How to Be Hungry for God
December 27, 2020 - Faith Cummings
David told me I could talk about anything I wanted to today. I could share about Christmas. I could share what I thought the Lord wanted to do in this coming year. Anything that was in my heart. I couldn’t sleep for a couple of nights, trying to think of what in the world I would want to say.
I remember when I was in seminary, when I had to give my first sermon, I was working full time and going to school. I was so busy, I didn’t know which end was up. So I was trying to find a text really fast. And I’m going through my Bible, and I said, “I can’t find anything. There’s nothing in here!” I think the Lord must have gotten a chuckle about that. But he said, “Just pick a text, any text, and I’ll help you with it.”
What I settled on for today is not so much a teaching, although it will sound like that, as it is the sharing of my life passion. It’s found in Philippians 3:7-14. Paul has been speaking of all that he once had been. He’s talking about his breeding, his reputation in the Jewish community, what he had poured his life into in order to accomplish. But then he says:
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Let’s pray:
Father, I pray that this morning you will reveal to the hearts of these that are listening the great worth of knowing Jesus. Lord, it is way past my ability to explain, but, Lord, I pray that you will put it in our hearts and make us hungry for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
So this morning we are going to look at four things. First, letting go of what we once valued and seeing those things as a loss. Second, what does it actually mean to know Christ, and why is that worth more than everything else. Number three, why would I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. And four, I’m not there yet, so what do I do?
Before we let go of what we once valued, we have to know what that was. For Paul, we often assume that it was just attaining righteousness through the law. Which it might have been, to a degree. But was that really all that he was after? What was it that Paul could earn in this First Century Jewish community that, through strict obedience to the law, that we can earn in our Twenty-First Century American society in other ways? Last I knew, strict obedience to the law doesn’t earn any points in our society. For Paul, it would have meant major success in his chosen field. The Pharisees, along with the Sadducees, were the ones who made up the ruling party over Israel, the Sanhedrin. So it would have meant power. It would have also meant financial security, respect, a sense of making a significant contribution to his community. There’s nothing wrong with any of these goals. They’re all things that are looked on as a strong plus. Not only in Paul’s society, but ours, as well.
So why would Paul consider it all a loss? And in truth, he did lose all these things when he became an outspoken believer in Christ. Instead of being highly respected, he became hated by the Jewish leadership, who eventually tried to kill him. Instead of being a leader in the community, he worked as a tent maker, in order to provide for himself while he shared the gospel.
Yet Paul states that he considered everything he had before a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. So what does Paul mean by the phrase, “Knowing Christ”? Surely it has to be more than simply having placed his faith in Jesus. Because he says here at the very end of his life that he is still “pressing on to know.”
I remember how thrilled I was when I was brand new in Christ that I would never have to face God’s wrath. That I had a for-sure place in heaven. If you haven’t made that kind of a choice yet, if you haven’t come to that place in your life, I would strongly encourage you to do so this morning. But my greatest joy, what really astonished me, was that God actually talked to me; that we had two-way conversations. He was the one that taught me what faith is.
I remember him giving me verses to help me get going in my brand-new life with him. And they were awesome verses. Finally I said, “Man, I’ve got to look these up so that I don’t forget them.” And I went to my concordance and I began to look them up. Every single one of them was from the same chapter, Psalm 103. I was so excited that I would wake up in the middle of the night with praise songs going through my head. Why would the all-powerful, holy God choose to talk to, choose to teach me? But, in truth, that first encounter is more like just getting acquainted.
David and Bella met the Pope when they were in Rome, and I believe that the Pope prayed for Bella. But I don’t think that David would go around saying, “Yeah, I know Frances.” He might. But it would be a gross exaggeration.
What Paul is talking about here is a knowing that goes beyond the assurance of salvation. The Greek word here speaks of a knowing through experiencing. It’s a knowing that grows through years of relationship, years of conversations, years of seeing what the other thinks, what they love, what they hate, what stirs their passions. It’s the difference between knowing somebody that you’ve just met through a dating site and knowing that person after fifty years of marriage.
Many of us, including me, have studied for years to know more about God, to learn what the scriptures tell us about him. We know and believe that he is omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful. Some know in theory, and others by experience that God answers prayer. We know that he hates sin. And some of us know what sin is. We know that he’s holy, that he’s righteous, that he’s loving.
