Bunbury
Sun am
26/09/10
“Surrendering when you don’t have to”
Intro: *** British surrender to the Japanese in Singapore. Had a numerically superior force of men & they were better equipped but the Japanese force managed to convince them that there was no hope so they surrendered thousands of troops into the hands of the Japanese who then systematically began slaughtering them.
The tragedy of this is that they surrendered when they didn’t have to!
I think that this is something that we as Christians do all the time – surrender when we don’t have to.
We give in believing that there is no way we can win, no way we can have victory.
So what we do is give in to the enemy, give in to his demands, surrender to his will instead of God’s will.
When we do this the result is always a bad one & we always end up losing when God has set us up to win.
We find a story in the O/T that has some similarities to the British surrender to the Japanese during WWII.
But fortunately there was something in the thinking of these people that made them begin to consider that there was another way rather than surrendering.
Let’s learn some of the lessons from these people.
I want to preach a message t/m I’ve entitled ‘Surrendering when you don’t have to’.
Text: 1 Samuel 11:1-11 (NKJV) 1Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
2And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, “On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right eyes, and bring reproach on all Israel.” 3Then the elders of Jabesh said to him, “Hold off for seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. And then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.” 4So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5Now there was Saul, coming behind the herd from the field; and Saul said, “What troubles the people, that they weep?” And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. 6Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. 7So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.” And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8When he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9And they said to the messengers who came, “Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.’” Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.
10Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do with us whatever seems good to you.” 11So it was, on the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it happened that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
# 1. The challenge of the enemy.
A. The devil loves to remind us of what we really are.
a. Our lives are lived out much of the time like a charade.
i. In other words we’re all to one degree or another play actors...... putting on a performance.
ii. Making out to everyone around us that we are certain types of people ...allowing everyone to see our strengths / talents.
iii. But the truth is that our public face is not always who / what we really are.
** Like someone has already said in a book “Everybody’s normal until you get to know them.”
iv. What he’s speaking about is the reality that just below the surface ..... just below that outward veneer of togetherness is the real you.
v. It doesn’t take long after we meet someone to realise that what they want everyone else to think they are is not what they are.
b. The problem of course is that the enemy – the devil / Satan / Lucifer knows what we are.
i. He has seen us in the midst of our weaknesses / failures / temptations ... he’s seen us give in to sin & allow carnality to reign in our lives.
ii. And he is an expert in inciting our fears ..... reminding us of the truth of ourselves.
B. The enemy wants you to live w/ a ‘can’t do’ approach.
a. B/c he knows what we are really like he plays on our weaknesses & works to convince us that weakness must rule in our lives.
*** Royce Woods was very big for his age. He towered over every other kid in the primary school. By his very nature he wasn’t aggressive / a fighter. He was a gentle giant & a genuinely nice kid. One day after school on the way home another kid tried to pick a fight w/ him. He really mouthed off & convinced Royce that he was going to be annihilated if he dared to take up the challenge. Royce backed down in fear & went home & told his dad about the situation. Royce’s dad – Royce senior – was a former amateur boxer in his younger days & he wasn’t about to let his son be intimidated. So he drove Royce & me back to the football ground where the bully was still hanging out & confronted the kid w/ Royce. If it’s a fight he wanted he was going to have one only it was going to be fair b/c he was going to oversee it. So they both put ‘em up & Royce senior coached his son through the fight where he annihilated the bully & went home w/ his dad & a smile on his face.
Fortunately Royce had a father who didn’t believe in a ‘can’t do approach’!
i. Look for a moment @ our text when the men of Jabesh are facing the enemy’s challenge.
