What is the One Thing I Desire from God This Year?

"Happy New Year to all of you...I pray that you are exceptionally blessed in this new year!"  How many of you would say you are a little relieved to see 2009 go?  Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch told his church that his staff, in general, is on a 21 day fast at varying levels to start the year.  He asks if there are prayer needs out there for his members.
Craig opens his message with Isaiah 43:18-19, which says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."   Craig suggests that this verse applies to many people who had a rough year. 

How many people have a new years resolution?  "By Valentine's day, 75% of you will have given up."  Why is it that  so many of us have good intentions, but we are unable to follow through?  It might be because your intentions are not God intentions.  What Craig urges us to do in this message is to listen to the spirit of God who will speak directly though you and will show you the "one thing" he wants to do through you. 

Today, Craig is going to ask 4 "One Thing" questions to help us determine the "One Thing" God would have us do this year.  Craig asks God what his one thing is every year.   See, when there is a decade of "One Things" every year, your life can dramatically turn into a God driven life.  The first question is;

1) What one thing do you desire from god? 
Psalm 27:4 says, "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple."  This is what King David wanted.  His one thing.  There may be a person in your life who isn't a christian.  Some of you have have a stronghold or an addiction or something that keeps you from fully worshipping God.  Others of you may look at your marriage and see that your marriage is not what you want it to be.  Your one thing may be your wanting God to deal with some so-and-so.  Maybe you want God to slow things down for your job because you are missing out on life.  You may desire God to change your heart.  You may want to live by the graces of God. Maybe you just need satisfaction from God. 
 
Years ago, Craigs "One Thing" was the same as King Solomon's.  He wanted wisdom.  So, God pointed him to Proverbs and every day, month in and month out, Craig read the a chapter from Proverbs (the book has 31 chapters, so it works out well each month). 
 
2) What one thing do you lack? 
 
In Mark 10, A rich man came to Jesus asking what he needeed to do because he couldn't fully experience God.  Jesus looked at him "in love" (which gives the notion that God shows us what we lack, but does this out of love) and said to sell everything so that he could follow Jesus.  The man walked away because he couldn't release his wealth.  There are many of you who over a period of years, God has shown you the one thing that is lacking in you, but you refuse to embrace it or to do anything about it. 
 

There was a friend of Craig's who once read the Bible every day, but then stopped reading and grew further and further away from God.  So what is your one thing?  Many of you have been wrestling with tithing. This is where God might say to you; "Do you really believe me or not?  Others of you drift in and out of sin.  There are lives that are falling apart because no one will speak into their lives. 

 

Years ago, Graig and his wife lost a group of friends. One couple got divorced, another couple moved away and the spouse of another couple had to be removed from the church staff.  Craig and his wife were bleeding inside because they had lost these connections.  Then, they found themselves going through life without a close group.  It was a God burden because they truly lacked friends who could help support them.  So, they took it upon themselves to get involved again with a community group.

 

3) What one thing do you need to let go? 

What one thing holds you back?  Philipians 3: 13-14  talks about how Paul wanted to truly know God. ...Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Years ago, Craig was in Colorado and he saw a slack line, which is like a tightrope only not "tight".  Well, Craig decided to try and cross it.  The guy on the other side yelled to Craig that he had to let go of the tree before he could cross.  Craig let go and immediately was thrown to the ground.  The secret to crossing the slack line was to focus on the tree on the other side.  The christian faith is a lot like that.  We have to focus on Jesus.  We have to focus on the goal.  if someone hurt us and we are hurt, we can't dwell on the past.  We have to forget the past and press on.  Craig was talking to a friend who was beating himself up because he had compromised his values sexually with his girlfriend.  What is the one thing we need to let go? 

 

4)  What one promise from God do you need to claim? 

When David was annointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel, he was a young man.  God told Samuel, I do not look to the outside of a man but rather in his heart.  As soon as David was annointed to be king, it was still a long road of back and forths.  For instance, when Saul was after David, David chose to hide among the Philistines.  He said to God, "there are so many things I do not know right now.  There are so many things that have turned out bad, but this one thing I know.  that my God is for me.  I am trusting Him.  I am not afraid of what mere man can do to me.  For some of you, God will give you a promise and it will sustain you. 
 
It was in the early years of the church and Craig was down because the church had outgrown his leadership capabilities and so he cried out to God.  It was in that year that God said "my strength will be made perfect in your weakness".  So now, and for the last 10 years, God has been building the church through Craig's weakness.  What one promise do you need to claim? 

 
There are so many promises God can give us.  Here are a few.  God promises to meet every need you have.  God can meet your finanical needs. God said He will provide a way out for any temptations you may have.  God can create in you a sense of having forgiven you.  God promises to make everything work for the good of those who love of Him   He will be with us forever.  He promisese to give strength to the weiry.  He says he will give us joy.  He says he is the good shephard and he will guide us.  He will give us peace beyond our understanding.  God promises to give us power to defeat satan.  God promises that we are more than conquerers.  God promises us eternal life through his son Jesus.
 
There are some things I do not know, but I this one thing I know; My God is for me.

How Do I Make Consistently Wise Choices?

In the second message of his series, "Deal or No Deal", Johnson Bowie opens with several pieces of trivia; "Revlon has 158 shades of lipstick!...Sonic offers you 168,894 possible drink combinations!"  That means, starting with the Chocolate Blue Coconut Dr. Pepper, you can have a different drink every day for the next 462 years!!  Isn't that insane?!?  There are so many choices we have in the world today.  When we were in college, our schedule was pretty structured and consistent, right?  But when we graduated and were free to roam the world, we faced choices that were extremely complex.  What's more, we are faced with the pressure of making the right decisions because our lives become the sum total of our decisions.

How many of you wish you had some sort of Morse Code connection with God?  Wouldn't that make life easier?  Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding."  Wisdom is supreme.  That's kind of a big hint on life!  Great decisions with big choices is important, but great choices with little choices is almost as equally important.  If you make bad small choices every day, they can add up to humongous problems.  For instance, marriages fall apart one day at time.  It's a slow series of bad choices that adds up to huge problems. We have to establish processes for choices.  They can't just be decisions based on our feelings. 

Jesus asked 3 questions to us to guide our decisions in life (from previous message in series):

1)  Is it Written? 
2) Is it Love? 
3) Is it on God's Agenda? 

God wants us to succeed.  He knows what's best for us.  But a lot of what He says is contrary to what we hear.  We've heard "It's okay to look, but don't touch", right?  But what does the Bible say about that?  "Anyone who looks at a woman with lust in his heart, he commits adultry his heart with her."  Johnson ran into a woman who told him she reads Proverbs any time she is faced with tough decisions. 

We might ask ourselves, "What's wrong with going over to my girlfriend's house and watching a boring movie in the dark?"  To answer this question, we have to ask ourselves what love is and we can find out about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4.  "Love is patient, love is kind....love is not self seeking."   If we think about the reason we want to go to her place, then we can conclude it is not a wise decision.  Also, the Bible says not to place a stumbling block for a weaker brother.  The neighbor might say, "I know what you were doing in there" and you might say, "No!! We were singing Kumbaya."  See, if we knew 1 Corinthians 13:4, wouldn't it save us from so many relationships?

Then, the question in our minds should be, "Is it on God's agenda?"  Does it further the kingdom of God?  The three questions Jesus asks will answer 75% of the decisions we have to make, but what about the things that aren't as clear like who should I marry?  Should I take this job?  Should I go out of town? 

Here is the key question we have to ask ourselves when it comes to making the small decisions; "In light of my past, considering my present and looking forward to the future, what is the wisest choice for me to make today?"  Wisdom is the ability to make great choices when we don't have specific, direct advice from the Bible and remember that wisdom is supreme. 

In "Deal or No Deal", you choose a single case and all subsequent decisions are made based on what we think is in the case we have chosen.  Well, we all have a case.  We all have history, life experiences and advice from friends in that case.  We have junk too.  There are really 3 things based on which people generally make decisions. 

