Small In Strongholds Judges 6:1-6

We're supposed to be preparing a little each

week, ask you to read your Bibles, to pray, to

talk to the Lord as you're walking along, to

listen to what God might have to say to you,

ask you to relate that to Scripture if you're

able, and either way, whatever the Lord has said

to you, bring it to share with us collectively

on Sunday. This is not only a place where we

in fellowship can talk about what it is that

we've seen in the last seven days that God's

been doing, how we've experienced the Lord and

His Word, but on top of that, it's an opportunity.

for us to kind of refine each other. And so you

hear how others are hearing or seeing what God

is doing. And then you think, well, I can listen

that way. I can see that way as well. Or if someone

would bring something we know is not quite biblical,

not quite on the mark, then we can kind of help

redirect that, help refine each other so that

we can understand what it is that God is saying

or doing in our midst. And so that is a form

of fellowship. And I think in a way, If I could

say this, and I feel kind of led in the spirit

to do so, that this moment, which we have done

for many years, is probably the sincerest form

of fellowship in a very simple period of time

that we have. We do a lot together. We work together.

We eat together. We play together. We spend time

with one another. We run ministries together.

We have ministry meetings together. We talk and

plan and pray. All of those things are all good.

And when we're praying together, that is a very

simple and very powerful and poignant form of

fellowship, as long as everyone is actually praying.

I think a lot of times someone leads the prayer,

and everybody just kind of waits for it to be

over. And so that's why we say, remember, we're

praying along with that person to get that. So

right now, we're in this together. Whatever somebody

brings, we're thinking together and learning

together on how the Lord is speaking to us. And

so I would ask you today, what have you seen?

What have you heard? In this last seven days,

how has the Lord been speaking? Start with our

day. So, since we brought up the whole vision

casting with the church, it's got me thinking

about more places where that same thing can apply.

Like, for instance, just your own vision, where

you plan on seeing yourself. And on Friday, I

was talking to a youth group about why it's important

to have a vision and to make sure that vision

lines up with what God wants. Because if your

vision lines up with... your own values and your

own heart without God in it, it's possible you

might achieve that, but it's also very likely

that it's not going to be what you thought. Right.

Like one of the examples I used is Keyshawn.

He likes, one of his dreams is he wants to be

an NBA. He wants to be a professional basketball

player. And I told him if that's what God wants,

then that's good. But I was like, now if you

get there and it's not what God wants, it's not

going to be what you think. So I'm like, and

this is what we talked about on Friday, and how

we have to make sure our values line up with

God's values. Because if our values line up with

our own wants, our own desires, we might achieve

everything we want to achieve, but it's not going

to be... satisfying. It's not going to be what

you were expecting and it could very possibly

be a lot worse than what you were expecting.

You could be in a worse spot than you were from

the beginning if you never went down that road.

So one of the things that I brought up to him

was that's something I feel that as a family,

me and my wife, we need to try to do it with

all of our kids. We need to try to have a family

vision plan of where we want to see us and how

we want our walk to go because let's be real

we're all humans and we all have struggled we

all have issues but we need to be united and

not just as a family but we need to be united

as an entire church so and i think that's why

it's important that and one of the things i was

telling them on friday is that questionnaire

thing is something that it has to be taken seriously

because if you just you just pencil whip through

it you're not going to get anything out of it

all right not going to get the godly inspiration

if you just then this is nothing i don't need

to worry about it you have to actually take it

seriously put some thought into it because god

might show you something incredible yeah many

a quiz or chapter has been taken over the years

that nobody really cared and it's like well just

get the grade get on with the next thing great

way to lose the educational experience out of

it. Also, I go back to when I was a kid, this

happened to something you said, when I was a

kid, my parents used to tell me I could be anything

I wanted to be. My dad told me at least a dozen

times when I was growing up, I could be president

of the United States if I wanted to. He said,

I could be a lawyer, I could be a doctor, you

can be anything that you want to be. And on the

surface, I think, I always thought that was kind

of cool. It was an encouragement. He was telling

me, you know, you're an awesome kid, you can

do whatever you want. But he always tailed on

the end of that and said, you can be anything

you want to be if you just put your mind to it.

And I realized later that what he was saying

was that there were a lot of things that I didn't

put my mind to. And so he was saying that I was

kind of flawed in a way. I was failing to be

whatever it was that I wanted to be. And so it

became almost like a little bit of a curse. And

that's what happened to me when I became an adult

for the first, until I was 25 years old. I quit

everything. I wanted to be a French horn player,

and I got pretty good at the French horn private

lessons, and as soon as the teacher said, okay,

now you're ready, you need to be in a bigger

band, and I was playing full songs, I play all

the scales and everything on French horn, as

soon as he said, okay, now you're ready to be

in a bigger band without a private lessons, I

quit. Like the very same day, I quit. And it

was because I knew I could be great, or at least

according to what my dad said, I could be great,

if I would just apply myself, but the pressure

was too much. So I quit so many things. And so

I think it's important as... is to catch a vision

for what God has. I also know, and this will

be really realistic with this, we're probably

only going to get a picture of the vision. We're

going to get an idea, not the exact. I was not

going to give an outline. There's no tenfold

laws of Christianity. The Ten Commandments are

not the rules we follow to be saved. We are with

a person, Jesus Christ. We have a relationship

with him. And so it's not as easy as we cast

this vision and then we say, we're going to hit

that perfectly, that's who we're going to be,

because we may only get a picture of the vision.

We see now, as in a mirror, dimly. But then,

face to face, I know everything. So we don't

know, we're not going to know it all, but we

can be led by the Lord, as you said, to get a

picture of the vision that God wants for us.

And it comes back to the old illustration where

there's a man, and God told him to move this

giant boulder out of his front yard. And he said,

how am I going to ever move this boulder? It's

huge. I'm telling you how to do it. Just do it.

So he went out and he pushed against the boulder

and it wouldn't move. And he got his shovel and

he dug it out and dug really deep and it still

wouldn't move. And it just seemed to be really

bigger than he thought. It was so much bigger.

And he pushed on the boulder and pushed on the

boulder and pushed every day pushing on the boulder.

And he kept complaining to God and asking God

to let him quit. And at the end of that, he said,

God, I've done this for years pushing on this

boulder and I've never been able to move it.

I've dug it up the best I can but it's just too

heavy and I cannot move it. And God said, but

look at what you've become. And he looked at

himself and he was healthy and he was muscled

and he was strong and lean and intelligent and

all of those things that he had become in the

process of trying to move older. And so the vision

is better in understanding who God is making

us out to be. It is not necessarily an understanding

of what we will accomplish, but it is an understanding

of what we'll be trying to do. And that's the

goal. And so, yeah, I'm excited about it too.

And I think, I would encourage you, for your

family, think about the vision that God has for

your family. And look at what's in it and what

maybe could, maybe doesn't fit. Yes, sir. So

I would say, and I respond on everything, my

vision is more sporadic. And so the reason I

say that is because it's just at work. Not everybody

is supposed to do the same thing. If we did,

job wouldn't get done. We need people that are

super focused, you know, like to put a material

in a... Press, we've got people that just work

on the press. We've got people that just do 50%.

But the idea is when we all come together, we

do what we do. And there's a reason for that.

God has instilled us with all different goals

and maybe more focus than others and more talents

and more strengths. But it's so the job gets

done. And so the reason I say that is because,

you know, my vision for me is it's always been

sporadically. All right, God, what are we doing?

