The Worship God Longs for....: Oct.28. 2007)

David M7 Sunday, October 28, 2007

Title: The Worship God Longs for…

Prop: candle, Rolheiser’s book…

Text: 2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 15: 11-15, John 4:23

Big Idea: A healthy spirituality includes a soul that is aligned to God’s Word (ie through obedience) and passionate for God (a passionate spirit of exuberant love for God).
Ronald Rolheiser, author of the Holy Longing (great book), says spirituality concerns what we do with our desire. Spirituality is about how we channel our eros… i.e. our creative, sexual energy.
Rolheiser writes about how Mother Teresa, Janis Joplin (the rock star) and Princess Diana their channeled their eros, their creative, sexual energy…
Rolheiser says few people consider Mother Teresa an erotic woman. Yet she was very erotic in her own way… a dynamo of energy. Mother Teresa was able to channel her eros in a focused, life-giving way. She was able to will the one thing: dedication to God and the poor.
Few people would consider Janis Joplin, the rock star, a very spiritual woman. People think of her as the opposite of Mother Teresa, erotic but not spiritual. Yet Joplin had her own forceful spirituality, but unlike Mother Teresa, however, Janis Joplin could not will the one thing.
Her great energy went out in all directions: creativity, performance, drugs, drinking, sex, coupled with neglect of normal rest… She died from a drug over does (“lack of rest”) at age 27.
Most of us, according to Rolheiser, are more like Princess Diana--half-Mother Teresa and half Janis Joplin. In looking at Diana, people spontaneously put together the erotic and spiritual. Like Lady Di there is a part of us that wants to will God and the poor… The problem is we, like Lady Di… want to will everything else as well. We want have a simple lifestyle, but we also want all the comforts of the rich; we want to have the depth afforded by solitude, but we do not want to miss out on anything… We want to have the soul of a saint, and the experience of a sinner…
Rolheiser says a healthy spirituality must do two things. It has to give us energy and fire, so that we do not lose our vitality for God and for life… The other task of healthy spirituality is to keep us glued together, integrated, so that we do not fall apart and die. A person with a healthy spirituality is a person whose soul keeps us both energized and glued together.
David, though not perfect, portrays a healthy spirituality as he brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. Today, we’re going to look at this story and explore the kind of spirituality that honors God and our soul.
Let me set up the context:

King Saul, the first king of Israel, was afraid that David, the popular young emerging leader, would be the one whom the people would prefer as their king. So, Saul sets out to kill David, but King Saul ended up dying in a battle and David goes to be crowned king over the state of Judea (in Southern Israel) at age 30, and then king over all of Israel at age 37.

When David becomes king over all of Israel, he makes Jerusalem his capital city. One of the first things he does to legitimize his new capital city is that he brings the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. During King Saul’s reign, the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized the presence of God, had been carted off by an enemy to enemy territory. For some 20-30 years, the Ark had not been in Jerusalem. One of David’s first major acts as king of Israel was to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.

David brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem partly to bring credibility to Jerusalem as the new capital, political centre. But David also wants to bring the Ark into Jerusalem so people would be encouraged to worship God there. Under King Saul’s leadership, public worship had been in decline, David wanted public worship to be revived in Jerusalem.

Not everyone here would be familiar with the Ark of the Covenant. (show powerpoint image.) The Ark of the Covenant was a rectangular box, almost 4 feet in length and a little over 2 feet in depth and width. It was made of wood, overlaid with gold. Two angelic-like figures, created out of gold (the cherubim) were placed at either end of the mercy seat with their wings outstretched. Inside the ark were tablets of stone which had The Ten Commandments inscribed on them, a jar of manna (wafer-like wheat which God provided for the Israelites as they walked across the desert from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan). And, third, inside the ark was Aaron’s rod which had miraculously produced blossoms. All these things served to remind the people of Israel that God is with them. The stone tablets would symbolize that God has spoken to them. The manna symbolized that God was their provider and Aaron’s rod which had budded symbolized that God had sent leaders to bring his people out of slavery into the land of promise and a reminder that the living God is a God who saves.

The ark did not have magical properties (an idea that you might entertain if you’ve been a little too influenced by movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark), but was a powerful reminder of God’s presence. The ark represented the holy presence of God and everywhere the ark was placed, the light of God’s presence shone down upon it, like a laser….

