How Bad Do You Want It?

A lot of places in life spiritually also. And we wonder why God is nowhere to be found.

Dr. Tony Evans says the difference has to do with our desire.

God will only give you as much of God that you really want. He wants to know that.

You want to know. This is the alternative with Dr. Tony Athon, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative today.

Dr. Evans explains why our relationship with God is exactly as deep as we want it to be and what we can do if we'd like to see a change. Let's join him.

If you've ever been involved in sports or if you follow it, you will know that a regular question is ask what a sports team is ready to go into competition or a player is ready to compete against the odds. The question is, how bad do you want it?

How bad do you want it? It's a question about desire. Do you really want it bad enough? Is this just a casual thing? Are you simply fulfilling a role of responsibility or duty or do you really want this thing? But that question is not limited to athletic competitions. When a coach is trying to point is his team to the next great victory, it can be ask of an employer to an employee related to their job. How do you really want to work here? How bad do you want it? It can be ask of a relationship. Do you really want to be married? How bad do you want it? Because we all know you can say you want something, but not that bad. Come see, come saw. Maybe so, maybe not. If it happens, OK, if it doesn't, I'll make it. You can be cavalier and not really want it. Our series is Knowing God. Our question is, how bad do you want it? Because when we talk about knowing God, we're talking about knowing him experientially and not merely informationally.

We're not asking how much do you know about God? So the question on the floor today is, how bad do you want it? And Moses wanted it real bad. In Exodus Chapter 33, Moses comes to God as a hungry man, comes to a elegant meal. He, unlike so many of us, was dissatisfied to be a Nibelung or simply to have an appetizer. He wanted a full meal. He was hungry for God. He wasn't satisfied with a menu. He wanted to meal because he couldn't come to church and be satisfied with reading the menu. But nobody goes to a restaurant to read a menu. They go to a restaurant to enjoy your meal. Moses did not want to play the dating game. He knew God was looking for a ring. So he comes to the Lord and he makes three request of God. Three things he wanted from God. Verse 13. Now, I pray you, if I have found favor in your site, let me know your ways that I may know you.

He says in verse fifteen, if your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.

If you are not there, I'm not going. He says it does. Eighteen. I pray you show me your glory.

The request of a hungry man. In the natural realm, when you get hungry, in the natural realm, when you are hungry, you find yourself something to eat.

And if you get hungry enough.

If you're really hungry, there is no stopping you.

You will raid the refrigerator. You will raid the pantry. You'll get up in the middle of the night.

You'll pull off the highway when you see the windy side or for me, the fried chicken side.

Because true hunger demands a response and true hunger will force you to rearrange your priorities.

When you're really hungry, you if you're casually hungry.

Yeah, but but but when you start when you're famished. Moses was a man who was famished for God.

He says, I want to know you, that I may know you.

Now, women memo, you saw the burning bush.

You saw you saw a bush that did not burn. You heard God tell you, this is holy ground.

Take off your shoes. You orchestrated 10 supernatural events against Pharaoh. You held out a rod and opened up the Red Sea. You got water coming out of Iraq, rock. Now, all these all Moses's experiences, I would have thought he would have said. I know God, Jobe says.

I heard about you with the hearing of the ear. I went to church. But having come through these trials, I've just come through I have now seen you with my own eyes. Your trouble, whatever your trouble is, may simply be God trying to create some hunger. Moses said, I want to know you. I want to know you. I am hungry and hungry. People adjust to where the food is located. I pray you. So it's a prayer, he says. I pray you in verse 13. Let me know your ways that I may know you.

That's instructive. Moses says to know you. Is to know your ways. That is. Here it is. Here it is. To be in sync with where you are going.

He says in verse fifteen. If your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. If you're not going, I'm not going.

He only wanted to be where God was. I want to know you are with us now. The first request is I want to be with you.

I want to know your ways. Where where are you headed? And many of the issues that we face is because we don't want to know his way. We want him to bless our way.

But here he says, first, I want to be with you. But second, I want you to be with me. I want your presence.

