The Turning Point in Your Battle

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

The title for today’s message is The Turning Point in Your Battle. The turning point in your battle. Allow me to pray once more. Lord, you’ve given me this word, Lord God, in such a timely manner. Lord, I pray that you lead us as we go into this word, that you make our hearts sensitive, Lord, to what you’re trying to do individually in every single one of our lives. And Lord, I pray that you enlighten our minds by your Spirit, that you help us understand the things that are hard for us to understand. Lord, if there’s any person here that has not experienced the washing of their sins, they still have shame, they still have guilt, they still hide things, they still don’t really like who they are, Lord, I pray that you bring deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ this morning, and that sinners may receive a song of joy in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray. Amen.

The turning point in your battle. We’re going into the word. The turning point in your battle. The turning point in your battle. I think for the Christian walk, when you have become a believer in Jesus Christ, there’s very few things as important as learning now to walk with Jesus. Many a church person kind of gets this reversed. It’s inherent, an inherent challenge of growing up in the church. If your parents raise you in church, that can be a real problem. No parent is supposed to raise their kid in church. They’re supposed to raise their kid in Christ. Amen. You may be around church all you want, but if your parents are not raising you in Christ, then growing up in church will actually, at times, give you a very big disadvantage. And what we’ve seen a lot of people really struggle with is they come to Jesus, they are willing to believe that He is Messiah. They are willing to believe that He came from heaven to give them undeserved freedom, to pay for their sins undeservingly.

They believe these things. But since they believed that their walk now is really defined and marked by a lot of defeat, a lot of character traits that are actually not really changed and still hurt people regularly or you're hurt your own journey regularly sin struggles that I'm believing I'm forgiven for and I keep running back to Jesus but I'm not walking in that victory. I do go to church, but I'm not necessarily walking in Christ in those areas where I have proved to be very very human and fall short time and time again and a kind of a belief can start to emerge. We don't really say it, but it's implied by how we respond to things and how we make decisions in our life. It's kind of this attitude that if a battle in your life is leaning one way, so if the battle is leaning towards, you're going to lose it. A lot of Christians go, "Oh," and they just fall to the ground and just let the enemy run all over them or let their flesh run wild and do whatever it pleases until the flesh is like, "Okay, I've stuffed myself. 

I am satisfied. Now I'll give you some rest until I grow hungry again and I want to be fed by you again. When the battle is leaning, a lot of Christians, a lot of church people, a lot of people that have in one aspect or another believed in Jesus, as soon as the battle starts leaning, they feel battle's over and they give in or fall over or are so terrified that the enemy is even tempting them that they've developed this belief if the enemy tempts me, I always end up falling. So, may as well. And the truth is, when a battle is leaning, it's not over. But when a battle is leaning, certain things do need to be done. When you look into history or when you watch certain epic, especially older movies of battles or or or certain fights that have been recorded and sometimes put on the screen in impressive ways, when a battle is leaning one way, things do need to change. But what do you see the strategist, the person that understands battle, what do you see them do? There's a moment of fleeing as soon as the battle starts leaning the wrong way. There's a moment of fleeing, a moment of importion. You could call it retreat. And then there's that incredible moment of regrouping. There’s a moment of fleeing. 

There’s a moment of regrouping—different plan, new plan, new strategy—and then they launch that attack. And in the best movies, now they start to win. Amen. And there’s this moment where the enemy is maybe larger in number or more impressive in strength, and for a moment there it doesn’t look very good. And a fleeing, a moment of fleeing, is reality. But because there is heart inside of these men, because of that, they’re not fleeing in fear. They’re not fleeing in terror. They have not given up yet. They are fleeing in order to regroup and now head right back into that battle and push back in a way, obviously, that the enemy may not see coming or does not expect. What we have to teach our hearts and understanding is that the Christian journey is not—and I’ve said it many times—you’re not at some kind of summer camp. You’re not—it’s not like work. Christianity is not like work. You don’t punch in the clock when you get to work and then tap out when you are done. You don’t get to go seek Jesus in the morning, have quality time with Him, and then you punch out of your Christianity. You go to work, you deal with your wife, you try to raise the kids the best you can, and then the evenings throughout the week that we have church, I come to church, I punch right back in, I become spiritual, I walk in my Christianity, I leave church, I punch out, and now I hit real life again.

