Unexpected Kindness

Have you ever found it difficult to accept kindness? I mean really, when someone is nice to you and you are not expecting it, how easy is it for you to handle? Do you just relish in it and accept it willingly, or are you guarded and fearful. Maybe you even refuse the kindness, believing it to be a mistake or worse, believing there are ulterior motives. I’m sure we have all seen it; someone pretends to befriend us, just so that they can use us to gain something for themselves. We have been trained by our experience to question someone’s kindness because we realize that people are not kind by nature. Because kindness is a selfless act and people are by nature selfish. Oh some of you may question that assertion, but I believe that apart from Jesus Christ, there has never been a person on this earth who is completely selfless.

Kindness is not a natural human trait, it is a often a learned behavior. However, in the case of Christians, it is a spiritual trait that comes as part of the fruit of the spirit. Therefore for Christians, for those filled with the Spirit, kindness is the normal way of treating people. Right? That is how we treat everyone, with kindness as the Spirit has taught us to do. Yet, we still have difficulty in trusting other people’s kindness.

Imagine someone comes up to you at your work place and says I would like to give you a new house, completely paid for, just to be nice. Or imagine someone who never met says to you, I would like you to have my new car. Would you take it? Would you trust them? You would probably say, “What’s the catch?” or What do I have to do?” Or “Am I on TV?” There is probably no way you would believe it to be true, and almost no way that it would happen with no strings attached.

Let me give you a small example of this. I know a youth group that decided they were going to live out this kindness principle, asking and receiving nothing in return. They decided they were going to wash car windows while they people were in the supermarket. They didn’t ask for donations, they didn’t even tell people who had done it. They weren’t looking to proselytize or evangelize, they were simply looking to be nice. This worked for about an hour. After an hour, the manager of the supermarket came out and asked them to leave. He said they weren’t allowed to be nice to people without asking them. Apparently, people had complained about having their windows cleaned for no apparent reason. They believed there must be something fishy going on.

So as difficult as it is to show kindness to strangers and have them accept it, imagine trying to show kindness to someone who views you as the enemy. Imagine trying to show kindness to someone who blames you for the death of their father, and grandfather: someone who blames you for all the ills that have ever happened in their life. Imagine trying to show kindness in that situation and having it accepted. Although this sounds like I may be talking about the attempts of Americans to show kindness to Muslim extremists, or for one political party to show kindness to the other, in fact I am talking about David showing kindness to Mephibosheth.

Now the first time we heard about Mephibosheth was in Chapter 4 when Saul’s kingdom came to a close when Ishbosheth was murdered. You remember the how David’s men had fought with Saul’s men and then Saul’s men murdered their king in an effort to win favor with David. Mephibosheth was the heir apparent to Saul’s kingdom. He was the grandson of Saul, and he knew that David had been Saul’s nemesis, at least as much as a five year old could know. And apparently, it wasn’t until the kingdom was in turmoil, when Mephibosheth became lame as his nurse tried to take him to safety and then David becomes the new king. The Scripture never really tells us what Mephibosheth thought about David, but it does not seem a far stretch for him to despise David and blame him for all of his woes. Imagine his surprise then, when David decides to be kind to him. Let’s look at this in 2 Samuel 9

2 Samuel 9:1-13
David asked, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake?"

Now remember, David had just recently been setting up his new kingdom and his new Capital city. He was still in the process of getting things in order and he had just about finished fighting all the enemies. Now, he is ready to take care of some domestic business. He had a covenant with Jonathon, Saul’s son, for they were best friends, and although Saul hated David, Jonathon never did. David and Jonathan promised to be friends and to show love to each others descendants back when Jonathan warned David to flee from Saul. And David was going to be a man of his word.
[2] Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and he was summoned to David. The king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" And he said, "At your service!" [3] The king said, "Is there anyone remaining of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?"

Notice how David phrases this. He is not simply showing his kindness, but he desires to show God’s kindness. He does not want any praise or recognition for this, he simply desires to show kindness on behalf of God. A Spiritual Kind of Kindness.
Ziba said to the king, "There remains a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet." [4] The king said to him, "Where is he?" Ziba said to the king, "He is in the house of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar." [5] Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.
David finds out that there is someone, so he sends for him.

[6] Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David, and fell on his face and did obeisance. David said, "Mephibosheth!" He answered, "I am your servant." [7] David said to him, "Do not be afraid, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan; I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you yourself shall eat at my table always."

Mephibosheth comes in and bows before David, and David tries to assure him that he is going to be treated well. He promises all the land that belonged to Saul would be restored to him and he would always have a place at the kings table.

So how did Mephibosheth respond? Was he overjoyed? Was he relieved? Was he vindicated? No. He didn’t believe it. Instead of getting up off his face, he stayed, face to the ground, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for the catch.
[8] He did obeisance and said, "What is your servant, that you should look upon a dead dog such as I?"

Who knows for sure what he was thinking. He may have thought he was going to David to be killed. He was after all, the last of the line of the former king. He didn’t understand what David was doing or why. Once David told him the good news, he still needed an explanation. He still needed to understand why. But David never gives him an explanation. He simply tells Ziba that he is responsible for Saul’s land and making sure the Mephibosheth’s property is taken care of, but Mephibosheth will be eating at the kings table from now on.

That is a story of kindness in a situation that it almost seemed too late to be kind. Jonathan and all of Saul’s family was gone. No one would hold David to his commitment. Mephisheth certainly didn’t expect kindness from David. Yet David had to keep his commitment to Jonathan, because it was really an oath with God. And Mephibosheth was the beneficiary.

Now as I mentioned earlier, this was a special kind of kindness. This was the kindness of God. What did Mephibosheth do to deserve it? Nothing. Did he work for it, or earn it? No. As a matter of fact he couldn’t have worked for it, because he was lame. There was nothing he could do to earn it. All he had to do was accept it. This was a kindness that was paid for by somebody else. It was a kindness that was the result of somebody else’s actions. You see the story of Mephibosehth shows us so much about the kindness and mercy of God. For just as Mephibosheth could not earn God’s kindness, neither can we. It was already paid for. There is no catch. There is nothing we have to do but accept it. God wants us to eat at the kings table. There is a place always prepared.

And lest you think it is too late to experience this kindness, consider tha case of Mephibosheth. Although we do not know how old he was, it probably wasn’t that old, but he was the last person to expect kindness from David. He had probably blamed David for his circumstances, hated him for his lot in life and despised him for everything he stood for. And most, if not all of that was because he never knew David.

You see, so many people in this world are like Mephibosheth to God. They blame him for their lot in life, hate him for the things they must go through and think that all he wants to do is kill them. But that is because they do not know him. And God’s kindness is reaching out to them, to give them a place of honor at his table if they would just accept it. No strings attached. Nothing to do. No way to earn it. Just accept it.

You may feel like Mephibosheth. You feel like God has put you into all these hard and difficult places. You may even felt at times that you hated God. God still loves you and is reaching out to you with his kindness. He has brought you here today on purpose, so that you can get to know the real kindness of God. Romans declares it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. So come and experience his kindness today, and you will always have a place at the kings table.

God's Promise

We are in a crucial time in our history. I do not mean we as a Church, I do not mean we as Americans, but I mean we as in humanity. The world is under attack, yet we seem to have no clue as to why! I have heard many people say that America is to blame for the rise in terrorism because of our immoral behavior and our extravagant ways, because of our granting women equal rights and our refusal to subject women to a demeaning position within the society. While those may be things that are counter to most of the cultures of the world, I do not believe these are the reason. The reason, and it is not one you will usually hear on radio or TV is simply this: we are despised because of our God.

You see, the world sees us, meaning Americans and even Europeans as Christians. Although that is far from the truth in most of Europe and much of America, there can still be little doubt that we are a culture that has been formed by Christianity and Christian values. Although those values have largely been distorted and perverted, nonetheless, they are fundamentally different from most other cultures in the world. You may disagree with me, and that’s okay, because our culture allows us to disagree. We believe that people have certain unalienable rights, among them is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Where do we get these ideas from? The Bible! We believe that people have the right to life because God has breathed life into every individual. Not only that, but we know that Jesus came to give us life, in fact he declares that he is the life! We also believe that Christ came to give us freedom, liberty. The Bible says that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Jesus himself says, “What the son has set free is free indeed!” He has given us the right to freedom. Of course the Bible is full of passages that depict happiness that God has in store for his people. He knows the plans he has for us, plans for us to prosper, plans of hope and a future. Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly. And of course the promise of heaven is a promise of happiness.

However, not all cultures have this same ideology. Although many people try to claim that every religion points to the same God, it simply is not true. Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible! Apparently, Allah does not have a problem devaluing life, but the God of the Bible values life! Allah does not approve of foreigners, but the God of the Bible takes special care of foreigners. Allah seems to be a God of war, yet the God of the Bible is the Prince of Peace. The only thing they have in common is that they are both credited with being the creator.

The issue is a very complicated one that unfortunately we really can’t unpack this morning except to say that we are dealing with different worldviews. The Muslims simply do not think the same way about the world, life, God and the universe as we do, because they have a distorted view of God.

