Thirsting After God

Good morning. Why don't we pray, Lord Jesus, thank you that we're able to come into this place and we ask the Holy Spirit to come and minister unto us, that you would quicken unto us life, healing and deliverance, that we would come to see you, Jesus, not with our natural eyes, but in the eyes of our spirit, that we would come to know you, to hear your voice and to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. I was reading this morning from Psalms in chapter 63. I want to read a few verses from that this morning. Psalms in chapter 63, verse 1. O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and a thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. I read this this morning and I started weeping. And I said, Lord, I don't want my soul to thirst for other things. Throughout the day, we have all kinds of thoughts and things that come into our heads. We have all kinds of desires that we have for our family and for our future. We take decisions to do good and to get ahead and to plan a way. But Lord, you direct our steps. And I want to be one who seeks God early. In other words, rather than getting up and thinking about how I can plan my way, I say, Lord, I want your will to be done in my life. I spend enough time thinking about how I can satisfy my flesh and my soul thirsting for other things. But I want to thirst for God, for the living God. And the brother writes this psalm. He says, my soul thirsts for God. When I read that, I started weeping. I put my Bible down. I put my glasses down and I started to pray. I said, God, I want to thirst for you to see your power and your glory in my life. To see your power and your glory in my family, in my children. To see your power and your glory in our little fellowship that we have among our people and our neighbors and our relatives. Lord, I want to thirst for you. My flesh would thirst for you. My soul would long for the living God. For the word that brings life. And at that moment, I got a text from someone in my family. You know, they asked me a question about something. And I responded and said, my heart's desire is that I would thirst in my soul for God. To see his power and his glory manifested among us. You know, yesterday was my birthday and we had a nice food of all the family was there. All the good things. But somehow at the end of it, I said, it wasn't Christ-centered. A lot of stuff going on. It wasn't Christ-centered. You know what? It's my fault. It's my fault that it wasn't. And I missed an opportunity to bring Jesus and to lift him up among my people. And I felt kind of empty when I went to bed. And I said, God, this has to change. This has to stop. Where we just get together and we find fellowship in the flesh, but we don't find fellowship in the spirit. And we all confess Christ, but we don't long to see his power and his glory among us. That has to come from a thirst from within. We have to repent of these things and ask the Lord to give us that kind of a heart. David was a man after God's own heart. When all those brothers came there one by one, and he came and he was going to pour his oil, the oil wasn't flowing for any of those brothers. There was no anointing going on any of that flesh there. But the oil flowed when David came and stood before Samuel. That's when the oil flowed, because it was said of him that David had a heart after God's own heart. It doesn't matter how small the task. It doesn't matter how menial the job. It doesn't matter how insignificant it seems your life is. We want the oil to flow. We want the anointing of God on our life. Eliab was head and shoulders above the rest. Samuel was impressed. God was not impressed. He said, this one, don't look at how man sees on the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. Don't look at how much scripture someone might know and how well equipped they might seem for the ministry or to do something great for God. God wants to do something great for you. And he took David when he had a desire in his heart to build a house for God. He had a desire to make a great name for God because he was feeling guilty. He came after God took him and established him as king over Israel over that process of time in the cocoon of his dealings. That he was living in this wonderful house of cedar. And there was the Ark of the Covenant dwelling among God's people in a small tent. I think he felt something kind of guilty. And it came into his heart, man, I got to do something great for God because he's done all kinds of great things for me. And he went to the prophet and he said, this is what I have planned to do. I want to build a house for God. And the prophet says, seems good to me. Do all that's in your heart. But God spoke to Nathan, the prophet, and he said to him, he said, listen, when did I ever ask for a house, a house of cedar to dwell in? When have I ever asked for that? He says, I've been with my people in this Ark moving from place to place in the wilderness. I wanted to always be among my people. But since the fall of Adam, I could not dwell within those people. And so I've had to move with them from tabernacle to tabernacle. God has a desire to tabernacle with you people. He wants to take us from tent to temple. He wants to move us from a place of lowliness and humbleness of spirit and heart to make us great in the sight of God. He said, David, I saw you when you were looking after those small sheep. And your brother said, who did you leave those sheep with when your heart was stirred up against the Goliath, when this Goliath came and was mocking me? And your heart was bold as a lion, full of faith. You said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should speak like this about my God? And your brother said, where did you leave those few sheep? Just go home. You're just but a youth. Don't let anyone despise your youth. Paul said to the Timothy, don't let anyone despise you in your youth. Be full of faith and seek to see his power and his glory manifested in your life. He said, I was with you when you destroyed the bear and the lion