If you will turn with me to the
second book of Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 10,
beginning reading with verse 1.
After this the king of the Ammonites died,
and Hanan his son reigned in his stead.
And David said, I will deal loyally with
Hanan the son of Nahash, as his father
dealt loyally with me.
So David sent by his servants to console
him concerning his father.
And David's servants came into the land of
the Ammonites.
But the princes of the Ammonites said to
Hanan their lord, do you think because David
has sent comforters to you that he is
honoring your father?
Has not David sent his servants to you
to search the city, to spy it out,
and to overthrow it?
So Hanan took David's servants and shaved off
half the beard of each, and cut off
their garments in the middle at their hips,
and sent them away.
When it was told David, he sent to
meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed.
And the king said, remain at Jericho until
your beards have grown, and then return.
When the Ammonites saw that they had become
odious to David, and the Ammonites sent and
hired the Syrians of Bethraheb, and the Syrians
of Jobeth, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the
king of Meachah, with a thousand men, and
the men of Tob, 12,000 men.
And when David heard of it, he sent
Joab and all the hosts of the mighty
men.
And the Ammonites sent out and drew up
in battle array at the entrance of the
gate, and the Syrians of Jobah and Rehob,
and the men of Tob, Meachah, were by
themselves in the open country.
When Joab saw that the battle was set
against him, both in front and in the
rear, he chose some of the picked men
of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians.
The rest of his men he put in
charge of the Abishai, his brother, and he
arrayed them against the Ammonites.
And he said, if the Syrians are too
strong for me, then you shall help me.
But the Ammonites are too strong for you,
and I will come and help you.
Be of good courage, and let us play
the man for our people and for the
cities of our God.
And may the Lord do what seems good
to him.
So Joab and the people who were with
him drew near to battle against the Syrians,
and they fled before him.
And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians
fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered
the city.
Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites
and came to Jerusalem.
I'd like to make an announcement about what
I'll be preaching on in the next two
Sundays, so that if you know of anybody
who is especially interested in these two topics,
you might invite them.
I just came back from speaking three times
at the Tosha Vim retreat.
We have 95 of our college-age people
up at Woodlake Camp this morning.
The topic was sex, sleep, and the Holy
Spirit.
And I'm going to follow through on that,
and next Sunday we'll be speaking on the
topic sex and a single person, and the
Sunday after that, sexual relations in marriage.
So if you know of anybody that's interested
in that sort of thing, you might want
to tell them.
But this morning, I want to paint a
word picture for you of a relationship in
ministry for me and Glenn to use as
a model in pastoral leadership and teamwork, and
for you to hold up as something towards
which to pray.
For your ministerial leaders, it's a picture that
I hope will shape our goals and will
shape your goals for us and your prayers.
And the picture comes from those words of
Joab in the 10th chapter of 2 Samuel.
Joab was David's mighty man of battle, and
he was a great man of faith and
gave a great challenge to his brother Abishai.
And I love those two verses, and let
me give you the background here so that
you get the full impact of verses 11
and 12.
The king of the Ammonites has died, and
his son Hanun is now reigning in his
place.
David is a man with a great heart,
and he wants to express a kindness to
this young son who's just lost his father
and now bears the burden of rule.
And so he sends a delegation to express
consolation to Hanun.
And Hanun's princes convince him that David is
acting in stealth and wants to find out
about the city and wants to bring ruin
upon the Ammonites.
And so what does Hanun do?
He humiliates the delegation.
He shaves off half their beard and cuts
their clothes off around the middle and sends
them out, utterly shamed.
And David is angry.
And when they hear about David's anger, they
start to mount an offense.
The Ammonites call the Syrians down from the
north and ask for help.
And when David hears that the Ammonites and
the Syrians are in league, mounting an offense,
he says to Joab, you go up against
them.
And as it develops, the Ammonites array themselves
around their city to protect it.
They put the Syrians out in the open
field, and Joab and his mighty men are
sandwiched in the middle.
Now, Joab takes charge of one group and
says, we will go against the Syrians in
the open field.
Abishai and his mighty men are going against
the Ammonites at the city.
And then here is what Joab says to
his brother in the battle.
Verse 11.
If the Syrians are too strong for me,
you will come and help me.
But if the Ammonites are too strong for
you, I will come and help you.
Be of good courage.
Let us play the man for our people
and for the cities of our God.
And may the Lord do what seems good
to him.
I just love those words.
And I see six principles for successful team
ministry in those few words.
And I'm going to mention them briefly, and
then we'll hold each one up for a
moment as a challenge to Glenn and myself,
and I believe all of us.
In order to have successful teamwork, whether in
battle or in church ministry, there must be
humility.
Second, diversification.
Third, mutual helpfulness.
Fourth, strength.
Fifth, benefit to God's people.
And sixth, surrender to God's sovereign guidance.
Let's look at each of these in turn.
