What Is It Like to Enjoy God?

if you lay gold in the dust then the almighty will be your gold for then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God those are the words of Elif as he was a friend of Job job had lost in death all of his 10 children he had lost either through death or being stolen all of his livestock his wife had turned against God and now Elif as and Bildad and Zophar his three friends had come and they had sat with him in sackcloth and ashes and in silence for seven

days and now they are speaking in job 22 24 to 26 if you lay gold in the dust they Almighty will be your gold and then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God now when job's trial was over chapter 42 when his trial was over this is what God said to Elif as the Lord said to Elif as the tema night my anger burns against you and against your two friends for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant job has well what could be

more right more beautiful than to say if you lay gold in the dust the Almighty will be your gold and you will delight yourself in the Almighty we lift up your face to God I regard that sentence is true right beautiful and when LFS spoke it God was angry at him so why would it anger God for elephants to say if God is not your gold you're an idolatry if you're delighting in gold more than God what's wrong what's wrong is that LFS use those words to indict job verse 23 just before those verses if

you job if you return to the Almighty assuming he's not with him if you return to the Almighty you will be built up if you remove injustice far from you so elephants and his friends cannot conceive that there could be a man of justice and a man who values God above gold who suffers this much they can't imagine those two things this much suffering and valuing God above gold and being a man of justice they can't go together in one person and they're dead wrong God is angry that they would talk to job that way

now the reason I'm bringing this to the beginning of the message is because I do want to talk about those words I want to talk about if you lay gold in the dust God will be your goal you will delight yourself in the Almighty I want to say that to you then I don't want God to get angry at me what would be the difference how could that happen so I'm alerting you so that you're aware that it is possible for a preacher to speak truth about God in a way that makes God angry you

get that I want to heighten your vigilance as you listen I want you to realize that every time you hear someone speak true things may be mingled with false things true things may be spoken with half-truths true things may come from a proud and unloving heart true things may be spoken in cruel ways true things may be spoken out of balance so there's no proportion in what's being said with what's real it is possible for a preacher to speak truth in a way that makes God angry so I've alerted myself and I'm alerting you that

it is possible for me to celebrate the preciousness of God and you're delighting in God in a way that would make him angry and want to put your minds on high alert so that you don't dispense with every filter that you've learned from the Bible and just become a mindless sponge as I talk you know when you when you lift your hands in passionate worship at this event you're not being asked not by Lily not by david crowder not by me or anybody else to turn your brain off while you feel deeply rather you are

being summoned to turn your brain on think of those lyrics is that true if that's true I'm gonna feel it with all my heart and if it's not I'm not playing this game whether it's Piper speaking or anybody's singing that's what I'm that's what I'm beginning this way drawing your attention to LFS the fact that he spoke truth that's a true sentence and it made God angry so even though it made God angry I want to talk about it it's true we know it's true because it's all over the Bible if you lay gold in

the dust the Almighty will be your gold and you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God so I have two questions to pose and try to answer from the Bible one what is it like to delight in God to is that delight your highest duty those are my two questions then pose them another way what is the actual experience of enjoying God what is it finding pleasure in God being satisfied in God and the reason I ask the question is because I think many believers know how to enjoy pizza

they know how to enjoy football they know how to enjoy friends they know how to enjoy sex and you put that word enjoy or delight or be satisfied on to God and they just that means nothing I don't even know what you're talking about I don't relate to God that way I do stuff because he says to do stuff delighting enjoying being satisfied I don't know what you're talking about is he pizza is he football what do you what is the actual experience of enjoying God finding pleasure in God being satisfied in God and then

second question is that enjoyment that delight that satisfaction your highest god-given obligation those are met two questions if you lay gold in the dusty almighty will be your goal and you will delight you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God so if God is your gold he will be your gladness that's wife says Matthew 6:21 Jesus said where your treasure is there will your heart be also that is if God is your treasure he will be your pleasure we're not talking here about the gifts of God okay we're talking

about God himself this is the great issue in the book of Job the great issue did job love God more than God's gifts that's the issue in the book of Job so Satan does not believe that he does love God more than God's gifts and that's what he's gonna do he's gonna show God he's not real his joy is in stuff or his wife or his kids or his cattle not you so here's what Satan says Satan answered the Lord and said does job fear God for no reason have you not put a hedge around

him and his house and all that he has on every side you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land but you stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face that's the issue in the book of Job in other words God job only fears you because you've given him stop giving him good things give him health and a family and prosperity that's why he loves you okay so all of his kids are dead all of his cattle are stolen

and here's what he says job arose and tore his clothes shaved his head fell on the ground and worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb naked shall I return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord don't you love that song I'll bet you've sung that and don't have any idea what you say they're dead she's dead you are blessed you're a good god I love careful what you sing I love Matt Redman thank God for that song I remember the first time I

