Sitting Before the Lord - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, June 28th. Do you need a word of encouragement from our Heavenly Father? Are you in a position to hear what God might say? Let's continue studying the discipline of sitting before the Lord. We have gone through this passage as we looked at these first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel to see the character qualities that are found in David, which is so beautiful. But there is one phrase in the seventh chapter, verse 18, which I think is probably to me personally, such a beautiful thought. It says, in verse 18, Then went King David in and sat before the Lord. Now, that phrase is also found in First Chronicles, which also relates the same event here in his life.

But let me tell you what's happening here. What's motivating David now to leave his house and go into the tabernacle and just sit before the Lord. Two things. First of all, the prophet Nathan has said to him, God has given me a message for you and this is it. And the second thing that motivated him was that David wanted to know what was meant by all that God had said to him through the prophet Nathan. Let me just say this to you.

I made it a policy a long time ago and it works. When somebody comes to me or says, Here's what I believe God has told me to tell you. I'm here to tell you, brother, I'm all ears. I always listen because I've been surprised in the past that what very clear definite direction God gave me through somebody that I wouldn't have expected it would have come that way. So when somebody says, I believe God's telling me to tell you this, you must be very careful. But don't just toss that out and say, Well, you know, says who? You're not as spiritual as I am. You know, how do I know that God's telling it?

You don't know that. That's why you and I need to be very sensitive. And the second thing here that I think is so important, all of us need a friend through whom God can deliver us a message when we need to hear from God.

And if you don't have one of those, you ought to get one tonight. Now, it's not all that simple because you have to develop that kind of relationship with somebody. But everybody needs that kind of a friend. And Nathan was David's very, very special friend. He was a prophet, but it was his friend. On this particular occasion, he comes to him and gives him a word of direction from God. When you and I move over to chapter 10, chapter 11, 13, when David goes through one of those dark valleys in his life, it is the same prophet that said to him, David, just do whatever God tells you.

He's going to bless you, is the same prophet and friend that said to David, David, thou art the man, which was a word of condemnation, a word of chastisement and a word that brought David to his face before God. So the thing that's motivated him now to leave his house and go out into the tabernacle to wait upon the Lord is the message that he got from Nathan, which he needed to understand from God's viewpoint. Now, when you and I practice what he says right here, the Bible says that he sat before the Lord, you and I ought to be able and willing and ready at times to do just that. And that is to sit before the Lord. And what ought to motivate us ought to be the same thing that motivated him. That is, that he'd gotten the message that he needed a very, very clear interpretation of.

Or if you're not in the process of making a decision in our life and we really don't know what to do next. Or if we are in a circumstance in our life and we don't really know what God is trying to say to us and we need to listen to him. When he says that he sat before the Lord, it's the only time in the Bible that any saint of God is ever represented as sitting before God in prayer. Usually they're standing of the kneeling of their lying prostrate before the Lord.

And the real truth of it is here that it's not the posture here that's important in the first place. When he says that he went in and sat before the Lord, the important thing isn't that he sat. The important thing was that he took time to be with the Lord. And I can tell you this, that what God does in your life and my life in those times will be far more important than what he'll do at other times.

And what you and I will learn in those times will be unequaled. There's no comparison to what God will do in your life when you and I are sitting before the Lord. But let's look for just a moment to see what happened in David's life. Then went King David in and he sat before the Lord and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? What is my house that you brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but you've spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.

He says, Now you've been talking about what's going to come in the future. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto thee, for thou, Lord, God knowest thy servant? For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these things to make thy servant know them? Now, the first thing that happened when David sat before the Lord is that he had a little review of his past. He said, Lord, who am I that you have brought me to this place? Who am I that you have brought me to this place? And when you and I sit before the Lord, that's one thing we ought to do. We ought to look at the past. If you just go rushing and say, I'm going to sit before God tonight and see what he's got to say. Now, Lord, you know about tomorrow.

That's not it. One of the things I think is such a beautiful example here is that, first of all, we look at the past to see where God's brought us from. When you and I think about the things that God has brought us through, the things he's delivered us from, that in itself is very important to God to keep reminding us of how gracious and good he's been to us. So first thing he reviewed his past. And I can imagine in reviewing his past, he thought about it. He could still feel the shiver up down his spine when he heard Saul's javelin pass his ear and stick into the wall.

Not one time, but several times. I'm sure that as he sat there, he thought about how many battles he'd been in and God has spared his life. I'm sure he thought about the day he was crowned and this coronation is king of Israel, knowing that he had to wait so very many years for God to do that.

