There are things that keep us from intimacy in our relations. These fuel the mistrust and reactions that we see. The pain is real, the issues are real. God help us. David and Jonathan were knit together and the nation was changed. Jesus called us to labor — to go to the harvest fields and see them as ripe. Let’s not look at each other on the basis of the outward, the skin. (1 Samuel 18:1-2; Matthew 9:35-38)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon 11896
7:00 PM on 6/3/2020

P. Schaller –

A Couple thoughts before we start our message. Great to see you. Awesome, beautiful. Great to be here. George
Floyd and how he died in Minneapolis. I watched the video and thought about it. It was
heartbreaking to see how that man died and how wrong it was. It raises some questions about things
in different areas and different ways in our country. I prayed today that the Lord would give me
a message that would somehow relate to the current events of what we have been facing as a
people with the coronavirus and recently the violence and horrible event that happened the
other night. My key phrase tonight is “barriers to intimacy.”

That’s our thought. Barriers to intimacy. I want to introduce it to you by turning to 1 Samuel 18. In our prayer, we said a lot I think about where we are at. I feel the Body of Christ has done awesome by God’s grace. There
is a healing needed in many ways with people and believers and all of us everywhere. At the
end of chapter 17, David had killed Goliath and David was standing with Saul. 1 Samuel 17:58. That’s a
simple conversation, simple question and David answered it. But, David and Saul didn’t have the
intimacy we have as people. We look for connection. There was someone standing there
listening I believe, if I got it right. 1 Samuel 18:1 the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of
David. Why did Jonathan and David connect? Why did they connect? Why didn’t Saul connect
like that? They didn’t, Saul and David.

Saul liked David and saw his talents and spirituality and victory over Goliath. He saw external things, but Jonathan had something going there and they were connected. Vs. 2. What was the mindset of Jonathan and why did he see him that way? I have a couple things here to say about it. Jonathan and David connected because of Isaiah 11.
Turn there. This is point two. First point is Jonathan and David, and this is what happened I
think, Isaiah 11:2. This is about the Messiah, Jesus. What would we say about that verse?
Barriers to intimacy. Ask the person sitting next to you, what are the barriers to intimacy? Why
people are not connected, why people are alone, why some people do not have friends, why
there is no intimacy in people’s lives. What are some of the barriers to intimacy? How many
want to hear what P. Love has to say?

P. Love –

The first one is if they have a mask! Just kidding!

Insecurity, fear of rejection. Sorry to say, hatred, jealousy, envy,
everything that is part of the old sin nature.

P. Schaller –

So, Jesus did not have hatred in him, and Jesus had this vs. 2 of Isaiah 11. Look at that list: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of power and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Shall make him of quick understanding vs. 3. Is he a black man? Is he a white man? Does he have an accent? Is he from
another country? Is he young? Is he old? Is he rich? Is he poor? Which part of the city does he
live in? What is the first impression of that person? The barriers to intimacy are really us and
our mindset. In vs. 2. Jesus had this spirit, the spirit of wisdom and he was able to look at
people not by his eyes or even by what he heard, not by what he heard.

When immoral women are written about in the gospels, many times you see them and are refreshed that Jesus saw
them. He saw them. He saw them. This is the hunger we have as people. I wish someone could
see me made in God’s image. I wish they would know what is in my heart, like mothers that
love their children. They are looking at their children and wanting to know their hearts. They
spend their lives caring about them and wanting to lead them in the Spirit and in love and truth and wisdom and not have barriers. Barriers happen. Another thing in the story of Jonathan and
David is Jonathan didn’t want anything from David. Let me repeat that. It wasn’t like David; you
are an exceptional person. I want you. I need you. I want you to be on my team. I want you to
serve me. I want you to help me be great.

But instead Jonathan took his royal coat off and said here, it’s yours. That helps me make a connection when I care about somebody. When I care about them. Not for our sake. But because God has cared for us and filled us with his Holy Spirit now we are able to love. We see beyond what is seen. We are seeing more than what the natural
man is seeing. In this crime the other day which touched our hearts and can imagine those
kinds of crimes happening and crimes of all sorts that happen because people are saying crime
is illegal. That’s why it’s a crime but it violates moral law. When Jesus was here, he was not just
simply in moral law, but he was spirit. It’s spirit that changes lives. It’s spirit that gives grace. It’s
spirit that has vision and mission.

