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Sunday, August 16, 2009

This is the message I preached this A.M.

This was my message this morning. Hope ya enjoy it as much as I did!

Fight Like A Girl

Scriptures: Judges 4:4-10 4:12-24
1 Corinthians 1:26-27
1 Samuel 1:1-19
Luke 18:1-8

My title for this message is “Fight Like A Girl”
I am sure most of the men in the room has heard this on the playgrounds at some point in their lives. It is meant as an insult to say the boy is somehow weak. Most girls will roll their eyes and walk away with a bit of indignation when they hear this term. Instinctively or perhaps from experience with their mothers they know to “fight like a girl” is not always a cute tap here and there.
In fact to imagine fighting like a girl brings images of slapping, biting, hair pulling, yelling, screaming, scratches, broken finger nails, eye gorging and down right bloodshed. To Fight Like A Girl can be downright vicious.

You, right now, in your seats (and me too) are on the battlefield. Sometimes we think we are on the playgrounds of life but we are not. We are in battle. And no offense to the men in the room but we are fighting like men. Logical. We stand in the sidelines of our churches and huddle to discuss ways of beating the devil. Every now and then if he strikes us first we hit back, a blow for a blow. Then its back to the huddle again, while the devil attacks us in other ways.
Women, too, are taught to be tough, to have some backbone. Some even learn to box and wrestle like a man. We too try to be logical and politically correct in fighting. But today I tell you its time to fight like a girl! There's a lot of things we need to do “like a girl” and one of them is fight. If time permits I will tell you of a few others too.

Read Judges 4:4-10 and Judges 4:12-24

Deborah and Jael knew how to fight. Deborah had prophetic insight to know the battle was coming. Jael knew she had to choose a side and take a stand. Barak understood girl fighting. He refused to go into battle w/o Deborah. She was not the likely candidate to enter battle either. She was a woman and she lived in a time when women were not thought to be warriors. In fact it is believed that some Jews and other cultures actually prayed and praised God for not being born a woman but instead a man because men were thought of as blessed and powerful.
Most of us are not thought to be warriors either. We are:
Old and Feeble
Have spotty pasts and criminal records
Bodies compromised from years of drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.
Uneducated and Unqualified
Some unattractive, etc.
But we see in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27 that we are indeed God's top 10 for warriors. When God calls us we are all these things and so much more. Yet he uses our weaknesses to confound the wise and mighty.
We are front line soldiers for God, but we have to remember who our enemy is. The devil is not playing with you and I, He means business and we must mean business too. I challenge you (if you are a male) to fight like a girl and (if you are a female) to remember how to fight. When the devil walks up to you and tries to tempt you or challenge your faith, it is not the time to sit on the sidelines in a huddle. Scratch his eyes out, pull his hair, break a few fingernails, yell and scream for God and make him think twice before he comes picking at you again.
Next you need to count like a girl. Barak counted like a man, logical. He counted 1 undefeated general + 900 chariots + a huge army and he came hesitated. Deborah counted the same but she did girl count.
1 undefeated general + 900 chariots + a huge army + our little army + God = Victory!!
She understood that if God be for you then who can be against you! She understood one divine intervention from God could turn a mighty man into a milk drinking, rug hiding, tent peg pin cushion for one little woman.
What are you adding up today. Count like a girl.
Rent + sickness + mistreatment + brokenhearted + no money + God = Victory!! Amen.

Lastly learn to pray like a girl.
Girls will tell anyone, anywhere, anytime, over and over and over and over what is wrong. You don't even have to ask. They just need to see you have ears and they will begin to tell you what is wrong and why. Hannah was this girl.
1 Samuel 1:1-19
She was relentless, she didn't pray a one time, cure all prayer. She had God's ears and she went to Him every year with what was wrong and a broken heart. She didn't pray an eloquent, loud, flashy or even awe inspiring prayer. She prayed her heart. Many times we have many words coming from our mouths but little from our hearts in prayer.
Believe it or not Jesus taught us how to “pray like a girl”.
Luke 18:1-8
Persistence and determination. Its not that God can't hear. He can and does. Its like with Hannah, it was painful, deep in the heart, and only God could do something about it. It said that she meant business, that if God didn't change the situation it was not going to be changed and it demonstrated her relentless faith.
Finally Hannah grabbed a word and a Word grabbed her. Eli gave Hannah a word and she took hold of it and she let the Word take hold of her. I've no doubt that many of you have had a prophetic word spoken to you, or you have heard from God Himself give you a word, or you instinctively know what God has said to you or concerning you. Even when God is chastising us, we are not in the dark on it, He has at some point told us so. Hear His word to you today. Revisit a prophetic Word you were given. Be as Hannah, remind God of His Word, let Him know you have faith in that Word. Let Him know you are persistence, that you care, that you are available, that you love Him.

A Bishop friend of mines had a daughter who had a heart condition. Her mother, his wife, had died of the same condition. One day her heart failed and she was taken to Wake Med and then to Duke. She lay on life support for weeks w/o a heart in her chest. She was waiting on a heart transplant. I sat a many days in church watching this Bishop preach and testify of his daughter in the hospital. I remember him saying one day he was praying for her and God gave him a Word. He would say “now all I have is a Word and a Promise”. He was so convinced of that Word and Promise that he would make us say it. Whatever we came to church burdened with he would always tell us to tell God all we had was a Word and a Promise. I want you to know today his daughter is alive and well and in good health.

Lets move forward in our battles with prayer, and a will to fight and please Fight Like A Girl.

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