Mephibosheth Around the Table
David is a very famous figure in the Bible, in the Old Testment, he’s very famous in the New Testament, as well. He is an Israelite. He was king at this point. He was the guy who killed Goliath when he was young. Right after he killed Goliath, he began to be a part of Saul’s household in a way. Saul was the first king of Israel.
David Stockton
Series: Church Around the Table
Living Streams! I was just in Belize for a week and had a great time down there. I’m pretty much fully recovered. We had about six fifteen-hours days in a row, which was long. But it was good. And we also had a basketball tournament one night, where we had to represent America against the Belizeans. And the basketball tournament started about midnight. We won every game, but my ankle lost one game real bad at the end. But other than, doing good.
It’s good to be with you guys. We have a lot of good things going on around here, I keep reading all of these articles and getting all these emails and hearing all these stories about how the church is in decline, and how millennials aren’t coming to church anymore, and whatever the after-millennials call themselves (not quite sure yet), and I just go, “Oh? Interesting.” I’m not saying it’s not true, but it’s just not what we’re experiencing here. We’re experiencing people being added to the church like every week and more every year for sure, getting discipled and plugged in. Were seeing a lot of millennials and those after-millennial people joining up all the time. It’s a really neat season. I’m thankful for what’s going on.
We have a lot of things that, if you are still on the periphery a little bit, I would encourage you to jump in. We have this Explore Express class. If you’re newer to Living Streams, it’s a great place to get to know people, and get to know what’s “behind the curtain” at Living Streams; and we also have Life Groups going on, Polemeo. The Life Group thing, we keep hearing great reports about people getting together, sharing a meal together, sharing some time together outside of this context, getting to know each other. We’ve got that raw authenticity, relentless encouragement. We need relentless encouragement. It’s tough sledding in this life. We’ve got biblical counsel and genuine friendship happening in a lot of ways.
If you’re not plugged into one of those, there are a few slots available even now. But in January, we’ll get some more going. I’m excited because the end goal for Life Groups is not just to get everybody in our church into a group, but everyone in the world into a group. I really mean that because right now we’re trying to establish these communities where the love of God is manifest, it’s just there, it’s easy, it flows. And then those Life Groups would hopefully eventually start inviting people who don’t know the love of Christ, or don’t have a table to go to where they feel the love of Christ, and they can come into our homes and our tables and it’s already there, it’s already present. So next year we’re going to really be trying to make sure that’s a part of Life Groups as well. You guys are doing well. Thank you so much. I know it’s hard. I know it’s so hard following Jesus in this world. But you’re here! You made it.
2 Samuel Chapter 9 is where we’re going to be today. We’re finishing up our Church Around the Table series. That’s the concept where we’ve been spending a lot of time looking at the table that Jesus set up for his disciples, the Last Supper, and really what he was trying to impart. I’ve been teaching the Bible for—how old am I now?—for twenty-five years. Literally, Sundays and Wednesdays, I’ve been teaching the Bible for twenty-five years. I’ve been going to church for a long time, been following Jesus for a long time, and I have felt like God has taught me so much in this last little series. I feel like it’s reshaping my heart. I feel like my heart is being reshaped in a brand new way after all these years, and I’m so thankful.
If you haven’t been tracking with us, everything we have is online. You can go to livingstreams.org. You can watch services live. You can watch them not live. We also have some supplemental material as well that can further your study and hopefully deepen your walk with Jesus.
That said, we’re going to do Church Around the Table today. We’re going to look at another table, an Old Testament table, a table of King David. Let’s read in Chapter 9, Verse 1:
David [who was king of Israel] asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
Now I know most of you are Old Testament scholars and all of this brings so much context to you, just this one verse and these names. But just in case you’re not sure, we’ll go ahead and recap a little bit of this.
David is a very famous figure in the Bible, in the Old Testment, he’s very famous in the New Testament, as well. He is an Israelite. He was king at this point. He was the guy who killed Goliath when he was young. Right after he killed Goliath, he began to be a part of Saul’s household in a way. Saul was the first king of Israel.
Now God had chosen this people, Israel, to demonstrate how he feels about everybody by having this one example. He took these people out of slavery in Egypt and he led them across the Red Sea. Moses, prince of Egypt, we’re all there. And he’s going across the wilderness, and he’s forming them into a nation. He’s giving them laws. He’s giving them judges for those laws. He’s giving them the way that he wants to go. He’s delivering them from the oppression of those around them. And then he leads them into the Promised Land to establish them as a nation with land.
So they’re in this place, and God has done so much for them. And they say, “God, it’s a little weird for us, having you be our king. Can you give us a man to be king? We want to be like all the other nations around us that have a man as king.”
And God said, “If I give you a man to be king, he’ll steal everything good from you.”
And they demanded it. They said, “God, we want a king.”
So he did. He gave them a king. And his name was Saul, the first king of Israel. And there it is, Saul’s family. Saul became a king and it seemed like everything was going good at first. He did seem to follow in God’s way and lead in God’s way. But as power came to him, he started to change a little bit. Ever seen that in human history before? Power began to corrupt. Power began to change the way he viewed things. He now was so afraid of losing power that he started to do things that were very unlike what God would want him to do. He became someone that, for the people of Israel, was rejected. He even at one point became demon- possessed, that we know of. He was visiting witches to try to figure out what was supposed to happen instead of listening to the prophets of God. He became a very wicked king in a lot of ways. Very confusing. Very harmful for the people of Israel. And he really became someone that, when we look back, we think Saul represents shame, represents the flesh, represents sinfulness, represents defeat. The people began to see Saul that way toward the end of his kingship.
Saul had a son named Jonathan. Jonathan was awesome. He’s probably my favorite Old Testament character. I really think that Jonathan was the person that gave David the courage to fight Goliath, because Jonathan had done something just as cool a few chapters before. Jonathan was King Saul’s son, so Jonathan lived with this not being king, his family being not known at all, then his dad becomes king and, all of a sudden, they’re thrust to the front of Israel’s vision. And now they are the royal family and treated as such, and known as such. Yet, Jonathan maybe experienced all this and thought “This is great.” Jonathan had some great exploits. People knew Jonathan and loved Jonathan. But then Jonathan also got to watch as the whole tide of the nation began to shift from loving and honoring them to really being embarrassed and ashamed of the family of Saul, of the kingship of Saul. You see this difference that’s taking place? That’s what Jonathan grew up with.
But along the way, as David killed Goliath and Saul brought him in, hoping that the fame of David would kind of rekindle the love for Saul, Jonathan and David became best friends. Like serious best friends. And they loved each other. And one day David said to Jonathan, “I think your dad has turned on me. I feel like your dad hates me. In fact, I think your dad is trying to kill me.”
And Jonathan was like, “Well, how do you know he’s trying to kill you? You’re crazy.”
“Well, he was throwing spears at me the other day.”
And still, they weren’t sure. “Well, I don’t know.” And they came up with this plan to find out, Is Saul really trying to kill David? Has Saul’s jealousy and shame so gripped him that he would try and kill David, Jonathan’s best friend?
So they came up with a plan. Jonathan found out that Saul was trying to kill him and they had to part. They had to break up their friendship, and David basically went and lived as an outcast, outside the nation of Israel, living in caves, trying to just stay alive as Saul hunted to try to kill him.
This is what’s taking place in the context of this one verse. And now David has become king because Saul and Jonathan went to war and they died on the same day. Then for the next six years or so there was this battle over who would be the next king. A couple of Saul’s sons stood forward and said, “I’ll be king.” And there was some battling between them. All of the people’s hearts went with David, and they wanted David to be king. But instead of making David king of all of Israel, David became king of a place called Gibea on the outskirts of Israel.
He was king there for six years while all of this fighting and turmoil was going on. Then, finally, after all that time, David was thirty-seven years old and he becomes king of all of Israel, unites all twelve tribes under his leadership. And he followed God as one who seeks God’s own heart, loves God’s heart, wants to do what’s in God’s heart. He became a great king in Israel.
