Intimacy with God: Longing

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Today is the last of eight sermons in a series of sermons on the topic of Intimacy with God, unless I get inspired and come up with another idea in the next week. It has been an interesting series for me and has helped me to intensify my desire to be in a more intimate relationship with God. I hope it has also been helpful for you.

Today we will talk about longing for God. But as with most things, it is helpful to think a bit about what longing is before talking about one particular thing for which we long. Do we long for anything or anyone else than God? The answer of course is, “Yes!” We are people filled with desire and desire is what lies behind longing. We desire, wish, want, crave and covet. We desire pleasure, comfort, food, things of all sorts, electronic equipment, houses, cars, friendship, companionship, security, peace, health, and on and on and on.

In all the things we desire, there are good things we desire and bad things we desire. The last of the ten commandments says:
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

and then David, in one of his good moments expressed the positive side of desire:
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”

When we talk about longing for God we have to realize that we have desire for a lot of things, some of them good and some of them bad. So before we go any further, let me draw a distinction between longing and lust. I’m not sure these words carry the meaning I intend to give them, but for our purposes this morning, we need a way of drawing some distinctions.

I printed this in the bulletin so you can read it there. Lust is an ever growing desire for something that cannot satisfy. Longing is an ever growing desire for something that does satisfy.

With both lust and longing, the more I get of what I am lusting or longing for, the more of it I want. The difference lies in whether or not I am satisfied by what I get.

Frederick Buechner defines lust this way: Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst. To make the distinction, I would add that longing is the craving for water of a man who is dying of thirst.

Longing and lust have a similar dynamic but they end very differently. One is a pursuit of good desire and the other is the pursuit of bad desire. One leads to life and the other leads to death.

Let me give an example of something we lust for. One of the most obvious things that comes to mind when we hear the word “lust” is sexual lust. And when you hear the story of someone who has been consumed by this lust, you see how clearly Buechner’s definition applies. Someone begins looking at pictures in a magazine and receives a certain thrill. But soon this is not enough. To get that thrill, more is needed. So video replaces magazines and eventually a real person is required to achieve the thrill. The problem is that each encounter leaves the person hungrier and there is the illusion that a greater experience will satisfy.

Lust pulls us in and takes us on and on, deeper and deeper into what cannot ultimately satisfy. The same can be said for food. A lust for food makes the search for the perfect meal an unending search. No matter how good the food is, it cannot satisfy the lust that pursues it.

Sex and food are wonderful gifts of God and can be very satisfying, but not when they are the goal of life. When someone tries to find meaning in life by pursuing sex or food or anything else found in this world, the search becomes empty, unfullfilling, unsatisfactory.

Lust is an ever growing desire for something that cannot satisfy. Longing is an ever growing desire for something that does satisfy.

We need to keep this in mind as we go into the Scriptures and look at lessons we can learn from men and women who had a longing for God.

When I thought about longing for God, a few people quickly came to my mind: Moses, David and Paul. Let’s take a look at these three men and see what lessons can be drawn from their pursuit of God.

Moses was born to a Hebrew slave family in Egypt and brought up in the Pharaoh’s household as the son of one of his daughters. When he was forty years old, he discovered his Hebrew identity and set out to rescue his people from the cruelty of Pharaoh’s oppression. This failed and he fled into the wilderness where he married the daughter of Jethro, a priest of Midian.

Here Moses lived as part of Jethro’s household, living a nomadic existence, taking care of sheep and goats until one day God appeared to him in a burning bush and called him to go to Egypt and lead the Hebrews out of bondage to a land promised to them.

The depths of Moses’ sense of failure and inferiority are revealed in his obstinate refusal to pick up the responsibility God was giving to him and finally God allowed his brother, Aaron, to speak for him.

But this is the first experience of Moses with God. God continued to speak to Moses as he went to Egypt and confronted Pharaoh. He continued to speak to Moses as Israel left Egypt and crossed over into the Sinai Peninsula. God continued to speak to Moses when Israel complained that they had been brought out in the desert to die and then God provided water and quail for them and an ongoing diet of manna.

Then Moses met with God atop Mt. Sinai and received the Law that would govern Israel. Experience after glorious experience with God and Moses became more and more hungry to have a deeper, more intimate relationship with God.

Each experience left him satisfied but wanting a deeper experience and so we come to a beautiful passage in Exodus 33. Moses would set up a tent outside the camp to which people would go if they wanted to ask something of God. While the people waited outside, Moses went into the tent and then scripture says in a most beautiful sentence:
The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

What a wonderful description of an intimate relationship with God. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. But Moses had a longing for more.

Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’  13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Isn’t that promise sufficient? Wouldn’t we be satisfied with that? But Moses wanted more. Moses wanted a deeper experience of God.

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.  23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

From Moses we learn the lesson that the more we experience God, the more hungry we become, the greater will be our longing to be with God. When we experience the presence of God we are given a foretaste of heaven and that leaves us wanting more. We long for God because he has already given us a taste of the glory that awaits us when we come into his kingdom.

Now we move on to David. David is a far more complicated personality than can be covered in part of a sermon. But let’s start with David, the shepherd, who composed Psalm 23.
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Psalm 23 is a psalm written by someone who has experienced the peace and presence of God. David had experienced God’s intimate presence and protection from the lions and bears that had attacked his flock. David wrote this psalm out of the rich experience he had had of God. This psalm that has provided abundant comfort to God’s people for thousands of years came out of an experience of God that was intimate and satisfying.

Psalm 27 is written by someone who has experienced God and stood on the solid rock of faith in God. Listen to David as he recounts his experience of God.
The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

4 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.

