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Amen. So in I Timothy 6 you'll notice there it says in verse 11, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Verse 12, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. And you know that phrase there, fight the good fight of faith is just one of several other phrases that remind us that the Christian life is a life of fighting. It's a life of battling. This is something you see often in Scripture. Go to II Timothy 2. Go to II Timothy 2. We can think of Ephesians 6 where we're told to be strong in the Lord and the power is might. To put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Why? Because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. So again, throughout the Scripture we see that we are told to fight, that we are told to war, that we have an enemy. In fact, the Bible even describes God as a man of war. It says in Exodus chapter 15, the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. It says in Isaiah 11, or excuse me, 42, the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry. And he's not saying like crying like weeping. He shall cry out like lifting up his voice. Yea, roar. He shall prevail against his enemies. So not only is the Lord a man of war, but we are also told to be people that fight. People that put on the armor of God, to be people that fight the good fight of faith. You notice there in 2 Timothy chapter 2, look at verse 3, it said, Thou therefore endure hardness as what? As a good soldier. What's a soldier there to do? A soldier is there to fight a war. He's there to fight a battle. We're told to endure as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that entangles himself with the affairs of this light, excuse me, no man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. So there it is again, we're told to be a soldier. We're told to be people who are ready to fight, to battle, to put on this armor because we have a spiritual battle against spiritual wickedness. And we need to fight this fight that we may do what, as it says there, fight that we may please him. We want to do it, fight so that we please God. Because here's the thing, you know, we as people, especially men, you know, we like to fight. We like challenges. We like difficulty. We like to go up against something. We like competition. You know, we want to prove ourselves. And a lot of times people get caught up, you know, fighting, but they're not fighting to please him. You know, they're fighting the wrong types of battles. You know, we want to fight the battles that are worth fighting. Fight the battles that are worth fighting. That's the title of the sermon, Battles Worth Fighting. And if you would, keep something in 2 Timothy 2, but go back to 1 Chronicles 11, 1 Chronicles 11. You know, if we fight the battles that are worth fighting, you know, God's going to notice that. You know, when we get to heaven, we're going to be rewarded for those battles that we fought. We're going to be told, well done, thou good, you know, and faithful servant. We're not going to be, you know, we're not, we're going to, it's going to be kind of like, would a soldier, you know, does something of significance in an army on the battlefield? Oftentimes, they'll come home, you know, and they'll get some kind of a medal. You know, they'll get the, you know, the star, what is the, the bronze star, the medal of honor, right, that's another one. There's the purple heart. There's all these different medals that they can earn to show the achievements that they've done for fighting. But is it because they just fought any fight? No, it's because they fought the fights that they were supposed to fight. They fought the battles that were worth fighting. You know, and that's, of course, we're talking about a physical warfare. The fight that we're called to is a spiritual warfare. You know, and Congress is never going to sit us down and say, hey, we're going to give you a medal for, you know, your stand on the King James Version. Oh, you've gotten so many souls saved. Here's a medal of honor for all your hard fighting and battling. Oh, you took a stand on the word of God and was still the opposition. You know, we're never going to receive that here on earth. And quite frankly, I don't care. I'm not interested in any of that. I don't need the praise and accommodation of men when we have the praise of God to look forward to. But we only have that praise to look forward to if we fight the battles that are worth fighting. If you look there in First Chronicles chapter 11, beginning of verse 1, the Bible says, Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron. So this is right after he becomes king over all of Israel. And they're saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh, and moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, thou was he that led us out and brought us into Israel. And the Lord thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel. Therefore, call all the elders of Israel to Hebron. And David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither. So they're coming to take Jerusalem. That was one of the most well-fortified areas in that time, and no one was able to take it up to this point. We're several hundred years into them coming into the promised land, and they still haven't taken Jerusalem, which is at this time known as Jebus, and they're saying, hey, you can't make it up here. You're not going to come up here. You might as well just go home. Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. He went and fought that for the castle of Zion. Zion, that's something that we think about, we associate with heaven. Mount Zion, the fact that the new Jerusalem's going to come down, and we look forward to coming into the spiritual Zion, right? But that's something that we have to fight for. Now, we understand that we don't fight to earn our way to heaven, but look, we need to fight for the kingdom of God. That's what I'm getting at. If there's a battle worth fighting, it's fighting for the kingdom of God. David wanted Jerusalem. He wanted that castle of Zion. He wanted that to be where God's name would be. He wanted to fight for the kingdom, so that he would be worthy to get into it, because it's worth fighting for. It's worth having something that we should fight for. We don't fight for a physical geography today. We're not interested in that. What we're fighting for, when I say we need to fight for the kingdom, what I'm talking about specifically is delivering the unsaved, going out and delivering people that are on their way to hell and delivering them, taking them back from the captivity of the devil and setting them free, setting their souls at liberty, liberating them into the kingdom of God. That's something that we have to fight for. That's not something