Marcus Mecum - Guard This Man
Hello, we're so glad that you chose to spend a few minutes with us today. I'm pastor Marcus Mecum and it is our privilege to bring today's message to each and every one of you. You'll wanna wait until the end of the message because I've got a special free resource we can't wait to get into your hands. Let's get right to it. We'll see you in a little bit.
You know, I heard this story years and years and years ago, and as simple as it is, it makes so much sense, that there was a man in his 20's who said, "I wanna change the world. I wanna make a difference in my world. I wanna do something to impact the world". When he entered his 30's and he looked back at what he had accomplished, he realized that maybe he bit off more than he could chew. And so, he reduced his dream down to, "I wanna change my nation. If I could just make a difference in my nation, then I would feel fulfilled in life". When he got into his 40's, he realized he probably bit off more he could chew. And now, he's saying, "If I could just change my state, if I could just make a difference in my state then I would be happy".
When he got into his 50's, he realized that still his ambitions were a little too great. And so, he said, "God, if I could just change my region, if I just do something in my region to make a difference then I could die and be happy". Gets out of his 50's, he's in his 60's, and now, he's just praying, "God, help me to change my community. Use me to make a difference in my community. Just right here in my town, in the surrounding area. God, use me to make a difference". In his 70's he realized, "Man, I'm still not making any headway". So, his prayer was, "God, just help me to change my family". He enters his 80's, he's kinda running his last lap towards the end of his life. His prayer turned to, "God, would you just change me? Would you just change me"?
Realizing that if earlier on his life he wouldn't have been distracted by all these, you know, Romantic ideas, these outlandish ideas. These are the things that make everybody shout and scream and think really big things in the mom, "Let's go change the world". That'll get a response, won't it? But when you boil it down to that simple thing, "God, would you help me not be distracted by all that and would you help me to change me? Help me to work on me first, then, maybe, I can influence my family. Then, maybe, I can influence my community, my church. Then, maybe, I can influence the city. And then, maybe, we can make a difference in the world around us".
So, 1 Kings 20:39, it says, "The king passed by, and the prophet called out to him, 'your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, "Guard this man"'". Everybody, say that with me, "Guard this man". That's the title of my message. "Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life". This is a serious thing. Verse 40, "'While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared. And then that was the sentence,' the king said. 'You have pronounced this sentence over yourself'".
I want you to quickly recognize it in these short few verses. There is contained what is the number one responsibility of every man and woman in this room. The story takes place on a battlefield. And if you could imagine with me the environment, the atmosphere, of that battlefield would have been noisy and chaotic. There would have been the trumpet blast that they used in battles in those days. The shofars would be blasting to signal to the army what task to take on, what direction to go in. There would have been the clanging of swords. There would have been the rumbling of chariots. There would have been the screams and the yells of men who were going into battle, the cries of the wounded. If you could imagine a battlefield like that, if you will.
Now, inside of that battle, right in the middle of the battle, a king has captured a man and he comes to a soldier and his instructions to the soldier is, "I want you to guard this man. Your number one priority, your number one focus, your number one responsibility is even though there's all kinds of chaos and there's noise and there's the war raging around you, your number one responsibility is to guard and to keep this man". The word guard means to hedge in, to defend, or to set a watchman over. It means to hedge him in with thorns. So, its speaking of coming up with parameters and boundaries around the man that the king had gave him to guard. "The goal was to make sure that in no way will you let this man escape. You've gotta keep him in the boundaries. You've gotta keep him inside of the parameters that I've commanded you to keep him".
And then to add to the seriousness of the command, the king said, "If this man, when I come for him, is missing, it will be your life for his life. Your responsibility is you've gotta guard this man. You've got to defend him. You've got to be the watchman over him. I know there's a lot going on outside. I know there's a lot of distractions. I know there's a lot of things to worry about out there. But I'm pulling you off of the battlefield and I'm going to ask you to not engage in the chaos of what's going on out there, the screams, and the trumpets blast, and the swords clashing, and the chariots rumbling. I'm gonna ask you to not get involved with that and I'm gonna ask you to focus on this one thing more than anything else. I want you to guard this man. Don't be distracted by the battle. Don't be distracted by the chaos. Don't be distracted by the clanging of the swords. Your charge is to keep this man. And more than anything else, your life depends on how you keep this man. If you lose him, you lose yourself. If you let his life go, it's going to cost you your life in the process".
