After God: Seeking His Presence Above All, In All

Lord Jesus, we just thank you, God, for this morning.

We thank you for just your presence, your goodness, Lord, that you are with us.

Lord, I pray that Lord, you just open our eyes and ears.

Lord, that we would be attentive to you, looking to you, waiting for you to speak and move, Lord, not just looking to a man or to anybody else, Lord, but we would look to you, wait on you, anticipate your spirit in the room, Lord, to communicate your heart, Lord, and that you just open our eyes, open our ears, move us to conviction, to hope, to encouragement, to just strengthen us inwardly.

We thank you, God.

Amen.

Or if you were here last week, in the meeting afterwards, in our business meeting, I talked about looking back on this last six months.

I described it as what?

Does anybody remember?

Doing the groundwork.

Right?

Doing the groundwork, which some people maybe were surprised.

They're like, what are you talking about?

We've done all these kind of things.

I was like, no, I just feel like we've just been plowing the dirt, plowing it over, doing groundwork, right?

And we and and you know, when you do have a development of any kind, a lot of times you look at the groundwork, you're like, they haven't done anything.

Like, right?

I mean, they just moved the dirt around.

And and but really, I just look in this last six weeks and I feel like, you know what, we've successfully done a lot of good groundwork.

And next, this next six season of maybe six months, I said, what do we want to move into?

Anyone remember?

Pour in the foundation, right?

Pouring the foundation, not even ready to build.

We just want to pour a foundation and so that we can't build.

And what I did I describe that foundation.

I know that y'all don't like homework on Sunday mornings, but yeah, just part of my personality, you know, just to ask questions.

But what does anybody remember what I suggested as that foundation?

Prayer and praise, right?

Prayer and praise.

And so for this next season of pouring the foundation, really just as a community, want us to push into becoming a people of worship, a people of prayer, a people of praise, building that foundation, then maybe sometime next year we'll start building.

We have a foundation to build on.

And so, you know, it's one of our mission or kind of vision statements that I've talked about of we want to become a people of passionate worship, a people of passionate worship.

And then in this last, I don't know, a couple weeks, I've been asking, you know, what does your heart sing?

What is your personal worship?

Right?

We've gone through all the 150 Psalms.

We're finishing the last four today.

In our personal reading, we preached through a lot of the Psalms.

Um just in your own reflection, as you're reading through these Psalms of David and Korah, the sons of Korah, and these other Psalms, what is your personal worship?

Another way to ask that is what kind of person is continually bringing worship to God?

This is a Rembrandt painting of David and Saul.

David being the insignificant figure playing the harp, kind of in the right, Saul being the dominant figure, very priestly and and with expensive clothing.

You can't really see it very clearly in the in the screen, but he there's this there's a cloak between them, and Saul's potentially crying.

And David is there playing for Saul.

I don't know if you've noticed, but in the seven Psalms that we went through, David wrote four of them.

The first week we talked about superscriptions in the Psalms.

Um, and 73 of the superscriptions in the Hebrew Bible and in the English Bible are attributing these Psalms to David.

85 in the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from the third to first centuries, they're attributing to David.

We don't know exactly how many David actually wrote, but we know that most of the Psalms are coming from this heart of David.

The Psalm scroll from Qumran claimed that David wrote 3,600 Psalms.

There's even some other Psalms in the Qumran scrolls that are attributed to David.

The point is, David clearly was a man of worship.

I ask as what kind of person is continually bringing worship to God?

And we can see, okay, David is that person.

Most of these psalms he's bringing in worship.

But what was it about the heart of David that led him to pen most of these songs of worship?

What was it about him?

Did he just like music?

Did he just was he just talented as a musician?

Or was there something about his heart that led him to this place of continual worship?

What about him moved him from just a spectator to a worshiper?

From self-focus to God focus, from duty to this desire that's unquenchable, such that he couldn't help but praise God.

His heart was set on declaring the goodness of God.

So just as an introduction and kind of giving this vision for the next six months of us becoming a people of worship, a people of praise, a people who our life is oriented toward God.

Thought it'd be interesting just for us to reflect on the life of David just briefly.

