Pursuit of God - Restoring the Creator - Chapter 8, Psalm 57:1-5 08/11/2013

AW Tozer – the pursuit of God, chapter 8-  Restoring the Creator-creature Relationship

Psalm 57:1-5

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,for in you I take refuge.^(C)I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings^(D)until the disaster has passed.^(E)2 I cry out to God Most High,to God, who vindicates me.^(F)3 He sends from heaven and saves me,^(G)rebuking those who hotly pursue me—^[c](H)God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.^(I)4 I am in the midst of lions;^(J)I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—men whose teeth are spears andarrows,whose tongues are sharp swords.^(K)5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;let your glory be over all the earth.^(L)

The psalmist is shouting out…… God  I need you.  And you are the top dog, the most high.

order in nature depends upon right relationships;

to achieve harmony each thing must be in its proper position relative to each other thing.

·        The male cardinal is red, the female is brown.

·        Momma birds do kick their babies out after a while

In human life it is the same

·        Parents love your children.

·        children, honor your father and mother.

·        Work for your employer as unto the lord

The correct natural relationship between us and God

Master vs servant

Dominant vs submissive

Father/child

Creator/created

No question who is dominant, but there is also great love

Because of selfishness and sin, we have made it about us ,

It not that god is against your life, he just know that you were made to love him

Lots of songs about the connectedness of love

And until we do, we will not find happiness

Many frightened people ontheir death bed, believed in god but did not love him

salvation is not that we are saved from sin and left in some unhappy vacuum

we are saved to God

loved by him, welcomed by him

the relationship is restored

example of the prodigal son and the restoration that came with the reestablishment of the father-son relation.

It was always there, waiting, the son had to choose to go home

Tozer talks about leaning away from the things of this world

Falls for a bit into the dualism that he earlier scorns

Good and bad.  Sacred and secular.

88 he says come out of the world

In the world but not of it

All I know is I'm not home yet - This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus  -This is not where I belong

vs – this is my fathers world

When god is exalted to his rightful place, the Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity.

A we think about the creator-created relationship

We are not talking about a change of behavior

But a change of attitude.  A change of heart

Sitting here is a good start but god is after your heart

 You can tell a child to do certain things.  Or an employee. 

·        Manage your budget. 

·        Clean your room. 

·        Don’t open two cartons of milk at the same time.

They might even do it

But what you hope for is that they do it from the heart

That they get it in their hearts

In a world of relativity and selfishness, god is a fixed point

We can stop thinking of him, but he does not stop being our creator

As the sailor locates his position on the sea by "shooting" the sun, so we may get our moral bearings by looking at God.

Not just moral bearings but the ground of our being

We want to change god to our liking.

We want to shape him

We get mad at god when he doesn’t do it the way that we want him to do it.

Yet he is unchangeable

In the face of evil and suffering, job questions god. 

God does not answer job but offers his own questions

Some of the most rapturous moments we know will be those we spend in reverent admiration of the Godhead.

And so we begin with god.  Above all, before all, in and thru all.

He is with us, our loving creator….

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for[Pg 102] thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode.

My life 16 homes.

Home- do you have a childhood home?  A home town?  Of course

Bruce springsteen- my hometown

There is something about that place….

gods loving arms envelop us in joy and completeness

wanting to spend time with your parents………my dad at 72

love involves adoration.  Alli and bobby.  Bobby on the deck

Who’s number one? And there is this painful test…..

Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is check your check book. What are we spending on?

“Let a person be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and people, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the person may protest, the proof is in the choices he or she makes day after day throughout their life.”

But God honors intention.  effort.  Sincereity.

When broken people try to honor god, god gives them grace.

What can be said of Abraham, Jacob, David, Elijah God accepted his intention as fact and acted accordingly.

Not perfection, but holy intention made the difference.

·        Are you going on to perfection

·        Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?

Being made perfect in love

Perfect intention         - harry crowell

God desires you

Desiring god.  Desiring your beautiful wife.  It is a type of our relationship with god

conclusion

When we love god, we become a theater where He can display His exceeding kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Joshua 24 – As for me and my house…

¹⁴ “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

A pastor was asked about his retirement…….

Those whose hearts are turned towards God, whose lives have him in his rightful place are always looking for someone to love, for someone to care about.  Always about our fathers business.

We are the creation.  He is the creator.  Let us love him.  With our heart soul mind and strength.  That is after all, the greatest commandment.

Lets Pray-

Father, Rise up into Your proper place of honor, above our ambitions, above our likes and dislikes, above our families, our health and even our lives.  Let us decrease so that You may increase; let us sink that You may rise above.  Let us join the angels in Heaven crying to You "Hosanna in the Highest." Amen

Pursuit of God - Part 4 Apprehending 7-13-2013 Psalms 34:1-8

Sermon 7-7-13  the pursuit of God chpt 4 apprehending  pp-09

Continue in summer series- the pursuit of God

Chapter 4 apprehending God

The concept of apprehending

Csi apprehending vs seeing God

God  Ps 34:1-8

I will extol the Lord at all times;^(B)
his praise will always be on my lips.
² I will glory^(C) in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.^(D)
3 Glorify the Lord^(E) with me;
let us exalt^(F) his name together.

