Journeying with John - JWJ-02
Living Toward God
John 1:1-2
This morning I want to talk with you from the Word of God about one of the most profound topics that has the power to revolutionize your life. If you will take the truth we are going to talk about this morning and wrap your life around it, order your living according to it, establish your priorities from it you will never be the same again. If you do not have a life mission statement - this is it right here.
Please open your bibles with me to the gospel of John and the first chapter as we pick up our second message in a dynamic series we just started last week, “Journeying with John - It’s a Trip.”
Last week we looked at one of most intense concepts of God as we started our journey looking at just the first four words of this Gospel, “In the beginning was . . .” Psalm 90:2 teaches us that ‘God is from everlasting to everlasting.’ ‘Everlasting to everlasting,’ if you unpack the Hebrew literally means from ‘always’ in one direction to ‘always’ in the other, from ‘beyond the vanishing point’ in one direction to ‘beyond the vanishing point’ in the other, from ‘time out of mind’ in one direction to ‘time out of mind’ in the other.
Then, and this is huge, then the Bible says in Ecc. 3:11 that God has put eternity in the hearts of man. We discovered together that the word for ‘eternity’ used in this verse is exactly the same word that Psalm 90:2 uses when it says that God is from ‘ever lasting’ to ‘ever lasting.’ In other words, and this lays the foundation for what we are going to look at this morning, the same ‘always’ that is in God, the same ‘beyond vanishing point’ that is in God, the same ‘from time out of mind’ that is in God, He put in you and in me and in all mankind whoever walked the face of this earth.
That is why AW Tower says, "There is something in the heart of man that reaches undeniably into eternity . . . Man wants to burst though the limitations of his mortality and grasp something that is divine."
Well let’s pick it up where we left it off.
John 1-1-2 - Read - Pray
This morning I want to speak with you profoundly yet simply about “Living Toward God.” Let me show you that from our passage. You miss it in the English. Translated literally out of the Greek our passage says this. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning toward God.”. It may not strike you at first but this may yet be the most profound statement in the entire Bible that describes Jesus relationship and interaction with the Trinity for the duration of eternity. Twice in these two short verses the Bible says something it says nowhere else and yet is so incredibly rich that it could change the way we live. Yet somehow it got lost in the translation. The state of Jesus Christ in the unity and tranquility of the trinity, in the unending and intertwining corridors of eternity, in the immeasurable eons before and after time is this - Jesus was toward God. That defines both His eternal position and disposition in His relationship with the Trinity. That profoundly and precisely describes the organizing and ordering principle of His life when He walked the face of this earth. Not only that but it accurately describes how you and I as God’s children will spend eternity. And it ought to describe the way you and I live our lives here on earth.
Seeing that it is so powerful a concept I thought it might be helpful for us to stop this morning and look at this together - Living Toward God. What does that mean? What does it look like?
Well I am glad you asked. So what does it look like when you are living toward God? Are you ready - please record these in your sermon notes?
When you live toward God . . .
1. You Live to Please Him
In other words, you make the pleasure of God your immediate and ultimate goal. Our challenge is that the flesh wants you to live to please it. And it is relentless. My friend, unless you make up your mind to live toward God, to live to please God the distractions and the demands of the flesh will be your undoing.
"The ultimate choice of the Christian life is always the choice between pleasing self and pleasing God." Martin Lloyd Jones
God does not want you to please Him because it somehow authenticates Him, somehow props up His divine ego. He is authenticated without you or me. He wants us to live to please Him because His pleasure is the best plan, purpose and provision for our lives.
That is why Jesus said, in John 8:29 - “I always do the things that please the Father.”
That was the organizing principle of Jesus life - He pleased the Father? The testimony of God was, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” [Mat. 3:17]
You see my friend, when live toward God, when you live to please God, you simplify most everything in life!
• When you have two choices, the question is simple - which one will be pleasing to the Father?
• When you are praying for guidance - which one will be the most pleasing to the Father?
• When you want to know how to respond at work, or at home, or with your children or parents - what will please the Father?
1 Thess. 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.”
If you want to live toward God, make a simple but principle decision that from here out no matter where you are, no matter who you are with, no matter whether it is in thought, word or deed, you will live to please God. That is what it means to live toward God.
Here is the second - are you ready?
When you live toward God . . .
1. You Live to Please Him
2. You Live to Worship Him
Worship is about living toward God. As a matter of fact, the Greek word for worship literally means to bow toward. When you live toward God you bow toward Him - you worship toward Him.
Jesus said that what God is seeking those who will worship toward Him in Spirit and in truth. God is delighted when those who live toward Him bow toward Him in worship. Let me talk with you for a moment about worship.
