Desire and Seek for God in His Church

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Deuteronomy chapter 8.

You're reading verses 1 through 3.

Please stand.

The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go

and possess the land that the Lord swore to give your fathers.

And you shall remember the whole way the Lord, your God, has led you these 40 years in the wilderness,

that he might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments

or not, and let you hunger and

fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you

know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the

Lord.

New Testament reading today is in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 22.

Therefore, remember that one time you Gentiles in the flesh by what is

called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

Remember that you were at the time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,

and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, who once were far off, have been brought near

by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh

the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinance,

that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you, who were far off, and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

So then you, who are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the

saints and members of the household of God, built on one foundation of the

apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole

structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you also are built, together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Well, good morning.

It is great to see you all here this Lord's Day morning.

I ask for you to open your Bibles to Psalm 63, to Psalm 63.

You know, I think, given the circumstances of me consistently preaching more, I think I may

choose a smaller epistle moving forward.

We're not going to get through all of Psalm 63 today, but nevertheless, I think that's what the future is

going to look like.

So this may be our last time in the Psalms for a bit,

but I'll be considering what small epistle.

To preach through.

It's a time for you to influence me, so send me texts or something like that with what you would like and see if it doesn't sway me to

one over the other.

I'm thinking Ephesians, though.

But please be praying for me as I consider that.

You know, choosing where to preach, there's a lot that's involved in that.

And it can't just be whatever my favorite texts are.

It has to be what I think the church, it's helpful for the church as well.

And so please be in prayer for me.

That would have proper wisdom.

And of course, all of God's Word is edifying and has, for those by the Spirit listens to

it, it has good results of salvation.

And so I need to remember that.

But nevertheless, please be in prayer for me as I make that consideration.

But yes, we're in Psalm 63.

This morning, we'll only get through the first four verses.

But nevertheless, I'll go ahead and read the whole Psalm.

So Psalm 63, it's a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of

Judah.

Oh God, you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you.

My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and

glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live.

In your name, I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise

you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you

in the watches of the night.

For you have been my help.

And in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you.

Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.

They shall be given over to the power of the sword.

They shall be a portion for jackals.

But the king shall rejoice in God.

All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Oh God in heaven, I am once again tasked with preaching your word.

And once again, I am overwhelmed with the task.

Lord, you have ordained the gathering of the saints to consist of be

centered in your word.

And part of that worship is for your word to be proclaimed by your vessels.

And it's a frightful thing to consider.

But Lord, I pray that for myself, I would rely upon you and know that Lord, even

though I'm a very imperfect vessel, it is your desire to use such an imperfect vessel for

this endeavor.

And God, I am aware and in constant reminder that the people

before me, they need your help just as much as I do.

They need your help for their ears to be opened, for their hearts to desire, not the things of the world,

but for their hearts to desire Christ.

And we know Lord in our sin, we naturally desire the things of this world.

And so, oh God, would you miraculously work in them as you work in me.

And together by the work of the spirit, would we glorify Christ for his great work of salvation.

And together may the ignorant gain wisdom.

May the wayward go on the path of peace.

And may we all result in knowing Jesus.

May this all result in knowing Jesus more and his salvation.

Thank you, Lord, that we can rely upon you for these things for it's by your power and not our own.

And so may you be glorified here and now in Jesus name, amen.

Well, a common theme that I continue to hit is worship and light of the Psalms and guiding your worship.

And one of the things that I'm trying, and especially as I'm looking at finishing now, and I want to

repeat, repeat and repeat is that there is never a situation in your life

in which it doesn't cause for your true worship to God.

And I want to repeat that because if you're going through something that's difficult or will be or have, it can

be very easy for us to separate that as a time in which that's not the worshipful part of my life

because of the difficulty or whatever.

But I want, and one thing I've been trying to express to you that is there is never a time of your life where

Jesus doesn't say, and that is mine.

Every aspect of your life is to be a worshipful time to

God in every season of your life.

And that includes the negative emotions, the bad emotions, the ones that we want to run away from and the positive

ones.

And one thing I've been hitting over and over again that we need to remind ourselves each morning as we get up is that this

day is the Lord's and I shall give it to him no matter what I'm going through because every emotion

belongs to our Lord.

Now, I've been trying to hit this with all the emotions that we get in Psalms, all the things that we get in Psalms is that it all

belongs to God and so I will worship him.

