Put on the Armor for Battle

Topic: We have three battles in our lives in terms of our relationship with God, our Battle of Mount Tabor moment, our Battle of Mount Gilboa moment, and our Battle of Baal Perazim moment. Our Battle of Mount Tabor moment is when we are unsure of ourselves, and God uses someone else to reassure us. Our Battle of Mount Gilboa moment is when we go ahead without God and are severely defeat. And finally, our Battle of Baal Perazim moment is when we go out with the full reassurance of God and come back victorious.

Purpose- God has given us the armor of God in order to fight, but we must still follow instruction. However we can be either 1) too hesitant, 2) too hasty, or 3) too hostile. We must strike the right balance in order to fight in spiritual warfare.

*During the 1957 World Series between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Yankees, slugger Hank Aaron came up to bat. Yogi Berra, the Yankee catcher, noticed he was holding the bat wrong. "Turn it around," he told Aaron. "So you can read the trademark." Hank never looked back, but said, "Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit." And brother, did he hit. We did not come to read to the devil, or coddle the devil. We came here to fight the devil and God has given us the victory.

Battle of Mount Tabor moment

We have our Battle of Mount Tabor moment. Let me explain what the Battle of Mount Tabor is. It was a battle in Judges between the forces of Deborah and the forces of Sisera. And Sisera had 900 iron chariots. These were state of the art technology, equivalent to a modern tank. They were the most advanced weapons system known in its day. And similarly, the enemy has a state of the art attack system prepared for you. These chariots were a platform through which the enemy could fire arrows against us. Similarly, the enemy fires evil arrows against us. But we have the armor of God to protect us against all harm. Deborah told Barak to go ahead and he said not unless she would go with him. Deborah said that as a result, he would not be the one who deliver final victory and kill Sisera, but a woman. See, when we are too hesitant, doubt sets it. We doubt the power of Christ in us and whether or not we were truly called. We start to say to ourselves, maybe it was someone else, or another time, or another place.

But we must say like David, Some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the Lord in God. Barak was trusting in Deborah because she was a prophetess, rather than on the prophetic word which came from God himself. In his haste to destroy the Israelites, Sisera forgot one thing, the terrain. And the devil often forgets that we stand on holy ground, and God will uphold that terrain as holy. So God sent a rain to that terrain and locked up his wheels. This iron chariot, this advanced technology, was useless in the rain. They got stopped and could move.

God will use the enemy’s strengths against him. He will bind the strongman and rebuke the devourer for our sake. Every evil arrow will go back to sender. It can be as simply as we need rent or else we will be kicked out and one day in the mail we receive a check to pay our rent. Or as complex as we need healing and we lift up holy hands to God and one day the doctors themselves are shocked and say there is no sickness in you. God has said he will restore you to life and heal you of your wounds. God has also said that the diseases which afflict others will not afflict us.

Because no matter what there is someone else interceding on our behalf. Sometimes we are that someone else, and we must cry out to God on behalf of other people to win our Battle of Mount Tabor. The enemy is coming in with reinforcements, and there is problem after problem and we know that God is our only solution. So we pray prayers, prayers of warfare and the Devil leaves us alone. We must be willing to intercede on behalf of others in this fight. Our armor is not made for us to sit down, but for us to do battle with the forces of wickedness. But we cannot just rely on other people.

Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, Someone Else. For many, many years as a part of this church Someone Else did far more than a normal person’s share of the work. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, everybody said, “Let Someone Else do it.” Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results; “Someone Else can work with that group.”It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most generous givers. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone assumed Someone Else would make up the difference. Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?When you are asked to help this year, remember — we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.

         We must be that someone. That helping hand in time in need. We must identity the needs of our church and our community and ask to uphold ourselves and others in solving those problems. We were called to break yolks and pull down strongholds. We cannot wait on someone else’s faith, or good deeds, or initiative. It can be as small as starting a new ministry, or seeing in church what has to be done. Sometimes when we are a little unwilling to go forward in the will of God, God will find that someone else who was not even in the picture who will obey him immediately and unconditionally.  But when we march forth as a whole, we can do exploits.

The Battle of Mount Gilboa moment.

The Battle of Mount Gilboa is a dark place. It is a place where it seems that God is not talking to us and we feel alone. Saul was trying to communicate with God, but God was not speaking to him through the given instruments that he designated. So Saul became desperate and sought out a witch. She predicted that he would die in battle. We must stick to God’s word, and not seek to use extracurricular means to communicate with God.

Also, Saul pushed away all of the given means of support that he had to support him in his relationship with God. He pushed away Samuel, who had died, he pushed away David and tried to kill him, and killed off the priesthood who was there to serve as a point of contact between him and God. Sometimes we can find ourselves in this dark place where we push away our godly support, our help in God. Don’t do it. Realize that God is sending people into your life for a reason.

So Saul was depressed, and without God. When we don’t communicate with God life can get absolutely horrifying. He had no where to turn, and as it is said, desperate men can do desperate things.