The Ark wasn’t simply some little Middle Eastern museum artifact, but was a sign that God was among his people. The people of Israel had grown stale in their expression of worship to God, and David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem so that the people of Israel would again have a central place of worship.

The Ark had been sitting in the village of Kiriaih Jeriam in the house of an elderly priest named Abinadab. Abinadab had assigned his two sons, Uzzah and Ahio, to supervise the delivery of the ark to Jerusalem.

Please turn to 2 Samuel 6.

The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
1 David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.
6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.
8 Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.
The passage begins with a sense of elation and festivity as the ark is being transported. And then the oxen stumble and apparently the ark begins to slide off the cart. One of the attendants of the Ark, Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark and gets struck down by God.

This is a troubling passage for us. We know that God is a God of love, mercy and patience, but here he strikes someone dead for touching the Ark. We don’t know all the reasons why God struck Uzzah dead. We don’t pretend to understand all of what is going on here, but, as commentators like Eugene Peterson have pointed out, Uzzah’s reflexive act of trying to reach out and steady the ark as the oxen stumble likely wasn’t simply mistake of the moment, it was a part of his life-long obsession with managing the ark. There were laws given by Moses in the book Exodus 25 that gave clear directions about transporting the ark. It was not to be touched by human hands, but supported by priests who inserted poles through rings attached to the ark. Uzzah ignored this part of God’s law and substituted the latest Philistine technical innovation--an ox cart to move the Ark. Using an ox cart is clearly a more efficient technology for moving the ark than priests on foot, but it also impersonal… and it as we pointed out a violation of God’s instruction as to how the ark was to be transported.

After Uzzah was struck down for disregarding the holiness of God, David was understandably afraid of God and afraid to continue the trip. Three months passed by. David hears about God blessing the house of Obed-Edom where the ark is stored. David is encouraged by this news and decides to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but this time he is very careful to move the ark in a way that honors God.

In 1 Chronicles 15: 11-15, a parallel passage, one of David’s counselors God reminds David that the law says that the transported by the Levities and carried with poles that would be attached to the Ark through rings… So David summons priests from the tribe of Levi to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel…. So the priests carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had outlined in the law of God…

What this part of the story shows us is that part of what it means to have a spirituality that honor and welcomes God… is that we obey God even in the small details of our lives… how to carry the ark seems like a small detail… but it mattered to God.

It is quite common for people to assume that God is only really concerned about the big issues of justice… not the “little things” like whether we keep the 10 commandments or not.

The priest Ron Rolheiser in his book Holy Longing describes getting to know a Christian social worker named David… one day David asks Ron, “Do you really think God gives a damn about whether you pray, or hold a grudge against someone, or sleep with someone we are not married to.” Many people think that our personal lifestyles and moral choices don’t really matter in the bigger scheme of things… that sounds very plausible and appealing, but according to the Bible it’s not so…

According the Scriptures part of a healthy, honor-honoring, God-welcoming spirituality includes obeying God…

Jesus says in John 15 “if you love me, you will keep my commandments…” Part of what it means to love God is to obey the commandments of God.

Part of way we demonstrate that we are living with a God-honoring, God-welcoming spirituality way is by keeping God’s commandments.

When we obey God we honor the design of our soul…

Think of a temptation you face… maybe it’s a way to numb your senses when you are feeling down… through over drinking, or over eating, or spending an excessive amount of time watching TV or viewing pornography… how do we feel afterwards… we may experience a temporary lift, but afterwards our soul feels more empty…

Sin makes a fraudulent promise to fulfill, but leaves more hollow than before…

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. has defined sin as the vandalism of shalom… i.e., the vandalism of our wholeness…

Part of the reason why a healthy spirituality includes obedience to God is because obedience to God keeps our soul whole and this creates the condition where we are most fully able to experience God…

A healthy spirituality includes obedience to God that integrates or keeps our soul whole.

But what else does a healthy spirituality include?