I believe that many Christians have never worshiped in their lives. Do you know it is possible to come to church and not to worship? To sing songs and not to worship, to read your Bible, say your prayers, to preach a sermon and not to worship. Why? Because we Christians often mistake the means of worship for worship itself.
When you truly worship toward God, you understand that worship is not about the worship, it about God.
We think that we have worshiped well when we enjoyed the worship, when we really meant it, when we tried harder, when it felt really good. What is happening? We are focusing on the worship of God instead of on the God of worship.
True worship is the act of freely giving love to God for who He is and what He has done. It transcends mere words and actions; it flows from the depth of the soul and spirit. Worship is where you encounter the reality of God and surrender all you are to all He is. It is the inward and outward response of love because of the greatness of God. When you live your life toward God, you discover you are living in the throne room of worship.
Abraham was living toward God in worship when the Bible says in Genesis 22 in verses 1 and 2 that “after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Here is what Abraham learned about living toward God in worship:
a. Worship Follows Revelation
When you see God, the only response is worship. Worship always follows revelation. You worship best and your worship deepest when you worship out of revelation.
b. Worship Offers Sacrifice
Here’s the deal folks - true worship will kill you. That is why it is called ‘the sacrifice of praise.’ That is why Paul says that we are ‘to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God . . . our act of true spiritual worship.’
David said ‘I will not offer to the Lord my God that which has cost me nothing.’[1 Chron. 24:21]
In other words precious believer, if your worship did not take place on a cross, it was not true worship.
c. Worship Engages Faith
Abraham declared, “God will provide.”
When you live toward God . . .
1. You Live to Please Him
2. You Live to Worship Him
3. You Are Defined by Him
I meet precious children of God all the time who have been defined by something other than God. It could be their past failures, their fears, the things someone spoke over them, the last book they read or sermon they heard. Or worse still, I meet Christians all the time who allow the lies of Satan to define who they are. Precious believe, let God define you.
When you live toward God it does not matter what lies in your past, what others say, it does not matter what potential losses or pains you face - you let God define you. Why? If you let anything or anyone other than God define you, you will spend your life trying to satisfy them or prove them wrong. We live in response to or reaction to what we allow to define us.
When you allow God to define who you are, you rise to the supernatural level of the ‘you’ God created. Anything and everything else that defines you will take something from you.
Do you know what Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba had in common?
• All four of these women are mentioned in Matthew chapter 1
• All four of these women had sordid pasts!
• All four of these women are mentioned in the lineage of Jesus Christ
What happened? They did not allow their failures, their fears, their friends or their foes to define who they were. They learnt to see themselves through the eyes of God.
My Bible tells me that my God forgives all our sin and casts them into the deepest sea. It also tells me that He makes all things new and beautiful in Him time. People who live toward God find themselves defined by Him - and they submit to that - and that is how they learn to see themselves and speak about themselves.
Here is the truth - it will set you free. God is not defined by man - man is defined by God.
Some here this morning have allowed others to define them - and they have left you scarred and beaten by what they said. The devil came to kill, steal and destroy, and when he spoke over you he hurt you. Precious believer, he was lying. Why? The last thing he wants is for you to see yourself through the eyes of God.
May I tell you this morning what God says over you?
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor. 5:21]
In other words, He calls you, “Righteous.”
He calls you, “Loved.” [John 16:27]
He calls you, “Forgiven.” [Acts 13:38]
He calls you, “Incorruptible.” [1 Peter 1:23]
He calls you, “Wise.” [1 Cor. 1:30]
He calls you, “the fragrance of Christ.” [2 Cor. 2:15]
He calls you, “Strong” and “Capable” [Phil. 4:13]
He said, “I am” and He said, “You are.”
When you live toward God you are defined by Him.
When you live toward God . . .
1. You Live to Please Him
2. You Live to Worship Him
3. You Are Defined by Him
4. You Are Satisfied With Him
One of the most beautiful descriptions we have in the Bible of Naphtali, one of the sons of Jacob, is found in Deut. 33:23 - here is how he is described, “Satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord.”
Psalm 145:16 “You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
Psalm 68:3 makes this incredible confession “My soul is satisfied . . .”
Let me tell you about the word for ‘satisfied’ in the New Testament [empiplemi] - it means ‘to be in a place or state of great abundance’ It also [arkeo] means to be possessed of unfailing strength.
Listen to me precious believer if you would. When you live toward God you choose to be satisfied with Him - and when you choose to be satisfied with Him the devil no longer has a hold on you.
And when your soul is satisfied with God, it is not about what He does but who He is. Come on now - somebody say, ‘Amen!’
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