Dealing With Spear Throwers

We all have Saul like tendencies of spear throwing inside of us. May God use this message not to speak to us about others who have thrown spears at us, but to speak to us about the spears we have thrown in life.

I like the line, you can tell when someone has been hit by a spear they turn a deep shade of bitter. So the message is twofold. We shouldn't throw spears, and advice for those who have been hit by spears.

Let's make a four practical considerations about dealing with spear throwers.

1. If you have ever been hurt by a spear, and you know the pain it causes, then you should resolve within yourself to never hurt someone in the way you have been hurt. That was a good lesson for God to teach David, the man who would one day be king, don't you think?

2. Just because a spear cuts your skin, doesn't mean it has to cut your heart.

I read a quote once, I think it was from Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I am not sure. Anyway, it went something like this. The slave in the story was asked why he never got bitter with all the whippings his white master had given him, and he replied, "The lashes fell on my back, but I never let them get in to my heart."

3. Spears from Saul like people are sometimes God's way of lancing an infection of our inner man, that we may be unaware of.

Much like the almost magical quality and wonder in which a black light reveals hidden things, wounds open the door to see show the condition of our innermost being.

4. Unjust wounds from spears reveal perhaps more than in any other way the depth of our Christian character.

PPT 6, 7 text

1Pe 2:18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

1Pe 2:19 For this [finds] favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

1Pe 2:20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer [for it] you patiently endure it, this [finds] favor with God.

1Pe 2:21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,

1Pe 2:22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;

1Pe 2:23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting [Himself] to Him who judges righteously;

Infections are always more dangerous than wounds

That passage needs no commentary from me.

I have 2 more verses and then we will close this service in prayer

PPT 8 text

John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, [there] you may be also.

John 19:34 but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.

I know I am wresting John 14:3 from it's context, but I want to use it to make this true statement:

God in life will send us to places He has prepared for us, where others will thrust a spear into us. But it will always be a place He has already gone to Himself, and taught us how to respond to. His goal is that where He is, in character, and morals, gentleness, and forgiveness, we will be also.