A Portrait of Biblical Manhood in the Life of Benaiah

Alright, let's go to the Old Testament. Turn to 1 Chronicles, if you would. 1 Chronicles, and we're going to be in chapter 11. 1 Chronicles 11. Now let's just remind ourselves, just as we did last night, that as we begin here, and we're going to look at a biblical scripture here from the Old Testament, but let's remember that there's really only one true hero found through the scriptures. Only one true champion, only one truly great man, and of course, his name is Jesus. The Word of God is always pointing us to Christ so that we may learn of him, may learn of his gospel, may learn of his glorious deeds that he has done. Think of it this way.

Jesus is the Son in the solar system of God's Word. Everything else is revolving around him. He is the central figure. He's the main player on the stage of the grand narrative of scripture at all times. So we always want to keep this principle close. Let it inform your own personal Bible study. Let it keep you founded on the reality of how Christ-centered the Bible really is as we read and study the scriptures together.

Now at the same time, the scriptures do also present us with a number of other people, with a number of other men, this is an Act Like Men conference, that we can learn from, that we can glean wisdom from on the various narratives that are found within God's Word. We did that last night from Mark chapter 3, verses 13 through 19. We won't read those again, but we saw Jesus' choosing of the 12.

We examined those 12 men, did a brief biographical sketch on them, and then thought a little bit about how the Lord put them together, what we could learn from their lives, some practical applications that we could take so that we might be more faithful in our walks with the Lord as men. Tomorrow, Lord willing, we're going to get back in the Old Testament, we're going to look at Genesis chapter 6, and we're going to look at Noah, and some characteristics of biblical manhood from the life of Noah. So there are these other narratives within scripture that we can look to these men, and we can learn from them.

We can learn about how God worked in their lives, how God used them, and as we learn those things, how our lives can be changed as a result. So today we look at this Old Testament narrative, and we're going to study about a man named Benaiah. We're going to look at what God's word says concerning Benaiah, so that you and I can grow closer to the Lord and be more faithful as men of God, but also that we may have our eyes cast towards our Lord through this Old Testament text. So 1 Chronicles, chapter 11, I'm going to read verses 22 through 25.

"Benaiah, the son of Jehoedah, the son of a valiant man of Kabsil, mighty in deeds, struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion inside a pit on a snowy day." Verse 23, "He killed an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. Now in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear." Verse 24, "These things Benaiah, the son of Jehoedah, did, and he had a name as well as the three mighty men.

Behold, he was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three, and David appointed him over his guard." Let's pray. Father, as we consider this text from your word today, I pray that you would use it to conform us to the image of your son, Jesus Christ. I pray that you would use it in my life, in our lives, to give us the grace to be faithful men of God. Father, as we observe Benaiah, I pray that it would not end with us simply learning from him, but that it would also be reminded of you, the one true mighty man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we would honor you in all things. And we pray these things in the name of your son. Amen.

Point number one, I simply want to give you some context on Benaiah and David's mighty men. We'll try to move through this quickly. I know we're outside. I know you're not sitting in your normal seats as you would in a church building. I know some of your young people now have had hamburgers and Cheetos and all of that, and they might tend to nod off a bit. So we will try to hurry through this first part and then get to more of the meat of our passage. But context on Benaiah and David's mighty men, you know, if you're like me, First Chronicles is probably not my first choice when I think, "You know what?

I'm going to do a devotion in God's word, or I just want to start digging in on a particular part of God's word." I normally don't say, "First Chronicles." That's where I'll go. I mean, it's a helpful book. It's part of God's word. We know it's profitable for us. But since it's not one of those books that we normally turn to and do a lot of devotions out of, I do think it's important that I give you a little bit of a timeline on where we are at in redemptive and biblical history and some quick facts about the group of men that have been known as David's mighty men. So we're going to do this very quickly.

Number one, at this point in biblical history, David has just become king of Israel. Look with me at verses one through three of our chapter. "Then all Israel gathered to David at Hebron and said, 'Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel.