with your hands. I empowered you. I put that fearlessness in you. We see the brothers full of zeal, leaving all their nets, leaving all their tax box, leaving everything when Jesus calls them to follow Jesus. They forsook all to follow him. But now we see them in this boat oaring against the seas. And Jesus is coming in the fourth watch. I think it is in the night. And they are afraid because they seem it's a ghost. And when Jesus said, fear not. And Peter says, if it's you, Lord, then call me out of the boat. I want to come see you. I want to be where you are. I want to be full of faith to walk on water. Jesus said, come. He heard the word, come, Peter. Peter got out of the boat and he began to go to Jesus. Peter was walking on the water. But something changed. Just like what happened when the children of Israel saw the giant. They saw his stature. They heard him mocking. They saw his might. They saw his armor. They saw his shield bear and his shield and his sword, the mighty sword he wielded. And he said, choose a man to fight with me. And all the children of Israel trembled in fear. But not David. David was full of faith because he had proved God's faithfulness up till that point in his life. He did not look at his circumstances. He did not look at the giant. He did not look at his armor. He did not look at the impossibility of the situation. He looked to his God. When Peter got out of the boat and the waves were there and they were boisterous and the wind was blowing. He did not look at the waves. He did not see the boisterous seas. He saw Jesus. But then something changed. He got his eyes off of Jesus. And he got his eyes on the circumstances. You know, many times, brothers, sisters, we get our eyes on Jesus. We forsake all to follow him. And then we don't understand what's going on around about us. And all the hell is breaking loose. And all the torrents and the waves and all the billows are coming over us. And we get our eyes on the problems. We become overwhelmed with the circumstances. And we lose sight of Jesus when the waves are crashing over our heads. Peter saw the waves and he began to sink. The children of Israel saw the giant and their hearts were filled with fear. And their hearts melted before the Philistine champion. And Jesus, he called on the name of Jesus. And Jesus lifted him up and set him back in the boat. And came in the boat with those brothers. And he said, why did you doubt? It says their hearts were filled with fear. Why did you doubt? Many times, brothers, we start well in faith. And then we start going by what we see. And we become discouraged and we begin to spiritually sink. And faith goes somewhere. We need to thirst and long for God. We need to put our hope in God. For I shall yet praise him. I think of Nehemiah. He gets a report that all Jerusalem for the last 70-something years has been destroyed. And he's the cupbearer for this new king that's there. And the report comes that God's people are just in bad shape. They're in rough. They're discouraged. They're in bondage. They're hurting. And he starts to cry when he hears about his brothers not doing well. Do you have this kind of a heart when you hear about your brothers not doing well? That you get so burdened and you cry? This brother started fasting. He was so sad that when he went to bring the cup before the king, he was always happy before the king. And he said, why is your countenance sad? Before this happened, this Nehemiah, he started repenting. He started confessing the sins of those people who were in bondage. Those people who had sinned. He started confessing his own sins and the sins of his father's house. And then he reminded God of his promise that said, if we will humble ourselves and we'll repent, then God will bring us back into that place of peace and joy and security. He has wounded us. But if we repent, he will bandage us. He has torn us. But if we humble ourselves, he will raise us up again. And the king granted him his request to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. Some of us, our hedge of protection has been broken down. We have not kept our promises to God and our covenant to him, to love him with the whole heart, to seek him early and often, to thirst for God, to our flesh, to long for the living God that we might see his glory and his power. We've exchanged that glory for some other diminishing glory, some other fading glory for perhaps to make a name for ourselves in this life. The next verse says, your loving kindness is better than life itself. And as I said, Lord, I want your loving kindness to be better than life itself. Weaves of the Holy Spirit started to come over me and overwhelm me of his love. And I just wept there. I couldn't see, just wiping tears of just his loving kindness. That my life would count for something, that your life would count for something. That it wouldn't be what we do with these hands and these feet and this flesh for ourselves that would last. But that after everything is sifted and all things, the fire comes to it, that what we are able to hold in our hands is not only ashes, brothers and sisters, but there's something of precious that comes from Jesus Christ. Oh, that our soul would thirst for God, that our heart would long for God, that our flesh would cry out for the living God. I believe this is the kind of man David was. I mean, this is the kind of heart David had. When it comes into his heart to do something for God, God says, no, David, I want to do something for you. And God wants to do something for you. We have it in our heart to do some ministry for God, maybe to build an orphanage for God, maybe to help some poor for God. Maybe we want to see the drug addicts and the alcoholics get born again for God. God wants to do something also for us, because if he doesn't do something for us, we'll never see his power and his glory. We won't see any of those things to be fully yielded to the master. We're a slave to whom we obey, whether to sin, which leads to death, or to the flesh, which leads to destruction, for the wages of sin is death. But what about the gift of God? Do you desire the gift of God? Eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Was shared earlier, in him is life. Thy loving kindness is better than the natural life in itself. But in him is life, life eternal. I have, but still I ask for more. Do we long for more from the Holy Spirit? Do we long to see his glory and his power poured out among our people, among our relatives, among our neighbors, in our city, in our country? When his eyes roam to and fro throughout the earth, seeking one, who seeks after God, will he find one? Will he find a few? When we see our circumstances, we sink. When we get bad reports, we hear bad reports, we become fearful and discouraged. Nehemiah, he went and he encouraged his brothers. He went to Jerusalem. He found a way to get there. The king granted him his request. He said, listen, we've got to start to rebuild this wall. And as it began, he was able to bring everybody into unity. They're all in different places in their walk. They're all in different places in their journey. But he was able to inspire them to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, the wall of protection from our enemies. I think of a scripture in Micah 6a that says, What is good, O man? What does the Lord require of you? To do what is right, justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly. I believe Nehemiah says he feared God. Whenever he started to establish people, and he said he put this one in charge of this thing, and he put that one in charge of that thing. Then when he left, he found someone who feared God. There's more than anyone that he knew. And he put them in charge. He always put people in charge who had a fear of God. And they all in one accord. They were all stationed in different places. They started to rebuild this wall that was broken down. It said all the stones have been burned with fire. I read in my margin, I thought of how many brothers and sisters have gone from different churches, different fellowships. And people have hurt them along the way, and they've all been burned. And they become discouraged with church. They become discouraged with religion. They become discouraged with their faith. And we see people scattered all over the place. They once were faithful members in a church and a wonderful blessing. And now they're sitting on the side of the road discouraged. They've been burned. Where are the Nehemiahs that would say, listen, let's band together in unity of spirit. Let's come together and restore those old waste places to repair those breaches in the wall. And then the bad reports started to come. Sanbal and Tobiah, these guys, they were like from the pit. And they start bringing bad reports, and they start discouraging, trying to discourage the people. And then to put fear. Fear will always stop spiritual growth. Fear will cripple you. You start to hear the bad reports. You start to see the ways. It shuts down faith. But Nehemiah strengthened the brothers. Nehemiah said, brothers, build. And then they said, listen, we're going to come. They saw the first, they were mocking, saying this, whatever you're doing there, if a fox goes up on that wall, it's going to fall down. That feeble work you got going over there. Where are those few sheep that you, who did you leave those few sheep with that you're taking care of? What kind of a job do you think that you're doing? You're doing this on your own accord. We got to shut this down. This is an embarrassment. And they go and they bring this report. It doesn't deter Nehemiah from the course. They're building and they're restoring. And it talks about setting the families over certain sections of the wall and different people and different tribes. And then it says they got to the wall where it was half built. And when Tobiah and Sanbal heard that the gaps were being closed up, they got very, very angry. The enemy will get very, very angry if you start to fill in the gaps and you start to build the protective hedge of God's wall in prayer. You start to encourage people to seek God. You start to call on people to repent and return. The enemy will get very angry. And you'll start to get all kinds of opposition. But don't let fear flood your heart. Be full of faith. Allow the Holy Spirit to continue the work in your life, to continue the work among God's people, to build a hedge of protection around your family and around your home. The gaps filled up, the reports came. They're gonna come and they're gonna kill you. They're gonna come and they're gonna put fear in you. And so what they did is they set up watch. They put watchmen on the walls. And there were some who worked, half worked and half watched. And then every man strapped a sword to his side and he worked with one hand and he held the sword with the other. This sword speaks of the word of God. When bad reports come trying to bring fear, stand firm on what God's word says. He has torn us, but he will heal us. He has wounded us. We've been repenting. He's gonna raise us up. It doesn't matter what we've done in the past. What matters is that we rise again and bless his name. What matters is that we begin to be obedient to what God's word says. That we begin to walk faithful and fearfully before him because we're fearfully and beautifully made. Then Sanballat and Tobiah get to the prophet. You better go hide yourself in the temple because they're coming to seek your life. He says, I'm not going to hide. I'm not a hider. I'm gonna stand right on the front lines and I'm gonna build with the people and I'm gonna stand in faith to the people and I'm gonna have my sword strapped on also because I'm not gonna be a coward. You know what? There's no cowards that inherit the kingdom of God. We talk much about the homosexuals and with the adulterers. We talk much about the liars. We talk much about the covetous, but we don't talk about the cowards. We cannot be cowards in the kingdom of God. The cowards and the unbelieving are also cast out of the kingdom. We cannot continue in fear. We have to walk in faith. Be strong in the Lord and not in your own power, but the power of his might. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day. This armor is not something that we have to pray on. This is armor that is God's armor. It's not Saul's armor, brother, sisters. David put on Saul's armor. He says, I haven't tested these. He had tested God's armor, which is faith, a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation, a sword of the spirit. When he grabbed Goliath's sword, that sword which was meant for evil, God used it for good. He took Goliath's head. When he came into Jerusalem holding Goliath's head, faith filled the hearts of those fearful men who will be the men of David, who will rise up full of faith. When fear grips the people and says, let us serve God for he alone is God. No, David, I don't want you to build a house for me. I want to make you a house. When have I ever asked for a house? He dwells in the high and the holy place at the right hand of the power. And he also dwells with him who is humble, who is contrite in spirit and who trembles when the word of God is preached. That is where he dwells. Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where is the house you'll build for me? And where is the place of my rest? These stones that were built, that were burned with fire, they begin to come together stone to stone. He says in Ephesians 2 that he is building us up a spiritual house in the spirit, a heavenly Jerusalem as a bride adorned for a husband. He is going to make us beautiful. The foundation of the apostles and prophets being knitted together. We need the Holy Spirit to knit us together that we might become beautiful in his eyes. I love that verse from Ecclesiastes. I think it's nine or 10 that says he will make everything beautiful in his time. We need to give him time to work in our life. We don't want to rush ahead as Brother Dan shared and light our own fires and get things happening. We want to wait on God so that he makes it happen. Otherwise it won't become beautiful, brothers, sisters, it won't be beautiful. We want him to make it beautiful. I think of a scripture that says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. We're so governed by our five senses, so governed by what we can see and what we hear and what we can taste and what we can smell and what we can touch. If we can't see it, it doesn't exist. If we don't hear it, I can't hear it, it doesn't exist. Well, if I can't taste it, it's not good. If I can't touch it, I won't believe. Thomas said, I've got to touch it. I've got to put my hands into it. Otherwise I won't believe. I've got to put my fingers into your hands. The Lord allowed it. We have to come to a place where we get in the spirit. Having eyes, we can't see. But having no eyes, blind Bartimaeus, his eyes were not working. But his ears were working. He could hear Jesus was passing by. He wanted to see Jesus. And he cried out to the son of David to have mercy on him. Now God made a promise to David. He said, from your own body, I'm going to raise up a son who will build me a house. And David said, you have spoken great things for many years to come about my house. Who am I that you're mindful of me? So many of us come to believe that this is Solomon who went and built God this elaborate temple. But it was prophesied that it would be Jesus who would build God a house where he would become that priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. He would be a priest over this house. A spiritual house. A house for God. Son of David. This is that son who would build a house for God. Solomon's temple was destroyed and tore down. God's glory did fill it, yes. But the former house had less glory than the latter house that will be. Because he said he's going to fill us with his glory and his power. We want to see his glory and his power. They saw the glory of God and the power of God come down on the sacrifice. The whole temple was filled with smoke. The people fell on the pavement and they cried out to all the people. He is good. His love endures. His love and kindness endures. But the glory of the latter house is going to be greater. Well, I haven't seen it. So I don't believe it. I've heard about it, but I don't believe it. All I see and all I hear is bad reports. We need to overcome that. We need to repent of going by the things in the natural and we need to get in the spirit. He said it. I believe it. It's good enough for me. The glory of the latter house is going to be greater than the glory of the former house. He said we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I'll walk among them. I will be their God. They should be my people. What was impossible with man, God did in reconciling man back to himself through the cross, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we have the right to eat from the tree of life. That flaming angel there is no longer standing, blocking our way to the tree of life. That bridge was rebuilt through what Jesus did so that we now can become like Jesus, made into that same image that Adam was before the fall from glory to glory. Almost sounds like a heresy, but it's true. When we are filled with the spirit of God, he is conforming us to be made in the image of his son, to become more and more like Christ. And this is when the power and the glory will be revealed. If you can believe all things are possible to him who believes, then let's say, Lord, have thine own way. You're the potter. It looks like you're breaking me down for some reason. I don't understand what's going on, but I trust my life in your hands and your loving kindness. If you're going to crush me and reshape me and make me after thine will, then I'm trusting you. It's better than life that I have now. Mold me and shape me and make me beautiful in your time. Here I am, Lord, have all of me is our prayer. Here I am, Lord, take me as I am. Help me to become as you are, that I might fulfill that purpose and call of God that you have specifically for me in this life, that my life would count for something in yours. In Jesus' name, amen.