Desiring God

Can we turn to the book of Psalms and chapter 19, Psalms chapter 19. Psalms 19 and verse number 7 says, The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Verse 11, Moreover by them is thy servant warned. Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward. Now turn with me to Psalm 42.

Psalm 42, Psalm 42 and verse number 1. Psalm 42 and 1 says, As the heart or as the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Turn over with me to Psalm 73.

Psalm 73, Psalm 73 and verse number 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go appalling from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God and I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may desire or may declare all thy works.

And now to the New Testament and we're going to turn to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 7. Philippians 3 and 7 says, But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And to count them but done that I may win Christ and to be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now just drop down to verse 14.

I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's all we're going to read now. We'll probably make references to a few other scriptures as we go along, but what I have on my mind this afternoon very simply would be desiring God and what desiring God looks like.

What does it mean to desire God and what is it in reality or in practice? We have been reminded just now in the importance and the need that we have to desire and to go after the things of God, to build into the assembly. And if you're like me, or maybe everybody here is a better Christian than me, but if you are like me, I have found myself multiple times where you realize to yourself and maybe you come to a conference like this and you come to the conclusion as you walk away that I need to be more consistent when it comes to the things of God. I must pray more.

I must read more. I must go to more meetings. I have to go to more conferences.

I have to help out more at meetings. And those are all good things. And you should desire to do those things.

But what I have found for myself many times is simply this, that when it comes to doing those things, it seems that simply just self-discipline isn't enough to keep it there. When you try to self-discipline yourself, now there is an important aspect of self-discipline. The Apostle Paul even said that he controlled his body or he put his body into subjection.

So there's aspects where there is self-discipline that is needed. But it seemed, I found for myself at least, that self-discipline is sometimes easy when there's others that are watching. So it might be easy to self-discipline yourself to get to the meetings and to simply be there.

And sometimes we're good at that. We show up at all the meetings and we check the boxes and we're there. Self-discipline might be easy when it comes to the sense of, yeah, we jump in and help when needed, and that's good.

But in the aspects of life when nobody else can see, how consistent am I? How consistent am I in reading the Word of God? How consistent am I in my prayer life? Because those are the aspects of life that nobody really sees, right? Those are the parts that nobody sees. And so sometimes you go in and sometimes it happens that usually the beginning of the year we make a New Year's resolution. This year we are going to read through the Bible.

And we're going to, we buckle down and we do really well. Genesis is an easy enough read. You have the stories of Genesis.

You have Noah. You would have Joseph. You have creation.

You have all these things and it's an easy read. Exodus is a pretty easy read as the most part. And then once you've gone through those, then you get rewarded with Numbers and then Deuteronomy and then you run into Leviticus and all Chronicles.

Like, you know, that one's the one we all look forward to, right? And the self-discipline starts to wane. You skip a day. You miss three.

I'll make up for it this weekend. And then the weekend comes around and there's things we have to do. Legitimate things many times, but discipline just seems to kind of start fading as we go along.

And it's easy to do. Prayer. We would all acknowledge here the importance of prayer and the power that's in prayer.

But how good is my prayer life really? Because we might get up on a Sunday morning from time to time or a prayer meeting we might participate from time to time. But if that's the only time I pray, then my prayer life is pretty sad. So how consistent am I in my prayer? So if it's simply just self-discipline, then I've gotten to the point that, well, if that's what is required in order for us to get better at this, then we would already be better at all those things, right? Our normal routines would be filled and we would be good at those things.

If self-discipline and discipline alone is enough to help you further yourself in these things, I think the majority here would say that we're pretty good at those things. But the reality is, at least when I look at myself, there's many times when I still fail at those things. But reading the Word of God is vitally important, as we have just been reminded.

And I found it interesting that there was actually a study done by a university of the effect that the Word of God has on an individual. And this is what they found, that if you study the Word of God once a week, there's very little difference in your life. If you study the Word of God twice in a week, very little difference in your life.

But they found that if you study and read the Word of God four times a week, all of a sudden the study showed a pretty drastic change in the life. And this is what they found, that if you read your Bible a minimum of four times per week, the study shows this is what happens. Loneliness goes down 30%.

