Williams, Ed: Personal Witnessing ~ Kenilworth Gospel Chpl.Ministry

Uh, good morning. It is good to be here. Uh, I don't know when it was I was here last. Apparently, I began with a story of my children, so I'll do that again. Uh, and then actually, before I do, if you would turn in your Bibles, hold your finger there, First Samuel chapter twenty two, which is page two hundred and fifteen. Uh, my wife Sharon and I, we have five children now, and uh, two years ago I was putting my two older girls to bed, Laura and Emma, they were nine and seven at the time, and when I walked in, they turned to me and they said, hey daddy, we've been talking and we figured out that there's a difference between hearing and listening. I said, oh? And they said, yes, you see, when you hear, it's just because the words go in your ear because you're here. But when you listen, you actually pay attention to what the person's saying. Myself, my girls are seven and nine and they've already figured out men. Did, uh, did your mom tell you this? No, no, no, we figured out ourselves. Okay, got ya. Uh, well, Laura and Emma are exactly right. In fact, the Lord Jesus himself says, describes it this way, there are those who have ears to hear, but they don't hear the invitation, if you have ears to hear, to hear. In fact, I think there was another philosopher named Paul Simon who wrote a song about it. People hearing without listening. What I'd like to do this morning together is, is follow the Lord's invitation to listen. We're going to talk about witnessing, but what I'd like to do with you, as my own heart has been thinking about this, is first zoom out and listen to what the heart of the Lord has been for men and women since the beginning. And then we're going to zoom in, and we're going to look at how that played out specifically with a group of men and their leader. David and his mighty men, as they're called. And I'm focusing there because I believe, if you've been listening to this world, I believe we're living in epic historical time. If you listen to this world, if you listen to your community, I think if you listen to your own life, we're living in epic times, just like David and his men. Now, look, whether we're living it- living in epic times historically or not, they're epic for us, because this is it. This is our time to rise and to become the people, the person that God himself made you to be. This is it. We're not made for must-see TV. We are made for an adventure of relationship in life with him, not to sell for anything less. And one of the great realities of the life that Jesus Christ has called us to is this, is that tribulations and trials are opportunities in which he forges greatness in you. In which he uses us and raises us up for greatness for him. That's what we have in front of us. Now let's read, actually, you- you can hold your finger in- in First Samuel twenty two. I'm also going to read to you, uh, from Second Samuel. This is on page two hundred and forty three. If you want to read along, fine. Two forty three in the church Bible. If you want to read along, fine. If you'd like to listen, that might be fine as well. This is David in the summary of his life, his mighty men. Now, these are the names of David's mightiest men. The first was Jeshobaim, who was the leader of the three, the three mightiest warriors among David's men. And I skip ahead for a moment, verse nine, Next in rank among these three was Eleazar. Once Eleazar and David stood together against the Philistines when the entire Israelite army had fled. He fought for Israel until his hand was too tired to lift his sword, and the Lord gave him a great victory that day. Next in rank was Shema. One time, the Philistines attacked the Israelites for a field full of lentils. The Israelite army fled. Apparently a lot of fleeing going on. But Shema held his ground for the field and beat back the Philistines, and so the Lord brought about a great victory. Once, during the harvest, when David was in the cave of Adullam, the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rephaim. The three who were among the thirty, an elite group among David's fighting men, they went down there to meet him. David was staying in the stronghold at a time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. David remarked longingly for his men, oh, how that I would love some of that good water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem. So the three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water out by the well, uh, d- drew some water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem, and they brought it back to David. But David refused to drink. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the Lord. Lord forbid that I should drink this, he ex- exclaimed. This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me. So David did not drink it. These are the e- examples, just examples, of the exploits of the three. The word of God, and we ask that he will give us insight as to what that would mean for us today. I mentioned if we listen to the word of God regarding God's heart towards men, what we discover is that from the very beginning, when Abel's blood, the Bible says tragically, poetically, but powerfully, Abel's blood cried out to God. The voice of someone oppressed, someone who's been crushed by this world, that God's heart, God's own heart is attuned and sensitive to the cry of the oppressed, that as this world is literally groaning in the heartache and despair that is this world, that God's heart is sensitive and broken. So much so that we celebrate on the calendar in a couple of weeks, God the incarnation, he became small. God himself entered into this world's heartache and oppression. The prophecy said this, that it would be God with us, but he also would be known as the man of sorrows, intimately acquainted with grief. This is hardly a God who stands back, you know, tus, tus, says, look what you children have done. But he entered into the heartache himself, and God became, well, the word that captures it very well is the word that comes of eucharismo, the Eucharist. He became a good gift. That's what Eucharist means. Jesus Christ became a good gift. He gave himself, entering into the heartache, the oppression, and the groaning of this world, made himself a good gift, his own life broken and poured out, so that by his death, his blood, forgiveness comes. By his resurrection power, he's entered into this world and brought forgiveness and life and hope by the giving of himself. And his invitation now to those people who will hear and listen is not just people who will hear and regurgitate words, as wonderful as those words will be, but that he, that we will allow his very life, his broken and poured out life to flow through us. And that he will raise up a people who will have eyes to see and ears to hear the brokenness and oppression of this world. And who, like him, will raise themselves into his hands and be used by him to be good gifts themselves to people. That God, I tell you, one of the greatest sentences describing a man's life in the Bible is this in Gideon. The Holy Spirit wore Gideon the way a man would wear clothes. That God wants to use your life to be a good gift of life and hope to people who have despair right in our neighborhood. Do you think that perhaps in the United States, in the suburban communities in which we find ourselves, there are people who are living in despair? Again, did the philosopher Thoreau get it right when he said, the majority of men live lives of quiet. Or, as the other philosopher, Jim Carrey, said, if most people behaved the way they felt, we'd be crying in our dinner tables, in our dinner plates. Jim Carrey. The oppression that is in this world because of sin is causing disintegration in our globe, it's causing disintegration in our communities, it's causing disintegration in our families, it's causing disintegration in ourselves, and what Jesus Christ is looking to do is to bring authentic hope and life and peace to you, and then use you to bring life and peace to others. That's what we see with these men. Now, a quick clarification, because this is actual physical warfare, what's going on. A whole other conversation of what God was doing with Israel, but what this was not was God and these men being a bully to other people. Israel itself, and you know this if you studied the Old Testament, you know this if you've seen the movie starring Charlton Heston, or the more recent cartoon. Israel itself was born out of oppression. Under the crushing cruelty of slavery in Egypt, God heard the cry of the oppressed, and he brought the Israelite people out for a specific person purpose. They were to be used to be God's shalom, God's peace, not to be oppressors themselves, not to crush, but to be an example of peace, of life with God. Uh, they failed, and that's a different conversation, but they also were at times a beacon. In fact, some of David's mighty men themselves, they had very funny last names. Probably one of the most beautiful. His name was Uriah. Last name, the Hittite. It wasn't the last name, it was... He was a Hittite, another empire. He was a man who had heard of the peace and the real God of Israel, and he came and he fell in love with that God, and he fell in love with David, and he's one of the most beautiful and tragic men in the... Very special, and apparently, when you get to the New Testament, very special to God and Jesus as well. This was not these men, this was not about oppressing other people. This was Israel at this time was under oppression. They were surrounded by neighbors who did not want them to exist, who wanted them to remain in slavery, who wanted to destroy them. And so what you find with David's men, very often they're coming to the rescue of people who are having their food stores attacked. You know, the fields of lentils, the food stores. Why? Because if you're an enemy and you attack the food, what happens? You bring hunger, you bring starvation, you bring weakness, you bring death. These were people who are under oppression. Who is going to come to their rescue? David and his men. You say, well, Ed, you're going to compare us to them? You mean, yeah, I agree that there might be people in my community who are living under oppression. You're saying, like these guys? These