Look at 2 Sam 6:13

13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

A healthy, God-honoring spirituality also includes passion for God and life…

David was dancing with all his might before the Lord. Why? Because he is overcome with joy before God. He is wearing a linen ephod, an apron-like cover, dancing with all his might before God. And when you have been overcome with joy, you dance. David dances because he is overcome with joy in the presence of God…

When you are at a wedding, it is a very joyful occasion. That’s why people dance after weddings…. When a hockey player scores a winning goal… when a baseball player hits a home run to win the game… a football scores a winning touchdown players are overcome with a surge of joy… may pump the air and do a goofy dance or a jig, and when they experience joy before something … when we can’t contain our joy we try to shake it out. We dance… We express it in some way… Like little Penguin “Mumble”we get “Happy Feet”…

When we are aware of how great God is… we will express in some way… we will have passion for God and life… in a way that shows…

We have a dog, a Golden Retriever… that we take care of, who has this habit of running toward us with great passion and heart… I want to be this way for God….

A few weeks ago I was on the East Coast to attend some meetings and do some speaking. I had the opportunity to spend a little time with my younger sister’s family in Montreal. My brother-in-law came to pick me up from the airport and we arrived home right when my younger sister was also arriving home with her 5-year-old daughter Julianna. When Julianna got out of the car and ran around the back end with her short little legs, shouting “Uncle Ken! Uncle Ken!” and she came and gave me a hug and said, “I haven’t been able to sleep because I have been so excited about your coming!”

I thought that is the way I want to be with God, eager to connect with him and to display our care for God, like David did…

Part of what it means to live with a healthy spirituality is to live with passion for God… part of what means is to get enough rest, hard to be love with anyone if we’re too tired, stress out all the time…

part of what it means to expose who are passionate for God… passion is contagious, when I loved playing basketball with a guy named Jay… he wasn’t a phenomenal athlete he always played basketball with passion and joy… and some of it would rub off on me…

part of what it means is to take time recall how great God is… there when will forget the math equations we learned in high school, or who was in the worlds series this year… but let’s never forget how great God is… and if remember we live with passion before him…

When we really recognize how great God is… we live with passion and demonstrate that in some way… people have asked me, why is do you put so much focus on Jesus in the church… some people find to weird to be in a place where people sing songs to honor this person named Jesus… and I find myself saying once you really come to know Jesus, how great Jesus is, you’ll understand why we praise Jesus as we do…

Ronald Rolheiser writes: A healthy soul must do two things for us—it must put some fire into our veins, keeping us energized by living with zest, but a healthy soul also fixes us together, it integrates us.

Part of what it means to live with a healthy spirituality—God welcoming, God-honoring spirituality, as David did, is to worship God with fire and energy. This is what David does as he worships and dances for the Lord as the Ark of the Covenant is brought back into Jerusalem…

Part of what it means to have a soul that is kept integrated, whole by living in a line with the word of God…

Passion and purity… fire and water… This is what a healthy spirituality is all about.
We live a healthy, God honoring spirituality… if we live fire before God and if we will live a life in synch with our design…
Jesus said that the Father God is looking for those who will worship God in spirit and in truth… So let’s set up and become people before God with passion and purity…
Pray…

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

On Beauty and Being Realigned: Oct.21, 2007

On Beauty and Being Realigned October 21, 2007

Big Idea: Beauty realigns us with God…

In his harrowing book Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer describes his personal account of climbing Mount Everest… he writes attempting to climb Everest is an intrinsically irrational act--a triumph of desire over sensibility.

Those who begin their ascent of Everest do so with vigor, determination, and passion, but many for various reasons don’t finish their climb well…

According to Dr. Andrew Sutherland, at the Nuffield Department of Surgery, in Oxford, most of the deaths on Mount Everest occur… coming down the mountain after a climber has reached the summit…And many people begin their spiritual life with God well… with promise, passion and purity of heart, and then, somewhere along the way they reach a peak, descend, and crash…

The apostle Paul describes these kind of people as shipwrecks, and not a single one of us is immune from this potential danger.

David began his spiritual journey so well.

As a young boy, shepherding his dad’s sheep, David demonstrated that he had a great heart for God….

As an adolescent David showed great faith in God, in stepping out and taking on the great Philistine giant Goliath.

As we saw last week, when David was fleeing from King Saul who trying kill him, David showed great strength and faith in God’s plan by resisting the temptation to kill King Saul--when he had an easy opportunity to do so when Saul happened to come into the cave where David and his men where hiding to relieve himself.

Today we will look at David as he faces a seemingly irresistible temptation in the Desert of Paran. We’ll see how he does.

We’re going to be looking at 1 Samuel 25 today. If you have your Bibles please turn there.

