I. HIS THRONE SET IN HEAVEN (REVELATION 4:2)
A. The distance from the sun to the earth is 93 million miles or what is known as 1 Astronomical Unit (93 million miles =
1 AU).
B. Neptune is 30 AU from the sun (2,790,000,000 miles).
C. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.
D. Light can travel to Neptune from the sun in 250 minutes (just over 4 hours).
E. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year (5.8 trillion miles = 1 light-year).
(Gen 1:3) God said “Let there be light” and there was light.
F. The Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light-years across (the Milky Way is one of an estimated 1 million galaxies
in the known universe).
G. Traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would take 100,000 years to cross the Milky Way
Galaxy... just one galaxy!
H. The Cosmos (created universe) is an estimated 13 billion light years wide. That equals 76,254,048,000,000,000,000,000
miles in length!
I. God describes his creation of this cosmos in ½ a sentence, “In the beginning God created the heavens...”. It was
effortless for Him. All it got was ½ a sentence!
J. John says in Revelation 4:2 “behold a throne set in heaven and One sat on it”.
K. Jesus came blazing on the scene with power, authority and boldness preaching of this Creator. The good news
that Jesus brought... this One is a Father desiring a family!
(John 3:16-17) “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...that the world...might be saved”
II. THE FATHER’S GLADNESS
(Ps 16:9-11) In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(1 Chron 16:27) Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and gladness are in His place.
(Ps 21:6) For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
A. The paradigm most common today is that of a God who is mostly mad or mostly sad when we relate to Him. Many relate
to Him based on their life circumstance and that He is mostly disappointed in them.
B. How does your Father feel when He looks at you? This question is one of the most important questions in our
spiritual journey. Our view of God’s emotions affects how we approach God, especially in our weakness and stumblings.
This impacts the way we feel about ourselves and others.
1. When we get a glimpse of a God that possesses the fullness of joy in His presence (upon His Throne) we get
joyful. This becomes our strength (Neh 8:10) and our ability to be joyful in all circumstances.
C. The fullness of joy resides in His presence therefore He’s eternally glad. It’s settled. This is who He is... “gladness
is in His place” (1 Chron. 16).
D. One of the reasons Jesus wasn’t easily shaken by real life circumstances was the fact that He saw the gladness of
His Father. If His Father was not shaken from His gladness, then He didn’t have to be either.
1. When we have a foundational understanding that God is glad and we approach Him as if He’s glad we’re able to
remain stable under pressure or failure.
2. When stressful situations arise I close my eyes and picture my Father in heaven and I’m settled and comforted when
I see His smile and gladness. Jesus was a master at this.
III. A FATHER WHO THINKS
(Jer 29:11) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give
you a future and a hope.
A. “I think of you”...what a powerful prophetic word. This is what He’s like; it’s almost too good to be true. He governs
all of creation and He still thinks of me. When I’m going, when I’m coming, when I’m sleeping, when I’m traveling, when
I’m at home, when I’m working... “I’m thinking of you”, says the Father.
B. God’s thoughts about you are peaceful (pleasant). He specifically states that they are not evil or bad so that we
can be assured of this; the very thing the accuser would have us believe.
1. In the context of Jeremiah 29 God prophesied Israel’s captivity to Babylon...His discipline to them. Yet even in the
midst of His discipline He tells the secrets of His heart over them...that He’s thinking of them with tenderness and love.
His intentions are good.
C. David had firsthand knowledge with the thoughts of God towards him.
(Psalm 139:17-18) How precious also are Your thoughts to me,
O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand...
(Ps 40:5) Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are
more than can be numbered.
1. 1 Samuel 13 is the first time that David is mentioned in scripture. God speaks of him to the prophet Samuel. God
says that he is a “man after His own heart”. God had been thinking of David for some time.
2. 1 Samuel 16 the prophet goes to the house of Jesse to seek out this man (turns out to be a teenage boy).
3. My question has always been what David was doing at the moment in time when God was whispering to Samuel
about him back in chapter 13.
a. David’s doing his mundane, same old duties and little did he know that the Father of Glory was talking about him
to the greatest prophet of the day. The God who has no bounds...He was talking about you the other day! Our Father
thinks about us. Wow.
4. After this early experience in Davy’s life it formed his thinking of God. He says in the psalm “You think of me all
the time!” “How precious this is to me!”
IV. A FATHER WHO DELIGHTS AND REJOICES
(Ps 16:3) As for the saints who are on the earth, "They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight."
(Job 33:26) He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy
(Prov 8:30) And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him
(Isa 62:4) But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you
(Deut 30:9) The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand…for the LORD will again rejoice over
you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers
(Jeremiah 32:41) Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and
with all My soul.
(Zeph 3:17) The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will
quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.
A. We must apply our name to every verse above and say it back to God...not for His sake but for own sakes. When
we hear the words and speak them with our mouths it speeds the process of belief in our own hearts.
B. The thoughts of the Father over you are inspired by His delight in you...His delight, pleasure, enjoyment,
satisfaction, joy, happiness is in you. Therefore He thinks of the one He takes great delight in all His days.
C. We don’t have to be ‘working’ for the Kingdom to earn His delight. This is who God is. He loves us and this
love awakens love/service to Him (1 John 4:19, John 3:16).
1. My hunting story, the marathon runner, the nurse, and the camp cook mopping the floor.
D. When we begin to see people through this lens. It fuels intercession for the lost and evangelism. He is a God
who delights in people! “For the FATHER so loved the world!” (John 3:16 )