MK040 Sermons
Subtle Temptation (Audio)
a pinch when the pressure is on and someone has to decide who's going to make the decision. But there's more important decisions in life beyond where we're going to stop for food or where we're going on this trip or finding a good parking spot. And the question is, how do you make those decisions? How do you navigate through when they're right there in front of you? Decisions like, what am I going to study or do I go to college or not? And if I do go to college, then what college do I attend? If I don't, what job do I take? And if I'm going to go to college, then what do I study? Or maybe I've got a job and I'm not sure I want to stay in this job or I'm going to look for some other job? If I'm in a relationship, do I pursue that relationship? Or is this someone, I don't know if there's anything to this relationship? But beyond that, the decisions of purchases and other things that come into our lives on a day-to-day basis, the decisions that when we've been mistreated, how do we respond to that? When we've been ignored, how do we respond? When we've been hurt, how do we respond? And so these are the kinds of decisions that we're faced with all the time. And I would imagine that in a room like this meeting in a church that most of us would like to have God's input on decisions that we make. That would certainly be helpful to us as we're navigating these kinds of things that come up in our lives. Sometimes daily, bigger ones, less so, but sometimes daily. Well, this morning we're going to talk about making decisions and I want to suggest to you that making wise decisions, which I think most of us probably, if not all of us want to make, is going to require some level of divine intervention. Making wise decisions is going to require divine intervention. And no matter where you are on your faith journey, my guess is you'd like to get a little input from God about the decisions that are in front of you. Because whether you've been walking with God or you're new to faith or you're just checking God out, no matter where you're at, somewhere along the way, there's this sense that we have that he knows a little bit more about my life than I know. And I'd sure like to get his input on where this thing has gone. Well, if you haven't been here with us, we've been in a series entitled "Unlikely Hero, Looking at the Life of David." A young man who faced in a somewhat unplanned route from being a shepherd on a hillside to being a giant killer, to being a military leader, to now being on the run for his life, being hunted down and chased by King Saul. And Saul, who's the king of the land, his pole numbers have continued to slide to an abysmal place to the point that now his army is not even willing to follow him. His army is not even willing to listen to his directives because they know what a crazy man he is, that he had to get a foreign assassin to come and wipe out a whole group of priests because his men would not even listen to that directive from him. David, on the other hand, is in this confusing conundrum because he's been told he's going to be king, he's been anointed by God to be king, and the people are rallying around him. Even the people that don't care about anything in life, they're choosing to follow him, but God says not yet, not yet, not yet. And he's simply relegated to be in the ramen hood of the hills of Judea at this point in his life. Well, if you have a Bible, if you would turn to 1 Samuel 23, 1 Samuel 23, and if you don't have a Bible, our guys have some and they're going to pass them out, and if you don't have a Bible of your own, we encourage you to take this with you and be able to read through this later on in the week, or other places that you find to be helpful. While you're turning there to 1 Samuel 23, the page number and the Bibles are handing out is on the screen. Just to tell you a little bit of what has happened here, David has developed a ragtag group of men, the army of misfit men, if you would, men who were down on life, men who had had a bad turn, lost everything they had, so they became dead dead, men who were just discontented and hating life itself. And this is who had become David's army of about 400 men, and this army of about 400 men had become the protectors of the wilderness, not of the universe, just of the wilderness, and that's what their role was. And so David hears that the Philistines are going to attack this small little village by the name of Kila. And in 1 Samuel 23, the story tells us that David gets wind that this is going to happen, and what the Philistines would normally do is they would wait until a village had planted and harvested their crops, had winnowed their crops, so they had exactly what they were going to live off of for all of the next year and some seed for the next year, and then they would wipe in and take everything that was there, thereby leaving the people destitute with nothing to live off of all winter and nothing to live off of for the next year, even seed crop to plant again. And so David got word this is going to take place, and in verse 2, it's going to come up on the screen, "David asked God what he should do, he said, 'Should I go and attack these Philistines?' God answers him, go and attack him and save the village." Sounds like a pretty clear message. But as he takes this directive back to his men, they're not so sure about this directive. Look at their response in verse 3, they said, "Here in Judah we're afraid how much more if we go to Kila against the Philistine forces?" David's men basically said, "David in case you forgot we're hunted, they want to kill