that's just going to automatically happen just because we're here. We can't just have this building and expect the unsaved to start flowing in here and we'll get them saved when they get here. No, we've got to go out there and find them and fight for them, take the sword of the Spirit and shield the faith and fight the enemy and deliver their souls. Go back to 2 Timothy 2. Keep something in 1 Chronicles 11. The Bible says in Hebrews 12, For as much then as the children of our takers of the flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, talking about Jesus, that through death he might destroy him that had power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So before we were delivered by Christ through his blood, we were subject to the fear of death. That's something that a lot of unsaved people struggle with. They fear death. That's why a lot of them don't want to talk about it. That's why they don't want to think about death. You know, people sometimes struggle to understand how is it that people can go through life not knowing what's going to happen to their souls when they die. It's because most people just choose not to think about that, you know, and they distract themselves. And there's so many things in this world today that people can just keep themselves distracted their whole life and not have to think about death till the very end. And then that doesn't stop it from being a terrifying experience, I'm out there and to deliver these people, recover them out of the snare of the devil. You know, he did that for us, he made the way, he did all the hard work, but he's imparted that work unto us. When we got saved, he enlisted us into that army for that reason to go out and fight that battle. Not just fight any battle. And look, like I said in the beginning, there's a lot of things people get caught up fighting in this world. There's a lot of causes that aren't even necessarily bad, but they're not the battles that fight. We need to go out there and fight for the kingdom. We need to go out and deliver the unsaved. It says there in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24, the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. Look, the unsaved, it's, you know, it's bad enough the devil's got them, that they're ensnared by him, but they'll often, they're their own worst enemy, aren't they? They're opposing themselves. We knock on their door, hey, can I show you how to go to heaven? No, I'm too busy right now. You're opposing yourself. They think they're opposing us, and so you're actually fighting yourself. Sir, ma'am, when you don't want to hear the word of God, when you have some excuse to not be confronted with the gospel. He said, in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves of God per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they oppose themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. So what's one of the first things we need to fight for? It's for the unsaved. That's a battle that's worth fighting. You know, this isn't just a hobby here, you know, and I know we preach a lot, we talk about soul winning a lot, because that's something, and the reason why that is, is because that's what we're called to do. We're called to fight. You know, he has committed unto us who else is going to fight that battle here in Tucson? I'm sure there might be some other churches that do some soul winning. I pray God that there is, and if there are, God bless them. But I don't know of any. I'm not saying they're not there, I personally don't know. But I know there's one here, there's a church here at 1955 West Grant Road, where we have taken these marching orders to heart, and said we're going to go out and fight a battle that's worth fighting and delivering the And it says that those people, you know, are taken captive by him at his will. You know, that's why when we're out soul winning, we should always try to be meek and gentle with people that we're there to instruct them, because you have to understand, you know, when they reject us, or they're rude or whatever, whether they know it or not, all they are is taken captive by the devil. You know, that should make us pity these people and have mercy upon them, and want to Christ, he said in Luke 4, when he was quoting Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. I mean, that's one of the first things he says, right? That's one of the first things in that litany of things he was told to do, right? He's been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. If that was Christ's mission, if that's why the spirit of the Lord was upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to go out and preach the gospel to the poor, that's something worth taking up. That's a mantle that we need to pick up. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of the sight of the blind, to set them at a liberty that are bruised. Those are the same things that we do in a spiritual sense. You know, when we go out there, we heal the brokenhearted. People who are broken by sin, people who are beat down by life and the devil, we preach the gospel to them, we bring the hope of the gospel to them, and we're preaching and seeing them, you know, and people can be healed, lives can change, healing the brokenhearted, preaching deliverance to the captives. Again, that's what the gospel is. Preaching the gospel, you're preaching to somebody who's a captive, who's being taken captive by the devil at his will. They're literally in a spiritual bondage. I mean, that's how we should see people when we're out there preaching the gospel, as if they had just chains around their hands and their neck, so they're just bound by sin and the devil. That's how we should see these people, because that's what they are. That's why he said, look, you have to preach deliverance to the captives. Deliver and, what does he say, set sight and recovering of sight to them, to the blind. You know, we go out there and show them the gospel to people that are blind, people who don't, who can't see things for what they really are. Can't we explain to them, look, there really is a heaven, there really is a hell, there really is a God that loves you, there really is, you know, Jesus Christ really was God and he really did die for you. These are the things that we preach. This is the battle that we fight, and this is the battle that's worth fighting. And it's a battle that has, you know, that we can win. And it's a battle that has eternal consequences. You know, a lot of the battles that people get fought, that fight in this life, whether it's in politics or some agenda or whatever, the things that they fight, they don't have any eternal consequences. I'm not saying there aren't consequences and that there aren't people that need to fight those battles. I'm glad that they're there. Well, look, the