Enjoy God

What Does It Mean to Enjoy God?

• The Orchard Church

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What does it really mean to enjoy God—and what does that look like in everyday life? In the first episode of the Enjoy God Podcast, host Beth Ann Hill sits down with Lead Pastor Cody Hale and Worship Pastor Andrew Hendrick to unpack the idea at the heart of The Orchard Church: God doesn't simply want us to know about Him - He invites us to know Him, delight in Him, and enjoy a relationship with Him. 

Together, they talk about the difference between faithfulness driven by guilt and faithfulness that flows from grace and delight, what it means to live a life of worship beyond Sunday morning, and how Scripture, prayer, and Christian community help us grow in our enjoyment of God. They also discuss what joy looks like in difficult seasons and offer practical encouragement for anyone who feels spiritually dry or simply doesn't know where to begin. 



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SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Enjoy God, a podcast from the Orchard Church in Collierville, Tennessee. Our desire is to help you enjoy God, share life, and make disciples through thoughtful conversations about faith, discipleship, relationships, and everyday life with Jesus. If you're looking for our weekly biblical teaching, be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Orchard Church Sermons, featuring messages from our Sunday gatherings. Now let's jump into today's conversation. All right, well, welcome to our first episode of the Enjoy God podcast. We have been thinking about and planning for this for quite some time now. So we are so excited to finally be sitting down and having these conversations. You will be hearing from several people from our church staff this season, our elders, people within our church. But today it is the three of us. My name is Bethany and Hill, and I am the communications director at the Orchard. And we have Cody Hale, our lead pastor, and Andrew Hendrick, our worship pastor. So thank you all for being here today and for joining us. Cody, before we get started with anything else, why don't you just give us an answer to the obvious question of how to start this of what does it mean to enjoy God? Why do we choose the word enjoy rather than just simply saying obey God or follow God? What made you land on the phrase enjoy God?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so um it it isn't, I I think obeying God and following God are perfectly good and right ways for Christians to think. Um but we wanted to think and frame up the vision for our church in in such a way that casts a really big vision of who God is. And and also at the same time, kind of in issues an invitation. Um I love Isaiah 55. I'm actually going to be preaching this this Sunday if if uh I guess from when this is recorded. But he issues this invitation says, Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good, delight yourselves in rich food. That the invitation that the Lord gives to his people is to come and delight in him. Um yeah, I I it really the the phrase enjoy God comes from the old Westminster Catechism, which as what's the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. I I I I think that's just such a helpful way to think about the Christian life because I think when we think about um in here in the Bible belt specifically, we we tend to think about God in terms of a list of rules that we follow, or maybe it's my church attendance every Sunday, the rituals that I go through. I think all of those things are good, right? Like I we ought to understand the law of Christ, we ought to be committed in our spiritual disciplines, we ought to be committed to our local church family. But you know, God desires something so much more than that from us, and we can do all of those things and still be really miserable people that feel really far from God, you know. Um, I I I think that the way God has wired us is God has wired us so that the one of the primary ways that we really show value is through delight. Right? So I you know, I can put on a wedding ring and I can make vows to my wife, and I can be bound to her. As a matter of fact, I could remain faithful to her, um, I could can help her clean the house. We I could help her with the children, we could be great partners for life, and still not love her, and still not give her the ascribe to her the value that she's worth.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But when she walks into the room and I light up and she can see on my expression, and she can hear in the inflection of my voice that there is nobody that compares favorably to her in my eyes, that that's something bigger than just following a set of rules or vowels that we've made to each other, isn't it? It it's it's showing her what she's actually worth to me. This is what the Lord desires from his people. And I think this is such a captivating vision of what the Christian life is meant to be, that we aren't just meant to follow rules, though we're meant to take our lives and our holiness seriously. We aren't meant to just follow after the commands of Jesus, though we ought to take those things seriously. We aren't just meant to be committed to our local church, we ought to take that seriously, but we're meant to have a heart that is so captivated by the glory of God that it we're just looking for areas and ways to express that in all of the other areas of our lives, which is where these things come in. And we're looking to know him as best as we can know him. And so we wanted to frame up our vision for what we're aiming at to be the enjoyment of God because we believe that if you are fully enjoying God, it's gonna drive all of these other areas of your life into closer and deeper communion with him.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So hearing that it's on a personal level of how we enjoy God, but then taking that to a bigger picture with the local church, what does that look like for us here at the orchard? Like how does that shape our mission or any local church? How does the enjoyment of God shape the mission of the local church?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I think it's, you know, um I the case that I make for our church is that what we're driven by in everything that we do is the enjoyment of God.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So so, in other words, the reason that we do missions is because we want more people to enjoy God. The reason that we have student and kids ministry is we want to train them up in the enjoyment of God because we recognize that's how they're gonna flourish as people.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

When we gather in community groups, the reason that we have small groups is not just so that we can get a bunch of people together. It's so that people can come together in fellowship and we recognize that we enjoy God best in community, because this is how God has designed us. And so it becomes the foundation and the driving force behind everything that we do. You know, like when we get together and we share life, um, which is another one of our um another aspect of our discipleship pathway, when we share life as a church family, we don't share life the same way that neighbors share a street, right? Yeah, you can all live on the street, but then you go into your house and you do your private thing and you live on your back porch and you just wave when you come into the front yard, right? I do think that's a lot of people's experience in the local church. I think God has a much grander vision for his people than that. We come in and we share life because we have this common value, this common delight that brings us together. So Andrew and I may have different um backgrounds and we may have different um interests, and Bethana and I may have uh different priorities and values in some ways in our families, but we have this one commonality, and that commonality is that our hearts are captivated by the glory of Jesus. And because our hearts are captivated by the glory of Jesus, we have the most important thing in common, and that brings and it becomes the foundation for a friendship that can last, it becomes the foundation for a church that can be unified, it becomes the foundation for us meeting each other's needs, for us helping care for one another's families. It becomes the the center and the founding principle that tethers us together as the people of God. Because again, he said in the Garden of Eden, it is not good for man to be alone, right? And there in the Garden of Eden, there's the man, there's the woman, they're meant to have fellowship together with God. This is how human beings flourish. And so it's our desire as a community of people to return to the original vision that God has for people because we believe that's how we're able to flourish.

SPEAKER_03

I think one thing, too, that I would say when we talk about enjoying God, there's there's an action behind the word joy, right? You hear uh the you know the concept of joy being mentioned hundreds of times in scripture. Um and the even more so, the action of inj, you know, the joy of the Lord and the joy of our service salvation, it's like rejoice. That's the action form of it, right? But I think one thing that I've come to learn about our world and especially the culture in which we live, especially you know, in the South, the Bible belt, is so many people enjoy the idea of God, but they have no idea who God is. Because the only people who who can truly enjoy God are those who have their lives, their lives tethered to Him, and surrender to Him and walking in humility and abstaining from the you know the sins of the world, um, you know, to the best of our abilities, right? None of us are perfect, but I think that part of the mission field in the Bible belt, especially when we're talking about the enjoyment of God, I think it hits so many people so oddly, is because they don't realize that they are they enjoy an idea of God in that, okay, well, there's a higher power that I think I can run to when I'm facing trouble, or I like the idea of fellowship with people who are, you know, quote unquote good people, right? Even though Paul says none of us are good, not even one, right? Um, and then you know, you they have this idea of the Christmas time nostalgia, and they sing the Christmas songs and the Christmas hymns, and they're they're enjoying this idea of God without ever actually actually having a relationship with him. The only way that you can truly enjoy God is through relationship with him. When your life is shaped and formed because of your rejoicing in the salvation that he's given you, the forgiveness that he constantly gives you, the grace that he has given you, the mercies that meet you new every single morning, when you are enjoying God in those aspects that he has given you, you're no longer enjoying the idea of God. You are enjoying him. And I think you know, for so many people that come into the doors of this church, I mean, I've time and time again, I've seen so many people just filled with the joy of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But then you captive you're captivated by those people that come in, and you can just tell, well, they they enjoy the idea of God. They enjoy the idea of salvation until it requires something of them, until it requires a humility in them, until it requires pride being broken down, similar to the series that we just finished in Daniel. I mean, so many examples of pride getting destroyed by the Lord over and over. Kings and kings and kings again getting taken down by the Lord, you know, and it it's one of those things that when you realize that God requires a real you know, not only a relationship with you, he desires that relationship with you, but when he requires your surrender to him, that idea of the the enjoyment of the idea of God starts to break. And then they're they're they're lost. But when we uh as believers in Christ, when we truly have a relationship with him, that is when we can enjoy him, we can rejoice in him every single day, multiple times throughout the day. And it's way easier said than done, obviously.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think I think too, you know, I we we come to church every week, but I don't know that we always know why we do that.

SPEAKER_02

That's a good point, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, and w we learn so much, but I don't know that we always learn know why we learn so much. We listen to so many sermons, but I don't know that we know why we listen to so many sermons. I I think there's a place, and this is what we're trying to capture. I think there's a place for us to stop and ask, what is the purpose of our knowledge of God? What is the purpose? Like, why are we getting to know him? And I think the answer is we are getting to know him because he wants us to know him. Why does he want us to know him? He wants us to know him because he wants us to enjoy him. He wants us to delight in him. It's actually a command of when as you were talking, you were talking about the action. Um it's actually a command that we delight. Psalm 37.4, delight yourself. It's in the imperative, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Uh I think about the way David frames this in Psalm 103. He says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Do you know what he's doing there? David is taking his knowledge of the living God, and he's actually instructing his own soul to bless God. Right? Mm-hmm. Well, what does that actually mean in real life? When is it that you are blessing other people? When is when is your soul a blessing to your children? When is your soul a blessing to your friends? When is your soul a blessing to your spouse? It's when they realize the delight that you have in them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's when it's when they realize the way that you treasure them. It's it's when your kid comes across the room and you pick them up and pull them in in a way that's different than all the other kids on earth, and it lets them know that's where they fit in the world, right? That's the delight that's that has been wired into the into the um human human framework so that we're able to express value and ascribe worth. This was chiefly meant to be found in the Lord. Um, and so again, we we chose this because I think we mean worship, but we mean more than worship, right? Worship in our culture so often just means the songs that we sing. We mean knowledge, but we mean more than knowledge. We mean knowledge for the purpose of delight. We we mean devotion, but we mean more than devotion. We mean devotion out of passion, not devotion out of drudgery. Yeah, and so it encapsulates all of those things.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's so good. That's really good. Andrew, as our worship pastor, I know you spend a lot of time making sure that the songs we sing are obviously biblically sound, but that they're in line with the scripture that Cody's preaching on. How does the enjoyment of God and this concept that we've been talking about, how does that intersect with our Sunday morning worship?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so I that's one of the things that I I love getting to do is the way that I I plan worship out is not only using the regulative principle of scripture, and I'll explain what I mean by that in a second, um, but taking the same text that Cody is studying, and that's the text that I study in order to craft a an entire story for a Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_00

