David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, âPraise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlastingâŚ.Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to allâŚEverything comes from you.â (1 Chronicles 29:10, 12, 14)
The context of todayâs passage adds weight to Davidâs words. Hereâs the scene: David is addressing Israel in what was likely his final public address as king. The next day, Solomon will take Davidâs place and soon become the wealthiest man on earth.Â
What would David say at the close of his forty-year reign? He chose to focus his son and his peopleâs attention on the truth that âwealth and honorâ and âeverythingâ good comes from God.
This is a truth we see reiterated throughout Scripture. James said, âEvery good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lightsâ (James 1:17). The Apostle Paul said that eve...
In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. (Psalm 10:4)
In 1517, Martin Luther had an âahaâ moment that would change the world. He realized that âthe merciful God justifies us by faith,â and not by works.
Where was Luther when he had this epiphany? In a grand library? Walking in a beautiful garden perhaps? No. As Luther biographer Eric Metaxas explains, âGod had given [Luther] this insight while he was sitting on the toilet.â
Iâm not surprised, because even in Lutherâs day, the outhouse was a rare place of silence and solitude, free from what C.S. Lewis called âthe Kingdom of Noiseâ that surrounds you and me to this day.
Everywhere we turn we are bombarded by external noiseânonstop emails, texts, information, and entertainmentâwhich leads to a more dangerous internal noise that blocks our ability to think, be creative, and most importantly, listen to the voice of God.
That is what David is primarily concerned with in todayâs passag...
You [Lord] reward everyone according to what they have done. (Psalm 62:12)
I donât believe Bucket Lists are evil. But I do believe that Christians of all people should spend less time thinking about Bucket Listsâlists of things you want to do before you die and âkick the bucketââand a lot more time thinking about Anti-Bucket Listsâcatalogs of things you will strive not to do on this side of eternity.
Why? Three reasons.
#1: This life is not our only chance to enjoy the best this world has to offer. As Dr. Randy Alcorn has said, âthe âbucket listâ mentalityâŚis profoundly unbiblical,â because Scripture makes clear that we will have all eternity to enjoy the earthâs greatest destinations (see Revelation 21:10-21), food (see Isaiah 25:6â8), culture (see Isaiah 60:1-11), jobs (see Isaiah 65:17-23), etc.
#2: God will reward believers differently based on how we steward this life. This is what David alluded to in todayâs passage and what the Son of David, Jesus Christ, promised more than ...
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to warâŚDavid remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, âShe is Bathshebaâ...Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (2 Samuel 11:1-4a)
Many historians believe that this famous scene took place towards the middle of Davidâs 40-year reign as king of Israel. And todayâs passage suggests that David was growing lax on the job.Â
Samuel says that âIn the spring, at the time when kings go off to war,â David didnât. He âremained in Jerusalem.â Then weâre told that âone evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.âÂ
The picture Samuel paints is of David being bored. He couldnât sleep (perhaps due to a lack of exhaustion from a hard dayâs work) and now he appears to be moseying around the ...
[King David] asked, âIs there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show Godâs kindness?â Ziba answered the king, âThere is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.â...When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, âMephibosheth!â âAt your service,â he replied. âDonât be afraid,â David said to him, âfor I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.â Mephibosheth bowed down and said, âWhat is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?â...So Mephibosheth ate at Davidâs table like one of the kingâs sons. (2 Samuel 9:3,6-8,11)
I donât cry much, but I have wept over this passage numerous times. Why? Because I think itâs one of the best pictures we have in Scripture of Christ-like love.
By the worldâs standards, Mephibosheth would have been the least li...
David said to Saul, âLet no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.â Saul replied, âYou are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.â But David said to Saul, âYour servant has been keeping his fatherâs sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them.â (1 Samuel 17:32-36)
We open our study of David with one of the most famous scenes from his life: His decision to fight the seemingly undefeatable Goliath.Â
Saulâs response to Davidâs eagerness was essentially, âPump the brakes kid. Youâre crazy. And massively unqualified to go to battle against this warrior.â
But Davidâs response to Saul is what ...
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, âFather, into your hands I commit my spirit.â When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46)
Imagine you live in Jerusalem in the first century. Like so many of your neighbors, you work as a farmer. One day, youâre out harvesting olives, when all of a sudden, the clock strikes noon and the sky goes dark. You canât see your hand, much less the olive trees, and so you are forced to head inside and rest from your labor.
Thousands of people must have experienced something similar the day Jesus died. The darkness that accompanied Christâs finished work on the cross undoubtedly led many people to rest from the work of their hands that first Good Friday.Â
But it also led to a rest for you and me today. Not a rest from the work of our hands so much as a rest from the work of ou...
But the whole crowd shouted, âAway with this man [Jesus]! Release Barabbas to us!â (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, âCrucify him! Crucify him!â (Luke 23:18-21)
For most of my life, I viewed Barabbas as a senseless murdererâthe ancient equivalent of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. But thatâs likely an inaccurate portrait of this man.
Many scholars believe that Barabbas (or âJesus Barabbasâ as heâs referred to in Matthew 27:17) was likely a religious zealot. As pastor Daniel Darling explains:Â
âMany Jewish people in the first century were wary of RomeâŚBut the cohort of zealots to which Barabbas belonged to took resistance to another level. They sought to overthrow the Roman government by any means possibleâŚassassination plots, targeted murder, and terrorism.â
If Jesus Barabbas had a mission statement for his work, it likely would have sounded simila...
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, âTake it; this is my body.â (Mark 14:22)
Weâre in a four week series exploring what the vocations of some of the characters of Easter can teach us about our own work today. This morning, we turn our attention to someone in the background of todayâs passage: The unnamed woman or man who baked the bread Jesus used at the Last Supper.
Scripture gives us zero detail on who this person was. But I think itâs safe to assume that they viewed baking this bread as just another mundane task on their to-do list, much like you might view the emails you have to type, the papers you need to grade, or the nails you have to hammer today.Â
And yet, todayâs passage shows that God used the work of this bakerâs hands to accomplish something extraordinary. Their bread helped Jesus reveal something about himselfânamely the way his body would break to redeem the whole of creation on Goo...
âŚa dinner was given in Jesusâ honorâŚ.Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesusâ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:2-3)
Because youâre subscribed to my devotionals, Iâm confident youâve overcome the unbiblical hierarchy that elevates the calling of pastors and missionaries above the work of mere Christians who work as entrepreneurs, accountants, and baristas.
But if weâre not careful, another hierarchy of callings can slip into our thinkingâone that elevates the work of mere Christians most clearly âchanging the worldâ above the work of those of us who are simply sustaining and serving it. Prosecuting human traffickers matters, but not selling insurance. Curing disease matters, but not waiting tables. Teaching kids matters, but not writing novels.Â
This too is an unbiblical way of thinking.Â
All throughout Scripture, God shows that he values work beyond its âusefuln...