TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, October 3, 2021 | Fight Or Flight Series | 

Is It Time To Fight? 

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to continue into a sermon series that we began looking at last week. And we talked about the subject of Fight or Flight, could you just say that out loud with me, Fight or Flight. So one of the things that we learn is that the human body has a physiological response. And when we come into some kind of a difficulty, we have to decide whether we're going to fight or we're going to flee. And so it happens in a split second, do I fight or do I flee? And while I was reading through the passage of text, and just taking a look at scripture, something began to stick out to me as I was preparing this message series, that there are moments where Paul very specifically addresses his audience and he tells them whether or not they are supposed to flee or they are supposed to fight. Which one are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to flee or are we supposed to fight? 1 Timothy, chapter six, verse number 11, says this, “But you, oh man of God, flee these things,” all they got it, “and flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, love, patience and gentleness.” Now look with me at the very next verse, verse number 12. It says, “Fight, the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So did you guys get it? In the very first verse, he tells them they're supposed to flee; and the verse after that, he tells them they're supposed to fight. So which one is it? Are we supposed to flee or are we supposed to fight? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We talked last week about how Scripture teaches us when and how to flee. This week, we're going to talk about how to fight; fight or flight, fight or flight. When our church first got started, we weren't very far into it, maybe two years. And I was pastoring the church, but I was also still traveling. And so I was preaching at conferences, I was preaching revivals, I was preaching at youth meetings, and FCA rallies and just on the road a lot. And it was a real challenge for me because, you know, sometimes you would go out and you get to preach to a larger audience. And it would seem like God was doing so many cool things. And I would come home and our church was just really struggling. We were in a converted truckstop restaurant. We were literally sitting on borrowed funeral home chairs. We had a little Radio Shack mic that we shared among everybody, for the most part, and we're using Casio instruments. I mean, it was nothing short of a pitiful attempt to plant a church. And we only had about 30 people, and honestly, rightfully so. I'm not sure I would have come either had I not been the pastor. And I was into this journey when one night, the phone rang, and it was from a church in Ohio. And they were sharing with me that they were looking for a pastor. And so they were a very well-established church. And they had hundreds of people. And they shared with me that it was going to be this great salary. And they wanted me to pray, would you be our pastor. And I got to thinking about it: converted truck stop restaurant, borrowed female home chairs, less than 30 people; well-established church, hundreds of people, great salary. This is not a hard decision. I'm gone. And that night I went to sleep. And while I was in bed, I had a dream. And in the dream, I saw this guy that was like climbing up on this mountain, or maybe we should say a large hill. And there were like dead people everywhere. And they were soldiers, and you could tell that they had been killed in battle. And at the top of the hill is this guy, and he's got his sword out and there's blood dripping from his sword and there's clearly like dings and dents in his sword where he's been in the clash of battle. And he's got blood on his face, and his eye is cut, and blood is dripping even from that open wound, and he's standing there. And then it's as though there's a movie that it just pans to this other gentleman, and he's standing on top of a hill, and there doesn't appear to be you know, a lot of dead soldiers anywhere. He’s just standing there, and he looks perfect. He doesn't look like he's ever been to a fight. His sword is still in its sheath, and it’s just the picture of peace.

