Psalm 131

It's good to see you guys this. Is one of my favorite Psalms.

It is not one of my favorite songs because it naturally fits

my tone and temperament. Or my pre-existing.

Passions or biases? It's my favorite.

Psalm because it cuts exactly. In the opposite direction of the

natural. Grain in my heart.

One of my favorite Psalms. It's a measly 3 verses.

It's short. But sweet and despite its

brevity, it is. A masterpiece of.

Quiet trust and spiritual maturity.

Charles Spurgeon said Psalm 131 is 1.

Of the shortest psalms to read, but one of the longest psalms to

learn, You know. Come on.

One of the. Shortest psalms to read, but one

of the longest. Psalms to learn Ultimately,

Psalm 131 is the Psalm of a man, King David, who has learned.

Over the course of a. Lifetime of walking with the

Lord. To put to death his narcissism,

his inflated sense of self, his need to do great and marvelous.

Things to earn the attention. Of people who are watching.

Him. It's the Psalm of a man.

Who's? Learned to wean his.

Soul off of the world if you're able.

That stand for the reading of God's Word this morning.

If I had to vote, I will vote that King David is the least.

Likely person and the entire Canon of scripture to write this

Psalm and yet. It was written by King David.

Oh Lord, my heart is not. Lifted up, my eyes are not.

Raised too high. I do not occupy myself with

things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a.

Winged child with its mother. Like a winged child is my soul.

Within me O Israel. Hope.

I don't know what are you guys looking at the piece that says

text, is that bothering? You too.

There we go. Got it.

O Israel hope IN the. Lord, from this time forth and

forevermore. What would it look like for you

to calm and quiet your soul? What would it look like for you

to wean? Your soul off of the.

Attention and. Approval of the world.

And to simply. Hope and trust in the Lord.

From this time forth and forevermore that's the subject

of our sermon this morning, you're welcome to sit.

Here's the poem with Psalm 131. My flesh.

Doesn't like it I. You know what I love?

I I love thinking too highly of myself.

I love having an inflated sense of self.

I love feeding my ego. I love doing things that are far

too great and far too marvelous for me.

When I was really little, I remember how after a wrestling

match, some random stranger. Walked up to my dad.

And said, boy, your son sure knows how to wrestle.

And I remember seeing my dad get lit up by that.

I remember seeing a big smile stretch across his face.

And he said, well, at least the kid knows how to shake hands.

I was really little. When that happened.

But I still remember that exchange because I remember

thinking in the deepest part of my heart, I will.

Do whatever it takes to hear that again.

I like that feeling. Right, I Of course I don't have

the language to articulate it this way as a young child, but

when my dad. Smiled like that.

And I impressed some stranger. There was some sub articulate

part of myself in my heart that said.

I want to feel that. Feeling.

All the time. I like being admired.

I like. That attention and I'm not using

this as an out, I need to take responsibility for my own

propensity towards narcissism, but.

The cultural. Air that we breathe certainly

isn't helping me or you. Out at all either right like.

Dream big and you're special. Is the water that we.

Swim in in the 21st century the the philosopher John Twinge.

Calls it quote the narcissism epidemic we.

Live in an epidemic of this inflated self of self

importance, this need for constant validation and approval

and admiration. It's the water that we swim in.

It's it's what we think there was a a famous narcissism study.

This is not on substantial. There was a famous narcissism

study conducted over the span of 30 or 40 years that discovered

that the amount of people statistically, not numerically,

the number of people statistically who responded yes

to the question, am I special or?

Important tripled by percentage. Between the 80s and the 20 tens,

and unsurprisingly, or maybe very surprisingly if you're

unfamiliar with psychology. As.

As our sense of self. Has increased.

Our experience of joy has decreased.

As our sense of ego has increased, our experience of

happiness has decreased. And so.

It's like, it's like a bomb, just a.

Beautiful little detonated bomb. That Psalm. 131.

Rolls into our lives if it doesn't.

Blow you up today. It's detonated.

It'll. Get you set a timer.

