Desire and Resolve

It might be well to warn everybody from the outset that today the sermon isn't going to contain any illustrations, no stories, no entertainment. I haven't turned into a sourpuss totally, but if you're going to get anything out of it, you're going to have to think with me. And if you don't feel up to that, get yourself comfortable and take yourself a little nap.

What I want to share, I think, has bearing basically on what many of us feel, I'm sure, is God's will for us, and not only for us here, but for the body of Christ across the earth, that in spite of the fact that things on the surface are going very well, we can't kit in terms of the way it goes in many urban congregations. And yet, if we are at all sensitive to the leading of the spirit, we're not even scratching the surface. And most of us, I certainly believe that God has much, much, much more that he would have us do.

I don't mean necessarily in terms of gigantic numbers or anything that would attract the attention of Channel 7. But as far as the real basis of the kingdom of God, we haven't scratched the surface. There are things that we will see happening among us and that we long to see taking place in the way of really bringing people into the kingdom and establishing them in the faith, which will happen only when, as believers, first of all, as individual believers, we have settled some issues in our own lives. And God help us.

It's so easy to see what's wrong with my brother and my sister's life, but let's try to think now of our own. Block it all out, everybody else's problems, and all the things that they do or don't do that hinder my faith, which is a lie anyway. I mean, it's a deception, and get down to exactly what has to take place for my faith, each of us, to be what it needs to be if we're going to get on with it.

30-odd years ago, there was a school of thought which suddenly went underground, but which now is, from all appearances, beginning to make its comeback and is about to make a dramatic reappearance on the world scene, a school of thought which believes that a person can accomplish almost anything if that person learns to exercise their will. Now, according to this ideology, the person who learns how to assert their will against their own fears, against the elements of nature, and against their enemies will rule the world. This is the real Superman.

And the nation, which learns how to unify its will and then assert that will against all other nations, becomes the master race. You are what you will. You do what you will to do, according to this teaching.

And phenomenal things have been accomplished by people who adhere to this teaching. But the inspiration for this teaching is the same devil who told Eve that she and her husband would become like gods if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's based on a lie.

All the willpower in the world will never enable you to jump 20 feet in the air, or to fly like a bird, or swim like a fish, or turn yourself into some incredible hulk who can uproot trees and tear down buildings with his bare hands. Nor does the power of the will, the human will, do the job in the moral realm. How many times we've made up our minds that we're going to turn over a new leaf.

I'm never going to do that again. Only to stumble again, and again, and again. From Romans 7, I do not understand my own actions for I do what I do not want, but I do the very thing I hate.

The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Who of us hasn't experienced this? Who of us, by the sheer power of the will, can overcome self-centeredness? But the mistake we make when we discover the futility of willpower when it comes to human sin is that we then tend to flop to the other extreme and believe that the will is useless. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do.

So what good is my will? And we excuse the mediocre lives we live by pointing to the weakness of our will, the weakness of the human will. After all, I'm not some kind of spiritual Superman. I'm weak.

Granted, all the willpower in the world will not enable me to sprout wings and fly. But it is within the power of my will to get myself out of bed in the morning at a decent hour. Willpower will never make me sinless.

But it is within the power of my will to get myself out of bed to turn my back on my delusions and start following Jesus, who is able, and indeed does, deliver me from sin. Paul, who wrote those words, the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do, writes these words just a few verses down the page. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind of the spirit is life and peace.

And to set the mind on the spirit is an act of your will. Further on the page. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So the will joins the Holy Spirit and puts to death the deeds of the body.

Jesus never treats us like robots or zombies. Everything he has to say to us is addressed to our will. Every step along the road of faith works like this.

Jesus stands inside a doorway which he has opened. All the willpower in the world would never open that door for us. He opened it for us with his death and resurrection.

Now he invites us to come through the door to him. Standing outside the door, we see the freedom and the life and the peace that he offers us in himself. And we desire that.

But those blessings do not become ours until our desire for Jesus is transformed into resolve that gets up out of the chair, walks through the door to where he is. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.

We long for that. We want the rivers of living water. To flow out of us, that's our desire.

But the desire for these blessings, God promises us in his son, will never bring them to us by itself. The desire has to be balkanized into resolve that goes through the door and goes and gets them. Draws near to Jesus.

Doesn't rip Jesus off of the blessings and leave him standing there. But it comes to him and finds the blessings in him. So how do we turn our yearnings and our longings, our desire into resolve? Two things.

