Seeking God’s Face in Prayer

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Transcript:

Turn with me tonight to Psalm chapter 27. Psalm chapter 27. When I began this series on prayer, I started by asking some questions.

And they may be questions that seem a little childish that may think, well, I know what prayer is. I know why I pray. If it won’t come up, don’t worry about it.

I know why I pray. I know what prayer is about. but I thought to myself, if prayer doesn’t seem to be working out quite the way I think it should, and by that I don’t mean that God is not answering prayer, but I mean I am not getting into prayer the way I’m supposed to, and I’m not getting out of it what I’m supposed to.

Maybe I need to go back to the Bible and take another look at what the Bible says about prayer, and I began asking some questions. And you’ve seen sort of the fruit of that. As we talked about what is prayer, and it being a conversation with God, we’ve talked about why do we pray, and trying to answer that question for myself and for you took about ten messages, ten reasons why we pray.

And tonight, I want to just take a brief look at what prayer is supposed to be about. What is prayer about? And in the next few weeks, we’ll get into what is prayer supposed to look like.

Based on what we’ve learned about what prayer is and why we’re supposed to do it, what then do we turn around and do? But tonight, we look at really what is prayer about? and I looked at this passage in Psalm 27, and maybe it’s for the best that it’s not coming up on your screen because I only put a few verses up there, but as I was giving it a second look, I want to look at the whole chapter, not in depth at the whole chapter, but I want us to at least glance over the whole chapter so that when we look at a few verses out of this, we get sort of the context to go along with it.

And Psalm 27, starting in verse 1, says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid? Even the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh. They stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. And before we read too much further, now the context of this passage in history in David’s life is that he’s going through a major struggle, a major conflict, and historians and Bible scholars have looked at this psalm and said it either had to do when he was fleeing from Saul or it had to do with him fleeing from Absalom, as I heard Brother James’ reference in Sunday school this morning.

But in either case, it was a trying time in his life. Can you imagine having to not just go through struggles, not just go through trials and troubles, but to actually be fleeing for your life? I mean, at any moment, your life could be taken from you, And that’s the kind of life you’re having at that moment.

And yet you still look to God with this kind of confidence. And I notice throughout this chapter, throughout this particular psalm, David doesn’t spend much time, if any, asking God for anything. But when he talks to God, it’s about God and about his relationship to God.

And he says, he leaves off in verse 3 saying, In this will I be confident. He already knows that God has his situation under control no matter what happens. verse 4 he says one thing have I desired of the lord and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple wait a minute hold up the man is running for his life he’s already spelled out in the first few verses here that that god is his strength god is his life obviously he doesn’t have the strength of his own to deal with his with his circumstances he said the wicked and his enemies and his foes have come against him to eat up his flesh.

And yet it says in verse 4 here, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that I will seek after. And I’m telling you, if it were my prayer life, and probably most Christians’ prayer life, one thing I seek of the Lord, get me out of this. One thing I go after, fix this.

And yet David has such a confidence in God, and has such a view of God, that he says, one thing I have desired of the Lord, and one thing that I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Ladies and gentlemen, there was one thing that David wanted in this moment, even in this strife, even in this trouble, and that was a closer, more intimate knowledge of God and who he is. He’s a pretty wise man.

I look at David, and I look at Solomon after him, and some of the things that they got mixed up in, and I think they were so foolish at times, And yet such wisdom here to realize that one thing we should desire of the Lord, and one thing we should seek after, is to know Him. For in the time of trouble, verse 5, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.

He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies, round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.

I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Now, he does recognize that God is going to take care of him, that God is going to preserve him from his troubles, that God is going to do what is to his benefit. And yet, that’s not even what he’s focused on.

His focus is on knowing the Lord. And because he knows God, he’s able to say with confidence, I know he will do this. But, I go back to the one thing he asked of the Lord.

The one thing he would seek after was to spend his life in God’s presence. Spend all the days of my life in his house to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. Verse 7 says, Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger.

Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are whizzing up against me, such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now at some point he does ask God to watch over him.

He says, deliver me not over into the will of my enemies. But he prays this having already prayed that he might know God better. And what he already does know of God is that God was righteous.

God had made certain promises to David. I can’t say to you in whatever situation you’re in that God necessarily is going to fix it for you. But God had given some specific promises to David about his rule and his reign over Israel.

And David knew God well enough to realize that God is a God who keeps his promises. And he says even in having prayed, verse 12, deliver me not over to the will of my enemies, he says even in this, he would have fainted, he would have given up unless he had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Unless he had seen already that God is good, that God is faithful.

If he had not already seen God’s character and God’s faithfulness, it would have been so much easier to give up when he prayed. But I notice he doesn’t even sit here and beg over and over, God, would you do this? God, would you do this?

He simply prays to know God better. And if we prayed to know God better, if we sought to know God better, I think it would change our prayer lives about the other things that we pray for. And as I looked over this passage, mainly verses 7 through 9 this week, which we’re going to focus on tonight, and it talks about seeking God’s face.