most important battle is the battle for the souls of the unsaved. And that's, you know, there is no more important battle. There is no more significant battle. Of all the battles that are worth fighting, it is the most important to go out and to preach the gospel to them that are taken captive by the devil at his will. You say, well, you know, it just seems like that's a losing battle. I mean, there's only us. You know, we're talking about the whole city of Tucson. And look, I know we're not going to get every single person saved. In fact, most people are going to reject the gospel. But I mean, it's worth it to go out and deliver one, two, three, four a week, however many we can get. And in a lot of times, basically all we're doing, it's like it's just this tidal wave of souls that are just rushing towards hell and we're just trying to put our hands up and grab a couple on their way out. You know, but that's the battle that we're called to fight. And, you know, despite what it might look like, the odds really, I mean, they are in our favor. It's a battle that we can win. We can't get everybody saved, but we can win some, okay? If you're still there in 1 Chronicles, excuse me, chapter 11, look at verse 10. We're going to look at some of these battles that the mighty men of God or many might have David fought. It said, verse 10 of 1 Chronicles 11, these also are the chief of the mighty men, excuse me, whom David had, excuse me, men whom David had who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom and with all Israel to make him king according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had, Jashabim and Hekmonite, the chief of the captains. He lifted up his spear against 300 slain by him at one time. I mean, we're impressed if we get three corn holes in a row, right? Just three. You know, if we got three in a whole game, we're like, yeah, we feel like we really count some. And this guy at one time, you know, this Jashabim, he picked up his spear and he killed 300 men at one time with a spear. I mean, that's pretty amazing, isn't it? Now, this guy went out there and saw 300 men and just his spear, you know, he might have said, well, the odds are against me. I'm just going to turn tail. I'm going to run. You know? And we might get the same attitude sometimes. Say, I don't know if I can live this Christian life. I don't know if I can stand for the word of God. I don't know if I can, you know, fight for the kingdom. I don't know if I can fight the way I'm supposed to because it just seems like the whole world's against us. And look, we do have an enemy. And a lot of times the world is against us. But you know what? Don't let that deceive you. The odds are in our favor. We can do great things through God. We can accomplish something. You know, we can go out. We're not going to kill people literally, but you know, we can slay spiritually. You know, maybe that 300 is a number you can achieve in your lifetime. You know, I delivered 300 souls from hell. Look, that's quite the accomplishment. You know, I saved 100, I saved 300, I saved 600, whatever. You know, you can go out there and rather than just focusing on how many people aren't going to hear the gospel, how many people are going to reject it, you know, why don't you just find the people that will hear, those numbers will add up. I mean, I don't know that we're going to do it all in one time. Although at some of these missions trips, you know, they just went over to Sierra Leone and preached to 800 students or plus at, you know, at once. I mean, you could slay 300 at one time, you know, at some of these mission trips. That's probably not going to happen here, right? But the point is this, this thing, you know, this guy here, this Jeshabim, you know, he saw those 300 men and said, let's do it. Bring it on. And he fought a fight that's worth fighting, right? And he goes down in the Word of God as a mighty man. And we'll see later also that he inspired other people. You know, don't think that the odds, you know, the odds might look like they're against us, but look, we have, you know, we have the assurance that if we're fighting the right fight, we're fighting the battles that are worth fighting, we will see great victories in Christ. I believe that. That's why, I mean, if Jesus said in Matthew 28, he said, he said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, you're on your own. And lo, good luck with that, by the way. You know, all power is with me. I don't know what you got going for you. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, but, you know, you're going to have a tough time out there. Is that what he said? He said, no, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So we have the assurance that Christ is with us. You know, we're filled with the Holy Spirit and we have the word of God in our hand. There's no reason we can't go out there and deliver souls and see people get saved. And we should never get this defeated, downtrodden, you know, downtrodden attitude and think, well, this doesn't work, you know, what's the point? I'm going to go fight some other battle or I'm just going to give up. Don't think like that. Look, we have the Spirit of God and Christ is with us. If you would, look at 1 Corinthians 11, verse 12. Verse 12, and after him was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three minies. He was with David at pastamim and the Philistines were gathered together to battle. There was a parcel of ground full of barley, and the people fled from before the Philistines. And they set themselves in the midst of that parcel and delivered it and slew the Philistines, and the Lord saved them by a great deliverance. You know, a lot of other people have said, it's just some barley, you know. What are you guys doing? You know, why are you hanging out there and trying to just, you know, get some barley? You can grow some somewhere else. You know, but Eliezer, the son of Dodo, he said, you know what? No, this barley is ours, and I'm not just going to let these Philistines come in and take it. You know, this is, you know, I don't know if it was necessarily his field or whatever, but he said, look, this is, you know, Israel's land. This is something that was given to our fathers by the Lord, and we're not just going to let these heathens come in and take it. It was something that was worth fighting. Other people might have said, hey, you know what? Just let the barley go. It's not that important. We can go, they can have that. We'll just go plant some somewhere else. You know, what we need to understand is that, look, if we give them that ground, they'll just come and take more. You know, and people are starting to find that out, you know, with these homos, is that they think, you know, the Bible says that they're implacable. You know, oh, they just want to get married. Now they just want to adopt. Now they just want to change genders. Now they just want to come into church and sit in the front row and drag. You know, now they just want to, you know, be able to get up in the pulpit and preach. They're implacable. Like you give them that little plot of barley, they're just going to take the next. That's how the world works. That's why you have to fight that. You have to resist that. You know, that's why we need to fight and stand for the word of God and not give an inch to these people. And again, we're not standing alone. It might feel like that. You might look around and say, well, there's nobody else with us. But notice that Eleazar, the son of Dodo, it says there at the end of verse 12, he was with David. And who's David? He's the king. Look, when you stand and fight the battles that are worth fighting, you stand with the king. You have God on your side. Even if everybody else forsakes you, you still have the Lord. And look, if we stand with the king, we will win. We will deliver. I mean, that's what he did. He delivered that from the Philistines. But again, you have to be standing with the Lord. You have to have God in your life to fight these battles. Isn't that what Jesus said? Without me, you can do nothing. Now, if you look there in 1 Chronicles chapter 11, look at verse 15. It says, Now the three of these 30 captains went down to the rock to David into the cave of Adullam. And the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines garrison was then at Bethlehem. Now, you have to remember, when this host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim, you know, there's parallel passages tell us that they were spread in the valley. I mean, this was an innumerable host. It was a huge army of the Philistines. And this happens twice. But you know, he's just kind of telling us this one instance here in 1 Chronicles. So he's there. The Philistines are there. There's a great army in their garrison at Bethlehem. And David's down in the hold, right? He's setting up a defensive position against the enemy. And it says there in verse 17, and David longed and said, oh, that one would give me the drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is where the Philistines garrison was when we just read, that is at the gate, exclamation point. I mean, he's just crying out. You know, he wants the waters of Bethlehem, right? And he's not saying this like, hey, somebody go get me a glass of water. You know, someone go to Bethlehem. He's just longing for this. This is something that he remembers having. He's upset by the fact that the Philistines are there, that he can't go over and just get this water from Bethlehem. You know, there's just something about it that would have just refreshed him. And it says there in verse 18, and the three break through the host of the Philistines and drew out the water of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. And I love this attitude that these three had. They heard David saying, oh, I'm going to Bethlehem. I'm going to Bethlehem. I'm going to Bethlehem. I'm going to Bethlehem. I'm going to Bethlehem. And they heard David say that and said, yeah, that sounds nice. They said, you know what? That's what the king wants. He wants that. That would be refreshing to him. You know, I'm going to go fight that battle for him. And he wasn't saying that to try and get them to do that. They just took that upon themselves. Said, hey, let's, you know, he's our king. You know, he's our leader. Let's do something for him. Let's go ahead and fight a battle for him. And, again, they went out there and break through the host of the Philistines. Three guys. Three guys go and break through the host of the Philistines, break through the garrison that's in Bethlehem, get the water, and, by the way, then they had to come back. I mean, this is quite the feat that these guys did. You know, we go to a door to knock on it and there's, like, if we just see, you know, the leavings of a large dog, you know, we'll be like, I'm not going in there. I'm not breaking through that gate. We didn't even see the dog. We just, you know, we saw what he left behind if you catch my drift. We just know he's in there somewhere. We see that sign. You know, which is probably the smart thing to do, by the way, folks. You know, I'm not saying you need to be like the three mighties and break through the yard and bust in the house and get a drink out of the water, you know, out of the sink or something and bring it to me. But, you know, I'm just saying, you know, we get intimidated by a lot of things, don't we? I mean, doesn't that sound intimidating to you? Just a band of these Philistines that are just, there are nothing more than just kill these Israelis, these Jews. And he says, you know what, we're not going to let these people stop us. We're going to break through, we're going to bring water and we're going to bring it back to the king. You know, that's, we can't have this defeated attitude as Christians. Just think, oh, what's the point? You know, the world's so wicked. People don't care anymore. You know, we're living in the loudest sea and age. You know, these people that believe in dispensationalism, it's just things I've heard in churches. Oh, you know, we try harder to reach people, but it's this loudest sea and age that we live in, this church age where everyone's lukewarm, you know, and people just don't care about the things of God anymore. Look, is that a reason to quit fighting? Is that what these guys did? Oh, David, I know that water would be really refreshing to you, but I mean, look, it's behind an army. There's a garrison in Bethlehem where that water is that you want. They didn't let that stop them. They didn't have this defeated attitude. They went out by faith and fought three men that took on a whole army and got back. They break through the host of the Philistines. It didn't say they snuck around, right? They broke through. It's like, you know, the running back, whoever, just like jumps over the pile of linemen, right, to make the touchdown, right? I know we got a lot of football fans in here. I'm bringing you back. I'm bringing you back, right? That, you know, they're breaking through. They're cutting through the lines. That's what these guys did. You can't have this defeated attitude, and you know what? You need to be willing to take a risk if you're going to do something for God. You have to be willing to, you know what, say, I know it makes me nervous. I'm not a very good speaker. I'm not eloquent. I'm not a people person. I don't know a lot of Scripture, but you know what? I have the Bible. I'm going to go out, and I'm going to take a chance and actually try to preach the gospel to somebody. You know, you have to take that risk eventually. You have to go