I want to speak to you this morning a message entitled "Spoil the Spoiler". 

God, we thank you that you are arising in this place today.  Thank you that we are victors and overcomers in Christ.  Lord, may we decrease and you increase and may your word have its perfect effect in us.  In Jesus name, Amen.

As we look around the world, as we deal with things, we know surely that spiritual battles take place all the time.  I wonder how many of you can remember at least one time in your life where you knew you were in the midst of a battle of a lifetime?

In Israel's day and even today, physical struggles and physical battles that we fight really are spiritual battles.  If you pick up the newspaper and you see what's going on in the middle east, please make no mistake, what is going on over there is not just a natural battle going on between several different nations,  It's a spiritual thing taking place.  How many of you believe today that Israel is still God's chosen people?  If you don't believe that you need to get in this word.  God has set up his plan through that nation, they are the barometer of what's going on in the world.  We can learn a lot from their past and we can learn a lot as well today. 

What we need to understand is that Satan is always tring to spoil God's plans.  He's trying to hurt God's people, he's trying to ruin God's seed.  Israel as a nation are God's chosen people, they are his seed and as Christians we are God's chosen people.  We are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, God's seed.  We are known as the seed of Abraham, we are adopted children of Israel into the body of Christ.  Some of you are spiritual Jews and you don't even know it.  It's a wonderful thing. 

Satan's sole purpose is to take out and destroy what belongs to God.  Before Jesus came to fulfill God's plan and before Jesus came to be the Messiah, as God was laying that plan out, you will remember throughout history Satan tried to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.  After Christ had come and gave his life, their were prophecies that said Israel would become a nation again.  Before that would ever happen, remember in World War 2, Satan rose up a man named Adolph Hitler and all those that would follow him to literally exterminate the Jewish people off the face of the earth, to ruin the seed of God.  Why?  Because if he could do that then we would not be able to see the prophecies being fulfilled today that are written in God's word.  It would try to ruin God's plan.  The truth is this, that even today satan tries to spoil your life and mine by trying to make the promises of God in our lives of no effect.

In John 10:10 it says "The thief does not come except to steal, to kill and to destroy".

That is what is on his mind and is in his heart, he does nothing else.  He wants what is mine, he wants what is yours, he wants what belongs to God.  How many of you understand this morning if you are a blood bought child of God, you have given your life to Jesus, you have confessed with your mouth that he is Lord, you believe that he is risen from the dead.  How many of you know that you are a child of God and you belong to him?  Satan doesn't want you belonging to Him, he wants what is God's.  His sole purpose is to plunder our lives and all that is good.  He wants to rob us of safety, of possesions, of security, of peace, of joy, of our families, whatever he can get his hands on. 

I want you to mark this down, this is a deep principal.  Spiritual warfare happens.  The truth is when it happens, we wonder why in the world we're in the midst of it.  How many of you have ever asked, "God, why me, what's going on?  I don't understand it".  We can stand no matter what happens to us in life.  Spiritual warfare happens.  You are going to be a target of the enemy.  I want to tell you this, the more that you do for Jesus, the more you say, "God, use me" and you dedicate your time, your resources and your heart and your mind to win people to Jesus, you will draw a big red bullseye right on your chest.  You know what I say?  I'd rather tell the devil, "Bring it on" and mark myself as a child of God then to sit back in the shadows and do nothing. 

Spiritual warfare happens but I want to remind you that war is made up of several battles.  World War 2, Vietnam, Civil War, the Iraqi war, whatever war it is, it's not just one battle and then we say it's over.  Warfare is many different conflicts.  Sometimes they take months in between each battle, even years between the battles.  Some battles are won and some battles are lost.  Let me ask you, how many of you would be honest and say you've lost a few battles in your lifetime?  You've also won a few battles in your lifetime.  The truth is we never did it on our own but we did it through the power of Jesus Christ. 

There is a reason why God allows spiritual war, even intense battles in our lives.  We will still have battles even after we're saved.  The truth is you might be in one of your strongest battles today.  What we need to understand is that we will always be at war with Satan until Jesus comes back.  I want to tell you Christian, that there are some of you who thought that once you got saved that all of a sudden you were going to be able to skate through those things.  Some of you really believe that there are some Christians who are so deeply spiritual with God that somehow their feet don't touch the earth and they're never shaken by worry or fear and nothing bad ever happens to them. 

