Hello and welcome to this
teaching from Skip Heitzig, pastor of Calvary Albuquerque. Our series called
The War Is Over celebrates the songs
from our worship team Battledrums' debut
album now available on iTunes, Google Play, and
at battledrumsmusic.com. In this series, Skip examines
what these songs symbolize for our Christian walk. If this message brings you
the hope of Christ, tell us. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. Nothing is more
comforting in war, than knowing you're
on the winning side. And when you have a
commanding officer who has never lost a battle, your
confidence is at an all time high. The song "Our God
Will Fight For Us" was written with that in mind. We invite you to mark your
bible in Nehemiah chapter four. But before Skip begins,
check out this sneak peek of "Our God Will Fight For Us." [MUSIC BATTLEDRUMS WORSHIP, "OUR
GOD WILL FIGHT FOR US"] Good morning. Would you turn in your
Bibles to Nehemiah. The book of Nehemiah,
chapter four. The song that we
just highlighted, "Our God Will Fight For
Us" is, actually, right out of the scripture
in Nehemiah. In the Old Testament,
in chapter four. And in verse 20,
it says, "Wherever you hear the sound of the
trumpet rallied to us there. Our God will fight for us." Let's pray before
we begin our study. Father, these words of Nehemiah
building a wall in Jerusalem, finding opposition as he did it. Lord, they ring true for us
in our current situation, as all scripture does. We learn principles,
Lord, and how to face and how to fight, as well
as how to build your work. Lord, I pray that you would
capture our attention. That you would strengthen
us as we gather together and then disperse from
here and live our lives in different places,
throughout the week. I pray also, Lord, that you
would speak to and help those who are outside watching by
computer or iPad or iPhone, or whatever it might be,
or listening on the radio, to feel a part of us, as a body. That you'd speak
to them, and you would strengthen them, as well. In Jesus' name. Amen. You've all heard the
name Jason Bourne. Right? Most of you have. He's a fictional character. He's written by an author
named Robert Ludlum. And the books made
their way into films. There have been four films. The Bourne Identity
was the first one. And Jason Bourne,
B-O-U-R-N-E, Jason Bourne, was a Special Agent,
and a secret agent. But in the first film,
The Bourne Identity, it's a classic
story about someone who has forgotten who he is. See, Jason Bourne doesn't know
he's Jason Bourne, in that. And this highly
trained agent, who is very capable of
fighting bad guys, getting at the enemy, of being
very strategic, in his moves. Getting in and out
of dangerous places. Something happened to him. He got shot. He almost drowned. And in the course of
that, he had amnesia. So he forgets who he is. He's in a restaurant one day. And in all of this confusion,
something dawns on him. He realizes that he has
just been able to, as he's sitting in the
restaurant, the license plate of every car
in the parking lot, he has committed to memory. He memorized all of them. And he can close his
eyes in that restaurant, and details of everyone
sitting in the restaurant, are in his mind. And he says, who
does stuff like this. It's a good question. Because the answer to
that question helps him discover his identity. Who does stuff like this? A highly trained special agent
for the American government does things like this. So when the enemies come
out, and he can deflect instantaneously, they're blows. When he hears a
foreign language, he not only knows the language,
but he can talk back to them in phrases. So he discovers, hey,
I speak that language. I want to help you
discover, this morning, your born identity--
B-O-R-N identity. You have been born again. You have been born from above. Born anew. But you've also been
born onto a battleground. The Christian life, far
from being a playground, is so often a battleground. This is a rude awakening
for many young believers. They're all about
experiencing forgiveness and new found joy and a piece
that floods the heart, purpose and meaning for their life. To be told that they are
now part of a battlefield experience. Well, it can be
very disconcerting to that individual. But Jesus spoke about the devil. And when he spoke about the
devil, he called him the enemy. The Bible, a couple of times,
speaks about your adversary, the devil. Peter said, he walks
around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So we find, we discover,
that we have an enemy. He's an adversary. He's got a strategy against us. And we're in a battle zone. Paul, the apostle, was
even more detailed. In Ephesians 6, he said,
put on all of God's armor, so that you will be
able to stand firm against all the strategies
and tricks of the devil. For we are not fighting against
people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil
rulers and authorities of the unseen world. Against those mighty powers of
darkness who rule this world and against wicked spirits
in heavenly realms. And some of you might
be thinking, well, I didn't sign up for that. I just came forward
at an altar call because I wanted forgiveness
and a shot of hope. Now you're telling me
I'm in a battlefield. Well let me be the first to
welcome you to the battlefield, then. It's part of your identity. You are caught in the
crossfire of this battle. Now I never liked getting
