Three Keys to Spiritual Victory — Jim Cymbala

Discerning What to Join, Fight, and Leave Alone

The verse that we have today is insignificant, but significant, it's significant, but I could go anywhere in the Bible to make this point. So let's just look at it. It's found in 2 Samuel 15, but, Etai, reply to the king, that's King David, as surely as the Lord lives, and as my Lord the King lives, wherever my Lord the King may be, whether it means life or death, there your servant will be.

David said to Etai, go ahead, march on. So Etai the Gittite marched on with all his men and the families that were with him. That's at a time when David was under pressure and he had to leave Jerusalem because his own son, Absalom, had rebelled against him.

And that's a little story about Etai, the Gittite, who said, I'm with you. In life, there are things to join, things to fight, and things to leave alone. And the definition of wisdom in life, the longer I live, is to know what to join, what to fight, and what to leave alone.

Because if you join something you should fight, you're gonna be in a heap of trouble. If you fight the things you should join, it's gonna go poorly. If you join the things you should leave alone, or if you leave alone the things you should fight, life branches out down roads that you don't even know where we're heading.

We don't know where we're going, but it's not gonna be a good place. That's why James, in the first chapter, says, if anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And what is wisdom? Wisdom is not what you learn in school.

Wisdom is the ability, among other definitions, to be able to discern, given the circumstances, what course to take with the information that you do have. But really, it's more than wisdom. It's a spiritual wisdom, and it's a kind of discernment that we so desperately need.

Because I've been counseling people, Pastor Brian, who just was here, Brian, Pastor Petrie, he probably counsels more people and does it better than any pastor we have on staff, including everyone, he's an excellent counselor.

And he will tell you the aggravation that people face and the sadness and sorrow, because people don't understand the difference between joining, fighting, and leave it alone, in terms of what they should do in a circumstance.

David was in a bad spot, because Absalom was trying to overthrow him and become the next king, but he wasn't gonna wait till David died. So Attei, the Gittite, says to him, no, I don't care what Absalom's doing, and I don't care how it looks.

You're the man, you're God's anointed. I cast my lot with you, 100 I'm in. Whether I live, whether I die, I'm gonna be with you, David, who is, of course, a type or a symbol of Christ. I'm with you.

Going All In for God's Calling

Now it just so happens, ladies and gentlemen, that a lot of people go through life, and some might be here right now, you're not really all in for anything. And that's why life is so listless and empty, and there's so little spiritual fulfillment, and you go to bed at night tired from nothing rather than tired from something.

Because there are things in life that God permits to come before us that it's God's will that we sign up and join the thing 100%. We have people who we prayed with earlier today, and I prayed with another group before this three o 'clock service, and they're called the Prayer Band.

They're sitting among us now. But they lock themselves away for about an hour into each meeting, and during the week, they're here praying. They pray for requests that come in for 30 days. There's 400 to 500 of them, and they're on a rotational basis.

And they're coming in in the morning and making plans to be there at night or in the afternoon, and they have a schedule of where I am, and sometimes I can feel the efficacy of their prayers even while I'm preaching somewhere.

I can sense, like God whispers to me, someone's praying for you. But to do that, you have to know this is something God wants me to join. This is something I'm supposed to do. I'm all in, live or die, sink or swim.

I'm gonna be totally committed to this thing because it's God's plan for my life that I join this thing and give it my all. Right now in America, they're doing away in a lot of churches with church membership.

Why? Because people now who go to church in many places don't wanna make any commitment to a church. I like to shop. I like church as a mall where I can go and come and come and go and never make a commitment to a church.

I don't like the idea of having a pastor over me. I don't wanna be involved in a church. I don't wanna sign up. Now listen, in the Bible, there's not a whole lot about church membership, I grant you. But God does say sheep need shepherds and God has said in the church, apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers, evangelists.

My point though is this, for those of you that are here and have no commitment to any place, no advertisement for the Brooklyn Tabernacle at all, there's nothing so great about this place, that's for sure, but doesn't God have some place for you to go?

