Let's go to 1 Chronicles chapter
29. I want to talk to you about who
am I? Who am I? Beginning with verse
1, and I may skip a few verses as we go along for time's sake. 1 Chronicles 29, Furthermore,
David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon, my
son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young and tender, and
the work is great, For the palace is not for man, but for the Lord
God. Prepared with all my might for
the house of my God, the gold for things of gold, and the silver
for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the
iron for things of iron and wood, for things of wood, and onyx
stones and stones to be set, glistering stones of diverse
colors, and all manner of precious stones, marble stones in abundance. Moreover, because I have set
my affection to the house of my God, I have of my own proper
good of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of
my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy
house. Even 3,000 talents of gold, the
gold of Ophir, 7,000 talents of refined silver to overlay
the walls of the houses with all. the gold for things of gold
and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of
work to be made by the hands of the artificers. And who then
is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? Then the chief of the fathers
and princes of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands
and of hundreds with the rulers of the kings were offered willingly
and gave for the service of the house of God of gold, 5,000 talents,
10,000 grams, and of silver, 10,000 talents, and of brass,
18,000 talents, and 100,000 talents of iron. This is going to be
quite a house. And they sat with whom precious
stones were found, gave them to the treasure of the house
of the Lord by the hand of Gestile, the Gershonite. Then the people
rejoiced, for they offered willingly because with perfect heart they
offered willingly to the Lord. And David the king also rejoiced
with great joy. Wherefore, David blessed the
Lord before all the congregation, and David said, Blessed be thou,
Lord God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven
and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor
come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all. And in Thy hand is
power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give
strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank
Thee and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I? But who am I and what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort?
For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own hand have we
given Thee. Did you get that? For we are
strangers, literally scavengers, nobodies. We are strangers before
thee and sojourners, gypsies, as were our fathers. Our days
on the earth are as a shadow, that is, having no substance,
and there's none abiding. So, who am I? If I'm just a shadow with no
substance, O Lord our God, all this store
that we have prepared to build thee, a house for thy holy name,
cometh of thy own hand, and it is all thine own. I know also,
my God, that thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness
of my mind and heart, I will have offered willingly. And now
have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here to offer
willingly. You'll never be a giver until
you are a worshiper. David's desire to build a temple
came from a heart of gratitude. Overwhelming desire. Overwhelming desire to attribute
worth to God. In some sense, that's what it
means to worship, to attribute worth, to worship God. An insatiable desire to worship. Do you have that today? This
willingness to give came from a spirit of incomprehensible
gratitude. Do you have that to God today?
Incomprehensible gratitude. You ever considered how much
you owe? Paul said, I'm a debtor. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor to God. Paul in
Romans 11.33 said, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out. The apostle in Ephesians 3 said,
O that you might be able to comprehend what is the breadth and the length
and the depth and the height to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge. that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God." Filled with all the fullness of God. To him that is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think. Have you ever been
filled with all the fullness of God? To be filled with all the fullness
of God. I really don't know how much
we worship. I know that real worship has
to do with attributing worth. I know that real worship has
to do with wonder. You never worship till you're
caught up in the wonder. The wonder of it all. The Apostle,
when he was talking about God's glorious choice of individuals
unto salvation before the foundation of the world, he had hardly got
started in Ephesians 1 when he began to scream, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according
as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame, having predestinated us. Isn't that something? Who am
I? Are you there? When it comes
to the doctrine of election, are you there? Who am I? Why
would God choose the likes of you? Or me? Can't figure it out, can you,
Space? Hard to figure out why God would
choose us. And you've never worshipped till
you're there. If you have some idea of why God chose you, He
probably didn't. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me out in the darkness. No light could I see. He put
His great arm under, and wonder of wonders, He saved even me. Alas! And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would
He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Oh, it took
a miracle to hang the world in space. But when He saved my soul,
cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. Who am I? My sin, oh, the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more. It is well, it is
well with my soul. When I think that God, His Son
not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That
on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to
take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior,
God to Thee, how great Thou art. What was the cause of David asking
such a question as this. Who am I? And David, David is. This is where we ought to be
when you're giving back, when you're giving something of your
substance. It ought to be with this attitude,
Lord, I'm just giving you back what you gave me. You haven't
done anything right. You didn't deserve to have what
He gave you. But He gave it to you and you
get to give it back. And the attitude is, who am I? That's what David said. The question
of who am I first is prompted by remembering who he was before
God came to him. Don't forget the pit from which
you were digged. Don't forget where God found
you. Don't forget what it was like before God came to you. And you know this is true. You
didn't come to God first. He came to you. You would have
never come to God had He not come to you. Somebody said, I
found the Lord. He wasn't lost. You were. And He found you. And He found
me. Don't ever forget that. You'll
never worship till you get there. Somebody said, you know, Pastor
Clark, he's always stressing this grace thing because there's
nothing else to stress. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We don't water this thing down.
