I used to be an avid archer. During my high school years I participated in an archery program and was involved in a number of competitive matches with a recurve bow. As I competed in these matches, my goal was to get first place. Most of the time my goal wasn’t close to achievable, but there was one time. I was at the peak of my archery skills and I knew that I was having a good day. As the match neared to a close I was on track for my best score yet. I finished with my highest score—270 out of 300. But as the awards were handed out I came to the realization that I wasn’t going to get first place. In fact, I came in second. I lost to another archer who was a natural with the bow and eventually participated on the USA Olympic archery team. I learned that day that first place was not for me; I wasn’t good enough for first, first was reserved for the elite archers who could out do me.
Only those who deserved first place received first it. The Christian life is similar. Just as those who are the best at an athletic event deserve first place, Jesus deserves first place in our own lives. Followers of Jesus ought to give Him first place in their lives. God desires that we give His Son, Jesus Christ priority in lives. In a world that is consumed with lust, money, fame, and pleasure, God desires that we fill our lives with Christ. Our text this morning is Colossians 1:15-20. Colossians 1 displays to us the greatness of Christ.
This passage has been called the “Colossian hymn” because in the original language of the New Testament it appears that these verses were written in hymnic format. In fact, if you have a newer translation of Scripture, it sets this section off from the other paragraphs, signifying the poetic nature of the text. This comes even more into play if you know Greek, as there are two specific stanzas to this hymn set apart by two “he is” phrases, one in verse 15 and the other in verse 18. This hymn sings praises to Jesus Christ, presenting Him as true Deity and exalting Him for His matchless worth. In hymnic format we see a portrayal of the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But it’s not only that. As we read through this hymn we get insight into the worship of the early church. We get a vision into how the early church expressed worship to God.
A correct understanding of Christ’s matchless worth should compel us to give Him first place in our lives. We ought to give Christ first place in our lives. Let’s read this passage . . .
Big Idea: God wants us to embrace the fullness of Jesus Christ
Genesis 25 records for us the story of Jacob and Esau. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the plot. Esau was the firstborn and thus in line for the birthright from His father Isaac. His younger brother Jacob plotted to steal the birthright and their Father’s blessing, and tricked Isaac into bestowing it on Himself rather than his brother Esau. After this, Jacob fled for his life and from his brother, spending several years away from his brother Esau, whom he had wronged greatly. As he left, Esau swore to kill Jacob upon their father’s death. After a period of at least 14 years, Jacob decided to return to his family once more. Boys and girls, you can draw Jacob coming back to meet Esau. As he neared, he received word that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 soldiers—imagine what was going through his head! As Jacob finally reached the place where Esau waited, an unexpected event took place. Rather than beginning a deadly battle, Esau raced to Jacob and embraced him, welcoming him home. The two had parted as heartless enemies. Now they embraced as loving brothers. What we have here is an example of reconciliation. Two people who were once enemies are now friends.
Today we’re going to focus on reconciliation. I just have one goal for you today—I want you to be so impressed with Jesus and the work that He’s done for you, that you learn to love Him even more than you do already. Often times when men preach we focus on a desired action. We must . . . we should . . . we can . . . Today I’m not going to focus on an action, as much as I am on a feeling, or a way of thinking. I want you to love Jesus. I want you to be completely inspired by and satisfied with the work of our savior Jesus Christ that you walk away thinking of Him differently than you did when you walked in this morning. I want you to understand the work of Christ in reconciliation and praise Him for it. So let’s read our passage today—it’s just 3 simple verses, Colossians 1:21-23 . . .
Big Idea: through Jesus, God has made you his friend!
The story is told of a little boy who built a sailboat. He built the sail and had it all fixed up, tarred and painted. He took it to the lake and pushed it in hoping it would sail. Sure enough a wisp of breeze filled the little sail and it billowed and went rippling along the waves. Suddenly before the little boy knew it, the boat was out of his reach, even though he waded in fast and tried to grab it. As he watched it float away, he hoped maybe the breeze would shift and it would sail back to him. Instead he watched it go farther and farther until it was gone. When he went home crying, his mother asked, "What's wrong, didn't it work?" He said, "It worked too well."