Brother, you were so gifted at that. No, thank you so much. You're so gifted at that. Um I'm so appreciative of how intentional you are.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I mean, that's the thing. Like when we when we build that intentionality into our culture, it it's obvious.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and and I think that you know, it has nothing to do with me. I learned it from someone else. Who learned it from someone else, who learned it from someone else. And that's the beauty of generational discipleship, right? But when you when you're studying the same text together, um, and when you when you start to get to really know how each other think, you know, and plan sermons and stuff like that, because I study the text as if I'm going to preach it, and that's how I select the songs. But when you think about the enjoyment of God and how that all tethers in together, when we are rooted in scripture, in every single thing that we do, every aspect of our worship services are rooted in scripture. I look at Psalm 119, and and it says, in starting in verse 162, I rejoice at your word like the one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. Great peace have those who love your law, nothing can make them stumble. And this is the thing that I love the most about this section. It says, I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and I do your commandments. My soul keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you. And and this is just laying bare his soul. The psalmist is just laying bare his soul, saying that all of my ways are before you. You know everything, Lord. And even in that, God has still granted him the joy of his salvation. He has hope in his salvation. And so when we truly delight in God's word, that is going to fuel everything that we do to rejoice in what God has done for us. And it obviously that is found through his word, right? But when we think about uh just the the regulator principle, um you know that's basically how do we how do we worship God from start to finish? Whether that is on a Sunday morning, whether that is on uh a Monday evening, it doesn't matter when it is. Um, but just kind of the the shorthanded version of that is adoration. When you adore something, you are going to enjoy it, right? I mean, it's like what you were talking about in in marriage. When we enjoy our spouses, or when we adore our spouses, we're gonna enjoy them, right? We're going to rejoice because of our spouses. Um, but adoration has so much joy in it because when we think about how this looks as as a believer in Christ, we we encounter a holy God, a perfect God. I mean, you can walk outside and look at nature and just go, wow. Not having anything been done for you yet. God is not at that point, you're you're looking at who he is, what he has created, and you're just in awe and you're you're just in adoration of him. But then when you realize that there's such a huge gap between you and him, that's when when confession happens. When you go, I am so not perfect, I'm I'm so filled with flaws, and that's when you confess, Lord, God, I am not holy, I'm not perfect, and I'm in need of grace because I am not who you are. And then through that confession, we find more enjoyment because then we get to receive the salvation of the Lord. We get to find our joy in our salvation that he has given us, creating more enjoyment. And then we get to the supplication and petition. We get to, okay, well, now that we know God, you know, it's not only that we know of him, it's now we're not only enjoying the idea of him, but we're now enjoying him. We know him, we can go ask him. When when we are facing a time of need, we can go and ask him. And we can say, Lord, help me, please. And we can get specific. Um, and then the instruction. So I go back to that Psalm 119. When we get to the instruction aspect of the regulator principle, which is teaching and understanding God's word, um, we get to delight in his word, and especially when we're here at church, we get to delight in his word together. But again, this is not just for a Sunday morning, this is for our entire quiet times. This is for any time we get to spend with the Lord. And what is our response when we get to encounter his word? It's gratitude and it's the action of rejoicing again. And then finally, this doc this concept of doxology is tethered into the response when we get to hear God's word and this theology that we have now delighted in, the God's word that we have now found joy in, that has now formed our response. It has formed our song. And so when you think about you know, to answer your question, uh how does that tie in? How does the enjoyment of God tie into what we do on Sunday mornings? Um, it is it it's the whole picture, right? Because without the delight of God's word, without the delight of the joy of our salvation, we have nothing to do on a Sunday morning.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

There's literally, you're like, we'll show up and it's like, well, we might as well go home because there's nothing to do. But when we have the joy of the Lord, uh, because of his salvation that he's given us, when we delight in his word, and everything that we do here on a Sunday morning is delighting in his word, what that does is it creates and paves a way for people to take what we do on a Sunday morning, be able to adore God and confess to the Lord and and thank the Lord for what he's done for us, they can do that every single day throughout the week.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I one thing I would point out here, Beth Ann, that I think is really important to note is we're intending there to be a contrast when we use language like enjoy, delight, adore. We're intending there to be a contrast there between grace-driven, joy-driven, delight-driven obedience, worship, faithfulness, and guilt-driven, shame-driven, uh obedience, faithfulness. Because those are two different things, I think. Um again, you know, you you you made the case that um for adoration, and you you can you contrasted it a little bit with faithfulness. Of course, all of us say faithfulness is good, right? But it ought to be more than a good thing.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, look at what we just talked about, Daniel's faithfulness for the last you know, five weeks. Absolutely. Incredible faithfulness.

SPEAKER_00

But every wife I've ever met doesn't just want a faithful husband, they want an adoring husband. A difference, right? And guess who has more joy? The faithful husband or the adoring husband? The whole adoring husband encap it encompasses the faithful husband. They're going to be faithful, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But they're also more joyful because they don't just they aren't faithful because they gotta be faithful. They're faithful because they want to be faithful because they love that woman, because they love their family, because right? And and that's the vision here, right? Like, like I'm just really convinced that a lot of people grew up maybe in well-meaning places, but they absorbed a version of Christianity that is driven by continual guilt and shame, so that they feel like they're never resting, they're actually exhausted by their faith. Well, that seems contrary to the invitation of Jesus. Come to me, those of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. It seems contrary to those, right? And and and so what we want to be able to do is show that grace can sustain faithfulness in a way that guilt never can. Right? And that actually gives more and greater glory to God when we're so driven by our passion for him, so driven by our delight in him, that we want to honor him, we want to be faithful to him. And so we we're meaning for that contrast to be drawn out, and we're wanting to make sure that because we we don't want to be a shame-driven, guilt-driven, you you don't you you don't worship out of guilt. You try to correct out of guilt, you don't worship out of guilt. We we want to be worship-driven people driven by delight. And so Andrew does a really excellent job of framing up our worship services that we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_03

I think about it like this too. We've all experienced this, where one of our children comes and does a task or comes and does a uh you know, some kind of chore. Uh you know, and as a parent, you know, and I'm not trying to be overly skeptical, but sometimes as a parent, you question the heart motivation behind it, right? Yeah, what do you want? All right, what do you want? It's like, alright, you're doing this for a reason, or you're trying to make up for something that you did that I'm about to find out about. You know, what's going on here? Um, but I tell you, one of the most fulfilling things that happens in our household is one of our children does something, you know, I mean it can be as simple as like you know, close it, close the door to the house.

