________________________________________________________________________

When you read the Old Testament, you can't help but notice that there is quite a bit of war and fighting between armies recorded. Even old Abraham was obviously a fairly good warrior as we find that he fought to get back his relatives that had been kidnapped by some raiders. When we finally get to the time of Joshua, God used the Israeli men formed into an army to conquer the Promised Land and then after they had inherited the land of Promise, the men stayed organized in case of having to fight to protect the homeland against enemy tribes such as the Amalekites and Philistines. Some of these battles have become ingrained into our memories such as Gideon's facing off against the Ammorites armed only with trumpets, lanterns, and pitchers but getting a great victory because He was obedient to the Lord! Most of us are familiar with Samson's forays against the Philistines or little David facing the Philistine champion, Goliath and winning. Throughout that time of history, armies were always involved in some type of war and the Bible reflects that fact.

There has to be a point. Paul later wrote:

"All scripture" means the parts about the historical wars in the Old Testament, also. And it was Paul who began to reveal to us the importance of these old battle records when in a Roman jail cell, Paul began to describe the Roman soldier that was standing before him and likened each part of the outfit to something that a Christian needed. "Put on the whole armor of God," Paul commanded. You need the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Why? Because if you are a Christian, you are in an army that is much more powerful than any literal military on this earth: you are in the Lord's Army! And although some Christian's dedication and faithfulness seems to indicate that they think that they are in the reserves, God says that if you are a part of His kingdom, then you are on active duty! You are in a fight against an enemy that you can't see but that is just as real as any foe that David ever faced. You were created to fight, but not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. And have no fear because Paul also wrote in our shorter text:

2 Cor 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

We have the weapons needed to get victory against the devil and against sin and against this evil world! We have everything that we need and we've got the ultimate general on our side! If you will learn to fight well and learn to use your weapon, then you can win! But you must be willing to fight! You must be willing to become active. You must realize the higher calling of living for God is that you become a part of His kingdom and a part of His cause on earth! You are in a battle in the spirit, and if you will grow in God, you can win!

And let me say this, you will either fight, or you will die spiritually. Sometimes it takes lacksidasical Christians getting so hammered constantly by the devil until they finally get tired of it and begin to fight. Sometimes people just give up and quit living for God because of a few hardships or trials or persecution. Of course you are going to have some tough days, you are in a war! If you just give up, then you are like someone holding on to the trigger button of a nuclear bomb getting stabbed to death by someone with a penknife! You didn't make it because you refused to fight and use the weapons at your disposal! Of course, you are in a fight, you've changed sides! Now the devil wants to destroy you because you have escaped his kingdom and deceit and you are no longer in a course to spend eternity in hell with him! He wants to take you down! But I've got good news for you: you've got stronger weapons and a better defense in Jesus Christ. The Bible says:

You CAN make it living for God even with all of hell and this world fighting against you because you have superior weapons and defenses! Those are pretty good promises! Go read the end of this book we call the Bible some times and you will find out that Jesus wins! You don't have to win every battle, but all you've got to do is stay in His kingdom and stay alive spiritually and no matter what happens in this life, you'll win! IF you are still on the right side at the end of this thing! Look at somebody and say "you are in the fight for your life -- and you CAN win!"

________________________________________________________________________

You can win. I believe that. I hold on to that. But if that's so. If we have superior weapons. If we have superior defenses. If we have the spiritual "nuclear bomb" called the Holy Ghost. Then why do sometimes Christians not make it? Why is it that sometimes people fall away and become unfaithful to the things of God? Why do some Christians get so discouraged in the fight that they are willing to throw in the towel? I know not everybody does, but there are some that do. The problem can't be in the weapons. It can't be in our general, Jesus Christ. It can't be in the system. So why? Obviously those that fall away and give up or don't make it have not learned what makes a soldier a mighty soldier. In their training and development they obviously lacked some understanding or principles or skills that would enable them to use the weapons given to them effectively. And whatever those things are that are missing in such people's life, I want to have them! I don't want those things missing in my life! I don't want to have the name of Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Word of God and yet not make into eternal life because I got discouraged or beat up spiritually or couldn't make it! And so the question that we must ask ourselves to avoid such a scenario is simple and yet profound: what makes a mighty man mighty? What is it that makes a mighty man different from an ordinary warrior? What is it that we need to truly be over comers and mighty in the Spirit!?