And there is your life, O saint.

And so a question as we approach Psalm 63 and as we have the topic of proper

desire in it, a question that I want to raise, I want you to consider and we'll ask again at

the end of this sermon that I want you to continue to ask yourself throughout this week is has the

less than desirable situations in my life, let me say that again because there's probably a

better way to say it that I didn't figure out, has the less than desirable situations in my

life, the situations that I don't like, that I kind of go ugh when I go through, those things, have

those things added to my worship or has it harmed my worship

or has it been neutral?

You get what I'm asking.

Had the things that are less desirable in my life, have those things added to my worship to my God or have they

rather harmed my worship to my God or in that same category, has it just been neutral?

In other words, everything should add to worship to God, everything that you go through.

And so a question I want to ask you that you need to consider is to consider your own life, the things that you're going through as

have those things added to my worship, to my praise, to my enjoyment of my

God or have they rather hindered it and caused death in it?

Flat tire on the way to vacation, a spouse that's hard to live with, a child that goes wayward,

a friend that proves to be an enemy, a promotion that you never got, a job that you hate, your poor

health, has those things,.

Have they added to your worship.

Or have they rather harmed or made it just neutral?

See, here in Psalm 63, we have a negative circumstance from

David and we see that for David it drives greater worship for him, it adds worship for him

and we are going to see why in which it will help us.

When we see the situation, the negative circumstance, the circumstance that would make us go ugh or an annoyance or

say, this is something that doesn't belong to God or this won't be my worship here because this is annoying, the negative

circumstance that we see here in Psalm 63, the context of it we see there in the first

line, in the wilderness of Judah.

This is, he wrote this Psalm, David wrote this Psalm when he was in the wilderness of Judah

or at least that's the context of it.

Now, what does that mean that he was in the wilderness of Judah?

Well, there's two possible occasions for this, right?

If we look in 1 Samuel 22, you can just listen to me if you want, but 1 Samuel 22,

there's a situation in David's life in which he has to flee Saul and we've talked about

that last week, he has to flee Saul.

Now again, Saul is the king of Israel, he hates David and so David

has to flee Saul and his court that he was in into the wilderness of

Judah, that's where he has to go and we see that in 1 Samuel 22 five

in which then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold, depart and go

into the land of Judah.

So David departed and went into the forest of Herod which would be the wilderness of Judah.

But there's a second situation that he could be referring to in this Psalm in which he wrote it while

he was in the wilderness of Judah is when his son, David's son, this is when David is king now,

again, he's enjoying the court's privileges to be a king or in the court of the king is all sorts of

beautiful food and wonderful wine and all the things you could ever imagine the occasion that would result

in that, all the beautiful things of the world, right?

He goes from that to having to flee when his son Absalom tries to

take the throne from him.

So he has to leave Jerusalem as Absalom's come to take Jerusalem, he has to leave and he has to go into the

wilderness of Judah.

Now, which one is it is up to debate.

Timothy believes in the second one,.

If you're just curious,.

I don't know which one it is, but nevertheless, it's the same situation.

Either way, David goes from the courts of royalty, wealth and

riches and everything you can imagine to a wilderness,.

You get that.

Imagine going from a five star resort, that's gonna be your stay to a half star

motel and the ad says, we just got rid of our bedbugs, right?

That's like the biggest thing that they have going on there.

I'm definitely afraid of bedbugs at hotels.

I don't like planes, I don't like hotels because I'm afraid of all those things.

I need, there's, I gotta see Tim.

I gotta see some biblical counseling with these things.

But nevertheless, imagine going from court, being in the court of a king, right?

To be in the wilderness, right?

The center of riches to a center of destitution, the wilderness he is reminded of,

hunger and thirsting, right?

In the wilderness that David now finds himself, he goes from the lavish life of a king or being with the king to

now he's in the wilderness and he's reminded of thirsting and hungering after food.

And so the question we ask here is the same question we asked ourselves at the beginning.

Does this add to David's worship or does it harm David's worship?

I know I'm tempted in that situation that it would harm my worship.

Oh my goodness, I just want some cucumbers and melons as the Israelites said.

I just want what I had before.

I want the things of this world.

This is what my mind would be on, certainly it would be a temptation.