SPEAKER_02

Turn a light on.

SPEAKER_03

Turn a light off, right? Or take the trash out, you know. Um and so so often my kids, all three of them are just so sweet in in so many different ways, but so often um I expect, all right, what is it that you want? But then I'm I'm met with, well, I just did it because I knew you were having a long day, or mom was having a long day at work, and we just wanted to, we just wanted to do it for you. And like in those moments, it's like, well, first of all, I feel bad for being skeptical. You know, right? I'm human. Leave me alone. But but I I feel bad for being skeptical. But I that blesses me more than they'll ever understand. Like it makes me go, oh my gosh, my my my kids love me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I cannot imagine what the Lord feels like when we delight in him because we, you know, in in the moment that we don't want anything in return. We delight in him because he has given us so much, and we can delight in him because we have so much. Imagine how much that blesses the Lord. And that can be you're talking about that heart motivation. That is a deep-rooted heart motivation when we get to do things, when we get to enjoy God in those moments, not with expectation of return, just because we love him, because we enjoy being in his presence.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What I understand you to be talking about and for us to be talking about is what I would consider to be new covenant Christianity. Okay. So what was the issue with the old covenant? The old covenant, the problem with the old covenant, and the reason that it's rendered obsolete according to Hebrews, is the people of God could not keep it. They couldn't keep it. So you so the law is given down, and the law restrains evil, and the law gives you this tangible picture of holiness, and the law shows you, like, in high definition, living color, that like you all have fallen short of the glory of God. It demonstrates this. So the people of God enter into this covenant. I will be your God, you will be my people, and the very first thing they do is break it. And they never can keep it, right? That's the issue. It's impossible. So everything that we're talking about in my mind is driven by the vision that God has for the new covenant that he inaugurates in Christ. Listen to what he says in Ezekiel 36, describing this new covenant. This is hundreds of years before the person of Christ. This is the vision that God has for his people, right? He says this, it says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be cleaned from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will clean cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. Do you hear what he's saying there? He's going to remedy the problem of the old covenant in the new covenant. How? He's going to put his own heart inside of us. He's going to cause us to walk in faithfulness. How is he going to cause us to walk into faithfulness? He's giving us a new nature. He's giving us a heart of flesh that's sensitive to the things of God, that beats with the heart of God. Right? So it's a heart that is filled with delight over those things that delight God. So our heart, so so the old covenant is this externally forced obedience. If you don't keep the commands, here are all the consequences. The new covenant is an internally driven, passion-driven, nature-driven. No, I keep the commands of God because I want to keep the commands of God. I'm going to cause you to walk in my statutes.

SPEAKER_02

I'm doing a Bible reading plan right now, and it has me in Leviticus right now. So I've never been more thankful. Every time I'm reading through it, I'm like, I there's no way. Weird, actually, and impossible. And yes, so very, very thankful for the new covenant. So one thing that you said that term I wrote it down because I love that is for us to be worship-driven people, and to be worship-driven, you do you have to have that heart that delights in God and enjoys God. And you mentioned it earlier too of I think a lot of times we associate worship with music. And when you say worship-driven, that doesn't mean we're like constantly singing. So as our worship pastor, what what are the ways that we worship? Like what when we say things like worship-driven, what does that mean when we're not, you know, being led in worship by you on stage and the band on stage? Like, what does that look like for us? And you you did touch on that some with just in our quiet times, but what does that look like just day to day for a believer to be a worship-driven person?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so I mean, you think about what the world's concept of worship is, right? You look at at anything that people give their time, their money, uh, to, they give their hearts to, right? It's all an aspect of of worship, right? And and it's funny what Cody said earlier, it's it's so true. Um, in one of my favorite books, uh Brian Chapel's uh book about worship, he says the definition of of true worship is to ascribe to the Lord his worth, right? Well, you can absolutely do that through singing, and you should. I mean, the concept of worship is mentioned, I think, almost 8,000 times in scripture. Um, but you think about what does it mean on all the other aspects, not just singing, because you're absolutely right when you said that. When I mean it's even it's even laid out in service plans like that. It's like, oh, okay, we're gonna do preaching, we're gonna do scripture reading, oh, then we're also gonna do worship. It's like, hold on, wait a minute. This is an entire service filled with different aspects of worship. Um, and so yeah, you're talking about when our quiet times. When we get to spend time alone with the Lord, when we get to meditate on his word, when we get to, as we've talked about, delight in her his word, that is a huge aspect of worship. Because if we don't have the word of the Lord, uh we don't know how to worship, we don't know who to worship. And so when you think about the word of the Lord, it's so important, it has to be one of the driving forces behind our heart's adoration to the Lord.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, but when you think about your prayer life, I mean, obviously, like when I when I spend time with the Lord, my quiet time specifically, and everybody's is gonna be a little bit different, but I have a rhythm in which I typically pray. Now I'm not perfect at it. I can't say I do the exact same thing every single day because that's just not true. Life sometimes is a struggle, life sometimes gets in the way, right? Um, and that's where we have to re-prioritize, okay, what are we worshiping in that moment? Are we worshiping the things that we're doing in life, our jobs, our extracurricular activities, or oh, okay, then we have to take a step back and go, okay, what is it that I need to give up in order to spend time in worship with the Lord? But that personal worship time is so important for us because it's not just God's word. It's not just praying to the Lord, because our prayers should not be a list of demands that we need for the day. I mean, you think about uh how the Lord says he prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. It shouldn't be that we just bypass the table on a s, you know, on a morning. It's like, all right, Lord, I I know you've got all this stuff for me. I'm good. I just need you to do this, this, this, this, and this for me.

