How Do We Let God Fight Our Battles In Tough Times

James Greer: [00:00:00] Well, morning, Journey Church. We continue our series Fight Club. But today we want to learn allow God to fight for us. Men, aren't some of y'all tired of fighting battles all the time? Amen? But if you're not careful, there are so many battles you can't fight. You know, really, there's people get upset because of the weather. We get upset. You know, we can't do anything about the Ukraine war, though it upsets us and we can pray for it. There's so many things that we can't do. But if you're not careful, we're fighting so many battles, we go around physically and emotionally drained all the time. Did you know you can't really control what your mate does? You think you can, but you really can't. And our kids. We can try to influence them, but we really can't make them do anything. So what I want you to know today is there are so many battles, if you're not careful, that we're trying to fight all the time, that we'll stay physically and emotionally drained and we'll feel defeated. But that's not what really God wants us to do. In fact, I bet you'd just be amazed how many times God wants to fight your battles. I've got a book that says Pastor James' messages and I'm working way ahead of time. But in front of it, I've got four pages that reminds me, it says, The Lord is a man of war. The Lord should go before.

James Greer: [00:01:20] He's a mighty warrior. He'll go before you, and He'll make the crooked paths straight. The Lord goes before you and God of Israel, He watches your back. In other words, the Lord fights for you, and it just goes on and on and on. And it reminds me that if I will allow Him, He will fight for me. It's one of the safest but hardest things to do is to allow God to fight for you. As long as I've been in the ministry, it's really hard to learn. I say I know that I should allow Him to fight for me. But so many times my flesh wants to fight. I know verses like Ephesians 6:12, and it's so important. It says, For wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the dark age, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. In other words, the Bible says, really battles are not flesh and blood. So I do want you to understand something that's really, really important, that all our battles have a spiritual component. In other words, when you're fighting with your mate, there's a spiritual component that it's easy to miss. When you're upset with your kids, there's a spiritual component that God said, I wish you could get. When you're on your job and you're all upset, there's a spiritual component that we miss because the flesh is raging and wants to take over.

James Greer: [00:02:50] Now even if you're right spiritually with God, the other person may not be. And so there's a flesh trying to fight the spirit. So from now on, you've got to understand that you're fighting against spiritual battles, and there's a spiritual component during every battle that you fight. But it sure seems like to me that most of my battles are flesh and blood. I mean, a lot of times it's the closest people to me that I fight with the most. The ones that I love the most it seems like I have the greatest battles with. But even then, there's a spiritual component. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:13, Take up the whole armor of God. I know that. That you should be able to withstand the evil days having done all that that you can still stand. And this verse is so true, and we need the armor of God. But I want to teach you this morning that so many times I've never taught before, and it's maybe one of the most important things, and that's allowing God to fight for you. What I'm talking about is not wait till you're in the midst of the battle. What we do when we're in the midst of the battle, if you're not careful, you're going to fight with the flesh. If you're not careful, you're upset and they're upset, and you're both fighting in the flesh.

James Greer: [00:04:08] Amen? But if we would start preparing ahead of time, what a difference that could make. And so what I want you to do is start preparing before the battle starts. And first thing, number one, number one is you don't have to fight personally and relax. Don't fight every battle. Some people think they got to fight every single battle that comes up. But you don't. So just relax. Some people came here, you come to church, you go to every place you go, and you're so wound up. You're just used to fighting so much. You can't even come to church and relax. Take a deep breath. Okay? I'm not going to fight you, and you don't have to fight me. And while you're in church, you don't even have to fight your mate. Amen? This verse is written in the front of my Bible, and I apply it even at church. It says, You don't need to fight this battle. And you say, Why would you have that at church? Because sometimes, even before you go to preach, you have an emotional and spiritual battle. You can get upset before you preach, and all those kinds of things can start running through your mind. Can't it, Steven? And so I said, I don't need to fight this battle. I just need to position myself. In other words, I need to get spiritually ready. I need to stand still. And I'll talk about that. And see the salvation, the deliverance of the Lord who is with me.