Vs 1. 1Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
ii. At this point Nahash the Ammonite has been successful in convincing them of one impt lie – we can’t win this fight, we can be victorious against this enemy of our lives.
iii. So the very next thing they decide to do is look for conditions of peace.
iv. They wanted to live the life of least resistance – it’s better to admit we can’t win rather than to struggle on to victory.
b. What the enemy was doing to these people of Jabesh Gilead is exactly what he is still trying to do to you & I today.
i. He’s saying this challenge is bigger than you ..... you can’t beat it / rise to it & so you are going to have to live under it.
ii. He loves to place demands on us & say ....... you are simply going to have to live w/ this failure & make it a part of your life b/c getting the victory is too hard!
c. What areas of your life are you surrendering that you don’t have to?
i. Habits / addictions / attitudes / carnal ways that have taken you prisoner & you’ve surrendered to them believing you can’t win.
ii. What r/s have you allowed to die? What vision has been lost? What kind of person have you allowed the enemy to turn you into by surrendering when you don’t have to?
iii. He wants you to put every challenge in the too hard basket, the devil wants to convince you that it’s better to have your eyes plucked out & lose your vision for victory.
iv. What are you conceding to the enemy? How has he convinced you that you can’t grow / rise up & be bigger than your battles?
# 2. The demands of the enemy.
A. When we surrender to the enemy he always makes unreasonable demands on us.
a. Think about the enemy’s terms for peace here.
Vs 2. 2And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, “On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right eyes, and bring reproach on all Israel.”
i. What a price to pay for peace! Every man in the town has to forfeit his right eye!!!
ii. This is the way it goes ...... whenever we surrender to the enemy’s demands they are always unreasonable, those demands always injure us & we are always rendered ineffective.
b. Consider what this demand of Nahash the Ammonite meant.
i. Firstly it meant open / obvious / public humiliation ........ think about it – here is an entire town of men who were going to lose their right eyes!
ii. Every time a man was seen anywhere in Israel w/ his right eye missing it would have resulted in stares / whispering / remarks / maybe even some mocking.
iii. There’s one of those men who didn’t have the courage to fight for his family / people / God.
*** When I was 13 a kid challenged me to a fight one night in front of all my friends. He apparently knew who I was even though I didn’t know him. He humiliated me & even invited me to take the first punch. I was completely bluffed & walked away in humiliation that night.
To this day I wish I had smacked him right in the mouth there & then!
But I learned a lesson there & many times after that night I threw caution to the wind & threw a punch & won!
iv. Secondly it would affect the sons of these men ...... the old adage “Like father, like son” is a powerful truth.
v. The defeat of the fathers would be bred into the hearts / minds of the children of these people – they would also grow up believing that this is the way life is.
vi. When you surrender to challenges .... wrong attitudes / tardiness / broken friendships / addictions & habits / a shattered life – you’re children will too!
vii. Thirdly this demand of the enemy meant that they would have no ability to fight in the future.
viii. By asking for their right eyes to be plucked out the enemy was effectively seeking to remove their ability to fight.
ix. In battle the right eye was the only part of the body not protected by a shield ..... the right eye was what guided them in battle & gave them the ability to fight.
x. So the Ammonites were really wanting to eliminate the future possibility of being effective in battle.
c. One thing is certain .... the enemy’s demands are always going to hurt you if you surrender to them.
B. What right does the enemy have to make demands on the people of God.
a. B/4 you give into the demands think about who it really is making the demands.
*** When the nation of Fiji was in turmoil during the coup in May 2000 villagers began blocking the highway from Suva to Nadi. They were putting logs / rocks & debris on the road & demanding that cars stop & pay a fee for passing through their village on the highway. But the truth was that they had no authority to do this!
After the coup they were all rounded up & charged w/ public anarchy. Some were fined & some went to prison. They had no right / power to do what they were doing.
i. In our text it’s a warrior named Nahash ....... his name comes from a word that literally means a snake / serpent. It comes from a word that means to hiss / whisper or enchant.
ii. Here is that same old car salesman of a devil that we find back in the garden of Eden whispering to Eve & Adam.
iii. And the truth is that he is still whispering today! He’s saying things like this is too much for you, give in / surrender / give up the fight / take the easy way out!
iv. But the Bible says .....
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV) 13No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
b. One truth is plain – God doesn’t want you to acquiesce to enemy’s demands!
i. Not only is victory / dominion / dominance over the work of hell a possibility ..... God expects you to make it a reality.
ii. God wants you to begin to see the reality of what seems to be impossibility.
