We have a saying that goes like this: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” We normally use this saying for long distance relationships. In the Philippines, it is very common for a husband or a wife to go overseas as a contract worker. Most common reason is financial which is understandable, life was never easy for most people. They stay overseas for one year, or two years, or sometimes even ten years. Even here in Canada, we meet people who had to come here without their families, some of them came as nannies or caregivers, for two to three years with the hope that they can bring over their families.
Does absence really make the heart grow fonder? It´s a good saying but if you ask me, being apart from each other if you are in a relationship is not easy. It is prone to a lot of challenges and problems. It is subject to a lot of temptations and we heard stories that a big percentage of these relationships suffered. I still believe that a relationship gets better if both parties are together, physically and they face all their challenges together. I know there are some exceptions to this rule and some couples really made it work being in a long distance relationship. I know it´s hard work but also with the advent of technology, we can always Skype or FaceTime but still, I think there´s no substitute for being together, I think it is hard to keep a relationship if you are far apart. Don’t you agree?
Our relationship with the Lord is no different. Intimacy is very important. God is a God of relationships. Within the triune nature of God which we call the Trinity, there is intimate relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If we say that the Holy Spirit indwells in us, if we say that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then we can conclude that the believer´s relationship with the Lord is a very intimate one.
The problem is sometimes, we don’t feel this intimacy, there are times when we feel alone and away from God. There are times when we feel that God is distant.
What do we do? What if we keep on calling to God but He seems quiet? Sometimes we do feel that our problems are too trivial that God may have been busy with bigger things and divine plans. Is this really the case?
The title of the message is: Worship When God Seems Distant and this is from Psalm 13.
I also hear this sometimes usually from worship leaders – Pastor Ramil, it seems like our worship songs are not reaching God! If we feel that God is not answering us, or if we feel that God is not listening even to our worship or if He is not paying attention, should we stop bugging Him with our prayers? Should we stop worshiping Him for the time being? What is the right attitude when God does not seem to answer our prayers?
The big question is – is God really not answering? Is He really distant? This is the reason why I entitled this sermon Worship When God Seems Distant. Please take note of the word “seems.” Even if we think or feel that God is distant doesn’t make it a fact. It´s pretty much like when somebody comes to you and say they do not believe God. Well, you can refuse to believe God all day long but that doesn’t make it a fact.
There are a lot of reasons why we can feel that God is distant… and in most cases, it is because of us. It points back to us. It´s because of our situation. We feel that God is distant not because He is distant. Sometimes we may be preoccupied with so many things that is why we cannot feel God anymore, we cannot hear God anymore. Sometimes we are so troubled with our problems, or we are so problematic with our troubles that we cannot feel God anymore.
Let us see what David, the man after God´s own heart, has to say about this in the thirteenth Psalm.
BACKGROUND:
Psalm 13 is one of my favorite Psalms. You know why?
First, because it is short, and I like short chapters in the Bible.
Second, it is a very emotional Psalm.
Third, it conveys not just one emotion but three different kinds of emotions.
Old Testament scholars believe that …
David must have written this Psalm during the time he was running for his life from Saul.
We know the story of David. How Saul was so envy of his accomplishments to the point that he would like to kill him. Imagine, if not for David, Saul´s kingdom would have fallen to the Philistines because nobody can face the challenge of Goliath, not even Saul himself. But still Saul has this ungrateful spirit.
He was blinded by his jealousy and he can hear the shouts of the people… Saul killed thousands but David killed ten thousands!
So Saul chased David like a fugitive. Saul's jealousy had prompted him to make a vow that he will kill David at all cost. David flees for his life and hid in the mountains. Several times, David had a chance to kill Saul but he did not lay a finger on the king. What did David say? 1st Samuel 24:6 “I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the LORD's anointed.”
He waited approximately fifteen years from the time he was anointed up to the time he finally became King of Israel.
In the process of that long wait, it wasn´t easy for David. He was filled with fear, with exhaustion, with humiliation… Saul´s followers were mocking him. But he waited for God´s timing. But of course in the process, he asked God “how long Lord?”
The outline of Psalm 13 is very obvious. It´s divided into three parts:
Put a note in your Bible.
Verses 1 to 2 – David´s Problem
Verses 3 to 4 – David´s Prayer
Verses 5 to 6 – David´s Praise
Point to Ponder:
Let´s ponder upon three important points. In the first two verses, David cried. 1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Four times David asked the question “how long,” it´s an intense cry. Paulit-ulit, it's persistent. How long Lord? You know what they say? If you keep on asking “how long?” “how long?” “how long?” it sounds like “howling!”
You know most of us are not very good at waiting! How many of you like to wait? We don’t want to wait. Especially not in this day and age when almost everything is instant. Instant Mami Noodles. Fast food chains. Instant Coffee. Text. Microwave. eCommerce. ATM. Online banking. In general, we are not patient. Patient lang tayo when we are sick. Diba we patiently wait for the doctor for so many hours. That´s why you are called patient by your doctor. I was at Surrey emergency from 4pm to past midnight. I patiently waited for hours. How long Lord? How long before the doctor can check me up?
When we have problems and when we call upon the Lord and we don’t get immediate response or resolution to our problems, we cry “how long” Lord? But listen to this, the Bible says …
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV)
God may seem quiet sometimes but it doesn’t mean He is distant. He promised not to leave nor forsake us. God is with us, indwelling us in the person of the Holy Spirit. God is Omnipresent. David was getting impatient. He was wondering if there is an end to his suffering. Lord, you anointed me to be the next king of Israel, 15 years na, its still not happening. How long Lord?
Here´s what I want you to understand. God may be quiet when you have problems but it doesn’t mean He is distant. In fact, He might be communicating something to us but we just simply don’t listen. We are caught up with our problems that we don’t have time to listen to God anymore. We just keep on talking and asking and talking and asking… how long Lord? But our ears are not open to listen. Our eyes are not open to seeing the things that God wants us to see. Or He may be quiet because He wants us to learn something or to do something. Here´s another thing… sometimes God is waiting for us to do what He commands us to do but we are just so stubborn to obey and then, we get impatient.
Maybe God wants you to do something first? Maybe you haven’t fully obeyed Him that is why He seems quiet. He is patiently waiting for you to do your part.
But you know church, for most part, it is perfectly normal to feel that God is distant.
Isn´t it encouraging that our Lord Jesus felt what most of us are feeling when we feel down and abandoned. Isn´t this a cry of abandonment? “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? That somehow, at some point, Jesus felt the same way. Of course, it´s not always the same experience. Jesus never sinned and yet He experienced these things. In our case, some of us have problems sometimes because of our own wrong doing.
The first two verses of Psalm 13 focuses on David´s problem. How his enemy in gaining victory over him. How he is suffering from depression. He said he is “wrestling from his thoughts.” He said day after day he has sorrow in his heart. Have you experienced that? I experienced wrestling with my thoughts, I experienced having sorrow in my heart.
But you know, something happens in verses 3-4. We know that David is called Man after God´s Own Heart and thirteenth psalm somehow tells us why. Listen to our second point…
David wrote in verses 3 and 4: Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Now David is really praying. Now he has petitions. He is asking God to answer him. What was his prayer in these two verses? He said Lord, give light to my eyes. It´s like saying, Lord, please give me wisdom to understand what´s going on. Now David is recognizing that there is something wrong with Him. God is not really distant. He just seems distant, why? Because David is not seeing clearly. He was blinded by this own situations and his own problems. Did you catch that? Verses 3-4 is a prayer. A prayer asking God to open David´s eyes so he can see clearly.
We often sing this: “Open the eyes of my heart Lord. Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see You. I want to see You.”
Verse 3 and 4 conveys a different kind of emotion compared to the first two verses. This time… David is praying and God is probably glad at this point and probably saying: “Good job David! Now we´re talking!” The Apostle Paul said something about prayer --
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Phil. 4:6)
So EVERY situation! When things don’t go well, we pray. When things don’t make sense, we pray. When God seems distant, we pray. Paul said, present your requests to God! The Bible says “you have not because you ask not.” Choco nut!