And what was it about him that led him to become that?

Where most of these psalms that we're reading today are written by him.

Read about David in 1 Samuel.

Now your kingdom will not endure.

We read this quote: The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people.

In the Hebrew, it's a little bit difficult to translate because it's the preposition after is typically just meaning as or like or in the same way as.

The King James translators chose to use the word after, which most translations have followed after that.

But what this means and how to translate it is confusing for us.

Most translators or commentaries will focus on either one or two sides of what this means about David.

The first is just that they focus on God's election.

The Lord has sought out a man as his own heart, and the focus is entirely on God and his divine election.

That the God is looking for someone that he can love as his own heart, that he can appoint ruler of his people, that he can establish a covenant with where his throne will be established forever.

Probably most commentators view that interpretation of what it means that God is seeking out a man after his own heart or a man as his own heart, a man to love as his own heart.

The focus is on entirely God.

It's nothing about David, it's nothing about the morality of David, it's purely God's divine election.

There's others that say no, that there's something about David's own heart that God is actually looking for.

Which is why the message will translate a man whose heart is on the same page as mine.

More closely to the Greek or the Hebrew, a man whose heart is on the same page as mine, there's something about David's heart that God is seeking out.

Maybe there's somewhere in the middle that it's not necessarily God's own or David's morality that God was seeking.

And it's not merely just his divine election that is the focus, but maybe there's something in the middle, and we get a small clue from Acts when this is quoted.

After removing Saul, he made David their king.

God testified concerning him.

I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.

In the Greek here, this after is toward my own heart.

He will do everything I want him to do.

So the proposal, somehow the third interpretation of what does it mean that David was as after God's own heart is that his heart was oriented toward God.

We see this in Psalm 27.

Psalm 27, starting at verse 4.

One thing I ask from the Lord.

One thing I ask from the Lord.

When you consider the context, to me, this is a profound statement.

Surrounded by enemies, armies, dangers, false witnesses.

He's in a circumstance where he's in great need of deliverance.

And he's asking for one thing in this situation needing great deliverance.

It isn't destroy my enemies.

It isn't rescue me from all of these false witnesses.

No, what is the one thing he is asking?

He continues, this only do I seek.

Moving from asking to seeking.

Ask becomes seeks.

His desire internally produces an action.

It's not merely an empty asking, it's moving to a seeking of him producing the action.

This seeking is the same seeking.

I mean the Hebrew of 1 Samuel 13 that we just read, that God sought a certain kind of man.

David here is seeking, and what is he seeking?

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

Dwell here means David wants more than just a mere visit.

He isn't saying he just wants a one-time encounter.

He didn't say he wants something occasional.

He didn't want just the Sunday morning gathering, a one time.

No, he wants to live.

Where does he want to live?

In the house of the Lord.

His whole life characterized by God's presence.

It's also interesting at this point the house of God wasn't built yet.

Right?

So he's not referring to this temple in Jerusalem.

He's referring to something else that he is wanting to live in the house of God.

Again, if you go back to the context of when he's writing, his circumstances are not looking so good.

Enemies are surrounding him.

He's in need of great deliverance.

He's in need of great help.

He's in need of God to do something.

And what is his one request?

He says, I want one thing, God.

Not that you would deliver me from enemies.

No, I'm asking one thing.

And that asking is moving me to seeking that I may dwell, that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

And why does he want that?

What does he expect in the house of God?

He continues to gaze on the beauty of the Lord, to seek him in his temple.

David doesn't merely seek God because God is useful.

God, you will conquer the enemies, you will deliver me, you will do good things.

No, what is he wanting?

He wants to gaze upon God's beauty because that is his satisfaction.

That is his hope.

That is his love.

That is his ambition.

That is sufficient.

God himself is desirable.

It's very different from seeking God merely for protection, blessing, success, answers, or provision.

It wasn't God's heart.

It wasn't David's heart.

David sought God for God, wanting to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.

Gaze here is suggesting more than just a glance.

Of like, okay, I'll look at God.

Occasionally, when I have time, once a week, once a month, I might, I might, I might ponder God.

No, gaze is suggesting more than a glance.

It's contemplation, it's deeply focusing.

And what is he focusing on?

He's focused on the beauty of the Lord.

Throughout the book of John, I kept giving the phrase the beauty is that which causes us joy, satisfaction, enjoyment when we see it.

Whenever we see beauty, our heart is stirred to satisfaction.

Sin is confusing or misconstruing beauty or losing sight of true beauty.

And what is true beauty?

Kept saying the phrase over and over again that Jesus is both the source and the summation of all beauty.

He's the creator and the fullness of all beauty.

So anytime we see the beauty of God, right, our heart is moved to satisfaction, to pleasure, to enjoyment.

When we know the beauty of God, the beauty of Jesus, our response is worship, the joy, the pleasure, satisfaction, the love, the longing that we internally experience when we see the beauty of Jesus.

This was the heart of David, surrounded by enemies, in desperate place of need.

His circumstances were not looking so good.

He didn't know if he had friends, right?

What is the one thing he asked?

I want to dwell in the house of the Lord just so I can be safe.

No, so I can gaze on the beauty of the Lord.

Started with that question of what type of man is producing this continual sense of worship, writing all of these psalms.

It's ones whose heart is oriented to God, toward God, desiring to gaze at the beauty of God all the days of his life.

This was his one ambition.

What is that action?

He's seeking, he's pursuing his God's presence.

That pursuing of his presence moves to beholding, beholding the beauty, inquiring or considering or contemplating in his temple.

David didn't merely want something from God.

David wanted solely to be with God.

David wanted to behold God.

David wanted to be near to God.

God was not a means to an end.

Hey, I want to accomplish these things in life.

No, God that somehow God will make my life better or more happy or give me something that I'm I'm yearning for.

No, for David, God was the end.

You're the goal.

You're the hope.

You're the ambition.

You're my direction.

God was his aim, his joy, his pursuit.

His heart was oriented toward God, always looking to God.

He continues in verse 8.

My heart says of you, seek his face.

And I respond, Your face, Lord, I will seek.

His heart is compelling him, crying out to him, seek the face of God.

And David responds with this pursuit of God.

It's not driven by a duty.

I must do this.

The preacher tells me that there's beauty in Jesus, so I need to pursue Jesus.

No, his heart is driven by this inward desire, a longing to know the beauty of God.

And what is his response?

He moves into action.

There's a pursuit, he seeks the face of God.

The word face here that we're translating face literally means face, but relationally it carries the idea of presence.

It's being in the presence of somebody.

So if I'm face to face with Barry, I see him, I know him, I know his expression, I can communicate with him.

In the Hebrew, that's the idea here that he's seeking to be in the presence of God.

Presence is a word that has become common, it seems like, at least in American evangelical churches now.

We're seeking the presence of God.

A lot of times in my experience, at least the way people are using it, they're seeking a feeling or an experience.

They want to feel something in the room.

But really, in reality, that feeling is a fruit of being face to face with God.

So when we're seeking his presence, we want to know him.

If God was literally in the room, right, we would respond, our hearts would respond with affection, with emotion, with fear, with awe, with wonder, right?

Because we're in his presence, we're seeing him face to face.

And that response in our heart is worship.

David's saying, seek his presence.

Seek to be in his presence.

His heart is moving him, compelling him.

It continues, do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my helper.

Do not reject me or forsake me.

God, my savior.

Moving to seeking God, it tells us in Jeremiah 29:13.

Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

With all your heart.

This is the heart of David.

My heart is saying, Seek your face.

And I respond in seeking and pursuing the presence of God.

I want to know him.

I want to experience him.

I want to encounter him.

I want to be with him.

David sought God's presence above all and in all.

What was the heart of David that led him to this place where he is after God?

That God saw him as after God.

He was oriented toward God in all things.

For us as a community, how can we become increasingly a people of worship?

We'll follow a similar path where our heart is oriented toward God, seeking the face of God, the presence of God.

We seek his presence above all and in all.

Seek His presence above all.

What is your one thing?

David's one thing was very clear.

One thing that I want from God is what?

