Destroyers And Spear Throwers - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Boy, that's the power of forgiveness. You see, the power of forgiveness is it can change the course of the whole world. It can change the course of your world. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Typical people who are bullies.

What you see is not what you get, no matter how impressive they look on the outside. There's something wrong inside. There's a deficiency and Saul has it. Verse 20. Thus, Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near. They're going to be introduced to Saul and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. And then he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families. And he says in the Matrite family was taken and the Saul, the son of Kish, was taken. But when they look for him, they couldn't find him. Now, this is the big moment.

First king of Israel, you know, you're the celebrity. You can't find him. Now watch. Therefore, they inquired further of the Lord. Has the man come here yet?

So the Lord said, behold. He's hiding himself by the baggage. He's hiding.

Why? He's scared. He's insecure. You see, he's insecure. He might be tall. He might be handsome. He might be a prophet and he might be anointed, but he's scared. He has no confidence at all.

No self-confidence. And so they ran and they took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people.

And so all the people shouted, Long live the king. Wow. If it was only up to that much, this would have been a credible story. But there's much more to it. As you know, let's go ahead to Chapter 15. And verse 17. God had given Saul very direct orders about conquering the people around him. And it didn't turn out to be exactly the way God had said. So in verse 17, Samuel said, Is it not true? He says, though you were little in your own eyes. See, Samuel gives us some insight.

Though you were little in your own eyes, he has no self-confidence. He says you were made the head of the tribes of Israel. And the Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord? You took spoil from them. Then Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord. And I went on the mission and went to which the Lord had sent me and have brought back Agag. He says the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, the sheep and the oxen, the choices, things and devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord God at Gilgal.

Now, notice one of the things he does. He diverts the responsibility just like Cain and said it's the people. Well, who's responsible to lead the people? I think it says right there on your crown, King.

That's the idea. The king leads the people. He said, no, the people did that.

And by the way, it's not that bad. They're going to sacrifice a lot of this stuff to you anyway. Well, Samuel says, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than that of the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. You're out. You see, that's what he does.

You are out. Now, this is interesting because you know how the story goes, where in Chapter 15 and Chapter 16, somebody gets introduced. Chuck Swindoll calls him a nobody.

Nobody noticed. He's the last son of Jesse. His name is David. And he is the one that God now picks. And says, people look at the outside, how tall Saul was, how handsome.

I look at the inside, see what's inside the human being. Now, something happens. If you remember, it happens in Chapter 17. It's the Sunday school story that you know so well as David and Goliath. Now, you remember the story. Goliath and the Philistines are going to do battle with the Israelites, and it's across the large valley.

And one of the ways you could handle a battle then is use your champion against their champion and save the lives of all the army. So the Philistines sent their champion Goliath. Now, the problem with Goliath for Israel was he's a big dude. Nine feet, nine inches.

Nine feet, nine inches. That's a big man. That's a scary, scary big man. And so he starts taunting Israel. And he says, send someone down to fight me.

Let's do it. And he moves across the valley when you read Chapter 17 from his side all the way up to their side, coming up the other side. Meanwhile, sort of back at the ranch, Jesse sends David to the front lines where his brothers, older brothers, are soldiers.

And he's there. He sends them there to give them some food. He brings a big mac and fries to them.

And they just so they have something to eat. And he gets there and he looks down at the valley and he sees everybody up here trembling. And David just says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that's taunting the armies of the living God? That's his first response. Now, his brothers don't like it at all. I mean, his brother's like, who are you? You're just a kid. You don't get it. You see the size of this guy?

You know, what do you mean talking like that? So his brothers say to him, hey, you know what? If somebody will go and fight him and defeat him, Saul will make you wealthy.

You see, there's a lot of rewards. David says, hey, I'll go get him. So they send him to Saul's tent. And Saul says to David after he sees him like, look, you're just a kid.

You see, you're just a kid. Now, there's some similarities and some things that are opposite between David and Saul. David is also handsome.

He's a very handsome guy, but he's not big and he's just a kid at this stage. So he's handsome and not big, but he's also anointed by God, just like Saul was. And he's unusually gifted.

I mean, think of David. He could write music. He could play instruments. He could write poetry. He's a great warrior. This kid is something.

