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Desiring God | David Fisher

I’m going to continue worship through the reading in Psalms 19. When I grew up, there was a song that we sang on these verses that always stuck with me. Psalms 19 starts with verse 7. It says, The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired, more to be desired are they than gold.

It’s even much fine gold, and sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Isn’t that a beautiful psalm? More to be desired, more to be desired are they than gold.

Even much fine gold, and sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. I love that visual. Any of y’all like honey? You ever eaten honeycomb? There’s nothing sweeter than honey.

It’s a lot sweeter than sugar to me. It’s just sweetness to it. Once you’ve tasted it, you know exactly what it tastes like.

And if somebody talks about it, you can almost taste it in your mouth, can’t you? But I’m going to tell you, I’m going to be real honest with you. There are times when I lose the desire. How about you? If I’m really going to be honest with myself, there are times that I lose my desire for the things of the Lord and of God.

And it just makes me feel bad. It makes me feel guilty. I feel what has happened with me.

And I’m going to tell you, I don’t think I’m alone. And you surely aren’t alone if you feel that way sometime. And those scriptures talk about the desire of the Lord, the desire of our heart.

He should be the desire of our life. But there are times when we just don’t feel it. There’s no, you know, God tells us he wants us, y’all know the verse, love him with all of your heart, not a part of your heart, but with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and all of your strength.

Isn’t that right? You know, but sometimes love is, especially when we’re living with family members and crazy relatives and crazy kids and crazy parents, that love’s just something you do, right? It’s a choice. Y’all have heard that before. Love is a choice.

You choose to love. There’s a difference between love out of obligation and a love out of desire. Y’all know what I’m talking about? I can remember when I was first dating Sherilyn, there was nowhere I wanted to be other than with her.

She was a cashier and worked in the aisles at TGNY, and she didn’t realize it, but I bought more pencils. Driving by on different days, she must have thought I lost pencils and paper all the time. That’s the section she worked in.

I would see her car in the driveway or in the parking lot at TGNY, says, gotta get a pencil. I just want to be close to her. And then she worked at Taco Villa.

Man, I love those Guadalajaras. But I did because I really just wanted to see her. I wanted, it was my desire.

Isn’t that what desire, to desire a love with desire? But the truth is, there comes times in our lives where that desire just kind of grows cold. And there’s nothing more gut-wrenching for a husband to hear the words is you don’t love me like you used to. But I’m here.

But I come around. I mean, I’m not running out. I’m coming home.

There’s a difference, isn’t there? Wives, isn’t there a difference? It’s not just the fact that they’re fulfilling their obligations. It’s that you don’t feel like they desire you. Husbands and wives, we both feel the same way at times.

So what do we do? What do we do when the desire for God has waned and grown cold? I’m going to try to give some suggestions here today. But mostly, I’m going to let the word of God speak for itself. I’m going to read some.

More to be desired are they than gold. Isn’t it strange that honey’s a gold color? More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb.

Sometimes we just need to get back to experiencing God, not just learning about God. So you can learn books about people, but you won’t know them until you experience them and spend time with them. Isn’t that true? That’s just the truth.

We can read books about how to play golf, but you’re not going to learn how to play golf until you do it. You can read cookbooks about cooking, but you know how to cook until you start doing it. Isn’t that true? We can read, and I’m encouraging us to read.

I want us to read the word of God. But I’m going to tell you, you’re not going to experience and know God until you get intimate with him. Eternal life is about knowing God, not knowing about him.

Knowing him in the same way that the Bible says Adam knew Eve. We all know what that means. There was an intimacy with them that was productive.

So we need to start going back and reminding each other about these experiences of what it tastes like. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. I was going to get a spoon and pour some honey in there.

That would be the dignified way to do it. But I’m going to tell you what. I felt the Lord saying to me, he says, open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

So I’m sorry this isn’t very dignified for those on TV, but. Mm, that is so good. And you know, it’s not just the tasting of it that’s good.

It’s the expression of telling you how good it tastes. I’m going to do it again. It wouldn’t quit.

Oh man, that is good. Those cooking shows just say, I wish you could taste it. You want to taste it later? Come get some.

I’m sorry I stole my wife’s honey from the kitchen table and she didn’t know it. And she does now. There’s something about the taste.

Once you taste this, man, that was good. That was really good. But you know, it’s even makes it taste better for me to tell you.

