ENJOYING GOD

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.   Enjoy

1.     To experience with joy

2.     Take pleasure in, to receive pleasure from

3.     To have and use with satisfaction

 

B.    The opposite of enjoy is “to suffer” and “to endure.”

 

C.   Sadly, there are many Christians who seem to endure God and all that is associated with Him rather than truly enjoying Him.

 

D.   The purpose of our lesson is to help us to truly enjoy God.

 

I.           PERCEIVE GOD AS A REAL BEING

 

A.   He is often called “the living God” (Deut. 5:26; Josh. 3:10; Ps. 42:2; 84:2; Jer. 10:10; Dan. 6:26; I Thess. 1:9; Heb. 10:31).

 

My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:  my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

 

B.    God is a living being who possesses emotions.

1.     Grief (Gen. 6:6)

2.     Anger (Deut. 32:10)

3.     Compassion (Ps. 103:13)

4.     Joy (Isa. 62:5)

5.     Distress (Isa. 63:9)

 

C.   As a being, God can be enjoyed just as we enjoy our spouse, children, grand-children, and brothers in Christ.

 

II.         PERFECT A PROPER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

 

A.   The relationship that we have with God needs to be a true father/child relationship.

 

B.    When we obeyed the gospel, we became His children (Gal. 3:26-27).

 

For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 

C.   A father, our heavenly Father, performs for his/His children.

1.     Provides

2.     Protects

3.     Prepares

4.     Punishes

 

D.   Fathers always long for and desire their children (Luke 15:20).

 

And he arose, and came to his father.  But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

 

E.    When children try to perfect their relationship with the Father, they truly begin to enjoy Him.

 

III.       PRIZE WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US

 

A.   God has provided a means for man to be forgiven of sin, to be restored to a right relationship with God, and to have hope beyond this life (Eph. 2:4-7).

 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:  that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

 

B.    It is often hard for us to appreciate what God has done for us.

1.     It is spiritual, dealing with the inner man.

2.     It often involves the invisible.

3.     It is quick, especially when we are initially forgiven of our sins in baptism.

4.     The historical event happened almost 2000 years ago in times and cultures that are foreign to us.

 

C.   We need to increase our wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of Him, His calling, the glory of His inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, all of which is wrought in Christ (Eph. 1:16-20).

 

IV.        PERFORM GOD’S COMMANDMENTS WITH UNDERSTANDING

 

A.   God’s commandments are not designed to:

1.     Restrict our freedom

2.     Punish our lives

3.     Take all the fun from our lives

 

B.    God’s commands

1.     Make us like Him.  His nature is wrapped up in His commands (I John 2:3-5).

2.     Keep us in fellowship with Him (II John 9-11).

3.     Fill our lives with peace, prosperity, and joy (Ps. 1:1-3).

 

V.          PERSUADED THAT GOD DESIRES ONLY OUR GOOD

 

A.   Forgiveness (Heb. 8:12)

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities  will I remember no more.

 

B.    Abundant life (John 10:10)

 

The theif cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy:  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

 

C.   Eternal life (Tit. 1:2)

 

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.

 

VI.        PERMIT GOD TO PERMEATE ALL AREAS OF OUR LIVES

 

A.   We have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives.  God is in some areas and not in others.

 

B.    When we became Christians:

1.     We rose as new creatures (Rom. 6:3-4; II Cor. 5:17).

2.     We were purchased and our body and spirit became God’s (I cor. 6:19-20).

3.     We died and Christ began to live in us (Gal. 2:20).

 

C.   We will enjoy God when we do not have divided loyalties.

1.     A life of consistency

2.     A life of integrity

3.     A life of faithfulness

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.   God never intended for you to “endure” Him in your relationship with Him.  He certainly does not want you to suffer in that relationship.

 

B.    Enjoy God:

1.     Perceive God as be a real being.

2.     Perfect a proper relationship with Him.

3.     Prize what God has done for us.

4.     Perform God’s commandments with understanding.

5.     Persuaded that God desires only our good.

6.     Permit God to permeate your life.

 

C.   Philippians 1:23b

 

…having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.