And the Lord your God said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.'" Verse three, "So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of the Lord through Samuel." So at this point in biblical history, Saul and his sons are now dead. They are gone at this point. Saul, of course, had fought against David from time to time. He had tried his best to kill David, to prevent David from becoming king of Israel. But the Lord's promise to David has come to fruition.

David is now king, as it says there in verse three, according to the word of the Lord through Samuel. So that's where we're at in Israel's history. Number two, David has taken Jerusalem, and he is now experiencing the blessing of God upon his kingdom. We see that in verses four through nine. Let's read it. "Then David, who is now king, and all Israel went to Jerusalem," that is Jabez, "and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land were there. The inhabitants of Jabez said to David, 'You shall not enter here.' Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion," that is the city of David.

"Now David had said, 'Whoever strikes down a Jebusite first shall be chief and commander.' Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up first, so he became chief. Then David dwelt in the stronghold, therefore it was called the city of David. He built the city all around, from the millow even to the surrounding area. And Joab repaired the rest of the city, and David became greater and greater." Why did David become greater and greater? The end of verse nine, "For the Lord of Host was with him." So David and his mighty men now take Jerusalem, they take Zion, and they begin to establish the kingdom of God, just as God had said that they would.

And of course, it is accomplished there, that last tagline is the most important, is the key phrase to remind us that God gets the glory for it all, and he is the one who is sovereignly standing behind all of it. It is accomplished because the Lord of Host was with David. So David is king, David has taken Jerusalem, has experienced the blessing of God. And then thirdly, David's mighty men are seen, and we also see something of their role in God's kingdom, and in David's kingdom that has been given to him by the Lord.

Verse 10, "Now these are the heads of the mighty men whom David had," and here's what they did, "who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel." David's mighty men were men who gave him strong support in his kingdom to make him king. They were the human instruments used of God in many ways, and at different times to fight battles and to protect David, so the will of the Lord was accomplished according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Now, just two quick facts about these mighty men. Number one, they were mighty.

We don't have time to read beginning in verse 11, all the way through our text, but if you read the various exploits there in 1 Chronicles 11, you come away with a picture of these men that you think, "Wow!" It's almost like if you watch an action movie and the hero of that movie performs all sorts of exploits, and you just think, "Golly, that was incredible what that guy just pulled off." Now, we know that that's not real, that that's just something that happens in the movies, but when you read about David's mighty men, you think, "That's unbelievable," some of what they did. I mean, one guy killed 300 people by himself.

You just think of that and you think, "That's astounding," right? So these really were mighty men. Verses 11 through 21 highlight their deeds if you want to go back later on and read about that. But then secondly, not only were they mighty, you know what's coming next, they were men. They were men. The Bible does not see these men's faith as perfect or righteous or holy. We're not even sure of some of their spiritual condition before the Lord.

And so it's not that everything that they did is prescriptive for us, but we are given a description of who they were, some of their mighty deeds, but many of them had flaws, just like we saw the disciples last night. Many of them committed wrongs. They were fallible. They sinned. They were men. So please don't go read 1 Chronicles and think that everything that a mighty man did is something you should do.

There are some things they do in there that you should say, "I'll never do that because that wouldn't honor the Lord." So there's some context for you on where we are at in this biblical narrative and a little bit of background on David's mighty men. And what I want us to do is look at that one specific man in verses 22 through 25 that was a part of this group of mighty men that's known as Benaiah. Here's the first thing I want you to learn about Benaiah. This is point number two in our sermon here today. I want you to learn from Benaiah the influence from father to son, the influence from father to son. Verses 22 and 23.

Let's read them again. Benaiah, notice how it describes him first, the son of Jehoedah. And then it describes Jehoedah for us. The son of a valiant man of Kabbzil, mighty in deeds, the influence from father to son. Now ultimately we are going to look at Benaiah. That's where we're headed today because it primarily highlights him and it highlights some of those mighty deeds that Benaiah did. Now, just going to jump ahead. We're not going to dwell here, but we do know that Benaiah, as far as his mighty deeds, he did a couple of different things. Actually, three things are listed. Number one, it says that he struck down two heroes of Moab.