So he reviewed his past. The second thing he did was that he reflected upon God. Now, this is why I keep saying to you, you need to read the Psalms, read the Psalms, read the Psalms, read the Psalms, read the Psalms, read the Psalms. Why in the world read the Psalms? Because you probably get the clearest, simplest, quickest view of what God is like and who he is by reading the Psalms.

Because the Psalms are, in essence, for the most part, David's recollection, his recall, his experience, his pinning down what God was like as he saw him in the circumstance, the situation, the problems, the heartaches of his life. And so often we miss the joy of time with God because we don't take time to reflect upon him. But reflecting upon our past isn't to bring about guilt, to recall old sins, but it's rather to thank God and to praise him where we've come from. And secondly, to reflect upon God, to reflect, I believe, always upon three things about God. First of all, his grace, what he's done for us that we've not deserved. Secondly, his goodness, all the good things that God is in the process of sending into our life. And thirdly, his greatness.

And listen, I don't care how far down in the dumps you happen to be or how far out in left field you may feel that you are and how far removed from what you ought to be. If you will reflect, if you will concentrate, if you will ponder, if you will just focus on those three things, the grace of God in your life, your health, your strength and all the rest. The goodness of God, what has he done for you all these years of your life? And then the greatness of God, I'll tell you, you can't get up off your knees and still be in the dumps if you'll think about his grace, his goodness and his greatness in your life. And that's exactly what he's doing in these verses here.

And then he did something else. He remembered the promises of God. Look if you will in verse 25. And now, O Lord God, the word that thou has spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as thou hast said. So he's remembering the promise of God here. And let thy name be magnified forever in what you're doing for me, saying the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, you have revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build in house. Therefore, has thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God, thou art that God and thy words be true and thou has promised this goodness unto thy servant. God wants to speak to you personally and he will make us promises. Not something that we conjure up and send up to see if you get his approval and bring it back.

No, to say, God, what are you saying to me? And oftentimes out of the clear blue, unexpectedly, God says, here's what I'm going to do. That promise is coming true.

If it's conditional, it will depend upon what you do. If you do it, God is going to keep his promise. Now, don't forget your part and say, Well, Lord, you made me a promise.

Why don't you get with it? And he'll say to you, I'm waiting for you to do what I told you was absolutely essential before I could meet this promise. So he remembered the promise that God had given to him concerning his privilege.

As far as building that house was concerned, he wasn't going to build it, but he got everything together. And God gave him the pattern, the blueprint for building the temple of God. And the fourth thing, when you and I go before the Lord, as he did here, he made a request. Verse twenty nine. Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant that may continue forever before thee. For thou, O Lord, God has spoken it. And with thy blessing, let the house of thy servant be blessed forever.

And he was simply saying, Now I know that I won't be able to build it. But would you bless the house of the Lord and bless his family, my son and his family? And what he was really saying here in these chapters and chapters thereafter, he's really talking about his family, Solomon. And in the years to come, that his kingdom would have no end.

And it does not, because the Bible says that Jesus Christ was the son of whom? The son of David. And he's established the kingdom and his kingdom is forever. And so when David sat before the Lord, he did four things. First of all, he reflected upon his past life. He said, You know, thy servant, my weaknesses, my strengths, my desires, the hungers, the thirst of my life.

He reflected upon his past. Then he reflected upon God who he was, his grace, his goodness and his greatness. Then he remembered the promises that God had made to him. And you and I can recall the promises in the scripture and any particular one that God is labeled for our own personal life. And then to request before God the things that we believe we have the right and the privilege to petition him for. And that may be a little idea of maybe four aspects of what you and I ought to do when we go before the Lord.

I think all four of them are essential. Reflecting upon the past, recalling in our own hearts how great God is, his grace, his goodness, his mercy, all that he is in the process of doing for us. And then remembering the promises he's given to us and then making that petition before him. But we simply reviewed how David, having listened and having watched and having been very sensitive to those about him, knowing about Samuel, knowing about Saul, these years of experience, David understood the extreme value of being alone with God. So he learned something as he wandered through life, as he was directed through life, and sometimes as he fled for his own particular life. So when you and I go before the Lord and are quiet before him and listening to him, what are the results of that? Let me give you three that I believe God always wants to be the result and that are worried about coming before him and sitting before the Lord.

