Fight the Right Battles

Well, hey, if you're brand new, welcome.

My name's Justin, and I want to give you a little bit of context of what we've been doing this entire year as a church.

We've never actually done a whole year sort of study, but this year we're doing something called the whole story.

We are going through the entire story of the Bible in a year, a little bit less than a year actually.

And so what we've done is we've broken up the story of Scripture into 14 different series, and we've just been going through them bit by bit, and we are currently on our sixth series, which is called Messy Majesty.

It's called Messy Majesty.

We're studying for the next few weeks the lives of many of the kings of Israel that we find in the Old Testament.

It tells us hundreds of years of history, but it also shows us amazing life lessons that, believe it or not, are crazy practical for us today.

You wouldn't think that the lives of Middle Eastern kings 3,000 years ago would have anything to do with anything going on in your personal life today, but they absolutely do.

If you've ever read the stories of the kings, you know why we're calling it messy majesties.

These guys' lives were a mess.

They were a mess.

And in part that was because Israel was never supposed to have a king.

That's not the way God wanted things to go.

God had a really simple idea in mind for how their nation would work.

He had these people, they called them judges, they were basically prophets, and God spoke to them and then they led the people.

So these people just listened to God and led the people.

Really simple.

And God warned the people hey, there's gonna come a day when you might think you want a king and you don't.

Because here's what's gonna happen if you have a king.

And God just lays out for them all of the negatives of being in a monarchy.

But eventually the people decide, you know what, hey God, we appreciate the warning.

It's not that we don't like you, you know, it's it's like a breakup.

You know, it's not, it's not, it's not you, it's me.

But it was totally, you know, yeah.

It was one of those moments.

But they literally said, We just want a king.

All the other nations around us have a king.

Sometimes it's so easy to be pulled into just what other people are doing.

And they looked at all the nations around them, and every nation had a king with a giant palace, and they had a crown and a throne and all this pomp and circumstance, and the people of Israel just had these judges, these random people that you know showed up every once in a while, did some things, and it just wasn't, it wasn't as exciting.

And so the people said, We want a king, and God said, Okay, sometimes God gives us what we ask for, even if it's not what we need.

And God gives them a king.

And it goes horrible, like pretty much right away.

As you can imagine.

Now, now it's really interesting the approach that God takes.

We talked last week about the very first king of Israel, Saul.

God gave the people exactly what they thought that they wanted.

We we met Saul for the first time in 1 Samuel chapter 9.

1 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

It says, There was a wealthy, influential man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.

He was the son of Abel, the son of Zarer, the son of Beckerath, the son of Aphiah, from the tribe of Benjamin.

And his son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

Okay, this is this is Saul, first king of Israel.

He's like Brad Pitt with height, okay?

And, you know, I'm not saying Brad Pitt is the most handsome man in America, but I think that's debatable.

And I'm from the same hometown as Brad Pitt, so if Brad Pitt is the most handsome man in America, then I have some connection at least to that.

So, you know, give me that at least.

But he is he's like this stunning guy.

He's young, 30 years old, he's handsome, and he's the he's tall.

He looks the part.

He's from an influential, wealthy family.

I mean, he is the exact kind of guy that you would think you would want to be the king.

So when when Samuel, who was the leader of Israel at that time, says to Israel, hey, here's your king, everyone loves it.

They're like, Yeah, that's the guy.

And and he looked the part, but looks, looks can be deceiving.

We all know that, right?

Like, looks can be extremely deceiving.

Brad Pitt might be a terrible person.

I don't know.

I'm just saying, it's possible.

But like, in all honesty, when's the last time you saw a movie trailer that got you hyped up for a movie that you went to see and it was a terrible movie?

Like, how often does that happen?

Is it is that just me or has that happened to anyone else here?

Like, I don't know if you guys are awake this morning or not, but I know it's raining.

Does that happen?

So that happens to me all the time.

Like, I get so sucked in by movie trailers.

And I'll watch a trailer and I'm like, oh, this looks amazing.

And then I'll watch the movie and I'm like, what was that?

And I've decided that all that's happened is the people who make movie trailers have become more talented than the people who make movies.

And so that's that's just where we're at in culture, right?

That happens all the time.

Or you go to a restaurant and you see the like the picture of the food on the menu and you order it, and what comes on your plate is not the picture that you ordered.

That happens all the time.

Looks can be deceiving.

I was actually thinking about an experience I had because of the road trip with the high school students this last week.

I used to be in charge of that way back in the day.

And this one year we we found these cabins that we were gonna take all the students to, and we had never been more excited about the cabins ever before.

In fact, uh Andy, who I talked about a minute ago, Andy was on this trip, so I know you'll remember this, Andy.

But the thing that got us really excited from the pictures was right in front of our cabins, this huge field.

And we were like, wow, look at that.

This this giant field.

And we were thinking, like, maybe we'll take frisbees and footballs, and basically when we're having downtime, we'll all just be like out in the field, we'll grill, we'll do all kinds of stuff, because we just have wide open space.

And when you have a hundred teenagers uh on a trip for four or five days, you need space.

And so this field, it was like the selling point.

I saw the picture, I'm like, that's where we're gonna go.

And then we got there.

And there was this giant, beautiful field.

But it was interesting how they cropped the picture.

Um, if you've ever bought a house before, you know what real estate pictures can be like, like how deceptive they can be.

