Pastor Martin Carl Jarvis
mcjarvis@lwcenter.org
www.lwcenter.org
We Are Warriors!
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Pastor Martin Carl Jarvis mcjarvis@lwcenter.org |
LIBERTY WORSHIP CENTER www.lwcenter.org We Are Warriors! |
As we go through life we have but to look around...
There are so many unhappy people. So many dissatisfied people. And so we find addictions of every kind. People simply trying to satisfy an emptiness that comes from not having realized one's life purpose...that particular purpose that each individual has been placed on this earth to fulfill.
Unhappy... Unfulfilled... Dissatisfied... Empty...
Sound familiar? You bet it does! "As such were some of us", right? As many of us are still... even in the church... especially in the church!
We have in the church today every kind of addict you can imagine. Drug addicts, Alcoholics, Sex Addicts, Pornography, etc.,. Yet, our addictions go for the most part unaddressed... unnoticed. Why? We are the "Children of God". We are "more than conquerors". Greater is "He that is in us...". Yet, there is a tremendous lack of victory in the life of the individual Christian in the church today. Why? How? We have within each of us the Spirit of God. Yet, our purposes are not being realized.
Now, I'm not talking about one's livelihood" as one's purpose. I'm not talking about climbing the corporate ladder. Or, how successful is one's business. What I'm talking about is that particular calling, God's desired destiny for the life of each individual person born into the world. But, so often carefully "hidden" (even within the church--in "non threatening" ministries) those that God has called to be Warriors!
Judges
6:11-15,
"And there came an angel of the
Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash
the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress,
to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is
all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers
told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now
the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
There are many in the Body of Christ who don't realize the greatness that God has desired (the destiny that God has planned) for each of our lives. We've lived with ourselves so long that we are all too familiar with our failings... our short comings... our weaknesses. And, so we believe that there's much that we can't do. "I'm an introvert! So I can't speak in front of a crowd!" "I've got so many hang-ups! So many negative personality traits! I really can't function in that particular ministry." "I haven't conquered this particular "sin" in my life... this particular proclivity, this habit... this addiction. So, I certainly can't help anyone else!"
"My family is poor in Manasseh... and I am least in my father's house..." That's what Gideon saw. That's what Gideon felt. That's what Gideon believed. So Gideon, up to this point, really hadn't accomplished very much. Threshing wheat. Hiding behind the winepress.
But we see as we go ahead in the account, that God used Gideon to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of the Midanites. God used Gideon to deliver the children of Israel from the afflictions of their bondage.
So this same Gideon, who was from a poor family in Manasseh, this same Gideon who was least in his father's house, this same Gideon who spent his time hiding behind the winepress threshing wheat... God had called to be a Warrior!
Now, we can't really fault Gideon too much. Because his hiding and threshing wheat was no doubt sanctioned by his father. His father, the very one who should have shared with him who he was. That, "You are a child of God, Gideon!" That, "You are Abraham's seed, Gideon!" That, "You are a Warrior, Gideon!"
See, nobody told Gideon he was a Warrior! Nobody told Gideon that he was special! Nobody told Gideon that he was more than a conqueror! "Hide behind the winepress, Gideon...and thresh for us some wheat, please."
Gideon didn't know who he was. Gideon saw his own weaknesses everyday of his life. He knew who he "thought" he was. But, the Gideon that Gideon saw, wasn't the Gideon that God saw. God saw the potential. God saw the destiny set aside for Gideon's life.
See, we are our own worst critics. We know our flaws. People think we look good! But we know what we really look like. We see what they can't see. People may think "You've got it all together!" But you know the addictions, you know that habit that permeates your life!
"My family is least in Mannesah... And, I am least in my father's house. Gideon didn't know who he was (in God). And, I dare say that we don't know who we are (in God). And, so we spend much of our time hiding. Hiding behind the winepresses in our lives, just threshing wheat!
Now threshing wheat was very important. It was necessary. They had to eat. And because of the Midianites, it was necessary to thresh this wheat in hiding. But, for a warrior? A deliverer? A conqueror? A leader called to lead his people to freedom... hiding behind a winepress threshing wheat!
We are too often hiding behind winepresses in our own lives. Hiding at our job. Hiding in the church. Hiding behind "non threatening" ministries... when God has called us to be be Warriors!