And the first one is this. He wants to give us a new perspective of things. Now listen, you won't even see them as other Christians oftentimes see them.

You will be able, God will enlighten your mind and enlighten your heart and do something to your vision and clear your perspective on things. One always, I believe one of the results of sitting before the Lord is getting a clear perspective on where you are, the things you're concerned about, what you're asking God about. You just get a whole different picture of things.

You get a whole different picture. You just see things. It's like God opens your eyes and you're able to see what you could not see. And the reason most people say, well, I read the Bible and I don't get anything. If I can tell you one thing, that is a confession that you're not really in the right way.

If you read the Word of God, I can tell you how you're going to get something every single time, sooner or later it's coming. If you'll get on your face before God and you'll stay there, brother, these words, this black print is suddenly going to come alive in your heart. Because you see, sitting before the Lord unlocks the truth of God's Word and you get a whole different perspective.

And I'll tell you something else. I don't care how bad things are, you get a whole different perspective. And that's what we were talking about a few moments ago about David. Reflecting upon his past, looking to God, refocusing upon him, seeing the promises of God, making his request, his viewpoint changed. And you see sometimes you'll go in before the Lord and you'll say, I've got to settle this thing with God. And when you come out of there, that wasn't even important. That isn't even why you went in there.

You thought you went in there for that reason, but you can't even say, my goodness, I didn't even intend to talk about this. God opens your vision and helps you to see the real thing he was trying to say had nothing to do with what you thought was bothering you. One of the first rewards is you get a whole clear perspective on things.

The second thing is this. A purifying process takes place. Now, God wants our heart, listen, not simply to be clean and good. He wants purity.

He wants righteousness. He wants a cleansing process that goes to the uttermost part of our being. And you and I are purified before God and that purification comes through confession and repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the application of his precious blood in our life. He says, purify yourselves before God. And that does not mean that we make ourselves pure. But as I come before God seeking the purity of my heart and you see when I'm pure and hard not to worry about anything else, I'm going to see things from a whole different perspective. One of the reasons that people can't find the Lord's will and they don't get anything from God's word and they go in to pray and nothing happens is because their heart is impure. Purity of heart is an overflow, an outcome, a reward and a result of sitting before the Lord if we really mean business before God. And sometimes there'll be a fiery process. Sometimes it'll be a struggling process. Sometimes he says it'll be like a hammer blow crushing our old stubborn will and breaking through the crust of our hypocrisy and getting down the inside of us and revealing to us what we had so well hidden.

When we see it, we don't like it. But God wants to purify that. And the third result of sitting before the Lord is power in your life, power to overcome sin, power in your work with the Lord, power in your relationship to other people. Let me ask you a question. Think about this for a moment.

If you'll be real honest and maybe you don't know the answer, but I'm going to tell you in just a moment. If you'll think about it, how can we expect God to empower us? Reading the Bible? A lot of people read the Bible, but there's no power in their life.

Winning people of Jesus Christ or sharing your faith? Well, most of that is the result of God's power in your life. What do we do that brings about an anointing, a power, an authority in our life, which God, I believe, wants in every single believer's life? You say, well, now, the little old me sitting back here, why does God want to give me any power?

Let me tell you something. If you're not willing to get your heart right with God, make yourself available to Him, you're right. Why should God empower you if you're not going to do anything? But let me ask you something. If you want your life to count before God, listen, His power is available to every single believer if we'll pay the price. And the price, in essence, is sitting before God, waiting before the Lord.

But how many of you have said, oh, I've got to just do so and so in my life? Let me tell you something. You're not waiting on Him. He is waiting on you.

Now, let me ask you a question. What are you willing to give to get God's perspective? So what are you willing to do to get that? And secondly, what are you willing to do for God to purify and to keep your heart pure before Him? And thirdly, what are you willing to do in order that God would empower you with the Spirit of God in your work, in your witness, in your walk, in your conduct, in your behavior, in your relationship to other people, in your finances, in your service before God? What are you willing to do to have God's omnipotence, God's anointing in your life? What are you willing? Let me ask you something. Are you willing to float through your Christian life and saying, well, as long as I get by, don't commit this sin, don't get in trouble, don't get in jail, don't run around with somebody else's wife and have enough finances and go to church and serve the Lord? I'm willing. I want to tell you, God wants us to be everything He planned us to be. Let me ask you a question. What are you willing to give for God's perspective, God's purity and God's power in your life?

What are you willing to give? Thank you for listening to part one of Sitting Before the Lord. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.