Proverbs 28:1 - The Lions

Children want to be heroes. Boys want to be spiderman or superman or other heroes who were not around when I was young. Girls want to be Disney princesses. They don’t want to be street sweepers and rat catchers or tax inspectors. Children want to be noble. They want to be kings of the jungle, wise old owls or great big elephants. They don’t want to be warthogs or termites or amoebas. God has place in our hearts the desire to be noble because we were created to be noble. Children know it. Yet as we grow up our hearts become bruised, we hear messages of our own worthlessness, we  believe the lies and lose sight of what we were created to be. Many end up with poor self-image and self-understanding. And what is most tragic is the church can compound the problem. If we dare to suggest that we are anything other than humble servants we are accused of being full of pride. Jesus is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords for one reason only, he is king of ..., and he is Lord of ...! Who are those Kings and Queens that Christ is head over? Who are those Lords and Ladies that King Jesus reigns over? Don’t misinterpret the word and apply it to the rulers of this world, the truth is it is us.

As we continue to look at the verse for the year, “The righteous are as bold as Lions”, I want to look this morning at what it means to be lions – Kings and Queens of the jungle. There are three things I want to look at. The struggle for identity, The character of lions and The territory of lions.

The struggle for identity

The first thing I want us to look at is our struggle for identity. Proverbs warns, “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king.” (Proverbs 30:21-22) The world raises us to be paupers and quakes when paupers become kings. You have probably experienced it a work, someone given leadership responsibility and does not handle that responsibility well. Paupers still feel insignificant on the inside and so they destroy the people around them. Moses was raised in a royal palace so that when he came to lead he did not have a slave’s mentality. He operated from the sphere of knowing he was significant. It is easy to preach we are kings and queens but it is a far greater struggle to act as kings and queens. We have the problem of pauperhood to overcome. One of the greatest challenges we face as Christian parents is raising our children knowing they are destined to reign, of cultivating a royal atmosphere in our homes. A place where the battles for our own healthy identity never have to be fought.

This is the pain of pauperhood. We have experienced the pain of people attacking our identity and we devise ways of protecting ourselves. We do whatever it takes to survive the pain – it may be humour, aggressiveness, or we become introverted. We lack a healthy self-esteem and grow up with a poverty mindset. Think about the story of the prodigal son. The younger son got the fatted calf and he was jealous. His father comes out to him and reminds him that he has the whole farm yet he is trapped in that paupers mentality. It can even happen in church. We call it good stewardship and disguise it as wisdom when there is no faith to believe that, “my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). The pain of pauperhood has control over our identity.

This pauperhood not only controls our identity it poisons us. Perhaps the greatest poison is that of unforgiveness. We have suffered at the hands of harsh and cruel words, we have been overlooked, manipulated and abused by those over us, we remember and each time we remember the pain comes back and we know we have not forgiven those that abused our identity. The parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 reminds us that we have been forgiven much, so much, that we should forgive those that have trespassed over our territory. The story goes on to warn that unforgiveness leaves the door open for us to be demonically tormented. We give permission for the poison to continue. Another poison is jealousy. Saul and David were returning from battle in 1 Samuel 18. They sang Saul’s praise but heaped even greater praise on David. Saul felt threatened. Perhaps David would take his throne. It was the wounded identity speaking. It could not comprehend that David was a man of honour. So jealousy ruled his relationship with David from that day on. Jealousy destroys.

The good news is that it does not need to be this way. We can recover our true identity. Our need is to agree with God. It does not matter what we think or feel. We need to agree with what the Bible says. Repentance means to change the way we think. We need to repent of pauper thinking. It is not a call for morbid introspection but a call to raise our eyes heavenward. Things can change. Sarah, Abrahams wife, mocked God when he said she was going to be pregnant. It wasn’t just a chuckle, it was a full blown mocking laugh. Yet in Hebrews 11:11 she is counted among the faithful. Something happened. She repented, changed the way she thought and it was credited to her as righteousness. There is power in what we think. That is why God calls us to renew our minds. We need to use what God has said to shape the way we think. Eve was barren until Adam prophecised over her and changed her name from Woman to Eve. We need to declare God’s words of truth over each other.