1) We make decisions based on our past.  We are ruled by our past, by our fears and by our failures.  We might be completely insecure because of the past or too proud because of our past.  Here is the problem.  Too often, our past experiences are contrary to the Word of God.  Our past can steal our future.  Remember Moses?  Moses was controlled by his past.  When he went to the burning bush in Exodus 3, God basically told Moses this was his big chance.  Moses is being given the opportunity to lead God's people out of Egypt!  God wants to use Moses is a huge way, but what does Moses do, not once but several times?  He wines and complains about what he can't do.  He says he's not good enough and that he has a speech impediment.  Moses was killing God's present to him.  At one point, it says God actually got angry with him.  The Apostle Paul says, "I forget my past and I press on". 

 
2) The second case is this; "Open the case".  People are ruled by the present.  "Have you seen my bank account?  I can't tithe."  They're miserable because of how they feel.  What about the people who are cutting down the rain forests?  They are killing their future because of current needs!  These are the Carpe Diem guys.  "Seize the day."  It sounds exciting, but it often ruins our lives!  Jeremiah 1:6-10  talks about how Jeremiah said he was too young and how he was negating God's calling. 
 
3) The third mistake we make is when we make decisions based on our future only.  These are the visionaries.  These are the people who forget to live in the moment of the day.  Eventually, they just burn out.  Think about it.  "God told me that you were going to be my wife."  Does that reallly work?  No!  You can't tell someone that!  For the future to happen, we have to take a step each day.  It's like hiking to the top of a mountain, but tripping and getting hit by limbs on the trail because we keep looking to the top of the mountian rather than enjoying and paying attention to the journey.  We can't forget about the day. 
 
Did you ever hear about Lot, Abraham's nephew?  There was this famine in the land.  Abraham and Lot were loaded.  They leave the family and go out and look at this huge, vast piece of land.  Some of the land is beautiful and another part of the land is dry and will require work.  Abraham gives Lot the first choice and tells him that he will take the other. Genesis 13 picks up here.  So, Lot looked out and saw what looked to be best for him. To him it was a no-brainer.  He chose what looked best.  But disaster struck; absolute and complete disaster.  Lot moved near Sodom and eventually moved into Sodom.  Later, we see that he barely escapes with his life and he loses his wife.  Lot would probably have done things completely different if he had considered things more carefully.  But his choice, instead of God's will for him, was based on what appeared physically to look better.


 Just because it looks nice doesn't mean it is right for us.  We have to consider our past ,our present and our future.  Here's what it boils down to;  We have to learn for our  past, we have to be able to look for ward to the furture, but while living in our present.  We can't be told not to go into a bar, but our past experiences can teach us.  We have to know our own tendencies and behavior.  Which in environments do we flourish?  This is the great wisdom of God in our lives.  Here is where we can make great decisions. 
 
Hang out with your girl in Barnes & Noble without going to her place and watching a funky movie in the dark and alone.  Many of us are stuck in these repetitive sins.  But it's not a sin problem, it's a stupid problem!  We keep going back to that website or that street corner.  We keep making the same choices and thinking it will work this time.  
 

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Einstein

If I want my marriage to look this way... What should I do?  If I want to have a life that looks like this, what do I do?  If I want my relationship with Jesus to look like this, what do I need to do today?  This big.  Is it is it written, is it love and is it on God's agenda?   For the small decisions, again; In light of my past, in view of my current situation and looking forward to the future, what should I do?
 
James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."  It that easy, but we don't do that!  We just go out and make bad choices.  God wants to stop that in us and he wants to empower us.  He wants to glorify Jesus in our lives. He wants our lives to be a testimoney.  So, can we do that?  Can we get our eyes off our fears and align them with what God wants for us? 

How Do I Gain Wisdom?

John Woodall hosts Part 3 ("Ask and Search") of Northpoint's "Solomon Says" series. John opens with a story about the best Father's Day gift he almost received several years ago...

