Dancing with Broken Bones-A Series on Psalm 51-How Does the Kingdom Grow?
February 27, 1994	Sermon by DRW	Passage Psalm 51.10-12

How Does the Kingdom Grow?

After we have turned back to God, after we have repented of our deeds and our ways; when the verbal confession is made complete, we must be about the King’s business. If we return to our former ways we will do our former deeds. We must finalize our verbal confession with the willingness and steadfastness in the Holy Spirit which we spoke of last week; this means, doing the work of God—fulfilling our purpose on earth. Sometimes this obedience is difficult to follow through with because we have been in that rut for so long we naturally tend that way. This is why our next series of sermons will deal with the disciplines of a godly life. Things we can and should do to maintain our purity and not fall back into the same old rut. Today we will look into two areas where we need to focus our attention. Once repentance is made we must seek first His kingdom in quantity and quality; that is, evangelism and discipleship. This is what David said when in verse 13 he writes, “Then.” Let us look at this as we answer: “I have repented and turned from my former ways, what then?” That is, now that I am a disciple of God, what do I need to do?

To put it another way, “What is my purpose in life?” If this question were asked in polite company many different answers would ensue. However, asked late at night over a cup of coffee in a small diner on the outskirts of a town called Lonesome and the truth will come like a piercing arrow. People find it increasingly difficult to find goals and objectives, purpose, worthy of the high calling that God has created in each person, that will sustain them through the heaviness of life and the reality of death. Dostoevski once wrote: “Man’s whole business is to prove that he is a man and not a cog-wheel.. . .” Or as Meatloaf once wrote: “I’m a man! I am not a number.”

To many people, life leaves a bad taste in their mouth. Most people would prefer to be gone (no where in particular, just gone) than have to hear the faint whispers telling them life is merely a cruel joke. This is why it is important for us to listen to David on this point: He was a man who could cry out: Come taste the goodness of the Lord! God doesn’t leave a bad taste. What does David tell us to do in light of the goodness of our God, in light of the high calling of God. After everything has been said and done: “Did you show transgressors God’s way? Did you show sinners how to get back to God?” will be asked of us. David knew that any man or woman or child that wanted to live life with purpose, with the taste of victory, with God’s stamp of approval, had to live a life that called people to God in salvation and discipleship.

For David this was a large step to consider. For us it is as-well. For David to come to the point of verse 13 is dramatic. He needed to admit a lot about himself, as we have seen in the first part of Psalm 51. He had to admit that God is Lord, and not King David. We must admit that too. Who is the master of your life? Are J-E-S-U-S the letters of His name or is it M-E? “David had learned that among all challengers, God alone was a sufficient master. This earthly king no longer needed to dazzle men with his own claims, but now longed for them to know the heavenly King whose grace had cleansed him” (91). This is where God calls us and this is where our text brings us.

1.       Who is your Master?

1.       It is not a question of if there will be a master; Matthew 6.24 tells us it is a given.

2.       A purposeful life is not in what you conquer but really in who you are being mastered or conquered by

1.       the test of a worthy goal is whether it is a portal to another worthy goal or a dead end

1.       the astronaut who finished his mission only to ask, now what

2.       Rockefeller wanting just a little more

2.       scientists tend to be mastered by goals and objectives that are worthy to some degree

1.       they strive to find new and exciting things and end up making and re-making history

1.       Ray (Ira’s dad) committed suicide

2.       outside of Christ even the noblest goals are fleeting

2.       Joe Muslin

1.       Smithsonian, you’ll see some of his work

2.       His greatest work though

1.       SBBC High school group of the 70’s

2.       SBBC adult group of the 90’s

3.       Is it possible for us as Christians to have that?

Is it possible to have a goal that reaches out from beyond limits, beyond space and time, drawing us and fulfilling us? Is it possible to have a sense of purpose and meaning, independent of circumstances and levels of achievement, that satisfies us completely? (93)

1.       The hint of the infinite in Christ’s voice captured the heart and attention of many people

1.       the eternal living water (John 4.10-14)

2.       the eternal bread of life (John 6.35)

3.       the eternal heavenly treasure (Matthew 19.21)

4.       the eternal fruit of being fishers of men (Matthew 4.19)

2.       In light of the infinite, the eternal words of Jesus,

1.       how tragic that many Christians find themselves mastered by the urgent, the small.

2.       we read, study, attend church services and yet nothing tastes as good as David said it should, “good,” for we are mastered by the wrong lord.

If God’s people fail to find an overall principle for integrating every segment of life, they will find themselves fragmented over a host of secular and badly diluted Christian agendas (93).

3.       Christ is calling us to the heroic

1.       France (WW II)

1.       struggled against the Nazi regime

1.       average people took incredible risks to fight a terrible evil

2.       little old ladies -> pickpockets

3.       salesmen and chefs -> explosive experts

2.       not a part time affair, something done on the side but something which mastered and transformed them

2.       God has called us to be like them, heroic (Matthew 6.33)

1.       throwing your entire life into His kingdom work is an incredible risk in fighting the terrible foe

1.       you will address your sin (as David did), your friendships, your hobbies, your career, your failures, your ambitions, your life in light of the Kingdom

2.       you will address poverty, hunger, pollution

As Elton Trueblood said in The Company of the Committed:

A Christian is a person who confesses that, amidst the manifold and confusing voices heard in the world, there is one Voice which supremely wins his full assent, uniting all his powers, intellectual and emotional, into a single pattern of self-giving. That voice is Jesus Christ. . . . He believes in Him with all his heart and strength and mind. Christ appears to the Christian as the one stable point or fulcrum in all the relativities of history. Once the Christian has made this primary commitment he still has perplexities, but he begins to know the joy of being used for a might purpose by which his little life is dignified [and, I add, made heroic] (23).

2.       The heroic is allowing God’s life to be manifest through you.

1.       An interesting aspect of all history is how people have sought and still seek after a hero.

1.       Israel’s literature seeks after the ultimate hero, is written of heroes by heroes

2.       Greek mythology is crowded with the heroic.

2.       those who have studied sociology or anthropology understand the concept of the heroic is embodied in Germany’s Übermann, or as he is called here, “Superman”.

*    A god-like person with the possibility of failure (for superman it was kryptonite, some say it was also Lois Lane)

3.       When we are mastered by the King of kings and Lord of lords we are heroic.

1.       God can never be a hero, He would never have the chance of failure.

2.       Man without God could never be heroic, he’d fail all the time.

3.       It is only the one who is wrapped in God’s calling that can be truly called heroic

1.       his or her life will never grow stale, nor dull because their eyes are always on Jesus

2.       the ultimate satisfaction and purpose in life is knowing that in Jesus I have been called and equipped for the heroic

We were made for more exquisite things than trying to fill our empty days with our own thunder. But we must all choose. Will I go on tinkering on my own agenda and my own kingdom, which will pass away when I do? Or will I tie my life and destiny to His life, His cause, His Kingdom? Only Christ offers the calling whereby we can harness our lives to a source of purpose that lasts forever (96).

Seeking first His Kingdom restores the fervor of the heroic in our lives, knowing we must do the work of God that only a child of His could do. God’s children who follow after Him are always a hero. And a hero always has purpose, life and vigor when he is pursuing the Voice of his Master.

What does that voice cry for us to do?

2.       Discipleship

Allow me to illustrate the heroic life that God has called us to. A life of meaning and purpose. What would this life look like? When we bag the old ways and do the God ways, what would we look like? Well, manifesting God to the world. To put it another way, it is essentially evangelism and discipleship.

Let me tell you a story, a tragedy, after the story you will see what is not heroic and understand what God has called us to. It is the story told by Oz. Not “the wonderful wizard of” but one of the first American missionaries to Taiwan. He recounts a true story that went something like this:

1.       When China was overrun by Communism many fled to Taiwan

2.       Shantytowns were built overnight

1.       overcrowding

2.       huts built to the very edge of the street

3.       Oz feared driving down these streets for he thought he’d run over a child at play

4.       he drove by one day

1.       saw a boy hit by a truck, dead

2.       heard a woman wailing, running to the boy

1.       fell on him

2.       picked him up sobbing

3.       then strangely smiling

3.       heard her say, Oh, its all right, it’s not mine.”

Not too heroic, not the Kingdom life, not purposeful. If it were so she would have continued to mourn and weep with the boys mother instead of depersonalizing (“it”) and walking away. We have all done this in one way or another, haven’t we?

What would a disciple of Jesus, one who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good, one who is mastered by Jesus, look like?

2.       A concern for all that grows from knowing God

1.       we need to know what is going on around us politically, spiritually, economically, globally

2.       Did you read the article Joe gave called Kairos. It is interesting and illuminating reading of how God is in the rest of the world.

