January 15, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode of the Legacy Bible Podcast, we journey back to September 10, 1989, for a compelling sermon by Reverend Chuck Rains titled "Seek to Know God and His Purpose for Your Life." Pastor Rains explores 2 Samuel 7, focusing on the life of David and the profound insights this chapter provides into understanding God's will. He emphasizes that God's revelation of His will always reveals aspects of His character, urging believers to seek a deeper understanding of God’s nature. Pastor Rains discusses how God's will is harmoniously woven into the fabric of His grand design for the world, highlighting the importance of knowing God's past works and future promises. Through personal anecdotes and biblical teachings, Pastor Rains encourages listeners to trust in God's loving and righteous nature, even amidst trials and challenges. This episode serves as an inspiring reminder of the significance of aligning our lives with God's greater purpose and the joy found in making Him our first love.
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Join us next week for another enlightening message from the Fellowship Bible Church tape archives.
Check out the Church Website at www.fbcjoliet.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:23):
Hello friends, and welcome, or welcome
back. This is the Legacy Bible
Podcast, a place where you were hear
lessons from the Bible
taught by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains
of the Fellowship Bible Church in uh,
Joliet, Illinois. And I'm your
(00:44):
host, Marcus Onate and I
will be bringing to you more from the
tape archives of the Fellowship Bible Church.
This one we have coming up here was
from 19, uh,
89. It was one of
the uh, series on the life of
(01:04):
David. A lot of them in 1989 were
on the life of David. So this is
another one and it's titled
seek to know God and his
purpose for your life.
Yeah, that looks like a good one to uh, to start
off the uh, new year here
(01:25):
with. I'm trying to finish up the
ones that I have from 1987.
Im'm, um, going to, try and keep them in
chronological order,
but no promises. Oh,
um, I'll get the ones that I get,
but I'm going to try. Okay,
so let's get to it from uh,
(01:47):
see what is the exact date on this. September
10, 1989 from the
Fellowship Bible Church by our pastor, the
Reverend Chuck Rains. Seek to know God
and his purpose for your life.
So here we go.
All right, stay there. In 2 Samuel 7, if you
will.
(02:10):
We're going to use this section and look
at it and I trust receives some insights from
God's heart in it. I've
been talking with you from the life of David and most recently
on the subject really of the will of God,
knowing the will of God.
So I want to begin there again this morning and say when God
(02:31):
makes His will known in something,
he always, in making his will known, reveals some
things about himself. And if, when you read the
Word of God, not just
kind of getting caught up in what God's telling us in
terms of history or activity of someone
or his own actions.
(02:54):
If you would also pay attention
on another level, on the level of what
all of that really is telling you about God,
you might learn to know him better,
you might understand him more
perfectly. He
always reveals some things about himself while
(03:15):
he's telling us
about, uh, two things I'm going to underscore
that God tells us m generally in the word of
God how He wants us to live,
in other words, how he wants mankind to live in
their relationships one with another
and with him how he wants us to live.
(03:35):
And he also tells us events
in the scripture that have come to pass
or that will come to pass in
the future. In both of those
cases where he's telling us about how to live or things that
he has done or will bring about in the earth.
He's telling us his will.
(03:57):
He's telling us his will. And when
he tells us his will, he's telling us things about
him.
When God tells us how he wants us to live
now, he's speaking
of things as they ought to
be,
things that would glorify him,
(04:21):
things that would bring us the greatest spiritual
fulfillment. That's always true. And also
things that would agree with and fulfill the
design or plan that he has in
mind that he wants to make known in the earth.
So when he talks about how we should
live
(04:41):
among ourselves and with him, he's
telling us these things, things as they ought to
be, things that would bless
us, bring us to spiritual fulfillment
and things, of course, if they would do all that, they would
glorify him.
Now, one thing you can be sure of
(05:02):
in this Bible, or from this Bible, Genesis, the
Revelation, you can be sure of this,
that as far as man is concerned,
God's will and God's
works focused
on number one, you're going to get this from
(05:22):
Revelation all the way back to Genesis or Genesis to
Revelation, his will. His works
are focused on this number one, the
redemption of the human race
through the blood of Christ.
Two, that
he wants to take those that have been redeemed and
(05:44):
conform them to Christ in
this life, and that when
he catches them away from this world in the
resurrection or in the Rapture,
that they will be conformed to the image of His
Son,
redemption, conformity to His
(06:05):
Son by that process of the work of
the Holy Spirit right now in this life and by that completed and
perfected work, the instant that he catches us
away and
the eternal,
unbroken, perfect
fellowship
that he is going to have with the
(06:26):
redeemed. You are going to find
those themes from COVID to cover,
that he wants to redeem man and
bring him right now into conformity with Christ
and have both now and
forever, an eternal, perfected,
unbroken fellowship with
man. That's what the Bible is all
(06:49):
about. Now, by the time that David
prays here in chapter
seven of two Samuel,
he's come to realize that God has a great
plan.
But he's also starting to realize, and we can see it here
in his prayer, that David
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has not seen all the details of that plan.
He's aware that there are details of some great plan
that God has, but that he, David, does not see them
or understand them yet. You know, that's an
awareness that God has to bring to you. That God
is at work in this world with some purpose,
a very detailed purpose. He has a
(07:32):
plan, if you want to call it that, a master
plan for this world and the ages of this world.
But do you know how you fit in?
Do you know how your life goes along and fits
in and becomes a part of. In the. Woven in the fabric
of that plan? Now, many
Christians tell me they don't know.
(07:54):
They don't know how their life is a part
of all the work of God in
the world. So David
didn't know the full detail of God's plan.
You might think because David was a prophet that he knew
all the detail of God's plan. He did not.
By the way, this prayer reveals that to us.
(08:15):
In other words, God gives, even to the
prophets, he gave
revelation. But it was
always, in a sense, limited
revelation.
You have to take it all together to get the fullness
of the revelation of God. It was
(08:36):
not all given to one.
So the full detail of God's plan
or the full degree to which
David's life was woven into the fabric of God's
plan, David couldn't see.
He saw some of it.
I want to make this personal for you.
(08:57):
God's purposes for your life,
God's purposes for your life are, uh,
woven into the fabric of all his
workings in the world. We say it this.
Whatever God is doing, whatever he has been doing from the
time he created man until this day and
on into the future, all the works of
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God agree. Do you believe
that. That God has not really worked against
himself ever? Everything as far as
God's actions are concerned, everything that God
does, everything that God wants to have done,
all harmonizes, they all agree.
All the purposes and plans and workings of God
(09:39):
agree. In other words, he can't have a
will for one life that would destroy
his will for another.
He can't. His
purposes, his will is
always agreeable, always
harmonious, always
(09:59):
coordinated for his glory. And our
blessing always is.
So when you ask the question, well, how does my life fit
in to God's greater workings and to all
his will for the ages and even right now in
this day and age, his purposes
for working out his will in the earth today, how
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does my life become a part of
that? I have some suggestions for
you. Now. Uh, you've heard these
things. I know you've heard them if you've been here.
