First Corinthians one. I was thinking the other day. Just doing some thinking. And
this scripture popped into my mind and some other scriptures. And after thinking about him.
I had a little bit of an epiphany. I realized. Do you know what
I want to be? You know what I want to be? And again, this came from reading
this scripture and reading some other scriptures, and it really
hit me. This is what I want to be. I
want to be not, N-O-T, not. Based on what God has said in
His Word, that's sincerely what I want to be. That is sincerely
what I want to be, not. Verse 26, 1 Corinthians 1, verse
26, it says, For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things of the world And things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not. To bring to naught things that
are. That word not, N-O-T. And that
word not, N-O-U-G-H-T. Really, they ultimately mean
the same thing. Nothing. That's what they mean. Nothing. Nothing. God hath chosen the
things which are nothing. God hath chosen the nothings in order to bring to nothing
the things that think they are something. That's what he's done. which that describes every man
and woman on this earth by nature. Every man and woman on this earth,
every single one. Let's look at a few scriptures
here. We're going to, I don't, this is going to be a big turning
night. Okay. I'll just warn you. I was going
to cut some out, but I'm not going to, we're just going to
turn to some scriptures. Go with me to Psalm 39. Psalm 39 verse 5. Behold thou hast made my days
as a hand breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. You know our We think our age
is something. We start out into this world
and, you know, I'm not three anymore. Now I'm four. I'm five. Now I have two digits. I'm 10. You know, I'm 16. I'm 18. I'm 21. I'm 25. I'm 30. I'm 40. I don't know that anybody
wants to see 50. But maybe after 60, a little
pride comes back. I'm 70. I'm 80. I'm 90. I made it to 100. My
age is nothing compared to you. Nothing. Really, nothing. David said, my age is nothing. I'm nothing. I'm altogether nothing. Turn over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 verse 12 says, Who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted
out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom took
he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path
of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of
understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket. and are counted as the small
dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles,
all of these islands on the earth, as a very little thing. And Lebanon
is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing. and vanity, nothing and less
than nothing. Turn over to Daniel 4. Just after Ezekiel, Daniel 4. This is after the Lord took Nebuchadnezzar's
mind from him and then gave it back to him. Daniel 4, verse
34. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. and he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, nothing,
nothing, nothing. Man is nothing. We are nothing. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 8.
1 Corinthians 8 verse 2 says, And if any man think that he
knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. Nothing. Man is nothing. Man knows nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Turn over to Galatians 6. Galatians 6 verse 3 says, For if a man think himself to
be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And that's
what I don't want to do. Really, I do not want to do that. I do not want to deceive myself
because the thing about it is the whole world is nothing. This whole world is nothing. But only God's people know that
to be so. Only God's people know that to
be so. Only God's people know that they
are not. The world sees their own flesh
as being something but they're deceiving themselves. God's people
know the truth of the matter, they know it. Look back two or
three pages to 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 11, it says, I am become a fool in
glorying. You have compelled me, for I
ought to have been commended of you. For in nothing am I behind
the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Paul said, when
you get right down to the heart of me, You have nothing. He said, as far as the rest of
these apostles go, I'm called to be an apostle. He said, I'm
just like the rest of them. But when you get right down to
the heart of all of us, we're nothing. Though I be nothing,
Paul said, I am not. That's all you can say about
me. I'm not. And I say that with Paul. I really
do. That's all you can say about
me. I believe in my heart that I mean it. I'm not. I'm not. But by God's grace, that's all
I want to be. That's really all that I want
to be. I want to be nothing, and I want
Christ to be all. By God's grace, I really believe
that. I really say that in my heart.
I want to be nothing, and I want Christ to be everything. I want
Him to be absolutely everything. Just let me be nothing. And here's
the reason why. Go with me back to 1 Corinthians
1. Verse 26 says, 1 Corinthians 1.26, it
says, For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, Yea, in things which are not. You know why I
want to be not? Because that's who God has chosen.