us." And so we're kind of not real sure about going anywhere, and now you want us to go into battle. We're not a real army. We just kind of pretend we're an army, and we follow you wherever we want to go. And now you want to put us in a greater level of threat than we're currently in. And they're like, "I think we're going to stay here on this one." Well David does something quite remarkable here, because even though he had heard from God, he doesn't try to convince his men what he should do. Kind of surprising. Well guys, come on, God told me this, and I think if God says it, we should do it. Don't you agree that if God says it, we should do it, but he doesn't try to convince the men that that's what he should do? And he really demonstrates some characteristics of wise leadership. Because wise leadership always listens to and considers the input of the people that you are leading. It doesn't mean that you always change your direction and do whatever they want, but you stop and you consider what it is they are saying. Whether you're leading a company, whether you're leading a division, whether you're leading a sports team, whether you're just leading your own home, whether you're leading in a ministry here, a wise leader takes into consideration what the input of others is for them. So students, the next time your parents ask you to do something, then you don't like what they ask you to do. You can blow up at them, or you could say to them, "Pastor John asked me to tell you to consider this option for you to think about." See if they respond. No guarantees how they'll respond, but you never know, you never know. And that's just one of the unique things about David, is he demonstrates this level of leadership here. He doesn't just jump in and demand that the men found, but look what he does in the next verse. He goes to God once again, and God says, "Go down to Kila, and now God adds a little bit more, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand." He now says, "You know what, guys? You're going to win the battle. You're going to win the battle." It's fascinating to me that David is not controlled by people pleasing, by doing what the people want, but he's willing to consider what they have to say and decide is this the direction that I should go. And they decide to go that, and the next verse says that they go down into the battle. God gives them the victory. They defeat the Philistines, carry off livestock, inflict heavy losses, and save the people of Kila. David, even his role as a fugitive, is the protector of the people. He's doing what God is preparing him to do, what God's planning for him to do, demonstrating that the accusations saw his place upon him are not true. In the midst of this story, there's a little kind of addendum to it. In the next verse, it says this, it says, "Now, Abathar son of a Himalayk had brought the Ephod down with him when he fled to David at Kila." You're like, "What does that have to do with this story?" Well, back up a few episodes to what had taken place a few weeks ago, a Himalayk was a priest, and he had been wiped out by this by Doeg in the story a couple weeks ago. But one man escaped, and that one man was Abathar, the grandson of a Himalayk. He actually came and he brought this thing called an Ephod, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment. So David goes down to Kila, saves the village, wipes out, inflicts heavy losses on the Philistines, and Saul gets wind that this is happening in verse 7. He finds out that David is there, and notice what Saul says in verse 7. He says, "God has delivered him into my hands, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars." Something interesting happens with Saul here, because in the story so far, and we're going to even see this today, it's very, very clear that God is directing David and not directing Saul. But Saul interprets the circumstances in his life as if God is involved in them. He says, "God's in it. God's in it." And I think that's very easy for us to do, to look at a circumstance that takes place in our lives and automatically assume that God is in the situation. Well God's provided this great job for me in this other city, and I'm going to move my family there, and everybody's going to love it, and we'll eventually find a church, and sometimes that doesn't ever happen. Circumstances looked like God was in it, but he clearly wasn't. An individual struggling in their marriage, and they're maybe even separated, and they'll come to me and tell me, "John, God brought this amazing person in my life, and they just listened to me, and they understand me." And I'm thinking, "I don't think God's in that. I don't think God's in that." Or someone deeply in debt comes and tells me, "This new car that they just got, or this new whatever they got, and I'm thinking, "I'm not sure God's in that. Not sure God's in that." And this wonderful that someone says, "I'm going to have a baby, and they're not married, and they're out of wedlock, and I'm thinking, "Well, I'm glad a new life is going to be born, but I'm wondering, is God in that? Is God in that?" And so the story of Saul continues to be one where Saul looks at the situation, and he sees it in a way that leaves us scratching our head, saying, "I don't think that's really what's going on, but he was convinced in his own mind." So what happens in the story? Well, David got word that Saul was coming in verse 8, and so he goes to Abathar the priest, and he says, "Bring me the Ephod." There's that Ephod thing again. What in the world is an Ephod? Well, an Ephod was part of the priestly garments that the priest in those