Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): God is working in our lives, and He desires to do more for us. We need only believe Him. Pastor Bill Luebkemann shares these thoughts.

Bill Luebkemann: We can all look in our own lives and see what God did for us to get us to this point here where we are tonight. I can look back at all the times in college and high school and after college when I could have done something dumb and very nearly did, but somehow God prevented me from ruining my life or causing myself a lot of pain and aggravation.

It was just a reminder of everything He did for us and how He got us to this point here. He still wants to do more for us if we'll just let Him. All He asks is that we believe.

Guest (Male): As we look back, God has always been faithful, hasn't He? This gives us great assurance that God will continue and even complete the work that He's begun. This is one of the great and often repeated themes in the Bible.

We'll be reminded once again today on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. There's hope from the word because the God of the word is not only faithful but is also able to accomplish all His good purposes. The life of David is a great example of this. So let's join Pastor Bill over in 1 Chronicles chapter 17, verse 8.

Bill Luebkemann: "I have been with you wherever you have gone." Look at all the times God protected David from Saul. Saul was out to get him, but was never successful. And how David honored God by never trying to kill Saul himself. It was always God's protection. "And I have cut off all your enemies from before you."

One of the earlier scenes when we saw David was when Israel was cowering at the sight of the Philistines, especially the giant. David said, "We don't have to take that from you. I'm coming after you in the name of the living God." With his sling and one stone, he knocked the guy over. With his sword, he cut off his head.

That was just the beginning. Now all your enemies are subdued everywhere around you. Look, he could have won these battles or lost them; it was in the Lord's hands. It's not in our own hands. There are many times in the Bible when the army was better and they lost, and there are other times when the army was worse and they won. It was because God was fighting for them or not. It had nothing to do with their fancy abilities or how many tactical nukes they had or laser-guided bombs or anything like that.

The Lord said, "I've done all this for you. I took you from the bottom to the top, cut off all your enemies, and now I'm going to make your name like the names of the greatest men of the earth." Who were the greatest men of the earth at this time? Well, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob maybe, Moses, Noah, Adam from Adam and Eve fame, Job might have been known at this time, probably was.

"I'm going to take you, the shepherd boy that was out here in the field with a few scrawny sheep, and I'm going to make your name like the names of the greatest men of the earth." Those names I just mentioned were in the past at this point, but this promise seems to be true even to this day because his name still ranks up there with the greatest men in the earth that ever lived after him as well.

"And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed." They won't have to be fighting against the enemies. They won't be wandering around in the desert. They won't be living in Egypt. They won't have to be calling upon other nations for help. I'm going to give them their own place. You want to build Me a house? Fine. But first, let's take care of giving the people of Israel a place. God's taking care of these people before they can do something for Him. You see a kind of graciousness and a generosity there that's hard to measure.

"And I will provide a place for them and I will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed." At the end of David's reign, they had peace everywhere on all fronts. During Solomon's entire reign, until they started to follow other gods, it was a very peaceful time. Solomon's reign was kind of like the zenith of ancient Israel, if you will.

"Wicked people will not oppress them anymore as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies." You're coming into this time of peace and prosperity, living in this land. They've been in the land now for a long time, but they've been fighting a lot of battles. We're going to have peace, we're going to have prosperity, you're going to have this large piece of land to call your own. You're not going to be hassled and harassed by your enemies.

"I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you." Now, how about this? Beyond all that, you want to build Me a house? No. First, I'm going to build you a house. It wasn't a physical house made with bricks and mortar or stones or wood or what have you. It was a lasting dynasty. It was his legacy. It was his descendants. The fact that the Lord Himself came from the tribe under David, the tribe of Judah, but from the line of David. The fact that kings would come from him.

"I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you," the house of David and all the kings that came after him, including the Lord. "When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor."

"I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever." The throne, meaning not necessarily the same person, but the throne being in there forever. One of your offspring, your seed, if you will. When your days are over and your time is up, one of your sons—we know this would be Solomon now—I'm going to establish his kingdom and I'm going to let him build the house.