I was reminded of a song I heard a few years ago and have heard a few times since on the radio that talks about seeking God’s face and not only His hand. And every time I hear those words, it’s convicting to me. How often I seek God’s hand, how often we as Christians seek God’s hand, in other words, His provision, His protection, the stuff we want, instead of seeking God’s face.

I believe if we’d seek God’s face, seek to know Him, that His hand will take care of what we need. Our focus. Again, I’ve said all throughout this series on prayer, there is not a thing wrong with asking God for the things we need.

And I don’t want you to feel guilty about praying to God and saying, I need this, I need this, can you help me with this, Lord? I don’t want you to feel guilty about praying that. At the same time, there’s something wrong if we always are seeking His hand and never His face.

Reminds me of in school, there always seemed to be kids that, you know, would never have anything to do with you outside of school or even in the lunchroom, but yet you get into English class or you get into government class and suddenly you’re their best friend. Hey, what did you get on number five? After a few months of that, I wanted to start telling them the wrong answers because they weren’t interested in being your friend.

They weren’t interested in who I was as a person. They just wanted what I could offer. And the only time they had any time for me was when I had something to offer them.

And I thought, how often God must feel that way. How often is that the interest we present to God? Not so much an interest in knowing Him, but an interest in what He can do for us.

There is nothing wrong with asking God to do what God can do. But there’s something wrong with doing that to the exclusion of just seeking God. That’s the point of tonight’s message, is that we need to seek God’s face in prayer.

In answer to the question, what is prayer about? Prayer is about God and His will. If you remember nothing else from tonight, prayer is about God and His will.

Some of you may have read the book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. If you’ve not, I can save you some time because, you know, well, some of you may like him, but the only worthwhile thought I found in the whole book that I can remember is the very first line that says, it’s not about you. Brilliant thought, by the way.

Kind of went downhill from there. There are a lot of things I disagree with Rick Warren about. Kind of went downhill from there.

But that line is brilliant. And it’s something I think we could stand to hear more often in our Christian life, in our Christian service. It is not about me.

Ladies and gentlemen, if I can be so bold as to say it to you, it’s not about you. And I don’t mean that to be hateful, but it’s about him. Prayer should not just always be about me and my needs and my wants, but it’s about him.

He tells us to seek his face. We’re going to look at just a couple verses in depth here, and then we will be finished for tonight. What is prayer about?

It’s about God and his will. First of all, and we’re going to kind of go backwards through verses 7 through 9, but first of all, prayer should seek reconciliation with God. Folks, we fall short of God’s standard of holiness on a daily basis, do we not?

And I understand that as believers, Christ’s righteousness is accounted to us. We’re clothed in His righteousness. And I don’t believe, as I’ve made clear several times, I have studied and studied and studied, and I understand why some people think you can lose your salvation.

I understand where they get that from, but I also think they are wrong, because everything I see in the Bible talks about the security that we have in Christ once we are truly His. And God, as a Father, I believe, looks on us when we sin, and I don’t believe that the relationship is severed, but I believe the fellowship is sometimes hindered because of our sin. And in verse 9 here, he says, David cries out to God and says, Hide not thy face far from me.

Put not thy servant away in anger. Folks, in prayer, and some of this, again, is going to be an overlap of some of the things we’ve already talked about. Prayer for confession, prayer for seeking God’s will.

Folks, that’s all right. It all fits together. The Bible is going to repeat itself because we don’t always get it the first time.

But there should be an emphasis in prayer. Instead of getting what we want on coming to God and saying, God, where is it that I have fallen short of your expectations for me? Please point them out to me.

Please forgive me and help me to do better. What is it that the Bible says? Search me and see if there be any wicked way in me.

Folks, we need to constantly return to God. Not in the sense that we’ve lost our salvation and need to get it back, but we constantly, I believe, need to, as a former pastor of mine has said many times, keep a short list of accounts with God. Do you understand what I mean by that?

When we sin, as we do every day, we shouldn’t just wallow in it and say, well, I’ll deal with it later, until we go to God months later, and we’ve got all this confession to do, and it’s been building up, and it’s been eaten away at us, and it’s been hindering our fellowship with God all this time. Instead, we should be to God on a daily basis saying, hide not thy face far from me. Because make no mistake, sin separates people from God.

Before our salvation, it separates us from God relationally. And after salvation, again, I believe it hinders the fellowship. When there’s unconfessed, undealt with sin, I believe the fellowship is not what it ought to be.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt like Adam and Eve in the garden and the need to hide from God as though that were possible. Because I know I’m not right with him. And maybe if I just get right here, he won’t be able to see me.

Folks, God sees it and God knows. And prayer should be about a daily coming to God and saying, what is it that your standard for me says? What is it that you have commanded me to do that I have not done?

Prayer should involve a daily getting right with God. Not because of anything that we get out of it, but because it’s what he expects and because it’s right. Because again, prayer is not about me and you.

Ultimately, prayer is about God and his will. Second of all tonight, prayer should seek obedience to God. Prayer should seek reconciliation with God.

Prayer should seek obedience to God. Now he says in verse 8, when thou said, seek my face, he says, in turn, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. When he believed, he understood what God had revealed to him, what God had commanded him to do, he decided right then and there, that is what I’m going to do.

