VICTORIOUS BUT VULNERABLE

Victory makes you vulnerable.

Promotion puts a target on your back.

Every league in sports provides teams the opportunity to win the 1st Place Trophy along with that elusive label we call “Champion”— but then comes next year.

Everybody wants to beat the defending champion. Every team is psyched up to play their best against the defending champs.

Back-to-back repeat champions are very rare in sports for that reason.

It’s human nature after winning a big battle to take a vacation and go to Disneyland.

There’s an important distinction between celebrating and letting down our guard.

We should celebrate every victory God gives us, every battle over sin, every triumph. God is a celebrative God. Feasts in the Old Testament were often remembrances of great victories for the people of God.

If we let down our guard, however, either spiritually or internally, we can set ourselves up for difficulty in the next battle.

I try to prepare my sons not to live paranoid, but I want them to be prepared.

I want them, and all of us, to live courageously, but also to be ready and aware.

The good news is that Jesus equips us with grace for every battle to overcome every challenge, but we still have to face them.

If the Apostle Paul were joining our conversation, he’d say “we are familiar with the devil’s evil schemes.”

You and I were born into a fight.

You may say, “Josh, I’m not looking for a fight. I just want to beat this sinful habit I’m so tired of and get on with my life. I don’t really want to get into another battle. I’m a peaceful person.”

The truth is that we were born into a fight, into kingdoms in conflict, and our adversary doesn’t fight fair.

“We fight from victory, not for it.” -Bill Johnson

I said those words from author and leader Bill Johnson to a young high school wrestler God brought into my life, named Brandon. This young son in the faith heard that and said, “Pastor Josh, I get it!” He proceeded to tell me of a tournament his wrestling team was in with several schools, in which he was in the final match of the day.

His coach counted the points from all the earlier matches, did the math, and realized that no matter what happened to Brandon in the final match, even if he got pinned, the team was guaranteed to walk away from the day with a team victory.

The coach pulled this young athlete aside and said, “I just want to let you know, that no matter what happens with you in this last match of the day, our team will still WIN.”

What courage that instilled in him! There was no fear of “blowing the tournament for the whole team,” and no fear of undermining the points his teammates had put on the board.

Brandon still had to face his opponent, but totally free of pressure. This high school boy could face his opponent with a heart so full of courage knowing that even if he lost, he still won.

Without fear of failure, you & I can face our battles with courage and peace!

FIVE BATTLES WE ALL MUST BE PREPARED TO WIN:

Battle #1 Freedom.

Noah, my hero, won an incredible battle, breaking free from a 100-year trial.

He built an ark when it had never rained; people thought he was crazy.

He was the only righteous person on the planet. The Bible says that every other person and family on the earth was wicked and unrighteous.

That is a rough neighborhood to live in! That’s a hostile environment!

Noah faced enormous resistance and received little outside support.

No small group.

No favorite worship music playlist.

No YouTube channel preaching clips.

He passed this incredible test before facing a new one.

After obediently building the ark and succeeding, he then had to climb into this boat and weathered the worst storm to ever strike mankind.

On the ark were two of every kind of animal, his wife, three sons and three daughters in-law.

What are you going to do on the boat that long? We thought COVID-19 quarantine was bad.

You can only play “I spy” so many times, and there was no motor on this ship to give you the option to have a little fun waiting it out.

There is a battle to fight after the battle you win.

Noah won these incredible challenges of faith, but after winning those battles, what did he do with his newfound freedom?

When he got back on the land, there was a new challenge, the “battle of freedom.”

Genesis 9:18-21

The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

Of course, some bad things happened because of Noah’s loss of this battle. There is always a battle you fight after the battle you win!

The battle of freedom is one that we face in every transition out of a structured environment. People sometimes do well in a structured rehabilitation center but struggle when their rehab stint is over.

Every college freshman faces this challenge after winning the battle of graduating high school, facing new decisions and choices that have never been faced before.

That’s why parenting is not just about rules and compliance, but about preparing people for freedom.

People I’ve walked with and loved have arrived at annual sobriety milestone days, and ironically don’t know how to celebrate a milestone in any way but with drugs, alcohol, or sexual promiscuity, and lose this battle they faced after the earlier battle they won.

Close friends of mine have lost family members to this battle.

Some people function well and thrive in strict or high-pressure work environments, but when given leave or free time, fumble the test of freedom.

Noah won incredible battles, but lost the battle of freedom.

One of the best ways to win this battle is to know that it’s coming.

Battle #2 Fatigue

Elijah fought and won incredible battles.

It was a very different era than Noah, but like Noah he lived in an ungodly culture.

No matter what you think of our current political leadership here in our nation, we have nothing to complain about compared to Elijah. We don’t have King Ahab and Queen Jezebel ruling and reigning in the level of wickedness they promoted.

Elijah lived victoriously in intense battles.