But there's the big difference. David had great confidence in himself because he had great confidence in the Lord. Saul had no confidence in the Lord. So David says, I will go and fight him. He goes, he can't be a problem for me. The lion and the bear came to steal the sheep and I killed them.

He's only a teenager. He said, if I kill a lion and a bear, I can certainly kill this guy. So Saul, trying to be a little self righteous, says, how about putting on my armor and go fight him? Now, Saul is a fifty too long and David's a thirty six short. So David puts the armor on and the helmet comes down to here on him and he's standing there and it says in scripture, he tried to walk.

He couldn't even move it. There's a great lesson that, by the way, you can't fight giants in your life with somebody else's resources. You only fight them with yours. So David takes them off and says, look, I've got my sling.

That's all I need. Well, you know how the story goes. He plants one right there and he kills Goliath. And it's a great day for Israel. Now, I want to pick up the story in Chapter 18, verse five.

The aftermath. So David went out wherever Saul sent him and he prospered and Saul sent him, set him over the men of war. And it was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. And it happened as they were coming when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel. And they were singing and dancing to meet King Saul and with tambourines and with joy and with musical instruments. There is a party. They have defeated the Philistines and they start out by singing this song.

The woman sang as they played. Saul has slain his thousands. So love that.

Spear throwers love that. I say, who did he say? See, who did Saul slay? By the way, sidebar, who's the tallest man in Israel?

Who should have fought Goliath? It's Saul. So Saul loved the first verse. Saul loves this.

Isn't this great? But he hates the second verse. Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Oh, boy. You see, spear throwers don't like to share the glory at all.

They do not like to share the glory at all. And Saul became very angry for this saying displeased him. And he said they have ascribed to David ten thousands.

But to me, they have described thousands. Now, what more can he have with the kingdom? Oh, that's right. Spear throwers are paranoid. You see, he's paranoid. He's going to take my kingdom. He's been nothing but a faithful subject to yours. He had the courage to face Goliath for you. He'll do whatever you ask.

You want a song? He'll play you one. You want to go fight an army?

He'll go. Saul said he wants my kingdom. Well, there's the paranoia of a spear thrower. And so he looked at David with suspicion from that day on. And it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mighty upon Saul.

And he raved in the midst of the house. And David was playing the harp with his hand as usual. And a spear was in Saul's hand and Saul hurled a spear for he thought, I will pin David to the wall.

But David escaped from his presence twice. There's the spear throwing. What's Saul's answer to this? I'll kill him. You see, then the adulation will be mine.

Then the credit will come to me. You see how similar he is to Cain. There's not much difference between a destroyer and a spear thrower. There's just a little bit different. I want to now give you some of the characteristics of a spear thrower from Saul.

Saul believed that the kingdom was his, not God's. You see, that's a problem. And if you're a spear thrower, that's your problem. What I mean by that? Well, I mean this. I mean, you believe your vocation is your vocation. But it's God's vocation. You believe that your resources are your resources. But they're God's resources. You see, you believe that your abilities are your abilities, but they're God's abilities. You see this all through scripture, especially in the discourses of Christ.

And above all, you think that your life's your life. But it's God's life. You see, that's what Saul didn't get. Spear throws don't get that.

They just don't. That's why they're so destructive. Let me illustrate that idea that your life is not your life. This past week, we were over in Florida in my son's house over there. And while we were over there in a backyard, there is a very steep hill. And so when I went out to the steep hill in the backyard, the hill was about as steep. It's not quite as steep, I think, as a pump canal hill going down to the water like on West Espinade.

But it's steeper than a levee. It's like this. And so I notice that the neighbors have a deck and small children that's pretty high up on the fence, and they throw all their toys over the fence. So whenever I'm over there, I go and I throw all the toys back.

This time I threw out five, six trucks, a jacket, all kinds of stuff. I was thrown back over the fence. Well, meanwhile, while I was standing on the hill, sort of one foot up, one down, there was this big kind of weed, like a berry bush, but a weed. And it had maybe eight, 10-foot stems on it, about three or four of them. And I thought, well, I've got to get that out of there.

It's up against the fence. So I grabbed it and pulled on it, and I thought, I saw the roots moving. So I thought, wow, I think I can pull that right out of the ground.

So I get myself over it, and I give it all I got. Well, the stem snaps. So I just go straight backwards.