But I believe you've heard him from any
radio preaching you've heard or any television. Well, I
can't say that. I wish I
(10:40):
could. But a lot of television preaching And a lot
of radio preaching that has been out there. You've heard these
things
that God's purposes for your
life, for you to know them,
number one, you need to learn more and
more about what God is like.
(11:01):
You say, well, how does that connect with my knowing God's
purposes or will for me, for my life?
You need to learn more and
more what God is like.
Because
whatever his will is for you,
(11:21):
in his working of that will, in his
teaching you of that will,
he will reveal his nature. In other
words, God can only do the
kind of things that a person like him can
do. He is a God of
love. He's a God of righteousness. So
he only does things that a God of love
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and righteousness can do and still be a God of love
and righteousness.
Make it practical.
Okay.
Prayed with a, uh, teenage girl one time.
She was crying,
came. I talked with her. She was in tears
when she came. I didn't cause it.
(12:09):
My heart is breaking. She said, well, I knew
we were into a social affair
situation. Um, you know, the minute I heard that,
my heart is breaking.
I said, well, what happened?
He said, goodbye. I mean, that
told the story. He said
goodbye. The
(12:32):
love of her life was gone. Her
life purpose was gone. She might
as well die at 16 now. It was all
over. I know we can stand here years
later and say, o boy, what'silliness?
But when you're 16
and when you think you've found the most wonderful person in the
(12:54):
world, and when they've
said, somewhere along the line, I love you, and
your whole life and your whole emotion, everything has all
gotten focused on them. And then one day comes and
they say goodbye. I mean, it's just like light has turned
to darkness.
She came
(13:16):
and I said, you know,
God could use this for blessing for you.
And she looked at me, what are you
saying? I say, God could use this
for blessing for you. This could be a door
opening for you to learn more about the Lord
and love him more and
(13:36):
receive a greater blessing. And she looked at me like
I was crazy. He didn't hear me.
She said, he left me. I said, I know,
but she said, he doesn't love me anymore. I said, I
know, but he's gone. I'm broken hearted.
I said, I know, but it could be a great blessing. And she said,
you don't understand.
(14:00):
Well, I didn't feel all the emotions she was feeling, and I wasn't
trying to claim that I did because I wasn't
crying about him leaving her. I thought, uh, it could be A great
thing, you know
the emotion. No, I wasn't tuned into all that.
Although I felt bad for her hurt.
But I was trying to say to her hey wait a
(14:21):
minute, maybe you don't see
everything. Maybe there's
a working of God
that weaves this little incident
into a plan that he has for your life.
Maybe he needed to take you down this little
path and let you be brokenhearteed
so that uh, he might bring somebody into your
(14:44):
life that you're going to learn
to love in a far greater way, in a far deeper
way than you could ever
love this one,
maybe that one that God has in mind.
Or maybe God doesn't want you to have anyone at all
in your life. Maybe he wants you to be single unto him.
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Maybe he wants you to learn through this that he
should be your first love.
Maybe when you are married and you have children and you
look back and you see those precious children's lives
and you look at them and you say, you know, I..n't
have this one or that one or this one.
(15:26):
If I didn't have that mate
I would have been robbed of these blessings.
Maybe I wouldn't have gotten to have this one as a part of my
larger family or maybe I wouldn't have worshipped with
these people. Or maybe I could never have been challenged
by the way God has taught me through the
life experiences that I've had.
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I would have been robbed of all those things.
You know it does. It is true
that there is value in talking
with the older saints.
I mean huh. That God's word underscores
it for instance for women that older women
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are to teach younger women
and they can teach them
sobriety, soberness, you know, seriousness
about life. They can teach them not to get caught up
in things that just rise and fall with emotions
but to look for purposes of God in life
even through trials and difficulties, hardships,
(16:32):
heartaches, heartbreaks
and uh, not to trust in men
persons for your
greatest joy but in your Lord
as your first love.
Some that have gone along for many years
(16:52):
get a better perspective on life.
Maybe uh, many of you could kind of smile
about the 16 year old and say boy, you know
that, you know if you did, I guarantee you if you
did, you're over 25
now if there is some wise 20 year old here that
(17:13):
did also, I commend you.
But the further you get away from that kind of thing the more
you are re aware of how quickly we can get caught
up in life. And according to our very narrow
perspective and we can miss the larger purpose of
God for us. We
think that our hurts are from a God that doesn't love
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us. People sometimes grow
bitter against God because
things haven't worked out the way that they would like to have
had them work out to give them the happiness that they think
that they should have had. You see, we don't
see all the plan
of God at any one time,
(17:54):
but this you must account for that.
God is a God of love and righteousness and he never
is going to change. And his workings and his will will
never violate his character. And whatever he's doing even
in your life
will reveal that nature. He will never
stop being that God of love. Even if you think you are being
(18:15):
hurt, he is still your Father.
He still will be dealing with you as a child
because he loves you and he wants your joy
and fulfillment in his life. You're going to get a
new perspective on trials.
He wants to see His Son, the Lord Jesus
perfected in you. He
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wants, in other words, for him to be your first love.
He wants you to be in all ways in your life to
be bringing glory to Him.
He wants to bless you,
but he can only bless you best most
perfectly when he is your first love, when your
eyes are cast on him and when you are re ready to do his
(18:58):
will, even down to every detail of your
life. You need to learn more about
him and his nature because he's going to reveal what he's like
and how he takes care of you. You cannot say like that.
16 year old began to say to me that God
was not being fair, that God
was not kind, that God was not a God of
(19:18):
love. Because that's what started coming from her lips.
And I've heard that not only from young people, I've heard it
from Christians that have walked with the Lord a lot of years.
And some would say, you know, God
is not fair. God is not being good and kind.
He's being mean.
Mhm. It's not the God that is revealed
(19:41):
in the Lord Jesus at Calvary.
And that's not the God that's revealed in his will for
you. He could not will a will
for you in order to allow Himself to be
mean against you, to hurt you,
to do harm to you. He couldn't do
that. That is not the will of God.
(20:02):
And you should never interpret whatever happens to
ever contradict what you learn about God. Therefore
I'm telling you, you want some help inointing the will of God?
Learn more about what God is like.
He will always
be that way. In giving you his
will, it will always be that way.
(20:24):
Then you need to
learn more and more of what his works have been
and what he says he's going to do in the future.
It's worth studying his works,
and you need the Bible for this. Learn what God
has done in the past. Learn what he promises to do in the
future. You say, how does that relate to the will of God?
(20:44):
Because his works reveal his
plan,
his larger will in the earth.
And whatever his will for your life is, you
see, it has to harmonize with that larger
plan. If God is going to do this, uh,
certain work in the world today,
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believe me,
for your life, the will for your life,
your life will weave into that larger
work.
We're going to be studying the Book of Acts in my class and the Bible
Institute, and we're going to see that it
was made
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clear in the Scripture that in a particular day called the
day of Pentecost, God began
great work of,
uh, bringing on the earth something the earth had never seen
before. We know it as the church, the body of Christ, and that
he's in the world today doing a special
work through primarily
Gentiles to reach out to the peoples of the
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world to know about Christ,
to see God's love in Christ, and to learn
of redemption and that they might be brought to call on him
and to be saved. That's the work of God in the
world. And that through Christians who make up
local assemblies of believers,
local churches, that through them,
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God wants to be shown, God wants to be glorified.
