Slugfest
Pt. 5 - Answer The Bell
I. Introduction
Fix the fight, find your fight song, remember that you have a cut man. We are a body of left-handed warriors - we don't fit in, we are awkward on purpose by God to win unexpected and unlikely victories that will cause others to rally who wouldn't otherwise be willing to fight!
I know that even if you don't have any interest in boxing or MMA you are aware that the bell begins and ends the current round. Fighters are encouraged to fight until they hear the bell. Keep swinging until the referee steps in and stops the action. However, I don't want to focus on the end of a round or the end of a fight. Instead, I want to challenge you to answer the bell. It is very tempting after going a few round . . . even if you have the upper hand in those rounds and especially if you are being beaten up in those rounds . . . to get to a point in the fight where you refuse to answer the bell. There are times when we believe or feel like we have fought long enough and either out of exhaustion or complacency (apathy) we set down in our corner and when the bell rings to indicate there is another round to go . . . we lose the fight by not showing up.
I want you to hear me today. I may not be able to accurately articulate what I sense in my spirit. I only know to say it like this . . . corporately we are this close. We are on the brink. We are on the threshold of the greatest days, biggest victories, mightiest move of God we have ever seen. I can't say that about everybody. I know a lot that are beaten up right now and about to be counted out. But that isn't us. We are this close to a major win. I sense it. I declare it. I believe it. But there is a danger here because I also believe we have been at this moment before at various seasons. And for some reason either due to the exertion of effort that was required to get here or we took it for granted and thought victory was inevitable at this moment we have failed to answer the bell and lost that moment. I am begging you answer the bell. Don't grow weary. Don't let down. Get out of the corner and keep fighting for this thing. Another way for me to say it is we must continue to take a posture of press! Where we refuse to let anything get in our way or obstruct our victory. I was reminded of three accounts in Scripture where people who answered the bell and pressed until they won. Their willingness to answer the bell speaks to us and informs us of what force will try to resist us to keep us from breaking into an overwhelming victory. Their wins teach us corporately but also speak to each one of us individually. There can be no corporate win unless the bulk of you in the room win too!
So, let me reference the three accounts. If I had 3 more Sundays, I would just take one a Sunday, but allow me to just get straight to the point out of each account. There is one Old Testament and two New Testament accounts to peak at today.
Text: Genesis 32:32-34 (NIV)
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Jacob was alone. No one else to help or assist in this wrestling match. He refused to let go. He pressed the "man" he was wrestling until this "man" realized Jacob's determination and dislocates Jacob's hip and it says he did this as he wrestled. Notice the wrestling didn't stop after the hip was dislocated. He dislocates the hip and says, "Let go of me. Ding ding round is over." Jacob said, "No way. I will press on you for a blessing." Jacob wrestles through pain. He presses in spite of his pain. There are quite a few of you in this room today that are in pain and you feel like you are alone. You feel like no one can help you or assist you in this battle. So, you have decided that you can't fight anymore. You are sitting this one out. Others can fight/war/believe/worship if they want to, but you are in so much pain that you are hiding in the corner. I am asking you to answer the bell. Push past your broken heart. Push past your crushed spirit. Push past your anguish. Push past your disease. Press past pain! Don't let pain stop you! Push harder. If your enemy is resisting you this hard, then there must be something pretty incredible on the other side of this thing if you will come out and fight. You might limp into the next season, but you still get to enjoy it.
What you fight through may mark you, but it doesn't have to stop you!
Mark 5:25-34 (NIV)
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Here is a woman that has tried everything to be healed. Account says she had been to many doctors and yet she couldn't find an answer. This sickness has cost her everything dignity she had to identify her sickness to avoid making others unclean. It had cost her intimacy with her husband and family. I had cost her acceptance. She is a social reject and outcast. She teaches us that we must press past the possible and the permitted. Everyone thought her healing was not possible. It had been this way for over a decade. She will always be like this. You will always struggle with this issue. You will always be broke. You will always be bitter. You will always be depressed. Press past the possible. It was not permitted for her to press through a crowd or to touch Jesus. Press past the permitted. You can't worship as passionately as you are. You can't shout as loud as you are shouting. You can't weep like you are weeping. You can't come to the altar in the middle of the pastor's message. You can't admit that kind of issue. Press past the permitted. Make up your mind to press past the possible and the permitted to get to Jesus. Notice the disciples are dumbfounded because Jesus asks who touched Him. They try to draw Jesus' attention the multitude that is surrounding Him. That meant others were touching Him too. Jesus others are touching you, but she touched Him and He noticed. I am telling you that you have to answer the bell, press past and touch Jesus until He notices. Others in this room will be touching Him, but you need to really touch Him.
