Living in the Present-Dwelling, Gazing, Seeking
Psalm 27
1-10-16
Pastor Pat: “How do you do it Shirley?”
Shirley: “Pastor Pat, I never had it so good.”
Anxiety is like the smoke, and you can follow the smoke down to the fire. The fire is this. Anxiety
is always the result of the implosion or the collapse of a false god- Tim Keller
Psalm 27
“The one thing I ask of the Lord”. Does this start your prayer list? Wow…
So how do you make sure God becomes our “one thing?”
Psalm 27: _________, ________, _________
1 Corinthians 3:1–3
Hebrews 5:11–14
You have to gaze on His _____________ and you have to ___________ Him in His temple.
Psalm 27:8.11- Seek, Teach
2 things that seem to be essential to make God your “one thing”.
1—_____________
St. Augustine-Great African theologian of the church. 4-5th century AD
Three parts to actually seeing God: retentio, conteplatio, delectio.
A—Retentio is finding a truth, __________________of the Bible. It’s the word for retain.
B—Contemplatio, which means you contemplate or you look at God ____________ the truth.
You GAZE at God through the truth.
Ephesians 1:18 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…”
C—Delectio- to “delight” in Him
We do it with everything else but God. Now do it with Him!
But we don’t stop with gazing on His beauty.
2—_____________
Hebrew=“to go and seek counsel”
Christianity: Gazing at His beauty and seeking His will
You know what 95% of marriage is? Finding out how to serve the other person and how to do for
them.
Acts 22:6–10- “…What shall I do Lord?”
Blind Bartimaeus? Mark 10:46 “…was sitting by the roadside begging.”
Mark 10:52 “…Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”
What does it mean to gaze upon Him in his temple? What does it mean to seek Him in His
temple? John 2:18–22
How did David see the beauty of God in the temple? What happened in the temple?
Animals being slain: ____________, __________, ___________
We now gaze at the beauty of God through ____________
2 Corinthians 3:18
If David saw His beauty and it turned him into someone who could handle an army, how much
more are we going to be able to look at God and say, “You’re my ‘one thing.’
John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God…”
English missionary Allen Gardiner “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”
Grace+Truth=Connect
(To be done before your small group meets)
Read Psalm 27:1,4-6, Psalm 23, 84:1-4, Psalm 65:4, 134:1-3
As you read note together the moments when the psalmist speak of God being his ‘one thing’.
1-Pastor Pat said that “making God our ‘one thing’ is what it means to dwell in the temple gazing
upon God and seeking Him. What things keep us from enjoying this place of safety consistently?
Is there hope for improvement? How?
2-What were Augustine’s 3 means of actually seeing God?
Look up the following verses and organize them according to the above means.
King James Translators: “..a "Variety of translations is profitable for the finding out of the sense of
the Scriptures…must needs do good, yea, is necessary, as we are persuaded."
Psalm 25:5; 119:142; John 14:6, 17:17
Psalm 1:1-2; 119:11,15, 97-99; 1 Tim 4:13-16
Luke 11:27-28; Psalm 40:8, 112:1,119:43; Romans 7:22, 8:6
3-What is your plan to dwell in the house of the Lord daily? How are you currently seeking Him?
What needs to change in order for that to happen?
4-Talk about ways your small group can serve one another in encouraging each other to “dwell”
with God daily.