August 5
Ezra 1:1-2:70 | PS 27:7-14 | Prov 20:22-23 | 1 Cor 1:18-2:5
For the past couple of decades we have done everything we can to elevate the self-esteem of individuals. In athletics, everyone wins, no one loses. Pretty much everyone now goes to college, where they have their egos filled. When sharing the gospel message one's level of self-esteem is inversely proportional to one's ability to receive the truth of the gospel message. Those filled with self are often deaf, while those who are empty and seeking are in a place to be filled. The big names in Scripture have little in common except their coming to God in poverty of their own spirit. It was said of Moses that he spent his first forty years thinking he was a something. God gave him a forty year humbling experience as a shepherd for his father-in-law to teach him that he was a nothing. He spent the last forty years seeing what God could do with a nothing. David was the least of his household. Isaiah said of himself in Isaiah 6:5, "“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”" When Peter encountered Jesus, he said in Luke 5:8, "... “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”" Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:9, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."
We read in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”" Paul realized that he was reached when he was brought low in his own mind. Those he reached with the gospel message could only accept it once they also saw themselves as really bringing nothing into this relationship with Jesus other than a willing heart to know and serve Him. When God works through us in any way, all glory to God. Paul states clearly in 1:20-21, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God...".
Those wise in their own eyes are blinded to God, both then and now. Oswald Chambers said, "Oh the bravery of God in trusting us! Do you say, "But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing good in me and I have no value"? That is exactly why He chose you." If we try to fit God into the box of our choosing it will never work. We can only come into a relationship with God when we approach Him in the realization that we really offer Him nothing. We must understand if we are not hearing from God, it is not because He has stopped talking, it is because we have stopped listening. Empty vessels, willing servants, bondservants, may these be the terms that define us.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: