“‘Tis well.” – George Washington.
“Stonewall” Jackson said, “Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks … Let us cross over the river and sit under the shade of the trees.”
“Hold the cross high so I may see it through the flames!” cried Joan of Arc.
John Kennedy said, “That’s obvious.”
P. T. Barnum said, “How were the circus receipts in Madison Square Garden?”
“Friends applaud, the comedy is over,” stated Beethoven.
Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”
What do all these quotes have in common? They are famous (and some not so famous) last words. Everyone has heard about famous last words.
Last words, and farewell speeches, are what some people are often remembered for. We think of General MacArthur saying, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
Turn with me to 2 Samuel 23.
Read 2 Samuel 23:1-7.
These are probably the last words that came from David’s mouth, but they are the last inspired words that he said. It is a farewell statement.
There are some things we can learn from this. The first thing is that…
I. Our BACKGROUND
Doesn’t matter. David wasn’t ashamed of his background or family. He freely admitted that his father was Jesse. Jesse was a common man. David grew up chasing sheep outside the backwater town of Bethlehem. Shepherds were a dime a dozen. There was nothing special about them. David was the eighth son of the family. He was the runt.
I was watching an episode of the new Dragnet a few weeks ago. The suspect in the crime was a rich fellow. He had worked hard and moved up the social ladder. When Detective Friday went to his parents’ house, he found that they had died a few years earlier. He asked a neighbor who had lived next door for twenty years what had happened. The neighbor didn’t even know that the man had a son. He had never gone back to visit his parents. He was ashamed of his roots.
David wasn’t ashamed of his roots. He was proud of them. He must have marveled at the fact that God had plucked him out of the pasture to be king of Israel. King Saul had been described as being a “head taller than all the others.” David was an average looking Joe. This goes to show us that…
A. God can use ANYBODY.
The prophet Amos was a shepherd, and God used him to deliver his message to the people of Israel.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer in the service of the Persian king, and God used him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Peter, James and John were fishermen, and God used them to light the fire that started the Church. The religious officials of the days saw them as uneducated men.
Jesus was a carpenter, and we all know what happened there. His hometown folk said, “Is this not the carpenter?”
When God called the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah replied, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” Jeremiah thought he was too young to serve the Lord.
When the angels told Abraham, at the age of 100, that he would father a child with his 90-year-old wife, his wife laughed at the proposition. She thought she was too old to serve the Lord.
Moses was 80 years old when he led Israel out of Egypt. Zechariah was an old man when John the Baptist was born.
God can use anybody for his purpose. We can think of more recent examples. Joni Erickson Tada is a quadriplegic who spreads the Good News around. Nicky Cruz is a former street thug who now preaches the gospel.
The truth is God uses whomever he wants. God can use anybody.
B. God EQUIPS us.
When I was first answering God’s call to the ministry, I was concerned about my abilities, and frankly I still am. I was sharing my concern with my mom. She reminded me of the old saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”
God gives us the ability to do what he calls us to do. He took a ragtag bunch of disciples that included fishermen, a tax collector, a political radical, among others, and turned the world upside down on the Day of Pentecost.
God give ability to those he calls to do his work. It doesn’t matter what our backgrounds are. Some of us are from middle class, and some are not. Some are drop dead gorgeous, like Matt, and others aren’t. Some are bold in public, and some are shy. Some of us were raised in the church, and some of us weren’t. It doesn’t matter what our background is or was. All that matters is that God can equip us for the job he has planned for us.
Frankly, I really don’t care for public speaking. I’d rather not speak in public. It has always been a fear. I took a speech class in college to overcome it, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t until God empowered me that I have overcome the fear enough to get up here every Sunday and speak.
It’s not matter our will or desire. It’s about God equipping us. This is true because God is…
II. Our SECURITY.
In verse 3 David says, “The Rock of Israel has said to me.” The term “Rock” occurs frequently in the Old Testament as title for God relating to stability, safety, and security.
When we think of rocks we may think of the Rocky Mountains. They are strong, steady and sturdy. They aren’t going anywhere. They have weathered storms, winds, and rain. We have blasted tunnels through the mountains with dynamite, but they have not collapsed.
The fact is…
A. God is our ROCK.
The old song goes, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.” When the storms of life batter us, God is our Rock that offers us stability, safety and security.
In Psalm 62, David wrote, “On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.”
God is our source of strength. The kids sang a few weeks ago about keep on keepin’ on. God is who helps us keep on keepin’ on when don’t think we can keep on keepin’ on.
God is as faithful as anything. We are driven by guarantees in our world. We want everything guaranteed. Cars, houses, computers, and anything else that we buy, we want to see a guarantee that will come with it. This car has a 7-year/70,000 mile warranty. That one has 10 years and 100,000 miles. Mufflers come with lifetime warranties. Whose lifetime? God’s guarantee is eternal. When the cars have been turned to scrap metal, God will still be there.
