My Story My Song, Part 3 · "Facing What You Can't Control "

0:01 Hey, everybody. Andy here. Welcome to Your Move, where we help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on the generosity of our listeners. So if you have been positively impacted by this podcast, would you consider supporting Your Move with a tax-deductible donation? To give, just visit yourmove.is slash give. That's yourmove.is forward slash give. Thanks for considering. And now back to the show. Today is part three of our series, My Story, My Song, where we're taking that sentiment of how music can take you to the past or remind you of something or be a part of your past. And we're taking that same sentiment and we're applying it to some of the worship songs that we sing, some of the songs that we sing in church. Because great worship music or great worship songs actually have sermons embedded in them, sermons that should stamp our lives.

0:58 if they haven't stamped their lives already, or in some cases, as I'm gonna explain today, a new song is written that reminds you of something in the past that maybe God did or that God is doing in your life, which is the case for the song we're gonna talk about today because great worship songs always include great important truths. So today, I wanna highlight one of the songs that we've sung for quite a while. And this song really takes me back. It's a new song or newish song, but it takes me back to a childhood memory that is so important for me and I hope it becomes important for you. The name of the song is The Battle Belongs or Battle Belongs by Phil Wickham. And even if you don't recognize the title, you will probably recognize the song if you're a part of any of our churches or have been for any amount of time. So here's the setup. One of the things we all have in common are we all have childhood memories, hopefully good ones, more good ones than bad ones.

1:52 And if you go way, way back, sometimes those memories, they're more picture than video. Like you just kind of have an image of something about one of your parents, maybe something they did. Maybe you can just remember a statement they made, something they said, or maybe something they wore. It can be good or bad. Unfortunately, the bad are stickier than the good. So I wanna share one of mine, and it's a good one that stuck. And here's how the story goes. We were living in Miami at the time. My dad was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Miami. And I had to have been between four years old in the fourth grade, because in the fifth grade, we were living somewhere else. So that's kind of the stage of life I was in, super young. We lived in the parsonage. The church owned a home, and whoever the pastor was at the church, that's the house they got. And so we lived in the parsonage, a little three-bedroom house, one-level house.

2:45 And so after we moved in, my dad asked the church, he said, look, I need a place that I can study at home, not just at the office. would you build me a shed, just a concrete block shed in the back that I can use as an office? So the church did. They paid for him to have this concrete block shed. And on the floor, he had his desk, he had his chair, and then he had a rug on the floor where he would pray. So one of my earliest, earliest, oh yeah, here's, we found this picture online. This is kind of what it looked like. This isn't a picture of it. This is kind of what it looked like. The door, a wall right here that went that way. And so there were two sides. So the memory that sticks out for me related to this is this. In the afternoon or early evening, my mom would say, Andy, I need you to run out and get your dad and tell him it's time for dinner. So I would walk out the door. Now, of course, I'm this tall.

3:36 So it felt like it was 50 yards from the back door to the shed. It wasn't, we had a little tiny house, little tiny yard. So I would run out the back door, run to the shed to tell my dad it's time for dinner. And my memory is before I got to the door, I could hear his voice and I couldn't understand what he was saying, but I knew that he was praying. So I would open the shed door, you know, and there's the lawnmower and tools and stuff. And then I would slowly open that middle door and say, dad, it's time for supper. And I would see my dad on his knees, on this rug, praying out loud with his Bible out in front of him. I only have one memory that's earlier than that. It's when we lived in Ohio and I'm standing at a window and there's snow. But other than that, this is my earliest childhood memory because it happened over and over. I'd run out there, interrupt my dad, say, dad, it's time. It's time for dinner. Then as I got older, years go by, when my dad was trying to make a decision or my parents were trying to make a decision, they would share the decision with me and my sister. She was three years younger and, you know, share whatever it was appropriately. And then after dinner, every once in a while, my dad would say, I want us to pray about this. We're trying to make this big decision. And we'd get up from dinner, go into the den, kneel down around this little round pecan coffee table, and we would each pray and just ask God to give us direction, help dad, mom and dad figure out what it is that we wanted to do or whatever the option should be. And so there were these, you know, these kinds of things were sprinkled throughout my childhood that, you know, when you pray, you pray on your knees. And then as I got older, especially through college when I started getting interested in ministry, here's what my dad would say to me over and over and over. He would say, Andy, Andy, you got to learn to fight your battles on your knees. You got to learn to fight your battles on your knees. Now, early on, I had no idea what he meant. I knew he prayed on his knees, but the fight the battle on your knees part, I didn't quite get that. You know, what battles, how does that even work? Was this like praying for the destruction