out there and actually give it a try. You know, and people get caught up sometimes thinking, well, I'll preach the gospel when I know the Bible well enough, when I know to answer every possible rebuttal that I might hear. That's not what you want to do. Because most people, look, most people, you know, if they start to argue, I just say, have a good day, and I leave. Because I'm not there to argue. I'm not there to argue Mormon doctrine or Jehovah Witness doctrine. I mean, if they have a genuine question where they're just kind of wondering and they're open to being taught and they bring something up, yeah, we'll talk about it. But if they just want to argue, you know, well, how do you know anyone goes to heaven, hmm, only 144,000 ago. You know, these Jehovah Witnesses always bring out these cute things that they've learned. It's always the same talking points. Look, but you don't have to know everything. All you have to know is how to get saved. And by the way, if you're saved, you know how to do that. That you're a sinner, that Jesus is God, he died for your sins, just show him some scriptures, people will believe it. You know, and it might not be everybody, but it'll be some. It might be 300. You know, you give it time, you'll get 300. And you know what you're going to do? You're going to refresh the king when he sees that. When he sees us willing to go out, not be defeated, go out and break through the enemy, go out and try to, you know, just get that little bit of water and bring it back. It's going to be refreshing to him to have that defeated attitude when it comes to the Christian life, the people that are willing to actually take a risk and put themselves out there for the Lord. You know, the king, he's going to recognize the sacrifice. It's not like you're going to say, well, you know, I want to live, I'd live for the Lord, I'd do these things, but is God even going to notice? Of course he is. I mean, look there at verse 18 again at the end. It says that they took it and brought it to David, and it says, but David would not pour it out to the Lord and said, my God forbid it me that I should do this thing. Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? For with jeopardy of their lives they brought it, therefore he would not drink of it. These things did these three mighties, these three mightiest. I mean, David, he gets that cup and he's just blown away by what these guys did. He says, you guys risked your necks. You went out there and broke through the Philistines, you went through the garrison at Bethlehem and brought me back the throne. He's like, I can't, I couldn't even drink this. He said, let me pour it out unto the Lord as a sacrifice to him. You know, the king acknowledged what these three people did. They took note of it. He was impressed by it, right? He was taken aback by it. You know, God will notice us when we go out and fight the battles that are worth fighting. The world might never notice us. People, other people in our lives might not ever notice us. You know, we're never going to get called in the office at work and be getting a raise for the things we do for God. You know, but here's the thing, if we go out and fight these battles for the Lord and fight these battles that are worth fighting, God will notice. And God will bless your life. God will pour out a blessing upon you. I believe that. And here's the thing, when a person, you know, has, doesn't have a defeated attitude and is willing to take a risk, is willing to fight the battles that are worth fighting, it inspires other people. You know, that kind of zeal inspires people. If you remember back there in verse 10, we were talking about the Jezebim, the Hachmanite, he lifted up his spear against 300, right? Well, look there at verse 20. And Abishai, the brother of Joab, he was the chief of the three, lifting up his spear against 300. And he slew them and had a name among the three. Now, I don't know if he saw what the other guy did and said, hey, I'm going to do the same thing, but isn't it interesting you have two different guys who defeat the same number of people in the exact same manner. I mean, it very well may be that Abishai, you know, saw Josh B. on the Hachmanite and said, hey, that guy took out 300 spear, I'm going to go do the same thing. You know, that's why you need to fight the battles that are worth fighting. You don't know who you're going to inspire next. You don't know who else is watching and says, you know what, if that guy can do it, so can I. And go out there and do the same thing that you've done. We should fight these battles that are worth fighting because you know what, you'll inspire other people to do the same. And bring more people on board for the cause that matters. And this is something that we see throughout Scripture. You know, I'll just read to you from 2 Corinthians 9, where Paul was writing them saying, as touching the ministering of the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them at Macedonia, that Achai was right a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked many, very many. You know, one of the great things about zeal is that it's contagious. That's why we should be zealous people. That's why we should fight the battles that are worth fighting because it'll get other people fired up. I mean, I know that's the case with me. Man, I see some guy getting up and ripping face and preaching them out. I say, man, I want to be able to preach like that. What do I got to do? You know, I want to get full of the Holy Ghost. I want to know the Bible. I'm inspired to do that. I see somebody else go out and get souls saved and go on some missions trip or go out and knock doors, wherever, and come back and say, we got three or four people saved or whatever. I say, praise God. I want a piece of that. I want to get in on that. You know, that's why we should fight the battles that are worth fighting and never have a defeated attitude is because if you're zealous, it will inspire other people. That's a big reason why I'm even standing here today, why I'm even living in this town. You know, I was living in Michigan up in, you know, and really not doing anything for God, to be honest. It caught wind of a preacher out in Phoenix, Arizona, who was actually preaching the whole council of the word of God, standing on the word of God, not caring what anybody thought about it and going out and winning souls. I said, man, that's great. I love that zeal. I want to be a part of that. You know, but you have to have that zeal to inspire other people. And if you are defeated and just kind of down in the mouth Christian, you're not going to inspire anybody to do anything for God. They're going to look at your life and say, well, what's the point of living for God? I mean, it doesn't get that guy excited. They don't get fired up