Jonathan & His Armor Bearer pt2 | AOG | Pastor Rob Koke | Shoreline Church | Message

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, everybody. You guys doing good? All right, let's all of us stand to our feet. We do something at the beginning of our messages. We wrap our understanding around a collection of phrases that we call our shoreline creed. Just helps to remind us that Christianity is all about grace. But before we do that, how many of you guys watched the game last night? Oh my gosh. Did we try to give that game away? Listen, I'm tired of the strategy of scoring all of our points in the first half and hoping that's enough to get us over the finish line. But the reason why I bring up the game is because guys night on Friday night, we prayed for the Longhorns. We prayed for the coach. We prayed for the quarterback. We prayed for the offensive line. And I'm just here to tell you that we carried the team over to victory, all right? Just want to let you know, guys night was amazing. It was incredible.

Anyway, welcome to church today. We're going to recite our creed. If you're new to shoreline, you can read along the rest of us. We're going to say this with some enthusiasm and passion. You guys ready? OK, I need some more enthusiasm. You guys ready? All right, here we go. I am loved by God. I cannot earn it. I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ, I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Come on, let's give God praise for that. [APPLAUSE] All right, you may be seated. As you saw on the screen, we are in a collection of talks against all odds. And last week, we introduced a story that we're going to conclude this morning, which is perhaps the story with the greatest odds that you're ever going to face in the Bible. This story is absolutely incredible. We have two people who are fighting against 3,000 chariots, 6,000 charioteers, and over 50,000 soldiers. Now, just kind of think about that for a moment. Two, Jonathan and his armor bearer,

if they were facing 10, it would be incredible odds. A hundred, it would be incredible odds. A thousand, it would be unthinkable. But they are facing nearly 60,000 enemy soldiers, and there's only two of them, Jonathan and his armor bearer. And maybe you're here at church today, and you're facing some daunting odds. I play golf with a guy who is often giving me percentages about every single shot I take. So I'll be on the green, and he'll say, 2% chance you're going to make that putt. Or he'll say, 50% chance you're going to hit that in the water. And the other day, I turned to him and I said, there's 100% chance you're irritating me. But sometimes we go through difficult circumstances, don't we? Maybe the odds are not looking that great for your marriage, or your finances, or your health, or some other daunting circumstance. Sometimes life can be good in one area and challenging in another. I heard it said that we think about life being more like mountain peaks and valleys, good times, followed maybe by difficult times, then back to good times and so on. But I think it's more accurate to say that life is like some railroad tracks, right? Where we have, at the very same time, maybe some challenging things happening in our world and also some things that we are grateful for.

But in this particular case, this story that starts out in 1 Samuel, chapter 14, it's the story against unimaginable odds. And what we learned last week is that when you're facing challenging circumstances. You're either gonna step back and you're gonna sit and maybe try to find comfort. That's what Saul and 600 of his soldiers did. They sat in the shade, trying to comfort themselves, trying not to think about the daunting circumstances that they're in, or you can respond like Jonathan and his armor bearer did and take a step toward victory in your life. We're gonna pick up the story here where we left off last week, first Samuel, chapter 14, verse six. Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come, let us go over to the outpost "of those uncircumcised men. "Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf." What Jonathan says next, honestly, are some of the most profound and beautiful words that you're ever going to read in the Bible. Listen to what he says, this is so incredible. He says, "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving "whether by many or by few." What we're gonna talk about today are three of the things that every single one of us need to have incorporated into our life if we're going to overcome difficult challenging circumstances. And this first verse gives us an insight

into what the first ingredient is. If we're going to face and overcome challenging circumstances, we're gonna need to put our trust in God for the how. Put our trust in God for the results. The reality is, is that a lot of times, we try to predetermine how it is that God needs to work in our lives. We've got it thought out. We've got the plan, we've got the strategy. We're not really interested in changing that. We just want God to bless what we have already predetermined is going to be the way this problem gets solved. But there is something in the attitude and the spirit of these words that is so encouraging and actually so insightful for us. And I don't want any of us to miss it. There's humility here. There's a sense of surrender here. He says, nothing can hinder the Lord from saving whether by many or by few. What he's saying is I am 100% convinced that God will save us. I'm just gonna leave the how, whether it's through many or whether it's through a few. I'm gonna leave the how to him. I'm gonna trust him because I know he is trustworthy. I'm just not going to dictate exactly how he needs to do it. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving. I'm 100% convinced that God is going to save. How he does it is up to him.

