David Platt Messages
David Platt Messages is a podcast that highlights sermons from teacher, author, and pastor David Platt.
David Platt Messages
South by Southwest Conference Message
What are you here for? What is your purpose in life? Despite what our culture tells us, we were not created to “live for the moment” or to pursue health, wealth, and fulfillment in this life only. In this message from Psalm 67, David Platt challenges us to consider the ultimate goal for which we were created—to seek and enjoy God—and the ultimate mission that Christians and churches have been given—to spread and exalt the glory of God among all nations. The question all of us need to ask is, What might it look like for me to leverage my life and my vocation in light of these glorious realities? This sermon was given at the Sunday Service for the South by Southwest conference.
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You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt. Why are you here? I'm guessing you can see that on the screen. I ask this question, not why are you here at Sunday service, or why are you here at South by Southwest like deeper than that. Why are you here on the planet? How would you answer that question? If someone asks you why are you here, what would you say?
Speaker 1:In the next few minutes, I want to show you the answer to this question that your creator, who made you, gives, and I want to encourage you to settle for nothing less than what he's made you for and why he says you're here. So I've been praying about what God wants to say to us this morning and I just I did not have clarity until my time alone with the Lord in the morning. This last week took me on a journey. I've been in Deuteronomy and the psalms in my bible reading and I just so happened to be at one point this week in psalm 67 and as soon as I read it, it was like god said as clearly as he could. This is what I want to say to people in this gathering on this morning. I I love this chapter in the Bible and specifically the first two verses. I'll never forget the first time someone showed me these verses and how they answer this question of why I'm here, why you're here, and I remember it like it was yesterday. The trajectory of my life totally changed from that moment on, not because this person was a great speaker, it was just the power of God's word. And my life changed because of these two verses. So let me show them to you.
Speaker 1:Psalm 67, verses one and two. In fact, let's read them together. This is the word of God. Let's read it out loud together May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Oh, that is so good. So in those two verses, I want to show you the twofold reason why you're here, according to God, and here's how I would put it using language from these two verses. So one you are here to seek and enjoy the face of God in your life. That's what you're made for, first and foremost, above everything else To seek and enjoy the look at the language, the grace and blessing and the face of God shining upon you.
Speaker 1:So I started meditating on this and let me just take you down some of the journey. I went on in my time with the Lord and this was just me just soaking this one in. So my mind immediately went to a video that I watched a long time ago, based on one of the most well-known psychological studies about babies and caregivers that's been published over the last 50 years. Some of you may have heard of it. It's called the still face experiment, where this developmental psychologist showed that a caregiver's facial response to a child is critical to that child's brain development positive development from the first days they are alive. I get really grateful because, ironically, that research was released in 1978. It was the same year I was born to a mom and a dad who gave me that kind of facial interaction from the moment I was born. So I'm really grateful. And then I'm really sad when I think about kids who don't have, or people, maybe even in this room who didn't have don't have, or people, maybe even in this room, who didn't have that kind of interaction at that point in their lives. And science has shown the long-term effects in somebody's life of a lack of facial engagement like this in the early days of life, and this is really personal to me. My wife and I have six children, four of whom were adopted and some of whom did not receive this kind of facial interaction during their first years. The point is, we have been created from the very beginning to find fulfillment in face-to-face interaction with relationships, and Psalm 67 is stunning because the Bible is saying here that God has made you and me for face-to-face interaction with him. That's stunning, which then leads me to something okay.
Speaker 1:So now I was in Deuteronomy this week talking about Moses, and I come to this verse talking about Moses when he died. Look at this Deuteronomy 34.10. There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew. What Face-to-face. What a statement to summarize your life at the end. Wouldn't that be a great commentary? Looking back, he knew the Lord face to face, which goes back to language earlier of Moses in Exodus, chapter 33, verse 11, where the Bible says the Lord used to speak to Moses. What Face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Is this not amazing language? We're talking about the God who is sovereign, ruler, creator over everything. About speaking to God face to face as a friend and then.
Speaker 1:So then I come back to the Psalms and I see this in Psalm 67, then I start looking at different places Psalm 89, 15. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, o Lord, in the light of your what? Your face. What a way to walk, what a way to live in light of God's face shining on you, to wake up in the morning and walk throughout the day, you looking at God, god looking at you, not a mom or a dad. We're talking about this kind of interaction with god himself. And then so I dove in more check this out.