guys were valiant. These guys were, you know, men of the, of the round table. Not me. Okay, now let's look at where your finger are i- is in first Samuel twenty two. We're gonna now get introduced to David and his men. First Samuel twenty two. Twenty two verse one. So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his there. Then others began coming to him. Men who were in trouble or in debt, who were just discontented, until David was the captain of about four hundred men. Okay, pause. Apparently, what are the qualifications to become one of David's men? Uh, hi, I'm a screw up. Uh, you're in trouble, you're in debt, you're discontented, and yet they came. Anybody relate? Anybody here troubled? In debt? In fact, you might even say, uh, some of them probably were coming for not the right reasons. They're like, maybe they're thinking, okay, I'm in debt, but hey, if I hitch my wagon to David and he becomes king, hey, I'll be good. They're coming for selfish motives. Very often, when people come to Jesus for the first time, they don't come for pure motives. They say, you know what? I need forgiveness, and you're useful because you bring forgiveness. I want to live, and you offer eternal life. You're useful. And Jesus says, you know what? Come, come, come, come to me. They came to David, and David received them. And you say, well, okay, maybe they are, uh, screw-ups, but they obviously must have been brave, valiant fighting men. Okay, let's go to First Samuel twenty three, one page over. This is the first time God calls David and his men into action. So one day, news came to David that the Philistines were attacking Ke- Keilah, stealing the grain from the threshing floors. Again, the people being oppressed, the enemy wanting to attack them, destroy their food. David asked the Lord, should I go rescue them? Yes, go and save Keilah, the Lord told him. But David's men said, we're afraid here even in Judah. We certainly don't want to go to Keilah to fight the whole Philistine army. Uh, so David asked the Lord again, and again the Lord replied, go down to Keilah, for I will help you conquer the Philistines. So David and his men went down to Keilah, and they defeated the Philistines and rescued the people. Do you see this picture? Here the men were hiding out themselves in the woods, in their little club, and in their church service, and their neighbors were being oppressed. Their neighbors were under great distress, and God said, go serve your neighbors. But if we do that, we'll be at risk, and I don't want to discount at all the risk involved, and we'll talk about that in a second. Swords, Philistines, it's a whole lot easier being safe and comfortable, and tsk tsk, isn't that a shame what's happening over there? And God will have none of it. He says to David and his men, you go, and I'll be with you. And what did God do? God wrought a great victory. Were these guys Knights of the Round Table? These... what we just read here, this is cowards. Anybody feeling a little more comfortable? We read about David and his mighty men. Look at where they started. Broken, defeated, distressed, screw up cowards, and look what God did with them. Shama. I don't know which is more stunning. David marching up and facing Goliath alone when everyone else is cowering in fear, or Shammah standing there and facing an entire army by himself. I don't know which is more brave, but I tell you what, they're in the same conversation, aren't they? Look at the transformation that occurred in these men. When the nation of Israel was being oppressed and they needed someone to be used by God, it was God who was doing the saving, but he was using these men, wearing them like clothes. So that one man took on an army. That doesn't happen except that God is wearing that man like clothes, and that there are families in Kenilworth and Westfield and Fanwood and Watchung that God wants to use you and wear you like clothes to bring grace and hope and salvation in the midst of oppression. That's what he wants to do. Well, how is he going to transform us, just like he transformed me- these men? The same way. What happened with these men? Number one, like we said, they came to David. Now, what do they know about David? Probably not a lot to begin with. What do they know? They knew that David had beaten the giant. Pretty impressive. What do we know about Jesus, even if you don't know much? You know that Jesus also faced and defeated the giant. Death and sin, Jesus went and stared in the face, and Jesus won. You put your life into Jesus' hands, death is conquered. All those men that were cowering under Goliath, if you know the story, they were going to have to live under the consequence of Goliath, especially if Goliath won. They'd be slaves, they'd be dead. David won. Jesus won. Come to him. Second, what these men knew about David is they beat the giant, and there was another very interesting, and I think as a man, but I think for all of us as human beings, a very significant statement that David made when he first came out, all the men were cowering in fear. There's Goliath issuing his challenge, and everyone's cowering in fear. And David comes along and he