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

What are you hunting for?  What is it that you seek?  What do you pursue?  Too many are like the little boy out in middle of the woods with a slingshot.  2 men in blaze orange found the boy and asked him, “What are you hunting?”  He said, “Don’t know.  I haven’t seen it yet.”  Unless you know what you are looking for, you will never find it.

Are you seeking God?  Is your heart on fire to know more of Him?  How do you search for God?

Matthew 7:7-8    “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 

That’s a promise.  But we must ask in Jesus’ name.  That doesn’t mean simply ending our prayers with a magic formula “In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”  It means praying in the will of God.  It doesn’t mean we get everything we wish for.  But it does mean that He gives us all we need.

Luke 24:13-24   That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 

Jesus had just risen from the grave.  And He chose to reveal Himself to these two disciples.  We don't know much about these men.  Just that they were disciples.  And that is enough.

Verse 27:  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

But it was only when He broke the bread that their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus.

Verse 32:  They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 

When is the last time your heart burned for Jesus?  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and to make your heart burn with desire to know Jesus more and more.  It's time to take a walk with Him.

Philippians 2:2    Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

I can hear your thoughts now.  But Pastor, you don’t know that one.  He’s so messed up.  She seems to defy me at every turn.  Talk about a flawed human being!  Oh, but aren’t we all!

 Pastor John Ortberg says, “When we enter relationships with the illusion that people are normal, we resist the truth that they are not. We enter an endless attempt to fix them, control them, or pretend that they are what they are not. One of the great marks of maturity is to accept the fact that everybody comes ‘as is.’”

What’s truly amazing is that Jesus prays that all of us flawed, imperfect people become one.  How can we be one?  By remembering that God loves that other person just as much as He loves me.  By acknowledging that the Holy Spirit is living in him just like He is living in me.  By knowing that we are all being held in God’s hand.

We have a shared identity in Christ.  We have the same mission to share Him with others.  We are called to work together to build the kingdom of God.  We don’t do it for that other person.  And we don’t do it for ourselves.  We keep our eyes on Jesus, and we do it for Him.
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Let’s live our lives knowing that we are one with Jesus and one with the Father, and let us walk in unity with each other.  After all, the way others know that we are followers of Jesus is by our love for one another.

John 16:33   I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus was about to go to the cross.  He told His disciples that their sorrow would turn to joy.  The reason?  He has already overcome the world.  His death and resurrection gave Him victory over sin and the grave.

Jesus has overcome your world, too.  He has already overcome that thing in your life that you struggle with.  Live in His strength, and He will give you the victory you need.

1 Peter 4:10   As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace

Once you realize that you don't own anything, but that God who made you and who lets you use His things, owns everything, you begin to understand that what you are given is to be used to honor and glorify Him.  How do we do that?

1 Peter 4:11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

​All that we are, all that we have, and all that we do are all for His glory.  When we live that way, He rewards us as His children.  Peter concluded this verse by praising God:

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Romans 8:9   You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

What is the evidence of Jesus in your life?  Do you see the Holy Spirit working in your life?  Do others see Him in you?  Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

Do you have the Spirit working in you?  Do you belong to Jesus?

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17    For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Matthew 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

​Are You Ready?

Matthew 24:35   Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Environmentalists are concerned about preserving the earth.  It's good to do our best to care for the "garden" that God has given to us, but saving the earth is a losing battle.  There will come a day when the earth will be no more.

The same is true of heaven.  What we think of as heaven, as in "he died and went to heaven", is actually Paradise.  That is where Jesus promised to meet the thief on the cross.  Some day Paradise will be obsolete.

John wrote in Revelation 21:1   Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

But even though earth and even heaven will pass away, the words of Jesus will live forever.  We all want something from our lives to carry into the next generations.  We are content to know we will be remembered by our grandkids.

Jesus' words will last forever.  Throughout eternity we will be praising God for the way Jesus taught us.  His words tell us how to be saved, so we can live with Him always.

We don't need to hang onto this earth, or the things of earth.  Instead, let's hang onto every word that Jesus spoke.  They will never grow old.

2 Corinthians 8:1-5   We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-- and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Isn't it interesting that Paul said they were under "a severe test of affliction", and yet they had an abundance of joy even in their extreme poverty?  What was the result?  It all overflowed in a wealth of generosity.  So much so that they begged to give.  When is the last time you begged to give to someone in need, or you begged to give in the offering plate?
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How should we give to those in need?  Not as you might expect.  Instead of deciding how much you can afford to give, do what the Macedonians did.  First, give yourself to the Lord.  And then give as He directs you.  Give yourself to those in need “by the will of God”.