When we live the Christianity, when we live our journey with Jesus the way that we do work, or the way that we do hobbies, or the way that we do other things that we can do momentarily, we become, every single time, defeated, because it’s not a temporary thing. The Word tells us that there is a battle going on, that there is a war going on, and the enemy does not rest. He does not sleep. He has strategies. He has workers. He has a kingdom, in the sense that there’s different authorities, so that they can give charge and direction to workers under them in order to make a charge at what is called the church of the living God—those people on the earth that Christ has come into their life. He has revealed the Father. He has shown them the power of the cross, and they have trusted God a tiny bit, just like Abraham did, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. And in trust response, they began to walk after God. Their trust is expressed in the sense that God said, “I’m going to take care of you,” so I don’t worry about myself anymore.

The trust is expressed in the sense that God says, “I paid. I sent My Son, and He paid for your sins. So I don’t try to pay for my sins anymore.” People begin to trust the Father, and they start this incredible journey. But it’s not a “now I have vacation in this world. I don’t have to work for my salvation anymore. Thank You, Jesus. Great deal.” And now I just get to kind of do whatever, have a great time here on earth, enjoy it, and one day go to heaven. There’s a war going on for the souls of men all around us. Every person you ever run into, there’s a war going on. The enemy is thinking about ways to shield that person somehow, some way, from Spirit-filled, born-again believers that cannot be quiet about Jesus. There’s a strategy to shield those people away from those that have the knowledge and the heart of God for eternal life for all who will believe on the name of Jesus. And there’s a strategy going on to try and shield all of these people that Jesus has saved and filled with His Spirit and filled with knowledge of His gospel—shield them into maybe a church building or anything of the likes. And if we can somehow separate those groups, we can limit casualties from the enemy’s perspective.

There’s a war going on for the souls of men. And you are filled with the Spirit—one of the people that is now not only a son and a daughter in the kingdom, not only a priest in the priesthood of the Lord, not only part of the family of God—you are also now part of the armies of the living God. You are also now enlisted in the armies of the living God. But when we don’t live that way, Paul tells us, right, no one entangled—no one that is enlisted in the army, no one that is in the warfare of what is going on in the fight of their life—no one like that begins to entangle themselves with civilian affairs for the time that it is war. Singular focus. Singular dedication. Singular output and input. It’s all intentional because there’s a war going on. When the war is won, we can go back to that. That’s when you get your life. When you come home, an eternity is reserved for you to enjoy and celebrate and rest and praise in the greatness and the majestic presence of our Lord.

But while we are still here, there is a battle going on. And if the enemy can make you feel or walk in defeat in your own personal battles, the guarantee for him is a whole lot stronger that you’re not going to get entangled with the battles for other people—the battles for other people’s lives. And so the strategy is fairly simple. If you can defeat the morale—the heart, the hope, the valiancy of a warrior—most of the battle’s already won. If those in a battle have lost heart and they are now cowardice and they are now full of fear, so much of the battle’s already won. That’s where it starts. And the enemy seeks to do that in your and my life because we are at war. Not because he thinks, “Oh, if I can just get him or her to do one more sin, then all of a sudden the blood of the cross does not have the power anymore to wash it away.” He knows that he has lost. He knows that you are forgiven for every sin that you will still commit before you go home to be with the Lord. He knows there is nothing he can do to somehow make you guilty of sin anymore.