Because there was a sign that was in the field, and this sign was not in the picture, and the sign said warning, raw sewage runoff.

And so what the field was was it was connected to some some drainage and just you know, sewage.

Kind of hung out in the field.

And so it's it's not the kind of field you want to play frisbee in, I'll just put it that way.

Um, it was, and ooh, when the wind blew your direction?

Ooh.

And I mean, we literally got off.

It was like immediate.

Everyone gets off the the buses, like we're all exhausted, we've been driving for hours, we get off the vans, everyone's like stretching their legs, and and like instantly the same smell hit everybody, and all these smiles just go to this sort of like, what is that?

And then it hits you that you're gonna be there for four or five days.

And and I picked it just but I was like, look at that beautiful field.

This is gonna be amazing.

It's the last time we went there.

Looks can be deceiving.

Saul looked the part, but he he was not a good king, not by a long shot.

Because Saul had all these major character flaws.

Saul was extremely prone to jealousy and anger.

He was so consumed with himself, so worried about what other people thought, which is what we talked about last week, that he couldn't effectively lead his nation.

He was too busy dealing with all of his own personal drama to actually lead his people.

So God decided to pick someone else.

And he picked this person actually very early in King Saul's reign.

His name was David.

And we we learn a little bit about this in 1 Samuel chapter 16.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

God has told Samuel, his prophet, hey, I want you to go pick a new king.

And I want you to go this to this man named Jesse.

Jesse has a bunch of sons.

One of his sons is the next in line.

So Samuel does what God says.

It says, When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab, who is the oldest, and thought, Surely this is the Lord's anointed.

Just looking at him, like, wow, this has got to be the guy.

But the Lord said to Samuel, don't judge by his appearance or height, right?

Like Saul.

Don't look at those things.

Haven't you learned your lesson?

He said, For I've rejected him.

The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

And so God says, I'm not gonna pick this king the same way that we picked the last one.

I did that essentially to teach you a lesson.

No, I'm looking at his heart.

And so Samuel goes down the line until it gets to David, who's the youngest.

They didn't even invite David there because they didn't think he was consequential enough.

And God said, That's my guy, because of his heart.

There is something about David's heart that makes him worthy of leadership.

In fact, scripture describes him as a man after God's own heart.

And many people have thought for a long time, like, what is it about David that made him like that?

It's a lot of different things.

You know, one that comes to mind is he was a man who was willing to repent.

When Saul would make mistakes, Saul would make excuses.

He always had an excuse for why he made a terrible decision.

It was never his fault.

It was always because of extenuating circumstances, forcing his hand.

It's like, well, I you don't understand, I had to do it because if I wouldn't have, this would have happened, and I was scared, I was worried, blah, blah, blah.

He always had an excuse.

David isn't a man of excuses.

When David messes up, and he does royally.

When David messes up, he he re repents, he expresses remorse, he gets on his knees, he humbles himself before God, and he says, Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me, and he changes.

That's an aspect of what makes him a man after God's own heart.

But it's not the only thing.

I thought a lot about David's passion and his zeal for the Lord.

If if you've been in church, you have sung something that David wrote, more than likely.

David wrote most of the Psalms in the Bible.

These are songs.

And so many of those have been taken, and even today they become lyrics in the worship songs that we sing.

And you may have never even realized it, but one day you're going to open up the book of Psalms and go, I've sung these words before.

And it's the words of David because his passion for the Lord was so great that in his spare time he wrote music and wrote songs to praise and honor God.

So he had a passion and a zeal for God unlike any other.

And that's a part of what made his heart so special.

But there's this other aspect of David that I never really noticed before.

And this hit me about two months ago.

I was actually doing some preparation, some study for this.

And I was looking at David's life, and to be honest, he's someone that I've studied so much.

I've multiple times I've thought we were going to do a whole series just on the life of David.

And so it's funny because this is the first time I've really talked in detail about his life, but multiple times in the past I've planned an entire message series about him.

It's just never come to fruition.

I've spent a lot of time studying David, but there was this one thing that jumped out to me about David that I had never noticed before, and it's what I want to focus on today.

Because I think it's an aspect of what made him so special.

It's an aspect of what made his heart so unique, and it's something that all of us can learn from in an amazing way.

And so I want to jump into one of the most defining moments of his life.

It's a moment most of us are familiar with, and it's going to give us a little hint of what it is about David that makes him so special.

And this is the story of David fighting Goliath.

If you don't know the story, David shows up to this camp to bring food to his brothers who are in the army, and they're kind of at a face-off with the Philistines, who are their enemies.

And the Philistines have this soldier named Goliath, and he's just, he's huge.

He's the biggest guy, he's super intimidating, everyone's afraid of him.

And Goliath is taunting Israel, and he's taunting God, and he's challenging anyone brave enough to fight him, and no one will.

But David arrives and he finds out what's going on.

He finds out what the king has said.

The king Saul has basically said, Hey, if anyone will fight him and beat him, I'll give you all this money, I'll let you marry one of my daughters.

Like Saul is basically bribing his own men to fight the battle, a battle that I guess he was too scared to fight himself.

And David hears about all this and he's like, I'll fight him.

And they they let him fight Goliath, even though he's very young, probably a teenager, maybe, maybe early 20s at this point in his life.

And it looks like there's no way that he could possibly win the battle.