days wore. I'm glad I don't have to wear that stuff, but that's another story. But this is an Ephod. It's going to come up on the screen. The Ephod is the apron-looking, colorful garment that is over top of his robe. And you can see on the front of this Ephod, up around his chest area, there's a square-shaped item, and that item has 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And the priest would wear these as they would perform their priestly duties in the tabernacle, and eventually in the temple that Solomon would one day build. This was established by God all the way back in the book of Exodus when he brought the people out of the land. He said, "This is what the priest should wear, and these things are all very, very symbolic." Well, so why would David ask the priest to bring the Ephod when he would come? Well, the reason for that is there's a pouch that is tucked in behind, if we can go back to that last slide, there's a pouch that's tucked in behind the rectangular thing on his chest. And inside that pouch were two stones, two smooth stones. Sometimes they would be a piece of wood, sometimes smooth stones. It might have looked like this. Now we can go to the next slide. And those two stones, the one on my right and your left, would be the urem, and the other stone would be the fumim. The urem and the fumim. And this was like the Jewish magic eight-ball, is the best way to describe it. Okay? Because when the leader of the land had a decision, he would go to the priest, he would say, "What should I do?" He would reach into his pouch, pull out a rock. If it was white, it meant God has spoken, you should move forward. If it was black, he would say, "No, you should not move forward." See? Jewish magic eight-ball, you know? Exactly what it was. And so that's what David did. David went to the priest, and likely he had done this before, and that's the way they inquired to the Lord. You say, "Is that the only way God talked?" No, God talked in many other ways. God would communicate through dreams. God would sometimes communicate through a spoken word from the prophet of God speaking. That's another way that God would communicate. God would also communicate through other people. God even used a mule or an "ask" to communicate. So God's not limited by time and space to communicate as he wants to. But this was one of the ways that God would communicate his will and his direction to the people. So back to the story. So David goes to the priest in verse nine, and he says this to the priest, as he's praying, and he says, "Lord God of Israel, your servant has heard." Definitely, that Saul plans to come to Kielon and destroy the town on account of me. And then he asks two questions in verse 11. If we can put, yeah, there's verse 11. He says, "Will the citizen surrender me to him? Are they going to give me up? And will Saul come down and try to capture me as I have heard?" And he says, "Lord God, tell your servant." And the Lord answered, "He will." Now did God answer both questions? He didn't. He only answered the second question, "Is Saul going to come down?" He will. He didn't answer the first question. So David goes back to God again, and he says in the next verse, he says, "Will the citizens of Kielon surrender me and my men to Saul?" And he says that they will. And so David is no dummy. He said, "All right, guys, time to get out of dodge." And so in verse 13, they left Kielon and they kept moving from place to place when Saul was told that David had escaped, he did not even go there. And so in these two stories, there's four different examples of David going to God, David looking for direction, David listening to the voice of God, and then David acting on God's direction in his life. And then looking at verse 14, it says, "David stayed in the wilderness and the strong hills and the hills of Desert of Zeph, day after day, Saul searched for him." Look at this phrase, "But God did not give David into his hands." You know, earlier in verse 7, Saul said, "God has delivered David into my hands." But that wasn't the case. God was protecting David. God was guiding David. God was watching over David. And even though Saul and David seemed like they were playing this cat and mouse, it was clear that God was protecting David and not really guiding Saul. Another interesting story, another interesting fact about this story is as you listen to this story, Saul listens to this report and does this. And then he listens to this report and does this. Nowhere in Saul's story is he ever seeking God's direction. But David over and over and over and over again is seeking the direction of God and then following the direction that God leads him. Well, the story continues in verse 16 because his friend Jonathan shows up on the scene. And in verse 16, it says that Jonathan shows up and helped him find strength in God. You know, it's interesting, it's when you read these stories about David, he's in this battle and he wins this battle and Saul's chasing him and he can't find him and he wipes out Goliath and he wipes out these people. And you just get this sent is like, David is just like riding the wave. You know, I mean, there's just like no downtime for David. He's, he's in the zone. He's feeling it. He's just winning everything. Until you go to the book of Psalms and you read about his journey and then you realize this was like this for David. And if you want to read some of the Psalms from about Psalm 20, 24 to about Psalm 35 or 40, you're going to read about these ups and downs that David went through as he is running from Saul. And so, it's very clear that there were times in David's life where