But here we see this interesting thing from David in which it adds to his worship to

God because look what he says in verse one.

He's in the wilderness and he says, oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.

In fact, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary

land where there is no water.

You see the dry and weary land aspect of having little water and food, it drives a spiritual point

within his heart in which it drives a desire for God.

It reminds him of his great desire for the Lord.

Adds worship to him as he considers this is like when I'm desiring or my desire for God.

It reminds them of a deeper spiritual point.

He says, I seek earnestly, he says.

Earnestly, the KJV, the King James Version says early.

It's like, you know, the meaning behind it is like I so badly want it that the

first thing I do when I get up is to seek it, my mind is consumed with it, right?

He says I seek earnestly because I desire greatly, he says in that verse, because I

am left without.

Or to flip it, because of specific circumstances of destitution, I

desire and so I seek.

There is a intimate connection with circumstances desiring and seeking.

If you spent a few hours outside shoveling snow over the winter, although it doesn't

snow that much here, but let's say it did, and you spent a few hours shoveling it outside, you're cold.

When you come inside, you would desire warmth because of that circumstance,

and so you would seek a fire and a hot drink.

Circumstance drives desire or shows desire, and then it drives your seeking.

Or if you're out mowing, as you will be doing or have done, the lawn, and you would desire to cool off,

right, it would drive a desire to cool off, and so you would seek a cool room and a cool drink.

Circumstances drive desire, desire drives your seeking.

So the key word here, the thing that kind of connects it all is desire.

What is your desire?

It will illuminate your desire.

What is your desire?

If, in this situation, for God, circumstances will drive that desire for God

and will lead you to seeking God.

Circumstances, negative or whatever they are, will drive that desire for God if that is your desire, and it will lead

to seeking for God.

But if your desire is for the world, when that negative circumstance hits, it will

show that desire for the world and will lead you to seeking for the things of the world.

So David here is highlighting the fact that this negative circumstance reminded him of his

desire for God, and it is showing in itself in seeking for God.

David shows his desire for God in saying his time in the wilderness reminded him of his destitution

of God, and so it made him seek God.

There's a great spiritual reality behind that negative circumstance that facilitated worship.

Now the question needs to be asked.

Why, how can David compare this time of being in the wilderness with a

general spiritual principle of being in a dry and weary land?

You know what I'm saying?

How can he compare a physical time of being in the wilderness of Judah and compare that desolation to the

overall desolation of a spiritual reality that he has before us?

What's the theological underpinning here?

Well, it's the same thing for us, so we can conclude the same thing David does, and it can actually propel us to worship as it

propels David.

So what is that theological underpinning?

What is the destitution that David likens being in the desert of

Judah with this overall theological destitution that we have?

Well, to answer that, like always, we have to go back to the Genesis.

We have to go back to Adam.

We have to go back to the beginning of all things, right?

This destitution of this dry and weary land spiritually points to a world

or mankind that has fallen into sin.

When you think of spiritual destitution, think of your sin.

When you think of spiritual destitution, of being in want and need, think of something that the

reason for it is because of your disobedience or your sin before God.

There is a day

man in the garden had no sin and was in perfect union with God,

but then man desired God above all things in that garden, and he

used the world to glorify and enjoy God.

You get what I'm saying?

In the garden, in that perfect union with the Father, man's desires were perfectly on

God, and there was harmony, there was peace, it was life, no death, no sin.

But a day came when instead of using the fruit to enjoy God by abstaining, you get what

I'm saying there, Adam and Eve were to use the fruits that God said do not eat, and they were to

use that to glorify and enjoy God by obeying.

But instead, they wanted to seek their own happiness separated from God by eating of the fruit.

That describes sin perfectly well across the board, by the way.

That is, I'm not going to use this world to enjoy God, I'm going to use this world to try to find happiness

separate of God.

That is sin.

And so here we see a day change when sin entered in, when instead of using that fruit to enjoy God forever

by obeying him, by not eating, they instead tried to find happiness by disobeying God by

eating, and that changed everything.

And it led to being kicked from the garden and separated from God.

And all of us, after Adam, fall into the same error.

We're all born after Adam, and we all, in that sin, when it's not

taken care of by Jesus, we desire the things of this world above God, and it

always disappoints and leads to your misery.

That is the reason why you're in misery outside of Christ, is because you are trying to use the things of

this world as an end of itself.

