In this episode of the sermon podcast from Oceanside Sanctuary, Pastor Jason Coker continues the series “After God’s Own Heart,” exploring the life of David and asking what it really means for someone to be called a person “after God’s own heart.”

The sermon centers on Psalm 131 and the story of David sparing King Saul when he had the opportunity to kill him. Rather than taking Saul's life and claiming the throne he had been promised, David chooses mercy. The question is: How did David learn to resist his immediate desires and choose a different path?

Psalm 131 offers a glimpse into David's inner life. David describes learning to calm and quiet his soul “like a weaned child with its mother.” Pastor Jason explores this powerful image as a picture of learning that we don't have to receive everything we want immediately in order to be okay.

The sermon explores the relationship between desire, ambition, self-awareness, emotional maturity, and spiritual formation. Through the imagery of the child, the mother, and the poet, David is able to observe his own desires from a distance. That distance gives him the ability to recognize, understand, and manage those desires rather than being controlled by them.

Jason then considers the role of contemplative practices—poetry, music, storytelling, gardening, building, painting, and other creative practices—as ways of creating space to better understand ourselves and our relationship with God. These practices, he suggests, can all become forms of prayer.

Ultimately, this sermon challenges us to consider that prayer isn't simply asking God for what we want. Prayer can also be the practice of creating space to understand who we are, who God is, and how we can become people who exercise power and influence responsibly.

Scripture: Psalm 131; 1 Samuel 24
Series: After God's Own Heart
Speaker: Jason Coker
Church: Oceanside Sanctuary

Reflection Questions:

• What desires tend to control you?

• How can you create enough distance from your desires to observe them rather than immediately act on them?

• What contemplative or creative practices help you understand yourself and God?

• Where might God be teaching you that you can experience discomfort and still be okay?

• (00:00:00) - Collective Table
• (00:01:09) - David Was a Man After God's Own Heart
• (00:02:44) - Psalm 131
• (00:04:39) - Grandkids and the TV
• (00:12:47) - David's Desires in Psalm 131
• (00:22:04) - Grandchildren and the Weaning Baby
• (00:25:55) - How God Works: The Trinity
• (00:27:29) - Creative Practices to Create Imaginal Distance