The Abishai Anointing: Support The Pastor

THE ABISHAI ANOINTING: SUPPORT THE PASTOR

2 Sam. 23:18-19

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Mary Brumbaugh told about her pilot husband; “My husband, an airline pilot, often has difficulty locating items around our house. One day he asked me where the salt was. Annoyed, I responded, ‘How on earth can you find Detroit at night in a blizzard, but you can’t find the salt in your own kitchen?’”

2. “Well, Darling,” he replied, “they don’t move Detroit.”

B. TEXT

1. WHO WAS ABISHAI? “Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed...” 2 Sam. 23:18.

2. Abishai was David’s nephew. The Bible says he was the captain of 30 of David’s mighty men. He was more honorable than some and less honorable than others.

C. IDEA

1. David symbolizes (in his spiritual type) the man or woman of God who are key people in advancing God’s Kingdom in a city or a country. Davids spend time with God, bring God’s Word, and bring liberty to those under their authority. We’re always in desperate need of the David anointing. Why aren't there more “David” anointings today?

2. I believe it’s because another vital anointing is missing: the anointing of those who stand with the leader who’s called of God. These people aren’t Davids, but they have an anointing that releases and empowers God's man or woman to fulfill God's calling. This is the Abishai anointing.

3. We’re going to look at four characteristics of Abishai and see how huge a part he played in David’s success. The Title of this message is, “The Abishai Anointing: Support the Pastor.”

I. ABISHAI JOINED WHEN THINGS WERE BAD

A. WHEN ABISHAI FIRST FOLLOWED DAVID

1. “David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam....All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him”1 Sam. 22:1-2.

2. The Abishai anointing is an anointing that is born in tough times. David had a price on his head. He was a fugitive, running for his life.

3. The church that Abishai joined at Adullam was the First Church of the Discouraged, Distressed and in Debt. There were no personal guarantees of comfort, security, position, prestige, or recognition.

4. That was just fine with Abishai. He’d not come for what he could receive, but for what he give to the leader he believed in.

B. COMPARISON TO CHURCH HOPPERS TODAY

1. How different are church shoppers today! For them it’s not about "the cause," "the cross," or "the King," it's about “US.” If our family can get a better deal at some other church, then we abandon the leadership at Adullam and head for a place of ease. But that’s not Abishai; his anointing was born in tough times.

2. Today, when the going gets tough, many Christians go away. They go away OFFENDED. They go away HURT. They go away CRITICAL. They go away COMPLAINING. When they leave their David, they forfeit the Abishai anointing and the chance to be a part of something greater than themselves. It’s often been said that you can tell the level of a person's commitment by what makes him or her quit!

3. All pastors are humans; they make mistakes. David made mistakes, yet he was still God’s man. Moses made mistakes, but he was still God’s man. For many Christians today, it doesn’t take much to walk away.

4. No wonder Jesus demanded, upfront, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” Matt. 16:24-25.

C. ADVERSITY MAKES YOU GREATER

As Ted Engstrom says, in Pursuit of Excellence:

* Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott.

* Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan.

* Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington.

* Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln.

* Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt.

* Burn him so severely that the doctors say he’ll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham—who set the world’s one-mile record in 1934.

* Deafen him and you have a Ludwig von Beethoven.

* Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver.

* Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.

II. ABISHAIS ARE WILLING TO TRY THE IMPOSSIBLE