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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Delighting in His Presence

David Shin

Delighting in His Presence- Part 1

On the screen I have a photograph of the state dinner at Buckingham Palace.

If you're a state dignitary or official, you may get invited to this very opulent event, arguably the most storied and historical, rich in tradition dinner that you can ever attend.

I read an article about the preparation that goes into 1 state dinner.

And I quote from the article, a state dinner visit is planned 12 months in advance.

The guest country is chosen by the government.

The team start preparing 4 months in advance, polishing the 5, 500 silver gilt pieces and the 2, 500 glass items.

2 Weeks ahead of the opening of the exhibition, the state rooms are a hive of activity.

Trays of Stourbridge glasses made for the Queen's coronation are being carried up from the glass pantry.

18th century porcelain is being polished and a member of the household staff stands in the middle of the ballroom steaming the linen table cloth.

Goes on more than 2, 000 pieces of cutlery tableware plus 23 centerpieces all part of the 4, 000 piece grand service bought by George IV 200 years ago, Glimmer under the lights.

How'd you like to be a part of that staff getting ready for that dinner?

I can not even imagine the anxiety and stress of the organizers for this event.

And I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Luke 10, verse 38 through 42, as we look at another dinner hosted by an individual that is full of anxiety as she is hosting the most important person in the universe.

We pick it up in Luke chapter 10 verse 38 through 42.

Mary and Martha are hosting Jesus in their living room.

I'd imagine that Martha has gotten out the finest tableware in our home when we were growing up.

There was certain wedgewood china That was only brought out for certain occasions and there were certain foods that were only prepared When we had a guest around I really look forward to those moments and so Martha is busy in the kitchen getting things ready Jesus is sitting in the living room and the story goes as Martha is in a frenzy getting things ready for her honored guest that she notices that Mary, her sister, is just relaxing, enjoying the company of Jesus.

She's getting frustrated, angry, and she marches into the living room.

We pick up in the story in verse 40, but Martha was distracted with much serving and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care?

Notice that she doesn't go to Mary to try to get her into the kitchen.

She tries to use Jesus as leverage and she's not only frustrated with Mary, she's frustrated, by implication, with Jesus for allowing this inconsideration.

She marches in there and says, Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Martha's a cleric personality, you can just feel it.

And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but 1 thing is needed.

Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her." Jesus takes Mary's side.

We don't know how Martha responded, but I would be tempted to just, in a huff, say, oh, is that right?

Go back to the kitchen and perhaps even passive aggressively say, well, I guess I'm just going to slay away in the kitchen by myself.

And the lesson that we want to focus on from this interesting dialogue between Jesus and Martha is that the thing that Jesus treasures the most are not the things that we do for him.

The thing that Jesus treasures the most is the time that we spend with Him.

Now this does not minimize service, but if we were to look at Jesus' statement, Jesus places a higher priority on being than doing.

Now, we live in a very pragmatic society, and we place higher value on doing more than being.

The times I have overworked and made myself and everyone else miserable has been because I needed people's appreciation or their pity or their admiration too much.

I was trying to prove that I was worth something by my hard work.

But when service becomes a pain or a means of personal gain, then the service needs to be curtailed for the sake of the higher good of resting in Jesus' presence, God wants you to be His beloved, not His beast of burden.

Service flows out of being in his presence.

I want to read another statement here from John McKenzie.

Don't be unwise enough to think that we are serving God best by constant activity at the cost of headaches and broken rest.

I'm getting to be of the opinion that we may be doing too much.

We want at least, this is my own want, a higher quality of work.

Our labor should be to maintain unbroken communion with Jesus, then we shall have entire rest and God abiding in us.

That which we will do will not be ours, but His." This whole notion of being in His presence.

Tozer, it said, for ministers, The greatest thing that keeps us from spending time with God is doing ministry for God.

When you think about it, I'm just being vulnerable here, in pastoral ministry we know our theology, we do a lot, but the part that many times is lacking is the being part, the being in God's presence.