And so he shows up and Goliath looks at him and just almost is offended that this is who Israel would send.

Like this guy?

Like, are you serious?

Do you not take me seriously?

And so he taunts David and he taunts God.

But then in 1 Samuel chapter 17, David replies to the Philistine, to Goliath.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

He says, You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin.

But I come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head, and I will give the dead bodies of you, and of your men, to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel, and everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear.

This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us.

Okay, so bold words.

David is good at trash talk.

Right?

He says, Hey, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin.

That's great.

I come in the name of the Lord, and I'm gonna kill you, and I'm gonna cut off your head, which is very specific.

And it's exactly what happens.

It's exactly what happens.

It's bloody, it's gross, and it's awesome.

And so there's this huge battle, and Israel wins, and the Philistines are defeated that day, and David is like, he's the guy.

And everyone knows David's name, David is famous, David is awesome.

This becomes a big part of why Saul hates him so much and tries to kill him because Saul gets jealous of David.

But in this conversation, in the way that David responds to Goliath, we see this glimpse of something about him, something that he understands that makes him unique, that makes him worthy of being king, something about his heart.

And I never connected these dots until I was reading a different story about David, a really interesting story, where there's this guy named Nabal, and at this point in David's life, he is an outlaw.

He has had to flee his home because Saul, the king, is trying to kill him because he's so jealous of him.

So David has a group of men who are loyal to him and they're living on the run.

And they're basically just having to live off the land, and they end up settling in this area next to a man named Nabal who owns a lot of land, he has a lot of wealth.

And David and his men basically say, Hey, we've been here for a long time, we haven't done anything wrong, we've never even taken one of your livestock animals and used it for food.

We've actually protected your flocks.

Would you mind giving us some of your leftovers so that we can be taken care of?

And Nabal insults David.

And so David's kind of had it.

Like if it's kind of like when you have kids and they come and they they say the wrong thing at like the worst possible time.

Like they just don't realize that this is not the moment.

Like you've had it, you're at the end of your rope, and so you're just, you're like, you have a hair trigger, you can explode at any moment.

Well, that's what happens basically.

David's servants come to him and say, hey, here's what Nabal said, and David says, All right, get your swords, let's go down there and let's have a conversation with Nabal.

But Nabal happens to have an amazing wife named Abigail.

And she, unlike her husband, is very wise.

She finds out that David and his men are coming armed because of what her husband foolishly did, and she's like, I've got to do something, I've got to stop this from happening.

And so here's what happens: 1 Samuel chapter 25.

1 Samuel 25 · chapter mention

Abigail intercepts David.

It says, When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.

She fell at his feet and said, Pardon your servant, my Lord, and let me speak to you.

Hear what your servant has to say.

Please pay no attention, my Lord, to that wicked man, Nabal.

That's her husband.

He's just like his name.

His name means fool, and folly goes with him.

And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my Lord sent.

And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives, and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my Lord be like Nabal.

And let this gift which your servant has brought to my Lord be given to the men who follow you.

Please forgive your servant's presumption.

The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my Lord, because you fight the Lord's battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.

This is big for David because he's about to do something wrong.

He is about to exact revenge and get into all kinds of bloodshed needlessly.

David responds by saying, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.

May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.

It's like Abigail reminds David of something in this moment that makes him very unique and special.

And it's that David is the one who fights the Lord's battles.

Now, at the moment when Abigail intercepts David, he's on his way to fight his own battle.

He's upset, he's offended, he's on his way to essentially exact revenge on someone who has hurt him and has crossed him.

He's on his way to fight his own personal battle.

But Abigail wisely intercepts him and says, Hey, you're the one who fights the Lord's battles, not your own.

You go back to what David said to Goliath in verse 45 of 1 Samuel 17.

David replied to the Philistine, You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin.

I come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Today the Lord will conquer you.

David did not see Goliath as his rival.

He did not see Goliath as his enemy.

He saw Goliath as the enemy of the Lord, the one who had defied God himself.

In David's mind, he was simply fighting on behalf of the Lord.

And this is one of the things that makes David so unique, so different than Saul.

Saul was obsessed with fighting his own little battles.

To the point where he was often too distracted to fight the battles that he ought to have been fighting, to fight his actual enemies.

He was so focused on what people thought and the fame that David had and the love that David had of the people that he fought his own personal battles to the detriment of his own kingdom.

But David isn't like Saul.

David David fights the Lord's battles.

We see this over and over again.

It's so interesting.

You know, you go back to the moment where David shows up to fight Goliath, and there's this moment where you can see an opportunity for him to fight his own little personal battle to get sucked into some drama.

Because when he arrives, you know, he's trying to find out what's already happened.

And he's kind of perplexed.

And so in 1 Samuel 17, 26, it says, David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

And the people answered him in the same way.

So shall it be done to the man who kills him.

Now Eliab, his eldest brother, who had heard him speak to the man.

Remember, Eliab is the one that that Samuel thought this guy must be the king, and God's like, No, no, it's David.

So Eliab hears him.

And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why have you come down?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.

So we'll pause here for a second.

You know, Eliab, it's interesting, multiple different fronts.

I think it's very interesting that Eliab accuses David's heart.

That's the very thing that God liked about David.

The very thing that made David special, God said it's his heart, and Eliab accuses his heart.

He says, You have a bad heart, that's why you're here.

Sometimes people, this is a little bit of an aside, sometimes people will accuse you in the very area of life that God is most pleased with you.

And so when that happens, discern that and cast it aside.

But there's this moment, right?

David's there, and it's like he's been sent for a purpose.

And he's trying to discern what God wants him to do, and Eliab his brother, all of a sudden makes it personal.

All of a sudden, you know, takes this personal dig at David.

It's obviously rooted in jealousy or some type of bitterness.

And David has an opportunity here now to take his focus and attention away from the battle at hand and just to focus all of his frustration on Eliab.

You know, this is a moment where he could fight his brother, get in an argument with his brother, maybe even get physical with his brother.

But here's what David does: David said, verse 29, What have I done now?

Was it not but a word?

In other words, I just asked a question, dude.

And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

He doesn't get distracted with his own little personal beef with his brother.

He has bigger things to attend to.

Because he's the one who fights the Lord's battles.

Saul made it his entire life's purpose to get rid of David.

And there's this famous story of David and his men hiding in a cave.

And Saul, on a hunt for David, shows up in the exact same cave.

And the statistical odds of this are very low.

There's a lot of caves in Israel.

And David has an opportunity to take Saul out and be done with this life of being an outlaw.

We see this in 1 Samuel chapter 24.

1 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

It says, at the place where the road passes some shores.

Sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself.

The Bible gives us so many wonderful details.

It's so descriptive.

I love it.

But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave.

Now is your opportunity.

David's men whispered to him, Today the Lord is telling you, I will certainly put your enemy into your power to do with you as you wish.

Be careful when other people tell you what the Lord is saying to you.

If God wants you to know something, he might tell you.

But all of David's men are saying, Hey, clearly this is God saying, like, take him out.

I mean, what are the odds?

We're hiding in this cave, and Saul, Saul, the very one that's chasing us, he's in here.

He's going to the bathroom.

Like, this is it.

Clearly, God has delivered him into our hands.

And you can see where they would think that.

So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul's robe.

But then David's conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul's robe.

He's like, What have I done?

All he did was like cut off a piece of his robe, kind of to send him a message.

He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this to my Lord the King.

I shouldn't attack the Lord's anointed one.

For the Lord himself has chosen him.

So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.

Why?

Well, because this whole thing between Saul and David, that is Saul's battle.

That is David's battle.

That's personal beef.

And David is the one who fights the Lord's battles.

And the Lord has not told him to fight Saul.

The Lord has not called him to battle Saul.

He does not see Saul as the enemy of the Lord.

Saul is the king of God's people.

And even if Saul is treating him unfairly, he does not have the right to fight the king.

And David, in this moment, he gets close.

Like he's tempted to fight his own battle, but he stops and says, No, this is not the Lord's battle.

And so he relents.

This happens in David's life over and over again.

Over and over again.

If we go to 2 Samuel chapter 15, this is a really interesting moment in David's life.

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

He has a son named Absalom who has risen up against him and has gotten all the people on his side.

And there's basically a coup happening, and David has to flee.

He has to flee Jerusalem, his own capital city.

And there's this priest named Zadok who's going to show up with the Ark of the Covenant.

That was this symbol of God's presence.

It was God's presence wherever the ark was in the people's minds, that's where God's presence was.

And Zadok is faithful to David.

And so they're on their way out of Jerusalem.

In 2 Samuel 15, it says, Zadok and all the Levites came along carrying the ark of the covenant of God.

And they set the ark down.

And Abiather offered sacrifices until everyone had passed out of the city.

And then the king instructed Zadok to take the ark back into the city.

That's back where Absalom is.

He says, No, take it back.

He says, If the Lord sees fit, he will bring me back to see the ark and the tabernacle.

Again, the tabernacle was where they worshiped.

But if he's through with me, then let him do what seems best to him.

So here's David, the rightful king.

At this point in time, Saul has died.

David's been the king for a while, and Israel's never had more success than they've had under David, but his son Absalom, you know, convinces all the people, stirs up all kinds of trouble, ends up forcing him out.

And his own men, the priests, the ones that are the closest to God, are like, hey, like, we're coming with you, and so is the ark.

It doesn't belong in Jerusalem with Absalom, who's just a poser.

It belongs with you.

And David says, you know what?

No.

If the Lord sees fit, he'll bring me back here.

Let's see how this works out.

Let's see what happens.

Who knows?

Maybe God is with Absalom.

In other words, David says, I'm not about to fight a personal battle with my own son.

Even though he's usurped the throne from me, let's see what the Lord wants to do.

Because David, again, I know I'm hammering the same nail in over and over again.

David is the one who fights the Lord's battles.

And this separates him from Saul.

Saul spent his whole life fighting his own little battles wherever he could.

And it wasn't just with David, by the way, there's a story in 1 Samuel chapter 22.

1 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

There was a priest who had helped David and his men escape, not knowing what was going on.

And in 1 Samuel 22, it says King Saul immediately sent for Ahimelech and all his family, that's the priest.

When they arrived, Saul shouted at him, Listen to me, you son of Ahatub.

By the way, this whole series, the number of names that I've had to try to say correctly, it's just, can we all stop for a second and acknowledge that it's not, no, no, I'm not asking for applause.

You can guess clap.

You're clapping for mispronunciation.

I promise you that.

I just want to say, I'm trying and I'm just faking it.

What is it, my king?

Ahimelech asked.

Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me?