Or does that mean that means we are not to be satisfied with the program. We want his presence. We're not to be satisfied simply with public approval where the crowd is applauding and Jesus is staying seated. We want him to be with us. We want him to be. We want his presence. We're after his presence. Where we. We come together to worship. But if God doesn't show up. If the Holy Spirit does decide to come to church today, so to speak. Then it doesn't matter how good the choir sings, how great the sermon is and how finely tuned the program is. It'll just be wasted space. Cause I need you. Van, I'm gonna be with you. In fact, I'm so committed to being with you that I'm not going.

If I don't know you with me to one of the questions you have to ask is, am I with him? And then is he with me? And then if you discover he's not with me, I'm not going.

We have people in our lives. If you're not going. I'm not going. I ain't going there by myself. You know, there are a lot of places in life spiritually. We buy ourself and we wonder why God is nowhere to be found. Because we decided to go and leave him home. We decided to hang out without God.

He says, I'm not going if you're not going. I want you to be there beside me, cause this journey is too difficult.

Now, I hope you've discovered that this life is too tough. This journey is rough. It is rough. It's rough on all kinds of categories.

Life isn't simple anymore. It's rough.

And he says this terrain, this place going through this wilderness, going into this new land is rough. And I you get another one. I would rather be in the desert with you than in the promised land by myself.

That's convicted. It's like, say, I'd rather be poor with you than rich without you. I'd rather live in an apartment with you than a big house without you. I would rather drive an old car with you than a new car that you can't get in. In other words, I want this relationship so bad that I'll adjust what God is saying today through Moses.

This passion, Hongo, is that I want to go with you. And I'm going if you're not with me. And I don't want cheap substitutes for knowing you. He makes a third request.

Moses says, I pray you show me your glory.

Wow. Glory is the visible display of the attributes of God. It's when God makes himself seeable manifest aspects of his DNA, of his character, and then not what we want. Though we want God to show up. Show me. I want to be able to see it. I know want to Jeffie, everybody else talking about it.

Show me one of the great scourges of our day. And it is a scourge is pornography. That's a scourge of our day. An addictive scourge. It's addictive because particularly for men, it is the most natural addiction because it's not an addiction outside of yourself. See, virtually all the other addictions are outside of yourself that you bring into yourself, not pornography. Pornography is an addiction born within because it is in the makeup of our DNA to be sexually oriented. That is part of the human creation. But what pornography does is it takes what is legitimate and turns it into something that is not legitimate. The problem is it's born from within. So you can take away cigarets. You can hide alcohol, but you can't hide desire. It's built in. And so, of course, the enemy takes what God has legitimately created and create something illegitimate off of it.

Until pornography is a scourge of our day. And at the at the heart of pornography is this. I seek to piggyback on the intimacy of others in pornography. You seek to piggy back. You seek to get your thrill by somebody else's thrill.

You seem to get you want to get your experience and and so when a person becomes addicted to pornography that they can't get enough. It's the computer controls at all, the flick's control at all.

I want more and I want more. And I want more.

And I want more because I want the feeling, the experience of somebody else's intimacy. Far too many of us, the spiritual pornographers, we can't get our own intimacy straight.

So we piggyback on the intimacy of others. Take us fundamentally to depend on pornography. Really reveals a lack in you. Because if you really had it going on like it ought to be going on, they would want to tune in to you. You would need to tune into them because.

But to piggyback off of the intimacy of others, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year, because of the lack within, you can saw, what we often do is come the church to piggy back off of the intimacy of office because our own experience with God is so lacking.

But Moses wasn't going to accept that. Moses said, Show me your glory. Make yourself visible to me in the coming together of your attributes.

Don't hold back. And I've already seen a lady said I haven't seen a bunch of stuff, but I know that's just a down payment because you can do all that. I haven't seen anything yet. Show me your glory. Or as we say at McDonald's, supersize it.

Make yourself big to me. I want to know your glory. Show me your glory. It's the cry of a hungry man.

When Dr. Evans returns in a moment, he'll share more insights to help us get to know God better. Don't go away.

