The One Thing

In this sermon from Psalm 27 we learn why we need The One Thing and what The One Thing is (a preoccupation with God's person and His will - evident in Psalm 27:4).

Based on Psalm 27, Tim Keller notes five practical ways for how we can get this The One Thing:

1. Existentially - David is seeking an experience of God’s person. He is seeking God's presence. Belief and obedience lead to the experience of God’s person and presence.
2. Deliberately - This is a discipline. To seek, gaze, inquire are all deliberate tasks. We won't just wake up one day having The One Thing.
3. Intelligently - We can't just go for a walk at a park or at the Ocean. We need to spend time alone with God in His Word!
4. Patiently - Note the process and the cyclical nature. Look especially at Psalm 27:14.
5. Jesus-centrically - Notice Psalm 27:1. Jesus said that He was the light of the world (John 8:12). He is God come in the flesh (John 1:14) so that to behold him means we behold God.

In his book on Prayer, Tim Keller notes:

God is, of course, omnipresent— he is everywhere (Ps 139: 7– 12). What does it mean, then, to seek his face and to “draw near” if he is everywhere already? When we speak to someone, we don’t look at and address his or her kneecaps or feet or back or stomach. We address the person to his or her face. The face is the “relational gate” into a person’s mind and heart. To seek God’s face is not to find some place in space where God is located. Rather, it is to have our hearts enabled by the Holy Spirit to sense his reality and presence.