Who am I? It's only then that we truly
worship when we get a glimpse of ourselves and who God is. When God found you, you were
strengthless. Some of you were really strengthless
in the sense that you'd gone as far as you could go. Crack
and heroin and the drugs had almost killed you. You were helpless,
without strength. You were down in Lodibar. You were a dry bone, parched
by the sun. You were a gomer. chasing after
your lovers. And most of them were drugs.
You were dead to God. Oh, you were active. But you
were a dead maggot in the sight of God. There was no good in
you. You were walking down sin's pathway
with the devil as your guide. You were without restraint. The
world, the flesh and the devil. You were the babe in the open
field. You had nothing to do with saving you. Don't forget
it. The reason we don't praise and
worship is because we have some idea that we had a part. You
played no part. Salvation's of the Lord. It really
is. Say, well, Bazar, Bazar, wait
a minute, I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not without the
gift of faith, for by grace are you saved through faith. And
that faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God. You would
have never believed had he not granted you the gift of faith. Don't forget. How could you ever? How could you ever judge somebody
else? Amen. How could you ever think
you're something on the end of a stick? Well, maybe you are. When you see what God has done
for you, then you worship. Your heart
is thrilled. You're filled with the love of
God. John Flable, one of the old Puritans, was riding his
horse to a preaching appointment that he had. And he got to contemplating
the book of Romans and chapter 5. And he got to contemplating
the love of God. And somehow or another, as he
contemplated the love of God, he was carried away in the Spirit,
thinking about the love of this God. And the horse stopped. by a lake. And Flavel said that
he was on that horse for some three to four hours and didn't
realize it. Just sitting there by the lake
on the horse, contemplating the love of God. You ever been filled
with the fullness of God? I don't know whether I have or
not, but I want to be. You've heard me tell this story
about taking an empty wine bottle down by the ocean shore and uncorking
it and putting the seawater in it and then corking it back and
throwing it into the ocean. You have the ocean in the bottle
and the bottle in the ocean. That's where I want to be with
God. I don't think it would be unusual at all. When I was a boy growing up in
Carlisle County, Kentucky, My dad pastored Bethel Baptist and
Zoar Baptist and Beach Grove Baptist and Baptist and Baptist. And I can remember as a kid,
people shouting. And it wasn't business meeting
night either. When we said we had a shouting time at church,
that means they got happy. I know, I know, I know what everybody's
thinking in here. Wanda just got a little happy.
Wanda does that quite often. But you know what? I'll just
tell you, as your pastor, I'm all right with that. Is it all
right with you? All right. All right. All right.
The second thing I want to say to you is this. David said, Who
am I? Who am I? And I think this question,
secondly, was prompted not only by where God found him and what
God did for him out in his Lodibar, But do you ever think about the
blessings of God now that you are saved? He should have killed
you a long time ago. Isn't that right? I should have
been dead. Listen, you've said enough, thought
enough this morning. Two or three amens there. How
about the Apostle Paul? He'd been preaching all over
the known world for 30 years, and he said this, Oh, wretched
man that I am! Not that I used to be. You still
mess up? Does everybody in here still
mess up? Well, if you said no, you're a liar. All God's kids
mess up, because in your flesh dwells no good thing. No good
thing. In fact, there's a battle going
on, on the inside of you. And honestly, I can tell you,
I have never lived in days like I'm living now, personally, where
I say things like this, why would you even look my way? And blessing
after blessing after blessing after blessing comes. And I believe
this. I believe there's only one reason.
There's only one reason for this church growth. There is only
one reason that we see the miracles that we do. here at Grace Gospel
Fellowship and Grace Centers of Hope, and it's this. We glorify
God. We're nothing and He's everything.
He's Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end. He's our salvation
and we give Him all the glory and all of the praise. And we
tell the truth. Think about this. If He were
not working in you now that you have been born of the Spirit
of God and regenerated, what do you think would happen to
you? You do what your flesh wants to do, right? Think about the
wickedness of your flesh. I have really come over 50 years
to know that much of what I was taught as a kid was condemnation
in the name of sanctification. I found out I wasn't nearly as
sanctified as maybe I thought I was at one time. I was big
on judging other people. You would never have found me
with this crowd, I can tell you that. And now my only thought is, who
am I? That you would even think about
me. You know, isn't this true? When
I would do good, evil is present with me. You ever been doing
good and evil be present with you? Paul said, what I want to
do, I don't do. And what I don't want to do,
that do I. Who am I? Who am I? And then
when you get in that spirit and that mode, you go back and look
at your life. It's really good for God to give
you an occasional glimpse of what you would be without Him.