in fights, as a kid. I got an few of them,
but I didn't like it. I think every boy has to go
through those stages of how do I fend for myself at school. But I did have an older brother. And it was always handy
when Bob was around school. He was a couple
years older than me. And though I'm pretty tall, I
turned out to be 6 foot five, my brother was Goliath. He was 6 foot 8 inches. So when I was in
my formative years, and I wasn't quite 6' 5". My brother was always
pretty tall, pretty big. I loved it when I
could think that Bob was around school somewhere. And if I got into a fight, my
brother would fight for me. And you know what? Sadly, he actually enjoyed it. I had a conversation with my
father-in-law the other day. And, in our conversation,
something he said, sort of, struck me. First of all, he said, you know,
I've read through the Bible every year since I gave
my life to the Lord. I read from cover
to cover every year. It's my practice. So he's read through
the Bible 44 times. That, in and of itself,
is a great feat. But he said, this last reading,
I'm noticing a name of God, and it seems like it's
more than any other name that God is called
in the scripture. And it, just, gets my attention
now every time I read it. And it's the title
the Lord of hosts. You come across
that, do you not? The Lord of hosts. Well we read that, and we're
not understanding, typically, what that is in reference to. Because it's an antiquated term. First of all, hosts we
don't use that word much. The Lord of hosts,
it means a multitude. Sabaoth is the Hebrew. And it literally means he
is the Lord of the armies. He's the Lord of
Heaven's armies. Some translations call Him
the Lord of Heaven's armies. But even the term, Lord,
is sort of an outdated term in our modern vernacular. In the context of that title
the Lord of hosts, I think, perhaps, a better way of looking
at it, in a truer translation, would be this. He's the commander in chief. He is the commander in chief
of the armies of Heaven. And our God will fight for us. Now this language shows
up throughout the Bible. When Zechariah looks
forward to the time when God will fight for
the nation of Israel, Zechariah said,
then the Lord will go forth and fight
against those nations as He fights in
the day of battle. It's picturing a
god who is ultimate as the Commander
in Chief, strong, over the armies of heaven. In Psalm 24, Jerusalem
is told to open her gates for the King of glory. And it asks, who is
this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. This morning, looking at
Nehemiah, chapter four, there are, really, 20
verses at our disposal. But we're going to look at
several of them, to discover, four keys to our identity,
our born identity. Four key truths. The first truth is that
we all face battles. You'll notice how
the chapter begins. But so it happened. I'll tell you what
that means in a moment. But so it happened. When Sanballat heard that
we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious
and very indignant, and he mocked the Jews. Nehemiah had come to Jerusalem
to rebuild, not to fight. Nehemiah was not a profit. He was not a priest. He was not a clergyman at all. He was a butler to
a king in Persia. The king was named
Artaxerxes Longimanus. But Nehemiah was Jewish. And though he was not
living in his homeland, he had heard that this once
great city of Jerusalem was still in shambles. The people of
Israel, many of them, had been back to rebuild
for already a century. But things weren't going well. He heard that gates
were burned with fire, and the walls were
still broken down. When Nehemiah heard
that, he cared so much, he did three things. First, he wept. He had an emotional response. Second, he prayed. He had a spiritual response. And third, he decided to go
and do something about it. He had a practical response. He wept. He prayed. And he volunteered. And he went with great
excitement, with a small crew, surveying the walls, seeing
what needed to be done. But when he got
there, he discovered he was in a battle zone. There were enemies
there who wanted to crush him, who
wanted to kill him, who wanted to stop the work. And one of them is
listed here, Sanballat. And then notice,
in verse two, he spoke before his brethren
and the army of Samaria. So there's now an army,
a contingent of fighters who are outside the walls. And he said, what are
these feeble Jews doing. Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones
from the heaps of rubbish? Stones that are burned. Now Tobiah, the Ammonite
(Ammonites were ancient enemies of the Jews) was beside him. And said, whatever they build,
if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down
their stone wall. Sanballat was the
governor of Samaria. That's a Northern district,
just north of Jerusalem. He was the governor
of that entire region until Nehemiah comes back, under
the order of King Artaxerxes Longimanus, to be in charge
of this building project. And he is infuriated. Why? Well, simply, because his
pocketbook will now run thin. He was levying taxes,
not only on Samaria, but all the way down in Judea. He was getting money from them. Now his money source is
drying up a little bit. There's competition. There's a new kid on the block. So he and his buddies, with
their armies, come out. And they lob these taunts,
these jibes, these insults, sarcastic questions
meant to crush the spirits of the
