Hungering and Thirsting for God - Pt. 2B

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, December 13th. Have you ever felt like you are drifting through life with no real purpose? Today's podcast elevates your thinking by pointing you to the foundational goal of being like Christ. If somebody described the hungers in life and said to you, what are you hungering for in life? What are you looking for in life?

Is it something, somebody? Would you say that the uppermost thought in your day, in an average day, is what you're going to get, what you're going to receive, what you're working for, some thing, some relationship? What is it most of all? Because you see, the way you relate to our Heavenly Father and your relationship to Him is going to impact your time, your schedule, your money, your relationships, your feeling of acceptance or rejection. You see, there's so much wrapped up in the way we sense our relationship to Him and His relationship to us. And if we allow the world to appeal to us to such a degree that God is crowded out of our life, my friends, you're going to go through life missing the best. Missing the best because you allowed yourself to follow the appeal of the flesh. The flesh, that means our naturalness.

We all came in the world of that. Real feelings, we want to satisfy, gratify our flesh, our naturalness. But if you purpose in your heart to build a beautiful relationship with the Lord, which you can do, for the simple reason, the most important thing in your life is your relationship to the Father. And He will make that possible because He says, listen, that's the desire of His heart. So what we have to ask is this, if God has created us with this desire in our heart, if He's created us with a hunger and thirst for Him, then how will I ever know whether I have that or not? What is the first thing?

The first evidence, now watch this, these answers are all simple, but they're the answers. And so I want to ask you to be honest and listen carefully. Make no judgment at this moment, just listen. One of the first evidences that a person has a genuine, hungering, thirsting desire for God, and that kind of relationship is, they're going to have a love, they're going to have an interest, they're going to have a desire for the Word of God.

Can't get enough. That's why that kind of person comes to church on the Lord's day with a Bible and a pen and a pencil, a pen and a piece of paper. Not only do you want to hear something, you want to remember it. You want to jot down a passage of Scripture. Well, what was that passage of Scripture?

I need to get that down. I don't want to miss that. If you ever hunger for God, listen, you'll never be able to get enough of it. Here's what you'll do. You'll read a passage of Scripture. You may read two or three chapters or whatever it might be, and you don't necessarily feel like that God said something specific to you, but you may read the next day and you may read one verse and say, Lord, thank you, Father.

Thank you, Jesus. That's exactly what I needed, and what happens? You begin to discover things about our Lord that you never know otherwise.

What happens? It creates a hunger and a thirst in your life to do what? To read some more and to read some more and to read some more and to meditate. Not just read it, but to meditate upon it, which means you're going to ask questions about it. God, how does that apply to my heart?

What are you trying to say to me, Lord, about all this? That is, this book is going to become a priority in your life. This book's all about God. This book unveils to us who God is, how He thinks, what He does, what He says, how He works in our life, the consequences of sin, the consequences of obedience.

It's all right here in one book. Now, if I'm going to develop a relationship with Him, I want to know how He thinks. I want to know how He reasons. I want to know His ways.

There's no such thing. I've never met a person in all these years who had a godly, deep, abiding devotion and hungering, thirsting for God, who did not have a hunger and thirst for the Word of the living God. They want to know Him. And as I've read back through the years, not only great outstanding Christians that God's used in great ways, but other people and meet many people. You can tell in a little bit of the conversation, yes, the person has a hunger for God, can't keep quiet. The Word of God, listen, this is where we come to seek knowledge and wisdom and strength and guidance in our life.

And here's what will happen. You have a hunger and thirst for Him, you're going to have a hunger and thirst for what He's saying about where you are at this point in your life, what's going on, and what's happening and how He can operate in your life at that point. What happens as a result builds your faith. And listen, what does it build your faith in? It doesn't just build your faith in the pages of the Word of God, it builds your faith in the person of God. This is the revelation of God. We don't worship this book.

We worship the God who reveals Himself in this book. And what happens is we begin to get excited. And then you know what happens? Every time you open this book, it's like digging for gold. You know that there's something precious here.

You don't want to miss it. And all you have to do is to begin, pursue this relationship with Him. God speak to my heart. Let the Holy Spirit show me the truth. What does this verse mean?

What is it saying to me? You know what's going to happen? Your faith's going to begin to grow. You're going to dig like someone who is excited about what they're about to find because you're going to find one negative truth after the other, one principle after the other that will guide your life. You know what it does? It equips you to face life.

It equips you to live. You can face no matter what when you have that kind of relationship with Him. Now, the second thing, evidence that we have this kind of hungry and thirsting relationship with Him is this. You're going to love to spend time with God. How can you spend time with God when He's out yonder somewhere?

