(1) In the September 11th issue of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Goldstein wrote an article entitled, ‘Five Years Later: Pop Culture of Denial.’ Its subtitle made a very interesting statement, ‘Our fascination with glitz is unabated, and artists remain cautious. We haven’t come to grips with 9/11.’
In the article Goldstein wrote, ‘Just days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a column ran in these pages saying how pop culture would be transformed by the carnage at the World Trade Center. "The terrorist attacks may have brought to a close a decade of enormous frivolity and escapism," observed the writer. "Maybe Hollywood will recognize that Americans suddenly view the world as a more serious place. There’s a new moral gravity out there."
He goes on to say, ‘That, alas, was me, blissfully unaware that it would take more than a horrific catastrophe to quench our thirst for the madcap antics of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Star Jones Reynolds, Jessica Simpson and all the other bobble heads bouncing around our celebrity universe. When it comes to frivolity, escapism and a lack of moral gravity, we haven’t lost a step, have we?’
Then he makes this very pointed statement, ‘Is it any wonder so many of us put on our wishful thinking caps, hoping that all this fascination with glitz — and the trashiness behind the glitz — would mercifully evaporate? But the truth is that the trauma of Sept. 11 did not change us, not so much because we live in a culture of superficiality as because we are imprisoned in a culture of hyperactivity. ‘
(2) When I read Goldstein’s article I thought about our culture’s passion for stars. We have our music stars and I have no doubt that if I would ask you to name your favorite county music stars they would come fast and furious. Just ask our kids what their favorite cartoon character is and you would get a quick listing of names that sound foreign to your ears. Some of us would also name a favorite movie star or movie that we think others should see.
I sometimes think that there is no difference when it comes to the ministry because I believe that the same obsession often holds true. As I think back to the ‘stars of ministry’ in the past 25 years (which is the beginning point of full-time ministry for me), some have passed on and some are no longer ‘stars.’ Some have retired and serve in limited ways.
Two well-known pastors have been role models for me since the mid-90’s and their churches and books have been sources of inspiration. But they have given way to new ‘stars’ of ministry who are both men and women and run the gamut of Christianity. Last week’s issue of Time magazine highlighted some of them in its cover story.
However, that has been true throughout the history of our faith. There are the great names of the faith that are still looked to for guidance and inspiration. But, I remember hearing comments at my seminary, named for one of the early Church leaders of our nation, Francis Asbury, this question, ‘Who do we worship here John Wesley or Jesus?’
My point is this, to paraphrase Goldstein, we ‘hyperactively’ seem to pursue everything, namely new models for ministry, new themes and concepts of ministry, new ‘latest’ writers, new ‘latest’ churches, and new ‘latest’ pastors about the Christian faith everything… but God.’ Does the American Christian community still have a heart; a passion for the Lord?
I have to tell you that during my prayer time this week I spent some of it soul searching about this very thing. I get passionate about many things, but I have begun to ask myself, ‘Am I as passionate about God as I need to be and should be at this point?’ The answer is… no, I’m not.
(3) This is why we need to look at David, who had a pursuing heart for God. At one point in his life, he stopped pursuing God and he paid dearly for it. However, when we take a step back and look at his entire life, we see a man who had a single-minded passion for his God that caused him to pursue that God day in and day out to the end of his life.
Our main text for this morning is one of many illustrations in scripture of David’s pursuing heart for the Lord.
O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
Most likely, this Psalm was written during one of the low points in David’s life. It takes place during the very painful and difficult time when his son Absalom rebels and attempts to become the King of Israel.
The situation, as we read in 2 Samuel chapters 15 – 18, causes David to go on the run. It also ends in Absalom’s tragic death, which causes David to mourn deeply for his son in one of the most moving passages in the Bible, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I could have died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son.”
Talk about betrayal! Here is a king, a very beloved king, running for his life from a son who is attempting to overthrow his dad and take control of an entire nation.
But in the heat of the struggle, David, although he runs to save his life, runs to God and says, ‘O God, you are my God, I earnestly search for you.’