So, the Bible says, in the battle, when it ended and the dust settled, and the dead were dealt with, and handled, and the wounded were cared for, that the king found his way to the solider. And he wanted to know one thing from this soldier. He wanted to find out one thing and that was, "What did you do with the man that I gave you charge over"? And the Bible says that the man had escaped. And so, when the king is asking the man, "Where is the man I gave you to guard? Where is he? What happened to him"?
And he says to the king that he's escaped, the king, immediately, wants to know, "How could this have happened? How could you have possibly allowed something so important that I've given you, how could you possibly have ignored that command? How could you possibly have been so negligent? Did the enemy overpower you and rescue the man that I gave you to guard"? "No, sir". "Did you misunderstand the command that I gave you? Was I not clear how important this was that this was to be your number one responsibly"? "No, sir, you were clear". "Did someone else come and give you another order and undermine me and somehow you were confused"? "No, sir. No one distracted me. I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew the order. I was clear. I was not overpowered by the enemy". And the king said, "Explain yourself".
And the answer he gave is so classic. Notice what he said, "I got busy here and there". And the king looks at the man and said, "So shall your judgement be. You've lost this man, so you lose yourself. This is the cost because you did not watch this man, because you did not guard, and you weren't the watchman of this man". The king says, "It's going to cost you your life". This man immediately is trying to help the king understand maybe what had happened, and it's so important to the soldier that the king knows that he wasn't lazy, that he wasn't apathetic. He says, "I was busy here and there". He's hoping certainly the king understands, "I've got pressures in life. I've got demands in life. I got all these different things pulling on me, and I've got all these things trying to, that are important. And these things really matter, you know. I've got children and I've got spouses. And life is busy, dealing with the spouse you're hoping to land. It's busy. Life is busy".
Is it not? We got jobs to wake up to. We got bills to pay. We got responsibilities in life. "King, surely, you understand I'm a busy man. I forgot to guard the man because I have so many responsibilities coming at me. And surely, king, you understand that those obligations and those responsibilities just distracted me just for a minute". And I believe that in many ways, the way that the young man put it was that "I was busy here and there". In other words, he wasn't saying it was a quick thing. The king didn't give him the command to guard this man and then he just immediately was negligent and ignored the orders and went about his life. No, it was a gradual thing. Just here a little and there a little. Just begin to slowly pull away, just slowly begin to get focused on other things. Slowly got pulled into this distraction or that distraction.
But then he would get back and say, "Oh yeah". And there the man is saying, "Don't worry about me. I'm good. You just go on, handle life. Just do whatever you gotta do in life. Don't worry about me. I'm not gonna try to escape. I'm not gonna try to get out of here. Boys scout honor. Cross my heart and hope to die. Just go do your thing. Just go out there and handle the priorities, and the busyness of life". And I love the fact that this man just slowly and surely got away from what he was called to do. Before he knew it, he looks back and the man had escaped.
And in case you haven't got the point of this message yet, the king is saying to you and that's Jesus and he's coming back, and he's gonna wanna know this. He's saying, "You are that man". He's saying to all of us, "Your number one responsibility is to keep this man, to guard this man, to be the watchman over this man". The Bible says, "I've got to guard my heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life".
I've gotta keep this man. I've gotta keep this man's eyes from the lust of the flesh. I've gotta keep this man's flesh from desiring things. The Bible says that each one of us is enticed and pulled away by our own desires. I've gotta keep this man from the pride of life. I've gotta hedge him in. I've gotta watch him. I've gotta build up parameters, and standards, and boundaries. And I've got to make sure that I don't just let this man do whatever he wants. This man is out of control if I let him. This man will do the craziest things if I just allow him to. This man is a liar. This man is a cheat. This man has no care of what he does in life if you just let him run rampant.