Let me take a moment to set up the context. David and his 600 discontented, indebted men who have banded together with him are in the desert of Paran. The wilderness was a place of beauty, but was also a high crime area. Bandits would hide out in the wilderness--ready to mug and even murder a traveler take their money or their possessions. Herdsmen who watched over flocks in the desert of Paran would have been in danger from the outlaws. While David and his men are in the wilderness they are voluntarily working to protect the flocks of a man named Nabal.

1 Samuel 25 vs. 2 we see Nabal being described as “very wealthy”—he had 1000 goats and 3000 sheep. He is also described as a fool… Commentator Walter Brueggemann describes Nabal a man whose possessions precede his person. His life is defined by what he owns; in fact, as Brueggemann points out, Nabal is described in terms of his possessions before he is actually named.

“Fool” in the Scriptures is not necessarily someone with a low IQ, but someone who has centered their life on anything other than God. It might be money; it might be possessions; it might be fame; it might be power; it might be another human being. Nabal, who owns many herds in the desert of Paran, is described as a fool.

His wife, Abigail in contrast, is described as a person of wisdom and beauty…a woman of good understanding and of lovely appearance.

David and his men provide voluntary protection for Nabal’s sheep. In verse 16, we read that night and day they act like a wall around the sheep Nabal’s shepherds were herding.

As a teenager growing up in North Surrey, I remember there was a group called “Guardian Angels,” who voluntarily dispatched themselves at the Whalley exchange bus area, a place then notorious for crime. These “angels” were young men sporting berets on their heads and had some knowledge of martial arts, and they provided protection for people who might otherwise be mugged or beaten up.

David’s men served as a kind of unofficial, but highly effective, “guardian angel” troupe. David and his men were protecting Nabal’s flock during sheep-shearing time. It was a time of great work for the shepherds, but it was also a time of profit and celebration. As people gathered for the harvest of the wool, banquet tables were also set with food and drink. According to the custom of the day, during sheep-shearing season it was common for the owner of the sheep to set aside a portion of the profits he had made and give them to those who protected his shepherds and sheep while they were out in the field. Owners gave those who protected their shepherds and sheep a certain percentage of their earnings, kind of like we might tip a waiter. No law said you had to do this, but it was a customary way to show appreciation.

David and his men had been protecting Nabal’s shepherds and sheep, so during sheep-shearing time David sent ten young men out to Nabal to ask him for some food and drink and some supplies. David and his men had been giving Nabal and his shepherds a great protection service, and David and his men also in need of food and supplies as they were eking out a living in the wilderness…. They were great volunteer workers, but they were also desperate for money—a little bit like the people who uses squeegees to clean your windshield when you’re stopped a traffic light…

But when Nabal heard the request for food and supplies, he acted as if he had never heard of David--though David was famous as the young man who had killed Goliath. His wife Abigail knew of David and, in fact, as we see in verse 30, anticipated that he would be the future king. Not only did Nabal dismiss David’s request, but he rebuffed David as some kind of outlaw…

In 1 Samuel 25:10 we read:

10 Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?"

And David, who up until now has been a model of patience and prudent restraint, loses his temper. He is ready to spill blood and see heads roll.

13 David said to his men, "Each of you strap on your sword!" So they did, and David strapped his sword on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies…

400 men put on their swords.

In verse 22, David says:

22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!"

Mobilizing 400 men to take out Nabal and his household was overkill… but David was enraged. He lost all sense of balance, all sense of virtue, all sense of God.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever been so angry that you felt like all of your virtue is being pushed out of you like sweat on a hot day? Have you ever had someone in your home or in your workplace or school or out in some public place do something that makes you want to go after them, and lose all sense of God’s presence…all sense of any virtue?

I remember being in Rome with my wife not long after we were married. We had just pulled into the train station and not long after we had walked out of the train a cab driver approached us and offer to give us a ride to our hotel (a little lesson—always get a cab in Rome at the official cab line)… it took about 5 minutes to the hotel, but when we got there the cab driver said it was going to cost about $50 dollars… I said where your meter reading? He said his meter was broken)…. I got in this fight—verbal fight—with him.. and my wife was afraid--I was going start hitting this guy… Growing up in North Surrey that would not have been out of the question…

I lost all consciousness of God…

So did David when he was rebuffed by Nabal….

Abigail, Nabal’s wife gets a word from one of the servants that David’s men are planning to strike down Nabal because he has refused to give food to David’s men even though they’ve protected his flocks and because Nabal has insulted them. Abigail lost no time. She quickly assembles a feast for David and his men.

In verse 18, we read…

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

If this were being shown in a movie, you would see scenes of David’s men strapping on their swords…music in the background…cutting to Abigail and her men taking loaves of bread out of the oven. We would see David mounting a horse and the music intensifying. Abigail and her servants lashing the bread to the donkeys…mounting the donkeys…the music climaxes as David rides out to Nabal’s house through the wilderness. You see Abigail and her servants riding out towards David and his men.

When Abigail sees David, she quickly gets off her donkey and bows before David with her face to the ground.

I Samuel 25:24ff
24 She fell at his feet and said: "Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
Abigail falls at David’s feet and in a poignant, wise and beautiful speech says, “Please! Please! Don’t do this! This action isn’t worthy of the Prince of Israel. Remember who you are. Remember God’s anointing…God’s mercy. Don’t stoop to fighting grudge battles. Your task is not to exact vengeance. That is God’s task. You’re not God. Nabal as his name signifies is a fool. Don’t you become one, too.”
28 "Please forgive your servant's presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD's battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant."
“One day you will become a king. God will protect you. Your life is bound securely in the treasure pouch of God. And God will hurl the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling. Why shed blood needlessly and have this staggering burden on your conscience?”
The speech is as wise and beautiful as Abigail is…
We see in verses 32-33 the effect of Abigail’s speech on David…
32 David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.
David had done so very well in his ascent for God… and was about to become a victim of his own unbridled rage, but God brings something beautiful into his life to realign with the will of God.
Abigail according to verse 3 is both wise and beautiful. God uses this beautiful human being to prevent David from exacting unnecessary violence, God uses Abigial to realign David with the will of God.
When we are full of vengeance wanting to settle a score with someone--or sin in some other way--God can use beauty to bring out of ourselves and realign us with Himself.
It has long been a tradition in the Christian life, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity, to see beauty as a pointer to God. Beauty is not in the world just for our senses to enjoy, but exists as a pointer to some reality just beyond our senses…
C.S. Lewis in the Weight of Glory says that the beauty we find in nature, music, books can move in us a longing for an eternal beauty…
Lewis says the eternal beauty is not located in these things, but only comes through them…

Lewis says the eternal beauty that comes through these things arouse in us the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited….

Beauty on earth can realign with the eternal beauty…
When we find ourselves full of ourselves as David was, off to avenge a bruised ego, beauty can realign us to God and His will for us…
Richard Rohr says that suffering and beauty draw us out of our smaller, untrue self.
One of the most deadly things for our spiritual life is self-absorption. Beauty has a way of drawing us out of our self-absorption and focusing on something other than us…
The famous composer Leonard Bernstein who did not believe in God, who was an agnostic, said… I don’t believe, but when I listen to Beethoven’s fifth symphony, I am tempted to believe that something “checks out” in the universe, I’m led to wonder if there isn’t some transcendent beauty in the universe…
If we want to create the kind of structure that will realign us with the will of God, we will expose ourselves regularly to beauty…
Each day, I and many of you seek to begin our day and/or end our day exposing ourselves to the beauty of God’s Word which points us to God… to the Christ…
Just over a week ago I was in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee at a place called Blackberry Farm meeting with a mentoring group that I have been part of for 8 years… we were on this beautiful 4200 acre farm with rolling pastures horses, sheep… and one of the best of best fly fishing river on the continent… In morning when I would run, I would see the mist coming off the ponds and people fly fishing on the banks… And in this place of natural beauty I am re-pointed to God…
We live in place where the beauty all around can point us to God…
When I talk to men about overcoming sexual temptation sometimes I will encourage them, with the counsel a mentor figure gave to me as younger person… he said among other things, expose yourself to art… or beauty is some other form. Because the quest for sexual experience, at a deeper level is the quest to experience beauty.
Someone has said “Where there is excess, something is missing.” If we are missing beauty in our lives, we may find ourselves seeking to fill that void in unhealthy ways.

