‘ONE THING…’ – PSALM 27:4
THE THREE ‘ONE THINGS…’ OF THE BIBLE- A CALL TO FOCUSED ABANDONMENT
I. THE THREE “ONE THINGS” OF THE BIBLE
A. Psalm 27:4 – Desire Defined
B. Luke 10:42 – Desire Satisfied
C. Philippians 3:10-4 – Desire Walked Out (Journey of Desire)
D. “One thing”:
1. Top priority
2. The overriding need
3. The primary thing
II. DESIRE DEFINED - PSALM 27:4
A. In Psalm 27:4, David says, “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.”
1. David was able to give definition to the ache and yearning of the human heart. Every human being is created with that ache
and yearning.
2. When that ache is not defined, or is misunderstood, we begin running after different things. Being able to define the ache
and yearning in our lives gives us a vision as to how we should live.
3. A generation that is not able to define their desire will cast off restraint (Proverbs 29:18).
4. They will run from one relationship after another. They will run from one college degree to another. They will run from one
house to another. They will run from one career to another. They will run from one girlfriend to another. They will run from
one sexual encounter to another. They will run from one dominating situation to another. They will try to control people.
They will try to find significance in their lives to silence the vacuum and the cry of their hearts.
5. The problem is that the cry of their hearts cannot be silenced; it is eternal. God has put eternity in our hearts. Thomas
Dubay calls us “incarnate thirsts.”
6. Jesus is called the “Desire of all Nations” in Haggai 2.
7. We cannot repent of our desires for pleasure.
B. The beauty of God
1. The beauty of God is the personality, nature, character and emotions of God. The only thing that will satisfy the human
heart is the revelation of God touching our hearts and minds.
2. Nothing is more exhilarating than when God makes Himself known to our being. This is a powerful thing.
3. Most of the earth doesn’t even recognize that what they really desire is the exhilaration that comes from experiencing God’s
emotions. Their desire is not defined. Therefore, they do not have a vision, so they cast off restraint.
III. DESIRE SATISFIED – LUKE 10:42
A. Mary of Bethany
1. Luke 10:42 I call this “desire satisfied.” It is Mary of Bethany sitting at the Lord’s feet. Sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His
word is key to our desire being satisfied.
2. God is not against hard work. God is the hardest worker that exists. Jesus works really hard. The apostle Paul worked hard.
David worked hard.
3. The Bible is not against hard work. In fact, the Bible encourages hard work. As human beings, there’s something healthy
about working hard. It is part of this journey of desire to work hard and feel a sense of completion in our hearts. God made us
to be productive. The problem is not work. The problem is that Martha was distracted by her work, and her work distracted
her from the “one thing” that Mary was doing.
4. One thing is needed; one primary thing is needed to satisfy that desire. The thing that is needed is what Mary did, sitting at
Jesus’ feet and listening to His words.
5. When we give ourselves to sitting at the Lord’s feet and hearing His word, our desires begin to be satisfied. In Song of
Solomon 1:2, the Bride says, “Father, Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth (Word), -for Your love is better than wine.”
6. When the revelation of His love touches my heart, it is so exhilarating. The release of the spirit of revelation upon the
reading and meditation of the Word is most exhilarating.
B. Pleasure is not evil
1. We have to get away from this idea that pleasure is evil. Pleasure is not evil. God is the Author of pleasure. He is the most
exhilarating and most pleasurable Being that we will ever know. God is hilariously exhilarated and consumed with pleasure.
“In His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore”(Psalm 16:11).
2. The one thing that will satisfy our hearts is putting our hearts in front of the revelation of God’s Word.
3. We are to give ourselves to long and loving meditation on the Word of God i.e., dialoging with Him, singing the Word,
preaching the Word, writing the Word. It is imperative that we get the Word of God into our being and ask the Holy Spirit to
illuminate the Word and give us revelation.
C. Sustaining power of His Word
1. In Job 23:12-14 “I have desired the Words of Your mouth more than my necessary food.”
2. God wanted to make such a point about the Word of God that He led the nation of Israel into the wilderness to show them
that man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). The word
that comes from God’s mouth is the only thing that will sustain our weak hearts. The very word that comes from God’s mouth
is the very word that sustains the hearers. The very creative word that comes from God’s mouth is what holds the stars in
mid-air. Hebrews 1:3 “He upholds all things by the word of His power. If the word of His power can sustain the entire cosmos,
then what does this say about our weak little hearts?
3. The Father is so serious about His words that He drove the nation of Israel into the wilderness.
D. Raising up a generation that sits, gazes and listens
1. Right now this generation does one thing-they sit and they listen. But, they don’t sit and listen to the Lord. Instead, they sit
and listen to their TV. They sit and listen to their radios. They sit and listen to Nintendo. They sit and gaze upon other things.
