Desiring God

• Do you want Christ today?

• And will you despise him tomorrow?

• Then I am afraid your desires are not of God

• they are merely the desires of a naturally awakened conscience

• just the stirrings of mere nature

• And they will go as far as nature can go, and no farther.

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But if your desires are constant take comfort.

• How long have they lasted?

• Are you continually desiring Christ

• Have you been seeking him in prayer for a long season?

• Are you anxious of Christ on Mon as you are on Sun?

Do you seek him in the night—in the solemn loneliness, when no pastor’s voice breaks on your ear, when no truth is smiting your conscience?

• Consistency is essential evidence of divine work.

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2. Some persons desire heaven very earnestly

• But they do not desire to rid themselves of wrong doing:

• they desire God….

• But they do not desire God enough to be holy;

• or to bridle their tongues,

• Leave off speaking ill of their neighbors.

They desire righteousness; They desire God in their life.

But they don’t desire it enough to come other than the morning hour.

• You may tell the truthfulness of your desires by their effectiveness.

• If your desires lead you into real "works meet for repentance," then they come from God.

Luke 13:24….“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

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Our prophet here informs us, “Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you: your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.”

How many do I hear say I am waiting for God, it is all I do

Stop! How do you know you are not deceiving yourself?

I said it for years, “I am waiting for God.”

• But I kept on with my drinking

• I kept on with my cursed mouth.

• I kept on with my self-righteousness.

I was waiting. Yes, but waiting implies being ready. I wasn’t ready.

When you’re waiting you have to be ready!

• You’re not waiting on a phone call, until you’re sitting by the phone, holding it, staring at it.

• And you’re not waiting on God till you are ready to go with God.

Nobody should say, I’m waiting for God. No, church, it is God who is waiting on you.

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• An old writer says, "Hell is paved with good intentions."

I was not aware that there was any pavement at all

• Hell has no bottom

• at the same time I believe the sides of the pit are hung with good intentions;

• men will feel themselves pricked and goaded from side to side with good intentions

• good intentions they once formed but never carried out

• Desires of self, of thinking I can do this.

Oh! brethren, if these are your desires, they are not practical, they do not come of God.