But do we define God’s love by what we think love is? Do we define his holiness by what we think holiness must look like? Or do we know God’s love and holiness through our interactions with him?
I can clearly remember in my early days with the Lord, saying, “God would never do that.” And then he did. And I had to go back to him and ask for an understanding of who he is. Through the years he’s taught me not only who he is, but also who I should be. Not just how to avoid sin, but even how to become emotionally healthy.
As we experience and pay attention to God’s moving in our lives and that of others, as we talk out with him who he is, our knowing stops being a knowing of facts and becomes the knowing of a friend and more.
Some may ask if it’s really possible to know God like this. But all of scripture teaches that it is. First of all, it’s promised to us in the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 says:
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
Again, in Jeremiah 9:23-24, we read:
23 This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.
It’s true that, at this point, we only know in part. But there is so much to know. In Ephesians 1:17, Paul says:
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation…
What for? So that we can know the future? So that we can know things about ourselves or about other people? I really value that. But that’s not the “what for.” The “what for” is so that you may know him.
But the way Paul describes this knowing in our passage this morning can seem either too out of reach or too scary. First, he says that he wants to know Christ in the power of the resurrection. In Ephesians 1:19, Paul prays that they will know Christ’s …
…incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand …
Because Jesus died with the weight of the whole world through all of the millennia on his shoulders, we know that the power of the resurrection has to be really great power. Paul had experienced much of that power, first of all in his own salvation changing him from a murderer into someone who loved Jesus; but also through miracles of healing and deliverance, when just a handkerchief would touch him and then touch someone who needed that deliverance or that healing—they were healed.
I was very excited a few years ago when I prayed with somebody who had a really bad toothache and they didn’t have the money to go to the dentist, and God actually healed her. That doesn’t compare to Paul.
Some of us have seen God deliver people from demonic oppression and heal their broken lives. But many times, if we’re honest, we pray with very little faith that what we ask we’ll actually receive. It may be that when we most wanted God to heal, he didn’t—at least not in the way that we had hoped for. So we no longer pursue faith.
It may be that we think that power is just for those who are more holy, or more spiritual than us. So we go to them for prayer rather than pursuing knowing God for ourselves. But Paul says that experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection is a part of knowing him and available to those who believe. So we need to ask God to teach us.
This isn’t a matter of just gritting our teeth and saying, like the little girl in “Miracle on 34th Street,” “I believe, I believe.” It’s coming to God and asking him to teach us how to know him better, asking him to teach us how our faith needs to change; or maybe even how our prayers need to change. We need to spend time listening to what God wants to do with that great power he has given us, so our faith and our prayers are in line with his purposes—not just with what we want. What we must not do is quit pursuing Christ and the power of his resurrection.
Next, Paul says he wants to know Christ in the participation of his sufferings. Now, I get why many of us might want to know Christ in the power of his resurrection. In participation of his sufferings? Not so much. “I thought Jesus did all that so I wouldn’t have to.” The truth is that Jesus did suffer the just punishment for our sin so we will never have to suffer that. However, there is a very real suffering that often goes along with saying no to temptation, that we might not want to acknowledge, or we might just say, “Well, my sin’s been paid for. I’m just going to go ahead and do it.” Remember, however, that Jesus told the churches of Revelation that the rewards go to those who overcome.
Some, it seems, have had lives where doing what was right was just the norm. But many of us have struggled through the pain of saying no to temptation. We may have experienced rejection, hidden desires, addiction, heartbreak. Learning to say no to temptation when it would satisfy at least a temporary nagging need can be really painful. Some jus have to learn to overcome the weight of indifference to God’s call to really press in to know.
You might ask what that has to do with participation in Jesus’ sufferings. But I believe that Jesus’ temptations were very real and caused him real struggle. Jesus said no to the enemy’s offer to an easy way to gain back the kingdoms of earth without going to the cross. That choice would have been painful. Loving and supporting Judas throughout Jesus’ ministry, knowing that one day Judas would betray him would have caused suffering.
To not participate in the sufferings of Jesus is to take the easy route and give in to temptation instead of the difficult route of getting to know Jesus and letting him teach you how to overcome.