Saul demanded.

Why did you give him food and a sword?

Why have you consulted God for him?

Like, why have you prayed for him?

Like, that's what he says.

Why have you encouraged him to kill me as he's trying to do this very day, which he wasn't?

But, sir, Ahimelech replied, Is anyone among all your servants as faithful as David, your son-in-law?

Why, he's he's the captain of your bodyguard and a highly honored member of your household.

This was certainly not the first time I had consulted God for him.

May the king not accuse me and my family in this matter, for I knew nothing at all of any plot against you.

You will surely die, Ahimelech, along with your entire family, the king shouted.

And he ordered his bodyguards, kill these priests of the Lord, for they are allies and conspirators with David.

They knew he was running away from me, but they didn't tell me.

But Saul's men refused to kill the Lord's priests.

Then the king said to Doeg, You do it.

So Doeg the Edomite turned on them and killed them that day, eighty-five priests in all, while they were still wearing their priestly garments.

That's Saul.

What's he doing?

He's fighting his own battles.

And you have David who will not do the same because he fights the Lord's.

And so here's the obvious takeaway, but it's it's more challenging than we might think.

Again, it's so crazy that these stories from 3,000 years ago and these people who live very different lives and very different concerns would have so much to say to us, but this is for me at least, and I believe it's for you.

Here's the takeaway fight the right battles.

Fight the right battles.

You know, I think sometimes the the battle language in our faith can be a little bit over overdone, you know, maybe.

You know, it's very there's a lot of battle stories in the Bible, there's a lot of battle metaphors in the Bible, and sometimes sometimes some people can take it a little too far, maybe.

At the same time, like, no, not at all.

Because I actually think something that we struggle with is recognizing just how many battles we're fighting on a day-to-day basis.

Like we fight all the time.

Right?

A battle is just anything that, any resistance that comes your way as you try to move forward in life.

You think you think about all the battles that you actually have to fight.

All of all the people who push back against you, all of the situations in life, sometimes it's like large scope sort of circumstances that are really hard for us to come against and and to push through.

We have spiritual enemies.

We have an enemy, we have like the devil, Satan, fighting against us.

And so this language of battles and warfare in the Bible, I think it's meant to be taken seriously because we are people who fight battles all the time.

The problem is much of the time we fight the wrong ones.

And we waste all kinds of energy and time and mental energy and thought, focus, you name it.

We waste so much of it fighting battles that aren't worth our time.

Because they're not the Lord's battles, they're just our own.

What if we were like David?

What if we were people who said, you know what?

I will fight the right battles in my life.

I will spend all of my energy, all of my focus, all of my talent on the battles that the Lord would have me to fight.

And I won't give any energy to the ones that don't matter.

I think that would change most of our lives.

And I'm not accusing you, by the way, of fighting the wrong battles.

I'm just saying I do.

Like it's it's so easy.

So, okay, let's let's talk for a second.

How do you know if something's the wrong battle?

Well, number one, is it petty?

Let's start there.

Is it petty?

Because if it's petty, it doesn't matter.

And so I'll give you an example yesterday.

Um, it's funny how often, like, I will do the very thing that I'm teaching about not doing the day before I give a message.

And it's like almost like God is, He lets me do it just so he can be like, hey, idiot.

And then I go, oh, and I'm grateful for a story to tell the next day, which is always nice.

And so yesterday, it's just kind of a crazy day, and a really good day, but there's a lot going on in my life right now, and and almost all of it's awesome, but some of it's you know hard.

And so, you know, I've got, for example, this is not a big thing, but like I have some goals in my life, and some kind of big goals.

Um, I turned 40 in July, and I'd like to have I'd like to be in really good shape in my 40s, okay?

I've had a dad bod since I was 20 years old, and it's actually kind of nice because some you might look at me and think, man, not bad for 40.

And I bet he was in great shape at 20.

Nope, it's been the same the whole time.

I've just maintained mediocrity all these years, okay?

But honestly, like I want to in my 40s, I'm going, okay, like it's time to, it's time to take this stuff more seriously.

And so I do want to, I want to be in like really good shape.

And so, in order to do that, I've had some friends who have really challenged me to kind of set some serious goals, not just piddle anymore, but like really set some serious goals.

And it's it's actually hard.

It takes a tremendous amount of focus to like stick to it, to the diet, to the workout routine, and all this kind of stuff.

And uh, and so that takes a lot of mental energy, again, not a huge deal, but a big goal in my life that I have to fight.

There's resistance because there's sugar and carbs, and I can't have them, and I want them.

And I have to fight that.

It actually takes, it actually right now it takes a lot of my energy every day to fight that battle.

Okay, that's an example.

And so yesterday I'm dealing with that, and you know, I get cranky because I'm like detoxing from all the kind of foods that I'm used to eating.

And then I've got some personal stuff going on, and this is not meant for sympathy.

It's all okay.

Okay?

My grandmother passed away on Friday, and so as soon as we're done today, I've got to go to the airport and I've got to fly out.

Her funeral is uh actually tomorrow, and she's my last grandparent, she was my last grandparent, really sweet, 87 years old, and she'd asked me two years ago if I would speak at her funeral, and I said, of course.

And she's like that grandma who's been telling us it's her last Christmas for 30 years.

Like, legitimately.

Every Christmas, she's like, This is my last one.

And this year she was right, you know, like eventually, if you say it every year, it happens.

