Awanita Morning 4

Thursday Morning Your hearts desire

What are some things your heart desires in this life right now?

What is one thing you would be disappointed if you didn’t get in life?

In high school if you had asked me that my answer probably would have been:

My diploma

A wife / love

fun memories with my friends.

Anything along those lines would have been my answer.

Does God want to give you the desires of your heart?

*Discuss this question for a bit and talk about various answers.

This is a loaded question.

Why?

Because let me ask a follow up question:

What if the desire of your heart stinks?

I’m thankful I have sons, because let me tell you, in this world now days… if I had a daughter go to the bathroom and a dude walked in there after her… bad things would happen.

One of us is coming out of that bathroom getting beat up, him or me, I don’t care, but I’d do anything to protect my daughter in that situation.

Does that guys heart stink?

Yeah… He’s probably a pedophile or worse.

What does that have to do with identity?

Everything actually.

I believe God does desire to give you your hearts desire, even if your heart’s desire is bad.

Because God is good and loving, he will not force you to love Him.

Having said all that, I also believe God’s greatest aim in your life is that you love Him.

So, He will allow tragedy, hardship, and any number of bad things to happen to you if it will remind you that He is there, waiting for your love.

He allows bad things to happen if through the bad we remember how much God has been through for us.

What His sacrifice cost him…

But if you live your entire life rejecting Him…

What was your heart’s desire?

Well, again, it could be any number of things, but if you die without God and you lived your life without Him.

What you communicate to Him is that your heart’s desire is not for God.

Which leads me to conclude, God is so gracious to us, he won’t force us to love Him even if that means we go to Hell.

Why? Because God will give you what you want ultimately even if what you lived for in the one life you had was for anything but God.

God won’t then force you to live in heaven with Him.

He will give you what you desire; namely, not God.

Specifically, if you lived for Hell, God will give it to you.

WOw.

That’s heavy this morning.

SO how do I know if my heart’s desire is for God?\

This is God’s will.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified...”

What is Sanctification?

There are 3 big words that we don’t use often but we probably should.

Justification, Sanctification, glorification.

Justification is our legal status before God.

We are righteous in Christ.

2. Sanctification is holiness.

In many places in scripture Paul refers to believers as saints.

For example Romans 1:7 “7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 1:7 “7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints...

Some argue that justification is our position before God but that sanctification is us doing our part to become Holy.

In that position, I think it assumes there is something we need to do that is greater than what Christ did on the cross.

Therefore, I disagree with that.

Sanctification then is simply this.

I agree with God.

Justification, I am righteous before God.

Sanctification, when my actions are now put the the test, I agree with God.

In your life, your mind isn’t always going to agree with God.

As you live, you may push back on what God says about you, who you are in Christ.

But it’s those moments that we need to agree with Him the most!

The more you agree with God, the more sanctified you are. period.

3. Glorification then is who we are in the presence of God. It’s what only happens when we are in heaven with Him.

SO what does this verse mean then that we read in 1 Thessalonians?

This is what it means.

Like we talked about night one. Are you fearful?

1 Peter 5:7 “7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Agree with God! Give him your fears.

Don’t hold that in!

Do you struggle with perfection?

TItus 3:5 “5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You in yourself can never be perfect, but in Christ, He calls us saints.

We could go on and on hear, but that’s santification.

Knowing His Word and agreeing with Him.

In our Spirits, we are either alive in Christ or we are not.

Even if we are in Christ, our mind, will, and emotions, our Soul, may not always agree with God.

That’s where we run to Him… and say. How you love me.

You’re not mad and your not scary.

And all the shame and guilt I’ve carried, is why you died for me.

This is God’s will for you that you live in that freedom.

But what is not God’s will for me?

2. This is not God’s Will.

2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

It’s not God’s will that anyone be apart from Him.

But again, He’s not going to force you to love HIm.

But why would you reject Him?

Why would I say no to the one who always moves towards me, no matter how bad I am?

Let’s just stop for a moment and think about who we are.

IF you were here Sunday, you saw this How Great is our God Louis Giglio video.

In it, He talks about how massive the universe is.

He shows tons of different stars in the galaxy and how massive they are compared to us.

When you look up at the night sky, you can’t help but feel small.

We’ve all felt the heat of the sun this week…

How many of you think you could take on the sun in a fight?

Nobody… lol.

Yet, God made this.

Colossians 1:17 “17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

The sun is nothing for God.

And yet, God doesn’t value the sun the way he values you…

Little you.

We who think we are so big and bad we can just make up new evils every day.

When all along, we know we can’t even go outside for 2 hours without sun screen without the sun kicking our butt.

But sin does that to us.

It goes back to Eve in the garden and it constantly asks us, “Did God really say?”

It’s a question that puts doubt in our mind.

It makes us question whether or not we believe God is trustworthy or not.

But friends, this is not God’s will.

Why?

Because as we already heard this morning, God’s love for you isn’t based on your doubts, insecurities, confidence, or strengths.

God’s love for you is based on just the fact that you exist!

Why would we allow then our heart to desire anything less?

Why would we trade God’s love for a lesser love?

Why?

*Superhero Illustration*

The call to follow your heart is not really a marketable story to tell in hollywood.

No one wants to watch the character who just gets their way all the time.

No the movies that sell the most are actually the ones that emulate the story of Jesus.

A sacrificial Hero who’s willing to put all of His desires aside to sacrificially give himself for those He loves.

Superman, Batman, Avengers…

All of these stories that we love involve sacrifice.

When Batman is at his lowest point in the Dark Knight movie, Alfred comes to him and says,

“Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.”

He can make the choice that no one else can… The right choice.

Is that not the message of the cross?

That Jesus made the choice no one else could.

Giving His life for us.

Sacrificial love.

God’s will is that no one would die without Him, but He’s gracious enough to give you eternity without Him if that’s what your heart desires.

God’s will is that you live with Him, and He’s so sacrificial, He’s going to constantly remind you that we need to agree with Him.

Because agreeing with the God of the universe is freedom.

APPLICATION:

5000 years from now, let’s say someone finds your bones. They examine your bones and what do they determine.

You know, physically based on your bone structure, they will be able to determine if you were a male or female.

Isn’t that amazing?

We live in a time where we ignore entire careers like forensic anthropology that literally identifies people by their bones.

You know what a forensic anthropologist can’t identify?

A transgender person!

You know why, because there’s only 2 genders!

You and I may know this, but our friends don’t guys.

We live in a Romans 1 world.

But the honest truth is, it doesn’t matter what you identify with physically tonight, in 5000 years, an anthropologist will still say yeah, she was female. or yeah, he was male.

Because that’s how God made us.

And even more to the point.

10,000 years from now you will spiritually be identifiable as well.

You are either in Christ or your not.

If you are in Christ, God will give you your hearts desire which is Him.

you will be living forever with Him in the greatest place in all creation.

If you are not in Christ, God will also give you your heart’s desire which is not Him.

Which are you choosing tongiht?

God is so big, and yet He has gone to infinite lengths to say Hey! I’m here!

I love you.

Why don’t you come experience my love?

Drink from the living waters.

Taste my words and find them life-giving.

What is your heart’s desire?

Is it for the one who gave it all for you? Or is it for yourself.

If we are living for self, we will just be a pile of bones.

If we are living for Christ, we will gain Him.

May we never trade the eternal God for anything less.

In Him, you live and move and breathe and have our being.

Acts 17:28Acts 17:28 “28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”

Let’s chase that today and every day.

A life hidden in Christ.

May this be our desire.

To be in Christ today and 10,000 years from now and forevermore.