What are we doing? What are we doing? It's never

been like. I do this, I do this. For instance,

I recently reached out to a brother for almost

six months now. We have Bible study. I call him

on the phone and we'll read the Bible. And so,

one, it helps me read the Bible for myself, read

with another. And two, this is a brother that's

burned out. This is a person that is constantly

in his thoughts, can't get out of his thoughts.

He deals with kind of like what I kind of deal

with, like autism, where there's something wrong

with us that doesn't click. So we can't, I'm

not saying move forward, but it's just like it

stops us where people are already. Two steps

ahead, we're half a step ahead, but we still

can keep going. And so the reason I say that

is, one, I've grown in what I used to thought

I was a good listener, who said, man, I could

really listen good, because what I used to do

back in the day is I used to be quiet and listen

to the person. And then, you know, they would

get their stuff out, but that would be it. Or

I thought back in the day, well, I know so much,

I could expound on my knowledge, and they could

listen to it, and they could learn from it. One

of the reasons none of those work is because

what they need is not me to critique them, tell

them what to think, just listen to them. I just

need to be there for them. And so on the phone,

when I'm a great listener, and by the grace of

God, I'm a great listener now, I carry this conversation.

For instance, my friend was trying to say something.

I was like, no, man, I want to hear what you

got to say. And I was like, everything we're

saying, I guarantee you, God will speak to us

through it. And so he said this one little line.

It might not mean nothing, but it does. He goes,

man, it's crazy that it's said like that. And

I started to think about that. And then, boom,

this is where this inspirational moment comes

from that moment. Something sparks in me. I'm

like, you're right. This is a crazy moment. We're

in James chapter 4. And we pretty much remember

James 4 · chapter mention

it says, come near to God. God will come near

to you. Wash your hands clean, you sinners. Like

serious stuff. And I'm like, but if you look

in 1 Peter, it doesn't say that. If you look

in 2 Peter, it doesn't say that. If you look

in Isaiah and Jeremiah, you'll get some kind

of comparison. The authenticity of the Bible

is that's how cool it is. No verse expounds the

other verse. It's like James is really serious,

and Peter's really serious too, but in his own

way he's serious. And so Peter will not say what

James says. James will not say what Peter says.

I think you all understand. If we all had something

to say today, everybody would have something

different to say. It could be the same topic,

but in their own words. And so one thing I thank

God for is the authenticity, the originality

of every book being different. I can go into

James chapter 4 and go, well, that's not 1 Peter

James 4 · chapter mention 1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. Because I love this part about 1 Peter

or this about Colossians 1. And so the reason

I shared it is, one, to be a great listener.

I'm talking to myself, too. It's not just to

listen to people, but to help people get to where

they're at. Help people slowly, fast, whatever

it looks like. Because the thing is, one thing

that he understands now is I'm genuine. And I

thank God for that because we're brothers. And

he knows my brothership is genuine. And when

I call, he'll be like, you say sorry all the

time, like 5 ,000 times. And I didn't say it

as much. Because he realizes he doesn't have

to be sorry all the time. That he does make mistakes.

And that God is the one that is the author of

a perfect of our faith. And these little steps.

And I thank God. I thank God for anybody that

helps someone grow. Because it's not us. I mean,

we are being obedient. But it's by God's strength

in us. Amen. That's a good word. That's a very

good word. And I hear you saying. In the church,

we have these different voices, and we are involved

in that conversation. We have never been on the

phone with somebody to talk with that guy, but

we are, all of us, speaking into that conversation.

And that's what it means to be a church. And

when you're witnessing out there, you realize

you're not witnessing just with your own authority.

Obviously, you're witnessing with the authority

of the Lord. But then with that, you have God's

people around you. You are the church, and the

church is something. The church is the being,

if you will. the bride of Christ, for whom God

has given the keys to the kingdom. And we are

able where individually we would not be. And

we can stay the course. And yes, I heard you

say, we do different things. We each have a different

piece that we do. But also, I would add this,

realize that once you have your piece, you do

that thing, and you don't bounce around and find

everybody else's piece all the time. You do your

thing. and you do it for God, and you do it in

God's strength, and you allow other people to

come alongside you to do it, and practice your

way of being in Christ's fellowship. Alright,

we're going to pray together at this time, and

then tithes and offerings, and a little more

worship. So I realize you have done the vision

casting survey already. There's a question on

there that says something to the effect of how

often do you worship with your heart? Do you

offer your heart during worship? And I read that

question and I was like, oh, sometimes my heart's

not all the way in it. So I just want to encourage

everyone to make sure you're present and putting

your heart in your worship. It's about more than

just the words on a screen. It's about what's

in our hearts during that time of worship. Tommy,

would you lead us in prayer and we'll pray along

with you as we transition. We pray for everyone

here that we just redirect our minds towards

you, direct the service in, just through everyday

life in general. Just keep focused on you and

walking down the straight and narrow path. We

pray for the offering, that you would bless it,

and we bless all the hands that contribute to

it as well. We pray for those around here who

are sick or whatever is going on within you.

I speak the name of Jesus over you. In your hurting,

in your sorrow, I will ask my God to move. I

speak the name because it's all that I can do.

In desperation, I'll seek heaven and bring us

forth. That's very cute. The tears go away Then

I remember The pledge you made to me Thank you.

I want you to think for a moment about a time

in your past, whenever it might have been. It

may have been your salvation. You might say that's

the only time. When you were in a difficult spot.

Could be with your health, finances, relationship,

whatever. And you just cried out to God. And

you said, God help me. I can name several in

my life. One of the most poignant times I'll

never forget. And I remember like it was yesterday,

even though it was a sad thing and it's one of

those things that you might like to maybe forget,

was when Stuart passed away, Sherry's grandfather.

Sherry's grandfather was very much the patriarch

of his family. He was a very dynamic personality.

He wasn't saved until very late in life by his

profession, about six months, eight months before

he passed away. He was looking for a miracle

from God and had cried out a number of times

to ask God to heal him from his cancer. But at

the same time, he was saying, but I am ready

for whatever. I've lived a long life and I'm

ready to go home to be with the Lord. We had

a softball game down in Walbridge. I don't know

if it was a doubleheader or just a single game.

I think it was probably just a single game. And

we were headed out immediately after the softball

game to go visit him in the nursing home in hospice

where he'd been down in Maumee there and got

the phone call. that he had passed away. We'd

already been called in, the family had been called

in, and they knew he could pass away at any time.

And we'd been out many times to see him, spent

hours there sitting in the room with him, talking

with the family in the little side room that

they had and so on. So we'd been there quite

a bit, and there was nothing imminent any more

than that, that he would pass away at any time.

So we thought we were going to go see him again,

and we got the phone call that he had passed

away. And we said, well, you know, can you still

go see him, visit the body, pray, whatever like

that. And they said no, that the body was being

taken care of by that time. And so there was

no sense in trying to drive out there because

you wouldn't be able to see him. You could just

go in the room where he had been, but it was

empty. And so we went home. And that night we

lay in bed, Sherry and I, and we just kind of

clung to each other and we prayed. And our hearts

were heavy, not just for... The fact that he

passed away, not really for that, because he'd

gone to be with the Lord. We were almost certain

that by his profession he'd gone with the Lord.

But for the family and for our kids, whose hearts

were surely breaking, and it was just a moment

where we were just crying out in pain to God.

You probably have a similar story or multiple

stories. And the result of your crying out to

God may be different. So we received comfort

from the Lord, and then we proceeded on, and

we have tried. sent from that day forward to

live the best we knew how, taking into account

what God had done in his life, taking into account

the kind of man that he was. To this day, when

I'm hanging drywall, I am extra careful to hang

it as well as I possibly can in honor of Stuart,

because one time I hung drywall, drywalled a

whole wall, and Alicia and Amalia, when they

were little, and we stayed there and drywalled

until about 3 o 'clock in the morning on a...

