Genesis 49, verse 27. Chapter 49, Jacob is given a little bit of prophecy on each of his 12 sons. And in verse 27, he says, Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin, shall raven as a wolf. In the morning, he shall devour the prey, and at night, he shall divide to spoil. Raven means to tear in pieces. Benjamin, you find out through the Old Testament, was a warrior tribe. They were fighters. Look at Judges Chapter 3. We're just going to run two or three references here and get a background on these people. Judges Chapter 3. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. Judges Chapter 3. In Judges 3, Israel is under the dominion of Moab, and this goes on back and forth all through the book of Judges, and God raises up a judge here named Ehud, and in verse 15, But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gerah of Benjamite, a man left-handed, and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Agram the king of Moab. They take this present down, we're not going to forsake the time to read all this, but Enoch made him a dagger, 18 inches long, two-edged sword, so to speak, and put it on his thigh there. He's left-handed. Put it on his right thigh. They take the gift down to Moab, and then as they leave, he tells everybody else from Israel, go back home. I'm going to return down here to the king of Moab. He gets down there, and he says, king, I've got a message for you, a secret message. The king runs everybody out of the room and says, what is it? He stands up, he says, I got a message from God for you. And he thrusts that dagger into the man. The man is obviously big and fat, real fat, because it says this 18-inch dagger goes in, fat closes over, and he can't even pull it back out, and he drops dead. What about that? I like stories like that. Go to Judges chapter 20, Judges 20. That wasn't my story anyway. I'm talking about a Benjamite here, all right? Judges 20. Judges 20 verse 14. Civil war is breaking out in Israel here. Well, the children of Benjamin, verse 14, gathered themselves together out of the cities under Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel. And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities 20,000 and 6,000 men that drew sword beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered 700 chosen men. Among all these people, there were 700 chosen men LEFT-HANDED. Everyone could swing stones. at a hair breadth and not, I can't do that with a .22 rifle with a scope on it. A hair breadth and not miss, and they're swinging them around with a slingshot here, hitting within a hair's breadth. Now he says there's 700 out of this 26,000 that are left-handed and chosen and can swing stones with a hair breadth and not miss. That's about 2.7% left-handed, which is about the overall average for humanity. Anyway, how many left-handers are in here? Oh, man. We're in the wrong church. The average is about 2.7%. Oh, one more over there. Okay. Another one over here. One of my own. Well, hey, left-handers, cheer up. You're the only ones here in your right mind. Amen. We just have to deal with our infirmities. I have breath. Look at 1 Chronicles 12, one other reference, 1 Chronicles chapter 12. 1 Chronicles 12. 1 Chronicles 12 verse 1. Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish, Saul and Benjamin as well. And they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. They were armed with bows. and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of Benjamin. So these guys can use either hand equally well. Benjamin means son of my right hand. These Benjamites were the smallest tribe. The two famous Benjamites in the Bible are Saul in the Old Testament and Paul, Saul and Tarsus in the New Testament. One of them a good guy and the other one a bad guy. That's the two main ones. So what's the point of this message? We face all kinds of trials. We face all kinds of problems. We face all kinds of heartaches and sorrows. and tragedies in this life, and what are we gonna do about it when we face those kind of things? Usually after a big mountain top experience, you expect the devil to come in and knock you flat in your face. Joshua, for example, they entered the promised land across the Jordan River. There's the fortified great wall city of Jericho, and just like that, they win the battle over there. Of course, it's all God's doing, knocking the wall down and all that business. and they win that battle, and they get all cocky about it, and the next day Joshua sends a group out to, the consuls group out to see what's next down the road. They come to this little farming community called Ai, just about 12,000 inhabitants, a bunch of farmers, and they say, they go out and tell Joshua, nothing to this, look what we did here with Jericho, we mop up by lunchtime, send a few men with you back for lunch, and he sends 3,000 over there, and a bunch of them get killed because they went without God. They had that great experience that God had given them victory, and they think, oh, we can handle anything now. And that's