says, guys, what are you doing? We've got a great God. He's a little giant. And his brother. Now, by the way, it's fascinating where David came from as well. Um, just for what it's worth, he wasn't even voted most likely to be king in his own family. The Samuel goes out and says, uh, uh, God told me to come here. One of your sons, he says to Jesse, David's father, one of your sons is going to be king. So Jesse prays all the candidates. It's not none of them. Is there anybody else? Oh, well, there's David. Dad! Look at where it comes from. You see where David, even in his own family, after that, he comes out. He comes out, and he says to the men, men, we have a great God. This is a little giant. What are we doing here? I'll go. And David's brother, his older brother, just smacks him back. He says, who do you think you are? Where'd you leave those few sheep? And you know that he's probably thinking, I'll smoke. Ha, what a great line, a great line. Where'd you leave those few sheep? Diminishing David, cutting him down. Do you ever live with someone who just diminishes you and cuts you down? Eh. What did David do? He simply responds in the reality that he was living in. He says this, is there not a cause? See, David wasn't living in just this, the family dynamic of, oh, you put me down, I'm gonna put you down, that downward spiral that leads depression. David was living in the great adventure of the glory, greatness of his God and the mission that his God was on. Is there not a cause? Guys, say it again, we're not made for must-see TV. And you know what? I'm a Giants fan. I'm not made to spend just three hours watching football. We're made for the cause of God. These men started rubbing shoulders with someone who had a great God, who was on the cause of that God, and you know what else they came in contact with? Once they started living with him, they came in contact with David's heart. His inner being that was living connected to this great God, they got to see it up close and personal, and you know what it did? It transformed them into, into what? There's a very interesting little statement, again, when David is getting ready to go fight Goliath. And he's saying, you're not a soldier. You, you can't do that. And David says this, well, one time there was a lion, and it came after a singular lamb, and I went and I fought the lion, and I rescued the lamb. And I was sitting there in my room unpacking that for a moment, and I'd like to unpack it with you. A lion took a lamb, and I went and I fought the lion and rescued the lamb. Okay, um, the reason why I sat there in my room unpacking this so much is because not that long ago I had come across this very interesting website called What to Do When Attacked by a Wild Animal. And it is actually a very, very interesting little website. Probably go Google it, you'll find it, Yahoo it, you'll, you'll find it. What to do when attacked by a wild animal. It had all the, uh, advice, basically some form of, you know, poke it in the eye, punch it in the nose, play dead. Um, for instance, you know, alligator, crocodile, shark, you know, punch it in the nose. Um, or as I put it, shark, punch it in the nose. And if that doesn't work, poke it in the eye with your stump. Sorry. But essentially, all these, these variations of nose, eye, play dead. But when it came to big cats, that was, that was the subtext, big cats. It stopped at mountain lion. And then for lion and tiger, under the advice of what to do, this is what it said. Most unfortunate. We got nothing. Because, you know, unlike, you know, I don't know, a a a shark, punch it in the nose, oh, you're not food, or a bear, oh, it's dead, you know. If a lion or a tiger wants you, that's it. They want you. The point with David, he's going after a lion for a lamb. There are no gimmies with lions. You know, me, if I'm the shepherd, you know, a, a, a, a feisty wiener dog comes and takes a sheep, I'm going after it. You're a feisty wiener dog, give me that back. Lion, I don't know. A li- it's, it's a lamb, isn't it? I might be thinking, well, you know what? I got a hundred of them, you know, forty nine were guys, sorry, fifty are still female, yeah. They'll make more. I don't know. But here's David going after a lion, risking his life. Risking his life for one lamb. Risking his life for one lamb. Saying one lamb is worth it, I have to tell you, I might be saying it's not worth it. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. She's not worth it. We live in a society that celebrates celebrity, which at its core is saying to one group of human beings, you are worth it. You're in. And what man has done from the beginning of time, and one of the great sources of oppression is this. Ever since the garden, man has wanted to be in, and so create little boxes of you're in. Why? Well, because you're this race, or because you're this eco- economic level, or because you're this, your skin is shaped the right way. You're in so that we can say you're out. And for all of the celebrity that celebrates and says you're worth it, there's an awful lot of people in our own Western societies and in the world for whom the message of the world is you're not worth it. And the people alone, in their homes alone, or in their homes with families who are living lives, I am not worth it. The very definition of cowardice is when it becomes too expensive to be your friend, when it becomes too expensive to love you, when it becomes too expensive, I sell you. You're not worth it. Anytime that you see cowardice in a film, in literature, in life, what you see is the selling of a human being, you're not worth it. But along comes a different kind of shepherd who says you're worth it. Though it was one lamb and a lion, this shepherd said, I'm going. And God himself said, there is a man with a heart like mine. As Jesus Christ was surrounded by those in society who weren't worth it. And the men didn't understand. They said, well, if he's of God, why would he be hanging around with these people who aren't worth it? And Jesus said, let me give you a glimpse of what the heart of God is like. The heart of God is like a shepherd, Luke fifteen— who losing one sheep goes after it until he finds it. Because the sheep was worth it. And Jesus Christ, Revelation chapter nineteen says this, he has a name, a name, and it is faithful and true. And for all of the ways in which we have sold other people, me. You. We have a God and a Savior who says, you, you. There is no price not pay to bring you back to myself, not at the risk of my own life, like David, but at the cost of my own life. That is how I value you. This is the God that David fell in love with and transformed David. It was God's heart that David fell in love with, and it transformed David to be like him. And it was God's heart that David's men came in contact with that transformed them. They realized, look at how we are valued. We have a God who's not only powerful to save, but a God who is so tender and caring that he loves like this. These men didn't have dogma that they repeated back. They were living in the reality that this is what God is like. A God who is so strong and yet so kind, a God who's able to save, and they lived in the good of it, and God began to use these men to serve and reach and rescue, and God wants to use you and me right now in our society, wherever we are, to receive his eyes to see the oppressed, his ears to listen for their cry, and then to be used by him to bring the good news of that this is the God who really loves and really cares and will forgive. Now, we're talking about it in David's time. What does it look like in our time? Look like? And to answer that question, really, you can't answer it because, just like these men, every story was different because every situation is different, every life is different. We're not gonna be able to say this is what it looks like because we're talking about you in your community being used by God to love and serve the families and the brokenness in your community. It's always gonna be different. But I began thinking through, to wrap this up, well, what kind of, uh, uh, what kind of life illustration could I give? And I, I'm going to share this one. I picked one. This is a story, because it's all stories. The Lord loves story. This is a story that was told to me by, uh, a young woman at the time named Jen Santoro, who was a junior in the Watchung Hills High School. And, uh, the story occurs at lunch in Watchung Hills, a school with twenty two hundred students, three lunch periods. You can do the approximate math of how many students were in the lunchroom. And it was mid-January, the new student who had transferred in, who had gotten off on the wrong foot, apparently, with some of the proverbial cool kids. And Jen articulated to me what first caught her attention was that this young man had gone and sat down at a lunch table that was filled with people, and to great show, every kid who is sitting at that table got up and left the table, laughing and making jokes themselves, and little by little, the scene spread around the lunchroom so that as the little boy, the boy was sitting there all by himself, the laughter just spread, and the lunchroom grew loud rather quickly, all aimed at this boy who's now sitting with his his head down. Jen described that as it got louder, suddenly she looked, and she saw getting out of the corner a skinny, tall girl with blonde hair get up from the lunchroom where she was and go down and sit herself next to that boy and silenced the lunchroom the way no speech ever could. And Jen looked at that girl, Jen, who was a laugher, she looked at that girl and said, wow. That girl was my younger sister hero, Kathy, who God used incredibly to reach dozens of kids from all the spectrum of the high school at that time. And I asked Jen, who had come to faith in her junior year, how, tell me about it, and she told me about the first time she ever saw Kathy. And she realized, she said, in that moment, I realized what I was doing, and in that moment I realized I want to be like that. Not a word was spoken, but so much was said. Now let me ask you, who are you in that story? Are you the boy? Very few of us escape life, let alone junior high school, without being that boy. The very nature of sin and the dynamic of human interaction is to try to make