Matthew 26:6-13 (TPT)
When Jesus went to Bethany, to the home of Simon, a man Jesus had healed of leprosy. A woman came into the house, holding an alabaster flask filled with expensive, fragrant oil. She came right to Jesus, and in a lavish gesture of devotion, she poured out the costly oil, and it cascaded over his head as he was at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were offended. “What a total waste!” they grumbled. “We could have sold it for a great deal of money and given it to the poor.” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Why are you critical of this woman? She has done a beautiful act of kindness. You will always have someone poor whom you can help, but you will not always have me. When she poured the fragrant oil over me, she was preparing my body for burial.
Jesus is only a couple of days before being crucified and a woman brings a box of perfume that would be equal in value to a year of your salary. She breaks it and pours it on Jesus' head to prepare Him for burial. The disciples are offended. The believers were offended. Those closest and most intimate were offended. Someone I sat next to week after week at Passion was offended. Someone in my circle was offended. They didn't like the cost of her worship. They didn't like the volume of her fight. They didn't like the desperation of her press. They didn't like the way she approached. This woman answered the bell and taught us that we must press past the petty!
I need to tell you that in order to press in you are going to have to press through petty. There will be people in your life that will try to tell you that it doesn't take all of that. Just do church as normal. It doesn't take all that dancing and shouting. Just worship dignified. There will be people in your life that will try to silence you and stifle you. They are petty and they are bound. There will be things that happen here that will probably offend you. There will be people here that will probably be offended by you. Why? I hate to admit it, but even at Passion we can be petty at times. They took my seat. They didn't sing my song. They sung too long. They sung too loud. The preacher said something I didn't like. He preached too hard. He didn't preach hard enough. They moved around too much. They didn't check on me. They didn't call me. They didn't say hi. Petty! We are going to have to come to the conclusion that I didn't come here to press into you, I came here to press into Him. I came to anoint Him so that He can anoint me. Unless you can anoint me, I am sorry, but I will press past your pettiness to get to Him! I will press past the fear of what others will think and say and press to Him!
Paul recognized the need to press. He wrote the church in Philippi and said in Philippians 3:12 - I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
When I am pressed, I will press back! I have to answer the bell to get what Jesus possessed for me. You don’t get all that is coming to you if you refuse to press. Press into worship. Press into Word. Press into prayer. Press into His presence. We press by waiting. You don’t get it by settling. Your "next" could be determined by your press. We stop on threshold. We stop too soon.
But I think maybe, finally, even after 14 years of hoping and waiting that I may just have some folks at Passion, in the room or online, that have made up their mind that they will press! I think maybe we just have some folks that will answer the bell. Folks who won't stop now. Won't quit now. We know we have come a long way, but we haven't come far enough. We have won a few battles, but we will stick to it until we win the war. We have seen God move, but we won't quit expecting, believing, participating, preparing for the greatest move of God we have ever seen. We won't walk in here on a Sunday and set a round out.
Knock and door shall be open. Wait I thought door was supposed to be open. God will open doors, but there are times we have to knock for what we need. So, we will answer the bell. Knock knock. We will keep fighting. Knock knock. We will keep praying. Knock knock. Resist us devil. Knock knock. We are willing to knock things down and we are willing to knock things out of the way to get to what is ours.
Almost is our enemy. Almost to revival. Almost to Victory. Almost to breakthrough. Almost to freedom. How do we fight almost? We press. We answer the bell.
The bell is ringing - get out of the corner and start swinging! You fought a long time, fight some more. You have prayed a long time, pray some more. You have worshipped before, worship some more! You have believed before, believe some more! Let's answer the bell!
Get in a posture of push! These three accounts reveal that blessing comes when we answer the bell. We possess when we push!
Come on, can I get some pushy folks to take a few moments this morning and push past pain, push past possible, push past possible and push past petty and get what is ours?