It’s spirit that prays. It’s spirit that loves and cares. Vs. 3. What does it mean “quick understanding?” Quick understanding. I think that means intuition. I know automatically. You don’t have to explain it to me. I got it in my spirit. I remember being with spiritual people through the years and I enjoy we can be very short in our communication and we understand each other quickly. I got it immediately. I understand it. That’s amazing.
Jesus didn’t need long explanations regarding people because he knew people. He understood
them. He knew what our problems were. He knew what our real deep problems were. He
understood it. He could see, discern, perceive, Mark 7. He perceived. He understood and
understood a lot more than we could imagine.

He was a man of sorrows because he understood so much. He loved us and understood us, and he cared about us. He didn’t judge by what he saw or heard. He was able to see it from the Holy Spirit So are we. Sounds like we are exalting ourselves above the rest of society. I’m not saying that. I don’t care about that comparison. I
just know what I say and there are barriers people have in life and they don’t have the
connection because they don’t have the spiritual capacity to see beyond. It happens. Last text is
Matthew 9. I asked P. Renaldo Brown and myself and P. Serradji and Julius Thompson to do the
rap tonight on this subject. I would like to hear from black men, what goes on in their mind
when they are Spirit-filled men but living in our world and what goes on in their mind at
different times. Maybe some of us don’t understand it or realize where this anger and reaction
is coming from.

There can be fear, intimidation many elements to it. You know us and you know
how I think, and we are growing and learning together. I am not issue oriented; however, the
spiritual life is relevant for every problem. Let me repeat that. It has answers for every person
in every situation. If there is something wrong in my heart, then that may be a barrier for me. If
there is something that is just not right in my heart I would like to be and we are, I love the way
we are. I love the way we are, but we are all learning. Matthew 9:35. Where did Jesus go? He went
everywhere in Israel. Not literally but he went to many villages. What was he doing? He was
seeing. He was seeing people.

We have seen images on our TV the last days. Large groups of people in more than 40 cities in our country protesting. We have seen all kinds of things happening in front of our eyes. What have you seen when you look at those pictures? What do you see there? Let’s ask Jesus. What did he see? When you went all over Israel and went in the villages you met thousands of people, and what did you see? Vs. 35. He saw the multitudes. He saw their value. He saw their value. He loved them. He saw how important they are. He saw
beyond the problems. He saw the people. He was not afraid. He was able to look at the people
and care about them. He saw their value. He was accessible to those people, vulnerable in their
presence. Here I am. From what I would feel, anyone around Jesus there would be not a barrier
from him, a barrier of intimacy but what could I do for you.

How can I help you? How can I serve you? How can I talk to you? Many times, multitudes of people don’t know what they are doing. “They know not what they do” he said on the cross when he was dying. They are subject
to their environment, old sin nature, demonic activity and there is demonic activity in this
world. Jesus is in the midst of that demonic activity. Jesus cares about the people in that world,
this world. He cares about this world and he’s here. He sent us. Another thing about the
multitude, vs. 36. You love them? Yes. Do you think that compassion if you saw it, if you felt it,
you could feel maybe he really cares about you? He actually cares about me. He cares about
me. He has compassion on me. When that man was dying on the street and said, please, please
I can’t breathe, there was no compassion.

What was there? Maybe hatred. Tough, brutal, strength. I don’t know. It’s here. It’s in this world. It’s in our hearts. It can come in our hearts. It can happen to any of us. This cannot be. When we are Spirit-filled people and we care, and we do. We work in the inner city and go to the schools in the neighborhood. We have a food bank.
We reach the homeless. This is not anything to do with indicting us or any policeman we know
in our congregation. You got to give me room and keep your email and Facebook postings. Matthew
12:36 you will give an account for every idle word you have spoken. Put that in your Facebook
pipe and smoke it. You will give an account to God for every word you have spoken and
communicated. Jesus is wiser.