To dwell in the house of God so I can gaze on your beauty.

What is your one thing?

We all have a one thing.

Used to have a boss that used to say something similar that we all have something that we're after.

Sometimes people don't even know what we're after, they don't define it.

But inwardly, there's all something in us that we are after.

We're yearning for, we're going for, we're pursuing.

We all have a one thing.

What is your one thing?

Seeking his presence above all.

Reminds me, this is typically a lot of times not how we consider it.

Maybe seeking his presence is on the list somewhere, right?

Okay, I probably need to do that because that seems like a good thing to be on the list.

We consider it as an ant, right?

I should seek God's presence and do all these other things.

But when we really really reflect and pause and ponder our own life, what is our one thing we are after?

That is what David's getting at.

Reminded me a little bit of what things Jesus said.

Not no one has more direct words, harsher in a lot of ways, than Jesus in Matthew 10.

Anyone who loves their father or more mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds their life will lose it.

Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Pretty sure if Jesus was in the room saying those things, we'd be like, okay, this guy's this guy's too much, right?

I don't know about him, which is what the response of the people at in his day were saying.

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

His point that I think he's getting at throughout many passages is that at the end of the day, we all have one allegiance.

We all have one supreme allegiance.

We have one thing that we are pursuing above everything else.

And he's inviting us, saying, Hey, reflect on your life.

You either pursue me entirely or not at all.

Whoever finds their life will lose it.

Find your life, meaning to pursue security, comfort, self-preservation as your ultimate priority.

We all have an ultimate priority.

It's treating your existence as something to be grasped and protected at all cost.

It represents an attempt to live as though you owned your life, as if it were your own enterprise.

I was reading that from another author.

I'm like, well, that sounds familiar.

You know, I don't know if you feel the same, but finding your life will lose it.

Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Seeking his presence above all.

Our one thing that we're seeking after.

Luke is a similar passage.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus.

This is profound to me.

At this point, lots of people are starting to follow this healer, this teacher, this profound man of God.

What did he do?

You would think he would turn to them and welcome them, encourage them.

Great, keep on going.

His response, turning to them, he said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father, mother, wife, and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

No wonder they all left, right?

They're thinking this guy is nuts, right?

I mean, it doesn't translate perfectly in English.

The Greek can mean love less.

If anyone does not love less, their father, mother, which is what we see in Matthew.

But the point is still pretty profound.

The thing that he's getting at.

We all have some supreme allegiance.

We all have one thing that we are pursuing above all other things.

Jesus is saying, You either pursue me supremely, you either want me, desire me, seek me as your one thing, or you don't seek me at all.

You cannot be my disciple.

He continues in that passage, Luke 14.

I mean, and he goes through some parables of counting the cost.

Counting the cost.

He finishes with this another profound statement of verse 33, in the same way of counting the cost.

Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

There's other stories that just seem almost heartbreaking sometimes when reading through the gospel.

The man who wants to bury his father before following Jesus, Jesus' response to him, or the rich young ruler who wanted eternal life.

Both of the responses are so blatantly black and white and aggressive in a sense to declaring, no, your total allegiance is to me.

Our allegiance is either to God or other things.

We're either orienting our life toward God or other things.

The compass only points in one direction.

But that compass can be pointing the wrong direction.

So what about David that created this heart of worship that pinned all of these songs?

He sought the presence of God above all.

The beauty of God was his supreme one thing, allegiance, his desire, his ambition, his hope.

His everything was in knowing God.

You might listen to this and say, okay, well, like you, does that mean forsaking everything else?

Jesus tells us, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul is the greatest commandment.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is the second.

So it's not a matter of just forsaking all other things.

And it is, it is, it's just our entire allegiance is in toward God.

But how do we do that?

Seeking His presence above all.

We all have practical things we have to do.

We have companies and jobs and we have families and all the practical things.

Seeking His presence above all, you're saying, Vernon, should we just be like the disciples and sell everything and live on a monastery?

Or what exactly does that mean?

I think partially it's seeking his presence in all.

Seeking his presence in all.