The character of lions

The second thing I would like us to think about is the character of lions. The story is told of a little polar bear who kept asking his brother if he was a real polar bear. He wanted to know he was a genuine, 100% polar bear. After weeks of asking the same question his brother got fed up and told him to ask his mother. The same questions. Am I a genuine polar bear? How can I be sure I am a genuine polar bear? After several weeks of the same questions his mother told him to ask his father. The questioning began. His father answered that he was a genuine polar bear and his mother was a genuine polar bear so he must be a genuine polar bear. But still the questions kept coming. Exasperated, his father told him to ask his grandfather. The little polar bear swam out to the iceberg his grandfather was standing on and asked the same question. His grandfather wanted to know why he was asking the question. “Well,” said his grandson, “If I am a genuine polar bear why is it that I am so cold all the time!” The truth is God chose us for greatness before the foundation of the world. It may not feel like it but this is the truth. We are to move into this truth.

We need to recognise our greatness. The danger is we can view our relationship with God through a slave mentality. Moses knew he was a friend of God. Abraham knew he was a friend of God. Friends influence friends. So Moses changes God’s mind in Exodus 33:11 and Abraham changes God’s mind in Genesis 18 as he pleads for Sodom and Gamorrah. We are not slaves. We are not paupers. We are friends of God. We are sons and daughters. We are kings and queens. We are royalty. We need to recognise our greatness. We need to call people into their royal destiny. We need to explain to people the way of royalty. 1 Samuel 10:25 says, “Samuel explained to the people the regulations of the kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the LORD.”

If we recognise our greatness we need to begin to learn how to rise up to our greatness. We need to search out the characteristics of royalty so that we do not abuse the position we have been given. False humility refuses to recognise our greatness. We fear we will be full of pride. Nebuchadnezzar was stripped of his kingdom when he was full of pride. What is interesting is what he says when he is restored. “At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honour and splendour were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before... (it seems he has not learned his lesson, he is still full of pride, but the passage goes on)... Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just.” He locates his greatness within the goodness or greatness of God. Humility in the church often means convincing ourselves we are nobodies. True humility is recognising our greatness comes from God. We are lions because He is the Lion of Judah. We are kings and Queens because we are the sons and Daughters of God. Our greatness is all because of Him. One of the most important characteristics is that we are confident of who we are.

Another characteristic is the culture of honour. We honour people because we are honourable. If a young person is on a bus or a train and an older person gets on I would expect them to get up and give them their seat. At the heart of this expectation is a culture of honour. At the heart of the action is the young person honouring themselves, of knowing that they are honourable. A young person who stays seated has to aggressively assert themselves, I have a right, I was here first, I’m significant enough to remain seated, at the heart of such an attitude is poor self-esteem. They do not honour themselves and cannot honour other people. They rise because they are significant, and out of the honour they have they are able to honour other people. Honour is so important in life. God said “Honour your father and mother” but does anyone know how that command finishes? ... “so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Honour is at the heart of prospering. We need honour within our families, of husbands for wives, of children for parents and parents for children. Children need to know they were conceived in a relationship of honour, that they were the joyous expression of their parents desire, not a reluctant by-product of an unplanned for pregnancy. Honour gives them a firm foundation to build a positive self image rather than be riddled with insecurity. We need honour in our churches. We elect leaders but do we honour them? When we disagree do we still find ways to support and encourage or do we aggressively assert our own views failing to listen to and understand decisions that have been made. We need honour in our communities. We elect leaders but how often do we pray for them? Do we speak words of life over them or join in the ridicule and mocking that is so prevalent? When we disagree Jude suggests that we are to disagree honourably, “But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuke you! Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals— these are the very things that destroy them.” We live in a culture that struggles to honour, that is often accepting of what is abusive, but the ways of royalty are very different.

We are to cultivate the characteristics of royalty so we can respond from our greatness. In 1 Samuel 11 Samuel anoints Saul to be king. Unsure of what to do he carries on ploughing, following dumb oxen round a field. It is all very well to know who we were destined to be but like Saul we can still follow dumb oxen round fields. What holds us captive is the power of fear. When we are afraid we stay at home and do not run with the other lions. When we are gripped by fear we are paralyzed at the thought of dying. As one old man said, “You can’t threaten me with heaven!” When we break the power of fear in our lives and its power over us we lose the powerlessness in our lives and can respond to the greatness we were called to. Jesus fell asleep in the middle of a storm. There was no fear in his life. We, too, should sleep in storms, because we are lions, kings and queens, destined to reign, for whom the world has no power or authority over us.

It’s worth fighting for our identity. If we do not feel like it we need to speak the truth of God’s word over our lives. We need to pursue the characteristics of royalty and in particular live from a culture of honour.

The territory of lions

The third thing I would like us to think about is the territory of lions. That I am going to look at next week!