workers who are building the walls of Jerusalem. We face something similar. Do you know that the word
devil means slanderer. It's really a good
title for him. He's the devil. He is the slanderer in chief. The Bible says,
in Revelation 12, he is the accuser of the
brethren, who accuses them before God, day and night. It happened to Job. Remember when God, sort
of, showcased Job and said to Satan, have you
considered my servant, Job. He is upright. There's none like him. Immediately, Satan
began to accuse Job. Does Job serve you for nothing. You set a hedge about him. He's a mercenary
servant of yours. He only serves you because
of what you give him. Accusation after accusation. The accuser of the brethren. It happened to Job,
it'll happen to you. You live in a secular world. You go to a secular
college or school, or work in a secular workplace. They find out
you're a Christian. These kind of insults
will come your way. Oh these feeble Christians. All they can do is get together
in their little meetings and pray and sing. They're so out of date. They're so
intellectually inferior. You're so narrow-minded. You're such this. You've heard it for years. And frankly, it can get old. Sometimes I, sort of, feel like
Linus in the Peanuts cartoon. Who quipped, I love mankind. It's just the people
I can't stand. And so the Christian
living in a hostile world, like he is in a hostile place. So Nehemiah and his workers
are in a battle zone. And the battle is from
two sources: the outside. We just read about that. Sanballat, Tobiah, the
Ammonite, the outside armies. And on the inside. So there's hostility from
the world, number one. And number two, there's
despondency from the workers, in their own ranks. Go down to verse seven. Now what happened when
Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites,
and the Ashdodites. All of these
enemies around them, heard it, that the walls of
Jerusalem were being restored. And the gaps were
beginning to be closed. That they became very angry. And all of them
conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem
and create confusion. So you've got hostility from
the world, but watch this. You have despondency
from the workers. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
to God and because of them, we set a watch against
them, day and night. Then Judas said, the strength
of the laborers, is failing. And there is so much
rubbish that we are not able to build the wall. Our job is too big. Our strength is too small. Whenever you do something,
especially if that something is something you believe to
be from the Lord, His will. And you come with a
level of excitement, and you pour your heart
and your soul into that. But then something happens that
causes your plans to change, and the work gets stopped. Then you sink down into a
very disheartening place. I can speak personally to that. Many years ago, before we
were even in this building, we were in a
storefront building. And we had been in a
previous storefront building, and we were moving into a
larger storefront building. And I was so excited. Several of us had put
in all of our nights to get this place ready. And we thought it was ready. It was ready. It was clean. It was nice. The rooms were up. The carpet was down. And a couple of days
before we were to occupy, the fire department came
in and shut it down. They said you will not occupy. Your firewall in between your
foyer and your sanctuary, isn't thick enough. It needs more drywall. You're going to have
to put up another wall. And I remember how crushed I
felt. I felt so discouraged. Because now we had told
everyone, show up Sunday. Now we come. We're going to have to be in
the parking lot and say go back. Go back to Egypt
for a couple weeks. We'll be here in
a few more weeks. But we have to build this wall. Build the wall. It can be very,
very discouraging. For Elijah, the prophet,
it was like that. He had a tremendous
victory on Mount Carmel. You know about it. It's in first Kings, chapter 18. Fire falls down from Heaven, a
great display of God's power. But then in the
very next chapter, he's running away
from Queen Jezebel. And after that great
victory on Mount Carmel. Now he's underneath a tree. And he says something like this. OK, God. Kill me. I just want to die. He's so depressed. Because what he
thought would happen, as a result of that incredible
display, didn't happen. What he thought would
happen is national revival. That didn't happen. The queen rises up
in fury against him. Drives him down into the desert. And he says, God, take my life. I want to quit the ministry. I'm a profit. I just want to
become a non profit. I'm done. We call that hope deferred. You know, the Bible says, hope
deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled
is a tree of life. That is Elijah having
his hope deferred. So Nehemiah has two
sources of the battle. One, a real battle, real armies,
hostility from the world, but despondency of the workers. Did you notice in
verse 10, it says, and there is so much
rubbish that we're not able to build the wall. There's too much trash. Now what do you do with trash? You throw it away. You take it out or you sell
it on eBay, one of the two. You get rid of it. Because you can't build
a wall with trash. You need to build
a wall with stones. I've discovered that
every individual has trash that needs to be taken out. Every organization has trash
that needs to be taken out. It's just rubbish. It gets in the way. Now in those days they