sang missionary had just come home and they're right over there and they're dead baby was in the ground two weeks old and they were singing with their arms stretched out they knew what it meant so that's what the book of Job is about job Satan says you only fear love delight in cleave to God because he gives you children so Satan goes back to God he's not persuaded no God yeah kids are dead livestock is gone here's what he said Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin all that a man has he'll give

for his life you stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh he'll curse you to your face wrong again so you see what's going on in this book right yes Satan in God and a man who says he loves God Cleaves to god fears God and things that no he doesn't he only loves stuff he only loves his gifts that's what the book is about is job like the psalmist in Psalm 63 your steadfast love O Lord is better than life so you got to choose between life and all the pleasures of

it and steadfast love and the psalmist says I'll take God and his love and I will die is job like the Prophet Habakkuk my wife and I chose this text for our wedding text 49 years ago though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will take joy in the God of my salvation no food none none

starve ice starvation just over the horizon I have my god so the question is is job like that now job's responses as you know were not perfect he never cursed God but he did have to be rebuked for some of the things he said he passed the test but he didn't pass it with an A+ there is no doubt what Satan wanted to destroy and what God wanted to exalt namely God is to be treasured God is to be enjoyed more than his gifts in prosperity and poverty in health and disease in life and death

if you lay gold in the dust the Almighty will be your gold then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God so here are my two questions I'll take them one at a time question number 1 what is it like to delight in God what is the experience of being satisfied in God like the first and most fundamental thing that needs to be said is that pleasure and God delight in God satisfaction in God is satisfaction in a person not a thing or an idea or a set of actions

a person I wonder airlie not everybody's like this but I wonder if you've ever pondered maybe late at night looking up at the sky that for all eternity for all eternity past there has been something always there because nothingness can't give rise to something meaning the meaning of nothingness it's no thing it can't do it can't create nothing is nothing it's nothing if there is something there's always been something that's amazing just that that there's always been a reality then have you ever considered that therefore there was no time before this reality there were no

set of circumstances there were no conditions there were no influences that could make this reality more likely to be one thing that another thing what it is it is and nothing made it what it is therefore the likelihood that it could be one thing and not another thing is as great as any other thing or person therefore when the bible reveals in its words and in jesus christ ultimate reality is a person it's not saying anything inconceivable it's not saying anything impossible it's not saying anything improbable that's an awesome thought and you've got to decide

whoa is that what's real is that ultimate reality a person now maybe maybe you don't think like that you just go to sleep that's okay because when you get up in the morning what you should do is just start reading your Bible you don't have any of those thoughts at all to find out there's a person out there and that person is to be enjoyed Philippians 4 rejoice in the Lord Psalm 37 delight yourself in the Lord psalm 32 be glad in the Lord Psalm 16 in your presence there is fullness of joy Psalm 16

again the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup psalm 42 as a deer pants for the flowing stream so my soul pants for you O God my soul thirsts for God for the Living God Psalm 143 I stretch out my hands to you my soul thirsts for you like a parched land romans 5:11 we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom have now received reconciliation this is why Jesus died you and I everybody in these rooms are sinners we can't come to God and enjoy him we get incinerated if we come

to God he is PO Li can't even look upon evil without rage and if that's all you are that's all you get and so we had to be safe had to be redeemed we needed someone to bear our guilt bear our condemnation which Jesus did until he reconciled us to a person he reconciled us to a person that's how reconciliation happens and then first Peter 3:18 Christ suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God that's why he suffered to bring us to a person to bring us to

God not to get us to heaven - God get us out of hell - God get us prosperous - God he died to bring us to a person so there's no question that any joy that would be ultimate would be joy in a person he used to be known he's to be enjoyed I said a minute ago the enjoyment of God is the enjoyment of a person not you know the enjoyment of a thing or an idea or a pattern of actions so your filters were on you should say hmm because that's the way we

get to know the person things that he made that tastes like him point to him ideas revealed in the Bible patterns of activity in history and in the world which when we see them we say I love him because he did that so right those things are not God and they're not the endpoint of our joy but you would never be joyful in God without things without ideas and without actions on his part consider these person revealing actions this is first John 4 in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God

sent okay there's an action God sent His only Son into the world that we might live through him we know the love of a person by the action of the loving person we know the power of the person by the action of his creation Romans 1 we know the wisdom of the person by the purposeful providence in history Romans 11 we know the justice and righteousness of the person because of the death of Jesus bearing sin and providing righteousness we know the fullness and faithfulness of the person because he keeps his promises we know compassion