God wants to be seen in his nature of love and
righteousness. The local church assemblies
should be worshiping and praising God. They should learn
about how to do that. They should learn how it's
been done and how God wants it done. They should learn about
his greater works, even works of discipline in the
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earth, because they all reveal what God
is like and reveal how
your life can weave into the fabric.
You can say, lord, if you want to reach
the peoples of the world,
is it possible that you would like to reach them through
me? Would you
(22:50):
like me to go to some corner of the earth
you see that harmonizes with the will of God?
Lord, would you like me to be
a pastor in a church
that harmonizes with the work of God? Would you like me
to serve as an elder in a
church that harmonizes with the work of God and the
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age? Would you like me to teach adults or
even little children? Would you like me to get
involved in the work of the church, the
body that harmonizes with the will of God for
the age. Would you like me to give in my worship even
of my material things to you? Would you like me to give
my time and my skills and my efforts, my
labor, the strength of my life? It
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harmonizes with the will of God for the age. There is
a place for your life and it will always
weave into the fabric of what God has revealed for
his working in the age. And it
will always rest on
Christ the Redeemer and
the redemption that he's provided for the world. It
will glorify him. It will fulfill your
(23:56):
life. He therefore will have shown you
are further teachings on this Lord,
what have you given me specifically to enable me to
do something for you? And there's the wonderful teachings
in the New Testament, uh, especially in the sections
dealing with the church, we learn about the gifts
of the Spirit that are given specifically
(24:16):
to individuals by the Spirit of God.
Different ones have different gifts so that the
whole purpose of God across
the span of his work in the world
can all be done. And it can all be done in every
local place and it can be done universally.
M God's provisions and God's workings
(24:38):
will always harmonize each of his
purposes and will for one life with the whole.
Wonderful. In
fact, it's a little staggering when you think about it.
You think, my, what a kind of mind
does a God like that have?
It's beyond us.
(25:01):
I told you many times I could never put a clock back together,
let alone know all the
intricate will of God and
coordinating every last detail of
every human life that would surrender to him and to his
purposes and bring out one
harmonious
(25:21):
you see, to be above it all means that you have
to also be above each part.
To be above it all and have a will for everything to
work means you have to be. And God would have to
be. God would have to have a will for
each life,
specific
(25:42):
leading, direction and use of
each life.
There are things therefore,
that would serve God's greater purpose and will,
things that you can do today.
And then there are things that would not serve God's greater purpose
and will, things that you could do today,
(26:03):
things that are wrong, things that would tear down, things that
would not edify anybody else nor you, things that would not
glorify God, things that would not serve his purpose or will. And
you need to know God and know his works and know how
he's worked in the past, know his word, know how
he's going to work in the future. Be tuned into His Spirit and
what the Spirit has provided for you. And apply
(26:24):
it.
Today
we sang Trust and Obey.
Uh, trust and obey
People. You want to trust God
according to how he has revealed Himself.
(26:45):
That's faith. I said it
in Sunday school. I don't think that you can
have obedience without faith. Not true
obedience. And I don't think
you can have faith without obedience.
When Abraham left his country, when
(27:05):
he was obedient to God,
it was counted to him for righteousness.
He was exercising faith in
obedience. When
you read this book and see what God wants
you to do, and when you surrender your heart to
do it, you're putting your tr. Trust in your Lord
(27:28):
that His Word is true and that he's faithful to His
Word and that he's going to be there to make
it work. If
you will surrender and go along with
him in his revealed will,
you need to know more about Him. You need to
know more about what he's done and what he's going to do in this
(27:48):
world so that you can understand
more and more what he's like and how he
works and how he wants to work in your life.
Now, when David was praying here,
he said at verse 18, then went toing
David and sat before. I thought that was interesting.
Some people all think you have to stand and raise your hands to pray. But
(28:10):
David found out he could sit down and pray
and'll, uh, throw that aside. And he said, who am
I, O Lord God, and
what is my house that Thou hast brought me hitherto?
You know what David started to be able to see
then? Really any individual person is
really small. We're really
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insignificant in one sense.
And then he started to realize, though there'so
many people, that one, it seems to be so
insignificant that with God nobody
is insignificant. The individual is
very important to God. You
see, with a man's mind. Do you ever get up
(28:52):
in an airplane? Some of you have flown airplanes. You look down
as you take off and as you land. It's more fun when you take off.
I always get worried when I land. As long as we're going
up, I think we're okay. You know, it's when you come down, you never know what's going
to happen. But, uh, you look down there,
and first you see the cars and
the houses. And they get smaller and smaller until
(29:12):
you can't even see cars anymore. You see houses,
and then you can't see houses anymore. You still see some
streets and some pattern of building.
And you get so high that you can see globs of city,
you know, and construction and larger things. And then the
clouds take over and it's all gone.
Um, when you're up in an
airplane, you look down. I think the first time I
(29:34):
remember this happening to me, I still remembered. I was in a
20 some store of a building
down on Michigan Avenue in
Chicago. And my aunt had taken me to see a
doctor because they had, uh, told my
family that I was going to be blind. Within
just a few years I was going blind.
And my aunt, uh, knew my family had no money to go to a
(29:57):
doctor. And so she and her, uh, husband, my
uncle, sacrificed and took me to the
world's greatest eye specialist in
this particular area of specialty.
Very, very costly. And I remember it was way
up there, and I was a little fellow,
and, uh, I was probably five
(30:18):
or six, something like that. I think I was six at the
time. I remember
getting, uh, up on the windowsill in that waiting
room. And looking over at the
people down 20 some stories
below. I still stuck in my mind. I looked down there and
I was amazed at how tiny those cars were
and how tiny those people were.
(30:41):
And I also only peekd over. I didn't get much of me
over. I just got out far enough to look.
That was, you know, I thought, boy, people
aren't very much. Cars aren't really
that much. And that stuck with
me. And what amazed me years later when somebody
told me about the love of God was this, that
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God loved me.
Because I knew that there were millions and millions, and
now we know billions, there, 5 billion people in the world.
That God loved me
just seemed unbelievable to me.
But he did. I was
important. Important
(31:25):
enough for the Son of God to
die in my place. That is
amazing.
He is a God with a great large
plan. But he is interested in the person, the
individual. And David is s amazed. He says,
lord, what is
(31:46):
my house that thou hast brought me?
Hitherto he knew that God
had worked specifically in his
life. And we have it and we've studied it
all the things that David went through, the
trials and difficulties, uh, all
the time. He must have thought back to the times that he fought with
bears and lions. Any other shepherd might have gotten
(32:08):
torn. And I'm sure there were shepherds that got killed by bears and
lions. It wouldn't have been any great thing to talk about it. If, you know,
if every shepherd killed bears and lions, it wasn't
that way. He was brought through
that. He had stood against Goliath. And instead
of, you know, you watch
baseball. I mean, there aren't many great pitchers
that can pitch the ball over the plate all the time. And there's nobody
(32:31):
that can't. But David could have missed with that stone.
