Being an Armor Bearer

Note: Please accept our apologies for the late posting of this past Sunday's notes. We WILL do better!!!
Text: John 21:15-17  

15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

16  He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

17  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

In our text we see Jesus asked Peter the same question 3 times. This question is one that we must ask ourselves - Do we love Him?

a.   When you love right, you will act right, serve right, and follow right.

b.   Along with His question, He gave a command twice. We will examine this command today.

c.   Verse 22  Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

d.   In a world full of compromise and sin, we must learn to follow the pure example that Jesus set.

What is the mentality of an Armor Bearer? Every person in this room is commanded to be an armor bearer. An armor bearer is one that protects someone else.

a.   We all must be armor bearers to one another. This is a high calling, and one that takes supernatural help to do.

b.   In order to truly be an armor bearer to another, we must get out of ourselves and stop being selfish.

c.   There are some things that every follower of Christ needs. There was not a greater armor bearer than Christ who came to give His life for us, a ransom for many.

d.   The Bible tells us that Jesus took upon Himself the form of a man, and became obedient to the point of death.

e.   Humility is a readiness to risk self-humiliation. One reason why we cannot humble ourselves is we are afraid to put ourselves out there, lest somebody have something to say, and that stops us from being an example of what Christ told us to be.

f.    Jesus washed the feet of Judas, although He knew that those would be the same feet that would go to the soldiers and betray Him. He served a man whom He knew was not worthy of His service, but did it anyway.

g.   We say, I'm afraid to try to help other people, because if they say something about me, it may damage me, but if you say that, you have just admitted to yourself that your relationship with God is nowhere where it needs to be.

1.   In order to be an armor bearer, we have to have a servant's mentality.

a.   It is better to have a servant's mentality that it is to have talent. Many people with talent allow that talent to pervert them.

b.   It is wrong to treat people good only if they treat you good. The people that you don't like are probably the people you need to get to know the most.

c.   John 13:12-13

12  So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

13  Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

             i.        Christ knew who He was, He didn't need anybody to validate Him. The problem with us is that we often look to other people to validate our gifts.

            ii.        Christ didn't need the disciples to validate Him. When you know who you are, you cannot be manipulated.  You will do what you do because you know who you are in Christ.

          iii.        We cannot look to people for validation, because the people we look to for validation will break our hearts. As long as God validates us, we don't need to care how other people feel.

d.   "I love you, but I don't love you enough to allow you to control me.

             i.    There is only one who needs to have control in one's life and that's God.

e.   Many times Jesus let the disciples knew, I am God, I am the One. Jesus said verily verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

f.    John 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

             i.    If I have served you, you also ought to serve one another, if I acted as your armor bearer, you also ought to act as each other's armor bearers.

g.   John 13:15-17

15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

16  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

17  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

             i.        It's not that we don't know, because we do know, but how many of you know, that sometimes there is a big gap between what you know and what you do?

            ii.        The people that have learned how to be doers are happy. They have learned how to put things in their right perspective. These people have learned that God is bigger than anything that could come into their life.

h.   Too many times we want to be served, instead of being the one doing the serving. Happy are you if you do them.

             i.    The word Happy is translated to blessed. It means to be "fully satisfied in yourself."

            ii.    Strength has nothing to do with your circumstances, because fulfillment comes from within, not from without.

          iii.    Money never brings fulfillment. Money was only meant to be a current, it was never meant for you to put your trust in it, it was meant for you to use it for the glory of God.

          iv.    To be fully satisfied means you got an inner peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding.

           v.    If your happiness is dependent on the things that happen, you will be on an emotional roller coaster.

i.     A person that's full of self is a person that's never fully satisfied, they always want more.

j.    The word Happy has nothing to do with favorable circumstances, it is a happiness that only God can give you.

k.   God knows what you need, and in due time, He will meet that need. Right now, it is not time to focus on the need, it is time to focus on the purpose.

l.     Jesus constantly set an example, and of Jesus the immortal, all-knowing, I am, came as a servant, what makes us think we're better than Him?