Bitterness, our brother Al reminded us this morning of the importance of not letting the root of bitterness come in. Bitterness towards people who have hurt you go down 40%. Adultery goes down 68%.

Alcohol and drug use goes down 57%. Just by exposing yourself to the Word of God four times a week. Personal study, to get into the Word of God and to learn from it.

So we know there's importance to it, so how do we get there? How do we get consistency when it comes to these things? Well, from what I have discovered for myself personally and from reading the Word of God, I think I've come to this conclusion, that it's not another system that you need. It's not that go to the back of your book and they have a help there, read through the Bible in a year, find one that works for you, do that. That's just simply self-discipline.

I think it goes beyond that. I think it comes down to this. You need or I need a deeper love for God and the things of God.

Because there is a difference between duty and devotion. There's a difference between duty and desire. The psalmist wrote in Psalm chapter 42, as the deer longs for the water brook, so my soul longs after you.

He had a desire to know his God. He had a desire to be in communion with his God. Desire and not duty is what will take you and will give you, not discipline, it's not the routine that you must get yourself into, it's not the daily reminders that you need to pray.

Your heart burns within you when there is a desire. Your heart burns within you to pray and to commune with your God. When there is desire and devotion and love, your heart burns within you to open the Word of God and to know more of Him and to learn more of Him, to fall in love again.

So the key secret that I have found for myself for consistency is obsession or desire over discipline. Obsession beats discipline every time. Love will always accomplish what obligation and religion cannot.

Love will always accomplish what obligation and religion cannot. How do I prove this? Well, sometimes examples are just practical examples, everyday life examples drive this home and this is what came to my mind as I was studying through this because we know this is something that is important for us as people of God and children of God. So how do I show proof that desire, that obsession, that love goes further than discipline? What proof of this? Watch a young man that is interested in a young woman.

What do I mean by that? Simply this, a young man that all of a sudden is to that age where dating might be an option and there's a young lady and maybe it's at conferences and he has a desire all of a sudden to start going to conferences that he never had the desire to go to before. And the young man will all of a sudden have a desire to clean his room without his parents telling him. And the young man will all of a sudden have a desire to shower every day without his parents telling him.

And to clean his car inside and outside with his parents aren't telling him to do any of these things but all of a sudden he has a desire. Why? Because all of a sudden there is something that has caught his eye, his attention, his devotion. There is something greater outside of him.

He is not disciplining his body but he has a desire for someone else. And because of his desire for this other person he will start doing things that he would have never done before. There is not a young man here that if I pulled you aside just by yourself and said, when is the last time you had a desire to walk through a field full of flowers? Not a one of you would raise your hand.

But if a young lady that you had intentions towards or you had a desire to get to know said, hey you want to go through a walk through that field full of flowers? Absolutely. Would you like to, how many of you young men like romantic comedies if you watch movies? Not a one of you. But if she says let's sit down and watch a romantic comedy, it sounds like a good idea.

You desire to be with her and so what she desires starts to become your desire. It's no different when it comes to the Word of God and when it comes to the things of God. If you desire him, his desires will begin to become your desires.

And you will start to change. You will no longer have the desire maybe to hang out with your friends as much because there's someone else that is now has your devotion and your attention. Maybe the crude jokes that some of your classmates would have said before that would have made you laugh.

Now when she's around and a comment like that is made, all of a sudden it's not so funny anymore. You start to change. You want to get to know her and all of a sudden you get taken up with certain things and you're willing to do certain things that before you weren't willing to do.

You might be willing to drive hours to see her. We, me and my wife when we were dating, we started out, she was in Canada and I was in Ohio. That was about five hours.

And then I moved to Iowa and it became 11 hours. But guess what? I still had a desire to drive to see her. She had my eyes.

She was the desire of my heart. And so you have a desire to take long drives. You were willing to sit up all hours of the night on a phone call after working all day and knowing you had to get up all the next morning.

But it didn't bother you to sit up till 11 and midnight and 1 in the morning to have that conversation because you wanted to hear her voice. You wanted to speak with her. You wanted to get to know her.