Mm, that, you know, that’s true. When you eat some food, you say, man, this is good. Cheryl’s grandmother was like that.

She would fix some food and would eat it. And she’d be waiting for us to say something. And she wasn’t really satisfied until she heard you say something about the food.

But there’s something enjoyable when you watch somebody eat something that you’ve prepared and you can tell they’re enjoying it. Oh, that is so good. I’ll tell you what the Psalms do.

They talk about how good God is, what it tastes like. I just want to read a few passages from a few different Psalms and in a passage from Isaiah that talk about the desire for God. I’m going to tell you sometime it convicts me.

When my desire falls away. I’m going to tell you the writers of Scripture knew exactly what that felt like, too. I’ve got a few verses I’m going to have up on the screen.

So I’m going to go through them a little fast so you don’t have to look them up. And it won’t take time. But if you want to write them down, you sure can.

Isaiah 26, verse eight through nine. He says, yes, in the ways of judgment. Oh, Lord, we’ve waited for you.

The desire of our soul. The desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you. Because you know what? Sometimes we forget.

We forget how good he is. The desire of our soul is for your name. God almighty.

God, our healer. God, our savior. In the remembrance of you with my soul.

I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me, I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

There is a purpose for us remembering. There is a purpose for us desiring that goes far beyond your own personal desire and your relationship with God. Our desire for God directly relates to our ability to show people in our community and show people in our families and show people that we come in contact that God is righteous.

And that God is good. Psalm 74, I’m 73 verses 25 through 26. Who have I in heaven but you? And there’s none upon earth that I desire besides you.

My strength and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. The writer of this Psalm knew what it was like when the desire is gone and their heart and their flesh fail. But he knew where the answer was.

It’s getting back to desiring the presence of God. Psalm 63, it’s a Psalm of David. It says verses one through two.

Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. There is a special, there’s something special about getting up early and having that quiet time with God before we get distracted, before we get about the business of the day, the quiet place.

I appreciate Shane’s teachings on that this last year. There’s something important about that. Oh God, you’re my God.

Early will I seek you. That’s a decision that the writer of Psalms is making there. I’m going to do this.

My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Have you ever really been hungry? Those of you who I hope have begun fasting, start experiencing what it’s like to be hungry, but I’m going to tell you, we don’t know what it’s like to be really hungry.

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean, not just, I mean, so thirsty your lips started cracking out in the wilderness, out somewhere in the desert. You’ll get your attention. You can’t be hungry and you can’t be thirsty without it getting your attention that there needs to be a solution to satisfy that hunger.

And satisfy that thirst. The problem is, is we start getting so filled with all the junk and all the soda pop of life that we’re not hungry anymore. My mama used to not let me eat snacks and desserts and cookies and cake in the afternoon before dinner.

Why? Because it will do what? It’ll ruin your appetite. It’ll ruin your appetite. You’re snacking on chips and Cheetos.

You’ll ruin the meal that’s been prepared for you. I’m going to tell you what, God has a meal prepared for you. If we’ll quit snacking on stuff that he doesn’t want us to snack on.

He says, I want you to be hungry for me. The good thing about fasting is we intentionally deprive ourselves of food. Not because we’re trying to do some act, but because we’re trying to restore a hunger in our life that may just be missing.

You say, God, I’m depriving myself of food. I’m asking you to feed me because I need to be spiritually hungry again. I need to be hungry.

Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be what? They shall be filled. God’s got the answer. He’s got the solution.

We just need to wait and eat when it’s time. And we need to quit eating some things we’ve been snacking on. I’m sorry, I got away from the verse.

My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked to you in the sanctuary.

Sometime we need to go to the place of God where people come together to worship. I’m not able to find it on my own. Sometime I get frustrated.

So you come together with other people who are praising and worshiping God. You say, that’s exactly what I need. That’s exactly what I want.

I’m looking for you, God, in the sanctuary. He says, why I’ve looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Sometime we get to where we lose the desire because we just forget what it feels like to be in the presence of God.

The last Psalm I want to read is in Psalms 42 verses 1. It says, as the deer pants, longs after the water brooks. Can’t you just see the deer? Running up to the water. He’s thirsty.

He’s been out in the wilderness and out in that country. There’s just not water all over the place. You got to go.

You got to go find it. You got to go look for it. He knows exactly where to go.