I wake up, and I felt like I heard the Holy Spirit whisper a question to me. Which way do you want it? And then I felt like the Lord asked me a second question. Which one do you think we'll be able to keep it when the next attack comes? And I realized that what God was revealing to me is that if you just allow someone to give you something, and you've never learned how to fight, then you won't be able to keep it if an attack comes. But if you learn how to fight on your way up, the enemy's gonna have a hard time taking anything of significance away from you, because you know what to do with that sword. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So I remember calling that church back and I shared with them, you know what, I think I'm going to stick with the converted truckstop restaurant and the less than 30 people because I want to learn how to fight. And so there's some things I want to share with you this morning about learning how to fight in the spiritual realm. And I think the place that we have to first start is by taking a look at a modern-day American soldier. This soldier is adorned with all kinds of body armor. He's got a helmet, and he's got on the bulletproof stuff, and he's prepared to go into battle. He's got an incredible weapon. But can you imagine this guy going into battle dressed like a civilian, of not taking the weaponry, not putting on the helmet, not putting on the body armor. Like, that would not make any sense, especially since the body armor is available. But yet, though it would seem crazy for him to walk into battle dressed like a civilian, many of us do it every single day. Despite the fact that armor has been provided for the spiritual battles that we are going to fight. In fact, the Bible talks about the fact that there is an armor of God, it's detailed in Ephesians chapter six. It's a helmet, and it's a breastplate, and it's loins girded with truth, and its feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. And in one hand, it's the shield of faith; and in the other hand, it's the sword of the Spirit. And here's what Scripture says to us about that: Ephesians chapter six, verse 10, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Did you notice it? You're going to be attacked by the enemy, the devil, and you're going to want to be able to stand against whatever's coming at you. But in order for that to happen, you have to put on the whole armor of God. In other words, God's not going to do that for you until you specifically request it. You're going to have to make a decision that you are going to put on the helmet of salvation, put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on the loins being girded with truth, put on feet being shod with the preparation of the gospel, put on the shield of faith, and take the sword of the Spirit. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so we just kind of want to just take for granted that, well, God's just going to give me his armor because he loves me, and he cares about me. But what Paul teaches is that this is something that you have to personally be intentional about. And you're going to want the armor because you're headed for a fight. Paul told that this way, he said, fight the good fight of faith. So don't just get dressed up for nothing, put on the armor, and then understand there's going to be a fight. And you're going to want to put on the armor because there's a fight coming whether you want it or not. But when you notice this verse, the thing that sticks out is it says that we are to fight the good fight. What that implies is that there could be a bad fight. So you don't want the bad fight, you want the good fight. Can I get an amen this morning? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So let's look at the context of Scripture for a minute. Because I think a lot of times when we do finally get dressed up, a lot of us, we go and fight the wrong fight, instead of the right fight. We fight the bad fight instead of the good fight. Let me give you an example of that. Here's an example of a bad fight versus a good fight. A lot of us fight constantly for personal recognition. We want somebody to acknowledge us, we want somebody to tell us how wonderful we are, we'll get offended if they don't give us a plaque after a certain number of years of service. Like we want people to just acknowledge that we deserve to be affirmed, preferably in a public setting. That's a bad fight. A good fight is when you're fighting for God's glory. And you realize if they never acknowledge me, my life is about Jesus, it is all about Jesus, it will always be about Jesus. And the works that I'm doing in this earth is so that his light can be shined into darkness, and that people would glorify God. Bad fight, good fight. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Another example of a bad fight versus a good fight. When you're fighting for people to acknowledge your personal opinion, and to take your personal opinion as the right opinion, you are right and they are wrong; that's a bad fight. But a good fight is when you realize God's truth is worth fighting for. Z bad fight, personal perspective. You just want people to see it your way, and you’re going to fight until they do, versus, it doesn't matter what our desire is, we want God's plan. We want to delight in it, we want to trust in it, and we want to commit to it. And sometimes we're fighting our own flesh to get past our perspective, our ambition, our agenda, and see God's plan established. An example of a bad fight is personal preference, instead of God's presence. Where people are fighting, well, I like the music this way, and I don't like it that way. Well, I like it when it's this style, and not that style. You need to understand if you've ever heard the term church split, and you do an autopsy of the church split, almost every single time it comes back to somebody's personal preference. They prefer this preacher over that preacher, they preferred this approach over that approach, this methodology over that methodology and division got into the ranks and destroyed the unity, isolated them from the presence of God, so that they could settle for their preference. I'm preaching better than I’m getting any help this morning. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You do not want to fight for personal preference, especially when it comes to experiencing God. You want to fight for God's presence. I'm going to get the hindrance out of the way, I'm going to get the distraction out of the way, I'm going to get the sin, by the grace of God, out of the way; and I'm going to let the presence of God lead the way. Fight for God's presence, not the personal preference. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Let me give an example of a bad fight. That one's too personal moving on. You fight to prove a point when you should be fighting to just bless others. Anybody struggle with this? Curt, they're in a really holy mood this morning. Just prove a point. I see your little halo sitting crooked on your horns. My son came in the other day, and he said, Dad, I know where demons came from. I said enlighten me. He said they fell from heaven. They were originally angels. I was like, wow, that's good. He said when they fell, they broke their halos, and they didn't know how to fix it, so they just put them back on their head, and they look like horns. I said please tell me you didn't learn that and kids church. Prove a point. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I struggle with trying to prove points sometimes. The other day. Let me give you a little context first. I can't keep up with anything. I can't keep up with my keys. Every Door I use has to have a keypad. The vehicles I have to work out strategies to be able to make sure I can get them started because I constantly lose the keys. True story. My wife says I would lose my head if it were not attached, and yet she still has to help me. One of the things I struggle with is my laptop is always dying. And so I have to make sure I have charges available but I lose the chargers. So I've only came up with a system. Okay, I'm gonna have three spots where I always leave a charger, and if my laptop is going dead, I'll just go to one of those three spots. So. the other day it's time for me to do some email processing. I was gonna do some message prep. I went and sat down and the laptop was dying and the charger is gone. So then I go to the second place and want to use the laptop and the charger is gone. I go to the third place and somebody in that house has took that charger too. And at this point, it's time to prove a point. So I begin to notify everybody in the house. I don't know what is wrong with you all you know that I have got a system. I put a charger here, I put a charger there, and I put a charger right here. And you have taken and moved every single one of them. Do you not know how to put something back where you found it? Natalie Grace! And so the whole house begins to look for my charger as I prove the point that they must leave my stuff alone. While they're looking I thought well it might be good if I looked at my bag and so I opened up the front zipper and there's a charger, and then I opened up the back zipper and there's a charger. I was afraid to look in the middle. And so I've had to bless others, Natalie grace, I don't know where you're at, but Amazon has a charger on the way for you just to bless you. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's amazing to me how we can just wind up in silly bad fights, trying to prove a point when so many times it could all just be alleviated if we would bless others. A bad fight is when you tear down, a good fight is when you're fighting to build somebody up. A bad fight is when it results in hurting others. A good fight is when you're fighting to help other people. A bad fight is when you're trying to get everybody to see it your way when it comes to political ideology. Listen, the only thing when it comes to ideology that's really worth fighting for is sound doctrine to make sure that you are never led astray by false doctrine, a false prophet, or somebody tickling your ears with nonsense. That's what's worth fighting for. So the summary of everything that we're saying here is that a good fight happens when we are fighting for others, not against them. Think about that for a second. That God doesn't want us to be fighting each other, he wants us to be fighting for each other. Think of it this way that halle’s got a plot, and that is that we would fight each other. But God's got a plan. And that is that we would fight for each other. But what the enemy tries to get us to do is to get us focused on Beulah and Freddie and forget the fact that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we wrestle against principalities, and powers of the air. But now here's the thing. There is the reality, when you're trying to make sure that you're in the good fight, not the bad fight, that sometimes principalities powers of the air, the darkness of this world will begin to utilize personalities