When it uses the phrase there in verse 22, that Benaiah struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab. Scholars say that probably should be more properly interpreted. Heroes of Moab even uses the phrase lion like men of Moab. So Benaiah did that. He literally killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day. And then he fought an Egyptian that was over seven feet tall and soundly defeated him. Now, this is stuff that's not for the faint of heart. I mean, this is action movie type things, right? I mean, this is heavy stuff that Benaiah has done. This is heavy lifting that Benaiah has performed as we're giving it here in the text.

But before we look in detail at Benaiah, I want us to back up a step or maybe more properly, I want us to back up a generation. And I want us to look at what I believe was the primary human influence used to equip Benaiah to be a mighty man. And that influence is that of his father, Jehoaada. Now, it describes Jehoaada in a couple of different ways here. Number one, it says that Jehoaada himself was a valiant man. There in verse 22. And then it says this about Jehoaada, he also was a man mighty in deeds. So Benaiah's dad, his father was a valiant, brave, courageous man.

And this valiant, brave, courageous man, Jehoaada, was also a man who had performed many deeds that we would consider to be mighty in his own life. So I believe it's easy to see here from our text that Benaiah had learned to be bold and courageous by seeing the example that was set by his father. He didn't just happen to be one of David's mighty men. He didn't just happen to somehow be this guy who would kill a lion and pit on a snowy day. He had learned to be a mighty man. And he primarily had learned to be that type of man because he had a dad, a father who was also valiant and who also had performed mighty deeds himself.

It's no coincidence that Benaiah grew up to be a mighty man. He had been around a mighty man for his entire life in the form of his father. Now, we don't know a whole lot about the details of Jehoaada's valiant, brave, courageous, mighty deeds. We're not told what they are. Maybe he was a warrior as well. Maybe he was a shepherd. And as a shepherd, he had to fight off wild animals in order to keep his flock safe. Maybe he was some sort of community leader. And as a community leader, he had had to fight some battles in that arena as well. We're simply not told much detail about Jehoaada's mighty deeds.

But brothers, for our sake, the details really don't matter. We don't have to know exactly what Jehoaada did, what his job was, what his vocation was. That's not important. We simply know that he is described here as a valiant man. And this valor influenced his son and had a role in shaping Benaiah to be the future mighty man that he would become. Now, I want us to think just a bit about the importance of influence. The importance of influence. We have a wonderful example here in this text of the role that other people's influence can pay in someone else's life.

With Jehoaada and Benaiah, it was a picture of the old saying, "Like father, like son." Easy enough. But influence and modeling plays a vital role in the process of discipleship in all of our lives. Consider the following relationships that we see throughout scripture that show us the importance of influence and modeling in discipleship. We'll take the one that's before us first, parents and their children. In Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 9, here's what the scripture says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart." Verse 7, "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." Now, I think in our day and time, everyone wants to jump to verse 7 when we think about this text here in Deuteronomy 6. And verse 7 is the verse that talks about teaching our children diligently. By the way, that's important. It's biblical. It's commanded to us here in the scripture.

So I'm not saying that we should look upon that as it's less important, but notice that verses 4, 5, and 6, they have to do with what? With your walk with the Lord, with my walk with the Lord. We have too many fathers, too many parents that try to skip ahead to the whole teaching thing. And yet they're not meditating on the word of God. They want to skip forward to the, "Well, I'm going to teach this and I'm going to give these words." But they're not a consistent model of someone who is pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ themselves. You know, before we as fathers can teach our children, it says that we should love the Lord our God.

You know, brothers, there's nothing worse than trying to teach your children something that you don't really believe. There's nothing worse than trying to hold your children to a standard that you're not willing to hold to. There's a word for that, right? It's called hypocrisy. And you know what? These young guys that are sitting here, the young guys that I'm familiar with, and Russell Sholes Alabama, they catch on to that really quick. Young people can spot a fake. They can spot a phony. Now, Jehoa apparently was not a phony. He was a valiant man himself.