Like a ship without a sail. Isn't this good? Greater is He
that's in you. than he that's in the world.
David contemplated that. When you think about, who am
I that God would condescend that He would come down here to my
level and actually invite me? Come, let us reason together.
He says to crazy people, let's talk it over. Though your sins
be as scarlet, I'll make you white as snow. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden. My friends, this is not
the invitation of an impotent God, but a sovereign Savior who
says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That
He would condescend to invite us to the party is a glorious
thing. You've been invited. Who am I
that He would call me by name? He knows your name. Your name
is written in the book. Your name was written there before
the foundation of the world. God chose you. God elected you. God predestinated you. God called
you. God justified you. And just as
sure, He'll glorify you too. Who am I? Some of you in here
have a brother or sister. who could care less about God
or Christ. But here you sit, loving God. You ever ask the question, why
did He make me to differ? Why did He love me? Why did He
choose me? Who am I? Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated? Of the boys, Jacob was the better
boy, I think. Or Esau was the better boy. Jacob
was a crook. And yet God loved Jacob. I hope
you leave here today as a child of God scratching your head.
You know, the pastor brought up a lot of good questions today.
I haven't thought about it. I haven't even heard about it
where I go to church. It's me in cooperation with God. Let me tell you, my friend, you
don't cooperate with God. You're totally depraved. God
has to come where you are and do for you what you cannot do
for yourself. He sought you out. I'm not recommending
this, but if you go down in Detroit where God found some of you in
those vacant houses down there in the hood, sleeping with dogs
and who knows what else, go down there and take a look of where
God found you and brought you out of the hog pen and brought
you back to the Father's house. Who am I? You ever think about
this? When I was that little alley
rat in my mother's womb, He loved me. Before He formed me in my
mother's belly, I started to say, put that in your pipe and
smoke it. But I can't say that here. You got rid of all your
pipes, haven't you? But think about this. Before
He formed you, He knew all the ugly things you were going to
do. and loved you and wrote your name in his book. And then when
you got out of the oven, you lived like a hellish sinner.
And the hound of heaven sought you out. He sought you out. Lastly, the question comes from
David as to who am I as he contemplates what he's going to be. You ever
contemplate what you're going to be? You're not what you used
to be. And right now that you're saved,
you can say, I'm not what I'm going to be either. You know
this. Listen, it's going to get gooder
and gooder and gooder for every child of God. Am I right about
that? Listen, our future is absolutely
wonderful. You know, sometimes I I'm overwhelmed
with what's going on in Washington and see all of the mess that's
happening here in the United States of America. And I just
say to myself, Jesus will fix it. Jesus is going to fix it. He's
going to fix it. He's coming again. Do you ever think about it? He's
coming again. I mean, when you're at your lowest, you ought to
think about this. Hey, I'm not even in the bud stage of endless
joy and happiness. Not yet. There comes a day when the monkey
is off my back. A day when this corpse called
the flesh, this nauseating mess, There comes a day when my teeth
won't rot and I won't have bad breath. There comes a day when I'm going
to have a new body. Jesus said, let not your heart
be troubled. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be
also. I know with all of our addictions,
and we all have addictions, won't it be a great relief when
you can finally lay it all down? I mean completely. I'm talking
about all of it. I know you've come a long way,
and God's brought you a long way, but you haven't laid it
all down yet, and I haven't either. Tempted and tried, we're oft
made to wonder. I'm going to have a new body.
Lord, that's going to be good. These old twisted bones will
take on a new fashion, a glorious, incorruptible body. I'm going
to be at home at last. I often think about not being
taken out of the will, that I'm in God's will. I have a crown
and a mansion. prepared by Him and for me and
by His grace. Sometimes I think about this.
No more sickness. No more sorrow. No more parting.
No more death. That's right. No more cancer. There comes a day when we will
be able to talk with one another and we won't tell our ailments
because we won't have any. There's going to be a great homecoming.
And I don't want to, you know, play on your emotions, but this
is the truth. I've had godly grandmothers.
And of course, I want to see Jesus first. That's true. But
I want to give you just a little bit of this. You know, I've got
two grandmothers. I have a mom and dad in heaven. My little Stuart Ward Clark is
there. I don't want to have a talk with
that guy. Because we've missed a lot in
45 years. I was thinking yesterday, Milton's
there, Quentin's there, Herb's there, Kenny's there, Billy's
there, Jim, Bob, everybody's going to have a wonderful time
up there. There is a great day coming for us when this war and
battle will be over.