What's It Worth To You?

What's it worth to you? There's a couple of Bible passages I want to start with.

The first one is Judges 6, verses 2 to 5, and it says, The Midianites were so

Judges 6:2–5

cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains,

caves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Meridian,

Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping in the land

and destroying crops as far away as Gaza.

They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep,

goats, cattle, and donkeys.

These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts.

They arrived on droves of camels, too numerous to count, and they stayed until

the land was stripped bare.

Okay, now let's take another look. Let's have a look at another scripture.

What I want you to notice between these two encounters of the previous message

and the next one is the stark contrast.

Say stark contrast. Stark contrast between what the Israelites did and what one Israelite did.

Okay. 2 Samuel 23, 11 says, next in rank was Shammar, son of Agi from Harar.

One time the Philistines gathered at Lehi and attacked the Israelites in a field full of lentils.

Lentils, Andrew, that was the word I was looking for earlier when I was talking to you. Lentils.

Yeah, I'm going to call them peas in a little while.

The Israelite army fled. Notice the next verse though, verse 12 says,

But Shammah held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines.

So the Lord brought about a great victory.

Okay, so in our first scripture text, when the adversary came in,

the children of Israel fled to their caves and strongholds in the mountains,

Simply put, they ran away and they hid.

And this was not the first time because it had been happening for seven years.

Seven years, the Israelites would come under attack from the adversary and would run and hide.

Happening for seven years. The Israelites were so accustomed and so adjusted

to it that they made themselves hiding places to run to in caves and when the

Midianites showed up, they would run and hide.

When you examine, now, let me say something about this right now.

That was wrong. That was wrong.

It's a total, absolutely, unequivocally wrong. It's totally wrong for the child

of God to be running from the devil and hiding out in a cave, okay?

Think of the armor of God. I know I've spoken about the armor of God a couple

of times in the last few weeks. Who can tell me what the armor of God is?

Yep. Yep. The armor of Baal. Yep. That's crazy.

Wow. Yep. And sword of the spirit. And sword of the spirit. Yep.

It's good to have you here, Sharon. So, yeah, so there's the belt of truth.

There's the breastplate of righteousness.

Let me just go through them. The belt of truth, okay? The belt of truth.

There's the breastplate of righteousness.

There's the shoes of peace. Shoes of peace, okay? There's the shield of faith,

there's the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Now notice something with me, which hit me like a sword of the Spirit this week.

It's only protecting the front of us. It's only protecting the front of us.

When we turn around and we run from the devil, we run from the adversity,

there's nothing protecting our back. So it is wrong for a child of God to turn

his back and run from an adversary.

There you go. How good is that? How good is that?

So when you examine, as I said, when you examine the armor of God,

there is no armor for the back because there's never supposed to be a reason

for a child of God to run from the enemy.

Now admittedly in life, and you can agree with this,

there are times when the battle gets hot and we experience extreme pressures

against us and the warfare is heavy, but the Holy Spirit knows no retreat, knows no retreat.

And all of our armor is designed for fighting and not for fleeing.

Okay. So when we see the Israelites running away to hide when the marauders

came, it should rub us up the wrong way.

It should rub us up the wrong. Do you feel it? Do you see See what I'm talking about?

So in our two texts, there are two extreme differences.

In the first, the children of Israel planted their seeds, tended their fields.

Then just as harvest time came, the Midianites, the Amalekites,

and the children of the East came in and destroyed all their crops.

They nullified everything that they had done. And when the children of Israel

saw them coming, they ran for their lives.

So now back to our second text in 2 Samuel. Next in rank was Shammah, son of Egar from Harah.

One time the Philistines gathered at Lehi and attacked the Israelites in a field full of lentils.

The Israelite army fled, but Shammah held his ground.

He held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines.

So the Lord brought about a great victory. We are looking at two very extreme contrasts.

We're looking at the whole nation of Israel who ran away in fear when they were

threatened and one man named Shammah who stood his ground.

He stood his ground and refused to run even when all his friends left him alone.