The bottom line is this: Muslim cultures hate Israel and everything they stand for, especially their God. Why is this important to us, since we are Christians and not JEWS? Very simply, the God of the Old Testament is still the God of the New Testament. If they hate the God of the Old Testament, they hate our God and that is why they hate us. Because we are inextricably linked to Israel. I have heard many people question why we support Israel, and today we are going to try to understand one of the reasons why… because it was to Israel that God gave the promise. What promise? The promise that allows us to declare that Jesus is our King. Let’s look at this as we continue our study of David by turning to 2 Samuel chapter 7.

We know that David has already been declared the King of all Israel and that he has led the parade into the city with the ark of the covenant, the physical representation of God. He has put the ark into the tent as per the regulations from Leviticus for when the Israelites were moving across the desert to the promised land. However, David now starts to think that the physical representation of God should have a little better place to reside than in a tent. "After all," David thinks, "I have this nice house here because the Lord has been so good to me, and yet the ark is still in a tent." So he decides that he wants to do something for God, he wants to build him a house, a temple we call it.

At first the prophet Nathan agrees, but then God speaks to him with a message for David that begins, and I am paraphrasing, “What makes you think you can build a house for me? I have been traveling in this tent for a long time and have I ever complained? Did I ever ask for a house? This ark has never been about me, it was for you, for the people, so that they could know I was in their midst!” We then pick up with this special message to David in verse 8

8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; He reminds David that it was God who chose him, this redneck farm boy to be the ruler of Israel. Notice he reminds David several different ways that God is still the one looking after this nation. He refers to David as prince instead of king, because God is the king. He calls Israel “my people” instead of your people because God is the King, and aside from reminding David that God allowed him to ascend to the throne, he refers to him as “my servant David.” I do not think David had any issue with pride, especially since that was the issue that had left Saul excluded, still God was surely reminding David that he was the one invested in these people. He then continues

9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

He also reminds David that he has never left him but has been the source of all his victories and all his accolades. And in fact God desired for David to have these. He desired for David to be great, like the great ones of the earth. Indeed, to this day David is still the pinnacle of leadership for the nation of Israel. His name is still the great one for the Jews. But here begins the promise…

10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.

God has declared that he will make a place for Israel where they may live in peace, where evildoers shall afflict them no more as they did in the time of the judges, and God will give rest from all their enemies. This is a very interesting point to me for many reasons. One is that I see so many people harassing them! I do not see them living in peace. Does that mean that God did not keep his promise? No, not exactly. Although this promise did not have any conditions on it, most of the promises to bless Israel include a stipulation that they must continue to follow in the ways of God and the law of Moses. History and the Bible both reveal that that did not happen. Also, God actually did fulfill this promise, for there is no mention of an eternal peace, just peace. In fact, there was peace from outsiders for much of David’s reign and all of Solomon’s reign. It was during Solomon’s reign, after the nation had been established and peace reigned that God allowed a house to be built for him just as he says.

12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

Nathan is clearly talking about Solomon at this point, for as I said, Solomon, one of David’s sons who was not even conceived of at this point was to be the one who would build God’s Temple. However, this part of the promise includes the idea of an eternal kingdom. We will get back to that in a second.

14I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. Of course all of this prophecy applies to Solomon and the continued line of succession from David. However, there can be no doubt that this imagery of Father and son and the punishment with rods also applies the prophecy to Jesus who the New Testament takes great care to show was also in the lineage of David. While Solomon certainly fits the immediate context of the prophecy, there are some limitations on his fulfilling the entire prophecy. As it continues in verse 16…
16Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.

The problem with seeing this promise as fulfilled in Solomon is simple, Solomon did not live forever. Neither did any one individual. It may be possible though to trace the lineage of the king of Israel forever to the line of David, except that the kingdom was destroyed around 586 BC. It would appear as though God did not fulfill his promise. However, there is one person who is in the line of David, as it says in both Matthew and Luke and who does live forever, Jesus the Christ. He is the fulfillment of the prophecy. That is why he was called by the children and the crowds, “Jesus, Son of David,” because they recognized him as the fulfillment of the promise. God’s promise was to Israel, to David and it was fulfilled in Christ. Therefore we are the beneficiaries of God’s covenant with Israel. Christ is the king who will reign forever.

We have the fulfillment of the promise as our King, Jesus the Christ. Yet this promise was not made to Christians, it was made to Israel. So how does this apply? Did God give up on Israel because they crucified Christ? Did he turn his back on them when they rejected his son. Was the destruction of the temple in 70 AD supposed to be the end of Israel and we should have never reinstated it as a nation after WWII? Some people would like us to think that, But I keep coming back to the fact that God is the same yesterday today and forever. I also am called back by what Paul says in Romans 11:1ff I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. He goes on to say how “All Israel will be saved.” Indeed there is a special place in God’s heart for Israel, and the New Testament, not just the Old Testament bears witness to this.

SO the promise is fulfilled in Christ and we stand as beneficiaries! Thanks be to God. We have a great and mighty King who sits on the throne. That means regardless of all the stuff that goes on in the world, Jesus is still on His throne. He is still taking care of his people. He has not left us without hope. While the world is in a crucial time, we must remain steadfast with God. He will keep his promises… We need to keep ours.

Active Worship

Have you ever been to a Rock Concert? Thousands of people screaming at the top of their lungs, shouting praises to these people who can engage their heart with a melody and some words. Or how about a Football game. Again, a stadium packed with people cheering because someone allowed them to feel a part of a special moment. These and many other events draw huge crowds and tons of attention, but would anybody consider them worship events? Probably not, at least not in the sense that we think of worship, yet in some ways there is so much more worship going on here than ever goes on in our churches. There are people at these events that desire to be like the ones they are cheering for, that emulate and pattern their lives after them; people that want to show them how much they are loved and adored. They shout, they sent letters and gift5s, they wear their emblems on their clothes. They want to be associated with them. How is that not worship? But do we react that way toward God?

This morning I want us to see several things about worship, and then I want to address one major issue that may keep us from worshipping God as we should. Now of course, we have been going through much of the life of David for some time now, and we will see that one of the major aspects of David’s life that showed that he was “a man after God’s own heart” was in his worship. So as we set the stage, we must recall that David had been crowned the King of Judah, but had not yet been declared king of all Israel. One of Saul’s sons, Ishbosheth, had been the king but was assassinated, leaving the throne vacant for David. Finally, the whole nation came and proclaimed him as the anointed King of Israel. David then captured the city of Jerusalem and decided to make it the capital city for the nation.

So the first thing he wanted to do, was to bring the ark of God into the capital city. Now it had been residing for 20 years at Kiraith Jearim in the house of Abinadab which is about 9 miles west of Jerusalem. So he began the trek to bring the ark into Jerusalem, but he failed to recognize that God gave specific instructions as to the proper way to handle this holy vessel, and someone got hurt. So the stopped the journey, regrouped, learned the proper way to handle this situation, and began to bring the ark into the royal city. So we pick up the story in verse 12.

It was told King David, "The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing;
Notice first the attitude of David when he went to get the ark. Was this a chore for him? Was this simply another task of drudgery that he had to do as king? Was this something that he simple did matter-of-factly, with businesslike decorum? NO. He went rejoicing! Now what does that mean, we will get a little better description in just a few verses, but I hazard a guess that he was glad to be there, and glad to be doing this. He was excited and excitable! The first order of worship then is to rejoice!

[13] and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.
The next aspect of worship that we see is sacrifice. What have we to sacrifice? What have we to bring to honor the Lord? After all, that is what the sacrifice is all about, giving to God! So what do we bring when we come to worship? I will let you ponder that one, but it is clear that we must bring something. Thirdly, how do we come to worship?
[14] David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.

David came dancing. And not just a little side to side sway. No. He danced with all His Might! He danced with all he had. We have youth trying to have a good time by going out to dances, they should be having a good time by coming to dance at worship! David did his dancing in the presence of God! Yes, although it may surprise or annoy many uptight Christians, dancing is not of the devil, but is can be part of worship to God!

Notice also how David was dressed. He was dressed in his Sabbath Best. The linen ephod was a priestly garment that he was allowed to wear on this occasion as the Lord’s anointed. He came dressed for the occasion, because it was a special occasion.

[15] So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

This was not a funeral procession, this was a parade! They had dancing, whooping and hollering, trumpets blaring; this worship was an event. Can you imagine coming to worship and seeing all of this. Man I can. Honestly, I would love to see this every week. I would love to come to church and have an event where people were excited, shouting, dancing, playing music to the Lord and having a wonderful time. I have been in churches like that and I can am uplifted in an environment like that. And the thing is, that is exactly what the Methodist church has been.

In the early days when Methodism was sweeping the nation, it was partly because of our revivalistic enthusiasm that people came to know the Lord. We were called “Shouting Methodists.” That is what we were known for. Being excited about the things of God! A Song about Methodists appeared in a hymnbook in 1807 entitled “The Methodist” that has these words.

The World, the Devil, and Tom Paine
Have tried their force, but all in vain.
They can't prevail, the reason is,
The Lord defends the Methodist.
They pray, they sing, they preach the best,
And do the Devil most molest.
If Satan had his vicious way,
He'd kill and damn them all today.
They are despised by Satan's train,
Because they shout and preach so plain.
I'm bound to march in endless bliss,
And die a shouting Methodist.