As Abigail brought beauty in David’s life, so people filled who reflect God’s beauty can realign us with God.
In a very profound, my wife through the force and direction of her life points me to God… I have close friends, several of whom I meet in Tennessee, a couple of weeks ago who point me to God… Do you have friends whose lives point you to God?
Simone Weil, the French mystic in Waiting for God says, Nothing among human things
has such power to keep our gaze fixed ever more intensely upon God than friendship for the friends of God!

When David was full of anger about to fall off the mountain of God’s will for his life by committing murder, God brings beauty into his life to realign him with the will of God.

When we are in danger of falling off the path of God, God can use beauty to draw our lives back in the treasure pouch of God.

Is God doing this with you?

Give thanks…

Commit to Christ…

(The sermon can be hdard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

Life in teh Wilderness: Oct. 14, 2007

DAVID M5: SERMON NOTES Life in the Wilderness October 14, 2007

Big Idea: God leads us into the wilderness to test us and tie us to Himself.

TEXT: 1 SAMUEL 24: 1-7; Psalm 18: 1-3…

Sean Penn’s recently-released movie, Into the Wild, is based on the real life story of Chris McCandless.

Chris McCandless comes from a family where his parents are in a volatile marriage and place a great deal of importance on “appearances.” Chris finds this sickening. Inspired by the writings of people like Henry Thoreau, Chris engages in a quest for truth in nature. He travels to the woods of the Pacific Northwest, to the wheat fields of the prairies, and finally to Alaska. He delights in the open spaces, the fresh air and the bright sunshine. While he does not look for danger in the wild, he comes across it. But instead of turning home, Chris stays in the wild, guided by the words of Thoreau, who said, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Chris is a spiritual pilgrim who like many before him, seeks to find himself, to find truth in the wilderness.

Eugene Peterson in his book, Leap Over a Wall, says everybody, at least anybody who has anything to do with God, spends time in the wilderness.

A few among us like Thoreau, Thomas Merton, and more recently Chris McCandless choose to live in the wilderness.

Many others among us are forced into the wilderness through no choice of our own.

We may not be driven into a literal wilderness, but we may find ourselves in a “wilderness season” where the crutches of our life are removed. Perhaps we find ourselves out of a job, or struggling in school, or in a completely new, unfamiliar place where we haven’t yet found our footing. Or perhaps we experience some kind of physical challenge, or relationship pain, and we find ourselves in the wilderness. We find ourselves in a place of difficulty and loneliness and fear.

This morning we are going to be looking at why God leads his people through the wilderness. After being called to lead his people, we see that Moses spent years in the desert. After his baptism, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. After was called by God, he more than 3 years in the desert…

And David, after being anointed as the future king, ends up spending time on the wilderness. It seems that those who are called by God are led into the wilderness.

Everybody, at least everyone has anything to do with God, spends some time in the wilderness. And as we look at David’s life this morning, we are going to be looking at why God may lead us into the wilderness, as well…

We see in 1 Sam 16 the prophet Samuel anoints young David as the new king of Israel. Before becoming king, David, while still an adolescent, conquers the arch nemesis of the people of Israel—Goliath. As a result, David became incredibly popular with the people.

Saul, the king of Israel, becomes insanely jealous of David. He tries to murder David on
8 different occasions… In order to save his life, David finds himself fleeing into the desert. He is forced to hide in the rough mountainous terrain of the desert En Gedi with a band of men—who were in debt or discontent and had gathered around David. David finds himself in the wilderness thirsty and tired and living in fear for his life, as he is being hunted down like a wild animal by Saul and three thousand of his troops….

So why is it that God allows David to experience the wilderness? Why does God allow us to experience the wilderness?

One of the reasons why God led David into the wilderness--and one of the reasons God leads us there is because the wilderness provides an opportunity for us to be tested.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Samuel 24: 1-7.

