“Who Am I???" – FBC Morning Light (6/29/2023)

Well a good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're reading in 1st Chronicles 17 and 18, Romans chapter 12 and Psalm 119 verses 81 to 88. I want to zero in on a passage in 1st Chronicles 17.

It's really kind of a follow-up to David's success at bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. That was a goal that he had to get the Ark into the city and then he established another goal.

He wanted to build a permanent house for the Ark of the Covenant. A house for the Lord. The Lord's house. He wanted a permanent place. He expresses it to Nathan the prophet in the first verse where he says, Came to pass when David was dwelling in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, See now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains.

Well Nathan knew what David was getting at and he says to David, Do all that is in your heart for God is with you. Well what was in David's heart was to build this grand temple that would bring glory and honor to the Lord.

So David, you know, he's gonna set about getting this project going. But that night the Lord intervenes, comes to Nathan and says, You need to go back to David and tell him that thanks but no thanks. That yeah, this is a great goal.

It's something that needs to be done, and it's going to be done, but not by David. It's gonna be done by Solomon, his son. But as the Lord tells this to Nathan, he says, But I also want you to reaffirm to David my covenant with him.

It's an everlasting covenant, and this is what Nathan is to say to him. He says, It shall be, say this to David, When your days are fulfilled and you must go be with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you who will be one of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father. He shall be my son. I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you. And I will establish him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.

This was a reiteration of the Davidic covenant, where earlier the Lord had come to David and said, I'm going to establish my covenant with you, and your throne will be established forever. And so this was the promise that God had made to David, and now Nathan is going to reiterate that promise.

It's going to come through David's son, Solomon, who will be the one to build the temple. But Nathan has to go into David the next day and say to David, The Lord said, No thanks, you're not going to build this temple.

Now how would you respond? I mean this is a good goal, this was a noble thing, this was a godly thing, and yet the Lord says to David, No, you're not going to do it. You're not going to accomplish this goal.

Now some people get all upset, some people fuss and fume and fight and try to make it happen anyway. I've seen that happen in various ways in my experience in the ministry. I know of men who had a very noble ambition of becoming pastors.

I knew some guys in seminary and in college that I went to school with, and they were preparing to go into the ministry. Some of them went into ministry for a while, but the Lord closed the door from them, continuing in that.

Some of them graduated from college with Bible degrees and never did go into pastoral ministry. The Lord closed the door for that. Now they had great goals in the first place, but the Lord made it clear to them, This isn't a goal for you to pursue.

This is what David learned from Nathan, that the Lord said to him, This is not your goal to achieve. So how did David respond? Verse 16, David went in and sat before the Lord and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

There it is. There's the response that we need. Lord, who am I that you've done anything for me, that you in your sovereign grace and your steadfast love have even brought me to this point. I'll be satisfied with that.

I'll be content with that. Well, I don't know if you've achieved all your goals in life and you have some out before you yet that you're working on and good things, noble things, but I suspect that there have probably been some things in your life, some goals and ambitions that were good, were noble, that you wanted to achieve.

Somewhere along the way, the Lord made it clear through divine providence, perhaps, that that was not a goal you were going to achieve. How do you respond? How do you respond to that? Do you bow your head in gratitude and say, Thank you, Lord, for graciously bringing me even thus far?

Who am I that you would even bring me this far? Well, let's ponder that today. And so, our Father and our God, we are grateful for your sovereign grace and your steadfast love to your people, that you, in your grace, bring your people to where you want them to be.

Thank you for that, in Jesus' name. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday and just a reminder that tomorrow's broadcast will be the last one for a few weeks, and take a little bit of a hiatus after doing this for three years straight, and come back at it in August.

So, have a good rest of your Thursday, and trust we'll tune in tomorrow and catch up for this last broadcast for a while. Have a good day. God bless.