New Year's Eve, actually. Instead of going and

doing something New Year's Eve, we went there

and drywalled until 3 o 'clock in the morning.

The next day, he went there and saw what we had

done. He told his wife it wasn't right. He took

the whole thing down by himself and redid it.

The only thing he changed was there was a seam

at the top that was about 12 inches tall. I had

not gotten it on the stud. It was off the stud.

He took all the drywall, the entire wall down,

put it all back up to get that one seam on the

stud. And I stubbornly refused to go and help

him when I found out that he was doing it. I'm

like, it's fine. It's fine. It really wasn't

fine, but it wouldn't have taken much to fix

that one little spot without tearing down the

whole wall. But that was the care that he had

for making things right. And so every time I

drywall, I remember that. So the point is now

we live in honor of what God did in those circumstances.

You may have cried out for healing and didn't

get it. I've seen people do that. You may have

cried out for help in your finances and didn't

get it or didn't get it the way you wanted it.

You may have cried out for help in your job situation,

make my job better, make that person go away,

leave me alone, stop me from being persecuted,

stop me from trials and struggles, whatever it

might be, the condition of my body. It could

be anything. And you may have cried out to God

and you may not have gotten the answer that you

expected, but you realize that after having cried

out to the Lord, you have to live. with what

happened in that moment in mind. You're a new

person now. Either you cried out and didn't get

it, which means now you realize sometime in the

future you may cry out and not get the exact

aid the way you want it, and you have to take

that into account. Or you may say, well, I cried

out and I received it one time and I didn't another.

That's probably most of our experience. Like

one time you receive what you think is a miraculous

intervention, another time it doesn't seem that

God really intervenes other than to provide you

with some comfort for what you're going through,

and you have to live in light of that. When I

was in Bible college, and we're going to go into

the text right after this, when I was in Bible

college, I had to write a paper about why God

doesn't do miracles anymore. And I was in a class

of 45 people, and we all had to write a paper

about why God doesn't do miracles anymore. And

I took the risk. I knew that there was a substantial

possibility I would get a poor grade because

the paper I wrote was that the question is wrong.

God does still do miracles. And out of 45 people,

and the professor later would tell me, It was

a sophomore level theology class that I was writing

it in. And he said out of about 150 sophomores

taking that class every year for the last 10

years that he had taught it, nobody had ever

written a thesis saying God still does miracles.

And that was more heartbreaking than had I handled

it some other way because I'm like, well, I know

God does miracles. And then in my essay, I was

able to write some of the miracles that I had

seen that God had done. and also support it biblically,

that there's no reason. There's really only one

text that you can use to support that God doesn't

do miracles anymore, and it's misinterpreted

to do that. The Bible clearly teaches that God

still does miracles. And I thought, so you're

trying to tell me that out of the, whatever,

1 ,400 students, they all accepted that? And

we know that's not true, right? Really what happened

was they just wrote the assignment. They did

what they were told. They probably believed that

God does still do miracles. But they just wrote

the assignment because the assignment was why

doesn't God do miracles? So they wrote why God

doesn't do miracles anymore. And maybe they came

away from that experience saying, well, God doesn't

do miracles anymore. And I submit to you that

when you cry out to God and ask for his help

and he doesn't answer or he answers in a way

that doesn't show up in power and change the

circumstances to be everything you want it to

be, it's easy to say, well, God doesn't do miracles

anymore. Because the alternative is you have

to look at how do you live in light of the fact

that God does miracles but didn't do a miracle

for you right then. So we're going to look at

a text today where God's people are in a very

unique situation. We'll look at what that unique

situation is, and then the situation that they're

in is going to inform us about how we need to

think about when we're crying out to God for

help. But we're going to see that the very unique

situation that they were in matched up with the

fact that God is a God who provides help for

his people, that he is a stronghold for his people.

God exactly tells us why. Sometimes, not necessarily

always. This is not a big, broad brush that paints

every time you would ever cry out to the Lord,

right? But sometimes why God doesn't answer.

Okay? So grab your Bibles if you would, and maybe

give me a little who to holler amen as we go

to Judges chapter 6. Amen. This is God's Word,

Judges 6 · chapter mention

Judges chapter 6. We have been going through

Judges 6 · chapter mention

the book, and basically what we've had so far

is three other instances where the Israelites

have strayed into sin. And in every case, they

cry out to God in the suffering that arises.

And in every case, God has answered. And he did

so by sending judges, or what we are calling

deliverers, because we think maybe the book would

be better called the book of deliverers than

the book of judges, because not even all of them

are judges, for example. One of them starts out

as a judge and then the rest of them kind of

gain that status. But none of them, it shows

really that they become statuses, judges of the

whole of Israel. OK, so it could be called the

deliverers, but it's always been called the book

of judges. And it is the period where if they

had rulers leading them, they were judges. They

didn't have kings. And so that's why it's called

the book of judges. Right. So here we go. Judges

6 -1. Then the sons of Israel did what was evil

in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them

into the hands of Midian seven years. Now, what

we're going to see in just a second is it's not

just Midian that's the problem, but Midian gets

the capital emphasis here. Now, just briefly

for a second, if you go back into the history

of Midian, like if you go back into the book

of Exodus, for example, Midian has a great reputation

overall. So they accepted Moses when he was in

flight from Egypt, and he married his wife there.

His father -in -law even had an early role in

the structure of the country of Israel because

he gave Moses an encouragement and said, look,

you can't do all the judging yourself. You can't

make all the rules and set everything yourself.

You're wearing yourself out. So set some good

men and some judges over the rest of the story,

basically over the rest of the questions that

are arising, and don't try to handle everything

yourself, but set some others to do those things.

So that's Jethro, and he had a Big impact in

that. And then, so it was good for a while. Now,

there's also some downside, like Joseph was sold

into slavery and the Midianites facilitated his

sale into slavery. Now, they didn't know necessarily

that he was the chosen one of God or anything

like that, right? But his brothers sold him to

Midianite traders who took him into Egypt and

sold him. That's not so great, but they were

just making a living and they didn't really know.

And slavery was a thing. And so if he was told,

he said that he was a slave, he didn't have rights

to himself, then they could sell him. That makes

legal sense. And then also the Midianites, by

now, they've been targeted as a people that stand

opposite God's people. And even before this,

we see that they had said, hey, we're going to

stand against the Midianites because of the way

they treated us when we came out of Egypt. So

the Midianites become the enemy in this story.

But notice that maybe even in the verse, we can

see that it's really not the Midianites who are

the enemy. It says, So you're almost kind of

like, it's God who's the enemy, right? God is

the one who gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

And we know that when God stood with them during

the book of Joshua, for example, that one Israelite

soldier was worth over 20 enemy soldiers, and

now they cannot stop Midian. But it's not just

Midian, as we'll see. It says, The power of Midian

prevailed against Israel because of Midian, the

sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which

were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

Now, it's interesting right there. In that text,

there are three separate Hebrew words. You'll

remember that we're kind of in an area of the

Bible. It's very, very old Hebrew, okay? And

there are three separate Hebrew words that are

used here, and I'll slaughter them. to the best

of my ability. It's minharot, metorot, and mesadot.