First thing is I land on a Yucca plan, which was not a good idea. But then I immediately started spinning down the hill. So I stretched out my legs and feet and stopped. And then I got up immediately and looked and seen if anyone would see me. So I go to my son's house, and I tell him the story. My sons enjoy any time something like that happens to me.

And he thought it was a pretty good story. So he asked me, would you install or help install my ceiling fan in the den? I got a new ceiling fan. I said, sure, I've installed a lot of ceiling fans.

I'd be glad to. Well, it's a high ceiling, and so it has an eight-foot step ladder. So everyone was going, I was up doing the wiring at the top of the ladder, and I had a tool down there that I still needed.

So as I come down the ladder, I'm maybe the third step from the bottom, but somehow in my mind I think it's the bottom step. So I just start going, and of course you know what happened. I went, fell down on my back, and the aluminum ladder fell forward over their sofa and clanked. Then my son and his wife came rushing in and said, are you okay? Are you okay? And I got up and I said, I'm fine.

I'm completely fine. So my son just stares at me for the longest time, and he says, didn't you fall off your roof a couple years ago? And I said, yes, I did. I said, the ladder clipped out, and I hit the rain gutter, and it fell back onto our patio. He said, you know what I think?

He said, I think you're invincible as long as you're doing what God wants you to do. There's some truth to that. There's truth to that. Why is that? It's not my life.

I mean, I've done enough stupid things in the last few years to be dead. But it's not my life. It's his life.

This is what Job wrote. The Lord gave. The Lord's taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's him. You see, your life doesn't belong to you. A spear thrower thinks, no, it's my life.

I'll do it. No, it's God's life. He refused to think the kingdom was God's. He thought it was his own.

Also, he displayed acute insecurity and jealousy. Spear throwers are so insecure and so jealous. You know, some people have to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.

They do. They just have to be the center. I just have to be the center of attention. That's a spear throw mentality, because when somebody else is, and inevitably there are always people who are, you'll become jealous, just like Saul did with David.

He displayed an amazing amount of jealousy and insecurity. By the way, a sidebar on that, if you work for a spear thrower. Good luck with your next promotion. You won't get it. He'll want credit. She'll want credit.

Spear throwers want the credit. They do not give it to others. You've all worked around people like that.

They're not going to share anything. He displayed acute insecurity and jealousy. And thirdly, he had a manipulative and divisive spirit. He tried to sow discord between Jonathan, his son and David, because he was jealous of the relationship of friendship from Jonathan to David.

And yet he's Jonathan's father. That's the kind of person a spear thrower is. You see, that's the way they see it. They have to have control.

They have to get the credit. Now, first, I'd like to say this. If you live with a spear thrower or you work around one or you're around one on a regular basis, let me give you a couple of steps that I think David has taught us here. Step number one, duck.

OK. In other words, avoid them. Avoid them. Step number two is crucial. Don't throw spears back.

There's a tremendous temptation to do that. By the way, if you read the kind of Saul's chasing of David in the wilderness on two different occasions, David had saw in a spot where he could have killed Saul with ease. And neither time would he do it. He would not resort to spear throwing. Don't resort to spear throwing. And number three, most importantly, look for God's purpose in the ordeal. You see, there is a great deal you can learn by living around a spear thrower. There's something you can get out of this.

Look for God's purpose in the ordeal. Now, questions of whether you are a spear thrower or not. Just some test. Number one. Are you envious of people who have more? Do you have a lot of envy when people accomplish more than you have more than you?

You see, you can see them. There are kids in seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth grade that can't stand the thought that somebody beat them on a test. They can't stand the thought of it. They have to be first. Secondly, how do you react when someone says to you, you're being replaced? Because that's what happened to Saul, by the way. Samuel said to him, you're being replaced.

You're up. You saw how he responded. How do you respond when someone says to you, you're going to be replaced? Thirdly, do you have angry outbursts in order to gain control of conflict? That's what bullies do. You all know people like that. Like, should I bring this up? Should I talk to them about it? Well, they're going to get so angry and it's going to get so crazy.

I don't think I want to do that. That's what people do. People who yell a lot and show a lot of anger are very demonstrative. All they're using that is as a defense mechanism.

