DERSIRE
Notes
Transcript
Do you know that our
DESIRES DICTATES our DESTINY!
DESIRES DICTATES our DESTINY!
Desire is what we want, what we long for, and most of all, it is what we pursue.
YOUR DESIRE IS YOUR PURSUIT.
YOUR DESIRE IS YOUR PURSUIT.
We are born with desires, worldly desires. Once we become Christians, not only do our desires change…but the ability to carry out our new set of desires are now enabled by the Spirit of God that is living in us.
So we are born with worldly desires, but once we accept Christ into our lives, Christ begins to change our desires and He begins to make His desires our desires.
WHAT IS GOD’S DESIRE FOR US AS HUMANS?
WHAT IS GOD’S DESIRE FOR US AS HUMANS?
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
So, Peter is talking about Christ’s Second Coming in this verse. He reveals one of Christ’s desires of His heart, which is for all of us to repent and be saved by the Grace of God…That not one would perish!
The Scripture is saying that some of us think the Lord is slow in answering His promise that Christ will return…but He is not being slow…He is long-suffering to show you how He desires that all repent and get saved!
So, when you get fed up with life and you say “Oh I wish the Lord would come back already”, BE CAREFUL because it is Christ’s desire for those people to turn from wickedness and repent, and it is our job to help them…because when we say I want Christ to come back, we are actually saying…to heaven with me…and to hell with the world.
But it is God’s desire to wait as long as He will wait…for the lost souls! And it is Christ’s desire for us to be actively witnessing to those lost souls.
Ezekiel 33:11 Tell them, ‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’
Ezekiel 33:11 Tell them, ‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’
HE DESIRES TO GIVE US LIFE - ETERNAL LIFE!
This verse says turn from your wicked ways and live. God wants to give you LIFE. You may think you are living it up when you are drinking, smoking, and all those things that lead to death…but right here God is saying TURN, REPENT from that constant sin, constant destruction…from dying in the darkness and find life.
FIND NOT ONLY LIFE BUT
Abundant life
Not just abundant live but Eternal Life
AND ALONG WITH GAINING ETERNAL LIFE YOU ALSO
Gain Peace That Surpasses Understanding
Grace that you don’t deserve
Love that is unconditional
Joy that overwhelms
God is saying I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It is God’s desire for all of mankind to be saved by the Blood of Jesus. God, DESIRES, LONGS, YEARNS, to have a personal relationship with you through the grace and blood of Jesus Christ the One and only living God.
I Timothy 2:3-6 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I Timothy 2:3-6 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
Here’s another example of God’s desire for all of mankind, that we all be saved, and that we know the knowledge of the truth. So God desires SALVATON, and then He plainly lays out the TRUTH:
This is One God
And One Mediator between God and Man
Who is Jesus Christ
Who gave Himself a Ransom for all people!
Since we know that a desire is a want, then we know it’s what God wants, but He leaves the decision up to us. We are not robots. God wants us to live for Him, to surrender to Christ, and to know His Word…because without His word you do not really know God…or the desires of God.
So, the desire of God for all of us is to be saved…
to have a personal relationship with God…
to repent…
to start filling ourselves with the truth…
which is the divinely inspired true Word of God…
that reads you as you read it…
that transforms us by the renewing of our mind…
that exposes sin in our lives…
and then teaches us how to get rid of it.
Then once we have repented, and transformed ourselves by renewing our mind with the Holy Word of God, known as the truth…THEN…it is God’s desire for us to tell somebody…to help another lost soul receive the gift Christ paid for every person on earth…before and after our time.
CHURCH, DESIRE DICTATES YOUR DESTINY……...[pause]……..So that was a brief summary of God’s DESIRE for all of mankind.
NOW LET US LOOK AT GOD’S DESIRE FOR BELIEVERS, CHRISTIANS, and HIS CHILDREN.
Matthew 3:8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.
Matthew 3:8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.
The main desire of God is for us to produce fruit that is consistent. The word consistent in this context is basically saying produce fruit that resembles or proves there has been repentance.
When you get saved or when you repent of sin, there is a fruit that represents the healing or the change or the spiritual rejuvenation that the repentance produced.