he felt the weight of that. He felt the weight of being a young man who simply was trying to do what God wanted him to do. And he was given this great power and he's given this great responsibility and he's giving this great authority. And now he's being hunted by the king because he simply did what he was asked to do. Where's the justice and all of that? And so his friend Jonathan shows up on the scene and what does Jonathan do? How does he encourage David? Look in verse 17 and 18, he says this, he says, don't be afraid. He said, Saul's not going to lay a hand on you. He says, you're going to be king and I'm going to be second in command to you. Even my father knows this and the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. You know, as I thought about Jonathan's words to David, there's a lot of truth in terms of how he comes to his friend when his friend is struggling. He reminds his friend of what is true. You've been anointed. You're going to become king. You know, the reality is my father's hunting you, but he can't lay a finger on you because you're protected by God. And he was there with him in the midst of this difficult struggle. And I think it pictures for us what this looks like for us to enter people's lives when they're in these kinds of times. I'm not sure where, but over time it's kind of become our perspective, especially people of faith, that when someone's gone through a difficult time and they come and talk to us that we have to somehow give them advice. Most of the time they don't want advice. Most of the time they just need to be reminded of what is true and for you to be present with them. Sometimes people say to me, "I don't know what to say to someone so John with what they're going." I'm like, "You don't have to say anything. Likely if you do say something, it'll be the wrong thing." So just go be with them and remind them of what you both know to be true about God's goodness and his presence with you and his faithfulness that he will be there with us no matter what. And I'm going to walk this road with you. And that's the power of this relationship that we've seen with Jonathan and David that surfaces once again. This will be their last interaction together. And his last interaction with him is, "God is with you. God has something he's doing. I know this is difficult, but there's something that's going to happen in all of this. And I'm going to be right there with you in this journey." So back to the chase. Verse 19, "The Zephites went up to Saul and Gibbiah, and they said, "Is David not hiding among us in the strongholds? Now your majesty, come down wherever it pleases you, and we'll be responsible for giving him into your hands." The Lord bless you Saul says for your concern, "Go and get more information. Find out where David usually goes and where they've seen him. They tell me he's very crafty. Find out where David, they find out about the hiding place he's used and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go back with you if he's in the area. I will track him down among the clans of Judah." And the next few verses kind of read like this high speed chase through the hills of Judea because David goes here, and then Saul goes here, and then David goes here, and then Saul goes here, and David goes here, and Saul goes here, and David goes here, and Saul goes here, and they end up that they're right on the other side of a mountain, and the other side of the mountain is David is fleeing, and Saul is just coming over the crest. You can almost picture them as two cars racing down the highway on parallel streets trying to catch one another. Well not really, they're in horses or chariots, but they don't go that fast. But that's the picture of what's taking place here. In the end of the chapter the story winds down because Saul was going alongside one mountain David on the other. Saul and his forces were closing in, and a messenger came to Saul and said, "Come quickly, the Philistines are raiding the land." Saul broke off his pursuit and went out to meet the Philistines. And David is once again protected by the hand of God. You may have heard people say that the hand of God is with me, or the hand of God is guiding me. And I think there's something about all of us that has this sense of, "Man, if I could tap into God directing me or God guiding me, I wish I had a black rock and a white rock, so I knew where to go at this crossroads in my life, but I really don't." I really don't, but it pictures in David's story what he's willing to do and how God's willing to be involved and engage in our lives. And I want to take a few minutes and just talk about what this looks like because this might be clear for David, but you're saying it's not really clear for me, John. You know, am I just supposed to use a magic eight ball and try to figure out God's direction? I don't have a Jim Carrey light connection. I haven't seen Morgan Freeman in a white suit anywhere recently, so I don't really know where God is, but I certainly would like to hear from him. And I want to suggest to you before you explore how God provides direction for you. I want to ask you an honest question. Do you want to hear from God? You say, "Well, of course, John. Of course." But sometimes people say they want to hear from God, and God's talking to them about another arena of their lives, and they just are doing this. They say, "What do you mean?" Well, there's something in your life that there's something that's taking place, if there's a sin in your life that's ongoing that you know that you shouldn't be doing in your life. That's a secret thing, or maybe it's public and you've