Psalm 131 is coming for you. David begins with a.

Confession that he. Is not going to think too highly

of himself. Look at verse one.

Oh Lord. My heart is not lifted up, my

eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with

things too great and too marvelous for me.

Notice, notice the language really quickly here in verse

one. I need you to see this.

OK, lock into this. I've got it underlined up there.

You know what this? Psalm is not about this.

Psalm is actually not about not doing bad things or not sinning.

Did you notice that? What's it about?

Look at verse one. What's it about?

It's it's not about not sinning or doing bad things or wrong

thing. It's about not occupying

yourself with great and marvelous things, or things that

we might even say are fine or even.

Good. And so if they're not.

Sinful. What's the problem with them?

Well, notice the modifying word. That's.

Hugging both the word great. And marvelous.

What's the word that's hugging them both?

Too great, too marvelous. So the problem isn't that these

things are bad things to think. About or even.

To aim at it's that they've become too.

Great or too marvelous for David when he is occupied or.

Consumed or obsessing over them. So what in the world is going on

here? What it what?

What does this mean to not be occupied with?

What things are too great and. Too marvelous for David?

Well. Like most of the Bible, the

meaning. For that verse is either.

Waiting for you in the verse before it, or hiding from you in

the. Verse after.

It So what are the things that are too great and too marvelous

for him? Look at the beginning of verse

one. Here's your here's your context

clue. My heart is not.

Lifted up, my eyes are not raised too.

High. This is our context clue in in

the Old Testament. The metaphor of the lifted.

Heart. Or the eyes raised too.

High. Is always used to describe.

Haughtiness. Or pride and so that.

Helps us see what things are too.

Great. Or too marvelous for us,

ultimately. What this is about is David.

Learning to say no to narcissism.

Saying no to. Pride saying no to the need, the

need to do. Things that are too great.

Or too marvelous for him. It's it's, he's learned to say.

No to demanding worldly achievements.

And so when David says he doesn't need to occupy himself

with things too great and too marvelous for him, he he doesn't

mean that you can't have goals in life, or aspirations, or even

dream big. What David means is that he no

longer needs. To be the best, he no longer

needs to be the most. Important guy in the room.

He no longer. Needs.

To be the most influential, he no longer needs to be special

and. We don't know when, David.

Wrote this. There's a lot of guesses.

Out there for when, David? Came to this.

Spear given realization. Some people say maybe it was

during the long wait between when he was anointed to one day

be king as a teenager and the many years.

He had to watch absolute losers occupy the throne.

Before him before finally being installed as a king.

At 30 years old, maybe it was. During that time period, he was

like, all right, I'm just not. Going to obsess.

About things that are too great and too marvelous for me, right

It could have been some people suggest that maybe it was after

he. Lost his child or maybe?

It was after the death of his friend.

Or maybe and I. Find this one really compelling.

Some a lot of theologians argue that this is not a young man's

Psalm. Right, this is not the.

Psalm, a young man writes and SO1 compelling guest for me is

maybe it was written by David after getting everything.

After he killed Goliath and became a.

Wartime hero after he became king or.

Leading Israel's army and he got all of that.

And now he's prophetically writing Psalm 131, almost like

Jim Carrey. Who literally said in an

interview. Maybe Psalm 131 is God's way of

saying what? Kerry said, which was quote.

I believe I was given. Everything I could have ever.

Wanted so I could turn around and tell the.

World that it. Won't make you happy.

But this is a heck of realization.

To arrive at a place where you just no longer need to be

obsessed with things that are too great and too marvelous for

you and. Look, I'm I'm a dream big guy.

I can prove that too if you want to see my full focus planner.

I like goals. I consider myself pretty driven.

I don't think any of those are bad things, so I I want to.

Articulate exactly when ambitions.

Or worldly goals become. In the language of Psalm 131.

Too great and too marvelous for us.

So how does that? How does that happen?

Well, here's here's my thesis. There are two separate.

But well substantiated studies. That you hear about.