Stop for a moment and think of your closest friend or relative. That connection you have the depth of the friendship we all desire relationship. So why is it we don't pursue God in the same way? In Dr. Tony Evans latest book, Knowing God, he'll show you how to pursue a connection with God, where you will experience tremendous growth and privilege. Visit Tony Evans. Org and get your copy of the book, DVD and Bible study.

Knowing God, knowing God is much more than just having intellectual data or warm and fuzzy feelings about him. It can be a true relationship that's rewarding worthwhile and fills your life with a purpose and satisfaction that can't be found anywhere else. And we want to provide resources that can help you discover that deep life changing connection when you support Tony's ministry with a generous contribution. We'll say thanks by sending his just released book, The Power of Knowing God, along with the companion study guide and Resource DVD that will help these powerful principles take root in your life. Along with it will send you all eight full length messages in our current series, Knowing God on c.D and Digital Download. This limited time offer won't be around for long. So don't miss out. Visit Tony Evans dot org today to make your contribution and request or call us at one 800 800 32 22. We're one of our friendly resource team members is standing by to assist you. I'll have all of that contact information for you once again. After part two of today's message, here's Tony.

God has more value in himself to be misused by his people. He thinks more of himself to that. That's why he will not reveal himself to people who really don't want to know him. In other words, he's not into wasting his time. He's not trying to play hard to get. He's not trying to play hide and seek. But neither is he trying to waste his time. He wants to know that you want to know him. God will only give you as much of God that you really want.

First 19. I myself will make all my goodness pass before you.

You can not see my face for no man can see me and live. I'm going let only pass before you. But there's only one thing I can't let you know. And that's my face.

That is the essence and core of my being. I can't let you see that because it would kill you to see it. It would be like being in a nuclear reactor. The energy would overwhelm you and disintegrate you. So I'm not gonna let you see my face.

Then the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me, by me, close to me. And you shall stand there on the rock and it will come about. Wow. My glory is passing by. I'm a little pass by. You pass me not o gentle savior. I'm a pass Bob. I will put you in the cleft of the rock and couple you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back. But my face shall not be seen. He said, Show me your glory. God says, I tell you what we're gonna do. Moses, I'm a put you on Roqia and all of me go past my. So you know what it feels like to have all of me coming your way.

But I'm not gonna let you look over all of me that comes your way. I'm gonna bring my glory. I'm gonna bring the full manifestation of my being. On what I let you see. I'm gonna create a limitation for your welfare. This is what you and mine. Cause if I let you see the essence of that being. Kill you.

Because that's how glorious I am. It's like saying I want to take a trip to the sun. The closer you get, the more life you get. And Ray Lewis. Cause it's just too much energy. But what I'm a do is I'm a cover.

I'm a cover you with my hand in the cleft of the rock and my glory is gonna pass by. It's gonna pass by. But I'm a create a cloud cover. So you're not disintegrating in the in the midst of this past. But I'm not past Bob. And then I'm a remove my hand when my back is passing by. Now this is what you call in theology. Anthro poor morphic language, anthropomorphic language is using human language to explain a spiritual reality.

We got to that. He had the eyes of the law, Lord, the hands of the Lord, and he talks about his back. He's using words that we can identify with.

So he says, my glory is gonna pass by before essence of who I am. But. But I can't let you see it. You'll know it. But you can't see it. But just as I'm about to finish. I'ma let you see the exhaust. Here you have a look up in the sky and see a plane go by. But you can see the plane. But, you know, the plane did passed by cause that lot of exhaust is still left. So there's no doubt that there was something there. You don't see the sun, but you see what the sun left behind, the exhaust from the plane.

He's an hour pass by. And all my glory. But when the exhaust is left and you can't see me in my core essence, I'ma let you see what I leave behind my back. I won't let you see what I leave behind.

You want to know me? You're Moses. You really want to know me. And you have found favor in my sight. He says that a number of times you found favor. What did you find? Favor. Cause I want to know your way. I want you to be with me. This is my passion. I am hungry for you and I'm in hot pursuit after you got it.

Okay. You'll see my exhaust. He passes by. The hand is removed. He sees God's back.