5:44 of my enemies, because there are examples of that in the Bible. I don't know if you knew this. This is fascinating. David, you know, King David, before he was king and even after he was king, he would write these songs that's in there in the book of Psalms, these songs, these song lyrics about God destroying his enemies. In fact, some of you are like, now I would like to read that. Okay. I don't even found the Bible all that interesting. I didn't know we could pray like that. And it is interesting. Jesus said, pray for your enemies. David prayed at his enemies. I'll let you sort that out. So example, David says, Lord, this is an example, just a quick example, Lord, pour out your wrath on them. Let your fierce anger overtake them. You're like, I would like to pray that on the way to work. Every single, okay, you can't do that, okay? Now, as it turns out, this was not what my dad had in mind when he was talking about fight your battles on your knees, even though apparently this is kind of how David invited God to help him fight his battles when he prayed.

6:39 So now we're gonna fast forward some more. So fast forward to my dad is in his late 70s. He's almost 80 years old when this happened. And from time to time we would get together for breakfast at Buckhead Bread Company. Some of you know where that is. And I would drive down there and meet him for breakfast and we'd have breakfast and just talk about stuff. So, but every once in a while when we would have breakfast, every once in a while, not every time, toward the end of breakfast, he would say this. He would say, now Andy, if there's anything between us that we need to get right. I just wanna make sure we get that right. If there's anything between us that we need to get right, I just want us to make that right. Now this was about 15 years after our kind of big public epic breakup. And I've told that story and I've written about that story, just some difficult years between the two of us, but we were way past that. This is 15 years past that.

7:31 But every once in a while he would say, now I just wanna make sure everything is good between us. And I would always say, yep, everything's great, Dad. I love you. I just appreciate the fact that you even ask and that we both work so hard to restore our relationship. You know, everything's good. Well, one morning we're having breakfast and he goes into this same thing. Andy, I just wanna make sure everything's great. And I said, Dad, can I be honest with you for a minute? He's like, yeah. I said, you know, you keep asking me that and I keep assuring you that I'm fine. I said, if I can just be honest, I think the problem isn't me. I think you're still holding something against me. I'm so good with you, but I think maybe you haven't resolved all your frustration or anger with me. And he got real quiet for a moment. And my dad would kind of get stern when he was serious, you know, and I had to learn early on, he's not mad, he's just stern.

8:31 He looked at me and he said, I think you're right. And then he said this, when we finish breakfast, I want us to drive over to my office, go into my study, get on our knees, and let's deal with that. I need to deal with that. And that's what we did. We got up after breakfast, drove over to his office, went up to his study. He had two chairs, two Ottomans. I knelt down behind one Ottoman. He knelt down behind the other one, and he just started praying. And I listened to my almost 80-year-old dad ask God to reveal anything that was in his heart against me that he needed to be made right. In fact, it was so amazing at one point in the prayers, I just looked up and just stared at him while he prayed thinking, who does this? What father of any age does this? And there I was just listening to my almost 80-year-old dad saying, God, I want my heart to be clean.

9:30 I don't want there to be anything between me and my son. It was amazing. And of course, I'll never forget it. So later, many years later, when I first heard Phil Wickham's song, Battle Belongs, the verses of this song, but the chorus in particular just took me back to that place in time of interrupting my dad, praying on his knees, of him teaching us to pray and bring things to God and to be honest with God. And then that phrase, He's, hey, Andy, you gotta fight your battles on your knees. And then again, later in life, watching him illustrate that right in front of me. And instead of saying, well, Andy, because what he could have done is this, well, yeah, I am still holding some stuff against you. And let me tell you what it is. Let's talk about it. He said, no, first I gotta deal with my heart. And if there's anything to talk about, we'll talk about it afterwards. So here are the lyrics to the song.

