Longings

  • Pastor Dwain Tissell
  • Oct 19, 2008
  • Series: Mere Christianity

LONGINGS
"Mere Christianity" - Part 2
October 19th, 2008
Romans 8:22-24
Dwain Tissell

"Do what they will, then, we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy...I do not believe...that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will....Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off...is not mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation....We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so."
The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? Romans 8:22-24 (TNIV)

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness...So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26,27 (TNIV)

THREE-PERSONAL EVIDENCES OF GOD IN YOUR DESIRES

1. WE LONG FOR TOGETHERNESS.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD God, the LORD is one. Deuteronomy 6:4 (TNIV)

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:24 (NIV)


2. WE LONG TO DISTINGUISH OURSELVES.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. John 1:1-4 (TNIV)

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 (TNIV)


3. WE LONG FOR EQUALITY.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 (TNIV)

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 (TNIV)

11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 (NIV)

"You may ask, ‘if we cannot imagine a three-personal Being, what is the good of talking about Him?' Well, there isn't any good talking about Him. The thing that matters is being actually drawn into that three-personal life, and that may begin any time - tonight, if you like.
"What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God-that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying - the goal his is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on-the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of that three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers." Mere Christianity, p 163