Shouldn't you commit some place? Shouldn't you go to some pastor and say, here am I, and I'm ready to work, I'll clean the floors, but I believe God has put me here so I can grow, so I can work, so I can have friends, but that'll never happen until you go all out for something.

There are some things in life you just have to join. You gotta give everything to it, and the church is one of those things, and that applies to all of us. The drifters, we're a good rock and roll group, but they're not good when you're a Christian and you're a drifter.

We ought to be finding the place that God wants us, but it goes further than that. We have people, like I said, they feel a calling to the prayer band. We got a couple, a deacon couple here in the front who work at the United Nations, and they're involved in a parachurch ministry to spread the gospel, and they're gonna go the extra mile, I know them.

They're gonna do what needs to be done. Another woman, young woman, who spoke to us a few Tuesday nights ago is fighting this sex traffic, the human trafficking issue. Other people here have a thing for the prison ministry, and they're going to prisons.

They'll be in prisons this week. Others are going to the shelter. They're giving up their own time, not watching television, not reading the newspaper when they could be relaxing, because they feel God's called me to go to shelters where people are really hurting and vulnerable.

Others go to senior citizens' home. I'm just thinking of ministries right now here in the church. Some are collecting furniture and storing it in warehouses so that if somebody gets burnt out or comes out of a shelter and God gives them an apartment, here they have the ability to give them furniture that they need.

None of these things would be done unless somebody said, I'm all in. I'm all in for that. You know, when I was playing basketball, that was the most frustrating thing, to see guys who could really play well, and I was a point guard, six foot, bringing the ball up, calling the plays, like the coach on the floor, as they called the point guard, and you would see some of the guys would be distracted and not all in to the game, not diving for a loose ball, not sweating and fighting for every point.

And it used to behoove me sometimes to get in the huddle and say, hey, listen, do you want to play? Because if you don't want to play, would you please sit down? Because we're killing ourselves out here and we need you all in.

But a lot of people go through life never all in for anything. They're not even, I question, they're all in for Jesus. They're kind of listless and empty because there's just all halfway, half-baked approaches to everything in life.

They're not fervent about anything. And when you study the Bible, you find out everyone who God uses had this great joy and this great peace that comes when you kill yourself for something God's called you to do.

I was reading about William Wilberforce, the great British Christian who said when he saw some slaves being traded back, he was from England, and England got rid of slavery long before we did. He said, no, I'm gonna fight that.

They said, you'll never, you can't destroy that trade. There's too much money, too many people making money. He said, then I'll die trying. But I'm gonna stop slavery. We can't go to Africa and buy human beings.

We can't do it. I'll fight it. And he worked, and he fought, and he spoke in the House of Lords, the House of Commons. He wrote literature. He got other people. He enlisted. He killed himself for one thing.

He was all in. Now, not everyone's not called to do that, but brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, there's some things in life you've got to join, and I challenge you today. What are you all in for?

What is it that lights the burner inside of you? Because if there's nothing, then you really gotta get a hold of God in a new way and say, what is life about then? Why did he save me? Paul says in the New Testament, so the love of Christ constrains me, and this is what I've come up with.

Whatever the reason was that he laid his hand on me, I'm not gonna rest until I apprehend why he apprehended me. It's gotta be fervency and something you join in life, and it's different things for different people.

But one of the reasons why so many people are fighting depression is because they don't have any joy about succeeding in anything because how can you succeed if you don't try? This is the secret to the epidemic of depression and malaise that's in so many people's lives, including Christians.

How can you feel fulfillment and joy, the joy of victory, unless you get in the fight? But if you're not in the fight, how can you have the victory? You gotta be all in for something. Now you need discernment because you can't fight every battle.

Every appeal for money is not the appeal that you're supposed to take. Someone asked me long ago, Pastor, I get letters from this agency and this ministry and this missionary group, and I don't know which ones to support.

See, you gotta ask God, what is the one I'm supposed to be involved in? But you gotta be involved in something. Do I get an amen? You gotta have something that lights you up inside and that gets you going.

And if you're here today and your life is just a series of bouncing around, really not committed, not fervent about anything, I mean, what does make you cry? What gives you exhilaration? There gotta be something, supposed to be something.

