“Like a Girl”
Part 1 – Fight Like A Girl
I. Introduction
It is an insult that is still used today on playgrounds across the globe. Little boys testing their strength and dexterity against one another revert back to this proverbial slap in the face by throwing down the gauntlet of this time proven stab. You _______ like a girl! You run like a girl. You throw like a girl. If this statement was made to you it was as if your world came to a screeching stop and all that was holy had been profaned. Revenge must be quick. Retribution was sure. Your reputation was at stake! However, over the course of the next few weeks I want us to reevaluate this “insult”. I want to take a new look at this concept of doing some things like a girl and submit to you that rather than being an insult, this may in fact be a great challenge to us all.
My first challenge this morning is to admonish you to learn to “Fight Like a Girl!”
Now if you have ever seen girls fight you know that there are two ways girls fight. The first is the slapping, play fight that really doesn’t amount to much. The second type of girl fight is a totally different ballgame. Visualize if you will a mother grizzly defending her cub. That mental picture is the girl fight I am referring too. Some of the most vicious fighting ever is two girls literally going at it tooth and nail. Eye gouging, hair pulling, shrieking, girl fight! This is the fight that I want to spur you toward.
In Scripture, there are two women whose stories revolve around battle. I want us to briefly look at their stories to learn some things this morning.
II. Text
Judges 4:4-10
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim ; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Now she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, "Behold, the LORD, the God of Israel, has commanded, ’Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. ’I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.’ “Then Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go." She said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Judges 4:12-24
Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera called together all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. Deborah said to Barak, "Arise! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hands; behold, the LORD has gone out before you." So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. The LORD routed (put into a panic) Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not even one was left.
Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid." And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. He said to her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ’Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ’No.’ " But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple. So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.
Deborah and Jael were two women who knew how to fight. We can learn from them this morning.
III. Girl Lessons
a. Girls recognized the need to fight.
Deborah had prophetic insight and realized that there was a battle coming. Jael perceived that she had to take a stand and choose a side. They understood that there was a battle that had to be fought.
I want to encourage you to wake up this morning and realize we are in a war. We are involved a battle. Corporately, there is a constant and consistent spiritual onslaught against our morals, our beliefs, and our doctrines. The enemy is on advance. Individually nothing has changed. His desire remains to kill, steal, and destroy. There are no sidelines to huddle on in this fight. There is no middle ground. There is no way to be neutral. We are at war! We must have enough prophetic insight and enough guts to get in and fight this thing out.
Some of you are trying to hide out and remain unscathed. It is time to recognize that you are in a fight like it or not so you might as well choose a side and go on the offensive! We need to learn from the girls and know that a fight is here and we must prepare and engage in it. We can’t float through life!
Christians today are living like they are on the playground, but they are really on the battlefield.
Jack Handey in his book Fuzzy moments writes- “There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started to take karate lessons, but the instructor wanted 5 dollars a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found out that it was cheaper to pay the bully so I gave up karate.”
To many times, we find it easier to pay the bully than learn how to defeat him. We need to learn from the girls and know that a fight is coming and we can’t avoid it!
b. Girls were unlikely warriors!
Women were not well accepted in this male-dominated society. Lepers, Gentiles, and women were considered outcasts by many Jewish people, especially the Pharisees. Many Pharisees would pray each morning, “I give thanks that I am a man and not a woman, a Jew and not a Gentile, a free-man and not a slave.” Deborah was an exception as she held a very high position. People came to her for arbitration in disputes (judge). They also looked to her for direction as a spokesperson for God (prophetess). Barak refused to go to war without her!
Dr. Brian Harbour points out that between Moses and Samuel, no one else filled all three roles of prophet, judge, and military leader, except Deborah.
Jael was the wife of a man named Heber. There was peace between Sisera and her husband. Many believe that Heber was a metal worker and was in relationship with Sisera because he serviced his chariots. However, whatever the reason, Sisera felt comfortable in his tent and considered Heber and Jael allies.
In both cases Deborah and Jael were unlikely candidates to be used as warriors by God.
Most of us are unlikely candidates too! Untalented, unattractive, spotty past, unqualified, weak, underrated, and overlooked. We wouldn’t make the “Who’s Who of Fighting Forces!” And yet, God can and does still use us.
In fact, Paul states like this in I Corinthians 1:26-27:
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"?
