he who has eyes...

Sermon given at the Near West Vineyard Church on July 5, 2009.
In-line audio of the sermon.

So, I’m not married. I’m sure by now, if you know me, I’ve made that painfully obvious to you. But, I have quite a few friends who are, in fact, married – most of my friends really. And, many of those who had long desired to be married found that just prior to finding their future spouse, they’d reached a point where they just stopped looking. It’s not like they had given up, they had just let go of the desire. I’ve heard this particular anecdote several times over, even having it given to me as advice on how to find my future wife. And so, of course, I’ve taken that advice to heart and gone out of my way to pretend as if I’m not looking for someone. I’ll try anything at this point…

But – wouldn’t you know it – just deciding I’m not looking for some woman and trying to make that true in my heart and making this clear to all of my friends as often as I can so they know that I’m serious about this move this time, it doesn’t really do much. I’ve gotten to this stage many times before, and still no wife. So, while I think there is a lot of truth and purpose behind the fact that a number of my married friends have had similar experiences in this regard, there’s something about the way in which I’m carrying it out that isn’t taking.

You see, as with most things (dare I say all things), it’s a matter of the heart. You know, it’s the whole “If you’ve hated someone, you’ve murdered them in your heart” sort of thing. It’s not about the action, it’s about the intention. And what has been my intention with this sort of trick I’m playing? To get a wife. That sort of defeats the purpose of this whole exercise to begin with doesn’t it?

That’s what I want to talk about today: intentions and specifically how they fit within the context of God’s provision for you.

We live in a world created by this all-powerful God who has decided to condescend to us and love us, not to stand removed. And, when a God like that interacts with His beloved creation, He loves to give things – to give good gifts. But, I think a lot of times we have some pretty warped views of this reality in our head. We can treat God as some sort of genie, where we develop some magical incantations and pray in just the right way so that God delivers for us. And, a lot of people I’ve heard speak about God’s provision have this sort of worldview in mind – if even just a small bit.

This is a rhetorical question: how many of you have given to God in some financial way, like in the offering? I’ve heard it motivated before – and I’ll bet you have too – that investing in the Kingdom is a good investment. If you give $100 to the church, you can expect more in return, like the stock market… or something far more lucrative than that these days. But, have you found this to be true? When you give money, do you find more money is given to you? Sometimes, absolutely this is true – but I wouldn’t say this is typical.

But, people will do things like quote the passage from Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.” Have you heard this passage used like this before? However, I believe what you’re given in return isn’t more money – it is something of a more spiritual sense. Like, if you give freely of your finances, you find freedom from greed. If you give freely of your time, you find freedom from your anxiety. These sorts of paradoxical things. These things, I find to be true.

You see, we don’t pay for services from God. We don’t do good things so that we receive the reward, in general. We don’t give money so that we receive more in return. What God gives us, he freely gives.

There are a lot of other passages in the Bible that deal with God’s provision. And, before I get to the actual Genesis passage we’re covering today, I wanted to paint a wider picture of how God’s provision works, so that we can understand the situation Abraham is in better.

You see passages where it talks about God giving you things, like in Psalm 37:4 where it says that “He will give you the desires of your heart,” and in Matthew 6:33 where it says that, “All these things will be given to you as well.” But the thing is, there is always something that comes before those passages that I find interesting that is often over-looked.

I mean, growing up I’ve always been told that if you want something, you just ask God for it, and maybe if you have enough faith or whatever, you get it. I don’t know that the Bible really supports this idea though. Can God give you what you ask for just because he’s wonderful like that? Absolutely. But, scripturally speaking, our attitude in asking God for things should be different. Look at the full passages I just quoted above.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. [Psalm 37:4]

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [Matthew 6:31-33]

God provides. It is wonderful. But, the precursor to God giving you things is that you re-orient your heart towards the things of God’s heart. Then, He’s going to give abundantly because what He’s giving is what’s on His heart to give, not what’s on yours. Do you get it?

Delight yourself in the Lord. When you do so, what are the desires of your heart? God! You don’t just delight in the Lord so that you can get the new car, as if the delighting part is the down-payment. The delight you experience re-orients your heart to desire more of God.

It’s the same thing in the other passage. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. If you’re doing that, God will provide for your needs.

So now in light of this understanding of God’s provision, we can look at the passage in Genesis 24. It’s rather long, so get comfortable while we go through it.

[Do yourself a favor and read Genesis 24.]

So, do you see what is happening here? Abraham is depending on God to provide a wife for his son Isaac. Does this fit into the biblical mold we were just discussing, where you seek first God’s heart on the matter, and then your desire is given to you?

I think it does very much so.