What he goes after is your faith. Because what does the Word tell us? By faith, we enter into that new covenant, a covenant of better promises. If we begin to walk in unbelief again, we do not believe anymore that we are still forgiven. Now the enemy has us at a sweet spot. But before he gets us there, he begins to try to figure out what would be the most discouraging to that guy, what would discourage her heart the most, so that he—so that she—loses heart. How do I get the fight out of them? And that is a tailor-made journey for each and every single one of us. I’ve said it many times. Everybody is always obsessed with, “What is God’s will for my life?” Listen, it’s very easy to figure out the enemy’s will for your life because your flesh discerns that real good. You figure out the enemy’s will for your life, you start doing the opposite, and you’re going to be pretty on point. That’s a really good starting point. And when you have a hard morning and you’re like, “Man, Lord, I just don’t know Your will,” ask yourself for a moment, well, do I know what the devil would like me to do today? Yeah, I do.

I’m just going to start with the opposite. Trust that the Lord is going to show up and take me by the hand today. That is a really good starting point. But there’s a battle going on. And when the battle is leaning towards defeat, it’s not over. When the battle in your own life is leaning towards defeat, it’s not over. I had a really good talk this morning with one of my friends right here at the church, and he said, “This morning, I was kind of in a battle, and it was affecting my whole family, and everybody was kind of rushed and kind of had an attitude, and I just had this moment where I was like, ‘No,’ and I just changed my attitude.” And it began to affect everybody around me.

When the battle is leaning, it’s not over. But something needs to happen. There has to be a moment of regrouping so that a counterattack—so that a new plan, a new strategy—can actually be launched. Now, a lot of believers are stuck in the fleeing to God. So if a battle is leaning—remember, if a battle is leaning the wrong way, what happens? You flee, then you regroup, and you relaunch an attack. But a lot of believers are stuck in the fleeing. Every time the battle is leaning or the battle is lost, they do flee to God. They do flee to Jesus. They do believe that Jesus has forgiveness for them. They do believe that Jesus is willing to wash away all sin. They do believe that. They do flee to Jesus, but there’s no regrouping. There’s no launching. And they begin to live like that. Anytime that a battle seems to fall over, they just flee to Jesus. Anytime they are defeated, they just flee to Jesus. And it becomes their life cycle: I believe in Jesus, and I flee to Him. And in all reality, fleeing to Jesus is not a bad thing. But if that is all that you do in the battles of your life, you’re going to be fleeing to Jesus for the rest of your life, and you’re not going to be walking in victory.

Because you’re really good at fleeing to Jesus. You’ve practiced it. You’ve learned it. You do it very well—sometimes a little late, but you do it well. And if fleeing to Jesus was going to fix it, it would have been fixed by now. ’Cause that’s what the enemy does. He gets you to trip up, or to not like yourself, or your character trait to pop out, or your anger to lash out. And, and, and you get convicted by the Spirit, and you flee to Jesus. And if the enemy was so terrified of you fleeing to Jesus, he wouldn’t be so inclined to make you trip up. But what is he getting at? ’Cause when you live a life of fleeing to Jesus, you’re going to develop a belief. It’s quiet, and it’s still in the heart, but it’s a belief that says, “Who can I help? Who can I help? I’m still stuck myself. Who can I help?” And we become quiet about Jesus. We become quiet about freedom. We become quiet about the power of the Spirit of the living God. We all know it up here, because that’s what we believe. But you can get stuck in fleeing.

Let me read to you Romans 8:37. “Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Here’s what Paul says to the church: we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Here’s what Jesus did in my life—and He did it in your life, too. He caused me to be even more than a conqueror. And there are a lot of Christians—this is not true for their life. They don’t live like more than conquerors. They are continually fleeing to Jesus because they’re not conquerors, and they’re definitely not more than conquerors. They’re not living in victory. They’re not coming to Jesus because their neighbor is so stuck or because their friend is not believing. No, they’re coming to Jesus so often and so much because they are in a fleeing state of Christianity, and nothing in their life is really being resolved. And I flee to Jesus ’cause He patches me up. But I never really learn to walk. I never really learn to stand on the rock, which is Christ. I don’t walk in freedom. I’m not more than a conqueror. And for those people, the Lord has given us this simple word: the turning point in your battle. The turning point in your battle. I want to take you to the story of Abimelech. Abimelech was king—though he was not justly king. He made himself king. He wanted to be king. And before I take you into this story, I want to remind you of Romans 15, verse 4. We look at it often, but I want you to remember this by heart: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Every single story, every single account in the Old Testament was written so that we may learn something. And when that begins to happen, the Scriptures produce something inside of us that is called hope. And that is what the enemy tries to kill in us. He tries to take that hope out so that we become warriors without heart, that will not pick a battle, not fight anymore. The Scriptures seek to produce hope in us through all of these Old Testament stories so that you may be full of hope and not lose heart.

