Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, September sixteenth. What do a rock, a penny, a tree, and a fishing boat have in common? Well, we will find out as the series on the ways of God continues.
Turn if you will to First Samuel for a moment, and I want you to notice something here. First Samuel, the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters, is a story that most of us know really well, but there are people, for example, who have not listened or some other part of the world. And you’ll recall that here’s an incident that’s going on.
On one side of the valley, here are the Philistines’ tremendous army. On this side of the valley, there are the armies of God. I mean, this is Saul who is the king at that point.
And here there’s this valley, and on the other side of the Philistines, they have this man called Goliath. He’s probably about nine feet tall, somewhere thereabouts. And he has this javelin and a big sword.
And what he’s doing, he’s taunting the people of God and saying, Send me somebody out here to fight with me. And ever who wins, the rest surrender to him. And so, this young shepherd boy, David, he comes on the scene.
And you recall what his brother said when he showed up. They said, What are you doing here? Why don’t you go back to your few sheep, which is just that extra cut?
What are you doing here? Why don’t you go home? And so, in the process of all the conversations that are going on, David overhears what’s happening, and he overhears what the king has promised to the person who is willing to fight Goliath.
So, he goes to Saul and says, I’ll fight him. And of course, Saul looks at him. Remember, Saul is head and shoulders over everybody else in Israel.
And so, here comes this runt, shall we say, compared to the king and Goliath, saying, I’ll take on Goliath. She can’t take on Goliath. And I want you to look at this because here’s this tremendous conversation that goes on here.
And so, the Scripture says, if you’ll notice, that David took his stick in his hand, chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook. Now, what David’s goal was this? His goal was, listen, his goal was to protect the name of God.
Now, watch what happens here. So, he picked them up. Somebody says, well, why did he use, why did he pick five stones?
Was that because he was afraid he’d miss? No. In case he’s got four other brothers, I got one for each one of them.
So, verse forty-one, the Philistine came on and approached David with his shield-bearer in front of him. See, first of all, he had a shield-bearer, which meant he had a little bit of a cowardice in him. He had two of them against one.
When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ruddy, and with a handsome appearance. One thing that tells me, at least he had good eyesight. The Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Now watch this. The Philistine also said to David, Come to me, I’ll give you a flesh to the birds of the sky and the beast of the field.
Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord, that is Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day, the Lord, Jehovah, will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.
I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this state, of the birds of the sky, of the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And that all his assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and.
He will give you in their hands. Then it happens. See, what.
He did, He taunted old Goliath, got Goliath so angry that what happens is if you’re in a battle and you get angry, you get a little bit off course. Now watch this. Then it happened.
When the Philistine rose and came, so. He takes the initiative, and drew, listen, He came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand into his bag, took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.
Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in David’s hand, so he just ran, took his sword, and the Bible says, cut off his head. Did I hear somebody say, Oh, my?
In those days, it was hand-to-hand combat and it was bloody. And so, what did he do? He killed him.
Now, you say, well, what’s so significant about that? Well, just think about this. You’ve been, all of us have been to the creek at some time in our life, and you think about how many stones there are on a creek, many stones.
You walk over them, you watch the water run over them, and the water must have run over this one pretty well because it’s so nice and smooth. What is a stone? This stone in the hand of young David prevailed over a giant and a Philistine army.
And God’s purpose primarily was this, to defend the name of Jehovah God. Always with a purpose. That’s what.
He used, a simple stone. In the hand of a young man who loved God and would not stand by and listen to the name of Jehovah taunted and disgraced. And so what happened?
He risked his life, but he had this awesome sense of confidence. And God used this stone to prevail in a fight in which the name of God was at stake. So, think about this.
You think sometimes that God can’t use you. If He can use a stone, He can use you. In the hand of a young man in a sling and brought him down.
Could it be that God has been challenging you to surrender your life to. Him so that. He could use you, but you said no?
It doesn’t fit your schedule and it doesn’t fit, you think, your temperament. You just don’t want to get into that. God couldn’t be speaking to you because that’s not who you are.