in a harmful way that must be addressed. So when we say that we're not going to ever fight each other, that we want to fight for each other, what you have to realize is it doesn't mean that there won't have to be a chance for hard conversations sometimes. But here's the way I would say it to you is that when hard conversations must take place, there's a strategy Scripture has given us to follow. To make sure that the hard conversation doesn't turn into a bad fight, instead of a good fight. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to give you this: a long time ago, somebody told me, they said, every good organization is two to three hard conversations away from being a great organization. And for every day that you put off the hard conversations, the good organization is sliding backward into becoming a bad organization. The same is true of relationships, marriages, and businesses. That when you are not intentional about hard conversations, it will keep you not just stagnant, but sets you up to slide backwards. And so hard conversations are gonna have to take place, but when they do, don't go into the bad fight, stay in the good fight. One of the things you got to do in a hard conversation as you converse privately first. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew 18:15, “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. That means don't vomit it on Facebook until you've talked to him or her privately. That means you don't get anybody else involved until you have spoken with him or her privately. That's how you have a hard conversation, you start in the private place before it goes to the public place. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Secondly, make sure that you speak the truth in love. The scripture Ephesians 4, “No longer be children who get carried about with every wind of doctrine, but you need to speak the truth in love.” I've noticed that the people who are willing to speak the truth often do not manifest love. And the people who are willing to manifest love often won't speak the truth. So what God is looking for is people who will decree the truth in a loving way. That's how you have the hard conversation, that you're giving someone truth, but you're doing it because you love them. So you're doing everything you can to say it the way that they need to hear it, which leads us to the third thing, is that when you speak, especially in a hard conversation, make sure that your speech is filled with grace. To the Colossians, Paul said, Let your speech always be filled with grace and seasoned with salt. What we like to do is get salty, because a lot of times we don't have the hard conversation until we're mad. And we've run out of personal grace for the person who what God says is still your speech with grace, and you will know how you ought to answer each one. You won't know how to answer somebody who's trying to start a bad fight with you? Let your speech be filled with grace. You want to know how to answer somebody that's trying to draw you into unnecessary conflict and get you offended and make you better, let your speech be filled with grace. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

A fourth thing about how to make sure you stay in the good fight and you don't get in the bad fight, is you have to offer blessing not cursing. Jesus spoke about this, but Paul speaks of it here in Romans 12. He says, bless people who persecute you. Say it out loud with me, the yellow, ready, begin, “Bless, and do not curse.” Come on, say it again. Ready, begin, “Bless and do not curse.” That doesn't just mean that you shouldn't cuss them out, stop that too. But what it means is that you are going to focus on blessing the person, rather than wishing them evil, hoping bad towards them, and trying to even manipulate a negative situation on their behalf. That you're going to bless them and not curse them. Why? Because if your enemy is thirsty, you give him a drink for in so doing, you will heap coals of fire up on his head. That's how you win. That's how you make sure you don't get into the bad fight and you stay in the good fight. But at the best you can do man when this thing lingers on, it's really hard to not let it become personal. Especially if you tried to go to them privately, and they made it public. Especially if you tried to speak truth in love, and they responded in a hateful way. It's hard to keep it from becoming personal when they keep making it personal. And they're the one that's cussing you out. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So when you recognize a spiritual fight is becoming personal, despite the fact that you've done the things that we just talked about, you may need to also hear this word from Paul. It's Romans chapter 16, verse 17. He said, “I urge you, brethren, to note those who cause divisions and offenses and avoid them.” Did you know that the Bible actually tells us that sometimes the way we fight is by avoiding the situations where the enemies trying to lead us into the bad thing instead of the good thing. So what I learned from this verse is sometimes you gotta take good notes and just avoid them. You ever get to dealing with the right personality, you better take notes. I can't get no help this morning. Some of y'all ain't never been through none of this stuff evidently. You know, this verse in some versions actually says mark them? To mark them, to make note of the fact that when you get around this person, that everything starts to go so sideways, and move from good to bad that everything gets divisive, everything starts to get bitter, and he's saying, listen, sometimes the way to fight is just to avoid. And I want to tell you why it's so important to get this, because this is our 17. The very next verse says this, “But for those who do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their belly, their smooth words, their flattering speech, and they try to deceive people. For your obedience, we want you to understand it's becoming known to all that you don't fight the bad way, you fight the good way.” And he said, I'm glad on your behalf, because I want you to be wise in what is good/ So Paul, saying there's a good fight, and I want you to be wise in the strategy towards the good fight, like don't get caught up in the bad fight. Now, here's the next verse, and this is the one that's worth waiting on; very next verse, God tells you what he's going to do if you'll fight the good fight, instead of the bad fight. He tells you what he's going to do if you will learn the wisdom of his word. “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. You know what God says? If you'll fight my way, you won't even have to fight. If you'll just do what I say do, God says he'll show up in your life and he will crush the enemy under your feet. That he will bring that thing under dominion that previously was suppressing you, if you'll just learn to not go to the bad fight and stay in the good fight. Anybody need God to crush something for you? To understand he's not gonna crush Beulah and Freddie, he's gonna crush the spirit that's on Beulah and Freddie. He says I'll crush Satan. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So when Paul was trying to educate his spiritual son, Timothy, and trying to teach him about the good fight, the thing that he said to him in the first letter that he ever wrote him, he said, “I want you to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, which you were called.” So Paul's telling Timothy, he's like, listen, man, you're gonna have to get your stuff together and realize that faith is worth fighting for. And there's a good way to fight and there's a bad way to fight. And yes, there's gonna be some things you need to flee. But there's also gonna be moments when you need to fight. And Timothy, you got to get this man, fight the good fight of faith. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Years have passed, time has marched on. Paul is at a different place in life. Paul is at a point where he's not far from death. And Paul writes another letter to Timothy. And this is what he says, “I fought the good fight. I finished the race, I have kept the faith.” That's the testimony that all of us want today is that we would be able to get to the end of our race and testify, I kept my faith. Hell gave me its best shot. I got knocked down, felt like at times I should give in, give up, give out. Paul could have told you that he'd been beaten, and he'd been shipwrecked, and he'd been left for dead, and he'd been imprisoned, and he'd been lied about, and he'd been reviled, and he'd been betrayed. But the thing that Paul said, is I didn't let him take me to the bad fight. I kept bringing it back to the good fight. And as a result of that, God just kept crushing the head of Satan in my life. And Paul standing there testifying, I kept the faith. That's what you want to do. You want to get to the end of your race and say, Jesus is the author and Jesus is the finisher of my faith, I have kept the faith. All the times when the personal recognition and the personal opinion and the personal preference, and proven the points tried to get the best of you. I kept the faith, I kept moving it back into the battleground of the good fight by the grace and the help of the Lord. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They're gonna play some music, as they do so, I want you to think about this story with me. It's a cliche story. It's about a young boy, and he's being bullied. And he goes to school, and the bully every single day is taking his lunch money. And the boy is sick and tired of being sick and tired. And he finally gets to a point where he's like, I'm going to fight. And so he decides the way to do that is he goes and he seeks out a karate teacher. And the karate teacher starts working with him and showing him how to fight.

And then he starts doing the math. And he starts really realizing how much money the bully’s stealing versus how much the karate teacher is charging for the lessons. And he decides, it's cheaper to just let the bully take the lunch money. And he goes back, and he settles for being dominated, and domineering, and suppressed. Because it was cheaper in the short term than to learn how to protect himself in the long term. And what he thought was affecting a season would ultimately most likely affect an entire lifetime. And I share all of that with you because I think there's a lot of Christians who settle for that. That it's cheaper to just let the enemy take whatever he wants to take and do whatever he wants to do. It's less of a fight, it's less blood, it's less pain. Because winning the battle and fighting the good fight is always going to cost you something.