the way we get feelings sometimes. So we get victories in our life, and we just get messed up real quick because of it. What about Elijah? He faced those prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves and all that stuff. Had that great victory on the mountaintop there that executed all those false prophets. And that same day, he gets a message from Jezebel, and she says, by this time tomorrow, you're gonna be dead like one of my prophets. He heads for the hills. A great victory. And this woman says, I'm gonna get you, and he heads for the woods. That's the way it goes in our lives. We think everything's wonderful, everything's gonna go great, and suddenly a tragedy hits, and we don't know which way to turn, and we're flat on our face, and we don't know what in the world went wrong. You can see how these Vengemites face these kind of things. I think we can learn from it. Let me say, first of all, they worked on their weak points. We've heard a lot of preaching this morning about weak points. We need to work on those kind of things we've heard about already. They were left-handed. That is a negative term that is used in a negative all the time. The word itself means a departure from the norm. If you look it up in the dictionary, it means a bad omen. It means bound. It means shut up to the right. Interesting, that word, the right-left is interesting words in Latin. The right is dexter in Latin. ambidextrous, that kind of thing, but left is sinister. That's the word in Latin for left. Strange. Hey, it's always held up in the negative light in society, in the Bible, everywhere. It signifies the lesser blessing in Genesis 48, verses 13 through 19, and signifies being a fool in Ecclesiastes 10, verse 2. And left-handers, I didn't say you were a fool. God said it. Take it up with him. That's where I stay in Philadelphia. I fly most of the time. Hey, is it not a derogatory term? Don't we talk about the political left and the left wing liberals and all that kind of stuff? And Jesus used it the same way. He talked about putting the goats on his left hand and the sheep on his right hand. It's just used in a negative term. In hand-to-hand combat, if you get wounded in your good hand, you're dead. You're going to be dead. But these guys worked on their weak points. They became ambidextrous. We just read that in First Chronicles. Equally good with both hands and throwing spears and shooting holes, all that kind of stuff. Is anybody here ambidextrous? Can you write legibly with both hands? Can you? Close. A lot of people can do certain things with both hands. My dad could bat a ball either way, the right or the left. Good, good, but he couldn't write anything. He couldn't write his name or his whereabouts. I can't either. Ambidextrous means two right hands. That's what the word means. Okay, two right hands. I had a missionary lady from Germany tell me one time. She said in Germany, they refer to a klutz as somebody having two left hands. Well in America, we refer to somebody who stumbles around as having two left feet, don't we? Amen. It's always used that kind of way. But you know what we do with our weak points? These people worked on their wheat plots. Here's the way the Bible tells us this, but Jewish history tells us how they developed. Both hands equally, these Benjamins. They would strap one arm to their side and work with the other until they could throw a spear, do a sling, all that kind of stuff efficiently. Then they'd strap the other arm and work with that hand until they could be just as efficient with that. But you know what, what do you do with that? We cover them up. We try to act like we don't have those kind of problems. Well, you know, that's just the way I am. Well, just change yourself. Well, I can't help myself. Oh, yes, you can. They help themselves. We try to cover our weak points up. That's called compensation. You do this more than you can do that and compensate for the thing. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 10 talks about the Apostle Paul says his bodily presence was weak. and his speech contemptible, and yet he became probably the greatest. No doubt the greatest Christian in the Bible, probably the greatest one in the church age. Speech contemptible, bodily presence weak. Romans 5 verse 20, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Work on your areas of weakness, and you will find God blessing himself through your weakness. I guess one of the greatest, if not the greatest, evangelist in the early 1900s in the United States. Sundy had been a professional baseball player. Also been an alcoholic. And God saved him. And you know what he's known for now? As being the greatest temperance preacher in America. What's that? That's somebody who preaches against alcohol. God used his weakness to glorify God. He referred to alcohol as distilled detonation. And every town he went to with his campgrace, when he left town, he left behind enclosed bars and saved bartenders. God used his weakness. He can use your weakness, but you didn't work on it for trying to hide it. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Spiritual food is more important than physical food. Amen. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. For you see, your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things That was you and me when we realized it. To confound the wise, God hath chosen the weak things of the world. That was us. To confound the things which are mighty, base things of the world. That was us. And things which are despised, that's us too. Hath God chosen? Yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His sight. Amen. I'm glad God chose me. I hope you're glad He chose you. And the bottom line is, we were nothing until He chose us. In fact, Peter says, we were not even a people when God chose us. That's kind of nothing, right? Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24 says, don't glory in your might, don't glory in your riches, don't glory in your wisdom. If you want to glory, God says, glory in me, saith the Lord. You may not think you're very much, but I'll tell you what, if you're working on your weak points, God will use you. He'll bring glory to him. He can bring glory to himself through a weakness that he cannot bring glory to himself through our strengths. He doesn't get the glory from us that way. Amen. Paul said, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, he said, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Amen. Remember Moses? Exodus 3, Exodus 4, God comes to Moses to commission him to go down and bring his people out of bondage from Egypt and all that. And Moses gave all kinds of excuses. And the bottom line was, God, you want me to go talk to Pharaoh? I can't talk to him. You know I have a speech impediment. You know I've got problems. I can't stand in front of a great man like that and say anything. So God says, OK, all right, I'm going to let your brother Aaron go with you, and he'll be your mouthpiece. Breathe through it. Aaron never said a word. Moses did all the talking once he gave his weakness over to God. Amen. I'll tell you, growing up in school, I could not. I was just like Moses, man. I couldn't stand in front of anybody and say nothing. Kids, don't listen to this for just a moment, all right? The only time I ever skipped school is if I knew I had a speech the next day. I visibly, physically got sick and nauseated. I had to stand in front of people and talk to them. But now I'll tell you what I can do. I can stand high and leave sheep bleeding in the aisle and walk away smiling. I'm telling you, God will use your weakness. Amen. I still get real nervous about the singing church. I can't handle that one. But preaching, I don't care if it's 10 people or 10,000. I think I've never preached to 10,000, but I don't think I have a problem with it. Anyway, God will use your weakness. Amen. I know a preacher years ago, if you recall his name, a lot of you older guys probably know, he had arthritis really bad. I mean, he's been over with it. Said he was in pain 24 hours a day. And he said one morning he woke up and he said, God, I just can't get out of bed today. I got 30 pounds of pain weighing down on me. And he said, the Holy Spirit kind of pushed him. I said, that's all right, son, get up. I'll give you 40 pounds of grace and you can handle it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Worked on their weak points. I remember thinking about Benjamin Franklin one time. He said every day he took a took a character trait, honesty, whatever, you know, basic things, determination, whatever. And he worked on that trait for a minute. Tell me somebody wouldn't even say it. Yeah, that's right. And Christian won't work on anything to build their character. They worked on their weak points number two, they were classed as good as they needed. to be. And you say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that, which is our duty to you. God wants us to go beyond the call of duty, not just do it. God said, do this, not just do this, but go a little further because you love the Lord. Be twice as good as you need to be. Amen. Hebrews 6 verse 1 says we're to go on to perfection. Not just stay stagnant. We're at the point where getting saved is the beginning. That's not the end of the thing. Amen. Now Peter talks about, 2 Peter 1 verse 5-7, add to your faith. Add all these things to your faith. And he says, if you'll do that, you'll never fall. You know what he just told you? You keep adding to your faith, you won't ever backslide. Amen. And then the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Burnable offense, okay, burning the state, doing stuff like that. Probably lost his, thought he had lost his mind. He finally got arrested, got taken to the Diet of Worms. Young people, that's not a health food diet, by the way. Diet of Worms. Diet court in the city of Berns, Germany and all that. And standing before all these cardinals, and they kept hammering him, trying to get him to repent of the things he'd been teaching and so