One of the things he did after he was established after all this craziness, he sat one day and he said, “Is there no one left of the house of Saul that I can bless for Jonathan’s sake?”
This is what was in his heart. This is what stirred in his heart as king. It says:
2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
“At your service,” he replied.
3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”
4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
So Lo Debar is an important name, as well. Lo Debar basically means “without pasture; desolate.” Lo Debar is also a place outside of Israel, across the Jordan river, on the wrong side. A place that we find out was where all of Saul’s family that was alive after all of that in-fighting, they fled for their lives in fear of the other sons of Saul coming to kill them because they weren’t part of that lineage—fear of David coming to kill them, because that was common that a conquering king would come and destroy everybody that was a threat to the throne.
And in 2 Samuel Chapter 4, we actually find out what happened to this son of Jonathan. As the people were fleeing, one of the servants of Saul picked up this young boy named Mephibosheth, who was five years old, and as he was fleeing, he was dropped and it broke his legs and he became crippled for the rest of his life. Not only was this boy crippled, but he was taken to go live in a desolate place, hiding for fear, totally overshadowed by the shame of Saul’s name, in a place that was desolate and without pasture.
So David says to Ziba, who tells him where he is:
5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!”
“At your service,” he replied.
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan”
And the reason David says this, all of this is so pertinent and powerful. The fact that he says, “Mephibosheth” and they put an exclamation point there, and there’s a reason. And the fact that he says, “Don’t be afraid,” it’s important because, for all Mephibosheth knows, David could have summoned him to Jerusalem to kill him, to get rid of him. Because the power could have now corrupted David like it corrupted Saul and he wants to eliminate any threat at all.
But when Mephibosheth comes in the room and bows himself down to David, David cries out, “Mephibosheth!” And there’s so much meaning behind that name. Mephibosheth means, “the end of shame.”
Track with me here. The end of shame is what his name means. That name first came to him from Jonathan and his wife. And Jonathan and his wife had Mephibosheth toward the latter years of their life and Saul’s kingship. So here, Jonathan has watched the tide of favor, the tide of grace and glory and strength, completely shift to one of total shame, as his father has done these horrible things as king. So what was once an honor to be the son of Saul has now become a total shame. The people have rejected them.
And Jonathan, when he has a son, with his heart broken at what his dad has done to the nation, heart broken at what his dad has done to his best friend, David—he and his wife agree to name their son Mephibosheth, the end of shame.
I don’t know if God spoke to them and inspired them. We don’t get all of that. But we know that it meant something for these two people to name their son Mephibosheth; because they were wrestling with the shame. They felt it every day. And their hope in this child was that he might be born and grow up and, they might have thought, become a great king that will turn the nation of Israel back toward God and end and remove the shame of the name of Saul.
But right after he was born, just a few years in, Jonathan is killed. Saul is killed. And in the hurry and stress of all of that, Mephibosheth, the one who will end all shame, is broken as he’s fleeing for his life. The one who was to be king and end all shame is now crippled in both feet and can’t walk. And shame remains and another layer is piled on.
Then he’s taken as a young boy to a place where there is no pasture. And there he is living basically disabled, unable to do much, unable to be fruitful, unable to produce anything of value, and every day people say, “Hey, Mephibosheth.” “Come here, Mephibosheth.” And the irony just tortures him. As he is called to be the one who ends all shame, and all he’s ever known is layer upon layer of shame.
Then one day he gets called to go to be with King David, and he walks in and he bows himself to the ground. David, the king that maybe took his place, I don’t know what he’s thinking, but the king is looking at him and what does he say to him? “The One Who Will End All Shame, welcome! Do not be afraid.” And then he goes on to say this:
… I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
Now, please. We know people all the time who fake humility to try to procure more favor. They say things like, “Oh I could never do that.” And they know they’re better than everybody. And you’re just like, “Blah, blah, blah.” In your mind. You don’t say it out loud. But that’s not what’s taking place here. Mephibosheth is really shocked and confused. He can’t even see the potential goodness because the shame is so thick on the lenses of his life.
When he says to David, “Why are you taking notice of me, a dead dog?”—in a lot of ways he’s saying, “David, please don’t call me Mephibosheth anymore. I’ve changed my name to Dead Dog.”
Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And shame had won the day. The one who was named To End All Shame has become one who is just gripped by shame. He sees no good thing in him at all. And yet David restores to him all of the land that Saul had owned. That might be even more land than David had. And not only was it land, but Saul who had been king did just like God said. He took all of the best of the land. So now, the one who had only known no pasture, Lo Debar, now has the most fruitful parts of Israel as his. And one more thing. David said, “And you will sit and eat at my table.”
Let’s go on:
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
That plays into something later.
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.
So there’s this recounting in the library of Scripture, of this guy Mephibosheth. Sure enough, just like most of his life he thought was just wasting away, shame had won the day, now in this moment’s notice, he’s called by the king to come into his presence. There, in his presence, he is restored. All of his inheritance and destiny is restored in a moment. He now has the ability to do exactly what his name and calling is for him to do. He has all of Saul’s resources and he can use them differently than Saul did. He’s given all of Saul’s resources and it’s the most fruitful land.
The guy who grew up in Lo Debar, no pasture, is now having to have servants care for all of the produce that his lands produce. And then it says that he is invited to David’s table. Mephibosheth Around the Table. And when he comes up to that table, so many things take place, you guys. The crippled “Dead Dog” comes to the table. I’m sure on the first day it felt really weird for him. But as he’s sitting there at the table, the only thing people see is who he really is. They don’t see his crippled feet.
I talked to my daughter about that last night. I was like, “You like sitting at the table?” (She’s in a wheelchair.)
She said, “I love it because we’re all the same here.”
She knows what it feels like.
And here, Mephibosheth, however he gets to the table, he’s sitting there. And he really is just like one of the king’s sons. And there, at that first day, I’m sure he felt very unsure and like, “Uh, this is weird. Everybody knows I don’t belong.”
But think about as the years go by, year after year after year, he becomes so familiar there, maybe even tells some great jokes from time to time. Maybe even gives a little counsel. Maybe welcomes another one of David’s sons to the table because he’s been there a lot longer. All of a sudden he’s just there. And the shame, his past, they don’t know him like that. All they know is this person who sits at the king’s table, this person who has fruitful fields.
And day after day, as he comes to that table, year after year, as he comes to that table, his shame dissipates. His shame fades. His shame no longer has authority in his life, no longer grips his heart, no longer is the most powerful voice in his life. But now he’s known as Mephibosheth, the one who ends the shame for himself and for his family.
And this is the call of God to you and me. We are called to be like David. This whole Church Around the Table is trying to inspire us to be more like David. So sit before our kingdoms, whatever they might be; whatever resource you have, whether it’s a car or a house or a table or a good park bench; whatever you have to assess the vastness of your kingdom and say, “What can I do today to show kindness, to show the love of God to someone who might not know it?” And invite them in. That’s what this whole thing is about. We’re trying to inspire that and be that.
And some of you guys are doing a great job of that. You’re having people come across the threshold of your house that you never would have before. People that are so shameful you were afraid of them before. And now you’re inviting them all the way to sit at your table. And you’re not even afraid of their shame getting on you because you know Jesus’ love is too powerful. You’re having people come sit at your table that have done shameful things. And they’re feeling so free at your table to even confess some of those things so that they can be washed and cleansed. And there is so much more to come.
But the really important thing that we’ve got to notice here is that we’re aspiring to be David, but the truth is that David is a picture of Jesus and we’re a picture of Mephibosheth—people who have a destiny to end shame, to remove shame, to set ourselves and our family and others free of the shame of this sinful world, and our sinful mistakes.