First of all, humility.
If the Syrians are too strong for me,
you come help me.
Joab was a great and mighty warrior, but
he was not so foolish as to think
that he was self-sufficient or never would
need any help.
Abishai, my brother, the task I have set
for myself today might be too big for
me.
Humility willingly acknowledges its own finitude and need
and is open to help, to counsel, to
advice.
Now, one of the reasons humility is essential
in a team effort is because without humility,
any lasting unity is impossible.
This is taught very clearly in Ephesians chapter
4, verses 1 to 3.
Here's what Paul says to the church.
I beg of you, lead a life worthy
of your calling to which you have been
called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience,
forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain
the unity of the Spirit.
Now, the sequence of those virtues is crucial.
Notice going backwards.
The goal is unity in the Spirit.
But you can't have unity unless you can
forbear one another.
That is, literally endure one another's failures and
foibles and idiosyncrasies.
You can't have unity unless you can endure
one another.
But you can't endure one another unless you
are a patient person.
That is, a person who doesn't have a
hair trigger in the rifle of his emotions.
You've got to have patience.
But you can't have patience unless you are
a meek and a lowly person.
A proud person will have a hair trigger.
A proud person will quickly lash out when
his wheel is crossed or when he's disappointed.
In order to have patience, you've got to
have humility.
So, to go in reverse, then, humility or
lowliness and meekness will lead a person to
be patient.
He won't be quickly offended.
If he's patient, he'll forbear.
He will endure when one or the other
fails.
And if we can endure our failures and
our idiosyncrasies, we can maintain unity in the
Spirit.
And therefore, if Glenn and I are to
have unity in the ministry, we will have
to maintain meekness and lowliness before God and
before each other.
And by God's grace, he will enable us
to maintain this.
Second characteristic of successful team ministry is diversification.
Abishai was sent against the Ammonites.
Joab was sent against the Syrians.
It's wise battle strategy when the enemy is
widespread and diverse that we don't put all
of our efforts in one place.
It's also wise, isn't it, that a person
spend most of his time doing what he's
best at.
And it's a solid biblical principle that we
are not all best at the same thing,
but rather have been given various combinations of
gifts.
Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12,
4.
Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the
same Spirit.
There are varieties of service, but the same
Lord.
There are varieties of working, but the same
God who inspires them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good.
There's an awful temptation, I think, among everybody,
every human, but especially among leaders, pastors, to
view their differences in such a way that
it either makes them feel inferior to the
others or superior to the others.
And that's a great mistake.
And Paul tried to avoid that mistake by
saying this further on in that chapter in
1 Corinthians.
God has arranged the organs of the body,
each of them as he chose.
There are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, I
have no need of you.
Joab cannot say to Abishai, I have no
need of you.
Piper now cannot say to Ogryn, I have
no need of you.
Each person is essential on the team, though
there is diversification of gifts and diversification, therefore,
of ministry.
Third characteristic of effective team ministry, mutual helpfulness.
If the Syrians are too strong for me,
you come help me.
If the Ammonites are too strong for you,
I'll come help you.
Diversification in the church is not so ironclad
that we can't leave our little bailiwicks to
go help the person in need in his
sphere.
Fundamental to all successful teamwork is that the
team members be for each other and not
against each other.
Competition in ministry is anathema to the Spirit
of Christ.
And my goal in ministry must be Glenn's
joy and success in ministry.
And his goal must be my joy and
success in ministry.
We must be mutually helpful.
And there's a warning, I think, for us
and for you here.
There are, I think, will probably always be
carnal people in the church who are factious.
It's a good biblical word that Paul condemns
as one of the works of the flesh.
And factious people will always align themselves with
one minister or the other.
They do it because they get a sense
of power and significance in being on the
inner ring of one leader over against the
other leader.
God willing, that will not happen at Bethlehem
Baptist Church.
There will be no Piper party.
There will be no Ogren party because Piper
and Ogren are going to be praying together
so closely and looking together to that one
Lord so closely and so taken up with
each other's prosperity and success that it will
not work for anybody who tries it.
The fourth characteristic of effective team ministry is
strength.
Be of good courage, Abishai, and let us
play the man for our people and for
the cities of God.
More literally, the Hebrew says simply, be strong
and let us show ourselves strong.
Just repeats that great word.
When the battle begins, don't limp away in
fear and weakness.
Attack!
Be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil.
The power that Glenn and I need in
ministry does not come from within ourselves.
We would be undone in a hurry if
that were all we had.
The strength is God's that we must have,
and when we put on God's armor, we
have God's strength.
And I pray that God, like Paul prayed
in Ephesians 1, might grant the eyes of
our hearts, Glenn, to see, these are his
words, what is the immeasurable greatness of his
power in us who believe, that includes you
too, according to the working of his great
might, which he accomplished in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and seated him
at the right hand of the Father in
the heavenly places.