figured out how to do this. In Jerusalem, they
build a special gate for this called, the dung gate. All of us need a dung gate. We take all of that stuff out. Sometimes we have to get rid
of our own personal trash. Bad attitudes. We need to correct our
language, our thinking, habits. We got to take the trash out. Organizations also can
get filled with trash. You know, any organization,
even Christian organizations, can get cumbersome, over time. And need to be reevaluated and
realigned with God's purpose. And to look at things and
go, well, you know what. Let's just cut that out. And let's include this. Because we believe this
to be what God wants now. So we all face battles. Let's move to the second key in
discovering your born Identity. We all face battles,
but we all have backup. That is to say,
we have resources, that when we are in the battle,
help us get through the battle. We have backup. I've looked at a few
things in this chapter, and I've come up with three or
four things that were resources for them, backup. First of all, prayer. That was their first resort. The enemies are
coming to attack. The first thing they do is pray. Look at verse four. Hear, oh God, for
we are despised. And turn their reproach
on their own heads. And give them, as plunder,
to a land of captivity. Do not cover their iniquity. Do not let their sin be
blotted out from before you. For they have provokes you
to anger before the builders. The way this is written,
it doesn't even say, and we got together
and bowed our heads, and we prayed and said thus. It just includes the prayer. As if to intimate it was
their first reaction. Their first instinct was
just to stop and pray. I don't think that's always
our first instinct, is it? It ought to be, but
it's not always. Our first reaction to
opposition isn't to pray but it's to panic. Or to get provoked. We get mad. Here's what I want you to
notice about this prayer. Nehemiah didn't
have to get provoked because he knew that they,
the enemies, provoked God. Look at the prayer. Hear, oh God. Notice in verse five. They have provoked you to
anger before the builders. I want you to mark that. That is important. They have provoked you to anger. What Nehemiah is doing
is so aligning himself and his work with God's
purpose, that he realized, wait a minute. It's not that they're
making me mad. They're making God mad. You don't want to do that. I'm aligning myself
with God's purpose. Did you know that God
takes it very personally when his kids are hassled? When Saul of Tarsus was
persecuting Christians, going all the way up to Damascus
to hunt them down and kill them, and Jesus stopped
him, dead in his tracks. Do you remember the question? He said, Saul, why are
you persecuting me. That was an eye-opener
for Saul of Tarsus. What you mean, you. I'm not after you. I'm after them. No. Well, you touch them,
you mess with me. You are persecuting me. I am taking this personally. I love it, to be able
to say, don't mess, you're going to get God mad. I'm going to tell God on you. They have provoked you to
anger before the builders. Something else that
is interesting here. In this entire section,
you find Nehemiah talking to God but not to his enemies. He's not talking to his
enemies, in this chapter. He's talking to God. I don't think the Christians
ought to be talking to Satan. They should talk to God
about what Satan's doing. But don't talk to Satan. And yet, for the life of me,
it never ceases to amaze me, that I hear believers,
from time to time, in meetings say things like: I
address Satan and his kingdom and I bind you, devil. And I want you to know. And I'm going wait,
wait, wait, wait. You're using up
all of that breath. It sounds like you're
praying to the devil. Why don't you stop
talking to him and start talking
to God about him. That's what Nehemiah does. The Bible says,
resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Doesn't say, carry on lengthy
conversations with the devil, and he will flee. Just resist him and
talk to God about him. By the way, don't
flatter yourself. Satan is not scared of you. Somebody comes up. Well I want you
to know something. Let me say, you
are nothing to him. You don't scare him at all. However, the God
inside of you does. That's your secret weapon. Satan trembles when he sees,
the weaker saint upon his knees. That's where you
fight the battle. That's your first backup prayer. Here's the second
resource, that I found. Promise, not just
prayer, but promise. In verse 14, it says, I
looked, and I arose and said to the Nobles, to the leaders,
and to the rest of the people do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord,
great and awesome, and fight for your brethren,
your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. That little phrase he
says, remember the Lord, is very, very telling. You see, Nehemiah is
here, in Jerusalem, because he remembered what
the Lord had promised. He remembered that God had
predicted a 70 year captivity, if the Jews disobeyed God. And that happened. In fact, he even quotes
Leviticus chapter 26 in his prayer in chapter one. And it goes something like this. Look, God. I know you said that if
we were really, really bad and turned from you, that
you kick us out of the land. And you did. But you also promised
through Moses, that if we repented and
turned to you and prayed, you'd bring us back. So here I am, repenting