This was considered a good thing! A defining aspect of our religion. But what did it mean to be a shouting Methodist? At the very least, it meant that Methodists did not sit quietly but interrupted the preacher with calls of "Praise the Lord," "Hallelujah," and "Amen." But Methodist “shouting” was also a special way of singing that included clapping and dancing. It was filled with enthusiasm and joy, almost demanding that God was gonna be praised by his people. This is right in line with David’s idea of worship.

But why is this so far from our usual experience at worship? Why is it that as the Methodist Church continues to decline, this enthusiasm is far from us? Is God just as worthy to be praised as he was then? Is Jesus no longer on His throne? Do we no longer need a Savior like we once did? What has changed? Of course there are many answers, but one may be the same as the problem that David faced. Not everyone was excited enough to dance. Not everyone looked with glee on David as he humbled himself before God. Let’s look at verse 16

[16] As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
Now I have to admit that this is how I feel some people would look at me if I started dancing around the table. I am almost sure that some people would despise me, or think me a fool and an embarrassment. Perhaps I am wrong, but that is how I feel I would be recieved. And probably many of you feel that way too. So together we sit in relative silence, preparing for the rocks and trees to cry out in praise in our stead.
Still, there are a few more aspects of worship we see in verse 18-19.
[18] When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, [19] and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

We see the giving of offerings as a part of our worship, then we see a blessing of all the people in the name of the Lord. You see this is where God meets us in our worship. For us it is often the giving of the Word and the sermon, it is the bread and the cup, it is in the benediction and the pouring out of the holy Spirit, but each of us are to be blessed by participating in worship. That begs the question, do you feel blessed when you come to worship? God is here to meet us and to bless us, and we should feel blessed by being here and worshipping Him.

There is one more aspect of worship, the distribution of food and drink to everyone who comes to participate in worship. We usually associate this with Communion which has been given special significance by Jesus, yet the early church did more than break bread and drink the cup. They would often share food around the table with their fellow worshippers. This is part of the blessing, to be able to share together with God’s family, with those who unite around the worship of God. We are to be blessed by being in worship.

But the story of David and worship is not done yet. For we still have the lesson to learn. We have seen what worship looked like to David, and we have seen that not everyone appreciated that kind of worship. But what of it? Isn’t each one entitled to their own opinion? When David returned to his house intending to Bless Michal he was accosted by her declaring her disgust and remarking how shameful David had been. She was concerned with what everyone would think of the King, her husband prancing around like a fool. David declares to her that he was not dancing for anyone but the Lord and that he would gladly be humiliated in the eyes of the world as long as he honored the Lord. You see that is the bottom line. Michal was concerned with other people thought, David was concerned with what God thought.

Why is it that we don’t dance or shout, or get “carried away” because we are afraid of what everyone will think. Well shouldn’t we be afraid of what God will think when we say to him, “Well I just didn’t want to be embarrassed.” Hogwash. I was too proud is what we are saying. I couldn’t humble myself like that! Surely God would expect a little more decorum than that. All God expects is that you give him all the love and adoration you have to give, however it is that you have to give it. If it is shouting, shout, if it is singing, sing. If it is playing the trumpet, play. If it is serving, serve. But God wants all the worship we have to give. If we can shout louder for a Super Bowl touchdown than for our Savior who died on the cross, which one do we honor more?

Michal never received her blessing. She never engaged in worship. And although David even brought the blessing home to her, because of her pride, all she got was cursed. We need to let our pride fall down, and learn to worship with all that we are, or we aren’t worshipping at all.

An Ethics Lesson From David: Means, Methods, and Motives

This is a crazy world we live in, isn’t it? I mean things happen everyday that make me scratch my head and say, “Why would somebody do that?” As I watch the news I’m constantly saying this. I wonder, “Why would somebody think it is okay to kidnap somebody else? Why would somebody think it is okay to blow themselves up trying to kill other people? Why would somebody want to kill an innocent baby still in his mothers womb? Why, why, why?” There are tons and tons of these situations that leave us asking why?

The problem we are facing is a difference in Ethical choices. Ethical choices are basically moral determinations, or decisions about what we believe to be right or wrong. They stem from our basic worldview.

Now ethics is a big subject and one that can not be taught in a day, but let me give a few ground rules and basic thoughts on it, before we see an excellent example of ethics at work in the Bible. From my perspective, ethics is basically theology at work. Because ethics is putting your beliefs into practice. It is where the rubber meets the road. It is how you live out the beliefs you truly hold too. In other words, your belief system frames your ethics. Therefore, the problems we are experiencing with the moral decay of the world and the unethical treatment of individuals is not a matter of our actions, so much as a matter of our beliefs. If we believe that life is sacred, we will have a difficult time in taking the life of another individual. If we believe that God punishes sin, we will not be as likely to sin. If we believe that might makes right, then we will live to destroy others. It is our beliefs that determine how we live.

One of the most popular beliefs that is reflected in our secular culture is the ethic that says, the ends justifies the means. In other words, all’s well that ends well. This is propagated in virtually every movie that has been made, because it allows a seemingly happy ending. But in reality this is a tremendously dangerous ethical position. But how do we evaluate an ethical position. I propose that there are three aspects that need to be examined: the means, the methods and the motives. In other words the what, the how and they why of every decision. To show how this works, we will examine this from a particular instance in the life of Israel and King David.

We pick up the story after Saul has been killed and David has been crowned King of Judah. However, there has been unrest throughout the rest of Israel as Abner, the commander of Saul’s army was unwilling to give Israel over to David, so he claimed the throne for one of Saul’s sons, Ishbosheth, or Ishbaal as some translations have it. Then there ensued a war between David’s men and Saul’s household. Eventually the commander of Saul’s army was murdered, although David had nothing to do with it, and publicly mourned for this “prince and great man” as David referred to him. That is where we come in, in chapter four of Second Samuel.

4When Saul’s son Ishbaal heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. 2Saul’s son had two captains of raiding bands; the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab.

Before we go much further I’m going to let the cat out the bag and let you know what the “ends” in this story is. The “ends” for Baanah and Rechab is to ingratiate themselves with the King of Judah, David. That is what they are trying to do. They realized at this point that their king, Ishbaal was defeated, for his “courage had failed” so they were desiring to switch sides. As to what they were going to do, “the means”, they devised a plan. As it says in verse 5…
5Now, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ishbaal, while he was taking his noonday rest. 6They came inside the house as though to take wheat, and they struck him in the stomach; then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.

The means they used, was to assassinate David’s enemy. That was the “what” of there plan. Were there other means they could have taken? Sure, they could have simply deserted Ishbaal, after all, he had lost his fight, and he probably would not have come after them. Could they have arranged for a truce and a peaceful treaty agreement? It is possible as David and Ishbaal were both upset at Abner’s death, perhaps neither were particularly interested in more bloodshed. Obviously there were other means to their end, so why did they choose this one? Was this an acceptable means? The Bible is clear on that one. Murder has been condemned since the Ten commandments and was judged harshly since Cain killed Abel. Clearly their means were not ethical.

But how about their methods? Even if we judge their means to be unacceptable, what about their methods? What does “how” it is accomplished reveal about their ethics? The story continues in verse 7.
7Now they had come into the house while he was lying on his couch in his bedchamber; they attacked him, killed him, and beheaded him. Then they took his head and traveled by way of the Arabah all night long. 8They brought the head of Ishbaal to David at Hebron

Wow. Those are some methods. Anyone want to say those are ethical? Well, let’s look at David’s response, after all, they supposedly had done this for him, right?

9David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity, 10when the one who told me, ‘See, Saul is dead,’ thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag—this was the reward I gave him for his news. 11How much more then, when wicked men have killed a righteous man on his bed in his own house! And now shall I not require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?”
It is clear that David found this particularly offensive that they would walk into a man’s house in the middle of the day and kill him as he slept on his own bed. This was egregious! And they came to David, carrying this innocent man’s head, seeking approval? Seeking acceptance? Trying to ingratiate themselves with this kind of atrocity? What were they thinking?

David clearly calls them wicked men, for that is what they are to take the life of their own king, while he was defenseless and in his own bed, WITHOUT CAUSE! He was innocent and they killed him And they expected to be rewarded for this action! This is mind boggling! What were they thinking?! Obviously they didn’t value human life, like David, God’s anointed did. They didn’t value loyalty to their king. Is this the kind of men David wants on his side? They didn’t respect his title or his position, nor even the family, for he was actually in the same tribe as they were, the Benjaminites. What did they value? What was it that drove them to this end?

That is a very important question and a very important point, the “why” factor. One of the main criteria in evaluating ethical decisions is motive. Why are you doing this? You see in this case it is easy to see that what they were doing was wrong because of the means and the methods, but what if the means and the methods were okay? Would the end be okay too? Perhaps, if their motive was okay.
So what was the motive for Rechab and Baanah? Was it to see the kingdom reunited? Was it to stop the violence (that would be an ironic way to do it)? Was it to glorify God? No, no, no. It was all about them. It was so that they could be rewarded. They were looking out only for themselves. It was a selfish motive and selfish motives always lose. Maybe they weren’t out for money, maybe they were out for power, or maybe they feared for their lives. Either way, their motive was all about themselves and they didn’t care about anyone else, nor anyone elses life.

