A “sucker punch” is a punch that you don’t see coming. When you get casual in the ring, you make yourself vulnerable to a knockout blow. Knockouts come when the fighter doesn’t expect it. Sucker punches catch you completely off guard. If a fighter could see a sucker punch, he would brace for it. It may hurt, but it wouldn’t knock him out. When you let your guard down, you are a prime candidate for a sucker punch.
Can you figure out what David, Samson, Peter, Noah, Ephraim, and Jacob had in common? They all had a spiritual fall. David with Bathsheba, Samson with Delilah, Jacob who stole his brother’s birthright, Ephraim who turned back in the day of battle, Noah and his drunkenness, and Peter and his denial of the Lord.
David, in his time when the kings went to battle, did not go to battle. He became casual and stayed home when he should have been leading the fight. He should have been setting the example. But in this case, instead of doing what God purposed for him to do, casualty stayed home, took a rest and went on vacation. As a result of it, his men went to battle and while they were fighting, David casually viewed Bathsheba from his porch top. Lust set in his heart, he committed adultery and sent Uriah to his death on the battled field.
Anytime you become casual, you set yourself up to become a casualty. It all starts in the same place. The word “casual” means unplanned. David had some unplanned time, took it casual, became a casualty and fell into sin. There has never been a casualty without first someone being casual. The very word itself implies that. When it was time to fight, David was casual and the result was Bathsheba, Uriah, and Absalom.
• Samson was casual. He was casually laying around with his head upon Delilah’s lap. Because he was casual, he became a casualty.
• Peter was casual. Before he ever cursed and swore, he was warming his feet at the devil’s fire, casually associating himself with the wrong crowd.
• Ephraim was casual. The Bible says “... being armed ... turned back in the day of the battle.” They were armed and ready to fight, yet they didn’t fight because they became casual.
• The church at Ephesus suffered from casualty. Their problem was that they had left their first love. They still loved God, not just the way that they used to. They were comfortable because they were casual. We do bad, not because we plan on doing bad, but because we do not plan to do good.
• Amos said, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion...” What he was really saying is, “Woe to them that have grown casual in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.” If you read on, it tells us why they were at ease. They were laying on beds of ivory, they were sipping wine, they were eating the best foods which were the lambs of the flock and they prepared for themselves the best that man could provide.
• Before the Roman Empire fell, they had 167 holidays a year. Half of the year was spent in casualty! Because of their ease, they let down their guard and lost everything. They lost their glory, their influence, their power, their government, their jobs, their families, they lost everything! America, take note!