Sometime later, the little boy was downtown and walked past a second hand store. There in the window he saw the boat. It was unmistakably his, so he went in and said to the owner, "That's my boat." He walked to the window, picked it up and started to leave with it. The owner of the shop said, "Wait a minute, sonny. That's my boat. I bought it from someone." The boy said, "No, it's my boat. I made it. See." And he showed him the little scratches and the marks where he hammered and filed. The man said, "I'm sorry, boy. If you want it, you have to buy it."
The poor little guy didn't have any money, but he worked hard and saved his pennies. Finally, one day he had enough money. He went in and bought the little boat. As he left the store holding the boat close to him, he was heard saying, "You're my boat. You're twice my boat. First you're my boat because I made you, and second you're my boat because I bought you!"
Such a simple and relatable illustration, yet is represents a profound theological truth. Just like the little boy made his boat and bought his boat, so Jesus Christ made us, and bought us with his blood. This simple yet complex reality is wrapped up in what the Bible calls redemption. Redemption is what made it possible for dirty sinners to become part of the family of God. Paul makes this idea of redemption his focus in our text today, Colossians 1:18b-20. In this text, Paul considers the role that Jesus plays in providing and offering salvation to sinful humans, and he makes the case that Jesus is the only one who could truly provide salvation for mankind. That’s the main thrust of our text this morning—that salvation and all it entails is only possible through the work of Jesus, and the result therefore is that we need to live our lives in service to Jesus. That’s the main point we see as we come to our text this morning, and I hope that’s what you will take home with you today:
Big Idea: Jesus settled our redemption, and deserves our allegiance
Have you ever seen something so beautiful, so stunning, so breathtaking, that you just had to stop and take a look? Maybe the leaves turning in the Minnesota Fall. Perhaps you’ve traveled to the mountains out west and the closer you get, the more stunning the view becomes. Or you are up in a plane and fly over something fantastic and you just have to look down and enjoy. We’ve all had experiences similar to that.
My wife and I love going to South Dakota. We enjoy traveling to Custer State Park to drive the wildlife loop to see all the animals. We see mule deer, white tail deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, elk big, horn sheep, and even mountain goats. But there’s one animal that makes us stop above all the others—the buffalo. Many times we’ve come around a corner in a road only to find the herd of buffalo grazing right alongside the road. And so what do we do? We stop and park. We pull off to the side of the road and park a while so that we can gaze at these unique creatures. This summer we took our first trip to Rocky Mountain National park, and we drove to the top of the mountain onto Trail Ridge Road which winds around the peaks at 12k feet. And it was so beautiful, you just wanted to stop and gaze off getting lost in the beauty of it all.
In our passage today Paul, the writer of Colossians, encounters Jesus. He pulls off to the side of the road in a sense and puts it in park so that we can gaze at the glories of Jesus Christ. This passage has been called the “Colossian hymn” because in the original language of the New Testament it appears that verses 18-20 was written as a form of verse—this is a poem or a hymn with two stanzas. We’ll come back and deal with that in our final sermon of the series. But these verses sings praises to Jesus Christ, presenting Him as true Deity and exalting Him for His matchless worth.
This is a glorious passage. This passage deals with our values—what we treasure in life, and sets Christ up as far beyond anything people in the world may value. People value many different things in the world today. There are many things people treasure. Boys and girls, you can draw something that you treasure, or someone might treasure. Some people treasure money. Some treasure their possessions. Others their families, or jobs, or hobby. These things are good, but these are not the most important. Here in this passage, Paul shows us what is most important—who is most important.
God desires that we have His Son, Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. In a world that is consumed with lust, money, fame, and pleasure, God desires that our treasure be Jesus Christ. He wants us to be consumed with the incredible worth of His Son Jesus. This passage displays to us the greatness of Jesus Christ. A correct understanding of the matchless worth of Jesus should cause us to treasure Him and praise him above all else. Jesus should be our greatest treasure. That’s our big idea this morning.
Big Idea: Jesus is our greatest treasure
The story is told about a pilot who always looked down intently on a certain valley in the Appalachians when the plane passed overhead. One day his co-pilot asked, “What’s so interesting about that spot?” The pilot replied, “See that stream? Well, when I was a kid I used to sit down there on a log and fish. Every time an airplane flew over, I would look up and wish I were flying... Now I look down and wish I were fishing.”
