One Thing: Pursuing Jesus with Singleness of Heart

See, if passionate pursuit of Jesus is simply a matter of us trying harder, we're all going to be in serious trouble this morning because we've done it, right? We've all tried harder. We've all, you know, I'm going to really pull myself up on my bootstraps and I'm going to be seriously devoted to Jesus. I'm going to download the Bible app. I'm going to find some accountability partners. I'm going to get in a group and we are going to do this. By my strength, we're going to be conformed, right? Hear me, church, you cannot discipline yourself into delight. You can't. You can't. And I'm not saying stop, but I'm going, we have to have our affections transformed. [01:00:43] (43 seconds)  #AffectionsNotDiscipline

The word seek in the Old Testament, there's a couple different words for seek in the Old Testament, but one of the words for seek actually means to tread a path. So when we frequent something, when we continually walk a path on something, the grass becomes worn, the terrain becomes worn, and we can see that someone frequents here, right? And this is the picture of seeking many times in the Psalms. This idea of seeking means to tread a path, that it is a path that one regularly walks. And what David describes is, I want my life to be one that is constantly pursuing and asking the Lord for wisdom, for counsel, for guidance, for direction. This is not a dramatic sprint. [00:57:03] (50 seconds)  #SeekIsASteadyWalk

Passionate pursuit is not emotional intensity. It's just connection. It's intimacy. So where do you abide with Jesus? What does your abiding look like? What does your staying with Jesus look like? Is it a once a week routine? Lifeless religion? Or is it, I stay connected to the vine which is Christ? Lastly, not only do we have to abstain, not only do we have to abide, but we come seeking Him for wisdom in prayer. We're asking Him for guidance and counsel. We ask of Him. [00:56:16] (47 seconds)  #AbidingIntimacy

It actually begins to change our wants and desires. It changes the things that we pursue. The abiding with Jesus and being in his presence actually changes what we're devoted to. That as we spend time with him, saturated in his word, conformed to his heart, it begins to align with what he wants. C.S. Lewis says, is this a blank check? No, it's an invitation into a relationship deep enough that your desires get renovated. God isn't offering to be a vending machine. He's offering to get so close to you that your wants become his wants. Do we seek the Lord in that way? [00:59:19] (44 seconds)  #HeRenewsDesire

And I'm not saying stop, but I'm going, we have to have our affections transformed. I have to have my heart transformed. Passionate pursuit of Jesus requires a transformed heart. And so what David prays in this prayer is he wants to come into the temple to do one thing, to gaze at his beauty, to gaze at his beauty, to behold the beauty of the Lord because when he beholds the Lord, everything in his life is transformed. When you see the Lord for who he truly is, everything in your life is transformed. [01:01:19] (38 seconds)  #BeholdHisBeauty

It's not just about knowing the destination. The destination means nothing without the starting point. So you do what we all do and you scan the map and you're looking for that red dot or that compass or that mark that demonstrates you are here. Now the map is useful, right? Now the map works. You can orient yourself. You can figure out what next steps, what turns you need to take and you can discover, I'm here, here's where I want to be, how do I get there? Both things are important. Where are you and where do you want to be? And that's what we want to talk about this morning. [00:32:36] (42 seconds)  #KnowYourStartingPoint

They're not evil in and of themselves, but they're evil when they take that one thing position in our heart. See, the enemy doesn't need to destroy us. He just needs to distract us. And many of us are living distracted. If I'm honest, if my wife were to come up and testify here this morning, she would tell you, Justin, he goes after a lot of things. I think about the last 10 years of my life, I'm like, you know, it's like, you started a podcast, you started a new Instagram channel, you started a new business, and you started a whole new ranching career, and you started, and it's like all these pursuits. [00:47:20] (49 seconds)  #TooManyPursuits

See, Jesus comes along and kind of blows our mind in this idea of what it means to abide. Jesus says, I want to be the vine. I'm the vine. You are the branches. I want abiding, and this is the description he gives us, I want abiding to be so known. I want it to be so mutual. I want it to be so intertwined that it's not just you coming to me and visiting me, but we are connected. That you are living in me. Now, I know maybe last night the storm blew through and you saw some of your branches laying on the front lawn of your yard, right? But typically, a branch stays connected. [00:54:44] (48 seconds)  #VineAndBranches

But there is also a seed that is scattered amongst thorns. And the seed that is scattered amongst thorns is choked out. And it says that those thorns, in chapter 4 of Mark, verse 19, it says, they are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. If we're honest with one another this morning, all of us in this room can probably point to that there are some thorns in our life. There are some things that are choking out the word of God. There are some things that are distracting us. [00:40:07] (36 seconds)  #CaresChokeTheWord

My question to us this morning, if we're going to be passionate pursuers of Jesus, is Jesus our one thing? Is Jesus the one thing that we are inquiring about? Is Jesus the one thing that we're trying to get our gaze focused on? Is Jesus the one thing that we're devoted to? Is Jesus the one thing that we are passionately pursuing? Do we have that singleness of purpose? I believe this is what passionate pursuit of Jesus looks like. And to have this passionate pursuit of Jesus means that we first of all, first point, is we have to abstain. [00:38:07] (41 seconds)  #JesusOurOneThing

Do we inquire and ask counsel and ask guidance saying, Lord, make my desires, change my desires, make my desires what you want. Lord, I'm asking you, I may not have a hunger for the Lord, but I, as Charles Spurgeon used to say, I hunger to hunger. I may not have no devotion to the Lord, but I'm devoted to be devoted. I want to be devoted. I want to hunger after the Lord. I want to be a passionate pursuer of Jesus. I'm pursuing to pursue. And it just begins with asking the Lord, Lord, help me in this. Help me in this. [01:00:03] (39 seconds)  #HungerToHunger

This idea of abiding, this idea of dwelling means to stay, to remain, to sit, to settle, to abide permanently. What David is not talking about, he's not talking about visiting a church on Sunday morning. That's lifeless religion. That's a great start and that's a great, when we're thinking about the pathway from lifeless religion to passionate pursuit of Jesus, it begins with a visit. You got to show up and you encounter something real and you encounter something moving and you encounter worship. If I were to define worship, it's enjoying God in front of others. That's what I see you guys do. [00:51:23] (45 seconds)  #ResidentNotVisitor

So in closing this morning, where are you? Where are you? When we're looking at that map, where are you on the trajectory of lifeless religion to passionate pursuit of Jesus? Where is that red dot? Where is the signature you are here? Where do you want to be? The only way we can get there is coming, pursuing the one thing, abiding in his presence and beholding the beauty of the Lord. Maybe you look at where your dot is this morning and you feel some distance. I want you to know here's the gospel to you this morning. The gospel is this. Jesus knows exactly where you are. You may not know where you are. Jesus knows exactly where you are. [01:02:36] (59 seconds)  #JesusKnowsYou

I want to help you understand the context of Psalm 27 which David is writing. Because it may be tempting for us to look at David and go, you know what, David, hey, that's great. You're a Bible writer, Bible author, that's awesome. You're pursuing the one thing, you're devoted to the one thing. But what was the context that David was writing? David is not writing from a monastery. David is writing from a battlefield. He's writing from a battlefield. And so some of us who are here this morning, we go, you know what, when the chaos subsides, then I'll pursue the one thing. [00:43:10] (37 seconds)  #WorshipInBattle

Surely you know the difficulty of having kids and having a job and raising a life and all the things that we have to manage. Surely he understands, absolutely he understands, which is why he says, this is why you need to be devoted to the one thing. What is keeping you this morning from pursuing the one thing? What things are keeping you distracted? What is the enemy placing in your life that keeps stealing your affections from the pursuit of Jesus to the pursuit of stuff? The reality is for many of us, we're not surrounded by enemies. But maybe the enemy has put distractions in our life that we have elevated, that we have given a place of love and affection and pursuit towards. [00:45:56] (55 seconds)  #SubtleDistractions

You've all been in a store, a mall, not here in Wichita Falls, or a theme park and you've tried to locate that restaurant, that theme ride, that perfect store and you're like, all right. And so you go to the map and there's typically a map displayed and you look at that map for your destination and your hope is, is if I can just know the destination, that that's enough. But we know that just knowing the destination is not enough. You can stare at that map all day long. You can know exactly where you want to go. You can know exactly what store, exactly what ride, exactly what restaurant, but you can't actually get there unless you know where you are. [00:31:50] (46 seconds)  #LocateYourself

And all of these things that are in front of us, we have to understand what they're truly doing. They're fighting for our affection. They want to take that one thing priority in our life. They want to be the thing that we're devoted to. They want to be the thing that we're pursuing and running after at all cost. And here's the deal. I know my heart and the reality is I know I have a lot of things to be devoted to. And maybe you're here this morning, you go, I have a lot of things. I have responsibilities, I have a job, I have kids, I have school. [00:42:28] (42 seconds)  #AffectionsAreBattleground

We have a mission statement here at our church that says we want to see people and lead people from lifeless religion to passionate pursuit of Jesus. And all of us are somewhere along that pathway. All of us are somewhere in between lifeless religion and passionate pursuit of Jesus. But have we ever paused, have we ever asked the question, where are we at? How do we get there? What steps need to happen? What does that look like? Not in theory, but in a general sense personally, what does that look like for me? [00:33:18] (37 seconds)  #FromReligionToPursuit

And so we need something else to give us vision or a guiding post of what does passionate pursuit of Jesus look like? We can't always look around. Sometimes people can be helpful guides, but sometimes we need to go to God's word and go, what does passionate pursuit of Jesus look like? And David in Psalm 27 is a man who's passionately pursuing Jesus. David simply says, where's the Lord at? Where's the Lord? Where is his presence being made manifest? Where is God's presence? I want to be in his presence. I want to be where he is. And there's a question that we have to be willing to sit with today. [00:35:52] (46 seconds)  #SinglenessOfPurpose

What David begins verse 4 with is this phrase, one thing. One thing. There's one thing that David is after. There's one thing that David is seeking. There's one thing that David is passionate about. There is a singularity in his purpose. He wakes up every day with one devotion. One thing. One thing. One thing I've asked the Lord. One thing that I'm seeking after. My question to us this morning, if we're going to be passionate pursuers of Jesus, [00:37:33] (41 seconds)  #PursueInChaos