"Moreover David was greatly
distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people
were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But
David strengthened himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6)."
Through the agreement of the Holy Spirit of God, Pastor Brown's sermon
Sunday was grounded in this passage from our One Year Bible reading... for today. He used the words of Donald
Lawrence's well-known song "Encourage Yourself." I first heard the
song at Glide Church. The music director often had the ensemble sing it
after the opening prayer. It was a reminder that God's Word does not
need to come to us from any specific person, any particular liturgical
practice or at any special moment.
It was and is a reminder that God's Word is there for us, right now; and through the righteousness that is ours through God's love. In Jesus Christ, we have the authority to speak that Word "over ourselves." No one else may get it. No one else may understand. No one else may be going through what we are going through. No one else may feel what we are feeling, suffer from what we are suffering, agonize over what troubles us. Rev. Lawrence wrote simply:
"Sometimes you have to encourage yourself.
Sometimes you have to speak victory during the test."
Pastor Brown reminded us that the time to "talk trash" is not after the battle is over but in the midst of it. God has already won our battles, solved our problems, met our needs, overcome the enemy, restored our peace, restored our peace, restored our peace!!!!! We just need to claim it. Don't wait 'til the battle's over, shout now! You know in the end--your going to win!"
David had left the city of Ziklag to join his Philistine hosts in the battle against King Saul and his forces. While David had not given it much thought, the commanders of the Philistine army protested his participation. "It is not in his interest to fight against his own people," they thought, so they sent him back to Ziklag.
When David and his men returned, they found their city burned to the ground by the neighboring Amalekites, and all of their wives, sons, and daughters carried away alive. After weeping until "there was no strength left in them," the men he had led and who had served him and loved him began to turn on him. They prepared to stone him. Why had he led them away on this ill-thought mission, leaving all they held dear vulnerable and unprotected? We are not strangers to such circumstances. After we have exhausted ourselves in grief, struggle, worry, pain, those we trust and look to for support "turn on us." This is why the Word of God warns "Put not your trust in princes, neither in the children of normal human beings in whom there is no help. Trust God and God alone."
David's grief was compounded. After the loss of his wives, his children, he now faced the loss of friendship, of confidence among those he led, and confidence in himself. But the scribe records in I Samuel 30:6,
"David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."
Pastor Brown's sermon is not, "Be Encouraged" but rather "STAY ENCOURAGED."
David found strength, not from loved ones--they had been taken away, not from friends--they had turned on him, not from his allies the Philistines--they didn't trust him. He went to Yahweh, to Jehovah, the the One God who never leaves us or forsakes us, and is always waiting for us to claim our victory, claim our deliverance, claim our healing, claim our financial distress, claim our loss and demonstrate LOVE for us. He already knew that the same God who delivered him from the lion, from the bear, from Goliath and from Saul, already had his back and his front (his future).
We serve a God whose name is VICTORY! In the Second Epistle to the church at Corinth, the Apostle writes, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (4:7-10).
A friend recently reminded me that it was and is not in the "eating of the bread" of the Lord's Supper that we recognize Jesus. The eating is a symbolic act of appropriating a far greater truth. The companions on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:30-31) recognized Jesus in "the blessing, breaking and giving of the bread." They stated that when he "broke the bread" they recognized that it was Jesus. We have been blessed to share his brokenness, and Christ takes our broken lives and replaces them with his own glorified eternal soul-life. The breaking we experience is a part of our blessing. We let go of what cannot sustain us, to grab hold to the One who carries us through all circumstances, all political struggles, all legal problems, all rejections and layoffs, all illnesses, all losses, all failures, all disappointments, God always wins!-Glory to God's Name!
The symbol of discipleship in Christ is "a broken life," one that totally depends upon and finds its power, its blessing, its future, its victory in God. "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit (the spirit of this world and this life) for theirs is the realm of God." God desires not sacrifice and offering but a "broken spirit" a "contrite heart." We are made strong through what we suffer--right then--in the midst of the suffering, when we join Rev. Lawrence and David and Pastor Brown and many other countless children of God and declare "VICTORY!" in the midst of our crises. We always win, because God has already won for us.
God will be with us as we "tear down the walls of our Jericho." We lift our eyes to the "hills." We seek the high and mighty. We think that unless we are strong and powerful and rich and secure with lots of friends and supporters that we will be successful. But Psalm 121 reminds us that our help does not come the "hills" the high places, the high and the mighty, the outward signs of strength and success. Our help comes from the Lord (Yahweh) (Jehovah). The Psalmist continues to offer praise to the One God declaring:
"My help--the Lord--made heaven and earth. He does not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you never sleeps
The One who keeps Israel: those who adhere to, trust in and rely on--who strive after and struggle with God for their very lives, is your keeper, the shade at your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from ALL EVIL; God WILL KEEP YOUR SOUL!"
"No matter how you feel, speak the Word and you will be
healed. . . . The enemy created walls, but remember
giants do fall; Speak over yourself,
encourage yourself in the Lord."
Right now--start talking trash--start claiming God's victory in every phase, every aspect of your existence. Open God's Word so that your words of hopelessness, cynicism, doubt and failure will no longer guide your life and direct your actions, To paraphrase St. Francis of Assisi, "Let go of despair and grab on to Hope--to God!"