So how does that fit with a Christian ethic? How does that fit with a Christian worldview? Obviously we reject the whole course of action and are repulsed just as David was. But why? Because as Christians, we take our ethics from the example of Jesus who showed us exactly what it means to be selfless. He showed us that we are to live lives of selflessness, not selfishness. He showed us that we are to be concerned about our neighbors and their welfare; that we are to be concerned about how we live, and what we do and why we do it. We are to consider others and not ourselves. This is the ethic of Christ, and the ethics of Christians.

Yet sometimes we think that just doing the right thing is enough. Sometimes we struggle with the motive thing. This reminds me of a story I heard about a man who had died and was trying to get into heaven. He walks up to the pearly gates to see Saint Peter and says, “I’m ready for heaven, sir.”
St Peter responds, “What makes you think so?”
“Well, sir, “the man begins, “I gave to the poor, I went to church, I never cheated on my wife, I didn’t drink and I prayed twice a day.”
St Peter replies, “You mean you got tax deductions, you wanted to impress people, you afraid of your wife catching you, you were allergic to alcohol and you said grace before meals, right?”
The man bowed his head ashamedly and said, “I was hoping you wouldn’t know the difference.”

You see God is definitely concerned with what we do, but he is also deeply concerned with why we do it! So if we want to be pleasing to God, which should be our main motivation for everything we do, let’s learn the ethics lesson from David and make sure our means and our methods and our motives all bring glory to Him!

On Not Becoming the Enemy

I like watching movies, especially certain action adventure movies. One of my favorites is Star Wars. There was this great scene in Episode two “The Attack of the Clones” where Yoda was fighting this horrid bad guy named Count Dooku. If you have never seen it, it was quite impressive to see that little green fellow get around like he did. Anyway, during the scene, Count Dooku was clearly outmatched by Yoda and he knew it. So instead of giving his best shot at Yoda, he caused a large piece of metal to fall on another Jedi who had already been wounded. This may seem like a strange move, but Dooku knew that Yoda, being a good guy would sooner protect someone else from getting hurt, than take the opportunity to finish off Dooku. Of course, Yoda did the right thing, prevented further injury to the wounded Jedi allowing Count Dooku to get away. Meanwhile I’m shouting, “That’s not fair!” It’s not fair that the bad guys know the good guys will put themselves in danger to protect somebody else. The good guys take the high road, that’s what makes them good guys. But the bad guys are always out for themselves, for their own agendas. And they don’t care who they have to hurt to accomplish it.

The real danger in this however, is that sometimes we think the bad guy has an upper hand so maybe we should use his tactics to level out the playing field. It kind of goes back to the most popular misquotation of the golden rule, “do unto others as they do unto you.” “After all,” we think, “that is only fair.” If they hurt me, I’ll hurt them right back. If they slander my name, I’ll slander theirs. If they offend me, I’ll offend them. However it usually goes a step further. It is usually not an eye for an eye, but much worse. Instead of taking a tooth for a tooth, we would rather take a full set of choppers to replace the one we lost. We like to up the ante. However, utilizing the same tactics or worse than the bad guys does not make our actions justified, it only makes us bad guys too. And in most cases, we are worse because we have turned our back on doing things the right way.
The Bible does have something to say about this. Of course Jesus makes these points crystal clear in the Sermon on the Mount. But I think it is important for us to realize that what Jesus says is not just pie in the sky, but is practical and possible advice. So we will look at an actual example of someone who showed it is possible to put these words into actions, David.

Now, Saul had been chasing David for some time, and David had taken drastic measures to avoid him. He even hid out for a while in the Philistine city of Gath, the town that Goliath was from. He went from place to place to avoid Saul, yet when he heard of trouble in Israel, he came running to help. And just like a Star Wars episode, Saul tried to take advantage of it by trying to capture David in the city he was helping, yet David escaped. David was not afraid of battle, he was not afraid to fight, yet something was different with Saul. Of course Saul destroyed any and everyone that had been cordial with David, for he was ruthless. Yet I need to point out that for David, Saul was not an enemy against God’s people, but he was a personal enemy. He was not an outside force, for David would not have hesitated to destroy an outside enemy, but this was an enemy within the “house of God” if you will. And that is what sets this apart quite drastically.

We pick up the story in 1 Samuel 24 where Saul is tipped off as to David’s whereabouts and continues to chase him into the caves of Engedi. As Saul and his men search for David, Saul has to… how does the Bible say this… relieve himself. So he goes into the cave for some privacy. Yet unbeknownst to him, David and his men are hiding in this cave system and they see Saul in a compromised position. David’s men are convinced this is the opportunity they have been waiting for. Saul is alone with no support and no weapons. David could easily kill him and they encourage him to do so, thinking that this must be God’s will. Now I’ll admit that God’s will can be a hard thing to figure out and oftentimes we use circumstances to confirm God’s will. It would appear that circumstance had brought Saul right into David’s hand. Most of us would probably agree that God would want David to destroy this enemy that had been chasing him. Right? So what does David do?

He sneaks up on Saul, he has a sword or a knife at the ready, and he cuts off a piece of Saul’s garment. And if that wasn’t anticlimactic enough, he regretted doing that much! Look at what he says in verse six.

[6] He said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the Lord's anointed." [7] So David scolded his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave, and went on his way.

Did you hear what I heard? David had the chance to kill his enemy that had been tracking him down like a dog, and he let him go. He just let him go! Why? He said, “The Lord forbid” that I should come against Saul, “for he is the Lord’s anointed.” Now wait a minute David, you are the Lord’s anointed. You were there. Remember when Samuel came and anointed you at Bethlehem? Remember when you faced the giant Goliath? Remember how Jonathon conceded his throne to you? Remember? You are the Lord’s anointed.

But you see we stand in a different place than David in a couple of ways. First off, we know some things that David didn’t necessarily know. Saul was anointed King in front of the whole nation, yet there was no un-anointing. There was no de-throning of Saul. God, through Samuel had told Saul that he had withdrawn his spirit, but it was not a public event. In fact, Samuel allowed Saul to be at a public worship event with him, even after the withdrawal. So in the eyes of David, Saul was still God’s anointed.

Now you and I might say, how could David even think that after seeing and hearing about all the horrible things that Saul had done. That is a good question. But we need to be careful about posing such a question, because we may really be wondering if the fact of sin in someone’ s life disqualifies him/her from being God’s anointed? I sure hope not, for if it did, we would all be in jeopardy. For none of us can claim to be sinless. Even David himself would have lost his anointing a few years down the line if this were the case.

“But,” you might say, “look at the things Saul has done; he crossed the line!” Perhaps you are right; perhaps he did cross the line, for as we know, Saul was not following God at this point, Saul was following his own agenda. He was not looking out for the greater good, but for his own good. Yet the point is David realized he was not in a position to judge. He left that up to God. If you look back in the last several chapters we can see David continually inquiring of the Lord. David had a relationship with God and talked to God regularly, so when this opportunity happened David was in a place to know whether or not this was God’s way of giving Saul into his hands. Although David’s men thought so, David knew that God had not told him to do such a thing. He was not going to follow the will of mankind if God had not given him permission and God did no such thing.

You see it is easy for us to judge someone else’s sin. It is easy for us to say, they shouldn’t have done that, or you better stop because that is wrong. It is even easy for us to say, “Because you have done those things, you deserve this in return.” But our judgment can be wrong. Perhaps that’s why Jesus tells us to “judge not.” Usually those who are quick to spot a speck of sand in their neighbor’s eye can’t see the plank in their own eye. David was not going to be caught in this trap. So he spared Saul’s life.

After Saul had exited the cave, David came out, bowed before the king and pleaded his case before Saul. He said, "Why do you listen to the words of those who say, 'David seeks to do you harm'? [10] This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, 'I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord's anointed.' It was not because of David’s great love for Saul or because he didn’t care about the things Saul had done. It was not because he wasn’t concerned about his own life, but because his concern was for the Lord. Something within him, no matter what the circumstance, even at risk of his own life, would not let him harm someone who represented God. We could use more of this type of thinking in our society. The type of thinking that recognizes that those who are called by God and set apart by him are not to be attacked or slandered or maligned. David said “I will not raise my hand against …the Lord’s anointed!” I will not do it!

He goes on to show how he had the opportunity by holding up the piece of Saul’s garment and revealing that he had no malice or sin of any kind against this man who was trying to hunt him down. This is counter-cultural stuff. This is the kind of stuff that people don’t believe, that after all that Saul had done, David could walk away. But he declares to Saul the reason he is able to spare him, he trusted God to take care of it.

[12] May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. God will avenge me, but I will not be the instrument of your demise. He knew that God would take care of it. He was counting on God to take care of it. But the reason why David refused to be the instrument of Saul’s demise isn’t actually clear until the next verse.

[13] As the ancient proverb says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'; but my hand shall not be against you. He knew that if he struck out against Saul that would not make him righteous, but wicked. He would become the enemy, something he was unwilling to do. He would rather spend all of his days running, and depending on God than to become evil and wicked by taking matters into his own hands. He could not do as Saul did, for then he would be no better than Saul.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in this case is Saul’s response to David’s lack of action. He wept. He realized, at least for a moment how unfair and wicked he had been to David. He even says, "You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.” He recognizes that David is the good guy. David is the righteous one. Not because he took vengeance when he had the opportunity, but because he showed mercy when he had the opportunity. Remember Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful” but he never said, “Blessed are the vengeful.” Not only did Saul admit that David was the good guy, but he actually admitted that He should be king of Israel.