on behalf of all of us. I, know people are back, but it
isn't happening in Jerusalem. This walls still are
not built. Lord, please bring us back to rebuild. And then he went. He was there on a promise,
because he remembered the Lord. And now he is encouraging the
leaders, remember the Lord. All of that to say this. Nehemiah knew his Bible. He knew the promises of God. And may I suggest to
you, know your Bible. Be able to call to mind things
that God has specifically promised. Peter called the scripture,
a more, sure word, a light that shines
in a dark place. And I believe that
if you and I, could take certain promises
in the Bible, and commit them to memory. It's not that hard. Commit them to memory. So that when you are in a
battle, you pull them out. You recite them. You refresh your mind
with that promise. You are remembering
the Lord, at that time. Because you're in a battle. And when the enemy is
throwing fiery arrows at you, pull out your sword. And the sword, the Bible
says, is the word of God. The sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God. One Bible publishing company
and Christian bookseller performed a study. And they noted that 90% of
Bible readers, frequent Bible readers, feel at peace all of
the time or most of the time, compared to 58% of
infrequent Bible readers. You want your peace
quota to go up. Learn the promises of God so
that in the battle, you go, whoop, there's that promise. Oop, there's that promise. And you remember the Lord. So you've got prayer,
and you've got promise. There's another resource that
is your backup in a battle. Persistence. Persistence. There's something about going
back and staying at the task. I want you to notice this. Verse six. So we built the wall. This is after all
the opposition. So we built the wall. And the entire wall
was joined together up to half it's height. For the people had
a mind to work. Love that verse. Verse nine. Nevertheless, we made
our prayer to God. And because of
them, we set a watch against them, day and night. Down at verse 15. And it happened when
our enemies heard that it was known
to us, that God had brought their plot to nothing. That all of us
returned to the wall. Every one to his work. Listen. If God has called you to
something, keep doing it until you can't
do it any further. Got some enemies in your life? You want to drive them nuts? First of all, love them. That'll drive them nuts. Second, stay at the task
they're criticizing you for. Stay at the task. George Herbert said living
well is the best revenge. Living well is the best revenge. Winston Churchill,
remember what he said. Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never,
never give up. Stay at the task. I always love the story
of the politician. Yeah, believe it or not, I
have a few politician stories I actually love. This is one of them. It was a politician
running for local office. He had people
running against him and as often happens when
people run for politics, they have negative campaigns
from the other side lobbed at them. And it was one of
those campaigns. It got pretty nasty,
and the opposing side made up a bunch of rumors. They were not true. They were not substantiated,
but they just hurled all of this defaming insult in
their negative campaign ads. So his own campaign team
said, we need to fight back. We need to think of
something really bad, really dirty to say. And this politician
said, no, no. He said, my dog will bark
when the moon shines. And you know what the
moon's response is. Just to keep shining. So I'm just going to let
the dogs bark on this one. I'm just going to
keep on shining. That's persistence. I'm going to do what's right
through thick and through thin. So prayer, promise,
and persistence. We all have battles. We all have backup. Here's the third key. We all bring balance. We all bring balance. There are other people around in
our lives, that in the battle, bring the balance. I want you to see this in
the text, and we'll apply it. In verse 16, so it was
from that time on that half my servants
worked at construction, while the other half held
the spears and the shields, the bows, and wore armor. And leaders were behind
all the house of Judah. Those who built on the wall. And those who carry
burdens loaded themselves. So that with one
hand they worked at construction and with
the other held a weapon. That's an interesting
way to build. Sturgeon called the
sword and the trowel. Sword in one hand,
trowel in the other. Every one of the
builders, verse 18, had his sword
girded at his side, as he built. And the one
who sounded the trumpet, was beside me. What I'd like you to
notice is the balance. Different people doing different
tasks at the same spot, for the glory of God. Some were builders. Some were battlers. Some where just behind them as
leaders, bringing supervision. But the Christian life
is always that balance. This is a really good picture
of the body of Christ. Never try to fight alone. Never try to build alone. You were never wired to do that. People bring us balance. They do for us
what we cannot do. We have a part to play. Find out what are part is, and
let others play it, as well. There's never one gift. There's never one
style of ministry. There's never one person that
is to be lifted up as more important than anyone else. It's called a body of Christ. And Paul says in
1 Corinthians 12, there are different kinds of
gifts but the same spirit. There are different kinds of