10:24 I'm just gonna walk you through, kind of exegete them a little bit, to kind of explain what's going on in this song. Here's how it begins. When all I see is the battle, when all I see is the conflict, when all I see is the relational conflict, when all I see are the circumstances, and I'm losing, and I think it's all lost, when all I see is the battle, you see something else. You see my victory. This is why, again, I pray constantly, God, help me to see this the way you see it. Help me to see this the way you see it. And if you'd be so gracious, if I could just get some sort of inkling that you're working in this and working through this for something good, then I can stay in it. Give me the eyes to see people, critics, circumstances, everything, the world, the way that you see it. Because if all I see is the battle, but you see something else, I might miss the something else.

11:23 because perhaps you're up to something else. When all I see is the battle, the next line, when all I see is the mountain, the impenetrable, unmovable obstacle, I mean, this is never gonna change, he's never gonna change, she's never gonna change, it's never gonna change, I'm never gonna change, this can't possibly end well.

11:44 You see something different. You see a mountain move. Next line. And as I walk through the shadow, this is a direct reference to Psalm 23. The psalmist writes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. In other words, as I face circumstances that can't end well, they won't end well. As I face circumstances, I know there's not gonna be a bow. I need confidence that in spite of that, that your love for me, your concern for me, your love for me, your love surrounds me, that there's nothing to fear now because I am safe with you. Again, a direct reference to Psalm 23. The psalmist says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Not because there's not evil to fear. I will fear no evil because you are with me. And that is the confidence we need.

12:39 And that's what we have to battle through sometimes on our needs. God, I need assurance that you are still with me, that you are still walking with me, and that you're shredding out of me anything that's getting in the way of what you wanna do in this circumstance and what you wanna do in this marriage, what you wanna do in this relationship. And then the chorus. So when I fight, I am not fighting with her and I'm not fighting with them and I'm not fighting with that and I'm not fighting with myself. When I fight, I will fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Now, I know some of you, when you come to church or people sing, the first time you were singing or people were singing and you didn't know the words and somebody lifted their hand and you're like, do they have a question? Is this Q&A? Everybody has a question. That guy has two questions. Anyway, right? You know what this is? I'm not saying everybody should lift your hands. This is a child saying, help me.

13:35 This is, if you don't, it won't. If you don't, I won't. I need, this is the position of vulnerability. When I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh, God, the battle, this battle, I keep thinking it belongs to me. I keep thinking it's about me and her, me and him, me and them, me and it, me and whatever it is. This battle belongs to you, and I don't want to get off my knees until I understand that. In other words, I can't, you can, I need you to take this. I can't. If I go in with my current posture and my current approach, it's gonna be another disaster. I can't. You can.

14:24 Take this. The chorus continues. In every fear, I lay at your feet. The problem that some of us wrestle with is we have allowed fear to become the boss of us or to use the New Testament term, we have allowed fear to become the Lord of us. and it lords itself over us. And we talk about God and we talk about Jesus, but at the end of the day, fear rules us. So the lyricist, Phil, says, so I'm gonna bring my fear. Fear's not gonna be the boss of me. I'm gonna lay my fear at your feet. This is what we are invited to do. Peter, who, I mean, been there, done that, been on both sides of this equation. Here's what Peter reminded us to do. Here's the invitation of our heavenly father. Peter says, look, he wrote, humble yourself. In other words, get small, go to the small place. Surrender. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand.