about it. That's not what we want to do. We want to inspire other people. We want to provoke very many. We want to be like Jehu to Jehonadab, right, in 2 Kings, where he said, you know, is your heart right? Is my heart is right? And he says it is. And he looked at his hand and said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. And he lifted up and brought him into his chariot, right? And he ran over Jezebel and did all these things. It's one of my favorite – I'll just say it. That is probably my favorite story in the scripture, where Jehu just goes out and just wreaks the plague on Ahab and his descendants. Just slaughters everyone and just goes – you know the story. We're going to tell it anyway. When he rolls up on Jezebel, right? And it says she tied her head and painted her face and she stuck it out the window and said, Had Simray peace who slew his master? Hee-hee! Right? She's like trying to get all smart with Jehu. And he doesn't even respond to her. And then he sees the eunuchs that are up there and says, who's on the Lord's side? And they look at him, and they throw her down, right? And they throw – and the Bible is just – you've got to read it. The Bible is an awesome book. They throw Jezebel down just splat right on the ground. The Bible says that he rode over her with the chariot, with all the horses. They throw her down and he just rides right over her, right? And then he goes in and eats a meal. Then he goes in and sits down and he goes in and eats. And after he's finished eating, he says, Well, I guess we should bury her. She was the king's daughter. And then what did they find? They found the head, the feet, and the skull, and that's it. And the dogs ate the rest of her, right? Because that was the curse that God placed upon her, that she would have no bear, that she would be spread as dung upon the face of the earth, right? Because she was so wicked. And they didn't eat her hands because the wickedness that she wrought, they didn't – her feet were swift to shed innocent blood. They didn't eat that. She had a filthy mind. That's the application there. I'm preaching a whole other sermon now, right? But it's just every time I read it, I love that story. Every time I read it, I'm like, man, I can't wait to get to preach that again. So I just got to. Anyway. But what am I saying here? It's like, you know, Jehu inspired that guy. Jehonadab's like, this is a cool ride, right? He got up in that chariot and he sees Jehu just, you know, putting the smack down on people and just slaying them for the Lord, killing all the prophets of Baal. Remember that, where he gets them all into the house, the house of Baal? And he says, make sure there's no worshippers that move. And then as soon as he got all the worshippers of Baal, he just kills them all. It's an awesome story. You know, this guy got to see that. You know, why did he get to see that? Because Jehu was somebody who had some zeal. They saw him coming. They said, he's driving furiously. And it's the driving of Jehu. I mean, he was known as a guy who just drew, you know, drove his chariot hard. He got after things because he was zealous. And he was able to tell Jehonadab, hey, come see my zeal. You hang around me long enough, you're going to see some zeal. That's what he's telling him. I'm up to something. I'm doing something for God. And if you stick around, you'll see it. That's the kind of people we need to be, people who inspire zeal and other people. And you're never going to be that way if you're just have this defeated attitude, if you're never willing to take a risk. You're not going to be somebody who inspires zeal. You've got to be people that are willing to fight the battle that's worth fighting. And look, there is a battle that's worth fighting. You know, we have an enemy that we must resist. We must fight. If you would, well, look there in 1 Chronicles chapter 11, verse 22. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel, who had done many acts, he slew two lion-like men of Moab. Also, he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day. So I don't know what this guy's got against lions or people that even look like lions, right? He's like, you remind me of a lion, I'm going to kill you, right? So he kills two lion-like men of Moab, and then he also killed a lion. Look, I'd be impressed with just slaying, you know, killing the lion. And it was in a pit on a snowy day. So what's the point? Why the details? Well, one is the pit is probably, there was no running away. Maybe he like jumped down into the pit with the lion, that kind of thing. Like the guy saw it, like the lion's caught in the pit. It's a snowy day, he can't get footing. Because this stuff snow, I know none of you know, it's wet, and it's slippery, you know, and as you step on it, it gets packed down, it turns into like ice, it's really hard to get a footing. So that's kind of how the story plays out in my mind when I read that, is that he just comes upon this pit and there's this lion that's like kind of has gotten itself stuck down there. Now, if you came across that, would it go through your mind, I'm going to jump down in that pit and kill that lion. You know, I see like a scorpion, and I'm like, honey? No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'll kill the scorpions, right? But I'm just saying, I wouldn't just jump into a pit to kill a lion if it's stuck down there. I mean, how do you end up in a pit with a lion to begin with? You know, that's how the story's got to go. It's just got to be that way. I mean, we'll get to heaven and find out for sure, but I believe that he stumbles upon this lion in a pit that's just stuck there. So the lion's probably hungry and mad, it's stuck in the snowy pit. He's like, you know what, I'm going to just jump in that pit right now and kill that lion. Why would he do that? Because this guy's got some zeal. He wants to do something hard. You know, he slew these two lion-like men. Maybe he just, you know, I don't know what it means by that. Maybe they just had long hair, you know, they sharpened their teeth or something. It was yellow hair. I'm not sure what made them so lion-like, but that's what the Bible says. Maybe it just means that they were very, you know, fearsome, you know, very, very strong people, right? And he slings these guys and he fights this, kills this lion. And look, we don't have any literal lion-like men, okay? Don't go find a lion like looking man and try to kill him. And don't go to the Phoenix Zoo and jump in with the lions either, all right? But we do have, you know, an adversary to fight, don't we? And what does the Bible call our adversary? Well, go to 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, you probably know it. And, you know, I'm kind of closing on this thought, look, there are battles that are worth