Yet, we find ourselves crippled in Lo Debar most days. But can you hear Jesus calling? Can you hear the King summoning you to come? All Jesus wants you to do is to come and sit at his table. He doesn’t care what you bring. That’ll take care of itself. He’s saying, “Come. Come to my table. I have died on a cross. I had my body broken, my blood spilled to provide for this.”
And if you will come to his table every day, year after year, you will find yourself being someone who can’t really remember how shameful you used to feel. You will come to his table, and all of a sudden you will find your destiny, your true name. And it might feel so weird at first. Some of you are here for the first time at church and you’re like, “Whaaaa. This is so weird!”
But as you continue to come into the presence of Jesus, what happens is your shame gets washed away. And it sometimes happens in big, heaping, cleansing waves. Sometimes it’s just a little scrub. Sometimes it takes a few scrubs because that shame is sticky. But if we will keep coming to the table, if we will keep coming into his house, coming into his presence, pretty soon we won’t be known for all of our crippled-ness, all of our past. We’ll be known by our true name.
When we went to Belize, I got to spend some time fasting the day before. All the guys that went, we fasted on the day we were headed to Belize. We knew we were going to go there and we want to tune in. “Okay, God. I don’t want to think about anything worldly. I want to think about spiritually what you’re doing.”
So I was journaling on the plane from Houston to Belize. I was just writing my prayers down and then, I’ve learned over time that praying should be more listening than talking. It’s really hard to remember that. But I was remembering and I was like, “Okay, Lord. Speak to me. What do you want to tell me? What am I looking for? What do you want to do in this time?”
So I started to write some things down. I ended up writing down about four different scenarios that I felt God was speaking to me about. It was interesting because, then it was like I was kind of on a treasure hunt.
One of the scenarios I wrote was that there was a guy that I would meet down in Belize. We were going to do men’s ministry. There was a guy that I was going to meet. And he was a guy that really felt like his soul was dark, that the things he had done in life had broken his soul or had brought so much shame to his soul that it could never be lifted. And he just walked around with this heavy darkness in his soul. And that darkness came because he had really hurt a lot of people, actually physically hurt people. And I was like, “I don’t know if I want to meet this guy.” Then I felt the Lord told me that this was someone that has even murdered someone. Now it got real. And I thought, “Okay. That sounds too specific.” And how do you do that in a conversation? “Hey, have you killed someone?” “Okay, cool. Sorry.”
I didn’t know how this worked. But the very first night we were there, we created these moments of church around hot dogs and taekwondo. And we had all these guys there. And there were a couple of guys I didn’t know. Toward the end of the night I walked over to them and I said, “Hey, you guys. I’m looking for a couple of people. Can you help me out?”
And they were like, “Yeah. For sure.”
So I read the first scenario. I said, “Do you guys know anybody like this?”
And one of the guys said, “I think that’s me.”
I didn’t read the part about killing anybody. I was too scared to do that. And he was like, “That sounds like me.”
And I said, “What does that mean? Do you feel that darkness?”
He said, “All the time.”
And I said, “Have you had a rough past where you’ve hurt people?”
He said, “I used to be in gangs, so I hurt people all the time.”
Then I was like, “Well, I also wrote down here that this person had murdered somebody.” I said, “Is that true?”
He said, “Well, I had a lot of past in gangs. And there is one thing that is really heavy on my soul right now. That’s me and my girlfriend just kind of broke up sort of. It’s complicated.”
I said, “Yeah, it always is.”
He said, “But she was pregnant with our son and she just had him aborted. And it’s been killing me. It’s been torturing me.”
This is where I had a little turmoil in my own heart as I was thinking, can I just say, “Hey, you’re forgiven.” That seems like, “No, you need to say these prayers. You need to show up at church a hundred times.” There’s got to be something to it. But then I remembered that when Jesus walked around here he would walk up to people and say, “Hey, I don’t condemn you. Go your way and sin no more.”
He said to a guy that got dropped through the ceiling, “Your sins are forgiven.” He didn’t know this guy.
And then, in Hebrews 12, we talked about it two weeks ago, that the blood of Jesus Christ, one word and one word only, and that word is forgiveness. And I thought, “I don’t know how else to process this moment; but instead to say to you, ‘I think Jesus has sent me here to pronounce you can be forgiven, and because of the confession you’ve made right now, you are forgiven. You are washed. You are clean. Jesus is going to put brightness and light in your soul. And he’s going to take those sinful desires and he’s going to give you new desires.’”
I was like, “Can we pray for you?”
And the guy was like, “Yeah. For sure.”
And we all gathered around him and we had this holy moment.
This was just a week ago, so I can’t tell you, “And now he’s the president…” I’m going to follow up on him as best I can. But I can tell you it was a really big deal because, that was a Tuesday night, and then we were gone the rest of the time and then we came back Sunday. I was really hoping he would show up. He came to church on Sunday morning in Belize City for the first time as an adult. I think he really believed that maybe, just maybe, there was a spot for him at the table. And he came and we had another time together and prayed. I hope he showed again today because, Jesus does a work the first time. But it takes a lot of showing up at the table before shame can not be the loudest voice in your life. But that’s what the table of Jesus is all about. For you to go and get your shame removed, but also for you to invite others who are full of shame to come and hear about the forgiveness and cleansing that Jesus can bring.
Let’s pray:
Jesus, we do thank you so much for your table that you invite us to; that we can come and sit at your table and we can be sons and daughters of God, full inheritance, free from shame both now and forevermore. And, Lord, it’s a marvel, it’s wild, it’s scandalous, but our hearts resonate with the truth of it. And, Lord, I just want to pray for those right now that are full of shame, that know their soul is dark and their feet are crippled, that they would just be so stirred by your Spirit and that they would come to your table, come into your presence, even right now in this moment. They would say to you, “Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I’m here, wanting to be with you.”
Let’s just take a moment in silence and allow the Spirit of the Lord to speak. If you need to confess, just whisper it. If you need to just rejoice and praise him for his grace, whisper it.
Thank you, Lord.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
The Lordship of Jesus
Today I want to share with you the conversation I had in university that changed my life. I wouldn’t be here this morning if it hadn’t been that I had one of those divine moments where you sit down next to another student, a conversation unfolds, and it just happens that God had the right person to sit next to just at that moment in your life. And everything changes.
The Lordship of Jesus
Allan Meyer
Series: Church Around the Table
Mark Buckley:
We’ve got a special guest today: Allan Meyer. You’re going to enjoy this. The Life Groups will be discussing this. If you’re not in a Life Group, I hope you’ll sign up for one real soon. Allan’s got a world-class gift from God. When John the Baptist came, he prepared people for Jesus. When Allan comes, he prepares us for what God wants to do in our lives. Let’s open our hearts and welcome Allan Meyer to Living Streams.
Allan Meyer:
Thank you. What a privilege to be here with you. Thank you for the opportunity. It’s lovely having been an occasional visitor over many years. There’s a wonderful buzz in the house over this past few days. It’s a privilege to be able to share it with you. I brought two resources with me. One is my book From Good Man to Valiant Man. It’s about male sexuality. Women need to read it because you’ve got to relate to men everywhere you go. And men need help. I’ve got a DVD called Becoming a Valiant Man, that explains why men need so much help. Women have known that for a long time, but men do. In a highly sexualized world, men need a lot of help. The book is the kind of help they need. And if that’s helpful to you, I’ll be glad to sign one for you later.
Today I want to share with you the conversation I had in university that changed my life. I wouldn’t be here this morning if it hadn’t been that I had one of those divine moments where you sit down next to another student, a conversation unfolds, and it just happens that God had the right person to sit next to just at that moment in your life. And everything changes.
That conversation was triggered by the call of God on my life. I grew up going to church. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t go to church because Mom and Dad were both believers. As a result, I was there from the time I was a child. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe the Bible was true. I enjoyed church. I enjoyed worship and I would have called myself a believer.