2.   An armor bearer has to truly LOVE.

a.   What allows you to be an armor bearer is not how others treat you, it is the love you have for Him.

b.   You will learn to look at the other person as if you are looking through the eyes of Christ, you will begin to say "Lord, teach me to see them as You see them, to Love them as You Love them."

c.   If our church could ever get there, we would see a great revival, not only in our church, but in our community.

d.   I wonder, when we stand before Christ and He says I gave my life for you so that you wouldn't have to worry about death, will we say "Lord I was the finest soldier that I could be for you!"

e.   What is love? Love is a commitment, you cannot have love without commitment.

f.    If a man is not willing to commit to you, he's telling you he doesn't love you. Don't ever waste your time on a joker that won't commit to you.

g.   If you love someone, you will try to give them what they need, not what they want. They may want to be comforted, but sometimes they don't need to be comforted, they need to be confronted.

h.   Love is the ability to put others needs before your own. When you truly love God, you learn how to put Him before anything else.

i.     The way God loves us, is the way we must strive to love each other.

             i.        Lay yourself down for somebody else. It takes supernatural power to do that. That separates the fakers from who's real.

j.    Jesus, the strongest man who ever walked the earth, got punched in His face and the hairs in His beard yanked out, uttered not a word.

             i.        He did what He did because He knew what the Father wanted Him to do, and set a powerful example that we must learned to follow.

            ii.        The Bible tells us to study to be quiet. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you could do is shut your mouth, and say Lord, regulate my mind.

3.  An armor bearer must learn to walk in the Spirit, because the flesh will not allow you to do what God wants you to do.

a.   If you allow yourself to get in the flesh, you will render evil for evil.

b.   The Spirit of God empowers us to do the will of God.

c.   Do you know how to be filled with the Spirit?

             i.        Just ask Him. Ask Him to show you how to see with the eyes of the Spirit and not the eyes of the flesh. It's that simple.

            ii.        When is the last time you asked the Spirit to fill you?

d.   The church can only be unified as we are led by the Spirit?

e.   If you don't give God time to regulate your mind, you will be frustrated.

             i.        If you spend all your time on Facebook, you aren't giving God enough time.

f.    If we want the power of God, it's not gonna happen if you walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

g.   Meditate in His Word day and night, and you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

             i.        Waters represent adversity. Adversity to us is like water to a tree.

h.   Get in the presence of God, and let's pray that God will bring revival in this place, so we can affect our neighborhood and all the surrounding communities.

God didn't place us on this hill for us to start acting like He isn't alive. We are here for a purpose that's higher than a good choir, and the pastor having a lot of money. Our purpose is a lot higher than that.

Sometimes you got to lose some style and just share some heart

Text: 2 Samuel 3:1 Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.

1.   Today we will take a physical struggle between the two kings, and bring it over into the spiritual, as a struggle between two natures.

a.   Every one that calls himself a child of God has two natures, the natural and the spiritual. These two natures are totally contrary to each other.

b.   Let's compare the struggle between Saul and David to our struggle.

c.   Saul would represent your inner struggle, and David will represent us. We all have a "Saul" in us.

d.   1 Samuel 17:49-51

49  And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

50  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

51  Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

             i.        Goliath represents the things that died right after we got saved, things that God just took away, smoking, drinking, fornicating.

            ii.        Many times we look at the big things we used to do, as the things we need to put to death. Goliath was killed, and the people, including David, rejoiced. They were happy. Remember when you first got saved, and you rejoiced that God would save a wretch like you?

e.   As you begin to grow, you realize that the external things were not the most detrimental, while the church often focuses on the things that you do outwardly. But the enemy is working on something even more detrimental.

             i.    Sometimes you can stop doing something without changing your mentality, so then the very things that drove you to bad things is still going on inside of you, while you are worrying about the external stuff.

2.   Saul was the one thing that David had a connection with. Many times it is the struggle within you that you are connected with.

a.   The things you struggle with most are the things that you have an emotional connection to.

             i.        David was not emotionally connected to Goliath, so when Goliath was killed, David could rejoiced.

            ii.        Sometimes we find out that the Goliaths in our lives are just coping mechanisms. There's nothing to it.

          iii.        Saul was someone David was emotionally attached to. Saul tried to kill David many times. Your greatest enemy is the one that becomes a part of you.

1.   It's the enemy in-a-me that's the worst enemy of them all. That enemy makes you feel strong, independent, and sometimes even invincible. The bad thing about these things, it is what they are connected to that makes them dangerous.

          iv.        David was not just attached to Saul, he was also attached to some things that were attached to Saul's son and daughters. These things can become things that define us, and we start saying things like "That's who I am" but you only say that because the things you are attached to have given you an identity all your life.

b.   Even after David was anointed, he still had to deal with Saul. Just because you are saved, doesn't mean you won't struggle with the things that's inside of you. In fact, sometimes the struggle gets worse, because now you recognize it.

             i.        Even if you try to pretend that you don't, you still know that you're there.

c.   David was anointed, but Saul sat on the throne. We are a group of people that are anointed, but we still have to deal with the "Saul" that keeps popping his head up. Doesn't mean you're not anointed, but Saul keeps rearing his head up, there's a part of you that's still out of whack.

             i.        Sometimes your anointing has to take a back seat to your struggle.

d.   Hebrews 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

             i.        Patience equals endurance. It's not the will of God for us to run, but when God begins to touch that part of you that you don't want anybody to touch, the first thing you want to do is run.

            ii.        There is no part of you that God won't touch, and you don't even have to come to church for God to touch it. "Where shall I go to flee thy presence?"

          iii.        No matter where you go, you can't outrun God, and you definitely can't run from yourself.