You desire the things of this world not as a way to enjoy God and glorify him forever, but instead you're trying

to enjoy of itself.

And this is sin, and this is false desires, and it leads to death.

1 John talks about this.

Look at 1 John 2.

1 John 2, or listen to me.

1 John 2, 15.

John says, do not love the world or the things in the world.

Now, it's really important for us to look at that.

He's not saying that you cannot enjoy the world.

You realize that.

He's not saying if you enjoy any aspect of the world at all, you find any kind of happiness and joy in it, you are just

a wicked sinner and just forget about it.

The point that he's getting at is do not love the world in a way separate from God.

You need to love the world through a bigger reality of loving God.

God needs to be your greatest desire, and you use everything in the world to show your love for God and using it to

honor him.

So when he says do not love the world or the things in the world, he's saying do not have your

allegiance found there instead of in God above.

Do not hold the world in greater esteem than you hold God above.

You get what I'm saying?

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him because they are loving the things of the world despite God

instead of using the world to show their love for God.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of

life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Why?

Because all those desires should be found in God alone, and then we show that in the way we interact in the

world instead of all our desires being of the world itself.

And so he says the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God

abides forever.

When our desires are met in him and him alone, and we show that in the way we interact with the world, that lasts forever.

So the point that we're getting at here is that desire becomes the main theme here in this psalm.

Circumstances show what your desires are and it shows what you're going to seek.

If you desire the things of the world, circumstances will drive that out and you'll seek the things of the world and it'll lead to lack of worship

or no worship or neutral worship.

But circumstances that show that I desire God above all things will lead to your seeking God above all things and it will add

to your worship.

So dry and weary land is desiring the things of this world

instead of using this world for your desires in God.

You see what I mean?

Dry and weary land, of course, we see that physically in being in the wilderness of Judah, but there's a spiritual dry and weary

land in which your desires are not found in God, but it's found in the things of the world and that creates a

dry and weariness in your soul that every one of us has experienced.

And if you're outside of Christ and not living for him now, you are experiencing it right now as I speak.

There's a reason for that.

It's because you are seeking the things of the world outside of God and that is your death.

That is your dry and weariness.

So instead of saying, oh God, you're my God in verse one, the world says, oh

wealth, you're my God.

Oh comfort, you're my God.

Oh fame, you're my God.

Oh ease, oh entertainment, you're my God.

And so the circumstances draws that desire out and you seek those things and it's a dry and

weary land.

And when the negative circumstances of your life does not create greater

worship in your life, you as a Christian are doing the same thing.

Your eyes are focused on the things of this world.

You're trying to find your joy and your completion in that and so it creates this dry and weariness

and it eats away at your worship because your eyes are not focused on God.

Instead, we need to be like David here.

And when she says, oh God, you're my God in verse one.

Oh God, you are my God.

The negative circumstances of our lives reminds us of the dry and weary land of sin and so we desire God in

light of it and so we seek God in light of it.

How do we seek God in dry and weary land?

How do you seek for God?

If that's the case, if you understand that, the wilderness of Judah, it resembles the wilderness of our sin and destitution

and so we need to seek God as David is saying, I desire God, I want to, I seek him.

How do we do so?

Well, he lays it out in verse two.

He says, so in light of this reality, I have looked upon you, he says in verse two, in the

sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

And so again, the point is that he's reminded of his thirst and desire for God because of the

circumstances presented to him and so he says, and so in my desire, I seek after you and what is

seeking after God look like but for him to behold God in the sanctuary, beholding his power and glory.

In other words, you'll know that you're desiring God in your circumstances is in light of it, you

behold the sanctuary of God to behold his power and glory.

Now the question is, okay, how do I do that?

What does that mean?

If you're telling me that this negative circumstances in my life are supposed to draw a

desiring of God in my life in which I seek for him and you're saying, so in light of that, I need to behold the

sanctuary, what does it mean to do that?

Well, if you look sanctuary, the word sanctuary there is anywhere where God

dwells.

What do I mean by that?

God is everywhere, he cannot be somewhere.

God is literally everywhere.

He's in hell, he's in heaven, his presence is in the earth, his presence is everywhere

but when we talk about a sanctuary, it's a very special kind of presence.

It's a presence that is void of sin so there's a happy

communion between God and man.