Could have went, you know,
like most of the pitchers they have on the white. Well, I won't go into
that. He would never have hit him. Couldn't have hit the man,
the shield, his armor bear anything, you know,
but boom, right in the forehead
and the man went down. And
(32:52):
all the workings of God, you know, Saul
sent men to kill him and Michael let him down
out of the window or
put a bolster in the bed and got him out of there. And,
uh, how many times he could have been killed.
And God preserved him and preserved
him and preserved Saul was seeking him with hundreds of
(33:13):
men to kill him and could not.
And he had to say, O Lord,
my, what you have done to bring me to this hour.
I'm king. I'm, um, king not over Judah
only, but also over Israel. My,
how marvelous you are to think that you
have done this in my life as one
(33:34):
individual. Because you see, it's in that
section that we studied last week where he, he sent by
the prophet, uh, Nathan, you know, he sent,
um, Nathan, um, to him to tell
him, uh, that God has specific will
for him in how he should do things. And
so David is very much aware that God has a
(33:56):
specific will for him. And now he has told
him through Nathan that God has a will for
his house and for the ages to come,
for the distant future.
And we saw how that house related
to the lineage of David. Remember how
the angel Gabriel came to
Mary? And we see it recorded for us in Luke's
(34:18):
Gospel. And he reminded her of
this promise that she was now going to be
the one to bring forth on the earth. One
born of a woman, she was going to bring forth on the
earth one of the house and
lineage of David who was going to be given the
throne of his father David, and one who was
going to estab. Estab the house of David
(34:40):
forever. In other words,
the far distant future that David is looking
at and seeing here really
focuses on Jesus.
You say, does God have such far distant plans
and workings?
Zechariah and Elizabeth had a little boy. And without
(35:01):
Zechariah and Elizabeth and God working in those two
lives, there would have been no John the Baptist,
right? How about all the
apostles? If God didn't work
through Paul, and by the way, Paul had a spiritual son,
Timothy, and I think several others like Luke and Titus
and different ones and all of
(35:23):
those that served with him, then
he could not have brought about the blessing
that he wanted to bring out through that man, you
say, could he work in one specific life
to do a greater work or to harmonize that one life with his
whole program? Don't you know, Paul was
instrumental in establishing churches throughout the
Mediterranean world among Gentiles,
(35:46):
that he was the apostle to the Gentiles,
that through his life, the fabric was
woven, you know, and then churches were
established and hundreds of people were saved and thousands
after them, and tens of thousands after them.
Why? Because one man
(36:07):
surrendered himself to the will and purpose of
God to go, to be his servant,
and to graciously and gladly
surrender himself to the work of God, specific will of
God through him. He was willing to be
whatever God wanted him to be. And that's why he could, with that
kind of surrender. That's why he could take on, um, the. The
(36:29):
terrible hurts, the trials and the
difficulties that he had to go through. Why? Because
instead of looking at his body and feeling his pain and
saying, my body doesn't like pain, therefore
it's evil, he said, no,
my joy is to serve the greater purpose of God.
And if it means I've got to be snake bit and got to be
cast in the ocean, and I've got to be, uh, beaten
(36:52):
with rods and beaten with whips, and I've got to be imprisoned
for years and I've got to die a martyr's death,
that's okay,
because I'm looking to my Lord for His grace to work
through me. He recognized the gifts of God in
him to do the work of the apostle. He knew
that they were not sourced in him, they were sourced in the Lord.
(37:14):
The Lord was a focus of his life and purpose.
He wanted to bring glory to the Lord. He began to
pray and work and labor and died
as he prays in Philippians, as he praises God in
Philippians, I should say in chapter four,
to know him.
(37:39):
He wanted to grow closer to the purposes of
God for his life, to bring glory
to him.
Do you believe that God has a purpose that is
specific for you and your life?
You ought to. Because as surely
as God has a larger plan, he uses
(38:00):
the individuals in his family
to work out that plan.
And you need constantly to seek to
know more of what he is like, more of what he
has done, to see how always his
character and his works will harmonize
with what you understand specifically to
(38:22):
be his will for your life. There
is also the dimension of the personal leading and work of the Spirit.
But you've got to start here. What is he
like and what has he done? And what does he plan to
do? Because that will always harmonize.
You cannot have a will of God that violates these
truths. Don't
(38:43):
ever say you will, even if it hurts you
and goes against what you want. No
will of God will violate these truths.
Never better
that you be hurt and surrender to this.
Because God's purpose in even allowing you to be hurt is not to hurt you, uh,
ultimately, but to bless you in drawing you
(39:03):
closer to him.
David was just learning that he
didn't know the final truths about all the details of
Christ. But he could see that God had a plan. And
you know what? He was a part of it. And because God had
said it, that's that 29th verse.
Because God had said it, it was going to come to pass. He puts
it this, O Lord, for thou, O Lord hast
(39:26):
spoken it. I mean, that settles it.
If God speaks it, it's going to come
to pass. Leave it with the Lord. Trust
him for his promises, trust him for his
will. Trust him that he's going to work according to his
word. Trust him. Because he
wouldn't give you a promise and not fulfill it.
(39:47):
You can trust Him. He is faithful.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace toward
us. Thank you for your word and revealing
yourself to us. Thank you for your works, both
past and future, that tell us
about your plan, your larger plan in the
earth and even more specifically
(40:07):
for our age and even more specifically for the
local church and for us as a part of it.
And Lord, even more specifically through your
spirits, personal daily
leading how we can
work and serve your glory
and our blessing. Might we be people of
the Book, love thee and
(40:30):
want Christ to be made perfect in
us, to see our lives conform to the
image of your son, Father,
to make him our first love
and everything we do with our life to
bring glory to thee
in Jesus name. Amen.
(40:57):
All right, so there we have it. Another
message from our pastor, Reverend
Chuck Rains on,
uh, the Life of David. A lot of those from
1989 were from the Life of David about the
purpose. Whats Gods purpose for our
life. Okay,
so we well have more. I think theres another one coming up,
(41:18):
1989, which will continue on
from the Life of David. Like I said, I want to
complete the year 1989.
Um, there'a few gaps in there, but
I think I have the whole year of 89.
So I want to complete that and then'move on
to the 1990.
(41:41):
I'm going to try and keep them in
kind chronological order, but
uh, I don't know, maybe. Okay,
so if you want to know more about the podcast,
just going over to the website which
is www.the
legacybiblepodcast.com and
(42:01):
you could check uh, out to find more
information there and you
could also listen to the podcast there
and there's some information. And one thing I
found out, um, that the
church, the Fellowship Bible Church is updating
their website which they haven't done for a
while. So you should go
(42:23):
over to there. And I'm not sure
what it is right now but I'll list it in
the, in the show notes so you can go and check
out. But they uh, they're just beginning to
Make change their website around a bit so they're
going to be having uh, transcripts
from some of the, some of the
(42:45):
later episodes. So
from what I, what I know to just be from,
from 2014 on.
Um, so I'm not sure if they have to
uh, if they're gonna do a like a
podcast like here with the ones from
2014 on. I know they're
working on transcripts so you get
(43:07):
checked it out. Um, that's at the
Fellowship Bible Church of
Joliet. There's a lot of Fellowship Bible churches.