And what this particular verse tells me is that there are some things that we need to hold tightly to. And then there's some things that we need to be a little bit more loose with. We need to hold tightly to God. We need to hold tightly to the reality that he is God and we are not. We need to hold tightly to his promises. We need to hold tightly to the reality that he will save. But what we need to hold loosely is how he's going to do it, when he's going to do it. And through whom he's going to do it. Hold tightly to God and his promises, hold loosely to how it is accomplished in your life. And I love that attitude. I know that God is going to meet my needs. Maybe through some unexpected increase in the income. Maybe through some strategic approach to our budgeting that saves us on the expenses. Maybe it's going to be supernatural or maybe it will be naturally supernatural. I know that God is going to heal. Maybe through the skill of the surgeon. Maybe in answer to prayer or maybe through a change in diet and exercise. I know that my God is a healer. I know that God can restore this broken relationship. Maybe it'll happen through the skill of a counseling session,

or maybe it'll be a divine answer to prayer, or maybe it'll be seeds that you're planting in this relationship that reap a different harvest. I know that God's gonna restore. I leave the how to him. I know that God's going to provide. I leave the how to him. I know that our God is a healer. I leave the how to him. That's what I love about this story. I think sometimes we get locked in. God has to do it one way, and that's our way. We get unnecessarily emotional, 'cause it's not happening the way that we think it should. We gotta remember that sometimes God comes the storm. Sometimes He takes us out of the storm, and sometimes He takes the storm out of us. Let God be God in your life, and trust Him with the how of the accomplishment of His promise. Sometimes we want that full five-year plan, don't we? We wanna know exactly how it's gonna unfold. We wanna know what tomorrow looks like, what next week looks like, what next month looks like. But if we really knew every single detail of the journey, come on, how many of you know you would mess it up? Someone said, I am messing it up. I appreciate that honesty. Sometimes He delays things and does things differently than we would expect, because He's got a bigger agenda

in mind, not just meeting your need, but He's looking at your heart. He's looking at things that need to be transformed in your life, and often His agenda is a little bit different than yours. I remember back when we first started Shoreline, I went to a church growth seminar, and we had been at it for about a year, and we had roughly 40 to 50 people that were meeting in our church after a year. And I was in a small group with other church planters, and we were just kind of going around the circle sharing stories about where we were at this particular season. And the first guy, he said, well, we started about 12 months ago as well, and we've got about 500 people in our church. And the next person said, we got about 350. The next person, we got about 400. The next person, we've got around 600. And it was just kind of going around that circle. We only had 40 or 50, and when I'm hearing all of these testimonies, I'm thinking to myself, 40 or 50 does not sound very impressive. And so I thought to myself, what should I do? Should I say what we have? Or should I say what I'm believing for? That was the argument that was taking place in my brain. As these testimonies are going around the circle, this argument, this side said, say 50.

This side said, say 150. This side said 50, 150, 50, 150. And it got around to where I was. What am I gonna say? You know what I said? 200. I am a work in progress, all right? We all are, aren't we? Maybe the delay in how things were unfolding here at Shoreline, maybe part of the agenda is that God wanted to mature me. God wanted to purify my own heart. He had a bigger picture in mind. So we trust God that it's gonna get done, but we also trust him with the how. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf, Jonathan said. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or whether by a few. There's an open-handed surrender that Jonathan brings to this situation. You might know this, but Jonathan, this isn't a one-time, one-off experience for him. He seemed to live his life this way. Back in Bible days, and you probably studied this in history, you know, whenever one king, you know, would transition. It would always be transitioned to the king's son, right? There was always this, you know, the son will inherit the kingdom kind of mentality. And so Jonathan was the legal rightful heir you know, bad mistakes. And the prophet Samuel came to his house and said, "The kingdom's going