And he goes to the water streams. He says, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God? But he knew, the writer of this Psalm knew what it felt like. When you can say the words of God, I’m thirsty for you, but you’re not really thirsty. He says in verse 5, he says, why are you cast down on my soul? He’s asking himself, why are you so in a mood? Why are you so cast down? Why are you so forlorn? Why are you so disquieted within me? Why? You ever ask yourself that question when you get to that place where you have no desire, where you have these struggles and you have these doubts? You ever just ask yourself, why don’t I desire him more than, because I know I need to.

I know I want to. I know his word says I should. Why? And he gives an answer.

He says, hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. And I need him to look. I need him to see me.

You know, we serve a God who sees. He sees you. So I don’t want you to be embarrassed because you don’t have the desire.

What I want you to do is have the desire. I know what it feels like when you just don’t feel like, you just don’t. Maybe you’ve gotten busy.

Maybe somebody’s hurt you. Maybe you’re holding on to unforgiveness. Maybe you’re looking at things you shouldn’t be looking at.

Maybe you’re drinking things you shouldn’t be drinking. I don’t know what it is in your life that will cause, maybe you’re just doggone tired. But we get to that place.

And so what do we do? I’m going to just, all I know to do is give you some suggestions out of scripture. Because I’m going to tell you, I’m going to be transparent with you. I struggle with this too.

I wish I could say I was like Moses and my face glowed because I’ve been, had so much time in the presence of God that I was just saturated with it. And I thought there are times that I do, but there are times that I’m not. And I want more of his presence.

How about you? I want more of his presence. I want to understand. I want to feel.

I want to experience it. I want to taste it. Over in the first verse we read from Isaiah, there’s a promise that God gives.

This was to be a sung song, or a song to be sung in the land of Judah on the day of salvation. It says, for you will keep him, meaning the person who’s righteous, you’ll keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you. So one suggestion I have to you is you start just being still, just be still.

Turn off the TV, turn off the radio. You know, a lot of, there’s a lot of people who have, who are very uncomfortable with silence, who want music on. They, I can drive in the car for three hours and not have a radio on.

My wife likes some music, some interaction. I can just, I can just sit and be still and be quiet. And I’m going to tell you, we need to develop the habit of learning to be still and to be quiet in front of them.

Just to be still. Say, Lord, speak to me. But the truth is we don’t stay still long enough.

We got stuff to do. We got chores, we got bills to pay. Isn’t that true? And if we just make some time to be still, he says, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

Trust in him. Trust in the Lord forever for in Yah, the Lord is everlasting strength. A second suggestion other than just being still is I do believe that the practice of fasting is important because it causes us to deprive ourself of food, to make ourself be hungry for a period of time to.

Just a show, but not not for a show, not for any other reason. Others say, God, I am. I want to be hungry for you in the way that I am hungry physically right now.

I pray that you’ll do that. I believe God will give you insight. He’ll give you peace.

And he’s going to increase a hunger. The more you fast, the hungrier you get, right? You get hungry, you get hungry. You want to stir up hunger.

Take that practice. Be still, just be still. And let’s have our mind stayed on him.

Number two, I think it’s important for us to fast. Number three, I think it’s just important to be around believers who worship God. That’s the purpose, I believe, of the Sunday morning corporate worship together.

Is to be around worshippers. Sometime I have come to church. I did not feel like worshiping.

How many of y’all have ever done that? Yeah, you didn’t. But by the time you left, I’m so glad I didn’t listen to the devil today. Devil said, you know, you got aches, you got pains, you got all kinds of excuses and reasons.

It’s raining outside. It’s cold outside. My arthritis is acting up today.

Whatever the reason is, there are reasons that come that try to separate us from worshippers. You know, I can be a Christian all by myself. You ever heard those type of words? I don’t have to be in among the church.

I don’t have to be in the assembly. I can do it from a deer stand. But I’m going to tell you, if that’s your regular form of worship, is being alone, out doing something just that you enjoy, you’re killing yourself spiritually.

You need to be around worshippers. We live in a time, in a place, where people are not consistent with their attendance. I’m talking to the people who are here.

I just don’t. That’s not just here. That’s in churches all over.

They feel like they got two Sundays a month, they’re good. I’m going to tell you, there’s something important about being in the assembly. Do not forsake the assembly.

Whenever the assembly comes and you’re able to be there. I understand folks got jobs and they’re going to be out of town on vacation, those kind of things, but I’m going to encourage you. If the doors are open for corporate worship, we need to be there.