15:16 The only way to experience God's mighty hand is to humble yourself under God's mighty hand. As long as you think you hold the mighty hand, your heavenly father is out, not because he loves you, but because he doesn't want you to live that way, doesn't want me to live that way. Humble yourself under your heavenly father's mighty hand. God, I'm on my knees, I'm in the position of surrender. I am begging you because I can't, you can't, I need you to take this and help me. And he goes on, he says this, that, remember this from last time, that he may lift you up in due time. It's gonna take a minute. Cast all your cares. Cast all of your cares on him because he cares for you. And again, as we talked about the first week of this series, what are your options really? Because if we don't lay every fear at his feet, if we don't lay every fear at his feet, what are we gonna do?

16:11 We're gonna react. We're gonna overreact. We're gonna melt. We're gonna panic. We're gonna attack. And then this next line, this is so great. I'm gonna tell you a little Bible story real quick. This next line is right out of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16, it's the story, but here's the line. He says, in every fear I lay at your feet, I sing through the night. Now you don't have to sing through the night, but let me, this is a reference to something that actually happened in the book of Acts. I'll tell you the story real quick. The book of Acts, as many of you know, is the story of the church after the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the story of Jesus. Then Acts picks up chronologically and tells us what happened. The first part is about Peter. Second part is about the Apostle Paul who planted churches all around the Mediterranean basin. The Apostle Paul is traveling with a friend named Silas. They end up in Greece. They end up in the ancient city of Philippi. And the Apostle Paul and Silas are arrested.

17:05 They're put in jail. The text tells us that not only are they arrested, they're beaten or they're flogged. So their backs are bloody. They're put in stocks so they won't escape. The sun sets, it's pitch black dark. And the other prisoners begin to hear Paul and Silas praying out loud. And then they begin to sing. And the text tells us that they sang through the night. And do you know what they sang? We have no idea. but I can assure you those songs were the songs that they had had been written in the church at that time or perhaps songs from the Psalms of David they sang songs but there's something powerful about truth married to music they sang songs that reminded them of God's faithfulness that they were in the city of Philippi because they had been obedient God we didn't see this coming. This did not take you by surprise. You are up to something. We don't see what it is, but we trust you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Second verse, and if you were for me, who can be against me? That's a good question. If God is for you, who can be against you? But here's the question, are you convinced God is for you? The apostle Paul would say, wait, have you put your faith in Jesus? You would say yes. And Paul would say, well, then what do you mean you wonder if God is for you? I mean, this is how the apostle Paul addressed this because this line comes directly from the book of Romans. He says, what shall we say in response to these things, all these things he had just written about? If God is for us, then who can be against us?

18:58 And we're like, yeah, but how do I know he's for us? Because when I look around, it's dark. When I look around, prayers aren't being answered. When I look around, it doesn't seem like God is moving. It seems like everybody else is moving and everybody's moving against me, but it's not getting better. She's not changing, he's not changing. It's not changing, they're not changing. Nothing seems to be getting better. How do I know that God is for me? And Paul would smile and say, okay, I thought you knew this, but let me remind you. Come on, he, God, who didn't even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all at the cross? If God gave him up for us, then God is for us. If God gave him up for my sin, then he is for me. How will he not also along with him, Jesus, graciously give us all things? And within the context of Romans chapter eight, all things are all the things we need to endure and to remain faithful, trusting that God is being faithful to us through the valley of the shadow of death.

20:02 Back to the song. And if you are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. Now, this next part, I wanna be super sensitive. The next lines of the song, they're so brilliant. And I know a little bit of Phil Wickham's story and this is right, you know, probably right out of this season of his life because he went through some really tough stuff.

20:27 And if you're in the middle of something super difficult right now, or on the back end of something super difficult and it's never gonna change, this may be for you, but I do not say any of these words lightly, but this may be the reason you're listening, watching, or maybe in church today. Here's what the song says. When all I see are the ashes. the remains of my hopes and dreams.

20:54 Dreams that won't come true, dreams now that can't come true. Worse, when all I see are the ashes of my dreams that can't come true and then I look and my dreams are coming true for other people, less deserving people, less faithful people. When all I see are the ashes and God, I did it all right. I did everything I knew. I stayed faithful. I remained faithful. I did this and that. I was the faithful one. And they did it all wrong. And my dreams are coming true for them and they can't come true for me when all I see are the ashes. And all of us have some of that in our lives and some of you have a lot of that in your lives.