They sit, listen and gaze on their girlfriends. They sit, listen and gaze on their boyfriends. They sit, listen and gaze at “be
all you can be in the army.” They feed their hearts and their minds with something other than the “one thing” to satisfy the
desires of their hearts. Some sit, listen and gaze on pornography. Some sit, listen and gaze on drugs. Some sit, listen and
gaze on different activities of vanity. Some are good and some are evil. None of those things will sustain or satisfy our hearts.
2. Luke 10:42 speaks of what we do to satisfy the desire that David defined in Psalm 27:4. It is the action of coming and sitting
at Jesus’ feet and hearing His words that will satisfy.
3. God is calling this generation to give themselves to the power of the Word of God.
4. He’s calling a generation to enter through the open door of the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Who He is: His
personality, His thoughts, His feelings, and His being.
E. Discipline without desire satisfied
1. Discipline is not bad. Discipline without desire satisfied will not work. Desire touched and satisfied a little bit gives birth to
discipline. Discipline then becomes a fence; it becomes a boundary-line to guard desire.
2. The reason why there is no discipline in this society is because there is no desire satisfied. This generation is running
about aimlessly trying to grab something. There’s nothing to guard our hearts. Our hearts are empty and there’s nothing
to protect them.
3. We have boundaries in relationships: we have boundaries in marriages, in friendships, in families, not for boundaries
sake, but because boundaries protect relationships. We have fences around our houses. Why? Because it protects
something. That’s what discipline does. Discipline is meant to guard.
4. Desire begets discipline. The spiritual disciplines of fasting, reading the Word, and prayer eventually become disciplines
because of desire. However, there may be days and seasons where we don’t feel like it.
IV. DESIRE WALKED OUT- PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14
A. The journey of desire
1. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in
Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). I call this the journey of desire.
a. desire defined – “one thing I desire”
b. desire satisfied – “one thing I need”
c. journey of desire – “one thing I do”
2. Knowing what your desire is helps you to understand and know what you need. This generation doesn’t know what they
need, because they don’t know what they desire. All they know is that they have this ache in their heart, and are running
about aimlessly, doing silly stuff, even in the church.
3. The Lord is raising up forerunners who will proclaim the beauty of Jesus. Proclaiming this by the power of the Spirit will
unearth this desire in the hearts of this generation (Romans 10:14).
4. We need to know what we desire in order to know what we need. The very thing that we need is the thing that we desire.
Until we know these two things we won’t know what to do.
B. Forgetting – focused abandonment
1. The term that I use for “one thing” is focused abandonment.
2. The first thing you need to do is forget. Forget what? Forget the past.
3. There’s been a prophetic call going forth, telling the generations to go for it. Go for it hard. Fast, pray, evangelize, go to
the mission field, heal the sick, cast out demons, and give generously. There’s a call that has gone forth. It’s a call for
radical devotion. There’s a call to purity and simplicity of devotion, a call to focused abandonment.
4. Many sincere believers in their hearts are saying, “I want to.” But, they are overwhelmed with their failures. They are
overwhelmed with their struggles. They’re overwhelmed with their compromises. They’re overwhelmed with their immaturity,
their brokenness and their weakness. There are many who are beginning to know what they desire and know what they
need but they don’t want to do it because of all the failures of the past.
5. Paul’s exhortation to us is to “forget”.
6. The way you forget is by knowing that God enjoys you in your weakness. We are to know the richness of His kindness
towards us (Ephesians 2:7).
7. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God loves the world so He gave His son. The
world is filled with murderers. The world is filled with rapists. The world is filled with prostitutes. The world is filled with people
who are greedy. The world is filled with people who abuse their spouses. The world is filled with racism. The world is filled
with oppression and injustice. John 3:16 tells us that God is filled with longing and desire for these broken and demonized
people, even when they haven’t said yes to Him. How much more when we have said yes to Him?
8. There are so many people who have said yes to God who think they are disqualified from a lifestyle of focused
abandonment because they struggle in their inner life. Paul says the first thing we must do is to forget.
9. I believe the revelation of the kindness of God is going to come upon the earth in a way that will shock many people.
10. One of the reasons there has been little repentance in the church is because the kindness of God has been preached
as “niceness.” When the true kindness of God is preached, it is going to touch the hearts of God’s people and produce
repentance.
C. Mercy that empowers
1. His mercies are new every morning. Every day is a new page. When we wake up in the morning, it’s another blank page
for us to draw a new picture on. If we’ve messed up on the picture the day before, that’s okay.
2. We’re not talking about rebellion here. We’re talking about sincere people who struggle. They want to live lives of focused
abandonment, and God wants to help them to forget. We need to know His mercies are new every morning. We need to know
that His mercies endure forever.