He was a man that himself had done many mighty deeds and thus he raised a man who followed in his footsteps. But before you can teach your son's men, you need to be living out truths in your own life. And I'm talking about perfectly. You know what? Sometimes we have to train the next generation by saying, "Look at what I did. That was bad. That was wrong. Please forgive me. I should have done better." That's okay. We need to be real. Okay? I'm not talking about being fake and acting like you've got it all figured out. I don't have it all figured out. I don't know about you brothers.

Sometimes being a godly example means you sit down with your family and say, "You know what? I need to ask your forgiveness. I messed that up. I messed it up bad. Don't follow that example. Let's see what God's word says and let's be there instead." We see this role of influence with parents and children, primarily dads and their children we're talking about here today. But not only do we sit in that realm, we sit with pastor and people. In Titus chapter 2 verses 6 and 7, here Paul urges Titus. He's a young man in the church, but he's a young pastor.

He says this to Titus, "Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible." And then he says, "Titus, you as a pastor and all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine dignified." And all he goes with the description there. Paul is urging Titus there as the pastor of these people in the churches in the island of Crete. Look, be an example. Lead out. Right? Let them learn not just from your preaching, although that is of utmost importance, but also from your life. Be an example of good deeds. It's the same with elders and their congregations, right?

There's a reason that the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7, when he began to teach them about elders, he began to talk about the type of man an elder should be. Now, he does go on in that list to say that an elder must be someone that can accurately handle the Word of God. But the majority of the description there is about the elder's life. 1 Timothy 3, 1, it is a trustworthy statement. "If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." An overseer then must be, what does he must be, above reproach. The husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable.

Here's the one thing about teaching, able to teach. There's the one time it's mentioned there in the role of the elder, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how would he take care of the Church of God? He must not be a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into condemnation incurred by the devil. You know what? Most of those are characteristics, evidences of spiritual maturity.

Now, there's no elder that holds all those perfectly. But it should be the consistent pattern of his life. Why? Because at least one reason is that he is to be an example for his congregation to follow. Now, just like dads, we at times fail and fall and are example to our children, sometimes elders will as well. There's no perfect pastors. But elders should at least carve a path to where the congregation can say, "You know what? My elders are seeking to faithfully pursue godliness and righteousness." I can follow him behind them. The apostle Paul worded it this way in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. This is what he told the Church of Corinth.

"Now, would you be willing to tell the younger generation, others in your congregation, what the apostle Paul says here?" Here's what he says. "The imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Now, you might look at that and think, "Well, Brother Matt, I would never say so now. That seems boastful." Paul's not boasting.

He's not saying, "I have the way of being Christ-like, you must do everything." But he said, "Look, in every way that I imitate Christ, you can imitate me." And men, as the men of the church, at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven, as the men in your homes and with your own families, you should be able to look at your family, you should be able to look at your congregation, you should be able to look at your small group and say, "You know what? Men, I don't have it all figured out. I fail, I stumble, I struggle." But in every way, if you can see some fruit and some faithfulness in my walk with Christ, imitate that. That's not pride.

That's just you saying, "Hey, by the grace of God, sometimes He gives me grace to obey." And when you see me obey, follow that. That's what the Apostle Paul said. "The imitators of me, just I also am of Christ." Remember back to our text last night, when we think of modeling and being an example before others so that we may learn how to follow Christ. Remember what Jesus told the apostles? He appointed 12, and we saw this, so that they may be with Him. The 12 were simply to be with Jesus, hear Him teach, see Him live. And in this way, they would come to bear the mark of Jesus upon their own lives.

Now, some of y'all know my wife, Kristen, some of you don't. Kristen doesn't look like me. She's a Native American. You've met Isaac. You may know Kenzie or Prentice or Ed from my other children. You know what? They bear the mark of their mom's genetic influence. They've got dark skin. They've got dark hair. They've got brown eyes. I always tell people I'm the lone white guy in my family. I'm in the minority. But they bear the genetic influence of Kristen in their lives.

