USE YOUR SWORD

3 Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation—men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” 1 Samuel 15:3


Can you imagine being a soldier in Israel’s army and hearing these instructions? Killing all the animals would be sad but doable, but then you’d kill men, woman,children, babies? In order to do this you’d just have to react and not sit down and think about it. Cause that’s what King Saul chose to do, he saved the best animals, and even spared the King of the Amalekite’s, and then you see the prophet Samuel speaking for God and pronounce punishment on King Saul. Because the King chose to disobey God.


God knew if you saved the women and Children they would want to take vengeance, and would end up doing just that one day. So God fixed the problem before it even started.


The question I have for you is does God still work this way today? Is there a God of the Old Testament who is full of wrath, and a God of the New Testament who only loves? This is sadly what a lot of people believe and teach but the Bible says:


Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.


So that means God has never changed and will never change, He is the same God today as He was when He gave the Israelite’s this command. The difference is today our battle is not with flesh and blood Ephesians 6:12. Our battle is a spiritual one, the Old Testament paints a physical picture of what the New Testament says is spiritual. The Old Testament is types and shadows of the New Testament.


But what are we fighting against today? There are 3 enemies that we need to fight everyday, they are 1. The World 2. The Flesh and 3. The devil, and the device, or I should say, the weapon they all use to battle us is sin. God has given us a weapon also and that is a sword Ephesians 6:17.


1. The World-As we look at this you may be saying I thought the world was good, didn’t God make the world? Yes he did, but when we battle the world we are battling the thoughts and desires of this world, have you ever noticed that the world paints bad to look good, and good to look bad? For example when you see a beer commercial it has pretty girls and handsome guys, which is a lie, the truth would be a fat beer belly guy and not too pretty girls. And then when I say the world virgin what do you think? It’s a beautiful thing to be a virgin but the world makes it look bad. So we need to pull out our sword, the bible and renew our thinking, by reading, meditating on it, and memorizing it:


Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.


The flesh- that is our own sinful desires, the other word for it is our old man Romans 6:6 KJV. Have you ever wondered why it’s easier to do bad then good? Do you remember being taught how to lie, cheat, steal? So when these evil desires that are in us rise up we must put them to death and crucifying our flesh:


Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.


and finally 3. The devil- One of the greatest things that the devil has done is he has people who do not believe that he is real, even some Christians believe this. We must believe what the Bible says about him not only is he real but he has a game plan which is to steal, kill, and destroy John 10:10. What does he steal? By using the weapon of sin, he stills your time, and your faith examples of this are porn, and drugs. What does he kill? With that same old weapon sin he kills relationships just think of how many marriages are killed by sin like adultery. What does he destroy? He tries to destroy your very life, by speaking lies (of which he is the father of lies) he gets many people at any age to commit suicide, which breaks my heart every time I hear that someone else committed suicide especially a young person and that they chose to believe the devils lies, instead of God’s truth that they are fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139:14, God never makes junk.


So to wrap this up God wants us to strap on our Sword and use it to fight our enemy, and He will give us the victory and make us more than conquerors Romans 8:37.