But I just never, honestly, even though she's asked me to speak at her funeral, I think maybe because she says every year it's her last one, and it never has been, I just, she's 87, but it really hit me as a surprise.

It was it was out of nowhere.

And so, you know, I'm leaving today to do that.

And I've just I've got four children, and our lives are crazy and busy, and there's the church, like I lead this thing.

And so a lot going on, right?

Trying to have some fitness goals, lead the church well, I got family stuff.

I'm dealing with all that yesterday, and then this thing happened that didn't matter at all.

At all, but it became my absolute obsession for an hour.

I've been trying to sell this thing on eBay, and I've sold it three times, three different times, and it's sold, and then the person has backed out of the sale, which is very annoying.

Like, and by very annoying, I mean a minor inconvenience in my life because I hit a button and it relists it, and I just have to wait a little longer, okay?

But yesterday I get this message from this guy who bought it, and he's like, hey, cancel the order.

And I was like, Are you serious?

I'm like texting this guy, because I'm just I'm done, I don't want to deal with this.

And he's like, Yeah, it's taking too long for you to ship it.

I was like, Well, that's because when you bought it, I was on vacation.

And I messaged you immediately after you bought it and said, Hey man, thanks for the purchase.

I'm on vacation this week.

I will send it to you as soon as I get home.

And you replied, if you'll scroll up a few seconds, and you said, Okay, no problem.

So, what has changed?

And we go back and forth for 30, 40 minutes.

And I'm just like, this guy, you know, NY Shaw, whoever that is on eBay, New York Shaw, this jerk, and so I'm just like super focused.

And like, literally for 45 minutes, even one of my kids came in the room and I was like super dismissive, like, because I'm sitting here trying to text this guy.

And literally, I have this moment of clarity, and it's like the Lord slapped me upside the head and was like, hey, idiot.

I'm teasing the Lord, he's really nice to me, but sometimes, you know, tough love is good.

But I realized, like, why am I fighting this battle?

Of all the things that should be taking mental energy, focus, emotional bandwidth, NY Shaw should be like nowhere near the top of my mind.

And I realized I just stop, and I just, you know, gave him a bad review on eBay.

No, I'm just joking, I didn't do that.

Um, actually, I just said, hey, you got it, cancel the order, realistic, whatever.

Because in that moment, that battle was the wrong battle.

It was petty, it was pointless.

Like, what happens if you win that battle?

Nothing.

And so often in life we're like that, right?

We have actual legitimate battles to fight.

We have actual things that are important that require our attention, that we will face resistance if we want to do them well, but instead we get sidetracked and distracted by some petty thing that doesn't matter at all, and we fight the wrong battle.

So, are you fighting a petty battle in your life right now?

And if you are, just stop.

Just stop.

It's not worth your time.

We can know that battles are the wrong battles, not just when they're petty, but like with Saul, when they're entirely personal.

When it's just because you're offended.

You know, when someone says something to you and it bothers you, and you become obsessed with it, and you find yourself even like running through scenarios in your mind where you're having an argument with the person that's not even there.

And you're and you're really like, and you're winning that argument.

Have you ever had those fantasies?

Like you're like crushing the argument in your mind with the person who's not there?

Or maybe you get offended on someone else's behalf.

I see this happen all the time.

You know, someone says something to your kids, someone says something to you know a friend of yours, and there's drama, and you kind of jump in the drama on behalf of someone else, and now you're involved in some battle you have no business being in.

Like it's amazing how how frustrated I've been with children who have been like rude to my child in the past.

And then I'm like, oh yeah, they're kids, like they're children.

Like I've actually driven, I've driven by 12-year-old boys in my neighborhood and like been that jerk.

Like I've thought that because that kid had something with my son.

I'm like, he's 12.

Like, what's wrong with me?

Because we get offended easily, and we we definitely get offended on behalf of those that we love, and and sometimes in that we get sucked into some type of rivalry, battle, whatever word you want to use, it's just drama, and it doesn't deserve any of our attention, and it sucks all of our energy away from what we ought to be focusing on.

We're fighting the wrong battle.

If it's petty, if it's just personal out of some type of offense, it is not worth your time.

And if if right now you're saying to yourself, yeah, I actually am engaged in some of that kind of stuff, just stop.

Because the Lord has far more important things for you to focus on.

So we know we know if a battle is petty or personal, it's probably not the right one.

How else can we can we know if we're fighting the right battles?

Well, what season of life are you in?

That's a great place to start.

You know, there's one moment, really one major moment in David's life, where he he stops following God's will and he actually takes, he kind of takes Saul's example for the first time ever.

And you may be familiar with this story.

We find it in uh in 2 Samuel chapter 11.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

It says, in the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, in other words, when it's the season that kings ought to be leading their armies in battle, David sent Joab and the Israelite army out to fight the Ammonites.

They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah.

However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, after his midday nap, you know, he ought to be out leading his army.

Instead, he's having his midday nap, which is nice.

David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace.

As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

So he sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to the palace, he slept with her.

He has this affair with Bathsheba, she becomes pregnant, he panics, he has this elaborate plan to get out of it, it doesn't work, so he ends up having Uriah, who's the who's the husband of Bathsheba, murdered, and he takes Bathsheba as his own wife, and because of this sin, because of all that he does, the consequences for his kingdom are severe, and there's so many consequences.

