One Thing
Notes
Transcript
Big Idea: The greatest invitation God has ever given His people is not to seek His hand, but to seek His face. When His presence becomes our pursuit, everything else finds its proper place.
Introduction
Introduction
Over the last several weeks we've been talking about priorities. We've asked ourselves what belongs first in our lives and what has quietly taken God's place. But once our priorities are in order, another question naturally follows.
What is the one pursuit that keeps those priorities from drifting?
Because if we're honest, drift is natural. We drift toward comfort, success, distraction, and even toward the blessings of God while slowly drifting away from the presence of God.
David answers that question in Psalm 27. If anyone had a reason to ask God for protection, victory, or deliverance, it was David. He lived with enemies, uncertainty, and constant pressure. Yet when David opens his heart, he doesn't begin with his problems. He begins with confidence.
Read Psalm 27:1-5 (CSB)
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— whom should I dread?
2 When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh, my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army deploys against me, my heart will not be afraid; though a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident.
4 I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.
5 For he will conceal me in his shelter in the day of adversity; he will hide me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.
Here's the question I want us to wrestle with.
Where did David get that kind of confidence?
Was it because he had already defeated Goliath?
Was it because he was naturally courageous?
Was it because he knew how every battle would end?
No.
David lets us in on the secret, but he doesn't reveal it until verse 4. He shows us the fruit of this confidence before he reveals the root. His confidence wasn't rooted in his ability. It was rooted in God's presence. He wasn't confident because he knew the future, but because he knew the One who held the future.
Preaching Line: Confidence is the fruit. God's presence is the root.
David's Greatest Desire
David's Greatest Desire
Can I show you something I think we may have read before but never slowed down enough to notice?
verse 4 Psalm 27:4
I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.
David shows us so much more than just what he wants here. He reveals the path that leads to this confidence and trust in God.
Notice what He wants here: to dwell...gaze...and seek.
Those words form a progression.
David doesn't begin with seeking,asking. He begins with dwelling. He doesn't enter God's presence and just start demanding answers. He comes simply because he wants God. As he dwells, he begins to gaze upon God's beauty. As he gazes, he begins to seek more of who God is. Relationship comes before revelation. Communion comes before clarity. Abiding comes before understanding.
I wonder if we've reversed that order. We often enter prayer already carrying our questions. "God, what should I do? Why is this happening? When are You going to answer?" Those are good questions, but David reminds us that the greatest purpose of prayer isn't getting answers. It's getting God. The answers often come because we've remained in His presence long enough for Him to shape our hearts.
Then notice what David wants to see. He doesn't ask to see God's power. Its not another miracle. He asks to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. David had discovered that God Himself was the treasure. Somewhere along the way we've become fascinated with what God can do. David was captivated by who God is.
Preaching Line: We often seek answers. David sought intimacy, and because he sought intimacy, the answers followed.
God's Presence Has Always Been the Prize
God's Presence Has Always Been the Prize
This has always been God's heart for His people. To seek and to know Him. Hundreds of years before David wrote Psalm 27, Moses had already discovered the same truth.
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go up from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring.
2 I will send an angel ahead of you and will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.”
Think about what's happening in this passage. Israel has sinned with the golden calf. God tells Moses that He will still fulfill His promise. They'll still inherit the land. Their enemies will still be driven out. The blessing would remain. There was only one problem. God said, "I will not go with you."
Most people would have celebrated anyway. "We still get the promise. We still get the blessing."
Not Moses.
Exodus 33:14-16 (CSB)
13 Now if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways, and I will know you, so that I may find favor with you. Now consider that this nation is your people.”
14 And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 “If your presence does not go,” Moses responded to him, “don’t make us go up from here.
16 How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.”
Moses understood something that changed everything. The Promised Land without God's presence was just another piece of land. Victory without God wasn't victory. Blessing without God wasn't blessing. The promise was never the prize. God was.
Church, I wonder if we've become so focused on seeking God's hand that we've forgotten to seek His face. We pray for healing. We pray for provision. We pray for open doors. We pray for wisdom. Scripture invites us to bring every request before the Lord. But there is a difference between seeking what God gives and seeking God Himself. His hand provides. His hand heals. His hand protects. But His face speaks of relationship. His face speaks of fellowship. His face speaks of knowing Him.
David understood it. Moses understood it. The greatest gift God has ever given His people is so much more than a blessing. The greatest gift God has ever given His people is His presence.
Preaching Line: The promise was never the prize. God's presence was always the prize.
The Invitation
The Invitation
Now notice verse 8.
Read Psalm 27:8 (CSB)
My heart says this about you: “Seek his face.” Lord, I will seek your face.
This is one of the most beautiful moments in the psalm. The Hebrew is personal. its taken as God saying, "Seek My face," with David immediately responding, "Lord, I will seek Your face." God's invitation to seek him has become the language of David's own heart. David's heart is aligned with God’s.
Notice the progression.
In verse 4 David says, "I have asked one thing from the LORD." In verse 8 he says, "I will seek Your face." His prayer became the direction for his life. He asked for God's presence, and he never stopped pursuing God's presence.
What if that became the settled direction of our lives? Not just when we're desperate. Not just when we need an answer. But every day, before success, before comfort, before blessing, before anything else, we simply say, "Lord, I will seek Your face."
Preaching Line: The invitation from God is to be nearer to God. We often think its do more for God, but he is inviting us to come closer to him.
Jesus Opens the Way
Jesus Opens the Way
Everything David longed for finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
Read John 15:4-5 (CSB)
4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
I love the connection between these two passages. David called it dwelling. Jesus called it remaining. Different covenants. Different words. The same invitation.
Notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't begin with fruit. He doesn't begin with ministry. He doesn't begin with serving or producing. He begins with relationship. "Remain in Me."
Just as David discovered that confidence grew out of God's presence, Jesus teaches that fruit grows out of abiding in Him. Fruit is never something we manufacture or strive for or have to force into existence. Fruit is simply the natural evidence that a branch has remained connected to the vine.
Just trying harder has never sustained the christian life. It has always been sustained by staying closer to God. We spend so much of our lives asking, "What can I do for God?" while Jesus continually invites us to ask a different question: "Am I remaining in Him?"
David wanted to dwell.
Jesus says, "Remain."
David wanted to behold God's beauty.
Jesus is the fullness of God's glory revealed.
David longed to live continually in God's presence.
Through Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, that invitation has become our daily reality.
The invitation hasn't changed.
God still desires a people who simply want to be with Him.
Preaching Line: The Christian life isn't sustained by striving. It's sustained by staying.
Invitation
Invitation
Can I ask you a simple question?
When was the last time you spent time with God with no agenda? Not asking for anything…… Just to know Him. Just to see His beauty. Just to seek His face.
David discovered something I want our church to discover. If you have God's presence, you've already found life's greatest treasure. Somewhere along the way we've convinced ourselves that the goal of prayer is getting answers. David reminds us that the goal of prayer is getting God. The answers may come. The breakthrough may come. The healing may come. But if we have His presence, we have enough.
Imagine if this became the testimony of 316 Church. Not that we're known for our music, our preaching, or our ministries, but that we're known as a people who genuinely seek the face of God. People who open His Word because they long to know Him. People who value His presence more than His presents.
Let's end where David ended.
My heart says this about you: “Seek his face.” Lord, I will seek your face.
Church...
Let that become our response today.
