08.01.2010 1 Sam. - Genuine Faith - Jonathan

08.01.2010 Grace Summit Sermon - Genuine Faith - Jonathan from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Let's pray - Lord, You are present with us and love us. You love us so much that You died for us and have forgiven our sins. Bless this morning – speak to our hearts – may it be more than a church service, but Your community coming together to worship You. We celebrate what You have done and may we hold it with reverence and honor in our hearts. I ask for blessing – for Bill and Jemma – for Bill's health – that the chemo would be successful and cause the cancer to be reduced and to go into remission if that would be Your will. We ask for healing – if that would be Your will for Bill. May You speak through me – to each of us.
We are going through Samuel – and I have been back for 3 weeks and I realized that these first weeks are negative – which is intentional – leading up to the positive – which is David. I realized that there is one positive message – I am going to skip Saul – it is just a lot of negative stuff – so Saul is the first king that is appointed – and you can see from the beginning it is not going to work. They choose Saul – who fails before he even has a chance to begin. Things just don't work out for Saul – he fails as the first king of Israel. Saul does have one good thing in his life – a son who is exemplary. For the book of Samuel, every person is a failure – even David does some bad things – and there is only one – Jonathan, for whom there is no failure recorded.
So we will look at the story of Jonathan – I'll just read it because it explains itself.
In chapter 13, the Philistines had gathered together – and when Saul is first appointed as king, he has a small victory in battle -
1 Sam. 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance; and they came up and camped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits. 7 Also [some of] the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he [was] still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
The Philistines were the superpowers in the area – they had taken all the blacksmiths out of Israel – like an embargo or a sanction. There were only 2 swords in the whole nation – Saul's and Jonathan's. So the rest of the soldiers took plows and stuff to use as weapons. It seemed like millions against them – and Israel – everyone is hiding in caves...
1 Sam. 14:1 Now the day came that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the Philistines' garrison that is on yonder side." But he did not tell his father.
And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. 4 And between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp crag on the one side, and a sharp crag on the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5 The one crag rose on the north opposite Michmash, and the other on the south opposite Geba.
He has to do some major rock climbing to get to the Philistines.
6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few." 7 And his armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart; turn yourself, [and] here I am with you according to your desire.
This story is also about the armor bearer – what is an armor bearer? Someone who carries another's armor! A young lad – almost like a golf caddy – only it is life threatening! What happens when he goes to battle? What does the armor bearer do? He gives the sword and shield to the other guy!
8 Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them. 9 "If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you'; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them. 10 "But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hands; and this shall be the sign to us."
If I were the armor bearer, at this point, I'd be like, uh, hellooooo! Jonathan! Are you crazy?
11 And when both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, "Behold, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." 12 So the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will tell you something." And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel."
God likes to take these seemingly impossible circumstances to show us what He can do.
13 Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer behind him; and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer put some to death after him. 14 And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half a furrow in an acre of land. 15 And there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Even the garrison and the raiders trembled, and the earth quaked so that it became a great trembling.
16 Now Saul's watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted away; and they went here and [there.]
Think about it – this one tiny battle with one guy and his armor bearer – and all the Philistines start scattering!
1 Sam. 14:6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few."
This is the key. This is an example of true faith. The first thing that should strike you is the word, PERHAPS. Several versions say, MAYBE – which is a good translation – but it leads us to sense a sense of uncertainty – expectance – but with uncertainty. He knows it may be it for him! He is not pie in the sky, nothing bad can happen in my life.
Real faith acknowledges that things can go terribly wrong.
Genuine faith: Complete confidence in God's ability and His willingness to act on our behalf.
Does not presume to know God's ultimate purpose.
When he says, PERHAPS, he is not presuming to know God's ultimate purposes in life.
When they got the ark and took it into battle, they believed they would win – but the problem was that they were presuming upon God's ultimate purpose in their life. I think faith has to do with being able to accept and receive God's ultimate will for their lives.
Last week – they chose a king because they did not trust God's purpose and ability to work on their behalf -
We are afraid of God's will being done – not knowing the outcome or able to have control.
That is what Jonathan's doing here. He knew they needed to fight this battle – and he and his armor bearer had faith – that even if it went 'wrong' in our eyes, it would fulfill God's plans.