Etai, the Gittite said, yo, David, I don't care, Absalom is what he's doing. I'm with you, I'm all in, count me in. And if I die, I die. And if I live, I live, but I'm gonna die next to you. That's how I'm all in.

Don't we need some of that in our Christian life? Can we put our hands together and say amen? I'm not trying to tell you this afternoon something you wanna hear. I'm trying to tell you something that we all need to hear.

Because Christianity is becoming very impersonal now and very surface-oriented. And people think it's a lot if they just go to church on Sunday. That's definitely the trend in America. Volunteerism, way down now over the last 20 years.

Missionary people volunteering to go on the mission field, way down, because people just don't wanna commit. Nothing lights their fire. But I wanna tell you something. The only fulfillment you'll ever know is when you're all in for something.

You find out what God wants you to do and then do it. Do it. While there's things to join in life, there's also things to fight. And if you don't fight certain things that God wants you to fight, you really miss the opportunity to make a difference.

Fighting Evil and Standing for Truth

The Bible talks about spiritual warfare. Paul says at the end of his life, I have fought a good fight. Paul says about the converse that he's made, on top of all the other tribulations and trials I'm going through, who falls into sin and I don't inwardly burn?

I wanna fight against those things that will hurt Christians. I wanna fight against the devil. Paul is saying there's some things in life you just gotta get fighting. Now, you can't join the things that you should fight and you can't fight the things you should join, but we need discernment to know there are certain things you gotta lift your voice and say, that's wrong.

Sister, I love you, but you know what? I see what this guy's gonna do to you. That's wrong. If it costs me my friendship with you, so be it. But I'm gonna fight what I know is an evil influence that's trying to come into your life.

There are certain things you just gotta lift your voice up and fight and fight. If we don't lift our voices up with what's happening in our society, oh my goodness, can't you tell the difference just in the last number of years of the things that are happening?

We just had a youth outing two Saturdays ago and I got off a plane. Pastor JC was texting me. What a different day we live in. He's texting me there was a youth outing at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, right underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

The youth were there, 60, 70 young people were there for some kind of gathering. And he's texting me, I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you. Soon as the plane landed, I got him on the phone. He says, what do I do?

I said, what happened? He said, we got the people, young people here that were about to eat, but there's some women here who are topless, just six, seven ladies, just topless. And they're parading themselves and they're just going over here.

I mean, this is unthinkable. He went to a police officer and said, can't you stop? And they said, no, it's not against the law. What kind of city do we live in? What in the world is going on here? So now we're facing a dilemma that we got kids that we wanna encourage and have fellowship with them and tell them about Jesus.

And now you have to make a decision. Well, I said, look, serve the meal. If they don't disappear, let's pray they disappear. And then we'll just have to take the kids away. While they were eating, the last person was being served.

Thank God they just picked up and left. But there are certain things you gotta lift your voice up again. If you got children, you gotta lift your voice up against drugs. That's not funny. Drugs are not funny.

How many say amen? You gotta lift your voice against this gangster rep culture that makes women demeaned and glorifies violence. If you don't lift your voice against that, what are you gonna lift your voice up against?

What are you gonna lift your voice up against? Bigotry, white racism, black racism. If we don't lift our voices up against that and say something, who's gonna do it? Can we say amen to that? Come on, let's say amen to that.

Certain things you gotta fight. That's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong. I don't care if Americans did it, it's wrong. I don't care if Obama did it or Bush did it, anyone, if it's wrong, you lift your voice.

That is wrong, that is wrong. I'm against that because I'm a Christian. This violates God's word. I don't care if the whole world does it. And this is where the courage has to come into our lives. Are we gonna have the courage to lift our voice and say, that's wrong, that's not right?

Well, who cares what you think? Well, look, you say what you want and do what you want, but I wanna just lift my voice up against that and say, for whatever it's worth, that's wrong. In the name of Christ, I'm telling you, that's wrong.

And then God can give us strategies and some of us are gonna be called to do things, to fight against these very negative things that hurt children and hurt everyone. My goodness, it's hard to even read the newspapers today.

