Resilience

Introduction - Buzzwords

Ghosting

Boujee

Sus

Adulting

Hashtag (and literally anything!)

Bussin’ (what is actually short for?)

Buzzword of 2020 - ZOOM

Resilience

Resilience:

“An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”

— (Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “resilience,” accessed August 23, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resilience.)

As a child of the 80’s resilience meant something different.

Resilience was my parents’ code for “We don’t want to have to pay for medical bills” i.e, “Don’t worry, he’s resilient, he’ll bounce back.”

ILLUST - Head wound in the Poconos

The way you built resiliency in the 80’s was you ‘threw a little dirt in it!’

“The capacity of a system, enterprise, or a person to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances.”

— Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy, p. 17, Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back

We have all been through circumstances globally that have dramatically changed over the past few years.

Last year, as a university, you walked through some very difficult circumstances, and I have no idea what each of you have personally faced this past year, are currently facing, or will face.

But I think we could certainly use some #resiliency

Main Point: Resilience is forged through worship.

2 Samuel 12:15–23 (ESV)

15 Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick.

Background - David and Bathsheba

Bathsheba gets pregnant and David has Uriah killed.

Thinks he gets away with it but is confronted by Nathan the prophet.

Nathan, on behalf of God, confronts David about his sin and tells David the consequences of his sin will affect his child.

*Have you been here? Maybe you feel the consequences of you sin and you wish you could take it back? Maybe you wonder what you could have done differently?

16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died.

My wife and I experienced four miscarriages. I’ve had a glimpse of the pain’t of losing a child.

Some of you have experienced the pain of losing someone close to you.

I’ve asked many of the same questions you asked:

“Why would God allow this to happen?” “Why would God allow this to happen to this child, to this person?” “Did I miss something? Did I do something wrong?”

“How can I ever move forward from this?”

David’s servants wondered how David would move forward:

And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”

They see how much pain and anguish David is in when the child is sick and they wonder how could David ever move forward if they tell him the child has died?

But they miscalculated David’s resiliency.

19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”

20 Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

He what?!

He had been pouring out his heart to God in prayer and fasting and when he finds out his child has died he. . . gets dressed, goes to church, and worships?!

I want to know what worship songs they picked that day:

Our God is an Awesome God (OG worship song)?

Promises?

Goodness of God?

What Psalms did they read that day:

Psalm 34:6,8

6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

David says, nope, I wrote that, not appropriate today.

ILLUST - House in Shoey furnace breaks on Sunday and I can’t worship

He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

How was David so resilient?

It looked almost like David didn’t care, but what we see here is not naivete or lack of compassion but resilience.

David wasn’t dumb - he wasn’t naive

David wasn’t uncaring - look at how he fasted and prayed - many ANE kings would not take that much interest in their child.

How could David worship? Why did David worship?

David understood something about worship that we need to learn: Worship is the way forward. David’s resiliency was forged through his worship. Let me explain.

Worship (Defined)

Worship is not simply music.

Worship is not less than music but it is so much more.

Although, we must never discount the power of worship music — Changing even the way we breathe to carefully frame theological words set to melody and rhythm is certainly deeper than simple sound or speech.

Worship is much more profound.

The word ‘worship’ comes from the Old English “worthship” meaning the worthiness of something (used in marriage vows, “With my body I thee worship).

In the Bible there is no one-to-one translation from either the Hebrew or the Greek to our English word, worship.

— falling on knees, fearing the LORD, giving glory

As God gave laws for society, religious services, and daily living — even through the building of the tabernacle, all of it was to point to remind the Israelites about their Creator God.

Worship is not a musical style, it is a lifestyle.

In The Brothers Karamozov, Dostoyevsky writes,

“So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.”

Dostoyevsky simply echoes Paul when Paul writes in Romans 1 that those who have chosen to not worship the Creator have instead chosen to worship the creation.

In essence, what both are saying is that we are all worshippers - it is not a case of if you worship but what or who you worship.

We either try to avoid problems or soothe problems.

Some people believe if they place enough worth and value on money and they can achieve it, they will be safe from problems.

— the right relationship, the right status, fame, their own glory that they will somehow be untouchable.

Money will solve some problems (personal homelessness, hunger) but there will be things money can’t buy — it doesn’t have enough worth (relationships, people).

When you are left with the questions from broken dreams or a broken relationship, if money is what you worship, then your idol is shattered and your left hopeless.

So how does worship forge resiliency?

When you understand God truly you will see your life rightly.

Worship redirects our hearts, our minds, and our affections back toward our Creator God — the only One who can do anything about everything and that puts everything else into perspective.

Worship reorients our heart

Even while his child is still sick David is directing his heart toward God through prayer.

Maybe he prayed similar to what he had written in Psalm 28:

1 To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me,

I become like those who go down to the pit.

2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help,

when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

(and as he continues to pray. . . )

6 Blessed be the Lord!

For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

When you understand God truly, you’ll see your life rightly. . .

Worship refocuses our eyes

After David worships in the House of the Lord what does he do? He goes home and eats!

He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.

In David’s day it was common to fast and refuse to eat in order to show the depth of grief but David fasts before (interestingly even up until he worships - showing his hunger for God and not just God’s answer) and eats in peace.

Some of y’all may be anxious eaters — not me. When you get a little nervous, it’s a “super-size it!”

As we go through difficult situations, anxiety acts as either a microscope or a telescope.

Microscope - We see the situation far larger than it actually is

Telescope - We experience the fear of objects way in the future as though they were looming over us currently

Maybe David was reminded of what he had written in Psalm 131:

Psalm 131 (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 O 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. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Worship refocuses our eyes. As we worship God — see God truly — we begin to see our situation rightly. Our situation is refocused in comparison to the worth of God.

Worship reshapes our hope

“In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us.”

— Smith, James K. A. 2016. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.

Through worship our hopes are reshaped be an eternal perspective.

Notice David’s explanation as to how he could get up, eat, and be at peace.

He couldn’t change what had happened or the way things currently were, but instead of staying stuck looking in the rear view mirror he looked forward with hope.

I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

How did he have this hope? He KNEW the God he worshipped.

How to build resiliency through worship:

The question is not how do you avoid tragedy, how do you avoid difficult situations in your life, the question is, how do you remain resilient through and after the situation’s?

Preparation

Because David had prepared his heart with Worship before tragedy struck he didn’t need to know or to think about where to go when the tough times came

A heart prepared in worship is ready to respond and worship. If you have not prepared your heart in worship, how will you respond? What will you run to?

Practice

The practice of worship is not simply singing on a Sunday. If worship is not simply a song style but a life style then the practice of worship is reorienting ALL of your life around and for God’s glory.

— when God satisfies you more than school then failure doesn’t leave you empty

— when God satisfies more than your boyfriend or girlfriend then losing a relationship doesn’t leave you broken

David new God truly and it allowed him to see life rightly and to be resilient in the face of a tragedy and in the face of deep personal sin. Do you know God truly? Are you preparing? Are you practicing through Worship?

If so, you can say with David:

Psalm 30:11–12 (ESV)

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!