3.   It almost make you feel like you're dying when God begins to deal with you. But it's not you that's dying, there is something inside of you that God is putting to death.

a.   Saul didn't just die. Goliath died, and a lot of times, we think that our real enemy is the one we were able to kill real fast. But our real enemy is the one you look at when you look in the mirror, what is inside of you.

             i.        "Saul", pride, arrogance, independence, attitude, and even fear.

            ii.        Fear wraps itself up in so many things. Fear and pride goes together. The Bible says "Perfect love casts out fear.

b.   Saul represents your heart, that inner part of your being that nobody knows, that you don't share with everybody, even that inner part of you that you don't share with anybody.

             i.        God will break down any door that you build in your spirit.

c.   Saul is your heart, the things that you feel make you who you are. That's why God confronts it. Because the thing that should make you who you are is the grace of God in your hearts.

d.   God has a way of changing you, even sometimes when you don't want to change. Although you know that this part of you threatens to kill everything that's good inside of you, that if you continue to be that way, it will kill everything that's good inside of you, you remain loyal to it.

4.   Only God can bring deliverance from the Sauls in our life. There are some things that only God can kill.

a.   God will bring situations across our path, to make us trust Him enough to deal with those areas in our life.

b.   When we learn how to trust Him, we learn to say, like Job, "Thou He slay me, yet I trust Him."

c.   2 Samuel 1:17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:

             i.        David cried over the death of Saul, even though Saul was trying to kill him. We can always tell the issues that are closest to our hearts, because those issues make us mourn, make us weep.

d.   What we must understand is as long as our "Saul" sits on the throne of our life, we will never be the person that God wants us to be.

e.   You cannot be what you need to be until what you used to be is dead. We mourn when God touches that part of us that we never allowed anyone else to touch.

             i.        David never mourned Goliath, he rejoiced when Goliath was gone, but he mourned when Saul was gone. We become dependent on those things that attach themselves to us, and then we cry when they're gone.

f.    After the Saul is taken away, you become a person after God's heart. We call that the breaking process.

g.   The Bible says that you have need of patience, that after you have suffered awhile, you will receive the promise. You have need of patience, because patience is endurance.

h.   When the Saul is dead, you will begin to understand some things. Once you come back from that, you will be much different and better.

i.     When it all boils down, your dependence upon people that causes you to get upset and hurt whenever somebody doesn't do what you think they should do. There comes a time when you begin to lose that dependence, and you will love out of a pure heart, and not based on performance, but totally based on the love that God has for you.

j.    Never, never stand in the name of anybody but Jesus. Ask God to help you, to not seek their approval, so that you may stand for one person, so that even if people treat you bad, you can still trust Him, regardless of what anybody else says.

             i.        Sometimes the people you love the most are the ones who will hurt you the most. This is why you have to learn to draw nigh to God, and no put your stock in people. The Bible says cursed is the man who puts his trust in man.

5.   1 Peter 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

a.   Make you perfect, perfect means mature.

             i.        After you suffer awhile, it makes you mature, because suffering causes the "Saul" to be killed.

b.   Stablish means not yielding easily under pressure.

             i.        That's one thing that happens when you mature, you are not moved or shaken easily, you are resolute and constant, even when everything around you is boiling over.

c.   Strengthen means make or become stronger.

             i.        Why do they become stronger? Because they have learned to depend on Christ. God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee for My strength is made perfect in your weakness." Paul said "If I glory in anything, I glory in my infirmities, for when I am weak, then He is strong."

d.   Settle means to stop moving and stay in one place.

             i.        If this is what I must be, I'm gonna stand like a tree. I will stand because God told me to.

            ii.        It means come to rest, to become more stable or composed. That goes back to strengthen, stop fluctuating or changing.

There are things that happen because there is a part of you that God wants to crucify. Paul said I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but the life that I now live, I live to the glory of God." This is why the enemy tries to stop you before you ever get there.