Sermon Notes 8-13-2017

Part 1 (What do you really want)

Careful what you want for!

INTRODUCTION
We all have wants. Life can feel like a constant pursuit of those wants. We want to do what we want to do. We want constant pleasure. And we want what we want now. But actually getting what we want can be tricky . . . and even dangerous. It usually leaves us wanting more. If what we want leads to a cycle of wanting more and more, maybe we want the wrong things.
So, what do you want?

The goal

The goal of this series is not just for believers to align with the wants that God has for you, but also for the un-believers to hopefully wrestle with some questions as to what you truly want in your life and for your life.

So let’s get to it, the big questions of the day is: What do you want?

·      The answer is different for everyone

·      The older you get there seems to be less “what”

·      When your younger there is more “what”

·      In different seasons of life the “what” changes

·      But one things is for sure there we always want something!

One thing is for sure, we want our way!

·      We all ultimately want our way

·      We all want it our way

But sometimes

·      Getting our way, we often get in our own way

·      This ever happen to you?

·      You bully your way to get what you want, and then what you wanted gets in the way of things you want more?

And we want to do what we want to do!

·      When I ask, what do you want, I bet we all came up with a thing

·      But really, we just want to do what we want to do

·      That is really at the heart of all our wants, we want it our way, and we want to do what we want to do

You can’t make an adult do anything, we can only keep them from doing things

·      We call it prison

·      If you always do what you want to do you end up limiting your options

What we really want is perpetual pleasure!

·      We all want that

·      We are all looking for that one thing that makes us happy

·      Could be a legal thing

·      or illegal thing

o   cars

o   horses

o   golf

o   porn

o   alcohol

o   anything that makes you happy

·      but searching for that one thing can lead to addictions

·      an eventually control you

·      it goes from good thing to God thing in your life

·      and then you wish you would have never found the thing that once made you happy!

And you may not know what you want, but you know you want it now!

·      and most of the time rushing to get what we want now

·      just gets in the way of what we really want later

·      every one of us could tell a story that fits this

·      we just had to have it and later we so regretted it

·      what we buy today on the card, is still in the closet

Regret always starts with getting something we want

·      it keeps you from getting what you want later

·      and we all have regrets!

  

SO, what do you want?

·      We must be very careful about what we want

·      It’s a trick and slippery slope

·      If we always get our way, we sometimes lose our way

·      And if we always do what we want to do, we end up where we don’t want to be!

·      If we get what we want now, we may not get what we want later!

This wanting thing, is a tricky thing!!

So, let’s see just how tricky this wanting thing is! And to understand just how slippery a slop it is we look at the book of James to understand the problem trying to get what we want can cause!

James ask this question:

“What cause fights and quarrels among you?”

·      Is it biblical truth?

·      Is it the sin of others?

·      Is it following Gods will?

·      No

James 4:1 (NIV)

¹What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires (Wants) that battle within you?

·      What cause most fights among people?

·      What is the driving force for deception between people?

·      Is our wants and desires that spill over on the ones we love the most!

·      There is a battle that rages in you to get what you want

·      And this spills all over other people

o   At work

o   At home

o   At church

o   In your marriage

o   Because we want what we want and we want it now!

·      And if you really think about it

·      Most of our arguments and broken relationships started over someone not getting what they want!

Sometimes we will do whatever we can to get what we want!

James 4:2 (NIV)

²You desire but do not have (What you want), so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

·      You say I wouldn’t kill for anything, really??

o   We kill friendships

o   We kill work deals

o   We kill families

o   We kill marriages

o   We destroy the things that mean the most to us for what we want

·      To get what we want!

He goes on to say we covet!

·      This means we purse things at any cost

·      We go after something we want at the expense of relationships

o   Could be a job

o   A car

o   A hobby

o   Could be anything

o   But we will destroy people in pursuit of what we want!

o   But we never get what we want because the pursuit is never ending!

So, getting what we want, and not getting what we want is always a problem so how in the world do we ever get satisfied??????

Here is the problem.

Most of don’t know what we really want, because we are so distracted by what we want, what we desire right now!

·      Most people never find out what they really want

·      From work

·      From their marriage

·      From life in general

·      Because we are so distracted by the shiny thing right in front of us

·      We are in such pursuit of the next greatest thing, that we never find true joy and peace.

·      We never enjoy what’s right in front of us because we just look right past it, to what’s next!

  

I see it to many times

·      At the end of the journey, life!

·      People get real clarity as to what is really important

·      But they missed it, chasing the right now

The skinny of it all

What we really what we rarely explore!

·      You keep thinking you’re getting what you want

·      But there is something that you really want that only you can figure you out

·      Jesus continues to point us to it, but we are so wrapped up in what we want now we never get to looking for what we really and ultimately want!

·      Jesus wants you to know what you want is not even close to what you REALLY or ULTIMATLEY want!

Vs 2 You do not have because you do not ask God

·      Why don’t we ask?

·      1. Because we already know the answer

o   we have all done this!

o   We don’t ask because we know the answer before we ever ask, even though we want it

·      2. We have asked and he said no

o   but even though we know that no is the right answer, we still want it!

“What we really want lurks in a real that we rarely explore” Andy Stanley

Close!

The big problem!

James 4:3 (NIV)

³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives (badly, wrongly, incorrectly), that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

·      He is getting at the heart of it all

·      Sometimes what we want is so surface, so selfish, that we get blinded

·      We think because the advertisers say we need it

·      Because someone else’s has it we need it

·      And God know our motives are not right

·      That this isn’t what we ultimately what we really want, we are only looking for the next quick fix, the next high we get on getting something new

·      And God know, and says no, because he knows, that it will in the future get in the way of what we really and ultimately want