If you look that up it'll be the Fellowship Bible
Church of Joliet. So I don't think they have too
much up there right now, but I know they're working on it
so you can go over there and check that one out
(43:27):
too. So thanks for listening
and please come back again next week. We'll
have some more from uh, tape archives,
uh, another one like I said, From 1989
and until then have ah,
a great day. So long.
Hello friends, and welcome, or welcome
back. This is the Legacy Bible
Podcast, a place where you were hear
lessons from the Bible
taught by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains
of the Fellowship Bible Church in uh,
Joliet, Illinois. And I'm your
(00:44):
host, Marcus Onate and I
will be bringing to you more from the
tape archives of the Fellowship Bible Church.
This one we have coming up here was
from 19, uh,
89. It was one of
the uh, series on the life of
(01:04):
David. A lot of them in 1989 were
on the life of David. So this is
another one and it's titled
seek to know God and his
purpose for your life.
Yeah, that looks like a good one to uh, to start
off the uh, new year here
(01:25):
with. I'm trying to finish up the
ones that I have from 1987.
Im'm, um, going to, try and keep them in
chronological order,
but no promises. Oh,
um, I'll get the ones that I get,
but I'm going to try. Okay,
so let's get to it from uh,
(01:47):
see what is the exact date on this. September
10, 1989 from the
Fellowship Bible Church by our pastor, the
Reverend Chuck Rains. Seek to know God
and his purpose for your life.
So here we go.
All right, stay there. In 2 Samuel 7, if you
will.
(02:10):
We're going to use this section and look
at it and I trust receives some insights from
God's heart in it. I've
been talking with you from the life of David and most recently
on the subject really of the will of God,
knowing the will of God.
So I want to begin there again this morning and say when God
(02:31):
makes His will known in something,
he always, in making his will known, reveals some
things about himself. And if, when you read the
Word of God, not just
kind of getting caught up in what God's telling us in
terms of history or activity of someone
or his own actions.
(02:54):
If you would also pay attention
on another level, on the level of what
all of that really is telling you about God,
you might learn to know him better,
you might understand him more
perfectly. He
always reveals some things about himself while
(03:15):
he's telling us
about, uh, two things I'm going to underscore
that God tells us m generally in the word of
God how He wants us to live,
in other words, how he wants mankind to live in
their relationships one with another
and with him how he wants us to live.
(03:35):
And he also tells us events
in the scripture that have come to pass
or that will come to pass in
the future. In both of those
cases where he's telling us about how to live or things that
he has done or will bring about in the earth.
He's telling us his will.
(03:57):
He's telling us his will. And when
he tells us his will, he's telling us things about
him.
When God tells us how he wants us to live
now, he's speaking
of things as they ought to
be,
things that would glorify him,
(04:21):
things that would bring us the greatest spiritual
fulfillment. That's always true. And also
things that would agree with and fulfill the
design or plan that he has in
mind that he wants to make known in the earth.
So when he talks about how we should
live
(04:41):
among ourselves and with him, he's
telling us these things, things as they ought to
be, things that would bless
us, bring us to spiritual fulfillment
and things, of course, if they would do all that, they would
glorify him.
Now, one thing you can be sure of
(05:02):
in this Bible, or from this Bible, Genesis, the
Revelation, you can be sure of this,
that as far as man is concerned,
God's will and God's
works focused
on number one, you're going to get this from
(05:22):
Revelation all the way back to Genesis or Genesis to
Revelation, his will. His works
are focused on this number one, the
redemption of the human race
through the blood of Christ.
Two, that
he wants to take those that have been redeemed and
(05:44):
conform them to Christ in
this life, and that when
he catches them away from this world in the
resurrection or in the Rapture,
that they will be conformed to the image of His
Son,
redemption, conformity to His
(06:05):
Son by that process of the work of
the Holy Spirit right now in this life and by that completed and
perfected work, the instant that he catches us
away and
the eternal,
unbroken, perfect
fellowship
that he is going to have with the
(06:26):
redeemed. You are going to find
those themes from COVID to cover,
that he wants to redeem man and
bring him right now into conformity with Christ
and have both now and
forever, an eternal, perfected,
unbroken fellowship with
man. That's what the Bible is all
(06:49):
about. Now, by the time that David
prays here in chapter
seven of two Samuel,
he's come to realize that God has a great
plan.
But he's also starting to realize, and we can see it here
in his prayer, that David
(07:11):
has not seen all the details of that plan.
He's aware that there are details of some great plan
that God has, but that he, David, does not see them
or understand them yet. You know, that's an
awareness that God has to bring to you. That God
is at work in this world with some purpose,
a very detailed purpose. He has a
(07:32):
plan, if you want to call it that, a master
plan for this world and the ages of this world.
But do you know how you fit in?
Do you know how your life goes along and fits
in and becomes a part of. In the. Woven in the fabric
of that plan? Now, many
Christians tell me they don't know.
(07:54):
They don't know how their life is a part
of all the work of God in
the world. So David
didn't know the full detail of God's plan.
You might think because David was a prophet that he knew
all the detail of God's plan. He did not.
By the way, this prayer reveals that to us.
(08:15):
In other words, God gives, even to the
prophets, he gave
revelation. But it was
always, in a sense, limited
revelation.
You have to take it all together to get the fullness
of the revelation of God. It was
(08:36):
not all given to one.
So the full detail of God's plan
or the full degree to which
David's life was woven into the fabric of God's
plan, David couldn't see.
He saw some of it.
I want to make this personal for you.
(08:57):
God's purposes for your life,
God's purposes for your life are, uh,
woven into the fabric of all his
workings in the world. We say it this.
Whatever God is doing, whatever he has been doing from the
time he created man until this day and
on into the future, all the works of
(09:18):
God agree. Do you believe
that. That God has not really worked against
himself ever? Everything as far as
God's actions are concerned, everything that God
does, everything that God wants to have done,
all harmonizes, they all agree.
All the purposes and plans and workings of God
(09:39):
agree. In other words, he can't have a
will for one life that would destroy
his will for another.
He can't. His
purposes, his will is
always agreeable, always
harmonious, always
(09:59):
coordinated for his glory. And our
blessing always is.
So when you ask the question, well, how does my life fit
in to God's greater workings and to all
his will for the ages and even right now in
this day and age, his purposes
for working out his will in the earth today, how
(10:19):
does my life become a part of
that? I have some suggestions for
you. Now. Uh, you've heard these
things. I know you've heard them if you've been here.
But I believe you've heard him from any
radio preaching you've heard or any television. Well, I
can't say that. I wish I
(10:40):
could. But a lot of television preaching And a lot
of radio preaching that has been out there. You've heard these
things
that God's purposes for your
life, for you to know them,
number one, you need to learn more and
more about what God is like.
(11:01):
You say, well, how does that connect with my knowing God's
purposes or will for me, for my life?
You need to learn more and
more what God is like.
Because
whatever his will is for you,
(11:21):
in his working of that will, in his
teaching you of that will,
he will reveal his nature. In other
words, God can only do the
kind of things that a person like him can
do. He is a God of
love. He's a God of righteousness. So
he only does things that a God of love
(11:44):
and righteousness can do and still be a God of love
and righteousness.
