God's going to completely and totally restore that nation in days to come. The land is very important to the Israelites. It was their inheritance. You remember the story of Ahab and Naboth's vineyard and how that Naboth would not sell that land. It was close to the palace of Ahab. Ahab wanted it for his own, but Naboth would not let that go. And there was a very good reason for that. He was commanded of his forefathers not to do so. their inheritance, it was something to pass down. And tonight I want to look at this piece of ground. We don't know exactly where it was located at, but we're going to look at Shamman, some things about him tonight. I want to give you about seven things here of the importance of this piece of ground. Now, to the nation of Israel, it is a physical heritage. It is a land heritage. But to you and I tonight, we that are believers, we that are the church, we can look at this tonight as a type of spiritual ground, a type of spiritual inheritance that our Heavenly Father has given us. As I think about Shem and I think about how his forefathers passed down to him this piece of ground that he stood upon and defended against the Philistines, I'm glad tonight you and I as children of the Lord, God has given us some spiritual ground. And we need to see the importance of defending that spiritual ground tonight. As I look across the congregation, I would say that most of you tonight, if you have a piece of ground that you worked hard for and you labored or either you inherited It is yours. Your name's on the deed. It means something to you. You're not going to give it up. You're not going to let somebody just come take it and take it away and do with it what they want to do. You're going to give a fight for that earthly piece of ground. There's been a lot of bloodshed, especially in these mountains over a piece of ground, over a foot of ground. There's been some folks that have went to war together against one another. Tonight we're going to look at something much more important than earthly ground, than dirt. We're going to look at spiritual ground and how important it is that we see what God has given us and how we defend that and how we keep it until the Lord takes us home to be with Him. Let's look at about seven things here quickly tonight on the importance of the peace of ground. The first thing I want you to notice this evening is the laborer of the ground. In verse number 11, the Bible immediately lets us know, now there's more than just Shammah, we're going to see that, but the one that is named in our text tonight is Shammah. The Bible said, and after him, after that second mighty man, was Shammah the son of Ege, the Herorite. He was a laborer of the ground. Shammah was a mighty man. The Bible lets us know he was a Herorite, which means he was a mountain man from the hills of Judea. So we know that no doubt this land was probably located on the hillsides of Judea. And as you think about that, I think about in Bible days especially, Shammah lived in the hills of Judea, and he was a man that knew what adversity was like. Now, if you look at a Bible map, you'll see the Philistines were down toward the Mediterranean Sea. They would have been westward from Judea, and they lived in the flat ground, in the flat land. They were flatlanders. We like to make fun of flatlanders sometimes here in the mountains. No offense, brother. But we do that sometimes, jokingly. And lowlanders, we'll say sometimes. And of course, they make fun of us. They call us hillbillies. I had an uncle that lived, what, 30, 40 years in Florida. And he always would say, yeah, you bunch of hillbillies. Now he was born right here in Madison County, but he got down there in Florida and got up on us, I guess, a little bit. But we're always ribbing at each other about where we live, aren't we? Well, Shammah was a man of the hills, and he was a man of Judea. And in thinking about that, no doubt, especially in Bible days, he was a man that knew about adversity. The flat ground was much easier to farm. The flat ground was much easier to operate on and to move things on and to develop. But then when you get into the mountains, it was harder to develop. It was harder to grow crops. It was harder to exist in the mountain land. Some of us know that tonight. We've been around through these hills, and we've seen some rocky ground that you can hardly grow anything on, and ground that was high up and hard to get to and steep to cultivate. And this is where Shammah was at. So he was a man that knew something about adversity. I tend to think tonight that that probably made him one of David's great mighty men. He knew what it was like to have some hardship in his life. He knew what it was like to have to walk uphill a little bit, so to speak. He knew what it was like to have to work and labor and go against the grain. So he was a laborer of the ground. Now tonight, that lets us know that you and I, we need to labor in the ground that God has given us. And if you're going to labor in spiritual ground, I'll promise you something, it is going to be a labor. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be an uphill battle. It's going to be a fight against your flesh, and against the world, and against the powers of Satan. You're not going to labor in the spiritual ground without some adversity. It's just the way it goes. For some reason, tonight, we have a generation, and even my generation, I believe, thinks that to be spiritual, it's just some kind of magical thing that just happens. You just get saved, and you just breathe in air and exhale air, and all of a sudden, one day, you're spiritual. Well, it doesn't work that way. We have to labor at it. We've got to labor in the Word. We have to labor in prayer. Labor in our walk with God. Cultivate that spiritual life that God has given us. So I believe tonight Shammah was a laborer. We're going to find out that he grew something on this ground. He knew what it was like to till the ground. He knew what it was like to get the rocks out of the ground. He knew what it was like to have to worry about the weather and the effects and the drought conditions and things that would come along. So he was a man that was a laborer in the ground. And I want to say this tonight, as a child of God, if there's anywhere we ought to labor, it ought to be in our spiritual ground. Now I think it's good to labor on our physical ground. If you've got a place and God's given you a place, I think you ought to keep it up. I think you ought to mow the grass every now and then, and trim the hedges, and do what you need to do to keep the thing up. That's important tonight. And I think we all try to do that. But far more important than that is the effort and the labor that God wants us to put in the spiritual ground. I've known some people tonight that had beautiful places, beautiful homes and beautiful landscapes, and you'd go by their house and it looked like everything was in order, but then you'd come to find out they didn't know the Lord. You'd come to find out they didn't walk with God, and their earthly home was beautiful, but their spiritual home was in shambles. I'm going to tell you tonight, if I was going to have something, one more than the other, I would rather have my spiritual home, my spiritual ground where it needed to be. So Shammah was a man that was a laborer of the ground. And he ought to challenge us tonight to labor in the field where God has put us. Not only in our personal spiritual life would be the ground that we look at, but in our church, this is our ground too. This is our field of labor right here tonight. And everything that this church does is a place where God has placed us to be laborers in the field. And I want to say tonight, I'm thankful for every laborer. I'm thankful for everyone that will put their hand to the plow and work in the Lord's field and get something done for the glory of God. We've got far too few laborers today. We've got a lot that want to come and partake and get in on the blessings. Brother Charles Worley, an old mountain preacher that's down in Maiden, North Carolina now, he said this one time, he said, when I was growing up, he said we had hobos and he said they reminded me of spiritual hobos, he called them in the church. He said it was kind of like this. He said me and a buddy of mine had a little red wagon. He said we'd push that thing up the hill and push it up the hill and we'd grunt and sweat and labor and get to the top of the hill. He said about the time we'd get ready to jump on it and go down the hill, here'd come three or four kids and pile on it and ride it all the way to the bottom. He said they were hobos. And he said, I'm afraid we've got some spiritual hobos in the work of God tonight. I don't want to be a spiritual hobo. I don't want to just get on the blessings of what somebody else has done. I want to labor. I want to do my part. I want to carry my load in the work. that God has placed me in. So, there is an importance tonight of being a laborer in that ground, that spiritual ground that God has given us. Now secondly, we find that Shammah was not only a laborer in the ground, but we find the location of the ground. Now again, we don't know exactly the pinpoint of this location, but the Bible lets us know that this was his inheritance given by God to these people here in Judah. This land had been entrusted to him and his forefathers by those that had went on before. And this land was entrusted to him to take care of, and to keep up, and to labor in, and to make sure that it produced what it was supposed to produce. Do you know tonight God has given us a spiritual ground? He's given us the ground, a piece of ground in our life, spiritually speaking. Not only should we labor in it, but we ought to understand the importance of the location of it. Do you know tonight we only have one spiritual life? We only have one opportunity to serve the Lord in this life. And when it's over, it's over. And God has given us that tonight. It's a very precious thing that He's entrusted us with salvation. A very precious thing that He's entrusted us with our family. Not only our individual salvation, but tonight our family, the saved people in our family, our spouses, our children, our grandchildren. That's part of that piece of ground that God's given us. And it's important tonight that we cultivate that. It's important tonight that we work in that, and that we respect that, we honor that. We see the importance of it. You know, as you look around today, there's a lot of people that claim to be saved, but they don't seem to hold very high value of that spiritual ground that God gave them. They don't seem to care much about it. They don't seem to care about their family. They don't get them to the house of God. They don't teach them the things of God. They don't try to pass down the things that God has given them. Well, I'm thankful growing up through my Grandpa, my daddy, I'm thankful they passed down some things to me about working and laboring in the field and on the ground in the place that we have there. But I'm glad tonight that I have a spiritual heritage. Amen? I'm thankful