Really, that's who God has chosen. That's who God chose to save. That relieves me so much. If
this scripture said God chose to save the President of the
United States, then I'd do everything I could do to try to be the President
of the United States. But this says that he chose the
nothings, the nobodies. That's who God chose to redeem,
just sinners, just sinful men and women. Good for nothing, worthy of nothing, owed nothing. That's who God chose to quicken.
That's who God chose to call. That's who he chose to call to
himself. Call to his glory, draw near
to him the knots. He chose the cans. That's who
he chose, the cans. Those who know that with man
it's impossible. What's impossible? Everything. Anything and everything with
man. You know, everybody is trying so hard to be somebody. God's
people are just trying to be not. Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto
us. That's what we want, not, not
for us. They asked John the Baptist one
time, are you Elijah reincarnated? Are you that prophet? He said,
I am not. That's what I am. I'm not. No,
I'm not Elijah. I'm not the Christ. I'm nothing. What's your name? Doesn't matter.
I'm nothing. I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness. saying, don't look to me, I'm not. Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of this world. He's everything.
He is everything. He is all. He is the Savior of
his people from their sins. He's the Savior. And here is
how he saved his people from their sin. This was just so beautiful
to me, okay? This was so precious to me when
I was studying the word not. This is how he saved his people
from their sins. Turn over to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter 4 verse 10, it says, Be it known unto you all and
to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at naught of you builders. He was considered to be naught. He allowed himself to be considered
by this wicked, evil world to be nothing, less than nothing. Set at naught. That's what he
allowed man to do to him. Set him at naught. How did he
save me from my sin? How did he save you from your
sin? He set himself in our place. He humbled himself. He made himself
to be naught, of no reputation. He emptied himself all the way
to nothing. He emptied himself of everything. He emptied himself to nothing
in the eyes of God and so sadly in the eyes of man. And he did that that he might
raise his people to something. That's why he did it. He did
that so he could make somethings out of nothings. That's the whole
reason he did it. So he could make somethings Go
with me over to Romans 4. Romans 4 verse 17. As it is written, I've made thee
a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God,
who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as
though they were. He takes things that are not
and he says, Let them be, and they are. Oh, the glory that awaits every
soul that is not, not in self, therefore totally reliant on
Christ for everything that is and needs to be, not in self. completely reliant on Christ
for everything that is and everything that needs to be. Glory truly
awaits all the nothings and nobodies who are desperately looking to
Christ for everything. All things. You know the story
of Enoch. All right, you know the story
of Enoch. Turn over to Genesis 5. He was one of the two people, Elijah being the other one, he
was one of the two people in the scripture who went to glory
without dying. And Genesis 5 verse 18 says, Jared
lived and 160 and two years and he
begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat
Enoch 800 years and begat sons and daughters. Can you imagine
that? Can you imagine that? All the days of Jared were 960
and two years and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five
years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years. And Enoch walked with
God And all of a sudden, he was not. He was walking with God one day,
and just, he was not. For God took him. That's what
I want to be. By the gift of God's grace, by
the mercy that's in the blood of Christ, one of these days,
I want to be not. I want God to take me from this
land to that land. Can you imagine that man was
walking with God, one foot in front of the next, and all of
a sudden, one foot, let me see how that works. Opposite arms to feet, one foot
and one hand entered glory and then the rest of his body stepped
on in. Can you imagine? I want that to happen to me. I want it to be said, he is not. All of a sudden he was just not. I want to be not. I mean this,
I want to be not, and I want you to be not too. I want you to be not with me. I want us to be not together. That's what I want. Nothings,
nobodies. Christ to be everything. I pray
God will take us all. I pray God will make all of us
to be not. Just like Enoch, just take us
all to be with him. Oh, the blessing of being not,
knowing that Christ is everything. What a blessing. To him be everything.
Amen.