[20] Now I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. He realized that the task of establishing Israel as a kingdom was one that belonged to a good guy, and not to a selfish, fearful bad guy. Of course, as we will learn in a few weeks, David did succeed in becoming king and establishing Israel. He succeeded because he took the high road, and did not succumb to becoming the enemy. Instead he was content with being the good guy, no matter how difficult a road that would be.

If the story of Saul and David would have ended there it would have made the perfect background for the Star Wars story. For Saul, like Anakin Skywalker, was a good guy who decided to do things for his own selfish reasons. This is what made him the bad guy, like Darth Vader. And David, like Luke Skywalker, had the opportunity to do the same thing, to look out only for himself, yet he didn’t. And in the end, Darth Vader and Saul both realized the error of their ways. Becoming the enemy is an easy thing to do; it is almost the natural thing to do. But we, like David, have God with us to help us to do the unnatural thing, the Holy Spirit to help us to do the counter-cultural stuff, to take the high road and let God take care of the enemy within.

A Lesson in Hospitality

Have any of you watched the Amazing Race? I know it’s one of those so-called reality TV Shows, but this one is pretty neat. Teams of two have to travel around the world, utilizing various clues and dealing with cultural obstacles as they race to be the first to reach several checkpoints. Of course one of the most fascinating aspects of the show is the many different cultures that they highlight. Each culture is different, and the travelers have to be careful not to do something that might offend the people in that culture. Most of the time the teams are successful at not offending the natives, but usually the teams that are the most successful are those that engage the natives. The successful teams are those who take the little bit of time required to show forth kindness and concern for the natives. Usually they are successful, because the natives then show kindness in return and help the teams to finish the course quicker. In most cultures, kindness is considered a virtue and kindness to strangers is considered doubly so.

Being kind is a virtue in American culture to, but the kindness to strangers is becoming a lost dog. It was something that used to be here but has wandered away. And not without some good reason. We are beginning in many ways to become a culture of distrust, a culture of fear. We know that there are bad people all over the place who are ready to take advantage of us at the first opportunity. So we make sure there is no opportunity. But this culture of distrust has allowed us to lose one of our greatest evangelistic tools, hospitality. It has convinced us that the risk is too great and so we keep our doors shut to keep the devil out, meanwhile we keep the angels and the blessing out as well. However, this too is not something new. People who are filled with distrust are all over the world and were even in Biblical times. As we continue the story of David, we come to a story in chapter 25 of 1 Samuel that reveals the danger of being inhospitable. And it is not the danger it would first appear to be, as we will see.

So David and his men heard about a very rich man who is shearing his sheep nearby to where they were staying. The man’s name is Nabal, which just happens to means Fool in Hebrew, and he was a mean, surly man. His wife was named Abigail and she was smart and beautiful. Now the time of sheep shearing was usually a bit of a party and there was much food to be had, so David sent 10 of his men up to the party to give proper greetings from David who is camped nearby. The greeting was one of Peace and it mentioned the fact that David and his men have been protecting Nabal’s men and sheep for sometime. He then requests a portion of the feast that would seem appropriate for him and his men. Of course hospitality was a part of Jewish custom going back to the time of Abraham and people traditionally would share their feast with whoever asked.. Plus, God’s laws commanded kindness to strangers. Yet how did this fool respond?

Look at verse 10 But Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. [11] Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?"
What do we see in Nabal’s response? First we see distrust. He asks who is David, yet he knew he was the Son of Jesse. What he may have been asking is why should I trust David? He doesn’t work for me. I don’t really know him from Adam, and I am certainly not giving him any of my food.

So we also see rudeness as he basically call’s David a runaway slave, implying that David had simply deserted Saul. Which again underscores that he DID know who David was. After all, the song had been going around.

Thirdly we see selfishness. David and his men are in need as they are camping in the wilderness, trying to evade Saul, and although this man has great wealth, he chooses to keep it all to himself instead of help out a stranger who asks for a meal. This is not a good lesson on Hospitality. This is what not to do. Did he have the right to respond this way, sure. But was it the right thing to do? Probably not, as we shall see.

David responded in anger and told all of his men to get prepared for battle and he took four hundred with him as he began to approach Nabal. You see people don’t respond very well to rudeness. And in this case it was actually a little more then simple rudeness, for David and his men had already showed kindness to Nabal by watching over his hirelings and his flocks. Therefore, Nabal was ignoring the good deed that David had done, or worse, thanking him for the good deed by being mean to him. As David says, repaying Good with Evil.

But One of the young men told Abigail what had happened and How David was prepared to take matters into his own hands. Abigail knew she needed to do something to try to reconcile this situation so in verse 18 it says she hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys [19] and said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you."
Then she went and met up with David who was still fuming over the insults Now David had said, "Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; but he has returned me evil for good. When she heard of the plans to destroy Nabal she acted quickly and humbly.

[24] She fell at his feet and said, "Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. [25] My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow, Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. It is interesting that she asks that the guilt be placed on her even though she admits that she did not know anything about the visit. She also tries to excuse Nabal’s rudeness as simply being a character flaw. What is she trying to do? She is trying to be a Peacemaker. A Mediator, going between the two parties to try to prevent this from escalating. She is trying to reconcile the situation. Jesus Said Blessed are the Peacemakers, and here is an example of one. Listen to what else she says.

[26] Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, since the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from taking vengeance with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be like Nabal.
She gives God credit for keeping David from becoming the enemy, yet the truth be known, he had intended too. Yet it was God who kept him and God happened to use a clever and beautiful woman named Abigail, for her intercession is what saved Nabal that Day, and what Saved David from doing something he would have regretted by acting out of anger.

[27] And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
She then tries to reconcile by fulfilling David’s initial wish, by extending the hospitality that he expected in the first place. She gives him all the food that he probably expected the first time, perhaps more as an act of hospitality and as a way to restore trust. She completes the peacemaking process by asking forgiveness for the wrongdoing and calling forth a blessing upon David. Of course she reminds David that he will be blessed by God because he did not take vengeance, or shed innocent blood, again trying to ensure that Nabal would be spared.

David responded by recognizing that this woman with her act of hospitality and kindness was being used by God. He conceded that she was right to intercede and he was grateful that he had not done something he would only regret So he sent her off in Peace.

Abigail was able to secure peace by her hospitality and her willingness to trust David. Surely he could have killed her, it may have been his intention as he was riding toward Nabal’s place. But her boldness, her kindness, her humility, and her cleverness allowed her to bring Peace to what could have a terrible situation.
But the Story doesn’t end there. Although God spared David from doing such a horrendous deed through using Abigail’s hospitality, God was the one to give justice.
When Abigail got back after saving Nabal’s life, he was busy having a party and getting drunk. She didn’t even tell him until the next day how much danger he had been in because of his haughty, selfish, insolence. And when he heard of how his wife interceded and showed humility in his name, his his heart died within him; he became like a stone.

Clearly this was unacceptable behavior for him, and he couldn’t take the fact that his wife had done the right thing.
[38] About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
David never had to lift a finger, he never had to sin and become the enemy. He just let God take care of it.

[39] When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the Lord who has judged the case of Nabal's insult to me, and has kept back his servant from evil; the Lord has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head." God will take vengeance. There is no need in us stepping up to try to do his job! Meanwhile, David recognized good character and someone who listens to God, so he wooed Abigail and married her.

What does this teach us? Should we be quick to invite strangers in? Well this doesn’t really address that issue, and God gave us common sense for a reason. But the real issue here is how do we treat other people. Do we repay someone evil for doing good things for us? Do we hoard things we have when others are in need of them? Do we take vengeance when we get angry or do we let God take care of it? These are some of the questions that this story helps us address and it is clear that God’s ways are not the same as ours. But I think it is also clear that God’s ways are always better. We constantly need reminded that our actions have consequences, for good or for bad. So let’s do the right thing and treat other people as we would have them treat us. It’s a rule that proves itself to be golden.

The Danger of Being Blessed

There is a gospel that is being preached that sounds too good to be true. You might hear it on your radio, or see it on your TV, you will probably find it in your bookstore, but that doesn't make it true. It's a pretty popular gospel because it says things that most of us want to hear. I call it the "tickle the ears" Gospel. Some people call it the feel good gospel, or the prosperity Gospel and what it says is that, "If you just trust God, you will never have anymore troubles." Well, usually it says, "If you just trust God and send a tax deductible contribution, you will never have anymore trouble", but this Gospel is simply false. And I know that it’s false because the Bible clearly tells me it’s false.

Oh I would like it to be true. Wouldn't you like it to be true? Sure, who wouldn’t? For we realize that when we trust in Jesus we have to do a whole lot of life restructuring. We have to (with the help of the Holy Spirit) change so many of our selfish ways. We may have to stop watching the movies we've been watching, or reading the books we've been reading. We may have to stop hanging out with some of the people we've been hanging out with, or stop going to the places we've been going. And with all these changes there is an undeniable personal turmoil. So it would be great if we could say that once we have trusted in Jesus, all the problems disappear.

