FBC Morning Light – May 27, 2023

Good morning, people of faith. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was an old TV commercial, and it was for a frozen pizza. And it said, what do you want on your tombstone? And of course, it was for tombstone frozen pizzas, and they were talking about pepperoni, sausage.

But I want to ask you that same question this morning. What do you want to have on your tombstone? So as you think about some of the things that have been put on people's tombstones, there's a lot of famous or not so famous things that have been put on people's tombstones.

David’s Last Words and the Question of an Epitaph

And this will eventually relate to where we're going in our devotional this morning, in Second Samuel chapter 23. But here's one of the sayings that's been on a tombstone for several hundred years. It says, cursed be he that moves my bones.

That's William Shakespeare. Or she did it the hard way. That's Bette Davis. And this one's a little more obvious. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last. That's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There's one here in this list of tombstones that I happened to find. It says, the best is yet to come. And if you are a believer, that's certainly true. But for the person who has that on their tombstone, the famous person who has that on their tombstone, that's likely not the case, unless in later years he happened to hear the gospel and repented and believed.

But that was Frank Sinatra. So what does that have to do with today's devotional? Well, in chapter 23 of Second Samuel, it starts with David's last words. And so when we think about what would we want on our tombstone, we think of what do we want to be remembered by?

God as the Primary Mover in David’s Last Words

And so in David's last words, I'm just going to read them, but I want you to think about one question. And that one question is this, who is the primary mover, the one who's doing the action, in other words, in these first four verses of chapter 23 of Second Samuel?

Now, these are the last words of David. Thus says David, the son of Jesse. Thus says the man raised up on high, the anointed of God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord spoke by me and his word was on my tongue.

The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me. He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

So, as you think of that, yes, these are David's words, but who's the primary mover? Who's the one who raised David up on high in verse one? Who is the one doing the anointed if he is the anointed of God?

And who is the, it was the spirit of the Lord who spoke by David. Clearly, in David's epitaph here, God is the primary mover. So when you think about all the different things that get put on tombstones here and there, it usually tells a little snippet or a story about somebody's life, what they did, how they did it, husband, father, plumber, lawyer, all sorts of things get put on there, but they tend to be about what we do as people.

Wanting Our Lives to Point to God’s Work

And I would like it to be that if I were writing my epitaph today, that I would write about what God has done in me, taking someone who has no right to anything of God, and God changed me and made me want to be with him.

For I was at enmity with him, and now he has given me life. And I pray that that's true for you today too. And let's take time and pray right now. Heavenly Father, we come to you in the hopes of having new life granted to us, that you would show us where we need to repent, that we would want on our tombstone that the words that are said about us, that they would be about you and not about us.

Yes, in many, many days of my life, I have spent building my kingdom instead of your kingdom, and Lord, I am truly sorry for that. But let it be today, as we reflect on these things, that you are glorified in us and through us.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.