Most people lose their greatest opportunity of God’s best blessing because God requires of them something that they think they don’t fit. They think what God is calling them to do does not fit who they are. If I said to you, go find me a stone.
Well, there are a lot of places in this country, you can pick them up by the hands full and the barrels full. Didn’t take but one, and it was God’s choice. It didn’t take but one little wicker basket to save Moses, one little stone to slay Goliath.
And you’d be surprised what you have, what you own, that God could use if you gave it to. Him, if you allowed. Him to.
Because you see, think about this, you can put all the wealth in the world up on this side, everything you could possibly think of. And so, how valuable is that? Extremely valuable.
Well, let me ask you this, would you be willing to sacrifice your eyesight? Your hearing? Your speech?
Would you be willing to sacrifice your limbs since you couldn’t walk anymore? You couldn’t raise your arms anymore? Would you be willing to sacrifice all of that for a bunch of wealth?
You see, all God wants is you. He just wants you. And what I’m asking you is this, have you surrendered your life to God to the point that you’re willing to say to.
Him, Lord, I don’t know what you want to do with my life, but I’m available for you to do whatever you want? Did you know that that’s what God wants to hear above everything else? He doesn’t want to hear about how much you do for.
Him, how much you give to. Him. He doesn’t want to hear about all the things that you have done and how much you pray.
You know what. He’s listening for? He’s listening for you to say this, here am I, Lord.
Whatever you want to do with me, however you want to use me, whatever I have is yours. Whatever you will and purpose and plan for my life, whatever you want to achieve in my life through me, I’m available, God, for you. And you see, you may think today that you’re no more valuable than a little stone.
Look what the stone did for the nation of Israel and for the reputation of God. You don’t know what God will do with you in your life, no matter what your age, no matter what’s going on in your life, if you just surrender your life to. Him.
And tell. Him, listen, not most of it. You see, giving most of my life is not giving myself.
It’s giving all of ourselves. Then I want you to think about something else. I want you to think about another little incident in the Scripture that you and I could say, well, that’s not very important either.
And you may think, well, why use all these little illustrations simply this? Because you can’t put God in the box. He’s so unique, He can use the smallest things to get.
His work done, and you can see that in each one of these things, God has a purpose. God’s doing something. Watch this, you can, listen, you can live forty years of your life, and all of a sudden look back one day and think, God, I didn’t know that’s what you were doing.
And you see, because you and I can’t see the results today, oftentimes we want to say our life’s unimportant. But I want you to look at this passage in Mark chapter twelve. And Jesus is seated close by the temple there, and what happens is, in the verse forty-one, this lady walks up.
She said, and the Bible says, He sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury. And many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
Calling his disciples to him, he said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasurer. For they all put in out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty put in all she owned, all she had to live on. Now, you see, it isn’t how much you and I give, it’s the Spirit in which we give it, and it’s our motivation.
She gave her all. Are you saying to me, well, you mean to tell me I’m to give everything? Watch this.
When you and I fully surrender to. Him, we give. Him everything.
Whatever He chooses to take is up to. Him. Whatever He chooses to use is up to.
Him. You see, the issue is what’s my attitude? Am I giving my best?
Have I given. Him my all? Have I surrendered?
Have I signed on the dotted line? All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust.
Him in. His presence daily live.
And notice what’s happening here. Jesus is preaching and. He’s down by the seashore.
And you know what happens, this is really what happens. Now watch this. If we’re standing up here and here’s a whole crowd of people and they’re just, what happens is the people in the back of a crowd, what do they normally do?
They want to get a little bit closer. And so they edge the other person and they want to get a little bit closer. The next thing you know, Jesus, His feet’s in the water.
And so. He sees these fishing boats and Peter’s is empty and so. He asks if.
He might use it. And so. He gets in the boat and pushes out from the shore a little bit.
So now. He can see people face to face much better. Now they can hear.
Him much better. A little breeze across the water carries. His voice better.
And so here’s what happens. There were a lot of fishing boats out there all around the sea because that was a major part of how they made their living. This particular fishing boat, not an exception, but Peter surrendered his boat to Jesus.
Jesus used that boat by finding himself with a platform from which to speak. And now. He could teach the truth to people who probably could not have heard.
