1) What is the best thing about being forgiven by God?
2) How does being forgiven by God lead to a life not wasted?
3) Explain how love for people and the pursuit of glorifying God come together as the same pursuit?
4) How does being happy in God transform us into more loving, more risk-taking people?
2) How does being forgiven by God lead to a life not wasted?
3) Explain how love for people and the pursuit of glorifying God come together as the same pursuit?
4) How does being happy in God transform us into more loving, more risk-taking people?
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Lesson 6 – The Biblical Motivation for Risk: Love and Joy
Having explored the dangers of our deceptive hearts in the risks we take, let us now examine the nature of the proper motivation for all our risks and endeavors: love. How does love connect to our passion to glorify God? What about our joy in God? Can we pursue our happiness with all our might and still be the type of loving people who risk our own lives for the good of others?
1. We were made to enjoy the display of God’s glory
1.1. Read “The Great Coming Together for Me” on pages 30-31 in DWYL
1.2. Joy is not optional in the Christian life. We were made to pursue our joy because, as Piper says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him
1.3. Where is God’s glory to be seen most clearly? (cf. p.40 in DWYL)
1.3.1. We were made to enjoy the display of God’s glory in Jesus Christ
1.3.2. So the Christian joy and happiness is fundamentally an enjoyment of the glory of Jesus Christ
2. Love for others flows out of this joy in God that we were made to experience
2.1. Define true biblical love (cf. p. 33 in DWYL)
2.2. Read “The Dilemma Where We no Longer Hang” on pages 102-103 in DWYL
2.3. Explain why we do not have to choose between love for others and glorifying God. Why is helping others see God for who is truly is the most loving thing we can do?
3. The path of love is the pursuit of our deepest happiness
3.1. Joy doubles as we share it with others
3.1.1. Consider anything you delight in (e.g. music, sports, literature, nature, friends)
3.1.1.1. How do you know you enjoy that thing?
3.1.1.2. How do you express that joy? How do others know you enjoy it?
3.1.1.3. What happens to your delight in the object when you express it to another person?
3.1.1.4. What happens when the other person shares the same delight?
3.1.2. True joy expands and deepens when we express it to others and they share the same joy. What does that mean for joy in Christ?
3.1.3. How might Romans 1:14-15 relate to the doubling nature of true joy?
3.2. Explain why the title of this chapter in DWYL is “The Goal of Life – Gladly Making Others Glad in God”
4. Love and Joy – a singular pursuit
4.1. Is the type of love commended here really just selfishness?
4.1.1. Read 1 Corinthians 10:24, 33; 13:5; Romans 15:1-3
4.1.2. Read the following comments from a critic:
“Is it not the contention of morality that we should do the good because it is the good?...We should do the good and perform virtuously, I suggest, because it is good and virtuous; that God will bless it and cause us to be happy is a consequence of it, but not the motive for doing it...For the Christian happiness is never to be pursued. It is always the unexpected surprise of a life of service.”
4.1.3. Can we really pursue our joy and still be loving?
4.2. Define selfishness
4.2.1. Read Philippians 2:1-11
4.2.2. How does Paul explain selfishness?
4.2.2.1. Does Paul denounce all desire for personal interest?
4.2.2.2. Does Paul refuse his desire for his own joy?
4.2.2.3. What does Paul mean, then, with his command to “do nothing from selfishness” in v.3?
4.2.3. Compare with Jesus model of humility and unselfishness that Paul refers to
4.2.3.1. Did Jesus unselfishness prevent him from seeking his own joy?
4.2.3.2. How was Jesus pursuit of joy (cf. Heb. 12:1-2) perfectly harmonious with his love for the world?
4.2.3.3. What distinctions should be made between Jesus’ pursuit of his joy in love and our pursuit of our joy in love? What about Jesus life of love should we seek to imitate?
4.3. Explain in your own words how love for people cannot be separated from the pursuit of our joy in God
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