No. Jesus said, I am abiding within you. If a person has a genuine love for God, they're going to want to spend time with Him. You're going to want to spend time with Him. If you desire a personal relationship with Him and you begin to pursue that, God will begin to speak to you in ways you never dreamed of.

You just have to take my word for it because I can't prove it except I can prove it in my own life and the lives of many other people who say, yes, God speaks. Yes, He makes it clear. Yes, He gives guidance. Yes, He knows how to bring us to the right decision.

Yes, He does. When you pray, what do you ask for? Do you tell Him how much you love Him? Do you express your gratitude toward Him? Do you thank Him for being the God that He is? And when you read the Scripture and you see how He's worked in people's lives and do you thank Him for the way He worked in David's life here? Do you praise Him for the fact that He's got so many things in the Bible that apply to us and it sounds just like us when we get in trouble or being tempted of difficulty or hardship? You see, the truth is we make requests to Him. He answers our prayer. He takes our burden and what happens?

In the process of growing in our relationship to Him, we begin to understand what kind of God is this? Have you ever felt that nobody cared, nobody even knew you were alive? You get on your face before God and you've sensed this awesome sense of presence in your life and this presence is none other than God Himself? You can't speak sometimes. You don't want to say anything. There are lots of times I don't want to say anything. I just want to be quiet and listen. And sometimes that listening, it's not that God says anything out loud verbally or even necessarily into my spirit.

It's just the presence. And you know what? You can get up and walk away from those times feeling what, secure, loved, listen, cared for and you've not asked for any of that. And this is the way Satan's deceived us. We've got to beg, plead and you hear people standing on the Word of God and begging and pleading you know what? Because I'm a child of God, I don't have to beg for anything. Children don't have to beg from loving parents. Our Heavenly Father has created such a relationship, we don't have to beg, we just trust Him and thank Him. There are times we ask, times we don't say a word. When you understand who He is, what He desires for us, how He operates, you don't have to beg and plead and live in insecurity. You can live in the most awesome security.

There's a third thing I'd mention and that's this. It's so evident to me that when you have a hungering, thirsting relationship with God, you know what happens? You get freed, listen, God begins to free you from the tug and the pull of the world. You can't explain it, it's just that you don't feel it.

Why? Because now your soul is feasting upon God Himself. Your Spirit is feasting upon God as you listen to Him and read His Word and talk to Him.

And what's, He's feeding you, He's satisfying you, quenching that thirst in you. And you know what happens? The things you thought you had to have, you think, well, that's not all that important.

What happens is you get freedom from the tug of the world. Now I know some people will not understand this and I do understand it. So I can, all I can do is say it and dare you to try it. When you make the priority of your relationship, your relationship with Almighty God Himself, when He becomes the priority of your thinking, I can tell you with all of my heart, your feeling of neediness, so many of your desires, your anxieties, your fretting and your caring will absolutely disappear and you will wonder how and why and where they went. That's just the awesome mystery of this relationship and it's not a mystery, but it's a mystery to some people. You say, well, how can that do all of that? You have to try it.

You have to be willing to try it and you won't try it as long as you're satisfied where you are with what you have. And I see so many people hungering and thirsting after so much and I think, oh God, if they only knew that it doesn't cost anything to go to the Father, if they only knew how empty and futile and disillusioned they're going to be when that's all over. He desires, listen, a relationship with others that sets us emotionally free from these things. Then I think another indication, another indication you have a strong devoted relationship to Him, hungering and thirsting after Him, and that is, listen, your desire to fellowship with other believers.

He said, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, which is the matter of some. That is, a person who has a hungering, thirsting desire for God and intimate relationship is going to be in the Lord's house worshiping Him. You say, and I've heard people say this, well, I'm saved, I've been baptized, I don't believe you have to belong to a church to go to heaven.

Absolutely correct. You don't have to belong to a church to go to heaven, but you will miss God's best. You'll miss the blessings that He has in store for you for the simple reason, listen. You see, I'm going to tell you how selfish that is.

You listen and say, amen. This is how selfish this is. I don't need to go to church.

What you're saying is the only person I'm concerned about is me. I don't want to go to church and therefore I'm not going to church. Has it ever dawned on you that God may put you in that fellowship of people because He wants to use you to bless somebody else?

Because He knows exactly the person who will listen to you, they will listen to you, the kind of person who feels free to share their heartaches and there's something about you that they feel free to tell you about their heart and what they're going through and God wants to use you. It is absolutely, totally self-centered selfishness to say, I don't need to go to church. I can go to heaven without it. There's something about seeing each other. There's something about laughing together and singing together and praising the Lord and singing these Psalms and worshiping God.

Listen, there's nothing in the world that can take the place of that. God intends for us to do what? To fellowship with each other, to give of ourselves to one another.