Make it practical.
Okay.
Prayed with a, uh, teenage girl one time.
She was crying,
came. I talked with her. She was in tears
when she came. I didn't cause it.
(12:09):
My heart is breaking. She said, well, I knew
we were into a social affair
situation. Um, you know, the minute I heard that,
my heart is breaking.
I said, well, what happened?
He said, goodbye. I mean, that
told the story. He said
goodbye. The
(12:32):
love of her life was gone. Her
life purpose was gone. She might
as well die at 16 now. It was all
over. I know we can stand here years
later and say, o boy, what'silliness?
But when you're 16
and when you think you've found the most wonderful person in the
(12:54):
world, and when they've
said, somewhere along the line, I love you, and
your whole life and your whole emotion, everything has all
gotten focused on them. And then one day comes and
they say goodbye. I mean, it's just like light has turned
to darkness.
She came
(13:16):
and I said, you know,
God could use this for blessing for you.
And she looked at me, what are you
saying? I say, God could use this
for blessing for you. This could be a door
opening for you to learn more about the Lord
and love him more and
(13:36):
receive a greater blessing. And she looked at me like
I was crazy. He didn't hear me.
She said, he left me. I said, I know,
but she said, he doesn't love me anymore. I said, I
know, but he's gone. I'm broken hearted.
I said, I know, but it could be a great blessing. And she said,
you don't understand.
(14:00):
Well, I didn't feel all the emotions she was feeling, and I wasn't
trying to claim that I did because I wasn't
crying about him leaving her. I thought, uh, it could be A great
thing, you know
the emotion. No, I wasn't tuned into all that.
Although I felt bad for her hurt.
But I was trying to say to her hey wait a
(14:21):
minute, maybe you don't see
everything. Maybe there's
a working of God
that weaves this little incident
into a plan that he has for your life.
Maybe he needed to take you down this little
path and let you be brokenhearteed
so that uh, he might bring somebody into your
(14:44):
life that you're going to learn
to love in a far greater way, in a far deeper
way than you could ever
love this one,
maybe that one that God has in mind.
Or maybe God doesn't want you to have anyone at all
in your life. Maybe he wants you to be single unto him.
(15:05):
Maybe he wants you to learn through this that he
should be your first love.
Maybe when you are married and you have children and you
look back and you see those precious children's lives
and you look at them and you say, you know, I..n't
have this one or that one or this one.
(15:26):
If I didn't have that mate
I would have been robbed of these blessings.
Maybe I wouldn't have gotten to have this one as a part of my
larger family or maybe I wouldn't have worshipped with
these people. Or maybe I could never have been challenged
by the way God has taught me through the
life experiences that I've had.
(15:48):
I would have been robbed of all those things.
You know it does. It is true
that there is value in talking
with the older saints.
I mean huh. That God's word underscores
it for instance for women that older women
(16:10):
are to teach younger women
and they can teach them
sobriety, soberness, you know, seriousness
about life. They can teach them not to get caught up
in things that just rise and fall with emotions
but to look for purposes of God in life
even through trials and difficulties, hardships,
(16:32):
heartaches, heartbreaks
and uh, not to trust in men
persons for your
greatest joy but in your Lord
as your first love.
Some that have gone along for many years
(16:52):
get a better perspective on life.
Maybe uh, many of you could kind of smile
about the 16 year old and say boy, you know
that, you know if you did, I guarantee you if you
did, you're over 25
now if there is some wise 20 year old here that
(17:13):
did also, I commend you.
But the further you get away from that kind of thing the more
you are re aware of how quickly we can get caught
up in life. And according to our very narrow
perspective and we can miss the larger purpose of
God for us. We
think that our hurts are from a God that doesn't love
(17:33):
us. People sometimes grow
bitter against God because
things haven't worked out the way that they would like to have
had them work out to give them the happiness that they think
that they should have had. You see, we don't
see all the plan
of God at any one time,
(17:54):
but this you must account for that.
God is a God of love and righteousness and he never
is going to change. And his workings and his will will
never violate his character. And whatever he's doing even
in your life
will reveal that nature. He will never
stop being that God of love. Even if you think you are being
(18:15):
hurt, he is still your Father.
He still will be dealing with you as a child
because he loves you and he wants your joy
and fulfillment in his life. You're going to get a
new perspective on trials.
He wants to see His Son, the Lord Jesus
perfected in you. He
(18:36):
wants, in other words, for him to be your first love.
He wants you to be in all ways in your life to
be bringing glory to Him.
He wants to bless you,
but he can only bless you best most
perfectly when he is your first love, when your
eyes are cast on him and when you are re ready to do his
(18:58):
will, even down to every detail of your
life. You need to learn more about
him and his nature because he's going to reveal what he's like
and how he takes care of you. You cannot say like that.
16 year old began to say to me that God
was not being fair, that God
was not kind, that God was not a God of
(19:18):
love. Because that's what started coming from her lips.
And I've heard that not only from young people, I've heard it
from Christians that have walked with the Lord a lot of years.
And some would say, you know, God
is not fair. God is not being good and kind.
He's being mean.
Mhm. It's not the God that is revealed
(19:41):
in the Lord Jesus at Calvary.
And that's not the God that's revealed in his will for
you. He could not will a will
for you in order to allow Himself to be
mean against you, to hurt you,
to do harm to you. He couldn't do
that. That is not the will of God.
(20:02):
And you should never interpret whatever happens to
ever contradict what you learn about God. Therefore
I'm telling you, you want some help inointing the will of God?
Learn more about what God is like.
He will always
be that way. In giving you his
will, it will always be that way.
(20:24):
Then you need to
learn more and more of what his works have been
and what he says he's going to do in the future.
It's worth studying his works,
and you need the Bible for this. Learn what God
has done in the past. Learn what he promises to do in the
future. You say, how does that relate to the will of God?
(20:44):
Because his works reveal his
plan,
his larger will in the earth.
And whatever his will for your life is, you
see, it has to harmonize with that larger
plan. If God is going to do this, uh,
certain work in the world today,
(21:06):
believe me,
for your life, the will for your life,
your life will weave into that larger
work.
We're going to be studying the Book of Acts in my class and the Bible
Institute, and we're going to see that it
was made
(21:26):
clear in the Scripture that in a particular day called the
day of Pentecost, God began
great work of,
uh, bringing on the earth something the earth had never seen
before. We know it as the church, the body of Christ, and that
he's in the world today doing a special
work through primarily
Gentiles to reach out to the peoples of the
(21:48):
world to know about Christ,
to see God's love in Christ, and to learn
of redemption and that they might be brought to call on him
and to be saved. That's the work of God in the
world. And that through Christians who make up
local assemblies of believers,
local churches, that through them,
(22:09):
God wants to be shown, God wants to be glorified.
God wants to be seen in his nature of love and
righteousness. The local church assemblies
should be worshiping and praising God. They should learn
about how to do that. They should learn how it's
been done and how God wants it done. They should learn about
his greater works, even works of discipline in the
(22:29):
earth, because they all reveal what God
is like and reveal how
your life can weave into the fabric.