In other words, that's how they keep you off them. I'll just get so violent and so angry that you will leave me alone and I'll get the upper hand. That's what spear throwers do. So if you're a destroyer like Cain or a spear thrower like Saul, confess it to God and maybe you ought to go to the people you've been hurting all these years. If there is a destroyer or a spear thrower in your life, here comes the hard part. Forgive them and refuse to sink to their level. Bathe your life and their life in prayer. Can you do that? You might be surprised what God will do.

Let me demonstrate that for a moment. Turn now to Genesis 45 with me. Genesis 45. Joseph. You know the story. He has a lot of siblings. The whole family is nothing but destroyers and spear throwers. When you read about that family.

Oh, my goodness. They are about as bad as a family could be put together. It is the ultimate dysfunctional family.

And it shows up in Genesis. Now, remember, his brothers hated him so much that they said, let's kill him, let's murder him. And then one or two of the brothers come in and say, hey, I don't know if we should do that. Let's just throw him in a pit. And then, well, someone's a slave. We'll just get give them to someone as a slave. Now, you can imagine doing that to a sibling. You see, it's the same heart of Cain, the same destroying mentality.

So, you know the story. There's a famine in their land. They have to go to Egypt. Joseph had no easy time in Egypt. He went to Egypt as a slave and then he got a great job with Potiphar. And then part of his wife falsely accused him.

He ended up back in jail. But eventually, through the providence of God, he ends up being prime minister of Egypt. Now, here come his brothers and he looks so Egyptian, they have no idea who he is. And they come looking for some way to keep their family alive because of the famine that they have. And he plays a lot of games with them and all that.

But I want to pick it up here in Chapter 45. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. His brothers are in front of him.

He has a lot of other officials with him. And he cried, have everyone go out for me. All the Egyptian officials leave the room but him and his brothers. And so there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Now, if you can hear a man weeping that loud, he's really weeping. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. That's an understatement. What do they think? We are dead men. They have to because, by the way, the stories and spear throwers think everybody's a destroyer and a spear thrower. So they always think that's what I would do. I'd kill them all.

You see, I'd kill them all. But that's not Joseph. Joseph said to them, please come closer to me.

I'm sure they were all backing away. And he said and I came closer and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. He says, now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. Why?

For God sent me here before you to preserve life. What just happened there? Forgiveness. Notice he doesn't even bring it up. He doesn't bring up what the non forgiving person does.

How could you have done this to me? He doesn't. He's forgiven. He's done with it. He just forgave them. Now, just turn to the last chapter, chapter 50. Moses adds a little bit of an editorial comment on that episode in Chapter 50 of Genesis and verse 18. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. Look, we'll serve you.

Please. Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for I'm in God's place. Notice how he sees it. Why is that? It's not my life. This is God's life. This is not my place.

This is God's place. You see, that's what someone who is forgiving. That's the spirit they have, not the spirit of a destroyer or a spear thrower. And he says, And as for you, you meant evil against me.

He's not naive. He understands it. He said, You meant evil against me. But God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. So I forgive. You see, when you forgive, you might be surprised at what God can do.

You might be alarmed. The things that God can do. Doesn't this sound like a lot like Romans 828? All things work together for the good, isn't it? See, to those who love Christ, in other words, to those who see their life as Christ, that all works together for the good. Because I have so much confidence in God.

That's what he did. And boy, that's the power of forgiveness. You see, the power of forgiveness is it can change the course of the whole world.

It can change the course of your world. Ask yourself, are you a destroyer? Are you a spear thrower? Are you a forgiver? Let's pray. Father, this subject of forgiveness is so important to our daily lives. As believers in Jesus Christ, we bask in the forgiveness that you've given us. But Father, we must confess we are reluctant to forgive others.

We struggle with it. And the reason, Father, is it's our own pride and our own sin. We see our lives as our lives. We see everything that we have as something that is ours. But Father, we need to learn the lesson.

It's your life. Everything that we have is yours. And what you ask us to do is to follow the example of our Lord who forgave. Father, I pray if someone in here sees the destroyer and the spear throwing tendencies in their own life, that they openly, openly confess and acknowledge it to you.

And they also acknowledge it to those they've hurt. And Father, if we are living in the midst of destroyers and spear throwers in our lives, may we follow the example of Joseph. May we be forgiving people and leave the results to you. Father, thank you for the forgiveness that we have received through Jesus Christ our Lord and your Son.

Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for. Or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.