My Heart, Christ’s Home: The Dining Room

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Last Sunday we began a new series based on a small book written several years ago by a Presbyterian preacher named Robert Boyd Munger called, “My Heart, Christ’s Home,” based on Ephesians 3:17, “I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him.” Munger wrote this prayer as a part of his message:

"Lord, I want this heart of mine to be Yours. I want to have You settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to You. Let me show You around and introduce you to the various features of the home that you may be more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together." He was very glad to come, of course, and happier still to be given a place in the heart.

We started with the Study, the center of our lives, the command and communication center of our hearts. Your heart is designed to be His home, and Jesus certainly needs to feel welcome and comfortable there. Let’s look at the next space in the “home of our hearts,” the dining room. Munger writes . . .

From the study we went into the dining room, the room of appetites and desires. Now this was a very large room. I spent a good deal of time in the dining room and much effort in satisfying my wants.

I said to Him, "This is a favorite room. I am quite sure You will be pleased with what we serve."

He seated Himself at the table with me and asked, "What is on the menu for dinner?"

"Well," I said, "my favorite dishes: money, academic degrees and stocks, with newspaper articles of fame and fortune as side dishes." These were the things I liked - worldly fare. I suppose there was nothing radically wrong in any particular item, but it was not the food that should satisfy the life of a real Christian. When the food was placed before Him, He said nothing about it. However, I observed that He did not eat it, and I said to Him, somewhat disturbed, "Master, don't You care for this food? What is the trouble?"

He answered, "I have meat to eat that you do not know of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." He looked at me again and said, "If you want food that really satisfies you, seek the will of the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, and not your own satisfaction. Seek to please Me and that food will satisfy you." And there at the table He gave me a taste of doing God's will. What a flavor! There is no food like it in all the world. It alone satisfies. Everything else is dissatisfying in the end.

Now if Christ is in your heart, and I trust He is, what kind of food are you serving Him and what kind of food are you eating yourself? Are you living for the lust of the flesh and the pride of life - selfishly? Or are you choosing God's will for your meat and drink?

I suppose we should start with our appetites, the desires God has planted within us from the very beginning.

1 John 2:15-17. 15Do not love the world or anything in the world.If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d]is not in them.16For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,the lust of the eyes,and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.17The world and its desires pass away,but whoever does the will of Godlives forever.

Epithumia. Desire. Craving. Longing. Desire for what is forbidden. Lust.

Alazoneia. Empty braggart talk. Empty assurance. Trust in earthly things

Peter writes about our desires this way, “13Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober,set your hopeon the grace to be brought to youwhen Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.14As obedientchildren, do not conformto the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance,” (1 Peter 1:13-14). They are to be avoided and ignored. Before Jesus, we were controlled by them, surrounded by them, blissfully unaware and sort of content with them. And there is/was a consequence for giving into those desires. Paul says in Ephesians 2:3. “All of us also lived among them at one time,gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a]and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” Seeking to satisfy those desires in the world’s way with the world’s options kindles the wrath of Almighty God. If you don’t believe that’s true, take a look at any page of the history of Israel. They seemed fixated on doing what they wanted, when they wanted, as much as they wanted, and it always brought about anger and discipline from God.

In another letter, the Apostle Paul describes cravings and desire this way: “16So I say, walk by the Spirit,and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c]you want.. . . Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshwith its passions and desires,”(Galatians 5:16-17, 24).

What’s the way out of living life for cravings and desire? How do we get free of the chains of appetite? John writes in 1 John 2 that the “desires of this world pass away.” Some with time or the season of life, with wisdom that comes from age and experience. But those desires will also pass away if we intentionally focus on their passing away in exchange for other desires, for godly desires.

Jesus says this about His appetites, His desire:

34“My food,”said Jesus,“is to do the willof him who sent me and to finish his work.

John 6:38. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

Jesus said that His purpose on Earth was to do the will of His Father, not to do His own will. Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body,arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.2As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires,but rather for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1-2

The will of God the Father is what He desires, what brings Him pleasure, what He wishes or determines to be done by us.

It’s not always easy to know His will. God has expressed His Big Will in scripture. Jesus tells us in John 3 that God loved the world so much, God didn’t want anyone to perish but everyone to come to Him, so He gave His Son. God wants humanity to be rescued from darkness and desire and death.

But what about everything else? How do we know what God’s will is in other situations, on a smaller scale and in everyday life? Again, God has already told us a lot about what He wishes for us in everyday life—to love Him, to love others by treating them as we’d like to be treated, to forgive as we’d like to be forgiven, to provide for our families, to care for those who have needs.

We can find His will in His word. We can seek His will in prayer. We can discover His will through the counsel of His people, too. Asking trusted, godly men and women to pray with us and seek His will on a specific question.

Jesus was fixed on bringing pleasure to God by carrying out His purposes and plans. If we’re followers of Jesus, we should follow Him in this attitude and behavior as well. When we do, we will find there are a handful of “consequences” for all those who follow Jesus’ plan, those who focus on doing the will of God. It is an enlightening list.

  • John 7:17. Jesus says they will find out if He speaks from God.
  • Matthew 12:50. Jesus says they are His brother and sister and mother.
  • Ephesians 6:6. Paul writes that they will win the favor of others by serving.
  • Hebrews 10:36. We read that they will receive what God has promised.
  • Matthew 7:21. Jesus says they will enter the kingdom of heaven.
  • 1 John 2:17. John tells us that they will live forever.

The benefits of bringing God pleasure and carrying out His purposes are fantastic! Living not to satisfy our own desires but God’s desires is our aim and our reality. To do so takes a new and better and higher perspective.

Romans 8:5-9. 5Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires;but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.6The mind governed by the flesh is death,but the mind governed by the Spirit is lifeand peace.7The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God;it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.8Those who are in the realm of the fleshcannot please God.9You, however, are not in the realm of the fleshbut are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.

I ran across a blog this past week by Emily Ryan at priorityministries.com. She writes, “There have been a handful of times that I have been hesitant to follow the Lord because I felt He was leading me in the exact opposite direction from my deepest desires. In those cases, my response has been, “Lord, I do not want to follow you, but if this is where you are leading, I will follow you out of obedience. I just pray that you would change my heart so that I can follow you out of desire as well.” In every case, the Lord began working on my heart so immediately and so certainly that I began wanting and dreaming of things that I had never even imagined.”

Emily then shares a significant bit of truth: “I knew that . . . if God changed the desires of my heart, it would affecteverything.”

By Emily Ryan, at

Lord Jesus, Master, we know that this room of our heartsneeds a radical alteration. Will you help us make it what it ought to be? God, we pray (Psalm26:2). “Test me,Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.”We pray with Jesus, “Not my will, Father, but Yours be done.” Would You begin to change our desires to what You desire for us?Amen.

The Dining Room: Appetites Under Control, p. 1