All I ever wanted to be in church was a school teacher. My dad was the principle of a primary school. I had aunts and uncles who were teachers. That’s all I ever dreamt of. I wanted to be a normal Australian that had nice house, a pretty wife, a football team that could win lots of games, and be a school teacher, have barbecues and have a really nice life, and then die and go straight to heaven (if such a place ever existed). That was my plan.
I was a strange kind of believer because I had a kind of a breakthrough in my final year of high school. I won a scholarship to university. The education department put me through university. I had signed an agreement that at the end I would teach for three years. I was really happy with the arrangement. During those first years of university, I was as happy as I could be. I had a car. I had money in my pocket from my studentship. I had golf clubs, a rifle, a pretty girlfriend. I was just having a whale of a time and having tremendous fun, and attending church.
The weird thing about my life is that, while I attended church, I was a weird kind of Christian. I had a can and a hose in the trunk of my car. I used to syphon petrol out of other people’s tanks. At least I used it to get to choir practice on Friday night. I would steal my lunch from the university cafeteria every day so I would have a dollar to put in the offering on Sunday. While that might not sound like a really Christian life to you, it was working for me.
My pretty girlfriend was an Anglican girl. She was going to an Anglican church. Her minister used to bring people in to share testimonies. I was a Lutheran. We didn’t have any testimonies. I had never heard one. But in the Anglican Church, apparently, there were a few testimonies.
One night, listening to one of these testimonies, I got really disturbed because the kind of relationship with Jesus he was talking about was totally unfamiliar to me. Then her minister quietly came up beside me and asked me a question. He said, “Tell me, young man, where are you with the Lord?”
I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. I didn’t know how to answer the question. I had been going to church all my life and no one had ever asked me that question. I bumbled out some nonsense about, “Well, I used to have my doubts but now I’m right in there.”
I went home from that meeting that night aware that I had no idea where I stood with the Lord. In fact, I thought, Well, how would you ever know? I mean, I guess you have to die to find out where you stand with the Lord.
A good Lutheran boy should have known better than that, but that’s where I was. And that question upset me. It set me up for the next thing, which was three weeks later. I went to my Lutheran church and we had a visiting speaker. He spoke on hell. I have to tell you, halfway through that sermon, I got the feeling I was going to get to see this place someday. Even though he didn’t have 8x10 glossies to prove that hell existed, I had a bad feeling that all this stuff is true.
He said something that day that shook me up. He said, “The worst two words that will ever be uttered in hell are the words ‘if only.’ If only I’d followed Jesus. If only I had listened. If only I had taken it seriously. If only I’d been a real believer.” That so disturbed me that, at the end of the service I could hardly get up and walk out of the chair.
Now, if you came to Living Streams and someone shared a message like that, at least at the end someone would stand up and say, “Now if there is any young man here today that has a can and a hose in the trunk of his car, who feels the need for repentance…” I would have said, “Yeah! That’s me! That’s me!” But I went to a Lutheran church. They scare the hell out of you and send you home for lunch. I left there that day thinking, I have got to get this figured out—where I stand with Jesus.
Well, I started asking myself the question: “How Christian do you have to be to get to heaven? And how would you know when you crossed the line?” Because here was my challenge: I didn’t want to be a fanatic. I really did want to die and go straight to heaven and have my sins forgiven; but I didn’t want anyone else to know I was on the way. I hoped that I would die, walk through the gates of heaven, everyone would turn with shocked surprise and say, “Oh, we never thought we’d see you here, pal!”
And I would say, “Oh, me and Jesus were like that, because I was a secret agent for God. It was my business to get into heaven under the radar so no one else knew I was on the way.”
I was trying to figure out: How Christian do you have to be to really be right with God? I started trying to do the sums on that. The first thing I thought of was money. Now, God’s nearly always broke. They tell you that in church. If I was to give God money, that would be very helpful. That’s got to count for something. So I put that on my list. I don’t mind giving some more.
Then I had the brilliant idea. Sunday School. Brilliant. It happens in church on Sunday. I was going to be there anyway. So I could be normal through the week, come to church on Sunday and teach the little children about Jesus. If Sunday school teachers don’t get to heaven, you tell me who does! How much suffering does it take to get into heaven?
I was getting my list of what I was prepared to do, and I was starting to feel pretty good about this list. “Well, I’m giving money. I’m teaching Sunday School.” I came home from work on a Thursday, four days later. I was going to take my girlfriend out (she’s now my wife). I got right near the front door and God spoke to me as clear as I’m speaking to you. He didn’t speak in my ears. He spoke in my chest. I heard it in here. He simply said to me, “I want you to be a minister.”
I’ve got to tell you, that wasn’t on my list. A minister. I’m trying to be a secret agent for God. I’m trying to fly under the radar. I’ve got to figure out something pretty quick. I saw myself dressed as a Lutheran minister with the black stuff on and the colors around my neck. I burst into tears. “Oh, no! Nineteen years old and I’m dead already!”
I felt like my entire life came to a halt. I jumped in my car. I drove around to see my girlfriend. I said, “I think God wants me to be a minister.” She cried. She didn’t want to marry a minister.
I have a reverse testimony. You’ve heard those testimonies, “I was low and down and broken and filled with sin. And Jesus came and lifted me up.”
Well, I was doing great. I had a lovely life. I had a car and some money and a pretty girlfriend and life was going great. Then Jesus came along and wrecked the entire thing. As a result of that moment, the call of God, now I’ve got a crisis on my hands. I want to be absolutely sure I’m going to heaven. I’m a university student. I can figure out that, if I keep telling God I’m not doing what he says, that’s not going to go well.
As a result, I found myself in an emotional crisis. I was so upset I couldn’t think straight. Here I am, trying to study for my final exams, and I’m so overwhelmed with this sense of the call of God on my life and not wanting to do it, that I can’t think.
I was in the university library, studying for a history of educational thought exam, and I was so overwhelmed. I’m trying to study. Nothing will go in. I can’t even read stuff. It was just overwhelming my emotions. I don’t know why—again, God is so wonderful—I just saw that the university diary for the day said that there was a Lutheran service in the religious center at lunch time. I thought, Well, I’ll go and do something religious. Maybe God will leave me alone if I do something religious.
So I went down to the religious center and I sat down on one of the seats. Another student just happened to come in and sit down alongside me. Away they went with the Lutheran service. By the way, my Lutheran church was a wonderful experience for me. That Lutheran service that day didn’t mean a thing. At the end of it, as they packed up and were beginning to leave, I was overwhelmed with distress; because I had hoped to find a bit of peace here so that I could study. I was just as messed up after the service as I had been before it began.
The young guy sitting beside me opened his lunchbox and started eating his sandwiches. Now let me tell you a secret about sharing your faith: Sometimes we worry, How can I share my faith? How can I break into the conversation some spiritual thought? Listen, just don’t leave too soon. You’re having coffee with someone, having a conversation with someone, just don’t leave too soon. Because the Bible says “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
I was so overwhelmed, I just couldn’t help myself. I start telling this kid next to me all of my woes. “I think God wants me to be a minister.”
Well, he says to me, “That’s wonderful!”
I said, “No! No! It’s terrible!”
He said, “Why?”
I said, “Because I don’t want to be one.”
He said, “Well, are you a believer?”
I said, ‘Yeah.”
He said, “Well, what do you believe?”
Oh, well you ask a Lutheran that, I can tell you. I went right through Luther’s small catechism. “So what do I believe? Well…
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead and buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven.
He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
from whence He shall judge the heavens and the earth.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian church
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.
Do you think I’m saved?”
He said, “Ah, it’s possible. That’s a lot of believing you’ve got going on there, man. But you don’t want to be a minister?”
“No!”
“Well, let me ask you something about all that confession you made. I just wonder if you haven’t overlooked one of those words that was in there.”
“Well, which one?”
“Well, go back to the beginning. ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord. That’s an interesting word in there, Allan. Lord. Do you know what the word means?”
