CCF: David’s One Thing - Seek Intimacy with God

Message By Pastor Peter Tan-Chi

What is your one thing? That if you have it you will really be happy. And why is it important to know this?

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You can be preoccupied with so many things and the most important things gets neglected. You can be pursuing something and you’re not aware of it. Oswald Chambers once said, the reality of death has an amazing power to alter our desires. It will tell you what is the most important thing. David’s one thing is found in the book of Psalm 27:4,

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
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 meditate in His temple.

Image courtesy of strengththroughweakness.wordpress.com

Once you have chosen your one thing, it will change the direction of your life. Everything you do is directed by that one thing. At the end of David’s life, God was pleased with him and even called him “A man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22).

David has one main pre-occupation to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. What makes somebody desire to be in the presence of God? David has tasted and see that the Lord is good.

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! – Psalm 34:8

Like David you can be intimate with God. Seeking intimacy with God is not hard. He is not playing games with us. He is always there waiting. But you need to seek Him with a sincere heart.

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

– Jeremiah 29:13

David seek God because he has encountered how good God is. The greatest blessing of seeking God is God himself.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life; -- Psalm 27:1

True intimacy with God means you have learned to see things in God’s perspective. Be patient with people who don’t know the Lord for they don’t see what we see. They don’t have the light. The first step to intimacy with God and having His light is to come to know Jesus(John 8:12). You cannot be intimate with God apart from knowing His Word(Psalm 119:105).

While David is talking about physical salvation, the New Testament tells us God saves us completely(John 17:3). Eternal life is knowing Jesus as your Savior.

Pursuing intimacy with God does not exempt you from problems. But people who are intimate with God have peace in their hearts in the midst of a storm.

David understood how precious God is that he behold in the beauty of God. He admires the goodness, character, mercy and attributes of the Lord.

To meditate in God’s temple means to inquire, ask, fellowship and seek His guidance. Many of us believed in God, but how many of us really understood how precious and valuable God is. Whether you worship or not worship does not impact the glory of God.

Worship is the proper response to who God is and what He has done for you. It’s a cycle, our intimacy with God results to worship which then results to greater intimacy with Him.

True worship is presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God(Romans 12:1). Like how Mary worship Jesus, she was generous and gave her best(John 12:3). Same way David, did not wanted to offer God that cost him nothing(1 Chronicles 21:24)

Our Christianity today is full of consumerism. We say “Lord I do this if you do this for me.” David provided all his abilities to God(1 Chronicles 29:2-3). We would know a person who is truly worshipping God in how he spends his time, treasures and talents. People who had close encounter with God know everything we have is God’s and out of their love for God they become generous.

Worship is contagious. Private worship and congregation worship are both important(Psalm 111:1, 149:1). When worship is dependent on your convenience, you diminish the value of who you are worshipping.

Tim Keller said, “You will never know God as He is unless you are in a worshipping community. Individual worship is a preparation for corporate worship, which is the real transforming experience.”

How do we then develop a habit of intimacy with the Lord? According to James Clear the author of Atomic Habits,

You do not rise to the level of your goal.

You fall to the level of your systems.

All of us wants to be intimate with God, but how do we make it happen? We are a creature of habits. Sixty percent of what we do is based on our habits. There is a habit cycle that we need to learn: Trigger - Desire - Response - Pleasure - Trigger

All of us worship something, what you worship will control you. What makes you anxious, angry that if you don’t have it, you fall apart. That is what you worship. Today, start to develop a habit that will contribute to that one thing: Intimacy with God.

David’s one thing is to seek intimacy with God because he encountered how precious God is.

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. –Psalm 16:11

Transcribed for CCF Singapore by: