How Can I Find Fulfilment? | Hilton Sonday – Say It To God Part 5 | HTB Live Stream

good morning this morning we are reading psalm 63 and we'll talk about how to worship in the wilderness psalm 63 it's the psalm of david when he was in the desert of judah you god are my god earnestly i seek you i thirst for you my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water i've seen you in the sanctuary and behold your power and your glory because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you i will praise you as long as i live in your name i will lift up my hands i will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods with singing lips my mouth will praise you on my bed i remember you i think of you through the watches of the night because you are my help i sing in the shadow of your wings i cling to you your right hand upholds me i come to you this morning with a confession this is an aed it's an automatic external defibrillator if you happen to have a medical emergency you could call an ambulance and wait them to arrive to assist you if your heart is the cause of your medical emergency you don't have time to wait you need the equipment with you immediately and we have this available just in case anybody needs it to date we have never needed it i would love to use this machine on one of you i've trained thoroughly i dream about it often you walk into church clutch your chest forth the ground i'm there with my uh defib ready [Music] i rub the pads together you don't have to do that i'm just going hollywood with this stick it on your chest one electrode on either side of your heart i tell you everything's gonna be okay as i connect you to electricity and then the moment whack the button and the surge of electricity pours through your heart altering a defective heartbeat into one that beats to rhythm that should you sit up with a deep breath you look at me and i say it's all fine all i need is one of you to go into cardiac arrest and my dream is fulfilled today we are looking at psalm 63 and to me some of you are still waiting for me to hit this button and shock myself i can see it on your faces nope [Music] psalm 63 is the defibrillator of the bible these words get thrown through our heart to alter the heartbeat so that every beat beats for jesus we read this not because we are looking for a test not because we are evaluating ourselves we read this so that this these words these hymns this poetry this lyrics can so go through our heart that it alters the way we live for god and the way we worship him so as we uh look at this just have this image in your mind of these words pulsating through your heart detecting where your heart needs to beat slightly differently in verse 1 we see that david has an intimate relationship with god in the wilderness you need to know god intimately this phrase you god are my god that was written for people like me introverts see we introverts we know when a few words carries the weight of meaning and i can see my introverts all nodding yes the extroverts among you are the ones that have already been on your phone texting the speaker today wants me to have a heart attack you god on my god is the opposite of the omg oh my god it's the opposite of that hollow sort of random phrase we sometimes throw out the third commandment tells us not to use the name of the lord your god in vain so not in an empty shallow hollow way i think it risks that language risks us relating to god in the same way as those empty words in a distant hollow empty manner david is intimate with god he's this this verse doesn't directly point to god it's a generic sentence god elohim eli these are words that can be used for anything that's worshipped we only know who david is referring to because we know david and we know that he's talking about my god and so we know this god it's like um the possession that you have within marriage you know we have these weddings couples walk down here they come up to the front and the groom says i take you to be my wife and the bride says to the groom i take you to be my husband this is possession this is you are mine and david looks to god and says i have you you are mine this is the intimacy that he enjoys with god he goes on to say that even though he has this deep connection even though he has god um he wants more this intimacy is is built on trust you know this this couple they don't just arrive here on the day they've been on the tube and shared a glance they've gone on the first date they spent months getting to know each other the trust has grown and so the intimacy has grown you you don't get intimate with someone you don't trust right david trusts god he's bonded to god in the most intimate way like a marriage couple and yet he says i want more he says i thirst for you my whole being longs for you so what do we make of that well there's a daily need isn't there knowing god is essential but in the wilderness you also need to pitch up daily to talk to god it's it's the overriding message of the psalms closeness and nearness to god seeking his face this is the the repeating resounding message of the psalms and it points to this picture of wanting to be back in eden remember the story god creates paradise drops adam and eve into it and every day they walk together in the garden talking being intimate one day they do something silly touch a tree they shouldn't have and god says sorry you have to leave so they're out in the wilderness there's a two swords flaming away at the entrance stopping them from every turning their wild animals placed at the entrance they can't go back and this is where we find ourselves in the wilderness this is where david is in the wilderness physically spiritually he says it's a dry place there's no sustenance for life in this place and he says i thirst for you god my whole being longs for you the next point is worship in the wilderness has to be continuous david says it's early in the morning and it's late at night there's this connection where he's earnestly seeking god in the morning we use the word earnestly because hebrew words have a depth of meaning each word carries a huge weight and we pick out what we think is priority your bible might say early in the morning i seek you so david's out there spending time doing his bible in one year he's a verse pops out he takes a photo on his phone he cares with him