In the modern world, all the time they these studies pop up

on our news. They people write books about

them. They're both.

Well substantiated and studied the.

First, very well. Substantiated study that's

popular in the modern. World is the increase.

Of narcissism. This is well documented.

Well documented, right? I mentioned this in in in

passing at the beginning, but there's a famous. 30 year study

out there. About narcissism and when they

began at like 30 or 40 years ago, only 20% of people

responded to the question. I'm a very important person with

the answer yes. And now in the 20 tens it's like

75%. So there's been a well

documented increase of narcissism in our culture.

What's the second? Well substantiated study that's

popular right now. The second one, and again this

is well studied. Is the.

Decrease of relational intimacy. Again, everybody's writing about

this stuff. The decrease of relational

intimacy is well documented in In our world, the amount of

people who say that they have at least two or three close friends

today is less than half. Of the people who said that 50

years ago. Another way of articulating that

is we're twice as lonely as a culture as we.

Were 50 years ago. The amount of people who answer

simply yes to the question Are you lonely?

Is not just astronomically higher than 50 years ago.

It is at the highest. Point in human history and so

here's my thesis for you. What I want you to consider this

morning or just think about is that those are not 2 separate

studies. They're the same study.

And no, I've never. Read a study.

Linking those two things together.

And I know correlation is not causation.

You're not causation either bro. But.

I think they're related. Two sides of the same coin.

The increase of our narcissism is actually.

Why? We can't experience relational

intimacy. Your teacher meant well when he

told you how. Special you are.

He didn't mean to wound you. Right he was.

Following the self esteem movement.

That everybody, the Kool-aid everybody was.

Drinking in the 90s but without knowing this constant refrain

about how important our self esteem is and how unique and

special we are. We didn't know it but it was

discipling us towards a lifetime of loneliness.

The more narcissistic. You are the.

Less able you are to experience relational intimacy for two

reasons. First, because people prone to

narcissism are only capable of presenting the parts of

themselves before people that are impressive.

Which is like 2. Percent of who you are, which

means if you're only capable of presenting the parts of yourself

that are impressive to people and that gain you praise and

admiration, that means that you're probably hiding about 98%

of yourself from. The relationship.

And you can't have relational intimacy with somebody in a deep

relationship with somebody by giving them 2% of you.

And so you just can't. You just can't.

You just can't be narcissistic and also have deep

relationships. The second reason why is because

the more prone to narcissism you are, the more expectations you

bring into relationships, and the more expectations you bring

into relationships, the least. Likely it is that your

relationship. Will succeed expectations

clutter relationships? They drown relationships.

They bleed. Relationships out, the more

expectations you bring into the relationship.

The more likely it is to fail. The expectation for instance.

If if we. Constantly think of ourselves as

unique and special we will bring.

Expectations that suffocate other people.

Expectation. Expecting your spouse or your

friend? Expecting them to constantly.

Praise you and tell you how great you are and tell you how

wonderful you are and tell you that you're the best.

That's actually a weight that nobody can carry, right?

If you're spending time with me and you're like, man, I don't

think Cole's going to be friends with me unless I tell him he's

the best pastor ever. It's going to suffocate you.

It's too heavy for the relationship.

It suffocates people and flushes them out of relationship.

Or. People fail to meet your

expectations and you end up huffing and puffing that nobody

knows how special I am and nobody in the world gets me.

And you leave a bunch of burn bridges behind you because of

expectation. And the reason why I'm I'm

piercing right now is because. That that.

Moment. Is exactly the moment where it

becomes holy to let go of big. Dreams and aspirations in life.

The exact. Moment where a thing has become.

Too good or? Too wonderful or too marvelous

for you is exactly the moment that it becomes an expectation

in your relationship with. God, have you ever noticed?

That starts out as a goal and then somehow.

It becomes this expectation that you hold out to the Lord.

And demand that he meets it. You.

You develop an unspoken contract with God that says OK, you meet

my wildest dreams and I'll continue to worship you.

An unspoken agreement. And if your.