It wasn't until many years later that God explained to him that because he was a man of war and had shed a lot of blood, he wasn't the one to build this house. Solomon, his son, would be a man of peace. Who wouldn't be delighted to know that his son would get to carry on such a legacy?

"And I'll be his father, and he'll be my son, and we'll have that same kind of relationship, I think the Lord is saying, that you and I have. He'll call upon my name, and I'll provide for him. And I'll never take my love away from him." And He didn't, even though Solomon took his love away from the Lord and got involved with idols towards the end of his life. He took on all those wives.

"I will be his father, he will be my son. I'll never take my love away from him. I'll set him over my house and my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever." God says, "Look, you're asking to do something for Me, but no, I'm going to do all this for you. This is what I did so far, and this is what I'm still going to do. We'll get around to that house for Me later on. I'm going to bless you."

It's amazing because today it's like we all want to know what we can do to keep God happy. Some people ask, what's the most we can do to keep God happy? Other people ask, what's the least we can do? But it always seems like what we're going to do. God must be happy with me because I've really been doing good lately. I haven't been cussing, smoking, chewing, drinking, or whatever. I read my Bible every day. I'm something else; God must really love me.

God loves us because He made us. He called us. He wants to love us. He doesn't love us because of what we did. Please. If it was because of what we did, we would have lost a long time ago. We wouldn't be here tonight.

I was reading Pancho Juarez's testimony these last few days. I picked up this book at the conference last week. It's really easy reading, big print, big spaces between each line. You could say you read the whole book; it's like 140 pages. My daughter said, "Well, that looks like a lot." No, it's equivalent to like 20 pages of real conventional type. Every chapter is like six pages long. You read the whole chapter in a minute or two. And I'm a really slow reader; I am excruciatingly slow.

He was sharing his testimony, how he met this girl that was to become his wife and she got pregnant. Then she wanted to have an abortion and he tried to talk her out of it, and he couldn't talk her out of it and she had the abortion. Then how much he hated her, she was a murderer. He said, "I knew I was messed up and I was a lowlife and a scum ball, but I knew I wasn't a murderer."

So he didn't want to have anything to do with her. And she gets saved. Then she comes back and shares the Lord with him and he's saying, "No, don't give me any of that. It can't be that easy. You're a murderer. I'm no good, but I don't go around killing anybody." That's as far as I got; I didn't get to the point yet where they kissed and made up. But he said, "That was too easy. That doesn't sound—it's too easy. How could that be? Just ask forgiveness? Your new boyfriend Jesus Christ? He loves you unconditionally?"

She said she went to tell him about her new boyfriend who loves her unconditionally. She gave him a Bible and he threw it in her face, he said. It's a great little book; I recommend it. I enjoyed it. It made it sound too easy, but this is who He is. You want to make Me a house? No, I'm going to make you a house. And let me tell you all the things I did for you so far, and now look at all the things I'm going to do for you.

All of us could look in our own lives—we may not be the kings and queens of Israel—but we can all look in our own lives and see what God did for us to get us to this point here where we are tonight. I can look back at all the times in college and high school and after college when I could have done something dumb and very nearly did, but somehow God prevented me from ruining my life or causing myself a lot of pain and aggravation.

It was just a reminder of everything He did for us and how He got us to this point here. He still wants to do more for us if we'll just let Him. All He asks is that we believe. The work of God is this, to believe in the one that He sent.

Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. Nathan took this back. I wonder if he said, "Excuse me, but I think I told you the wrong thing yesterday. Actually, I know I told you the wrong thing yesterday. Remember what I said yesterday? Never mind. Let me start over again. Remember I said whatever you have in mind, do it for God is with you? Well, God is with you, but whatever you have in mind, don't do it."

Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and he prayed. Then David, King David went in and sat before the Lord and he said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family that You have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in Your sight, O God, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O Lord God."