Do you understand what I mean?

This world is engulfed in sin so there is no happy communion between God and man because of sin but the

sanctuary is a place where sins are dealt with, they're forgiven so that God and

man can be in communion again.

You remember, the sanctuary, sanctuary think of God's presence but think

more of that, think of his happy presence or his special presence of happy

communion with man, right?

So the sanctuary used to be the garden that we just talked about.

Adam and Eve screwed that up with their sin, no more happy communion with God, that's guilt and

shame and all that and so they're kicked out, right?

No more sanctuary but it's not like God's like, well, now you've done screwed up and forget about it.

God does something wonderful, doesn't he?

He promises of one to come that would come and make his tabernacle among man

again and that's the whole hope of the scripture is that although the sanctuary went away with Adam's

sin, there's a second Adam coming who will bring the sanctuary back to earth that we can then enjoy

his presence again.

That's the whole promise of scripture.

The promise of scripture is not you'll have a better life physically and you'll have all these food and wealth, the promise of scripture is God will

dwell with us again and since our desires are for God, we seek him and we say, where is he?

In David's day, God dwelt specially on earth in the tabernacle.

The tabernacle was a place in which sacrifices happened showing the need for sins to be forgiven and

the tabernacle is a place where God said, I will dwell specially or specifically there with

you and so that's what David has in mind.

David has in mind, so I'm seeking the Lord, right?

Since this situation has drawn out this understanding of a thirst, of a fainting I have after the Lord

in this dry and weary land of sin, he says, so in response to it as I seek, I look upon the sanctuary.

I look upon the place where God says, I'm going to dwell with you there.

Dry and weary land is God is not there, he says, so I'm gonna look for you where you are specially, I'm gonna look for you in the

sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory to save, to forgive sins, to

be one with man again.

I'm gonna look there.

Now in our day, we're not looking at the temple, we're not looking at

the literal sanctuary that David had in mind, the one made with hands

because we have a much better thing, don't we?

We have the completed thing in Jesus.

The tabernacle in David's day found its completion and when Jesus came

and tabernacled with man,

gotta catch up with my notes, I'm sorry.

John 1, 14, and we went through this before, but that's fine, this is a reminder that we need also often.

When we talk about our search for God in this weary land, the forgiveness

of sins, to be close to him.

So when we see John 1, we see the completion of it when he says in verse 14, and the

word, the eternal word, the Son of God,

the word became flesh and dwelt, or

tabernacled, among us.

And we have seen his glory and power, if we can add that there, glory as of the only Son from

the Father full of grace and truth.

So here we have the Son of God tabernacled with us, he took on flesh

and the sanctuary of God literally was with us on earth so that God and man could be together

again.

In fact, he says a couple of verses later in 16, he says, for from

his, that is Jesus, that is the word, that is the Son of God, the Son of man, from Jesus,

from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.

Again, assuming that all, there's those who look upon Jesus for salvation, through him we have his

grace.

And what that grace is is that he came and he died for sinners.

And the reason why, you remember what sacrifice is represented, is it represented forgiving of sin so that we can be one with,

or we can be close to God again.

And so the point is, is as the sanctuary in the Old Testament looked to sacrifices and being intimate with man, so

Jesus takes on flesh, tabernacles with us, dies, offers himself as a sacrifice so that

we can be close to the Father again through forgiveness of sins.

The dry and weary land of sin is dealt with by Jesus being the sanctuary on

earth and providing us salvation.

So as we consider here,

so as we look at, he says, so I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, I've looked upon you

coming close again with man and beholding your power and glory to save, right?

Paul uses the same language, I don't wanna get lost in the weeds here, I'm really concerned about doing that, but look at the same kind of

language of power, power beholding God's power.

Look at how Paul uses that in Romans 1, 16.

Paul uses the same kind of language in referring to salvation or referring to the fact that God has made his presence

again here on earth through salvation in Jesus when he says in Romans 1, verse 16, for I'm

not ashamed of the gospel that is the message, the good news of Jesus Christ, for it

is the power, again, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and

also to the Greek.

For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the

righteous shall live by faith.

And so there is an aspect of when God makes his dwelling with man on earth, you see his sanctuary on earth

and he does it through the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and he is making his power known, his glory

revealed in that.

