How to enjoy God and worship him through reading and teaching the Bible Track One: Understanding the mission of God

The Serious Duty of Delight “My brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again and it is a safeguard to you… Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!” (Phil 3:1 & 4:4).

The Serious Duty of Delight “There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious” (CS Lewis) “It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can” (CS Lewis)

Groups What do these passages teach about the importance of pursuing joy and the place where that joy can be found and nurtured? – Psalm, 19, 8-11; – Psalm 119:9-16 – John 15:9-11 – Phil 1:23-26

The Serious Duty of Delight The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever “The chief end of man [aka human beings!] is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.” (1648 Westminster Shorter Catechism)

The Serious Duty of Delight “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 telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed.” (CS Lewis)

The Serious Duty of Delight Praise is the completion of delight in God “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (John Piper)

The Serious Duty of Delight “I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord… I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it” (George Mueller of Bristol)

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Foundations Psalms : Revelation  worship Groups: what is the link between truth and praise in these passages? – Psalm 96:1-6 – Psalm 95:1-7 – Psalm 33:1-5 What does the link teach us (a) about the purpose of understanding truth; (b) about how to enrich our worship?

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Foundations Romans 11:33-12:2: Revelation (gospel)  worship Worship  obedience

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Foundations 2 Corinthians 3:17-18: Contemplating Christ  Transformation into his image.

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Practical Implications Come to the Bible to have your soul fed not to ‘do your quiet time’ Groups: How do these passages shape and challenge our approach to the Bible? What principles do they contain which can help us enjoy God as we read and teach the Bible? – Psalm 63:1-5 – Matt 4:4. John 6:35-37 – Luke 24:25-32

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Practical Implications Read the Bible as an invitation to worship Why does God reveal himself? Isa 66:2 “These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” The spirituality of George Mueller (see Piper, ‘Desiring God’)

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Practical Implications Teach the Bible with a worshipping heart on your sleeve! “I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections [emotions/feelings] of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with noting by truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with” (Jonathan Edwards)

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Practical Implications Let the Bible say what it wants to say rather than using it to say what you want to say!

Reading the bible and Enjoying God: Practical Implications Remember it is both one book with a single author and many books with multiple authors.

Group Reflections: How will what I’ve learned influence: – My personal Bible reading? – My discipling of others? – My expectations for this track of the SMD? Pray for one another to experience deeper joy in God through the Bible