“Well, I guess it’s kind of like it’s part of his title. Like there’s Professor Gordon Brown, and I’m Mister Allan Meyer and he’s Lord Jesus Christ. It’s kind of like part of his name. You’d only have two names if you didn’t put Lord on the front.”
“No, no. That’s an interesting point of view. But no, you see, the issue with lordship is that Lord actually means something, Al. The interesting thing is you’ve got a lot of believing going on there, but if you went right back to the beginning when Christianity was just beginning, it was an awful lot simpler than that. Everything you just said, that’s good stuff to believe. But it took a hundred and fifty years to get that locked together. Right at the beginning when people were first beginning to embrace Jesus, all you really had to know was four words: Jesus Christ is Lord. The earliest Christian confession. You knew if people were disciples or not. Jesus Christ is Lord. I wonder if, in all your believing, you’ve overlooked that one, simple thought. What do you think Lord means, Al?”
“Well, I don't know. I guess He’s in charge or something?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly right. You see, the word Lord means that he is the master. He is the owner. He’s the one with supreme power and authority. He’s the one who rules. He’s the one who has dominion. He’s the one who has power. He’s the one with all authority in heaven and in earth. Put in simple language, mate, he’s the boss. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your boss?”
“Well, I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about it quite like that. Now, I guess when I was syphoning petrol out of tanks I really hadn’t given that a lot of thought.”
He said, “Al, what you need to understand is this is the critical issue. Who rules? It’s the struggle of the ages. It’s the spiritual war that will separate life and death. And it’s the war that’s been going on from the very beginning. If you go back to the Garden of Eden, that’s where the war began. And it was all over one question: Hath God said? Who’s in charge around here? Who is the one with supreme authority? Who are you following? Who are you yielded to?
“You see, God created that garden and said to Adam and Eve, ‘The whole thing is yours. Fantastic. Enjoy the lot. But that one tree, the Knowledge of Good and Evil, leave that up to me. Because, you see, as human beings, you don’t know enough to proclaim with authority what’s good and what’s evil. You’ve got to leave that to me because I see the end from the beginning. Something you think is really good, if you just knew where it leads, you’d discover one day that was evil. And something you think is really bad, if you just new where it would lead, you’d say, ‘‘‘That was good.’”
He said, “You need to know that God said to them, ‘The tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that’s all mine. You leave that alone. You honor my leadership.’ And into that garden came a creep, dragging with him the silent chains of our future bondage, and he starts with this thought: ‘Hath God said you shall not eat of anything in this garden?’
“No, he didn’t say that, you miserable coot. 'He said we could eat of everything, just leave that tree, the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Let him be the boss.’
“‘Oh, I hate to tell you this, but you see, that’s the problem. You’ll never have a real life ’til you’re the one who sits upon the throne.’
“It’s the war of the ages.
“Listen to what Psalm 2 has to say:
1 Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?2 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,3 “Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”
“There is a spirit that sees obedience to God as a prison house. And yet, the Father of life, obedience to him is a fountain of life, not chains and shackles. The Bible says:
4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs…
“He says:6 “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”
7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
…“You are my son;
today I have become your father.8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
“Who rules, Al? Who rules? See, what you need to understand is that when Jesus was sent into the world, he was sent as Lord. It’s in the Bible from one end to the other. You might have overlooked it, but let me just remind you just how frequently the Bible refers to Christ as Lord. The angels said it when they were announcing Jesus’ birth.”
Luke 2 (NASB):
1 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Acts 2 (NASB):
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.
Romans 10 (NASB):
9 … if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Philippians 2 (NASB)
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1 Peter 3 (NASB):
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
1 Corinthians 8 (NASB):
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father,…and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
2 Corinthians 4 (NASB):
5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
Revelation 17 (NASB):
14 These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”
He said, “Al, do you understand what the word covenant means?”
“Yeah, well, I guess that means it’s an agreement.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Like, you know, when I sold my bicycle. We haggled over the price and then we came to an agreement.”
“Ah,” he said, “But that’s not the kind of covenant that you can have with Jesus. The kind of covenant you just spoke about—in the Bible there’s a word for that. It’s (Greek word). It’s an agreement between equals. You can haggle about that. You can negotiate those agreements. But Jesus Christ is not the subject of a (Greek word). He’s the subject of a (Greek word)—a covenant from a superior to an inferior. You can accept him as Lord. You can reject him as Lord But you can’t negotiate. You either embrace him or reject him as Lord.”
He said, “Al, I think I understand why you’re struggling so much. The problem you face is that you’re trying to marry a dishwasher.”
I said, “Um, you’d better run that one by me one more time. What do you mean I’m trying to marry a dishwasher?”
He said, “Just imagine this. That pretty girlfriend of yours—imagine when the time comes to marry the girl, you step up to the altar and the pastor says, ‘Allan, repeat your vows.’ And out you come, ‘I, Allan, take you Helen to be my lawfully wedded dishwasher.’
“You’ve got to know at that point that ceremony isn’t going to go one step further. Then she’s going to say, ‘Excuse me? Lawfully wedded dishwasher?’”
“‘Oh, yes! No, excuse me—far too narrow. I embrace you as my lawfully wedded cook, ironer of shirts, occasional romantic companion, and my dishwasher.’
“‘No, no, no! That’s not marriage, Al. Whatever you’ve got in your mind there has nothing to do with marriage. You see, when I came down that aisle, I was prepared to marry you as a wife. Now if you embrace me as a wife, an occasional dish might get washed. But you can’t marry me as a dishwasher.’
“You see, Al, that’s what you’re trying to do. You would love to have Jesus for your Savior, but you don’t want him as your Lord. And here’s the problem. You can’t have him on those terms. You either embrace him as Lord, or you do not embrace him at all. That is not a covenant that’s available to you. You need to appreciate that, if you embrace him, you embrace him as Lord, and because of who he is, he will wash you. He’ll wash your feet. He’ll wash your heart. He’ll wash your life. But you can’t marry a dishwasher.”
I cannot tell you how important that moment was for me. The recognition that I was trying to engage with Jesus in a way he was not available to me. No wonder I was in distress and I couldn’t find any peace. It was a horrible time.
Listen to it in the words of Jesus:
Jesus said, “Not everyone that says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy and drive out demons and perform miracles?’ And he’ll say, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.’”
In Luke 6 (NASB), Jesus put it this way:
46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Well, that was me. I’ve got to tell you, it nailed me to the wall. That conversation changed my life. Listen to this last parable: (Matthew 21 TPT):
28 Jesus said to his critics, “Tell me what you think of this parable:
“There once was a man with two sons. The father came to the first and said, ‘Son, I want you to go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The son replied, ‘I’d rather not.’ But afterward, he deeply regretted what he said to his father, changed his mind, and decided to go to the vineyard.”
I am that son. I had been living for nineteen years attending church and believing everything but I had never embraced the Lordship of Jesus. When he called me in a way that I did not want to follow, it was exposed for what it was. I was a rebel to the core of my being.
30 The father approached the second son and said the same thing to him. The son replied, ‘Father, I will go and do as you said.’ But he never did—he didn’t go to the vineyard. 31 Tell me now, which of these two sons did the will of his father?”
They answered him, “The first one.” Jesus said, “You’re right.”
I thank God for that young man who sat beside me. We had a conversation and, at the end of that conversation, I knew that if I did not embrace him as my Lord, I couldn’t have him as my Savior. I decided, “I’ll take Jesus, lock, stock and barrel.” I am so glad I did. What I thought was going to be a horrifying life has turned out to be the most thrilling journey you could imagine.
What I thought was going to be evil actually turned out to be really good. And what I was trying to hold on to, what I thought was good, would have destroyed my life and left me in dust and ashes. I am so grateful that a young man explained to me one day that Jesus Christ was Lord.