Relationship with God is filled with a bunch of expectations.

It's heading for disaster. Set the clock.

Here's another way you know your ambitions have become too.

Marvelous. Again, I keep on rounding this

out, but there's nothing wrong with dreams when they're want to

and. I think that's great, right?

I want. To have a great marriage, that's

a good, that's good, right I. Want to get healed.

I want to get the. Promotion.

Look at David. He had a lot of wants.

He wanted to become the king of Israel.

He wanted to kill Goliath. He.

Wanted to lead Israel's. Armies.

Those are massive dreams. Nothing wrong with big.

Dreams. When is it destructive?

It becomes. Destructive at the exact.

Moment. That it goes from a want to to a

need to I I need to have the perfect marriage.

I'm done with God. I need to have the best kids I

need. To be the next CEO.

Or else God. In that position, when something

transitions from a want to to a need to.

What you've discovered is that you like.

What God can give you more than who God actually is?

Do I sound crazy this? This position where we love God

for his gifts and not for his presence.

If you. Like God.

For what he gives you. More than who He is, your faith

will. Either implode or you will.

Need to in the language. Of Scripture be humbled.

And that's what. Verse 2 is all about look at

verse 2. Instead of being occupied with

thanks to great and to marvelous.

For David, he says. But I have calmed and.

Quieted my soul. The key.

Is the second-half here like a weaned child?

With its mother like a. Weaned.

Child. Is my soul within me?

How do you achieve that? All right, I'll wean.

Myself off of the. World and be humble.

Great. How do I do?

Do I clench my fist? Grip my teeth?

And say, all right, stop. Being narcissistical.

How do you achieve that? And.

Probably the answer to that question is you probably just

need to be. Broken.

Probably. Here's how I know this.

My 2 year old son Jack, he just turned 2.

He is exactly like me. He's crazy.

OK, he's two years old. And he's crazy.

He doesn't. Stop moving I.

Swear to you he won't stop moving, he just runs around.

Everywhere the world is too. Satisfying for him.

And as a result of that, Jack is our first kid.

We've got two others. Jack is my first kid.

Who refuses to just. Slow down and cuddle with me.

He won't cuddle with me and I'm bitter about it.

He'll give me like a one second hug and then he's gone.

Because the world's too. Shiny.

There's too much fun. Stuff he can't slow down and

just lay on my chest and cuddle with me.

Because he needs to. Be running hot laps around the

house or he needs to be breaking out of our house and running

down the block, which is not hypothetical.

And so if you saw me riding my bike around the neighborhood

this week yelling Jack that's why.

Or head butting his brother. Or sister.

Or jumping off of the couch, or breaking things.

The world is just. It's too.

Fun for Jack. There's too much fun stuff for

him to do so he won't cuddle with me.

Unless. Unless he's sick.

Now. It was good.

Now I'm not a monster. I don't sit around.

Hoping that Jack will get sick so that I can get some good.

Father, son, time with them, That's monstrous.

I'm not saying that I want him to be sick.

All I'm saying is when you're an adult, you see when your child

does. Become sick.

The complexity of the situation, to the kid, it's all bad.

It feels bad. They slowed down life, right?

But when you're an adult, you're like, OK, I don't want you to be

sick, but it also feels pretty. Dang, nice.

When you finally slow down enough.

To just lay on my. Chest and collapse into my.

Arms and cuddle with me. But he needs.

To get sick, This is probably the way you are too.

You just don't slow down. You just don't draw near.

To the presence of God. For the sake.

Of the presence of God. And so more time, 9 out of 10

times what needs to happen is. We need to be broken.

And God's not a monster. He doesn't ordain suffering and

pain in our lives because. He's some sort of killjoy.

But he does. Ordain suffering and pain in our

lives to pass, because if we don't experience loss or

sickness or suffering, we will. Never, ever, ever slow down.

To embrace his love and lay on his chest and simply receive the

glories of His presence. I.

Don't. Like usually, I need to be

humbled. I need to be broken.