Am I right or wrong? It's hard to read the newspaper. We have to lift our voice because there's certain things you're called to fight. Now, we don't all fight in the same way and there's different issues for different people, but I'm just saying to everybody here, don't any of you wanna be a soldier for Christ?

And what do soldiers do? Listen, they fight. You gotta fight for souls. You gotta fight against the terrible influences that are trying to pull people back into the pit that God pulled them out of and that molest and attack children.

We gotta lift our voices and fight. Christianity is a strange thing. It's a juxtaposition of such things of love and all of that and yet the same Jesus has said, "'Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden.'".

He's the one that went into the temple and got the money changers and said, "'Get out of here,' and he made a whip. Jesus made a whip and said, "'My father's house should be called a house of prayer "'and you've made it a den of robbers.

"'Get out of here.'". He fought things. He fought things. He fought hypocrisy in religious circles. So brothers and sisters, when you feel the Holy Spirit urging you to say something or pray against it or organize in whatever way God leads you, I'm just telling you, life is made up of joining some things and supporting some things, but life also means fighting some things.

We gotta have a spine and a backbone by the grace of God that we stand up and we say, yeah, that I'm for, but that I am against. That is wrong. I'm gonna pray against it. You know what we're gonna do on Tuesday?

Let's pray even more against the sex traffic trade. How many say amen? Lift your hands. Let's fight against it and not just say, oh, what are we gonna do? Let's pray. Let's hear what, you know, they're starting monthly prayer meetings here against this thing by some of the people that are really interested.

There's certain things in life you have to fight, and just like people who never join anything and go all in for something, never get fulfillment, it's just sad to see people who don't, they're not against anything.

They're not against anything. Everything is like, yeah, well, you know. You can't go through life saying, yeah, you know. There's some things that God wants you to fight. Jesus fought against certain things, not in a violent, mean-spirited way, but in a way that God will direct us.

Knowing When to Walk Away

There's one last thing, and this is the hardest one of all. The secret of having a successful, fulfilled life is to know what to join and go all in, and I plead with you. I pray that these words will just bother some of you at night when you're laid down in bed tonight.

God's gonna talk to you and say, what are you all in for? What are you all in for? Listen, I'm asking, what are you all in for? You know, the war almost turned. We were winning in the Pacific. Germany was gonna be defeated.

Hitler and his forces were gonna succumb to the Allies, but the war in Japan was going our way, and then something happened that almost turned the war the other way because the Japanese generals got this idea of kamikazes.

No one had ever seen that. Now it's common because we live in the era of terrorism, but always in battle, the point was, I'll try to shoot you, I'll try to kill you, I'll try to defeat you, but I'm gonna try to get away, but the kamikazes were something totally different, and even when they ran out of airplanes, normal airplanes, they just put with glue and string just about, they put airplanes together and put a bomb on just the nose of it, and they had so many volunteers in Japan to be kamikaze pilots.

They had so many volunteers, they couldn't get enough airplanes to give each volunteer an airplane to die in, and what did they do? They would fly over and try to find the US fleet and then head straight for the deck of the ship.

You mean to shoot after them or drop a bomb and then fly away? No, no, no, they were gonna die, and the American and other seamen started to have nervous breakdowns because as they had their artillery and their anti-aircraft weapons firing away, they realized this dude is not gonna try to drop something, he's coming at me, so now you're firing and you realize it's him or me.

He's gonna blow up this ship or I'm gonna blow him out of the air, and this almost turned the war around. Now it's commonplace because you can't stop someone if they're so all in, they're willing to die.

You can't stop that. For evil or for good, you cannot stop them. Human torpedoes, you cannot stop them because they don't wanna get away. That's what the Apostle Paul was. He was a human torpedo for Jesus.

I live or die. Etei the Gittite. I'm with you, David. So if I live, I live. If I die, I die, but I'm all in. I really pray that God will help us to get all in for something and just don't live this shallow American existence of go to church on Sunday and try to live a good life and all of that stuff.

That's not Christianity. It's way deeper than that. And then some things to fight. Fight evil. Pray against evil. Witness against evil. Fight for souls. Fight for souls. You gotta fight for them. Your son's in prison, fight for him in prayer.