I want to speak to you right now, no matter what you see on tv, no matter what our mind does to create heroes, I want you to just look at the person next to you and recognize that they're just as human as you are.  Someone say a good amen.  Some of you may be looking at certain people and say, "You never go through battles, you've gotten to that place where you are with God and it seems like nothing ever touches you and the enemy has taken his sights off of you".  I just want to encourage you this morning, every one of us are going to continue to go through battles until Jesus comes.  We will always be at war with the enemy until Jesus comes at the end of the millenium and takes death and hell and that serpent called the devil and throws him into that fiery pit.  That day is coming, very much so it's coming. 

Even in wartime it is possible to live in victory and it is possible to be safe and to live at peace.  It was said that out of the spoils of war Israel dedicated those spoils to maintain the house of the Lord.  God uses the things that we gain out of the victories and out of the struggles to build us up and to build his kingdom. 

God's house can be seen in two ways.  Number one, as we look here in 2^nd Chronicles, that was the local church back in those days, the temple.  David built the temple in Israel and it is out of the battles that we face that will build the church.  Listen, I'm not particularly talking about money today. That's not the issue.  How many of you know God will give us money and we'll get to build buildings?  Back then they needed those things as a center and as a place of focus.  Remember Jesus hadn't come yet.  That temple, that tabernacle was the sense of God's presence in the earth.  How many of you are thankful today that God's presence dwells in you?  Listen, but it is out of the spoils of war, out of the battles that we face, out of the things that we've gone through, that God will build a local church, people will be saved, people's lives will be healed, marriages will be restored, lives will be changed. 

The house of God can also be seen in another way.  As individuals we are a spiritual house that God is building and it is out of the battles that we face that we grow in Christ, we grow in strength and we grow in maturity. 

1^st Corinthians 3:9 says, "For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, you are God's building".  In 1^st Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?"

I can't read that enough but I think that's one of those verses that we just look at and say, "Yeah, well I know that".  But I want to tell you that when you start to realize that the Holy Ghost dwells in you something exciting begins to happen in your life.  The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead, the God of all creation, the God of all the universe, the God of everything, resides inside of you and me.

It's out of the spoils of war that God builds his house.  So what are spoils?  Number one, they are the plunder, the loot and the goods that are taken in battle by the victors.  When Israel would go through or even when Americans would go through, when the enemy has been driven out, what they leave behind becomes ours.  That's part of battle.  I want to tell you if a robber comes into my house and he decides that he's going to rob me but I catch him, there's going to be a battle. 

Someone was in the church last night, we came in to pray and all of a sudden, Carlos came walking out and I didn't know who it was.  I want to tell you, as your pastor, I wasn't going to stand by and let someone rob the house.  I came to the door and I had my fist ready because I didn't know who was in the place.  He looked at me and said, "You were going to hit me weren't you"?  I said, "You bet, Hallelujah".  But if the enemy walks out of my house and he drops his wallet, if he's left some money in there, I'm not going to be a nice guy and give it back.  He can have his drivers license, I don't want it.  But he tried to rob me blind, he left it in my house, I get the spoils of him being in my home.  How many of you know what I'm talking about?  You may say, "Well I don't know if that's real Christian".  You need to learn battle.  If the enemy messes with me, I get what is his.

Spoils of war can also be the lessons learned, the intelligence gained.  How many of you know that part of a battle is learning your enemy and understanding what he's doing and knowing what he's going to do.  When you get the intelligence you have to use it. 

Some of the reasons that God allows you and I to go through battles is because really God is just raising our intelligence level and that's a good thing.  Some of us need more intelligence than others.  That's not an insult because if you don't know what the enemy is up to you don't know what you're doing,  but when you do you have an upper hand.  The truth is this, God will raise your intelligence level.  You also out of the spoils of war have the satisfaction of a victory that is gained, that is won, and you become more confident. 

I have talked with some of the greatest men that have ever served our country.  I've had the privilege to have known men that had fought in World War 2.  I've met men that were there on D-Day, that invaded Normandy and watched people drop around them.  As they walked through that ocean they were literally stepping on friends to make sure they could get to the beach.  I know a man who was there in the battle when they fought at Iwo Jima.  From the beach he saw the flag being raised.  Something happened inside of them when they won those battles.  They didn't leave those battles and walk away thinking, "I'm all done".  These men became more confident.  They didn't just fight in that one battle, they fought in the war.  They didn't just serve one tour of duty, they served many tours of duty. 

How many of you understand as we live for Jesus, as we fight the enemy, as we're leading people to Christ, true soldiers of the Lord never retire.