When my life is all. Ease.

I float superficially through my.

Days like a living triviality. But do you know what being

broken does? Being broken drives me so.

The only thing that actually satisfies the presence of God

so. How do you wean?

Yourself off of the world and calm and quiet your soul.

You probably need to be broken. I hope not.

You don't need to, it's just probably.

Likely you don't. Have to get sick or be.

Broken in order to wean. Your soul the most compelling.

Theologian I've read on the subject.

Of how to get ahead. Of that, and to humble yourself

before being humbled is the Catholic theologian from the

1900s, Hans ers von Balthazar, which is a great.

Name somebody out there. You should name.

Your next child, Balthazar, it would be great.

Balthazar, he had this. Process of humbling the self and

calming it and quieting it before being broken.

And Balthazar unpacks this process with two really simple

steps. All right.

The first step is. Be seen.

Did you hear that? Be seen.

You must first let yourself be seen and be held through the

loving. Eyes of God.

And so the first step. For Balthazar towards.

Calming and quieting your soul. It's really not a first.

Step at all it's. Just a step of not.

Doing what Balthazar says is quote.

Contemplation begins not with what we see, but with allowing

ourselves to be seen, namely, seen through by the eyes of

love, and so before doing or saying anything, or even before

repenting of your sin, before saying or acting in any.

Way the key is to bring your soul before God and then.

Look at him looking at us and then simply resting in the

loving. Gaze that's already there and

then. When you have experienced being

seen by the Lord, you can move to step #2 which is to repent of

our. Need to be seen.

Once you're seen by the Lord, you can see how important it is

to repent of our need to be seen.

By the world. Balthazar has a really

interesting observation where he diagnoses modern religion as

being. Captivated by quote, a zeal.

For everything that's measurable and calculable and draws praise

to us. So in other words, Balthazar

says, we tend to. Use religion to fulfill our

worldly. Ambitions and to draw attention.

To ourselves rather than to God. He he even argues that listen to

this the majority of what we do and say on a daily basis.

At the root of that behavior is a desire to be seen by the

world. You know what?

You work yourself to death for that goal because you need.

To be seen. You know why you.

Behave that way because you need to be seen.

All of our. Godly or ungodly ambition, our

frenzied. Toil.

Our obsession with narcissism, it's.

It's all because we have daddy issues.

Heavenly Daddy issues. That's it.

Pretty much all of them. We've never slowed down to

experience the loving gaze of the Father that's already on us.

And to be in it and to soak in it and to rest in it.

And so we've developed heavenly daddy issues since we're not

confident that God sees us. You know who?

We need to see us, everybody else, the world we desperately,

desperately, pathetically obsessed over ourselves.

With a vanity that says look at me, look.

Please. Look at me or I'll.

Die or I'll disappear. Have you ever?

Oh. Have you ever posted something

on social media? And nobody likes it.

What an amazing experience if you've experienced that, what a

blessing. You know what I'm talking about,

Jay, if you. No, Jay is very popular.

That was for yourself esteem. You're welcome.

If you want something really practical this morning though, I

will. Give you a doozy.

It's not for the faint of heart. What I would encourage you to do

is for the next week. At the end of every day.

Whenever you put the kids down for sleep or whenever you get

done with work. Whenever you've got 15.

Minutes I would. Encourage you.

At the end of every day, sit down.

With a piece of paper journal, I don't care.

Ask one question. What did I do today?

Because I needed to be. Seen.

And what you'll discover is it the answer to that question is

most of it. You know why you talked over

your spouse. You needed to be seen.

You know why you slandered your Co worker?

You needed to be seen. You know why you gossiped about

a friend? Because you had something that

would make the world. See you.

If you ask that question at the end of.

Every day for a week. What did I do today?

Because I needed to be seen. You will always, always, always

have something to repent of at the end.

Of the day. But it will also by the grace of

God, if you can. Receive the.

Grace of Jesus Christ, which is free for you.