tonight that God has given me some things out of His Word and walking with Him in these years. that excite me about the location of this piece of ground that God has given me. And it's very precious to me tonight. You know what I want to do one of these days? One of these days I hope to have a little piece of ground there that's passed down to me, that I can pass down to my children. But you know what I want more than that? I want to have some spiritual ground in my life that I can pass down to my children, down to my grandchildren. And I don't want to give it to them in bad shape. I don't want to give it to them all messed up and tore up and spiritual weeds all over it and rocks everywhere where they can't get anything out of it. I want to have it cultivated until the Lord takes me home. And then when I pass it down to them, it will be something of great value. So you see, the labor of the ground is mentioned. The location of the ground is very important. here in Shammah's life. But then think about this tonight. I thought about the loss of the ground. Now we know that Shammah defended the ground. We're going to get into that in just a moment. We know he didn't lose the ground according to verses 11 and 12. But what if he had lost the ground? What if Shammah had turned tail and run like these others did? What if Shammah had said, you know, this ground's not very important to me. There's a lot of ground like this around here and it's not worth losing my life over. I think I'll just take off and run. If Shammah had lost the ground, it would have been a major loss in his life. You know, sadly tonight, there are many of God's people that are losing ground. They're giving up their stand. They're giving up their walk with God as it used to be in the seriousness of it. They don't have that heartfelt desire to stand their ground like Shammah did. God help us tonight that it ought to just shake us when we think about the loss of ground. When we think about losing things that God has given us. When I think tonight about the even thought of losing my marriage tonight. Boy, it would shake me. Amen? I don't even like to think of it. Thank God I don't have to think of it. God's given me a wonderful wife. But I see a lot of people that have been married longer than us and used to serve the Lord, and you hear about that marriage breaking up because they've lost that ground. They've not held that ground. Can I say to you tonight, if you're married, you better hold that ground at all costs. If you've got a spouse tonight, you better not let that ground go. You better fight for that ground more than anything in your life. Some people say, well, I love my children, and I'm just going to split up with that spouse because I love my children. You don't love your children. It means you love yourself. If you love your children, you'll stay with that ground. And even though it's not easy, and even though you may not like the situation you're in, you'll stick it out. I've got a preacher friend tonight, and he's known for his sarcasm. He's a wonderful preacher, but God just made him sarcastic. Several years ago, there was a young man in the hospital, so he went to visit him. He was a family member of one of his church members. Said he was up there visiting that young man, and he was in the hospital, and they talked about his ailment, and he prayed with him there. And he said, preacher, there's something else I want to talk to you about. And he said, I'm in a fix, preacher. And he said, what is it, son? And he said, well, I think I married the wrong woman. He said, I think I messed up and married the wrong woman. He said, what should I do? He said, well, son, when you said I do, she became the right one. Amen? He said, stick it out, stay with it, make it work, do everything you can. I realize there are some that have tried and the other side wouldn't work it out, but if you can tonight, keep that ground. Amen? Keep that ground of your marriage. Keep that ground of your children tonight. Don't just let your children go to the dogs and to the world. Don't let your children just get involved in anything and look at anything and listen to anything and get tangled up with any old kind of person. Realize that if you lose that ground, it's going to be hard to recover. You know, I've studied a little bit about military attacks and certain battles in history, and one thing that the forces don't want to do, they don't want to lose ground. It's harder and it costs more to gain back lost ground than it does just to hold on to it. You'll suffer more casualties to have to gain back that lost ground than if you just stand your ground, hang on to that ground that God's given you. So we think about the loss of ground tonight. Thank God Shammah thought about it. I'm sure in a split second as these Philistines approach this piece of ground, Shammah thought at all costs, I cannot lose this ground. No matter what it takes, I cannot lose this ground. No matter what comes along the way, this ground is something I'm going to have to hold on to. You know what I thought about? I thought about if Shammah lost this ground. Now remember the Philistines, and you'd have to look at a Bible map if you don't have it in your mind tonight, but the Philistines are west of Judah, in the hills of Judah, and they're coming up. I can see them coming up the mountain. We don't know how far up the mountain this land was, but I can see them coming up those hills, coming after that ground. If Shammah had lost that ground, you know what that would have done? That would have given the Philistines