This seems to be a common theme in our world today—people searching for meaning, contentment, and satisfaction. The average person in our world today might not admit that they’re searching for meaning, but in reality they are. I think that’s why we have a lot of the issues we have in our world today. The gender revolution with homosexuality and transgender—it’s people searching for meaning. They are trying new or different lifestyles to bring them meaning. Some people search for meaning in their relationships—that’s why we have so many problems with marriages and divorce in our world today—people look for meaning in one thing and when it loses meaning they look for another. Some people look for meaning in their job, and they put an exceptional amount of time into their job and excelling at their work—because they’re trying to find meaning and satisfaction in those things. For children it could be school work or pleasing your parents—we try to find all kinds of satisfaction in all sorts of things in this life.
What about for believers in Jesus? What ought we to find satisfaction in? What should bring us joy and fullness? Even as believers we are not immune to the draw and pull o the world that allures us into finding our meaning in other things. I like what C. S. Lewis wrote:
He who has God and many other things has no more than he who has God alone. [C.S. Lewis]
Isn’t that such a true statement? What really ought to drive us as believers? It should be God! It should be finding our satisfaction and fulfillment in Him and Him alone! That should be our drive and our mission!
And as we come to our text today in II Timothy 4. I think Paul shares with us his own example of where he placed his focus and how he found satisfaction. In his last letter, as he sees the end of his life drawing near, he passes on to Timothy his protege some vital pieces of information for how he ended well in his spiritual life. And as we unpack this text today, we can learn too from Paul’s example. And so we’re going to look at our text this morning, it’s II Timothy 4:6-8 and from this text I want you to remember one key truth—it’s our big idea for this morning.
Big Idea: Emptiness is the path to fullness
Surgeons have incredible skill. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it before, but it takes great skill to be a surgeon. You have to have a steady hand and be able to keep your cool under pressure. But sometimes surgery is necessary—maybe you’ve had one before. Sometimes the best option is to open up and look inside and get to work.
I brought with me something to illustrate this—the game “operation”. You may have played this game. It’s a game that reminds us of the importance of getting to work on our inside. The game is set up so that there’s foreign objects inside the body that shouldn’t be there, and you play the part of the surgeon, trying to skillfully get each piece out. But if you make a mistake and touch the edges of the incision with your tweezers, the game puts off a loud buzzing sound. It’s quite a riveting experience! But the game reminds us that sometimes we need to do surgery—we just need to open up and find out what is there.
This is very similar to our spiritual lives. Sometimes we need to open up what’s on the inside and do an operation on our spiritual lives—sometimes we need to get to work on our heart. Just like a doctor might perform heart surgery if there were a severe heart issues, sometimes we need to look inside at our spiritual hearts and get to work. Take care of business; deal with what is on our inside. Often times, if our hearts are not right, this becomes most evident when we are exposed to the heart of God. When we see God working and come to understand his heart and the things he cares about, oftentimes that reveals where our hearts might not be in line with the heart of God. That’s what we find this morning as we look at the life of Jonah.
Big Idea: Exposure to God’s heart often exposes our own
One of the most fascinating human organs is the brain. The brain weighs around 3 lbs, it’s just under 6 inches long, and it makes up 2% of a human’s body weight. The brain is really a tiny part of our anatomy when defined by size and weight, yet we tend to think our brains are larger than they really are. Ever meet someone who thought this—a know it all? Some people seem to think their brains are larger than they really are. They think they know everything. They are more than happy to expound on various tidbits of facts and knowledge that they’ve acquired. But they think they’re smarter than they actually are. They think they know more than they actually do. They might even think that they know better than you do. We refer to these people as having a big head. We say they’re egotistical or conceited, because it’s as if they think their brain is larger than life.
