SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, let's open to Exodus chapter 17 today.
SPEAKER_00: That's we're going to be camping out for the rest of the morning.
SPEAKER_00: This past Thursday, I had an amazing time with my family.
SPEAKER_00: We had a friend that, for the first time in like, I don't know, five or six years, we had a friend that let us into Disneyland.
SPEAKER_00: And we hadn't been there for a while.
SPEAKER_00: And so the whole family got to go.
SPEAKER_00: We were shocked.
SPEAKER_00: My kids are mostly adult children.
SPEAKER_00: So Tracy and I, we kind of put the word out, and all three of them said, Yeah, we're in, we'll be there.
SPEAKER_00: It was like, this is gonna be amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So we had a great day at Disneyland, got to go to both parks and just be with our adult kids.
SPEAKER_00: Tracy and I both the day after were like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We really like them.
SPEAKER_00: We should spend more time with them.
SPEAKER_00: This is great, you know, just really enjoyed the time.
SPEAKER_00: But I gotta tell you, my favorite ride the entire day wasn't even happening in either of the parks.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite ride was on the way to Disneyland early in the morning on the 91 freeway.
SPEAKER_00: And normally you'd go, why would that be your favorite?
SPEAKER_00: Sitting in gridlock traffic on a Thursday morning, not moving like it's a parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: The reason it was my favorite, because I thought ahead and contacted my parents and said, Hey, you guys have fast track, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: And they added our vehicle to their fast track account.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, have you done fast track lately?
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a commuter, you're like, why is this a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I haven't used it in years.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the best experience.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're in this fast track lane, bypassing everybody.
SPEAKER_00: They're all stuck, nobody's moving, just lane after lane on our right, and we're just flying by at a nice, cool 65.
SPEAKER_00: And as a pastor, I probably should have had compassion, but I was like, I loved it.
SPEAKER_00: It was the best.
SPEAKER_00: My kids are like, Dad, why are you enjoying this so much?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I just loved it.
SPEAKER_00: It saved us like an hour to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And then we get into the park, and my son had won a contest just a couple weeks before this, where he won a$200 Disney gift card.
SPEAKER_00: So we used his gift card to buy Lightning Lane passes.
SPEAKER_00: It was an amazing day, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: People are waiting for an hour and a half on these lines, and we're 15, 10, 15 minutes just walking right up to the front, getting on these rides.
SPEAKER_00: And every time I'm looking at all these peasants, you know, thinking, man, it must be terrible to be them.
SPEAKER_00: So much fun.
SPEAKER_00: Then we came home, and I didn't want to use the fast track twice because it was pretty pricey.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were faced with the reality of the 91 all over again.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about following Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: This life of being a Christian, trying to be a disciple of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's something in us that we kind of feel like, listen, when we give our lives to Jesus, suddenly our lives are going to be more like the fast track, lightning lane kind of journey.
SPEAKER_00: You know, where things are just easy, there's not as many obstacles.
SPEAKER_00: He comes into our life and fixes all the things that need fixing.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's just going to be this journey of love, joy, hope, and nothing but that.
SPEAKER_00: And then life still happens.
SPEAKER_00: And we find ourselves in the seasons, out of those lanes, back in, fighting the 91 traffic, braving the crowds of Disneyland, fighting against all of these things, and we get confused and frustrated and discouraged, and we start wondering what happened.
SPEAKER_00: It's in moments like these, maybe a moment that you are going through today, that we need to turn to scripture and we need to be reminded of all that God tells us, all that he exhorts us with, but even to look at the examples of those who have gone before.
SPEAKER_00: These Israelites, the people of God, knew exactly what it was like to be surprised by challenging circumstances and situations.
SPEAKER_00: They were rescued from slavery in Egypt so that, according to God, he could bring them or lead them into the promised land by the hand of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't just leave Egypt, walk through the Red Sea directly into God's land of promise, did they?
SPEAKER_00: As we learned last week, there was a wilderness they had to wander through, wondering where were they gonna get food?