Him because there were such throngs of people. In every single one of these instances, here’s what you find. God is using something that is common and ordinary in order to accomplish a divine purpose.
Now, more than likely, Peter probably said, well, yes, you can use the boat. And after Jesus had finished, he said, well, what, let’s go fishing. And I can imagine that Peter said, because this is what the Scripture indicates and implies, go fishing, well, I was fishing all night long, and we didn’t catch anything.
And this is not a good time to fish during the day. And probably looking in the eyes of Jesus, he was probably dropping his head and because he was giving him an excuse. And besides that, he probably thought, he’s a carpenter, I’m the fisherman, he’s telling me to go fishing.
Suppose Peter had said, I might go fishing. I’ve already been fishing, but I might go fishing. Fish was his livelihood.
He caught more fish in a short period of time than he caught in his whole life. That is, that was the most successful fishing trip he ever took. God chose not only to use his boat as a platform for the gospel, but.
He also chose, listen to this, to bless Peter more than he had ever been blessed in his financial condition on one fishing trip. Because, here’s what he said, All to Jesus I surrender, All to. Him, my boat, I freely give.
I will ever love and follow this man for the rest of my life. You know what God’s waiting for? You’re waiting for.
His best blessing. He’s waiting for your personal surrender. All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give, I will ever love and trust.
Him and in. His presence daily live. Let me ask you this.
You’ve had time to think, what am I holding on to that I have not surrendered to. Him? Let me mention one thing that you hold on to that you don’t even realize.
And if I named things that you hold on to, you’d say, well, money, houses, lands, relationships. The one thing you probably wouldn’t remember or wouldn’t think about saying is this. The one thing many people hold on to and will not surrender is something they don’t even really own, and that’s time.
You don’t own it, but you hold on to it. God wants you to serve. Him in some fashion, some way.
You don’t have time. You certainly don’t. God has your time.
You’re misusing that time. You refuse to be obedient to. Him.
What happens is, when we refuse to surrender, watch this. This is just normal. The blessing comes in proportion to our surrender and yieldiness to.
Him. You want to be blessed? Sign that statement.
You want to find out what God will do in your life? Sign that statement. You see what.
He did in a basket with coins, a stone? Sign that statement. All through Jesus’ surrender and watch what happens in your life.
Well, we could go on all day with this, but I’m going to stop with this one. I want you to turn to the nineteenth chapter of John, not to read a bunch of verses here, but just to remind you of what’s happening. And it’s in this nineteenth chapter that is the account, John’s account of the crucifixion.
Now, you remember what happened. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they plot against him in Judas. And finally, he’s before Paulette and Paulette says, Let him be crucified.
Watch this. Of all the things that God has ever used to bring about. His awesome plan for mankind, God the Father chose to use a tree.
God had His Son nailed to a tree. Why do you suppose. He nailed him to a tree?
Well, placing him on a tree placed him publicly in front of everybody so that there’d be no question about his dying. Why did God allow him to die? Because that’s the reason.
He came. He came to lay down. His life on a tree of all things, common, ordinary thing, a tree in order to do what?
To pay the sin debt of the world so that anybody who has sinned, whoever you may be, could ask God to forgive you of your sins, based on the Son of God hanging on that tree, shedding. His blood, paying your sin debt in full. It was just the tree, the tree.
There were two others, one on each side, but this one was God’s choice. On the tree would hang the savior of the world, the Lord of lords, the coming king, and the judge of all mankind on that one tree. You see, you don’t know what God wants to do in your life until you surrender yourself.
Watch this, baskets have no mind. Coins have no mind. Rocks have no mind.
Boats have no mind of themselves. Bread and fish don’t have any mind for themselves. The tree doesn’t have a mind.
God uses every single one of these things without any question or doubt. It’s in. His hand.
What can God do in your life if you are willing to sign this statement? All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust. Him in. His presence daily, live.
What will. He do for you? If He can use a tree, how can.
He use you with your mind, your gifts, your talents, your skill, your time, your life? There’s only one way to find out. Full surrender.
Thank you for listening to The Things God Uses. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