The foolish confound the wise. The weak win battles. Fight like a girl! As inadequate as you may feel or perceive yourself to be you must stand up and fight! Get involved. Reexamine who you are! You are a warrior! You are armed and dangerous. You are equipped. You are positioned. Look at your neighbor and say, “You are a bad man and a bad woman!” The enemy is subject to you. We live below our level of authority! Yes, you are an unlikely candidate, all of us are! But that should not keep you from winning victories and routing the enemy! Get up and fight! You may underestimate yourself, but God doesn’t! Look at your neighbor and say, “You go girl!” Get up!
C. Girls understood timing.
On the battlefield Deborah understood timing. "Arise! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hands!” Get up and go now. Jael understood timing. She knew that she had a God-given opportunity to strike. The moment was right. Had she hesitated the moment would have been lost. Victory would have been lost.
We must understand timing! I want you to hear my heart this morning. Corporately, I believe we are at the time. We have momentum. We have favor. We have entrance. It is time to ARISE now. Opportunities are not postponed. They are lost forever.
We are faced with opportunities for outreach, opportunities for ministry, opportunities for growth, opportunities for community impact, opportunities for change in youth and adults. Those opportunities are here! We must not miss this opportunity by being distracted by personal agendas, societal chaos, personal chaos, vacations (although we all need them), or personal busyness! It is time to strap in, get involved, pull our own weight, strike while the time is right, volunteer, pray, fast, and see God move on our behalf! Now is the time corporately.
Individually some of you need to seize a moment of momentum. You have prayed long enough. You have hesitated long enough. It is time to move on your destiny. Carpe Diem . . . Seize the Day! Understand timing.
"You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.” Gary Ryan Blair
Let’s capitalize corporately. Let’s capitalize individually. Let’s kill what needs to be killed. Plunder what needs to be plundered. Build what needs to be built. Grow what needs to grow. It’s the time! ARISE! Get your hammer and your tent peg and get ready to strike and strike hard!
d. Girls count differently than guys.
Finally, I want to tell you that in order to fight like a girl you must first count like a girl. Men are logical. They see black and white.
Barak counted like a man! He assessed the situation and balked.
Sisera prior to this battle was undefeated. Historical legend claimed that Sisera’s voice was so strong that, when he called loudly, the most solid wall would shake and the wildest animal would fall dead. Sisera caught fish enough in his beard when bathing in the Kishon to provision his whole army. Thirty-one kings followed Sisera merely for the opportunity of drinking, or otherwise using, the waters of Israel. Rabbis declare that Sisera lead no less than 40,000 armies with each consisting of 100,000 men. An exaggeration to be sure since that would be 4 billion soldiers. However, we do know that Barak could count the 900 iron rimmed chariots. Barak knew he was outmanned. He couldn’t get enough soldiers. He knew he was not only outmanned he was outgunned. He couldn’t get the same type of weaponry. Barak counted like a man and hesitated.
If you are going to fight like a girl, you must first learn to count like a girl.
Deborah saw the huge armies. She too saw the 900 iron rimmed chariots. She too saw the unprepared, unarmed army that Barak would have at his disposal. But Deborah counted differently!
Undefeated general + Huge armies + 900 iron rimmed chariots + meager army + God = victory.
Deborah knew that if God be for you no one can stand against you. One little rain storm defeated a mighty army of chariots. The chariots were swept away from the Kishon River flooded suddenly. One little intervention of God turned a mighty man into a milk drinking, rug hiding, tent peg pen cushion for a little woman!
Deborah knew that some put their trust in chariots and men, but if she would put her trust in God then she could count differently.
Learn to count like a girl and you will fight like a girl! What is adding up against you?
Mortgage + sickness + marriage struggles + bad economy + broken heart + mistreatment = defeat and despair if you add like a man.
But if you can learn to add like a girl you know that Mortgage + sickness + marriage struggles + bad economy + broken heart + mistreatment + God = victory.
Quit looking at the black and white long enough to lift up your eyes and see the soldiers behind the soldiers! Stir up your faith to see a little becoming a lot in the hands of God.
Lift up your head, peace is coming, provision is coming, health is coming, breakthrough is coming, breakout is coming, and victory is coming if we will add God into our computations, calculations, and deliberations! Count like a girl and then fight like a girl!