Sometimes, evangelists even use this gospel because they know that they will encounter people who are broken and in need of repair, people who need a respite. And although Jesus will provide respite and repair, it is not the same thing to say there will never be anymore trouble in your life. That is simply a false gospel. It is a lie. Not only does Scripture give example after example of Good Godly men and women facing trouble after trouble, Jesus himself declares that we would be hated, because he was hated. How much more proof do we need? Just in case we need another example, lets look at a story that proves this point. A story not just about someone who trusted in God, but someone who was set apart and anointed to be blessed by God. Someone who God used mightily and who was declared the man after God's own heart, David.

We pick up the story after David became famous. David, this little farm boy had killed Goliath the mighty warrior and Saul had been impressed. Jonathon, Saul's son and heir apparent had been so impressed that he gave David his armor, perhaps as a sign of his relinquishing his claim to the throne in favor of David. Of course, David had already been anointed as King by Samuel. He was God's chosen; he was Blessed by God, yet no-one outside Bethlehem was aware of this fact, and David surely wasn't going to tell Saul, the reigning monarch. So we pick up here in 1 Samuel 18:6.

As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they made merry,
"Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."

Of course then as now, when the king comes into town people flock to see him. They take the opportunity to say nice things about him. Especially in this case, since he was a war hero. They had the band playing; there was dancing; in every town people were singing this wonderful refrain to the King.
"Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."
How do you think that settled with the king? Do you think he was joining in the refrain?

[8] Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?" [9] So Saul eyed David from that day on.

Well, Saul wasn't too happy about it. Notice the reason. Did David do anything to Saul? No. Did he do anything for Saul? Yes. He helped Saul to win the battle. He took on the giant the Saul refused to take on. Was David leading the song? Did he write it? Was he glorying in this praise? Well we don't know, but it is doubtful, because David was not out for himself, he was out simply for the honor of God. Yet as God was with him and blessed him, people took notice. They started saying wonderful things about him, perhaps exaggerated, yet wonderful nonetheless. But it wasn't David that concerned Saul, it was the people's perception of David. David hadn't done anything wrong, perhaps that's what troubled Saul the most. Because David hadn't done anything wrong, and because it was clear that God was with him as he faced Goliath, and now the people were on his side too, Saul was crushed. He realized he was losing everything. The only thing he had left was his title of king, and he was sure the people would bestow that upon David soon enough! So Saul began despising this man who was Blessed of God.

[10] The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; [11] and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice.

This is the Danger of being blessed by God, the danger of being someone whom God uses. People who are not being used will get jealous. And they may attack. Now you might not get a spear thrown at you, twice, but people attack us in different ways. People may gossip about you. They may say hurtful things. They may shun you. They may even hate you because you are blessed and they may want to attack you, like some rogues did to the United States because they recognize that we are a nation blessed by God. Oh they may not say that, but why is it that they hate us? Because we have such an abundance. And where does that abundance come from? It has to come from God. There is danger in being blessed by God. There was for David.

Now I want you to notice that verse 10 says an evil spirit from God came upon Saul. This verse is difficult to swallow at face value, for how could God be the author of evil? The trouble in this verse stems from our translation of the word we render as “evil”. We have some immediate connotations of what this word means, but in the Hebrew it essentially means "something that has a not good effect." For example, a tornado, or a storm may be called evil, but there is nothing inherently immoral in a tornado or a storm, yet they have effects that are not good. In this way, the Spirit that God sent to Saul had effects that were not good as is evidenced by his reaction to it. It is unclear to me whether the reason this Spirit from God elicited this reaction from Saul was because of the nature of the spirit or because of Saul's relationship with God, because this reaction never happened until Saul's relationship with God was damaged. It never happened until Saul was disobedient and lost his anointing. Nonetheless, when God sent this spirit to Saul, Saul responded by going into a rage and trying to kill the very boy who was trying to calm him by playing his lyre. But why did Saul take his rage out on this boy?

[12] Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.

Saul recognized that David was more powerful than him because the Lord was with David. And worse for Saul, he knew the Lord wasn't with him. But why be afraid of David? One reason he may have been afraid of David is because he was afraid of God. Perhaps he knew he wasn't on God's side anymore. Perhaps what makes it dangerous to be God's blessed is because others want that blessing but they aren't willing to go by God's term to get it. Remember Saul had God's blessing but he decided to do things his own way and lost it, but David was doing things God's way and being blessed.

Notice also that David is never mentioned as being afraid of Saul. Here Saul throws a spear at the boy twice, he raves like a lunatic and David remains unfazed. David wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Remember, he faced that giant. Why wasn’t he afraid? Because he had the spirit of God. God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love and a sound mind. David wasn’t afraid of this spear throwing madman, because he knew he had God and there was nothing to fear.
Although there may be danger in being God's Blessed and there is no promise of "no more sorrows", there are rewards.

[14] David had success in all his undertakings; for the Lord was with him.
To be Blessed is worth the danger, it is worth the risk. Being God's own may mean that people or even circumstance gives you a hard time, yet God will give you success. This is not a prosperity gospel that says you will be rich, but it says you will be successful. And how is it that David was successful? What was the measure of his success? The Lord was with Him. That is what being successful is, having the Lord with you. It is not being delivered from hard times, but it is having God with you in the hard times. It is not being delivered from the danger, it is having God with you through the danger. You can all be successful today and this week, by having the Lord with you. Are you ready?

What are you Looking at? Part 2

I would like to ask you to give me some creative license, because the story we will be discussing is a very familiar one. Yet it is pivotal story in the history of the nation of Israel and a powerful testimony to what God can do. Again we will see that what appears before our eyes is not the most important thing to consider, for there is so much more to life than what we think we see.

We will pick up this story knowing that Saul has been anointed King over Israel and has been battling against the Philistines for some time now. We also know that Saul had been disobedient to God, and so God has rejected him as king and anointed another, a redneck farm boy from the town of Bethlehem named David. However, Saul still held the position even if he no longer had the anointing. So he was still the king, and David was still the boy, the runt of a litter of eight. Now it is unclear if Saul was aware that David had been anointed king, and it seems rather unlikely for Saul had actually invited David into his home because he found David’s musical skill quite relaxing. Nonetheless, at this point in the story, the Philistines are blocking a major route in the valley just west of the Judean foothills and are prepared to do battle with Saul and his army.

Now one of the practices of warfare during this time was a test of divine power. Of course these tests were usually associated with how the deities had blessed the armies with superior strength and so each army would send out their best man as a representative of the strength of their God. The Philistines had a monster of a man. We might consider him a giant. Some people even claim that the Bible has exaggerated this account, but there has actually been archaeological evidence that there was a tribe of people that fit this description. Of course we know the description of Goliath. He was over nine and a half feet tall! Considering the fact that the average Israelite is about 5’4”, Goliath was almost twice the height of his average competitor and who knows how many pounds heavier. Goliath’s armor itself weighed 125 pounds which may have been more than most of the Israelite army weighed! Of course he was extremely well armed with powerful weapons and had a man walking in front of him to carry his shield.

So he calls out to the Israelite army to challenge them, and particularly to challenge their King. It was assumed that the King had some divine connection in the Old Testament world, and Saul had been God’s anointed, so he challenged them. He said, and I am paraphrasing, “Do you want a piece of me? Why have you come out here to fight? I am a Philistine and I have the gods of the Philistine supporting me, who do you have? Saul? Yeah right. If you think you can handle me, then give me your best shot. Send your best guy over here to take me down. If he can do it, great, you win and we will be your slaves. But that ain’t gonna happen. If you try, and I beat him, you lose and you will be our slaves. Come on I dare you. Give your best shot you bunch of lilly-livered chickens.” It was something like that anyway.

Of course when Saul and the army heard this, they were lilly livered chickens. They were shaking and quaking. Nobody was ready to volunteer for this assignment. They knew what they saw, a man that was much greater than themselves. They took one look and knew they were defeated. What were they looking at?

Of course, Saul was the king, and partly the way he became king was because he literally head and shoulders above everyone else. He was probably the biggest guy in the army, and he was probably the one everyone expected would take the challenge. After all, he was the one with the most to lose, it was his kingdom. Yet he remained silent. For forty days Goliath made this challenge and no one from the Israelite camp was prepared to stand up and fight.

Then came David. Of course he only came as a courier, bringing food from the village, about a days travel away because three of his oldest brothers were in the army. When he got to the frontlines, all the warriors were lined up for battle so David went up to see his brothers, and as he was talking with them, out came Goliath to issue his challenge. David was enraged that some “uncircumcised Philistine” would spew such vitriol towards the armies of the Living God. He was furious. Word got to Saul that someone was actually not terrified but enraged by this giant so Saul wanted to talk to him. The conversation probably went something like this.
“Listen King, we can’t let that heathen Philistine talk like this about us and our God. You don’t need to let him bother you or anyone else anymore, for I will take care of him.”

“Boy… You must be crazy! Did you even see the guy? You are just a runt, but this guy is a giant! He’s probably more than twice your size. He eats meals bigger than you! He is a first class warrior and you are just a redneck farm boy who can play a guitar! You better get back to your fields”

“I may be a farm boy, but that just means I can handle myself. I’ve killed lions and bears with my bare hands. When they have come to take one of my flock, I have chased them down and killed them, while rescuing my sheep. And that is what I will do to this overgrown bully. He is nothing more than a big ugly bear that has dared to talk bad about the living God. If God could save me from those wild animals with treacherous claws and lightning reflexes, he can certainly deliver me from this giant oaf.”