The answer is found in a list of mighty men, the mighty men of David. We read about some of them in our lengthy text in 2 Samuel chapter 23. This chapter along with 1 Chronicles chapter 11 catalogs and gives us a brief glimpse into the lives of some extraordinary warriors. David had a mighty army, but he had thirty-seven men who were the "cream of the crop." These were men who were the mightiest warriors of their time in all of the earth and who had done great things to be get into this list. The chapter lists all thirty-seven of David's mighty men at the end and many of them we know only their name and that they were a part of this prestigious list. But the writer of this book gives us some insight and special stories of five of these warriors. These five that we read about in our text -- Adino, Eleazar, Shammah, Abishai, and Benaiah -- are the top warriors of the list. The writer included some of the stories to explain why these men were the mightiest of the mighty. These scriptures are still applicable to us today. Because even though we are fighting spiritual battles, we are still fighting and for the same God, therefore whatever made these men the mightiest men of the mightiest is still the same things that we can learn to be mighty in the Spirit. Simply put, the stories of Adino, Eleazar, Shammah, Abishai, and Benaiah, teach us the answer to the question that we have just asked: "what makes a mighty man mighty?" And the answers are the key to being all that you should be in God today!

________________________________________________________________________

With that in mind, the writer begins with the mightiest of them all and tells us what separated him from the pack. His name was:

Or was it? Without going into a long Bible study, his real name was probably "Jashobeam" with Adino and "Eznite" characteristics of him and maybe even surnames or nicknames. For the sake of simplicity, we'll call him Adino. He was the chief of the mighty men and so his name matter less than whatever it was that made him mighty. We actually don't know a whole lot about him except that the Bible says:

That is in one battle, he killed 800 men with a spear! That's amazing! And it shows us that the chief characteristic of what makes a mighty man mighty is your willingness to stand and fight and not to run! All the odds were against Adino. If any normal human being saw an army of 800 men coming toward him and had only a spear, they would run as fast as they could from the battle. And they probably would have been killed anyway! But Adino stayed and fought. Even against insurmountable odds. I don't think that he thought that he was going to win. But he fought anyway. I think a person standing and fighting against such incredible odds proves that Adino was ready to die for his cause. And He was ready to die fighting rather than die running! Adino had the attitude that "if this is how it's gotta end, then I'm going to take as many of them with me as I can!" And guess what? When the smoke cleared 800 of them were dead and Adino was still alive! His willingness to lose his life was what enabled him to keep it!

The chief lesson that you can learn in living for God is that to keep your life, you've got to be willing to lose it! If you want true contentment and happiness and peace and fun, then you've got to be willing to lose your sinful will that you think brings those things and to fight for truth in your life. You can't live for God half-heartedly and half-committed because there will come a time in your life that the enemy will rise up against in a flood! There will come a time in your walk with God when you will seem to be against an insurmountable force fighting against you. If you are in this thing half-heartedly, you aren't going to make it. If you are in this for the rank and the prestige of "being known as a Christian" then you are not going to make it. In all of the descriptions of the armor of God by Paul in Ephesians, the one area that was missing any armor was the back of the soldier! Christians were not designed to turn around and run, and when they do, they will die. If you are going to run, you aren't going to make it. But if you will get a hold of something and say that if I've got to die for this thing either spiritually, literally, or in my actions, I'm going to fight against evil and sin and this world and I'm not going to run or shirk my duties! If the devil is going to come in like a flood and try to completely destroy my life, then I'm going to make it as hard as possible and I'm going to die going to heaven and taking as many people as I can with me!

Jesus was preaching the lesson of Adino years later:

In living for God, you are going to have to face some things in your life that are unfair, but if you run from living for God trying to save "your life," those things are sure to destroy you and you will lose it. But if you will get the attitude of Adino and stand ready to die faithful if that's what it takes, then you will find that when it all clears, you will be standing still!