Jesus cares. He cares about you. Jesus sees you and he cares about you. He doesn’t need you. Psalm 50, God said if I was hungry, would I ask you? I made the universe. I don’t need you. I don’t need you. You can’t add anything to my glory. It’s infinite glory with or without you. I don’t need you, but I am God and I want you to know I care about
you. He had compassion on the multitude. Vs. 36. We don’t know how deep that compassion.
How much is there? How far does it go? We can say every human being every lived, every
person that has been at the very bottom and lives there, every person before passing out of
this world has an invitation by the living God. He said he had compassion because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He had compassion because they
fainted.

There are a lot of people fainting today. Are you fainting? I don’t think so. I think we
are edified. We walk in faith. I might be fainting. That happens to all of us but generally we are
not fainting. We are not suffering. We have been forgiven. Generally, our mind is renewed.
Roman 12:2 generally I’m edified in the Body. We drink the same spirit. We are encouraged and
built up in our connection with each other. I want to feel that you care about me not for your
sake but because it’s God. God cares about us. We don’t judge each other, James 4:11. We
don’t judge each other. We are very kind and gracious and give a lot of room to each other. We
have space. We have love, mercy, and grace.

We are very kind and encouraging. Individually one on one broken intimate connections are broken because of our selfishness. When I am fainting and he is fainting and nobody cares for us, we drift apart. When we drift apart, Jesus is looking down on the multitude and he is saying they are fainting. They don’t have strength. They are fading like flowers. They are falling by the wayside. They are living in fear alone in their
homes and hurting people that are somehow fainting. When he saw it, he goes I didn’t make
people to faint but be strengthened in the inner man. I made them to be kings and priests and
lions and lambs. To be wise and have faith in their hearts. That’s why I made people to be like
me. This is Jesus. We’ll finish up in a minute. Vs. 36.

They were scattered abroad, and I see that in little ways, the scattering. The scattering in our country, in our community, in our neighborhoods, in our families, and in our marriages. We are scattered. We go to our own
corner and get on our iPhone or whatever. That’s not the point. I’m hungry for love. I want
Jonathan and David kind of love. I want to feel it. I want to know it. I want to believe it. Racism
is sin and evil. We have seen evil. It hurts people. It hurts families. It hurts people. It’s
alienating. It causes people to go away. It’s not reality. The Spirit was on Jesus. He saw. We said
it two or three times. He saw. In the church I want to be able to sit here and feel there is
something invisible happening in our church. It’s the anointing.

Angels are here. I want to feel people can see me and understand and give me grace. People are loving to serve and lay down their lives because that’s Jesus in us. Jesus what is your limit? No limit. I lay down my life. That’s
my nature. I am God. As long as you are in touch with God you won’t make your measurements
with your sacrifice. Remember these marriages that were 50/50, the husband and wife split the
responsibility. I never learned that in Bible college. 50/50. I’m supposed to measure 50 percent
and deliver that to my lovely wife, and she’s supposed to measure 50 percent and we are
supposed to have some mutual understanding about that. When you lay down your life, it’s not
50/50. It’s 100 percent period. That’s Jesus in us. He didn’t make a deal. Jesus came and gave us
his life.

That kind of compassion is in his heart tonight when he looks at our country. He goes,
where are my laborers? Vs. 37. I know we know the verses but take a minute. The harvest. The
harvest. What do you mean there is a harvest? Did you see the pictures in Minneapolis? Yes, I
did Lord. They are frightening. The harvest. The harvest. Have you seen the Burmese people?
The harvest. The Chinese people? The harvest. I don’t know what that is Lord. The harvest. You
don’t know the harvest? Yes, I do. I know the harvest. The same thing that happens to you
happens to some of them and it is plenteous. Don’t regard the wind. If you regard the wind, you
won’t sow. Don’t regard the rain, or you will not reap.

Give a portion to seven even to eight. When? Now. Now is the time. The harvest is plenteous. Vs. 37. It occurred to me one day that I was a laborer. I felt very honored to think of myself like that. It may occur to you one day. There
are many businessmen, tourists, people counting their money at night, counting their children
and grandchildren, their possessions and things and projects and programs and investments
and everything. All their planning but are they laborers? Laborers for the harvest. Are there soul
winners? Are there preachers, church planters, people who have gave up everything. People
who have surrendered not one time but continued in their life.

