11 July 2021 Sunday Service; “Understanding God?”
Call to Worship: Psalm 86:8-13
8 I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns; Father in Heaven, lord today we humbly thank you for all of your blessings in our lives, and pray that you would forgive us for not thanking you sooner. Amen!
Message Reading; 2 Samuel 6 The Ark comes Home
6 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 all 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.
9 David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.
12 Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 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 all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
Message: “Understanding God?”
I must admit before we even get started with today’s message, once again I am talking to you about something that I am only a novice, or an apprentice at doing. So, from the very get-go, sorry. By the way, the entire history of humanity is marked by people trying to understand the unexplainable, and cloaked with individual attempts at enlightenment.
All of this is my poor attempt to say; I am excited to talk with you about a topic that has stretched everyone’s ability to come to terms with: “Understanding God”. Or at least trying to work at it. The ancients (Aristotle) named the area of study that we are talking about Metaphysics; the things beyond physics, or the physical world.
So, from the onset, I think it important to share that it is probably very arrogant for anyone to suggest that they understand God in His totality, His purity, and in His majesty. And if anyone you come across someone who says to you that they have all of the answers about God, and His domain; be careful. I would even consider running. At least think really hard on what that person is saying, and always think for yourself.
Why bother with even going down that road then? With all the effort it takes to begin to understand what God wants from us. I hear there’s a good time to be had just down the street today, or any day. What we in Ogden have named two-bit street back in its hay-day, where even at 7:30 am, it’s always 10:30 somewhere. Or as a non-wise man used to tell me, Beer-thirty.
At times, that non-wise man believed he knew everything especially after a six hour stretch of downing a beer about every 45 minutes. Now that don’t sound too impressive, but you try it at 81, every day. Well, that’s no way to enlightenment but a good way to give the receiving angels a buzz from just talking to you upon your passing.
Again, the question comes up, why bother understanding God when He is so beyond our ability to understand (even with beer), and there is all of that misery out there implied by the beer-thirty guy I just told you about?
I think, and again it is you who is tasked to think for yourself. That is done by educating yourself through; Bible study both alone, and with people you trust, praying alone, and with people God has placed you with. Then being in a relationship with the Lord! I think that when we begin to listen to what God is really saying to us, we begin in some way to understand God a little better.
We begin to understand the scripture we are reading a little better each day we work at it. Our prayers begin to have real meaning and we begin to discern the direction the Lord is leading us in. And the more we do this, the deeper our relationship with the Lord and other people become in time.
Perhaps, understanding God better comes from looking to God faithfully, and His righteousness answering. Yes, faithfulness and righteousness that are the Well-springs of peace of mind that is wedded to the love we are learning through the Lord to receive and give.
All of this is implied through today’s Call to Worship; Psalm 86:8-13
8 I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
When we are in a relationship with God, and begin to learn how to listen to Him, then truly;
10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
And as we faithfully look to God above, for guidance, more faith, and more hope in Him, His righteousness rains down and anoints His children with faith, hope, and love, providing a peace of mind like no other.
And they lived happily ever after. The end. No! And no again!
What we have laid out is a template for a beginning. A process for our development in the Lord. Baby steps in our learning about God and His righteous ways of majesty.
Real learning, growth and maturing in a typical Faithwalk is not always one step in front of the other. Many of our faithwalks involve Moonwalking, and stumbling, and falling and getting back up and trying again. Feeling embarrassed and being afraid of looking ridiculous, receiving ridicule, and trying again. Asking non-stop for the Lord’s aid in our growing up in Him, and asking for His Holy Spirit for guidance.
As I said earlier, Excluding Jesus our Christ, our Savoir, mere people like you and me cannot accurately boast to know or understand God in His entirety, but I think we can begin to know and understand the Lord a little better, more and more through a relationship with Him.
And asking God for His Holy Spirit is a wise request indeed. The Apostle Paul understood that the Spirit of God is the source of all of the attributes we have been talking about today. Paul instructs us today as he witnessed to the church in Corinth two thousand years ago, teaching in 1 Corinthians 2:6-14;
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”–
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
God’s Holy Spirit is the beginning of all of our limited understanding of God, that;
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
So, God’s Holy Spirit is the beginning of all of our limited understanding of Him, by being the source of the attributes that I have spoken of today. Those attributes being;
- Faithfulness
- Righteousness
- Peace
- Faith, Hope, and Love
All lead to better understanding of the Lord.
Or, as we faithfully look to God, there is a peace of mind that comes from knowing that God’s righteousness will shower us with faith, hope, and love, which all the ingredients mix and build upon each other creating a synergy of ability in each of us.
That’s a fancy way of saying out of a whirlpool, your savoir builds understanding within you of all of this stuff we have discussed here today.
One of the best examples of being in the Spirit of the Lord and having some understanding of what God wants and not getting it, is from today’s Message reading from 2 Samuel 6 depicting the moving of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.
As the Ark was being moved Uzzah is struck down by God for haphazardly holding the Ark irreverently. David is angry because he does not understand God’s Holiness. Showing even when we are on God’s team as Uzzah was, or a man after God’s own heart as David was, we don’t automatically get a pass on holiness in Uzzah’s case or understanding God in David’s example.
David doesn’t understand all that’s going on with God’s agenda, but once he realizes that it is God who is calling the shots, the Lord is now ready for His Ark to be moved to Jerusalem.
David in response to living in the Spirit and celebrating God (and perhaps understanding God a little better now), dances for all he’s worth as the Ark procession enters the City of David, Jerusalem. David’s wife Michal (Saul’s daughter) I presume is embarrassed and despises David in her heart for acting unking like. Michal just doesn’t get it, and perhaps she like her father Saul suffered from the same disease called worldliness.
We will pick up our passage in today’s scripture this time starting at 2 Samuel 6 verses 20-22;
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
Owe, and owe. In my circles, that is known as firing for effect! By the way, Michal will remain childless. The last verse of chapter 6, 23 states;
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
Michal and Saul lived in the world’s idea of wisdom and knowledge, where David began humbly in life writing love songs to God while watching over his family’s sheep. Somehow David was able to keep coming back to God regardless of setbacks of his own making. And God takes him back each time and uses David to teach you and me how to understand the Lord a little better.
Maybe understanding God, involves first understanding that we will only know what He wants us to understand about Him, and the ticket to that is through His Holy spirit. Because;
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Amen!
Benediction; Psalm 24:1-4
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
And Numbers 6:24-26