Josh McDowell told this great story. An executive hirer, a “headhunter” who goes out and hires corporation executives for other firms, once told me, “When I get an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he’s all relaxed. Then, when I think I’ve got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, “What’s your purpose in life?” It’s amazing how top executives fall apart at that question. “Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then I leaned up and said, ‘What’s your purpose in life, Bob?’ And he said, without blinking an eye, ‘To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.’ For the first time in my career I was speechless.” What about you? Do you know what your place is in God? Do you know how to find it?

Luke 16:10-12 (NKJV)
¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

• If you are faithful in little, you’re faithful in much also.
• If God promotes you from little to much, it is obvious that little was not your place.
• If He promotes you from what is another man’s to what is your own, it is obvious that what is another man’s was not your place.
• This is the reason why some people never find their full place. They are simply not faithful in the small.
• Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.
• It’s how Paul got to his ministry.

1 Timothy 1:12 (KJV)
¹² And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

• It’s a simple question. Can God trust you?
• We normally think the other way around, can we trust God? But finding your place is the opposite, can God trust you?

Genesis 22:1-2 (NKJV)
¹ Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”And he said, “Here I am.”² Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

• Watch the elevation. Watch the promotion in Abraham’s life.

Gen. 22:16-18 (NKJV)
¹⁶ and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—¹⁷ blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸ In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

• By being faithful with the one son he had, Abraham gained more sons.
• How did he get to that place?
• And not only a multitude of sons, but the ultimate son Jesus Christ.
• Having one son was not his place. Abraham’s place was a multitude of sons.
• Abraham’s place was to be ‘father of multitude.’ But he only had one son which doesn’t qualify as a multitude.
• God had appeared to him and changed his name from Abram to Abraham.
  • Abram means high father.
  • Abraham means father of a multitude.
• God will allow you to serve in ‘little places’ until you are ready for bigger places.

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Seeking God: A Part of Finding Your Place

2 Chr. 26:1-5 (NKJV)
¹ Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. ² He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king rested with his fathers.  ³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. ⁴ And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

• Uzziah sought God.
• Seeking God is part of finding your place.
• As long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.
• Some people never find their place because they are not willing to seek God for it.
• Uzziah had an anointing to be king.
• Three kinds of people had the anointing in the Old Testament.
  • Prophets
  • Priests
  • Kings
• In the New Testament, there are many more offices, at least 17.
  • 5 in Ephesians 4:11
  • 7 in Romans 12:6-8
  • 5 in 1 Corinthians 12:28
• This anointing caused Uziah to be very very effective.
• The name Uzziah means ‘My strength is the Lord’s.’
• How effective was he?
• The reign of Uzzaih’s paralleled David’s and Solomon’s in comparison.
• 2 Chronicles 26:6-8 describes Uzziah’s military success.
  • He was successful to the west against the Philistines, the east against the Arabs and Ammonites), and the south against the Egyptians.
  • If you look at a Bible map, God prospered him in a complete circle. In other words,God prospered him in all directions.
• 2 Chronicles 26:15 – ‘He made devices in Jerusalem…..’
  • God gave Uzziah inventions.
  • Engines to shoot arrows and great stones.

Background: Uzziah’s Engines
The Targum (Hebrew Commentaries on the scriptures written in Aramaic for those who did not understand Hebrew) says, “He made in Jerusalem ingenious instruments, and little hollow towers, to stand upon the towers and upon the bastions, for the shooting of arrows, and projecting of great stones.” This is the very first indication on record of any warlike engines for the attack or defense of besieged places; and this account is long prior to any thing of the kind among either the Greeks or Romans. Previously to such inventions, the besieged could only be starved out, and hence sieges were very long and tedious. Shalmaneser consumed three years overtaking Samaria, (2 Kings 17:5-6); Sardanapalus maintained himself in Nineveh for seven years, because the besiegers had no engines proper for the attack and destruction of walls, etc., and it is well known that Troy sustained a siege of ten years, the Greeks not possessing any machine of the kind here referred to. The Jews alone were the inventors of such engines; and the invention took place in the reign of Uzziah, about eight hundred years before the Christian era. It is no wonder that, in consequence of this, his name spread far abroad, and struck terror into his enemies. ¹

• The summation of this is found in 2 Chronicles 26:15 – ‘He was marvelously helped.”
• When you are in your place. There is effectiveness. Uzziah was marvelously effective in his ministry office of King.
• Uzziah was anointed as king. He had the anointing oil poured over him. The anointing taught him how to prosper.
• But, just because you are anointed in one area does not mean that you are anointed in other areas. You have to find your place.

