Bill Johnson - Keys to Promotion, How to Strengthen Yourself in a Test
But David had now gone through the trial of a lifetime, and he endured it all as a man who would seek the Lord regardless. He strengthened himself, recovered his purpose, and led a group of people into victory. In the next scene, he becomes king. I’d like to suggest that learning how to minister to ourselves is key to our next promotion. It’s really an amazing film; I got to watch it. I was sent a preview and was able to talk to the makers of the film, and I watched it a couple of months ago. It’s extraordinary. It’s the story of this little town, Pome Trot, and how one church actually emptied out the foster care system, which was overwhelmed. How many of you are currently doing foster care or have done it in the past? Oh wonderful, thank you for doing it! Awesome!
So yeah, Benny and I had five different foster care kids during our time. How many of you have adopted children before? Put your hands up—bless you, bless you, bless you! Awesome! Well, here’s the reality: there are 400,000 children in the foster care system in America. Over 100,000 need adoption. Seventy percent of the prison population has spent time in the foster system, and fifty percent of the homeless population has spent time in foster care. Over 80% of the children who are trafficked have spent time in the foster care system. Twenty thousand young people age out of the foster care system every year, making them a primary target for trafficking, homelessness, incarceration, etc. There are nearly 400,000 churches in America.
If every church adopted a child from the foster care system, we could empty the system. Wow! It’s not insurmountable; it’s actually very doable. In recent months, I’ve made a number of references, and I will keep doing so because I know from reading that there are times when children sleep in offices without anyone to care for them. It’s a good thing to do. So, I want to encourage you and challenge you with that. This movie is really good; there is a trailer I could have shown you, but it might have been too hard to follow while I taught. It’s very well done, just intense, and I didn’t want that intense look on your face while I was trying to talk to you. I wanted to give you a chance to be healed and cleansed before I spoke. If you’re on our mailing list, we sent a link to watch the trailer. Anyway, it’s going to be in our local theater on Wednesday and then released nationwide on the 4th.
Alright, Paul Manning sent me a text today telling me this is a perfect joke for Father’s Day. See, this is about a father and a son, and it’s one of the oldest ones I have, so you’ve probably heard it before, but I’m going to read it anyway. An old Italian gentleman lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work because the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son describing his predicament. «Dear Vincent, I’m feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here, my troubles would be over. I know you’d be happy to dig the plot for me like in the old days. Love, Papa.» A few days later, he received a letter from his son. «Dear Papa, don’t dig up that garden! That’s where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie.»
At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police showed up. They dug up the entire area without finding any bodies, apologized to the old man, and left. That same day, the old man received another letter from his son. «Dear Papa, go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you.» Oh my, it helps to have a third-grade sense of humor!
So, I take your Bibles and open, if you would, to First Samuel chapter 30. I’m going to go into a story that I’ve covered several times. In fact, last week I mentioned that the two biggest killers in church life among believers are resentment (in the areas of unforgiveness) and not knowing how to deal with disappointment—not being able to navigate loss or disappointment. I see those as the two most destructive and damaging parts of what we all face. Everyone faces situations where it’s very easy to become bitter, and the fight into a lifestyle of forgiveness is critical; it’s essential. But this other issue is sneakier because, to me, bitterness is easier to recognize and easier to fight against. However, sometimes we face disappointment and we fall into a slump that we might mistake for humility when in fact we are partnering with unbelief. It’s critical that we learn how to navigate this issue.
So, I’m going to talk to you today about a story that inspired me over 40 years ago. I remember, as a young pastor, having to learn this lesson about how to minister to myself. The story we’re going to examine is where King David had to strengthen himself in the Lord. There was no one else to do it. I remember as a young pastor feeling almost forced to learn what I had never learned how to do: how to minister to myself. The strange part of this life we have with the Lord is that there are times when He will actually blind the eyes and deafen the ears of your closest friends to your heart’s cry to teach you how to minister to yourself. When He does this, it is never punishment. It’s because you’re about to be promoted, and you need to know how to minister to yourself in that season. If you don’t, you can’t be trusted with the measure of responsibility that He would like to release.
I’m going to speak to fathers today. We’ve honored fathers, and I bless you. However, I also want to note that any time we deal with truth in the way I will today, it applies not just to fathers, but also to mothers, regardless of marital status or age group. In fact, I really want to celebrate fathers and mothers as we do repeatedly; I also want to celebrate the impact of singles in our church. I want to avoid putting them in a position where they might think they won’t be fulfilled in life until they are married and have kids, because that is absolutely a deception. Sometimes, in our celebration of moms and dads and the privilege of having kids, we unintentionally overshadow the incredible positions that God has placed singles in among us. Jesus was single, and he did quite well at influencing people. Paul is suspected to have been married, but if he was, his wife spent a lot of time alone, given how much he traveled! Many significant people in scripture were not married, a fact we must keep in perspective.