So you can see they kind of have very similar

sounding words. That's the only reason I'm reading

the Hebrew to you, is you can see that they're

kind of very similar sounding words. And they

are mountain clefts. You can picture in your

mind what a mountain cleft is. It's like a hole

in the rock. You go back in there, maybe like

a little box canyon or valley or something. You

go in there, and you're guarded on sides. A mountain

cleft. And then there's caves. Well, we know

what a cave is. A cave is something you go back

into and you get out of view and you might have

some windings back in there, that kind of thing.

We know what a cave is. And then there's the

strongholds. And so these are more like constructed

places that are easily defensible, right? And

so the bottom line is they were... living or

retreating back into these areas and making them

defensible, the dens, the caves, and the strongholds.

Then it says in verse 3, For it was when Israel

had sown, that means they put the seed in the

ground, that the Midianites would come up with

the Amalekites, we've already seen them as enemies,

and the sons of the east, and that word right

there is not well translated. It was called the

sons of the east, but the truth is they don't

really know what people group. was being given

that third place right there. And so it was probably

a mess of people from various places, the sons

of the east, and it would go up against them.

So this is when the Israelites had sown the seed,

the crops are growing in the field. Now this

mass of people moves into their country. Verse

four, almost done with the text. So they would

camp against them and destroy the produce of

the earth as far as Gaza. And Gaza was that.

We're not looking at a map right now, but it

was that kind of border town. We know, we studied

this back, especially on Tuesday nights a couple

months back, as far as Gaza, which means they

went from the east, they went all the way to

the west, because Gaza's on the west border.

And it says, and they would leave no sustenance

in Israel, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

Did you get that? So no crops, no sustenance,

nothing for them to live off of, as well as no

sheep, ox, or donkey. They were taking everything.

They were cleaning them out. For they would come

up with their livestock and their tents, and

they would come in like locusts for number. Both

they and their camels were innumerable. That

means there was no way you could count them.

And they came into the land to devastate it.

They had a particular thing in mind. They were

going to reap everything they could. They were

going to take everything that was left that they

could get access to. Verse 6. So Israel was brought

very low, and there's a very interesting word

there in the original language for very low.

I'll get back to it in a second. Because of Midian,

and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.

And so it brings them to that moment in time

where they cry out to the Lord. Okay? And that's

what we're talking about today. Now that word

that I mentioned to you in there where it says

it brought them low is a Hebrew word. Again,

you don't have to remember this, but it's essentially...

And it means to become small. It means to become

insignificant. Right? That's what it means. So

what we have going on here is there is a victorious

people. Let's be straightforward about who we're

talking about. The Israelites are a victorious

people. They took this land with God's help and

there were crops already growing and towns already

built. And they moved into other people's houses

and they themselves harvested other... crops

that had been grown there that were not theirs

they didn't plant them right and since then they

have been a victorious people and they now have

been brought low by a series of compromising

value decisions they have slid further and further

into doing what God would not want them to do.

And they didn't do it overnight. They didn't

do it instantly. They didn't say, well, we're

just going to walk away from the Lord. In fact,

they had the opportunity at the end of the book

of Joshua where Joshua said, if it seems too

difficult for you to follow God the way I'm talking

about doing that, then pick one of these other

gods, the gods from the land that you came from

or the gods from the land across the river. Pick

one of them and make them your God because if

this is too hard for you, you're just going to

make an enemy of God. And they said, no, no,

we will stay for him. So they did not one day

just switch it off like a light switch and say,

we're walking away from the Lord, we're not going

to live for Jesus anymore. Rather, through a

series of compromising value decisions, they

did evil in his sight. And we don't know for

sure what evil in his sight they were doing during

this time. The specifics are not laid out. They

might not have specifically gone back to following

false gods. At this point in the story, we don't

actually know for sure what the evil was they

were doing, but we can see one part of it for

sure. Clearly in the text, you should have already

seen it by now. There is an evil that Israel

is doing that is very clear in the text and it's

made to sound like it's a good thing. And in

their minds, it probably was. Remember that the

greatest problem in the book of Judges is that

the people do what they think they should do

rather than doing what God would have them to

do. by his direction. So what we have then is

a victorious people brought low by a series of

compromising value decisions. They did evil in

his sight. Notice also that there is here a people

that exercise their ability to adjust. Things

have gotten difficult. I'm hurting right now.

I need this to deal with my stress. My triggers

are being stomped on, so now I know that that's

what triggers me, so I have to take certain steps,

coping mechanisms, whatever. I have to take medicines

for my ailments. I have to run away and get some

rest, some quiet. I have to count to ten and

walk away because this is making me mad. So we

have a people adjusting, and they're using what

would basically be considered worldly wisdom.

What are you going to do if somebody invades

your land and there is a safe place in the hills?

What do you do? Well, you run to the hills. That's

very logical. They're just adjusting to the day.

In fact, even Ecclesiastes says there is a time

for everything. So by all rights, they could

argue this is the time to run. This is the time

to hide in the mountains. We've just got to survive

the day. And then we'll come back later and do

something different. Right? So we flee into the

strongholds. That just makes sense. We're going

to exercise our ability to adjust. But it's more

than that. They were creating. They turned those

caves and those clefts and the strongholds that

already existed into a society. They became a

people hiding out in the mountains for a generation.

They became a people for which that was the new

normal, to just get by and to do the best they

could with what they had. Again, doesn't that

sound pretty good? They were creating in the

mountains. And they persisted to survive. Oh,

now wait a second. So they did wickedly. They

didn't do what God wanted them to do. God allows

the Midianites to get up over on top of them.

And then they say, well, we're going to do what

we have to do to survive. See, what they actually

did was they doubled down. They doubled down

on not doing what God would have them to do.

There are some things. Let's be very clear and

very simple about this. There are some things

that God requires of you now as a believer. And

if we go out in the world and we look at people

who claim to be Christians, what you will find

is that many of them are not doing some of the

things that God is requiring of them as a believer.

You can say, well, I'm not 100 % sure the Bible

teaches certain things. If you want to do that,

you can start to debate those things and you

can adapt. Adjust, bless you. You can adapt and

adjust and even create out of that, right? I

know, for example, on university campuses, they

teach a certain lifestyle is acceptable. And

there's a group that will go in there, thousands

of them, and they will teach anyone who will

listen. They know that that's a very formative

time and they will teach them that these things

are acceptable to do things that they are not

really supposed to do, according to God. And

they teach them that they don't have to do what

it is that they're supposed to do. And the same

thing is happening to you and the same thing

is happening to me. But if you know what it is

that God is calling you to do, then you can stop

using, exercising your ability to adjust and

not doing the thing that God was calling you

to do. And you can say, well, I'm going to do

it. If it kills me, I'm going to do it. If I

spend my blood, sweat and tears and I have nothing

left at the end of the day, I'm going to do what

it is that I know I'm supposed to do for the

Lord. You can do that. Or you can, like this

people, exercise your ability to adjust, create,

and even persist to survive the ramifications

or the results of your own decisions. The truth

is, they held up pretty well. All things considered,

they retreated to the mountains and they survived

as a society when, by all rights, faced with

an overwhelming foe, innumerable camels, and

warriors attached. They would take in everything.

And you figure the first time they came in, everybody's

like, whoa, holy cow, here comes an army. It's

more than we are. They're obviously ready. Whatever,

let's retreat to the hills. Then they left. Whew.

Escaped that one. Made it through. Plant the

next year. Man, we're hungry. This is tough.

We have enough seed to plant, but that's really

all we have. So let's plant. We need to survive.

So they planted. Then when it comes time to get

close to the harvest, the plants are growing.