And in the same way, spiritually, we should bear the mark of Christ, and we bear the mark of Christ as we learn those characteristics, as we learn what it means to be faithful, and we learn them from fathers, we learn them from grandfathers, we learn them from pastors, we learn them from small group leaders, we learn them from each other as men of God who are seeking to faithfully pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we not?

So there's a sense in which, though we all are different, we all look different from different backgrounds, there's a sense in which there should be one strain that's flowing through us, and that strain is Christ-likeness, and we learn that from each other. The influence of modeling. Man, this is still needed today. It's maybe needed more today than it's ever been needed. Man, if you are not influencing your home and your church, someone else will, and it may not be someone that you want to. In a world that embraces a feminacy and seems to embrace compromise and cowardice, we need men.

Grace Life Church of Brookhaven needs men who can be described as mighty and deeds, who are setting an example for the next generation. It's not just this generation that you're influencing, but Psalm 78 would say you are influencing the children yet to be born. You often think of that text in Psalm 78 verses 1-4, where we don't have time to turn there, and it says there that we're to influence those who are yet to be born. I think, you know what? I'll probably never see my great-great-grandchildren. Man, I'll see my great-grandchildren. Man, I'll see my grandchildren. I don't know. Or it may take me home quickly, right?

But I always think, but you know, if I could see them, and if I was alive, I'd want them to serve Christ too. So what's one way that we can try to reach down through the generations? By being faithful now. By being faithful with who the Lord has entrusted to us now. Hopefully we've reached down by God's grace into those generations yet to come. Sons need to see fathers who stand on truth. Look, you don't have to kill a lion and a pit on a snowy day. Best I know, probably ain't a whole lot of lions around Brookhaven, Mississippi, right? You're not going to be facing Egyptians that are holding weavers' beams. I know that.

You're hopefully not going to be killing 300 men at a time. I understand that. But you can stand on the truth of God's word. You can be a valiant man that way. You can be a valiant man by saying, "You know what? I'm not going to just drift along with the winds of compromise. I'm just going to stand faithfully in what God's word has called me to be and do." You can do that in your home. You can do that in your workplace. You can do that in your local church, in your small group. These types of men were needed in 1 Chronicles, and they are needed today. So the importance of influence. Next point is the courage required of a mighty man.

So now that we've seen something where Beniah learned his valor, let's take a closer look at Beniah himself and some of his mighty deeds. Again, from verse 22, it says, "He struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab." Again, Hebrew scholars say that the better reading of this is that Beniah struck down or killed or smoked. Don't you love that Old Testament word, smoked? I mean, if somebody gets smoked, they're done. Right? I mean, there's nothing left. He smoked two lion-like men of Moab. The emphasis here is these weren't just some scrubs from Moab that encountered Beniah. He kind of took care of them. These were two of Moab's giants.

These were two of Moab's best, and they ran up against Beniah, and he just smoked them. He struck down two heroes of Moab. This is no small feat. Defeated not one man, but two, and the many defeated are described as heroes or lion-like men of Moab. Next, he killed a lion inside a pit on a snowy day. As I have studied this, I ask around the office. I went around to some of the offices there in Grace Life Church, and I just said, without them knowing why I was doing it, I said, "You know, if you were to encounter a lion in a pit on a snowy day, what would you do?" And here were the three reactions I got from the three individuals.

One said, "Well, I think I'd just pray, brother, man." Probably good. That was probably a good reaction, right? I probably prayed too. One of them said, "I think I would just cry." They just melt right there and cry, and I guess the lion would eat them. And then one said this, "I think I'd panic. I wouldn't know what to do. I'd just flip out. I'd just go crazy. I wouldn't know how to handle that." Well, Beniah took action and killed the lion. Now, there's some debate among scholars about what this pit was. I believe that the pit actually probably has better translated a cave, probably what Beniah had done. It was a snowy day. It was cold.