a launching pad for future attacks. That would have given them a little bit of opportunity ahead. They could have gained that ground. They could have camped out there a while. They could have regrouped. They could have got some strength back. And then at a later date, when Shammah was not thinking about it, they could have invaded even deeper into the territory of Judea. Do you know, tonight, when you and I lose ground, we're setting ourselves up for a future failure. When you and I let ground go and we don't stand our ground and we don't hold on to it, we are hindering our opportunity to be everything God would have us to be. So don't lose that ground tonight. Let's look at the fourth thing here that we see about the importance of a piece of ground. We see number four tonight that there were lentils on the ground. I thought about this. What are these lentils? Well, these lentils are somewhat like we would look at a pea tonight. These lentils were a mainstay for the Israelites, very high in protein. This field provided strength. And it also provided power for not only Shammah, but also for his family to feed off of in the future. Well, when I think about that tonight, I think about the lentils, the product, the produce that was on the ground that God had given Shammah and the people of Judah, and how important it was. It was their strength. When you think about our spiritual ground tonight, that's our strength, our walk with God, our fellowship with God. Do you know tonight that everything under the sun is going to try to hurt our fellowship with God? Our own flesh, you know that's the way it is. You know when you're purposing your heart, you're going to pray. You ever wonder why ten million things run through your mind that wasn't in your mind five minutes ago? You ever wonder why the phone rings and the dog barks and the kids are beating on the door? Listen, the devil does not want us to gain ground. And he does not want us to hold ground. And when you purpose in your heart, you're going to walk with God. When you purpose in your heart you're going to spend some time in this Bible, I'll promise you the things of the flesh and the world are going to bombard you and try to get you to give up that little piece of ground. That little piece of ground might be five minutes in the Bible in a certain day. It might be 15 minutes in prayer, walking with God and fellowshipping with Him. But Shammah understood the importance of what was on his ground. He understood that if he lost the lentils off the ground, he was going to have a deficiency in his life. I don't know about you tonight, but I don't need any more deficiencies in my life. I've got enough as it is. I've got enough problems. I've got enough failures. I've got enough weak spots in my spiritual walk with God. I need strengthening, not deficiencies in my life. You know, if we give up that, if we look at those lentils tonight, those spiritual lentils, and say, well, that really don't mean much to me. I can go somewhere else and buy them. I was talking to somebody the other day, and I realized we're living in a different time. But I grew up, and many of you still do, you farmed and you grew a garden and you canned, and that's about a thing of the past, because honestly, you can go to the grocery store and about buy it cheaper than you can do it that way. Honestly, the way things have changed so much, the work and the effort, and most of us don't have time to do that. You can just go pick it off the shelf. You can get some of those big number 10 cans, and I mean, that's a lot of eating there, and it's not very expensive. But, you know, there's something about knowing how to do that. There's something about laboring in that field. And I'm thankful I was taught some things like that. But Shammah here understands the importance of lentils. In his day, he couldn't go down to the supermarket and buy some. In his day, there wasn't a convenience store around the corner. It was a very hard thing to come by, and he did not want the enemy to get a hold of it. You think about this tonight. If you've been saved for a while, and you walked with God, think about the battles that you and I have been through to gain the ground that we've gained tonight. Think about the times, the weeping, and the heartaches, and the fighting, the good fight of faith. I don't want to go backwards tonight. I don't want to lose what God has produced on my ground. I'm sure Shammah thought about when he planted the seeds of the lentils. I'm sure he thought about when he had to carry water when it was dry. And boy, they didn't have the pumps and irrigation like we do nowadays. He just had to get a bucket and carry a bucket of water, a gourd and hollow it out and carry some water down, water those lentils. He thought about all the effort he had put into them, and he realized those lentils were very important to the rest of his life. We need to realize that tonight. The produce of our ground, what God has caused to bloom in our life since we've been saved, I don't want to lose it. That's one of the saddest things I've ever seen. And it's sad to see sinners that are lost. Very sad. Because you realize if they don't get saved, they're going to spend eternity without God and help. I'll tell you one of the saddest things coming from a pastor's viewpoint tonight, one of the saddest things is to see somebody that used to have some good lentils on their ground, used to have some produce on their ground, Well, you'd look at their field, you'd go by their field and say, wow, they have cultivated that thing. Look at