Your daughter's wayward, fight for her in prayer. Don't give up. Yeah, but last time she cursed. Call her again. Fight. You gotta fight. Come on, you gotta fight in life. What's ever happened that's good that somebody didn't fight?

Name one thing. Everyone has to fight for any kind of gain. But then finally, there are some things you're just supposed to walk away. Don't fight it. Don't join it. Oh God, give us wisdom. Just walk away.

When people insult you, don't join in and don't fight it. Just walk away. Or as Rambo once said, let it go. Let it go. It's not worth the time. It's not worth the energy. What I see as I counsel people, the things that they have gotten involved in either joining or fighting, it is the most huge waste of time you could possibly have in your life.

Emotionally, mentally, let it go. It's not about you. It's not for you. Folks are gonna do what they're gonna do and there are some things in life you don't fight or join. You just say, whatever. Well, I'm gonna make a new sermon called Whatever.

Whatever. That's a good title for a message. Like, whatever. I have a granddaughter who has like a little California thing in her. She goes like, Papa, whatever. Maybe you're here today and you're getting all broiled in your mind and your emotions about what somebody did and said about you.

Hey, whatever. Let it go. There are things to join that God wants you to join and build and be a part of a structure that will do some good. Or maybe there's some things God wants you to really fight for.

But there are a lot of other things in life where you say, just let it go. Just think of all the trouble we would save ourselves if we just had that when people walked up to us and say, what do you think about this?

You know, I see this girl in the church. She's going out with this guy. He's fine, by the way. He is fine. So what do you think about them? I don't see them together. Let it go. What would that be your business?

You find the one you're supposed to be with, right? I'm gonna say amen. I hear around me all my life, people, we state opinions about things that are not even our business. There are things to join. There are things to fight.

But there are a lot of other things it's like, whatever. Let it go. Let it go. Someone approaches you and says, I want you to be involved in this. Don't join it and don't fight it. Just say, whatever.

I'm gonna get T-shirts made up with whatever. What do you feel? Somebody says to me, pastor, there's this ministry coming to town. Now there's some things that when they come to town as a pastor, you join it, you get behind it.

There are other things that are just so wrong you almost have to lift your voice and say, that's wrong, that's wrong. But for the most part, if you don't feel God leading you, you just say, let it go.

May God be with you, but I'm not supposed to be involved in that. I'm not supposed to be involved in that. Years ago, I was asked by the people who run the National Day of Prayer to be the spokesman for the National Day of Prayer.

Must have been about five, six years ago. I think it was Mrs. Dobson called me and said, would you be that? And I said, I'll get back to you, and I prayed. And I said, God, I'm certainly not gonna fight it.

This is something I'm supposed to be, and I felt the Lord speak to me. Just let it go. It's not for you. I don't know why. I've been invited in the past when they were doing these huge, remember Promise Keepers?

Remember Promise Keepers? Big stadiums. Oh, my friend, Coach McCartney, he must have invited me 10 times and give me all kinds of dates. And as I prayed about it, it was, don't fight it, it's a good thing.

But no, that's not for you to do. When all my friends were speaking there, and they called me, you know, Coach really wants you to come and speak. I said, look, I prayed about it. I just don't feel that's something I'm supposed to do.

You can't do everything. Come on, do I get a witness here? You can't go everywhere, be involved in everything. So when someone approaches you and they're all hepped up about something, that doesn't mean because they're excited, you're supposed to be excited.

And don't fight it unless God told you to do that. Just, you know, let it go. So I said to my wife, I said, I just don't feel it. And she said a good word to me, then don't do it. Then don't do it. I don't know why.

When I see Jesus, I'll find out why. The things you join, let's go all in. And let's have some spine in us and lift up our voices. And there's some things in life we should fight. Fight in prayer. I don't mean getting physical and angry with everyone.

That's not Christianity. But I mean fight. And then there are a lot of things in life. Please, listen to me. Hear a word from the Lord today for your soul. Just let it be. Don't fight it. Don't join it.

Just say, God, I give it to you. I walk on. I got a life to live. This is not part of my life. Could you close your eyes with me? Now there's truth for all of us because I've made mistakes in life. Not joining when I should join and getting all in.