SPEAKER_01

I got the rest.

SPEAKER_03

Right? I've got I've got everything. I just need you to do those things. If you can knock those things out, appreciate it. I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll spend time with you tomorrow. I mean, how many, how many of us do that? Yeah. How many of us we wake up late or we neglect spending time in God's word and we're sitting there scrolling on our phone or we're watching a TV show or something like that, and then we go, oh, all right, I need to spend about 30 seconds with the Lord, giving him my list of daily demands. Like, my goodness, that's not worshiping the Lord. That's that's worshiping the idol of ourself. And and so when you think about the worship of the Lord in a personal way, it has to be we we have to give ourselves time to do that, which means we give that time to the Lord. So our prayers are not just lists of demands, our prayers have to be filled with gratitude. Lord, thank you for what you've done for me. Thank you for what you've given to me, thank you for the joy of my salvation that you've given. And then we shift to to praying for our families and our our our friends and our people and our church and all of those things, and then we present him, Lord, I'm I'm struggling with this or that, or I need this or that. You know, grant him that petition and finish with Thanksgiving. That's another aspect of worship. I think one thing that is probably difficult for the majority of people listening to this podcast is singing by yourself. Now, I'm not talking about singing in the shower where it sounds uh, you know, great in your own ears, or I'm not talking about blasting ACDC out in the car or whatever, you know. I'm talking about when you have a time to sing to the Lord when you are not in the presence of the church. Yeah, it's it's easier probably for us to just fade into the sea of voices on a Sunday morning. But do we actually sing to the Lord because we love him when we're by ourselves? That's probably one of the most difficult aspects of personal worship, to be honest with you. And maybe for some people it's not I'm a worship pastor, I literally sing all the time for my job, but it it is still hard for me to have those moments where I just start singing to the Lord, not to perform for anything, but just to sing to the Lord because I love him, because I'm grateful for him.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and so I I think that that's one of the aspects that I think that can really be a hindrance to our personal worship if we are not doing that. Um and finding the songs that we do on Sunday mornings, you can you can find them on Spotify or you know, Apple Music or whatever. Um, and being able to sing to those during the week is a huge aspect of worship. But there's so many other aspects of worship, including serving, especially not only serving on Sunday mornings, but serving in our neighborhoods. You were talking about our neighbors, how we say hey to them from the back porch, and that's about it. It's like what happens, what would happen to our neighborhood who might have unbelievers in our neighborhood or people who are struggling if we just serve them? Not only, yeah, I mean it doesn't have to be some huge thing, but start small, but to take them, take them a meal if you know that they're struggling. Or just show up with a a freshly baked batch of cookies. Now, I'm not gonna make cookies because I'm not good at it. You don't want my you don't want my freshly baked cookies. Um he's much better than I am. But you just think about you think about the ways in which we serve when we serve others, that is part of worshiping the Lord. And I could keep going, you know, of all the different attributes of worship. But it is not just singing, but singing is a huge part of it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I love how you go back to the word and how in order to know God, it was actually I remember I recently started working here, I don't remember the context of it, but I remember you saying that you can't know God without knowing his word. And I was in a season where I needed to hear that. No one knew that, but I needed to hear that so bad. And so I love that just because it does, in order to worship, whether it's through his reading his word or serving or through song, like it's all rooted in scripture and knowing him and delighting in him. So I love I think that's something that I'm so thankful for here at our church, is that it does seem like every and it's true that every ministry area, everything is so rooted in scripture and so important.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. You know, I was thinking as you were talking, yeah, you know, um that you want to buy freshly baked cookies. You're offering, brother. You're offering. Uh I'll get Katie to make you something. But I was thinking about what Paul tells the church at Corinth. He's in chapter 10, 1 Corinthians, he says, whether you eat or drink, do all things to the glory of God. Um Paul says something similar at the end of Romans when he talks about um being a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. This is our spiritual act of worship. That uh it makes me think of a phrase that the reformers used that was Latin called corumdeo. And corumdeo means literally to live in the face of God. To live in the face of God. That that it's to live, no matter where you are, all the time, with the realization that you are in the presence of God. This and that this has two effects on us, right? Um, on one hand, it means that I can always rest in him. There is no place. The psalmist often talks about the shadow of his wings. You ever think about that? You know the cool thing about the mama bird that can go? Is she can go anywhere. She can go anywhere, wherever the little babies are, she can go and be there. And they look up and they see her there. Yeah. Like our refuge goes with us everywhere. There is nowhere that you can possibly go as his child that you can't look up and see the shadow of his wings. And so it's resting in them always. It's also, also, it's a call to faithfulness and a call to righteousness and holiness because he is with us always. Like you are always in the presence of the living God. So so it brings a helpful realization that I can be comforted, but I can't be comfortable in sin. And so it's this realization that no matter where I am, that I'm I'm resting in the Lord and I'm living for the Lord because I'm always in the presence of the Lord. And that means that whether I'm hanging out with my family or I'm going to church or I'm riding down the road, or I'm working as a dentist, or for FedEx, or whatever the thing is, all of those things lived in the face of God for the glory of God become acts of worship to Him.