What I have written here is far more important than any political statement I have every made, any great truth regarding social change, and the most important truth needed for the transformation of ourselves in preparation for God's great day in our midst. Take hold in faith and enjoy and live, and . . .
Stay encouraged!.
Don
It was and is a reminder that God's Word is there for us, right now; and through the righteousness that is ours through God's love. In Jesus Christ, we have the authority to speak that Word "over ourselves." No one else may get it. No one else may understand. No one else may be going through what we are going through. No one else may feel what we are feeling, suffer from what we are suffering, agonize over what troubles us. Rev. Lawrence wrote simply:
"Sometimes you have to encourage yourself.
Sometimes you have to speak victory during the test."
Pastor Brown reminded us that the time to "talk trash" is not after the battle is over but in the midst of it. God has already won our battles, solved our problems, met our needs, overcome the enemy, restored our peace, restored our peace, restored our peace!!!!! We just need to claim it. Don't wait 'til the battle's over, shout now! You know in the end--your going to win!"
David had left the city of Ziklag to join his Philistine hosts in the battle against King Saul and his forces. While David had not given it much thought, the commanders of the Philistine army protested his participation. "It is not in his interest to fight against his own people," they thought, so they sent him back to Ziklag.
When David and his men returned, they found their city burned to the ground by the neighboring Amalekites, and all of their wives, sons, and daughters carried away alive. After weeping until "there was no strength left in them," the men he had led and who had served him and loved him began to turn on him. They prepared to stone him. Why had he led them away on this ill-thought mission, leaving all they held dear vulnerable and unprotected? We are not strangers to such circumstances. After we have exhausted ourselves in grief, struggle, worry, pain, those we trust and look to for support "turn on us." This is why the Word of God warns "Put not your trust in princes, neither in the children of normal human beings in whom there is no help. Trust God and God alone."
David's grief was compounded. After the loss of his wives, his children, he now faced the loss of friendship, of confidence among those he led, and confidence in himself. But the scribe records in I Samuel 30:6,
"David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."
Pastor Brown's sermon is not, "Be Encouraged" but rather "STAY ENCOURAGED."
David found strength, not from loved ones--they had been taken away, not from friends--they had turned on him, not from his allies the Philistines--they didn't trust him. He went to Yahweh, to Jehovah, the the One God who never leaves us or forsakes us, and is always waiting for us to claim our victory, claim our deliverance, claim our healing, claim our financial distress, claim our loss and demonstrate LOVE for us. He already knew that the same God who delivered him from the lion, from the bear, from Goliath and from Saul, already had his back and his front (his future).
We serve a God whose name is VICTORY! In the Second Epistle to the church at Corinth, the Apostle writes, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (4:7-10).
A friend recently reminded me that it was and is not in the "eating of the bread" of the Lord's Supper that we recognize Jesus. The eating is a symbolic act of appropriating a far greater truth. The companions on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:30-31) recognized Jesus in "the blessing, breaking and giving of the bread." They stated that when he "broke the bread" they recognized that it was Jesus. We have been blessed to share his brokenness, and Christ takes our broken lives and replaces them with his own glorified eternal soul-life. The breaking we experience is a part of our blessing. We let go of what cannot sustain us, to grab hold to the One who carries us through all circumstances, all political struggles, all legal problems, all rejections and layoffs, all illnesses, all losses, all failures, all disappointments, God always wins!-Glory to God's Name!
The symbol of discipleship in Christ is "a broken life," one that totally depends upon and finds its power, its blessing, its future, its victory in God. "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit (the spirit of this world and this life) for theirs is the realm of God." God desires not sacrifice and offering but a "broken spirit" a "contrite heart." We are made strong through what we suffer--right then--in the midst of the suffering, when we join Rev. Lawrence and David and Pastor Brown and many other countless children of God and declare "VICTORY!" in the midst of our crises. We always win, because God has already won for us.
God will be with us as we "tear down the walls of our Jericho." We lift our eyes to the "hills." We seek the high and mighty. We think that unless we are strong and powerful and rich and secure with lots of friends and supporters that we will be successful. But Psalm 121 reminds us that our help does not come the "hills" the high places, the high and the mighty, the outward signs of strength and success. Our help comes from the Lord (Yahweh) (Jehovah). The Psalmist continues to offer praise to the One God declaring:
"My help--the Lord--made heaven and earth. He does not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you never sleeps
The One who keeps Israel: those who adhere to, trust in and rely on--who strive after and struggle with God for their very lives, is your keeper, the shade at your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from ALL EVIL; God WILL KEEP YOUR SOUL!"
"No matter how you feel, speak the Word and you will be
healed. . . . The enemy created walls, but remember
giants do fall; Speak over yourself,
encourage yourself in the Lord."
Right now--start talking trash--start claiming God's victory in every phase, every aspect of your existence. Open God's Word so that your words of hopelessness, cynicism, doubt and failure will no longer guide your life and direct your actions, To paraphrase St. Francis of Assisi, "Let go of despair and grab on to Hope--to God!"
What I have written here is far more important than any political statement I have every made, any great truth regarding social change, and the most important truth needed for the transformation of ourselves in preparation for God's great day in our midst. Take hold in faith and enjoy and live, and . . .
Stay encouraged!.
Don
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