"And David said to Ahimelech, ‘Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.' So the priest said, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here.' And David said, ‘There is none like it, give it to me" (1Samuel 21:8-9).
David is fleeing from his enemy, Saul, and he comes to Nob where Ahimelech was the priest. It is a time of desperation for David because he is uncertain about his safety and he has no weapon. It is out of his desperation that he urgently inquires if there would be a sword in the house of God. What a strange request! What would a sword be doing in such a sacred place? Alas, there was a sword there; it was the very sword that David had used to sever the head of Goliath. David had placed it in God's house and it was there when he needed it again.
In a broken world, where can we turn to find healing? In a spiritually hostile culture, where can we find a place of peace? In times when our lives are empty, where can we find a place where life has meaning? I submit to you that the church is still the greatest gift that God could give to the world! It is no wonder that Jesus called it "My Church". If the God of the universe valued the church so much that He died for it, then it behooves us to love the thing that matters so much to God.
What's the value of the Church, you ask? It is a place where we can invest the best of our lives and it will be there for us when we need it. Here at CCC we embrace the idea of the church because it is not enough to believe, but it is vital that we belong. The church offers us a place to serve and be served, a place to love and be loved, a place to celebrate and be celebrated.
Again our text reminds us that there was only one sword to be found in that crucial time in David's life. It was to be found in God's house. The lesson is this: YOU CAN ONLY EXPECT TO FIND IN THE CHURCH WHAT YOU INVEST IN IT! Mediocre churches are a refection of what its people have invested there. Great churches are churches where men and women have deposited great commitments.
If you are new to our church, we welcome you to the family and we invite you to belong, to connect and invest your best. By the way, if you have not begun our membership process, I look forward to seeing you in MEMBERSHIP 101 on October 4th.
Because The Mission Matters,
Pastor Mitchell |
