Changing Desires

— Sanctity of Life

— This year God is going to work mightily

— Reach your arms out.

— There is someone within your reach that needs Jesus.

Introduction

Last week we saw that God has given us everything we need to grow and change.

Instead of listing your top three resolutions, I want to ask:

A few weeks into the New Year - How many are staying true to your New Year’s resolutions?

Why is it so hard to change?

Many of us are hoping to see an external change: job, money, habits, relationships.

We saw last week that real change happens inside out.

Changing your situation does nothing except change your situation. And your happiness only lasts as long as your situation stays the way you want it.

I want to turn to what I believe is the key to real and lasting change in our life — one that will leave us NEW.

(ESV)

20 My son, be attentive to my words;

incline your ear to my sayings.

21 Let them not escape from your sight;

keep them within your heart.

22 For they are life to those who find them,

and healing to all their flesh.

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.

(ESV)

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

You are driven more by what you desire than by what you know.

“Keep your HEART” - not mind.

Ironic that we find this in the book of Proverbs - wise sayings that give us knowledge on how to live a good life, yet one of the wisest things the Author can give us is to pay attention to our heart.

ILLUST - this is why even though you know you should pass on dessert your desire convinces you to eat the whole pie.

(ESV)

34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

An increase of knowledge will not actually change us:

— The data volumes are exploding, more data has been created in the past two years than in the entire previous history of the human race.

— All this knowledge hasn’t necessarily made us a better people. It is not knowledge of good things or right things that we need. We simply need the desire to do them.

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit Orienting Desire: The Quest to Be Human

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, succinctly encapsulates the motive power of such allure: “If you want to build a ship,” he counsels, “don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Jesus knew this which is why in John’s Gospel when Jesus calls his first disciples he doesn’t question their knowledge or even their beliefs — he questions their desires:

(ESV)

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?”(What do you want?) And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

Discipleship primarily about hungering and thirsting for Jesus.

In discipleship, we are shaped more by our desires than by our doctrines.

Not that doctrines are wrong.

Not that knowledge is not wrong.

Our desire FOR Jesus is what ultimately drives us in discipleship.

Doings without desire become duties.

2 different times I will do the dishes

1) It needs to be done. Perhaps it’s been a busy couple of days and there had been higher priority items to take care of. it is a duty.

2) I want to see my wife smile. My desire for her is the reason I do the dishes.

Same is true in discipleship — Without the desire for the relationship, the ‘doings can become nothing but religious duty.

Bible reading becomes bleh.

Prayer becomes a timed obligation.

How many of us say, “Uggh, I forgot to talk to my spouse today. I’m going to try for 5 minutes a day starting tomorrow, and I’ll try to increase it from there.”

That method is not bad or wrong, but it does point out a lack of desire

Some of us feel this at times.

If we truly had a desire for Jesus, you couldn’t stop us from praying. We wouldn’t forget. We would put more wear on or Bible app than our Facebook app.

I can give you

The longings of your heart directly affect the actions of your life.

(ESV)

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

for from it flow the springs of life. v

There is a direct connection from our heart to our behaviors.

You can mask your desires for a season with behaviors but ultimately your desires will affect your behaviors.

Jesus understood this when he confronted the Pharisees — religious men who worked very hard at modifying their behaviors to look godly:

(ESV)

34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

You can mask your desires for a season with behaviors but ultimately your desires will affect your behaviors.

ILLUST — Suppose I know I should eat healthier so I change my eating behaviors to match that of a rabbit. Things are going great, I’m finally going to be a NEW ME — my behaviors have really changed, This has been the best hour of my life, but then Pastor Don brings in Krispy Kremes and my desires overtake my behavior modification.

Your ultimate love will ultimately drive you.

Its not just about your desireS

Your ultimate love will ultimately drive you.

We are made to love.

Makes sense since we are made in God’s image who is Himself love ()

We are made to pursue.

Westminster Shorter Catachism

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

We were made to have God as our ultimate love. The created pursuing her Creator.

(ESV)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. . . . 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Here is where we need to pause for a moment.

we must determine what our ultimate love is. How do we do that?

If it is true that Your ultimate love will ultimately drive you, then the best way to discover your ultimate love is to see where you’ve been driven.

(Dr. Dorsey tracing ancient roads to find the important cities.)

What areas of your life is most heavily trafficked?

Where do the roads of time, energy, money lead?

Our actions will follow our love.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The Wellspring of Wisdom

Whatever your heart has decided is its ultimate love determines all of the ways in which you make choices in your life. Whatever is the ultimate love of your heart spins out a whole way of making choices and decisions in life.

Children

Money

Career

Marriage

Augustine — “disordered loves”

the above items are not bad — in fact, they are love-worthy, but they cannot be our ultimate.

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit Calibrating the Heart: Love Takes Practice

In 1914, not long after the sinking of the Titanic, Congress convened a hearing to discern what happened in another nautical tragedy. In January of that year, in thick fog off the Virginia coast, the steamship Monroe was rammed by the merchant vessel Nantucket and eventually sank. Forty-one sailors lost their lives in the frigid winter waters of the Atlantic. While it was Osmyn Berry, captain of the Nantucket who was arraigned on charges, in the course of the trial Captain Edward Johnson was grilled on the stand for over five hours. During cross-examination it was learned, as the New York Times reported, that Captain Johnson “navigated the Monroe with a steering compass that deviated as much as two degrees from the standard magnetic compass. He said the instrument was sufficiently true to run the ship, and that it was the custom of masters in the coastwise trade to use such compasses. His steering compass had never been adjusted in the one year he was master of the Monroe.” The faulty compass that seemed adequate for navigation eventually proved otherwise. This realization partly explains a heartrending picture recorded by the Times: “Later the two Captains met, clasped hands, and sobbed on each other’s shoulders.” The sobs of these two burly seamen are a moving reminder of the tragic consequences of misorientation.

*What is your ultimate love?

Our actions will follow our love.

We will do crazy things for love.

EX.

What if we were a people so in love with our Creator that

you need no reminders to read your Bible — I can’t stop you from reading it?

we need to ask you to stop giving.

the competing loves of sports, relaxation, and sleep cannot stop you gathering with rest of your faith family on a Sunday morning.

you can’t wait to get together with the rest of your Life Group

Worship recalibrates our desires.

“Keep” = watch over with “vigilance” = guarding

What do I mean by worship?

not music

not service

Worship = “actions and attitudes which remind us of our ultimate love.”

Wait a minute, I thought you just said that it is our desires which determine our actions and now you are saying our acts of worship shape or desires?

ILLUST — Compass

Accepting Christ changes our True North — fundamental change in our ultimate love

(ESV)

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Acts of worship are our compass to reorient us toward our True North.

Which allows us to walk in the ways of our life

walking does not reorient us. We need to be reoriented in order to walk correctly.

What does this practically look like?

we’ll talk about some of this in the upcoming weeks, but

ILLUST - Doing all the all the actions of a husband does not in and of itself make me a husband — spending time with my wife,

Worship reorders our loves. It places God in his correct place of ‘worthship.’

As we participate in actions and surround ourselves in areas that reorient or heart toward God, we begin to recalibrate our desires.

Conclusion

The understanding: Your are actually driven by your desires.

The challenge: What is your ultimate desire?

The corrective: Worship reshapes our desire.

(ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Oh, that we would each have such a desire