You may not believe that I ever served as a guest speaker for a revival rally, but I did.
It was five years ago.
One church in California invited me as a guest speaker for their New Year’s Revival Service for three days.
It was my first experience to lead that kind of a revival rally.
I felt very nervous on the first day of the revival service.
On the night after the first rally, my mind was complicated and full of regrets.
It was because I felt that I didn’t deliver enough grace to the audience.
So, I was not able to sleep at all.
The next day in the afternoon as I was preparing the words for the evening service, I heard the voice of the Lord.
"It is not you that leads this revival service, but Me...”
I heard His voice very clearly…
At that moment I realized that the grace is not coming from me.
Yes, becoming nervous, raising my voice, or trying hard didn’t guarantee grace toward the audience.
It was the work of the Holy Spirit.
I only needed to humbly try my best.
I realized that fact.
And on that night after the second revival service I slept well.
The reason I started today’s sermon with a matter of sleeping is that David mentioned the same topic in Psalm 4 that we read today.
David talked about it two times in this short chapter.
“Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent…” (verse4).
“You” means here “this faithful servant” mentioned in verse 3.
David was one of them.
It seems as though David was talking to someone, but actually David was talking to himself.
David was in a state of anger.
What makes David angry was his personal issue.
It seems that David must have been hurt or victimized innocently or assaulted by those who ignored God with arrogance and who loved ‘delusions and seek false gods.’
He must have felt he reached the end because it was too severe.
David was angry at his innocent hardship.
If we handle this kind of anger in the wrong way, we could commit sin.
We fall for the temptation of paying back evil by evil.
So, David persuaded himself,
“Alright. Who can’t be angry at this? It is alright. This emotion itself is not sin; but I have to be careful, so that it doesn’t turn to be sin.”
Martin Luther once said
“I can’t avoid birds flying over my head, but I can avoid they are making a nest on my head.”
As such David was persuading himself, so that his anger might not grow into sin.
Anger is the strongest medicine keeping people from sleeping.
‘Angered’ is often translated as ‘disturbed’ in the Bible.
A peace of mind is the most important in falling asleep, but anger disturbs our mind.
So, we can’t fall asleep.
David must have had so many nights of insomnia in his life.
He may have learned how to handle his anger through those experiences.
Instead of turning to anger he rather left his enemies to God and focused on reflecting hand being repent.
David talked about sleeping once again in verse 8 as follows:
“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (verse 8).
David learned what the real safety zone is.
He fled to a deep cave escaping from King Saul’s chase.
Lived as a general under the guard of soldiers, fled to a castle hard to be occupied, and lived in a fancy palace.
After experiencing all the safety zones, he confessed that the real safety zone is staying under God’s protection.
So, he could fall asleep when he called God’s name and relied on God.
Some of you may regard David’s confession as empty talks.
It could be a case for those who accept that God created the whole Universe and governs it, but feel God so distant from themselves.
They believe the resurrected Jesus may work within them, but also feel that they may be engaged in a fight they can’t win in their daily life.
They may seek something clear and powerful in their life circumstances.
Such things seem to resolve our issues and secure a safe living, but they ruin our life in an irrecoverable state.
We often realize that too late and then regret.
Only after experiencing the troubles, we often acknowledge that the real safety zone is God.
Yes, the real rest starts from the rest of mind and soul, and the rest of mind and soul is only possible when we escape to God’s shade.
As such, when we truly believe that God is alive, almighty, and knows all my worries and makes everything beautiful, we can leave all our burdens to God and finally rest.
There is one more verse referring to sleeping in Psalm 4.
It is verse 1.
“Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer…”
“Giving me a room when I was in distress" is sometimes translated as “Giving a room I can escape to” or “Making a breathing room.”
While meditating on this verse, I was reminded of one experience.
There was an upper room in the house I lived in when I was young.
It was used as a storage but it was small and cozy.
This upper room was a place for me to spend my own time.
Sometimes when I had a hard time, when I did not want to show my difficulty to other family members, when I felt alone, I would go up in the upper room.
I made it a place to relax in my own way.
Listening to music, reading books, and resting without interruption, I used to able to sleep comfortably there.
The upper room was a room that could be a void for a while from the difficult and frustrating reality.
Brothers and sisters, the reality that we are facing in our living sometimes suppresses us or is frustrating for us.
How about you?
Is there anyone who thinks their reality is just like despair?
Or, there might be some people who feel as if the reality is just like a desert or battle field.
Or there might be someone who is passing through the night and cannot sleep day by day.
To live in such a reality, we must have a room to avoid it.
There must be someplace to relieve our stress freely.
By experiencing such reality that was just like a desert or a battle field, tossing and turning all night, David looked for a room to breathe and rest for himself.
Sometimes he would have looked toward drinking, and sometimes with women.
But the answer he finally found was God.
It was escaping into the shadow of the Almighty God.
20181111 Sunday Worship Sermon
Do you have the room that God prepares?
