When The Boss Is Crazy

Investigating the Reasons Behind Life's Tragic Collisions Not too far from this room in which we are now sitting in a beautiful part of Carroll County, Georgia, there is a lush Meadow. And people who walked through that Meadow remember David's great saw. They want to lie down in green pastures, and they would like to repose by the still waters. That place, so pastoral, so peaceful, is the place of our dreams. But the other day, the peace of that place was disturbed when an aircraft in flames fell from the skies and landed in that Meadow. ASA commuter prop jet had only moments before taken off from Hartsfield International Airport. The people settled back for what they thought would be a calm journey, and suddenly the plane was falling. Five people died. Others would have died, they tell me, had it not been for both the skill and the courage of the pilot and crew, the pilot having perished in the crash. Men and women during that crisis of death were at their very best, and when the rescue people had done their work, a team of detectives descended upon that peaceful Meadow to begin their work of reconstruction. They gathered up fragments of the fuselage, broken pieces of twisted metal, and carefully and painstakingly they reassembled what was left of that aircraft. Because they were asking one question that they felt they had to find an answer for. And it was the question why? Why this crash? And very soon all evidence pointed to a malfunctioning propeller on one of the engines, and they began to do research and they knew the propeller was the culprit, it was the reason for the crash. And thus, in the last days, on scores of aircraft like the one that crashed, the propellers have been exchanged. They have to ask questions like that. They must find the reason why planes crash, so that future journeys might not end in fire and death. Reconstructing the Self-Destruction of Israel's First King But I want to talk about something even more awesome than the crash of a plane, and that is the crash of a man. Men go down in ruin and we wonder why. And the community pauses to ask the question, why did this life end in destruction? I want you to walk with me for a few moments across the rugged terrain in Palestine known as Mount Gilboa. And as we walk up and down the slopes of that very treacherous mountain, we in our imaginations can still see the smouldering ruin of what was once a great military machine. And the landscape is littered with abandoned Shields and broken Spears and broken javelins. And not far from the wreckage, in the aftermath of one of the most decisive battles in history, you can see the fallen corpses of men who fell in battle, most particularly the corpse of Israel's first king, King Saul, and his three sons and his armor bearer, all of whom had died with him in battle. And once it was apparent that Saul would be defeated, he had turned to his armor bearer. And he had said, take my sword and thrust me through. And the armor bearer, because he was the Lord's anointed, refused to touch the body of the king, caused the great king to fall on his sword, and there he died by his own hand. The community is always disturbed when a life self destructs. Why do people kill themselves we ask. Why do men and women take their own lives? I want us to reconstruct the personality of this man whose life ended in tragedy. I want us to gather up the fragments of his tortured persona. And I want us to ask the question why? Why did this man destroy himself? And then if we can find an answer, perhaps we can prevent future tragedies. I would imagine Doctor Carl Meninger and his great classic study of suicide used a phrase that cannot be improved upon. He simply referred to man against himself. Saul was a man against himself. What were the forces within him that led to his ultimate destruction? How Disobedience and Depression Led to Saul's Ruin Well, notice this man against himself is sometimes a disobedient man. Disobedience can lead to destruction. If Samuel, representing the prophets, were present and could bear witness, he would again state that great text which is associated with the life of King Saul. To obey is far better than sacrifice. Saul was a religious man, but his kind of religion was only ritualistic. Saul's religion never made an impact on his moral life. It never enabled him to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with his God. He was a disobedient man, and disobedience can destroy your life and mine. Man against himself was a depressed man. Depression is a growing disease in American Society. Saul would go into battle by day and return to his quarters by night and descend into deep dark moods of despondency. And David, David would come and play on his harp. And this man of such contradictions would find that his bruised emotions would respond to the therapy of music. Fighting by day, musical therapy by night. I am told, for instance, that one of the command commandants of one of those concentration camps in Europe in which a program of mass killing of Jewish people was taking place everyday, people being burned and executed. That the commandant would oversee the work of murder by day and go home and enjoy his children by night, and after the evening meal would put on the record player the music of Brahms and Beethoven and Wagner, murdering and killing by day, having the nerves soothed by night by classical music. Depression, especially unchecked and untreated, can finally end in self destruction. The Destructive Forces of Jealousy and Irrational Anger Or man against himself was a jealous man. Jealousy lives by comparisons the little proverb the women of freedom sang in Israel. Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his 10s of thousands. And here is jealousy living by comparison. He has more money than I. She has more beauty than I. He has more opportunity than I. He is more loved than I. Comparisons, comparisons, comparisons. Jealousy is called insane because it is insane and it's irrational and it is destructive and it can destroy marriages and homes and partnerships and relationships. There is something about jealousy that is absolutely irrational and it destroys. It was the partial reason why Israel's first king took his life. Finally, notice this. This emotion, this, this volcano of exploding feelings. Man against himself is an angry man. Why are people so angry today? On Saturday I got into the wrong lane. A very affluent looking middle-aged couple in an expensive automobile was to my left. I roll my window down. I asked them may I get in front of you? I need to make a left turn. They were so angry they finally said yes. But if looks could kill, I would be a dead man. Why are we so angry? It is so irrational. And do you know where it does the most damage? It does it in the home. If Jonathan could testify about the father he loved, he would stand and say to us today, my father was angry. He was irrational. He would pick up Spears and hurl them at us. He turned the home into a place of utter danger. Do you remember that old song? When you get angry, you always hurt the one you love? Anger, jealousy, depression, disobedience, all of these emotions placed this man on a collision course. And finally he took his own life. What Was Absent in King Saul's Tragic Self-Destruction? And the coroner in this case could write without any qualms of conscience across the death certificate. Suicide by reason of insanity. So the man killed himself. But I want to talk with you about something even more pressing. I simply refer to this biographical experience to bring us to this question. What's missing in the tragedy? Are you satisfied with it? Something is missing, and I think I know what it is. I sat down in one setting and reread the saga of the tragic destruction of this man, and I came to this conclusion. There is something missing, there is something that may also be factored into his self destruction and this is what I discovered. Nowhere did anybody say of the first king of Israel this popular expression that comes from the English monarchy, namely God save the King. Or when he was dead and David was made king, they said the king is dead, Long live the king. But neither Samuel nor David, nor the commanders, nor any general ever ever cry out to God in intercessory prayer for a deranged man. God save the king and leadership. Leadership will always end in some kind of disaster when men and women do not engage in the work of intercessory prayer. The Biblical Mandate to Pray for All in Authority Now I know why Samuel and David did not pray for Saul. The reason is transparent. The Spirit of the Lord, says the historian, had departed from the Lord's anointed king. And when the Spirit is gone, and when it is hopeless, and when a man is fated for his own self destruction, why bother with prayer? But that's the Bible in its promise. We must listen to the Scriptures in their fulfillment. We must bring the Old Testament text and make it sit at the feet of the New Testament text. And Paul is addressing the minister and the Church of Jesus Christ. And he reminds the Church, your primary vocational work as the community of faith is to pray are kings and governors and all who lead within the community. You pray for ministers on the left hand of God, that is, governors, presidents, kings, rulers in the civil realm. You pray for leaders on the right hand of God, teachers, missionaries, evangelists and pastors. Why do you pray? And particularly note, at the heart of the text are inter sessions. You engage in intercessory prayer for all leaders. Why? If you don't, they will fail, and you and I will suffer the consequences of that failure, and we will be judged because we did not obey God. There are two reasons why we pray for leaders for their salvation #1 and for their success #2 God wants all men to be saved, so we pray that they will be and come to a knowledge of the truth. I know we have bad people in government. I know, I know the kind of people who are leading some communities. But if you research the text, who are the kings, The magistrates for whom Paul is appealing for prayer? They were all pagans. They were persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ at the very hour this text was written. When Peter said to the church in first Peter, one of the persecution documents of the New Testament, honor the emperor. Do you know he was Nero, the crazy loom who fiddled, we are told, while the capital of Rome burned to the ground? Honor that kind of man, yes, and pray because bad men might be converted and good men in leadership might