They don't have to be ready to harvest, but the

plants are growing. Here they come again, these

armies from the east, and they move in and they

take everything. The Israelites retreat to the

hills. Pretty soon, the only people that are

surviving are the people that are capable of

retreating to the hills, into the fortified strongholds,

into the clefts, into the caves. You see what's

happening? So now we have this image. of a people

that exercise their great ability to adjust,

to create, and to persist, to survive the ramifications

of their decisions, but the pathway that they

have into the mountains is not a pathway that

everyone can walk. So to relate this to spiritual

warfare, we come to church. We serve God. We

tithe. We exercise control of our money and our

health the best we can in the situation that

we're in. But the truth is, are we not? Living

out the ramifications of the decisions that we

made before. If you're not happy with the condition

of your body, that's probably true. If you're

not happy with the condition of the relationships,

that's probably true. Oh, you expected God to

run your body, your relationships, your job,

your finances, your mouth for you. Since you

became a Christian, God was going to do all that,

run all of that for you so that you could have

the perfect life for the rest of your life. That's

not even the gospel that we teach. That's not

what the Bible says. You have responsibilities

in the Lord. And if you do not. work those responsibilities,

you know, do the things that God would have you

to do, then the results are you wind up creating

for yourself a space, a vision, if you will,

an idea of who you are that can persist. And

you see lots and lots of Christians. So we have

churches that have, we have it right here, 25,

30 people, 40 people meeting on a Sunday or whatever,

and then there's no new people coming. And nobody's

inviting anybody, and nobody's sharing the gospel

out in the trenches or wherever you work or play

or eat, whatever, because you're faithful. You're

strong. You're able. When Sherry and I were young

Christians, very young Christians, they asked

us to teach a Sunday school class at East Little

Baptist Church. And we didn't share the gospel,

not early on. We taught while I was in the lesson,

and so if it was specifically included, we would

include that. But, you know, for two years we

taught that Sunday school class, and I never

talked to anybody at my work about the fact that

I was a Christian. I never shared the gospel

with a person I worked with or I went to Owens.

I never talked. I went in study groups to study

for my accounting class. I never talked to them

about the fact that I was a Christian. Oh, but

I faithfully shared whatever was in the Sunday

school lesson the best I could because I wasn't

preparing in advance most of the time on Sunday

mornings. I sang the songs boldly in worship.

Or for those of you, and the truth is probably

that early on, I really wasn't singing them boldly

because I was afraid of what the sound of my

voice was like. For those of you who don't sing

in worship, you understand the command is to

sing, right? But then for those of us who did

sing in worship, it's like, well, I can sing,

but these other people, they can't sing. They

can't bring themselves to sing. So I tolerate

that because I understand that they are where

they are, but the command is to sing, right?

Well, I serve, and there's people that live in

my block. My neighborhood down the street from

me that I'm talking to at work or whatever, and

they don't serve, well, they can't stomach the

course. I'm going the hard road. I'm serving.

I'm singing. I'm giving. But the other people,

they can't walk the walk with me. They can't

make the safe place with me. So you have a safe

place in God because you can do the things again.

Listen, if you're in this room and you're under

the age of 40, you need to understand, you have

energy right now that eventually you will never

have again. in the sense that you have it, you

have growth and renewal of cells that you'll

never have again. Once you're past a certain

age, whatever that looks like, 40, 50, 45 for

some people, whatever, whatever that looks like,

that energy is going to go away. And if you're

spending that energy on your entertainment, on

your recreation, on whatever, or if you're dividing

your time between serving the Lord and doing

these other things, eventually you're going to

have less energy and you're going to have to

decide, am I going to do these other things or

am I going to serve the Lord? And so those are

on the backside of that. They're 60 years old,

for example. They have less energy for serving

the Lord than they've ever had. And yet they're

doing more serving the Lord than they've ever

had, than they've ever done. Why does it make

sense? Because as they walked with the Lord,

the Lord led them to let certain things go that

they could no longer spend energy on so they

could put their energy where it really belonged.

You see, with the people in this story, they

were giving up their society. They're elderly.

Occasionally they could maybe take them into

the clefts of the mountains, but most likely

they couldn't take them. They couldn't stomach

it, right? That can't be us. We cannot be a people

who just exercise our ability to adjust, who

just create and persist to survive the ramifications

of our decisions. We can't just hold up pretty

well all things considered. That is not Christianity.

Christians don't just hold up pretty well all

things considered. Yes, you might call that perseverance,

but it's only perseverance over persecution,

overcoming as Jesus describes it in Revelation

3. It's only overcoming when it's not all things

considered. It is we are doing what it is that

God would have us to do. The next thing to notice

in this text then is that their rock bottom,

when they got to the bottom and they theoretically,

they had lost everything. They lost all their

donkeys. They lost all their sheep. They lost

all their ox. They lost all their crops. They

lost all their safety. They couldn't use the

highways. You remember before when Deborah and

Barack were called out, the big thing was that

they couldn't use the highways because if you're

up on the highways, you could get picked off

by brigands, right? Now they've lost the highways

completely. They can't even walk in the low spaces.

They have to hide in the mountains. So it's gotten

worse. What they did was worse because they received

the salvation from the Lord and then went back

to doing the things that they shouldn't do. And

now the punishment is worse. They've lost even

more. They are at rock bottom. But notice that

their rock bottom is a place with strongholds.

Their rock bottom is a place of safety. You may

have heard the old adage. You've heard the old

adage which says, when I get to the end of your

rope, when you get to the end of your rope, what

do you do? Most of us have heard it, right? When

you get to the end of the rope, what do you do?

Tie a knot and hold on. Right? This is what they

had done. They got to the end of their rope.

They tied a knot and held on. They're like, we're

going to make it. We're going to survive. We're

God's people. Somehow or other, we're going to

survive this. Yes, we're in iniquity. Yes, we're

in sin against the Lord. We're not doing what

God wants us to do. We're not going to stop that.

But we're still going to survive, create, persist,

overcome the ramifications of our actions. But

here's the truth. The enemy is not interested

in killing you. Yes, I understand he's a thief

who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, right?

But he's not interested in taking you out. If

he was interested in taking you out, he's got

agents that could do that, theoretically, right?

He's not interested in taking you out. In the

traditional sense, what he wants to do is trap

you away from the kingdom advance. See, if he

kills me, I go straight to heaven. What does

he gain? What's he going to gain from that? Right?

He makes a vacancy in my family. Those Christians

who were in my family, I can tell you what they're

going to do. They're going to be upset. They

may cry. They may weep. They're going to draw

close to the Lord because in their end of the

rope scenario, right, they're going to tie it

out. Hold on. In our version of what I've taught

them, what I hope is true, what I hope the people

in our church, the people in my family know,

is when you tie a rope, that means you cry out

to the Lord. You cry out to the Lord. They draw

close to God. God draws close to them. So then

that makes my family stronger because the Lord

is working in them. That makes my church stronger

because the Lord is working in them. So the enemy

is not interested in killing you in the traditional

sense, but rather trapping you away from the

kingdom of advance. He wants what he wants, and

frankly, he's getting it if believers isolate

and fortify instead of standing in the day of

evil as God has called us to do. Why do you think

it is when your mental issues rear up that the

first thing that happens is you want to withdraw?