So the negative circumstances of our lives reminds us of the dry and

weariness of the world around us and in our souls.

That's what it does.

The negative circumstances of our lives reminds us of the dry and weariness that we just cannot escape here on

earth.

That is something that you feel in your own soul as you see it about around you.

And in desiring God, we seek him by looking at his sanctuary, by

looking at Jesus Christ, who puts an end to the dry and weary land and

provides God's presence through his sacrifice and forgiveness of sins.

So you see how when you have this in mind as you consider these things, as David considers them, he says, it reminds me of

the thirst I have for God that is met in the sanctuary in Jesus Christ.

And so negative circumstances should not, it cannot take away

from you your worship, nor is it neutral, but it adds to your

worship when you consider what Jesus Christ is doing in the dry and weary land.

And look at the outcome as David is considering these things.

Look at the outcome, again, is proper worship.

He says, because, in verse three, your steadfast love is better

than life.

My lips will praise you.

Steadfast love is steadfast.

When you think of steadfast, what do you think of?

Although there's things working against it, it remains firm, and God's love

is said to be steadfast.

How is that?

Because you have sinned against a holy God.

Adam and us after Adam have rebelled against a God who is eternally good

and full of love.

And we respond to that by disobeying him and in sin.

But yet God shows his steadfast love, and although that is a storm that would knock out every other tree,

God stands firm in his love in providing us grace in Jesus Christ.

That although you were rebellious, a sinner, he says, and I will offer you my son as my show of love.

Although you're a sinner, you can be made righteous in him.

You see, as David beholds the power of God to save in the sanctuary, it reminds him of the fact that

our God is a God of steadfast love.

Despite our sin, he provides a way out in which his love can be felt again through the Lord Jesus

Christ.

Christ displays the steadfast love of Jesus.

And as we remind ourselves of that reality in negative circumstances, as we remind ourselves of the

drying weariness of the land of our own souls because of sin, and we remind ourselves of the steadfast love of

Jesus who grabs hold of us in our sin, we realize that that union we can have

with God, that forgiveness we can have with him, the living a life in that

paradise is better than anything that life has to offer.

We at one time went astray because we thought that just enjoying life of itself would give some kind of meaning.

We are forgiven of that sin, and we realize living in happy communion with God is better than anything that life

has to offer of itself.

He says again in verse three, because your steadfast love, your forgiveness, your sanctuary back with man

is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So although I may be in a dry and weary land, although I may be in a negative, bad situation,

because you have expressed your love for me, covenantal love for me, I will say that that is a better,

a greater reality.

It's better than anything that life has to give.

He says pretty much the same thing in verse four, so I will bless you as long as I

live.

In your name, I will lift up my hands.

When you have considered the goodness and kindness of the Lord through the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ,

you say of your life, as long as I have breath in my lungs, I shall worship God with it.

As long as I have this life around me, this world around me, I am going to use it for the glory and honor of his name

because of all that he's done for me, he is worthy of it.

This is a mark of a Christian, one who has been so transformed by the presence of God

on earth through Jesus Christ that I say I am so overwhelmed by him, I have so desires of him, I so

want him that everything I have in this world now belongs to the Lord.

As long as I have breath, as long as I have life, it is going to be God's now through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a heart that has been overwhelmed for desire for God because of his kindness in us and forgiveness of

sins and bringing us to the fold.

So when Jesus is your greatest desire, every circumstance in your

life becomes an opportunity to seek him.

And so there is life in the desert.

Jesus, I don't have time, I wasn't sure where I'd be at with time by now, but if you look, this is a point that

Jesus has to make over and over again.

In your own worship, in your own time of study, look at how he deals with the

woman at the well.

In John chapter four, verses 13 through 15, remember he's offering this lady

spiritual drink, that is, you can find your joy and desires and

fulfillment in me.

Stop trying to find it in the physical world, find it in me, and she just can't get past it for a bit.

Jesus has to make the same point to when he feeds the 5 ,000 in John six,

right?

He feeds them, and why is he feeding them?

To show them, I can give you everything your heart desires because this is a dry and weary

land and I can offer you everything, but they can't get off the physical and they just want them because they want more food.

He says, stop seeking the things of this world, stop seeking the things that will perish and seek me instead.

This is a point that Jesus makes consistently.