Saul had forsaken his God, and the Philistines were right there ready for battle. Only he had no reassurances that he would win. So it is with us. Without God we have no reassurances that we would win any encounter with the enemy. The enemy rushes to attack us when he realizes that we are vulnerable. So we must stick close to God, and keep on communicating and obeying him.

AA man in front of me was leaving church one day. The preacher was standing in front of the door to shake hands. He grabbed the man and pulled him to the side. The pastor said to him, “ You need to join the Army of the Lord.”

The man said, “ I’m already in the Army of the Lord.”

Pastor questioned him, “ How come I don’t see you except for Christmas and Easter?” The man smiled and said, “I’m in the Secret Service.”

There is no Secret Service in the Army of the Lord! Christ is our commander in chief, and he does not have any reserves. All of us are on active duty and we must recognize that and be ready for duty when it comes time to be called.

The Philistines got ready for battle. They attacked and killed 3 of Saul’s sons. The losses to us can be very severe and personal when we get attacked by the enemy and we do not follow Christ. The Philistines also used their chariots to go around and fire arrows at Saul’s army. The same chariots that God dealt with in the Battle of Mount Tabor, Saul could not deal with by human effect. They pressed him severely, and he was wounded. The enemy’s target is us and our loved ones. The enemy goes into hot pursuit of us, and when we do not have the covering of Christ, we are easy targets for the enemy. Saul asked for his armor-bearer to kill him and when he refused, Saul fell on his own sword. The thing was, David was an armor-bearer to Saul and if David was there, the outcome of the battle could have been very difficult. Because David was close to God, and could have helped Saul in the battle. Sometimes we drive away people, and when problems arises, we regret it because we could use their godly counsel later. The Philistines won that day, and it seemed dire for Israel. But David was returning from Ziklag and was about to make the situation right.

                                      Battle of Baal-Perazim Moment.

We now come to the Battle of Baal-Perazim Moment. Baal-Perazim means Lord of the Breakthrough. This was after the low place of the Battle of Mount Gilboa when the Philistines heard that David had been crowned king of Israel. When the enemy hears good news about you, that is when he wants to attack. And the Bible says And David iniquired of the Lord. He did something that Barak did and that Saul had stopped doing, which is he asked of the Lord what his battlefield tactics should be. The Philistines were just as powerful as they were before, but David put his trust in the Commander in Chief of the Lord’s Army. So it is with us. We must know that God can win this war. The Battle says that the Lord is a man of War, the Lord is his name. No matter what battle, whether it be a test, a trial coming up, or bills that have to be paid, God sits on the throne.

A man would go down the street, see a hole, and fall in. The next day the man walked down the street and saw the hole and fell in again. The third day the man partially changed his route but eventually still fell in the hole. The fourth day he altered his route a little but then looked back and fell in the stubborn hole. Finally when the man became tired of his failure, he decided to walk on the other side of the street. Enough was enough. He stopped thinking he could do it. Many of us still think we can.

David had learned from the mistakes of Saul and knew that he could not do it on his own. It also says that the Philistines all went in search of David. The enemy is searching for you, searching for your weakness. Jesus said that the Enemy desires to sift as wheat, but Christ is praying for us. The Holy Spirit is also praying for us with groanings that cannot be described. David went to the stronghold. It was a place of refuge where he could be safe and observe what the Philistines wanted to do. Same thing with us. The lord is our stronghold, he is a mighty tower.

There was a story about a man convicted of a crime, and the judge told him that he didn’t even know why he was going to give him probation, he didn’t want to, but he was compelled to even though the sentence was supposed to carry prison time. God is the God of overturning supposed to. We was supposed to fail that test, but for the grace of God. We were supposed to not to be able to show up to that interview, but for the mercy of God. We should stop looking at supposed to, and start looking to the Word of God. David was supposed to lose that battle. Saul lost the battle. Just like we are supposed to not achieve that thing because someone we knew, someone we were close to was not able to achieve it. Someone else’s circumstances does not dictate what our final result should be. But God is the God of breakthrough.

David asked if God would hand over the Philistines to him and then he waited for God’s response. He was not like Saul, who asked and then moved without God’s consent. We should ask God what to do and then we should wait for God’s response. And sometimes God’s response may be a no. But we should wait on it regardless and accept it as true. God said that he would hand over the Philistines to David. God is the God of handover. Everything that was lost from you by the enemy, God will hand over and make sure that there is a double portion, one from His right hand and one from His left hand. David went to Baal perazim and defeated the Philistine. There is a three step process to inquiry. 1) We ask of God, 2) God answers us back, 3) We walk in victory. David was not too hestitant, like Barak, or too hasty and hostile, like Saul.

David asked again when the Philistines were getting ready to attack. David asked every time he was getting ready to make a move. So it is with us. Every time we are getting ready to do something, we should take it to the Lord in prayer. This was a total victory, as opposed to the total defeat of Saul. David struck the Philistines down all the way to their homeland. Similarly we can attain total victory if 1) we believe, 2) we ask, 3) we act. David believed he could defeat the Philistines, he asked God for victory, and he acted on the belief that God is with him. God is with us.