When we pray, I think we sometimes try to think of the most holy thing to say. For some of us, there are certain subjects that just don’t come up when we talk to God.

If we want to have a deep relationship with God, we need to be totally honest with him.

That was the subject of my sermon this morning at Crossroads.

Listen to “Psalm 109: Authenticity” on the Crossroads Podcast.

Below is the sermon as I wrote it out. There are only a few additional comments in the audio. Also, the recording started a little late, so my intro is cut off from the audio.

Enjoy!

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Good morning, everyone. And good day to everyone listening on the podcast, whenever you’re getting it. I am Pastor Brian, and those of you who don’t know me very well may be wondering, “why is that guy the head of geek ministries?” Those of you who know me a little better are not surprised at all.

And, just to explain, when I say “geek,” I mean a certain culture, a certain group of people. We’ve got a pretty specific set of interests that a lot of people find weird: we love stuff like comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, video games, science fiction and fantasy, stuff like that. We have our own language. Pastor Michael noticed something, and then I read someone else who made the same observation: geeks talk in prose. We talk like the characters we like from stuff we watch and read. I’m the only person I know who regularly uses the term “behold!” I’m not even kidding.

So, God gave me this calling to reach out to the nerds, the gamers, the geeks, on His behalf. Extra Life Ministries is just starting out, and can’t wait to see what God does through it. I’m excited. Our mission is to connect, teach, multiply, and reach a community of people that tend to isolate themselves, and sometimes have a hard time getting involved with the church.

Now, if you wanna help geeks come out of their shells, there’s a simple exercise you can do. If you’re in a group of people, and you suspect that some of them may be geeks, but you’re not sure, make a casual comment about Star Wars and see if anyone gets really excited, really opinionated, or both. If someone’s eyes get really big and they suddenly launch into an explanation of how lightsabers work, you’ve found your geek. Come let me know.

See, when you find out what someone is really passionate about, it opens up conversations. It gives you a chance to find out who they really are. If you learn what moves someone emotionally, you’ll have in insight into their choices. Their lifestyle. Their reactions to people. Their relationship with God.

Especially with the negative emotions people live with. Wanna know why someone makes certain decisions? Find out what they’re afraid of. Find out who hurt them in the past. When you start talking about those things, you know you’re in a deeper relationship with someone. When you can be that honest with someone, it shows trust. When they can express the difficult things to you, it’s a sign of intimacy.

And that leads us to our topic for this morning.

Turn with me to Psalm 109. This is a song written by King David, the second, and arguably the greatest, king of ancient Israel. The first king of Israel was a man named Saul. He didn’t obey God’s commands, so the Bible says that God found “a man after his own heart.” Man, if you want anything on your tombstone, it should be that: “a man / a woman after God’s own heart.”

David had a lot of people betray him in his life. King Saul was sort of a benefactor to him, until he went insane with jealousy and tried to kill him. It took David years to finally take the throne because Saul was chasing him around Israel. After David became king, his own son rebelled against him, and some of his top advisors switched sides. After that, another guy led a rebellion against him. How did David feel about those people? I mean, God describes him as a man with a heart for Him. He’s forgiving and gracious toward them, right?

6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;

let an accuser stand at his right hand.

7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,

and may his prayers condemn him.

8 May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

9 May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

10 May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be driven from their ruined homes.

11 May a creditor seize all he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

12 May no one extend kindness to him

or take pity on his fatherless children.

13 May his descendants be cut off,

their names blotted out from the next generation.

14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD;

may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

15 May their sins always remain before the LORD,

that he may blot out their name from the earth.

Okay, this is the Bible, right? This is the book that talks about forgiveness and stuff. That’s some bitterness!

David was deeply hurt by a number of people. And clearly, he was angry about it. If anyone’s gonna do a cover version of this song, I think it should probably be Metallica or Disturbed. Probably not Hillsong United, I’m thinking. This song is full of the deepest sort of bitterness, even to the point of hate.

Now, if that’s the only thing you ever read about David, what would you assume about him? I’d assume he’s a psychopath, or at least a tyrant! He comes off sounding like he’s not no mercy whatsoever.

But that, of course, is not the whole story. Check this out. This scripture is in 2 Samuel 9. This scene takes place after David has become king of Israel. Saul and his son Jonathan have already died in battle with an enemy nation.