In fact, even Absalom, who ends up later trying to usurp his power, that ultimately is a result of the sin that he had with Bathsheba.

And it's the one moment in his life where instead of fighting the Lord's battles as he ought to have been doing, he ends up engaging in this personal drama and mess.

And he's like Saul, he's fighting his own stupid battle to cover up his own stupid decision.

And all of it would have been avoided if he was just doing what he ought to have been doing in that season.

Because it says that this was the time when kings go out to war.

This was the season when he was supposed to be fighting the right battles, and he said no to that one, and he got mixed up in all this other stuff instead.

One of the biggest things that helps us fight the right battles is knowing what season of life we're in.

So, like if you're a parent, ooh, that is a battle.

Raising children, it's a battle sometimes.

And it's a battle you have to win.

It's a battle you have to win.

And I was a youth pastor for 10 years.

The number one thing that I noticed in the kids who I saw struggle the most, especially in their later teen years, was that their parents just quit parenting them.

Because it's hard to parent your kids.

Because kids don't appreciate being parented.

I've never heard one of my children come up to me and say, Dad, you know, I just want to tell you, thanks so much for valuing discipline and for caring about what's best for me instead of what I want.

Never heard that in my home.

In fact, you know, I this I do most of this with my my boys.

I do parent my daughter.

It is different.

My kids all think I love her more than them, my boys.

It's not true, she's just much better behaved.

It's just a simple, logical thing.

I'm half teasing.

My boys know I love them.

But I have this thing with my boys where we have a repeat conversation almost every day with one of them.

And there's several questions that I ask them.

If they're misbehaving, if something's up, I look them in the eyes, because I always teach my sons, men look each other in the eye.

So I'm like, look, look me in the eyes.

And I get on their level, I don't just like demand them look at me.

I get low and I say, look me in the eyes.

And the first question I ask is, Why do I love you?

And then know the answer to that.

They repeat it, because you love me.

And I'm like, that's right.

I love you because I love you.

I love you no matter how you behave.

I love you no matter what.

I will love you tomorrow.

I love you right now.

Even when you're at your worst, I love you.

I love you because I love you.

But then the next question is, What is my job?

And they know the answer.

They look me back in the eyes and they say, To teach me to be a good man.

And I say, Correct.

It is my job to teach you to be a good man.

And good men do not behave this way.

And here's why.

And then they fight and they yell, and it gets worse.

But I stick to my guns.

I stick to my guns.

Because it's much easier to have good kids than it is to develop good adults.

Left to their own, children will not make the right decisions nine times out of ten.

And it's up to us as parents to parent them.

And so if you're in a season of parenting, guess what?

Ding ding ding.

You know what season it is.

That teaches you a lot about what battles you ought to be fighting.

And so if you get if you get caught up in all kinds of other stuff, it's just a distraction keeping you from fighting the battles you're supposed to fight right now.

You've got to raise your kids.

You've got to set examples for them.

You've got to teach them what's right.

You've got to discipline them.

You've got to encourage them.

You've got to give them wisdom.

And that takes so much energy and focus.

And so if that's your season, commit to the right battles.

If you're a student right now, learn.

Study.

Grow.

You have to fight for that sometimes.

Because it's so easy to be distracted and to not focus on what you're supposed to focus on in your season.

So if you're a student, or if maybe you're very young in your career, make it your purpose, your battle just to grow and develop and learn and master the things that you're supposed to master.

And don't get distracted with petty, personal, distracting battles.

A big part of what helps us know the right battles to fight is to know what season we're in.

So maybe, maybe spend some time discerning what's my season.

And the Lord will help you with that.

Because maybe you're in a unique season, but the Lord will show you this is your season, and right now, in this season, this is the battle at hand.

David lost sight of that for a moment and it almost destroyed his kingdom.

And it definitely destroyed much of the peace that he had had up to that point in his life.

What season are What's the battle you're supposed to fight?

Is there something God has called you to do?

Is there something that the Lord has truly called you to do?

And if He has, that has to be your battle.

That has to be what you fight for.

And you've got to fight.

You've got to fight for it sometimes.

Especially in a culture that we live in like right now, where there's so many things going on and it seems so crazy all the time.

Every time you turn on the news, every time you pull up a headline, you're just like, that's insane.

It's so tempting to try to fight every little battle that you see around you, to jump into every little conflict, every little cultural thing that you disagree with.

Sometimes I actually feel as a pastor this like pressure that I have to comment on every single societal issue that is going on at all times.

And the number of times that I have started to write like a social media post to sort of put my stamp on this issue, and I've written it out like and it's long and I feel like well-worded and logical.

And then I just don't.

Because I have this moment where I go, like, Lord, have you called me into this battle?

Have you summoned me into this fight?

And if the answer is no, then I'm just not going to fight it.

Because I actually have I have important things to do.

And if God hasn't called me into it, maybe I just need to pray for all of those who are involved and not jump into something that God hasn't called me into.

If the Lord has called you into something, man, fight for it.

And fight hard.

And give it your all.

Because it's your calling.

If God has asked you to do something, one day you're going to stand in front of him and you've got to say, God, I did everything I could to do what you asked me to do.

And that's going to include ignoring a lot of other distractions, a lot of other possible battles, maybe even righteous battles, but they're not your battle.

Pray, ask, Lord, what have you called me to do?

What have you called me to be?

