Sermon- Living as a Man of God July, 2008 – Albania Men’s Group

Intro

We are going to look at three characteristics for men of God as demonstrated by three men in the Bible.

Broken of Self

In Genesis we find the unusual story of Jacob wrestling with God.

Gen 32:22-32

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

 

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

 

27 The man asked him, "What is your name?"

 

"Jacob," he answered.

 

28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

 

29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."

 

But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

 

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

 

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

Later…

Gen 35:2-3

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."

 

Later…

Gen 35:9-10

After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.

 

It is a mystery how this angel is both God and an angel of God. As with other encounters with God, the angel/God limited himself to Jacob's level for the all-night match. Obviously he held back his power until the morning and allowed Jacob to wrestle before using supernatural strength to injure his hip which caused Jacob to walk with a limp from that day on. The point of this story is that God honored Jacob for having wrestled and been subdued by God. He honored him with the name of the new nation, Israel, which means 'wrestles with God.'

You and I often wrestle with God as we work through issues. God honors that struggle when we do not ignore the fight and give in without processing the issues. Are you struggling through your trials or simply letting apathy win?

In the end we must submit to God but it is a better submission if we have first fought.

For almost 20 years I struggled with God as I tried to run a godly business. Many were the nights when I could not sleep and I cried out to God for help. Through it all he stretched and grew my faith. In the end God touched my hip with financial ruin and the company was sold at a loss. I was humbled but it was only after this grand 20 year fight that I was ready for a new name and calling and began full-time ministry.

Circumcision of the Heart

Why did God give Abraham the rite of circumcision of the male reproductive organ? Why could it not have been our earlobe or some other less critical body part to snip away? The answer is that God wanted men to take that part of them that was the instrument of reproduction and greatest passion, their most viral and potent element of their being and submit it to him. We are to be submitted to God but note we are not to be completely emasculated.

Rom 2:29

No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

 

Our strength and purpose are meaningful when submitted to God. Men of God must be broken before him.

Guided by What God Thinks Not What Men Think

Next we will look at four episodes in the life of David. As we do, remember what God said about David:

Acts 13:21-22

Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'

 

David and Goliath

1 Sam 17:33-37

Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

 

34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

 

Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

 

1 Sam 17:45-47

45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

 

When David first came to the battlefield, his brothers teased him about being a small-time shepherd boy and told him to stay out of the business with Goliath and the Philistines. David did not care what his brothers thought of him, or what Saul the king had to say, of even what threats Goliath hurled at him. David only cared about what God thought of the situation.

 

David and Michal

2 Sam 6:12-16

Now King David was told, "The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

 

16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

 

2 Sam 6:20-23

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

 

21 David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel — I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

 

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

 

Michal was David's wife and she had a prideful heart. When she confronted David with acting in an unbecoming manner in public David made it clear that he did not care about the approval of the public or even of his wife; he only cared about how God saw him and knew he must be humble before God even in public.

David and Bathsheba

Next in the life of David is the tragic story of how David lusted after a married women, slept with her, and had her husband murdered to cover up. When the prophet Nathan confronted him, David repented completely and recorded his humiliation for all to see in Psalm 51.

Ps 51:1-11

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

 

3 For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are proved right when you speak

and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;

you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

 

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity.

 

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,

the God who saves me,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise.

 

After his repentance, David only cared what God thought of him.

 

David and Shimei

2 Sam 16:5-15

5 As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. 6 He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. 7 As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! 8 The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"

 

9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."

 

10 But the king said, "What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?'"

 

11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 12 It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."

 

13 So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. 14 The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself.

 

In this story David allows a man to falsely accuse him and his soldiers to think badly of him in order to gain the respect of God. If we are to be men of God we must take on David's attitude of heeding what God thinks of us and not what humans think.

One time I was on a missions team in Cote d'Ivoire under a leader much younger than me. He called me in and berated me for a side trip he himself had authorized. As he vented his anger the Lord told me to remain quiet and not defend myself. I had to learn David's lesson of trusting God to see my innocence and not playing to man's opinion.

The man of God demands holiness from himself while extending grace to others in their weaknesses.

 

Operate in the Spiritual World

Finally, from the life of Jesus we see that the man of God operates in the spiritual world before the temporal world. This was evidenced in the beginning of Jesus' ministry when the first thing he did was to spend 40 days fasting in the wilderness. This removed him from the physical world and focused him on the eternal realm. This was to be a pattern for his life as he often went away from the world to re-connect with the Heavenly Father.