and patience in that person because we know Jesus Christ we've watched the compassionate Christ and he said if you've seen me you've seen the father the same thing is true of things this is so important to nyan the same thing is true of things and experiences in life they're given by God to show us God through whom we can taste God we know something of the sweetness of his friendship because we've tasted honey that's why honey exists that's why the bible uses it honey exists to help you know God we know something of his sustaining

richness because we've eaten bread when we're hungry good you know not fluffy white stuff that you make fish bait out of it it's really solid French bread or German bread you know if you've eaten that you know God better or your knowledge er we know something of the warmth of his affections because we remember being held by our mother we know something of the personal depths and exquisite intensity of person-to-person pleasure because we have felt sexual desire that's what sex is for to know God taste God and we know something of his worth because we

have coveted gold and even our sins bear witness to his worth so whatever action is good in this life whatever idea is good and true whatever thing you see or hear or taste or touch God's creation all of it is designed by God as a sign and a foretaste of what it's like to enjoy God himself so crucifixion creation Providence covenant honey bread water sex mother gold these are not God but they are his gifts and if our enjoyment if our enjoyment terminates on them we are idolaters we are to move into and through the

gifts to him and they taste away he tastes I think one of the best pointers to the taste of the experience of enjoying God is the enjoyment of human people people you know people in your family perhaps or maybe that's not true people outside your family so here's I want you to do a little thought experiment or do it later when you've got a quiet moment think of the kindest person you know think of the most loving person you know I'm thinking human person now just friends family or maybe musicians or artists or the most

loving person the wisest person you know the most patient person you know the most intelligent person you know thus the strongest person you know the most tender hearted person the happiest person the most peaceful person the most optimistic person the meekest person the most courageous person the most articulate person the most the owner has the best sense of humor the most generous person so think of all those people and then when you do that combine them all into one person all those traits and then when you do that increase those traits to perfection in quality

and then increase them to infinite beauty in how they are proportioned and exercised by that person and then let all that enjoyment of those persons with those excellencies raised to that perfection and that beauty give you a hint of what it is like to enjoy God as a person and then pray that the Holy Spirit would grant that miracle to happen because none of you enjoys God without the miracle of the Holy Spirit we are dead to those beauties in God and they are a foreign language to us so my answer to question number 1

is that to enjoy God is to enjoy a person who is infinitely all satisfying in the constellation of his traits that you enjoy in other people question number two is that your highest duty so sitting there right now posing yourself the question when I leave this place or even as I sit here what is the highest obligation God puts a hot upon me is it this is it enjoying delighting in being satisfied in the person God and Jesus Christ His Son by the power of his spirit is that my highest duty and my answer is

yes and I have three reasons and as I speak them I hope that you don't feel them as a heavy load but rather as a light burden in an easy yoke you said come to me and I'll I'll put a yoke on you for sure and I'll put a burden on you but the burden will be light and the yoke will be easy Matthew 11:28 so my prayer for you now as I give you these three reasons for why it is your highest duty your greatest obligation to be happy in God rejoice in God delight

in God be satisfied in God it is not that you would be burdened by this but freed I mean what is more liberating or thrilling or amazing then that God would come to you a hopeless sinner point you to his son Jesus Christ as the one who bears all your guilt and then gives you this commandment my first commandment to you my highest commandment of you to you is that you be supremely satisfied in what is supremely satisfying I don't think that would feel like a burden be supremely satisfied in what is supremely satisfying that's

freedom so here are my three reasons for why that statement is true Emily this is your highest duty number one jesus said when asked which is the great commandment in the law he answered you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind that is the first commandment so the great and first commandment according to Jesus is that you love God know right here the flesh the old unregenerate you does a horrible thing namely it turns love into deeds accent okay what I got to do

I got to do some stuff here now because he said number one agenda love me with all your heart soul mind strength the essence of loving is not doing the essence of loving is delighting when God is the object if you lay gold in the dust the Almighty will be your goal then you will delight yourself in the almighty and lift up your face to God loving God is not first working for God somebody right now is quoting in your head what about John 14:15 if you love me you will keep my Commandments well what

about it it's massively important to see he's distinguishing the two if you do the one you'll do the other they're not the same if you love me you'll do but doing is not that this is root that's fruit maybe that's why in the list of heart soul mind strength in every time it occurs in the Gospels heart is first because the heart is not an organ of performance it's an organ of preference the heart prefers and then we do stop in accord with our preferences and the first commandment is love him with all your preference

prefer him above everything let him be your gold your silver your everything and it'll change all your doings but if you try to get that reversed and do because you can't conceive what it means to delight to prefer to enjoy to treasure you won't be a Christian that's not Christianity so that's my first argument for why this is your highest duty delighting in God is your highest duty because Jesus said the first and Great Commandment is to love the Lord your God and the essence of loving is delighting leading to doing here's number argument number