He thought, "Okay, I'll take shelter in this cave." He goes into the cave. All of a sudden, there's a lion there, and instead of crying or panicking, he says, "You know what? All my choice here is to kill that thing." And so he killed it, and he claimed that shelter for himself. Number three, he killed an Egyptian that was five cubits tall. Now, five cubits is roughly seven and a half feet. So we're talking about Shaquille O'Neal. There's somebody like that, right? I mean, seven and a half feet tall. This is a big guy. It says that the Egyptian was armed with a spear like a weaver's beam. Now, go home and Google a weaver's beam. It's huge.

I mean, this is a big instrument of death that this guy is carrying about. Beniah was armed with a club. So here you got Beniah, who we can assume was a regular-sized guy, going up against a seven and a half foot tall Egyptian. The seven and a half foot tall Egyptian has a weapon that is the size of a weaver's beam, which is huge, and Beniah's just got a club. You know, I kind of envisioned a little bit like... I don't know if policemen still carry this or not, but they used to carry those nightsticks. Yeah, that's kind of a club-like thing. That's what he's got.

Now, again, if that were you or I, we might look at that situation and say, man, I am outgunned in every way. This guy is huge. His weapon is huge. All I've got is this club. Maybe I should come back with a few more of my boys if I'm going to really win this match, but not Beniah. It says this about Beniah. He snatched the spear from the Egyptians' hand and killed the guy with his own weapon. I don't know about you, but that's a man. He just went up and said, hey, I've had enough of you. I'll take your weapon. And by the way, ultimate form of disgrace, I'll kill you with your own weapon. That's how I'll handle this.

All of these feats, along with others, were a reason that Beniah found himself listed among David's mighty men. Now, what do we learn from these verses that detail the mighty acts attributed to Beniah? This is going to dovetail wonderfully with our call to worship and some of what Keith was praying earlier. Here's what we learn. Number one, courage is required to serve the Lord today. Courage is required to serve the Lord today. John MacArthur said it this way. No one will ever influence the world for Christ who lacks courage. It is courageous people who make a difference. No one will ever influence the world for Christ who lacks courage.

It is courageous people who make a difference. See courageous people throughout the scriptures. In Acts 4, Peter and John are preaching the gospel and the authorities come to him and say, you can't do this. You can't do this. And Peter and John say, you know what? Whether it's okay with you or not, we don't know. But we must do this because this is what our Lord Jesus Christ has required of us. Courageous men there in the scriptures. In Acts 17 and 18, just read Paul's missionary journeys. A weak, flimsy, cowardly man does not do what the apostle Paul would have done in those missionary journeys.

I mean, he was walking out of towns and they were actively trying to kill him. And what would he do? Just walk into the next town and do the exact same thing. Preach the gospel, baptize those who are converted and plant local churches. Paul had to remind his young disciple Timothy that timidity was not what God called him to.

In 2 Timothy 1.7, Paul says, "Timothy, God has not given you a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." He would remind the church at Corinth, phrase that we use for acts like men, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Let me ask you, brothers, does courage mark your walk with the Lord? I'm not talking about being brash. I'm not talking about being arrogant. I'm not talking about being foolish. I'm talking about being courageous for the sake of the gospel and for the glory of God in your walk, in your life, in your home, in your church, in your workplace.

You know, when Jesus talked about discipleship, it implied the need for courage. Jesus said this, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." You better have some courage if that's what you're going to walk into.

Jesus said, "He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and one who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me." In Matthew 10, he would say, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves." You know, Jesus never did a bait and switch thing on discipleship. Here's what you're going to have. Your own family may hate you because you follow Christ. The people in your workplace may hate you because you follow Christ. You're going to be like sheep in the midst of wolves.

Yet, I want you to go out and be my emissaries and speak the truths of the gospel anyway. Courage is needed if you're going to be a mighty man of God. Number two, we learned that mighty men of God serve. They serve. I'll draw this back from 1 Chronicles 11, verse 10, when it spoke about the mighty men themselves as a group. These are the heads of the mighty men whom David had, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. You might look at a guy like Benaiah or Jehoedah or any of these other men that are described in verses 11 through 21.