Luke 5:16

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

 

Later Jesus pointed out that the spiritual is primary:

John 3:5-8

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

 

John 6:63

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

 

Brothers we are to be spiritual warriors for God. We are to do battle in the spiritual realm with weapons that are not of flesh:

2 Cor 10:3-5

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

 

Eph 6:12

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

We are to fight against un-forgiveness, sexual sin, the occult, generational sins, false doctrine, and fear. Our lives are to look like the first disciples lives when they were sent out to wage war against Satan:

Luke 10:1-9

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

 

5 "When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

 

8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'

Later…

Luke 10:17-21

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name."

 

18 He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

 

21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

 

Summary

Men of God are:

• Broken of Self
  
• Guided by What God Thinks Not What Men Think
  

Operational in the Spiritual World

Albania

Thank you for helping in Albania through your prayers. Once again the Lord has done amazing things. Grady—an Oregonian whom I met in India—and I were the only foreigners on a team of about 40 Albanians. We were working with Campus Crusade for Christ in a discipleship camp targeted at college age students. Our daily routine for the three weeks we were in the coastal city of Durres was classes in the mornings, evangelism on the beaches in the afternoons, and praise sessions mixed with traditional dancing (picture below) and fun times in the evenings. About eight first time decisions were made at the beach and students dramatically enriched their walk with God.

Albania is 47 miles across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Here is a location map:

This is a old country and language dating from before Greek times. I am told there are some 20 million Albanians living around the world but only 3.5 million live in Albania due to the poor economy. One of my hosts shuddered as he told me of the brutal repression of communism that lasted until 1991. Sadly, 60 percent of the national budget was spent during the 1960's through the mid-1980's on bomb shelters to save the people from the imperialist Americans. As a result of unfounded fear, the national economy was destroyed while the countryside was littered with cement and rebar. Here is a picture of today's impoverished youth playing on yesterday's ruinous bunkers:

Albanians are gregarious, hospitable people. I can see why God is bringing many of them into his kingdom. The Christians I met are beautiful examples of Christ-like servants. 70 percent of the general populous are traditional but largely non-practicing Muslims.

Above are some of our Albanian team members: Bottom row: Lorana, Eddy, Aronjni, Tony, Gentie- Top: Zona, Ella, Delia, Neta, Don, Erma, Alma, Basie, baby Veronica, Gentie, Mirela

In this picture Tony had just broken his foot during a soccer game and spent the rest of our trip in a cast.

As you can see the beach was ridiculously crowded, mostly with Kosovars on holiday. Several were led to the Lord including these two girls sitting on either side of Monica who was used for the harvest:

I was able to preach/teach six times including three times last Sunday that included a church of all woman and children meeting in a widow's home. Men are culturally not allowed into a widow's home and so none could attend this lady's house congregation.


Sleeping quarters were a little cramped but it helped us really bond. We slept like hamsters; when one stirred all the rest shifted a little and went back to sleep:

Albanians have a superstition of the dreaded evil-eye curse from malicious passersby. Therefore a child's toy is hung from some houses to distract the curse away from the home. Outside of Christ, we all tend toward goofy beliefs.

Here is Grady suffering for Christ during beach evangelism with an interesting choice of candidates. This girl rejected his offer of Christ so according to Matt 10:14 he shook the sand from his sandals and went swimming.

Below is a picture of Amre who often translated for Grady and me. I was able to counsel with her about moving past a deep pain caused by an American boyfriend. He heedlessly said intimate things that in Albanian culture equate to engagement. Her parents granted permission for the marriage. Because he was a seminary student in the States, Amre trusted her heart to him not realizing that in his mind he was still in an exploratory dating mode. Traditionally, Albanians do not date without intent to marry so when he called to say he was moving on to another girl, Amre was devastated.

Through prayer we were able to help Amre see what every Christian must eventually learn experientially: no human can complete and fulfill us; that role is reserved for Jesus only. It was difficult to see this daughter I adopted in Christ with so much pain and it frustrates me that fellow Americans can be so culturally-centric that they travel the world spreading pain, nevertheless I rejoice to see the new depth of love between Amre and the truest Lover of her soul: Jesus.

Thank you all for your prayers, they have resulted in more brothers and sisters around the throne for eternity and more rewards to celebrate with our King. Thank you for your love and participation in the gospel.

Phil 1:3-6

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.