Paul said it like this, "There is no good thing that dwells in my flesh". Paul said, "The things I don't wanna do, I do, and the things I do wanna do, I don't do". He's saying, "I had to guard this man". "If you don't guard him, if you don't hedge him in, if you don't realize your flesh can't be trusted, your old nature can't be trusted, then before you know it, he'll escape and he'll cause all kinds of just a temporary lap in judgement, you'll find that old man getting out there and causing all kinds of chaos and all kinds of destruction".
You see, what I love about this story is the soldier was not a bad man. He was just a busy man. "Well, I had this and I had that. I was busy here and I was busy there. I wasn't a bad man, I just was a busy man". He didn't lose the man on purpose. It wasn't his goal to lose the man. It was his goal to take care of the man. And most of the time that's how it works in our life. Slowly, little by little, we drift away. Slowly here and there we get distracted, we get busy. The priorities that we know God's given us become less and less of a priority. We find ourselves further from God, further from his word, further from his presence, further from the relationship we once had. We find ourselves getting pulled away, lured away, less and less being who we know God had called us to be.
And so, the message to us today is you have to guard this man. You have to be a watchman over this man. That's why the Bible says, "Put on the full armor of God," not just the helmet of salvation. We're glad that you said a prayer and you know that Jesus loves you and he can forgive you, but you gotta put on the full armor of God. You gotta get out the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. You gotta get out the shield of faith. You gotta put on the breastplate of righteousness. Oh, it's a battle out there. You gotta put on the belt of truth, the feet shods of peace. You gotta guard this man.
So important that I stay in the things that God has given me. I gotta stay in church, whether it's watching online or however I create places to worship. I've got to keep it a priority. Obeying God must be my number one priority. And you say, "No, my children are my number one priority. My spouse is my number one priority. I gotta take care of the people that I love". Can I just help you real quick? You will be no good to your children if you don't guard this man. You'll never influence your spouse if you don't guard this man. You'll never make a difference in the world around you if you don't first say, "God, help me guard this man". Acts 2 says, "Save yourself from this wicked and perverse generation".
Every person has a great responsibility to keep this man. I've gotta use parameters. I've gotta hedge him in. I've got to use boundaries. I've gotta use principles. I've gotta use standards. I've gotta build the hedge around this man because if I just let this man go places, if I just let this man do whatever it wants to do, I gotta guard my eyes. I've gotta guard my ears. I've gotta guard my mind. I've gotta guard my heart. I've gotta guard my relationships. I've gotta guard the places I go. I've got to guard this man. I gotta hedge him in. I gotta keep him in prayer. I've gotta keep him in the word. I gotta keep him in church. I gotta keep him holy. I gotta keep his heart pure before God. I've gotta keep and guard this man or I'll never be an influence, I'll never be good for anybody else.
You see, one day the king is coming back and he's gonna wanna know, "What did you do with this man? What did you do with this man"? You know, a battery, in order for it to have power, has both positive and negative charges. And a lot of people are used to in church, especially in the day we live in, I'll hear people talk about, "Well, I got away from church 'cause where I was growing up, it was hellfire and brimstone". I don't even know what brimstone is, but it's bad. I studied the Bible for 30 years. I still don't know what brimstone is. But now, we've seem, the pendulum has swung, hasn't it? It's all positive. And you know what, the gospel is good news.
Come on, it's great news. It really is. And we need the positive. We need to know God loves us. He's for us. He forgives us. Come on, if you get outside those parameters the point is for you to know you stepped out so you can step back in and say, "Okay, God, you know, from here forward is the point with God always". He's saying, "Okay, okay". From here forward. It's important for us to know the positives. It's important for us to know that we're his sons and his daughters and that he'll never leave us or forsake us. But if all you do is take the battery cables and you just hook up to the positive charge and you try to go crank the engine, you'll get no power. So, you've gotta have the negative charge too.
