The God Life

Introduction

In America especially, but in most western cultures, we are almost obsessed with attaining the good life. How we define the good life may vary, but there are some common themes:

Security (Financial, personal, relational)

Simplicity (we envision less drama and fewer complications)

Wealth (just enough to be comfortable, and maybe a little more)

Health (we want to be healthy, and if we can have that with a side of skinny and/or sexy, all the better)

Autonomy (this is the big one) having the freedom to decide what is right for me and the ability to pursue it with everything I can.

Did I miss anything?

The trouble with our collective emphasis on the good life is that it actually works against us having the good life. The exclusivity of wanting what we want is exactly what our enemy wants.

Genesis 3:4–5 NKJV

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

It should not surprise, then, to discover that chasing the good life frequently leads to the bad life.

What we really need, and want, is the God life. The God life is the good life because it is the life we were designed to lead. Most people have been duped into thinking that is restrictive and that is why they resist it to the point of their own ruin.

If we are not careful, we are such a part of our own culture that we end up at the same destination.

The Apostle Paul asked a very telling question in Romans 6.

Romans 6:1–4 NKJV

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Should we continue in sin? No. We should walk in newness of life. We have a new life and we should live it!

Transition

There is a lot that could go into living the new life we have chosen, but I want to focus on just three basic ideas in this series and on one today: The God Life.

Illumination

One simple verse gets us started in the right direction to living the God life:

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We must believe in God’s Existence

I know it seems obvious, but it isn’t to everyone. Even many professing Christians are still so busy trying to BE God that they don’t let God be God.

We must believe in God’s Transcendence

This is where we not only let God be God, but we let God be big. He is Big enough to be easily found. He is big enough to handle the big problems in our life. He is around enough to handle the small problems in our life too.

We must believe in God’s Relatability

God can be found, else we would not seek Him

God wants to be “found”, and is really the one doing the looking.

Luke 19:10 NKJV

10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Why does God seek us (and why do we sorta seek Him)? Because He wants to be in relationship with us. He reveals Himself as Father because that is the role He wants to have in our lives.

The good news is that He rewards those who seek Him with the success of finding Him.

Conclusion

The God life is the life we were designed for and the life that we really want. That is true now and it has always been true.

Jeremiah 29:11–13 NKJV

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Application

Contemplate all of the things you want. And then imagine having them and what the consequences of having those things might be. Often, the cost and/or the consequences of what we think we want turns out to be more than we want. Then think through the God life. God wants you to have a good life—more than you do probably—but He wants you to have a good life without negative consequences. Are you willing to trade perceived autonomy for that? That is is decision.

It is a thinking application, not a doing one, but what we thin here will orient much of our life’s direction.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NKJV

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.