Called but not prepared

Pastor Max Lyons opens with a story from his sophomore year of high school, when the junior varsity quarterback was suddenly thrust into a varsity game he had never practiced for. His first snap was a fumble. He was called into the game, but he was not prepared for it. God is more concerned with preparing us for a calling than with getting us into it. Stepping into a calling takes a moment; preparing for it takes years. Jesus Himself spent thirty years preparing for three years of public ministry. The message title is a word to everyone with a sense of where God is taking them: "You're not ready."

God chooses you before He prepares you

In 1 Samuel 16, God sends Samuel to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king because Saul has been rejected. There is a shortage of leaders God can trust, then and now. Samuel assumes Eliab is the one, and Jesse does not even invite David to the ceremony; he is out tending sheep. Yet God tells Samuel that He looks at the heart rather than outward appearance, and David is anointed. David had the heart required but not yet the capacity needed, so God led him through a season of building it. Pastor Max admits his own impatience, then describes his first infuriating attempt to cook with a crockpot, walking away in frustration only to return hours later to a perfectly cooked meal. "We love microwaves and God loves crockpots." God is not wasting your current season. If preparation is beneath you, leading is beyond you.

Faithfulness precedes promotion

After the anointing, Saul sends for David, who is found exactly where he was before: with the sheep. David's calling had changed, but his assignment had not. God anoints us for the extraordinary and still assigns us to the ordinary, and the field was not delaying David's future but developing him for it. Pastor Max recalls two frustrating years in New York City working in business while sensing a call to pastoral leadership; the consulting skills he learned there later became essential to planting Elan Church. He contrasts that with a young man who wanted to plant a church while on his third marriage and unable to hold down a job. You never get to go the second mile if you have not gone the first.

Service precedes authority

Verse 21 records that David entered Saul's service as an armor bearer and played the lyre to bring the troubled king relief. God called David to wear the crown and then sent him to carry the king's armor. David learned to be king by serving the king, an apprenticeship in which he heard battle plans and watched a kingdom being run. Pastor Max describes working under a boss who contradicted his own boss the moment he left the room; that leader did not last long. You only have authority because you are under authority, whether at work, at home, or in the church, and how people serve under someone else's authority will determine how they carry their own.

Formation precedes multiplication

As a bonus point, Pastor Max turns to David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. Josheb-Basshebeth killed eight hundred men in one encounter; Shammah took his stand in a lentil field when everyone else fled; Benaiah went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. David was a warrior who stood his ground against bears and lions, and the leaders he raised up did the same. You can teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. God took His time with David because He was preparing many men through one man. Pastor Max shares how a youth pastor named Dave in Idaho spent two years answering his questions about the Bible until he gave his life to Jesus, and says that without that investment Elan Church would not exist.

The challenge: join a Group

Pastor Max closes by inviting everyone to join a Group, because God forms people in circles as well as rows and nobody becomes who God created them to be alone. With 27 Groups launching, he urges people to check out several until they find a fit. For those sensing a call to greater leadership, he points to the ministry apprenticeship program, a year in which he and Pastor Juliet will pour into developing the leaders God has created them to be.