SPEAKER_00: How were they gonna find water?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing that they expected.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna see that they also discovered that there were still battles that needed to be fought.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue this story through the book of Exodus, as God's people are now free from Egypt, passed a little through the wilderness, and now they're getting ready to come into this area of the land of promise, and yet they're met with some serious opposition.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading in verse 8 of Exodus 17.
SPEAKER_00: Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.
SPEAKER_00: Rephedim means the uh land of rest or place of rest.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses said to Joshua, choose for us men and go out and fight with Amalek.
SPEAKER_00: Side note, first reference we have is right here of this person, Joshua, this man Joshua, that we're gonna see, plays a very prominent role in leading God's people into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And we read about that in the Old Testament narrative of Joshua, you know, his namesake book.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but here it's the first time he is mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: Moses says, Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and her went up to the top of the hill.
SPEAKER_00: Her is most likely Moses' brother-in-law, husband to his sister Miriam.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses' hands grew weary.
SPEAKER_00: So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it while Aaron and her held up his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we fault Moses, by the way, here, you might read this and just go, Moses, come on.
SPEAKER_00: If you know that when your hands are raised, the armies of your people are winning, just keep your hands up.
SPEAKER_00: Why do his arms get so tired?
SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: Before we judge, guys, we've got to look at our own lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: You guys ever been in that situation?
SPEAKER_00: Even here, maybe this morning, worship service, music's going, Lord's moving, and you just feel like, man, hands are raised, and 30 seconds in, you're like, okay, I'm gonna drop it down to here.
SPEAKER_00: Ever done that one?
SPEAKER_00: Just feels real intimate, but you're really just resting your arms.
SPEAKER_00: I've learned just kind of rotate one at a time, right?
SPEAKER_00: Keeps them fresh, a little bit easier.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe when the worship pastor or team up here is going, all right, guys, let's let's do this together, right?
SPEAKER_00: I always get a kick out of this when we're clapping together, and all of a sudden, about 10 seconds in, everybody's like, Okay, I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Just too tired.
SPEAKER_00: Too tired.
SPEAKER_00: So we can't fault Moses, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a guy who's trying to keep his arms raised all night long.
SPEAKER_00: So he needed the extra support.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, the Lord said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, the Lord is my banner, saying, A hand upon the throne of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: So interesting here as we look at the first part of Exodus, the first fourteen chapters that really give us this incredible picture of God's salvation for his people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Exodus from Egypt, which represents redemption in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this typology that just as God used Moses to save his people from slavery to Egypt, where Egypt is a type of the world and sin and our bondage to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is the greater Moses comes and he redeems us from this world.
SPEAKER_00: He makes us separate and calls us out to new life in him.
SPEAKER_00: The second part of Exodus is not a picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're entering into this picture of what theologians call sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: That God's people are called to be holy as God is holy, to distance ourselves, not practically in terms of helping and being a part of fixing things in this world by the power of God's Spirit, but to distance ourselves, meaning to be separate from the world.
SPEAKER_00: That there is a distinction between God's people and between the people of Egypt, the people still living for themselves and their pride, their sin and their selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this journey of following Christ into the land of promise.
SPEAKER_00: What is the promised land?
SPEAKER_00: In our terms today.
SPEAKER_00: The promised land is the new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not just eternal life, but life abundantly, as he said in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I came to give them life and to give it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: There's this wealth of joy and gratitude and peace that passes all understanding, and his spirit being in us and empowering us and helping us overcome the things that we used to just be slaves to.
SPEAKER_00: It is a time where the presence of sin in our lives is going to be gone forever.
SPEAKER_00: And all its destructive consequences we won't have to experience anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We read about this.
SPEAKER_00: John, the disciple, was given a revelation by Jesus, and he wrote about it, Revelation chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, this is what we have to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: John writes this: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice from the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
SPEAKER_00: He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
SPEAKER_00: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Is anybody here today looking forward to that time?