had a spouse speak into it, or a friend, or a boss, or you need to do something about this in your life, and you're ignoring that. But you say you want to hear from God, you really don't, because you already know something that needs to change in your life. You know something relationally that's not good with you and your spouse, and you're not willing to do something about it. And you've just done this, but you're saying, "God, talk to me. God, I'm willing to listen," but you're not willing to listen to the very obvious thing that he said, "Will you pay attention to this?" And so the first question that you have to ask yourself is, "Do I really want to hear from God? Do I really want to hear from God?" It's like a kid that's riding down the sidewalk in our neighborhood, and he says, "Do you know where so-and-so is?" And I start to tell the kid where to go, and he's riding off, and he's gone. He doesn't really want to hear from me. Do I want to hear from God? You say, "You know, John, I don't really know of anything in my life. Specifically, you know, there's ongoing struggles, and I'm not talking about those that you're aware of, and you're navigating those, and you're walking with God in those areas." But is there a specific thing that you are aware of that God's pointed out, and others have pointed out that you're not paying attention to? But if that's not the case, the second question I want to challenge you to ask yourself this, "Am I ready to do God's will? Am I ready to do God's will?" And most of us, if we're really gut level honest, would say, "I'm ready to do God's will. If it means my life is going to be comfortable, easy, and there's going to be less conflict. I'm more than happy. Sign me up. I'm on that. I'm ready to run with that one." But what if God's will for you is going to mean pain, and heartache, and suffering, and confusion? Then are you ready to do God's will? You see, I think for most of us, our willingness to do God's will is based upon how it's going to affect our lives. And the will of God, unfortunately, is more like a dinner choice of how will I feel the next morning if I eat that, and I'm not going to eat that because I won't feel good. Last summer during my sabbatical, I had the opportunity to go to some training, and in that training I was challenged about the role of church leaders being committed to doing the will of God. That's an interesting challenge, because I think that we do the will of God. I think that's our desire, but I don't know that we talk about that much at all. I think we look at information. We listen to wise counsel. We ask others opinions. And so earlier this year, after we had moved into this location, our elders and our staff met together, and we were wrestling with God, what's the next thing that you need us to do here in this property? And so I said, guys, I want to invite you all to meet together. We called an evening of discernment, and we sat together, and I think when we all came in that room, just some casual conversations, we all thought that this was the next thing that God wanted us to do to go this direction. And we talked about our initial perspectives, and then I said, guys, I want you to spend a few minutes by yourself, and I want you to pray a prayer of indifference. And that prayer of indifference is, am I willing to do -- am I willing to set everything aside and only be willing to do the will of God in this matter? Not what I personally think. Not what my spouse told me before. You realize this is what you really should do, not what I've heard from other people, not what the numbers say, but am I willing to be indifferent to everything else except for the will of God? And so we spent some time doing that. We came back together, and then we said, what does the Bible say about this? Is there any truth from God that we already have that speaks to this matter and speaks to this issue? And we shared some passages that came to mind, some things we thought of. And then we went off by ourselves just quietly to be with God, and we came back and said, so what are the options, what are the scenarios, and we listed those on the board? And we sat and talked, and we went away and prayed again. And by the end of the evening, we had started going this direction, but by the end of the evening, we were clear that this is the direction God was going to take us, that God wanted us to go, and it was His will for our church that we go that way. And I have to tell you, there was something really holy about that experience. I get choked up just thinking about it, but it forced me to recognize that I don't think very often our leadership collectively, me personally, thinks about, am I willing to do nothing else but the will of God in my life? I get tons of opportunities. I get tons of things that we can do. We all do. Our lives are so full we can barely breathe. How often do we inquire of God and go to Him and say, what do you want me to do? And I'm willing to do only what you want me to do and nothing else? I realize for myself, I don't slow down enough to do that. I don't consider God's perspective enough to do that. I want to give you a few additional things. If you ask those two questions, do I want to hear from God? Am I willing to do nothing but the will of God? I want to give you a couple more things to take away this morning for you to think about as you're wrestling with decisions. They're going to come up on the screen here behind me. The first is to be still and quiet with God. Be still and quiet with God. As I can say, be still. And people are like, yeah, I'm kind of being still. You got your headphones and your