James Greer: [00:05:44] I got to understand that God is with me. He's even with me at Journey Church. Oh, Jerusalem. I use it as a physical, emotional, and spiritual. I use it even when I'm going to preach. I've got to understand that God is with me. Every time somebody says something to me or I think they do or they look at me funny or some post, I don't have to get all upset about it. I don't have to post back. I don't have to say something back. I don't have to believe that. It takes emotional energy to fight back every single time. It takes spiritual energy not to fight back. It's an important insight that if we fight back all the time, God is not going to fight for us. God wants us to wait. Wait. He tells us to wait and not to fight. Many times it's not worth fighting for anyway. Did you know how hard it is to learn to pick your battles? Do you know how much more emotional energy you would save if you just learned to simply pick your emotional battles? So first of all, you don't have to fight every battle. First of all, it's not your place to personally fight every battle. Second of all, you've got to learn to position yourself for the battle. Position is learn to stand still and see the salvation. Lord, when I say position yourself, James 5:16 says, Confess your trespasses one to another.

James Greer: [00:07:22] Pray one for another that you might be healed. Now, that healing is emotional, spiritual, and physical. There's some emotional, physical, and spiritual healing that will never take place till you confess your sins, sometimes one to another. Effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You've got to get right with God. And then it'll availeth much. And then it just gives you an illustration of what the prayer of a righteous man can do. Elijah was a man with nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it didn't rain. For how long? Three and a half years. Three years and six months. That's pretty good prayer. He prayed again, and Heaven gave it rain. And the earth produced fruit. In other words, he was just simply saying, he was giving us an illustration of a regular person like me and you got right with God. He prayed and it didn't rain for three and a half years. That's pretty powerful prayer. Amen? He prayed again, and it rained. And what he was saying is he positioned himself correct with God. He was right with God. And so when you're right with God, it availeth much prayer. So first of all, God was saying you don't have to fight every battle physically. Amen? He said, positionally, get right with God and the righteous man. You're right with God, and you're right with other people.

James Greer: [00:08:40] You're right with your saved. You confess all your sins. You're right with everybody. You quit fighting with people. You've asked them to forgive you. And you're forgiven everybody. Then you pray. Amen? So now you don't fight every battle. But before you fight, you get positionally right to do that. Second of all, you've got to stand still. That is hard. Especially hard for somebody like me. Can you imagine somebody that's hyperactive, dyslexia standing still? Even when I'm still on the outside, I'm moving on the inside. It just does not happen. It's very, very hard. But the first thing we want to do is respond back. When you get upset with your kids, with your family, when somebody says something, what do you want to do? You hit them. Yeah, right. And everybody said, Amen. But the Psalmist said, Be still and know that I'm God. Sometimes instead of you standing still, you forget all about God. Stand still and know that I'm God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. I love the next part of that. Remember this. The Lord of Hosts is with you. You're going to hear me talk about the Lord of Hosts later on when I'm talking about when David killed Goliath. David could not kill Goliath. If you are not careful, when you hear the story of David and Goliath, y'all think David is a mean machine.

James Greer: [00:10:19] Amen? The Lord of Hosts was with David. That's the only reason David could have killed Goliath. Goliath could have stepped on David and killed him like that. The hero is David, but the real hero is the Lord of Hosts was with David. And it's the only reason that David could kill Goliath. And God is telling me and you to be still and learn who God is. And He said, because He wants the same Lord of Hosts that was with David to be with me and you. Amen? Whew. That's powerful. That's good, Brother James. I can preach that. I want the same Lord of Hosts that was with David to be with me. But I got to be still and understand who He is, where I can experience the power. The main reason that most people are not experiencing the power of God, that He's not fighting the battles for you because we're not being still long enough to recognize God. You're fighting the battle, so you're physically and emotionally drained. And you're not enjoying the power that God has for me and you. Here's another translation, and this is one that God gives me. When I'm all upset, God says, James, calm down. Calm down and learn that I'm God. I'm the God of all nations are Earth. They're going to honor me. They're going to do that. The Lord All-Powerful one is with us. My goodness, I can calm down and do what's right if I can be still long enough. The All-Powerful God is with me.