In May of 2005, Debbie, his wife, and he had a son who lived in San Diego and worked at a Real Estate Investment Trust. John's son called and said, "Dad, are you sitting down?...I just won a 2005 Porshe Carrera!" Saying he didn't believe his son, John reminded him that Father's Day was coming up. Funny... "How did you win the Porsche?" was John's question and he found out that his son had randomly dropped a card into a drawing at a huge convention that he wasn't even really attending but rather sent in afterwards to clean up.

"I knew my son was smart, but I didn't know if he was smart enough to know what to do with a brand new Porsche Carrera." In his lifetime, John said he has watched many very smart people make really unwise decisions. High IQ's don't equate to wise decision making. High achievers and ivy league school graduates have demonstrated poor, poor judgment. The most classic example was probably Enron. The founders grew the company to $65 Billion. They actually had a club called "The Smartest Guys in the Room"!! Jeffrey Skilling IS probably one of the smartest guys in the room, but his room right now is a prison cell.



So, John's objective in the message is to address the differences between wisdom and intelligence. This leaves us with three questions:

1. What is wisdom?
2. How do we gain wisdom?
3. What are the benefits of wisdom?

Question one can be summarized as the ability to properly discern and apply knowledge to any situation. "Knowing what to do with what I know."

In the book of wisdom, Proverbs 2, authored by Solomon, he says,

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding..." Solomon is basically saying, "First of all, ASK for wisdom!" Whether it be generally or specifically, are we really asking God for wisdom?

Today is John's 34th anniversary. "In 34 years, you really have no idea how many times I have had to ask God for wisdom...constantly..." God loves it when we ask for wisdom. In the book of James, it says, "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and He gives generously."

Last year, John gave a message about a "prodigal son" situation that came up in his family years ago. He had three sons and a daughter and they didn't know whether to put his son in a detention center, keep him on probation, kick him out of the house or take away his car. It was a constant challenge to make wise decisions.

This is where many of us are now in business or in our own families. We are in situations where we need wisdom. God will readily give us wisdom if we would but ask.

Secondly, Solomon suggests we look for wisdom fervently by saying, "and if you look for (wisdom) as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure.." He says it's not a casual pursuit, but an intense, deep-thinking and deliberate search. Scriptures are an amazing book. There are many things we can find if we just look. "...then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Fear of the Lord simply acknowledges God for who He is; the Creator of the Universe. We live in awe and honor of him. God should be the center of our lives.

So, ask for wisdom. Search for wisdom. But what are the benefits of wisdom? Let's look further at Solomon's words;

"For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you."

Men and women were made in the image of God. We have a body, a spirit and a soul. We know about our body. Our spirit is what we have that makes us aware of a God and our soul is our inner person; our mind, our will and our emotions. So, when scriptures say wisdom will enter our hearts, it changes us and our reactions to life.

John deals with a lot of people, as a pastor, who are troubled in their souls. Studying scripture can give peace and rest to us. It is truly pleasant to the soul. It protects and it guards us. It exalts us and watches over us.

Referring back to his son, Mike and his newly won car, John had advised his son to keep the car in the family. Well, at the same time, Mike had been listening to Andy Stanley and a question Andy called "The Best Question Ever". This question was, "In light of my past, where I've been and from where I've come, in light of my current reality and in light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wisest thing to do?" Mike was really tempted to keep the car, but he had to make a decision based on Andy's question. He chose to sell the car. "Man, can you believe that?" kids John. The sale price was $95,000. What's more, Mike was wise enough to know that if he put one mile on the car, it would be worth significantly less. But the irony of the situation was, the guy who bought it asked Mike to drive it up the coast to deliver it! So, Mike was able to pay off a wedding, a wedding ring, his school loans, the associated taxes and get a new set of tires for his existing Honda. It was wise to make this decision!

For the next 5 days, John asks us to think about whatever challenge we are currently facing which requires us to make a wise decision. He suggests we first ask God for wisdom. Then, for the days following, to read a chapter a day out of Proverbs as part of our pursuit of it.