Obey and Cling to the Treasure Map

9/20/2005

I think really that David had an understanding of that treasure map. It’s not a treasure where there’s nothing all along the way until you finally get it. Like when you play treasure hunts at home, there’s no prize until the very end. But David saw that every single step of obedience had its own prize and its own piece of revelation toward that ultimate goal of knowing Jesus better. “I’m confused, so therefore I obey Your law!” Or, “I’m worn out with sorrow, so I can’t wait to obey You.” Each step of the way: “I obey You and I am going to be refreshed.” “ I obey You; I’m less confused.” Every single step of obedience brings its own little piece of encouragement or enlightenment or direction when you are perplexed or intimidated by enemies. “I am intimidated by my enemies (or whatever thing is really hard on me right now), but I will obey You! Ah, less intimidated!” Each step of the way is a gift and a different treasure hunt.

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Do you know what Jesus said in John 7 when He talked about kind of what you’re saying? He said, “You wouldn’t be confused about me and you wouldn’t be confused about whether the words I was saying were from God or just from a man if you were obeying. If you were a treasure seeker, one who obeyed the things he knew, you wouldn’t be confused about whether the things I spoke were from me or from God.” Even revelation and insight and clarity of recognizing God’s Voice, versus the voice of flesh and the voice of ambition, come as we obey the things we know and as we follow the map.

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One of the things I’ve been kind of learning about is just that obedience comes from believing who God says is in authority. I was thinking that I will be obedient when I recognize and understand and believe that God has the treasure game. But to be cultivating THAT will also be cultivating obedience. Cultivating that heart that knows who God is and recognizes His authority and His position in our lives. That will lead us to the obedience that leads to the treasure map. Getting to know God and pursuing Him and getting to Know Him as the treasure King.

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One of the phrases that jumped out to me a lot when you were reading that, Mike, was (you guys can think about this and how it applies...) but, I don’t know how many times David used a word like “cling,” “hold on to,” where there were choices that were there. Obviously, when he heard something he held on to it. He didn’t just nod and go on to his next thing that he wanted to do. He KNEW that there was a clue there. He KNEW that there was a hint there. He KNEW that God was there and he clung to it. He grabbed after it. He held onto it for dear life. Those are the kinds of choices (I don’t care how old we are) we can make, is to recognize that those things are parts of the treasure map, recognize that something that you are being told or is explained to you or that you’re hearing or reading- it’s not just what we do, but it’s all clues to the greatest treasure ever known. We can cling or we can endure; we can have a good attitude and sit quietly, or we can cling and hold onto those things. Think about the word “cling”. It’s a pretty strong word. It’s not just “pay attention,” “listen real hard,” “try”! But CLING means hanging on for dear life. Like you are clinging from the edge of a cliff and you’re about to fall down. You cling to the tree that is hanging over the edge. Clinging.

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In the NIV it says: “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.” And it’s just like anything that wasn’t of God, he didn’t just dislike it. He hated it, he abhorred it, he despised it. It was despicable to him. It was an extreme in anything that was good: he longed for it, he hungered for it, he thirsted for it, he clung to it, he thirsted after it. Seek those things that we can definitely cultivate in ourselves. If we see something that’s alive or see something we don’t like, not to just “not like it.” But to realize that God doesn’t just simply dislike this. He hates it, He despises it, He abhors it. And that’s the way we need to cultivate in our heart, too. It’s extreme. If we saw it the way God saw it, we WOULD despise it with absolutely all of our heart. We would want to spit and claw at it and rip it apart, whatever this thing is. That’s why just the verse before that...it says, “My heart trembles at your word.” There is just this trembling that comes from: “God’s word is right and I absolutely want to cling to it and adore it, and anything that is against God is horrible, absolutely horrible.” There’s just no middle ground.