Though this is true in our physical lives, sometimes this phenomenon can happen spiritual as well. Just like a know it all thinks they know more than you, sometimes we can be spiritual know it all’s who think we know more than God. We acknowledge that God has a perfect will and a perfect plan, but we want to run it. And just like a know it all has a big head, we can get big heads spiritually as well. We can be guilting of thinking that our brains are larger than they really are, and we think we know better than God. But you cannot know better than God. You can never know better than God when it comes to running our lives. That’s our big idea today:
Big Idea: You cannot know better than God
If you’ve been a parent for any length of time, or maybe you’re not a parent but you’ve spent time around kids, you probably have learned a couple of things. Obviously, you learn how to change your share of diapers. You’ve learned how to burp a baby. If you have girls with long hair you’ve learned how to do hair, which isn’t a great feat for most women, but for someone like me who has little experience with hair, that can be a big deal. You’ve learned how to be quick at catching that arm as they go to throw the toy, or how to grab them as they try to run off into the road. But one thing I’ve learned that usually goes all across the board is that when a baby cries, you respond. When a baby cries it’s a sign that they need something. It could be a bottle, or a diaper change, or just some cuddles, but when they are screaming we try to figure out why. And we have certain ways of figuring out what a baby needs and making sure we don’t miss a crying babe.
I brought with me a little something to illustrate this. I have a baby monitor. Baby monitors are great. Today there are video monitors so that you can actually see the baby. I remember ours as children—we used to pretend they were walkie talkies and it was so cool that you could talk to the person on the other end, only they couldn’t talk back because they were one way. And these have developed over the years. Someone told me that growing up their monitor used to interfere with the neighbor’s and they would pick up conversations from the neighbors house. But we use baby monitors because we understand the importance of hearing a baby when he or she cries and making sure there isn’t a problem. Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, we want to make sure we can hear the cries of the baby.
What about our spiritual lives? Sometimes we cry out to God. And we might tend to wonder—is he listening? Does he hear? Will God hear the cries of his children? This week we’ve been reminded again that our world is broken. Violence and hatred spill across our screens, and many of us are left asking—does God even hear when we cry out? Does He care about what’s happening? Now here’s the good news—God doesn’t just hear the cries of the ‘super-spiritual’ or the people who’ve got life all figured out. He hears anyone who calls out to Him. That’s what we’re going to see today. As we come to our passage today we learn the answer to the question of if God hears us—the answer is yes. God does hear the cries of those who call out to him—he hears the cries of anyone who turns to him in trust. Just like we have baby monitors to help us hear the cries of a baby, so God hears the cries of those who turn to him! That’s our big idea today—if this is the only thing you remember this morning, remember this.
Big Idea: God hears the cries of anyone who turns to Him!
If I were to come to your house—let’s say you invited my family over for dinner. And we pulled into your driveway and walked up your sidewalk and came to your front door, what would I do? The first thing I would do would be to knock on your door. You would here this “knock, knock, knock”. Or maybe I’d ring the doorbell, or use the door knocker. I used to think door knockers were for rich people until I lived in an apartment and every door had them. But I knock. And that knock is a sign to you—help me out: what does that knock say to you? It says someone is here, and it says come open the door right? Not always. For you it may elicit several different responses. Maybe it’s excitement: “oh, they’re here, let’s get the door.” It could be confusion: “now who could that be at this hour?” Perhaps it’s: “shhhh! Go hide! It’s the neighbor kids selling candy, let’s pretend we’re not home.” Or it could be “turn up the tv and pretend we don’t hear it, it’s that salesman again.” All kind of different responses, but we know when we hear that sound, we have to make a choice. It’s a universal symbol in most of the first world—that sound means someone is at the door, and I have to choose; am I going to open it and see who it is, or am I going to run and hide.
Believers in Jesus have a very similar spiritual decision they have to make, because we have that same knocking sound in our spiritual lives. Sometimes God comes knocking at the door to our spiritual lives. And we have a choice—a decision to make. Are we going to open up and let him in, or are we going to run and hide. And as we come to Jonah, we find that he had this same decision to make. Let’s review where we’ve been so far. God tells Jonah “Go cry against Nineveh, that wicked city.” Jonah says “No way!” And boarded a ship to flee from God. And then we hear it—knock, knock, knock. God comes knocking at Jonah’s door by way of a storm—God hurls a storm on the waters to get ahold of Jonah, but Jonah wasn’t through running from God. He told the sailors to throw him overboard, and they do. But again we hear that all too familiar sound—knock, knock, knock, as God knocks on Jonah’s door again by way of a fish. And we pick up our story as Jonah is swallowed whole and we find him sitting inside of the fish and we hear the knocking again as God waits for Jonah to open up the door. And God begins to work on Jonah’s heart, and eventually he does open up. God is knocking at the door to our spiritual lives as well—will you let him in? From this section in our story of Jonah this morning we learn one key truth for our lives:
Big Idea: God's grace knocks at the door to our hearts, and God expects us to answer
One of the clearest signs that someone owns a dog is this little device—a retractable leash. If you’ve ever used one, you know how it works: the dog has freedom to wander a bit, but it never leaves the control of its owner. The line may stretch, but there’s always a limit. And when the dog strays too far—or when danger comes—the owner pushes a button and reels it back in.
What a fitting picture of God’s grace. We are all inescapably tied to God with a very similar bungee chord called grace. Grace connects us to God. It allows us to have a perceived level of freedom, but if we get too far, God’s grace brings us back. We see the inescapable anchor of God’s grace displayed openly for us through the story of Jonah. He ran from God—fast and far—but he never escaped God’s gracious pursuit.
God works this way in our lives as well. When we run from God, he pulls us back. When we think we’ve escaped, we haven’t left at all. And in Jonah 1, we find good news for all of us who have a tendency to run:
Big idea: God graciously pursues his children
One of the most obvious indications that someone is a runner is the shoes. You can tell a runner, often times, by the shoes they wear. I used to do a lot of running, not as much any more, but I was really into running shoes. I can tell the difference between brooks, saucony, hoka, and altra without too much difficulty. Running shoes are designed for running. But often times you can really tell a runner by the kind of shape their running shoes are in. Some runner’s shoes look almost brand new. Now this could be an indication that they just got them, but sometimes it indicates that they’re not really that much of a runner at all.
I brought with me some running shoes. This is my oldest pair right now, and they’ve been around. I can’t remember how long I’ve had these, but it’s been a while. And you can tell if you look closely. The decals on the side are peeling off. The tread on the bottom is thin and worn. And they have holes all over—they don’t work too well in the rain. But you can look at these shoes and tell that I’ve put in the miles and time on the trail.
Some of us, most of us, in fact, probably all of us have a pair of shoes like this. A pair of worn, old, past their life time shoes. I’m not talking about physical running shoes, I’m talking about spiritual running shoes. In our hearts we have an imaginary closet, and in this closet, at least if you’re anything like me, is a pair of running shoes. They’re worn, which indicates we’ve used them a lot. They’re old, which means we’ve been using them for a while. But they are the shoes that we use when we run from God. And just like my running shoes are full of holes and old and worn out from use, so are the shoes we use to run from God, because we do it regularly and easily. We are all, at times, experienced runners from God. We have all tried to run from God in various ways.
What does it look like to run from God? Well, we run from God every time we do something God doesn’t want us to do. When we respond incorrectly in life, we run from God. When we give into sin—whether it pride or gossip or lust or anger or anxiety—whenever we sin we are running from God, because we know this is not what God wants us to do. In this sense, we are all runners; we are all experienced runners from God. As we come to the book of Jonah this morning, we learn that Jonah was also a runner from God. Jonah continued the oldest spiritual endurance event known to man—running from God. Ever since Adam and Eve mankind has been running from God. And Jonah demonstrates that for us in his life story. From the story of Jonah in our text today, we learn a very important truth for our spiritual lives:
Big idea: You cannot run from God; so stop trying!
Have you ever played hide and seek with a young child? It is quite fun. Maybe you have young children, or grandchildren, and kids enjoy playing hid and seek. The problem is, they are often not very good at it. Right? They just don’t get the concept. Maybe they go and get in their hiding spot and you would hear them giggling. Or they hide, but only partially. They might hide their heads, or hide their eyes, when the rest of them is in plain sight. Or they’ll just stand in the corner and cover their eyes, thinking that if they cannot see you, you cannot see them. Doesn’t really work that way, does it?
I want you to think about that for a moment, because sometimes I think this is how we are with God. With God’s working, with God’s pan, and with God’s grace. We might give into the false believe that if we cannot see God, if we can’t see him working with our own eyes, then he must not be there. And we might even put our hands in front of our face— “God, I can’t see you. Where are you God? Oh he must not be there because I can’t see him.” This is especially true with the grace of God. We might try to pretend, like God isn’t there, like God is not as gracious as he actually is, or that if we refuse to see it, we can actually escape from the presence of God and his grace. But just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. This was the mistake Jonah made. Jonah tried to run from God. He was a prophet—he knew better. But he tried to run from God, he tried to hide himself from God’s grace that God was intent on giving to Nineveh. But despite seemingly trying to put his eyes in front of his face and pretend that God wasn’t going to do what he desired, Jonah learned that just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Jonah tried to run from God, and to pretend like God’s grace was not there. But that didn’t change God’s grace at all. Jonah thought he was running from God. But in reality, he was running into God’s grace! And the very same grace that he was trying to pretend was not there, we find is the very same grace that he actually needed himself. Ho did Jonah try to run from the grace of God and how did he actually run into God’s grace? Let’s look at the story to find out.
Can you remember when the reality of suicide first touched your life? I remember where I was when I first had the reality of suicide touch my life. I was in 4-5 grade . . .
We’ve all been touched by those who have felt those types of things; maybe you’ve even felt them yourself. But it is what we do when we have those types of feelings, when we reach the point of utter despair, that becomes incredibly important. Do we let these feelings consume and control us, or do we bring them to God in faith and trust. And in our story today we find a man who was in despair. And in the midst of his despair, he lost sight of the sovereignty and control of God, and he decided to take matters into his own hands and end his life. But we see clearly that ending his life did not allow him to get the escape he desired, and that there actually was still hope if he had held on for just a little bit longer.
In his famous novel “The Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens contrasts the cities of London and Paris. Written during the French Revolution, the novel describes the stark contrast between these two large cities based on how the residents experienced the revolution. Paris was in the grip of the revolution, and was marked by violence, mob rule, and mass executions. The tale shows the horror of a society consumed by self pursuit and violence. London however, was a stable place with mostly law and order, and was a refuge of safety for those fleeing France.
"Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities to show the contrast between London and Paris during revolution. Similarly, 1 Samuel gives us a tale of two kings: Saul and David. Both had proximity to God. Only one had a real relationship. Today we’re going to see their story and ask ourselves the question: which king am I more like?
They thought it was just kids playing pranks, but it turned out to be an angry 72 year old man, instead. From 2003-2005, a number of former teachers and school admins in NY reported a rash of vandalism at their homes. They would wake up to punctured car tires from roofing nails scattered across their driveways… and garage doors & mailboxes splattered w/paint. Some victims complained of being hit every two weeks.
It went on for nearly 2 years until perpetrator was caught…
Turned out vandal wasn’t a rebellious student but a former co-worker named Thomas Haberbush who was still angry about poor performance reviews he had received in 1977, when he was dismissed as teacher. The police investigator… “I’ve never seen anyone carry around a grudge like that for 30 yrs…it’s bizarre”
Another man went to his doctor after he was bitten by a stray dog… Doctor comes in and says… “Yes indeed, you do have rabies.” As soon as heard that, man got out pen and paper… and began making a list of people… Doctor said “Listen, no need to call all those people… you’re not going to die. There is a cure for rabies.” Man answered… “Oh, I know that. I’m just makin’ a list of all the people I’m gonna bite.”
Yet another story I read was about a woman who was in a department store checking out… As she opened her purse to get her wallet, the sales clerk noticed a TV remote inside. “Need batteries?” She said… “Oh no. My husband wouldn’t come shopping with me today because he’s trying to flip back and forth between 2 football games at once. So I figured that taking the remote while he wasn’t looking was the most evil thing I could do to him without getting in trouble.”
These are humorous stories, but they are also relatable. What makes these stories resonate with us? What makes us chuckle but in an understanding sort of way? Truth is, while we might not use the same tactics these individuals used—maybe we’re too mature for that, we at least understand the desire behind them. The desire for revenge. Sweet revenge. We are all familiar with that desire, even if we haven’t acted upon it. We all can understand the desire to even the score, to get back and someone who did something to us, or to achieve a sense of satisfaction from getting even with someone else.
But revenge has a cost. It might make us feel good for a little while, but it always costs us. . .
Have you ever been treated unjustly? We live in a world today that is hyper vigilant for justice. Every wrong committed needs to be righted. And oftentimes we seek for a sense of vindication for the wrongs that have been done to us. This isn't a bad desire necessarily, but it can easily lead us to try to provide our own vindication from our wrongs rather than trusting God to set things right in his timing. The problem is when we try to right wrongs on our own we often end up doing it in the wrong way.We feel like we have a reason to get upset or hurt and perhaps we might, but that can cause us to give in to the desire to lash out and treat someone else with the very same injustice that we have been treated with ourselves. And it can be easy, all too easy to lash out at those who have mistreated us, or to criticize those who have been against us or even those with whom we disagree.
