A Heart With A Desire For God

A Heart with a Desire for God

Acts 13:13-22

The Bible declares in Psalm 10:4 that the unsaved do not normally think about God. They don’t give Him the time of day: there’s no room for Him in their lives or mind until trouble or tragedy strikes. Sadly, if we are honest, Christians fair only slightly better. In looking at the ancient history of Israel, there is one person who stands out by whom all the kings of Judah and Israel are compared, David. In Acts 13:22 we are told that after God raised David up to be king of Israel that He gave this testimony concerning David, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” You and I need a heart like David, a heart with a desire for God.

I. We need a heart that desires to walk with God 24/7.

A. Psalm 53:2-3 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

B. Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seek after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’”

C. Esau in some ways typifies men's seeking for God, Hebrews 12:17 tells us that even after selling his birthright, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. The problem was that Esau desired God’s blessings, but he did not want God. He regretted what he had done, but he never truly repented of his actions.

D. Men want God’s blessings but they don’t want God. They desire God's gifts, God's comforts, God’s physical healing, God’s material blessing rather than having a desire for a personal intimate relationship with the God of Eternity.

E. In Psalm 73, David looks at the lifestyles of those who live without God. He sees them prospering and becomes envious of what appears to be their easy lifestyle. For a moment He took his eyes off the eternal and fixed them on the temporal until, as we see in verse 17, he went to church and put his eyes back on the eternal. He saw those who believed in God and walk with God in spite of their trials. He understood and weighed the eternal destiny of those who have no time for God against the God’s greatness and glory and having a relationship with him.

F. Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

G. Steve Sanchez interpreted David as saying in this passage ““Wow of all the things I could have in this universe, I have God! What in the world could top that! He’s all I need. If I have him what else matters.”

H. What is your most burning desire?

I. In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard. His absence was not known for 36 hours. A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours. No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours. His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead." The rest of the story is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" events. Script writers would pass it up as "not believable." Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier. He was treading water in his sleep, clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers -- a skill learned in most military survival training. He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat. His tongue was dry and cracked and his throat parched. Just about two years later, as he spoke with Stone Philips of NBC Dateline, he recounted an unbelievable story of will to live and survival. Who would not give up? He said it was God who kept him struggling to survive. His discovery by the fishermen makes searching for a needle in a haystack a piece of cake. The most excruciating thing of all? Joey said that the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain was "Water!" [NBC Dateline: Nov. 1998] He had a thirst that motivated his every action and that he lived for.

J. David said in Psalm 42:1-2a “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”