And Psalms 46, verse 10, we know this, it says, be still and know that I am God.

Just to be still in his presence easier said than done.

I Just came back from 3 weeks at Andrews University in Taking classes doctoral ministry program And I was expecting for 3 weeks to be sitting in a lecture for 8 hours a day.

We did have some lectures, but the majority of the time it was an experience that just was very different than I've ever experienced before.

I feel like I just came back from pastoral therapy.

Let me tell you a little bit about the journey through the seminary and undergrad, I was telling our Sabbath school, 1 of the things that we are trained to do, and it's really hardwired in our brain, is that when we open the Word of God, we are trained to analyze it.

Exegesis is something that is paramount, and I am not discounting its value, but exegesis is a very left-brain endeavor.

It's analytical, and when I open scripture just because of all the training I open it and it's just all analysis.

And just to be open here, after doing exegesis and preparing for the sermon, and after Sabbath, I wake up Sunday morning, and I open the Bible, and my emotional association with scripture, it's like work.

I'm talking about the emotional association.

It reminds me of the pianist that was a professional and that's how he made his living And when you go to a birthday party, someone will be like, hey, can you play the piano?

And he's like, oh, that's my occupation, that's my work.

And I had gotten so analytical in analyzing scripture, and I got to the place where I sincerely wondered what it would be like to meet Jesus face to face because my association with Him had become, in my years of ministry, so left brain and analytical that I imagined meeting Jesus and it being a little bit awkward face to face with Jesus.

What's the conversation going to be like?

Thank you, Jesus, for the soteriological framework that you established in Scripture in regards to justification, sanctification, and glorification.

But there must be something more than that.

And so the professor, he began by saying this, and I wrote it down.

It just was So profound for me where I was in my Christian experience the greatest thing that we have to offer our people is not our education.

I thought to myself, then what am I doing here?

It is the fruit of the time we have spent with the Savior.

The utterly unique and unparalleled thing that happens to us when we are simply in His presence.

And I want you to take your Bible and go off by yourself and be still and know that He is God.

He gave us these cheap journals from Wal-Mart, these spiral-bound things, and He said, what I want you to do is when your brain starts analyzing, hold that part back and engage God emotionally.

I don't know why I didn't, it's unfortunate I have to get to a doctoral program to get this.

Delighting in His Presence- Part 2

On the screen I have a picture of my wife and I in Tokyo.

2013 we had the privilege of visiting Japan.

Hopefully I'll get to go 1 day, but I went to Japan.

And this is not at the peak of rush hour, surprisingly enough.

And They have certain individuals that are commissioned and hired and employed by the subway management.

They're called pushers or otherwise known as passenger arrangement staff.

They have white gloves and at the peak of rush hour, in order to get as many people on the plane as possible and to prevent people from getting jammed in the doorways, they have pushers that push the individuals into the subway station, and they're able to do marvelous things by this technique and actually load the subway 200% beyond design capacity.

I had an acquaintance of mine that told me he was on a subway train and it got so packed that he was actually off the ground in the subway as it was going during rush hour and then some people get off and then you come back down.

Now, 1 thing that was uncomfortable for me growing up in the States was the personal space that was being infringed upon, and there was a lot of inadvertent physical contact that was taking place.

I had a big old backpack, and this gentleman kept on nudging me every few moments and it was getting really annoying.

So there's a lot of inadvertent contact that takes place within a crowd.

It is not intentional, nor is it meaningful contact.

And I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Mark 5, verse 21-24, where Jesus is in the midst of a crowd, and the crowd is pressing up around Him, and there is a lot of inadvertent contact that is taking place.

But there was 1 intentional touch, 1 intentional contact that resulted in the person's life being transformed.

Pick it up in Mark chapter 5 verse 21 through 24, Now it was that Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side a great multitude gathered to him and he was by the sea and behold 1 of the rulers of the synagogue came Jairus by name and he saw him He fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, My daughter lies at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed and she will live.