In other words, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS – when you repent, things should change. The desires of your heart should change and there should be a noticeable difference in your life…and that noticeable difference is the FRUIT CONSISTENT WITH REPENTANCE.
So, God’s desire for us is to be a people after God’s own heart. So basically, when we get saved…we drop what we desire…and we replace our desires with God’s desires.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
When you study this verse and dive a little deeper, you find that IT IS as it sounds but also, IT IS NOT as it sounds.
So, the first part of the Scripture says, “Take delight in the Lord”. When you look up the Hebrew words for this part of the verse, it actually means to be SOFT and PLIABLE or MOLDABLE. So it is saying like a piece of clay have a soft malleable heart toward God.
When we allow God to mold our hearts, He will make HIS DESIRES OUR DESIRES…and once God’s desires are implanted in our hearts, we can begin to live out God’s will, follow God’s plan.
So that verse is saying Let God mold your heart and once He implants His desires in your heart, then and only then, He will give you the TRUE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART.
So, God desires for Christians to allow Him to mold us and put his desires in our heart.
SO, WHAT ARE THESE DESIRES HE WANTS TO PUT IN OUR HEART?
The number one main desire of God is to have a deep, intimate relationship with each one of us.
I Corinthians 1:9 9 God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
I Corinthians 1:9 9 God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God’s main desire for all His followers is to have DEEP INTIMATE FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM. If He wants to put his desires in our hearts, then He wants us to desire to have a close fellowship with Him also.
He desires for us to have an intimate relationship with Him. He desires a oneness. God is made up of a perfect communion.
He is One God, but the family is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect communion with each other. So god desires us to be one with Him, for our desires to be His desires, for His thoughts to be our thoughts in communion and partnership together so that we can move in sync. So when I check out at the store the Holy Spirit can nudge me to witness to the cashier, and I do it without hesitation because my heart is full of Godly desires and if my heart is full of godly desires then everyone I see is someone Jesus died for, someone Jesus made, someone worthy of my time and attention because my heart is burdened for people to not just make it to heaven but to have it “on earth as it is in heaven”!
Church, your desire is your pursuit and your desires dictate you destiny. Jesus’ life is a perfect example of a man with godly desires! Jesus is who we as humankind strive to be like and it is who God desires to mold and shape us to be like. He wants us to have the attributes and characteristics of Jesus. The love Jesus has for God and for people, His joy and His peace, His patience His goodness, His kindness, His faithfulness, His gentleness and His self-control and ultimately God desires for us to have the holiness Jesus has. We have the very Spirit in us to have that holiness and that is God’s desire that we would grow His Spirit and develop His Spirit by reading the Word, by praying and by coming to church to worship God and if you do those things God will implant His desires into your heart. So God’s desire for Christians is to be one with them and have a deep, meaningful relationship with us so that He can show us how great His love is for us and then when we truly understand that love, we will desire to carry that love to someone who does not know about it. so we are covered with God’s desire is for humankind and what His desire is for Christians.
Now let’s look at the cause and effect of having good or evil desires. Let us look at what the cause of an evil or good desire is and what the effect of a good or evil desire is. Starting with the evil desires.
James 1:14-15 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
James 1:14-15 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
Each person is tempted when he is DRAWN AWAY and enticed by his own evil desires.
Verse 15 says that then after desire has conceived, it gives BIRTH TO SIN and when sin is full grown, it gives BIRTH TO DEATH.
Church, we must be careful not to slack in our relationship with God. As we learned, God’s #1 desire is to be in deep communion with us, so that we cannot be drawn away.
We must keep our eyes focused on God. We must work on our relationship constantly because we never know when the evil one is tempting, and that temptation is to DRAW YOU AWAY.
TO DRAW US AWAY FROM WHAT? To draw us away from that communion with God we just talked about…to draw us away from the light of God’s desire back to the darkness of our own evil desire.
See God wants to implant and install His divine desires into your heart, but the devil is trying his best to draw us away from God’s desire to have communion with us, so that he can ENTICE us with our own evil desires or what our evil desires were in the past. This is why it is CRUCIAL to have an up-to-date relationship with God… this is why church on Sunday is not enough time with God to say you have a relationship.
