Sunday 03/26/17
Series: Doers of the Word
Message – Inciting Desire II
Inciting Desire
We’ve been looking at the three questions James introduces in his letter.
They are…
- How do I hear?
- How do I remember? (…or not forget)
- How do I do (practice)?
Last week we spent time with remembering (as in NOT FORGETTING).
We did this by looking at the meaning of this word and by reverse engineering what James said earlier in his letter.
So what did we say remembering meant (as if not being a forgetful hearer)…?
- Holding onto His words… continues to stay near it & abide in it.
We decided that James gave us a key to understanding this in James 1:14-15, and that this key was DESIRE!!!
READ James 1:14-15,
“(14) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (15) Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
Desire IS to drawing near, what remembering is to enticement.
We ended last week with Moses going out into the wilderness FAR AWAY from the camp to MEET WITH GOD!
God baited him by something He said to Moses, but Moses responded! Moses took responsibility for his own desire and drew away in order to draw near!
Notice that he took responsibility for HIS OWN DESIRE.
The key we found in James 1 is desire, but not one we do not have, but one we DO have!
Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his OWN desire and enticed!
So what do you desire?
Last week we looked at our soul situation on the marker board…
and read Gal 5:16-17,
“(16) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
God works by Influence and satan by temptation
So Moses drew away in order to draw near!
Remember I encouraged you NOT to deceive yourself! If you REALLY desire intimacy with God you will seek after it with all you heart.
Some of the first places this will show up is in…
If you do not seek the company of those who hunger for God YOU WONT!
Remembering what you hear from God requires hunger…desire. Hearing meant – To bend over – stoop down near. This is a HUNGER to hear!
This is the love-sick longing of a lover – which gives REASONS for the REMEMBERING!
It isn’t a religious service – a duty we perform for acceptance.
It is the rapturous response of a heart that has forever BEEN accepted!
I say that to offer an example to you of your company effecting your desires.
The company you keep is a CLEAR indicator of your heart location and condition.
EXAMPLE:
If you were advanced from the sales department to the marketing department, it will require a change in the way you think about and approach sales.
But if all you do is hang around your old friends in the sales department that change in thinking will come very slowly if ever at all.
You will need to put some distance between your past ways and your new developing ways which will require a change in the company you keep.
Moses removed himself from those who were stiff-necked and sought God – Exodus 33.
His young apprentice Joshua followed suite. Lingering at the mouth of the tabernacle of meeting.
We concluded a few weeks ago that those who longing for God became the biggest things in their lives had pressed in long enough – to discover something MOST others miss?
They pressed in long enough to enter that Presence beyond the veil…and once they saw.. they KEPT it – They guarded it, attended to it and observed it. – THEY REMEMBERED!!!
David said, Psa 27:4,
“(4) I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, gazing on His beauty and seeking Him in His tabernacle.”
So there is something TO lingering …
…..FOR His presence
…..IN His presence!
Like Joshua LONGING for God. He did not want to leave the mouth of the tabernacle, even after Moses and God were through talking each day!
God does things ON PURPOSE to stir that longing.
I mentioned one of the things God does a few weeks ago…using the real life examples of Jesus cooking breakfast for his disciples and talking with them on the road to Emmaus.
You remember Jesus hid Himself from their view…WHY?
To cause them to see with truer eyes, to evoke in them a desire to seek Him more.
The example from the Song of Solomon, had the lover in the streets crying out their name… “Has anyone seen my beloved?”
OTHERS QUESTIONED, “What makes Him so special?”
What she remembered of Him!
She begins to pour out her heart, explaining the virtues of her lover in languid, love sick tones only the heart hears and only the heart can fully understand!
What was the result? STRANGERS were willing to join in on the search.
Drawing near requires desire and desire grows to ENTICEMENT by remembering!
What did Peter say was the reason for backsliding?
2Peter 1:8-9,
“(8) For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
What causes us to forget?
Visions of Self – The flesh is the veil that was torn and the one we erect.
It is the self-life that blinds us to who and Whose we are. It is a penetrating darkness that leaves us listless and empty.
- Always wandering but never arriving
- always longing but never satisfied
- always seeking but never finding.
But I thought those who seek WILL find. This is true, but you will find what you are seeking, not what you never sought.
Are we seeking fulfillment we can grasp, hold and control or are will seeking Him AS our fulfillment?
Is it a seeking like a burning desire for God specifically or will any spiritual fast food do? You see, you get what you seek.
Turning back to chapter 1 James tells us that every man is tempted when he is DRAWN AWAY….from what? Intimacy, close and vulnerable interrelationship with the Father and Christ.
Many have only visited there on brief and rare occassions since they spend nearly the whole of their time – drawn away from Him.
But this position of closeness is what we were born to – it is the NORM for the children of God to live their whole lives in His presence.
Distance has become SOO familiar to the Christian that intimacy seems as odd as wearing wet socks.
It is both foreign and unfamiliar and far too penetrating to wear well!
And while our souls have grown accustomed to the distance…our spirits never will!
Our spirits urge us to seek for it, but the soul is far too easily satisfied with the mundane to require anything more.
Drawing near is a phrase that appears a few times in scripture and they all teach us more about the process.
God tells Israel the same thing James is telling the church here in chapter 4 – in fact it could be soundly argued that James was drawing from Deut. when he wrote these words in this chapter.
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.
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Blessings!