"What more can David say to You for honoring Your servant? For You know Your servant, O Lord. For the sake of Your servant and according to Your will, You have done this great thing and made known all these great promises." David here sits down. He doesn't say, "Thank You, Lord, for honoring me because I've done so much good stuff for You. Thanks for giving me what I deserve. I was entitled to this stuff. I'm glad You recognize what a deal You got when I signed up to be on Your team."

"Because You could have got Tom, Dick, or Harry over there, Manny, Moe, or Jack, or whatever. You could have got Larry, Moe, or Curly, but You didn't. You got me, and what a great deal that is. And I'm glad, God, You recognize what a good deal You got and what I brought to the table." If he had said that, we would have said he had a big ego.

He understood his place. He says, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family that You brought me this far? We're not entitled to this. Who are we? The lowest of the low of the low. Who am I? Who are we? Who is my family? Why have You done all this? And as if this were not enough in Your sight, O God, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant."

What You already did blows my mind, but You're even promising to do more in the future. That's just amazing. "You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O Lord God." He's not saying he is the most exalted of men. He's saying, "Who am I? I'm not entitled to this. You're treating me like the most exalted of men. Why?" There is no real answer to why, except God wants to.

"What more can David say to You for honoring Your servant?" How much more can he say? How can he put any more adjectives, verbs, nouns? How can he write another sentence about that? "What more can David say to You for honoring Your servant? For You know Your servant, O Lord." In other words, You know who I am, You know everything about me. You know I'm not entitled to this. I'm just a low guy on the totem pole and somehow You made me the top big mullah, the big cheese, if you will.

"For the sake of Your servant and according to Your will, You have done this great thing and made known all these promises. For the sake of me and because You wanted to do it, You've done it." There's no other explanation like that. "There is no one like You, O Lord, and there is no God but You, as we have heard with our own ears." I love that. There's no one like Him and there's no God but Him. He's the only one.

With people today saying there's all different ways to heaven, just this religious stuff. I was reading today somewhere somebody was mad because some Catholic hospital, some doctor wouldn't do an abortion because it was not within his religious beliefs. Refused. Somebody was saying this is a prejudice, it's a kind of primitive, almost a primordial prejudice that we've got to get rid of. People shouldn't act this way with these prejudices. Can't believe that.

But the Bible says there is no one like Him and there is no God but Him. He's the only one, the first, the beginning, the end, the first and the last. "As we have heard with our own ears. And who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on earth whose God went out to redeem a people for Himself and to make a name for Yourself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed from Egypt?"

Look, there's no one like You and there's no other people like Your nation, not because they were entitled to it or deserved it, but because You did it. There's no other nation where their God did all these things for them. What other nation can say that God came to redeem them like this nation of Israel? What other nation can say that God was going to make a name for Himself among that nation? And what other nation can say that God came to them to perform great and awesome wonders by doing these things?

There's no other God and there's no other people of God that have been blessed in the kind of way that they have. "You made Your people Israel Your very own forever, and You, O Lord, have become their God." You've chosen them and You've made them Your own, and this promise is good forever.

"And now, Lord, let the promise You have made concerning Your servant and his house be established forever. Do as You promised so that it will be established and that Your name will be great forever. Then men will say, the Lord Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel's God, and the house of Your servant David will be established before You."

Look, he's now praying that God will continue to fulfill the promises. "Let the promises You made concerning Your servant and his house be established forever." Let these promises become true. Let them be true. Carry out what You promised. He's asking, not that he was in any danger of God not carrying them out, but he says, "Do as You promised."

This is called praying in accordance with God's will. Look, if you know what God's will is in a situation, then you can pray in accordance with it. I don't know if God wants you to have a new Maserati or not, so if you're praying for that, you may or may not be praying in accordance with God's will. But there are some instances where you can pray in accordance with God's will absolutely, and that's what he was doing here. He was praying in accordance with God's will.

I found some other examples here of times when we can pray in accordance with God's will. If we know it's God's will, then we pray in accordance with that. We're not asking God to do something He didn't promise to do. We're not commanding Him to do something we want Him to do. We're just staking our claim to a promise that He already made.