Now, Shammah refused to leave his pea patch.

That's what I'm going to call it, his pea patch, P-E-A patch.

He would not run. He would not run.

Now put yourself

in shamar's shoes okay did it

make sense for him to stand there and oppose not just one or two or five philistine

soldiers but a troop and we're not told or we don't know exactly how many there

is but we can suppose probably quite a few maybe 20 to 100 of them or so. I don't know.

And to tell you the truth from a natural mind, it wasn't logical for Shammah

to stand there and fight.

Okay. Logic says he who quits and runs away will live to fight another day.

Okay. That's what logic says.

And all of Shammah's friends believe that as well, because they left poor Shammah

standing alone in the middle of his pee patch.

I want you to think about it for a minute. Would you have risked your life for a pee patch?

Was it worth it? Who decides the worth of something?

Who decides the worth of something? Perhaps the fair market value of crops would

have probably told Shama, you're crazy.

That little pea patch isn't worth risking your life for.

But I believe that Shama would say, well, it's not your pea patch. It's mine.

It's mine. And it's worth what I believe it's worth. And to me,

it's worth fighting for.

Then think about this. Shammah had no guarantees that day, no guarantee of supernatural

intervention, which he must have had, but he had no guarantee of it.

He had no text from God, no SMS from God saying, stay and fight.

I'm right there with you and we will slaughter them. No, he didn't have any of that.

He had no guarantees. but there was one thing that kept Shammah there in his pea patch.

Here's what it was. It was his, it was his, and he believed it was worth it.

He was prepared to die fighting for that patch of peas, okay?

Because he believed it was worth it.

I began to think about that and I asked, and I was asking myself,

what are we willing to fight for?

What are we willing to fight for? Do we have anything that is that valuable

to us that we would give ourselves completely to save it?

I ask you, what is it worth perhaps to see your husband or wife saved?

What is it worth to see your children, your prodigals, standing in the house

of God, hands raised, worshiping God? What's it worth to you?

What's it worth to see someone who's sick being healed?

What's it worth to you to see someone who is bound up, delivered,

and see the captive set free?

What's it worth to you to see your faith preserved? What's it worth to you?

Are you willing to look foolish to the world to keep the power of the Holy Spirit

manifesting in our churches? What's that worth to you?

Are you willing to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints

and pull its compromise out by the roots?

What's it worth to you? I don't mean to sound mean, but by and large,

the church has become too soft, too soft.

We don't have many real spiritual warriors that will call sin a sin and preach

that there is a heaven and that there is a hell.

I was asked last week, do you regularly preach about hell?

I don't preach about hell. I talk about hell so that we know how to fight against hell. Okay?

Why do we preach like that? Is it because we want to be popular? Well, obviously not.

Because if we just preach about love and good things and all that sort of stuff,

then that's going to increase our big following on social media, isn't it?

But no, we are real. We need to be real. We need to be real.

I don't know how long Shammah had to think about this, but I know this.

He made up his mind that day that his little patch of peas was worth it.

It was worth it. And he made up his mind that he would die fighting for it rather

than to run away and hide and let the enemy destroy it. Good on you, Shema.

I think at least to some degree, the church has let us down in that respect.

They've taught us how to be ready for heaven, but not how to fight hell until

we leave and go to heaven. Okay.

That was a big mistake. That's a big mistake to make. You need to understand that we are at war.

You need to know that there is an evil kingdom of darkness that wants to wipe

Christianity off the face of the earth. Yep.

You say, Tim, why do we have to fight for? Didn't Jesus already defeat the devil?

Why then do we have to fight? Good question. Let's talk about that for a little while. Okay.

It's right to understand and believe, as Angela spoke about this morning,

that Jesus once and for all and for all times and for everyone defeated the devil. That's correct.

Yep. He disarmed him. He defeated him. And he dethroned him.

Jesus defeated Satan. And Jesus defeated sin through his crucifixion,

his death, his burial, and his resurrection. and he spoiled the principalities

and the powers through that.