Aren’t all Christians somehow? Yes, they are. If they are businessmen bring the word. If a tourist, bring Jesus. If a student, bring the Lord onto the campus. The laborers are few. I remember I came unto derision because I left
my family to go to Hungary and I brought my family in my heart. I lived there a number of years
and my wife was amazing. She would tell our kids dad is serving God. We are serving God
together. It was such a gift she had that mentally. She has always been like that helping me and encouraging us as laborers. Someone would say, how come you are living without your family? I
said there are a lot of people that leave their family for the military, for a pile of money.
$100,000 you can live in Saudi Arabia without your family or $200,000 and everyone would
applaud you for that big number.

If you do it to win souls for the harvest, what are you doing handing out tracts? That doesn’t mean anything. Ask these people over here what it means. I am amazed and thank you for coming. Harvest time. It’s ready he said. He said it’s ready. Then he said the laborers are few. Vs. 37. Laborers don’t have to go out into the field. They have to
sharpen their sickle and cut down. They have to labor when it doesn’t look good. They have to
labor when it doesn’t seem like it’s working. They have to go to inner city neighborhoods. They
have to be at university campuses sitting at a park bench praying for someone to come by.
That’s what they do because they are laborers. They are prepared by God to be a laborer. Jesus
is saying when you are doing this, the barriers to intimacy are not there. Someone like Jonathan
is listening to David and saying that’s it.

This is 1979. We were in China and Communism was going on. Mao had died the previous October, and in August we took a towel with Jesus loves you on it….to the crowd. There would be thousands of people. I’ll never forget it. This Chinese guy with a woman and a little baby our eyes connected. He said I am a Christian. This is huge
when Communist China and he goes I’m a Christian. I want to dedicate my baby. Right on the
street there was three of us and we had a prayer of dedication. They they slipped off because it
was a dangerous time. How did he know and how did I know? He is my brother. The same thing
with us. We are people of the Spirit. We are people that realize Jesus cares. We are laboring.
We are doing it by faith. We started it decades ago. We are not ashamed. We have intimate
connections with a lot of people because Jesus is between us.

Whether it is Turkey or Oman or India or wherever it might be. It’s amazing. Jesus said what is the answer for the laborer problem? vs. 38. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest. Prayer is the only answer for this
problem that we have in our world. Prayer. I think God sent people here like Mat Gehret and
Jamille from Brazil. I think God sends people here to find us. I was living in upstate New York and
became a believer and my colleague said, I heard of a church in Denver, Colorado. Do you want
to go with me? I heard it’s a really cool church. I don’t know. Maybe I will go to Colorado with
you. I spent the spring fasting and praying.

When I went home for summer vacation, my mother said I think you should go to Maine this summer. We have a neighbor…you can go up there and find work. It’s better for your father that you are not around this summer. I went up to Maine, Boothbay Harbor, praying and not knowing anyone. I was hitchhiking and found
work. I have great stories. Some girl walking by said, what are you reading? The Bible. I know
where there is a church on fire for God. Do you want us to pick you up Wednesday night? Yeah.
We’ll be here 6:30. I went. All the visitors stood up. What is your name and where are you
from? After the meeting, David Bennet and Sandy Bennet ran over to me. They said, we drove
here from California. God told us to come. God is doing something.

The pastor said we are starting a Bible college in the fall. We want to send teams out. I was overwhelmed by it. They
lived two streets from me. I went to church with them back and forth. I believe if we pray to the
Lord of the harvest, he will send laborers to our church and he will send laborers in the harvest
fields. We know that. I don’t feel I have to tell you that. I feel you know that. Maybe now we have seen some things. Maybe sometimes we are afraid of the future. Some things we get nervous about. Learn how to walk in the Spirit. What was the Convention a year ago? Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. We are learning to rejoice always and be prepared and have compassion like Jesus. We are learning to look at people not by what we see or hear but based on what God says and what God is saying in their heart. What God is saying to them. This
is our message tonight.

Amen.

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