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King David on letting God be God

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2 Samuel 15:24-26

And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with all the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. 25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. 26 But if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”

I love it how David totally surrenders to God and allows God to be God in this conflict. He doesn’t take a side, assume anything, and say something like “God wants me to blah blah blah”

He says “This may be how God changes the kingdom, so I’ll submit to him.”

The fact is, we DON’T know what God’s will is most of the time, but we are making decisions based on what we feel urged to do. There is nothing wrong with that at all. I think sometimes we justify ourselves by claiming God’s will, but the truth is that we are guessing and trusting the Lord. I think we bring a lot more glory to God by letting Him have His will and we admit that we are trying to follow it.

Mercy, Focus, Calling

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In 1 Samuel 23, David is on the run, but at the same time, one of the cities to the south is being attacked by Philistines. Instead of worrying about running from Saul or how to organize his men so that he can become king, he rushes to the rescue of the city of Keilah from the Philistine attackers.

Once he rescues the city and defeats the Philistines, he finds out that Saul is coming to get him. Not only that, but the city he is in is a locked up, walled city, and once Saul gets there, David will be trapped. To make matters worse, God reveals to David that when Saul comes, the people of the city that he just rescued will hand him over to Saul and not protect him.

What opportunity for bitterness, revenge, hatred! “I just rescued you and now you are going to turn me over to Saul!?” It wouldn’t have even been out of context w/ the story if David slaughtered them all or stayed and fought against Saul using the walled city as his own fortress.

But that’s not what he did. He came to save that city, not to abuse their resources. He was focused and determined to do what God was calling him to do, not move his own progress forward.

THAT is what made David into a king, not that he sought the kingdom for himself, but that he sought the kingdom of God for God.

WCAGLS Session 5: Chris Brown

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Session 5 Chris Brown

For one month, Saul was getting called out and it was obvious to everyone that he was chicken.

Saul was supposed to be the guy that would go out after Goliath.

After 40 days of leadership being questioned, and it's because of you, any neck is better than yours.

They sent out the boy because he was the only one that would go.

Saul immediately claimed that hire!

Everybody bragged about how awesome David was.

Saul should have high-fived David and said, "We're the 11,000 club!"

"What more can he get but the kingdom?" Saul was jealous of David, didn't want his spot to get taken.

Saul had room in the kingdom for young eagles, but no room in his chariot. Saul thought it was HIS kingdom. How did you make this one about you?

The same way pastors and CEOs make it about "my team" and "My church" with the idea "I built this"

There was a pagan leader 800 years earlier that knew how to do this differently. He put Joseph in the chariot next to him.

Joseph thought they were his dreams, but they were God's dreams. Joseph needed slavery to learn the difference.

Jesus picked 12 guys, and at the LAST FREAKING SUPPER THEY WERE ARGUING ABOUT WHO WAS THE BEST!

"God shows up, I have one Son, you listen to Him, no Moses, No Elijahs, ONE SON."

The disciples just didn't get it, they were always trying to jockey for spot 2-11 (they knew Peter would be number 1)

James and John take Jesus aside to ask to be #1 and #2.

Over and over the leaders are struggling with who is going to be in charge of their peeps.

Jesus brought them all together and said the world lords their authority over each other.

Mark 10:42-45

the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve, and to offer himself as a ransom for many

you had higher hopes for your position than for the company or your church, that's why when somebody on your staff becomes great, you send them off to plant their own church.

The Jesus leader washes the feet of the great people on his team and serves them!

"Are you asking me to give away my platform? My title? My position? No. Jesus is!"

We need to call sin sin. Pride and ego are bad and we need to see that and call it out.

Chris Brown's mentor (the one everyone that knew him thought should give this talk) said "It doesn't matter who preaches this, as long as the message gets out!"

So many people practicing what they are preaching.

"this is not for every leader, only the ones that want to be great"

We are killing ourselves and our families trying to build our own kingdoms.

"i'm afraid that in 10 years, our cities are going to have incredible civic centers, incredible youth activity buildings. They used to be churches, until the personality left."

With the title I've been given, not as senior pastor, but as servant of all, what do I need to do? Who do I need to pull into my chariot?

When I have the choice, do I expand His kingdom, or my reputation.
Will you cheer for the other guy that gets invited to preach at the Summit about what you've been doing for 20 years?

If a non-believer had my exact same skill set, would they do my job differently? Your answer better be upside down.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He picked those guys that always argued to be picked, and sent them out.

Whatever you think it will cost you to empower others, it cost Jesus more. Follow Him.

I think that was the best talk yet.

From Secrecy to Publicity

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2 Samuel 7:14-15 NET

When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings. But my loyal love will not be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

I think it’s great here that even though David and God (and later Solomon and God) have a supernatural relationship, God is going to use natural, human events to discipline Solomon. The things that nobody sees that Solomon will do against God, God will punish and correct in front of everyone to see. This sounds like a bad thing, but God is abundantly graceful, because He does this in discipline and in blessing.

Matthew 6:6 NET

But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

So God doesn’t just discipline publicly the sin that is in secret, He also answers the prayers in public that you offer up to Him in secret!

Last week I talked to one of my mentors about a tough situation I’m in and that I’m witnessing. He said, “Go and grieve before the Lord. Go and grieve in His presence. Declare things before Him and tell Him. He will change the hearts of people that are not geographically close to you. He will change events. He will tell you things that you would not naturally know that will help you make decisions about things.”

That is pretty awesome to realize the truth in that. We can talk to God and relate to God in secrecy, but when He answers and moves, He participates in the world of Men.