Saul is threatened by the possibility that David may become the new king of Israel. So after Saul returns from pursuing the Philistines in battle, he turns his attention toward David and begins to hunt him down.
1 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi." 2 So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, "This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' " Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD." 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.
In the wilderness, David finds himself fleeing for his life. He is hiding out in a cave in the desert of En Gedi. And as he and his band of men are hiding there, what happens? Saul enters into the cave to relieve himself. Saul was literally and figuratively speaking exposed. David’s men urge him to take Saul out—to assassinate him. David creeps up unnoticed, and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. David is conscience-stricken because he had laid a hand on Saul’s robe and though Saul is not a good man, he is the one whom God did choose as the King of Israel.
David experiences a great test in the wilderness. And in that test, David discovers both weakness and his strength. He felt that he had compromised God’s standard for him in approaching Saul since he was one whom God had anointed king over Israel and cutting off a piece of his robe. He felt he had failed. But David showed integrity by also resisting the temptation to take matters into his own hands and kill Saul. So David, whether he recognized it or not at the time discovered his strength.
In the wilderness--we are tested and experience both our weakness and our strength…
My wife Sakiko, who was born and raised in the largest cities of Japan. She’s the consummate city girl. A couple of years ago, my wife did something that was far different from anything that she had ever done before—she spent 6 days at sea on a modest sailboat with me and a couple of others. She had never been camping before. She had never lived out at sea before. And she said that being out in the Ocean humbled her. It made her realize how small, vulnerable she was, especially when facing forceful winds and high waves. But it also enabled her to see that she was far strength than she thought she had—she was able to survive the experience and it gave her confidence.
The wilderness shows our weakness and our strength…
Jim Murphy a member here at Tenth Avenue Church voluntarily moved into the wilderness (that is, the Arizona Desert) in 2003. I have asked him to come and share part of his experience.
“I was at a point in life where everything was great—an active social life, lots of barbecues, volleyball at the beach… fun times—all part of my life in Vancouver, fun but not fulfilling. I wanted more impact on people’s lives, more fulfilling work, a more powerful life. So I left my friends and family behind to go where I knew almost nobody. I got rid of my TV and spent 2 ½ years of my life in relative solitude. No social life, few friends, hardly any dating at all, and no TV. Every night was the same, Monday or Friday no different, I’d be alone. Very difficult.
There was a particular night I remember well. I had been there about a year and I was in my room writing in my journal when I heard a noise outside. I went outside and there were fireworks in the air. It was New Year’s Eve. I was sad at first, wondering what I was doing in the middle of a desert by myself, in an empty house, in my room on New Year’s Eve, where if I had been back in Vancouver, I probably would have been with friends bringing in the New Year with a big party. Then I thought, ‘Why am I here?
Then I thought, I came here to see if I could more clearly hear God’s voice, to come face to face with who I am, whereas in Vancouver it was easy to hide behind my life and not examine my life. I wanted to live a life worth living, and not when it came time to die, to feel like I didn’t truly live. I looked around at my empty house, and thought, “who does this sort of thing? Am I crazy?” Then I smiled. Because it felt like I was pushing myself to really seek out the person I was born to be.
Henry David Thoreau’s words rang true for me: (read quote)
‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.’
I struggled there in the desert. I got really depressed; I could have come home at any time and started back where I left off at work, but I wasn’t ready to do that, no matter how depressed I became. I wasn’t going back until I felt I had direction for my life—direction that was exciting and powerful… that would I sacrifice everything for.
Somehow, amidst the struggle and loneliness I discovered strength in the desert—a new confidence. “Confidence that I won’t take the easy route to decide; confidence that I am going to take risks—that I will do whatever it takes—that it is far more important I am true to my design than relative success or pleasures. I feel less attached to what others think of me. Going into solitude helped a lot. It’s like I’ve gone 2 ½ years without friends patting me on the back, or whatever. So I am now less concerned what others think, because if you think less of me for some reason, it’s not like I have not been alone before. It’s not like I have not gone without approval before.”
I also gained confidence that I was not a pawn of my environment or my circumstances. So many times many of us feel trapped in our lives, and dropping everything and going there, putting myself in that challenging situation to “put to rout all that was not life” for me was like fasting; it showed that I’m not a slave to my moods or petty wants, that I can put “first things first” and be true to myself, to not be conformed to this world and it’s mediocrity, and through it all, be true to God, so I can truly live.