SPEAKER_03

I think sometimes too if you're listening to this podcast and and you are going, well, Andrew, that that sounds great and all, talking about the delight of the Lord, the the delight in his word and all of those things, that sounds good. I don't even know where to start.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Or I don't I don't know how to get back into it. Or maybe I never really understood. You know, I I tell people all the time, I'm like, one of the greatest places to start is Psalm 1. Just open up Psalm 1. What does it say? The very first thing it says in Psalm 1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but del but his delight is in the law of the Lord. On his law he meditates day and night. And I think about that and I go, okay, if that's the starting point for so much joy in the Psalms. I mean, there is so much talk of the psalmists nonstop talking about the joy of the Lord, the joy of our salvation. It starts with the delight in his word. Yeah. But then you flip over to James 1 when it says it's it starts very similarly, it starts starting in verse 12. Blessed is the man, right? If we just talk about blessed is the man, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. And it's when we are rooted in God's word, when we are tethered to God's word, we will be able to withstand those trials, and we will be like the blessed man that's talking about both in Psalm 1 and James 1. And, you know, so I would say for anybody, if you're trying to figure out, okay, I I hear all this stuff about delighting in God's word. I need to be tethered to God's word. I don't know what to do. Start in Psalm 1.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

There's a lot of Psalms, 150 Psalms. That can get in Psalm 119, I guarantee you you're not going to read in one sitting. But I mean, if you do, praise the Lord. Um, but uh it's just it that'll get you literally, if you read a psalm a day, it gets you almost half a year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I think it's important for us to say too that when we talk about enjoy God and delighting in his word, like we do recognize too that it's not always easy and that that doesn't come. I mean, if you're walking through a hard season of life, whether it's a diagnosis or a stressful time with your job or marriage issues, whatever it may be, it's a lot harder to enjoy God or to delight in his word.

SPEAKER_03

It's a lot easier said than done, right?

SPEAKER_02

So much easier said than done. So knowing that there's so many roadblocks that believers run into, what how would y'all encourage them when they face those roadblocks to stay tethered to his word and to truly find, you know, that perspective shift where you can enjoy God?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I think this is a very important clarification that when we talk about joy, we're talking about it in the same way that James is talking about it when he says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds, right? Um, that we recognize that and I actually think this is the offer of Christianity, right? That you can have a joy that is durable even when your circumstances aren't, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um because what we're able to do, and this is I think James's point, uh, is our hearts are able to rest in who's in control when life feels out of control. And so human beings, we have to have a refuge. How many of the psalms are laments? Right? How many of the psalms are laments? How many of them are um David or some other psalmist grieving over their circumstances? But they're able to rest on the steadfast love of the Lord. You'll all you'll almost it it's not it's not there, I think there are four psalms in which this isn't the case, it seems like I remember, but almost inevitably when you read even these laments in the hardest moments of their lives, you see this at the end, there's this turn, this this reorientation toward the Lord. And that's what the human heart has to have. This this place when everything in my life is going wrong, when everything around me is crashing, when it feels like I'm falling apart, when it feels like I've made bad decisions, or it feels like some great injustice has been done to me, that I didn't deserve it in any way, whatever the circumstance, that we have to know where that refuge is, where we can turn, and we have to have the confidence that what I see in front of me today is not ultimate. God is ultimate. Um, it reminds me of uh George Mueller, he ran an uh an orphanage, um, often lived in poverty, and he wrote an autobiography where he outlines how the Lord sustained him through a number of different situations, and it's it's really it's a remarkable autobiography. I would commend it to anybody. But he says in there, uh but then he says that he found he made it his chief duty every single morning to get his heart or his soul as happy in the Lord as possible. And that's what enabled him to face whatever trials or tribulations he faced during the day. And I I think that uh that's a duty of the Christian. But what a sweet duty that is, right? And I think we already intuitively know we're gonna face the hard stuff either way. Right. Right? We're gonna face the hard everybody on earth, because this world is broken, because it is groaning with the groans of futility, Paul writes, because this is true. All of us are going to face those things. The hope that we have that is unique, that enables us to be durable, is that we walk through it knowing that joy comes in the morning. Knowing weeping may tarry the night. But that on the other side, that the sovereign hand of the Lord is going to be revealed, and we're gonna look back and we're gonna be maybe it's from the perspective of eternity. Maybe it's not even in this life, but we're gonna be able to look back and we're gonna be able to recognize that God's way was actually better than our way, that he was trustworthy, and that he worked those things together for our good and for his glory. And so I think every single morning, the duty that we have, every single day, is to be able to go to him and say, Lord, again, my heart has to rest in you. My heart is only at home in you. I wish that my life is different than it was. I think it's we ought to bring that to the Lord. I wish that the situation with my marriage, with my kids, with my health, whatever the thing is, I wish I I'm asking you, Lord, to intervene, but I'm at the same time I'm saying, Lord, I know that even if you don't change my circumstances, you're gonna walk with me through my circumstances, and so I'm gonna look up and I'm gonna recognize that you're with me, and so I'm gonna be able to sustain you. And so when we talk about the enjoyment of God, it's the recognition that the human experience is a complex one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's a broken one. Um but it's also headed toward a destination that we can have confidence in if we are in Christ, and um and so that enables us to be calibrated in the moment. Um even though we may be crying, even though we may be lamenting, our hearts are still resting in who God is, and that's what we mean by the enjoyment of God.

SPEAKER_03

And when you were talking about the you know, so many of those lamenting psalms still are rooted in that steadfast love of the Lord, you know, even though this, even though that, still the steadfast love of the Lord. And so you hit on something that I think so many people can relate to is the circumstances, right? But I think one of the other things in in the psalms, especially, is lamenting because of our sin. You know, and I think we probably don't do that enough. We don't lament over our sin enough, but I think we can get stuck in this. I'm going to lament my sin. Therefore, therefore, because I'm lamenting in my sin, I'm doing something right. It's like, no, hold on. We don't need to stay there. Yes, we lament over our sin. It put Christ on the cross, you know, my goodness. But when we get to then walk in God's grace and forgiveness, that is when we can find joy in the midst of this the circumstance that we caused. You know, there's circumstances that are gonna happen to us that we don't cause, but there's circumstances for us in in the midst of our own sins that we cause. Yeah, and yet the steadfast love of the Lord is still true, just the same in that moment. Psalm 32 talks about I acknowledged my sin to you, and I didn't cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to you, Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. And it started with, Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven. And it finishes on on the next page uh in my Bible, it says, Um, many are the sorrows of the wicked, but the steadfast love of the the steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. And when you get to walk in grace after you have failed, you are trusting in the steadfast love of the Lord. Because if his if his word is true, and it says new mercies are ready and available for you every single day, you get to walk in grace. And does that mean we should keep on on sinning? That's like what what Paul says. By no means, don't keep on sinning. But when we fail because of the the human condition that we have, uh, we can walk in God's grace, knowing that his steadfast love meets us in the midst of the circumstances, even the ones that we cause.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think there's also um steadfast love is the Hebrew word hased. And it's a it's a it's a word that does, there's not a direct translation into English, and so often it's translated as loving kindness, it's it's translated as loyal love, covenant love, steadfast love. Um because it's always trying to there's so many different nuances to it. But but what occurred to me as you were talking right there, um Andrew, is that the only way that you come to know God's love as steadfast is to endure things with him.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right? And and actually, it's when you come to know the Lord's love as steadfast that you actually begin to enjoy him more. It increases your delight in him. It changes your motivations. Yeah, and not in the circumstances. I I I will stand firm on Christians do not have to look at bad things and call bad things good. We have no responsibility to do that. But what we do have the responsibility is to recognize that though these things are bad and though they are the result of brokenness, maybe brokenness in us, maybe brokenness in the world, but they are the result of brokenness, that the Lord is going to redeem them and bring about something good in the providence, in the uh sovereign in his sovereign providence. And and I and it made me think about you know the the way the ways that I know best how much my wife loves me is the result of the hard experiences that we've had together.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um it it's when we've suffered together. That's when I really learned what she was made of, and what I learned how I learned what our relationship was made of. And I have the same testimony about my relationship with the Lord.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think if you talk to Christians who have walked with the Lord for decades, and you ask them to tell you about the greatest um works of God in their life and the greatest experiences with God that they've had, almost inevitably they'll go to the hardest moments of their lives. Because that's when they learn his love to be steadfast. And so again, we don't have to call it good. We don't have to go looking for suffering. I don't think any of those things are healthy, natural, or right, but what we do is we recognize that when those seasons come, because they are inevitable, that we know we're gonna get to the other side and we're going to have experienced the kindness of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And to the being I keep going back to that phrase, but being tethered to his word, when we are daily spending time in his word, and we are, you know, have those spiritual disciplines in place, then when those times come, that has built that foundation of going back to it. Even if in that moment we don't feel like opening the Bible, the word is in our heart and in our mind, and you know, it's we have built that foundation there, which it's important to remember.

SPEAKER_00

That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Um so what about practically speaking? So if let's say somebody's listening, they're either, and and you kind of touched on this a little bit, but they're either a new believer, they're not a believer, but they're curious, or they're just in a spiritually dry season. What does it practically look like to enjoy God? I know you said Psalm 1 is a great place to start, but what are some other ways of, you know, it's it's a great idea that we've talked about, but practically speaking, what does this look like? Both of you can take it away.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I I I think in the especially in the dry seasons, I think that's when you especially want to lean into your church family.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think that, you know, when I find myself getting stagnant, the thing that almost inevitably shakes me out of the stagnation is being around other people whose hearts are on fire for the Lord. Or when or maybe there maybe it's um going and being around other people who um I know are going through great difficulty and I can see the Lord sustaining them. Or it's being around a young believer who is asking all the questions that I once asked and reminding me of that discovery and putting me maybe in more of the teacher-mentor role. That is invigorating. Um I I I I really believe with all of my heart that one of that the church was given to us as a gift of sustaining, persevering grace. Um, I think I think the same is true of the ordinances. I I think that the think about the baptisms that we just had last Sunday, right? Man, doesn't that just invigorate your faith? Yeah, doesn't that make you want to draw near to him? Coming to the Lord's table and and recognizing, man, remembering what Jesus has done and seeing this um profound, visible demonstration of the gospel. I I I think that for me, that would be my default. I I think, of course, it's it's staying in the disciplines, it's it's persevering in those things, but that's when I want to especially uh open my heart. You know, I think um I find it true that we're the greatest enemies to our own joy. And it's true that in those seasons that we feel the driest, we want to withdraw the most. And yet the thing that we probably need most is to lean in deeper, right? And so I think it's trying to remind yourself that the word discipline is used for a reason that's that sometimes it requires me to tell myself to do that thing that I'm unmotivated to do because I know it's what's best for me and I know it's what's right for me. Um, and almost inevitably over time the passion catches back up. The affection the spirit of God does a new work in your heart.

