Do you DESIRE God??

I don’t believe Love is just doing the right thing. I don’t believe love is just keeping the commandments, and I don’t believe love is just being patient, and kind, that’s what love looks like when it walks and talks, but love is PASSION!

Let me ask you a question, do you have a PASSION for God? Do you desire Him? Do you long for him? Yes we all go through times in which our hearts are dull, yes, we go through times when we need to be encouraged, yes we go through times when our eyes are mesmerized by things they should not be, yes we all struggle in that. 

But if someone were to look at your life, would they say, “This person has a passion for God! Not for ministry, not for missions, not for evangelism, but for God!”

The sign of a genuine work of God in the heart is that you begin to hate the sin you once loved and you begin to love the righteousness you once ignored. The question is not, do you agree with that or are you challenged. The question is, is that a reality in your life. Is it? Young lady, young man, elderly man, elderly woman, middle age man in the prime of life, is it a reality in your life, are you continuing to grow in your hatred for sin and in your love for righteousness? That’s the question!

So it’s not a question of “do you want to do the right thing? Or do you want to be moral or do you want to have a good life?” It is this! Do you desire Him!???

I hate preaching that goes like this: “You know, you’ve got a wonderful life, yuppy! You got a really nice house and really nice job, and you’ve got a really beautiful wife, and you’ve got 1.25 children, and you’ve got three cars, and Subaru’s and suburban’s, and you just got a great life. Everything fits perfectly in place. You just lack one thing. You lack Jesus!!!” 

That is the most disgusting thing you could ever tell someone. What would be more appropriate to say is, “Sir, your life is nothing. It has no value at all apart from Jesus Christ. He is not some little accessory that a yuppy puts on top of his life as though it were a cherry on top of ice-cream. You have Jesus and Jesus has YOU, or you are barren and wasted and lost. 

So it’s not a question of “Do you want a better life and do you want to go to heaven, do you want to fix your marriage, and do you want all these things! No! Do you want God? Do you desire Him?”

Everyone knows they are a sinner. They just don’t realize how heinous and terrible that is! Nor do they want to let go of the very thing that they choose to drink down as though it were water. So you see, the question is not, “Do you recognize you’re a sinner!” The question is, “What has God done to your heart?”

People come to me all the time and they say, “I have a new relationship with God!” And I say, “Well, do you have a new relationship with sin, because if you don’t have a new relationship with sin, you don’t have a new relationship with God.”

Has God done such a supernatural work in your heart through the Holy Spirit that although prior to that you have lived a life of ignoring God, of hating God, you now see Him as esteemed above all things. And you desire Him above ALL things?!

God is infinite. Heaven will be an infinite chase and infinite tracking down of the glories of God. But most don’t want that. Even most who attend evangelical churches. And I can prove it, because they don’t want it now. If you don’t want it now, you wont want it then. Because eternal life does not begin by dying and going to Heaven. He says, “This is eternal life that they might know you, the only true God.” Might Know YOU!!!! And that begins the moment He regenerates your heart, and reveals to you God. 

So the big question, Do you desire Him?

Thoughts from talk by Paul Washer, "Do you Desire God" given unknown date