You think, "Man, those guys answer to no one. Those are mighty men." If you ever know someone like that who kind of walks over the chest, puffed out of my mouth, I'd say, "I scared nobody, and nobody's going to tell me what to do." That wasn't the attitude of David's mighty men. These men served David. What does it say they did there? Again, these mighty men whom David had, verse 10, gave him strong support. They understood that David's our king. He's our authority. And it didn't make them less mighty, and it didn't make them wimpy in any way to say, "You know what?

We're going to serve underneath that authority." As a matter of fact, it said that the work they did was used of the Lord to make him king. So listen, man, again, I'm not talking about being brash or proud or rising up and saying, "I tell you what, as a mighty man, I'm going to tell everybody in here what to do." That's not it at all. That's not what we see from Benaiah, Jehoedah, or any of these other mighty men. These were men that had been humbled to the point that they understood where they fit. In God's economy. Mighty men are servants. You know what? In your home, yes, you should be brave. You should be courageous.

You are the leader in your marriage or the leader of your families. But you know what? Christlike leadership in the home looks like sometimes. It means you serve your families. You know, in recent years, we've had maybe just, I don't know, maybe it's ignorance. Maybe it's just foolishness. I don't know. We've had a few men that have come through and said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I'm the leader of my home and my wife's going to do exactly what I want to say. She's going to do it all the time. And I'm not going to listen to it." And I'm like, "Wait a minute now.

Are you really loving your wife as Christ loved the church or are you just kind of running roughshod over her right now thinking, "I don't see what, I'm the leader. I'm the mighty man in the house." That may be bravado and not biblical mightiness. We see that in the church sometimes. Sometimes men or sometimes women will rise up and sit that chest out and say, "What? I don't have to answer any elders. I answered to God and God alone." You know what? The mighty men of David, yeah, they answered to the Lord, but they answered to King David. He was the authority that God had put over them.

Some of the men who are sitting here, they're church elders. And you know what? God has given them a proper position of authority in the local church. And you know what? Men, if you're not in that position, you should serve underneath their leadership. That's what God has called you. That doesn't mean that you're weak. That doesn't mean that you're cowardly. No, it means that you have a good grasp of what God desires for you and your role in the local church. So mighty men must be courageous, but mighty men also serve the way that God has gifted and appointed them.

Number three, last, let's be reminded of this, that above Beniah and above Jehoa, and above all the other mighty men that we haven't read about there in those other verses, that it is Jesus who embodies courage and boldness greater than any Bible character that we know of. Jesus embodies courage and boldness greater than any Bible character that we know of. Beniah, yes, was a mighty man, but Jesus is the mighty man. It was Jesus who said in Matthew 10, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master." It is enough of the disciple that he become like his teacher and the slave like his master.

If they have called the head of the house, Jesus be eligible, how much more will they malign the members of his household? Yes, we face trials, we face difficulties, courage is required of us as we serve our Lord, but we must remember that Jesus has gone before us and he has displayed courage unlike any other person in history. Jesus embodies 1 Corinthians 13, that phrase that says, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Jesus lived that out perfectly better than any man who has ever lived on the face of the planet.

In Jesus' earthly ministry, he consistently faced foes and opponents that sought to undermine him and discredit him, and he remained absolutely 100% steadfast in speaking the truth. In his death, he underwent not only an excruciatingly physically painful death, but also that of being forsaken by his heavenly father and dying under his wrath. And in his return, he will come again to conquer every rebel power on this earth and subdue them under his feet. And Jesus accomplished this not only for his own glory, but also so that sinners like you and I may come to know him for forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus is the mighty man that we all look to and that we all learn from. So mighty men must display courage, mighty men serve, and we must never forget that Jesus is the mighty man, the one that we learn all things from when it comes to our lives. Let me pray for us. Father again, thank you for...