So I call this message, A Search for Significance, because in my life, I have always been on a quest to be significant. How many men in here do we have that have felt that, I just want to be significant. I just want to accomplish something. I just want to do something that matters. And I'm not the only one. This particular book sold two billion copies. No, that's two million. I'm sorry, two billion would be really out of whack. The Search for Significance. I don't know if anybody's ever read this book. But I read it among a bunch of other books that dealt with personal development, personal improvement, personal this, how to accomplish goals, how to succeed in life, all of those different things. And there is a hunger within us for sure to be significant. And as a matter of fact, if you don't feel significant, if you feel a lack of significance, that can be very depressing. If you feel you don't matter at all or your life doesn't matter, it is pretty depressing. The idea of significance is importance. I feel a certain amount of importance. But as I read Psalm 131, I realized that the search for significance is really a search for God's purpose for your life. Because unless you fulfill that purpose that God has for your life, it doesn't matter how significant you are to others. If you're not significant to God, your life doesn't matter. Do you understand that? As a matter of fact, everybody wants to be significant and leave their mark on the world by doing something that leaves a mark. But in the light of eternity, those marks don't mean anything. Jesus says, what is the profit of man if he would gain the whole world? But if he loses his soul, it doesn't matter. So Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of all time, looked at Psalm 131 and says, it's one of the shortest psalms to read, but it's one of the longest to learn. And even as I studied it, even as I poured over it, I was still wrestling with some of the ideas because it deals with the glory of God in our lives being the most significant thing. So here's how David starts it. 131, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great or too marvelous for me. So Father I pray that as we hear your word and as I seek to deliver it Lord I pray that the Holy Spirit would speak something individually and personally to each person here regarding what your spirit is saying to the church that we might apply to our life and ask this in Jesus name and all of God's people said amen. So, what do you need to know first of all about Psalm 131? Because not all the Psalms were written by David. Some of them were written by even Moses. But this particular Psalm was written by David. And that's extremely important because do you think David had significance in his life? You don't get any higher than being a king, do you? So David is the author of Psalm 131. But the title that David loved most, and I'm sure he hung his hat on this more than any other title, was this. David was a man after God's heart. In other words, he cared about God's heart and doing what God wanted him to do. Saul, by contrast, was a man after the people's hearts. He was always trying to please the people, make the people happy. He was always trying to get the people to applaud him. David could care less about the people's applause. Who he cared about was God. And if you're going to achieve real significance in life, you're going to have to do the same. And why I say that Saul was the people's king is because we know that Saul was put in place by Samuel because the people wanted to have kings, because all the other nations had kings. And God said, I'm your king. And the people said, oh, no, we get it, but we want an earthly king. So they wanted Saul, and God gave them Saul. And Samuel was lamenting this in 1 Samuel 8, 7. And God says this, they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. They want a king. Something in the human heart, we just want people to applaud. We want rock stars. We want celebrities. We want people that we can look up to and say, man, that guy's something, or man, that person's something. There's something in us that we want to give worship to other people. And God is saying all along, I want you to give all of your worship to me. But this is not in the human heart. David was a man after God's own heart because he could care less what people thought, and this is a indication of it. When the presence of God got close to David, he could care less about people watching or thinking whether it was dignified or undignified. He was like, I'm going to dance before my God. I can't dance. But I told my wife, if I ever dance, if you ever see me dancing, You'll know that I'm dancing because the presence of God is here. This was so disgraceful that it says that his own wife, who was the daughter of Saul, must have had the same spirit that Saul had, right? Apple doesn't fall far from the trees. She cared about what the people thought, and so she looks out of the window, and she sees David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him. David could care less. This is the way you're supposed to be. Significance begins with understanding and having a lowly heart. Look at David. He says, oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes have not raised too high. Now, I was looking at this and going, what is he talking about here? Is he talking about he didn't have any ambition, or he didn't want to do anything great with his life, or he didn't want to have any accomplishments? This terminology is used in one of his other songs, and we're going to get to that in just a second. What he is exalting here is the sovereignty of God in his life. He goes on in Psalm 139 to say, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, and here it is. He says, your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book they were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when yet there was none. In other words, he says, you have gone before me and all that is happening in my life is a fulfillment of your plan for me. He says, how precious are your thoughts, O God? How vast are the sums of them? If I would count them, they are more than the sands of the sea. I awake and I'm, what David is saying is you thought about me, you think about me, you planned out my life, you wrote everything down in a book, and now I'm walking into it. That is what David feels is too marvelous for him. His heart was not raised up because he did not do