SPEAKER_00: When everything old and sinbroken and cursed and destructive has passed away, and Jesus comes again to make a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, it's not that we go up to heaven with our harps and play worship music on clouds for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Where he will come down as he originally created things to work and to be, and the presence of God will be in our midst forever and ever and ever in this utter utopian perfection of the new earth on which we get to live.
SPEAKER_00: That is the hope that we get to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00: That is the ultimate promised land that God has given to us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, until that day, you and I are on a journey of faith and following Jesus into this new life He has for us today and ultimate life He has for us one day.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we expect on the journey?
SPEAKER_00: What can we look forward to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we see from the example of this analogy and story here with the people of God, as we look at this history and apply it to our own lives here.
SPEAKER_00: We read that the the Amalekites came and fought against them.
SPEAKER_00: So what can we expect as God's people on the journey until that ultimate day?
SPEAKER_00: We can expect battles.
SPEAKER_00: We can expect opposition, we can expect a fight every single day of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Who do the Amalekites represent?
SPEAKER_00: If you look at their history, they were direct descendants of a guy by the name of Esau.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the Old Testament at all and the story of the patriarchs, you're probably familiar with this guy by the name of Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Esau was a son of a man named Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: He was the grandson of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, the one that God called and said, Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make my people, create my people through you.
SPEAKER_00: That was Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham had Isaac, and Isaac had two sons.
SPEAKER_00: They were twins.
SPEAKER_00: The first that came out was Esau, who was the second?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob was born second.
SPEAKER_00: Now, being the firstborn son was a pretty important thing, a pretty big deal in Jewish and Hebrew culture.
SPEAKER_00: Because not only did you inherit, as the firstborn, did you inherit all of the family patriarch title and position and prestige and finances and all the wealth and all of these things, right?
SPEAKER_00: You were the most prominent, but you also inherited the spiritual blessings of God upon your family.
SPEAKER_00: So it was an incredibly honorable thing to be the firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jacob and Esau were twins.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob missed being the firstborn by a heel.
SPEAKER_00: And he tried to grab hold of that heel.
SPEAKER_00: That's literally what his name means heel grasper.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to get out first.
SPEAKER_00: And there was this battle and contention between Jacob and Esau throughout their lives.
SPEAKER_00: We read this crazy story in Genesis 25, verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Esau was the manly man out there hunting, doing the things, and he comes back from hunting.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where we pick up Genesis 25.
SPEAKER_00: Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore his name was called Edom.
SPEAKER_00: Edom means red.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now.
SPEAKER_00: Esau said, I'm about to die.
SPEAKER_00: Of what use is a birthright or a spiritual birthright to me?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob said, Swear to me now.
SPEAKER_00: So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.
SPEAKER_00: Thus Esau despised his birthright.
SPEAKER_00: This grandson of Father Abraham, Esau, is a cautionary tale for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: The author of Hebrews discusses it, talks about how in this moment of appetite and emptiness, he traded in God's spiritual inheritance and birthright and blessing for a moment of satisfying or immediately gratifying his hunger.
SPEAKER_00: And so Esau came to be this type of representation of the carnal or worldly man.
SPEAKER_00: It is that sin nature in each and every one of us that wants to satisfy or immediately gratify our lusts and our own sinful desires instead of living in obedience to God, instead of honoring him and seeking his kingdom and his righteousness first, seeking his inheritance and blessing first.
SPEAKER_00: It's living for our flesh and for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's who Esau came to represent.
SPEAKER_00: And because of his example, because of his uh sin and despising his birthright, he became this cautionary tale.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, He, I am the great I am, but when he reveals himself directly to his people, he says, I am the Lord, the God of your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever stop to wonder that if Genesis 25 didn't happen here, that God would have identified himself as I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Esau?
SPEAKER_00: But because of a moment where his appetite became his God and he indulged his flesh and despised his spiritual inheritance from the Lord, he lost it all.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the author of Hebrews says, Do not be like Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Live for the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: So Esau and Amalek, they represent the nature or the carnal, the natural or the carnal man who prioritizes immediate gratification of our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So what's the picture here?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, think about the whole story that we've run into and kind of come through up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: The picture is that Jesus rescues us from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the greater Moses, rescues and redeems us from Egypt or this world, and the ruler of this world, the devil that is represented by Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: And he leaves us out of slavery to this world and to our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he brings us through baptism, this picture of crossing through the Red Sea, the waters of the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: He brings us into new life in him, this journey of discipleship, experiencing that new life and freedom, ultimately looking forward to the land of promise with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, we have battles to be fought.
SPEAKER_00: And the battle to be fought is with Esau and his descendants.
SPEAKER_00: It is with the carnal man, the sin nature, and the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have got to expect those battles to take place.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul unpacks it a little more for us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says: he says, But I say, walk by the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You guys notice the spirit is capitalized there?
SPEAKER_00: So which spirit is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Our spirit?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: The word in the Greek here for flesh is the Greek word sarks.
SPEAKER_00: It means sin nature.
SPEAKER_00: It is our sin broken proclivity or tendency toward that immediate gratification, toward fulfilling and satisfying the things we're lusting after and desiring in this world, even when God's word speaks directly against it.
SPEAKER_00: It's living our own way, not the will the way of God.
SPEAKER_00: As a child of God, you and I, according to Paul, and we see throughout scripture, you and I will face lifelong opposition from our own sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: Until that day where we are free from this body and flesh of death and are finally in the presence of God, free from the not just the power of sin over our lives, but the very presence of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Until that day, guys, there's going to be a battle with our sin nature.
SPEAKER_00: A battle with our pride and desire to live how we want to live.
SPEAKER_00: A battle with our lust for pleasure and just temporary moments of happiness that feel right in that instance.
SPEAKER_00: But then we deal with the consequences of them over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: You notice the very last statement here the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Romans chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: You've got the Apostle Paul, and we don't have time to read through all these verses, but I encourage you to go back and read them after our time together today.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul, toward the end of his life, the end of his ministry, this dynamic, mighty man and apostle of God, writes these words where he says, I do not understand the things that I do.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The good that I want to do, I don't do that good.
SPEAKER_00: The bad things that I don't want to do, that's what I keep doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, So I have to agree, then it's no longer I who am doing it, but sin that is doing it in me.
SPEAKER_00: Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death.
SPEAKER_00: Can anybody else relate to that sentiment?
SPEAKER_00: Where you battle and you struggle and you don't want to do these things, but you keep going back like a dog to its own vomit, like a pig wallowing in the mud and the mire, and you keep promising yourself never again, and then you do it again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this battle and tension going, Lord, why is this happening?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says it is the battle of the Spirit of God in you and the flesh, your sinful desire and sin nature.
SPEAKER_00: And it's why Jesus came to give us victory over it.
SPEAKER_00: But as long as sin still exists, struggle must be expected.
SPEAKER_00: You ever notice how we as Christians tend to worry about all of the evil and how messed up this world is, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we worry about everything out there and all of these evil, sinful, corruptive influences out there that they're gonna infiltrate the church and our family and my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're afraid that that's what's gonna take us down.
SPEAKER_00: We get threatened and defensive.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when you look at human nature, that kind of just aligns with how we do all of our things.
SPEAKER_00: We're always pointing out there to blame.
SPEAKER_00: We point a finger at everybody around us, very rarely taking personal responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: We point a finger out there, we very rarely look in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Even in our relationships, how many times we struggle in relationships?
SPEAKER_00: We have a hard time holding on to friendships.
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand why they always turn on us.
SPEAKER_00: The same thing always happens.
SPEAKER_00: These people are just really messed up.
SPEAKER_00: And we start dating people, and it always ends and it ends badly, and it always ends for the same reasons.
SPEAKER_00: And we just think, you know, our picker's broken, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we get married, and it's a shocker to me how every couple I speak with, I can totally relate to because when I'm talking with them as they're sharing their side of the story, 99.9% of the problems in their marriage are their spouse's fault.