Not fighting when I should have fought. And I definitely should have let some things go in past years. And I got involved when I should have just prayed about it and said, oh no, this is not for me. So God, we're asking for wisdom and discernment today.

What to join, what to fight, and what to leave alone. Lord, we don't wanna join things we should leave alone and we don't wanna fight things we should leave alone. We just wanna leave them alone. But then there are other things that we're supposed to fight and get involved and come against and pray against.

And then there's the significant things that we should join and go all in on. And Lord, the best I can sense from your Holy Spirit now is that you're convicting certain people here that they're needed, their shoulder is needed at the wheel, at the plow.

That they're not really committed to anything in a deep way. Life is just going so fast. Everything's happening, happening. And when we step back, we say, what have I done in the last five years? What have I done in the last 10 years for my Lord as part of his plan for my life?

And we find out it's so negligible. So we pray today, God, that the things you want us to join, you will indicate it to us, then you'll give us the faith to jump in. Even though we don't know how it'll work out, help us to follow your leading.

And then give us the spine and the backbone and the boldness to lift up our voices when we're supposed to and do whatever to pray against and fight against certain evils that you've called us to be part of that army.

And then also the wisdom, Lord, to just walk away. Just say, I have no comment. I'm not for it, I'm not against it. It's just what someone else is doing. It's not my business. If you're here today and this word was for you in some way that I don't fully understand, but you need that wisdom from God, especially if you're considering joining into a serious relationship, oh, please, I plead with you.

I plead with you. In the name of Christ, I plead with you. Don't do it unless you know God has planned that for your life. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? If you're here today and say, Pastor, that was for me and I just wanna stand where I'm sitting and tell God, God, I need your wisdom today.

I need your wisdom. What Pastor Cimbalo was talking about has an application that your Holy Spirit has made real to me for my life. Join, fight, walk away. You can just stand where you are right now where you're sitting and say, Pastor, that was for me.

I want God to see that I need his wisdom. I need his direction. You know, the great, every eye closed, you know, the wonderful thing about God is the number one thing he wants you to join today is to be a Christian.

Joining Christ Through Repentance and Faith

If you're here today and never been born again, what would it profit you if you gained the whole world? All the cars, all the houses, all the women, or all the men, or all the clothes, or all the money?

If you gained everything, Jesus said, and then you lost your soul, what would it profit you? So the number one thing you gotta sign up for if you're not a Christian here is to say, God, forgive me of my sins.

I believe that you sent your son 2 ,000 years ago to die for me. He was your son. He died as a substitute for my sins. And I believe that he loves me and gave his life for me. And I put my trust in him and I ask him to be my savior.

I ask you to forgive me of my sins. Come and live inside of me and direct my life in the way that I should go. I give you my life. You gave me your son, I give you my life. That's the trade. That's the number one thing you should join.

And then everything else in life is gonna fall together. I'm telling you, it's gonna come together. It's gonna be beautiful. If anybody here needs to do that, I don't wanna belabor this, but would you please come quickly?

I just feel like God's pausing me here. I was gonna dismiss you. If anybody here would like me to pray with you, Pastor, I gotta be all in for Jesus. I'm not all in for Jesus the way I need to be. Just come.

Step forward, man. Step forward. Everybody, repeat after me. Everybody in the front and in the church, repeat after me. Dear Jesus. Dear Jesus. I believe in you. I believe in you. You are the only savior of the world.

You are the only savior of the world. You are the true God. I renounce every other false God. And I receive you as my savior. Take my life tonight. Take my life tonight. Make it what it should be. Forgive me of my sins.

Have mercy on me. Give me a new heart. Put your joy and peace inside of me. I need you, Jesus. I cannot go on without you. You brought me here this afternoon. It wasn't about the music. It was about meeting you here.

And I thank you for your love. Oh, isn't Jesus so good? Can we give Jesus a hand clap of praise? Congregation, there's some real tears here being shed. The Lord is doing something beautiful in these lives.

This is the first day of the rest of their lives gonna be beautiful. Father God, dismiss the ones who have to go. We pray it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, see you Tuesday in the prayer meeting.