through the day every now and then he looks at it thinks ponders at lunch time he's googling oh what does this word mean what are other people saying about this at night he's in bed thinking about what god has done think about some memory verse that he has in his mind and he's completed the cycle of being in god's presence all day long sort of like a mini bible study throughout his day where god is completely the focus you might ask well why why does god need this amount of attention from us the reason is in verse 2 i've seen you in the sanctuary and behold your power and your glory because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you in our family we don't use hand sanitizer it's too big a word for the youngest child so we have hannitizer i give that to you you can market it if you like the word worship um is made up of two words worthy and ship i have no idea why the word ship isn't there but worthy refers to us placing value and worshipping whatever we see as the utmost worth david says that your love god is better than anything in life that's a huge statement yeah we're in the wilderness but there are some good points to this world david says nothing compares just to one attribute just your love nothing else compares in value so what do we make of this maybe it's an affectionate love language something like i love you with all my heart we know that what we know that means right it's not all my heart i need bit of my heart for myself i need some love for sports and gardening so is david saying to god your love is better than all of life you know what i mean i don't think so i think it literally means that in this world nothing compares to the love of god there are at least 11 christians who every day die because they choose god's love over life it's estimated 11 christians die per day around the world because they value god above everything else and will not deny him when david says your love is better than all of life i think he means it we worship him because he is worthy in verse 4 it gets interesting because david shows that god is worthy in every circumstance he says all my life i'm going to praise you he guarantees it but he doesn't guarantee how he's gonna do it verses three five and seven has an audible worship it's singing the lips of my mouth will glorify you there's something audible there's some exuberance about it first of all it's it's hands up we get no indication that there are any songs or words coming from his mouth had some friends a few years ago and they were excited about a baby that would be arriving in the last few days of the pregnancy things did not work out well for them and um instead of planning birthdays and baptisms they had to plan a funeral i'm sorry this is your story or close to your story i'll get the point really quickly we went to the little church to have the funeral and they asked us to sing a worship song to start off with and we struggled it's hard we were doing our best but and then in the front row as we watched them just saw their hands going up no singing just tears falling to the ground and then making a statement that no matter what the circumstance god is worthy i admire that david says no matter what all my life you'll get my praise might not always be dancing and singing but i am going to praise you because you are always worthy why would you consider worshiping a god in a world like this in this wilderness that's a good question to ask um i i started off the creation story i didn't finish it you remember god creates paradise drops in adam and eve walks around with him daily they pick the fruits and get pushed out of eden they are flaming swords and animals to keep them out now adam and eve are in the wilderness where things are hard where life is tough and then it gets tougher adam and eve get to know each other a bit adam gets a haircut the job second-hand car takes eve to nando's this is not in the bible come on you know this right and they have a little moment and eve starts getting bigger she asks adam do i look fat in this adam says i've made one mistake in my life i'm not about to make another and he keeps quiet and eve has what i cannot imagine i'm the first child birth in the history of the world adam sees this and he does what every man from that point to 1983 does he goes to the pub and eve gives birth to cain do you know what she says genesis 4 verse 1 sweetest words she says the lord helped me so now now you've got to rewrite the story in your mind god creates paradise drops in adam and eve they walk together they pick the fruit they're out flaming swords wild animals but now you've got a picture that god stepped out of paradise and was with eve in the moment that she needed him the most god was there i give you this if you are fortunate enough to find someone who will walk down this aisle with you come and stand here and say to you in richness and poverty i will take you in sickness and in health i will take you if you find a person like that you have my blessing marry them if you find a god who is willing to step out of paradise into the dirt of the wilderness with you you worship that god i have not found any other than jesus he is near he is trustworthy he is willing to draw close to you he is willing to show you his face if you just show up in the morning and read some of his words you know why i follow jesus i'm meant to say that it's because he died and rose again and i can have eternal life with god i believe that or always will but in mark 8 from verse 31 jesus is talking to some people and he says i'm going to die but just wait count three days and i'll rise up again that is remarkable to die and rise again remarkable miracle to say you are going to do it and then you do it you can tell me anything after that and i will trust you jesus is trustworthy everything he says to you will come about he is god he is with you he is near all we have to do is show up let these words pulsate through our hearts like you can relate like you're connected to electricity and let him change that heartbeat to a point where every little beat is for him in jesus name amen you

Channel: HTB Church

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Keywords: Church online, HTB, Faith, Prayer, Hope, Positivity, Good News, Preaching, Bible, Worship

Id: LITlj3aE0Ac

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 01 2021