James Greer: [00:11:43] God has taught me about this verse. When I'm all upset, when I'm fearful, it's a sign from God that I need to calm down and know and learn that God is with me. The Lord of Hosts is with me. I just need to calm down. It's a spiritual red flag when I'm upset or I'm fearful that I need to calm down and remember the glory of the Host that God is with me. And I need to back up for a minute. If I don't, I start fighting to fight my own battle and I get emotionally drained. Most people today are walking around in their marriage, on their jobs, in their life emotionally drained. God never intended you to live like that. That does not come from God. That comes from the devil. First, get positionally, right? Second, stand still. Third, get ready for the salvation of Lord. In other words, God wants to deliver you. He says this. He says, You don't need to fight every battle. Don't fight this battle. Position yourself. Stand still. And do what? See the salvation of the Lord. Salvation here means, of course, you want salvation. You want to make sure you're going to Heaven. But here it means to deliver, to save, to help, to give you victory, to prosper. God says, I want to help you do that. And then He goes on to tell you later on, He says, Don't be dismayed.

James Greer: [00:13:22] Do not fear. Some of y'all came in here fearful, discouraged. God says don't do that. Tomorrow go out against them because you learn to be still. You learn to see the power of the All-Powerful is with you. Now it is time to move. There's a time to stand still. There's then a time to move. Now that you go to take care of your problem, the one that you're fearful, you no longer have to be fearful. You don't have to be discouraged. Tomorrow you're going to go out again. But guess who's with you? The Lord is with you. So don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. You can now go face your problems that you have to because you're positionally right. That's what David did with Goliath. David had waited. He had positioned himself correctly. He's now ready to fight. The real hero in the battle with David, of course, David is. But David fought Goliath. Satan wants you to miss the real hero was God. See, in 1 Samuel 17, David said to Saul, Don't let everyone be discouraged. Just like it said in Chronicles, he said, I don't want you to be defeated. I don't want you to be discouraged. David said, Don't be discouraged. David, a little boy, teenage boy, talking to the king. He's telling the king, Don't be discouraged. Your servant, he's going to go out and fight the Philistine.

James Greer: [00:14:42] Can you imagine a little servant, a little boy, a sheep herder coming to the king and telling him that? See, Satan wants to use a weapon to you. He wants you to feel discouraged. He wants you to feel like you're defeated. He wants you to feel like there's no way out. But Saul answered him. You can't go out and fight against the Philistine. And fight him. In other words, everybody wants to discourage it. You're only a boy. Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man. See, you ready? It's not your physical size. It's not your age. You ready? It's your spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ that gives you strength. That's what's going to keep you going. That's what's going to keep you from being discouraged. That's what keeps you from being defeated. It's not what you have physically. It's not what you have financially. It is not your age. It's not your height. It's your spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. It's the most powerful thing in your life. Amen. 2 Corinthians says this. Now, He who established us with you in Christ has what? Anointed us is God. Do you understand that when you get saved, you're also anointed? So now when you get saved, now you have been anointed and appointed. So stop believing the lies of the devil. See, God had been preparing David and God had been using Him and no one was watching him. See, nobody knew that God had been preparing David when nobody was looking.

James Greer: [00:16:22] Now, here's an insight that you have to understand. Most of God's training comes when nobody's watching. In fact, it's what you do in private that's greatly going to determine how many victories you have in public. It's what you do in private that will greatly determine the victories you have in public. You're not going to arise publicly beyond what you do privately. I don't think you can have no spiritual life privately and expect to have great spiritual victories publicly. I cannot spend time with God privately and then come preach publicly and expect to have victory. And you can't either. You want to really have spiritual victories publicly? It's what you do privately that really makes a difference. And so you can have the right private life, and you'll have the right public life. Amen? And David says this. You know? But David said to Saul, your servant, you know, listen, I've been keeping my father's sheep. Nobody knew that. But when a lion or a bear came, I took the sheep from the flock. Tried to take the sheep from the flock. I would chase it and I would attack it and I would saved the sheep from the mouth. And when it attacked me, I would catch it by the fur and I'd hit it and I'd kill it. That's pretty strong. Nobody even knew it. I was a servant. I had killed both now a lion and a bear.