So how do I learn to trust God through this story? That is always the glasses you want to put on when you begin to read in the Old Testament. What does God want me to learn from this story? So that today, with what I’m going through, today with what I’m called to do, today in my generation, there’s a people full of hope, a people ready to pick a fight. Amen. Amen. Abimelech—let’s look at the story in Judges chapter 9. If you have your Bibles, Judges chapter 9. Like I said, Abimelech made himself king in a terrible way. Judges 9, starting in verse 4. We’ll do verse 4 and 5. “So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him. Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, because he hid himself.”

So here we have Abimelech. This is how he rose to power. He killed all of his brothers, all of his family that was any threat, in his opinion, to his ability to take power, to rule, and to seize power over the people. And he continues this journey, and we read of an almost unstoppable Abimelech—really impressive stories. Town after town after town, he seizes it. He wins. If he shows up, they lose. And the stories would have spread like wildfire through the region. When Abimelech shows up, I mean, this man comes off like a warrior. When you read the stories, you really begin to see the picture of an incredible leader, an incredibly powerful leader. In one of the accounts, he marches to the top of a hill, and he begins to chop down a tree, and he carries it on his back. And he tells his men, “Do the same thing that I’m doing. Imitate me.” And he carries all of them to one of the cities, sets the whole tower on fire, and conquers that city. 

I mean, the stories are incredible of what kind of a strong man this seems to be. And then we read, in verse 50 to 55, the story of when Abimelech went to Thebez. “Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he encamped against Thebez and took it. But there was a strong tower in the city, and all the men and women—all the people of the city—fled there and shut themselves in. Then they went up to the top of the tower. So Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it, and he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire.”

Now, this tower—archaeology-wise—has been found. The remains of the tower have been found, and we know that it was a tower constructed of roughly hewn stones. It was square, about thirty-eight feet by thirty-eight feet. It was a large stone tower made of large hewn stones. And then we read verse 53: “But a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull.” Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor-bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his young man thrust him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his place.

So here we read this incredible story of someone, at this point, perceived as invincible. Abimelech shows up. The people run to this tower built for their safety. They flee to it. They get to the top, and a woman—we don’t even know her name—looks around and sees a stone laying, a millstone. It would have been the smaller one of the two. And, and, and she grabbed it and just pushed it over the edge, and it crushes Abimelech’s head—deadly wounded, and he knows it. And all of the armies are scattered. They all pull back, every man, the Word says, to his own place. But this really became the story of a woman. And it could have been so easily a man. But remember, all these things that have been written before are written for our learning, that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, we may have hope. Why is this story here, Jesus? And what are You trying to teach me? What am I to learn from this story so that I have hope when I am in my battle, and when I’m approached by an enemy that I have been known to know as the one that wins when he picks battles? He looks impressive. He looks strong. He attacks all the time and everybody. And when he shows up, people give up. And when people do not give up, they are overwhelmed and overcome.