to be taken away from you and your family, and it's going to be given to another person." But when Jonathan hears about all of this, he doesn't try to, with the spirit of entitlement, you know, fight for what he thinks is legally his. He lives with this sense of surrender. And actually the one who was anointed to be king was David. Jonathan and David became best friends. He lived with an open handedness, a trust, a surrender. God is my God. He will meet my needs. The how? I leave up to him. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking a lot about these stories from the Old Testament of men and women who were against all odds. And it seems like this particular theme is coming out over and over again. When we talked about Abraham, we talked about how he and Lot were, you know, struggling because of all of their resources and all the cattle and Abraham in a gracious kind of surrendered, open handed trust said to Lot, "Listen, let's not quarrel. You go to the right and I'll go to the left." Or if you prefer and you want to go to the left, I'll go to the right. He lived with that sense of surrender. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Yeah, you know, they, they, they would not bow and just the way they approached it was so beautiful. We talked about this the other week, this idea that they said, "You know what, King, we're not going to bow and our God is able to deliver us, but even if he doesn't, even if he has a different plan, we're not going to bow down to your idols." Perhaps they thought that God would extinguish the flames of the furnace. Maybe that's what they had in their mind and weren't they surprised when Jesus shows up as the fourth man in the fire with them. The story is so powerful and beautiful. But over and over again, when we read through all of these different stories, there's this beautiful sense of surrender and trust. And God wants you to trust him, even if it works out differently than the way that you thought. We have this wonderful promise in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 that says, "And we know that in all things, everyone shout out all things." We know that in all things, that's like everything in your life, your relationships, your health, your finances, your circumstances, challenging emotional experiences that you might be going through. In all things, God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. Maybe something's happening in your life and you go, "Why is it happening this way?" One of my friends here at Shoreline, he's a mountain biking buddy of mine. And from time to time, we'll go out and ride the trails here in Austin. We do it with a group of shoreliners. And he had an accident when he was riding one day, he was by himself, and he broke his shoulder. Yeah, tragic thing. Lots of pain and managed to get his way home.

And then he went to the hospital to get some x-rays. They decided to do a CAT scan of his injury. And when they did that CAT scan, they noticed a little dark spot on his lungs. And even though he had never smoked a cigarette, never smoked anything his entire life, there was some cancer on his lung. And he didn't feel sick. He had no symptoms. There was nothing, you know, that he would have ever discerned about his physical health that would have, you know, motivated him to go into the doctor to have it checked out. But here, because he had this accident, they took this CAT scan and when they took the CAT scan, they saw this dark spot and they were able to remove it. That happened six years ago, and he has been completely cancer-free for six years. His particular experience was so, you know, like breathtaking, even to the hospital officials, that the Austin American statesman did a feature story on his journey. Sometimes we're going through difficult circumstances, and we wonder why. But maybe around the bend, there is something that God's going to work out that's going to be better, and more beautiful, and more powerful, and more God glorifying than you ever imagined. When Jonathan is saying what he's saying about perhaps the Lord will deliver us and whether it happens by many or a few, we just know what's going to happen. When he's saying those things, he's saying it to a person. He's saying it to his young armor bearer who's traveling with him. And I want you to listen to how the young armor bearer responds, because what happens next is laying the foundation for the second ingredient that we need to possess if we're going to overcome the challenges in our lives. In 1 Samuel, chapter 14 and verse 7, this is what the young armor bearer says. He says, "Do all that you have in mind, go ahead, I am with you, heart and soul." If you're going to overcome challenges in your life, number two, you're going to need some good friends. All of us need these kind of relationships in our life. We need to have men, we need to have women in our lives, that when we are moving forward perhaps with a dream or we're moving forward against some negative circumstances, their response to us is, "Do exactly what you have in your mind to do." Their encouragers, they're the people who say, "Go for it. Your dream is possible.