There was a book written in 2011 by a guy named Sky Jathani, and I think it kind of helped give a good picture of what that what this can look like to seek his presence in all things, in all areas of life.

He says that he proposes that there's four ways that we generally orient toward God.

Four ways we generally orient to God.

One, probably most common, we're living life under God, viewing God through a lens of fear, legalism, believing that if we strictly obey rules, rituals, if we show up to church, we read our Bible, we do our Bible plan, then God will bless us.

If we suffer, it's punishment for not doing those things.

So that's one way that people orient toward God.

They live with life under God, in fear of God, seeking his blessing.

Another way that people orient toward God is what he describes as life over God.

It's viewing God through pragmatism, control.

It's seeking to master the principles and the formulas and the laws.

Proven success mechanics found in the scriptures, so we can manage our life, not needing an active relationship with him.

We're life over God, we're controlling our life.

Another way people orient toward God is life from God, viewing God through consumerism, using God as a means to get what we want: health, success, comfort, blessings, rather than desiring God Himself.

The fourth way is life for God, viewing God through activism, performance, focusing on busyness and accomplishment, accomplishing great tasks for God's mission, often leading to burnout.

He gives these four ways that people orient toward God: life under God and fear of God.

Life over God.

I'm controlling my life based on the things I think I learned from God.

Life from God, I'm waiting for God to give me things.

Or life for God.

I do, I want to accomplish great tasks for God.

Under God being I wanting security, over God being I wanting, I'm wanting control.

From God being I'm wanting blessing, for God being wanting significance.

But he goes on, God is not merely the boss that we work for, or the vending machine that we receive from, or the authority that we're under, or the principles that we live by.

He proposes a fifth way that we can orient toward God, and that is life with God.

It's not about using God as a tool, but it's enjoying intimate relationship with them in all areas of life.

Being with God is not using God, it's wanting God, wanting to be with God.

That is a good just a framework of what does it mean to seek his presence in all, and all the things we're doing in life, and all the places we're going.

And all the going to restaurants, we're we're going to our job.

And whatever we are doing, how do we seek his presence in all?

Sky's proposal is that we're doing it with God, right?

We're wanting to be with God in whatever place that we are at.

We are seeking his presence in every place.

There's a man who was born in the fourth century North Africa in Carthage, which is modern-day Tunis in Tunisia.

Um at the time as part of the Roman Empire.

Carthage was a city of learning and wealth, it was a port city.

And this man was born to a very wealthy family.

And his heart was restless as a young man, young person.

He had a longing in his soul, but he didn't know what it meant, what to do with it.

He describes as a very young person that he had a cauldron of illicit loves in his words, a cauldron of illicit loves, which basically he was having he was sleeping with lots of people.

He was going out pursuing pleasure.

And over time he eventually found it was empty.

This restlessness was not satisfying.

He famously said, I need chastity, but just not yet.

He moved on and said, You know what?

This is not satisfying.

I need to find love, long-term relationship.

He found a young lady.

She was much lower class than him.

His parents did not like that they were lower class.

He knew that this would never work.

He fell in love with her.

They had this deep relationship.

Eventually he realized this can't work.

This won't work.

My heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded and left trailing blood as the relationship ended.

He just continued seeking, continued searching.

He moved on to decide, you know what, I will pursue power.

I'll follow my family name.

He studied the art of persuasive public speaking or rhetoric, which was at that time one of the primary routes to political and social achievement.

He taught in Carthage.

Then he moved to Rome, and he eventually obtained a prestigious appointment as professor of rhetoric in Milan, which at that time was the administrative capital of the Western Roman Empire.

And as the emperor's orator, he reached the pinnacle of his profession, pursuing influence, power, connections.

He tells the story that one day he was out, he was going to give this great speech to the emperor.

And he saw this man drunk on the street in the afternoon.

And it struck him deeply that this beggar achieved this moment of some carefree, light-hearted happiness for just a few pennies.

Whereas he was exhausting all of his energy, sleepless night, found this worldly prestige, prestige, proximity to power.

But he was exhausted, stressed, full of fear, exhausting himself to obtain some happiness that he was searching for through prestige.