“Well, alright then, if you’re sure. May The Lord Be with You”

Notice, when David first came to Saul, what was Saul looking at? He just saw that redneck farm boy. He didn’t see the man of passion for God, the man after God’s own heart who was willing to stand up to whoever, and whatever whenever he needed to defend the honor of God.

Yet when David looked at Goliath, what was he looking at? Didn’t he see this giant of a man? Didn’t he see this behemoth who had every one afraid? No, he saw someone who lacked the power of God and therefore had nothing more than big bones and a big mouth.

There is something else I want us to see here though. It’s what I call faith conditioning. When David was preparing to go up against Goliath, it wasn’t when he was on the battlefields. It wasn’t when he got to the frontlines that he began his training for this fight. His training was in his everyday life. His training was on the hills of Judea with his sheep and with His God. His training was when he was faced with obstacles in his everyday journey, obstacles such as lions and bears, and who knows what else. Obstacles that gave him an opportunity to learn to trust in God. Notice when he reports to Saul, he declares that God was the one who had saved him and protected him from the lion and the bear, so he knew God would protect him now. Was this foolish faith? No this was conditioned faith.

God had shown him through many other circumstances, “just trust in me David, and I will deliver you.” You see David knew that even though he had accomplished those tasks, he hadn’t done it himself. It wasn’t because he was so strong, or so fast, or so agile, but that God had been with him. He knew that without God, it may be near impossible, but that with God, nothing was impossible. His faith had been conditioned for such a time as this.

What does that mean to us? How is your faith walk going? Are you struggling a bit? Sometimes I do. But although we may only notice the struggle when we are face to face with a giant, the real struggle starts when we are face to face with our everyday lives. We lose the battle because we have not been in training. We need to be conditioning our faith each day so that when the times of trial come we will be prepared to say, “whatever gets thrown my way, God and I can handle.” We will be able to say this because we will have experience with God having handled so many other things. We will be able to say, “There is nothing to this other than a higher degree of difficulty, but God has proven himself so that nothing is too difficult for him. Therefore, with God in me, nothing is too difficult for me!” That is what faith conditioning is all about as David shows us.

He also shows us that we do not need to try to be somebody else. It doesn’t work. You see Saul tried to give David his armor and weapons to help him to fight this battle. After all, Saul wasn’t using them, the chicken. Anyway, David tried them on, but he could hardly move. He wasn’t Saul, he was David. He didn’t have the experiences Saul had, he had the experiences that David had. And that is what equipped him for the battle, not trying to fill someone elses shoes. So he took his weapon of choice, the sling shot with five baseball sized stones and went to face Goliath.

Now I was going to paraphrase this part as well, but instead, let’s just listen to what the Bible records. [41] The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. [42] When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. [43] The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. [44] The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field."

AS I speculate at what was running through Goliath’s mind I think, he wasn’t even sure if he should take this serious! How could this be a challenge. This little boy armed with just a slingshot comes at me with my spear and sword, my armor, my shield and my might. This isn’t even fair. What are they thinking. If they wanted to give up, why drag this boy into it! I’ve eaten bigger meals than this kid.

[45] But David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. [46] This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, [47] and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand."

David’s reply to Goliath’s rant was like, “Yeah right! You may have all those fancy weapons, but they mean nothing, because you lack the power of God! You have been mocking him, but today you will know that he is real! And those birds you want to feed will be feasting on your body and the bodies of your friends because God is going to prove himself today. And he doesn’t need your fancy weapons! All he needs is a redneck who is willing to listen!”

[48] When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. [49] David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

David didn’t hesitate, he didn’t cower, he didn’t retreat, he simply ran up to face this beliggerant God –mocker and fired his guided missile with full assurance. He hit what may have been the only vulnerable spot on Goliath, getting the shot past the sheild bearer and the armor to land right on his forehead. God didn’t need an army, he needed one boy who was willing to stand up for him.

Is that you? Does God still have giants who are mocking him and claiming he doesn’t exist? Are there still people who try to defame him and try to discard his relevance? Then God needs someone willing to stand up for him. He is not looking for an army that will dress for battle, but for a soldier who is willing to fight. There is a big difference. He is looking for someone who knows that he is real and is not afraid of the enemy. Someone who realizes that the battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities of darkness in this world. And there are battles waging. And God will be victorious. You see I know how the story ends, but he is looking for people who are willing to stand up and be used by God to face the enemy without fear and trepidation. Someone who is willing to not see as the world sees, with these earthly eyes, but to see as God sees. To see that the Battle is the Lord’s.

If that is you, then the time is now. Join the battle and step up to serve God today.

What Are You Looking At?

We have all the heard the saying, Never judge a book by its cover, right? Yet have you considered how much money goes into creating the covers of every book at Barnes and Noble. Or even on the magazines at the checkout lines. Not to mention the CD’s or DVD’s. Industries revolve around the fact that we will do just that, judge whether or not we want to buy something, just by its cover. We make value judgments all the time, determining with our eyes whether or not something is good.
Yet we also do it people. Although it is certainly not politically correct, we do it. We have been programmed by our experiences with people to judge other people based on how they match up. We have stereotypes in our head already. They may be based on profession, on race, on social class, on hobbies, on fashion or any number of other classifications, but the point is we all have them. And when we look at somebody, whether we want to or not we immediately judge them. We may find out later that we were wrong, or we may find out later that we were absolutely right, but the point is we judge them based on what we see.
For example, the other day my van broke down and so I called AAA for a tow to the repair shop. When I was talking with the people at AAA I got the impression this was a top notched organization. I imagined them all dressed in nice clothes, perhaps even matching uniforms. The men may have even worn a tie. However, once the tow truck arrived, I thought to myself, I wonder if this is the corporate image that AAA means to convey. The driver was a big man, he must have been 6’4” and he dwarfed me by more than his height. He had tattoos in many colors down both arms and along his neck. He looked like a very formidable man. Now I admit that before I had ever said one word to him or engaged him in any way, I had already formed an opinion. Shame on me. I thought him to be such a hard man, yet he surprised me, for as we were driving to the destination, he began flipping through the stations. I expected some death metal or hard rock when he settled on a country song and began singing in falsetto, “I’m a redneck woman.” Obviously I misjudged him.
The point is it’s easy to judge someone by their appearance, but it’s also wrong to do so. The Bible makes it clear that God does not judge people the same way. As a matter of fact, when some people see a redneck farm boy, God may see a future king. Let’s look at the story from 1 Samuel 16
[16:1] The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."

Now before we get too far, I need to catch you up on the story. Saul had been selected to be the first king of Israel. Of Course God had been their king and wanted to remain their king, but the people cried out saying they wanted to have a king, because all of the other nations had a king. God tried to tell them, through Samuel that they didn’t need a king, but they refused to hear it. So God appointed the prototypical king, Saul. It says of Saul, that there was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he, and that he stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Clearly this man looked like a king. But it didn’t take long for Saul to get full of himself and think that he could do whatever he wanted. And the things that he did that made God upset, weren’t even bad things per se, they simply weren’t the things that God had told him to do. So God rejected Saul as King and declared that he would anoint another. That is where we come into the story.
[2] Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' [3] Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." [4] Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?"
No remember, Samuel was the prophet of God, the spokesperson for God. He wasn’t always as welcome as you might think. When he comes into Bethlehem, the men of the town are a little nervous. Who knows if God is going to cast down judgment on them, or tell them they must repent or some other news that would upset their normal lives. Although we no longer view pastors or priests in those ways, sometimes when people aren’t accustomed to seeing one, the welcome is the same. They immediately try to straighten up, or they fear that some bad news will be given or that they will be told to repent or perish. They have formed an opinion merely at the sight of the pastor, just as the elders began to form an opinion simply at the sight of Samuel. He allayed their fears however.
[5] He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
He told them he came in peace, yet he did not tell them his purpose, other than to have a sacrifice. Now at this time there was no temple, so sacrifices were performed at local sites, however, there were still rules governing who could be present and ritual cleansings and sanctification that had to occur. For this reason, Jesse had to be invited and sanctified by Samuel, as well as his sons. This may have seemed strange to the elders who were there, but they were not going to interfere with Samuel.
[6] When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord."
Now it is Samuel’s turn to form an opinion, for as Eliab passes by, Samuel thinks to himself, My My my, this looks like the next king. He was probably the oldest son, he was clearly tall and rather handsome, judging from what is said in the next verse, plus his name was God is Father. This seemed like a perfect match. This was the one God sent Samuel to Bethlehem for, or so he thought.
[7] But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
There it is, the crux of the matter, God tells Samuel, You do not see what I see. You cannot know what I know. If all you are doing is looking on the outside, you are missing most of the person. God does not see as we see, because we look from the outside in, but he sees from the inside out. He sees what will become, more than what has become. He is not judging books by their cover, he is writing the pages on the inside. It’s as though he says to Samuel, “What are you looking at?” So Samuel just waited for God to tell him, “This is the one.”
[10] Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these."
No Samuel may have been getting a bit nervous for he knew that God had told him he was to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king, yet none of these had been chosen. But he knew God was faithful and true and he knew that God had not made a mistake, so he asked Jesse a simple, but pertinent question.
[11] Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep."
Now remember, Jesse did not know what this was all about. It is doubtful that he was withholding David from Samuel; he probably didn’t realize that David was invited for he was only a youth and he was out working in the fields. And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." [12] He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one."
This was the one, this ruddy, yet handsome boy, who was working in the fields, is the one who God had called. Now ruddy is often translated as red, and it is unclear in the text if this means he had red hair or red skin tone or was sunburned. I’d like to think that maybe it means he was a redneck farm boy who God called to be king. Whether or not that is true, it is true that God saw beyond what others saw. He looks further than we do. He is not content with looking at our painted faces, and divergent fashions. He isn’t concerned about that. He is concerned about what is in your heart. Because this is where the measure of the person is. And just as God declared it, we cannot see inside another person’s heart, unless they show us. Only God can. But what that means is that we cannot pretend to know what is inside another person’s heart unless we are God.
So let’s stop looking at a person and trying to define them. We cannot, nor do we need to. While the outside may be a clue as to what lies underneath, there is so much more than meets the eye, in each one of us.
However, there is another side to this story that we need to really grab a hold of. God sees our heart. Now for some of us, that may be scary, to think that God sees all the blackness that we hide away in there, well, he wants to help us clean it up. But for others this is encouragement, because God does not judge you like the rest of the world. God does not see those things that the world tries to demean you with as having any value. What the world things about you is really of no consequence to God, because He sees the real you. The you that the world would be blessed to see, if they had the chance. So hold on to Jesus, because if God sees this in you, he may decide to show the whole world as he did with David, the man who is still considered the greatest King Israel has ever had, and the man after God’s own heart.