First, we turn our desire for the kingdom of God into resolve, first of all, by setting our face toward the kingdom and we quit looking back. When the days drew near, Luke nine, for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. But the people would not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. But he said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Here we see the vivid contrast between Jesus who has set his face toward Jerusalem, refusing to look back anymore, and he goes. And these would-be followers who had the very best of intentions, but keep looking back. Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go.

Fox, yeah, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. The son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And immediately the guy starts looking back to see where he's gonna sleep.

He's out. Jesus says to another one, follow me. The man says, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

Let the dead bury their own dead, says Jesus. But as for you, you go and preach the kingdom of God. And there he hangs between his yearning for the kingdom and his attachment to the light outside the door, and he gets nowhere.

Lord, I'll follow you, but let me first go and say farewell to those in my home. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. These well-intentioned followers are moved by desire, which is a beautiful thing.

They desire to follow Jesus, and it springs up like a little seed until the sun gets hot. Then it wilts and looks back. Jesus is moved by resolve.

His face is set, and he keeps going. All right, now, desire is a perfectly good thing. We need more of it.

It was desire which drew us to Jesus, certainly in the first place. But somewhere soon, that desire has to be transformed into resolve, which sets its face toward the kingdom and won't turn to the left or to the right, which puts its hand to the plow and won't look back, or else all we'll ever do is be the little flower that grows up, wilts in the sun. We keep looking back.

One thing have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. One thing have I desired of the Lord.

That's a desire, praise God. That will I seek, excuse me, seek after. That's resolve.

That's the act of the will. Most of us, perhaps all of us in some sense, have been lingering at the stage of desire all our lives when it comes to our relationship with God. We desire visions of heaven, excuse me.

We desire to live a radically committed life. We desire to overcome sin. And we even receive from God in his goodness beautiful tastes of the thing we desire.

He gives us visions of himself and he has poured out upon all of us all kinds of blessings. Power has flowed down upon us from the Holy Spirit that ran out and touched other lives. It was fruit, but in so many cases, it doesn't last.

We've tasted it, we've seen it, we know it belongs to us, we can have it, yet it never seems to take on the fullness of life. It's the only substance in our lives because instead of looking through the door and fixing our eyes on the Lord who waits for us on the other side and calls us to himself, we keep looking back. And what's in there for us will not really be ours until we quit looking back and start moving and keep going.

And shake ourselves loose from everything which tries to hold us back. Which brings us to the second thing which has to happen if our desire is to be fired up and to resolve. If we're gonna get in there, we're gonna have to disengage ourselves, violently if necessary, from everything which tries to hold us on the wrong side of the door.

Why do you think Jesus says to Peter, whom he loves, get behind me, Satan, you're a hindrance to me. You're on the side of man, not of God. You're hindering me, Peter, because you're trying to keep me from getting to the cross.

I'm not gonna let you do it. He does this with his own mother. Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come.

Who are my mother and my brothers? Whoever hears the word of God and keeps it. Those who do the will of God. He keeps pushing his own mother away because Mary senses that something terrible might happen to her son.

She doesn't want that. She's gonna try to save him from it. So he pushes her back.

Oh well, maybe Jesus had to do that, but I don't know if I could. Now great multitudes accompanied him, and he turned to them and said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. The way in is to shake ourselves loose and to renounce the things that hold us out.

Somehow our up and down, hot and cold, in and out desire for the kingdom has to become such a radical resolve that it is willing to absolutely tear itself away from anything that even tries to tempt it back. Now, of course, we're still going to walk through this world. We don't jump up on cloud nine to escape the conflict.

We're going to keep our responsibilities and fulfill them. We're going to do our jobs well. We're going to play with our children.

We're going to rest by the river, but always with a heart, which holds everything but the kingdom at a distance. Even if we have to hate our own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and especially our own life. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

It is possible to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives. That is to live in his presence, to know his peace, to walk in his light, to do his will, to feed his sheep, to manifest his kingdom. But this life of union with God in the midst of the Shemazel of this world will not be in the hands of the Lord.

It will not be ours until we resolve to go in and get it. Not desire, resolve. Until we set our face with Jesus to go with him to Jerusalem and the cross which waits for each of us there.

Even if we have to tear ourselves violently away from anything that tries to detain us. May God help us this day to settle the conflict that rages in our hearts and turn our desire for him into resolve. Now let's just take our time in prayer.

Let's not jump right into prayer. Let's take some time in silence. And then if any of us is moved to good and loud so we can all say amen.

Amen.