SPEAKER_03

I think um, and that's it's gonna be different for everybody, especially when they're when they're in a dry season. What is you know the one practical thing, you know? And I think um used to for me, it was singing, to be honest with you. It it is not that anymore. And yes, uh I I make singing a regular part of you know my my personal worship, but in the dry season, um it uh to be honest with you, prayer is and I know that probably sounds the like the cliche Sunday school answer, but when you truly have a moment where you pour out all of your thoughts to the Lord, when you pour out your heart to the Lord, he he it doesn't fall on deaf ears.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And uh, you know, the way that I perceive his answers to prayers is he always answers prayers. He either answers with yes, no, or wait. And and for me, you know, in those dry seasons where I'm asking him for something, or in those seasons that are maybe not even a dry season, maybe a difficult season, whether it's a personally difficult season or whether you're watching someone else go through a difficult season, when you offer your prayers to him in humility, when you come to him and say, Lord, I don't know what to do, I need help. Um that is one of the biggest ways that I've gotten through dry seasons or difficult seasons in the last several years, is just pray and don't stop praying. I mean, it says in First Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing. And and when you pray, it is a I don't know how else to say it, it's a game changer. Because when you spend your time all just doing the intellectual work of Christianity, which is you know, either reading God's word or reading a bunch of books about God's word or all of those things, that's that's great. Yes, you should do that. We've talked about it this whole podcast, is delighting in his word. But if that's all you do, and you don't actually communicate with the living God, that's gonna be a huge difficulty for you. Um and I think that is one of the biggest things, the practical thing is pray, pray, and then pray some more. Um, and when you don't know what to pray, ask the Lord to help you because it says in his word that he will help you pray. He will when you are without words, the Holy Spirit will grant words for you. And it's one of those things that uh we just don't, I don't think we have a very praying society.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I think we have a lot of intellectuals, I think we have a lot of people who say, all right, I can just suck it up and deal with it. But I don't think we have a lot of people who pray specific prayers to the Lord. And I think that's one of the ways in which I can continue to grow. Um, but I would encourage anybody listening to this podcast, you know, pray when when you're facing things that you don't know what to do, pray, ask the Lord. Says in James 1, if any of us lacks wisdom, ask for it, and the Lord will be gracious to give it. Yeah, believe that part of his word and pray for that wisdom, pray for what to do. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think that's the difference, like we were saying earlier, between knowing about God and knowing God. And you have to have that relational aspect to know God.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you look at Daniel, you look at what we just finished with Daniel. What did it say in the sermon that you gave this past Sunday? Is what was his custom? His custom was to constantly be in prayer, facing Jerusalem, being in prayer. That was his custom. Everyone knew that he did that, right? And that's what he did. I mean, going back all the way to July 5th, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it was their custom to worship the living God, not the false gods.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And both times, you know, you get three men who get thrown into a fiery furnace, and they're fine because the Lord was with them. They weren't in there alone, like what you preached about. You get Daniel, an old man, who gets thrown into a den of lions. He was fine. The angel of the Lord shut his mouth, shut the mouths of the lions, and it it was their custom to pray. And they prayed, and look what the Lord did. It wasn't just that he delivered them, but he delivered the kings in which they served. It's like, oh my goodness, look what prayer can do. Look what the simple aspect of the custom can do, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Well, and you know, it's really when you stop and think about it, it it's pretty intuitive. I mean, if if you have any relationship on earth that you start sensing distance, how do you resolve it? Yeah. Well, everybody on earth would tell you you do that by spending time with the person. Yeah. Talk to them. Right? Yeah. You go spend time with them. And so it makes all the sense in the world that if you sense that distance in the Lord between you and the Lord and you sense a coldness in your heart, then spend time with him. Yeah, spend time with him.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, I have some lightning round questions for y'all. Y'all ready?

SPEAKER_03

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02

For quick answers. Okay, Cody, we'll start with you. What's one passage of scripture that helps you enjoy God? I didn't say they were gonna be easy.

SPEAKER_03

Psalm 103.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, maybe it is easy. All right, 103.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I can't just give one. I'll give you two. Shocker. Uh James, I'd say James 1 and Romans 5. Um, Romans 5 talks about just the the fact that we can rejoice in even in the midst of suffering because we have the hope of our salvation. And then you switch over to James 1, and James is talking about count it all joy, my brothers, like what you referenced while ago. And for me and my family, we've been walking through James, and that was one of the things that we spent a lot of time on is the joy of the Lord in the midst of suffering.

SPEAKER_00

So those two are Can we just do it for a second and let our audience understand that that's the most Andrew answer of all. I wish I could count the number of times where I've said, hey, here are two options, A or B, and every time. Every time, inevitably, Andrew answer C. He's like, I'm gonna give you a C. That's the most Andrew answer of all.

SPEAKER_02

Alright, what's one worship song that you've been listening to lately?

SPEAKER_03

For me to be great, I am. It's a throwback, but yeah. Throwback.

SPEAKER_00

It is. In a 2,000-year history.

SPEAKER_03

It's a throwback for us 40-year-olds.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, what is a spiritual habit that has been especially meaningful lately in your life?

SPEAKER_00

Praying the Psalms. Yeah. I think that's been my, you know, um, I I probably sensed like some stagnation in my prayer life. And and so I've just been letting the Psalms guide my prayers for about six months. It's been fantastic.

SPEAKER_03

It's awesome. For me, it's been um specific prayers for my family. So it's something that I I got into a habit of doing is giving general prayers to the Lord. Yeah. You know, help Katie today, help Evie, help Luke, help Bax, you know, like just kind of you know, help them today. Um, and so what I found myself doing that's been really beneficial for me in my prayer life is praying not only specific things that I know they need, but praying specific things that the Lord has either laid on my heart or that I've I've read in his word, like man, I want them to experience that the way that I did. Yeah. So pray praying very specific prayers for members of my family has been something that's been relatively new. That's so good.

SPEAKER_02

That's great. Okay, if listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation, what do you hope it is?

SPEAKER_00

I I hope that it's that uh grace sustains faithfulness in a way that you'll never can. Um yeah, that that God doesn't just want to be known about, he wants to be enjoyed. And that that is the driver of the Christian life.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I I would say the joy of the Lord through our salvation should drive everything that we can do. And how do we find that joy, and how do we find out uh what that salvation actually is, is reading his word and delighting in his word. And so that the joy of the Lord is not just being happy, it's understanding the depth of the salvation that he's given us.

SPEAKER_02

So good. Awesome. Well, thank y'all so much. I appreciate you being here and answering all of our questions. Um and we want to thank you for tuning in to the Enjoy God podcast. And for more information about the Orchard Church, you can visit us at theorchardchurch.com.