And every now and then we have to not just know God loves us and he's for us, we have to know the king is also holding us responsible and the king is gonna want to know he's gonna hold us accountable for what he's asked us to do. And he's gonna wanna know, "Did we guard this man"? And that means not always is it positive the things I tell myself. Sometimes I have to tell myself, "Thou shall nots," are in the book too. Come on. That's the standard. That's the principle. No, you can't go there. No, you can't, I've gotta guard this man.
Solomon, towards the end of life said in the book of Solomon 1:6, he said, "They made me a keeper of other's vineyards, but I've not kept my own". "I made sure others were okay. I made sure that I pruned their vineyards. I made sure that I protected their vineyards from outside dangers. I made sure that I harvested their grapes. But my own is overgrown, unprotected, weeds everywhere, no fruitfulness". That's what Solomon said, "When I got to the end of my life, I realized I had kept everyone else's vineyard, but I neglected my own".
I gotta keep this man. I've gotta guard this man. You know, one of the things that we say often here at 7 hills, especially on staff, and to a lot of our volunteers, and every now and then I'll bring it up to the church and I'll say, "Hey, the number one thing you could give 7 hills, the greatest thing you could give 7 hills is your relationship with Jesus, not a million dollars". You can, but that's not the point. It's not your time. Let me just break it down to where we really live.
The greatest thing you can give your children, your spouse, your future spouse is not being at every football game. I hope you make it to every one. I hope you make it to every recital, every event that they're involved with. But if you give them everything and you leave them the greatest inheritance, and they get a ivy league education, and you do not give them the importance of a relationship with God, can I tell you? Can I help you? It don't matter if we're the wealthiest church in the world, if you think somehow that matters more than your personal relationship with God, I have failed.
Dad, if you prioritize anything above your relationship with God, you are failing your children. I understand you're a good dad but you gotta guard this man. If you don't guard him, if you don't keep him hedged in, then you can pass on all the wonderful things the world has to offer to your children but you're missing it. The greatest thing we can give our families, the greatest thing we can give our church, the greatest thing we can give this world is our own personal relationship with God. I've gotta keep this man.
Now, I love the tendency for the sound good things to come out right now in people's mind. "No, you gotta prioritize others. You gotta love others. You gotta take care of others. You gotta make it about others". That is true, but you can't flip the priorities. It's not that that's insignificant or less significant, it's that there is an order. Jesus said it like this, "You love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength". Think about that. "You have to love the Lord your God with all your heart". "All my heart? That's a big job. All my heart? All my strength? What's God saying"?
Hey, don't just quickly move past this. Don't be flippant about this. This is gonna take a lot. Take a lot of strength, a lot of energy, a lot of focus. This is your number one responsibility is you have to put a high prize on you prioritizing you and you prioritizing your love for God. Then, step number two, you love others as you love, watch it, yourself. Which means you can really only love others at the level you love yourself. Have you ever wondered why an abuser can abuse people but in the name of the abuse he says that he loves them? Because he loves people at the level he loves himself. Right?
So, you cannot get this mindset of, "I just gotta take care of everybody else". 'Cause you get out there, your reflection of how you see yourself, guess where it comes from? It comes from the people around you comparing yourself to so and so, and to such and such. And guess what you'll always come back with when you do that? You'll always come back falling short. You'll always come back inadequate. You'll never gonna measure up. You're never gonna be good enough. You're always gonna have a sense when you compare yourself to others that there's something off with you, something wrong with you, something not enough about you, something unlovable about you. Because that's what happens when you put others before your own relationship with God. But if I find out who I am, and I guard this man by loving God with all my heart and all my strength, guess what happens? I find out from him who I am.
I know it's basic. I found out that I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. I find out that before there was one day on the planet, God knew me and prepared and planned me for this day and this hour. And he's prepared the good works for me to walk in before there was ever one day on this planet. And I start finding out I do have a purpose and I do have a call. And I don't have to compare. I don't have to measure myself out there. Then guess what? As I begin to find that God sees that much greatness and value in me, guess what I can go out and do? I can love others as I love myself. I can believe in others as I believe in myself. I can make a difference in others because I made a difference in myself. I gotta guard this man. Everybody, say, "I've gotta guard this man".