And let me give that my all, and I'll fight those battles until there's no strength left within me.

The final one.

It's like when it comes to fighting the right battles, pick the obvious ones.

The ones that like you don't even have to wonder about.

Is this a battle I should fight?

You know, sometimes, sometimes we know exactly what our battles are.

Like some of you right now are going through situations in life and you don't even have to go, gee, I wonder what I'm supposed to focus on right now.

It's like clearly this crisis that's right in front of me.

Okay, if you've got a crisis, if you've got something that you've got to deal with, know that the Lord is with you and do not waste a second getting distracted with anything else happening around it.

Focus everything on that.

Sometimes those crises are our own personal battles.

Like maybe it's addiction.

You don't have to wonder whether or not God wants you to be free of addiction.

He does.

He doesn't want your life to be encumbered by any of that.

And so if that's your battle, like you know that the Lord wants you to win that one, to fight it.

Maybe it's temptation.

There's some type of struggle that you have, and you're just always tempted to do something, to think a certain way, and you wonder, ah, is this it?

Yeah, definitely, yes.

Because that's the enemy.

That is the enemy, that is Satan himself.

And we are called, by the way, to fight him.

Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12.

Ephesians 6:10–12

A final word be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies.

It doesn't say we're not fighting.

It says we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but we are fighting against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

James 4 7 says, Humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, fight him, and he will flee from you.

Isaiah 41, 10.

Don't be afraid, for I'm with you.

Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

You're gonna need God's help to fight some of the big battles in your life, but he's there for you.

And if you're struggling in those battles, maybe you've been fighting the maybe you know the right battle.

You're like, I know it, I've been fighting it for years.

It just doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere.

It just doesn't seem like I'm I'm winning.

I feel like I'm losing these battles.

Know that you're not alone.

God is with you and you're not alone.

We're told in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 9, stand firm against him, meaning the devil.

1 Peter 5:9

Be strong in your faith and remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering that you are.

Has anyone in this room been fighting a battle for the last few years and it feels like you're not getting anywhere, you're struggling, you feel like you're treading water, you're not moving, you're not alone.

You're not alone.

You've got brothers and sisters all over the world who are in the same spot you are.

Do not quit, do not give up, do not throw in the towel, you will win the war.

You might lose a few battles along the way, but you will win the war because you have the God of heaven's armies with you.

But for all of us, fight, fight the right battles.

That's what made David so special.

You know, his kingdom was messy, especially when he got off track.

But waste no time this week dealing with petty personal distractions.

Don't get in fights with people on eBay.

It's just, you know, lesson from my life.

Waste no time.

What has God called you to do?

What do you know He wants for your life?

What do you know is is worth your time in this season?

Give every ounce of your energy to fighting those battles.

And you will be like the David that God chose to be king.

You will be the one that God can look at and say, that's the one that fights my battles.

And here's the cool thing about fighting the Lord's battles, he doesn't lose.

He does not lose.

With that said, we're gonna wrap up by taking Lord's Supper.

And uh I dropped my Lord's Supper cup on my way out, and here's the bread.

I'm already sick, so it's it's okay.

You know, um I was thinking about this little meal that we take, and if by the way you miss the cups and the juice on your way in, there are tables in the bag.

Feel free to grab them.

It's amazing how often this little moment connects to what we're talking about, even without me thinking about it that much.

It's like, oh, Lord, how does this connect?

You know, I was thinking about what this represents, and if you don't know, the the bread represents the body of Jesus, which was crucified on the cross for us, the juice represents his blood that was spilled for us.

And it's amazing because here we are today talking about fighting the right battles, and this reminds us of the fact that there was one battle we could never have fought ourselves.

There was one battle we could never have won on our own.

We could never have defeated the power of sin, we could never have defeated the power of death, no matter how hard we tried.

And so, what did God do when in the one battle that we can't we can't win?

He fought it for us.

He said, I've got this.

This is too much for you, but don't worry about it, I've got it.

And when Jesus died on the cross, he took our sin, all of our failure on the cross with him, and he died as a sacrifice to pay the price for our mistakes.

And his blood, his blood purified.

We talked about that a few weeks ago, how blood was always seen in his culture as a purifying, consecrating thing.

His blood purified all of our impurity.

So now we are made righteous and clean and holy in front of our God, and it's all because Jesus won a battle that we could never have won.

So let's thank him for that.

Father, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you, Lord, for what it represents.

Your body broken for us on the cross.

Lord, we just ask that as we take this bread, you strengthen us.

Just like food is meant to strengthen our bodies, Lord, we ask that you strengthen us.

Give us the strength to fight the battles that you have called us to fight.

We thank you for fighting the ones we can't.

Let's take the bread.

Let's pray for the juice.

Lord, we thank you so much for this juice, for what it means.

It represents your blood spilled for us, that purifies us, that cleanses us, that covers us.

Lord, we are grateful and we recognize that you've done for us what we could never have done for ourselves.

And this is one battle we don't have to worry about.

We don't have to worry about whether or not our Father God loves us.

We don't have to worry about whether or not our Father God cares for us, forgives us, welcomes us into the family.

You took care of that on our behalf, and we thank you for that, Jesus.

We are eternally grateful.

And again, we ask for the strength.

Now that this battle has been conquered, Lord, we ask for the strength to fight the ones that are in front of us.

Let's take the juice.