7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

These psalms and others like them are the reason David is called a man after God’s own heart.

But there is another side to David. There is David who fled from Saul to Nob and lied to Ahimelech the priest to save his skin. David’s lie cost Ahimelech and 85 other priests their lives as well as the lives of the other men, women and children living in Nob. There is David who hid out with his band of outlaws and practiced extortion, telling farmers that they had to pay him so he wouldn’t rob from them. And then there is the more well known story of David looking over his balcony and seeing Bathsheba and deciding that he wanted her even though she was married to one of his fighting men. He committed adultery and then tried to cover up that adultery by murdering Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. David, a man after God’s own heart? Scripture reveals another side of David, a man who lusted after power and pleasure and would do anything to get it.

It is after this incident with Bathsheba and Uriah that David is revealed yet again as a man after God’s own heart. In his repentance for committing adultery and murder, he wrote Psalm 51.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Throughout David’s life as king of Israel, these two sides of himself struggled. David, a man after God’s own heart struggling against David a man who sought his pleasures and power with a ruthless tenacity.

And at the end, David, the man after God’s own heart, seems to have been defeated by David, the man who sought his pleasures and power. David started out with a passion, a longing for God but he did not finish well.

At the end of his life David is lying in bed, weak and powerless. Even after his advisors held a beauty contest and brought the winner to his bed, hoping that would stir him, David remained listless. Only a coup against him brought him to action and he schemed to put Solomon on the throne after he died.

It is not a pretty picture of David. David who wrote Psalm 23 seems far distant when you get to I Kings and read of the end of his life.

What happened? David had many experiences with God. Why did David not continue to grow and finish his life on a strong note, eager to be with God? David died thinking of his throne, his successor. Why was Psalm 23 not on his lips as he died? David was filled with longing for God but also with lusts for pleasure and power. And it is impossible to have longing for God and lust for pleasure and power at the same time.

David lived a seesaw life, longing for God and then lusting for power and pleasure. And so David finished his life in mediocrity.

From Moses we learn that the more we experience God, the more hungry we become and the greater will be our longing to be with God. From David we learn that lust for this world and the things of this world pull us away from our longing for God.

And now we move on to Paul. Paul, whose Hebrew name was Saul, was a brilliant Pharisee, educated by Gamaliel, the cream of the crop. In his passion and zeal for the Law, he set out to kill these heretical followers of Jesus until he was met by the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. This was the turning point of Paul’s life and he turned his passion, zeal and intellect 180º around and began to follow Christ.

Paul turned his back on the comfortable future he could have had as a respected leader among the Pharisees and set off to live for Christ. In his life Jesus appeared to him at least three times. His life was a continual experience of the love, grace and mercy of God and the result was that his life was filled with a passion to know Christ. Listen to these expressions of his passion.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he prays for them:
For this reason I kneel before the Father,  15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The poetry of Paul’s longing is beautiful. How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. This is the language of a man who is in love with God, who has experienced God in the way he prays for the Ephesians and who has been and will pursue God to the end.

In the second of Paul’s recorded letters to the Corinthians, Paul writes about his and our longing to be with Christ.
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,  3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.  4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

A tent is a temporary residence waiting until a permanent building can be built. Paul uses this image to talk about his longing for what is permanent. Paul longed for what this world cannot offer.

Paul, like David, was a man after God’s own heart. The difference is that when Paul turned 180º and set off for Christ, he never looked back. Paul gave up the things of this world in pursuit of the Kingdom of God. He wrote to the Philippians:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

And this is indeed what Paul did. At the end of his life, after beatings and hardships he was able to describe his life this way:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Hebrews 11 is a chapter of faithful men and women. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Rahab are listed and the writer of Hebrews says about these and the others not mentioned:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Paul and these heros of the faith in Hebrews 11 longed for their permanent home. They longed for what can and will satisfy and turned their back on what is temporary and cannot satisfy.

From Moses we learn that the more we experience with God, the more hungry we become and the greater will be our longing to be with God. From David we learn that lust for this world and the things of this world pull us away from our longing for God. From Paul we learn that it is possible to not only start with a heart after God and to grow in our experience of him, but it is possible to finish strong when we turn our back on the lusts of this world that do not satisfy and pull us away from God.

Do you long for God? Do you want to have a more intimate relationship with God? Then seek him. Experience his love and grace and mercy in your life. And turn away from the things of this world that will not, in any event, satisfy. Turn your back on the pursuit of pleasure and power and race ahead to an experience of the love of God in your life.

Noreen Maxwell fell this past week and was in the hospital with a cranial hematoma. She was released from the hospital yesterday but is still feeling weak. She was ill before this happened which may be why she fell. But just a couple days before she fell, she wrote this to a friend.

I am ill just now, perhaps the beginning of my longed for journey. I long to be in the Kingdom, and also I long to be strong again, and able to work. Perhaps it will take a long time to get there but I am determined to enjoy the fascinating travel. I am happy and at peace and one day you will learn what happens. Don’t forget to enjoy the news when you get it.

This is the beautiful testimony of a woman who realizes very clearly that what this world has to offer is nothing compared to what awaits her in heaven. Noreen’s heart is set on eternity and she longs for nothing more than to be with God.

Noreen is a fortunate woman because she sees what is real and true so clearly. I pray that you and I will also see so clearly what is real and true.

What are you lusting for? Where is your heart being taken? Allow God to help you see that your lust for pleasure or power or wealth will not and cannot satisfy you.

Turn away from what cannot satisfy and long for what will satisfy. Seek God with all your heart, soul and mind.

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Benediction
Ephesians 3
I pray that out of [God’s] glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.