A person who has a godly, hungering, thirsting for God is going to want to be with God's people. Are we perfect? We are totally imperfect. You know, that's why we meet together. That's what the grace of God is about, imperfect people.

The unconditional love of God and grace toward imperfect people. We do not claim to be perfect. We are not sinless. God knows we wish we were.

That's not the issue. He says this, we are part of the body of Christ. We meet together to love each other, uphold each other, pray for one another, comfort one another, laugh with one another, rejoice with each other, whatever it might be. God knows we need it or He would never have developed the church. He says, I build my church and the gates of hell will not be able to withstand it. Why? Because there should be so much of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so much joy within us, so much confidence and security within us because of our relationship to Him that the outside world is going to say, what's this?

I want that. And they're going to come because they are attracted to the God who lives within us. That's the reason they come. What you have to ask is this, how can you say that you love a God and have relationship with Him when He loves His people, but you don't want to fellowship with Him?

Doesn't work. A person who has a hungering, thirsting desire for Him, listen, is going to want to share it. You cannot keep it to yourself. The Bible says, not only forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, which means we ought to fellowship and pray and worship together, but He says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Talk about Him. What did He say? He said, as you go, make disciples of all nations. How do you do that talking about Him? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you.

How do you do that? You talk about Him. We have an unavoidable commandment, a commission from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And here's what it says in essence. Talk about me. Talk about me. Talk about me until they learn of me. Talk about me until they start following me. Talk about me until they'll baptize. Talk about me until we're multiplying churches all over the world.

Talk about me. Then you say, well, I'm a Christian, but I just think you ought to keep some things to yourself. Well, absolutely you ought to, especially sin. But you don't keep Jesus to yourself. Listen, He comes into our heart to be given away. That's the reason He comes, to be given away, to save us and make us fit and give us away.

And we give Him away. Do you have that kind of relationship with Him? You say, well, I just have always believed you should keep those things private. No.

So let's think about it for a moment. I've mentioned five indications of whether you have that kind of relationship, that kind of intimacy with Him. How would you answer that for yourself?

If you were absolutely, deadly honest, would you say you do or you do not? Well, whatever the answer, I want to tell you about some steps you can take to pursue that beginning right now. Very simple, complex, sort of, very simple. Listen to this. You want to begin that kind of relationship, first of all, you must know the Lord Jesus Christ is your personal Savior, step number one. You have to do that. That's first step number one. Trusting Him is your Savior, the forgiver of your sins.

Then what? You have to make a decision. Step two, you have to make a decision. I want the kind of relationship He's talking about. I want this intimate, deep, hungering, thirsting, yearning in my heart for God.

I want that above everything else, you have to make a decision, a commitment. And then you ask God in prayer, Lord, teach me how to have this kind of relationship with you. This is what I want, Father. My soul reaches out to you, Father. My heart hungers for you, God.

Build this kind of relationship between us. Number four, you go where you have to go to the Word of God and you begin to read. But now you're reading for a whole different reasons. You're not reading to teach a Sunday school lesson, not reading to preach a sermon, not reading to answer somebody else's question. You're reading now and meditating upon God's Word for yourself. Lord, speak to my heart. Show me something about yourself today.

Show me something about myself. And then when He does, you want to confess and repent of whatever is not right or thank Him and praise Him for things that are right. So you're going to get into the Word of God and you listen, He's going to begin to work in your heart in the most amazing ways. Confession repentance, very important. When you come to it, listen, this is very important. When you come to a passage and God convicts you of something, you either deal with it and move on in your developing relationship or that relationship. Listen, as far as it's going. Where I stop in my confession repentance and won't deal with sin, what I'm saying to God is, you're only worth this much to me.

You're only worth this much in my life. And when you say God cleansed my heart, I genuinely repent of my sin, I'm trusting you God for your forgiveness, you know what happens? He just draws you closer and closer and closer because that's what His heart's desire is. And then I just say one other thing, it all boils down to this, it is now your decision because you've heard the truth, it is your decision to decide, will I continue my lukewarmness or do I want to get serious about my relationship to Him?

Here's the problem, you've heard so much truth in this one message about that relationship, I can tell you this, if you purpose in your heart to stay in a lukewarm fashion, the bottom is going to drop out of your life. Do you think God is going to pour out His truth over and over and over again? And you just keep living that kind of selfish, self-centered lukewarm life and God ignore it?

No, He won't. To whom much is given, much is required. To whom much knowledge is given, much is required. And I would say if you're a wise person, you will say to Him today, Father, I want that kind of abiding, deep, yearning, thirsting, hungering for you in my heart above everything else. Thank you for listening to the series hungering and thirsting for God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.