalm 33:1)

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. (Psalm 67:4)

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. (Psalm 100:1–2)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)

There is a biblical threat if we will not pursue our joy in God.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. (Deuteronomy 28:47)

The essence of evil and sin is to pursue satisfaction outside God.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12–13)

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU. (Hebrews 13:5)

And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6:35)

Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. (1 Peter 2:2)

I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. (Jeremiah 32:40)

This fear is a delight in God.

Isaiah 11:3

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

The one who has the bridegroom is the bride

could not, for the life of me, figure out how that vertical satisfaction made me a loving person horizontally. I knew that there were other religions that had pictures of people sitting with their arms folded and their legs crossed under a tree, experiencing a kind of karma, while just letting the world go to hell — “Who cares? I’m happy. I’m happy in God. I don’t care if people are dying or suffering.” I knew that couldn’t be. That’s not the Bible. That cannot be. But what’s the link?

In Acts 20, Paul was talking to the elders of Ephesus. And at the end of this talk, he said, “Remember . . .” There it is: remember. He didn’t say “forget.” Some people say, “You shouldn’t have this motive — to be blessed.” And I say, “If that were true, he’d say forget.”

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

Is he really saying that it is more blessed, more happy, more satisfying, more contenting, more joyful to give my life away — to die for others, suffer for others, sacrifice for others? Yes. Do you want more joy? Then die for others. Live for others. That’s what it says. It is more blessed, more happy, more content, if you will give yourself away. Don’t just fold your arms and sit under a tree and say, “Me and you God, we’re happy. I don’t care about other people.” You won’t be happy — not for long. That’s not joy in God.

‭‭Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

- Pleasing. The word rason, pronounced ratson 8356  Occurs over 50 times in the Old Testament.

רָצוֹן (rā·ṣôn): n.[masc.]; ≡ Str 7522; TWOT

2nd meaning: acceptance, favor, i.e., a state or condition of approval, implying pleasure in the event (Ex 28:38)-

“It will be on Aaron’s forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron’s forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the Lord.”Exodus‬ ‭28‬:‭38‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Talks about how aaron will bear the guilt continually so that the israelites offerings will be acceptable to the lord

- Prophets represent God to people and priests represent people to God. Thats why jesus was called our high priest. (Hebrews 4:14) In the OT, a high priest would have to bear the guilt for the peoples sins so that the people could appear pure to God, BUT - - -  for us jesus took away our sins, ONCE AND FOR ALL. (1 peter 3:18, hebrews 7:27) So that we could be made actually new, not just appear new, but have a completely new nature. (Romans 6:8)

PLEASING in psalm 19:14 David wanted to be pleasing to God, its not just about Gods love for us, we need to love Him back.

For many of us, as we’ve come to know the father, we could describe it as finding treasure, or finding a reward, did you know that thats the same way God feels towards us, we are His treasure, his reward, his delight. (revelation 4:11).

We can please God, we can treasure God, we can love Him back

“I know of nothing worse than the person who says: ‘You know I have never really felt that I am a sinner’. That is the height of sin because it means that you have never realized the truth about God and the truth about yourself.”

― D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures

Again and again he would be fighting on two fronts: he would be fighting against dead, formal, institutional intellectualism on the one side, and he would be fighting  against superficial, glib, entertainment-oriented, man-centered emotionalism on the other side.

I am asserting that you can be a believer, that you can have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit … The baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that is done by the Lord Jesus Christ not by the Holy Spirit … Our being baptized into the body of Christ is the work of the Spirit [that’s the point of 1 Cor. 12:13], as regeneration is his work, but this is something entirely different; this is Christ’s baptizing us with the Holy Spirit. And I am suggesting that this is something which is therefore obviously distinct from and separate from becoming a Christian, being regenerate, having the Holy Spirit dwelling within you (Joy Unspeakable, 21-3).

And so he laments that by identifying the baptism with the Holy Spirit with regeneration we have made the baptism of the Holy Spirit wholly non-experimental – as the Puritan’s would say — that is unconscious.  You don’t know when it happens,  you only can see perhaps some  later-on moral results from it. That is not, he says, the way it  happened in the books of Acts or the way it was experienced in the early church. (JU, 52). So he spoke with strong words about such a view.  This is very powerful now, knowing where he’s coming from and who his friends were:

Those people who say that [baptism with the Holy Spirit] happens to everybody at regeneration seem to me not only to be denying the New Testament but definitely to be definitely quenching the Spirit” (JU, 141).

[We] can produce a number of converts, thank God for that, and that goes on regularly in evangelical churches every Sunday. But the need today is much too great for that.

In other words, he rejects steady state regular work as adequate

The need today is for an authentication of God, of the supernatural, of the spiritual, of the eternal, and this can only be answered by God graciously hearing our cry and shedding forth again his Spirit upon us and filling us as he kept filling the early church. (Joy Unspeakable, 278)

Have everyone look at honey and know its sweet**

Then have everyone taste honey

The first step of taste is longing for it.

The second step is delighting in it

The third step is to be satisfied by it

The bible is constantly pushing sensory experiences on us. The psalmist says, taste and see that God is good, those reading the psalms would have known that god is good but they were being instructed to taste and to see. Not just to vaguely believe, but to experience His goodness.

It has been said, God loves everyone, therefore HE CANNOT love everything. The reason for this is because there are many things that contribute to the destruction of the people that HE SO LOVES. If He truly loves us, He cannot love the things that destroy and hurt us.

We can either enjoy God or enjoy sin, but we cannot enjoy both. As you grow in your relationship with God, you will see that you begin to naturally enjoy Him more and more, and sin less and less.

““If you love me, keep my commands.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭15‬ ‭

Theres no growth in a relationship if the love isn’t mutual

It is not mutually exclusive to die to ourselves and to enjoy God. We must die to enjoy Him