Psalm 4:1-8
You may not believe that I ever served as a guest speaker for a revival rally, but I did.
It was five years ago.
One church in California invited me as a guest speaker for their New Year’s Revival Service for three days.
It was my first experience to lead that kind of a revival rally.
I felt very nervous on the first day of the revival service.
On the night after the first rally, my mind was complicated and full of regrets.
It was because I felt that I didn’t deliver enough grace to the audience.
So, I was not able to sleep at all.
The next day in the afternoon as I was preparing the words for the evening service, I heard the voice of the Lord.
"It is not you that leads this revival service, but Me...”
I heard His voice very clearly…
At that moment I realized that the grace is not coming from me.
Yes, becoming nervous, raising my voice, or trying hard didn’t guarantee grace toward the audience.
It was the work of the Holy Spirit.
I only needed to humbly try my best.
I realized that fact.
And on that night after the second revival service I slept well.
The reason I started today’s sermon with a matter of sleeping is that David mentioned the same topic in Psalm 4 that we read today.
David talked about it two times in this short chapter.
“Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent…” (verse4).
“You” means here “this faithful servant” mentioned in verse 3.
David was one of them.
It seems as though David was talking to someone, but actually David was talking to himself.
David was in a state of anger.
What makes David angry was his personal issue.
It seems that David must have been hurt or victimized innocently or assaulted by those who ignored God with arrogance and who loved ‘delusions and seek false gods.’
He must have felt he reached the end because it was too severe.
David was angry at his innocent hardship.
If we handle this kind of anger in the wrong way, we could commit sin.
We fall for the temptation of paying back evil by evil.
So, David persuaded himself,
“Alright. Who can’t be angry at this? It is alright. This emotion itself is not sin; but I have to be careful, so that it doesn’t turn to be sin.”
Martin Luther once said
“I can’t avoid birds flying over my head, but I can avoid they are making a nest on my head.”
As such David was persuading himself, so that his anger might not grow into sin.
Anger is the strongest medicine keeping people from sleeping.
‘Angered’ is often translated as ‘disturbed’ in the Bible.
A peace of mind is the most important in falling asleep, but anger disturbs our mind.
So, we can’t fall asleep.
David must have had so many nights of insomnia in his life.
He may have learned how to handle his anger through those experiences.
Instead of turning to anger he rather left his enemies to God and focused on reflecting hand being repent.
David talked about sleeping once again in verse 8 as follows:
“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (verse 8).
David learned what the real safety zone is.
He fled to a deep cave escaping from King Saul’s chase.
Lived as a general under the guard of soldiers, fled to a castle hard to be occupied, and lived in a fancy palace.
After experiencing all the safety zones, he confessed that the real safety zone is staying under God’s protection.
So, he could fall asleep when he called God’s name and relied on God.
Some of you may regard David’s confession as empty talks.
It could be a case for those who accept that God created the whole Universe and governs it, but feel God so distant from themselves.
They believe the resurrected Jesus may work within them, but also feel that they may be engaged in a fight they can’t win in their daily life.
They may seek something clear and powerful in their life circumstances.
Such things seem to resolve our issues and secure a safe living, but they ruin our life in an irrecoverable state.
We often realize that too late and then regret.
Only after experiencing the troubles, we often acknowledge that the real safety zone is God.
Yes, the real rest starts from the rest of mind and soul, and the rest of mind and soul is only possible when we escape to God’s shade.
As such, when we truly believe that God is alive, almighty, and knows all my worries and makes everything beautiful, we can leave all our burdens to God and finally rest.
There is one more verse referring to sleeping in Psalm 4.
It is verse 1.
“Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer…”
“Giving me a room when I was in distress" is sometimes translated as “Giving a room I can escape to” or “Making a breathing room.”
While meditating on this verse, I was reminded of one experience.
There was an upper room in the house I lived in when I was young.
It was used as a storage but it was small and cozy.
This upper room was a place for me to spend my own time.
Sometimes when I had a hard time, when I did not want to show my difficulty to other family members, when I felt alone, I would go up in the upper room.
I made it a place to relax in my own way.
Listening to music, reading books, and resting without interruption, I used to able to sleep comfortably there.
The upper room was a room that could be a void for a while from the difficult and frustrating reality.
Brothers and sisters, the reality that we are facing in our living sometimes suppresses us or is frustrating for us.
How about you?
Is there anyone who thinks their reality is just like despair?
Or, there might be some people who feel as if the reality is just like a desert or battle field.
Or there might be someone who is passing through the night and cannot sleep day by day.
To live in such a reality, we must have a room to avoid it.
There must be someplace to relieve our stress freely.
By experiencing such reality that was just like a desert or a battle field, tossing and turning all night, David looked for a room to breathe and rest for himself.
Sometimes he would have looked toward drinking, and sometimes with women.
But the answer he finally found was God.
It was escaping into the shadow of the Almighty God.
David confesses in Psalm 91, .