You'll also experience an extraordinary forgiveness from

Him in the process of regularly identifying the things that you

do because you need to be seen and then repenting of them.

It will actually wean your. Soul off of the world.

They don't need it, right? Look at verse 2 again.

I've calmed and quieted my soul. I want.

That God, What is that? Like like a wean child.

With its mother. Like a weaned child.

Is my soul with enemy? What?

What a strange analogy. It's odd his his soul.

Is no. Longer like a baby.

Who takes milk from her? Mother, isn't that weird?

His soul is no longer like a baby that cries out and calls

out and panics when she needs milk.

She's a His soul is like a. Weaned child.

Why? What?

What's? Huh.

What? Why the metaphor?

Here's why the metaphor? This is profound.

Here's what it is. What does an infant?

Go to her mother for milk, what she gives.

To the child now follow me here what does a weaned.

Child go to her mother for not for the milk, but for her

presence. Not for what the mother can give

her, but for. Who the mother is.

This is where David is in his walk with God.

It's. Only what the Wean child knows,

he knows. That the.

Presence of His Heavenly Father. Is better than the.

Gifts of his heavenly. Father, the gifts are great.

They're just not. Better.

Than the presence of God that's why we have verse 3 right

that's. What verse 3 is all about?

Look at verse 3 this. Couplet at the end O.

Israel hope in the Lord. From this time forth and forever

more, when you see a couple like that at the end of the Psalm and

they're at the end of a lot of Psalms, you, you tend to read it

as like an afterthought. It's not an afterthought, right?

It's not like David wrote the Psalm and was like, oh man, that

that didn't sound very. Religious better throw an old.

Hope in the Lord in there at the end.

That's not what's going on. Couplets at the end of psalms

like this they are. Summaries of the whole Psalm

they tell you. What the whole Psalm was about,

the whole process of weaning your soul off of things too

great and too marvelous. For you it's.

All about learning to trust the Lord to be the one who's

satisfied. Do you see this, David?

Trust the Lord knows the Lord. The lights of the Lord enjoys

the Lord so much that He just no longer.

Needs the milk or the gifts that God could give.

He'd like them. Healing would be great like

that. Promotion would be great.

More money would be great. A spouse would be great, right?

David would like that goal. He just doesn't need it.

Does that make sense? He has something better.

Than the milk. He has the.

Parrot the presents when I was in college I'm going to get out

of your way in a second here. When I was in college, I worked

assisted living for young men with mental disabilities.

They were my boys, I. Love that was a really fun

couple years those guys I. Developed a great relationship

with those dudes and they actually, I think it's where I

learned. How to preach?

Because my relationship with those guys often made me think,

Huh? Is this the like this?

The way this relationship is is this kind.

Of the way that God. Feels about me so that there

were a very precious couple years of my life and one of my

guys that I helped out, he had a consumer problem.

He just liked things too much. Like he had a rare genetic

mutation that made him fixate and obsess on things too much.

Like, I mean, I don't mean like a little too much.

I mean like a lot too much. Like we had to lock his

cupboards otherwise he would fixate on the food and he would

literally he would eat himself to death.

That's not a metaphor. When we went to like Walmart or

Target at the mall and there were free pamphlets, you know

what I'm talking about. He would try to take all of

them, right? He just liked.

Things too much. He had a consumer problem and so

when I started taking him to Target.

He. Target was his favorite place to

go and walk around and when the relationship started he would

want things that he could not. Afford and.

When I said no, you don't have the money for that.

He would have these meltdowns. And when I say meltdowns, I

mean. Meltdowns in the middle of.

Target. I'm not talking like he

disagreed with me and his personality soured.

I'm talking like an all on meltdown, cussing at me, cursing

at me, throwing himself on the floor in the middle.

Of the aisle and. Kicking and screaming at the

floor and. Nobody.

Warned me about that. So when it happened I was like

what the heck is going on? And I I was so.

Embarrassed by it because people were worried about it and.

And the the staff members at Target were in a frenzy too, and

they got anxious about it and. Everything kind of threw.

