Finding your Spiritual Address - 3

Finding your Spiritual Address - 3

With a young child, she was kicked out of her house by her husband. Unemployed. Had to go on state benefits. Not making ends meet – she tried her hand at writing and was not succeeding. During a train ride – she had a vision of a story about a boy named Harry. Now JK Rowling is a billionaire.

Jay Sorenson – a guy who managed a gas station. It closed – was out of a job. Financially, was struggling. Was in a coffee shop – probably in the mid-80s – was drinking hot coffee, the cup burned his fingers and spilled it in his lap – thought there must be a better way of doing this. Went out and invented the coffee jacket – that cardboard sleeve that goes around the cup. He went to Starbucks – but they turned him down because they wanted exclusive rights – so he borrowed $3000 from his parents and produced it himself. There was going to be a tradeshow – signed up 115 coffee shops and makes 20-25 million of those per month.

We love to hear these rags to riches stories – but the reality is that it is just not…though it does happen on occasion, that is not everyone’s reality. Most of us have to work really hard and if we are down on our luck, to persevere to get back.

When it comes to our relationship with God and discovering a spiritual wealth or spiritual success, all of us, no matter where we are in life, this could happen to us. We can all go from rags to riches spiritually.

We have been looking at our spiritual address – discovering God’s purpose for our lives – His calling, His plan. When we learn to operate out of that realm, we are living out of our spiritual address. In light of all our circumstances, we think, how can I really experience God’s calling? Real things seem to hold us back from doing anything of significance for Him – and even in that circumstance and situation – we have the opportunity to move forward and do as God would have us do.

Being able to do what God has called you and created you to do – that is what it means to operate out of our spiritual address.

It is not about how much money you make. Spiritually, you can’t say, doing this or that is success – but it is what God has called each of us to.

2 Sam. 23: 11 Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.

Many of you have probably never heard of Shammah. He is only mentioned a few times – but I want to look at his story – because as small as it is, it is significant for each of us. The Israelites were fighting the Philistines. The primary enemy. Like Al Qaeda. The Philistines were much more advanced – they had the technology and weapons. The opposite of when we went into Iraq – the Philistines had all the advantages from a military standpoint – but the Israelites had the advantage from a God-standpoint.

The people of Israel fled. They were experiencing defeat. The Philistines had come up to this field of lentils and Israel knew they were outnumbered and fled. That is when the greatest defeats usually happened – when the enemy flees. Reports of one army having terrible losses – you may have seen Henry V – the Battle of Agincourt – the aides come in and list the dead of the English and there were tens of them, and Henry thinks, Oh no, what loss we have suffered. And then he gives the loss of the French – and there were 10’s of thousands. That is kind of what is going on here. They are suffering incredible defeat – but in the midst of that, Shammah took his stand. He took his stand. There is one guy – you can see him – when everyone else is fleeing – and he alone holds out his sword against the Philistines. The Lord brought about a great victory. One guy knew what God wanted – He knew God’s purpose for his life. He knew his spiritual address –what he was supposed to do.

As we look at the text, there are a couple of questions. Why him? What was special about him? He had to be a man of courage. It does not say much – it just says that he did. There are three guys this passage talks about – David’s mighty Men. These were the men who hung out with David – through the good and bad times. When David was hiding in caves, they were there with him. These three were heads and tails above the rest – they were the elite force for David – like his right-hand men. Being with David, they had to have learned from him. Here is a clue to how he could stand when everyone else fled. Let’s look back to 1 Sam. 17:43 – when David was fighting Goliath.

43 And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field."

Here is the world’s largest man with the world’s largest spear – and a young man comes in – not a trained warrior – and Goliath has all the armor and weapons – and David has a slingshot and a few small stones…

45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. 46 "This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands.

David understood – when it comes to the battles of life – any circumstance we are in – the battle belongs to God. He was fulfilling God’s purpose, plan, and calling in his life. He knew what God wanted for him. He operated in that understanding. David understood that when you do that, you will succeed. When we come to Shammah here – I think he understood this too. This little plot belonged to Israel. If you go through the Old Testament, it is all about the land. This belonged to God. And even if there were thousands coming after him – that is what God had called him to do. He had no guarantee that he would survive the onslaught, but he acted.

Second question – where did he stand? A field of lentils. This was not a great city. It was a field of lentils. Like soybeans. But think about it – here come the armies – you are not in the city, you are in the middle of a soybean field. Why not let them have it? This was God’s land. It may have seemed small and insignificant – maybe not even worth taking the time for. At times in our lives, we find ourselves in insignificant circumstances, so we think that it is not important to stand for God’s purposes in that situation. Choose your battles? A good motto – but when it comes to God’s battles, they are chosen for us.

Significant people often come from insignificant places.

You might feel like your spiritual address is pretty small. But in God’s mind, there is no small place. Even the insignificant can become significant when it is God’s battle.

Significant victories come from what appear to be insignificant battles.

Band of Brothers – the 101st Airborne Division/Pathfinders - Dropped in behind enemy lines in France – before the Normandy invasion – they had the highest casualty rate of anyone in WWII.

This picture was taken the day after D-day. They fought a battle at Brecourt

Big guns – 40 or 50 Germans manning these big guns. They took that place and gained command of the big guns. They still teach the strategy at West Point today. It was all set up and helped by this battle of 12 guys – these 12 made all the difference – key to the success of the allies.

One battle can turn the tide. We know that in war, but it is true in life as well. One battle can turn the tide in your circumstances as well. For Shammah, it was a lentil field. That one battle turned the tide for Israel. For your own life, understand that you acting and going into battle in that situation can turn the tide.

To make this practical – what do we do? In order to take us where we are and to operate in such a way to make a difference? You need to know where you are – accurately assess your spiritual condition. We are often afraid. We hate to be evaluated – we don’t want people to say anything bad about us. But it is even harder to evaluate ourselves.

What is my spiritual condition? What events are having the biggest impact in my life? Look at those things with open eyes. For me, I see things that I am not comfortable with. Things I need to change. No one likes to change. But the reality is – we have things that have to change. Even looking at the location – where God has you – and the season of life you are in – That is step one.

Step two is – begin where you are. Work in the circumstances you’ve been found. It is right there – God has you right there – and it is there God wants you to work. God had Shammah in a lentil field – but that is where He wanted Him to work. You may find yourself – it might not have been good things getting you where you are – but that is where you are – so work from there. We wish certain things were different.

If it is a lentil field – make lentil-ade! Oh my – I shouldn’t have said that.

Think of one thing right now to change. It may be a negative thing. It may be something that you want to begin doing for God. You know. One thing. Like Shammah – STAND. Do not back down. When you do that – there begins to begin a snowball effect of change. You might not invent the coffee sleeve and all your problems will be over – but your fulfilling God’s purpose for you begins with that one thing that God has been placing his finger on.

In my own life – usually something keeps coming up – ‘this is what hurts my relationship with God, my wife, or whatever’ – that is the thing for you. Deal with it. Even if it is a small thing – it is that small thing that sets into motion all the other things that hinder you. Stand!

3 – What is it we are to do? This is simple – The Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Love God – Love others. That encompasses it. Those simple things. It is not complicated. How do I love God better? What does God want me to do for Him? How do I love people better? How do I love so that others are brought into relationship with God? Even in our careers – it boils down to loving God and loving others so that they love God. That is the Christian life.

Who are the people living at your spiritual address? At your work, at the interse3ction of your life – who is there? Those are the ones God is calling you to. That is your address. Maybe you want a different one – but you don’t have one.

Finally – as we see Shammah in the Lentil Field – he did not win that victory, did he? It was God. The reality is – it is not a matter of reading the right books to change your circumstances and who you are. God has to bring about the victory. With this guy, he understood it like David did. The Lord is the one who gives the victory – we need to recognize that. In our situation – we would write the lentil-field battle strategy guide. We try to become more strategic than God – we have our plans, our programs, our processes – but sometimes that needs to be thrown out the window – and just trust God. That is not to say it is not good to have a plan, the Bible is clear it does – but if it replaces our trust of God, that is wrong.