Jim experienced both struggle and strength in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place where were both the beasts and beauty emerge… Wilderness has a way of testing us. Thoreau wrote, “Those destined for greatness must first walk alone in the desert. Those destined for greatness must first walk alone in the desert.”
And God allows us to experience life in the desert…in the wilderness…so that our character will be tested and refined. Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and David were all led into the wilderness. And many of the people we would consider great today Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela spent significant time on the wilderness.
And if you are destined for greatness, and if you belong to God you are, you will spend time in the wilderness. The wilderness will test you. It will show you your weakness and your strength and it will refine you. And perhaps most important of all, the wilderness will give you the opportunity to open up to God in a new way.
As David was being hunted down by Saul and his army, David came to realize that his only true refuge was to be found in God alone. This fact is expressed over 40 times in the Psalms. In Psalm 18, which is a psalm that David sings to the Lord when he is being hunted down by Saul, David cries out:
I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield [b] and the horn [c] of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.
In the wilderness we discover that God alone is our refuge, our hiding place, our shield.
Last week, I was in Boston in meetings with my friend Joanna Mockler… Joanna was sharing that her husband Colman, the then ceo of Gilette died, she woke a couple of weeks, later frozen in bed with fear… she was afraid of what the future…and these words came to mind:
I have set the LORD always before me:

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and I rejoices and rests in hope

.
She had not memorized these words, but they came to mind… (she later discovered they were the words from Psalm 16 and she was comforted by God…
And at this time I am going to invite Steve Fielding who is part of our community, as master’s degree student at SFU, to come and share the wilderness experience he has had and how he has found refuge in God.

First off, I’d like to thank Ken for the opportunity to share my story here today.
My story begins when I was sixteen years old, living in Winnipeg, what the locals call Winterpeg, Manisnow-ba, Mosquitoba. I was in what some might consider an ideal situation: I had good grades; ran track and played soccer at the provincial level; played piano and guitar; I had a decent part-time job; and I could rely on a strong network of friends. This idyllic balance was turned on its head. In the fall of ‘96 I decided to be baptized. My church had a custom. The person getting baptized had to choose an “encourager” to speak about his spiritual growth and offer him personal mentorship. The day before my baptism, my encourager showed up at my door with a heavy heart. He explained that while he was praying God revealed to him that I would really suffer if I went through with this baptism. He asked me if I was willing to take the risk. I said “yes,” not knowing what he meant.
Two weeks after my baptism I came down with mononucleosis.
A much more serious setback happened in May of 1997. A group of friends from school and I were spending the weekend at a cottage. The big highlight was a zip-cord line. For those who aren’t familiar, you hold on to a t-bar, which is attached to a pulley that zips down a rope. On my second run something went terribly wrong. About a third of the way down the rope suddenly jammed in the pulley. The force of a sudden stop and my momentum threw me sixteen feet to the forest floor. My lower back struck first, followed by my head. I had three broken vertebrae, bruised lungs, and a concussion. The initial recovery took two-and-a-half months. I completed high school, and then left Winnipeg for university in BC. Then my back pain returned and got worse. It became clear that therapies were not working and that doctors did not have the answers. The pain increased and I was addicted to morphine.
Within a year the pain was so severe that I could not fall asleep at night or keep food down. I was at my end. I wondered how long I could carry on like this.
To make a long story short, at my worst point my parents drove me to the U.S., where I had two successful operations. Finally, after two-and-a-half years of being in bed, I went back to school. Unfortunately, my misfortune did not end there. In the spring of 2003 I was diagnosed with Lupus. Lupus is a mysterious systemic auto-immune condition in which the body attacks it own tissue. It causes chronic fatigue, constant pain, and threatens organs.
This brings me to the present. I now battle two disabilities every day—back pain and Lupus. There is never a minute when I don’t experience pain or chronic fatigue. I have asked a lot questions the past eleven years. Why am I suffering? Why did I only improve to a point? In the Bible we see Jesus heal people 100 percent. I don’t know the answers to these questions. I wish I knew. But I’ve learned some things that I’d like to share with you.
One of the things I’ve learned is that God needs to be praised during our struggles. I remember thinking “Praise him? If this is what God wants, that’s kind of rude, and pretty insensitive actually. I can use some encouragement right now.” Although I was angry I started to read Scripture passages that spoke of His character. As I praised God for who He is, I began to experience God’s presence in a new way and his comfort In the wilderness, I discovered that God is all that I have, so I focus on Him. The other things in life—sports, fun, academics, work—can disappear in a 16-foot fall or a diagnosis.
The wilderness tests us—showing us our weakness and our strength. The wilderness ties us to God. In the wilderness we recognize that God alone is our ultimate refuge…
Pray:

Are in the wilderness—it will not last forever, but pray… faithful in the test and tied to God…

Do you others in the wilderness pray for?

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)