Inciting Desire

Sunday 03/19/17

Series: Doers of the Word

Message – Inciting Desire I

Inciting Desire

We are going to look at the second question James presents us with in his letter about works of righteousness BY faith – in other words being a Doer.

How do I hear?
How do I remember? (…or not forget)
How do I do (practice)?

Let’s read James 1:22-25,

“(22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

Inciting desire is the key to remembering!

Simple truth is, thing which are important to us, things we love and care for deeply stay in our minds and hearts. We are not likely to forget things we treasure.

We found this key early on in this letter in chapter 1 where James explains the “dark side” of heart devotions. James gives us a short but oh so accurate account of how a heart gets drawn away from intimacy with God into darkness via temptations.

He says,

“Each one is DRAWN AWAY by his own DESIRES and enticed. Desire leads to action and action matures into separation.”

Again, James says this in reference to temptations towards sin, but we’ve discovered that it works in the opposite as well!

Satan has never created a thing in his whole existence… he’s never had an original thought, never done something independent of outside ideas…he is 100% limited to distorting the ideas and creations of God.

So this WHOLE process was actually created BY GOD to work for our good!

You see, we find ourselves drawing near to God due to our DESIRES for Him. As we are “enticed”, those desires are stirred up within in us. This leads to desire becoming an action. Without even trying, we find ourselves drawing near to God in intimacy and righteous actions!

Now there are some differences in terms and function between the natural way we were created to be drawn near to God and the distortion satan has made of it via temptation to draw us away from God.

So before we go further, let’s lay out these terms…

The first is grace or influence.

Where satan tempts God influences.

Satan entices us towards the flesh, towards control and ultimately towards separation from fellowship (death).

God influences us towards the spirit, towards surrender and ultimately towards intimate union with Himself (life).

Below is a “quick-glace” chart to illustrate some of the greatest differences…

Desire that is sustained yields the greatest rewards!

Ask any woman disappointed with her sex life and she will tell you that desire that is coaxed on over a period of hours or even days will culminate in a sexual encounter to be remembered! Desire that has been stirred up and nurtured via enticement over time, creates action!

Inciting desire

One of the most obvious things that encourages growth and works towards inciting desire is hanging around the right people.

If you want to be a success at marketing, hang around with a successful marketer.
If you want to be a success at real estate, hand around with a successful realtor.
If you inciting greater desire for God is your goal, hang around those who have great desire for God!

You see, most people who claim to want “closeness” with God, really don’t! If they did they would be driven to people who are, reading books of the great seekers of the past and devouring their autobiographies. If you are not doing that, and yet claim to desire closeness with God you are deceiving yourself! Plain and simple!

Furthermore, the ones you ARE listening to, hanging around and reading about – are not only your present but your future. We most often hand around people who make us feel good about ourselves or at very least, don’t make us feel bad. We don’t want to be hungry for God, we want to be comfortable!

Lingering in His presence

Exodus 33 tells us about God’s irritation with Israel and how He was not going to go with them through the wilderness but would send His angel before them. The story goes on to reveal that Moses was greatly disturbed by this and decided to seek God.

So Moses did what came naturally to any human being. If those around you are part of the problem…MOVE!!!

Moses pickup up his tent and marched a great distance from the camp of Israel. The scriptures tell us it was FAR outside the camp, and that he called this place the “Tabernacle of meeting”. After a period of time, people from the camp who wanted to seek God would go out of the camp, far into the desert to meet Him at Moses’ tent.

This continued until God and Moses began meeting daily. Moses would go out to the tent of meeting and enter the tent. Moses was protecting his time with God and as a result we see God protected His time with Moses.

As Moses entered the tent, God would come down in a cloud and guard the door of the tent and would speak to Moses face to face as a man would speak with his friend. This became a testimony to all of Israel and they paid it a token of respect, but most of the people did not share Moses’ burning desire to draw near to God…except Joshua!

We will pick up here next week…Blessings!

I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will be mentioned.

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Blessings!

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!