SPEAKER_00: And I get it, man.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything that's wrong in our marriage, I mean, clearly it's Tracy's fault, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we know, of course, that of course, you know, it takes two to tango.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we don't do everything right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But that's just that 0.01%.
SPEAKER_00: This is the train wreck I married here.
SPEAKER_00: Fix them.
SPEAKER_00: We go from church to church, and things are great for a little while, but man, here goes again.
SPEAKER_00: The same things happening, same conflict, same problem, same discontentment.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, when you are in relationships and the same thing happens over and over and over again, at some point you may need to step back and acknowledge what the only common denominator is.
SPEAKER_00: And that's you.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationships struggle.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest obstacle to our relationships is us.
SPEAKER_00: It's ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It is our pride and our stubbornness and our insistence on getting our own way, and our unwillingness to forgive when I am wronged and hurt, and our unwillingness to let go of bitterness, and our resistance to serving and pouring out of myself for the sake of other people, putting their knees before my own.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I give in to and submit to my sin nature and my own pride and ego instead of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then I wonder what's wrong with them.
SPEAKER_00: Because the greatest threat, taking this principle, even within the church, the greatest threat to the church today is not the sinful influences and people in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It is the sin-filled pews and even pulpits of the church.
SPEAKER_00: It is the compromise of God's people, where we have no desire to be holy as God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to keep living how we want to live and gather together and sing some songs and be encouraged for a little bit and then live the rest of the week our own way.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest threat is not out here, it's in here.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Peter writes in his letter to the church it's time for judgment to begin with the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: As most followers of Jesus who walk away from the faith, who turn their back on God, they don't do it because of that evil world out there.
SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of the sin within their own life and heart.
SPEAKER_00: You see entire churches blown up, especially when you see it within church leadership, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just go through social media, news, what you don't have to look very hard.
SPEAKER_00: And what you will find is church after church and ministry after ministry in our country today that have been blown up because of the sin of a pastor or a church leader that was never exposed, never brought out, never confessed and dealt with.
SPEAKER_00: It's why if anybody comes to me and says, hey, I feel like I want to be a pastor, I want to be in ministry, it's like, hey, that is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: But if God is not specifically calling you to this, can I encourage you to try to find another career?
SPEAKER_00: For the exclusive reason of when you step into a role like that within the body of Christ, there's a target on your back.
SPEAKER_00: There's an enemy of God that wants to take you down, knowing he can maximize damage to the church and the people of God by taking out the leader, by taking out the chief servant of those people, who too many unfortunately put on a pedestal and replaced Jesus with this person.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, never do that.
SPEAKER_00: There is a higher standard of accountability, and it is no excuse for any church leader to say, well, you shouldn't have put me on a pedestal.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what any of this is saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's just recognizing the humanity of all people, the fallibility of all people, and what the enemy does trying to maximize damage and destruction.
SPEAKER_00: We always want to point out there, but it's the sin here, it's the danger here that lurks within that we ignore, we never deal with.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what eventually leads to our downfall and demise.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know the passage in Peter's letter where he warns against the devil who's this roaring lion prowling about looking for someone to devour?
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this imagery.
SPEAKER_00: You know that he was writing that specifically when you look at chapter 5 of his letter, he's writing it specifically to the elders and pastors and shepherds of the church, warning them to be on the alert, to be sober-minded, because there's an enemy looking to take you down, guys.
SPEAKER_00: This is why the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, how do we fight against the enemy within?
SPEAKER_00: How do we fight against the flesh and the sin nature?
SPEAKER_00: Consider a few things together today.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, God's instruction for how to deal with the nations already occupying the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: If we go to Deuteronomy chapter 20, we see this, verse 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: This phrase is used often.
SPEAKER_00: What do God's people do with those in the promised land that would lead God's people back into idolatry, away from the God who loves and cares for them?