2 Chronicles 26:16 (KJV)
16 But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

• Burning incense upon the altar was the priest’s job.
• An anointed priest in his place, was supposed to do this.
• This was not within the realm of his kingly anointing!
• What did the Lord think about this? What happened to Uzziah?

2 Chronicles 26:19 (KJV)
19 Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

• This is what happened to a man that was marvelously helped.
• The moral of the story is obvious.
• Find your place and stay there. Allow your brother to find his place.

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Humility: A Part of Finding Your Place

• Let’s look at some other lessons that we can learn from Uzziah.
• What caused him to fall out of place?
• Pride
• If pride caused him to fall out of his place, then genuine humility must be part of finding your place.
• Humility is reality.
• Humility is not demeaning yourself negatively.
• In some church circles people say of themselves, “I am just a worm in the dust.”
• This is not humility at all.
• Are you saying to me that the sacrifice of Jesus produced worms?
• Revelation, chapter 1, and 1 Peter chapter 2, show the sacrifice of Jesus produced kings and priests unto God not worms.
• When you accept that, when you humble yourself and crucify the feelings of unworthiness, and accept the record God gave to you, that, my friend, is humility.
• When you are seeking God as Uzziah did, you are saying to God, “God, I don’t know where my place is, but I know that You do.”
  • That is humility. That is reality.
• Pride says I can do life with my own ability. I don’t need God’s input. I don’t need to seek God.

Reverence: A Part of Finding Your Place

• It’s a problem to have a lack of respect for someone else’s office.
• Uzziah did not respect the priest’s office.
• One of the great lessons we all need to learn is we are not the only one.
• Holy reverence for your place and for others is part of finding it.
• It is important to understand respect

ILLUSTRATION: The Humility of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
Donald Grey Barnhouse told the story (supposedly true) about Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. When he moved to Washington, D.C., to take up his duties as chief justice, he transferred his membership letter to a Baptist church in the area. His father had been a Baptist minister and he also made a profession of faith in Christ. It was the custom for all new members to come to the front of the sanctuary at the close of the worship service. The first to be called that morning was Ah Sing, a Chinese laundryman who had moved to the capital from the West coast. He took his place at the far side of the church. As the dozen or so other people were called forward they stood at the opposite side of the church, leaving Ah Sing standing alone. But when Chief Justice Hughes was called, he took his place beside the laundryman. When the minister had welcomed the group into the church fellowship he turned to the congregation and said, “I do not want this congregation to miss this remarkable illustration of the fact that at the cross of Jesus Christ the ground is level.” Barnhouse commented: “Mr. Hughes behaved like a true Christian. He took his place beside the laundryman, and by his act he prevented embarrassment to the humble Chinese; he showed, too, the love of Christ–he had this gift of standing by.”

Submission to God’s Word: A Part of Finding Your Place

• Look at how Uzziah found his place
• He listened to the Word of the Lord coming from Zechariah.
• Submission to the Word is part of finding your place.
• You can’t live your life without the Word of God
• You can’t find your place in God apart from God’s Word.

Independence is not strength but unrealized weakness and is the very essence of sin. There was no independence in our Lord, the great characteristic of his life was submission to his Father. – Oswald Chambers

Call to Action:

Seeking God, reverence, humility, and submission to God’s Word are some keys to helping you find your place in God. Now is the time to adjust and to set your heart in these areas.

Question: What other areas have you found which helped you to become more open to the will of God? Please share this in the comments section below.

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