Surrounded!
...but with a greater surrounding.
My graduation speech to the 2022 graduates of Wesley Biblical Seminary…
2 Kings 6 (Selected)
8 Now the king of Aram was making war against Israel… 11 Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this matter…12 One of his servants said… Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” 13 So he said, “Go and see where he is, so that I may send men and take him.” And it was told to him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” 14 So he sent horses and chariots and a substantial army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15 Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “This is hopeless, my master! What are we to do?” 16 And he said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, please, open his eyes so that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
God through the writer of Kings wanted us to know that there was a surrounding…but there was a greater surrounding. Holy ministry means tapping into that greater surrounding while acknowledging the very real world and spiritual world that despises much of what you stand for.
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It is an honor for me, personally, to have John Perkins sitting close by. Dr. Perkins is, of course, a Mississippi legend. In 1987 in Kansas, I was lying in bed reading from his book With Justice For All. Dr. Perkins had traveled to the Rankin County jail in Brandon to try arrange the release of some of his young disciples who had been arrested unlawfully. This is how he described the scene later in the court trial:
“When I got to the jail and saw the people in jail, of course I was horrified as to why we were arrested and when I got in the jail Sheriff Jonathan Edwards came over to me right away and said, ‘This is the smart nigger, and this is a new ballgame. You’re not in Simpson County now; you are in Brandon.’…He began to beat me, and from that time on they continued beating me. I was just beat to the floor and just punched and really beaten.”
Perkins ended up on the floor as they hit and stomped him, kicking him in the head, ribs and groin. He rolled up in a ball to protect himself as best he could. In Perkins’ words, “Eventually, an officer brought a fork over and said, ‘Do you see this?’ And he jammed it up my nose. Then he crammed it down my throat. Then they beat me to the ground again and stomped on me.”
“And I remember their faces – so twisted with hate. It was like looking at white faced demons. For the first time I saw what hate had done to those people….The only way they knew how to find a sense of worth was by beating us. Their racism made them feel like ‘somebody.’ When I saw that, I just couldn’t hate back. I could only pity them. I said to God that night, ‘God, if You will let me get out of this jail alive…I really want to preach a gospel that will heal these people, too.’”
Did you catch that? He was surrounded by pure evil as wickedness beat him within an inch of his very life…but in those moments he prayed to The Greater Surrounding.
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I have been fascinated recently by the word "surround." The English word continually shows up in the Psalms - as in (Ps. 32) "You surround me with songs of deliverance" and "he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him." (Ps. 32:7,10)
I want to be surrounded! Don't you? Well - you are! Multiple times in the Psalms, "surround" has a positive connotation; but with scriptural sobriety we must recognize that far more times the word takes on a negative connotation like - "My deadly enemies surround me." Whoa!
Here’s the question for the day - what kind of "surrounding" do you want to be paying attention to right now! Surrounded by, say, "bees" (Ps. 118:12) or by "the Lord" (Ps. 125:1)?
No question about it, graduates, you're surrounded - both positively and negatively - and are going to continue to be doubly surrounded in the decades of ministry to come.
Choose today which "surrounding" you will actively concentrate on!
Great ministers – whether pastors or missionaries or teachers or moms or dads – recognize…that they are indeed surrounded by wickedness: by evil, pornography, human trafficking, violent crime, horrifying displays of malice. But always remember, you have a greater surrounding.
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Remember the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers?" It highlighted some U.S. paratroopers through the experience of invading Europe on D-Day.
One of the scenes portrays Lieutenant Richard Winters leading his troops into their most celebrated moment of the war effort, holding off the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. A soldier leaving the front line pulls Winters aside and warns him, "Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded."
Lt. Winters doesn't blink. "We're paratroopers, Lieutenant. We're supposed to be surrounded."
And we are ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are supposed to be surrounded and we won’t be surprised or complain or whine or talk about burnout when we know full well that is part of the call on our lives and an obvious part of the job description.
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The evangelical polling company Barna recently noted that two in five pastors have thought about leaving ministry in the past year.
Over half of pastors who have considered quitting full-time ministry (56%) say “the immense stress of the job” has factored into their thoughts on leaving. Beyond these general stressors, two in five pastors (43%) say “I feel lonely and isolated,” while 38 percent name “current political divisions” as reasons they’ve considered stepping away. (George Barna)
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Is there an answer to all of this? An answer to “I’m burned out!” or “I’m not understood” or “People aren’t being nice to me” or the “It’s just too hard?”
Yes, and you all have experienced it. First, in our seminary every one of you have been in a vibrant, personal, moment-by-moment relationship with God fortified by what Wesley called “the means of grace.” The “means of grace” help ensure that you stay surrounded by God and others who deeply care about you. You have been schooled formationally with our 5Q small groups and the requirement in some of our classes to pray and search Scripture an hour a day. You have been challenged to daily practice of prayer and Bible study along with regular fasting, communion, and gathering in large and small groups for worship and admonition. Further, you have engaged in and been challenged to regular works of mercy without which there is no maintaining your salvation, or going on to entire sanctification, or maintaining that sanctification and experiencing glorification.
These have sometimes seemed like high standards, but when surrounded by a wicked culture, they are appropriate.
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For purposes of wrapping this up, I want to accentuate two elements of discipleship – small groups and works of mercy. I want to demonstrate for you from our seminary how very critical these can be.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead is attributed with saying “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
· Decades ago an evangelism professor from Wesley Biblical Seminary sent some guys door-to-door, to practice evangelism. They happened to knock on the door of Dr. Beverly Smith who had started the first abortion clinic in Mississippi, and through the influence of WBS she became a Christian.
· Before long, that doctor married a guy named Roy McMillan and he banded together with some WBS students and others concerned about 1.5 million babies dying in the womb in every year in America by the hands of abortionists. They began to engage in what they called sidewalk counseling outside the abortion clinics in Jackson.
· Before long, lawyers started getting involved to protect the counselors and cases start moving through the court systems.
· Before long one of the team took up lobbying; lawmakers took notice and started drafting legislation.
· Before long the drumbeat became so profound that there is no way to get elected governor or lieutenant governor in Mississippi without being prolife.
· Before long there was no way you were getting an A in one of our WBS professor’s classes unless you were weekly at the abortion clinic or at the prison.
· Before long, we can count 900 babies were saved from abortions because of Jesus’ work through those WBS students.
· Before long, that converted abortionist doctor served on the board of Wesley Biblical Seminary.
· Before long, we may well be able to see that you can draw a straight line from a WBS-infused small group to the end of abortion in a majority of American states. Men and women that said, yes, we are surrounded by evil but we chose to live with our Greater Surrounding.
· One of the things that thrills me most in this entire story: those two students and now alums from Wesley – David and Doug Lane – have been out there in front of the abortion clinics for 38 straight years. Grads – there is power in long-term ministry. Supreme Court power!
It’s never a bad idea to end your sermon with Jesus. So let’s do that. Remember Psalm 22, a psalm that poetically talks substantially about Jesus in His suffering and death. Some think Jesus was actually working through the Psalm while He was on the Cross.
Psalm 22:
1 My God, my God…why have you forsaken me… (4th word on the cross). 12 Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me….16 For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.
The cross proved that even God in the flesh could be absolutely surrounded by evil and wickedness. God in the flesh! If He could be surrounded, you can be!
But here’s the point - the empty tomb proved that Jesus had a greater surrounding.
Class of 2022 – you are going to operate out of that greater surrounding. And as you do, you will always be able to recognize that your best days are yet to come!