Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Fearless (1-3)

Dwelling in the Lord’s House (4-6)

Seeking God (7-10)

Plea for God’s help (11-12)

God’s influence now (13)

Exhortation to wait (14) (cf.

1-3)

KEY Emotion: Desire

Desire vs. craving

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) asserted that human desire is the fundamental motivation of all human action.

As a culture, we’ve had uncertain feelings about desire from the very beginning.

The Christian tradition generally takes a dim view of desire, mainly because we tend to focus on the fleeting satisfaction of this world when we talk about desires—the lust of the flesh, pride, gluttony—rather than the eternal rewards of the next world.

Philosophy, on the other hand, has generally viewed desire as fundamental to human life.

To be human is to desire what we do not have.

Often those desires are driven by necesary carnal desires.

For example, what we call lust and condemn, a philosopher may say is merely an expression of a carnal desire to procreate.

So, you have to ask yourself…

Donut ILL: When I crave or desire a donut, Is it really the donut that I want?

Or is there something deeper?

It’s not to please the tastebuds so much as it is a desire for fat and quick carbs which are necesary for life.

There are base desires that are a necesary part of this world.

What we deal with—and where we see desires become sinful—are with the outward desires that are an expression of the base desires.

A necesary distinction:

Ascetic groups within many religions, including Christianity, have failed to make this distinction and in an effort to get closer to God or to reach enlightenment of some sort, they have neglected the base desires.

Starved themselves of food necesary for life.

Vows of silence when communication is necesary for healthy community.

Vows of celibacy when procreation is necesary for society.

On the other hand, all religions have had hedonistic groups as well that recognize base desires as being part of the natural order and then excused all outward expressions of those desires.

Gnostic groups who believed you had to experience sin in its fullest so that God could free you from it in the next life.

What is needed is…

Therefore, there is a righteous and unrighteous method of carrying out base desires.

The Psalmist has base desires for comfort, protection, and even to be victorious over His enemies.

But, his desires manifest as righteous

to embrace our base desires as being human

and to find righteous expressions of those desires

Everyone wants the same things in this world.

We all want to thrive.

We want to live.

We want to succeed.

We want joy and peace and comfort and pleasure.

But, there are righteous and unrighteous ways of going about getting those things and I think the Psalmist has the right perspective on this.

BODY—3 righteous outward expressions

OUTWARD DESIRE 1: To Dwell in the Lord’s House

ANALYSIS:

dwell in the house of the Lord (temple)

gazing on the Lord’s beauty

Seeking Him in His temple

Why does he want this?

(a) Being sealed in God’s temple shelters you from adversity.

(If the God is with us, who can be against?)

(b) Being sheltered from adversity means exaltation.

How does the Psalmist respond?

Gazing upon the beauty of the Lord

Seeking him in his temple

What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord?

(4-6)

Singing and making music

APP:

from enemies

concealment

hiding

exaltation

Seek God’s Face (8)

When God gives you victory over your enemies and exalts you above your enemies, the natural result of that is to express that joy to God.

Many Christians are highly demonstrable in worship, dancing, shouting, and singing with instruments and tambourines and all sorts of things going on.

Others are reserved and either sing softly or not at all.

And there’s everywhere in between.

But, the Psalmist says, if you have truly been victorious and you have truly been exalted then you will—or at least you should—express yourself in some outward way when you worship.

(doesn’t mean everyone needs to be dancing in the isles—not everyone’s personality—but how do you express your excitement?)

Q: Have we been exalted and have we recieved victory?

x`

This speaks of a future exaltation—we have not yet been actually exalted to high places.

We are not physically in the presence of God in His temple, seated on His throne.

BUT!

Spiritually, we have already been exalted and seated with Christ in the heavens.

How so?

Because if we truly know Christ, the immeasurable riches of his grace will be displayed in our lives throughout the ages of the church.

What are the immeasurable riches of His grace?

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The regeneration of your heart — causes you to desire what is right and good, even as it conflicts with the passions of the flesh.

The sanctifying work of the Spirit to bring you to repentance of sin.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit that empower and inspire you to accomplish God’s work in this world.

The confidence of your perseverance in Christ, that you will endure the day of judgement when it comes.

Have you experienced these graces that are of immeasurable worth?

If you have experienced it, then you are exalted with Christ even now and the natural response will be expressions of joy and praise through song and music.

If you have not experienced it, then there is a problem with your faith, because in , Paul says that your exaltation is a consequence of your salvation which comes from your faith.

OUTWARD DESIRE 2: Seek the Lord’s Face

What does it mean to seek the Lord’s face?

This is a furthering of the previous desire to be in God’s presence.

To seek the face of a king was to come before the King in his throne room to petition him in some way.

Not everyone in every kingdom had the right to come before the king and thus you often had to seek an audience with Him.

Seeking the king could be dangerous in some kingdoms (seems to be the case here).

ILL: Esther seeking her husband, the king of Persia

Why does he want this?

He seeks the Lord because he needs direction.

We get the sense now that the Psalmist is speaking metaphorically about the presence of God—dwelling in His house and standing before Him in his throne room.

He wants advice on the level path—the best way—to overcome his adversaries.

The heart

How does he respond?

He responds in confidence.

Even if those who love me more than anyone else in the whole world abandon me, that’s ok, the Lord cares even more for me than they do.