3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”

Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”

4 “Where is he?” the king asked.

Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”

5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.

6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.

David said, “Mephibosheth!”

“At your service,” he replied.

7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”

Now, King Saul had a son named Jonathan. Ironically, David and Jonathan were best friends. And here we have David fulfilling a promise he made to Jonathan to take care of his family.

Now, compare this to Psalm 109. What happened to all that business of purging his enemy’s family from the Earth? Many times in the Psalms, David cries out to God for vengeance. He tells God, “pay those people back for what they’ve done to me.” But his is how he treats his enemies?

You may be thinking, “hold on there, Geek Pastor. What about Saul? Jonathan was his best friend; that’s why he’s being nice to his kid.” But it’s not just Mephibosheth. David had at least two crucial moments where he could have killed Saul and taken the kingship. There were at least two moments were Saul was completely at David’s mercy. David’s soldiers were even saying, “Look! God’s handing him to you! Go take him out!” But he didn’t.

We can draw a few things from this.

David expresses his heart, but remains reverent. He doesn’t let his emotions overpower his commitment to God.

David’s not coming to God and saying, “I’m going to get those people back.” He prays for God to take care of it. The thing is, he could have gotten away with it. He was the king. He had the power. In fact, some of David’s darkest moments are when he abuses his God-given power as king. His affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. The census of Israel. But time and time again, we see David pass up opportunities to avenge himself.

He let Saul go twice. After David’s son rebelled against him and he had to run for his life, this guy named Shimei cursed him and threw rocks at him. Literally threw rocks at the king. One of David’s soldiers offered to kill the guy. David said no.

Time and time again, David shows humility towards God. Then we read in the Psalms about how he felt. David expressed his frustration, but didn’t let it overwhelm him. He felt it, and he said so, but he followed God all the while.

Where do your emotions override your commitment to God? Do you feel justified in judging people who have hurt you? Are you afraid to commit your finances to Him? Your love life? Take a step back. Look at your actions. Where are you following your feelings when God is telling you something different?

Hear me. I’m not telling you to ignore your emotions. I’m just telling you to follow God first.

Something else we can take from these scriptures: David is completely honest with God, and it fueled their intimacy. If you want intimacy, you need honesty.

I knew I wanted to marry Jen pretty quick after I met her. Not quickly enough, she’d say. And one of the reasons why is, I could be totally real with her. Completely honest. I knew right away that we loved each other, not because of some facade we put up to impress each other, but because we really loved each other. I hope everyone here knows the difference. I hope all of you have another person in your life that knows you deeply and loves you dearly. Because that’s how God loves us.

There’s a cliche in Christian circles that’s worth mentioning here. It’s becoming quite the buzzword in churches today. We want authenticity. We have to be authentic. We desire authenticity in our relationships. We want authentic worship. So, what does that mean?

It means we need to be real. It means we need to be honest. And that should start with our relationship with God.

There’s another cliche in Christian circles. When someone’s frustrated or impatient about something, what do we tell them? “You gotta give it to God.”

What does that even mean? I think, sometimes, we just say it without thinking. I think, sometimes, we mean, “Uh, stop wanting that.” It’s not a bad sentiment. We should submit all of ourselves, everything we are, to God. The thing is, that includes all our desires. All our dark thoughts. All our hurts. Everything.

What are you holding back? What are you afraid to talk about with God? What don’t you want Him to see?

In order to really “give it to God,” we need to be honest about it. We should be baring ourselves to God and trusting him to straighten us out. There’s no sense hiding ourselves from God.

Authenticity fuels intimacy. If people don’t sense authenticity in us as we evangelize them, they won’t listen. If we aren’t honest and real with the people we love, it’ll harm our relationships. And if we’re not totally honest with God about what’s inside us, it’ll hinder our intimacy with Him. You need to be able to express your deepest emotions and innermost thoughts to him honestly.

David gave us a great example. He expressed even the dark parts of his soul to God, even as he decided not to indulge them. And that honesty helped keep him close to God. Is that how you pray? Is that how you worship?

If there’s something you need to be honest about with God, this next part of the service is a great time for it. Feel free to sing or not. If you feel drawn to it, come kneel at the altar. If you need to, just to sit and pray. Talk to God. Listen for Him. Be real with Him. That’s what this time is for.

Pray with me.