anything that God hadn't foreshadowed for him to do. When you look at Jesus, this lowliness of heart is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. We are to take his yoke upon us and we are to learn from him, for what was Jesus? He was meek and he was lowly in heart. If you're meek, you're just like, what do you want? I'll just do whatever it is you tell me to do. If you're lowly in heart, it means your heart has no aspirations other than God's aspirations for you. And by the way, if you will get meek and you will get lowly in heart, God will teach you. This is what Jesus says, learn. Learn from my example, but you will also learn from me if you are meek and lowly in heart. This may shock you, but the only people God wants to hang around with are these kinds of people. Here's what the Bible says. I read Isaiah 66, but I'm going to read Isaiah 57, because it says pretty much the same thing about what God wants. Listen. For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who habits eternity, whose name is holy. Listen to what he says here. I dwell in high and holy places. My first place is in the highest and holiest place. But when I come down to earth, listen to what he says here, I also dwell with him who is," what? "...contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and the hearts of the contrite." God looks at all the other people and He goes, yeah, you seem to be doing fine. So I'm heading for the contrite and I'm heading for the lowly and those are the people. And even though David was king, he still understood this. You see, to be significant is really to play out whatever God has for you in his mind. And that means nothing when it comes to being significant in other people's minds. Because here's Colossians 2, 5, and 6. Have this mind among you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he existed in the form of God, did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself and became a servant. He was a son in his heart, but he was a servant in his lifestyle. Then, the author, Paul, tells us that this mind that Christ has needs to be in us. And here's the way he says it. He says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, look about significance. Count others as more significant than yourself. In other words, The Christian viewpoint is, if you want significance before God, then make everybody else more significant than you. So you go to the bottom of the significance ladder. If you want to be significant with God. If you want to be significant in the eyes of other people, go for it. Whatever, do whatever. Let each one look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. So significance begins with a lowly heart, and there is significance for those who choose to let God select their destiny, right? Psalm 131, I have not occupied myself with, in other words, I have not planned out my life. That knowledge is too great for me. I'm gonna look at you, who is for me. You are gonna plan it out. So I would say it this way, stay in your lane. You're going to see this over and over in Scripture. If God has laid out a course for you, stay in the course. Because here's what David said in Psalm 16. The Lord is my portion and my cup. Meaning, He is my will and He has set forth His plan for my life. He holds my lot. Your lot in life is what God wants you to do with your life. Listen. And he says, the lines have fallen in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel at night and my heart is strong. In other words, I'm just, the thing I'm most happy about is God is telling me what to do. But he's my portion, he's my cup. Staying in your lane means walking with God into your purpose. I'll give you three examples of people that did not stay within their lanes and the result of it. The first is the angel. They did not stay in their lane. The Bible tells us they were called to be servants, ministering spirits to serve those who inherit salvation. What did they decide to do? Jude tells us, yet these angels did not keep their proper dominion, but abandoned their place of residence. God says, be here, do this. They say, no, we're going to be here and do this. Saul would be the other one. Remember why God eventually just removed his kingship from him? Saul wanted to please the people, and the people wanted him to offer a sacrifice. And Samuel said, wait for me, and when I get there, I'll offer a sacrifice. Wait for me. And there was a delay in Samuel getting there. And so Saul says this, the people were scattering from me. They were walking away from me. They were looking elsewhere. Their eyes weren't on me anymore. So then I said, I'm going to make a burnt offering and a peace offering. And so when Samuel comes, he says, what have you done? And his excuse is this. When I saw the people that were scattering from me and you had not come at the appointed time, that's when I decided I'm going to be a priest as well as a king. I'm gonna go outside of my lane. And so Samuel says, well, here's what God says. The kingdom shall not continue. Your kingdom, it's over, your reign is over. And who does God put in his place? A man after his, in other words, a man who would do what God wanted him to do, not what the people wanted him to do. Do I have to list all the preachers out there that all they care about is making the people feel good? This church would be, I don't know how much bigger, but it would be a lot bigger if we made our sole goal preaching stuff and saying stuff that you wanted to hear. But that's not it. And finally, the last example of this is David. David is an example of a man who did everything right until he didn't. 1 Kings 15, David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that was commanded of him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Yeah, that was a pretty big deal. But I want you to see what God says to David after one year in which David kept this secret sin of killing this man and taking his wife a secret. The prophet Samuel disappears, but God's voice comes through him and says, I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hands of Saul. I gave you your master's house. I gave you your master's wife into your arms. I gave you the entire house of Israel and Judah. I gave you everything. Did you despise the word of the Lord and do what was evil in my sight and you struck down her right? But here's the part I want you to see. Here's the part you have to see. This is God speaking to David, who is one