What is your desire? What do you like and dislike? What can I do to make you happy? What can I do to please you? What do you like and don't like? What do you like and what don't you like? And there might even have been things, and I found this in the dating world, like she does this and this and I don't understand why but at the same time you kind of found yourself almost defending why she, I don't know why she likes this, but if somebody else made fun of her you defended her for it. Why? Because you desired her. You wanted her.

When it comes to the Word of God there are maybe aspects, maybe some of the things you heard this afternoon you might say I don't I don't fully understand it but I will defend it. I want to know more of it but until I fully understand it I will defend it still because these are principles that are found in the Word of God. And so here's the desire to know Him.

I was reminded of the church in Ephesus and we think of this assembly and you would say outwardly they did everything right. Outwardly he commended them for what they were doing. They checked the boxes as it were and yet when it came right down to it he had one thing against him.

They left their first love. Sometimes it's the same thing in relationships. We're just going to continue through using the example of relationship.

The young man has courted the girl. He has won her affection. They get married.

They settle down and all of a sudden they're in a home and when the thing at first it's wonderful and everything's exciting and everything is new and everything is wonderful and then a year goes by and two and three and five and seven maybe a little more and all of a sudden it's not so new anymore because she knows you better than she used to and you know her better than you used to and there's no more mystery because you now know all of each other's idiosyncrasies and you know all the little things that you found charming when you were around them for a weekend. Now you live with it every day and it's slightly less charming and all of a sudden the desire maybe starts to go away a little bit. There's danger in that.

I'm not talking about relationships here but can I just say there's danger in that because when the desire starts to go away your what I will wander. Your thoughts will wander and it's the same thing when it comes to the Word of God. It's the same thing when it comes to the things of God.