two the second commandment is like it you should love your neighbor as yourself like it like whoa this is equally important and my argument is the way the Bible presents loving people is that authentic Christ exalting love for people is the overflow of joy in God or it's not love in a biblical sense let me read for you two verses which I think are one of the most amazing and beautiful pictures of love between people in the Bible this is this is a word from the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians to think about the way

the Macedonian Christians love and then to be like that so this is a commendation of the Macedonians because of how they are loving we want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia now listen really carefully put every piece together for in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme vertie have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part joy overflowed in generosity that's love generosity is love give yourself and you give things to people who have needs you you're for

them you're there for them that's what love is and where does it come from it comes from joy their joy their abundant joy overflowed in love now here the here's the reason those two other little phrases that I went with this joy is not in prosperity because it says they are in extreme poverty so if you say I gotta have some good circumstances here get myself happy so I can love people who won't have Christian love you'll have circumstance driven love we also know it's not because of comforts because he said they're in extreme affliction

severe affliction she got extreme poverty severe affliction abundant joy which means this joy is gospel joy in God and it overflows in love to other people therefore joy in God is our first obligation because loving people is an equal obligation to loving God this is huge you think you love people you don't love people if you are not satisfied in God because Christ is not being exalted God is not being exalted in the Bible won't define love without God it won't define love without Christ so that's argument in order to loving people is the overflow

of joy in God and we are bound to people is the Second Great Commandment final argument the glory of God is the greatest reality in the universe it's way greater than our joy in God the greatness of God the beauty of God is the greatest reality in the universe most important and God has made it plain that we exist to magnify that beauty you probably could give me the verse 1st Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God so you are on the planet eating and

drinking and doing everything else whatever you do to make God look glorious that's why you're here if you don't you're failing and my argument is that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him that's the banner that flies over my life that's the message Louie asked me to bring for 20 years to this group God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him there there's a verse that got passion started in Louie's heart namely Isaiah 26 ate your pack your name and your renown are the desire

of our souls and Louis met with me 21 years ago maybe 22 and he said I want you to connect those to the renown of God the fame of God the glory of God and the desire of the human soul desperately desire our hearts are a desire Factory and I said I would like to try to there because that's my life that's what I am to do and be all too imperfectly now I could if we had time I got four minutes we're gonna make it I could if I had time take you to Philippians

one 20 and 21 and give you a solid exegetical argument for that statement namely that Christ is most magnified when Paul is most satisfied in him so that when he lives or dies he says gain I could do that but instead I'm gonna end with a story I love this story and you will enjoy it because you like love stories and it's about me and my wife so now everybody's waking up so two weeks ago we celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary thank you on God's behalf marriage is about grace and forgiveness you will find out

so let's suppose now remember what I'm doing here with this story I am trying to make the point that God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in him all right so I buy 50 because we're in our fiftieth year of marriage now okay even though it's 40 minutes and I hold these buns of roses they cost 200 bucks right give or take I hold these huge bundle of rose behind my back and instead of walking in my front door I ring the doorbell just unusual and she comes to the door it looks

puzzled and I say happy anniversary know how and she says Oh Johnny they're beautiful why did you go to such an expense and suppose I said it's my duty I read it in a book this is what husband's do what's wrong with that answer you're shaking your head that's right you should be shaking their head okay I'll show you what's wrong with the answer it it will just rewind ding-dong happy anniversary Noel Oh Johnny they're beautiful why did you go to such an expense well I couldn't help myself in fact I've got a plan for

this evening I want you to go put on something nice because we're going out because there's nothing I'd rather do than spend the evening with you it would make me very happy [Applause] do you think do you think that at that moment she would say it would make you happy you're always thinking about what makes you happy but I'm me you're what you think she'd say that when I said this evening spent with you as an all satisfied person my life tonight would make me happy you think she'd say well you ever think about what

makes you happy why because she is glorified when I'm satisfied in her you know this you know this in your experience what you find or she or he in whom you find pleasure makes them your treasure that's what they feel I feel treasured right now because you are finding your joy in me I feel treasured so does God that's the point so don't go to church and say that's what Christians do I read it in a book ring the doorbell and when God opens the door say nothing would make me happier than to meet you

here because I need you if you'd lay gold in the dust then the Almighty will be your gold for then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God and that delight will be in an infinitely beautiful all satisfying person and it will be your highest duty let's pray father in heaven I plead with you now for myself and for these friends these students especially I plead with you that the miracle would happen in our hearts so that all the delight that we have in the things you've made which are

good things would not be the termination of our delights a pray that we would move through the most admirable people in our life and the most admirable things in our life and the most admirable actions that we see you perform we would move through them all the way up to you and find our treasure and our pleasure [Music] pray this in Jesus name you