You can say, lord, if you want to reach
the peoples of the world,
is it possible that you would like to reach them through
me? Would you
(22:50):
like me to go to some corner of the earth
you see that harmonizes with the will of God?
Lord, would you like me to be
a pastor in a church
that harmonizes with the work of God? Would you like me
to serve as an elder in a
church that harmonizes with the work of God and the
(23:11):
age? Would you like me to teach adults or
even little children? Would you like me to get
involved in the work of the church, the
body that harmonizes with the will of God for
the age. Would you like me to give in my worship even
of my material things to you? Would you like me to give
my time and my skills and my efforts, my
labor, the strength of my life? It
(23:33):
harmonizes with the will of God for the age. There is
a place for your life and it will always
weave into the fabric of what God has revealed for
his working in the age. And it
will always rest on
Christ the Redeemer and
the redemption that he's provided for the world. It
will glorify him. It will fulfill your
(23:56):
life. He therefore will have shown you
are further teachings on this Lord,
what have you given me specifically to enable me to
do something for you? And there's the wonderful teachings
in the New Testament, uh, especially in the sections
dealing with the church, we learn about the gifts
of the Spirit that are given specifically
(24:16):
to individuals by the Spirit of God.
Different ones have different gifts so that the
whole purpose of God across
the span of his work in the world
can all be done. And it can all be done in every
local place and it can be done universally.
M God's provisions and God's workings
(24:38):
will always harmonize each of his
purposes and will for one life with the whole.
Wonderful. In
fact, it's a little staggering when you think about it.
You think, my, what a kind of mind
does a God like that have?
It's beyond us.
(25:01):
I told you many times I could never put a clock back together,
let alone know all the
intricate will of God and
coordinating every last detail of
every human life that would surrender to him and to his
purposes and bring out one
harmonious
(25:21):
you see, to be above it all means that you have
to also be above each part.
To be above it all and have a will for everything to
work means you have to be. And God would have to
be. God would have to have a will for
each life,
specific
(25:42):
leading, direction and use of
each life.
There are things therefore,
that would serve God's greater purpose and will,
things that you can do today.
And then there are things that would not serve God's greater purpose
and will, things that you could do today,
(26:03):
things that are wrong, things that would tear down, things that
would not edify anybody else nor you, things that would not
glorify God, things that would not serve his purpose or will. And
you need to know God and know his works and know how
he's worked in the past, know his word, know how
he's going to work in the future. Be tuned into His Spirit and
what the Spirit has provided for you. And apply
(26:24):
it.
Today
we sang Trust and Obey.
Uh, trust and obey
People. You want to trust God
according to how he has revealed Himself.
(26:45):
That's faith. I said it
in Sunday school. I don't think that you can
have obedience without faith. Not true
obedience. And I don't think
you can have faith without obedience.
When Abraham left his country, when
(27:05):
he was obedient to God,
it was counted to him for righteousness.
He was exercising faith in
obedience. When
you read this book and see what God wants
you to do, and when you surrender your heart to
do it, you're putting your tr. Trust in your Lord
(27:28):
that His Word is true and that he's faithful to His
Word and that he's going to be there to make
it work. If
you will surrender and go along with
him in his revealed will,
you need to know more about Him. You need to
know more about what he's done and what he's going to do in this
(27:48):
world so that you can understand
more and more what he's like and how he
works and how he wants to work in your life.
Now, when David was praying here,
he said at verse 18, then went toing
David and sat before. I thought that was interesting.
Some people all think you have to stand and raise your hands to pray. But
(28:10):
David found out he could sit down and pray
and'll, uh, throw that aside. And he said, who am
I, O Lord God, and
what is my house that Thou hast brought me hitherto?
You know what David started to be able to see
then? Really any individual person is
really small. We're really
(28:31):
insignificant in one sense.
And then he started to realize, though there'so
many people, that one, it seems to be so
insignificant that with God nobody
is insignificant. The individual is
very important to God. You
see, with a man's mind. Do you ever get up
(28:52):
in an airplane? Some of you have flown airplanes. You look down
as you take off and as you land. It's more fun when you take off.
I always get worried when I land. As long as we're going
up, I think we're okay. You know, it's when you come down, you never know what's going
to happen. But, uh, you look down there,
and first you see the cars and
the houses. And they get smaller and smaller until
(29:12):
you can't even see cars anymore. You see houses,
and then you can't see houses anymore. You still see some
streets and some pattern of building.
And you get so high that you can see globs of city,
you know, and construction and larger things. And then the
clouds take over and it's all gone.
Um, when you're up in an
airplane, you look down. I think the first time I
(29:34):
remember this happening to me, I still remembered. I was in a
20 some store of a building
down on Michigan Avenue in
Chicago. And my aunt had taken me to see a
doctor because they had, uh, told my
family that I was going to be blind. Within
just a few years I was going blind.
And my aunt, uh, knew my family had no money to go to a
(29:57):
doctor. And so she and her, uh, husband, my
uncle, sacrificed and took me to the
world's greatest eye specialist in
this particular area of specialty.
Very, very costly. And I remember it was way
up there, and I was a little fellow,
and, uh, I was probably five
(30:18):
or six, something like that. I think I was six at the
time. I remember
getting, uh, up on the windowsill in that waiting
room. And looking over at the
people down 20 some stories
below. I still stuck in my mind. I looked down there and
I was amazed at how tiny those cars were
and how tiny those people were.
(30:41):
And I also only peekd over. I didn't get much of me
over. I just got out far enough to look.
That was, you know, I thought, boy, people
aren't very much. Cars aren't really
that much. And that stuck with
me. And what amazed me years later when somebody
told me about the love of God was this, that
(31:03):
God loved me.
Because I knew that there were millions and millions, and
now we know billions, there, 5 billion people in the world.
That God loved me
just seemed unbelievable to me.
But he did. I was
important. Important
(31:25):
enough for the Son of God to
die in my place. That is
amazing.
He is a God with a great large
plan. But he is interested in the person, the
individual. And David is s amazed. He says,
lord, what is
(31:46):
my house that thou hast brought me?
Hitherto he knew that God
had worked specifically in his
life. And we have it and we've studied it
all the things that David went through, the
trials and difficulties, uh, all
the time. He must have thought back to the times that he fought with
bears and lions. Any other shepherd might have gotten
(32:08):
torn. And I'm sure there were shepherds that got killed by bears and
lions. It wouldn't have been any great thing to talk about it. If, you know,
if every shepherd killed bears and lions, it wasn't
that way. He was brought through
that. He had stood against Goliath. And instead
of, you know, you watch
baseball. I mean, there aren't many great pitchers
that can pitch the ball over the plate all the time. And there's nobody
(32:31):
that can't. But David could have missed with that stone.
Could have went, you know,
like most of the pitchers they have on the white. Well, I won't go into
that. He would never have hit him. Couldn't have hit the man,
the shield, his armor bear anything, you know,
but boom, right in the forehead
and the man went down. And
(32:52):
all the workings of God, you know, Saul
sent men to kill him and Michael let him down
out of the window or
put a bolster in the bed and got him out of there. And,
uh, how many times he could have been killed.