music going. That's not, no, quiet, quiet. Turn the radio off. It's really hard for us to do this. I mean, you take this thing out. You put it in another room. You walk away from it. You won't die. Quiet before God. You say, well, is that what I have to do for God to talk to me? That's not the verse that David says in Psalm 46. He says, be still. He doesn't say, and you'll get your answer. He says, be still and know that I am God. You see, the being still allows me to enter into a relationship with God. It allows me to move towards God and set everything else aside in my life. You know, what does it feel like spouses? If your spouse only comes to you and only wants to talk to you and do you have some money for this? Do you have time to do this? Can you run and do this? Can you fix this? Can you take? What does that feel like after a while? It feels like you're being used. You know, what does that feel like as a parent when your kid doesn't want to ever be with you, but they always want something from you? You're like, I don't have much of a relationship here. I want something more. And the reality is, is God longs for that with us. But he's not going to fight all the noise in your life. He's not going to fight all the clutter. He's just going to sit back and he's going to wait for you to be still and come to be with him. And maybe that's a place that you can go and sit where it's quiet. Maybe you just come and park your car. Don't worry. We won't come find you, park your car and walk around back here. We got 20 acres to wander around back here that it's really quiet back here. I don't know where that is, but for you just to be still and quiet with God. Another thing to do is ask yourself this question. What does God say about this decision in front of me? What does God say about it? Maybe you're new in your faith, you're searching, and you don't really know a lot about the Bible. And so you may have to ask someone that knows more about the Bible and say, "Can you tell me some things? Does God say anything about this?" Maybe ask your small group leader or someone in your small group about or contact one of the pastors who say, "Can you kind of give me some direction on this?" There's another one. What do people who are where you want to be say about your decision? It's not really a good idea to ask someone who doesn't have a job about a job decision. You know, students, it's probably not a good idea to ask for dating advice for someone who's been dating two weeks. You want to look around your life and say, "Is there someone where I want to be?" And I'd love to know how you got there. Is there someone in a job or career? And you remember, they started here and now they're here. How did you get from here to there? Is there someone that you know that financially they just seem to have the freedom to just bless others and live without the stress of death? Can you help me understand how you got from here to there? You see, far too often what we do is we pull our ignorance and we ask someone in the same situation we are and they can't do anything except, "Yeah, really, that's a pain. I hate it." It's like a parent of a preschool or asking another parent of a preschool or advice. They're just going to be like, "Oh, I know what you're going through." You've got to ask someone who's a little further down the ask a parent of a teenager. They're like, "Yeah, what do you get here?" You know? But I've been there. You know? Ask someone who's where you want. If you're trying to start a relationship and you want to build a loving relationship, a loving marriage where you're committed to one another and it's evident and you love one another, ask someone you know who's there. How did you get there? You see, too often we just pull the ignorance of those that are around us that aren't in any better shape than we are. Here's another one. Ask someone who knows you well. Ask someone who knows you well. I'll never forget this. I was in college and I was wrestling with a decision and I contacted one of a college profs. He's a Bible professor. He taught me in a number of classes. I really respected him, loved his insight. I said, "Hey, can I meet with you?" He's like, "Sure. Schedule an appointment." I said, "Schedule an appointment. Go into his office." I sit down and tell him about my situation. He's like, "I don't think I can help you." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "Well, I don't know this about you. I don't know this about you. I don't know this about you. I'm probably not the right person to give you advice because I don't know much about what's going on in your life." And I was like, "Oh, really?" And I never forget that. I never forgot that. You know, the people that are in your life, the people that know you well, they know your tendencies, they know your struggles. They know your go-to excuses that they will say, "No, we can't use that one. Can't use that one. Can't go there." So what does someone who knows you well say about this decision? One last thing. What would you say to a friend asking you for the same advice on this situation? You had a friend coming to you and say, "What would you do if you were in my shoes? What would you say to them?" Sometimes when the shoe is on the other foot, we can see it much more clearly. You know, what decisions are in front of you this morning? In a room like this, I imagine there's a number of people that have some very big decisions right in front of them. Very, very big. And you may have been talking to God. You may have been praying. You may have to say, "God, is there anything you got to say on this one?" Because I'm about