I need time. I got to get it alone. I got to

go process this. I can't deal with them right

now. How many times have you said, I can't deal

with this right now? I want you to understand

that every time you say, I can't deal with this

right now. That is an enemy of you, probably

you, probably you as your worst enemy, saying

you can't deal with it because Jesus said, here

are the keys to the kingdom, and whatever you

loose shall be loosed, and whatever you bind

shall be bound. In fact, whatever you loose shall

have already been loosed in heaven by the forces

of God and angels and God the Son and the Holy

Spirit loosed. And whatever you bind shall have

already been bound in heaven by the forces of

God, God himself. God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,

and the angels will have already bound that which

you bind. And you say, I can't deal with this

right now. So it's either you and your flesh

or your psychology or someone brainwashed you

to think that the way you handle the difficulty

is to step away. That is not God's way of handling

difficulty. Yes, God will withdraw his presence

and his voice gets quieter and quieter. But his

intention is for you to lean in and listen. not

for you to be dismissed and lost. God doesn't

want to trap you away from him. No, he's drawing

you unto himself. And no one comes unto the Father

unless he be called. And so if you've come to

God, you've been called. And if you're called,

you are one of the spiritual generations of Israel,

essentially. Abraham is now our father. And we

mustn't give in to isolate and fortify instead

of standing in the day of evil as God has called

us to do. What they needed was a David or a Noah

or a Moses. What they needed was a man who would

step up and say, I will stand for God. Guess

what they're going to get? Beginning in verse

7 and following. That's exactly what they're

going to get. They're going to get somebody who

will say, no, in my life, I have seen God do

miracles. Yes, God will sometimes do miracles

and sometimes not. A Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

right? You throw us in the fiery furnace, our

God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't,

we still will not do what you're commanding us

to do. We will not bow down. So we need somebody

like that. But understand that a rock -bottom

place is also a place with strongholds. It's

a stronghold that you can paint, you can decorate,

you can build walls, you can put up a rampart,

you can stockpile weapons. It's a stronghold

that probably looks a lot like your house, your

bedroom, in front of your TV. Some place where

you can just say, nothing's bothering me right

now. And you can set it up real nice and to be

just right for you, and you can retreat there

when things go wrong on the battlefield. So there

are three highlighted things in there. The first

one is that they were a victorious people brought

low by a series of compromising value decisions.

They did evil in God's sight. The second is that

they were people exercising their ability to

adjust, create, and persist to survive the ramifications

of their decisions. And they held up pretty well,

all things considered. The third was that that

rock bottom place is a place with strongholds.

As the Hebrew words for mountain clefts and caves

and strongholds reminds us. And then that brings

us to our conclusion. And it is this. We were

made for better. Don't go this way. Don't follow

this example. The text is saying that we were,

owned by God. We were chosen as a people of God

to apply the keys to loose and to bind in the

land that God has given us. Fortify? If you're

going to hide, then you would have to close down

enemy ingress. But I want you to think about

how possible that actually is. If you say, things

are not going right in the church, things are

not going right in my house, Things are not going

right at my job. And you say, well, I'm just

going to go home. At home, I am the master. I

control what goes on, right? And so there I am

safe. In my yard, in my shop, in my house. Or

if you're just retreating on a vacation or something

there, I am the master. I am safe. No one can

get to me, right? I don't have to deal with what

he says, what they do, the things that are happening.

I'm going to retreat, isolate, and fortify. If

that's the tactic that you use, then you would

have to close down enemy ingress in every way.

And they were doing it. They were building ramparts.

They were building walls. They were stockpiling

weapons. They were trying to hide away supplies,

which they had very little to hide away. They

were trying to isolate themselves from the massive

forces of the enemy, which we already know God

was unleashing or allowing them to have their

reign because Israel was in wickedness. So they

go in there thinking they're going to close off

ingress. I want you to think about that in spiritual

terms. In the middle of your living room, there

is a window. It lights up. You can control it

from your couch. Now you tell me which channel

that you can watch on your TV that does not allow

for the ministry of the devil to have been involved.

Now you'd like to say right now media, right?

That's it. I'm just going to watch Bible studies.

Except every one of those Bible studies It's

being taught by a human. Which channel does that

human watch that isolates every one of those

possible ingress? That there's no way they can

be affected by evil spirits. How do you know

that Bible study number three is even biblical?

How do you know that there isn't a teaching that's

off or wrong? So you say, well, I'm not going

to watch my TV at all. What about the internet?

What about your cell phone? Are there books on

your shelf? Your family members that live in

your house with you? Or that are in your life

that call you? What do you have to do to isolate

and fortify versus all possible intrusions of

the enemy? You're like, oh, well, from what I'm

hearing, there is nothing. There literally is

nothing that I can do to isolate and fortify

against all possible intrusions of the enemy.

Right? That's the math of it, isn't it? There's

always an ingress. There's always going to be

a way. You can go in your prayer closet and just

sit there. And when you're listening in your

thoughts, what percentage of what goes on in

your head will be attributed to evil spirits

or your flesh? So it's just you in a small two

foot by five foot box with a Bible. And what

percentage would one percent be good enough?

No. Because if it's one percent, after you think

for ten minutes, A portion of that will be incorrect,

ungodly, and your heart is literally on the line.

Is there, I ask you, a method by which you can

isolate and fortify to block out all possible

intrusions of evil spirits, of false teachings

and temptation? What if I told you there is?

What if I told you that there is a method by

which you could isolate and fortify? and block

out all possible intrusions of evil spirits,

and be with God alone. If you're going to hide,

then you would have to close down enemy ingress,

but it's impossible. Enduring well results in

the same thing every time. Retreating to just

your prayer closet, which would be probably the

best chance you have in your own strength. I'm

just going to prayer class with just my Bible.

I'm not going to answer if anybody knocks. I'm

not taking my phone in there, right? It's just

going to be me and God alone, except that there

will be intrusions of evil spirits. So you're

not really going to be alone. So you're going

to have to fight. Why do you think it's set up

that way? Because God is pointing to the one

place where you actually can isolate and fortify

and be free. As we try to do that, we always

will receive the same result. If we try to isolate

and fortify by the other than the one means that

God has given us to do so, we'll always receive

the results that they received. And it's that

other Hebrew word that I mentioned to you. It's

the Y -A -I. Or the E. We become small. When

you isolate and fortify in your own strength,

by your own methods, by your best knowledge,

even with just your Bible, just in times of prayer

with the Lord or whatever, you do that all on

your own and choose God over everything in your

own strength and just isolate and fortify, withdrawing

from the world, withdrawing from relationships,

withdrawing from what's supposed to be right,

you just become small. That is what the enemy

wants. He wants you to become small. It makes

a strong picture spiritually, doesn't it? I want

to give you three quick illustrations. The first

one is regards to Alexander the Great. You may

have heard of him. He's a pretty famous military

guy, ruled a vast part of the known world. He

was at Tyre in 332 BC. And Alexander the Great

set up a siege. He sieged the island fortress

of Tyre. He knew a direct assault would be costly.

Instead, he built a massive causeway and cut

off their harbor access. So he blockaded the

harbor with essentially a wall across the water

so ships could not get in under any circumstances.

And he destroyed their supply ships. And without

resupply, Tyre eventually fell. The enemy may

look fortified. So we look out there and we say,

man, he's at work, he's got it going on, don't

want to face persecution, we're going to face

trials and struggles and like that. But if we

cut off sin's supply line, that is to say temptation,

bitterness, lies, etc., it will eventually fall

in our lives and then we achieve the true isolation

and fortification that we're looking for. That's

how you get there. You have to cut off his supply.

You don't do that by hiding in your prayer closet.

You don't do that by going home. You don't do

it by withdrawing from a relationship. Ulysses

S. Grant at Vicksburg's, 1863, in American Civil

War. Grant didn't just batter Vicksburg with

cannons. He strategically cut off all Confederate

supply routes along the Mississippi River. By

controlling the river, God be with him, by controlling

the river and surrounding the city, he starved

the Confederate army into surrender. Victory

often comes not from one big battle, but from

patiently choking off the enemy's supply lines.