those plants, and look at that fruit, and look at that beautiful field they've cultivated. And then you go back by six months or a year later, and it's withered. And they've not cultivated, and the weeds have grown up. And the enemies come in and broken down the wall, like the Bible teaches us there in Isaiah chapter 5. That analogy of the vineyard with the nation of Israel, and how that wall, because of their disobedience, their idolatry, God said, I'll let that wall be broken down. He said, I did everything I could to make it a good vineyard. I put the tower in the middle and the choices vine and all that. The Lord said in Isaiah, He said, what else could I have done? Boy, when you think about that tonight, what else could God have done for us? He's given us everything in our life that's conducive to having a wonderful piece of ground. And one of the saddest things is when you see that ground is destroyed by the enemy. When you see that ground is neglected by the saint of God, that God entrusted with that ground. Don't let that happen to your ground tonight. Let's look at the fifth thing. In verse 11, I also see something else here. I see the lazy that were on the ground. In verse 11, notice what the Bible said in the last part of verse 11. He said this, he said, the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, there was a piece of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. Now obviously tonight there was a crowd of people, all the people, except for Shammah, we don't know how many were there, but we know it was more than one, because the Bible calls it people. So there was a group of people here that decided that this piece of ground was not very important. You know, sadly tonight, we're seeing that in the church world. There's a lot of churches tonight. Sadly, I've seen some men, some husbands, I've seen some ladies, I've seen some children that came to the point one day where they got lazy on God and they didn't think the ground was important anymore. They didn't think it was worth defending. They didn't think it was worth holding at all costs. And what did they do? When the heat got on and the battle got tough, they left the ground. God help us tonight that we don't run away from the ground. I'll promise you this tonight. If you don't hear anything else I say, listen to this. If you ever run away from your ground, you will live the rest of your life to regret it. If you ever turn your back on that ground that God has given you, you will wish 10,000 times that you didn't run away from that ground. Stay on that ground. Have that spirit of Shammah. And plant yourself in the midst of that ground. And don't give up. And don't let the enemy run you out. And fight and fight and fight. And we're going to see here in just a minute, God will help you defend your ground. There were those that were lazy in the ground. They just didn't care. It didn't matter to them anymore. They thought that it was not worth it. They thought that they could go somewhere else and have a more comfortable time. But what they didn't realize is they lost a precious piece of ground. Their interest in the piece of ground. Shammah held the ground, but their interest was no longer there because they turned and ran. And they didn't help Shammah hold the ground. What a sad testimony to be lazy when it comes to the ground. Then notice the sixth thing tonight as we look at this thought of the importance of a piece of ground in our life. Look at the love of the ground in verse number 12. The Bible said, speaking of Shammah, but he stood in the midst of the ground. You know what that lets me know tonight? That lets me know Shammah loved this ground. He loved the ground more than he loved his own life. And I'm telling you, in this hour tonight, when I think about this, how relevant this Scripture is. You remember that World War II generation? I believe it was Tom Brokaw said it was the greatest generation. And that generation knew what it was like to sacrifice. They knew what it was like to give their life for some things. There were some of those men in the war that they didn't even hesitate about giving their life. They didn't even hesitate about doing what needed to be done to keep their country free and to honor God and honor their heritage. And when I think about where we've come tonight and how we've got a generation tonight that really doesn't love what God's given them. We've got a generation in America tonight. I don't want to get off on a political message, but I could for a while. We've got a generation right now in America that they don't a bit more love this country than a man and the moon. Why? You say, how do you know that? They're giving it away hand over fist. I mean, they're hanging it out there for the enemy to get. And if some of them had their way, they'd break down every hedge that's been developed in this nation. They'd break down every safeguard that our forefathers have established and our people have fought and shed their blood for. They'd give every bit of it to them, because it don't mean anything to them. But I'm telling you, it's sad tonight to see a child of God that doesn't love that ground. But you see, Shammah loved the ground. How do you know he loved the ground? Well, the Bible said he stood in the ground, and that says a lot right there. He didn't run like everybody else, but I like where he stood. I like what the Scripture said, he stood in the midst of the ground. Now I want you to think about this tonight. Here come the troop of Philistines. By the way, the best I can tell, a troop could have been up to 250 men. It could have been a very large number. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt Shammah was outnumbered. But he stood in the midst of the ground. And I thought about this. If that many men were coming after me, strategically thinking, I'd find me a rock to hide behind. I'd maybe go to the edge of the field, the edge of the ground, and get in the corner somewhere and have an escape route where if the battle got too hot, I could get out of dodge, so to speak, and get away from there so that I could save my life. That's not what Shammah did. He waded right out into the midst of that ground. You know what that lets me know tonight? That lets me know that the only way Shammah was going to come off of that ground was if they carried him off of that ground. Amen? Oh, I'm telling you tonight, wouldn't it be good if we'd get that love of the things of God in our heart? The love of our Bible, the love of our walk with God, the love of our church, the love of the calling God has put us in tonight, that we would just wade right out in the midst of that ground. You know what this speaks of tonight? It speaks of not living on the edges. Got way too many of God's people that want to live on that edge ground. They want to live one foot in the wilderness, one foot on the ground that God's given them. That's not a good place to live tonight. Let's do like Shammah did. Let's have so much love about the spiritual ground that God has given us that we're going to wait right out in the middle of that ground. And we're going to stay in that ground until somebody carries us off. We're going to swing that sword. We're going to do like that other mighty man did. He swung that sword until the sword claved to his hand. It became one with him. And Shammah here stood in the midst of that ground. Why? because he loved that ground. It meant more than anything else to him. Oh, our spiritual ground tonight. It ought to mean more than money. It ought to mean more than position. It ought to mean more than popularity in our society. It ought to be the most precious thing in our life, our walk with God, our fellowship with Christ, our relationship with the church, that we ought to wait right out in the middle of it and stay in the middle of it until the fight's over. I don't want to live on the edge. Hey, when I was growing up, I didn't like to be on the edge of things. I wanted to be in the middle of it. If a ball game was going on and I was going to play, I wanted to get in on it. If we went fishing, I didn't want to stand on a bank and watch everybody else fish. I wanted to get in the water, amen, maybe catch something. And tonight, when it comes to our spiritual piece of ground, let's examine where we stand tonight. If we're not far enough in it, let's get in it tonight. What's this generation say? All in. I think that's one of the phrases they say. Let's get all in the ground tonight. Let's get all the way out into the deep water of the ground where God wants us to be. And let me give you one more thing tonight, and we'll finish up this thought on the importance of a piece of ground tonight. This is probably the greatest thought of it all. We found the labor of the ground tonight. We've looked at the location of the ground. We saw what would have happened if there was the loss of the ground. We have looked at the lentils of the ground, the product of the ground. We saw the lazy of the ground that turned tail and run. And we saw that Shammah loved the ground. But tonight, the greatest point of all of this is found in the end of verse number 12, and that is the Lord of the ground. Look at what He said in verse 12. He stood in the midst of the ground and defended it. I don't know how he defended it. I don't know if he had a stick. I don't know if he had a rock. I don't know if he had some farming instrument that he had in his hand, some kind of device to defend it. But the Bible said he defended it and slew the Philistines. And the Bible said, and the Lord wrought a great victory. See, that was something Shammah understood that all those at Turntail and Run didn't understand. When those Philistines started coming up that hillside, they looked at those lentils and they looked at the Philistines, and they looked at those lentils and they looked at the Philistines. They said, well, I don't think these lentils are worth it. I'm out of here. All they were looking at is what they could do in their own power. Boy, aren't we that way sometimes? I'm the world's worst. I'll have a battle. I'll have a spiritual fight. And I'll look at me and I'll say, Lord, I can't do this. I can't handle this. And that's right, I can't do it. I can't handle it within myself. But when I start looking to Him, and when I start obeying His Word, then that opens up an opportunity for Him to bring victory in my life. You know what Shammah did? He just obeyed what he was supposed to do. He knew he was not supposed to give up that ground. He knew he was not supposed to turn tail and run. So what he did, by faith, we see an exercising of faith. By faith, he walks out in the middle of that ground. By faith, he knows he's outnumbered. But by faith, he stands in that ground and to the very best of his ability, as they're coming on, he's defending that ground. And somewhere in the midst of that battle, God worked a miraculous work. This is a miracle tonight. You know as well as I do, I don't care how strong a man is, I don't care how agile he is, he's not going to be able to single-handedly fight off a troop of the enemy lest God is with him. And tonight, you and