This is why you must SPEND TIME IN THE WORD every day, because as a Christian, the devil has figured out what your evil desires are and he is trying to DRAW US AWAY from God to ENTICE us. Once we have been enticed that leads to the conception of a new desire.
So, the devil draws us away by an EVIL DESIRE that is specific to us personally. Once we are drawn away, he then entices or tempts us with that desire, which once we have DEVELOPED or CONCEIVED…BOOM it gives birth to sin!
So, you…
STRAY from the Lord
the devil TEMPTs you with an EVIL DESIRE
which leads to a NEW desire in your heart
and that leads to SIN
Now I have said this before that infant sin is FUN FOR A SEASON. That is what the devil does…DECEIVES you with a fun season, but all the time you are being led to the grave. The devil is here to steal, kill and destroy and he does that by sugar-coating the evil desire…which then leads to INFANT SIN and the season of sin that is fun and during that fun season that infant sin is TAKING ROOT and before you know it, that infant sin is FULL GROWN and it is calling the shots and it is in control and you are on a ONE WAY TRIP TO DEATH just like James is telling us here…Desire When Conceived Gives Birth To Sin; and Sin When It Is Full Grown, Brings Forth Death… and it all started from a desire that DREW US AWAY.
Satan’s Great Strategy In Temptation is to convince us that the pursuit of our corrupt desires will somehow produce life and goodness for us, but his only goal is to steal, kill and destroy.
CHURCH YOUR DESIRE DICTATES DESTINY.
CHURCH YOUR DESIRE DICTATES DESTINY.
YOUR DESIRE IS YOUR PURSUIT.
YOUR DESIRE IS YOUR PURSUIT.
So, what is the cause and effect of Godly desires?
Philippians 2:13 NLT – For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to please Him.
Philippians 2:13 NLT – For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to please Him.
So once you give your life to Jesus, like we said earlier, you become:
Open to God
Moldable to God
And, He starts working in you
Removing carnal, worldly desires
Replacing with Godly desires
and the Holy Spirit’s power is activated in you and helps you please God.
So, the cause of Godly desires is a surrender to God allowing Him to work in you, implanting His desires in your heart, giving you the power of the Holy Spirit to please God.
I emphasize building the Spirit of God that is in us so much, because all through the Bible, it tells us how important it is. Right here in this verse, it is saying My Spirit works in us to:
#1 give us the desire we need
#1 give us the desire we need
The want we need
The will we need to please God
AND
#2 that Spirit gives us the power to carry out those desires.
#2 that Spirit gives us the power to carry out those desires.
Church, God desires for every one of us to gain salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. God desires to have a communion and a deep relationship with each one of his believers.
He gives us the power to enable us to please Him. So, it is like electricity that is hooked up to a house. The power company has turned the power on to the house, but unless you get up and walk over to the light switch and flip the light switch on, you are still sitting in the dark, even though you already have the power.
So, the Holy Spirit is living inside you but until you do what it takes to flip the switch, you are sitting in spiritual darkness.
So, the Spirit gives us the desire and then it gives us the power to act on those desires to please God.
So, the cause of Godly desires is to please God.
So, the cause of Godly desires is the Holy Spirit and
The effect is RIGHTEOUSNESS!
The effect is SANCTIFICATION!
The effect is HOLINESS!
The effect is living a LIFE THAT LOOKS LIKE JESUS.
The effect is a LIFE TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING OF THE MIND,
A HEART THAT HAS GOD’S FINGERPRINTS all over it
A LIFE IN TUNE with God
And LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
Church, if your desire is your pursuit, then your pursuit better be God’s desire…
Because your desire dictates you destiny…and that is why I make sure that God dictates my desire, so that my destiny is in God’s hands.
Church, what is your DESIRE?...and What is your PURSUIT?
Do you DESIRE GODLY things?...
Do you ALLOW GOD TO MOLD your heart?
Does your PURSUIT in your everyday life RESEMBLE GODLY desires?
Does your DESIRE MATCH YOUR PURSUIT?
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