But here's the problem: while we may have legitimately been mistreated or treated in an unjust way, using the same tactics towards that person or persons does not solve the problem. In fact, it makes things much worse. Two wrongs do not make a right. Responding wrongly to another wrong does not resolve the situation. Yet sometimes we think it does, and we are all too willing to take the posture of justice and vindication and let that excuse our unrighteous actions. But it is never right to do wrong in order to produce something that is right.
As we come to our passage for today in I Samuel 24, this is a lesson that David learned. David had been on the run; hiding from Saul in caves. And he had the opportunity to vindicate himself. He was presented with the perfect chance to enact judgment on his enemy and stopped the mistreatment that had been happening in his life. And for a moment David gave in to this compulsion and took steps to get back at his enemy and put him in his place. But we'll find in our text this morning that those who walk with God have a conscience that convicts them and ultimately stops them from using their own unrighteous desires to their advantages. If you've ever struggled with getting even and trying to vindicate yourself under someone in authority over you who has not treated you in the best way, you're going to want to consider this episode in the life of David.
Have you ever felt alone? I mean really alone? . . .
You might be able to resonate to this feeling of aloneness—of being alone. Sad to say, this is the state of many men in our world today—alone. God has a special mission for men in the church, but manhood is in a state of flux . . .
Why? Much of this is the fact that men are alone. Sure they have wives, families, even male friends, but despite all of these, many men are alone. Add to this the reality that nobody knows what a man is or what he should be doing. Men are either over-masculinized , with the teaching that men don’t show emotions or real men don’t cry. They’re just told to go do something manly—eat some meat or go hunting, and be stronger, stoic, and more independent, as if this is what defines a real man. Or they are under-emphasized, and told that gender is fluid, and you can basically choose whether or not you want to be one, and your version of manhood is whatever you want it to be. The result is men who don’t really act like men. They are wandering aimlessly, searching, but not even sure what they are searching for.
But as we look at the friendship between two men in I Samuel—Jonathan and David, we see no such thing. Sure they were alone—David spent much time running in fear for his life. Yet while he may have been by himself, he wasn’t really alone. Because he had a friend, a true friend, in Jonathan. One that encouraged him, supported him, and lifted him up in times of despair. Most men do not have a Jonathan in their lives today, but they need one. All men need a brother—a kindred spirit who can walk with them through the ups and downs of life. Who can encourage them when they need encouragement, push them to fulfill God’s purpose their lives, and have hard conversations when need be. God never intended for men to go through life alone. Today we’re going to look at David and Jonathan, and consider 4 specific episodes in their friendship to see what we can learn this Father’s day about the importance of brother hood in the life of men. Our big idea for today:
Big Idea: without a brother, we will likely fall
I don't know if you've ever done any boating, but I enjoy being on the water. This week Emily and I were reflecting on how, before we had children, every summer we would go out to the Stillwater area and go canoeing on the Saint Croix River. There was always a great time of adventure and navigation. But have you ever had a less-than-desirable experience on the water? The type of scenario that causes you some fear, anxiety, or perhaps even desperation? I remember having this feeling when I was a young boy. I was probably 7 years old, and our church put on an annual father-and-son camp out. This particular camp out we rented canoes and canoed down a river. Only the night before we left, there had been some storms and a lot of rain, so there were downed trees and the water was moving pretty steadily. As we came around one bend, we saw some canoers in our party in desperation. One of my friends, Ryan, and his dad were trapped next to a log. The log was hanging over on the surface of the water and their canoe was stuck next to it tilted sideways as the water raged underneath the log trying to suck them in. I remember the desperation on their faces, and I was afraid for them. Some of the other canoers in our party went back to try to help them, and they made it out OK, but I'm sure they were very nervous during the rest of the trip.
