Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, August 16 2009
There are two great commandments from the Bible that sum up what it means to be Christians, to love God and to love people. Christian life is about being in love relationship with God and with people. And, the latest encouragement to read God’s word in my sermons and to spend time with God has its goal set on growing relationship with God. One of the key ingredients for growing relationship with God is prayer. I like how Warren Wiersbe framed Psalm 17 in his short message. He framed the prayer in Psalm 17 in what we need from God, namely his ears, his eyes, his hand and his face. We pray because we need God’s ears to hear our petition, his eyes to examine us, his hand to deliver us and his face to satisfy us.[1]
For the purpose of speaking clearly without jamming in too much stuff into one sermon, I am going to speak in two sermons. Today, I will touch on our need for God’s ears, eyes and his hand. Next week, I will speak on our need for God’s face.
- Prayer of callous hearts
Before I talk about prayer that seeks God’s eyes, I need to speak to you about what might be a typical way people pray. A typical prayer is prayer that seeks God’s ears and his hand; it seeks results from God. We want him to hear to us and to do something for us, to help us to do well on test, to do well at work, to keep us in good health, to help us succeed… Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting God to hear us and lend his hand to help, to rescue, to deliver us. Seeking God as the one who hears us and helps us with his mighty hand honors him.
David sought in his prayer for God’s ears and his hand in Psalm 17. David is asking for God to “hear” him to “give ear” to his prayer (17:1) and to save him by his “right hand” (17:7). He doesn’t write about the details of the problem he is facing; but words like “vindication” from 17:2, the descriptions from 17:10, “the wicked with “callous hearts” who “speak with arrogance” and 17:11, how they “track him down and “surround” him like “Lions hungry for prey” and “crouching in cover” to ambush him… all these indicate some kind of attacks unleashed against David by the wicked people around him. And, he is asking for God to hear him and to life his hand to deliver him.
So, we know that there is nothing wrong with seeking God’s ears and his hand to help us. But, if this is all that we seek, God’s ears to hear us and his hand to help us, then something isn’t quite right about this. When we seek God’s ears and his hand, but not his eyes and his face, we treat God as our personal genie who exists for our wants and needs.
David, in Psalm 17:10, describes the attackers as ones with “callous hearts.” Literally, “callous hearts” speaks to closed up hearts in fat. A commentator sees the "fat" of the hearts of the wicked as their greedy, self-loving, and insensitive nature.[2]
I got my blood test result back last week and it showed that I have abnormally high triglycerides level. I did some quick web research and found out if this abnormal triglycerides level persists I have greater risk of suffering strokes and other heart complicated illnesses. Triglycerides level is directly link to high Carbohydrates consumption, high calorie diet, along with low exercise. Basically, I am talking in too much calories, too much carbohydrates without burning it up in regular exercises. I have callous hear sort to speak.
Spiritual fatty, callous hearts are hearts that want things from God without being responsible to him. Fatty, callous hearts only want God to hear them and extend his hand to help them out, but otherwise they see no other need for God. It is seeing God as a genie, a personal assistant available to assist us in our troubles, like On-Star systems that some cars have or AAA. Callous heart of an ungrateful child wants whole lot of things from his parents, but has no sense of responsibility.
Are you suffering from fatty callous heart? How would you know if you are treating God as your personal assistant to show up at moments notice when you are in trouble? If your prayer language focuses mostly on God hearing you and God doing things for you, then you should suspect the condition of fatty callous heart! If you persist on asking for God’s ears and his hand without his eyes and his face, you will experience spiritual strokes or heart attack.
What you and I need is the kind of prayer that does away with fatty callous heart. And the way we are going to turn this potentially life threatening condition is by seeking God’s eyes and his face. As I said, today, the focus will be on seeking God’s eyes.
- Prayer that seeks God’s eyes
What is prayer that seeks God’s eyes? In David’s prayer, what we see is “righteous plea” that is “not rising from deceitful lips” in Psalm 17:1. Prayer that seeks God’s eyes is prayer that his honest, not deceptive.
Many of you who are following M’Cheney’s Bible reading schedule would have read Jeremiah 42 this past week. There you would have noticed the Israelites asking Jeremiah, “Please hear our petition and pray to the LORD your God for this entire remnant… Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do… Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD your God… we will obey the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 42:1-6). It is a beautiful prayer of petition to God to lead; it is a prayer of confession in their willingness to trust and submit to his guidance.
Jeremiah told them that they should go into exile to the foreign land of Babylon and there God purposed to bless them. He told them that they should not go down to Egypt, falsely believing that they would be safe in Egypt from the Babylonians. But, their reply reveals the true nature of their earlier prayer. Jeremiah 43:2 reads their response, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’”
This is praying with “deceitful lips”, praying dishonestly. It rose from their callous hearts, fatty hearts that were bent on using God for their own gains. So, when they heard differently from God than what they really wanted to do, they dismissed God completely. How do we prevent this kind of deceitful prayer? We need prayer that seeks God’s eyes to evaluate us and refine us.
- Prayer that seeks God’s eyes… take alone time with God at night.
Psalm 17:3, David talks about God probing his heart and examining him at night. Night is when usually work is no longer carried out, when normal social relationship are at rest. Night signifies time of aloneness when no one is around you, but God alone.
Not only do we need the time in the morning, but we also need the time at night when you and I are alone and apart from the seeing eyes of the people, but not from the seeing eyes of God.
After long day, often temptation is to veggie out, checking emails, reading news, watching TV and to fall asleep. But, David’s practice was to during the aloneness of his nights to come to God who saw him.
What was David doing in his aloneness of nights? He came to God for two things, evaluation and refining.
- Prayer that seeks God’s eyes… let God evaluate you.
Psalm 17:3, David talks about God who sees him probing his heart and examining him. To probe is to investigate, to interrogate, and to evaluate what otherwise would be hidden away from our conscience. It is not that God doesn’t see or God needs time to evaluate us. He already knows our character, our days, the condition of our hearts and our lifestyle. The problem is that unless we come to God and draw near for evaluation, we won’t know what’s going on in us. God has to reveal his evaluation to us in order for us to know what’s going well and what’s not going well.
- Prayer that seeks God’s eyes… let God refines you.
David also talks about in Psalm 17:3 God testing him. Testing here comes from the language of metal worker refining precious metals like silver and gold to take out dross in order to produce highest quality of silver and gold. Psalm 66:10 says, “you refined us like silver.” Testing and refining are the same Hebrew word translated differently. So, this language of refining describes what God does in his people. Isaiah 1:25, “I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.”
You need God’s eyes to search your inner make up of who you are. What gave rise to your anger during your day? What gave rise to lustful thoughts today? Why did you lie today? Why did you waste your time? What hurts you today? What fears did you have today? How did you hurt, sin against others?
As the Lord searches our hearts and reveals the dross, the impurities, then you and I can take them to the cross where Christ covers them with his blood and he cleanses us. When this takes each night, when this refinement process repeats each night, you and I will become purer each day.
1 Corinthians 3:12-14 says, “If any man builds on his foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
When the time when God will account you and me, what will you and I have to show for?
[1] http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=10242
[2] VanGemeren, Willem A. “III. The Wicked (17:10-12)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 5. 165. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1991.