You can do it. You can reconcile. You can make a difference." I love the fact that this church is so encouraging. You guys are so encouraging. I had an experience out in the lobby even this morning in the first service and there was this beautiful African-American mom who had been watching our services here for many, many years. Her daughter goes here to shoreline and I didn't ask. I should have asked, but she actually flew on a plane to come to church this morning because she just wanted to meet me after all of these years of just watching the service online. She just, with tears coming down her cheeks, she just said, "I love shoreline. I love you. Thank you so much for everything that you do." It was so moving, so moving. My mom watches online, in fact, every single Sunday. She watches from Colorado Springs and she will text me after almost every single service and say, "That was the best message I've ever heard." And what makes that really, really satisfying to me is that my brother is also a pastor and she watches his service as well. And I'm sure she doesn't tell him what she tells me. Encouragement. We all need encouragement, don't we? We need those encouraging text messages. We need those encouraging conversations. We need those encouraging phone calls. And you've got to have people in your life who love you, who are for you for that encouragement to unfold. And then a young armor bearer says, "Next, I am with you, heart and soul. I'm all in.

Where you go, I'm going. That's not just a yes. That is a wholehearted yes. That's not just mental assent, but from the deepest part of his being, he says, "I am with you." And we all need people like that in our lives. You made your decision. The armor bearer says, "And that means I've already made my decision and I'm going to stand by you." That word armor bearer, it's kind of an interesting thing, right? It's a word from the Old Testament that we get that doesn't really have a modern day kind of equivalent. But what an armor bearer would do in Bible days is, practically, it was somebody who would carry the load. So if a warrior was heading into battle, it was the armor bearer that would carry the shield, perhaps, or maybe the sword, so that when the warrior got to the front line, he wouldn't be exhausted or tired from lugging all of his equipment. So practically, it was somebody who would help carry the load. It was also someone who would fight beside the warrior. who would cover the leader's blind spots and flanks during the hand-to-hand combat. And it was also someone who pledged undying loyalty, unyielding courage. Literally someone who had the warriors back. We all need people like that in our lives. We need people who will help shoulder the burden, someone who will fight alongside with us, someone who's gonna walk in when everyone else is walking out. We all need that.

But we also all need to be that in the lives of others. In fact, it is much more likely that you will receive that if you be that. If you're an armor bearer to somebody else, if you're somebody who's willing to shoulder the load, if you're somebody who is loyal, if you're somebody who will fight alongside your friends, then chances are a lot better that other people will be that in your life. We need to receive that and we need to be that. We all need relationships. And that's what made this past Friday night so special. We had like 300 guys that got together here on our North Campus, people from South Campus, North Campus, even some people from online. They just came together and in the lobby, we were all around some tables and there was so much incredible fellowship. I went from table to table and I heard story after story. This guy said, hey, I want you to know, this guy brought me to church. I went to another table and said, well, this guy, he was my prayer partner when I was going through some really difficult health challenges. Someone else said, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't this person who stood in the gap for me when I was making some pretty poor choices in my life. Story after story, testimony after testimony. You don't have to go through life alone. Shoreline is all about creating that kind of community

where you can receive the kind of friendship support you need when you're going through difficult challenges in life. Third, as we close this message, Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel." And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him. If you're going to overcome the challenging circumstances in your life, maybe you don't need this message today but you'll need it at some point, I guarantee you. First, you got to trust God with the how. Second, you got to make the investment in and be willing to receive good friendship. And number three, you need to be willing to climb. Jonathan had to climb up and it was steep enough that he actually had to climb on his hands and his knees. And maybe that's a little bit of a metaphor that when it's really, really steep and you're climbing with your hands and you fall on your knees that that's a good time to pray. If you're going to defy the odds, if you're going to, against all odds, get the victory, you have to be willing to climb. All of the meaningful victories in life require a climb. They are all uphill climbs. If you want to have a great marriage, I don't care how well adjusted and emotionally intelligent the husband and the wife are.

