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Day by Day - 1 Samuel
Choosing Last Place
Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Mar 05, 2024
Show Day by Day
Mar 04, 2024
Duration:
00:03:10 Minutes
Views:
904
discipleship God's plan humility

Scripture

Mark 9:34

Great humility leads us to trusting God’s path over our own.   ~~~   What is the attitude of your heart when that promotion goes to a “less-deserving” person? A person you know hasn’t worked as hard, won’t do the company as much good, as you? Or when the starting position on the basketball team goes to an inferior player? Or when you get passed over for that accolade or recognition? When the votes don’t go in your favor? Do you want to stand up in protest? Do you think of ways to sabotage the other person? Do you cut them down to other people? Do you remember the instance when Jesus had just told his disciples that he was going to be killed, but in three days he would rise again? That sparked an interesting conversation among the disciples, and the conversation was summarized for us by Mark as this— ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest,” (Mark 9:34). I love the text of God’s word. Jesus asked, “Hey, what was the discussion about?” Jesus, casually asked them about this “discussion,” but Mark describes it as an argument. The boys were bickering with one another, each promoting himself over the others, giving reasons why he was better, more qualified, better skilled, more handy, and the others were inferior. They didn’t want Jesus to know that’s what the “discussion” was really about. The text tells us that Jesus sat down and called his disciples to him, and said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” The indication of the text is that the first place, the higher honor is within grasp, could be seized, but the choice, the choosing of God’s servant is to serve others. What is Jesus getting at? Humility. Trusting the pathway that God carves more than the pathway that you think you can carve for yourself. And we see in our text of 1 Samuel 24, of David choosing God’s path, and accepting it in humility. He bows down to Saul, completely vulnerable to him, and paid homage. This is the great difference between Saul and David. Saul is thirsty for honor and applause, refusing to repent, refusing humility at every turn, choosing his own path. But David’s heart is tender toward’s God, quick to repent and trust God’s path, no matter how hard it may be to understand.

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