Six Battles Every Man Must Win

Part One: Fight for Your Identity

1 Samuel 22:1-2

Pastor Darrin Wright

Introduction

An experiment performed by the National Institute Of Mental Health illustrates what happens to many men in our society.

The experiment took place in a nine-foot-square cage designed to comfortably house 160 mice. In two and a half years, the colony of mice grew from 8 to 2,200. As the population grew, the researchers began to notice changes in their behavior. Eventually the mouse society started to fall apart. Here’s what they reported:

· Adults formed groups or cliques of about a dozen mice per group.

· The males who normally protected their territory withdrew from leadership and became uncharacteristically passive.

· The females became unusually aggressive and forced out the young.

· The whole “mouse society” became disrupted. And after five years all the mice had died even though there was an abundance of food, water, and resources, and an absence of disease.

While we’re not mice, we do live in an increasingly crowded and impersonal world. In some respects, we behave like the “mouse society”. Our men have become disconnected, and isolated. Many men don’t even have a single friend with whom they can share their joys and struggles with. Men have also become passive. We no longer defend our territory. We refuse to fight for what’s important, or at least what is important to God. We seldom live as though nothing else matters compared to knowing God. In fact, we live as though everything else matters. And in the process, we lose the battles we must win.

God has placed us in the middle of a spiritual war between the forces of light and the demons of darkness. Throughout the Bible men are urged to fight the enemy, do battle, and wage war. As Bill Perkins says, “We’ve not been placed in a spiritual Disneyland and told to have fun”. At birth we entered the battlefield. At the time of our rebirth in Christ we enlisted in God’s army as warriors of light.

We are in a spiritual conflict and the war is for our heart – the core of our being that serves as the center of our intellect, emotion, and will. The enemy wants to capture our affection and direct our plans. He seeks to destroy us and our family. As God’s warriors, we must live as though nothing else matters compared with knowing Christ and fighting at His side.

I. Battle #1: Fight For Your Identity.

· Key Text: 2 Samuel 23:8;11-12(NASB) – “These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth a Tah-chemonite, chief of the captains, he was called Adino the Eznite, because of eight hundred slain by him at one time; Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.”

· Key People: Josheb-basshebeth; Shammah

· This first battle involves our identity in Christ, because everything else flows from that.

· In the Bible, names are significant. They carry meaning with them the rest of their lives. The key people in this battle have very interesting names. Josheb-basshebeth means shame, and Shammah means waste. Now it is one thing to be called a hurtful name, but it is something totally different to be given a hurtful name by your parents.

· The Bible does not say why these two men were given these names. So it is hard to imagine what was happening in their parents lives when they were born. While I was reflecting on these two men and their names, I found that I could relate to them.

· Illustration from childhood: small- acting tough – getting beat up – becoming timid and shy – hating crowds; got older – trying to fit in – still small – tried to be popular – didn’t work; lived in the gym – tough and strong – yet still timid and shy; freedom in Christ – strength and power in him-that is my true identity.

· Question: How about you? Have you been wounded? Have you allowed the scars from your wounds to paralyze your potential and render you as motionless as a toy soldier?

A. In God’s economy, painful experiences are preparation for greatness.

1. Wounds are the material God uses to build mighty men of faith.
2. God, not past failures or present scars must define us.
3. The Bible is filled with accounts of men who suffered before God used them:

a. Moses was called a murderer and spent forty years in the wilderness before delivering the Israelites from Pharaoh. Yet he’s remembered today as a deliverer, and a great man of faith.

b. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers and later spent time in an Egyptian prison. All of this before pharaoh elevated him to a position of leadership. The struggles Joseph faced strengthened his character and prepared him for his role as a great leader.

c. Peter acted as a coward by denying Christ before becoming a pillar of the church.

4. The bible says that David took these two men who were plagued by hardship and called them mighty men.
5. That’s who we are in Christ.
6. Ephesians 6:13(NASB) – “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
7. Living like a warrior demands that we embrace the inevitability of hardship, instead of fleeing from it.
8. Hardship often brings us to our lowest point, and in the process, tempts us to see ourselves as less than a mighty man of God. Yet God uses our hardships to prepare us for our future.

2. We must refuse to allow setbacks to shape our identity.

1. Life is tough. There are seasons that seem unbearable. We see champions of the faith and think they have avoided hardship. But they haven’t. They have embraced it, just like an athlete embraces the pain of rigorous training.
2. All of David’s mighty men were veterans in the war of disappointment and pain. Yet they did not allow their setbacks to shape who they were.
3. 1 Samuel 22:2(NASB) – “Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.”

3. Our identity isn’t destroyed by adversity, its strengthened.

1. The God-given masculinity of David’s mighty men didn’t wither under hardship. It emerged.
2. They found God’s stability in their time of greatest need.
3. That means all of the hardship we’ve suffered can be used by God to make us stronger, not weaker. It means if we’ve suffered or are in the midst of suffering, God wants to use adversity to mold us into mighty men of faith.
4. When a loss exposes our weakness and we run to God, we discover His strength.
5. God’s power is unleashed at the point of our greatest weakness.
6. 2 Corinthians 12:10(NASB) – “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
7. If during our times of weakness we turn to God, we’ll emerge stronger because we will rely on His strength, not our own.
8. Our identity will be dependent on Him, not our circumstances.
9. When we’re broken and our weakness is exposed we can see ourselves as powerless and unable to fight. Or we can acknowledge our weakness. Instead of letting it define our identity, we can allow God’s strength – manifested in our weakness – to define us.
10. God does not see us as insignificant. Nor has He overlooked us. On the contrary, He views us as one of the most powerful warriors on the planet.

4. Suffering and Disappointment are God’s way of exposing our weakness so we can find our identity in His strength.

1. No matter how much I have experienced suffering and disappointment, I am not defined by it.
2. My Identity: I am a warrior engaged against the forces of darkness in a war of eternal value.
3. I am fighting for my heart and the heart of my family.
4. God wired us to do battle and offers His unlimited strength to assure our victory.
5. Question: Will you embrace your true identity today?