And let me throw this in here as well. The term "Eznite" seems to indicate that Adino was born a Gentile, and was not even from a Jewish family! He obviously had converted to worshipping Jehovah God and then rose to the top! What makes a mighty man mighty? A mighty man refuses to run against insurmountable odds and is prepared to die fighting faithfully, but he also realizes that your family name, racial background, financial situation, or spiritual heritage does not determine your outcome in life. Mighty men don't buy into the lie that you have to be from a certain family to be mightily used of God. It doesn't matter what your last name is or whether your parents live for God or not, you can be somebody in the kingdom of God by being faithful! The world crowns success and prestige but God crowns faithfulness! Learn the lesson of Adino: in God's army a nobody can be the mightiest and best somebody if they will refuse to run and be willing to lose their life for His cause! Those are the things that make a mighty man mighty!

I like Eleazar, for he was truly a mighty man. We know a little bit more about his story because the scriptures say that he too refused to run against overwhelming odds. In fact, Eleazar stayed and fought the enemy even after all the army around him had fled. All his companions in the normal army had deserted him and left him alone, but still Eleazar fought. That's impressive. It's one thing to suddenly find yourself caught alone with the enemy and quite another to look around and realize that not only are you alone with a great number of bad guys, but you are that way because your friends and brothers in the Lord have let you down and forsaken you!

Many Christians can fight against seemingly insurmountable odds as long as they know someone is fighting with them. But it's when a friend has betrayed them or they feel let down by their brothers and sisters that they give up. Not a mighty man. Not Eleazar. He stayed even though everybody else ran. A mighty man, you see, doesn't choose to fight or run based upon the actions of others but rather because of what he knows is right. A mighty man is more concerned about pleasing his heavenly commander than those around him and so the actions of others don't have to much affect on him. Whether others are not are praying and fasting, mighty men like Eleazar are going to pray and fast. Whether others are praising God and passionate about God, mighty men like Eleazar are going to be on fire! Whether anybody else is obedient and faithful or not, mighty men like Eleazar are going to be faithful. They are going to win souls and do the right thing no matter what anybody else is doing! That's what makes them a mighty man!

And in this story, we have the secret of how Eleazar was able to stay determined despite everybody else running. The Bible says:

How do you stay faithful even when others desert you? Eleazar's story gives us three keys to being mighty in such situations:

1. "He arose." He had been knocked down and could have easily given in to the first signs of defeat, but Eleazar got up. I don't have time to preach on this like I could, but let me say this: this is not a boxing ring where you go down three times and then the enemy wins by a technical knockout, but this is a fight to the end! He who wins will be the one who gets up the most! Even mighty men fall -- but they get back up! Even mighty men slip -- but they get back up! He fell, but "he arose!" If you are to be victorious, then you've got to arise one more time!

2. He "smote the Philistines until his hand was weary." He was willing to give everything to the fight. He didn't go in it half-heartedly or with doubt, but he made up in his mind that "if I'm going to fight, I'm going to do it with all my might!" Somebody ought to make up in their mind that "I'm going to give everything to living for God!" "Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, and might!" Give Him everything!

3. "His hand clave unto the sword." That is he held on to that weapon so determinedly and so doggedly that at the end of the day, he couldn't release it! His hand was locked with a "bull-dog" grip on his sword. You could say that He got so a hold of his sword that his sword got a hold of him!

The scripture says that the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God and that it is a two edged sword and a mighty weapon! Wherever you are in your spiritual walk and wherever you are going and whatever you are going to have to face, understand this: there is nothing more important to grab a hold of and hang on to than the Word of God! You need preaching, you need daily devotions and readings, you need Bible Studies. You'd better know what you believe doctrinally and scripturally. Because it does no good to stand and fight and be faithful if you don't have the sword in your hand! And it really does not good to have the sword at first and then let go of it! Despite your faithfulness and your good intentions and faith, if you don't have a bull-dog grip on the Word of God and being obedient to it and hanging onto it with everything that you've got, you will die spiritually! But somebody needs to get a hold of the Word of God so tight that it gets a hold of you! You need to cling to it and trust it and live it and obey it and keep it so tightly that it becomes a part of you! That you can never let it go! Mighty men grab hold of their swords until their swords cleave to them!