For example, He promised to forgive our sins. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). So you don't have to pray for forgiveness of sins and say, "Oh, I hope God will forgive my sins; I'm not sure." Sometimes we're praying for something we're not sure what His will is. Someone's dying of cancer; is God going to heal that person? He's going to heal them either here or there. One way or another, they're going to be healed.

No, it's not right to assume and presuppose upon God what He's going to do. But if you need forgiveness, you can count on it. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He will forgive your sins if you confess them.

He'll lead and guide us. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye" (Psalm 32:8). The fact that we're going to continue to grow in Him. "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). He's going to continue to work in our hearts and in our lives to make us more like Him. And if we want to be more like Him and we want to pray for that, we can pray in faith believing that He's going to do that because He said He would in His word.

When we're in time of trouble, from Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." You're in time of trouble? God will provide the grace that you need and He'll provide the mercy. And He promises to do that. It may not be exactly the way you think it should be, it may not be what you wanted, but it'll be the grace that God wants to give you and the mercy that He wants to give you.

Look, David was praying this prayer according to the promise. "Do as You promised so that it will be established and that Your name will be great forever." And God did do it. How many people in the world haven't heard of King David, even non-Christians? Everybody's heard of King David, the throne of David. The Jews know the greatest king they ever had was David.

"Then men will say, the Lord Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel's God." In other words, Lord, carry out Your promise, and when people see that, there's going to be no doubt in their mind You're the God of Israel. And you know what? If you pray that God would work in your life, then the people around you, there's going to be no doubt in their mind that God's doing something in your life.

Pancho Juarez shared about seeing his girlfriend again after many months and she had accepted the Lord and he knew right away something was different about her. Then he didn't see her again for many more months and it was even more apparent, he said, that something was even more different about her. And he brought her a gift of a bottle of, I think he said Scotch or Bourbon or something, and he was hoping her gift for him would be the matching glasses so they could get drunk, and she gave him the Bible which he threw in her face.

He knew something was different about her. And you know what? If you're walking with the Lord and you're praying that God would reveal Himself to you and work in your life, then those around you are going to know something is different about you. Some people may like that, some people may throw it in your face, but they're going to know something is different about you.

There's that old saying, if being a Christian was against the law, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And that's kind of what David was praying for here. "Then men will say, the Lord Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel's God, and the house of Your servant David will be established before You." He knows what God's talking about when He says, "I'm going to build you a house." He knows He's talking about his dynasty, his lasting dynasty that was going to be carried down through his descendants.

"You, my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build a house for him. So Your servant has found courage to pray to You. O Lord, You are God! You have promised these good things to Your servant. Now You have been pleased to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever in Your sight; for You, O Lord, have blessed it, and it will be blessed forever."

He says here, "You've revealed to me that You're going to do this, and so that's given me the courage to pray to You." God's revealed to all of us here today all different things about where we are with Him and our walk with Him, and He speaks to us through the scriptures and He shows us different things. And we need to pray in accordance with what He's shown each of us and in accordance with the word of God.

And we need to pray believing also. And he says, "You've been pleased to bless me and I know I can count on it, for You, O Lord, have blessed it and it will be blessed forever." In other words, he's praying in faith with courage and he's also saying at the same time, "I know You're going to do it. I believe it and it's going to happen." And we can be praying the same way when we pray for those things that I mentioned just a minute or two ago.

When we pray for forgiveness, we ask God to forgive our sins and we can believe and know that they're forgiven because the Bible says He's faithful and that He will cleanse us, faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us. And we can know that He'll guide us and He'll lead us in His way and that He'll provide help.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). There's nothing to be troubled about, nothing to be afraid about. God is ultimately in charge. And here is a guy, David, who was blessed, who understood his place in the world. He understood that he was a nobody. He was the lowest of the low and God had exalted him to be the highest of the high. And then God promised all these other things.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of 1 Chronicles. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find podcasts.

There's more to come from Bill's study of 1 Chronicles, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton. If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you.

Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can also livestream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us at our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of 1 Chronicles, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.