He called down fire from heaven just to protect himself from the “secret service” that had been sent from the palace to kill him.

Then there was that amazing day on Mount Carmel! In a hostile environment of idolatry and persecution of the righteous, he challenges the nation with the question:

I Kings 18:21

“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God then follow Him. If Baal is god, then follow him.”

Elijah was FULL of courage.

There was no rain in the land for years by his prophetic command.

He even had the audacity in the middle of a drought when water was scarce, to command servants to gather buckets of water and drench the sacrifices, fill up ditches and with the excess water being poured out.

This guy had guts in the battles. He not only called down fire on the altar which consumed the sacrifice to God, but then took the opportunity to kill 450 false prophets of Baal.

That’s one crazy, victorious day! But the day wasn’t over yet.

After the battles he won, there was one more battle for Elijah to face, the battle of fatigue:

1 Kings 19:1-4

When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”

Former President Bill Clinton once said, “Most of the mistakes in my political and personal life are connected to sleep deprivation.”

That may sound like a cop-out, but truthfully, fatigue is a real factor in winning battles. There is a battle you fight after the battle you win.

“Tired eyes rarely see a good future.” -Mike Murdock

As Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi said, “Fatigue can make cowards of us all.”

Elijah was clearly not a coward, but he was emotionally, spiritually, and physically depleted.

He was human.

Alone and afraid, Elijah cowered in the wilderness just 24-hours after winning some of the most courageous battles of faith ever recorded in Scripture.

“As margin decreases, temptation increases.” -Craig Groeschel

If fatigue goes unchecked, fear and anxiety run rampant and can lead to bizarre decisions in the heat of tension.

“Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.” -Bob Mumford

Battle #3 Forgetfulness

Joshua, the successor to Moses, was an amazing general.

He survived and won the most amazing battle, the battle of a lifetime!

Jericho was an intimidating, fortified, locked up city with seemingly impregnable and 40-foot- high-walls, considered impossible to get into. Joshua knew this was a battle that he could not win, so he inquired of the Lord. God’s instructions were clear: march around the walls for six days, and then march around again seven times on the seventh day, not doing or saying anything. This was clearly a supernatural victory.

Next town on the conquest list was a little place called Ai.

Joshua 7:2-5 (NLT)

Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of Ai, east of Bethel, near Beth-aven. When they returned, they told Joshua, “There’s no need for all of us to go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.”

So approximately 3,000 warriors were sent, but they were soundly defeated. The men of Ai chased the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries, and they killed about thirty-six who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events, and their courage melted away.

You can’t treat every battle the same way. Each one is unique. Joshua and his men were overconfident in facing this current enemy because of their previous victories.

They got a little cocky.

Their approach was a bit lazy.

They underestimated the power of a smaller adversary.

They forgot that every enemy requires humility and God’s strategy. -Joshua Finley

Sometimes you brace yourself for these BIG seasons and BIG battles, and then the small foxes that the Bible speaks of come in.

We defeat MASSIVE opponents, fears, addictions, battles and then the smallest traps can trip us up.

Having lived in Western New York for many years, I became familiar with the story of a circus performer and stuntman named Bobby Leach. Bobby was the second person to ever survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1911, and only the first man. After his stunt, he spent six months in the hospital recovering from two broken kneecaps and a fractured jaw, but he lived! Until 1926, that is. That was the year he slipped on an orange peel while in New Zealand and injured his leg. Gangrene set in and the leg had to be amputated. Sadly, he died of complications to the surgery.

Bobby Leach survived Niagara Falls in a barrel in a great stuntman’s victory over fear, but lost to an orange peel!

Spiritual amnesia results from winning a battle and then forgetting how it happened.

There is a rhythm that a warrior son or daughter of God lives in, remembering some important truths.

We must do things God’s way to get God’s result.

What’s my strategy for spiritual warfare?

My strategy is not focusing on the enemy or his tactics at all, but worshipping God and trusting in God all the time. Worship is our act of spiritual warfare.

Constant dependency is our continual strategy.

It’s less about having my defenses up against my enemy and more about having my guard down towards my Father.

If we trust Him, we can say “yes” again and again.

Battle #4 Familiarity

So valuable to the nation of Israel was the “Ark of the Covenant,” the approximately 2’ x 4’ golden box that housed the manifest Presence of God.

The nation was blessed for having it.

One day the Philistines captured it from Israel in battle, a devastating defeat for the nation. This was a headline-making tragedy for Israel; the Ark of God Almighty was in their enemy’s hands.

For the nation whose unique identity was woven into its relationship with the Lord, nothing was more important that recovering the Ark of God.

How would they win it back?

Find a better battle strategy?

How many lives would it cost to fight again, hoping to win?

What the Philistines were shocked to discover was that this Ark was not just some kind of lucky charm. Having it in their possession didn’t have the result that they hoped for. When you put the manifest Presence of God amidst idol worship, it’s not going to fit in very well. Instead of bringing them even more fortune, the Philistines began to discover that the Ark was not a blessing for them at all, but a curse.

Without the Israelites even having to go to battle or kill anybody to recover their beloved Ark of God’s Covenant, the Philistines just “sent it back.” What a God-given victory as the oxen came pulling the cart and the Ark back to Israel with no military skirmish or escort!

Back in Israel the Ark of the Covenant was placed, kept and cared for at the house of a man named Abinadab.

Years later, in sorrow that the Ark of God’s manifest Presence was not in Jerusalem at the place of worship, David commissioned some men to bring it from Abinidab’s house to the place prepared for it in the City of David. Along the way however, there was a problem.

2 Samuel 6:5-7 (NLT)

David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord (30,000 of his best troops), singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.

But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.

Honestly, that sounds just a little harsh, doesn’t it?

I mean, Uzzah is just trying to keep the most important relic to the nation from crashing down to the ground!

God is not unjust or unloving.

These kinds of things don’t just happen unless there’s a heart issue that He’s aware of.

What we can easily miss in the story is that Uzzah is one of Abinidab’s sons.

He and his brother Ahio had grown up for years with the Ark of the Covenant in their home.

Being around the Ark was not unfamiliar to them!

After the nation won the battle of recovering the Ark without a fight, Uzzah lost the next battle, the Battle of Familiarity.

The Ark was more than just a piece of furniture.

It was not an idol or a good luck charm. It was the very Presence of the God of the universe.

Have you ever lost the Battle of Familiarity?

Have you ever begun to treat something with less value because it’s so common to you? Of course you have! We all have.

I personally hate this battle because it is so prevalent and easy to overlook in our casual culture and busy homes.

We have parents, spouses, children and people in our lives that we are so used to, that we can easily treat them with less value than they are given by God.

Those we know the most we are sometimes tempted to honor the least.

Have you treated your God-given position as His child with too much familiarity?

Have you treated grace and holiness with too much familiarity?

In the Old Testament, God’s Presence was housed in a box. In the New Testament, God’s Presence is housed within our bodies.

Have you taken that for granted or failed to see the glory that rests upon you and upon one another?

Battle #5 Favor

“Favor from heaven can cause problems on earth.”
-Bill Johnson

When favor comes upon your life, a battle ensues!

Jesus Himself had to battle this one after He had won other battles.

He lived a perfect, sinless life, and experienced the favor of God and had favor with man. He lived His 30 years of training for ministry flawlessly.

He was gracious towards people and sensitive to God the Father.

He was “God in the flesh.”

At Jesus’ water baptism in the Jordan River by John, the heavens ripped open, the Spirit of God descended, and He heard the audible voice of God saying,

“This is My Son (affirmation) whom I love (affection) in Him I am well pleased (approval).”

Image credit: Pontus Wellgraf, unsplash.com.

Then the Spirit led Him into the wilderness. He fasted and was tested by the devil.

“IF you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” (security)

“IF you are the Son of God, jump down from there.” (safety)

“IF you will bow down and worship me I will give you the kingdoms of this world.” (significance)

Satan tried to get Jesus to find his security, safety and significance from a source other than His Father.

He does the same thing to us everyday.

Your enemy always attacks your identity. If he can get you thinking that you’re someone that you’re not, he can get you behaving in a way that you were never created to live.

Even Jesus had battles to fight after the battle He won.

After winning a 30- year battle flawlessly and growing in favor with God and man, even hearing the audible approval of the Father, He then had another battle to fight.

How does God’s favor on your life create a battle?

With every favor comes victory and blessing, but with every blessing can come the weight of that burden.

With victory comes responsibility.

Favor from heaven can cause problems on earth.

You win a victory and suddenly those around you are envious, doubtful, or critical.

You encounter resistance after a victory.

Luke 4:13 (NLT)

When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

It doesn’t say that he left Jesus alone for good, but that there would be another battle on another day!

There is a battle to fight after the battle you win, but because Jesus Himself faced this, He can help you win every single battle you face!

Jesus can help you win every battle.

He knows what’s coming at you before it comes.

Jesus never wants you to live paranoid, just prepared.

Have you reached a milestone, or are you coming off a huge victory or heading off to a new venture and season in life?

Humble yourself before the Lord and recognize that there are more battles coming.

Surrender yourself afresh.

And when you trip up in the days ahead, just remember that failure is not final.

Every morning we get new mercy.

That’s how it works; new morning, new mercy.

Part of overcoming is realizing that it is a lifestyle & mindset, not just a momentary victory.

So, my friend...

Embrace God’s boundaries.

Take your stand.

Don’t walk alone.

Embrace the victory coming your way.

Remember that you live under the smile of heaven.

AFTERWARDS: The Battle You Fight After The Battle You Win