Participation in Jesus’ sufferings may also, like Paul, include loss of reputation, loss of respect, even at times loss of work opportunities. What makes it worth the suffering is the challenging but awesome process of getting to know Jesus better, learning to know his heart, why he suffered and why he would ask us at times to do the same.
Finally, Paul says, we get to know Jesus by becoming like him in his death. How am I to do that? In John 14:30-31, just before his crucifixion, Jesus tells his disciples:
30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Becoming like Jesus in his death may or may not include our own death. What it for certain will include is doing exactly what our Father has commanded us. It’s the death to my own will, my own desires for what I want my life to look like, and submitting everything to the will of the Father. This isn’t just saying no to sin. It’s getting to know Jesus by becoming like him and one to death to self.
So what in the world would make something this hard worth it? Frankly, there’s no way to really find out without the pressing in to know.
I remember reading in Romans that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And I thought, and I probably said, “Paul has it all mixed up. Suffering doesn’t end in hope. Hope carries us through suffering.” But then I walked through suffering and I discovered what hope really is on the other side. Choosing to know Christ better requires faith that Jesus will make it worth it; that knowing him will be worth everything.
Much of the joy simply comes in the discovery. The learning of who he is. The learning of his love that is so much deeper, so much greater than what I first thought when I first met him. It’s the learning to know the sweet kindness, the sweet tenderness of his voice when I’m walking through challenges.
So the last question for this morning is the hardest. If I’m honest, I have to say I’m not there yet. I’m not even as far along as Paul was, who was pressing in to know Christ. So what do I do? Here are a few suggestions. They’re not definition answers. They’re just the suggestions that I have for what has helped me come to know Jesus better.
1. Be all in. Know what you want, why you want it, and give everything to get there.
2. Know the word. Don’t just look for what you’re supposed to do or not do, or for some promise that you can twist God’s arm with, where you can make him do what you want him to do. Look to learn who Jesus is and put into practice what he says. I’m talking about, for example, when God tells me to be strong and very courageous, I begin to try to learn to practice that and walk that out with Jesus’ help.
3. Spend time meditation on his characteristics. As you read scripture, you find out what God is like. Meditate on that. For example, I learned that Jesus was humble. What in the world would the all-powerful, all-holy God need to be humble for? What does that look like for God? What does it look like for God to be humble? What does it look like for me to be humble?
4. Spend time listening. For those of you who might be a little ADHD like me, this can be the hardest one. But bring your questions and your thoughts to God and give him time to talk back. I would strongly suggest that you write down the things that he says. But this develops an interactive relationship with him that’s critical in knowing him.
5. Pray in the Spirit. God will reveal things to your spirit through his.
6. Walk in obedience. One of the greatest lessons I learned from God in doing this was how precious and how costly his faithfulness is. I learned through choosing the obedience of faithfulness when unfaithfulness was what I was living with. Think about it. How many times have you and I been unfaithful to God? And yet he has remained faithful. Walking that out myself taught me so much about his love.
7. Believe what he says. I’m not talking about just that he’s your Savior. That is the "getting acquainted” phrase. But believe what he says. When he says that you can ask anything in his name and he will do it, believe him. And if it’s not happening, go to him for “what I need to change.” Do I need to learn something about his character so I can ask in his name? Do I need to take time to hear what he wants to do in this situation? What we must not do is walk away without getting to know him through believing him.
8. Worship, worship, worship.
9. Finally, do the daily walk of getting to know him through experience. When I worked in a family practice office up in Prescott, I had a call one day from one of the pharmacists. He said, “Did you call in ‘such and such’ a narcotic for this particular patient.” And I said, no, I hadn’t. And he said, “I didn’t think so. But she called in a prescription for herself.” But because we had had repeated interactions, he knew my voice and he knew that it wasn’t me that called it in.
Spend so much time with God, so much time seeking, listening, walking with him that you know and can immediately recognize when he speaks and what he wants to do.
Let’s pray:
Father, we know well that we haven’t come to know all that you are. What we have come to know is so beyond anything that I ever imagined that you would be, and has just increased my love for you throughout the years. Father, I pray in Jesus’ name that we who are part of your Body will come to value and to press in to know you, no matter what the cost is, no matter what the joys are. Lord, I pray that you will be our first love, that you will be our first joy, that we will know you in all of your glory. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
©2020 Living Streams Christian Church, Phoenix, AZ
Scripture taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.