I hear a deep earnestness for the Lord in these words. I feel the passionate pursuit of a God who has been followed for years. How did this come about? How did David deal with the hyperactivity in his own life but passionately pursued God?
First, I think that this earnestness, this passionate pursuit, came from (4) the constant choice (which developed into a habit) of seeking and finding God.
It is a pursuit that we remember well in the story of David and Goliath as told in 1 Samuel 17 where we read of David’s disdain for the giant who mocks the ‘shaking in their boots’ Israelites. “Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?”
It is expressed in his response to Goliath just prior to their battle when David says, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”
We also must remember that when Samuel anointed David to be the next king of Israel it was because the Lord told him that David was the one and the power of God, as we read in 1 Samuel 16, filled David as he was anointed. Though David disobeyed God, sinned later in his life, and compromised this power, it would return repeatedly to help him not just passionately pursue God but also obey God.
The second half of Psalm 63:1 reads
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
Here is a man of great power, hiding out like a fugitive, from a power hungry son. Why doesn’t David take control and deal harshly with his Absalom? Why does he run?
There is no doubt in my mind that David is thinking very deeply and very seriously about his situation and what he is going to do next. However, as he does so, he takes his focus off his problems, and his thoughts, and his heart turns to God and it is his God that He pursues.
Now David has been on the run before. As I read this verse I think of the time as recorded in 1 Chronicles 11:17-19 when David, hiding in caves and small towns from Saul, wished that he could have a drink of water from the well in Bethlehem. So three of his greatest warriors, at great risk to their lives, go behind the enemy lines and bring back some of that water. David refuses to drink it because the lives of his men are more important than having a drink of Bethlehem water.
David had his dry moments then, as he kept ahead of a jealous and revengeful Saul who sought to kill him. David had his dry moments when he languished in his sin and disobedience through his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. David has his dry moments when a rebellious and arrogant son tries to take the throne from him.
We too have dry moments. We have moments when life goes awry and we struggle to say on our feet and keep moving forward. Circumstances and evil conspire to knock us down and keep us down. In those moments, who (or what) do you turn to?
David had his chance to kill Saul as well and yet he did not. How would you respond if you had a chance to topple an enemy who was trying to do away with you? How would you deal with a co-worker who kept on undermining you and calling your work into question? How would you deal with a fellow student who delighted in bullying you and taunting you?
Twice in 1 Samuel (chapters 24 and 26) we read of the opportunity for David to end the conflict and kill Saul who presented a very clear and easy target. But David did not do it because he believed that Saul was still God’s anointed king and could not kill him. He still was in pursuit of doing God’s will and though he would stumble and fall, combining adultery with murder; at this point, he would not kill Saul.
These dry moments, these moments when faith was tested and tempted, when circumstances were overwhelming and could cause even the most resolute person to want either give up or compromise, David’s pursuing heart, kept his focus on God and not his circumstances. The hyper-activeness of his circumstances did not keep him from pursuing his God.
Therefore, in this first verse of Psalm 63 we understand that David was in passionate pursuit of God because it was God who had, and would continue, to sustain him. In verses 3 and 5, we come to two critical ways that God sustains David.
(5) The first way God sustains David is revealed in Verse 3 that says:
Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself;
how I praise you!
David thought a great deal about God’s love. He wrote, in this Psalm and others, about God’s love. But most important, (5a) he experienced God’s love in the dry desert of despair and uncertainty.
He experienced God’s love when he took on Goliath because God’s love is tough when the going gets tough. God’s love is demanding – it demands obedience – and David would learn that lesson.
This unfailing love came to be central to David’s passionate pursuit. He loved God and he knew that God loved him! He knew that it was an unfailing love.
(5b) A second way that God sustains David is stated in verse 5:
You satisfy me more than the richest of foods.
I will praise you with songs of joy.
David is not only sustained by God’s love, God’s provisions that satisfy David also sustain him.
In 1 Timothy 6:6 we read ‘true religion with contentment is great wealth.’ Over the years, through the habit of pursuing the Lord, David learned to be content with God’s necessities and gifts.