SPEAKER_00: Devote them to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Do not leave anything alive that can pull you away from your allegiance and faithfulness to God.
SPEAKER_00: The idea is that sinful influences and temptations that want to keep us from experiencing the promises and life of God should be completely and utterly removed and destroyed from our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, can I please tell you as I go into this, this is not a legalistic call to try to earn God's approval by how disciplined you are in your spiritual disciplines.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a call to asceticism or to become a monk living in a cave in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: You guys with me?
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're dealing with here.
SPEAKER_00: It is a call to wisdom and understanding that we keep living out and playing out the same cycle in our lives with sin over and over and over, and we expect things to be different when we're not doing anything differently.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna try harder and mean it more this time.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises won't be fulfilled in a life already filled with sin.
SPEAKER_00: I know this may sound extreme, but listen to the words of Jesus, Matthew 5, verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: If your right eye causes you to sin, what do you guys do?
SPEAKER_00: Tear it out and throw it away.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't even say tear it out and go, oh man, my eye.
SPEAKER_00: It's just tear it out and throw it away.
SPEAKER_00: For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
SPEAKER_00: And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, left-handed.
SPEAKER_00: For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Man, this sounds extreme, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I've mentioned before, if we literally practice this, we'd be handing out eye patches and prosthetic limbs at the church doors on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: But what is Jesus emphasizing here?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, do whatever it takes to remove sin from your life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's really emphasizing the utterly destructive nature of sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as a harmless little pet sin that you take out of your pocket when you're having a hard day and you kind of just play with it a little bit, and oh, that's so fun.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, back in the pocket.
SPEAKER_00: No harm, no foul.
SPEAKER_00: No such thing.
SPEAKER_00: You notice the Amalekites came out to meet Israel, not to shake hands, not to make nice, not to dwell together peaceably or peacefully in the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They came out for one reason to destroy the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Sin looks to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: God came to bring life and save and rescue.
SPEAKER_00: And when he says, don't do these things, he's not trying to rob you of fun.
SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to be some cosmic killjoy that keeps you from enjoying life.
SPEAKER_00: He is protecting you from the sin and its destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Sin isn't your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Consider as well the tactics of the Amalekites when they attacked Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses is calling and talking to God's people, he's remembering the Amalekites.
SPEAKER_00: This is now some time later.
SPEAKER_00: We read about this in Deuteronomy, and here's what he says: Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God.
SPEAKER_00: You see the tactic?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't meet Israel head on with the full force of their strength and arms.
SPEAKER_00: He snuck around with his people to the back and picked off all those who had separated themselves from the strength of the community of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still doing the same stinking thing today.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't changed his tactics at all.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we fall away from Christ so often on the heels of falling out of Christian community.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy doesn't want you here.
SPEAKER_00: Not just here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want you engaged in life-giving, disciple-making relationships with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you isolated.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is going to keep other things a priority in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need much to miss our worship gatherings, do we?
SPEAKER_00: All we need is a little something.
SPEAKER_00: We wake up and go, uh, it's raining today.
SPEAKER_00: Or even worse, it rained two hours ago.
SPEAKER_00: The roads are wet.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I had a busy week.
SPEAKER_00: My kids have a game this morning.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite team is playing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just tired.
SPEAKER_00: Not feeling it today.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't need much to just ride it off, and we forsake the gathering together of believers.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Barna studies reveal that right now the average churchgoer attends 1.6 weeks per month.
SPEAKER_00: 1.6.
SPEAKER_00: Those are churchgoers, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Not the average American, but the average churchgoers.
SPEAKER_00: 1.6.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure about the 0.6.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're factoring in that we usually come late when we do come.
SPEAKER_00: This is not to pack anybody's bags and take us all on a guilt trip here today, guys.
SPEAKER_00: It's just to recognize we we can't even, as churchgoers and followers of Jesus, we can't even make it to worship gatherings.