You see, what was God’s heart on the matter? Let’s look back at the covenant God makes with Abraham back in Genesis 12.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. [Genesis 12:1-3]

What was God’s heart? That he would make Abraham into a great nation, giving him descendents. What is required for this? A son Isaac, who of course had to have children as well. Abraham knew it was God’s heart for Isaac to have a wife, so to ask for this was completely in line with God’s heart.

What’s more, Abraham knew that he was supposed to leave his country as part of his end of the bargain. So when Abraham tells his servant to go to his land to get Isaac a wife, he’s not going himself because he’s supposed to have left that land. Further, the servant actually asks if he should take Isaac with him to this land, and Abraham tells him not to take his son back there [Genesis 24:6-7]. He even gives the reason for this by repeating the covenantal language that God used.

You see, when Abraham asked God for things, he asked for things that were on God’s heart. He doesn’t do things like ask for more money or donkeys. He seeks the things that God has promised him, and God provides.

He doesn’t do it the way I’ve often done it and the way it’s often taught. He doesn’t treat God like a genie.

You see, that isn’t the way it works. And, I’m glad it doesn’t work that way, really. I mean, it’d be nice to have my free prayer ATM, where I can get all of my wishes fulfilled, but how many times have we seen that movie where someone wishes for things and then what they wish for blows up in their face?

No, instead of this ATM God, I want a deeper God than that. A God who doesn’t just provide me with what I ask Him for, but a God who gives me the deeper desires of my heart – a God who knows who I am because He has relationship with me and who provides for me because He is very fatherly like that. To me, this would be far better than a genie or an ATM.

There’s a neat little exercise I like to do when I’m asking for things from God. What I like to do is the “What I want versus what I really want” game. The way this game works is that I look at what I want – let’s say a wife. And then I look at what it is that I really want when asking for that. In the case of the wife, I want someone who knows me deeper than anyone else on the planet, who will be by my side offering support no matter what, and who will partner with me in my life both in the ministry/job setting and in the family setting. When I ask God for a wife, what I want is some woman somewhere, but what I really want is deep, long-lasting companionship and a sense of completion.

Now then, praying for things like that can really get us somewhere.

An example of what you really want winning out over what you want:

I heard a story from a friend once. He and his wife got married not too long before this, and they’d had some issues with making ends meet. Both of them were looking for jobs and not finding much of anything.

My friend, let’s call him Jack, he was also part of this community online, and they were having a conference in a few months that went from Thursday through Saturday. It was pretty obvious that he couldn’t quite afford to go, but he really wanted to. So, he started praying. Once a week, he would fast and pray for provision to go to this conference.

And, right away things started happening. The conference offered to pay for his registration. Someone from the community offered to house him. At this point, all he needed was money for travel. And a friend of his randomly gave him some money without knowing anything about his situation, which covered a lot of his travel.

All the while, Jack started realizing that what he really wanted was for God to provide for he and his wife. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the money for the conference – it was that he didn’t have any money to just live on, and therefore couldn’t spare any for the conference. So, he started to shift his prayers that God would just start providing for him and his wife.

Soon, his wife picked up a couple of short classes to make a bit of money, and Jack was offered to teach two different classes that would give him more than enough (if not just temporarily) to live on. The problem is, the classes would keep him from being able to go to the conference because he’d have to teach on Thursday and Friday.

But, by this time, his focus had shifted. What did he want? He wanted to go to this conference. And for good reasons – not for selfish ones. But, what did he really want? He wanted to feel cared for and provided for. And, once this realization started setting in, he found that God was answering his prayers on His own terms. God was providing for him and filling the need that he actually had.

Maybe when you ask for things from God, you don’t find that He answers your prayers exactly. What you eventually discover, however, is that God is a good Father, and what he does give you is exactly what you need. He doesn’t provide for your ticket to the conference, he provides for your whole life’s finances – even if it is at the cost of the conference.

And, if this is true, then when you ask for things from God, wouldn’t it make the most sense to align your heart with His? This is why Scripture instructs us again and again to seek God’s heart first, and then what we desire will be given to us. If nothing else, it will save us the trouble of later having our focus shifted, sometimes painfully, away from what we want towards what we really want or what we need.

Not only that, but when you’re focused on God as your main desire, what you get in return is going to be far greater than what you were wanting in the first place. Do you want some money for a conference, or do you want to finally come to the understanding that God is in control and is providing for you?

So, let’s do a little exercise, shall we? In our own minds – again, this is rhetorical – think about all of those things that you are asking God for. As I shared before, for me it’s that I can find my wife. Do you have that? Do you have something you’re thinking of? Now then, what it is that is underlying that desire? That is, what is it that you really want?

I’d love to take some time right now to pray for those things. The “what do I really want?” things.