May God grant us the spiritual power that
we need to do our work together, and
may we never flag in courage and zeal
for our people and for the cities of
our God.
And that last phrase leads us to the
fifth characteristic of effective team ministry.
Benefit to you, to God's people, for our
people and for the cities of God.
Joab was not fighting just for himself.
Even though it must be our goal to
help each other, we must always ask, help
each other do what?
And the answer is, to help each other
serve you.
We strive for gospel humility.
We employ diversification.
We try to be mutually helpful.
We try to maintain strength all for you
and not for ourselves.
Now, notice that the aim, Glenn, is not
to please the people, but to benefit the
people.
Paul said to the Galatians, am I now
seeking to have the favor of men or
of God?
Or am I now trying to please men?
If I am still trying to please men,
I am no longer the servant of Christ.
Our first aim, Glenn, is not to please
these people, but to bless these people.
And if we do that, we'll have the
approval of those whose approval counts, namely those
who want above all what God wants.
And what is the benefit now?
That we want for these people, for you.
Almost exactly a year ago today, I stood
here and preached my candidating message.
I wonder how many of you remember what
the text or the point of that was.
I chose a text in which I tried
to make as clear as I could what
my goal in ministry was and what benefit
I was after for you.
And it hasn't changed and it'll never change.
And it's printed on the stationery and on
the front of the bulletin.
This is the text from Philippians 1.
It is my eager expectation and hope.
This is Paul now writing from prison.
It is my eager expectation and hope that
I shall not at all be ashamed, but
that with full courage, now as always, Christ
might be magnified in my body, whether by
life or by death.
And then he goes on a few verses
later.
I know that I shall remain and continue
with you all for your advancement and joy
of faith.
Here's the great goal, Glenn, that we've got
to have for these, our people.
Whether they live or whether they die, that
Christ might be magnified in them.
That they might so live at home, so
live at work, so live in their leisure
and so die when the time comes, such
that everybody who's around them will see their
Christ is a magnificent God.
And therefore, since Christ is only magnified where
he is trusted, our practical goal as a
means to that end must be the advancement
and joy of their faith.
So our ultimate goal is that Christ be
magnified in everybody in this church's life.
And our practical goal as a means to
that end is the advancement and joy of
everyone's faith.
For our people and for the cities of
God, that their confidence and joy might soar
and in soaring to God magnify him.
One final characteristic for ministry as a team,
we must, Glenn, be surrendered absolutely to God's
sovereign guidance.
Be of good courage.
Let us play the man for our people
and for the cities of God.
And may the Lord do what seems good
to him.
And may the Lord do whatever seems good
to him.
May we always have that approach to our
work, lowering ourselves before God and saying, God,
we want to be humble before you and
before each other.
We want to be diversified in our ministry.
We want to be helpful to each other.
We want to be strong in the Lord.
We want to work for the benefit of
the people.
But Lord, we acknowledge our finiteness and our
weaknesses and our sin and that you are
sovereign.
And therefore we don't want to say any
more than Joab did.
You do whatever seems good to you.
I remember another team.
Now I just love this team.
Another team of men who one day gave
themselves up to the sovereign will of God.
You remember the story.
Their names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And Nebuchadnezzar had built this big idol and
said, you bow down to that or you
get roasted.
And they didn't bow down.
Nebuchadnezzar came to them and said, you bow
down or I'll throw you in that furnace.
You know what they said?
Oh, listen to this.
Just like Joab.
Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer
you in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we
serve is able to deliver us from this
burning, fiery furnace.
And he will deliver us out of your
hand, O King.
But if he doesn't, be it known to
you, O King, we will not worship that
golden image that you have set up.
It makes chills go down my back when
I hear somebody give themselves up to the
sovereignty of God like that.
God can save us, Nebuchadnezzar.
We believe he will save us.
But if it seems good to him to
let us burn, so be it.
We won't worship anybody else.
Oh, that's great.
Won't you be that way with me and
Glenn?
Absolutely given up to the sovereign will of
God who always knows what's best for us.
Weren't they just saying we want God to
be magnified in our bodies, whether by life
or death?
Paul didn't make that up.
That's the way the saints have lived ever
since the beginning.
And it makes my spine tingle.
Oh, that the pastoral team of this church
might be that surrendered to God's sovereign guidance.
So to sum up now, we've got six
things, Glenn, laid out before us here and
people to pray for.
Number one, let us be humble before this
people and before ourselves in all the lowliness
that befits finite sinful creatures.
Let us diversify according to our varied gifts.
Let us come to each other's aid whenever
one is stumbling.
Let us be strong in the Lord and
in the power of his might.
Let us work not for our own good
alone, but for the benefit of this people
and spend ourselves tirelessly for the advancement and
joy of their faith.
And let us abandon ourselves boldly and joyfully
to the sovereign will of God, whatever it
is for this church, and I believe it
is something great.