And this is a point that has to be in our own heart, is that the negative circumstances in your life is meant

to show you that you live in a dry and weary land, to show you the dry and weariness of your own soul so that you will desire

and seek for Christ and find your fulfillment in him and you'll behold him in the

sanctuary since your desires are there.

So let me ask you again, has the dry and weariness

situations of your life added, harmed, or been neutral to

your worship?

If it's harmed your worship, or if it's neither added nor taken

away from it, could it be that God is showing you your main desire is not God, but the world?

Could it be in some way, if you're dealing as a Christian right now, you're struggling with being,

what's the word for it, discouraged, right?

Could it be that somewhere in that, the heart's desire there is not for Christ to be glorified in this situation, but

it's because I am holding on to the world really strong here?

I used to consider the different examples I had before,

the different negative circumstances that we can face that I had on my notes, but I can't find the page,

the flat tire on the way to vacation, a spouse that's hard to live with, a child that goes

wayward, a friend that proves to be an enemy, a promotion that you never got, a job that you hate, poor health,

the list goes on, the different negative circumstances.

When you have behold Christ in the sanctuary and you see that that is all my desires are found in him, are you looking at

those things as different opportunities for you to glorify Christ in?

Are you looking at those things as my happiness is found in getting those things of itself, or are you looking at my happiness is found in

glorifying Christ there because of all that he's done for me?

A flat tire on the way to vacation is a beautiful opportunity for you to glorify Christ to your

children and to the world around you.

A spouse that's hard to live with, you know how much ammo there is there for you to show

God my desires are found in you, and so this is my opportunity to show that in my

obedience to you.

Do you understand that your negative circumstances God ordains to give you to

show you your desires for him and your obedience to him, but that will not happen if you're not beholding the

power of Christ to save in the sanctuary.

You need to look at what Christ has done for sinners.

That needs to fill your heart with so much desire and love for him that you just can't wait to use

the things of this world as a way to show your gratitude to him and your glorifying of him in those

situations.

God is kind to remind you of the drying weariness of the world

and of your own soul because in so doing he is reminding you of the drink you can have in the

forgiveness of sins in Jesus.

And as you drink deeply of the waters of grace, it is your joy to say, and I will use this

situation to show my gratitude to a God who has saved me from damnation.

Again, well -rounded worship, isn't it?

This isn't fake Christianity, is it?

This is true Christianity, a Christianity that says in every situation I will use to enjoy

worship of my king.

And I'm gonna tell you right now, and I know that there's people before me that have not bowed the knee to Jesus, do

not think for a moment this is yours at all because you are denying the very source of

life.

You're denying the very drink itself because you're not coming to the well and drinking deeply of Jesus.

Would you turn away from your sin?

Would you turn away from your disobedience?

Would you turn away from your philosophies that tells you that I will find life if I just grab hold of it strongly enough?

You will not, and you know that.

Within your own heart, you can't.

Turn to Christ.

He is the God -man.

He came to give you life.

He came to give you union with God through the forgiveness of sins.

Don't turn from that, but live in light of that.

There you will say, this is a garden.

This is a blessing.

This is no longer a dry and weary land, but this is life as we wait for the Savior to return.

Thank you, God, for being kind to sinners like us.

Lord, how often I wake up with this lament within my heart that the dry and weary land

has found its way even in my own soul, and I wanna look at my circumstances and blame them,

but really, God, what I'm doing is I'm showing that I'm trying to find my desires met in those

things, but Lord, we know that you use those things to remind us that our desires need to be in God, and so as David did, he sees

that this is just a weary situation, and it reminds him of his thirst for the Lord and

his desire to seek for him in the sanctuary, and in that, there's life.

In fact, it's better than life.

So may we be a people in which we have looked upon Jesus.

We have seen that he has revealed himself and has forgiven sinners, so let us

grab hold of that and let us see that every weariness that we face as an example, as an opportunity

to glorify, to seek him, to show who Christ is, and may that desire

for God have a way, just like it had with David, to say, you are better than life.

I'll be satisfied with you.

I pray that you would remind the saints of this and that they would live in that reality, and I pray for those who aren't believers before me, they would

turn away from their sin and they would look to Jesus in this way and they would say, oh God, thank you for your forgiveness

and I shall live for you now, the Lord of life.

Thank you, God, for this reminder, and may you be glorified in it.

In Jesus' name, amen.