Itself into a frenzy, and so I made a.

Huge mistake the first couple. Times.

Can you guys guess what I did? Yeah, I bought him the stuff.

I was like, I just, I, I just want this moment to stop.

So I'll get you the thing. Huge mistake because that

increased. The the cycle.

And so he would he would want it again and again.

It enabled his behavior. It happened again and again and

again. And it was, it was really hard.

But I learned something. Along the way I.

Learned that when he was having one of his tantrums and

meltdowns. I learned that.

You couldn't talk him out of a meltdown.

You couldn't. Convince him out of a meltdown.

Maybe you could pacify it by getting in the thing.

It doesn't deal with. It it just creates another one

in the future so you can't talk them.

Out of it, you can't. Reason them out of a meltdown.

You couldn't lecture them out of the meltdown.

All those things made everything, everything worse.

So. Do you want to know what worked?

I just be so embarrassed and I found out what worked.

Not lecturing, not caving. What I would do?

When the tantrum happened is I learned there was only one thing

to end it. I would kneel down on one knee

on the ground next to him. I take a deep breath.

Calm myself, I take my right hand and I would gently just.

Place it on his foot. And as calmly as I could with as

little anxiety as possible. All I would do is be.

Present with him and it worked. It was like magic, the staff

members. It calmed them.

They would see a. Calm person who was present with

them and like oh OK, he's got it handled.

Other people felt the same way. And almost magically.

Almost magically. Simply guide by giving my non

anxious presence to him. It would snap him out of it,

transform him and put an end to the tantrums and you can you can

dangle your toes. Over the edge of this.

Metaphor, right? You see where I'm going with

this? This is how God transforms us

too. He needs to say no.

To some of our dreams, even our good ones.

I want the perfect house. I want the perfect marriage.

I want the perfect church with perfect spouse.

And sometimes by the grace of God.

He has. To say no to those ambitions and

dreams and desires. And more times than not, the

human nature responds by throwing a tantrum.

But rather than giving us the things or caving in, you know

what God tends to do if. We're aware or awake he gets.

Down on one knee, puts his hand on us and.

Gives us his presence and. Through this process, we learn.

That even though the gifts of God are good.

They don't satisfy. The only thing that satisfies

you know what it is. It's God, His presence, His

attention, His love, His admiration that Jesus purchased

for you. It's on you right now.

If you're. A Christian Christ has so.

Sufficiently died for your sins and covered you in his very own.

Righteousness that you don't. You don't have to throw a

tantrum to get God's. Right you.

Don't need to clench your. Fists, you don't.

Need to yell and scream to get his loving gaze.

It's already on you before you do.

Anything, it's yours and when you learn that.

And feel that. You you really begin to.

Believe that who God is is greater than what He can give.

And that's why I think David is actually the perfect person to

write this. Because the dude ends up doing

some cool stuff, right? Like David ends up doing some

great stuff. He slays Goliath.

He becomes a military hero. He leads.

The army of Israel. He becomes the king of Israel.

He does a lot of cool stuff. He just didn't need to.

Do you or is God and his presence enough?

Heavenly Father, this is a doozy for me to think about.

It's so obvious to me why I was drawn to this.

During my sabbatical. That first week, it was almost

like I. Went through withdrawal.

I just wanted to teach something in front of somebody who would

listen. It was like.

It was like I was. It was like I was being.

Weaned off of something that's good, but something I'd become

addicted to, and so thank you. For that gift, and I just pray

that you would that you would that you would calm and quiet

our souls there are. A lot of souls in here that are

bouncing around, running around the house all the time, trying

to escape and run down the block, and those souls just need

to be still so that they can rest in the breast.

Of God and just like I, just I. Want to collapse into you, Lord?

Like the type. Of rest that you feel.

From head to toe. When the limbs go loose and

ambition is. Evacuated out of me and.

All I need. To do is rest in the love of God

that is already. Been there and will always be

there because of the gospel that we would experience that this

morning in the precious name of Jesus, all God's people said,