of the most blessed men. Listen to what God says then. He says, if this were too little, in other words, everything I gave you, everything that was in my plan for you, if that was too little, I would have added you much more than that. Why did you just trust me to give you whatever it is you wanted? Why did you go outside your lane? Here's what I want you to know and here's what you have to know. You'll never find anything better in this life than what God gives you. You say, Pastor, did you go outside the lane? Oh, many times I went outside the lane. What do you have to show for that, Pastor? A lot of heartache. a lot of wasted time, a lot of broken dreams. But you know, every time I waited for the Lord and the Lord gave me something, you know what I have to show for that? It's eternal. It's better than anything that I ever went after for myself. So stay in your lane. Let God bring his goodness. Listen, godliness with contempt is great gain. That's what Paul said. We brought nothing into this world. We can take nothing out of it. Then it goes on to say, but those who desire to be rich, this is part of the significance. I desire to be rich. May I give you an encouragement? Don't desire to be rich. If God wants you rich, he'll make you rich. If God wants you poor, he'll make you poor. If God wants you middle class, you'll be middle class. If God wants you lower, it doesn't matter, does it? Paul says, be content because those who desire to be rich fall into temptations and into snares and senseless harmful desires, listen, that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Can he say it any clearer? Be careful. Significance is total dependence upon God as a child. And this is the last part of it. He said, well, this is the major substance of the last part. He says, I have, this is David, I've calmed and quietened my spirit like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. All I care about is being weaned, weaning myself on God. He is my everything. He is my nourishment. He is my supply. You see, walking with God's purpose in your life is your significance. If you're not walking with God into your purpose, you have no significance. Here's the way Ephesians puts it. You are his workmanship. You were created in Christ Jesus. What were you created for? Good works which God prepared beforehand. That means these good works were prepared before you came to earth. And I often say to people, do you know the good works you were prepared for? Do you know what plan God has for your life? It says here that you should walk into that. When you get to heaven, God is going to say to you, did you do the good works that I prepared for you to do? Did you walk into those works? It's very similar to what Jesus said in John 15. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever imbibes in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. And we always talk about, oh, I want my life to bring glory to God. I want to glorify God. I want to bring glory to God. Well, here it is. By this, the Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. How do you bear fruit? By abiding. How do you abide? By spending time with God. The glory of God is your significance. Let me tell you what Jesus thought about people. Not much. He says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another? Because you need glory from other people and you need the people's applause, that shows me that you have no faith. Because if you had faith, the only applause you would seek would be God's. So Jesus goes on to say, do not seek glory from other people. It's fickle and it's fainting. He says, you need to seek the glory that comes from the only God. There's a question mark here because he says, why aren't you seeking the glory that comes only from God? That's a question. Why are you not seeking that? And the answer to that question is, you don't have faith. Jesus says this, do not receive glory from people. Why? Because here it is, but I know that you do not have the love of God in you. What he's saying is here, because you seek glory from people, it means you have the love of people in you. See, if I seek only the glory that comes from God, I'm saying, God, I love you and I love you only. Finally, my only hope in this life is significance. First significance is to follow God's future plans for my life. David says, O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. This is it. What do you put your trust in? Israel was always tested to see if they would obey things that made no sense and brought nothing but disdain. Can you imagine Abraham telling somebody that God told him to kill his son on top of a mountain? That makes no sense. And there's disdain with that. Applying blood over you, really? God is constantly testing us to see if we're gonna do stuff that makes no earthly sense whatsoever. You know, people always exalt Abraham as the father of faith, and rightfully so. But does anybody ever think of this Isaac guy? You know how old Isaac was? He wasn't a kid. He was 25 years old at this time. And his dad came to him as a grown man, 25 years old. How old is Abraham? He's probably close to 100. And he tells this young, youthful lad, hey, put this wood on your back. We're going to the top of the mountain. And we know that when he gets there, of course, Abraham makes the proclamation when Isaac asks, you know, where's the sacrifice? And he says, God will provide a sacrifice. But then when his dad lays him on the altar, do you understand? He's a 25-year-old man. He's laying down. This is his dad. He's laying down. That is the image of Christ. Laying down his life. He could have taken it up. He could have took his dad out. He could have said, hey, dad, you're not taking me down. Go ahead, dad. I trust you. Catch that. Jesus on the cross. Father, it's not about my will. It's about your will. And if this is your will, I'm laying down. Father, it feels like I'm being forsaken, but I'm gonna put myself into your hands. Does anything look successful about the cross to human eyes? This is utter and total failure in the eyes of men, but it is complete and total significance in the eyes of God. Be careful. what you think is significant, because the cross is the most significant event, and it looks by every human standards like Jesus was a total and utter failure. Significance is based upon total dependence and obedience to God. Thanks for listening to this message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.