I like Shammah too. He was a mighty man because he also refused to run against great odds but his battle ground was a little different because the Bible says that it was a "ground full of lentils." In other words, it was a bean field. And it was just about the time of harvest. To appreciate the story of Shammah, you need to know that the Philistines had already figured out that they couldn't win in an all out war with Israel and so they had taken to raiding the crops right at harvest time. Put yourselves in Shammah's shoes to realize how defeating this was. You tilled the hard ground to get it ready and you planted the crops and you weeded it and tended it and watered it and you have anxiously awaited the crop so that you and your family will have food to eat for the winter and then right at harvest time, the enemy comes in and runs you from your field and steals the crop and you have done all of the hard work for nothing! Not only are you tired and defeated, but you have nothing to gain strength on to fight later on. And the name "Shammah" means "desolate" or "barren." Obviously Shammah had been through this many times before.

But something this day changed and Shammah said "I've left my bean field for the last time." You see mighty men will stand and fight for a harvest. They will fight for the seeds of the Word of God that they have planted. Anyone can witness, but will you fast and pray and stay faithful to see the harvest, or are you content to plant seeds and see the enemy snatch from you the harvest. Anyone can have the seed of the Word of God planted in their minds by listening to a sermon, but allow the enemy to come in and snatch the seed away before it takes root in their lives and leaves them blessed. We need some people to be mighty like Shammah and say "I'm not going to just see the seed of the Word of God planted in my life and in others but I'm going to stay and fight if I have to until I see the blessings and promises and fruit come true!" Somebody make up your mind that you've left your bean field for the last time! You will have a harvest and partake of the good blessing of the Word of the Lord!

And mighty men understand that a harvest is something worth fighting for. And I don't have time to go into how this chapter also records that these three mighty men fought through an entire Philistine army just to get David a drink from the well in Bethlehem because they heard that he longed for it and then fought back through the army to bring it back to him. But let me say that Jesus Christ who was born at Bethlehem is the true "well of Bethlehem" and mighty men will risk their lives and fight against whatever they have to in order for someone else to drink from the well of Bethlehem! Ordinary men will fight for their own lives and well being, but mighty men will fight for the souls of others! That's what makes them mighty! They are willing to give up their lives so that others might live! That's mighty love! That what makes a mighty man mighty!

And so we come to Abishai about which nothing remarkable or new is recorded in this chapter and listing of mighty men. But Abishai's unique story is found in another, earlier chapter of 2nd Samuel:

In this battle, a giant named Ishbi-benob overcame the aging King David and was about to kill him, when Abishai saw what was happening and came to his rescue! This one story mighty not have been worth mentioning but we find that it was just one of many times that Abishai protected David from enemies. It was Abishai that wanted to kill Saul when he was trying to kill David. It was Abishai that wanted to slay the man who threw stones and cursed King David out on the road one day. Abishai was a mighty man, you see because he was willing to not only fight his battles and his enemies but to take on the enemies that were seeking to destroy the man of God in his life. Abishai made up in his mind that if somebody destroyed his pastor, then they would have to destroy him too!

Ordinary men are content to let the pastor fight his battles alone. A pastor can't have revival or ground a church by himself. There have been many good men of God who have burnt up and their ministries fallen apart simply because the people in their church were content to let them do all the fasting, praying, soul-winning, worshipping, Bible studies, and everyday things of the church. Too often when an attack comes against the man of God from someone seeking to destroy him, saints join the attack. It's true that when people are not right with God, they lash out at all God-given authority.

But if you want to be a mighty man, then you need to get the spirit of Abishai on you and let the man of God know that he's not fighting by himself. Please listen and take what I'm about to say with the spirit and attitude that it's intended: I'm not fishing for compliments here nor am I asking for you to come "tell me" that you are behind me. Abishais act out their loyalty by fighting with the man of God and staying faithful beside him. When something, be it a spirit or attitude or whatever rises up against the man of God, mighty men are watching and quick to take it on themselves. Some of you can't be mighty men or women in the Spirit because you don't come to church often enough to know what the pastors addressing and fighting. And some of you don't pray enough to even be sensitive in a service as to what the purpose of God might be for that service. Mighty men are there fighting in the trenches week in and week out with the man of God in their life.