James Greer: [00:17:49] And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like them because he has spoken against the armies of the living God. See, nobody knew what David was doing in private, but all along, David was doing in private the right things. And now came his public time, and he was going to have victory. So my question is this. What are you doing in your private life? Is the real reason that you're not having victories in your public life, in your relationship life, in your job life, is it because of what you're doing in your private life? See, if your private life is really right and your relationship life is really right with Christ, it doesn't matter who comes against you in public. You're going to have victory. They can talk about you. They can write about you. They can cuss you. It doesn't matter because ultimately, God will take care of them and you can walk right on through it. I've had it happen over and over and over. I've had them lie about me. I've had them talk about me. Sometimes when they do it, I laugh about it. So I must be doing the right thing. It's just where you're at. So the challenge is this, Journey Church. This week, I want you to change your private life. I challenge you, you don't have spend 15 hours. Spend 15 minutes every morning before you leave with God.

James Greer: [00:19:28] Whether it's the devotion, whether it's the Bible, whether it's some time in prayer. But spend some time with God in the morning before you ever leave the house. Let Him be on your side. Okay. All right. David allowed God to use him in his private life. It became public. You know, and David knew where the power came from, and David knew who it came from. He knew who was fighting. He said, the Lord who saved me from a lion. He knows. David didn't say he didn't come up and he said, Hey, King, I am a mean machine. I killed that lion. I killed that bear. I killed him with my bare hands. Give me that Philistine. I'll kill him. See, that's what happens today. Somebody has a little victory and they start saying, Look at me. I'm a bad mother scooter. That happened to me one time in school. I'd gotten in a fight I shouldn't have got in. And I lucked at one and I thought I was bad mother scooter. And I went to somebody else's house and I brought some guys with me. I said, Y'all, watch this. Knocked on the guy's door. I said, Hey, come outside. He hit me one time, knocked me out. That's a true story. So you learn you're not near as bad as you think you are. He knew better. He said, the Lord who saved me. That's the capital LORD too. That's the Lord of all Hosts. He said, the Lord who saved me from the lion and the bear will save me from the Philistine.

James Greer: [00:21:06] Saul said to David, Go and may the Lord be with you. Isn't that something? He knew who was fighting for him. He knew who would give him the victory. And so it makes a big difference when you know who's with you. And David allowed Him to go before him. But Saul, Saul wanted to dress him. David knew who was with him, but Saul said, Let me put clothes on David. He put his bronze helmet on him and tried to clothe him with his armor. And can you imagine? Most people would have been excited. And David put on Saul's sword and he tried to walk around and he couldn't use his armor. And Saul put on him. But he said to Saul, I can't go in this because I'm not used to it. David took it off. That is so important. The King tried to dress David. A lot of people would say, Look at me. I am dressed like the king. David said, That's not who I am. I got to dress like I am. I got to fight who I am. I got to just simply be who I am. Did you know one of the greatest things in life is when you just learn to be who God made you to be? I can remember when I first started preaching, I tried to preach like somebody else.

James Greer: [00:22:33] It was terrible. I can't read hardly anything. One time I was going to be like Chuck Swindoll. Have y'all read Chuck Swindoll? He has the wordiest words. I mean, I love him, but I mean, I can't even read him. And then Billy Graham, would y'all come please? Y'all can all come at the end, though. I want you to come. When I give the invitation, everybody just come. I do want you to come. But I'm not Billy Graham. I'm not even Franklin Graham. Would y'all come? I just had to learn. It's so freeing just to be you. It's so comfortable. Just be you. God made you to be that way. And man, and I want you to know that you're fearfully and wonderfully made and God made you just to be who you are. And David, even in front of the king, he took that off and he said, I just got to be, just be who I am. And David said to him, I've just got to be who I am, and you have to learn to be who you are. And the devil wants you to try to make you always feel like you've got to be somebody else, that you're not good enough, that you don't look good enough, that you're not, you know, that you're just not there. That's not true. That's another lie that the devil tries to make you. But not David. He said, You come to me.

James Greer: [00:24:04] He goes and talks to him in verse 45. But David said to him, to the giant, You come using a sword and two spears. See, I'm going to come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful. The same one back when I was telling you to be still and know the Lord. The God of the army of Israel and the same thing as the army of all hosts. You've spoken against him. In other words, do you know who you're talking about? Do you know what you're saying against Him? Do you think that David could defeat Goliath without the help of the Lord of Hosts? Of course, he could not. See, the devil wants you to think and focus on just David. That way, you think, Well, David, I can never be a hero like David. He doesn't want you to be a hero like David. He wants you to be a hero who you are. He wants you to know that when you get saved, He told you, you got anointed, you got appointed, that you can be still and you've got the same Lord of Hosts on your side that he had. See, the devil doesn't want you to realize that you have the same God on your side that he had when he defeated Goliath. He says later on in verse 47, he says, everyone at Journey Church gathered here, I want you to know that the Lord does not need a sword or a spear to save people.