be successful. The Failures of Leaders and Institutions Without Prayer Let's look, just for a moment, at at the Congress of the United States of America, some of the worst people in the world, if their deeds are anywhere accurate as reported. Sexual predators in whose presence no woman would ever be safe. Pathological liars who can swear on a stack of Bibles and not even know any longer when they're lying. Thieves who would breakthrough and steal the entire treasury of a nation. You've got people like that up there. They are moral failures. But why? Why do they not know God? Why do they not know the truth? Is it because the people of God? Did not pray for them. Other leaders are failing not because of morals, but because of institutional reasons. I was disturbed when the Democratic senator from New Jersey announced that he no longer wanted to serve in the Senate. A Rhodes Scholar, a man of honor and integrity against whose name No word of besmirchment has ever been uttered. He, along with a senator from Vermont and three other fine men saying politics is broken, it's a waste of time, it's futile to be in this forum any longer. We'll do something else. Why are our institutions failing even when we have in them very fine men and women? Is it because? Is it because we have not prayed for them? No leader can never be successful without the intercessory prayers of the people. I don't know whether this figure is right at the moment. It was a correct Just a few weeks ago I was told that in our own Southern Baptist Convention, 120 ministers ministries in our churches every month end in failure, hurt feelings, dismissals, firings. They have to bring in sometimes conflict managers to bring the church back together again. What is happening to us? This includes the music ministers and educators and and children's ministers and youth ministers and pastors. 120 ministries every month in Baptist life ending in failure and bitterness and disappointment. Why? I know of one young man who resigned 2 weeks ago, I think it was. I know the fine pastoral counselor who tried to hold him together. I know a number of pastors who tried to help him find a place to go. And the counselor finally said I told him, give it up, give it up, don't stay with it any longer. He said the leadership of the church was determined that he would fail, and he did. Oh, he made mistakes. He's not perfect. He made his share of mistakes. The point I'm making is what will happen to the church and the community and the nation when God's people fill the Airways with invective rather than the prayer ways with intercession. How Intercessory Prayer Transforms Leaders and Ministries Your work, said Paul, is the work of intercessory prayer for all leaders. Number one, that they know salvation and #2 that they experience success. But now let me just end it on a positive word. There are people at prayer. There are men and women succeeding. There are churches who take this word very, very seriously, and they make men and women succeed, and they get all the blessings and the fruits from such a success. Let me just tell you about one. We have a rather unusual Baptist sociologist teaching up at a seminary in Philadelphia. They call it Northern Seminary doctor Tony Compola. Doctor Compola years ago joined a black church in the inner city of Philadelphia. He felt his influence and tithe could be helpful there. He was received joyfully by that black congregation. And he said the time came for the senior minister to retire and the search committee was appointed for a successor. And he said the Grapevine had it that the church would was about to call a very gifted, but a very young and inexperienced minister who who had never served a pastorate. And Dr. Campolo said, I thought I would seek out some of the ruling elders and give them the benefit of my great wisdom and knowledge. And he said, I went to this old ruling elder. And I said to him, now I I know you all have good intentions, but I understand we're about to call a man who has never had pastoral experience. He said, now I'm afraid we're making a mistake, which we need experience in a pulpit this strategic. And he said, the old Deacon responded and said, Now Brother Compola, I know what you say is wise and within reason we ought to always favor experience over a novice. But he said, Brother Compola, we have a growing conviction that this boy has been anointed and sent to us by the Holy Ghost. And if he has been anointed by the Holy Ghost, we'll make him great, Doctor Kampola said. That's exactly what they did. They made him great because they prayed him great. And in that strategic inner city pulpit this very hour, I would imagine there stands a great preacher and a great church. And the people as well as the Holy Ghost made the man who he is. If he's of God, said the old Deacon, We'll make him great. We will see to it that he succeeds. So enjoy your day off tomorrow. Enjoy your holiday, enjoy your leisure. Take a respite from your ordinary toil. But may I plead with us? Don't take a holiday from your vocational work, that of intercessory prayer for all who lead the worst and the best of people. Pray for them, get on your knees and intercede in behalf of their success. Because if we don't, If we don't, we'll continue to get exactly what we deserve.