April 22
2 Samuel 5:1-3; 1 Chronicles 11:1-3; 1 Chronicles 12:23-40; 2 Samuel 5:17-25; 1 Chronicles 14:8-17; 2 Samuel 5:17-25; 1 Chronicles 14:8-17; 2 Samuel 5:6-10; 1 Chronicles 11:4-9, 3:4; 2 Samuel 5:13; 5:4-5; 2 Samuel 5:11-12; 1 Chronicles 14:1-2, 13:1-5; 2 Samuel 6:1-11; 1 Chronicles 13:6-14
If a pastor who has given thousands of messages walks up to the pulpit, thinking “I got this”, No, he doesn’t. If a seasoned professional ball player steps up to the plate, thinking “I got this”, No, he doesn’t. If after 30 years in medicine I approach a woman in labor, thinking, “I got this”, No, I don’t. God uses nobodies, not somebodies. As a pastor recently said in his message, God has children, not adults. An apprentice learns a trade from his master, and one day hopes to surpass his teacher, the master craftsman. We will never master or achieve the perfection that Jesus had on earth. It took years to realize, accept, and enjoy being nothing but a vessel in the Master’s hand. I don’t want to be anywhere doing anything relying on myself. I want Him to fill me and direct everything for me, both my conversations and my actions. I don’t want to use some standard approach in sharing the gospel with another. I want His words to flow through me.
David was a seasoned warrior, who had experienced many battles. But when the Philistines approached Israel in battle, we see David in 2 Samuel 5:19, “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.”“. After the Philistines were defeated, they attacked again, and David presumed nothing, as we read in 5:23, “Therefore David inquired of the Lord, and He said, “You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.” Notice, God used two totally different methods of attack. He wasn’t teaching David how to succeed in battle on his own, He was training him to remain sensitive to His leading. Soon after we see David make a mistake in 6:3-5, “So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart… Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.” This attempt failed miserably. David’s heart was right, but he ignored God’s Word that clearly spoke how the ark was to be carried. David in his enthusiasm must have thought, “I got this”, but No, he didn’t.
When Jesus performed His miracles, He didn’t use the same method each time. With blindness, Jesus used saliva mixed with dirt on one, saliva alone another time, His touch alone on another, and with another He just spoke forth the healing. If the disciples were taking notes, there was no consistent method to take home. Earlier in John 13, Jesus taught his disciples to be servants. We read in 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”” Jesus was teaching them and teaching us what our calling is. We are to be servants of the Most High and reach out to anyone and everyone with the love of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit. God can and will use us as long as we remind ourselves that we are His children, nothing more and nothing less, completely dependent on the Father.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: