With Us Heart and Soul

1 Samuel 14:7-14 NKJV  So his armorbearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.”  (8)  Then Jonathan said, “Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them.  (9)  If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them.  (10)  But if they say thus, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up. For the LORD has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.”  (11)  So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.”  (12)  Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.” Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Come up after me, for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Israel.”  (13)  And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after him; and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armorbearer killed them.  (14)  That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about twenty men within about half an acre of land. (15) And there was trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so that it was a very great trembling. 

You may be seated 

• This is one of my favorite passages in Scripture… and I know it is not Genesis, but bear with me… 

• You see at this time King Saul was king over ancient Israel, and the Philistine army had set up a large Garison of soldiers ready to strike Israel. 

• As King Saul prepared his forces, a small army of about 600, Saul’s son, Jonathan, had a crazy idea. 

• Jonathan tells his armor bearer “Let’s go, just you and me, to the garrison of enemy Soldiers and see if God will give them into our hand… hundreds of them vs you, me, and our God”. 

• And the armor bearer, who’s job is to protect and serve Jonathan, says “Whatever you want to do, I am down! I am with you in heart and soul!” 

• So these two mighty men of God go up to the garrison, God gives them a sign, and they go and strike down twenty enemy soldiers, resulting in panic for those remaining in the camp. 

• And you know Jonathan get’s all the credit for this victory… 

• Jonathan get’s all the appreciation… but you know, there was someone else there, wasn’t there. There was an armor bearer who was down for whatever. 

• Let me read the first verse I just read, but I want to read it from the ESV this time because I love the emotion in the armor bearers voice… 

1 Samuel 14:7 ESV  And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” 

• This morning I am not going to preach about angels… I have a whole sermon written about angels from Genesis 19, and we are going to get to that after Mission Sunday… but this morning I am going to preach a sermon Titled “With us Hear and Soul”. 

• You see, today is Pastor Appreciation Sunday, and in this picture there are SIX people with the Title Pastor in front of their name. 

• For 10 years Amanda and I have been appreciated on Pastor Appreciation Sunday. 

• We have had guest speakers come in to appreciate us. 

• Pastor Jared has preached some fire sermons to appreciate us. 

• Sister Dez Paige, I think might have been one of the first people to set up appreciation for Amanda and I on Pastor’s appreciation Sunday. 

• Deacon Kat, being a pastors Kid herself, has help organize pastor appreciation Sundays. 

• I have received some of the best gifts I have ever received in my entire life on pastor appreciation Sunday’s, like handwritten sermon notes from Charles Spurgeon, or a new Bible Translation that integrates Hebrew language, or one of my favorite vacations ever, a trip to Saint Louis with my family. 

• So many people have given gifts, cards, money, and just kind words and prayer… so many people go out of their way to appreciate us… and I am so very grateful for that, church! I am so very grateful for all of you! 

• But in this picture there are SIX pastors, and I felt that today it would be nice if I spent some time, with the help of the holy Spirit, appreciating the other four pastors… and encouraging all of us to be more like them. 

• Because for year, Pastor Jared, Pastor Elizabeth, Pastor Tina, and Pastor Mike have been with us heart and Soul… and together, we have struck down quite a few enemies! 

• So let’s pray, then I am going to encourage all of you, church, to imitate these pastors as they imitate Christ. 

Point One – Will You Go With Us? 

1 Samuel 14:6-7 ESV  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”  (7)  And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” 

• You know, as I think about armor bearers, I used to immediately think of this passage, it is so powerful… Jonathan’s Armor Bearer saying “I am with you heart and soul!” 

• But now I think of someone else… I don’t immediately think of Jonathan’s armor bearer, instead I know think of this other guy, maybe some of you have heard of him, his name is Abashai. 

• You see 5 years ago, for our church’s 5 year anniversary, Pastor Matt preached a sermon titled “Will you be Abashai?” 

• And he read this passage from 1 Samuel 26… 

1 Samuel 26:6-9 NKJV  Then David answered, and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.”  (7)  So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him.  (8)  Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”  (9)  But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 

• Pastor Matt preached this sermon and said “Look at this guy’s Abashai’s heart! David asks “Who will go down with me” and without hesitation Abashai says “I will go down with you!”. 

• No questions asked, not thought of the danger that lay ahead… Just unrestrained willingness to go to with his leader. 

• Just simply “I will go down with you!” 

• How many of y’all were here for that message? 

• Do you remember when pastor Matt asked the church “Raise your hand if this is the last church you will ever attend?” 

• He made this point that we should be sold out for each other, and that we don’t need to be asking questions and trying to suggest strategy, we should just be willing to go to battle together! 

• Many people rose their hand that day, saying they would never leave the church, they were in it to win it… 

• But probably half of those people lied… they left the church, offended over this thing, or offended over that thing. 

• We even had a pastor who was a leader in our church leave the church a year after that sermon because they were upset over my stance on politics. 

• They raised their hand and said they would never leave… but then I went somewhere they didn’t want to go. 

• So my question to you church is “Will you go with us?” 

• No matter what enemy we face, will you go with us? 

• Or are you just hear while it is comfortable. 

• Because Pastor Jared and Elizabeth, our associate Pastors… they are people who told Amanda and I “We will go with you”. 

• Way back when we were meeting in the Elementary school, I meet Pastor Jared at a Come Rest event with Pastor Dick. I think the event was at River of Life, and as we were leaving, Pastor Dick ran out the door and shouted at us, on different sides of the parking lot “Jared, Christian… YOU TWO DESERVE EACH OTHER”… 

• It was… super uncomfortable… like a scene from a romance movie! But both Jared and I respect Pastor Dick, so we decided to meet up. 

• Jared and Elizabeth, pregnant with Isaac at the time, started coming to church… even though we didn’t have air conditioning… they stuck it out. 

• Then after about a year they really got plugged into to serving… they would serve everywhere. 

• Jared even gave me a gift, Anduril, the Sword of the West, and with it, he included a letter that said “I will ride with you to battle wherever you go”. 

• Well I took his word for it, and on December 13^th, 2020, we made it official. 

• We ordained Pastor Jared and Pastor Elizabeth and installed them as our Associate Pastors. 

• For almost five years now, Pastor Jared and Pastor Elizabeth have been following Amadna and I into battle. 

• Countless events and services we have planned together. 

• Countless obstacles and challenges we have worked together to overcome… 

• We meet weekly to discuss the direction of the church, to discuss details about services, how to handle church drama and even sometimes church discipline. 

• And here is the thing… let me bring it back to the Abashai scripture… 

• Did you notice that Abashai and David immediately had a disagreement… 

1 Samuel 26:8-9 NKJV  Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”  (9)  But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 

• Abashai was ready to murk that evil king… but David wasn’t… and Abashai listened… 

• There has been many times where Pastor Jared and/or Elizabeth and I have had disagreements. 

• Sometimes very similar to this one where PJ is like “Let me kick them out of the church!” and I am like “Let’s slow down on that”. 

• There has been times where we have disagreed on doctrine. 

• There has been times where we disagreed on the church’s direction. 

• There has been tears, and hard conversations, and spiritual battles… 

• BUT THEY NEVER LEFT THE CHURCH. They never even hesitated. 

• There was no “I am just going to take a break” 

• There was no church shopping. 

• Pastor Jared and Elizabeth have stood by Amanda and my side this whole time… and we would not be a church without them. 

• Jared works with all the deacons, training them, leading them, serving them… even correcting them in the rare instances that it is needed. 

• Elizabeth coordinates all the ministries every week, which is a TON of work by the way. 

• They both have individual disciples that they are training up. 

• They meet weekly for pastors meetings. 

• They both serve on the worship team, there is rarely a Sunday where at least one of them is not serving in worship. 

• Pastor Jared preaches and fills in for me when I am gone. 

• Pastor Elizabeth does TONS of Administrative work for the church. 

• They support me as senior pastor in anyway needed. 

• They pray, they fast, they war for this church… and they do it all while both having full time jobs and raising a young son. 

• Guy’s I know it is pastor’s appreciation day, but I need you to understand, I need you to APRECIATE… that we would not be here today as a church if it was not for Pastor Jared and Elizabeth! If it were not for their willingness to go with us, and their willingness to allow Christ to work through them! 

• So again, church, my challenge to you… 

• If we have disagreements… will you still go to battle with us? 

• If our doctrines don’t line up… will you still be there alongside us? 

• Is CLC your home? Will your name be written alongside the victories that God brings to us? 

• Are you joining with us to take on the great commission… to take the gospel to all nations? 

• Will you be an Abashai, will you be with us heart and soul, will you go down with us to the cave? 

• Will you serve God alongside us, like Pastor Jared and Elizabeth do? 

• Because if you will, then we will get the victory together… we will ride into battle with Christ as our King… 

• He will lead us against the armies of darkness… the wickedness of this world… 

• We will overcome… more than conquer… every weapon the enemy forms against us. 

• Our names will be written next to each other in the book of Life… 

• MAN! If we had a church that were full of people like Pastor Jared and Elizabeth… can you IMAGINE what we would accomplish… and the only thing that is stoping that from happening is you… Make a decision today, on pastor appreciation Sunday… that you are willing to go with us wherever we go! 

• And that brings me to point two this morning… Where Else Would You Go? 

Point Two – Where Else Would You Go? 

1 Samuel 26:6 NKJV  Then David answered, and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” 

1 Samuel 14:7 NKJV  So his armorbearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.”A sub line of the second line of the second point. 

John 6:66-68 NKJV  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  (67)  Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”  (68)  But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 

• There was a time in Jesus’ ministry where thousands of people were following Him. 

• I mean, He gave out free food, after all! 

• And then He started to preach hard… like REALLY hard… and those thousands of people left. 

• THEY HAD THE PERFECT PASTOR… but they got offended and left. 

• Only the 12 remained, and one of them would even betray Christ. 

• I love what the 12 said when Jesus said “Are you going to leave me too? Everyone else has left, what about you?” 

• “Where else would we go Lord? To whom would we go‽” 

• Now hear me loud and clear. I AM NOT JESUS. I am not perfect. I make mistakes, I sin and have to repent. My doctrine is not perfect, my theology is not perfect, this church is not perfect. 

• And while as the leader of this church, I want all of you to go with me into Battle… and I don’t want any of you to leave… I need to make it clear that it is NOT ABOUT ME. 

• I never want anyone to idolize me, or the church leadership… but I do want you by my side when I go into Battle. 

• Jesus says “Will you too leave me” to His 12 Disciples… and they look back and say “Where else would we go?”. 

• I think one of the major issues with the American church is that none of us can really say “Where else would I go”. 

• Because there are lot’s of other places to go to worship and follow Christ. 

• There are even church’s in town that are very similar to our church. 

• If you get offended or uncomfortable, you can just head over to a different church, you can serve there, and worship there, and grow there. 

• No one really has any motivation to be planted anymore… But church… if I could just get you to be planted… 

• There are some of you here who are planted… even through hard teachings, and disagreements, you have stuck it out… and I praise God for you. 

• Others of you are new, and maybe considering to make this your church home… would you set in your heart right now if this is where God has called you… and decide that this will be the last church you ever attend? 

• You know David and Abashai… Abashai wanted to kill King Saul because of how evil he had become… King Saul was even trying to kill David… but David wouldn’t allow it… David did everything he could, up to Saul’s dying breath, to honor King Saul as God’s anointed. 

• When I think about Abashai and David, I can’t help but think about Pastor Mike and Pastor Tina. 