Mighty men have to become unselfish, you see, but let me give you a little secret about Abishai: he had never killed a giant before this day, but David had. David was the giant killer, but when Abishai stepped in to fight David's enemy, some of David's anointing came on him and he was able for the first time to kill a giant, himself! When you take on the man of God's enemies and fight for him, then God gives you some of the power of the man of God's anointing and you will be able to get victories in your life over giants like you have never seen! Somebody needs to be a mighty man like Abishai!

And so we close with Benaiah. Benaiah's father had been a mighty warrior and Benaiah carried on the tradition. The scriptures say that Benaiah did many mighty things. He slew the two best warriors of the army of Moab single-handedly. The Bible tells the tale of how:

There's two possible scenarios that happened here and neither of them are fun things. Benaiah either willingly climbed down into an old well pit and killed a lion that had fallen in, or either Benaiah was walking along in the snow one day and fell into a pit which also had trapped a lion. Either way, it's obvious that despite the worst possible circumstances, Benaiah fought and was victorious. You see mighty men fall into unexpected traps and pits of life just as ordinary men, but the difference between ordinary men and mighty men is their reaction to the unexpected! Ordinary men freeze with fear and doubt at the unexpected calamities and allow the situation to devour them, but mighty men like Benaiah take the unexpected and the unforeseen bad situation and turn it into a victory and a great testimony! Remember mighty men will fall into bad situations, but mighty men act in faith and turn it into a testimony! A lion? A pit? A sudden fall in the snow? That sounds bad, but to a mighty man it's just the making of a great and powerful victory!

But the most powerful lesson from Benaiah has to be found in the last verse of our text:

We know from 1 Chronicles chapter 11 that this Egyptian man was over seven feet tall. And not only was the Egyptian bigger and stronger than Benaiah but he was better armed with a spear and had caught Benaiah all alone without his sword! All Benaiah had was a staff, but it turned out that the staff was all he needed.

There are two points about this story that teach us mighty lesson about being mighty. The first is that in scripture a "sword" represents the Word of God and a rod or staff represents authority. When people were grumbling about Aaron being the High Priest, God used a rod that budded signifying his God-given authority. The 23rd Psalm talks about "thy rod and staff, they comfort me," speaking of the protection of being under a shepherd. Benaiah got caught without his sword, but he still had his staff and his staff saved him. There is power in submitting to the Godly authority in your life, whether it be parents, teachers, pastor, or whatever. Because you may find yourself one day in a situation where you don't know what the Word of God tells you to do, but if you do what you know would be what the pastor would tell you to do, then you will still come out alright because the staff works like the sword!

The second and final thing that stands out is that Benaiah used the staff to take away the enemy's sword and then used his own sword to kill him! You may remember that David did the same thing with Goliath and it seems to be the best way to kill a giant. Take what they are threatening with and use it against them! The bigger the weapon that comes against you, is just the bigger weapon that you get to use for victory! If the devil is threatening financial stress, then give to God and give your way out of it! If the devil is waving depression in your face, then turn the emotional sword around on him and worship your way out of it! If the devil is waving stress from a tight schedule in your face, then find time each day to tell somebody what God has done for you! If the devil is waving your past in your face, then turn it around on him and remind him of your future with God and then remind him of his future with God! Mighty men grab the weapon of the enemy and turn it around to defeat their foe! If the devil is making threats of what might happen to stress you out, then turn it around and make threats of the promises that God has said WILL happen to give you liberty! Turn it around! Mighty men turn it around! And that's what makes a mighty man mighty!

David wasn't the only one from Bethlehem, but Jesus Christ, the Son of David, was born there! The devils cried out to Jesus "thou Son of David" because Jesus was a mighty man even mightier than David! If that is true, then let us be as David's mighty men in the Spirit! Let's follow their example! Let's respond and fight and be faithful as they were! For those are the things that make a mighty man mighty!