We don’t see a lot of argument. How many of you argue with God? You don’t have to raise your hands.

How many of you argue with yourself about whether or not you’re going to listen to God? I can raise my hand and put myself in both of those camps. And yet the proper response is God said something and immediately he says within his heart, it’s not just an outward thing, but he said within his heart, that is exactly the thing I’m going to do.

God commanded him and said, you should seek my face. And he says here in verse 8, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. my response to you was that is exactly what I’m going to do.

Folks, we should pray that we might be obedient. Not just because it gets us things. I told you before, it’s not a transaction, it’s not a mathematical formula that you do the right thing and something good happens.

For a long time, I was naive enough to believe that, that God operated on a quid pro quo system of punishment and reward, that you do something good and God rewards you with a little treat, and you do something wrong and God zaps you. I believed that until I was about in eighth grade. And then I read my Bible some more for myself and realized that’s not quite how it works.

He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And sometimes bad things happen to good people, if you want to use the term good people by man’s standards. And sometimes good things happen to bad people. And folks, we live in a fallen world.

But as a general principle, obedience to God brings blessings. As a general principle. And yet we shouldn’t seek to obey God just because it’s going to get us something or just because it’s going to work out for us.

We should in our hearts pray, pray that we might obey what God has told us to do. Because I find, I have found in my own experience over the years that when God has told me to do something, and I’m thinking in my own mind, God, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do that.

And yet I pray about it. And the more I pray to him and say, God, I don’t want to do that, the more God works in my heart and sort of bends me to his will and makes me obedient. And not just as a dictator, but he actually makes me desire to be obedient.

And I refer you back to a story I’m sure I’ve told you before about when he called me to preach. He started calling me to preach when I was about 15 years old and in the ninth grade. And I didn’t want to do that.

I was going into politics. Thank goodness I didn’t. But I didn’t want to do that.

I said, God, I’m not going to do that. I can make a better difference, a bigger difference going into politics. And I kept arguing with God, but the more I argued with God, the more I was praying, arguing with God and saying, God, don’t make me do this.

I don’t want to do this. And this went on for a few months, but the more I prayed about it, the more God gave me a desire to be obedient. And then even at that, a few years down the road, I got the idea, well, I can do what I want to do and preach on the side.

You know, because lots of governors and senators fly back home on Sundays and preach at different, no, they don’t really. I saw eyebrows go up like, what government are you looking at? Yeah, that doesn’t really happen all that much, does it?

Because you get caught up in other things, and God was telling me, no, this is what I want you to focus on. God, that’s not what I want to focus on. And yet I was praying, and praying, and God gave a desire to be obedient.

Folks, we should pray that God would make us obedient. David prayed, and as a result of knowing God and knowing God’s desires, David was not always obedient, but at this point, David was praying and in such a mindset of wanting to please God because of the time that he spent in prayer and knew God, that he was obedient. And as soon as God said, seek my face, his heart said, I’m going to seek your face.

I’m going to do what you told me to do. So prayer should seek reconciliation with God. Prayer should seek obedience to God.

And third of all tonight, prayer should seek knowledge of God. Prayer should seek knowledge of God. This all began in verse 8, when God told him to seek his face.

That’s why he says in verse 8, when thou saidst, seek my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. God told David, God told David, and I think the message is still true for us tonight, that there’s something more important, something more valuable to us than seeking God’s hand. As important as it is to trust God to provide for us.

As important as it is to have faith that God will protect us, as important as it is to believe all the promises of God and all the things that he has said he would do, the most important thing for us as believers is to know God. Folks, we can have all the confidence in the world in something. We can put all the faith we have in something and still be wrong because we put our faith in the wrong thing.

How are we going to know if we’re putting our faith in the right place if we don’t know the object of our faith. Folks, I believe God’s promises because I’ve learned over the years that not only in my life, but reading the things that have been done and said in the Bible, God has an absolute 100% track record of keeping His promises. And I submit to you that the more I have grown to know God, and I don’t pretend that I’m anywhere near David, I don’t pretend that I’m anywhere near where I should be in life, but the more I have grown to know God over the years, especially growing to know him more in times of prayer, in times of trouble, the more I have seen the character and the nature of God that he is a God of faithfulness who keeps his promises always.

Folks, it’s not enough just to seek to know things about God. We should desire to know him. We know him by spending time with him.

We know him by spending time in his word and seeing what he reveals to us about himself. Folks, our time in prayer would be better spent. Again, don’t feel guilty if tonight you have to go home and pray and say, God, help me pay this bill.

I don’t know how I’m going to pay it. Lord, straighten out my kids. I don’t know what they’re doing, what’s going on.

Folks, if you have to go home and ask God for something, there’s no shame in it whatsoever. But I think our prayer time would be better spent if we spent a little less of it focusing on ourselves and our needs and spent more time focusing on God. Prayer, I believe, is about God and seeking His face and seeking to be brought in line with His will on the basis of the knowledge of who He is that we find in His Word and through times of prayer.