Let’s move on into the story. I’m going to talk to you about David and his mighty men. In First Samuel 22, if you’re taking notes, it says, «Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to David.» David was anointed to be king and was prophesied over by the prophet Samuel. None of his words fell to the ground—this is the description of his prophetic anointing. Yet when David was anointed and prophesied over to be king of Israel, he ended up in Saul’s house as a great warrior. Saul delighted in him because he was so good at what he did; he saved Israel a lot of embarrassment when he killed Goliath. However, the people began to praise David more than Saul, and the song the women sang was, «Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his ten thousands.» The jealousy that gripped Saul’s heart led him to focus on murdering David. He chased him around for goodness knows how long—10 to 13 years where he attempted to kill David.
David had to flee from Saul’s household. Picture this: a man destined to become king, leading Israel into what is historically referred to as the Golden Age of Israel, finds himself being rejected. Saul tries to kill him, and David runs to hide in one of the cities of Israel among his brethren. He is applauded and celebrated by everyone, but when David asks the Lord whether these people will turn him over to Saul, God tells him they will. So he flees and eventually moves to live among the Philistines, which is ironic because he killed Goliath, their champion. The Philistines were so in awe of him that they gave him a city—the city of Ziklag. At night, he would go to war against the enemies of the Philistines, who also happened to be enemies of Israel. So, he’d return from these battles and bring back the spoils, and he gathered around him about 600 men.
These men were societal rejects—those no one wanted. They became his church, bonding with David after he had been rejected by Saul and later rejected by the Philistines. One time, as David and his men prepared to go out to war, they returned to their city, Ziklag, only to find it burned to the ground and their wives and children taken captive.
Let’s read the story found in First Samuel chapter 30, starting with verse 1: «It happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the South and burned Ziklag with fire. They took captive the women and everyone present, from small to great; they did not kill anyone but carried them away. So David and his men came to the city and found it burned with fire, and their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.»
David then said to Abiathar the priest, «Bring me the ephod.» The ephod was a tool used to determine the will of God. He sought the Lord’s direction. David inquired of the Lord, saying, «Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?» And He answered, «Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail, recover all.»
Here’s the deal: David’s men—these societal rejects—had started as 600 and became a formidable fighting force. In Second Samuel chapter 23, there’s a chapter unlike any other that highlights, by name, the extraordinary accomplishments of these men. One man goes to war against 800 and kills them all. It was supernatural! These mighty men were the building blocks of David’s kingdom. They were significant in leading Israel into the Golden Age, entrusted with extraordinary responsibilities. However, in between their failures and their ultimate assignments was a defining moment, found in chapter 30 of First Samuel. David was rejected by Saul, rejected by Israel, rejected by the Philistines, and now by his own men.
It’s hard to imagine what David felt. However, he overcame this rejection, rallied his men, and sought the Lord. He led them out of disappointment and into victory. I want to suggest that learning how to minister to ourselves is key to our next promotion. Please stand.
So, I pray that everyone in this room will learn at even higher levels what it is to minister to ourselves. There’s this theme in the church that can sometimes be antichrist in nature—it is not Christian at all. When Paul spoke to the church at Ephesus and to Timothy, he said, «Watch over yourself and your teaching.» He told the elders at Ephesus to watch yourself and the flock, making personal care a priority.
There’s something about learning to minister to ourselves that positions us to bring out the best in those around us. Everyone in this room, regardless of age, has been given the privilege and assignment to bring strength to others. Father, I pray for that grace to come crashing into our lives in ways we have never known before, and that You would help us to remember the things that are useful to building our own strength. I pray this for the honor of the name of Jesus.
Now, I want to ask everyone to hold their place for just a moment, out of respect for those who may want to know Jesus. If there’s anyone in the room who has never made a commitment to follow Jesus or doesn’t know what it’s like to be born again or to be changed from the inside out, but you want to be a disciple of Jesus and know what it means to be forgiven of your sins, I invite you to raise your hand. We’re going to partner in prayer with you. If there’s anyone who would like to give their life to Jesus, please put your hand up. I also extend this invitation to our online community.
Bless you, anyone else? Our online community, I encourage you to put it in the chat so one of our pastors can pray with you. I want to ask our ministry team to come forward. Please hold your place. Ministry team, if anyone wants to know Jesus, come down here. We have friends who can help you. Thank you for being here today!