When we pray, even before God specifically answers our prayers, He is already working in us. When we pray, God is changing our attitude. HE is changing our focus. He takes our attention away from our problems. There is a clear benefit when we pray even if we don’t receive a direct answer to our prayers or even if God´s answer is a “no,” there is still a benefit for us - prayer changes our attitude. Prayer promotes our dependence on God. How many couples came to me and my wife in the past, with marital problems. There is one advice that we always give and I´m sure if you are one of those couples, you can attest to this… we always advice the couple to PRAY TOGETHER! It changes our attitude, it shifts our focus from ourselves to GOD! It´s hard or even impossible to fight when you´re praying together.
The third and last point and please take note of this.
First two verses were about David´s problem. The 3rd and 4th verses were about David´s prayer. This last two verses were about David´s Praise. Let´s read once again: 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.
So the big question is: What happened? Why did David´s lament or howling suddenly turned to praise? God may not have answered David´s questions in verses 1 & 2 yet and but you know what, I am pretty sure God answered David´s prayer in verses 3 and 4. God has opened David´s eyes. Now David is talking about TRUSTING the Lord! Now he is talking about REJOICING, now he talking about SINGING the Lord´s praise. Listen to this – David said he rejoices in God´s salvation. He remembers that in spite of all the problems he may be facing at that very moment, so what? God has saved him! God has been good to him! The Apostle Paul said…
But Jesus said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. (2nd Corinthians 12:9 NIV)
It goes back to grace. It´s always important when we encounter problems in this world that we remember what God has done for us. God has been good to us… not only in material blessings but most importantly He´s been good to us because He gave us eternal life in Christ Jesus.
I was watching Ptr Charles Stanley one Sunday. He said some of our bad situations or problems are obviously caused by some really bad people or maybe even the devil and God seems to be nowhere around. But Ptr Stanley said think of those problems as coming from God. He is in control, and in His infinite power He allows those problems to happen or He even allows the devil to cause us pain, remember Job? Because He wants the accomplish something good for in us in the long run.
CONCLUSION:
This is what David did. From focusing on his problems, he prayed and he ended up praising the Lord. Isn´t it wonderful? God did not necessarily answer his “how long” questions but his attitude changes.
Like what I said earlier, when we have problems and God seems distant, remember that in reality He is not! God is never distant! The song of Bette Midler is not accurate… “God is watching us from a distance.” God is always near to us. He lives inside of us. All we need to do is to call up to Him and cast our burdens upon Him.
We just need to keep on asking Him. We just need to keep on knocking at His door.
He deserves our true worship because of His unfailing love and His gift of salvation.
One time, my wife and I were reading her daily devotion from Turning Point magazine of Dr. Jeremiah. In 1995, in Uganda, King Oyo ascended to the throne of the Toro Kingdom when he was three years old. In 1908, Pu Yi became emperor of China when he was two years old. In 1422, Henry VI became king of England at eight months old, and also king of France two months later. And there have been many more child monarchs. David was anointed as a young shepherd by the Lord through Prophet Samuel. What qualifications did these children have? They had the right genes! They came from the Royal line.
In other words, they had done nothing to demonstrate their ability to rule. David was the youngest child in his family, a shepherd. Yet God said to Samuel, “This is the one!” God didn’t say, “I have set my love on David because he will be a perfect king.” Instead, “I am choosing to love him for My purposes.” God disciplined David severely during his life for his sins, but God never stopped loving him and He never kept His distance from him. In fact, God’s discipline was a demonstration of His love for David.
God doesn’t love you and me because we are perfect—or try to be or want to be perfect. He loves you, He loves me because He chose you and me to be His children. God´s love is unfailing and because of this love, He gave us the greatest gift. It´s the love of Jesus for each one of us demonstrated by His sacrifice on the cross.
Church, we can definitely worship God even if He seems distant.
Prayer:
Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life. Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:
Father God, I confess all my sins to you today. Please forgive me. Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Him in my life as my Saviour and as my Lord. May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.
The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCCC Richmond during its service on Sunday, February 12, 2017
I apologise if there are grammatical and spelling errors.
I also apologise if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any, as it is purely unintentional.
If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:
www.wordchristiancommunity.com
No comments:
Post a Comment