There’s something about watching somebody else worship. We’ve had people sometime who just come down and bow down before God during worship. I don’t know about you, but that encourages me.

It encourages me. I remember, I grew up in a Methodist church in Longview area and none of this stuff going on. Your hands don’t get above the hymnal.

We’re singing from here and we’re not doing that. That’s just how I grew up, to be honest with you. I went off to college and I came back home.

By that time, my parents had moved and started going to a non-denominational church. I remember I walked in that first Sunday and they were doing this business. I even saw my mom and dad doing that.

I looked at him and I thought, oh my goodness. I’m not doing that. I’m embarrassed to say it.

That’s exactly how I felt because I felt kind of silly. Every now and then, I’d do that. Maybe one, you know.

Maybe I’d do this, you know, the little bit of that. I’m going to tell you the truth. It was because I was embarrassed.

It was my pride. I thought that looked silly. Now, I respected them, but I wasn’t going to do it.

I’ve changed. God has freed me from that shame and that embarrassment. I’m going to praise him.

The scriptures talk about lifting holy hands. I’m going to praise him. I’m going to tell you there’s something, there is something, there is something about the way that we praise God that will change the hunger you have for his presence.

I don’t know how it works. I don’t know whether it’s because God says, hey, they’re surrendering to me. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s in scripture over and over again about lifting holy hands.

I would never have bowed down at the altar in front of a whole group of people because it would have embarrassed me, but now I read scriptures and I understand that that’s what the word worship means is bowing down before him. When we get away from being embarrassed about these things, I’m going to tell you the spirit of God is going to move in us and through us. We quit worrying about what somebody else sees or what somebody else does and we begin to say, Father, I am yours and I submit to you.

I’m going to tell you God’s going to do something about the hunger and about the desire that you want to have. Do you want to have the desire that we need to start doing the things that scripture say that people did who were worshipers? I want to be a worshiper and I want this to be a house of worship and when people come in frustrated and tired and they didn’t feel like coming here anyway, I want them to see worshipers and they say, that’s what I want. I want what they have.

I want what they’re tasting. I want what they have, but if I’m standing there like a statue, I don’t think anybody wants that. I’m sorry.

It’s just we’ve got to be worshipers and I start realizing so much my lack of hunger is because I’m not worshiping God. I’m going through the church checklist. I came today.

I’m going to tell you there’s nothing satisfying about that. There’s something satisfying when you start tasting the presence of God. I want to share one more story.

On the Christmas Eve service, we’re sitting right over there and my wife was holding little Madeline, Sarah’s second child, the little redhead. You’ve probably seen her running around. Sherilyn’s holding her, so she’s not, you know, raising her hand or doing anything and I’ve looked over in the corner of my eye and that little bitty two-year-old, who was raising her hands in praise.

Nobody told her that. Her mama didn’t say, here Madeline, you do this. You know what she did? She was looking at the people who were standing here on the stage praising God and that little bitty two-year-old redhead was worshiping God.

I remember when Boone’s, when Boone and Christine’s young child, Shelby, was in the auditorium as an infant and seeing that child doing the same exact thing while praise was going up and pointing and looking and I am convinced that child was seeing an angel up in the loft. I knew it in my heart and in my spirit that child was seeing something spiritually that I wanted to see and I remember saying, Father, let me see what this child is seeing. There is something about the kingdom of heaven that is like a child.

And that child, Madeline, was raising her hands, worshiping during those Christmas songs and I looked over at her and I just, I just teared up, I started to smile and said, oh God, thank you for letting me see that. Then I looked over at her and she had her hands like this and she had her head bowed. None of us in the audience were doing that.

She was doing that and you know, I looked up and I saw one of the persons on the stage who was leading the worship doing the same exact thing. She was watching the worshipers. Oh, I pray, I pray that we would be like a child and start watching the worshipers and it will stir a new hunger in us because I want to be like that, don’t you? Our God is good, amen.

I want us to end this with worship. The greatest thing you can do in worship though is to bow down before him and say, Father, I’m yours. I’m inviting you to do that.

I’m inviting you to put down your pride. You can, if your knees are bad, do it right there by your chair. You can get up and you can walk about and you can bow down and kneel wherever you are or kneel here at the altar and just say, God, I’m yours.

That’s one thing I love about Marcus is he’s a worshiper. He’s a worshiper. He’s not ashamed, is he? He’s not ashamed.

Let’s stand together. Let’s worship God with one more song.