service but the same Lord. There are different
kinds of working, but the same God works
all of them, in all men. That's the body of Christ. And the Bible tells us, Jesus
Christ is the head of the body. So he's like the brain. Brain is amazing. The master organ is amazing. Ten billion nerve cells. Ten billion nerve cells able
to connect to different parts of your body. Regulating things. Taking in the senses. What you see, smell, feel, hear. Process that. And then send signals out all
over the body, to the organs, to 600 plus muscles,
ligaments, bones, et cetera. So that there's a smooth,
coordinated movement. Jesus is the head of the body. The Holy Spirit. I liken him to the
nervous system. Conveying the wish of the head
to all the different members of the body. There's nothing like seeing a
well coordinated, well toned body. I was, a few years ago, at
Venice Beach in California. Ever been to that place? It is like a human zoo. It's like a freak show 24/7. I mean it is just
something to see. And there's always these
weird, crazy people. One guy, his name
might have been Chad, decided that it was a cool thing
to juggle with live chainsaws. So he'd turn on a chainsaw. Start it up. Cut wood to show
that it was real. And he'd flip it up. Flip it over. And he'd catch it every time. Then he started up another one. He had two. Then he finally had three
live chainsaws going. That he was juggling. Now you know that his brain and
his body, all the little parts, had to be just in perfect sync. Right? Because one little
false move, and it's like Stub-ville for him. The body of Christ
is truly wonderful when there's such a balance
of coordination, where we're hearing from the head,
the Holy Spirit faithfully conveys the power to
this part of the body and that part of the body. One's a teacher. One's an encourager. One's a helper. And we're all working together. We all bring balance. We all face battles. We all have backup. We all bring balance. And the fourth and final
key to understanding your Born Identity is
that we all need boldness. Think about it. If you are on the winning
team, you should have boldness. You should have confidence. You should have assurance. Verse 19, I said to
the Nobles and rulers and the rest of the people, the
work is great and extensive. And we're separated far from
one another on the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of
the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. Notice a combination. Just notice the juxtaposition
of verse 14 and verse 20. Look at it yourself. In verse 14, he says
fight for your brethren. That means you. Pick up a weapon. Engage in the battle. You fight for your
families, your brethren, your rest of your families. And then also, in verse 20,
our God will fight for us. So which is it? Are you fighting
or is God fighting? It's both. Do what you can do, and let
God do what only God can do. The results are up to him. I believe that you
are invincible. Listen to my language now. You are invincible. Don't we love that term. I'm invincible. You're invincible until
God's done with you. You're invincible until
God's done with you. A child of God doing the work
of God, in the will of God, is invincible till God is done. In Revelation 11,
there's the appearance of two witnesses in
the tribulation period. They have incredible power. They have fire power. They have miraculous power. But listen to what it says. Now when they have
finished their testimony, the beast that comes
up from the abyss attacks them, overpowers
them, and kills them. When did that happen? When they had finished their
testimony and not before. A child of God doing the work
of God in the will of God is invincible,
until God is done. And that person has finished
his or her testimony. And when that time
is up, who wants to hang around here anyway. It's time to go
home, go to glory, get graduated, get
rewarded, et cetera. So be bold about God's work. You're on the winning side. Let's pray. Father, we face these battles,
and we know they're real. We may not have signed
up for it initially, but we discover the
excitement of the battlefield. The smell of smoke in the air. And we suddenly realize
that there's more at stake than just our own
peace, happiness, joy, purpose in life. We're caught in the cross
fires of a cosmic battle that has been going on. Help us to understand
that identity. Born again but born into battle. As we face them, Lord,
I pray we would take advantage of the resources. Not only finding
the right battles, but leaning on You and prayer. Leaning on You with the
promises that You have made. Being persistent. Staying at it. And then realizing we
can lean on the people that you placed in our
lives to bring balance, in the midst of our warfare. And, Lord, I pray that we
would just raise our heads. And because we're on,
ultimately, the winning side, we know the end of the story. That we would be bold. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. When we face life's battles,
we fight for the one true God. But what is even
more phenomenal, is that our sovereign
God fights for us. And because of
that, we can't lose. You can give financially to this
work at calvaryabq.org/giving. And just a reminder. You can find Battledrums'
album, "The War is Over" on iTunes, Google Play,
and at battledrumsmusic.com. Thank you for listening
to this message from Skip Heitzing of
Calvary Albuquerque.