Let me ask you a question as we close. Is Jesus your Lord? In reality, Is Jesus the ultimate authority in your life? Is that who he is? If Jesus Christ was really to be your Lord, would you have to handle your money differently? If Jesus Christ was really your Lord, would you have to handle other people’s money differently? If Jesus Christ was your Lord, would you have to handle your sex life differently? Or is your sex life sitting on the throne? If Jesus Christ was really your Lord, would you love better? Would you love your husband, your wife? Would you love your father or your mother? Would you love your brothers or your sisters? Would you love your church or your nation differently if Christ was Lord?
If Jesus Christ was Lord, would you get up tomorrow morning and go to work and do a fundamentally different kind of work? Would you go to work knowing that you serve the King? Would you give it your best if Christ was Lord? Would you have to change? Would people see a difference in the way you work if Jesus Christ was Lord?
If Jesus Christ was Lord, would you handle your worst enemy differently? Would you forgive more quickly? More completely?
If Jesus Christ was the Lord of your life, would you stop driving and texting at the same time? If Jesus Christ was your Lord, would you clean up your room when your mother asks you? If Jesus Christ was your Lord, would you resolve conflict? Would you serve better?
Let me sing you an old chorus. When I sing a chorus, it’s like going to an Eagles concert. Just old songs. It’s an old song I heard years ago. It became part of my life.
For he is Lord
He is Lord
He is risen from the dead
And he is Lord
Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord
One day there was a man who bought himself an apartment. He thought he’d put in a tenant. Figured he’d come back at the end of the first month and collect the rent. He knocked on the door. A man came out and said, “Are you the owner?”
He said, “Yes, I am.”
“Wonderful, I’ve got something for you.” He took a backward step and began to sing:
You are the owner
You are the owner
You have bought this apartment
You are the owner
Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
That you are the owner
He shut the door and went back inside. The owner said, “That’s incredible. I’ve never seen that before. Maybe he’s going to give me two months’ rent when I come back next month.”
He came back and knocked on the door. The man comes to the door and says, “Sweetheart! It’s the owner! Bring the kids!”
All the family comes out and begins to sing:
You are the owner
You are the owner
You have bought this apartment
You are the owner…
They give him the whole song, shut the door and go back inside. He says, “That is absolutely incredible. Maybe they’re going to give me three months’ rent at that end of next month.”
He comes back at the end of the third month, knocks on the door. The man comes out. “It’s the owner!” The entire neighborhood comes together. They’ve got a sixty-piece orchestra. They’ve got a fifty-person choir and they begin to sing:
You are the owner
You are…
There will come a moment when he will say, “Shut up! And show me the money!”
If Jesus Christ is Lord, he deserves more than a song. I went to church for nineteen years and sang my heart out. Jesus said, “That’s really good. Show me the money, Al. Show me your obedience. I want to see it in every part of your life.”
And by the grace of God, that conversation changed my life. And it’s why I’m here today. My life has unfolded differently because of that moment. And may God help you, that perhaps your life might unfold differently from this moment because you were here today.
Would you bow your heads with me this morning?
Father, in the name of Jesus, I want to thank you for the moment that was so precious in my memory and in my life. I pray for my friends who are here today. I pray for those who perhaps through this story it has awakened them that they need to adjust where you sit in their life.
If you’re here today and hearing this story awakened you to the thought that you really do need to make an adjustment to the submission you have and the obedience you have to the words of Jesus, I want you to wave at me a little bit and I’m going to pray for you right where you are. It’s helpful to do it. You say, “I heard that and I know that I need that.”
Father, I pray for every hand. Let the Spirit of the Lord remind them, ‘Show me the money. Show me the life. Show me the obedience. Follow me, not just in words, but in reality.’ Let your kingdom come in these lives, I pray. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
©️2019 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture marked NASB is from New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Scripture marked TPT is from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017 by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC. Used by permission. All rights reserved. thePassionTranslation.com
Lion Heads and Bear Rugs
Video (Bill Grove):
God says, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you. And God has been faithful to me all through my life in that regard. My name is Bill Grove. I’ve been a Christian, officially, for sixty years—seriously, for thirty-five years. In the early seasons of my life, God was faithful. When I was not paying attention, God was faithful, he was right there.
Lloyd Baker
Series: Generational Blessing
Lloyd Baker
Series: Generational Blessing
Video (Bill Grove):
God says, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you. And God has been faithful to me all through my life in that regard. My name is Bill Grove. I’ve been a Christian, officially, for sixty years—seriously, for thirty-five years. In the early seasons of my life, God was faithful. When I was not paying attention, God was faithful, he was right there. He protected me. He kept me out of danger almost as if, “I’ve got you. There’s something else, later, that I have planned for you.”I was baptized and came to the Lord when I was twelve years old. At the time, there wasn’t a great deal of discipleship done for me in a little, small town in North Carolina. I pretty much lived my life knowing of Jesus, but not knowing him personally for the next twenty five years.
I was employed in North Carolina as a head golf professional at a small, private club. Politics got sideways and I was relieved of my position. My security in life was in that particular job. I can remember going in the shower one night, having lost that job, and having a small family, and I looked up into the ceiling of that shower and I can only remember one verse at that time. Odd, but that’s the way God is sometimes. “I cast all my cares upon you.”
The moment I did that, the power of God fell on me so strong that I fell down in the shower. I wept for, like, thirty minutes. I felt like I was carrying 500 pounds on my shoulders When I finally got off the floor of that shower, I felt like I could lift 500 pounds. That was why the second baptism. I turned my life over to Christ again at 37 years old and started the journey,
From that time forward, God has been faithful to my prayers. Incredible miracles. Incredible testimonies. Incredible experiences with Holy Spirit. Things that make you hunger for more each day.
I think the thing that I would like to pass along to young Christians is, and it’s in the Bible but it’s really expressed succinctly in the Message. The verse is, “Better is one day in his courts than a thousand elsewhere.” One day in his presence. One day following him, is better than a thousand days anywhere else. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Mark Buckley:
Thank you to Bill Grove. He’s an eleven o’clock guy and a wonderful man. We’ve got another wonderful guy here with us today. Lloyd and Judy Baker are here. Lloyd and Judy were sent out from Living Streams 2004. They planted Streams Church on the west side. It’s been an incredible, wonderful, fruitful church. They’ve gotten involves in missions through their daughter in Japan, in Ecuador—all over the place. They’re doing wonderful things for Jesus. I’m really proud to be their friend and I’m really thankful that David invited them back here.
He’s here because he’s got a message about the power of God. The power of a generational blessing is more powerful than any curse, any family tree that’s messed up, anything. It’s all about his grace and he’s chosen us to bless us. Lloyd, come up, preach and thank you for being with us.
Lloyd Baker:
This is my wife, Judy, if you don’t know. How may didn’t know Judy? Is there a couple our there? Yeah. She’s amazing, in case you didn’t know that. Would you agree? Okay, thank you. That’s the right answer.
Thanks, Mark. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Pastor Mark believing in us. In 1999 we were attending Living Streams and he came to me and asked if I would be a part of the staff. I just thought I’d never be a senior pastor again. Thank you, Mark. He believed in me. From there I blossomed.
And I was Pastor David’s first boss here at Living Streams. I was the guy that oversaw this guy. We have had this amazing journey together. We really learned to love each other through our diversities, and through that, we became very powerful together.
I’m going to start today by taking about my daughter’s dog. Her name is Brittany. This is her dog. That is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. She graduated from medical school. She had researched dogs and said, “This is the dog I want.” This was part of her present. Rhodesian ridgebacks are a unique dog. They were, I guess created is the right word, in South Africa. When the Europeans went down there, they wanted a dog that would protect their crops and their animals. So they took this wild dog from Rhodesia and brought European dogs and bred them together until they got this perfect dog that hunted in packs. They were bred to hunt in lions. That’s what they were bred for. They’re very relational.
A year ago, at exactly this time, I was in northern Arizona. I love to pick berries. There are some wild, black raspberries in northern Arizona. I’m not going to tell you where they are. But they’re called black caps. It’s the Arkansas in me. I love to pick them and make jams and other things.
