Tim Dickert: An appetite for truth of who you really are

Are you hungry to know TRUTH? Do you have an appetite for the truth?
Do you know who YOU really are according to the TRUTH?

Have you ever meet a person who has a ferocious appetite? There is nothing that stops them from diving into the food and get full as quick as possible.
What gets you ready to eat? What make you get a big appetite?
Are you hungry to know the real you and not be deceived & settle for anything but the whole truth?

Who are you? REALLY?

From the dawn of time, in the heart of mankind there is a desire inside the heart.
What am I here for? Does my life hold meaning? What is my value?
Lets go to the book of Genesis.
This is how it started.
GEN 1:26-
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
You were made in the image of God. You're made in His image, His likeness. He has given you complete authority. You were even made to even operate like Him-- by speaking (WORDS) by faith.
Image-
1.a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible.
Image-
2. an optical counterpart or appearance of an object, as is produced by reflection from a mirror. James 1:23-24
Likeness-
1. a representation, picture, or image, especially a portrait:
to draw a good likeness of a person
2. the state or fact of being like-Example-I can't get over your likeness to my friend.

In the very beginning (garden of Eden) there was the first attack against mankind to get us to believe that we are not what God had told us that we were.
The enemy of God doesn't want us to believe that He has given us this place as rightful rulers made just like him. If he can obscure and blind us from seeing what we truly are, then he doesn't have to worry about us. We are not a threat to him. The enemy wants you to doubt & distrust everything God has said. He wants you to remain on the outside, looking like a slave, beggar, not realizing you are the very offspring of the one true king. God from the beginning has made a place just for you- with Him.

Being deceived from the truth

Gen 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
They were deceived... Satan convinced them that they could be like God. This was a huge LIE!!
**NEWSFLASH** We couldn't get any more like GOD. They had it all. But they believed a lie that they were missing something. GOD gave them everything in the beginning but through deception they believed a lie and thought they need something else. Satan convinced them God was holding them back.
Psalms 84:11
For Jehovah Elohim is a sun and shield: Jehovah will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Romans 8:32 AMP
He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?

Eve told Satan, That she was "not to eat" & "not to touch it". But who ever said that??
If your not going to eat it, you surely are not going to touch it.
Don't add rules to what God has given you in His word. That's where we get religion. Man's rules mixed with God's doesn't set free. Our attempt is to get to God when He is always searched for & is searching for us. He came to us because we had to way to bridge the gap we made from Him. He's made a way when there wasn't a way.
Just follow the Word & don't add your rules to it. Live according to what is written and avoid adding to it.
Jesus said, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

We are told to follow

This what Christ asks... Follow me.
To define the word follow-
to go or come after or behind (someone or something), to accept as authority
Notice it says to go after someone else. You can't follow yourself. But many choose to follow their own selves.
Now think about this... This isn't rocket science. All he asks... Follow.
It doesn't require any kind of degrees. You don't have be something special. Regardless of what you may look like. He, Jesus Christ asks...
Follow me
Mark 3:14
And he ordained twelve, that they should be with HIM.....
That they should be with HIM! First and foremost, before anything else. BE WITH HIM!! Before any ministry can begin, you have to be with Him.

The effect of being a follower-

Matt 4:19 -And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Jesus takes you & makes-
definition- form (something) by putting parts together or combining substances; construct; create.
He creates you to be more like Him as you follow. That's amazing. All by being a follower.
After you follow Jesus, that is when he will ask of you to add something to your following--
He'll ask you to
“Take up your cross and follow Me” Matt 16:24
This means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender.
Cross bearing “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25).

Don't lose your purpose!

Don't lose the reason why-

In the movie City Slickers the character Curly says this:
"Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean anything--"
But, what is the "one thing?
Curly [smiles] "That's what *you* have to find out."
Your purpose is your business & you should only mind your business not any anothers
John 21:18-22 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Does this sound familiar?
Jesus is directing him back to the basic fundamental instructions- Hey Peter, all you need to do is follow me. Don't worry or be concerned with any others purpose, just your own. You, follow me.

Verse20- Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”
Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
Jesus’ made some blunt words—“None of your business, follow me”—
These words are sweet to my ears. They are liberating from the depressing bondage of fatal comparing.
That’s the way the world is wired. Compare. Compare. Compare. We crave to know how we stack up in comparison to others. There is some kind of high if we can just find someone less effective than we are.

When you compare, you are leaving *your*mission. You're leaving your purpose.
Jesus will not judge me according to my superiority or inferiority over anybody. No preacher. No church. No ministry. These are not the standard. Jesus has a work for me to do (and a different one for you).

Stay hungry for your purpose

In the boxing movie, Rocky,

Rocky Balboa's trainer made a comment about him after noticing his training slipping-

The worst thing that happened to you, that can happen to any fighter: you got civilized.
Rocky left his ability to engage as a hungry fighter. He left that passion.

This world makes plenty of distractions. Distractions to keep you from staying connected to your purpose. Be careful because it's the small things that creates the slow fade.

Catch the foxes -- the little foxes that ruin the vineyards-- for our vineyards are in bloom. Sol 2:15
It’s not the big things that get us off purpose, its the small mundane things that we tell ourselves that don't matter because they're so small.
Proverbs 6:10
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep–

You & your life will have to answer this question...

Matt16:13-16
Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

“But you,” He asked them, “who do *YOU* say that I am ?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God! ”
The wisest & wealthiest man (King Solomon) that ever lived had this to say after he had exhausted all his avenues to research the meaning for living. He summed it up in a nutshell the meaning of life.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.