fighting in life. And there's a battle that must be fought. And, you know, our enemy, we only have one true enemy in life. In the Christian life. There's only one true enemy for the devil. You know, and let me just break it to you. It's not Bill Gates. It's not Bill Gates, all right? It's not, you know, it's not Dr. Fauci. Now, look, it's not, you know, the Democratic Party. It's not the Republican Party. You know, it's not all these things that people want to fight these days. You know, it's not the Masons. You know, it's not the Masonic Lodge. It's not the Illuminati. You know, it's not whatever secret, you know, occult group out there that we think we have to just, you know, blow the lid off on. That's not the battle we're called to fight, folks. Because at the, you know, at the head of all that is Satan. That's the true enemy we have, we're called to fight. You know, it was explained to me a long time ago when I started fighting about all these conspiracy things, you know, about all the conspiracy stuff. Look, I believe in a lot of conspiracies. Not all of them. Don't come to me about Bigfoot or Loch Ness. All right? Or the flat earth. Definitely don't come to me about that. Keep that to yourself, all right? Although most flat earthers can't. You know, big, some of you squatchers, keep it on the down low, right? Well, look, there's a lot of different conspiracies that are, I believe, very viable, right? I mean, we do wrestle against principalities in high places, right? There are the rulers of the darkness of this world. I get that. There are, I'm sure, secret, satanic, you know, occultic groups out there that are pulling the strings behind the scenes that are trying to influence things. I believe that. But who's behind all of that? It's Satan. That is our enemy. You know, Satan's like this big octopus, right? And he's got all these different tentacles. You know, he's got the Illuminati over here. He's got Masons over here. He's got Bill Gates and Dr. Fauci over here. He's got this conspiracy over here. He's got all these different groups everywhere, right? But they all lead to the same head. They all lead to the same jaws that are just gonna munch you up. It's just that some people get, what, the octopus, those tentacles have little suction cups, right? Some people just get stuck on one. They're like, oh, I figured it out. I found out the truth. It's the Illuminati. No, it's actually Satan. No, it's the Masons. You know, it's this group. It's that group. It's this individual. It's this agenda. It all leads to the same guy who just happened to get stuck on one tentacle, okay? Because we only have one enemy that's worth fighting. And it's not any of these other guys. It's Satan. This guy, you know, he fought the lion. He'd fight the lion like men. You know, we have a lion to fight too. In 1 Peter 5, verse 8, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. You know, we have that enemy. That is our enemy. He's described as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, meaning that there are people out there that he can devour. You know, saved and unsaved. And look, he's telling us to be sober and be vigilant so that what? That we're not devoured by this enemy. I'm not saying that, you know, when we're going to fight Satan, that we're going to take it to him, you know, and we are going to defeat Satan. We're not. All we're doing are delivering people from his clutches. You know, we're just going up to that giant octopus and just, you know, pulling one off and saying it's actually the Lord explaining to them, look, it's not your harebrained conspiracy it's actually what the Bible says. You know, once people find out what the Bible says, a lot of those conspiracies and things like that, they make a lot more sense to them. They go, oh, it's the devil that's behind it all, right? We pull back the curtain and say, you know, it's this guy. It's this lion, you know, this roaring adversary that we have to fight, okay? That's it. But we're not going to go and, you know, defeat Satan. We're not going to shut down his plan. You're not going to. You're not going to stop the one world order. You're not going to. It's going to happen. I mean, why does the Bible say it's going to happen? If we could, then why didn't God tell us to do that? He said, look, it's going to get so bad that, you know, when the Antichrist comes, if it were possible, he would deceive even the very elect. And except those days should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved. Except that the Lord should shorten those days, right? It's God that ultimately delivers us. We don't do that. We can't defeat Satan. All we can do is deliver people from his clutches. That's why he says there in verse 9 of 1 Peter 5, whom resist steadfast in the faith. You know, our job is just to resist him in our own personal lives, not letting him get us into bondage, not letting him make a ruin, you know, messing up our life, ruining our life, putting you to where we can't be used of God. You know, he wants to get us out of the fight, out of the battle. He doesn't want us fighting battles that are worth fighting. He wants us off fighting some other battle. You know, he wants us off fighting, you know, and again, these aren't all bad battles. You know, I get it. There's some merit to them, but we're not here to stand up for the Second Amendment. Sorry. That's not the fight we're called to fight. Do I like the Second Amendment? Yes, I do. You know, but there's plenty other people that are fighting that fight. We're not here to fight, you know, the mask mandates. Look, the world's fighting that fight. We're not here to fight COVID and everything else. There's plenty of other people out there to take up that banner that are fighting it. I know they are. But how many people are taking up this banner right here? How many people are standing up for this right now? How many people are out there fighting the battle for lost souls? You know, in Tucson, I know about this many right here. And I'm sure there's others out there. Praise God for that. But this is the many as I know of. And you know what? I'm sure there's, you know, millions of other people out there that are fighting the battles against the vaccines, fighting the battles for, you know, gun rights, fighting all these different political battles. And you know what? God bless them. Go fight that battle. That's not the one that I'm called to fight. It's not the battle that's worth fighting because those battles ultimately are losing battles. You might win a few victories here and there, but in the long run, it's a losing battle. But this battle that we fight for, you know, against the principalities and powers in high places, the darkness and the rulers of this world, delivering souls, that has eternal value in this life, in the world to come. I'll close on this thought. If you're still there in 1 Chronicles chapter 11, how do you fight this battle? Well, look at verse 23. It says, and he fought. This is talking about the same guy, Benaiah, who killed the two lion-like men and the lion. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high. And in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam. That's the same thing it says about Goliath's spear, right? His spear was like a weaver's beam, and he went down to him with a staff. So this guy's got this huge just spear, right? And he goes down with a staff. Now, a staff doesn't have, it's not a spear. It's a stick. It's what you use to walk, right? I mean, you can use it as a weapon to hit people, but you're not going to, you know, you have to club them to death with that, right? You're not going to really, you know, run them through. But notice what he does. And pluck out the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear. And he goes out there and takes his own little spear, his own little staff, and just boom. And that's how I imagine that one. You know, he's doing all the kung fu stuff with his staff, and he's trying to get him with the spear. He slaps his hand, knocks it up out of the air, whatever. You know, and he catches that spear and runs him through with the Egyptian, his own spear. You know, and this is how we're going to fight this battle in part, okay, is that we turn, we use the devil's own weapon against him, right? Because how does the devil fight? Does he go out to everybody and say, hello, I'm the devil, here's my card, 1-666-666-6666, right? Is that what he does? You know, call me, I'll set up an appointment. You know, I'm the devil, hi, my name's Satan, used to go by Lucifer, right? No, what does he do? He spreads his message very subtly, right? Right, he goes out and he spreads his message through the media, he spreads his message through education, right? He, what, he publishes his message. Look, we need to do the same thing. We need to use his own weapon against him. And what am I talking about? By preaching the gospel. By spreading our message. You know, a good example of this, I think, is the internet. Does the devil use the internet? Of course he does. I mean, there's, I mean, let's, if you were to take all the godly content on, like, say, YouTube or something like that, and put it on this side of the scale, all the Bible preaching, all the, you know, biblical documentaries, all the wholesome, godly, just Christian material and YouTube on this scale, and then just took all the world's filth and junk and stupidity on the other side of the scale. Which side do you think's heavier, folks? I mean, just go to the trending page. You know, if they're not eating Tide Pods, they're, you know, they're running through traffic or, you know, chasing people around with a chainsaw, right? Is that what we heard about? Hey, it's Halloween. Let's take the, you know, let's fire up a chainsaw and chase unsuspecting people around. Yeah, hopefully you don't get shot. You know, well, it's Halloween. It's okay, right? You know, all the stupid things that people do, right? That would be like, that scale would just be like, boom, right? They're just, it would just throw all the other stuff up in the air. Just gone, right? But look, we need to use that, we can use that same tool, like YouTube, internet, social media, against the devil. We can pluck that spear out of his hand, so to speak, with our little staff and run him through, you know? And again, we're not going to take over the internet, you know? Good luck with that. That's why, you know, people say, oh, man, I can't wait for YouTube to be like it was. It will never be what it was, folks. You know, once Google bought it and it just turned into a money-making machine, it's gone. That's why there's no free speech on there. Those days are way behind, right? They're just long gone. Anyway, you know, that's not really the point of sermon. What I'm saying is this, is that, you know, we can use that to reach people. We can make the content, we can put the sermons out there. I mean, I don't know how many people I've met that got saved because they saw a sermon called Once Saved, Always Saved by Pastor Stephen Anderson, or they saw a film that was produced by, you know, Paul Wittenberger and Faithful Word Baptist Church called After the Tribulation. I know how many people I know I've talked to, I mean, just dozens upon dozens, you know, if it's not into the hundreds of people that I have met either in person, through email, seen on social media that got saved through that type of media. You know, that's what's unfortunate about the old IFB. They're so far behind on this curve. You know, they just said, oh, the internet, that's, you know, that's just, you know, I don't even know how to turn on a computer, brother. Well, that's probably, oh, great, so nobody's hearing your message. Like, that's something to be proud of. Oh, I don't even know where the on button is. Like, figure it out. We could use you in the fight. Put some content out there. Get some people saved. Get some people edified in the Lord. Take the devil's weapon and use it against him. Pluck that spear out of his hand and, you know, get on the internet. Reach people. I mean, it's the greatest change in communication in the last 500 years. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that? Well, I'm just old-fashioned. Well, you need to get over that and start reaching people with the gospel. It's a great tool that we should use. You know, we'll use the same methods that Satan uses to spread our message. We'll take that spear right out of his hand. But when will we do that? When we fight the battles that are worth fighting. Only if we're willing to get involved in the fight and actually fight something that's worth fighting for. You know, we have, you know, the king is with us, right? He's there with us. There's things that are worth fighting for. God will pour out a blessing on us. He'll be with us. He'll empower us. But we have to be the ones that decide, you know what? I'm gonna go fight that fight. I'm gonna break through that garrison. I'm gonna go down to that pit and slay that lion. You know, I'm gonna take that spear out of that Egyptian's hand and run him through with it and give him a taste of his own medicine. You know, we have to be willing to do that, you know, and not get caught up fighting battles that don't really matter. I'm not saying that there's no value in them, okay? I get that a lot of those things there are. But what I'm saying is that those aren't the battles that we're called to fight. There's some battles that only we as God's people can fight. Those are the battles that we need to fight. The battles that are worth fighting. Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.