I was scouting out a spot and I had Gemma, her dog, with me. She was off leash because she’s trained and sticks next to you. We call her a velcro dog. She likes to be right next to you. And so I’m in shorts because I was just scouting. And I sat down to just pick a couple of berries. And out of the woods stumbles a black bear. I know Chad. Chad, would you mind standing? I’m not saying you’re a bear - a teddy bear, right?
Anyway, a bear came out of the forest right about there. And I turned to grab Gemma. Needless to say, she’s bred to hunt, and she lunges between me and the bear. And then the bear takes off running. Hey, Chad, because you stood up, I have some black raspberry jam. And you get some jam, and you get some jam. I’m just kidding.
So the bear takes off running and Gemma takes off chasing the bear. And they’re both super fast. I’m in shorts and now I’m running through the berry patch and just ripping up my legs. Because if my daughter gets killed by a bear — yeah. So I’m running after the bear and her dog. They’re out of sight but I know the general direction. Finally, I catch up to them, and there’s the dog, looking up a tree. And there’s the bear up in the tree. She treed a bear!
And my daughter is so mad at me. But she brags about that moment to everybody she knows. “This is my lion hunting dog who treed a bear.”
The question I want to pose to you today is, Do you have any stories where you slew a lion? Stories where you killed a bear? Stories that will passed down from generation to generation? Because these stories can bring courage to your children, and bravery to your grandchildren, and tenacity and stamina for generations to come.
Today, in the word, we’re going to learn about how bear rugs and lion heads catapulted a shepherd boy into a king. I spoke this message about seven years ago and Pastor David asked if I would share again with you today.
We’re going to be in 1 Samuel 16. King David is really introduced in the Scripture right about here, Chapter 16, verses 2 and 3.
The Lord said [to Samuel], “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 to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
So, the prophet, the priest Samuel was supposed to go to Bethlehem and find Jesse’s family. They call Jesse’s family to this special feast. And that place he was going to anoint the new king of Israel. So, I can only imagine that there was a buzz around the house—that all the guys were getting ready. Cleansing themselves, putting on some Old Spice or something like that. And they all showed up to the feast.
And everyone was there, seven of the eight brothers. And David was left behind. He was out tending sheep. He’s out there by himself with the sheep and the goats. He probably was a little disappointed. Maybe he had his little lyre there and he’s singing Country/Western songs to the sheep and the goats. And my guess is he’s depressed. And everybody is there at the feast.
We all hold the life of David in great value, but his parents, his father and his brothers did not. We think he’s a man after God’s own heart. He’s a warrior. But they dismissed him as a snotty, little, younger brother; and not even his dad believed in him.
So, after the meal, all the boys are presented to Samuel. Samuel begins to look at them, and he begins to reject every one of them. He goes through all seven children, and he says, “Is there one left?”
And nobody has brought up David’s name already. So jumping down to verse 11:
So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
And you would think after that moment that, all of a sudden, his father and his brothers would hold him in high esteem, knowing that he was being anointed. But that’s not the story. They actually had more contempt for him than ever before. He got sent back to the sheep and the goats.
Daddy sends all the boys (Chapter 17), he sends all the boys to the front line to fight the Philistines, except for David. David’s left back and all David is good for is taking some snacks to his brothers. So the story goes on. He takes some Cheez Whiz in one hand and Wheat Things in another, and a couple of Hillshire Farms sausage. In Chapter 17 we see what happens:
17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit.
See? I told you it was cheese and crackers. He takes them there for his brothers.
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”…
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
No one believes in David after he’s been anointed. Not even Saul, the king, believes in him. But yet, God has anointed him. This is the point. Right? If you’re waiting for affirmation, you’re going to be waiting a long time. Many times the reason people shy away from leadership and acts of bravery and their divine destiny is because they’re waiting for someone to give them affirmation. From your spouse. From your children. From your boss. From your pastor. Some of you are held captive by parents who do not believe in you.
Affirmation is not the point. Anointing is the point. Affirmation is nice, but anointing is irreplaceable. Anointing is the divine knowledge that God has specifically gifted you and called you to a task. And it’s never dependent upon man’s approval. If you’re constantly waiting for affirmation and confirmation, you’re going to spend a lot of time in deliberation and frustration. So lean into your anointing. Accept your divinely appointed task, regardless of affirmation.
I think there are so many ministries in the church that are understaffed because we pause for affirmation. And we’re frozen because of insecurity. So, again, if you’re constantly waiting for affirmation, you’re going to spend a lot of time in deliberation and frustration. So let’s see what happens:
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
David had a huge advantage over every other man standing there, facing the battle; because back home, on the mother’s side of the bed, lay a bear rug. And when she woke up in the morning, she stepped out, not on a cold, dirty floor, she stepped out on a bear rug. And when her friends would come over, she would say, “Come here. Look at this bear rug. My son was out tending the sheep—David—and when a bear came, he took his sling shot and struck that bear down and today I walk on a bear rug.”
And every time David walked past their bedroom, he saw a reminder that God rescues and delivers. He had an advantage over everybody else. Over the headboard of his bed was this lion trophy mounted on the wall. So every night before he went to bed and every morning when he woke up, he was reminded that God delivers his people.
He had an advantage. So that moment, when he looked at the Philistine, he had a flash back and he remembered the bear and the lion. He said, “If God will rescue and deliver me from this, he will rescue and deliver me from this giant.” David had a huge advantage. The bear and the lion and Goliath will be the same.
If we never answer the bell for the first round, we will never have the courage for the fifth round. You see, one small victory leads to a larger victory. All to the glory and the power of God. But that power of God was available to every man there. And only the one who had a bear rug and a lion’s head stepped up to the task. Perhaps nobody there had one. And perhaps they didn’t have all these things. So they stood there, frightened. If you don’t take on the bear, you’ll never take on the lion. If you don’t take on the lion, you definitely will never take on the giant.
The story goes on and he does some sort of Braveheart thing where he kills Goliath and he cuts off his head. We won’t go into that part of it. But one thing he does is, he takes the sword and he puts it in the temple of God as a memorial to what God had done for him. I’m not sure I would have done that. I think I would have taken it home and put it over my dining room table and then invited my father and all my brothers to dinner. And I probably would have served something like swordfish and said, “This fish reminds me of the sword that I used.” I don’t know. That’s me. David was a lot more humble. He took it to the house of God as a memorial.
Fast forward years. Davis is about to become king. People are singing songs about him. Saul gets wind of it and Saul’s trying to kill him. So they are chasing after David and he is fleeing for his life. He ends up at the temple and he asks the priest for something to eat for him and his band of men. And he says to the priest, “We need weapons to protect ourselves because we had to run away in haste.” And here’s the conversation between him and the priest. It’s found in 1 Samuel 21:8
8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.”
9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.”
David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
He’s fleeing for his life. He’s running. It’s a tough time. It’s a dry time. He ends up there and the priest says, “The only sword I have is this one.” And David flashes back and again and he says, “I remember that sword. There’s no sword like that sword. Give it to me.”
Because he remembers that God is a God who rescues and delivers. And this time, he’s in a tough situation. He says, “But I remember the bear and I remember the lion and I know, because of this sword, it will be okay and God will rescue me.”
Many times God gave the nation of Israel great victories. The Red Sea. Joshua is when they are going into the Promised Land and the same thing sort of happens to them there. So I want to read from Chapter 4:
5 …, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
So the Jordan River had split. They walked across on dry land. They’re on the other side and this is what Joshua’s telling the people:
…Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future,
[this is really important]
when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
When David becomes king, he keeps up this tradition. Every victory he has, he puts away swords and shields in the temple of God so that the people from generations will know the mighty hand of God.