James Greer: [00:25:35] The battle belongs to the Lord. He'll hand him over to us. That's so fantastic. Goliath came near to attack. David ran quickly to meet him. See, when you're right with God, you finally stop running from your battles and David ran to Goliath. I think that is so cool. You see this guy. He's huge. And now David's running to him. David's not running from him. It's almost unbelievable. David, he took a stone from his bag and he put it in his sling and slung it. And the stone hit the Philistine, and it went deep into his forehead. And Goliath fell face down on the ground. What'd David do? So David defeated the Philistine with the sling of the stone. He hit him, and he killed him. And David, he didn't even have a sword in his hand. So what did he do? David, he ran again. He stood beside him, and he took Goliath's sword. And he cut him and cut off his head. Isn't that something? Then the Philistines saw that the champion was dead and they turned and ran. So they had been making fun of him. They had been running and had been mocking God. They've been doing everything. Now, David ran to the battle. He ran and got his sword, ran and cut his head off. And now the enemy's running. The story is this. You have the same Lord on your side.

James Greer: [00:27:01] Sometimes you need to start facing the battles you have and get right with God and quit running from Him and go to Him and attack right. And it isn't long, the enemy will run from you and you've been running from them. Amen? Ain't God good? I mean, He is really good. Joshua 1:5 says this. No man should be able to stand before you all the days of your life. It's just like He was with Moses. He's going to be with you. He's never going to leave you and never forsake you. So in closing, get ready. God is with you. First of all, you got to be 100% sure you're saved. There's got to be a time that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you've never done that, that is the day to do it because that's how you get the Lord of Hosts on your side. So you've got to do that. Second of all, you've got to stop trying to fight all your battles. So quit trying to do that. Some battles are just not worth fighting. Second of all, quit trying to be somebody you're not. Quit worrying about what other people think. Third, position yourself correctly. Be right with God and be right with others. If you're not right with God, today is the day to get right with God. That means accept Christ, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and get right with other people.

James Greer: [00:28:08] If there's somebody you need to forgive, forgive them. Second, third, fourth, whatever it is, calm down. Just calm down. That's for me. I need to calm down. I just need to calm down and know who God is. I need to know that He's the God and the Lord of all Hosts. He's the one who controls all the armies in Heaven. There's absolutely nothing too hard and nobody too big. Sometimes I need to thank Him for all that He's done, all the battles that He's gone before me and all the ones that He's won, all the victories, all the healing, all the marriage. It's easy when we're in hurting to pray to God, isn't it? Sometimes we forget to thank Him, don't we? Some people just need to thank Him today, thank Him for what He's done. Thank Him for bringing your family together. Thank Him for bringing you home. You had some rough times, but you got home. And when we go to Him, when we're hurting, when He heals us, sometimes we just don't take long enough to thank Him for it. I know what you're afraid of today, but God's got a word for you. Stop being afraid. Whatever it is you're afraid of, God wants you to know that He's with you today, He's for you, and He wants to help you get through it. He wants you to help settle it. He wants you to attack it the right way, give you the right words, the right spirit, the right way just to settle it and stop being afraid of it.

James Greer: [00:29:56] God's prepared you or He will prepare you. He wants you to commit to doing the right things in private where you can have the right life in public. Wherever God spoken to you today, I pray that you'd let Him have His will and His way. So would you stand and let me pray with you? God, you're such an awesome God. I thank you that you're with us and that you're for us. And basically, you go before us. I pray for those that might not know Jesus, that today would be the day. I pray for those that are fearful, that in the name of Jesus, that you would cast out that fear. I pray for those that you've done great things in their lives that they need to come and thank you for that. I pray for those that are going through battles, that you would help them settle those battles. Those that need to be follow through in public baptism, sometimes that's a battle that needs to be settled today or join the church. Maybe there's some things people need to be prayed with. Maybe you need somebody to pray with you and for you. Man, God has just covered so many areas today that you don't need to leave without settling them. You should settle with a peace that surpasses all understanding today. And I ask it in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.


Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.