If the devil can't keep us supplied with excuses,

bad influences, or secret sins, his strongholds

will crumble. Ours will become unnecessary. Napoleon's

invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon marched

into Russia with one of the largest armies in

history. Did you hear that again? Russia that's

never been conquered. Napoleon marched into Russia

with one of the largest armies in history, but

the Russians burned their own crops and villages.

It was called the Scorched Earth Strategy, and

it's been used in other cases. Denying Napoleon's

army food and shelter, Winter finished what the

Russian army started. Napoleon's supply lines

collapsed, and his invasion failed. Sometimes

the best way to defeat the enemy is by not giving

him ground to feed on. If we refuse to feed anger,

lust, pride, or doubt, the enemy's attacks lose

their strength and wither away. And thus it may

even feel at times like distancing yourself from

the battlefield, from the harvest, is the safest

way to go. We say, well, I don't want to be out

there and be tempted. I'm fleeing temptation.

There you're using a Bible verse for an excuse

of why not to be involved in the fight. I'm getting

angry. I've got to back away. There you're using

a misconstrued Bible verse. That's not even what

it says. The Bible verse says, be angry, but

don't sin in your anger. But you take the one

where it says, put anger away from me. You say,

that's my excuse. I'm getting angry, so I'm not

going to be involved. I'm going to withdraw.

Spreading the good news is dangerous and often

seems unwelcomed. helping others be better, calling

church members to repentance through Matthew

18 accountability or just one -on -one discussion,

going again to the harvest after the last time

resulted in you being persecuted, these things

seem challenging. But what did we sign up for?

As Christians, what do we say we are? What did

Jesus recruit us to? We are now ambassadors for

the truth. We are living now not for ourselves,

but for him who died for us. In many movies,

most movies run between about an hour and a half

and two and a half hours. There are a few that

are much longer, but most run in that time frame.

When I was going to the movies when I was a teenager,

quite frequently, most movies were 90 minutes.

And then sometime around about 2 ,000 movies

kind of crept up to be like 205, 210. Part of

that was because the movie quality increased

so much they could do things so quickly that

they could cover a lot more material in that

period of time, and so your mind doesn't grow

bored in a two -hour, five -minute movie where

it used to grow bored in an hour and 35 -minute

movie. Now they can do that. Better quality and

so on. But in most movies that tell a lengthy

story, there's a thing called a montage. A montage

is when you're transitioning from one part of

the story to another part of the story, and you

just show images to indicate. So in Pride and

Prejudice, which is one of Sherry and I's favorite

movies, there's a montage and one of the main

characters and she sits on the swing. She sits

on the swing and she twists it up and then she

lets it unfurl. And as she unfurls, it shows

from her point of view, the camera goes around

like this. And as it goes around, it goes around

like five or six times and it goes through. It's

spring. You can tell it's spring. There's water

on the ground. It's summer. Everything's in bloom.

Then it's fall. Then it's winter. Then it's spring.

It's summer. It's fall. And three years passes

in the time that it takes for the swing to unravel,

right? That's a montage. And there's a montage

in most big, lengthy stories because you're not

going to do that, right? How else are you going

to show that three years passed? So you need

some creative way to show. So this is what people

have determined. We are living like we are living

in the montage. We're living like we're living

in the building, training, preparing montage.

That moment, Rocky, right? He decides he's going

to go back into the fight. He's going to do it.

He was going to quit, but he got talked into,

you know, he shouldn't be a quitter. He should

do it. And so now you see him. Punching the meat

in the ice cooler. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,

pow. And in one scene, he's punching the meat

in the ice cooler. In the next scene, he's jogging

in the street at night. But it's like three seconds

of each, right? And then he's up the steps and

he's down the steps and he's back punching the

meat in the ice cooler, right? And with every

scene, he looks, he's glistening a little bit

more. His muscles are bulging a little bit more.

He's in the building and preparing Montage to

go back into the big fight. And we think that's

where we're living. But it isn't. Because the

big fight is already over. It's already won.

You're not in the preparing, building montage.

You're in the battle. This is it. This is the

time at which souls can be saved. We live in

the middle of the fight every day, facing the

invader in our midst and successfully wearing

the armor of God and wielding the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God, because the

enemy is spiritual in nature. And when we isolate

and fortify, we ensure our downfall and our shrinking

because we have exposed the very avenues by which

we will prosper to his ministrations. Essentially,

we have surrendered to the enemy. We are acting,

when we do not share the gospel, when we do not

continue the fight, when we isolate and fortify

and stay away from the things that we are supposed

to do, when we do that, we are acting like Satan

is the boss. When we accuse others and look at

them and say, you didn't do what you were supposed

to do, and we get angry with them, but then we

get over it and we forgive them, but we didn't

do anything to hold them to accountability if

what they actually did was sin, and we didn't

repent of our anger if what they actually did

was not sin. So nothing happens. We just isolate

and fortify again. We retreat. We stay home from

worship. We don't go to serve. We don't show

up on Tuesday night for Bible study. We're isolated

and fortified because it got a little harder

or because somebody said things that we didn't

like or we took a deep hit to our core and now

our core is so sore that we wouldn't dare do

sit -ups. Listen, you were made to do spiritual

sit -ups every day, not just when you're not

sore. You do not live in a preparing building

montage. You live in the day of the war for souls.

And we have a responsibility to go where we are

safe in the Lord. And there is only one place

that we are safe in the Lord, and that is when

we are in the fight. Fully armored. Do you remember

what some of the pieces are? You got the belt

of truth. You got the shoes of the gospel of

peace. We're going. So some of us aren't going.

So when's the last time you shared the gospel

with somebody? Listen to me. I'm going to tell

you very plainly. It comes straight from the

Holy Spirit. It's coming out of my mouth right

now. I feel like God is saying this. It's not

on the nose. I'm telling you right now, if you

have not shared the gospel with someone, if you

have not told someone about the saving grace

of Jesus in the last seven days, then at best,

you are in a shrinking position, isolating and

fortifying in your own strength away from the

fight. And if you refuse to tell people about

Jesus whenever you possibly can and share the

good news, you will wind up isolated and fortified,

shrinking. You will spend your entire life, the

rest of it, shrinking, getting smaller and smaller

and smaller. And that's basically what actually

happens physically too, right? I'm a half an

inch smaller than I was 10 years ago. But you'll

shrink a lot more than that until your significance

in the earth will just not be significant. People

say, yeah, he's a Christian. He faithfully served

in the church for 10, 20, 40, he's a pillar of

our church. And then you'll show up and Jesus

will say, let's have a rally, a one, two, three

hurrah for everybody that Dan shared the gospel

with. And there'll be like three guys there going,

hurrah, he told me about Jesus. Or you can get

in the fight where you're actually safe, get

armored up, draw the sword, which is the spirit

of God, begin to use God's word daily in your

life and be safe. And actually be fortified,

not by yourself, but by God. And protected. Jesus

summoned his 12 disciples in Matthew 9. He says,

seeing the people, he felt compassion for them

because they were distressed and dispirited like

sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples,

the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are

few. He asked them to pray. He said, pray. that

God would send workers into his harvest. And

then when you get right into chapter 10, immediately

following, Jesus summoned his 12 disciples, gave

them authority over unclean spirits to cast them

out and to heal every kind of disease and every

kind of sickness. And then down in verse 5 it

says, These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing

them, do not go in the way of the Gentiles. Verse

7 says, And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom

of heaven is at hand. And they were safe. I submit

to you that when challenged with that to go into

the harvest and become workers in the harvest,

if they had instead isolated and fortified, if

they instead refused to speak about the things

that are most important, if they instead refused

to use the kingdom of the kingdoms, keys of the

kingdom to loose and bind, if they had refused

to cast out evil spirits, if they had refused

to pray for healing because they say, well, sometimes

God heals, but sometimes he doesn't, and they

had refused to pray for healing, then the times

that God was going to miraculously heal would

have been in jeopardy, at least for them. They

would have been isolated and fortified until

they were small. And instead of the 12 disciples,

which would have become 11 and then 12 again,

instead of the 12 disciples starting the church

was spread to the world, which eventually brought

the gospel to you and me, they would have just

faded away like some other movement in history

and nothing would have happened. But that wasn't

going to happen because they were chosen by God,

just like you or I are, and they went into the

harvest. And so must you. So must I. The devil

is trying to cut off our supply. Because we are

not in the harvest. When we get in the harvest,

he won't be able to cut off our supply because

God will be fighting on our side. We are failing

to cut off his supply for the same reason. As

long as the state of affairs remains, the enemy

will grow and we will shrink. Put on the armor

of God and get out there and share the good news

unashamedly because in the good news, in the

gospel, is the power unto salvation. Stop isolating

and fortifying when you're in difficulty because...

All you are doing is guaranteeing that you will

eventually lose. If you hide in the hills, you

guarantee you eventually lose. If you go home

to your house and stay there, you guarantee that

you eventually lose. If someone's yelling at

you, cussing you out or whatever, you would be

better off to put your hands down to your side

and just start praying and talking to God and

let them do their worst. They can't actually

hurt you unless they actually physically hurt

you. And if they actually physically hurt you,

then you'll be in pain. But pain can't actually

hurt you. You see, we're a living soul. We are

part of an eternal family. It says, store up

treasures for yourself in heaven, and there is

how you do it. Stop isolating and fortifying.

Instead, become on mission for the Lord. In this

analogy, the strongholds that they fortified,

which were providing them safety temporarily,

had become the very thing that had to be removed.

Remember I told you, you could see their sin.

It was making it sound like they were doing a

good thing. And the next time you see somebody

who's losing their temper, and they count to

ten and walk away, or they retreat back into

their house, and they aren't seen for a little

while, and they come out again, and they're all

peaceful and calm. They're going to realize that

the very strongholds that they are embracing,

the very things that they are using to continue

to be who they are, are the very things that

must be either removed or repurposed in their

lives in order for them to actually be safe.

And that's what we need to do. David understood

it in the song of hope that David penned and

then later was recorded in 2 Samuel. chapter

2 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

22, and in verse 3 it says, God is my stronghold

and my refuge. You going home to your house?

You backing out of your troubles or conflicts?

God is your stronghold and your refuge. And God

is not backing out. God is not backing down.

Jesus said, Since that day, talking about the

day of rest after creation, since that day, God

has never stopped working. So every time you

stop working in the kingdom, every time you stop

doing what it is that God would have you do,

every time you stop sticking your neck out and

trusting in the Lord, every time you shut your

mouth and don't say the thing that God wants

you to say, because maybe you're not qualified,

because you don't have the answer. What if they

ask me a tough question? They might get mad at

me. Do people even need to be saved these days?

98 % of Christians testify, blah, blah, blah.

Make all the excuses that you want, but every

time you shut your mouth, you leave God. Every

time you stop serving in the fight, in whatever

capacity God has called you to, you walk away

from the Lord. And you can create, and you can

persist, and people will say, well, he did pretty

good under the circumstances. You know, we live

in a day when there's a lot of wickedness, and

nobody really wanted to hear it, and he did win

a few. There were a few people that got saved.

God is our strength and our refuge. If you want

to be safe, retreat from yourself into the Lord,

not from the Lord into yourself. And then David

would pen later in Psalm 59 and Psalm 62, God

is my stronghold. He is my salvation and my stronghold.

And then in Proverbs 10 .29, the last verse,

and we're closing out our thought with this.

Proverbs 10 .29. I didn't mark my Bible for Proverbs.

Actually, maybe I did. Proverbs 10 .29, it says

this. The way of the Lord is a stronghold to

the upright. Did you get that? Not the house

of the Lord. Not the house that the Lord has

given you. Not the ground that the Lord has given

you. Not the place that he's given you. a place

of peace, a place of solace, but the way, the

way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright,

but ruin to the workers of iniquity. When we

walk in Christ and do what God has called us

to do, we will be safe. And those who come against

us will not. It's time we stop. isolating and

fortifying. I think there's been a really powerful

effort, a really good scheme that made people

think that if you just get away for a moment,

no. When you're called to just get away for a

moment by something, you can be sure that you're

called to be a Christian, be a follower of the

Lord, and do the right thing by God. Now, there

is a time for everything under heaven. But notice,

that includes there is a time to die. I'm asking

you today to ask yourself. We need to ask ourselves

collectively. I need to ask myself. Have we been

isolating and fortifying away from the work of

the Lord? Do you feel safe when you are not sharing

the gospel? Do you feel safe? when you are not

going out with the sword of the Spirit in hand

to change lives in your own household, on your

job, with your clients, with your friends. There

was a long time in my life that I felt like afraid

to not try to bring up Jesus in some way, like

it was not who I am. I don't know where that

went. But I know it's not biblical for it to

be gone. We are ambassadors. We must speak up.

I'm not talking about becoming politically active.

I'm not talking about picketing abortion centers.

I'm talking about loving people and sharing the

gospel. You'll not change your friend, your family

member, your grandparent. You can go, well, man,

they stress me out. I can't be around them too

much because they stress me out. Every time they

stress you out, that's a call for you to share

the gospel. That's a call for you to go back

to teaching the one thing that you know for sure.

Jesus died on the cross for sins, rose again

on the third day, and he's saving souls even

still today. And doing miracles. And answering

cries. Teach them that they can cry out to the

Lord. And the one miracle he'll always do if

somebody cries out, if he's calling them to and

they cry out, is he'll save their soul. Stop

retreating from the harvest. Stop retreating

from the service. And instead, invest yourself

so heavily. That one of two things will happen.

God will get the glory or you'll die trying.

That's what it means to be a follower of the

Lord Jesus Christ. I ask the praise team to come

forward at this time and lead us in our final

song. As we sing this song, if you're in this

room and you realize that I've been isolating

and fortifying. I've been building my fortress.

I have a place at home or away from people or

whatever where I feel safe. I feel comfortable.

I feel like I've got it under control. Maybe

it's just outside this room. Maybe it's in here.

Some people feel safe inside the church building,

but they don't feel safe to do anything about

God elsewhere. We have that place, and I'm asking

you to repent of that place today. I'm asking

you to turn your life over to Jesus in earnest.

Would you sing this song with me? Stand up, sing

the song, and then if the Lord is speaking to

your heart, you can come forward and respond.

We're offline now, so it's just us in the room

with God. Would you submit your life to the Lord?

Repent of your isolating and fortifying. Don't

let the enemy make you any smaller. You're on

the battlefield swinging your sword. You just

want to hear God in your ears saying, I got you.

I'm with you. I'll carry you through. Many a

soldier has given his life over to the Lord because

he knew he was in a desperate situation and he

just cried out to God. And God showed up and

saved him spiritually. Some of them then went

on to die in battle. Others persisted and stayed

and served the people of God for decades or 50

or 100 years sometimes. Hundreds of years and

they go back in time.