So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him." Other translations say they pressed about him.

Jesus is at the height of his popularity.

There is a horde of people around him, and they are pressing up about him and then there is another story that takes place within the story this is known as a Markin sandwich it's a technique that is used of a story within a story So you have Jesus going with Jairus to heal his daughter and on the way there is another story that emerges.

It is the story of the woman with an issue of blood.

Now we're gonna focus in on the inner part of the Marken San, which, pick it up in verse 25.

Now, a certain woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians, she had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

She had tried every physician, and they had even tried, perhaps, experimental procedures, and she only got worse.

And when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd.

So Jesus is walking along, and this woman, nonchalantly, have you ever tried to be inconspicuous?

This woman just comes up behind him in the crowd, acting like nothing's going on, and just reaches out and touches the hem of his garment.

And in that moment, she feels a power rush through her veins.

Rejuvenated, I imagine that her face just glowed in that moment.

Blood flushed to her cheeks and she was transformed by that touch.

This disease, this ailment that had dogged her for years, She was healed in that moment.

She could feel it in Her body she was made well Whoa, and then she's like oh, it's time to go Walking off I got my blessing now.

The whole crowd stops and he asks this interesting question, who touched me?

And the disciples say, what do you mean who touched you?

He felt the power go from him and he kept looking around and in Luke's account she comes up to Jesus trembling and tells her entire story and Jesus says, daughter, your faith has made you well.

What a story of a transformation that took place because of a touch.

There's a lot that we can draw out of this, but I wanna hone in on the thesis of our presentation here today.

The presence of God plus intentional contact, not inadvertent, The presence of God plus intentional contact equals transformation.

How many of you want transformation in your life?

How many of you want your life to be changed?

Then the question is why aren't more people or why isn't everyone being transformed?

There's a lot of people having inadvertent contact with Jesus.

There's a lot of physical contact that is not intentional, but 1 woman walks up to Jesus and intentionally touches him in faith and is transformed.

In this story, there's only 1 woman that walks away with the blessing and it is the woman that had intentional contact and transformation.

When we arrange our lives around habits of devotion It enables us to connect with the presence of God and be transformed this woman arranged her day around Jesus's activity and as a result she was transformed God is in the business of intentional transformation, or transformation, our role is to be transformed.

Now I want to read a statement here and parse it out a little bit.

There must be certain things that I will do at God's invitation and initiation in order that God can do.

There are certain things that I will do at God's invitation and initiation in order that God can do.

I believe that Jesus intentionally walked where she was and slowed down perhaps just enough so that she could touch him.

The woman's role was to reach out and connect and be transformed as a result.

Today I want to talk a little bit about this intentional contact.

Why is it so hard for us to intentionally connect with God?

I have this book that I recently purchased in my library.

It's a New York Times bestselling author, Sherry Turkle.

It's entitled Reclaiming Conversation, The Power of Talk in the digital age.

And she says in her book that this is the first generation that we are watching from a sociological standpoint the influence of what the cell phone and the iPad and all these gadgets that we have in our hands are doing to our children socially.

She says that this generation does not have the capacity or have not learned the capacity to engage in meaningful face-to-face dialogue.

They are surprisingly lacking in empathy.

Now this is not everybody, but this is a fascinating analysis that Sherry Turkle accounts for, and it's estimated that the average American spends 608 hours a year on social media.

1, 608 hours on TV And if you spent that time reading you can actually read a thousand books in a year It's a lot of time and She says that social media has become the emotional center of our lives The emotional center I have this quote from Vice president of a fortune 500 company notice what he says I wanted my email disabled I asked her his secretary to take my cell phone away from me.

I told her to let no calls through except for family emergencies.

She did exactly as I wished, but 3 hours without connection were intolerable.

I could barely concentrate on the presentation.

I know this sounds crazy, but I felt panicky.

Talking about an emotional center, a connection.

Series

Delighting in His Presence

Delighting in His Presence- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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