on. And he finally said three words, here I stand. What do you mean? I ain't budging. I'm not backing up. Those are my convictions. Burn me at the stake if you want to. I'm not changing anything. Stand for what you know is right. Be better than you need to be. Ephesians talks about that armor of the Christian soldier, and he says, having done all, come to stand. Period. when you've done everything you can do, just keep standing for God. John Knox was another one that way. His queen, he was in Scotland. He was the reformer there, the Protestant, Presbyterian, and his monarch was Mary Queen of Scots, Stots, Catholics. In fact, she was scared to death of John Knox. She made this statement. She said, more than all the armies of Europe, I fear Mr. Knox when he's on his knees. Anybody fear you when you're praying, Yeah, come on, brother, amen. On one occasion, he got called into the court. He's standing before the queen. She's on her throne there. He's standing out there, and she says, Mr. Knox, I want my ram returned to the mother church. She's talking about Catholicism. He points his finger at her and says, madam, the mother church is a whore. What's that? That's the Bible, Revelation 17. He was talking to somebody who would have had his head taken off with just a nod. Be better than you need to be. Old Polly Carp, way back in the early church days, Polly Carp, they were going to burn him at the stake, and they ordered him to recant his faith, and he said these 86 years, my Lord has not left me. How can I leave him now? Go ahead, strike the match. They burned him. Be better than your enemies. Let me get them all to stand. Be better than the world. love not the world, neither the things of the enemy. Be better than the flesh. Crucify the flesh for the effects of the flesh of the devil. Be better than the devil. Resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. That's what enemies are, by the way, the world, the flesh, and the devil. So they worked on their weak points. They became twice as good as they need to be. And thirdly and lastly, Nothing in their mind that they're going to lose this. They were persistent about it. They fought with courage. They intended to win every battle. The nonsense today is it's not whether you win or lose. It's how you play the game that counts. That is absolute nonsense. Imagine an NFL coach, the day of the big game, got his guys in the locker room, and he says, now guys, we sure wanna win this game. This is the game of the season. But listen, be a gentleman, don't push anybody down. Don't knock anybody over. Don't try to tackle anybody. I mean, just be a good guy, because it's not whether we win or lose that really counts. But let them in. Jesus got his disciples together, the apostles. He got 70 men together, sent them out two by two. Can you imagine him saying, now, fellas, you know, we're Christians. We're supposed to turn the other cheek no matter what happens. You better read that in context. And, you know, if they cuss us out, look, I'm sorry I offended you. Just, you know, what did he say? He said, if they receive you, bless them. If they don't receive you, shake the dust off your feet as a curse against them. That's what our Savior said. It does matter whether you win or not. Amen. Right, amen. Paul said, a press toward the mark. He said it for the finish line. He wants to try. They fought to win. Amen. By the way, that's the message of Job 1 and 2. What's it going to take to stop you? What'll it take to stop you? Amen. The Marines used to put out a poster. I don't know if they still do. We're looking for a few good men. So is God. He said, I sought for a man who would stand at the head to make up the gap. But you know what? The sad commentary, the last four words of that verse is, but I found none. Is he looking for somebody here that's going to stand for him? Is he going to have to leave the premise and say, I didn't find anybody worth a damn here? I found none. You ever notice in the armor For the Christian, there's nothing for the back. That's right. No retreat. There's also nothing for the shins. You know why? on your knees. Your sins are protected. Fight to win. Fight to win. Amen. Amen. A couple of examples and I'll be done here. Those Benjamites we read back there in Judges, they had 26,700 against 400,000 from the other tribes. 26,700 against 400,000. First two days of battle, they killed 10% of those Israelites. 