The road to a significant life – Part 2

John 15:7-13 our joy will be full when we abide in him which means when we abide in His love.

Ephesians 5:1-2 we are to be imitators of Him firstly, secondly, thirdly and in all situations in love.
To know Him

    *Philippians 3:8-10 when we know Him we will know who we are in Christ.

Matthew 11:28-30 The Message "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

    *When we get to know Him we are put into the place where we can find rest.

Be filled continually

Psalm 42:1-2 The Psalmist says that he is just like the deer that is thirsty.

    *He says, “My soul pants after you oh God…”
    *Then he says, “My soul thirsts for God the living God…”

Exodus 16:3 if you forget how God brought you out and why you are to hunger for God you will hunger for the old life and ways.

    *The children of Israel had forgotten in a very short time why they came out from Egypt and the oppression, which they had suffered.
    *They desired to be back in Egypt even though they were under oppression; they wanted to feed their flesh.
    *When we come into the place, where God is; there are no fleshpots to feed us there is only the provision of God that we find in His presence.

Deuteronomy 8:3 God provided the manner from heaven to feed them.

    *Understand to quell spiritual or natural hunger requires food.
    *The food can be good or bad for us it is our choice which food will actually quell our hunger.
    *Understand – as we hunger and thirst after God we will be giving ourselves to the only one who can give us the manner from heaven, which will sustain us.
    *God expects us to hunger and thirst for the manner and the rivers of living water from heaven.

Nehemiah 9:15-20 if we will hunger and thirst, God will give us more of the manner from heaven and more of the rivers of living water so that we are filled.

    *Jesus is the manner from heaven for your hunger.
    *Jesus is the rock, which brings forth-living water.

Psalm 34:10 if we seek the Lord or if we hunger and thirst after God we will not want for any good thing.

    *Proverbs 19:15 if you are lazy you will be tied and want to sleep and if your soul does not keep busy in the things of God you will become hungry.
    *That hunger will cause you to think your old life was better than what you have today.

Psalm 63:1 Remember David cried out for more of God.

    *He was thirsty for the fresh water of his presence.
    *His flesh was hungry for the manner, which sustained him.

Mathew 5:6 we are to crave after God and thirst after righteousness.

    *Hunger – to crave ardently, to suffer want.
    *Thirst – a thirst, which painfully causes us to want something.
    *Tense – Present / Voice – Active / Mood – Participle meaning these actions should be happening at this moment, by you and I the hearers, with a continuing action after it is done the first time.
    *This type of hunger is the sort, which grows each time there is a filling.
    *When you hunger for food, it causes you to hunger for more food, which is the same in the spiritual sense.

Luke 15:11-32 the prodigal son who ran from where he knew it was right and ran to his fleshly desire.

    *His father had all he required for his life yet he thought life would be better away in another land.
    *He got to the other land and found he became hungry and wanted for the necessities of life.
    *He then realised, he was hungry and that what he needed was back where he came from.

John 6:35 Jesus said that He was the bread of life and if we eat of the bread we will not hunger. (Jesus is the manner sent from Heaven in the wilderness.)

    *If we believe in Him, we will not thirst He is the one who has rivers of living water. (The water, which came from the rock in the wilderness.)

John 4:7-26 Jesus told the woman of Samaria she could have water that would quench her thirst forever.
David wanted more of God

    *1 Samuel 13:14 God calls David a man after His own heart.
    *A man whom God could trust to honour Him and love Him and come close to Him.

Psalm 42:1-2 David desired to be close to God and said that he was like a deer, which pants for water.

    *David was so thirsty for God that his thirst and desire needed more of God for relief.
    *However, that thirst only increased as there was more of a touch from God on his life.
    *It should be that the more of God we touch the more our desire for God should increase.

Psalm 42:1-2 tells us to thirst for refreshing and let your flesh long for the anointing as you look at what God is doing in the church today.

    *We should be thirsting after Him with such a great desire that our flesh longs for another touch from Him.
    *To often people stop getting another touch from God because they do not want to be greedy.
    *Look at David he wanted as much of God’s touch as he could get.

Psalm 63:1-2 David says “my soul thirsteth for thee” and then “my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”

    *1 Corinthians 2:1-5 what should we thirst and long for “thy power and thy glory” which is what Paul spoke of when speaking of the “demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God.”
    *The Apostle Paul wanted more Intimacy with God

Galatians 2:20 Paul expressed what all of us should understand.

    *His life is only life because of Christ.
    *We can understand from this Scripture the reason why Paul thought this way.
    *Paul desired more of God than ever before in his life and the only way to have more was to die to self.

Philippians 3:7-14 here we see that Paul wanted more of God.

    *Paul, after his conversion started on a path, which led him to desire more of God than ever before.
    *He had been zealous in the extreme before his conversion and after he did not count this his old life as worth holding onto.
    *He did not feel that his life before Christ was anything worth holding onto and set about to expend his life for the gospel with zealousness.
    *His whole walk was for two things;
    *That the Jews and the gentiles met Christ as he had.
    *hat his walk would be worthy of the Christ who saved him.

Philippians 3:8 Paul had a desire to know Christ his Lord above all other things and went about to do just that.

    *He wanted to be found in Him not because of his own righteousness, which come through the law or that which comes from doing what is right just because it’s right.
    *He wanted to know Christ through faith in His work of righteousness.

Philippians 3:10 Paul says “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.”

    *To know Him – to actively know someone by experience and talks about this action being done in the past while still being active in it and will be active into the future.
    *The power – the power exerted by something.
    *Resurrection – rising from the dead.
    * Paul wanted to know that power exerted through Christ and His blood at the resurrection.

Neil Davis, 24/08/2008