We’re going to fast forward a couple more years. David is dead. Ahab and Jezebel have now taken over the ruling of Israel. They had actually died. They were ungodly rulers and they brought in all kinds of false gods into Israel. So now there’s a struggle between some of their lineage and the lineage of David. So they begin to kill off all of David’s relatives, so that they would have it, but there’s one left in the civil conflict. His name is Joash. He was a young baby and they hid him in the temple. They took him to the temple and hid him. When he was about seven, the word got out that there was still one left in the lineage of David in the temple. Here’s the story of that in 2 Kings 11. These guys find out and they’re on their way to kill Joash.
9 The commanders of units of a hundred did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men—those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty—and came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields that had belonged to King David
So these people are on their way to take this life. And all the priests who are on duty, they call everybody together and he says, “Listen, take all these swords and take all these shields from the victories of David, that God gave to David, this memorial, and now stand guard over this child.”
…The guards, each with weapon in hand, stationed themselves around the king—near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple. 12 Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”
So here’s a seven-year-old surrounded by men who had the treasures of the kingdom of God that David had won in victories. So all these victories—get this—they’re protecting the future of his lineage. David’s lineage was saved because of his past victories.
Our willingness to battle issues fuels the faith of generations to come. Our victories are the stepping stones to their greatness. Joash, at age seven, became king and he ruled for forty years. And he is heralded as one of the outstanding kings of Judah. And I can’t help but think that when he was young, perhaps he was wandering around and saw all these swords and shields. And maybe he asked the question, “What are these about?” And maybe one old priest sat him down and told him all these stories about lions and giants and bears (Oh, my!) Told him the story of every victory. And he knew that he was standing there today because of the victories of his forefathers.
My oldest daughter, Sarah, had diving scholarships. She was a springboard diver. And I forced her to go to colleges to look at them. And every time we went to look at a coillege, she said, “Dad, God called me to Japan.” I remember that day.
Pastor David and I actually led mission trips around the world. We went to South African in 2002. In 2004 we took 42 teenagers to the Czech Republic. I don’t know why we did that. I think we were crazy. But we did.
So she had been around the world. She was touched, but nothing like this. But in 2005 we took a team to do a Young Life camp in Japan. And as we were coming home, on that plane, she broke down, grieving, weeping. I told my wife, “That’s the call of God.”
So we’re looking at colleges and she said, “Dad, you don’t understand. God called me to Japan.”
She left, I think 13 years ago, and she’s never moved back. I remember once I asked her to give her testimony. She said, “I don’t have a testimony, Dad.” I said, “Yeah, you do. You have a father whose step-father beat him. You have a father whose biological father left at 2 and he’s a womanizer. You have a mother who has this faith that she never was fully engaged with her family, and now you live with this heritage of victories of the past. And that’s why you’re here today.”
She was there when Pastor Mark asked us if we would pray about starting a church in the West Valley. He had this vision. I remember the conversation because I told Mark, “Can I just keep my house over here at 32nd Street and Cactus, just in case it fails? I’ll just commute for a year or two.”
And Mark said, “No. You’ve got to live with the people you pastor.”
So we were out there, looking for a house. We finally found the perfect house. We knew the house would be our church office and it would be the youth group meeting place on Tuesday night. We found a model home that would be perfect for us. We thought it was amazing. And the whole family was there, my wife and the girls. We were five thousand dollars short on the down payment, so we were a little disappointed. We got in our car and started to leave. We were a couple of minutes down the road and something just hit me. I drove back and I said to the guy, “If I post date a check for a week, would you give me a week to come up with this money?”
He said, “Yeah, I can do that.”
So we took the plot map and, as a family, my wife and my daughters and I, we walked that property and just prayed and asked for a miracle. I think she was a junior in high school and our other daughter was in eighth grade. Every day they came home—you know, we had a week. And, “Did God give us the money?” I’m like, “Mmmm, not today.” I’m like, why did I do that? I mean, that’s really bold. Day two. Day three. No. No. No. And then, day five, a very good friend of ours from Living Streams took me out for lunch. And he said, “I heard about your house.” And he slid across a check for give thousand dollars and he said, “You guys have been so gracious to my family.”
That day, when they came home, my daughter was there when she saw that miracle, that God provides. So, in her mind, she really thinks that, if you answer the call of God, he always gets your back. See, that’s what she believes. She didn’t give it a second thought.
When you have bear rugs on your floor and lion heads on your wall, giants don’t scare you anymore. Imagine a world where children saw their parents through the power of Jesus Christ confront and conquer nagging sins. Parents confronting the demons of the past, when nobody believed in you, and overcoming by the blood of Jesus Christ. Where children saw their fathers lead them and their families spiritually. Where families let faith, not fear, direct their finances. Where giving to God and the church was not negotiable.
My youngest daughters is a P.A. She went a different route. She went to school and studied. So when she first started getting her paychecks—she makes like twice what I do—she just started tithing automatically. She said to me one day, “Dad, I have no idea why people wouldn’t tithe.” That’s because she lived in a house where we believed that, if you do that, God will just take care of you.
Imagine a world where young people dared to step out and do missions. They saw where their mother shared her faith unashamedly. Where the people on Sunday, that’s the people on Monday through Saturday. Where the word of God was honored over fear of the world. Where every house of every follower of Jesus Christ was full of bear rugs, lion heads and shields.
We have bought the lie that God is more concerned with our comfort than he is our conquering. We have been given an opportunity to build a trophy room for our king, but we must engage. We must give sacrificially. We must serve unconditionally. And we must live for a purpose greater than our own. Because I know that our king is more than worthy.
Talking about my younger daughter, when she was looking at universities, she had this unique privilege. When we were at this one university, we happened to be only a couple of hours away from where I was a teenager in the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. I said, “Let’s go for a drive.” We showed up to this little church called Drakes Creek Regular Primitive Baptist Church. I don’t know if they broke off of the Irregular Baptist Church, but they’re the Irregular Baptist Church.
Anyway, there was somebody there and they opened up the church. She got to see the altar where what should have been became what the Lord wanted in my life. Out in that graveyard, she got to see the gravestone of my stepdad who, after he left us when I was fifteen, he ended up killing himself. And she saw what could have been and the place at that altar, of what became. Because it was at that altar that I committed my life to Jesus Christ. It was at that altar that I answered the call to be a minister. I walked her down to Drakes Creek, to the exact spot where I was water baptized—where the old man was buried and the new man rose. She had this amazing opportunity to see bear rugs and lion heads.
Do your children know your stories? I think that we need to have the stories and I think sometimes we have let the altar go away, for whatever reason. I think there’s power in finding those places, and telling those stories and having those moments, and having a specific spot where you can tell your children, “It was at this moment, at this time, on this date, where this is what the Lord did for me. I want to tell you that story. And I want to tell you this story, and what he provided here, and when he did that.”
Perhaps you’ve never surrendered to the grace of Jesus Christ—you have never made a decision to fully follow him. Let this altar be that altar that you tell your children about. Perhaps you need direction. You feel called, but you’re unsure. Let this altar right here be that altar that you tell your children about. Perhaps there’s a bear directly in your path, and it seems insurmountable. A lion of financial debt. A bear of sickness. A giant of memories of the hurt from abusive situations. Let this altar, today let this altar be the altar that you tell your children about.
We don’t think altars are that important anymore. But you know, when Joshua crossed the Jordan river, he said, “Go back and get stones and build a memorial—an altar for God. So that every time you pass this place and your children ask, you can say, ‘That was the day the Lord delivered us.’”
I’m going to ask you stand with me today and I’m going to pray for you. But then, after I pray for you, this is a moment for you. If you fit any of those categories or anything else, and you say, “There’s just something in my path that seems insurmountable,” I want you to come down to this altar today, and the Lord will just start doing something in your heart.
Lord, I thank you for all the times that I had to stick a bear directly in the face. And by your power, by your grace, you took care of that. Father, thank you that you’re a good father, and that you guide and you lead; and even in the tough times, I can remember all the goodness that you’ve had for me, and I can walk through with faith. Today, help us to have the courage to take up the fight, no matter what that fight is. And I pray that in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV®,
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