Sermon Notes (12.19.21)
Delight in Beauty
Psalm 27:1-6
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom should I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
whom should I dread?
2 When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh,
my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army deploys against me,
my heart will not be afraid;
though a war breaks out against me,
I will still be confident.
4 I have asked one thing from the LORD;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the LORD
and seeking him in his temple.
5 For he will conceal me in his shelter
in the day of adversity;
he will hide me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
6 Then my head will be high
above my enemies around me;
I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy.
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
The Pursuit of Beauty
Psalm 27:4
If you had ONE wish?
What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God? – J.I. Packer, Knowing God
The Promises of Beauty
Psalm 27:1-3
Whom should I fear?
Whom should I dread?
Is your confidence in beauty that is fleeting?
The Provision of Beauty
Psalm 27:5
Isaiah 53:1-5 – Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
Our Participation in Beauty
Psalm 27:6
I will sing and make music to the Lord.
But we don’t go looking for beauty in a war zone. We play the cello in a concert hall, not the rubble that remains in the wake of a mortar shelling. It would not ever occur to us to search for beauty in a minefield; no one would enter such terrain expecting to discover, embrace, and be transformed by beauty. How would it be possible? We would be too distracted by the fear of the obvious danger. Moreover, it would be sheer lunacy to consider that same minefield as a construction site for an outpost of beauty. No one knowingly walks into the ruins of one’s dwelling place and the crosshairs of sniper fire with the expressed purpose and expectation of creating beauty and putting it on display. But as it turns out, this is exactly what God has done in the incarnation. And whether he knew it or not, the incarnation is what Smailovic was echoing in Sarajevo. – Curt Thompson, The Soul of Desire
Ephesians 2:8-10 – For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?
Confess.
Celebrate.
Co-create.
A Prayer for Salvation
“Heavenly Father, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through your Son Jesus I can be more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you that he lived the life I should have lived and paid the debt and punishment I owed. Receive me now for his sake. I turn from my sins and receive him as Savior. Amen.”