The truth is they'll go from battle to battle and they get better in the warfare.  As a matter of fact those men from WW 2 whom I admire like you can't imagine, I love to hear their stories, these men didn't just fight that battle, they would go to the next one and the next one.  It was out of that victory on Iwo Jima and on D-Day that they knew when they went to the next battle they had confidence that they were going to win.  They were nervous the first time but when they came to the next battle and found they were being consistent and the Lord was being faithful that they began to spoil the spoiler.  They began to spoil the plans of the enemy.

Satan wants to steal from us, to destroy us, to take our lives.  The truth is as Christians we are mant to spoil the spoiler.

Romans 8:37 says, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us".

Someone said this, a husband is a conquerer but a wife is more than a conquerer.  The husband brings home the paycheck, the wife gets to spend the paycheck.  How many of you know they're more than a conquerer?  I don't even bother looking at mine, when I get a paycheck my wife says "sign this" and puts it in the bank.  I trust my wife. 

More than a conquerer is more than that.  You can't be a conquerer and you can't be an overcomer unless there is something to conquer and to overcome.  Christians rejoice "I'm a conquerer, I'm an overcomer" and all of a sudden when they've got something that they've got to overcome and conquer they're not so happy about being more than a conquerer.

Listen, you are more than a conquerer when you win the battle and you come out stronger and better than when you went in. 

I believe this that even within Christianity there are very hard battles.  How many of you have ever been through a battle that just left you wore out and tired?  I believe this that even children of God don't have to come out with post traumatic stress disorder.  I believe that when they come out of the battle they can be healed and filled and ready to go.  You are more than a conquerer when you're beat and you stand up and say, "That's not God's will for my life" and you get back up and go after the enemy and you get what he stole from you.  You get what was yours and you use it against him. 

Remember that song, "I went to the enemy's camp and I got back what he stole from me".  Then we sing, "He's under my feet".  I remember when we were growing up we'd sing that song and imagine the devil right there and step on his head.  Listen, how many of you know the enemy is under your feet this morning? 

Some of us have lost the battles with temptation, you've lost your reputation.  You said, "I know that God has a better plan for my life than that".  If you got up and said, "I know that God is a God of mercy, he's a God of forgiveness and I'm going to seek him.  Although I listened to the enemy and I got defeated, I know it's not God's will for my life to live in sin, to live in shame and to stay that way all of my life.  I know that he's a God who forgives, heals and saves and I'm going to go back and take what the enemy took.  How many of you believe that God can take a person who's reputation has been shattered by their choices and the things that they've done and he can restore them and they can be whole and their life can be seen for the glory of God?  That's the kind of God that we serve.  More than a conquerer knows that what they've done is not right but they go back and reclaim what God has for them. 

Some of us through no fault of our own have been through bad things.  You need to understand that bad things happen to good people through no fault of your own.  There are times God allows it to happen.  Why? Because God is not a respecter of persons.  Bad things happen to good people all the time.  We live in a fallen world.  Turn to someone next to yu and say, "Get over it".  Some of you didn't like that a whole lot.  "preacher, that just wasn't real compassionate".  Yes it is.  How many of you have had some bad things happen to you when you didn't deserve it?

How many have had someone wrong you when you didn't deserve it?  How many of you have had someone steal something from you when you've been faithful?  How many of you have given to the Lord and been faithful in all that the Bible says and some things that looked like they didn't line up with the word of God happened to you?  Bad things happen to good people.  That's war, that happens in battle. 

The truth is this that when you trust God and through no fault of your own bad things have happened and you declare that the Lord is faithful and you keep going on and you keep being faithful, you are more than a conquerer.

The rest of that verse, Romans 8:35-39, this is one of the most powerful portions of scripture, I love this.  How many of you came ready for battle this morning, this word is called the sword of the Lord.  You should be opening this word everyday.

Romans 8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?  As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long.  We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

How many of you understand today that the devil was created by God?

He went the wrong way.  There is something that happens in the life of an overcomer and here's the difference:  they are persuaded about something.  They are persuaded that there is nothing that will separate them from God.  I want to tell you, he said stuff about nakedness in here, that means someone who has wound up with nothing, all their finances have dried up.  How many of you are still persuaded that you are more than a conquerer in Christ Jesus.  People who have been sick, what they say is this, I don't care who it is, not an angel, not the devil himself, nothing is able to separate us from the love of God.  That is how we live as overcomers. 