3.       A dreamer of God’s dreams

1.       when we see the world through God’s eyes He will provide dreams of how we can participate in His work

1.       World Impact (large task only God could do)

2.       God never calls us to do things that we could do without Him for it wouldn’t be heroic

And what about you? Your dream should raise important questions in your mind. How will this dream stretch you to trust God in a greater way? Will it galvanize other Christians into a living force for God’s Kingdom? Will it reveal Christ to lost men? Will it help to reverse the fragmentation sin has caused at every level of human existence? (103) If it will, then follow that dream

4.       A sacrifice for God not

1.       school, work, etc

2.       Christian growth costs in ultimate figures. Some tough questions must be stared down if we want to mature God’s way rather than our own. What will it take to solidify your spiritual disciplines? How can you sharpen your spiritual gifts? Will it mean going to school or taking up correspondence study? Are you prepared to view aggravation and pain, both past and present, as finishing tools? What legitimate pursuits and pleasures may have to be foregone in making any of the above happen? Are you willing to work to maintain the primary relationships (God, spouse, kids) during all this? (105). It is indeed a sacrifice.

5.       An embracing of the pain of others, even strangers

1.       we have become dulled to the needs around us

2.       I know a man who reaches out to the homeless despite the pains it cost him

6.       A call to the underground, the uncommon way

1.       Every area of a Christian’s life, every thought and action, must be evaluated in light of whether it helps or hinders us in fighting for God’s Kingdom. It includes our spare time, the substance of our daydreams, professional advancement, and our relationships with other people (106).

2.       Anything that interferes with our fighting for the Kingdom, no matter how innocuous or respectable it may seem, must go (107).

7.       A daily reminding of our calling

1.       we have all been called

2.       we must take orders from God and not give them

3.       we are necessary and important

3.       Evangelism

1.       Churches grow by evangelism and multiply by discipleship

1.       Evangelism must happen

1.       training is good but incomplete (there are so many Christians trained but don’t witness)

2.       motivation is needed

When you’ve been where David has been, the truth about God’s forgiveness doesn’t have to be yanked from your throat like tonsils. It explodes. . . . [it] motivates (112).

2.       show them they are sinners (John 16.8-9)

3.       show them God wants to take care of that (2 Corinthians 5.17)

1.       He works it

2.       we live it

2.       How?

1.       develop a healthy fear of God not man

1.       cure for cancer

2.       cure for sin

2.       develop compassion (as we are concerned our compassion grows)

1.       not a four step approach that is memorized, but people to talk with

2.       not an argument to be won, but one who needs to be restored

3.       realize God wants back what’s His

3.       Joy follows

1.

While the New Testament commands the church to evangelize, it doesn’t do so in a negative, critical way. The early Christians never seemed to think of anything else to do with their faith but to give it away. It was the natural overflow of loving Jesus (119)

These men did not spread their message because it was advisable for them to do so, nor because it was the socially responsible thing for them to do. . . . They did it because of the overwhelming experience of the love of God which they had received through Jesus Christ. The discovery that the ultimate force in the universe was Love . . . had an effect on those who believed it which nothing could remove. . . . Conversion and joy are closely related in the Acts of the Apostles, and it remained a characteristics thing about the early Christians which attracted others into their company. Their new faith did not make them miserable. Often outward circumstances were unpleasant enough, but that could not rob them of the joy which was their Christian birthright (Green, 1970).

2.       People in Christ who are fulfilling His purpose in life do not have dead eyes. I remember hearing some people discussing this the other day . . . (Robert Lee)

CONCLUSION

One more story to illustrate the purposeful, heroic life that God has called us to.

Arlie and Tommy

2.       Arlie poor, Tommy rich

4.       orange peels and orange slices

6.       teacher saw

8.       Christmas time, snow and teacher coming with a bagful of toys and oranges.

10.     Arlie peeled and ate the peels, teacher showed him the slice and broke one open

12.     Juice squirted, laughter rose, taste buds swelled, air filled with orange perfume

14.     tasted and saw it was good

16.     we are heroic when we take the gospel that is in our lives and show how fine it tastes to those who have only tasted the rind of this life

More than a few of us have asked that question: “Why am I here, what’s my purpose?”

David reminds us: it is to tell others of God and bring them closer to Him. This is seen in concern and compassion. It is heroic. It is dreaming God’s dream, doing God’s will. It is even failing and growing despite it.

It is saying: Hey, above all else I want to be a disciple, one who repents and turns to God and then desires to tell others of God’s goodness.

If you are interested in being discipled of being trained up in the godly values of life, to understand the basics and live them. I will ask you to fill out this sheet of paper and turn it in as the ushers pick them up. This is not a commitment to be discipled but a commitment to talk with me about what we would do if you decided to follow through with God’s call to discipleship.

 

 

 

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