*** For many years the 4 minute mile was believed to be an impossibility, beyond the reach of even the best athletes. But on May 6th 1954 Roger Bannister ran a mile in less than 4 minutes! Today athletes all over the world run a mile in less than 4 minutes some of whom are still in high school athletic teams! What was thought to be impossible has been discovered as well possible!
iii. Some Christians live so far below what God has equipped them to be simply b/c they have acquiesced to the enemy’s demands – the serpent’s whisper has overcome them.
# 3. Defeating the enemy.
A. God wants you to begin to see the kind of life you can live.
a. The basic reality is that for some of us we have gotten so used to living w/ failure that we think it’s what God is calling us to.
i. The kind of lives we are living & the type of life God is calling us up to are sometimes worlds apart.
ii. If you are going to live the kind of life God has called you to you are going to have to first convince yourself it can be done!
b. Victory often hinges on nothing more than the thought that maybe you can win!
*** In the recent federal election Australia’s youngest ever MP was elected into office.
One article reads - WATCHING Australia's youngest-ever MP shake hands and stop to greet members of the public, you'd think he had been doing it for years.
But Wyatt Roy, 20, who won the Queensland seat of Longman for the Liberal Party, said he was still getting used to all the excitement and formalities surrounding his new position. "It's all so new and it's a lot like being on ice-skates; everything moves so quickly," Mr Roy said yesterday.
Mr Roy spent his first official day in Parliament yesterday sitting next to the longest serving MP, Philip Ruddock, 67, who took him under his wing.
Mr Ruddock was elected in 1973, 17 years before Mr Roy was born.
i. Here is a kid ..... barely old enough to vote himself who thought to himself ..... maybe I could be elected to parliament!
ii. Armed w/ that thought he has ventured into the campaign to be Australia’s youngest ever MP & won!
*** On Saturday May 15th Jessica Watson b/ca the first 16 year old to sail solo around the world. The story in Reuters News said – the teen-ager sailed into Sydney Harbor to a rapturous welcome Saturday to complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe that will take her into the history books.
iii. Here is a 16 year old kid who has said to herself ..... maybe I could be the first one to sail right around the world by myself!
c. To be able to really see what kind of life you can live, what kind of person you can be you’re going to have to tear down the mental barriers!
i. You’re going to have to begin to convince y/s that you can rise above the status quo you have settled for.
ii. This means tearing down some of the mental barriers that are stopping you from moving forward & living the kind of life that God wants you to live.
iii. It doesn’t have to be the way it’s always been.
d. Stop making excuses for your lifestyle.
i. It’s amazing the kind of excuses people make when they are doing something they know isn’t right.
ii. We often convince our/s we can’t do certain things b/4 we even begin!
*** Mohr Keet is the oldest known bungee jumper who has already done three jumps. When he did his latest jump he was 97 years old!
He could have told himself .....I can’t do it, I’m too old! But he convinced himself that the only way he could overcome his fear was to make the jump – again!
B. One impt reality needs to grip our hearts.
a. And that is the reality that there is another way – we don’t have to just give in!
*** In Sierra Leon the rebels began a campaign of mutilation & amputation of the people of the nation. Thousands of people were rounded up by the rebels who were lined up & had hands / arms cut off by the rebels for no other reason than to intimidate the general population of that nation into cooperation. All of this was done by boy soldiers. People surrendered when they should have begun fighting.
They shouldn’t have just given in!
i. And neither should we! We shouldn’t give in to laziness / carnality / broken friendships / a life far below what God tells us we can live.
ii. We shouldn’t give in when we have the resources for victory at our disposal!
b. The men of Jabesh Gilead made one impt decision – to find help to beat their enemy.
Vs 4. 4So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people.
i. It’s the same thing that we need to we need to resort to the higher power of our King ..... we need to call upon his help to be different & to get the victory.
ii. When we look to the power of our king we can stare our habits / addictions / challenges / defeats in the face & say “I won’t let you win!”
Vs 11. 11So it was, on the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it happened that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
iii. When the serpent whispers in your ears that this is the way it has to be you can be confident that God has equipped you w/ the backup to get total victory over hell.
Romans 8:37 (NKJV) 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