I have an enemy like that. But here’s a story that is very similar. But there’s a woman in that story. A woman had, in herself, no inheritance in that generation, in that time. No vote. No voice. Status-wise, unless she was married, one of the lower categories in that time. But it is a woman that crushes the head of Abimelech, who was not a true king, not anointed, not put in place by the Lord, but a rebellious king who sought to seize power over people. We have this woman that represents the bride of Christ, who has a stone and pushes it over the edge. Now remember, we are talking about the turning point in your battle. And we see them first when the battle’s leaning the wrong way. We see them flee to this stone tower. Then we see that there’s a moment of regrouping, at least in the heart of this woman. And she begins to look around at what she does have. And there’s another stone there. And she pushes it over the edge. It may not have looked like much, but yet this stone is what ended up wounding this enemy to death and crushing the battle, and, and, and evaporating the battle all of a sudden out of people’s lives.

This counterfeit king attacks and oppresses people. And it is fine that people run and flee to a tower well-built, made out of large stones. But there needs to be a turning point in the battle. There needs to be a turning point in your battle. Just as we see right here with Abimelech, that moment of regrouping, church, is so incredibly important. It is so important because that is where the turning point of your battle really starts. We don’t just flee to a strong tower and shut ourselves in and then try to wait the enemy out. Many of you have tried it, and you come to find out he has a longer fuse than I do. He has more patience than I do. He will just starve me out until I finally give in, or until I’m finally overtaken. There has to be a turning point in all of our battles, a moment of regrouping where we come to our senses and we take spiritual inventory and say, “Well, what do I have? I’m fleeing to Jesus. I’m fleeing to my strong tower, but what do I have?” And a stone is cast on this enemy, causing a deadly wound. And all of the enemy forces—instantly—they are scattered, going back, leaving the city. Proverbs 18:10: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Nothing wrong with fleeing to Jesus when the battle is leaning, church.

Nothing wrong with fleeing to Jesus. But you have to regroup. You have to remember who you are. You have to remember what you have in Christ Jesus. You have to remind yourself who God is, where He is when the battle is leaning, what He has given you when the battle is leaning. Psalm 18, verse 2: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” When I flee to the tower that is built for me and for my safety, I need to have a moment of regrouping—coming to my senses and saying, “Clearly, I am under attack. I’m reminded that this is a war. But what do I have?” And the Word says, the Lord is my rock. The Lord is with me. The Rock of all the ages is with me. And this woman, representing the church, just pushes that rock over the edge of the tower, and it crushes, all of a sudden, the enemy’s head. She put her trust in that rock. Maybe this rock can make a difference.

When we flee to Jesus—and we come to our senses and say, “What do I have?”—because I don’t have the strength to fight this enemy. That’s why I had to flee. I don’t have the ability to go downstairs, open the door of the tower, and just take him on in my own strength. But what do I have? What’s laying around here? The Lord is my rock. All I can do is now launch a different kind of attack and say, “I put my trust in this rock. I put my trust in my Lord. He’s my shield, the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold.” We have to come to the place where we say, I have fled from the battle to Jesus, and now I’m turning and remembering what He has promised me, what the Father has given me in Christ. The Lord told me that no weapon formed against me would prosper. Clearly, the weapons will be formed. Clearly, those weapons will come against me. Clearly, I’m going to notice them. But now that I have fled to my strong tower, my Jesus, I remember what He has promised me. I remember what He has purchased for me.

I’m regrouping in this moment, and I’m going to launch a different kind of attack—not one that is mustered up in my own strength, not one that is based on my spiritual growth, “I’m stronger now than the enemy”—none of it. I’m placing my trust in the rock, my trust in the rock which is Christ, which has been placed in my life. I flee to Jesus. I regroup. And then I bring Jesus to my battle. Church, we are, in so many ways, not walking anywhere close to how Jesus walked. We want to be His disciples. We want to be changed more and more into His likeness. We want to learn to trust the Father in measure the way that Jesus was also showing that trust towards the Father. But so many times, we do have to flee because the battle’s leaning. But a leaning battle is not over. Flee to Jesus, remember what you have, and then take Jesus to the battle.