ourselves feel better by putting other people down. We're in 'cause you're out. And the heartache that that causes on human beings. Are you that boy? Are you that boy right now? Are you one of the oppressors in your own family, in your own life? Uh, we all have, because that's the nature of sin, to bring oppression and heartache and death and destruction. Are you one of the laughers? Or perhaps you're like some of the other young people as I bounce this story around, because as an older brother, I gotta say, I'm thinking, wow, that's, that's cool. People say, yeah, you know what? I was, I was watching that, and I didn't feel good, I felt bad, but still they stood on the sidelines and let it happen. I think that there's an awful lot of that, candidly, in the church. We say, oh, look at the oppression and the heartache of the world, look at the homelessness, look at the hunger, isn't that a shame? And Jesus is saying, no, men, go and rescue Keila. Men and women, I want to use you. Come and give yourself. Let me use you. The Holy Spirit in that moment used Kathy like clothes. And used her not only to serve that boy, serve the high school by being an expression of what the grace and truth and love of Jesus Christ is like. Do you want that? Listen, when we're talking about witnessing, you've got to understand, which I know you do, sin creates a crazy dynamic of human interaction. We all want to be valued, period. That's like oxygen. Nobody said, oh, I don't care what people think of me. Look, you either don't care what people think about you, AKA jerk, or you do care. Now, caring is the point, but what sin does is infect that so that you're beholden to what people think. Some people get their sense of worth by controlling other people. What I say matters. Other people get their sense of worth by obeying somebody. I'm associated with them. Both of which are weak and flawed by sin. The only way that you as a human being are going to be, have the, the internal character to love and serve the way David served his men and the way Kathy served in that high school is this. If your sense of value does not come from human beings, but from your God. When you are aware just how much your God loves you and is unconditionally, faithfully committed to you, and all the heartache that you brought on other people, he's forgiven. And all the adventure that he wants to bring you on to live, he's given you his spirit, his word, he's going to empower you to do it. When you understand just how great your God is and his gospel is, that is going to be what's going to free you to love and serve people and not be beholden to them, whether they receive your words or whether they don't. Again, the way that that's going to happen is to be like the men. And with this we close. What do they do? Number one, they came to Da- David. Men and women, number one, you come to our David Jesus. He beat the lion of sin and death. Jesus is the conqueror. Come to him, give him your life. No one cares for you like him. He is the God who, with the one sheep, says you're worth it. Number two, when you come to him, be like the men, spend time with David, spend time with your Jesus. The men, they watch David, they listen to David. You get to be like who you hang around. Come to the Gospels and listen to the Lord teach you about his desire and the Father's desire for intimacy with you, and then watch Jesus pray. Listen to Jesus talk about the oppressed and the poor and his care for them, and then watch him love and serve the oppressed and the poor. That's what the men did. They hung out with David, they listened to him, they watched him, and they let their lives be transformed. You come and you spend time with your Lord, and you let him transform you to be like him. And as he does that, he's going to start using you to create great stories in the middle of oppression, in the middle of heartache. He's going to use you as a beacon, a witness of life and love and hope in a world of heartache and depression. And he's going to use you to bring rejoicing where otherwise there's just heartache and pain. Must see TV. A life of adventure with Jesus. Father, together we come before you as a people who are broken, who every single one of us has acted in selfish ways that caused heartache to others, and together we're asking that the reality of your forgiveness, that it's really true, you really forgive everything. Wash over each one of us by your spirit, the reality of your forgiveness, of what you accomplished on the cross, that it's really that great. And Lord Jesus, as your heart listens to the cry of the oppressed in the homes, in our own homes, Lord Jesus, we're asking that your spirit will come and whisper of the grace and the truth, the forgiveness and the life to each one of us, and form in this church a group of people who are gonna join you on your mission to bring salvation into this community. Lord Jesus, it's by your spirit that this is going to have to happen. These men, they gave themselves to you, but it was always the Lord that did the great work. So, Lord Jesus, we we hand ourselves this chapel. We hand it to you. Use it for your glory. In your name, amen.