ready to pull the trigger. And if I don't hear anything from you, but my guess is that many of us, if not all of us, have some smaller decisions that are right in front of us as well. And the question is, am I just going to take my own wisdom, my own insight, my own experience and make this decision? Or am I going to listen and seek God on this matter? Most of the people in this room are pretty smart people. And most of you have lived life. And so you have this history with you. And you have this capacity to make decisions and probably make good decisions. But are you willing to step back and say, "Am I indifferent to everything except for the will of God in my life in this matter?" And am I willing to seek Him? And maybe that'll come through His Word. Maybe that'll come through silence with Him. Maybe that'll come through other people. There's a lot of different ways that God can bring that about in your life. As we close this part of the service, I want to give you an opportunity just to talk with God about whatever it is in your life. And so let's bow our heads and just want to give you about two minutes to quiet your heart before God and talk to Him about the decisions that might be on your heart this morning. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] God, you know what each one of us are facing. Some of these are big. Some are small. And I think most of us have a sense that we would love to be able to hear from you on the decisions that are in front of us today. [silence] David kept asking. Even though sometimes it wasn't always clear as evidenced by the Psalms, what you were up to kept asking and kept listening to you. And there are times you were crystal clear. You told him exactly, "Do this." And he went ahead and did that. And other times he seems pretty confused. And he's waiting and he's crying out and he's saying, "God, where are you and what are you up to and what are you doing?" So God, some of us are here at those places this morning. Some of us, you've made it pretty clear what you want us to do next. And others, Lord, are just considering what is this like to bring a decision to you that normally I would just navigate on my own. So God, help us as we walk through that, as we enter that. Because this is not something that we can do on our own. We need you. In your name I pray. Amen. As we transition into communion, one of the things that we know about the life of Jesus is he was devoted to do the will of the Father. He said, "My food or what I eat is to do the will of God." That's what mattered to him most. That was going to give him life. And yet in the midst of that journey there were times when doing the will of God was something incredibly difficult. Like knowing that he was headed to a cross. Knowing that he was soon going to suffer and die a humiliating death. But he wanted at the end of his life to be able to say, "It is finished, which just doesn't mean it's over. It means I've completed the will and the plan that God had for me." And so this morning we're going to come to this table just a few minutes and serve bread and juice and reminds us of the suffering that Jesus went through on our behalf. The sacrifice that he made. And he did all of that because he wants to have a relationship with you. And I don't know where you are this morning in your faith journey and maybe you've tried to reach out to God and you've tried to pray or you've tried to talk to God or you've tried to read the Bible. It just kind of feels like God's way out there and there's this big distance between you and God. And maybe that's because there's no relationship with him. You see God sent Jesus to this earth because there is a gap between us and God and that gap is our sin and we can't take care of that sin on our own. We have to accept that Jesus took care of that sin for us on the cross. He paid for all of our sins. And when we invite him into our lives and receive that free gift of salvation we begin a relationship with the God of the heavens. In just a moment I'm going to pray and if you've never invited Jesus into your life I would encourage you to consider doing that today. And if you have would you just come before him with a thankful heart for his suffering and his devotion to do the will of the Father which has made it possible for all of us to have life in a relationship with him. God as we come to this table, some come to the table this morning Lord ready to begin a relationship with you. Let me say God I've known about you, I've been aware of you, I know who you are, I know what you've done but I've never taken that step of personally inviting Jesus into my life, beginning a relationship with him. And may in their own thoughts and prayers this morning God they just offer their lives to him. Maybe some have been far away God. And they did that at a time in their lives but there's not much of a relationship right now and they just navigate life trying to do the best they can, try not to screw up too bad but you're not really on their radar. Maybe come to this table as a way of coming back to you, saying God I really haven't allowed you to be in my life, I know you're available for me but I've just kind of kept you at arm's length. And Lord for others that come to this table may they do so with humble and grateful hearts for the incredible sacrifice you've made on our behalf. Thank you for doing this and your name we pray. I want to invite you as the elements are passed if you have a relationship with Jesus to participate in them, you can sit quietly and listen to the songs or you can join in as you feel free to do that as well. (soft music) [BLANK_AUDIO]