Here’s what Hebrews 12:2 says: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” The Word calls Him a champion here—a champion. Very intentional reference. Because what would happen in battle in those times—you’ve seen it with Goliath—the enemy would put forth a champion, an invitation for the opposite army to also present their champion, and to let that champion fight on their behalf, that there may not be more bloodshed than necessary. And the Word tells us, Jesus is the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. And that moment has to be somewhere in your battle when you’re going to live in the victory that Christ has for you, when you’re going to live in the freedom, since it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Not for you to be a fleeing Christian all the time—a fleeing believer, defeated, discouraged, obsessed with their own battles, praying about their own battles, fighting for their own battles—and forgetting that there’s a war going on all around you for the souls of men.

The enemy, in that case, has you exactly where he wants you: just worried about yourself and your journey and your sin and your failure and your salvation and your everything, even though Jesus said, “I’ve worried about you. Will you now go and worry about others?” You flee from the battle to the strong tower built on your behalf. But there has to be that moment of regrouping where I say, “But the Lord has given me Himself. I’m going to take the battle to Satan now. I’m going to put forth my champion. I’m going to let Him fight the battle on my behalf. I’m going to put out that rock, because a leaning battle is not over. I’m putting forth my champion.” I was never called to fight my sin. I was never called to make myself better. I was never called to change my character. I was never called to fix my marriage. I was never called to change my behaviors. I was never called to make myself free. I was called to put my trust in the rock. I was called to just have a moment of sensibility and say, “Well, the enemy is attacking me. I’m retreating into Christ. 

I’m retreating to the tower. But what is God giving me? I see what the enemy is doing.” And don’t get obsessed with what the enemy is doing, church. Remember what you have. Remember what God has done. Remember what He’s given you. Look around, spiritually speaking. Look around so that you notice that there is a rock in your life. That all you do is say, “I’m regrouping. I’m taking heart, and I’m going to put forth my champion.” He is going to crush the enemy’s head, as was promised in the garden already long ago—that He would crush the head of Satan on my behalf. In Christ, church, we have been given everything to walk in victory over the enemy. Flee to Christ in any crisis, but regroup and remember who you are. Remember what you have, and then put forth Christ to that battle. You don’t have to fight it. The enemy tries to take it to you, and the first mistake is responding by fighting. That’s the first mistake. You don’t have to fight the battle. You just flee to Christ, remember what you have, and then you say, “I’m not fighting. I’m putting my champion forth.”

I’ve been given the Rock of all ages. See, Jesus doesn’t expect you to have the power to deal with your sin or your situation. He’s waiting for you to put your trust in what He has given you, to put your trust in what the Father has given you. Romans 16:20: “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Amen. Some of you here today, and some of you online with us, when you take an honest look at your life today, you have to say, “I’ve been living without the turning point in my battles. I’ve been living without that turning point where, all of a sudden, the enemy is gone and his forces scatter, and I walk in freedom. I walk in victory. The enemy attacks from time to time, but it doesn’t get to me. I know that a leaning battle is not a lost battle.” Some of you, you’re here and you’re saying, “If I’m honest, I’m living without that turning point in my battles. I’ve been living a life of fleeing to Jesus, but that’s all I seem to do, and there’s no turning point.”

If you would stand with me for a moment here in the house—and I want to invite you online to search your heart and to respond with those that are responding in the house—because if that is you, if you say, “I’ve been fleeing to Jesus. I love Him. I trust that He is enough for all of my failures. But somehow I’ve been walking in defeat, and my story has been a story of fleeing to Jesus, but a story without that turning point, that tipping point in my battles.” If you say, “Lord, this morning, Lord, I need to learn this. Lord, I need this turning point in my battles,” if that is what you need today, I want to pray with you. I want to invite you to come forward. If you say, “Lord, I need that turning point in my journey, in my walk with You,” would you join me at the altar? And if you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, in the full pardon of your sin, I want to invite you also—always feel free—to come to this altar, that we may pray with you and that we may introduce you to the Lord who will make known to your heart what He has accomplished for you on the cross, Lord.

-Pastor Stan Mons