A Faith Worth Fighting For – Part Four

Summer in the Psalms ‘22

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

August 28, 2022

A Faith Worth Fighting For – Part Four

Let’s turn once again to Psalm 3. Psalm 3, as a reminder, was written by David when he running from his son Absalom who was leading an insurrection against him.

O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; ² many are saying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah³ But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head. ⁴ I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah ⁵ I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. ⁷ Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked. ⁸ Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

The Lord put the word “fight” on my heart some time ago and I find it interesting that He then led me to Psalm 3.

We are in a spiritual fight whether we like it or not. The Bible says we don’t fight against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers – that is demonic powers, evil forces in the heavenlies. Eph. 2 tells us these demonic powers are led by the prince of the power of the air. I don’t understand all of this, but the Bible tells us that though we can’t see them with our eyes there are very real spiritual beings that war against us. War against the church, war against our souls, war against the name of Jesus Christ.

But how do we fight this fight? This is why I love the fact that the Lord brought me to Psalm 3. Because Psalm 3 was written when it looked like David was on the ropes, he and his men are running for their lives. All the momentum is on Absalom’s side. The volume of voices speaking discouragement over David overwhelms the voices speaking encouragement.

I think the church today can relate to that as in many ways it feels like all the momentum is going against us, but more importantly we can learn from David how to find hope in God when things look bleak and how to find our fight in God when the enemy comes with overwhelming force.

There are four fight strategies I see in this psalm that David fights his enemies that are relevant for the church today. We’ve looked at two:

1. Declare with boldness the truth of God’s word before you can see the truth of God’s word (vs. 3) The enemy builds strongholds with lies, and only the truth,

spoken in love can tear down those strongholds.

2. Cry aloud to God! (vs. 4)Pray fervently, out loud, with faith, and don’t be afraid to keep it short!

The third fight strategy is:

3. Fight against evil by doing good in the power of God

I find it in verse 7: Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

I don’t blame you if you’re wondering how we get this point from this verse? David says “strike my enemies on the cheek, break the teeth of the wicked” and I’m saying the lesson is to fight evil by doing good in the power of God. Taking a bit of preacher’s license aren’t I?

Maybe but stick with me and I think it will be clear: David’s war was fought on a physical battlefield and his enemies were wicked men who came at him with swords and shields. For David overcoming meant they died on the battlefield and he didn’t.

The New Testament reveals that the Christian fights a different enemy on a different battlefield with different weapons.

Rom. 12:21 says Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.

David’s weapons to overcome evil were swords, spears, and slingshots. Our weapon is doing good. We overcome evil with good. Let me share a real-life example from American history.

In the 1700’s there was a pastor named Peter Miller who lived and pastored in Ephrata, PA. He became friends with General George Washington who enjoyed visiting Ephrata. Also living in Ephrata was a man named Michael Wittman who let it be known he hated Peter Miller with a passion, striking him in the face on one occasion and spitting in his face on another.

Eventually Michael Wittman was found guilty of treason and sentenced to hang by General Washington.

When Peter Miller heard that Wittman was sentenced to death, he woke up early in the

morning and trudged sixty miles through the snow to Valley Forge to ask Washington to spare Wittman’s life. Washington replied that he could not pardon his friend to which Miller replied, “my friend? I have not a worse enemy living than that man!” When Washington heard that Miller had walked sixty miles in the snow to appeal for the life of an enemy, he granted the pardon. Miller took the pardon and hurried to the scaffold where Wittman was just about to be hanged.

When Wittman saw Miller he said, "There is old Peter Miller. He has walked all the way from Ephrata to have his revenge gratified to-day seeing me hung." Those words were barely spoken when Miller waved the pardon and Wittman’s life was spared at the very last minute. They embraced right there and Wittman and Miller became lifelong friends from that moment.

Miller destroyed an enemy by turning him into a friend! Overcoming evil with good. Doing damage to the kingdom of hell by helping damaged souls find healing. Emptying hell by populating heaven. That’s how the church fights, that’s how the church overcomes evil: by doing good.

God is not only great, He is good. Greatness speaks of His power and majesty and glory. Goodness speaks of His moral purity and His loving nature. Because ultimately Biblical goodness is the outworking of love. Because God is love, He wants good for His creation. When we sing of the Goodness of God, we are singing of the benevolence of His heart towards all He has created. He always wants what is best for us.

Evil wants the destructive worst for a person. Overcoming evil with good is doing what is best for that person.

But here’s why I say we fight evil by doing good in the power of God.

David prays and asks God to rise up and strike cheeks and break teeth just before his men rise up and strike cheeks and break teeth. That’s how it works: We call upon God to rise up, and God calls on us to step up. We do what we can, God does what we can’t.

To be clear, this isn’t how it works with our salvation. We are saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary plus nothing on our part. We simply believe in Jesus and he saves us. Salvation is Jesus plus nothing!