And God preserved him and preserved
him and preserved Saul was seeking him with hundreds of
(33:13):
men to kill him and could not.
And he had to say, O Lord,
my, what you have done to bring me to this hour.
I'm king. I'm, um, king not over Judah
only, but also over Israel. My,
how marvelous you are to think that you
have done this in my life as one
(33:34):
individual. Because you see, it's in that
section that we studied last week where he, he sent by
the prophet, uh, Nathan, you know, he sent,
um, Nathan, um, to him to tell
him, uh, that God has specific will
for him in how he should do things. And
so David is very much aware that God has a
(33:56):
specific will for him. And now he has told
him through Nathan that God has a will for
his house and for the ages to come,
for the distant future.
And we saw how that house related
to the lineage of David. Remember how
the angel Gabriel came to
Mary? And we see it recorded for us in Luke's
(34:18):
Gospel. And he reminded her of
this promise that she was now going to be
the one to bring forth on the earth. One
born of a woman, she was going to bring forth on the
earth one of the house and
lineage of David who was going to be given the
throne of his father David, and one who was
going to estab. Estab the house of David
(34:40):
forever. In other words,
the far distant future that David is looking
at and seeing here really
focuses on Jesus.
You say, does God have such far distant plans
and workings?
Zechariah and Elizabeth had a little boy. And without
(35:01):
Zechariah and Elizabeth and God working in those two
lives, there would have been no John the Baptist,
right? How about all the
apostles? If God didn't work
through Paul, and by the way, Paul had a spiritual son,
Timothy, and I think several others like Luke and Titus
and different ones and all of
(35:23):
those that served with him, then
he could not have brought about the blessing
that he wanted to bring out through that man, you
say, could he work in one specific life
to do a greater work or to harmonize that one life with his
whole program? Don't you know, Paul was
instrumental in establishing churches throughout the
Mediterranean world among Gentiles,
(35:46):
that he was the apostle to the Gentiles,
that through his life, the fabric was
woven, you know, and then churches were
established and hundreds of people were saved and thousands
after them, and tens of thousands after them.
Why? Because one man
(36:07):
surrendered himself to the will and purpose of
God to go, to be his servant,
and to graciously and gladly
surrender himself to the work of God, specific will of
God through him. He was willing to be
whatever God wanted him to be. And that's why he could, with that
kind of surrender. That's why he could take on, um, the. The
(36:29):
terrible hurts, the trials and the
difficulties that he had to go through. Why? Because
instead of looking at his body and feeling his pain and
saying, my body doesn't like pain, therefore
it's evil, he said, no,
my joy is to serve the greater purpose of God.
And if it means I've got to be snake bit and got to be
cast in the ocean, and I've got to be, uh, beaten
(36:52):
with rods and beaten with whips, and I've got to be imprisoned
for years and I've got to die a martyr's death,
that's okay,
because I'm looking to my Lord for His grace to work
through me. He recognized the gifts of God in
him to do the work of the apostle. He knew
that they were not sourced in him, they were sourced in the Lord.
(37:14):
The Lord was a focus of his life and purpose.
He wanted to bring glory to the Lord. He began to
pray and work and labor and died
as he prays in Philippians, as he praises God in
Philippians, I should say in chapter four,
to know him.
(37:39):
He wanted to grow closer to the purposes of
God for his life, to bring glory
to him.
Do you believe that God has a purpose that is
specific for you and your life?
You ought to. Because as surely
as God has a larger plan, he uses
(38:00):
the individuals in his family
to work out that plan.
And you need constantly to seek to
know more of what he is like, more of what he
has done, to see how always his
character and his works will harmonize
with what you understand specifically to
(38:22):
be his will for your life. There
is also the dimension of the personal leading and work of the Spirit.
But you've got to start here. What is he
like and what has he done? And what does he plan to
do? Because that will always harmonize.
You cannot have a will of God that violates these
truths. Don't
(38:43):
ever say you will, even if it hurts you
and goes against what you want. No
will of God will violate these truths.
Never better
that you be hurt and surrender to this.
Because God's purpose in even allowing you to be hurt is not to hurt you, uh,
ultimately, but to bless you in drawing you
(39:03):
closer to him.
David was just learning that he
didn't know the final truths about all the details of
Christ. But he could see that God had a plan. And
you know what? He was a part of it. And because God had
said it, that's that 29th verse.
Because God had said it, it was going to come to pass. He puts
it this, O Lord, for thou, O Lord hast
(39:26):
spoken it. I mean, that settles it.
If God speaks it, it's going to come
to pass. Leave it with the Lord. Trust
him for his promises, trust him for his
will. Trust him that he's going to work according to his
word. Trust him. Because he
wouldn't give you a promise and not fulfill it.
(39:47):
You can trust Him. He is faithful.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace toward
us. Thank you for your word and revealing
yourself to us. Thank you for your works, both
past and future, that tell us
about your plan, your larger plan in the
earth and even more specifically
(40:07):
for our age and even more specifically for the
local church and for us as a part of it.
And Lord, even more specifically through your
spirits, personal daily
leading how we can
work and serve your glory
and our blessing. Might we be people of
the Book, love thee and
(40:30):
want Christ to be made perfect in
us, to see our lives conform to the
image of your son, Father,
to make him our first love
and everything we do with our life to
bring glory to thee
in Jesus name. Amen.
(40:57):
All right, so there we have it. Another
message from our pastor, Reverend
Chuck Rains on,
uh, the Life of David. A lot of those from
1989 were from the Life of David about the
purpose. Whats Gods purpose for our
life. Okay,
so we well have more. I think theres another one coming up,
(41:18):
1989, which will continue on
from the Life of David. Like I said, I want to
complete the year 1989.
Um, there'a few gaps in there, but
I think I have the whole year of 89.
So I want to complete that and then'move on
to the 1990.
(41:41):
I'm going to try and keep them in
kind chronological order, but
uh, I don't know, maybe. Okay,
so if you want to know more about the podcast,
just going over to the website which
is www.the
legacybiblepodcast.com and
(42:01):
you could check uh, out to find more
information there and you
could also listen to the podcast there
and there's some information. And one thing I
found out, um, that the
church, the Fellowship Bible Church is updating
their website which they haven't done for a
while. So you should go
(42:23):
over to there. And I'm not sure
what it is right now but I'll list it in
the, in the show notes so you can go and check
out. But they uh, they're just beginning to
Make change their website around a bit so they're
going to be having uh, transcripts
from some of the, some of the
(42:45):
later episodes. So
from what I, what I know to just be from,
from 2014 on.
Um, so I'm not sure if they have to
uh, if they're gonna do a like a
podcast like here with the ones from
2014 on. I know they're
working on transcripts so you get
(43:07):
checked it out. Um, that's at the
Fellowship Bible Church of
Joliet. There's a lot of Fellowship Bible churches.
If you look that up it'll be the Fellowship Bible
Church of Joliet. So I don't think they have too
much up there right now, but I know they're working on it
so you can go over there and check that one out
(43:27):
too. So thanks for listening
and please come back again next week. We'll
have some more from uh, tape archives,
uh, another one like I said, From 1989
and until then have ah,
a great day. So long.
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