3. By studying and meditating on the emotions of God, our hearts are filled with revelation of His mercies and how He enjoys
us in our weakness. One of my favorite verses is “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked
shall fall by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16).
4. We are not destined to stumble in a time of calamity. I believe a time of calamity is speaking of the hour of history we are
living in. Young men and young women do not have to stumble and remain fallen in this hour of history. No. We are righteous
because we are bought with the blood, and the sincerity and the yes of God has been put in our spirit. This is what it means
to be righteous. If we are righteous, then we may fall but we can rise.
5. This generation needs to know the kindness and goodness of God.
D. Jesus - the sympathizing High Priest (Hebrews 4:15)
1. Another thing that empowers us to forget is the knowledge that Jesus is a sympathizing High Priest. On one hand, we have
a God who enjoys us in our weakness. On the other hand, we have a God who sympathizes with us in our weakness.
2. You can enjoy someone, but not necessarily sympathize with them. We have a High Priest who sympathizes with us in our
weakness. Therefore, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, we can approach the throne of God with boldness.
3. Jesus has experienced every temptation known to man. Hebrews tells us that He was without sin even though He was
tempted in every way. He is the sympathizing High Priest.
4. In our hour of need, in our hour of crisis, we can come before Him with confidence, knowing that He will not reject us.
When I say, “Jesus, I’m struggling with…” Jesus will look at me and say, “I understand.” From that very place He will give
me mercy and strength to overcome.
E. Mercy satisfies
1. Mercy is not just giving us a second chance. Mercy is the very power that God gives to satisfy our hearts. Psalm 90:14
says, “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!”
2. We struggle because sin offers a measure of pleasure. Sin claims to satisfy the desires of our hearts.
3. When we cry “God, have mercy on me,” we’re saying, “Lord, come and satisfy me. God, give me the desire to be satisfied.”
Mercy is not just giving us a second chance. Mercy empowers.
4. Jesus is a sympathizing High Priest, and we can come before His throne with grace and boldness, asking Him for mercy,
which is the very power of satisfaction.
F. We have ravished His heart
1. We must know we have ravished His heart with one glance of our eyes. We must know that we have ravished His heart
with one momentary simple glance of our eyes telling Him that we love Him.
2. The apostles had His attention. They were broken, easily discouraged, filled with ambition and He told them these things
in John 15-17:
a. John 15:9 “as the Father has loved me so I love you.” Jesus said, “The same measure of love He has for me, I have for
you.”
b. John 17:23 He tells them that the same love the Father has for Jesus He has for us.
c. John 17:26 The Father desires to give the same desire that He has for His Son to a generation, who will then give the
desire back to His Son. The Bride will love the Son the way the Father does.
G. Reaching forward - the call to action
1. The second thing Paul tells us is that he’s reaching forward. Reaching forward speaks of being intentional. We are to
forget and we are to reach forward. It speaks of action. It speaks of rearranging our lives to do the “one thing”, even
changing our schedules around.
2. The journey of desire starts by faith. Usually, when people talk about discipline, they are speaking of ten hours of
prayer. The ten hours of prayer get birthed out of desire.
3. It takes intentional discipline to say, “I want to set aside a half-hour a day to sit at the feet of the Lord.” We need to
schedule our time. We need to be intentional.
4. When we remember God’s kindness and mercy, we forget our weakness. Forgetting has enough power to give our
hearts the desire to begin reaching forward.
5. Reaching forward speaks of the little reaches of our hearts. It doesn’t take much. He promises us that if we draw near to
Him, He will draw near to us (James 5:8). He will respond.
6. In Luke 15, the Prodigal Son is walking from a distance, going home, yet the Father saw him and ran to meet him. That’s
what our Father will do with the little reaches of our heart. With the little reaches of our hearts, we are well on our way to
living lives of focused abandonment.
H. Pressing upward - the marathon pace
1. The third thing Paul says is “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 3:14) Pressing upward speaks of setting our mind on the big picture, setting our mind on a course and going
for it. We don’t obtain focused abandonment overnight. It’s a journey.
2. This is so hard for the Western American mindset. We live in an instant, push-button society. God is not American. Most
times He doesn’t do things instantaneously. I like the analogy of one guy who says, “God is like a glorious intruder but He
is also a patient farmer.”
3. When on the journey of desire, God does not respond in a way that is obvious or instantaneous. We live in a society
where pleasure is easily accessible, so this can be troubling to us.
4. Focused abandonment is a lifelong journey. God, in His mercy and infinite wisdom, has chosen to make the journey of
desire a lifelong journey. Therefore, we must go on a marathon pace. If we think that it is instantaneous, then we will quit.
When we remember that it is a marathon pace, then we will run with endurance. No matter what comes our way we will
keep pressing.