But progress in our sanctification and victory in our spiritual battles are the result of our co-operative work with the Holy Spirit. His power working through us.

If you open your Bibles to the book of Acts, you’ll read that it’s actually called the Acts of the Apostles. I’ve heard people say it should be the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” and I understand what they mean but that doesn’t fully capture it either because everything the Spirit did in Acts was done through people.

So we are to overcome evil with good by the Holy Spirit working in us.

First, the Spirit works in us to make us good. He purifies our motives, cleansing us from selfish and sinful agendas and replacing those things with an honest, loving desire to be good and do good.

Then the Spirit uses us to sow good wherever we are.

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Gal. 6:8-10

So how do we do good? How do we fight evil with good?

1. Look for opportunities right where you are to do good.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us to good…Sow goodness in the field you’re in. Do good where you live.

• Help someone who needs help
• Reach out to someone who is lonely
• Break the destructive direction of a conflict. One of the ways we can break the teeth of the enemy is by forgiving when someone hurts us, or by asking someone to forgive us for how we’ve contributed to a conflict.
• If you’re a young mom, most of your field right now is pouring love and care into your child(ren).
• Encourage someone by noticing something about their character or what they do that is admirable.

Notice none of the things I’ve mentioned are earth-shaking. Every once in a while the Lord might give us a really big opportunity to make a difference but most of our field will consist of small things in the right direction. Don’t worry about what someone else is doing. Don’t compare. God loves it when you sow the good He gives you to sow.

I love the story of when NFL wide receiver Art Monk was inducted into the Hall of Fame. That’s an level of greatness none of us will achieve. When his son got up to introduce him at the induction, he said one of the questions he got asked the most is if he wanted to be like Art Monk when he grew up. After sharing a few things about his father’s life off the field, he closed by saying, “do I want to be like Art Monk when I grow up? I’d rather be like Dad.”

Art Monk was great on the football field but the more important field in his life was being a dad. And he was a good one. Sow good in the field you’re in, with the opportunities God has given you.

2. Don’t confuse good with nice

Nice is not really a character quality. It’s more of a personality thing. Some of us are naturally nicer than others. But nice isn’t the same as good.

Nice means being pleasant, agreeable. And nice is nice, until it isn’t.

Sometimes overcoming evil with good means saying the truth in love that someone doesn’t want to hear. Sometimes good means standing for what’s right when it’s not popular.

Young people: there will be times when everybody is doing one thing, saying one thing, and God says be different. Like the young Jewish men Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego who refused to bow when everyone else was bowing. Imagine the things people muttered under their breath: why can’t they just do what everyone else is doing? Why do they have to mess everything up?

They’re not being nice!

Nope, but they’re being courageous and that’s good. They’ve obeying God and that’s good. They’re refusing to worship a false god and that’s good. They weren’t being nice but they were doing good. And their example is one we still have to inspire us today.

3. Don’t be surprised if doing good gets tiresome

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal. 6:9

Doing good is a marathon not a sprint. A campaign not a skirmish. Sometimes you will feel tired and be tempted to give up. Your weariness might say it’s not worth it, but God says it’s worth it. You will reap a harvest if you don’t give up.

The Holy Spirit in us makes it not a heavy burden or a legalistic weight. We’re not doing good to earn God’s love but because God loves us and we want to spread that love. Don’t be legalistic about it, don’t be comparing, don’t let guilt be what motivates you. But don’t be fragile about it either.

Keep sowing. Keep doing good. Keep depending on the Spirit to lead you and give you opportunities. Keep asking the Spirit to help you see those opportunities. Keep breaking the teeth of anger with patience. Strike the cheek of hatred with love. Heap burning coals over the head of your enemy by showing him or her kindness.

The harvest Paul promises isn’t just what God gives you. Sowing good is sowing what’s best for them so a lot of the harvest is the good it does in their life. The blessing it produces in their life. The truth it sows in their life.

The good the Spirit wants to spread through us comes from God’s heart.

Jesus said when we do good to others we are imitating our Father in heaven who is good and kind even to

There was a book some years ago called Good to Great. I want to suggest that we as a church aim in the reverse: Great to Good.

Like every church, we have been given a Great Commandment (love God and each other), and a Great Commission (make disciples). Guided by those two great goals, let us strive to do good in the name of Jesus.

I know we’re a small church, have limited resources, and most if not all of us have a lot on our plates already.

A lot of the good God wants to accomplish doesn’t require changing or adding anything. Just see yourself as an ambassador for good wherever God has planted you.

Don’t need to add programs or such.

But…I would like to see us grow in ministry teams as an expression of Grace doing good. But here’s how that would need to work (no pressure):

We’re not going to start a program and hope people get involved.

If God puts a ministry on your heart, share it with us. If we sense it to be a good fit and something that might resonate we can form a ministry team around it. We won’t lead it, you will. We will give guidance to help it stay on track and healthy.