It may cost you your pride. It may cost you your personal recognition. It may cost you getting everybody else to see it your way. It may cost you some popularity points. But when you realize that God is teaching you a good fight, and he intends to start something in you that Haile has no answer for because there's one thing Satan will never figure out. And that's how to whip Jesus. And Jesus says, I'll get involved and crush the head if you'll just do it my way. Fight the good fight. Would you look at somebody testify over their life right now? Tell them, fight the good fight. Come on, tell them say fight the good fight, fight the good fight. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm gonna ask you this morning, every head’s bowed, every eye’s closed. I want you to take a minute, and I want you to be honest before the Lord. I saw this happen just even a few moments ago this morning in other services, and people were so transparent, they were so honest. So I want you to know you're not alone this morning. If you're willing to just get honest before God, and it involves this: are you in a bad fight? Are you in bad fights? And you realize that today, God wants to transform the way you fight, that he wants to bring you into the good fight, the fight of your faith. If that speaks to you, and it resonates with you, and you realize, okay, yeah, I get it, God's calling me out of the bad fight. He's calling me into the good fight. I want you to lift your hand right now. Come on, put that hand up before the Lord. Be totally honest before God. Listen, thank you for being transparent. Thank you. I want you to keep it up. Somebody else, you haven't lifted your hand yet. You got to get honest before God because you've been losing and you can't figure out why it's because you're in a bad fight. It's time to transition over into the good fight. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Father, God, I thank you for those that are humbling themselves before you right now. I believe Father God that there is something supernatural that will happen in their life on the other side of just being willing to say, God, I admit it, it's been a bad fight, but I thank you for calling me out on it today, Jesus, and I'm going all-in with you. I'm gonna do it your way, I'm gonna fight it your way .Father God, I'm gonna trust you. I'm going to follow God the unctions and the instructions that you give me, and Lord, I want to see you show up, show out and show off in my life. That Father God, you would start bullying the bully. That God you would put the enemy on the run in my life, I'm just surrendering to you Lord. I pray God, you'll help me to hear your voice. Whatever it is you want from me next, whatever my next step is supposed to be. God, I know you're probably going to call me to deny myself and God I don't resist that. I just say speak it to me, Father, God, show me where to deny myself. And Father, I thank you that there's just an unction coming over so many people this morning, that just realizes that you've got something more for them than what they've been settling for. And today, they step over into the battlefield of the good fight. And I pray God, that when they get to the end of their lives, that their children and their families, and the people that know them, the people in their spheres of influence, will look at their lifestyle and testify, ee fought the good fight, she fought the good fight. And that we ourselves would be able to decree and declare before heaven and earth, I kept the faith in Jesus’ name. Lord let it be done. Let it be done, Father. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm gonna ask again, just every head bowed, every eye closed. There's some people under the sound of my voice today that if you're honest, you are disconnected from God. And that's why you hesitated to even really respond just a moment ago, because you're like, I don't even know if I'm in the fight. I just feel like I'm getting whipped by the devil, by the enemy on every side. There's sin in your life that you're struggling with, there's hurts that you're struggling with, there's habits that you're struggling with. There's stuff that you're just getting hung up on, that you're struggling with. You just feel like you're losing the fight. But for you today, what it would mean for you to have a relationship with God is that you need to rededicate your life to Jesus. For somebody else, maybe it means that you need to give your life to Jesus for the very first time. And what I’m going to challenge you to do is just be honest before God and just throw that hand up in the air and just say, God, I need, I need, a salvation experience. I need, God, a renewal of your grace in my life. I need, God, to just get honest and ask you to forgive me my sins, to believe that you're willing to do it. To confess, God, some stuff that nobody knows about except you, Lord. And today I just call it out so that your blood can cover it. And Lord, I pray for you to give me the courage to declare it to anybody and everybody that I'm saved and I know it, that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, that I've bowed at his cross and Lord, your blood has took away my sins. Thank you, God, for fighting on my behalf. You did it in a way I would have never been expected. You took nails, you took a crown of thorns, you laid your life down, but you were fighting for me God, and I receive salvation. I receive grace, and it's amazing Lord, and I want to spend the rest of my life fighting the good fight, keeping the faith, in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name, this church said, amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Would you stay with me to your feet all over this room, and I want you right now just to begin to give God praise for the fact that he still saves, he still heals, he still delivers, he still does a work of grace in our heart and in our life. Come on, give him praise this morning. give him praise this morning.