But he realized neither of them had found the real thing.

He says, suddenly every vain hope became worthless to me.

And so with an incredible intensity of desire, I longed after immortal wisdom, moved on from influence and power.

He wanted to know truth.

Because if anything is actually eternal, it would be truth.

So he became this man studying philosophy with the Manichaeans of the neo neoplate neoplatonic philosophy.

And for years, he was in pursuit of this truth, which he thought potentially could satisfy this longing in his soul.

Eventually he met a man by the name of Ambrose of Malah.

Initially he was drawn to him because he was such a great speaker.

He's a man of rhetoric.

He was intrigued by how he communicated.

Then he began listening to his ideas.

And so many of the ideas that he that Ambrose was explaining through the Bible were very clear.

Answers to him.

He started wrestling.

Tells a story that in that wrestling, he heard what sounded like a child's voice from a nearby, from nearby.

Say, take up and read.

Take up and read.

Referring to a Bible that he made.

So he re began reading Romans.

And through that process, he discovered this is the answer that I long for.

He went on to become probably the greatest theologian, at least since the first century.

St.

Augustine is what we know him as today.

And he, in this story that he's telling in this book called Confessions, he starts with, You have made us for yourselves, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Here's a man who hungered for pleasure.

So he chased sex.

He hungered for love.

So he chased this relationship.

He hungered for significance.

So he chased this career and reputation.

Then he hungered for truth.

So he chased philosophy and intellectual answers.

And all of those things, he found it meaningless.

He found his soul still restless, still yearning for something more until he finally discovered God in Jesus, in Christ.

Where is where he found his satisfaction?

You made us for yourself, he's saying, of God.

Our heart is restless until it rests in you.

So the question for us today: what do you pursue?

What is your one thing?

David's one thing was to gaze on the beauty of God and the temple.

That was his honest heart desire.

If we as a people are going to increasingly become a people of worship, then we're going to look increasingly more like a people whose one thing is to gaze at the beauty of God.

Seeking his presence above all.

In all.

What does your heart long for?

If you're not sure how to even answer those, what consumes your thoughts?

What are you chasing?

Where is your treasure?

Do you seek his presence above all in all?

Or is God merely a means to some other end?

I think like Saint Augustine, we we all will continue a restless life until we realize that in Him is where our heart will finally rest.

Where do you look for fulfillment?

What gets your best time and energy?

What do you sacrifice for?

Or what do you daydream about?

Why do you join the people of God?

Do you want to be with God?

Simply to be with Him?

Or do we merely want something from Him?

Do we long to gaze at His beauty all the days of our life?

I started with that question.

What type of person creates this heart of worship that is continually singing to God?

It's one whose heart is oriented toward God, right?

Seeking His beauty above all in all, seeking His presence in all places.

So that's the hope for us as a community.

That if we're going to grow into a people of worship, that we'd be a people who prioritize, orients our life towards God as the prize of our heart, of our life, of our ambition.

Now, wherever we're going, we're seeking his presence, knowing his presence, doing life with God, loving God.

With that, I will pray.

But I started again.

You know, we we talked about doing groundwork for the first six months, moving to pouring a foundation for this next six months.

What is that foundation of a people of prayer and worship?

A people after God, seeking his presence.

Why?

Because we love him.

And ultimately, as St.

Augustine argued, it's because we know that is where our satisfaction is, our joy is, our peace is, our hope is.

So, Lord Jesus, we do just thank you, God, that you're worthy of our attention, Lord.

It is not out of duty, but it is out of delight.

You are good, you are satisfying, you are enjoyable, you bring us happiness and joy.

And so, Lord, we long to dwell in your house, Lord, that we can gaze upon your beauty all the days of our life.

Every day is an opportunity to gaze upon the beauty of God.

So, Lord, just orient us as a people who know the beauty of God, Lord, and respond in worship, who seek the face of God, responding in awe and wonder and gratitude.

Lord, we just thank you, Lord, that you are present.

Lord, just continue to awaken our hearts, awaken our hunger.

God, that we would just be a people after, oriented toward God.

We thank you, Lord.

Amen.