If you want to build a great marriage, it is an uphill climb. If you want to have a business, a successful business, that's an uphill climb. If you want to get into shape, that's an uphill climb. If you need to experience relational reconciliation with a son or a daughter or a friend or a relative, that's an uphill climb. If we as a church want to be engaged in helping to expand the kingdom of God here in Austin and all around the world, that's an uphill climb. And I love the spirit of Jonathan and his armor bearer. They don't step back and sit in the shade like Saul and his 600 men. They're willing to climb. And Jonathan's climb paints a powerful picture of victory being available to those who are willing to go to a higher level of faith, who are willing to step out of their comfort zone, who are willing to do what no one else is willing to do, who embrace the purpose that God has for their life. Some of you perhaps have lost a little bit of that fight and we need to get it back because victory doesn't belong to those who retreat and sit in the shade. It belongs to those who are willing to climb. God never intended that His church would be a place where people would just gather and listen. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad you're listening, but I hope that after you're done listening,

you will be inspired to take some steps to climb, perhaps to serve where you've never used your gifts to serve, perhaps to give. Maybe you've never participated in sharing your resources to make a difference in the kingdom of God. Perhaps in sharing your faith, you'd be willing to step out of your comfort zone because it's hard to imagine that Jesus endured the agony of the cross just to give us a few rules to live by. Jesus had a revolution in mind, and that's why every single week when we gather together, we talk and we end our creed saying we wanna be a part of a love revolution. Come on, give God praise. (congregation applauding) First Samuel, chapter 14, verse 13 closes this story. And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armor bearer killed them. That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 men within about half an acre of land. So Jonathan and his armor bearer, they climb. And the first set of adversaries they face is a garrison that has 20 soldiers. That's not 60,000, but it's still an overwhelming battle. Those are 10 to one odds, not very good for Jonathan and his armor bearer, but they fight. And God gives them the victory.

But look what happens after the climb. Look what happens. God takes these two, supernaturally empowers them for battle and then gets involved in a way that changes the entire situation. After that battle, there was trembling in the camp of the Philistines, in the field and among all the people. The garrison and the raiders also trembled. The earth quaked so that it was a very great trembling. Now the watchmen of Saul looked and there was a multitude of the Philistines that were melting away, they went here and there. Jonathan and his armor bearer, they climb. And then God gives them initial victory. But then God gets involved and sends an earthquake. The ground starts shaking and the whole army of the Philistines start melting away. The way the Bible says it, they were here and they were there. That's a way of just communicating that they were confused. And they started fighting with each other. And when the other Israelites began to see what was taking place, they get inspired. They get off their blessed assurance. They leave the shade of the tree. They look out at what's happening on the mountainside. And something begins to stir in them. Likewise, all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains, those who had deserted, Saul only had 600 left. But there was probably tens of thousands

that had, out of discouragement and disappointed, just deserted the army and were hiding up in the caves. They see what's happening and they follow after Jonathan and the armor bearer so that the victory is complete. Wow. Do you see the progression? Do you see what's happening? In verse 13, they just started to climb on their hands and on their knees, the two, they climb. And then in verse 14, the 20 Philistines fall. Verse 15, God sends an earthquake. Verse 16, the army melts and turns on itself. Verse 20, Psalms 600 join in. Verse 21, all the others that had deserted, they come down from the mountains and join in. Do you see the ripple effect of someone who's simply willing to climb? It changes everything. You start climbing for your marriage. Who knows the ripple effect that that will have on your children and on future generations? You start climbing for your business. Who knows how that's going to impact your employees and how God will use you to raise resources to finance the cause of God's kingdom? You start climbing the mountain and start using your gifts and talents to serve or to share your faith. And the ripple effect can simply change the entire world. Two men willing to climb

and God works a miracle. Never underestimate what faith in God can do. You put your trust in God and leave the how to Him. You surround yourself with good friends. You be willing to climb and watch what God does, miracles. In 1727, against all odds, Johann and David decided to climb. They were from a small village in Europe, but they heard that there was an island in the Caribbean that was filled with slaves and island entirely enslaved. And with hearts burning with passion to share the good news of the love of Jesus, they got in a boat. They said goodbye to their friends and their family and they crossed the ocean and sailed to St. Thomas. Their plan was that they were going to sell themselves as slaves and work alongside the slaves for the rest of their lives. But when they got there, they wouldn't allow them to do that. So they said, we'll just work for free then. And they worked amongst the slaves year after year, eventually 13,000 of them gave their hearts to Jesus, 13,000. That seed planted, inspired the whole continent of Europe and young men and young women from small villages and big cities all around Europe, decided to lay down their lives to spread the gospel