Jesus regained through his obedience everything that Adam had forfeited through

his rebellion and disobedience.

Jesus left behind him an eternally defeated devil.

He crushed the serpent's head and he took back the authority and the power that

the devil had usurped from Adam.

And it's right to rejoice in everything that Jesus accomplished and the victory

that he established. and it's right to rejoice at Satan's defeat because he has been defeated.

It's right to testify that the blood has redeemed us.

It's delivered us and that it sets us free.

It sanctifies us and justifies us and the blood that protects us and the blood

that destroys Satan's power over our lives.

It is right. It is right to rejoice that Jesus went to hell in our place.

So that we could go to heaven, believe and rejoice that the whole kingdom of

darkness and the concentrated powers of hell combined couldn't keep Jesus in the grave.

Are you ready for the but?

But it's wrong to think that there's nothing for us to do.

It's wrong to think that you and I will not have to fight.

It's wrong to think that the devil will just roll over and play dead and let you walk all over him.

It's wrong for you to think that you can stand by on the sidelines as a casual

observer and win the war or win the fight.

It's wrong to think that what Jesus did for you alleviates you of your personal responsibilities.

It's wrong for you to think that salvation, signs, wonders, and miracles will

just happen because they're needed, because they won't.

It's wrong for you to think that someone else is going to pay the price and

fight your battles and carry you over the finish line. It's wrong.

Although Satan has been legally and eternally beaten and defeated,

he's still here on this earth operating illegally, okay?

He kills, he steals, he destroys everything and everyone he possibly can until someone shows up,

until someone shows up with the knowledge of his defeat and through faith begins

to exercise some authority and power to cast him out.

You and I, you and I, the victory that Jesus obtained for us is not automatic.

It has to be enforced.

It's our job to do the enforcing. The devil never simply lets go and slinks

off into the shadows where he belongs.

No, he must be defeated. He must be overthrown. He must be evicted, and he must be rebuked.

We're not simply saved just to go to heaven.

Okay, we are not simply saved just to go to heaven.

When you got saved by virtue of the blood that bought you and the spirit that

filled you and regenerated you, you became a member not only of a family of

God, but you became a soldier in the army of the Lord.

As the army of God, we are given mighty weapons to use.

What are the weapons of our warfare? Well, there's the word of God.

The word of God. There's prayer. There's fasting.

There's the name of Jesus to use. There's praise.

There's binding and loosing, as Angela spoke about. There's the blood of Jesus.

All of those things are mighty weapons for us to use.

These weapons are mighty. They're lethal to the kingdom of darkness,

but these weapons don't work by themselves.

They must be activated through use. The Bible is no use to you lying on a shelf

covered with dust. Okay?

Jesus did for you and what Jesus did for me is of no use to us unless we activate it through use.

God isn't going to cast out the devil. God isn't going to deliver the bound and the oppressed.

Just wait a little while before you start thinking.

God isn't going to heal the sick. Just wait.

God is not going to cleanse the lepers and God is not going to raise the dead.

Don't get twisted on that, okay? Of course, it's God's power that does the work without a doubt.

Jesus came to get the power to come inside of us, inside of us.

You tell me if I'm reading the Bible right or am I missing something?

Did he not say, you cast out the devils?

Did he not say, you heal the sick? Did he not say, you cleanse the lepers?

Did he not say you raise the dead? He said you.

Did he not say you perform signs and wonders and miracles?

Did he not say you undo the works of the devil?

Did he not say you set the captives free? I believe Jesus was saying to us,

you take over from where I've left off.

That's what he was saying. You have the equipment. You have the power.

You have the authority now use it

now use it Jesus said himself in

Matthew 10 verses 7 and 8 go and

Matthew 10:7

announce to them that the kingdom of heaven is near

heal the sick raise the dead cure those with leprosy and cast out demons give

as freely as you have received it's talking to us and then the bible says in

Mark 16 and verse 20 and the disciples went everywhere and preached and the

Lord worked through them,

confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

Notice what it says. The Lord worked through them, confirming what they said

by many miraculous signs.

The point I'm trying to make this morning is this.

God has done his part. He sent Jesus.

Jesus has done his part. He defeated the devil.

The Holy Spirit has done his part. He raised Jesus from the dead,

and you know where he is now?

He's living inside of us and empowers us.

Now it's our turn. Now it's our turn. Too often we say things like,

we're just waiting on God.

Well, the truth is God's just waiting on us.

God is waiting on us. The kingdom of God is here now in you and in me.

It's here now. The power supply is in you. It's in you.

The authority is yours and mine.

Jesus gave it to us when he gave us the right to use his name.

Now the responsibility is ours. Take the authority and use the authority he

has given us to destroy the devil's powers, to undo Satan's works, to cast out the devils,

to set the captives free, and to heal the sick.

Okay? All right, good. I know, I know that you are not the healer and I am not the healer.

We are not the source of the power.

It is Christ in us that's the source of the power. It's the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It's the same Spirit living in us that raised Jesus from the dead.

It's resurrection power living in you and I.

So I'm asking this question today.

What's it worth to you and me? What's it worth to you and me?

I'll tell you what it's worth to God. It was worth him sending his own son to be ridiculed,

to be humiliated and beaten, and ultimately crucified to get this life to me

and to you and to get this life in us. That's what it was worth to God.

How do you, to get this authority, this anointing, this power in you and me

so that we can be ambassadors of his kingdom.

So we can exercise this authority, this anointing, the power and set our loved ones free.

How do you expect your husband

or your wife or your children to get saved if you never pray for them and if

you never fight for them are they worth fighting for is your home your marriage

your sons and your daughters and your grandchildren are they worth fighting for,

You bet you they are. How about your health?

How about your finances? How about your peace of mind? Your joy?

Are they worth fighting for?

In our scriptures this morning about Shammah, the Bible says everyone left Shammah

standing alone in the peepatch.

They left him alone there.

They fled in fear of the Philistines.

The enemy came in to destroy and to plunder Shammah's peepatch. But he didn't run.

He didn't run. He believed his peas were worth fighting for.

And he was ready to fight to the death to defend his harvest.

He stood alone and he fought for what belonged to him because he believed it was worth it.

It was worth it. But the fact is, he didn't fight alone.

He didn't fight alone. God sent him supernatural assistance that day and he

wrought a great victory that day against impossible odds. Josh, come on up for me.

I believe today that the Holy Spirit is looking for some people today who believe

that this country that we live in, our rights,

our values, our faith is worth fighting for, is worth fighting for.

Our children, our grandchildren are worth fighting for.

Our neighbors who are bound and oppressed and even possessed,

who's got those neighbors, are worth fighting for. They are worth fighting for.

Jesus came to set you and I free, but also them. Also them.

I don't know what your pee patch is today, but I wanna ask you this.

What is it worth to you? Is it worth fighting for?

Will you fight for your joy and for your peace? Will you fight for it?

Will you fight for your destiny?

Will you fight for righteousness this morning? Will you fight for truth?

Will you fight for your faith? It's worth fighting for, it really is.

What's it worth to you this morning? What's it worth to you this morning to fight for your faith?

Overcome? What are your children and your grandchildren worth to you?

What's your business worth to you? Is it worth fighting for?

It's worth it. It's worth it. Don't turn around.

Face it. Look at it face on and fight for it. Fight for it.

There's people relying on you. God's relying on you.

God wants to empower us. God wants to provide everything that we need to overcome.

He needs us. He needs us to do that.

He's a mighty God. He's full of power and might. He's given that to us to use.

So if you've got things in your life at the moment that need to be fought for,

that you need to fight for, then stand and fight.

Fight with prayer. Fight with the Word of God.

Fight with stories like this this morning that we've heard.

Fight with the power of God, so it's worth fighting for.

It's worth fighting for with all your might, all God's might,

all God's power, the Holy Spirit in us, it's worth it.

So let's stand together, let's do some praying, and let's be empowered and maybe

make some declarations that it's time for me to show what this life is worth to me.