Speaker 1:So one of my favorite verses in the psalms is psalm chapter 16, verse 11. It says you make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy at your right hand, our pleasures forevermore. And I start diving in. You know what I found? The word here for presence is the exact same Hebrew word. That's translated face, in Psalm 67 and 89. So this verse is literally saying in your face, o Lord, there is fullness of joy. Oh, you just picture that video from earlier, the way that baby lit up with the face of a mom looking. This is where fullness of joy is found for you, right where you're sitting in the face of God. And then keep going. Psalm 21, verse six you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your presence. You'll never guess what that word is it's face. You have gladness in this world when you look at the face of God. So one more place.
Speaker 1:Then I go to Psalm, chapter 27. Verse four says one thing I've asked the Lord Like one thing. This is the one thing that matters most in my life, over and above everything else. One thing that I will seek after. Think about all the different things we could seek after in this world, all the different things you could seek after, all the different things that people all around us right now are seeking after. One thing I will seek, after that I may dwell and house the lord all the days of my life, just to gaze, to look upon the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple. I just want to gaze on, I just want to look at your face and all your beauty. That's the one thing I want, the one thing I'm seeking after.
Speaker 1:And then you get to verse 8, psalm 27,. Verse 8, you read you have said talking to God, seek my face. My heart says to you your face, lord, do I seek what? That's a command. That's a command from God Seek my face. God is commanding you to do this, and this is a really good command. Why? Because it's in his face that we find fullness of joy. Are you seeing this? Yes, of course your face, o Lord, do I seek. God has made you for this. Now, obviously, god is spirit, and so well, how do I speak to God face to face? He's spirit, like I can't see his face? Well, I'm glad you asked that question, because the beauty is God has shown himself to us. He has shown his face in who? In Jesus. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, verse six, for God, who said let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the what, in the face of Jesus Christ. Yes, god has shown his face to us in Jesus. This is the greatest news in the world.
Speaker 1:I gotta tell you this story. I was flying out of town early one morning. I had to leave my house in Metro DC at about 3 am, which I was not thrilled about, so I groggily get into this Uber Within about five minutes. The guy who's driving it's a man from the Middle East and he's very talkative, which I was less than talkative at that moment. But he asked me what I do. So I tell him I'm a pastor and he says I got to tell you a story I can't believe. You're in my car right now and he starts telling me. So this man is Muslim and Muslims believe that Jesus was a good man, he was a prophet, but not God in the flesh. They think it's preposterous that God would be born a baby.
Speaker 1:Well, he starts telling me in the end his dream one night of a little baby who was talking to him as clearly as an adult. The baby looked at him straight in the eyes, face to face, and said do not underestimate what God can do. And the driver basically says to me do you know what this dream means? And I'm like, uh, I don't't. I don't normally do dream interpretation. Inside I'm thinking my middle name is Joseph, but that I don't think that. So anyway, I said I, I don't normally do dream interpretation, but I actually know what this one means.
Speaker 1:I I said man, god loves you and God has done the unthinkable. He has come to not just us. He's come to you in the person of Jesus, to pay the price for your sins on a cross. Now, keep in mind, muslims don't believe Jesus died on a cross, but there's no holding back at this point. We're just going for it. So I said Jesus is God in the flesh, who came, lived a sinless life and then, even though he had no sin for which to die, he chose to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins, so that you, when you trust in Jesus for forgiveness of your sins, god will forgive you of all your sins and restore you to relationship with him forever, to walk with him, enjoy him for all of eternity.
Speaker 1:And he's tearing up, he's crying. He's like I'm so sorry. I'm like it's totally fine, as long as you keep your eyes on the road man, we are good. I'm crying back here too. I'm sharing the gospel, just more and more explaining different things. He's like this is unreal. I'm like, yes, this is unreal. I think this is not an Uber anymore. This is like an Ethiopian chariot and we gotta look for water on the side. I don't know what's going on, and by the time we get to the airport.
Speaker 1:I just said do you believe this man, do you believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, who came to pay the price for your sins so that you can have life with God forever? He looks back at me. He says yes, I believe this, I wanna follow Jesus. This is not amazing. It's the greatest news in the world. God has come to us, he has revealed himself to us in the face of Jesus, and God has made you to experience life and face-to-face relationship with him. Just let that soak in when you're sitting, where you're standing. This is what you are made for, and I obviously don't know everybody here. I assume many of you are followers of Jesus. But I would just ask every single one of you have you come face to face with God through faith in Jesus as your Savior, as your Lord, as your God, as your life? And if not, then trust that you are not here by accident today, that God has orchestrated the details of your life to bring you to this moment where, right now, he is saying to you I want you to seek my face and find fullness of joy forever. It's what you're made for and it's possible through faith in Jesus and for all who do have faith in Jesus. God is saying live in this. This is what you're made for. To seek and enjoy my face in your life, to daily get alone with him, face to face with him, be with him, to believe he is better than anything else you could seek after. He is better than money. He is better than fame. He is better than notoriety. He is better than prosperity. He is better than all the success everybody else is running after. You are made to find fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, simply alone with god on a daily basis. This is what you're made for. So let's live like this and then. So now check this out.