to places in the world that had never heard the gospel message. Hundreds and hundreds of missionaries sharing the good news with literally millions of people were inspired by these two that got in a boat. And the whole story of the abolition of slavery took a gigantic step forward because of what these two did. One of the young men that received the Lord out of the missionary movement, inspired by these two men, his name was John Wesley. And God used him in one of the greatest revivals to hit Europe and the United States of America called the Great Awakening. And it's responsible for a lot of the spiritual underpinning that we have in our own nation. So every single one of you have benefited from that legacy and heritage, but to bring it a little bit closer to home when I was in college, I read this story in a book I was reading about the expansive gospel. so much that God used it in my own journey, calling me into full-time service for His kingdom. So you could say that what Johann and David did in 1727, if they didn't do what they did, perhaps we wouldn't be meeting together here this morning in this place. That's how the ripple effect of their climb has not only changed the world, it's changed our world. And God has something incredible that He wants you to do. He wants your life to count, and maybe nobody will know your name, and maybe nobody will know your story, but you can overcome the odds you're facing today, put your trust in God for the hell, surround yourself with good friends, and be willing to climb.

Could I hear a good amen? All right. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you so much for our time together here today, Lord, and I just pray. For everybody facing a difficult set of circumstances today, Lord, which is pray, that you would do that earthquake-type miracle, or to shift the foundations, to shift the story, to shift to what looks to be like a really difficult situation and turn it around for your glory. We thank you, Father, for these stories that inspire us to live our very best for you in Jesus' name. If you wouldn't mind just remaining in an attitude of prayer for just a moment longer, if you came to church here today, and you say, "Pastor, I'm not living right, I'm not doing right, I'm not where I ought to be with God, I need prayer." Maybe at one point in time you made a decision to follow the Lord, but you've slipped away, and you need to rededicate your life to serving Him, or maybe you've never invited Jesus into your heart. Your uphill climb today is to open up your heart and receive the magnificent gift that God has for you. So if you want to get right with the Lord or you want to meet Him for the very first time, you want to rededicate your life to serving Him, would you please raise your hand quickly and boldly wherever you are here this morning? Don't be afraid. Just say, "That's me. Wonderful. God bless you. God bless you. Hands going up all over." All of you with your hands raised, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer. I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. And everyone else, would you join them in prayer as a reaffirmation of your faith in God that's all of us pray together.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Jesus. Jesus, I ask You to come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. I put my trust in You, and I will live for You from this day forward. Buy Your power for Your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Would you give them all a great big hand clap? All right, let's all of us stand to our feet with nobody leaving earlier or moving around. Just I want to give permission to those of you who raised your hands to make your way over to my left or my right. There's a person holding up a sign. We want to give you some information that will really help you to live this Christian life that you just prayed to receive. I also want to invite our prayer partners to come up here to the front because if you came to church today and you're facing a challenging set of circumstances and you want somebody to agree in prayer with you, maybe perhaps a future friend that will be a part of your world, our prayer partners will be here to pray with you and believe God with you for your future. We're super excited about community here at Shoreline, so Wednesday nights, that's your time to come and connect. We have men's groups and women's groups and all kinds of other small groups that you can be a part of. And then this coming Saturday at four o'clock, we have our trunk retreat thing. It's going to be awesome. Lauren and I are going to be there. We're going to have a trunk where it's going to be a great time together. And so we look forward to experiencing all that Shoreline has to offer for you together this week. Let me close with this blessing that comes from Numbers chapter 6, "May the Lord bless

you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face to you and give you peace." God bless you. Have a fantastic rest of your weekend. We look forward to seeing you this week. (upbeat music)