21:40 When all I see are the ashes, you see something different. This is why God, help me to see as you see. You see the beauty. This is the greatest exercise of faith that there is. Confidence that God can bring beauty from your ashes. And where does that confidence come from? Not looking around, but looking back. Listen to these. These next two lines are my favorite lines in the song. When all I see is the cross, the ashes, you see the empty tomb.

22:23 I hope this lights you up because in every single season of our lives, there's a sense in which all we see is the cross, the end. And your heavenly father sees something different. And many of us have lived long enough and many of us have followed Jesus long enough to know how true this is. But when we are in the middle of it, it's impossible to see it is truly a walk of faith faith is not making stuff up you want god to do for you and talking him into it faith is i'm confident you're with me and i'm going to keep moving forward then the bridge of the song and the bridge like in all these songs is when you kind of take a deep breath and you recenter and you remember almighty fortress almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine you show up you get reflected best in the shadow. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, heavenly father, when I fight, I'm going to fight on my knees with my hands lifted up because I'm in a posture of surrender. You can't. I can't. You can.

23:30 I'm handing this to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear, and we all have them, every fear I'm bringing, I'm laying at your feet. I'm going to sing through the night until I'm confident. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Now here's the thing we're wrapping up. I hope you know me well enough to know. I would not dare stand up in here, up here and just make stuff up to make you feel better and to give you hope where there's no hope. I wouldn't stand up here and invite you to fight your battles on your knees. If I had not seen it done, and many of you, I could name you and name your circumstances where I've seen you do it. You may have not, you didn't necessarily call it this, but you said, God, I'm trusting you through this. I'm trusting you through this and those of us who know you and know your stories we stand back amazed and we say god when my moment comes i pray that i have that kind of faith and that kind of confidence in you

24:20 and it's why the apostle paul who faced things we cannot even imagine and was ultimately beheaded outside the walls of rome could write the the next lines that are so embedded in this song that God, your Father in heaven, causes all things to work together for good, his good. To those who love God, I trust you, I trust you, I trust you. And those who are called according to his will, his purpose, what he is laying out, what he is unwinding into here and now. Looking around, you don't see it. Looking around, we don't feel it. And when we don't see it and when we don't feel it, we are tempted to abandon the golden rule and to adopt the law of the jungle, do unto others as they do unto us.

25:13 And when that's not an option, despair, give up, drink up, throw up, right? But your best option is to get on your knees and stay there until you've given up control and said, God, I want your eyes to see, I want your tone, your posture, and your approach to hand it over to the one who can actually do something about it. Here's the thing, and I'm done. Sometimes it takes one minute. Just one minute. You're on your knees. It's like, I'm re-centered. I'm refocused. I'm remembering. I'm recalibrating. Okay, I got it. I'm up. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes. You may be facing circumstances that it's going to be night after night after night after night, and in some cases, it may be all night until you can stand up with the confidence to say, God is with me, and God is going before me, and I have fought the battle on my knees, so I am not at war with the people around me. But that confidence never comes from looking around.

26:06 It always comes from looking up from the low place. So my dad was right. It's best to fight your battles on your knees. Because the real battle is the battle of faith. The real battle is, can I move forward with confidence that God is with me and that God is for me and that God can be trusted. And when you win that battle, look up here, when you win that battle, the rest, the rest is in his capable hands. I can't, you can take this. I can't, you can take this and give me eyes to see what it would look like for someone in my circumstances to move forward if they were confident that you are with me.

27:06 Fight your battles on your knees. So thanks for listening. But before you go, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who supports Your Move financially. It's the generosity of our listeners that makes this podcast possible. So if you have found this content helpful, we would like to invite you to make a tax-deductible donation to Your Move. You just visit yourmove.is forward slash give. That's yourmove.is slash give. Thanks for considering and make sure you join us next week.