I confess that discontentment has driven me to leave my pursuit of God for what has appeared to be ‘greener’ pastures only to find out that it was green dirt!
David learned that God’s provisions would protect him in the wilderness as a shepherd, on the front line against a man many times his size, when being pursued by an angry King, during a time of punishment, and when a rebellious son seeks to overthrow him. David learned how to be content with what the Lord had given to him and he was happy with it!
(6) I think that David would have been a star today. He would have been sought after by the paparazzi and consider one of the world’s greatest leaders. Other leaders and people from everywhere would have sought him out. He would have lived a life of hyperactivity in the public eye. His son Solomon would be this way.
Yet David chose the other way, a way of sacrificing his agenda for that of God’s agenda. His heart was focused on God. He pursued God with a relentless passion and love. Though he failed, the overall direction of his life was in one direction – God’s direction.
(7) How do we follow David’s example?
1 (7a) Make it a habit of your heart. We all have habits. Some of those habits are good and some are not. David made it a habit to pursue God. It was a good habit.
2 (7b) Be sustained by God’s love. When David had those periods of time in his life that we all have, times of discouragement, fear, and defeat, he kept returning to the sustaining ability of God’s love to carry him through. God’s love is a key ingredient in having a heart for God.
3 (7c) Be content with God’s provisions. David learned the hard way what happens when discontentment enters the picture. Again, when we look at the entirety of his life, we see evidence of contentment running through out it. Despite all the trappings of power, despite all the success that he had, despite the ability and blessings that he was given, David learned how to be content in situations both hard… and easy. Contentment is vital in having a heart for the Lord.
One of the classical literary tales is that of Ulysses who had to navigate successfully past the Isle of Sirens during a part of his journey. Beautiful women called sirens whose lovely singing could draw ships off course and onto the rocks where ships and men would perish inhabited the Isle of Sirens. Ulysses decided to tie himself to the mast of his ship and plug his ears with wax so that he would not hear the sirens’ song. In another classical literary tale, Orpheus and the Argonauts escaped them when Orpheus, sitting on the deck of his ship unbound, took out his musical instrument and sang a song that was as clear and beautiful as the sirens’ were and thus kept his men and himself from crashing into the rocks.
Harry Emerson Fosdick has drawn some parallels to these stories regarding hearing God’s voice and responding in the right way to the challenges and temptations to go our own way. He describes Ulysses’ response to the sirens as a ‘picture of a man’s pitiful attempts after negative goodness.’ Then he describes Orpheus’ response as evidence of ‘positive goodness’ as he says that ‘their (the sirens) alluring songs were to him (Orpheus)’ discordant sounds.
There are many voices, many sounds, and many sights that tempt us to go any direction but the Lord’s direction. We are faced with a culture hyperactivity that can keep us from having a pursuing heart for God. But, David’s example for us demonstrates that we can shut out the hyperactivity and focus on the Lord and have a pursuing heart for God.
David is like Orpheus. He sang a song of love and commitment to the Lord and it kept him, for the most part, from crashing on the rocks.
The King that preceded him, Saul, is like Ulysses. He tried and tried to obey God but he heard the song of his ego and he lost the throne of Israel.
Interestingly enough, the heart issue is raised by Samuel in his rebuke of Saul after Saul disobeyed one last time which ended God’s favor for him. We read it in 1 Samuel 13:14 ‘But now your dynasty must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already chosen him to be king over his people, for you have not obeyed the Lord’s command.”
Who are you listening to these days? Is it the voices of a hyperactive culture that would lead you in complete disorder but the right one? Or is it the voice of a God who created you, who knows you by name, who knows you better than anyone else?
Hear the Lord this morning as He calls to you to come to Him, and only Him. If you are slipping, call out to Him, even now, and allow Him to help you turn in His direction. Amen.
Sources:
Goldstein article can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/cl-et-gold11sep11,0,314202.htmlstory
The Sirens story can be found at http://www.thanasis.com/sirens.htm
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘091706slides.’ Please note that not all slides for a particular presentation may be available.