When the desire to know him goes away your I will wander. Your thoughts will wander and before you know it you're going to be thinking and doing and going places that you never thought you would but to get back to this to be the psalmist and to say you know what more to be desired are the laws and the testimony of the Lord and the statue of the Lord and the fear of the Lord all of these things the righteousness of the Lord all together all of these things are more to be desired than gold even more much fine gold and sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb as a deer panted for the water so my soul longs after thee to have a desire to know more of him that I will sacrifice sleep if needed so that I can study the Word of God and pour into him and into it and to go to know more of him and you know what when there's this desire when we first started dating we were young and you know what one of the requirements was at first from her parents we're not doing electronic you're not emailing you're not doing those things it wasn't very long we started cheating if we're being honest but you had to write letters mail in Canada's slow two weeks between letters and when the letter came in you know what I didn't do wonderful I'll read it in a week you opened it and you read it and guess what you did you reread it and then a little bit later you read it again and then when you came down time to sit down and write a letter back you read it again so that you could answer any questions and anything that she might have wanted to know you could answer or maybe there was things in the letter that you had questions about and so you made sure to get those in and there was communication back and forth this is prayer and this is reading the Word of God this is Scripture it's the same thing you will read Scripture and you will have questions take it to the Lord in prayer it's okay to ask him what does this mean reveal it to me and read it again and pour over it and it's something you desire and once you were done reading it you know what you didn't do you didn't throw it in the garbage you kept it in case you wanted to go back and read it again to desire God to desire him to desire what he has for us to live a life of desire for the things of God we're just going to continue to build just a little bit here if we can on the whole aspect of a relationship with him because this is really what the Christian life should be it should be a relationship with him and that's what Paul really desired in Philippians chapter 3 he says what things I count that were gained for me I counted for loss for Christ right the things that I thought were important to me are no longer so important you'll find the same thing if you ever find a young lady that you really like there might be a shirt or something that you have in your possession or something that you do that you think is pretty important to you and guess what there's gonna come a day when she goes I really don't like that and you're probably gonna go you're right it's horrible it should be the same thing when it comes to the Word of God but a lot of times it's not a lot of times God says this is something that get rid of it and what do we say but I like it it's my favorite God says it's not gained for you it's not for your benefit and he says in verse 8 a doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them but done that I may win Christ I'll get rid of anything because she is the desire of my heart we'll do that in the dating light when it comes to the Word of God and the things of God our attitude should not change I will get rid of everything what everything he has given me it's not mine it's his and if he wants me to get rid of it I'll get rid of it that I may know him my young man will do all those things without being asked because he has a desire just to get to I just want to get to know her I don't even know if it's gonna work out sometime but I want to just get to know her and to understand her you know sometimes after they settle in and things get mundane and routine then circumstances of life will change and maybe all of a sudden you become parents and you'll start seeing sides of the person you marry that you maybe never saw before the person you thought you knew so well as a whole nother dynamic to them maybe or their life is changing and they're changing and you have a fresh appreciation for them a fresh desire for them you see them in a different light all of a sudden they're not just your wife but they're the mother of your children and how she deals with them and handles them and teaches them and nurtures them you go that that's someone that I can love and the desire changes when it comes to God however the God that we serve he is not a God that changes so it's not that he changes to keep us intrigued but the God that we serve is an infinite God and because he is an infinite God you will never exhaust all there is to know of him throughout all the countless ages of eternity you will never know all there is to know of him and so you can study all you want you will never exhaust him all he will become is more precious to you desire beats discipline and I want you to understand that that is not that you must discipline yourself to be holy but if you desire him if you get to know him and as I become less of self and more of him I will obtain I will understand more of his holiness and who he is and what he entails in our life when a young man gets married it's kind of interesting that men will oftentimes wear the same thing to a funeral that they will to their wedding they will wear the same thing to their funeral to a funeral as they will their wedding many times I'll show up in black suits and white shirts and maybe black ties and so just to give this example and maybe carry it over to the spiritual aspect if we can simply this at a funeral the reason a man wears black is because there's a death I say that sounds morbid let me explain you were saying goodbye to yourself you are saying goodbye to your old self it is death to the way that you think it is death to the bachelor mindset it is death to promiscuity it is death to the wandering I it is death to immoral behavior it is death to to the texting girls casually it is death to getting to do what I want to do because now you have a responsibility it is the death of just going out and hanging out with friends alone it is the death of acting like an infant it is the death of playing video games till 1 a.m. in the morning but it's the birth of a man when I was a boy I behaved as a boy but when I became a man I put away childish things it's the death of a boy but the birth of a man when it came to the moment of salvation it was death to the old man but there's newness of life and now what I we've been reminded already today the things that I once desired I no longer desire the things that I once wanted nothing to do with now I want all of it I want to know Christ I want to experience him I want to feel his presence with me I want him because without him I am nothing see religion has it all wrong in our world today religion will try to teach you that you have everything you already need there's just a Christ sized hole in your life and if you have Christ to fill that little bit of hole then you'll be complete they're wrong Christ is everything and without him we have nothing and so I desire him the fullness of him the excellency of the knowledge of him to be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness of God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of suffering being made conformable unto his death here's one thing I want you to understand there might be a young man here today maybe there's not but I've been to conferences at least where I've sat back and I've watched there'll be a young man that has a desire for a young lady and the young lady has no desire for him no desire for him whatsoever and as much as he desires her she has no desire for him and it's never gonna work can I tell you this then not only does God want you to desire after him but he desires you he does he desires you and I'm gonna prove it and I'm just gonna turn to these two if you will Deuteronomy chapter 7 there's an example when it comes to the children of Israel he didn't choose them because of their greatness Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 6 says or verse 7 says the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than other people for ye were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he hath kept the oath which he has sworn to your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of the bondman from the house of Pharaoh the king of Egypt essentially what he's saying here is the Lord has loved you because he has loved you he has a desire for you and one more that might make it a little more clear is Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3 Jeremiah 31 and 3 says this the Lord hath appeared unto me of old saying yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee this is a two-way relationship he desires you and may we desire him to know more of him and to get to know more of him and to speak of him so it is not that I must pray more or I must read more or I must go to more meetings I have to go to more conferences and help out more at meetings those are all things we should do but here's what I have found as you get to desire him and know more of him here's what happens if I desire him it's not that I must but I desire to speak with him in prayer I desire to read of him in Scripture I desire to meet with him in the meeting where God has placed his name with his saints I desire to go to conferences and to learn of him I desire to serve him and whatever capacity is asked me to do desire and obsession trumps discipline may all of us here have a desire for the things of God to know more of him and to be drawn closer to the one who desires us