Speaker 1:Back to psalm 67. The bible doesn't say may god be gracious to us, bless us, make his face to shine upon us, period, and then kind of move on. Now they're actually. When you look in the scripture, it has this word selah, which is like a pause, like a musical pause, like let that soak in, but don't stop there. That's a comma and it's followed by a word that tells us there's another purpose here. So that purpose clause so God is gracious to us, bless us, makes his face to shine upon us for a reason. So it's not intended to stop with us. It's intended to, something's intended to happen through us here so that your way may be known on earth and your saving power known among all the nations. So there's a reason. God's face shines upon you and that reason doesn't stop with you. So here's the purpose of God's face shining upon you You're here to seek and enjoy the face of God in your life, and that's not all. And you are here to spread and exalt the glory of God among all the nations. That's straight from God. And things just went to a whole other level here, because apparently God has made you with a global purpose in mind, like all the nations, that's, the whole world and all the earth, and this is not just here in Psalm 67.
Speaker 1:If we had time, we could go all over the Bible saying this. But for the sake of time we could go all over the Bible seeing this. But for the sake of time I'll just jump to the end of the story. So where is all of history headed? Look at Revelation, chapter seven, verse nine. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and for the Lamb Jesus, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They all fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:This is the destination toward which the train of history is headed day, countless men and women from every nation, every tribe, every people group and every language in the world going to be represented around this scene, gathered around the throne of God, with Jesus at the center, giving him glory as we seek his face, exalting him among all the nations. So here's the deal. If this is the destination toward which God is conducting the train of history, and if you have the spirit of this God inside of you, then what are you here for? And if you have the spirit of this God inside of you, then what are you here for? You are here to spread and exalt the glory of God among all the nations. You're here to see Revelation, chapter seven, happen. But here's the problem we don't realize this, or at least we don't live like this. You know what we've done with this picture in Psalm 67 and Revelation, chapter 7, this idea of spreading and exalting the glory of God among all the nations. We've heard that kind of language and be like oh, yeah, yeah, okay, that's for missionaries, that's what they do, and we have turned the grand purpose of God in all of history into a small program on the side over here for a few people in the church, and the results have been disastrous, devastating.
Speaker 1:Look at this map with me. Three colors on this map. The green areas of this map represent places in the world where people have access to the gospel. Obviously, it doesn't mean that everybody in green areas is a follower of Jesus or even has heard the gospel, but what it does mean is that for people who live in green areas of the map, the likelihood is they have a Christian around them or a church around them who can share the gospel with them. And then we have yellow areas on this map where there is less access to the gospel, which means there are some Christians, some churches in those places, but a lot less than in green areas. So you have less likelihood of hearing the gospel, knowing a Christian or having a church near you that can share the good news of God's love with you in Jesus.
Speaker 1:And then you have the red areas that are classified as unreached by the gospel. It means there is very little and in some of those places, zero access to the good news of God's love in Jesus. Means that the likelihood is, if you live in one of these red areas, the likelihood is you will be born, you'll live and you'll die, and you will never encounter, have an interaction with someone who can share the truth about who jesus is, about how he has died on the cross so that you could be forgiven of your sins, have eternal life. They're considered unreached and and this is really important that's no-transcript. Talking about unreached people around the world. I mean there's unreached people in my office or there's unreached people in my neighborhood. It's not true. Those people are not unreached. You say how do you know? Because they're in your office or your neighborhood. They have access to the gospel. You're it.
Speaker 1:We're talking about people who don't have somebody around and estimates are there's approximately 3.2 billion men, women and children in the world who are currently unreached by the gospel. Just let this soak in for a moment, because the gospel is the good news that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we can be forgiven of our sins and restored to God. But if people never hear that news, then how can they be forgiven of their sin, restored a relationship with God for all of eternity? This is the whole point of the book of Romans. They can't believe in someone they've not heard of, and the only way they can be saved from their sin is if they hear and believe. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Speaker 1:In other words, there's 3.2 billion people right now in the world on a road that leads to eternity without Jesus, and they've never even heard from somebody else in this world the good news of how much Jesus loves them and what he has done for them so they can have eternal life with him, them and what he has done for them so they can have eternal life with him. And we've said, okay, let's get a few missionaries to solve that. Like no, what are we? What are we thinking? Like there are more people. This number is higher right now than ever before in history. Let this soak in. There are more people because the world population, we know, exponentially increasing, including the population in the red, which means on our watch, there are more people than ever before in history who are dying, going into eternity without ever having even heard the good news of God's love for them in Jesus. That's happening on them, in Jesus. That's happening on our watch today and yet at the same time. So now, let this soak in. We have more opportunities to reach them with this good news than ever before in history in our day, on our watch.