B. God HONORS his promises.
God’s Word is permanent and unchanging. God’s Word is not dependant on our actions. The only thing God requires of us is faith in Him.
We recall that God made a covenant with David recorded in 2 Samuel 7 that the Savior would come through his descendants. In chapter 11, we find David guilty of lying, adultery and murder. We would expect God to rescind his covenant with David and choose someone else, but that isn’t the case.
In verses 3 and 4 of our passage, David paints the idyllic picture of a leader. For the most part David was an excellent king in Israel. He was the measuring stick against whom all future kings of Israel were measured, but he wasn’t perfect. David was not the picture of perfection.
He reminds us in verse 5 that God had made an “everlasting covenant” with him. God’s Word is true, and we can count on it. Jesus said that God’s Word is truth. Despite the problems that David had, God held true to the covenant that he had made.
God’s covenant with us is that he offers us salvation through his Son Jesus Christ. The offer is as good today as it was ten years ago. It doesn’t matter where we come from or what kind of life we have lived God still offers us salvation. It doesn’t matter if we never known him or if we’ve walked away from him. The offer is on the table.
The problem is that there are some people out there that lead people away from God. God has stated…
C. The FATE of the WICKED.
Verses 6 and 7 tell us that worthless, or evil, men will get their reward. There are a lot of wolves in sheep’s clothing out there leading people away from God. It doesn’t matter what there motive is, if they are leading people away from God, God will destroy them.
Be careful. Don’t let someone become a substitute for the security found only in God.
God is our Rock. No one else is.
That brings us to the bottom line. The bottom line is…
III. Our COMMITMENT.
It doesn’t matter if we grew up rich or poor. It doesn’t matter if we grew in the church or out of the church, or what church we grew up in. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done. It doesn’t matter what kind of education we have. It doesn’t matter what our ancestry was. It doesn’t matter if we move high social circles or not. None of that stuff matters.
All that matters is our commitment to God. We have to trust God and act on that trust.
David trusted God. He knew where he had come from. He had come from following sheep. David never forgot where he came and Who got him there. God had put David where he was. Verse 1 tells us, “Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse [he didn’t forget his roots], the oracle of the man who was raised on high [he didn’t forget how far he had come], the anointed of the God of Jacob [he didn’t forget who got him where he was], the sweet psalmist of Israel.”
David knew that without God, he would probably have lived his life out as a shepherd in total obscurity.
For the most part, David was a godly man. He had committed sin, and it really messed up his family, but he was a godly man.
For the most part, he did fulfill the role God had given him. David’s time was always looked back on as a golden age for Israel. They were the good ol’ days. I mentioned earlier that David became the standard by which all of the future kings of Israel were judged. None of them quite measured up to David.
David was a larger than life character. We look at George Washington and Abraham Lincoln the same sort of way. They are larger than life to us. Their names are always on the top of the list of greatest presidents. No one can seem to measure up the standard they set.
The point is that David took his trust in God and put it into action. David trusted God, and acted on that trust.
What counts at the end of the day is our commitment to God.
Conclusion
God is calling us to trust him and act on that trust. God may ask us to do something we never thought we could. We God first called me into the ministry, I said, “You want to what?” I have heard the stories of countless people who have done great things for God, things they never thought they could do. It’s not just missionaries and pastors. It’s ordinary people.
We never know how our obedience will affect someone. There was a teacher in a New York City school who one day felt impressed to do something unusual. She called each student up to her desk, and told them how much she appreciated them. She gave each person a ribbon of gratitude. She then handed everybody another ribbon and told them go and give the ribbon to someone else. One of the girls took the ribbon to her part-time job. She went to her supervisor and gave her the ribbon and told her she was appreciated. The student then asked her supervisor to do the same. The supervisor went to her supervisor. She told her supervisor that he was appreciated and gave him a ribbon. He thanked her. He took a ribbon home. He went and knocked on his son’s bedroom door. The son told him to come in. The dad noticed that the son was writing and thought that he was studying. The dad told him that he loved him. The son said, “Dad, today was a terrible day. I had a fight with my best friend, and my girlfriend broke up with me. I was beginning to wonder if you cared, or if anyone cared. I was just sitting down to write a suicide note.”
We never know what our obedience will yield. The teacher at the school had no idea that a young man was in such desperate need when she called her students to her desk to tell them that they were appreciated.
God wants our commitment. God wants our trust and action based on that trust. It doesn’t matter where we come from or who we are. God is our Rock and our Equipper.
Are you willing to give it all to God? Are you willing to put your full trust in God?
