The Avenue

The other day I was flipping through an old picture album and stumbled upon many pictures from when Sarah and I were dating.  Our ten year anniversary is coming up in December and I was struck with how much I have changed.  Not just the 15 pounds I have gained and the gray hairs that are beginning to form, but I remembered who I was at that point of my life.  I was so arrogant, believing I was Gods gift to ministry instead of understanding the gift of ministry that God gives me.  I was so foolish in my understanding of the word and in my understanding of grace.  I remember believing that I needed to prove something to God and others.  I thought God was in love with a future version of me that had been cleaned up and fixed, instead of accepting his simple grace in my life.  I thought the greatest problems that existed lived outside of me, never considering they could be inside my own heart.  I loved to blame others sin instead of really seeing the sin in my own heart.

This led me to a simple question:  What will I say ten years from now while scrolling through our “2009 memories” picture album?  I will be 44 years old, and I hope I don’t add another 15 pounds.   I don’t mind the gray hairs, as long as I still have hair to speak of.  More than that, I pray I will see the foolishness of my ways today & see how God is making me more like him each day!

David’s men experienced the same thing.  In fact, when we are first introduced to David’s men the word mighty would be far from my mind.

In 1 Sam 22:1-2 we find David in a cave, depressed & discouraged.  Just look at how the mighty men are described, ”all those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him.”  So David is stuck in a cave with a group of men deeply in need of self help books, Dave Ramsey and maybe just a hug.  There is nothing mighty here.

Then, we find these guys in 1 Sam 23:1-3, but his time we find David going to the mighty men telling them the Lord has told them to fight.  They respond by telling him “we are afraid.”  This doesn’t sound like lion fighters, hands frozen to swords and 800 men killed in one battle type of guys. There is nothing mighty here.

How about 1 Sam 30:1-6?  Here we find David’s men in crises when their wives and children were captured.  The mighty men wanted to stone David, but when they pursued the captives 200 of the men were too tired to even continue.  Imagine that, your wife and children captured, their lives dependent on you and you are just too worn out to continue.  There is nothing mighty here.

So I ask myself, what changed?  What changed in me over the last 10 years?  What changed in David’s mighty men?  How were they transformed from cowards and complainers, to men who would risk their lives to get a glass of water for their king?

It’s not about the men; it’s about the king!  As David’s men stayed close to their king, they grew.  They moved from being men of distress to men of courage, from being men of crises to problem solvers, from being cowards to being mighty men.  The key is not their morality, but it’s their proximity to their king!  The closer they stay to the king, the longer they are in his presence and the more they become like him.  So men, let your affections for your king drive your actions.  Know that we are all lowly men in a cave with nothing to offer, but somehow he continues to make us His mighty men.

Where in your life do you need to let your affections drive your actions?  In what ways will you draw near to your king this week?  Who will you be in 10 years & what will be said of the exploits of David’s mighty men.  Men at the post, I love you with all of my heart, I pray for you daily – Stay close to the king!

Eccl 3:11 –

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Technology Advancing my heart Failing

There’s a battle going on in all of us.  Its one I feel everyday & I’m sure you do as well but rarely do we take the time to reflect on the simple glory of passages like Eccl 3:11.  The battle is simply that I wasn’t made for this temporary world but was created for eternity.   Inside our hearts rests the desires of eternity, and the hopes of the everlasting.  Maybe that’s why we find inside our culture such a deep-seated restlessness for more!

It’s the battle between a heart that belongs to eternity & a mind that can’t seem to escape the temporal.  AW Tozer, pastor & theologian once wrote, “the brain revels in every modern advancement while the heart says, “that won’t satisfy.”  The brain cries for improvement while the heart cries for everlastingness.  The heart will never be satisfied with the desires of the brain.  The heart was made for everlastingness while the brain suffocates under the cloud of depravity.”

So we have all around us this modern technology that tells us we are progressing, evolving & moving forward.  Think about it, the simple fact that this morning you got in your car & drove to work is a sign of our advancement.  What took you 10 minutes in a drive would once have taken a day by foot or by horseback.   So inside our brain we are pleased with our advancement & pleased with our progress but deep down the heart speaks the truth that it’s all temporary.  It won’t be long before the next gadget will replace the one we have and the newer technology will replace the one we love most.  This cycle, according to Tozer, will repeat as we cultivate a society of comfort & entertainment, which will never satisfy our hearts but may occupy our brains for a moment.

Maybe the Psalmist knew best in Psalms 73 when he said, “Whom have I in heaven but you and on earth there is nothing I desire besides you.”