You see God is interested in us being more than victors.  He desires us to have the spoils, good spiritual riches from our battles and we're to emerge from our battles with significant resources, not depleted, not wounded and not jaded.  How many of you believe that if you've gotten wounded in battle you have a God who will heal you?

David set up a divine order of keeping up God's house out of the spoils of war.  Those spoils were dedicated to maintaining God's temple.  I want to speak this again.  God's temple is the local church.  God's temple is also you and me.  It was out of those spoils of war that the temple was maintained.  To maintain means to repair, to strengthen, to shore up and strengthen what was already built.  I want to say it again, God's temple is you and me.  God still maintains us through the battles.  Our battles are more than for our survival, they are for our gain.  I want to tell you that if you're in the battle right now you need to understand that there is a work, an exceedingly good work that God is allowing in you.  God has not meant to harm you, he has not meant to hurt you.  This is not meant to bring you down, this is for your gain. 

I want to speak this to every Christian in this place, if you are not in the battle right now, the truth is this that at some point you're going to go through another one.  Why?  Because we're in a war and there will be battles.  Some battles are easier than others but it's out of them that God teaches us things. Through every battle God is storing inside of us a treasury meant for building us up.  It is out of the spoils of war that God's house and his people remain vibrant and alive and victorious.  It is in that battle that it happens,

Watch, you spoil the spoiler and become more than a conquerer when what the enemy meant for your bad becomes a resource that helps you to live better and stronger than when he first attacked.  I want you to look at me, Christian, the truth is today that you are stronger now because of the things you've been through.  We do have a choice to yield to God and allow his work to happen in us and some people choose to quit in the middle and they don't get what they could have.  Remember that one of the ways we spoil the spoiler is when we take back what the enemy stole and use it, the spoils of war, to bless others.

I want you to turn with me to 1^st Samuel verse 30:1-10.  Just to give you a little background, David and his family and those who dwelt with him were at his camp.  David left with his army of men to go and actually meet with the Philistines.  He was going to join their side.  How many of you know that David and the Philistines were mortal enemies?  But for a little while David was willing to band up with them.  God sent him home.  On his way back from being there with the Philistines this is what happened.

"Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the 3^rd day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire.  They had taken captive the women and those who were there from small to great and they did not kill anyone that carried them away and went their way.  So David and his men came to the city and there it was, burned with fire and their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.  Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.  David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitis, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carlmelite, had been taken captive.  Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.  But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.  Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring the ephod here to me".  And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.  So David inquired of the Lord saying, "Shall I pursue this troop?  Shall I overtake them?  And He answered him, "Pursue for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all".  So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind.  But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind who were so weary they could not cross the brook Besor.

Look at verse 15-20: They found this Egyptian and David asked him, "Could you take me down to this troop"?  So he said, "Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.  When he had brought him down, they were there, spread out all over the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.  Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day.  Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred men who rode on camels and fled.  So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away and David rescued his two wives.  And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them;  David recovered all.  So then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock and said, "This is David's spoil".

How many of you know when you win over the enemy it's alright to stand back and say, "This is what God gave me".  You know David looked around, he didn't just walk out humbly.  How many of you know when you've been through the battle you stand up and give God the glory and say "Not only did I get back what was mine, I got back what the enemy took from other people".  This was David's spoil. 

Read with me verse 20-26, there's an important point here.  "Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they also had made to stay at the Brook Besor.  So they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.  And when David came near the people he greeted them.  Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, "Because they did not go with us we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except for every man's wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart".  But David said, "My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us".

I want you to notice in verse 6, David had gone out to do battle, he was scared he wouldn't come back.  He found that all of his stuff and his family was missing.  The Amelekites came in after they had battled some of the Philistines and they raided David.  I want you to notice what David did.  In the battle David did not just begin to encourage himself.  There's a theory today that if you will just be positive and right thinking you can encourage yourself out of everything that you're in.  The Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord.  David did not have to go and pull himself up by his bootstraps when he found his stuff taken after the enemy had attacked.  He found that what he needed to do was encourage himself in the Lord.  As a matter of fact he had to do it because even the people who he had led to victory had turned against him. How many even after your battles have had people turn against you? 

There were some men that were so weary in the battle they couldn't fight.  They had been going for so long, they were so tired that they had to sit down.  They had been in other battles and now they couldn't go on.