SPEAKER_00: Let alone be engaged in the protective community of the body of Christ, where there's accountability and exhortation and love and support and encouragement, and we can confess our sins to one another so that we can be healed from these sins.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, and we'll bring it home with this how do we battle against the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Devote to destruction those things that need to be devoted to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Do not forsake the community of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, you notice as God's people are fighting against Amalek down in the valley.
SPEAKER_00: You have Moses standing up on the hill, arms raised up, staff in hand.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture, and we hear it a lot taught on this picture of prayer and intercession.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people they prayed a little differently.
SPEAKER_00: Their posture of prayer was different than ours.
SPEAKER_00: When I say, hey, let's pray, we typically, as people today in America, what do we say?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, everybody, why don't you bow your heads, close your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: We usually bring our hands together.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice like literally the exact opposite of what the Jewish people did?
SPEAKER_00: When they prayed, eyes were open, head was tilted up toward heaven, and arms were outstretched.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: It was this posture of prayer saying, God, surrender, take everything, my focus is on you, my attention is turned toward you.
SPEAKER_00: That's how they dealt with distraction, not doing this, but right up here.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this picture of prayer and intercession as Moses is up on the mountain, staff in hand, and as his hands are up and raised, the people of God are winning the battle.
SPEAKER_00: But when they start to droop and fall from fatigue, they start losing.
SPEAKER_00: And so Aaron and her, they come alongside and hold his arms up.
SPEAKER_00: And so I read this and went, okay, so the last thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: We as people, we need to pray, we need to intercede.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer and intercession are so effective against the sin nature, against our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord had to remind me of all of the typology that we've been discussing in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, you and I don't play the role of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Who plays the role of Moses?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the greater Moses, the greater redeemer of God's people once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, we're the people of Israel swinging for our lives against the Amalekites.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the greater Moses and intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: And when the battle is being fought, we need to look to the hill.
SPEAKER_00: Look to our greater Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Not the one who's standing on the hill, but the one who carried his cross up the hill and hung on it and died.
SPEAKER_00: Not the one whose arms are being held out by two other dudes, but whose arms are being held out by the nails that are piercing his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Not the one who's holding up a staff, a tree to heaven, but the one who's being held up by the tree where he won victory against sin once and for all for us.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, when we struggle, it's not enough to go, I'm gonna try harder and be better.
SPEAKER_00: It's in those moments we've got to preach the gospel to ourselves and look to the cross and look to the one who's interceding for us on that hill.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 7, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: We read consequently, he, meaning Jesus, is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
SPEAKER_00: Forever and ever, Jesus, our great high priest, in heaven, interceding for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're broken.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're sinners, yeah, we fail.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we're battling the Amalekites, and there's times we're losing.
SPEAKER_00: It is our great intercessor and high priest.
SPEAKER_00: That's who we look to.
SPEAKER_00: We remember what he has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We remember his sacrifice, and we remember sin and the Amalekites have been defeated.
SPEAKER_00: And the battle that is waged against our sin nature is a battle of a dying flesh that desperately is fighting for life.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I need to be reminded of that victory, to walk in the newness of life boldly and confidently, head down, dragging our tail, shuffling our feet.
SPEAKER_00: Stop it! Stop! That is not what Jesus gave his life for.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life so that we could be more than conquerors in him.
SPEAKER_00: He defeated death, defeated sin, so we can walk in that new life.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to do that today?
SPEAKER_00: Can we stand together?
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for us as we close.
SPEAKER_00: You can bow your head and close your eyes and fold your hands, or you can lift your head and raise open your eyes and raise them.
SPEAKER_00: However, you want to do that today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, our greater Moses, for winning this battle for us, God, for not leaving us alone, swinging our sword down against the Amalekites, hoping things work out.
SPEAKER_00: God, you've won.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy has been defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin nature has been defeated.
SPEAKER_00: It has no power over us anymore.
SPEAKER_00: May we walk with the authority that you won for us.
SPEAKER_00: May we live in holiness and the victory that you accomplished as you defeated sin once and for all on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Change us, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray all of this in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.