We've all had feelings of desperation in life. Times when we're not sure what to do, where to turn, or what will happen. What do you do when you face desperation? This is a very important question for us to consider. What we do when we face desperation says a lot about us. Oftentimes, when we face desperation, we are not thinking clearly. We make quick, irrational decisions without much thought. Oftentimes, we are just reacting like a pinball and a pinball machine, bumping back and forth between the burdens of life. How do we find our bearings when we're feeling like that? What we do during those times is so very vitally important period because times of desperation can cause us to make one of two choices. We could take some time, settle our hearts, and rely on God. Or we could start to rely on ourselves. And the decision we make during times like this is absolutely critical to our ability to handle difficult circumstances, whether we are to be successful or be destroyed by them.
We learn this lesson so very clearly from the life of David. As we open our text today, in first Samuel 21, David is on the run from Saul. He is in complete and utter desperation. Fleeing for his life, looking for his next meal, and trying to create a strategy for what he should do. And as we encounter him in chapter 21, David makes some poor decisions. His desperation leads him to begin to rely on his own wisdom, skill, and abilities. And the result is disastrous in the country of Israel. But as we continue on in the story, we see that David learned his lesson. Rather than trusting his own human reasoning, he began to trust in God and experience a different result. So we're going to look at the life of David from 1 Samuel 21-23 and compare these two episodes in the life of David to see what we can learn from his example. As we do, I want you to consider our big idea for this morning:
Big idea: When desperation leads us to self-dependence instead of God-dependence, it always ends in disaster
Jealousy. It’s been around since the beginning of time. One could argue that was the root of the original sin with Adam and Eve in the garden—being possessive over what God had told them they couldn’t have. This emotion is what eventually led Cain to murder his brother Abel. We see the caution in the 10 commandments to not covet something that is not yours. Covet means to desire something you don’t have—that’s jealousy! And we see this taking place over and over throughout the Old Testament, with the historical books and the kings who were fighting for rulership. We see this in the prophetic period as Israel kept wandering from God in pursuit of false gods—again, desiring something they weren’t allowed to have. We see this in the New Testament era as well, even with the Pharisees and religious leaders who were envious of Jesus and the following he had, not wanting him to take power from themselves. Later on in Roman Catholic ideology the concept of the 7 Deadly Sins arose, one of which is envy. The fact is clear—human beings struggle with jealousy! . . .
It starts inside—love of self is what fuels jealousy. And this becomes a problem when we make a decision inside—a decision that changes everything on the outside. It is the decision that we are going to live for ourselves. We are going to live for what we want, choose our way, and make ourselves the king of our own kingdom. We see this displayed so very clearly for us today through the life of Saul. Saul determined he was going to stop living for God and was going to start living for himself. And we see so very clearly how this internal desire didn’t just stay inside, it affect all those around him. Saul’s decision to live for himself controlled every decision he made and affected many of those around him. Saul experienced what I’ve heard called a clash of kingdoms. Everything went well for Saul as long as he was king of his own life domain, but the minute someone didn’t give him what he wanted—his personal kingdom clashed with that of someone else, there was utter chaos.
We can learn a lot from studying this part in the life of King Saul. From our text this morning, chapters 18-20 of I Samuel, we see how the choice to live for ourselves affects all those around us. And we will learn how to avoid this choice at all costs. We see the big idea for us today from this section of Scripture:
Big Idea: When you are living for self, you cannot be living for God
Have you ever tried to develop yourself in any particular sort of way? One thing potential employers look for oftentimes is the ability to develop new skills. They like to see attempts to learn something new, take a class, get a certification of some sorts. And often times, if an employer can see that you are trying to better yourself by developing more specialties in your field, you will be more hirable to the employee. So it’s important to not simply stay were you are, but to work on progressing so you can be better and achieve growth. This is important for many areas of our lives, whether it work, or school, or things at home. We ought to be constantly growing and developing into a better version of ourselves.
This is especially true in our spiritual lives. God expects us to develop spiritually. He doesn’t want us to just stay how we currently are, he wants us to grow and develop into godly people whom he can use for his service. But this begs the question—are there any skills that God wants us to develop in order to be used by him? What does God look for in a leader? Are there certain skillsets or abilities that God wants in the servants he uses?
Our text today addresses this and many more questions. From the example of David who was a man after God’s own heart. But David had to work to become that, it didn’t just happen in our story, it happened long before. And we get to see the end result and why God chose him. We get to see what God looks for in those he uses, and how we can develop those qualities ourselves.