So I want you to look at a couple things.  Number one:  God is able to protect your stuff even when it seems like the enemy has won.  I want you to listen to me, there is something that happens in the heart of a warrior.  The enemy took David's wife and his kid and all his things but the Bible says the enemy didn't destroy any of it.  There are times in life where you're going to be in the battle and you're going to come back and you're going to feel like the enemy got all your stuff and you'll be ready to just give up because you thought he won.  I want you to understand, God was able to preserve it so that the enemy did not do anything to David's stuff.  God is a preserving God. 

Number two: There are times when you will fight for those who are too weary to go on.  Some of you have gone through a lot of things and you're still able to keep on going.  God has made all of us different.  Some of us have more endurance, some of us at the beginning had the right mindset and the right thing.  David didn't care if some of those people had stayed up too late, they were still too tired to go on.  David didn't look at those guys and say, "You're a weakling, you should have known better, I don't care.  Your wife and your children are out there.  I don't care that you're too tired, you're not staying here by the brook, I'm marching you on and you're going.  How many of you have ever seen Christians do that to other believers?  "What's wrong with you?  You're so tired.  You shouldn't be tired right now, you shouldn't be discouraged, stand up".  Listen, David encouraged himself in the Lord but there are times when people go through the battle that they are not able to go on any longer and it becomes the privilege and the duty and the wonder of those who are still strong to go to fight for those who can't fight anymore.

I want to tell you even in this church today there may be some of you who are ready to go and you may be sitting next to someone who is too tired to go on.  What that believer doesn't need you to do is say, "What's the matter with you?  Get out of your seat.  Come on, lift your hands and praise the Lord.  It doesn't matter, praise him a little harder, shout a little louder, pray a little more".  That person is saying, "I'm prayed out, I'm praised out, I'm tired out".  It comes the duty of every believer to stand in the gap and I'm going to go to battle for you. 

David went out to battle and that spoils the spoiler.  I love the slogan, "No one left behind, not one".  That should be the battlecry of every family of God, No one left behind.  My win is your win, your win is my win.  That way we all win together.  To do otherwise would be wicked and worthless.  They came back from that battle and there were some people who said, "Let them have their wife and kids but they can't have their stuff back or any of the spoils that were ours.  Just let them go on their way".  The Bible says that those were wicked and worthless men. 

I want to tell you, my prayer is for Harvest Community Church that there will never be any wicked and worthless child of God in this place.  You may say, "Let them suffer".  That's not it.  We must never allow the wicked and worthless attitude to creep into our church.  If someone is tired, if they've gone through the battle, we need to be there to build them up and help them get it back and get back on their feet.  No one left behind.  The Bible says that one of the greatest spoils of war is the joy that is after the victory.  The satisfaction that comes from receiving God's faithfulness and seeing his provision and knowing that you went through the experience.

 I want to close with this, God in all his sovereignty allows trials and battles as a safeguard against our being spoiled.  If you've ever seen a spoiled child, what you're witnessing is a child whose parents have allowed a breakdown to take place in that little kids life.  Many a time has there been when I've been in a store and I've heard a kid having a temper tantrum and I've just watched the parent kind of cozy him through it.  How many of you know that you're blessed?  The greatest enemy in the American church is apathy and if we don't have conflict, pressure, trials or battles then many times we become passive, lukewarm and we begin to decay.  The enemies goal is to remove all fight from us but God's goal is to keep us alive and to keep us thriving. 

I want to tell you this, the greatest spoil of all, the greatest day that the spoil was spoiled was the day that Jesus Christ went to the cross.  Satan had a plan all along to spoil the work.  The devil knew what the plan was all along but when Jesus went to Calvary, Colossians 2:15 says "Having spoiled or disarmed principalities and powers, he being Jesus made a public spectacle over them, triumphing over them in it.  It's the cross,  Jesus plundered the devil at Calvary.  He spoiled the spoiler.  It was at Calvary that Jesus gave his life.

Through the blood of the lamb he bought your life and my life back.  It's because of what Jesus did on the cross that the enemy can't have us anymore.  That victory bought us the spoils of grace, the spoils of mercy, of peace, of forgiveness and faith, everything that we needed to live as overcomers in our life.  Jesus spoiled the spoiler at calvary.  When we receive Christ's grace, listen to me, we overcome.  When we receive Christ's forgiveness we are overcomers and when we forgive others who have hurt us we become more than conquerers through Christ.

I want to speak this in your life this morning.  Today I believe that God's greatest desire is that we spoil the spoiler, that we live in victory as overcomers and conquerers through Christ and that there is no one left behind.  Amen.