40,000 of them. First two days of battle. They were fighting to win. Stonewall Jackson used to hold prayer for his men before they got to battle. And when he finished his prayer, he'd say something like this. I'm going to finish this prayer. Lord bless us today. In Jesus' name, amen. It's the art, man. You know who the enemy is. Get out there and kill them all. So what's that? That's a Christian soldier. Some of you can't handle that, can you? I read in the Bible that God is a man of war. I'm wrenching not all wars should be fought, but since somewhere God's involved in it, He wants His people to win. Back in the early days of Greece, they were not a solidified country. They had what were called city-states. of the country. One of those city states was Sparta. Sparta was the military city-state of Greece there. They were the fighters. They were the warriors. I'm sure you've probably heard of the 300 Spartans. I made a movie on that, and I haven't seen it probably since, but it's based on a true story. What happened there was 300 Spartan soldiers and 5,000 Grecian soldiers were backed up into a ravine by the enemy they were fighting, and the Grecian general comes to the Spartan general and says, sir, we found a way we can get away. We can escape through the night out the back here, and when they get up in the morning, we'll be gone, and they won't know what happened. Well, the Spartan general says to them, he says, you take your men and go home. We're not leaving. We Spartans believe in fighting to the death, and that's exactly what they did. The 5,000 left. The 300 faced the enemy. All 300 got killed. You say, well, that's stupid. It might be stupid, but the point is they were going to fight to the death, whatever it took. And that's the way we children of God ought to be. We're going to say, hey, the flesh of the devil, fight to the death. Amen. Amen. That's right. Amen. Yes, sir. On another occasion, the Spartans were winning the battle. The enemy was going and they were pursuing, and an enemy soldier turned into a spear and hit the Spartan general right here, mortar loaded him. He fell over on the ground, he pulled the spear out of himself, his men were beginning to lag behind and stop chasing the enemy because they saw what happened, and he tells his armor bearer, he says, Pull me over to that boulder, and he pulled him over there, and with all two fingers dipping in that mortal wound of his, he wrote with his own blood on that boulder, this day Sparta has conquered. And when his men saw that, even though he laid there and died, when they saw that, they went on for their general and won the day for Sparta. Amen. I'm telling you, you need to fight to win. back in the Civil War, there was a conflict going on, a conflict, there was a battle going on, and the Confederates were backed up against a kind of a cliff there, and they were using whatever they could for fortification, logs, and turnover wagons, all that kind of stuff, and the Union Army was battered consistently, and up on the ridge behind him, there was a man on a gray horse. He was just trotting that horse back and forth on that ridge, and two or three times, one of his officers would come over and try to get him to back up. They would say, sir, a sharpshooter in the Union Army is gonna pick you off, and then your army is scattered. And finally, one of his majors came over and said, General Lee, you need to come on over before you get shot. And he pushed with his boot, gently pushed the guy away, and he said, as long as my men, can see me on this ridge, they'll continue to fight. Hey, the captain of the Lord's host is on the ridge. As long as you can see him, you ought to keep fighting. Look at Hebrews 12. Look at Hebrews 12. Look at Hebrews 12. Everybody. Hebrews 12. Give me a couple of minutes. I'll be done here. Hebrews 12. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. None of us have gone through what Jesus went through. None of us ever will. And when the going gets rough, we need to look unto Him and draw strength from Him so we can keep on keeping off of Jesus. It really doesn't matter what happens in this world. We had a friend of ours die suddenly last Thursday, I think it was, and down there in Destin. And his wife found him dead, 34 years old, found him dead in the automobile and so on. What a tragedy. And one of our ladies that was real close to that lady, and she was about to become a basket case. I was like, what are they gonna do? And I just said this, I'm cold and calloused anyway. I said, here's what's gonna happen. She's gonna grieve for a while, and then she's gonna pick up the pieces and go on her life. And their three little children are gonna grow up. They're gonna get married. They're gonna have families of their own. Life will go on. That's the way it is. But if you got Jesus, it goes on a lot easier. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen More than conqueror means you defeated the enemy and took what they had. America has only been a conqueror in its warfare. Germany was more than a conqueror. Jesus said you're going to be more than conquerors. When Joshua started in the promised land, God said, hey, everywhere you put your foot, I'll give it to you. We're not going to take from the devil the territory that he shouldn't have in your lives. Hang on to it. Be more than comfortable. Psalm 61, verse 2, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Next time you get beat down, drag yourself up to the Rock of Ages and get your fingers in His blood and say, I can do all things through Christ which is higher than I. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.