Speaker 1:You just think about it. Think about, well, paul, how long would it take him to travel from once a walk from one city to the next? Over weeks, months, to go by boat, and it didn't always work out very well, like he never could have fathomed a machine that can pick you up in the air transport. You just about anywhere in the world in a day, set you down with some snacks along the way, like that's amazing, air travel is amazing. Or how long would it take him to write a letter and get it sent off to someone over weeks, months, weeks, months to get a reply back? He never could have fathomed the opportunity to communicate with people around the world in real time in multiple languages through a device we carry around in our pocket. This is amazing Travel technology, the globalization of the marketplace, the fact that there are people from 100 plus countries at this gathering this week in Austin, the fact that there are opportunities for people from this gathering in Austin, texas, to go all across the world through tech, through film, through arts. This is why I'm so glad to be here at South by Southwest Brothers and sisters in whom the spirit of God dwells, brothers and sisters who know that life is found in seeking and enjoying the face of God, who are leading in film, arts, entrepreneurs, tech, because this map is not going to change when a few hundred or even a few thousand followers leave their jobs to become missionaries.
Speaker 1:It's going to change when multitudes of followers of Jesus start leveraging their jobs to spread and exalt the glory of God among all the earth, among all the nations. And this is where I just want to speak into your life, brother or sister. In film, in art, in business, in tech. God has blessed you, he's been gracious to you, he has caused his face to shine upon you in unique ways First in your salvation and then in the unique skills and education and experiences he's given you. And he has done it for a reason because you have a unique part to play in the spread of his glory in the world. He has done it that you might make his way known on the earth and his saving power known among all the nations. This is why you are here. It's what God is saying In this moment. You are here to seek and enjoy the face of God as your life and you're here to spread and exalt the glory of God among the nations. And just in case you're not convinced yet, look at this. This will bring it home.
Speaker 1:It's the last chapter in the Bible, revelation, chapter 22, verse 1. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. All the nations experiencing healing, no longer anything cursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him, and they will. What? It's the five most beautiful words in the Bible. It's coming. One day our faith is going to be sight. One day we are going to see his face, free from sin, free from sorrow, free from all the fallenness of this world. We're going to be free from death and we're going to see his face and drink from the rivers of his delight, fullness of joy, forever and ever, with people from every nation.
Speaker 1:So why would you settle for living for anything less than this right now? This is what you're made for. I just want to urge you today don't settle for anything less than seeking and enjoying the face of God over and above everything else in this world. Do not let let this be a wake-up call for some of you. Do not let busyness, bottom lines or anything else keep you from this one thing the high and holy privilege of seeking and enjoying the face of god on a moment by moment, day by day basis in your life. You're made for this and then, as you too, live and work and strategize and plan and dream and leverage all the grace God gives you so that, through your life, his ways will be made known on earth and his saving power will be made known among all the nations. And you will get to this day and you will not regret living to seek and enjoy his face and spread and exalt his glory in the world. So will you bow your heads with me? I want to give you a moment. We prayed, god. Help us to hear and help us to respond.
Speaker 1:I just want to give you a moment with the face of God. For some of you, for some of you right now, for the first time, say yes, I was made for this. I want to find fullness of joy forever through faith in Jesus. I want to seek your face, oh God, through faith in Jesus, for the first time in my life. Others, maybe for the first time in a long time, to return, to come back, seeking the face of God over and above Just what have you been seeking, over and above God?
Speaker 1:And repent of those things. Leave those things behind right now. Leave them behind. They're lesser. He's greater and to pray God. Use my life to make your ways known on the earth and your saving power known among the nations. How is my life gonna get the gospel, the good news of your glory in the face of jesus, to the world? Starting right around me, spreading out wherever you might lead me? Let me just give you a moment to seek god's face, and that'll lead us back into seeking God's face together in a worship, just praising Him, and you respond right now, just in your own heart, to what he's saying to your life. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of Radical with David Platt. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit Radical with David Platt. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radicalnet.