You say, so what?

Moses picks up a pen and he writes, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, let there be light. And there was light and God separated the firmament. And he called the light day and he called the dark night. And then God created all the animals. And then God created man on the sixth day. He said, Let us make man in our own image of women. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

How did he know what happened back then when he wasn't born? He got to see God's exhaust. He got to see what was back there. He got to see God's back. He was able to look back and he said, look, good Lord, all this stuff, all this good luck. Good Lord. And God gives him all this back revelation and manifestation because he got to see the back. The history of God.

What did he get when he thought God insight that he didn't naturally have? He saw things that he could not have figured out. What I have not seen here have not hurt me ever. Has it entered into the heart of man? What God has prepared for those who love him. But He has revealed them onto us. You want insight. You want to know what to do. You want to know what direction to take. You want to know whether. Got to know him.

One more thing is we close. God says to Moses, you can't see my face and leave. You can see my face and die, but you can't see my face. And live translation only did people see my face. I'm trying to go some way here.

I can't let you see my face because you're going die so you can not see my face on live or you can die and see my face. Maybe that's why Paul said, I die daily. I am crucified because he wanted to see something that went beyond the ordinary.

Moses died.

He didn't see God's face. He saw God's back. There was a whole bunch.

But he died. But in Matthew, Chapter 17, hundreds of years later, Jesus goes up to the Mount of Transfiguration. The heavens open up. A voice from heaven says, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Peter, James and John hit the ground because it said the light was too bright and it overwhelmed them.

And in the middle of that moment, God said, Moses, come on.

Dad Moses showed up at the Mount of Transfiguration and got to look on the glory that Peter, James and John could look at because they were still alive. Moses was dead. So God summoned Moses thousands of years later and say, you know what you couldn't do back then, Exodus 33, because you were still alive. Hey, come on, man. You died. So you can handle this.

You know, that's why God can give you a new body when you when you die and go to heaven. You get a brand new body because your body can handle this. In the words of a great theologian, you can't touch this, can't touch this God.

I'll give you a new body to handle what you get when look at.

In the meantime, his back is still available. The exhaust of his glory. And even that is too much to handle. The question on the floor is not. Do you want it?

Everybody will say yes to that question on the floor. How bad do you want it? Dr. Tony Evans talking about ways we can stimulate our appetite for God. Today's message. How bad do you want it? Is available for you to request on c.D or download. In fact, the full length version contains more material than we were able to present on the air today. But you can also get this lesson as a part of Dr. Evans current eight part teaching series. Knowing God. An in-depth look at building a face to face relationship with the Lord that will transform every part of your life. As I mentioned earlier, we're offering a special Knowing God package as our thank you gift to those who support our work here on the radio and around the world with a generous contribution. This collection not only includes the C.D. series, but Tony's brand new book, The Power of Knowing God, plus the interactive study guide and Resource DVD. They go along with it. You can make your donation and all the other arrangements online when you visit Tony Evans dot org or let one of our helpful resource team members assist you when you call us at one 800 832 22. That's one 800 800. Three, two, two, two. Salvation can't be earned through good behavior. But that doesn't mean the two concepts aren't related. Be sure to join Dr. Evans next week as he explores the connection. Right now, though, he's back with this important message to close out our time together.

A lot of people exist but don't feel like they're living the good news of the gospel as Jesus came to give you life. That is the experience of God's reality operating within you. That's what the Bible calls eternal life. So he gives you heaven as a location. But eternal life is an experience. And he gives it to you for free. That's what Grace is about. It's a gift. You can't earn it. You can't buy it. You can't be religious enough to get it. But you can receive it. And so God offers the opportunity for you right now to receive the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life, which will set in motion a whole life long experience of growing in the knowledge of God. So let's get this thing started right now by you going to Jesus Christ and saying to him, Lord Jesus, I believe you died on the cross in my place for my sin. I now accept you as my personal substitute. Come into my life. I receive you now as my only savior. I received the gift of eternal life that you promised to give me. If I came to you for it. Thank you for your salvation in Jesus name.

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