• Pastor Mike used to have his very own church! But he decided to team up with another pastor, and merge churches and serve under this other pastor. 

• For years Pastor Mike served under this other pastor… but that Pastor was like a Saul… 

• Anointed by God yes, but very, very sinful. 

• As the sins started coming, I remember counseling Pastor Mike. 

• I was finishing my basement and Pastor Mike happened to be the guy to come and do the HVAC work for me… I remember all the conversations… 

• I remember how hard Pastor Mike tried to use honoring language about his senior pastor… how he would ask for advice about how to help his senior pastor who was caught up in all these little sins and deceits. 

• Eventually the lies and the sins were too much, and there was no repentance… and pastor Mike and Tina left the church and started attending CLC. 

• Shortly there after it came out that Pastor Mikes’ old pastor had been living in sin, a long term affair with a woman in his church’s drug and alcohol recovery group. 

• That was years and years ago… and many people from that church joined our church… and most of them have left now… but a few, like pastor Mike, remain… and in those people, who were so hurt, yet refused to turn their back on Jesus… I see the spirit of the disciples… “Where else would we go”. 

• Yes I sometimes preach things that Pastor Mike and Tina disagree with. 

• Yes we sometimes don’t see eye to eye… 

• But when you have been under the ministry of an adulterous pastor, and you still resolve to immediately find a church to serve at… you tend to have a spirit of “Where else would I go”? 

• To all of you who went through that, or have been hurt by pastors in the past… I want to say this to you, and I especially want to say it to Pastor Mike and Tina… 

• “I am not perfect… BUT I WILL NEVER CHEAT ON MY WIFE… It is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. THAT IS NOT GOING TO BE OUR STORY AS A CHURCH. And if you see me in sin, CALL ME ON IT… If I am in sin, I need to repent like anyone else.” 

• Pastor Mike, Pastor Tina, Pastor Jared, Pastor Elizabeth… Deacons… ANY MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH… If you think I am in sin, do not feel like you just have to put up with it… honor me enough to tell me, so I can repent… and we can move forward together. I REFUSE TO GO DOWN LIKE KING SAUL WENT DOWN… I want to be a David, and David needs and Abashai… David needs a Nathan to rebuke him”. 

• And if we can do that together, then I pray that you would have a Spirit of “Where else would I go” 

• Shortly after Mike and Tina joined the church and healed from all that pain, we had the pleasure of ordaining them. February 21^st, 2021… just about a year after ordaining Pastor Jared and Elizabeth. 

• Pastor Mike and Pastor Tina are now our discipleship pastors. 

• They work hard to make sure that everyone in CLC is in a discipleship relationship and following through with their responsibilities. 

• They run membership class and baptisms. 

• Pastor Mike helps with a ton of maintenance and other church tasks every week, even though he is still working at colony. 

• Pastor Tina helps run errands for me and other administrative tasks let organizing events and ordering custom cakes! 

• They both help set up and run events. 

• They both have their own disciples they are raising up. 

• They minister at ASAC, foster orphaned children, give rides to people to church… and I don’t think I have ever heard them complain… 

• Guy’s if this church has ever blessed you, it is likely that Pastor Jared, Pastor Elizabeth, Pastor Mike, and Pastor Tina, had something to do with that blessing. 

• And of course it is Christ working through them. 

• So this Pastors appreciation Sunday my message is simple… don’t just appreciate Amanda and I, but appreciate Pastor Jared and Elizabeth, our associate pastors… and Pastor Mike and Tina our associate pastors. 

• Be challenged to have the spirit of Jonathan’s armor bearer… to be with us in heart and soul. 

• Be challenged to be like Abashai… who was willing to go down with David no questions asked. 

• Be challenged to be like the disciples… who couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. 

• Be planted at CLC, be all in… and together we will follow Christ into victory! AMEN

Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God. Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids. 2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404. www.CedarRapidsChurch.com