Tony emailed us – Cindy had talked to him – and he had seemed down. Normally, during the school year – they have about 300. During the summer – they have about 25 people there. “It's been a bit discouraging” - I told him – the outcomes often change – but what really matters is our faithfulness. He wants you to be faithful. Like John the Baptist – unworthy to tie His shoes – and if you are unworthy to untie His shoes, leading 25 in worship is a great honor.
We have an example of what this looks like so we can bring it into our own lives.
14:1 Now the day came that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the Philistines' garrison that is on yonder side."
He took initiative – it is not a passive thing! It is active! Jonathan takes action in life! He saw a need – all these people are hiding in caves – somebody has got to do something! And then he acts! That somebody needs to be you – it needs to be us!
For them – it was a time of war and God wanted to lead Israel into victory – the land was promised to them – and Jonathan understood this when the rest of Israel did not.
First – Initiative
Second – Clarity -
He understood who he was fighting - the enemies of God. He understood that this land was their land and that they were God's chosen people and the Philistines were not! (Obviously, this is the Old Testament – and not how life is to be lived today!)
Jonathan had clarity and understanding of God's plan and desires – you need that to act in faith – it will always be tied and connected to what God is doing – what His will is! If we dream it up ourselves – and then try to believe God for it – and if it is not in His purpose – we wonder why God did not act! We need to have clarity and understanding what His will is!
7 And his armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart; turn yourself, [and] here I am with you according to your desire."
Genuine faith is best worked out in community! There are times when a person is left to himself – and he has to exercise faith alone – but in general, we are called to community that we might strengthen one another's faith.
Heb. 3:12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is [still] called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
We need other people to encourage and strengthen our faith that we don't become unbelieving.
The community that supports faith – that battles! Others! Not against one another!
I found a cool website that I like – nine marks – interviews with pastors and scholars.
I was struck by how much battle goes on on the Internet between Christian leaders over some doctrinal issue. I thought that was terrible! It wasn't over Jesus, it was some doctrinal issue. The enemy would like to destroy us!
Another part of this – we suffer together, - we battle together. - there is a sense of suffering that is WITH one another! We struggle and suffer because of one another's flaws and brokenness. In community, you will suffer because of another's brokenness often, we are not willing to do this! We are not willing to suffer pain due to someone else's brokenness.
Do you experience pain due to someone else's brokenness? I do! That is really what the church is called to do!
If you read something in the Bible that is odd – pay attention!
It goes on in 14:8 Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them. 9 "If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you'; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them
Faith is flexible – resilient – it makes adjustments in life as circumstances change. I think we have it backwards – as things twist and turn, we make adjustments! That is what Jonathan is doing here – he has his eyes on God and He is allowing God to steer the direction!
Faith is tenacious and persistent – not stubbornness! Some people are just stubborn and use God to justify or allow their stubbornness – But God changes things in our lives! I know a number of folks who were pastors and God moved them into something different!
That happens in many ways in life – in all of our lives – there are things where God is moving – Faith is able to make those adjustments!
12 So the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will tell you something." And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel."
Genuine faith takes risks! If it is different from thrill seeking... -
If you are going to be a person of faith – you will take risks – McManus says that faith and safe are oxymorons – there is always risk associated with genuine faith.
We are not going to be asked to climb a mountain to risk in battle – but there is risk in community.
How many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times (little risk!) No, Seventy times seven – there is risk – in this church – you will be offended – and you will need to forgive. I can also promise you this – you will offend others in this church – because you are a people!
Second – in the gospel – it takes risk to be able to step out and initiate a relationship to be able to share your faith. To take the initiative – or to minister to people – but in life and ministry – there are opportunities to minister to others – and it is a step of risk.
I challenge you this week – look for a risk – NOT THRILL-SEEKING – but a chance to do God's will that will be a risky step – it may be taking a coworker out to lunch and trying to generate a spiritual conversation. Or if someone has a need that takes a risk to meet – meet it!
Get out there!
Let's pray.
Lord, I ask that You lead us this week – as people – in our daily lives – to stand and say – Hey – this is my opportunity to climb over and to present myself and to win a battle for Christ. Help us to take that initiative – that you are not constrained to save by few.