⁴ I sought the Lord,⁽G⁾ and he answered me;
he delivered^(H) me from all my fears.
⁵ Those who look to him are radiant;^(I)
their faces are never covered with shame.^(J)
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.^(K)
7 The angel of the Lord^(L) encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers^(M) them.

⁸ Taste and see that the Lord is good;^(N)
blessed is the one who takes refuge^(O) in him.

Many settle for an Intellectual faith in one form or another,

it makes sense to me that god is, so he must be.

Or I was taught from a child it is so, so he must be.

So, many people live and die and never get to know God

The possibility of intimate acquaintance with Him has not entered their minds.

While admitting His existence they do not think of Him as knowable in the sense that we know things or people.

Christians, go further than this, we hope.

Their creed requires them to believe in the personality of God,

          Loving, caring, guiding, jealous attributes of God’s character

they have been taught to pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven."

Now personality and fatherhood carry with them the idea of the possibility of personal acquaintance.

But Many people go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle.

I know I have a father, but I do not know him

Rex smiley on fathers day

Over against all this cloudy vagueness is the biblical teaching that God can be known in personal experience.

A loving Personality dominates the Bible,

walking among the trees of the garden

Walking on the shores of galilee

Setting children on his knee

Forgiving the judged, releasing the captives, healing the broken

God  is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary

The Bible assumes that just as you can know a person, you can know God.

So I know jon cundiff.  See him here?  He is a good man. 

We can know god in the same way.  But do we??

The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things. "O taste and see that the Lord is good." "My sheep hear my voice." "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." These are but three of countless such passages from the Bible.

It is not just an idea,  It is a theme from beginning to end.

We come to know the physical world by our five senses, hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting

We also possess the ability to know the world of the spirit if we pay attention

Tozer says, First a person comes to Christ, then they begin to have a growing spiritual sense with which to perceive god and get to know him

Jeff says, But I have seen the opposite at work too, where a deep yearning begins to grow in a person and their spiritual faculties are spot on, and that leads them to faith in Christ.

Two worlds

Temporal and eternal

Physical and spiritual

Seen and unseen.

We are aquainted much more with the world that we can touch.  But is it actually the real world?

The allegory of Plato’s cave

Describe it

Show the video                                                                                               video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM

in one of the versions of this, the prisoner is drug up the steps

the ascent to reality can be very painful

the process of leaving our earthly paradigms can hurt

what is the real part of a person?

Genesis...created dust and spirit...physical and spiritual
Amazing how it is all formed
the spirit and body are joined to make a human. 

Look at a body at a funeral visitation – the person is not there
the soul is the man...take it away, have nothing

And so there is this real world of the spirit

1 cor 13- now we see thru a glass darkly

Glass in the wild wild west

2 kings 6 – Elisha and the army of angels – picture

⁸ Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”⁹ The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” ¹⁰ So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.¹¹ This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”¹² “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”¹³ “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴ Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.¹⁶ “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

When we look at this world and think that this is all there is

Or that this is what really is

We have bought a lie

We have been sucked into the matrix 1999

The matrix Neo and Morpheus
The matrix picture
Choosing to be sucked into a world that isn’t the true reality

So we have the physical world and the spiritual world. which will we value?

We value the physical world when we become consumers

·        When we can’t wait for the sale

·        When we are overly worried about our good looks

·        When I want it fever takes us over

We value the spiritual world when we

·        Love god with our heart soul mind and strength

·        See others as god sees them

·         And practice habitually to see the world with the kind heart of God

We must choose

The physical world or the spiritual world

Do we see the clouds or do we see the sky- past the sky to the universe, past the universe to see the creator?

Do we see the insult or look past the broken human-  there is something spiritual going on

Do we value Christmas trappings, or a savior come to earth

We know how our human mind sees a thing, but  How does our soul see a thing?

The soul has eyes with which to see and ears with which to hear. Feeble they may be from long disuse, but by the life-giving touch of Christ we can learn to live with a more spiritual mindset

think of people that you know that you consider spiritual

          they have a wonderful perception.  They listen, they hear, they see things

It is amazing  we are attracted to them

The work of God is the work of the spirit.

Churches like to talk about what God is doing at their place…..

Revival…….. not done by putting up a sign.

John Wesley did not intend to start a new church

But sometimes god moves on a people.

In revival god doesn’t take sides, god takes over…….

          Picture your life as a place where god is moving

          Your heart as a place where god is speaking

          Your mind that is thinking more and more about him and his ways.

How do we learn to do it?  Can we do it today?

Yes

1.   Break the habit of looking at the physical as the real life

Break the habit of ignoring the spiritual

Stop thinking that the physical is the real stuff, the good stuff or the important stuff

2.   See the world for what it is, both spiritual and physcical

3.   Change our interest from that  which is seen to that which is unseen

The birthday gifts

4.   Think on god

5.   pray

·        God let me see your world

·        God let me hear your voice

·        God who can I care about for you this day

O God, Bring to life the spirit within me so that I may see you more clearly.  

Give me spiritual insight that I may know you more dearly.   Let me taste and know that you are good. Help me to know you with certainty and bring me closer to you and heaven than I have ever been.  Amen