I need to realize something. The battle is the Lord's. That's what David said. When he waded down into the valley of Elah to face that Philistine giant, Goliath, he said the battle is the Lord's. It wasn't David's battle. It wasn't anybody else's battle. It was the Lord's battle. And David, by faith, did what God told him to do. And David had a great victory through God. And Shammah, by faith, did what he was supposed to do. And the Bible said God wrought, the Lord wrought a great victory for him. You know, tonight, thank God of all the responsibility that we have concerning our piece of ground, it's so good tonight to know that we serve the Lord of the ground. It's Him that's given it to us. I'm going to be honest with you. There's been some times pastoring that I have looked to heaven and said, Lord, this is your church. This is your work. I can't do it. I don't know what to do in a certain situation. I don't know the next step to take. I don't even know how to pray. And I've said, Lord, I'll do whatever you tell me to do, but right now I don't know what to do. And it's yours, Lord. And if you want this thing to go on, you're going to have to fight the fight. You know what he's done every time? He's stepped out with me on that ground. Now, that didn't mean I got to hide in the bushes. I didn't get by with that. He's pushed me out there sometimes and got me out in the midst of that ground. But he's never left me by myself. He's never left me high and dry. He's never turned tail and ran on me. He's always been there giving me victory as I stood in the midst of the ground. You know, tonight He'll do the same for you. I know there's many of you tonight that He's done that for. You've stepped out on your piece of ground by faith time and time again, and God's blessed you. Many of you stepped out in your family and took a stand that made you unpopular. As some of you here tonight, I talked to just not too long ago, you stepped out in the public arena and you took a stand. Boy, I'm telling you, you'll find out what people are made out of. They'll tell you they'll have your back. What they don't tell you is they're going to have it from about a mile away. Amen? We're behind you, preacher, but they're way back behind you. Kind of like Peter walked behind the Lord afar off. And if you ever step out publicly now and stand for Jesus Christ, you're going to have to have God with you. I'll promise you that. You're going to have to have the victory that comes only from the Lord, or you'll turn tail and run. But I'm so glad tonight that Shammah saw the importance of this little piece of ground. I don't even know how big the ground was. It may not have even been an acre. It may have been a half acre. I don't know how much it was. But thank God he saw the importance of standing that ground. And the Bible said here again in verse 12, the Bible said the Lord wrought a, not a victory, but the Lord wrought a great victory. Not only did God bless Shammah, But by Shammah standing that ground, He blessed all those that lived around Him. You say tonight, well, you know, we've got a lot of people turn tail and run. I understand that. And that upsets me as much as it does you. But guess what? If they're going to run, let's step up. If they're going to leave their posts, let's step into the hedge there, the gap in the hedge. Let's go ahead. That'll bless our children, our grandchildren, our community. By Shammah standing his ground, there was a lot of people around him that reaped some benefits from this man's faith. So tonight, I just want this Scripture to encourage us to take notice of the peace of ground that God has given us in our life. And don't give it up, and don't compromise in this day, child of God. Don't give in. Every day, almost every, especially every week, but sometimes it seems like daily that I'm hearing of compromise. I heard a preacher that He's been a little off kilter for the past little while, but years ago, he was a good preacher, a solid preacher. I heard the other day he took Baptists off his church. You know what he did? He lost some ground. He said the Baptists left him, so he is going to leave them. Foolishness, amen? I'm telling you, there may be a lot of people that go wrong, but that doesn't mean we have to give up ground. That doesn't mean we have to throw away the fundamentals of the faith and our distinctives in where we stand. Let's don't give up that ground tonight. You'll be glad one of these days when we get ready to go on and be with the Lord, and you know you've done like the Apostle Paul. You've fought a good fight. You've finished your course. You've kept the faith. You'll be able to pass that ground down to the next generation. I think you'll be very glad in that day, and especially when we get to the judgment seat of Christ. I think we'll be very, very glad that we've stood our ground, that we took notice of that piece of spiritual ground that God put in our life. We cultivated it and we waited right out in the midst of it and we planted our feet and we said, I'm not going to be moved until Jesus calls me home. If we'll do that tonight, there'll be a day in our life we'll be thankful that we took notice of that piece of ground, amen? I hope this will be an encouragement, a help to you tonight. I don't know where anybody's heart is this evening. There may be someone tonight, you come in and you're weary, you're tired of fighting the good fight of faith, you're tired of defending your ground, and I hope tonight this will just give you a spiritual shot in the arm, and the Lord will help you with this.