WHAT DO YOU DESIRE?

Intro: Today is Father’s Day and that is a day to celebrate all the Dad’s in the house.

·       For others it is a challenging time because your Father might have passed away.

·       You might be here this morning and you didn’t have a Father that was a role model in your life, so you find it hard to celebrate or even think about.

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

·       We can celebrate that we all have a heavenly Father who loves us and calls us His children.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

·       The Lord desires to prosper you and give you hope and a great future.

·       He desires good things for us.

Intro: WHAT DO YOU DESIRE?

What would be one of your greatest desires?  (Think about it for a minute)

·       What is the one thing you want more than anything else.

·       If I could grant you one wish for anything you desire, what would you ask for.

·       Would you ask for something for yourself……..

·       Would you ask for fame, popularity.. (influencer), be somebody, power or position.

·       Maybe a Husband or a wife……

·       A New Home, wealth (Win the lottery), new car, truckload of beer or a cellar full of wine.

Does your mind immediately think of Earthly things or Spiritual things?

What would you ask for?

·       God asked Solomon that question.

Desires are a powerful force, and the Scripture talks a lot about them… NT and OT

·       What we desire controls our lives….. No matter what culture we are from…

·       For many, their desire for possessions rules their lives.

·       To get a bigger and better home is the driving force in their lives and they will work 50-100 hours a week in a job they don’t like just to get what they want.

·       Even as Christians, we must be careful that we don’t get sucked into that trap.

·       Our desires can take control of our lives instead of God.

Over the past 24 years that I have been a pastor, I have seen many Christians being led by job opportunities, bigger income or wealth and many times ending in disaster.

·       They move to another town or location where they are out of fellowship but now have a better income, but their world falls apart.

·       They were led by their DESIRES and not the leading of the Holy Spirit.

·       Before you make a decision like that, please pray about it.

·       Allow the Holy Spirit to guide your life as the Father desires you to have a hope and a future in Him.

·       Don’t allow your desires to override the Holy Spirit.

·       You don’t want it if it’s not His will.

MONEY IS A WONDERFUL SERVANT BUT A TERRIBLE MASTER!!!

·       Money is not evil. (The Love of money is)

·       Wonderful servant. (serves a purpose)

·       It enables us to achieve those things that God has for us to.

·       We have control over our finances instead of it controlling our lives.

·       If our finances dictate the direction of lives we are putting it ahead of the Lord.

Example: Mission Field: never did we let finances stop us from doing what God called us to do.

·       God opens a door of ministry, and it is going to cost you big time and you don’t have the finances, what do you do?

·       Do you wait for the money, or do you step out in faith and trust that God will provide?

·       Faith always precedes provision.

James 4:13-15 (NIV) 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.”

There are 2 types of desires that we can have:

James 1:13-15   When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

1.    The Apostle James calls them Evil Desires:

Adam and Eve:

Gen. 3:2   The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4   “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.  5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6   When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

1John 2:16 For everything in the world — the cravings/ desires of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world.

Cravings = Desires, lust, greed, intense longing……

When I was a younger fella, I was right into cars.

·       I used to get Street Machine magazine and look at all the cars in there I couldn’t afford.

·       Back then I would have loved to have a Lamborghini Countach (1974-1990).

·       They looked mean with the big wing on the back and sloping front.

·       I ended up buying a sports car when I was about 22. (not a Lambo) (PICTURE)

·       It was the most useless car you could own.

·       No room to put your luggage if you’re going away or groceries from the shops.

·       I had to move house once and it took about a hundred trips as it couldn’t tow a trailer to take my things to the new house.

·       It was useless but it looked good.

·       My desires got me into that situation.

1John 2:16 For everything in the world — the cravings/ desires of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world.

Listen to conversations in the workplace or on a job site….

Boasting about what he has or does: James says.

·       Talking about the latest thing they have bought and bragging about how much they drank at a party over the weekend.

·       They say the bible isn’t relevant to today.

·       Pretty much some’s it up in the book of James.

Prov. 11:6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.

·       We can get trapped in a never-ending quest to get the newest and latest, but it never satisfies.

·       Our evil desires can trap us and keep us bound…

·       Starts off with trying something and ends up as an addiction.

·       Destroy our lives……..

·       People trapped in addictions…

1Pet. 1:14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

1 Peter 4:1-5 (CEV) 1 Christ suffered here on earth. Now you must be ready to suffer as he did, because suffering shows that you have stopped sinning. 2 It means you have turned from your own desires and want to obey God for the rest of your life. 3 You have already lived long enough like people who don’t know God. You were immoral and followed your evil desires. You went around drinking and partying and carrying on. In fact, you even worshiped disgusting idols. 4 Now your former friends wonder why you have stopped running around with them, and they curse you for it. 5 But they will have to answer to God, who judges the living and the dead.

Ephesians 2:3-10 (NIV) 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

1John 2:17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Psalms 37:4-5 (NKJV) 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

Delight yourself in the Lord:

Delight= Enjoy, source of great pleasure, love being with………

Yourself …… You have to make the effort……..

·       Give your life to Him……

·       Spend time with the Lord…. Get into his presence…praise and worship…

·       Develop a relationship with God through prayer and the word…….

·       Get to know Him…..

Matt. 22:37   Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38 This is the first and greatest commandment.  39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

As you delight yourself in the Lord…He will place his desires in you……..

Instead of a desire for the world……………you’ll have a desire for his will…….

Instead of a desire for fleeting things………You’ll have a desire fruit that will last…..

Instead of a desire for possessions……  you’ll have a passion for souls…..

Instead of a desire for the wealth ………you’ll have a love for his word….

Instead of a desire for substances …….you’ll have a desire for a life of substance.

HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART………..

How do I know that the Lord places His desires in my heart?

·       It easy… Before I was a Christian, I didn’t have the desires that I have now.

·       Before I was saved, I didn’t have a desire to see people saved, healed or set free.

·       I had no desire to read the Word or pray, even though I believed that there was a God.

What do you have to do?

Mark 8:34-36 (NKJV) 34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Commit your ways to the Lord…Give him your life…..

He WILL do this……..

John 10:10 (NIV) 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

·       God’s desire for His children is for us to have a life that is fulfilling and blessed in all you do.

That’s the desires of your heavenly Father.

·       Dad’s here today on Father’s Day, what are your greatest desires for your children.

·       Is it for them to be happy, healthy and blessed in all they do?

·       Is it for them to serve the Lord with all their hearts and be committed to Him?

·       If it is, we must lead by example, and they will follow.

Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV) 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

·       We must prioritise God above all things. (Seek first)

Psalms 37:4-5 (NKJV) 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.