So tonight I find myself fearful of tomorrow, I find myself worrying about next week.  I find myself hoping for the temporal, I find myself wrapped up with the comfortable.  Maybe the message for me is still the simplicity of the gospel (funny how everything comes back to it).  The eternal God who took on flesh & dwelt among us, went to a cross & died to free my heart from the temporary & to give me eternity!  I can’t fathom what he has done from beginning to end but I know everything is beautiful in its time.  So this moment belongs to Him, and tomorrow belongs to him, next month, next year and everyday for the rest of our lives exist with the beauty that the almighty God set eternity in our hearts but gave us the moment.

So that I like the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians can say, “I resolve to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ & Him crucified!”

Last week I had the chance to speak to all the men of our community.

It was the first time we had split the guys & girls @the post but I was thrilled for the chance to speak to our young men.  Its one of the reasons I do what I do!  In our community each week sits future fathers & husbands, future CEO’s & missionaries, future pastors & teachers.  I feel like there are moments when I can see the future shaped by these young men who commit to multigenerational faithfulness.

I landed on 2 Sam 23 – The Story of David’s mighty men – Read through it if you aren’t familiar -

We get these stories of real men:

Josheb-Bassehebeth – killed 800 men in one encounter – In a fair fight I could take out a few guys, maybe 10 on a good day!  800 – That dude is no joke

Eleazor son of Dodai – Everyone else retreated & Eleazor fought the Philistines until his hand froze to the sword.

Abashai – killed 300 men

Benaniah – Went into a pit with a lion on a snowy day

Or my favorite story where David mentions he is thirsty & 3 of his men fight through the enemy lines in order to bring the king a simple drink of water!

This phrase keeps repeating – “Such were the exploits of David’s mighty men”

So I asked our men, what will our exploits be?  What battle stories will be told of us?  What barriers will we fight through together?  How will we stand together?  What will we give our lives to?

Men there is a warrior in all of us, there is a desire to fight injustice and oppression.  To often I see young men who are looking for a fight but don’t have the stomach for the battle.   So men what stories will be told of us?  What battles will we win so that the next generation will know our king?  What will the exploits be of the young men from the Post?

At the Catalyst conference this year in Atlanta, Chuck Swindoll said, “God can not pour his riches into hands that are already full.”   While preparing to preach to our community about singleness this week, I began to observe all of their anxiety over meeting that future spouse.  I’ve watched our men become so controlled by what they don’t have that they can’t be consumed by the grace they do have!  I watched too many of our young woman lower their standards and fail morally because they did not trust that the Lord would give them the man who truly would become their partner & spiritual leader.   What I am most distressed about and what hurts me the most is to watch these people I love carry this weight & burden.  I see the exhaustion in their eyes & I simply want them to experience the grace that comes from total surrender.  I want them to know they can trust God to carry that weight for them!

During the process of observing this weight others carry, I began to realize the many weights piled upon my own back.  I wondered, are my hands so full most days that I can’t really experience what God desires to give me?  The answer is a resounding yes!

The list of items, which weigh me down, is much too long to share.  I’m so far from where I’d like to be, but I want to make sure I share a few of the major weights in my life with you over the next few weeks.

“The Crowd”

If you are involved in ministry, or if you simply love those around you, then you know what it feels like to want something more for someone than they want for themselves.  You know the pain of carrying the weight of those who won’t listen, won’t obey, won’t change, won’t repent, won’t forgive, won’t believe, and ultimately won’t experience the fullness of all the Lord has to offer.

Moses knew this in Numbers 11

Church people complaining, because as Matt Chandler says, “church people were so different back then.”  I love Moses’ breakdown because I find myself praying the same prayers sometimes.  “When will the complaining stop?  When will there be a moment of peace?  What did I do this time?”

V.14 kills me because I know this feeling – “I cannot carry all these people by myself;  the burden is too heavy for me.”

What I really want is to hear the Lord give Moses a pep talk, to tell Moses that he is good enough, strong enough & capable of carrying this burden alone.  I want a gentle God here, who builds up Moses’ self esteem.  Maybe this is the issue I struggle with because God never wants me to build up confidence in myself.  He wants me to build up my confidence in Him.  So, he simply says, “bring me 70 of Israel’s elders.”

Bring it to me!  Bring them to me!  Lead them to me!  Point them to me!  Your right Moses, it is too much for you.  The weight of pastoring, the weight of the burdens we carry as ministers is much too heavy for all of us.  But the God we serve is the God of giving as well as receiving!  He gives us the grace to survive, and receives the burdens of the people, the people we serve, the people He created, the people whom He loves much more than I ever could.

What is the weight that you carry that you need to bring to Him?