God In Us, Our Intercessor and Advocate

Today we celebrate what is arguably the most important Holiday in the Christian year. Of course there could be no Christian year without the birth of Christ, so Christmas always ranks up there as an important Holiday. And without his death for our sins, he would simply have been another religious leader so we have to give credence to Good Friday. And I simply have yet to find another day as remarkable as Resurrection Sunday, when this dead man Jesus raised himself up from the grave after conquering our sin and our death. That is incomparable. Yet today is marks another remarkable event that in some churches hardly even gets mentioned. Yet without this event, I doubt there would be a single Christian church in the world today, or for that matter a single Christian. For although God had created us to be his children, and Christ died for us to be reconciled, it wasn’t until Pentecost that the individual miracle of personal salvation became apparent when the Holy Spirit came to live in us! God with us- Emmanuel, became God in Us, the Holy Spirit.

Of course this event had been foretold for centuries, as Peter reminds the Jews by quoting from Joel. And Jesus himself had foretold it just weeks and days before. Yet now it was happening. As we read the Scripture from Acts 2 every year on this occasion (or at least we should) it always catches our attention at what great thing was happening there. I’m afraid, however, that we often think of this as simply another one time event, like Good Friday and Easter, that happened that one time but has effects that continue. Well that is true, but it is not true. It is an event that happened and has effects that continue, but this was not a one time only event. The coming of the Holy Spirit was not something that was to happen just to the disciples and those gathered in the upper room, but it was to happen to all those who believed. Peter actually closes out his message in chapter 2 saying this very thing.

Look with me if you will to Acts chapter 2 verses 37-39. See what Peter says to those who realize that they need to do something about their relationship with God and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him."

You see here, Peter declares that the Holy Spirit is for all who repent and are baptized in Christ. But it is not simply for those of that day, for he continues by saying this is a promise for you, and for your children, and all who will believe on the Lord Jesus and answer the call of God. I hope that we all know this and realize that this was not simply an event in Jerusalem among some witnesses of the resurrection. The book of Acts actually goes further to prove that point by showing the Holy Spirit coming again on new converts in Samaria in chapter 8 and on Gentiles in chapter 10. So clearly, having the Holy Spirit is a mark of a Christian. And each one of us who has believed in Jesus Christ and put our trust in him not only for our eternal destination, but for our everyday lives has the Holy Spirit living within us.

But what does that mean? What does it mean to have the God of the Universe living within you? I tried to explain this to my seven year old, Samuel and at first he said “No wonder you’re so big.” But then he thought, “shouldn’t I be bigger?” It really is a fascinating concept and one that is difficult to grasp. What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit in us. So often we focus on Jesus and what he has accomplished, or we focus on the wonderful works of the Creator, but what does the Holy Spirit do in all this? This is what we are to determine this morning as we look at the words of Jesus from John 15 and 16 and also from Paul’s writings in Romans 8. Let’s begin by looking at the words of Jesus himself.

John 15:26-27 "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

I would like us to notice the word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit. He calls him the Advocate. It is the same sense of a legal advocate, or someone who represents the interest of someone else. The Holy Spirit is the representative of Christ, of God, when Christ has gone to be with the father. God is in the world as the Holy Spirit. And as the representative of Christ, this “Spirit of truth” as he also calls him will testify or witness for Christ. But notice where this spirit that is sent from God comes. Does it come to the world as a whole? Does it come to the earth at large? No, it comes to the believers, as Jesus was talking to believers. And part of what the Holy Spirit will do is to help us witness and testify to Christ. Remember the Holy Spirit is a gift to those who believe and as such have already experienced and know something of Christ. Therefore the Holy Spirit will help us to testify to Christ, just as he does for the disciples in Acts chapter 2.

We know that the disciples had seen Jesus’ resurrection for seven weeks and they had yet to tell anyone who was not in the inner circle. Yet when the Holy Spirit came, they began to witness to the world what had happened, just as Christ said they would. They no longer were worried about what would happen to them, they simply knew they had to tell the world about God and the opportunity to know and experience him. You may wonder, where do people get the nerve to witness? How can they be so unashamed and brazen? The answer is, they are probably not, but the Holy Spirit within them is! He is the key to our evangelism and our witnessing strategy. But he is so much more. Look at what else Jesus says.

John 16:8-15 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: [9] about sin, because they do not believe in me; [10] about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; [11] about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin. In other words, as the NIV and the King James say, He will convict the world of sin. When people feel under conviction because of something you say, it is the Holy Spirit at work, for they should not, in a sense they can not feel comfortable in their sin when they are in the presence of God, and the Holy Spirit is God. However, this is not just for those we speak to and witness to, this is for us as well. We can not stay in our sin while in the presence of God and not feel under conviction. We cannot feel fine with our sin if we have the Holy Spirit living in us, for He will convict us of our sin. So the Holy Spirit is not only the Advocate, or the representative of Christ on the earth, he convicts the world of sin. And although there are many other things he does, time will only permit me to address one more. So let us turn our attention now to Romans 8.

As we have seen what the Spirit’s role is in our witnessing, and in cleansing the world from sin, he has another very personal role. This is the role that most of us cherish about the Holy Spirit. We see it mentioned in Romans 8:26-27.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
How many of you know how to pray as you ought? This is a tremendous comfort for me for so often I have no idea how to pray about the things that are on my mind. Especially when I am, as Paul says in my weakness. I know that as the Pastor I am always supposed to know the things to say, the right words to pray, but often, perhaps too often, I am at a loss. I don’t know the words to pray for a couple who has just lost their child, or for a woman who is struggling with an abusive situation. I don’t know the words to pray for the family of a man who has died and they know he is not going to heaven. I don’t know what to pray! But the Holy Spirit meets me in my time of weakness. He is there when I am struggling with my own situations, not sure of which way to pray. And he prays for me. That is what it means when it says he intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

I’ll admit, I am glad there are no words during these times because I probably couldn’t say them through the sobbing and tears. Groans are enough, for God knows my heart because God is in my heart. He has my heart, he reads my heart and he transforms my heart. Listen to how this works in verse 27.
And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

God searches the heart, he knows what the problem or issue is, and the Spirit intercedes according to the will of God. He allows my prayer to be what is God’s will. He transforms my heart to his will by his intercession of my behalf. Have you ever wanted to pray the will of God? Then let the Holy Spirit do the praying, for God will always pray his will. We do not have to worry about Unanswered Prayers or misdirected prayers, for our prayers will be according to God’s will which will come to pass. This is great comfort to me; that the Spirit will not let me fail in my weakness, but will intercede, will speak on my behalf and direct it such that I will pray the right thing! That is so awesome! The Holy Spirit is not just the Advocate for Christ, but he is also our advocate with the Father, our intercessor.

Of course there is a lot more to learn about the Holy Spirit, for He is fully God and we can never fully cover God in one session, yet there are some very important truths about our relationship with God that depend on the Holy Spirit. First off, having a relationship with God means having the Holy Spirit. It is a gift of God for all who believe.

Secondly, The Holy Spirit will testify to the truth about Jesus Christ and will empower and embolden you to do the same. He is the authority and the force behind all witnessing, for he is the ultimate witness.

Thirdly, He has not come so that we can ignore sin and just go to heaven anyway. He has come to convict the world of sin. The Holy Spirit does not intend to allow you to feel comfortable in your sin, so if you feel guilt or shame, that is the Holy Spirit at work in you to purify you. Count that as joy, repent and be forgiven!

And lastly, when you don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit is there to carry you. Just like in that famous poem footprints, he will carry you through those difficult and weak times in your life, and he will do so in a way that will make you victorious through the will of God. Happy Pentecost! May the Spirit of God fill you afresh and daily Bless you!