A Staff, A Stone, A Sword And a Scroll - Pastor Simone Twibell

This Sunday Pastor Simone Twibell shares a message on surrender and victory.

What if victory isn’t about your strength but your surrender?

Moses lifted his staff and when he couldn’t anymore others held him up.

What has God placed in your hands?

At The Neighborhood Church, we believe faith is lived out in everyday rhythms of love, grace, and purpose. Learn more and connect with us at https://theneighborhoodchurch.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let me begin by asking you a question. Actually, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Simone Twybel, and I had the privilege of serving here at this church a couple years ago where I was the interim pastor before you elected the pastor Eric as your senior pastor. And so it's a really an honor to be with you again and to share the Word of God. I currently teach at Palm Beach Atlantic University. I'm a professor there. And so some of my stories might be a little bit on the teaching side, because that's really what I'm doing now. So let me begin with a question like any teacher usually does, right? To uh allow reflection. And this is a very crazy question. Kind of crazy. But what do you think a staff, a stone, a sword, and a scroll have to do with each other? Think about it. They all begin with the letter S, but that's not it.

unknown 1:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

And let me read the passage of scripture. It'll be on the screen. It comes from Exodus chapter 17. And this passage of scripture might actually shed some light into the matter. So let me begin reading here. Exodus 17, verses 8 through 15. You can follow along as I read. And once again, it'll be on the screen coming up here. Exodus 17, verses 8 through 15 says this. Moses said to Joshua, Choose some of our men to go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and her, went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held his hands up, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up, one on one side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this on a scroll, as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner. He said, For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord, so the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. So what does a staff, a stone, a scroll, and a sword have to do with each other? Well, we're gonna get to that as I begin to unravel the mystery. Let me begin with the staff. The staff here represents that which we have at our disposal to serve God. For Moses, it actually represented his God-given authority and power. Because you might remember he used the staff on multiple occasions. He used it to part the Red Sea. He used it at the river Nile when the ten plagues were coming. And he used it when Pharaoh's staff turned into a snake, and Moses' staff also turned into a snake and devoured Pharaoh's snake. The staff in Moses' hands represented his authority, his power, his divine dependence on God. And you see, the staff on Moses' hands mattered more than the sword in Joshua's hands. For every time Moses would lift it up, the army won it was winning. But every time he lowered it, the army would be losing. So the same instrument in his hands that are really pointing to victory and deliverance become a symbol of utter dependence on God's mercy and power and grace. See, victory in our Christian life is not one on one day of surrender. It's not one on the battlefield. No, it's one every single day in which we depend on the grace of God as He carries us through everything that we have to face along the way. It's day in and day out, raising it up and offering to God what is at our disposal. So let me ask you another question. What do you have in your hands? What do you have in your hands that you're going to use for your God-given authority to win the battle of life? The second object we find here is a stone. We saw that Moses had a staff in his hands, which meant again authority, power, dependence. But that wasn't enough to win the war. Like any of us, he got tired. And his strength began to wane. It was heavy to continue to lift up those arms. And so a stone was put under him so he could rest. And it was actually the help of two men, her and Aaron, his companions on the journey, who rushed to help him. They were the ones to support the mission now. Moses couldn't do it alone. So God prepared and sent her and Aaron to assist him. One held his hand on one side, the other one held his hand on the other side. And by raising hands all the way through with the help of Aaron and her, well, they got there. Because you see, truly, strength, the shared strength of the people of God is what sustains the mission of God, is what gives importance to the work of God and really, really emphasizes the strength of leadership through the union and unity of shared work. So let's bring it home. Your pastor is like Moses, and the congregation is like her and Aaron. Your pastor cannot do the job alone. He's gonna grow weary and tired at some point. He needs you to support him in his God-given calling. In fact, no one really wins alone. We need each other. Her and Aaron were instrumental in the mission of God, but you see, each one of us is instrumental if we're going to advance the purposes in the kingdom of God. It's interesting to me that God selects Aaron and her to come and help them. Because Aaron was actually the priest, had a very important job to lead the people. So he's strengthening Moses, his brother. He could have been a rival. No, he's strengthening, he's actually lowering himself. The priest had more authority. Moses, he wasn't a priest, but it was whom God selected for the task. So Aaron is humbling himself. And her, who was he? I mean, I've never heard of him until I got to this passage. We only hear of this guy twice in the book of Exodus. He's almost like the forgotten supporter. And yet, without his help, Moses couldn't have done the job either. Most of us might not be called to lead ministries or to be in front of people, but every single one of us is called to be a part of the mission of God because God has a job for you to do with the life he has given you. In fact, kingdom impact belongs to those who hold others up. Kingdom impact belongs to those who hold others up. Not who tears them down, no, who encourages the work, who lifts them up, who prays, and who supports the mission of God so that God may be glorified. That's all it takes. Perhaps one of the most amazing things that happened in the 1960s, you might remember this, was when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Apollo 11 moon landing was historic. Armstrong became the visible face of the mission. We all know his name. But that historic moment was only possible because of thousands of unseen contributors, engineers, mathematicians, flight directors, technicians, seamstresses, programmers, and support staff. While Nail Armstrong is remembered as the hero, little has been said about the women who hand-stitched the spacesuits and mission components with the extraordinary precision so that Neil Armstrong could be successful in the mission. A single unnoticed flaw could have ended the mission. Their work wasn't glamorous, but it was so important, so vital, that they were the ones behind the scenes, really, who were the heroes. This is how kingdom leadership works. Moses stood on the hill, Joshua fought in the valley, but neither one could fulfill the mission without Aaron and her holding up weary hands. The visible leader may receive all the attention, but the mission advances because others sustain, strengthen, and serve behind the scenes. The moon landing was remembered for one footprint, but it was built on countless unseen hands. A church does not move forward because of one gifted leader, it moves forward because there are intercessors who pray, volunteers who serve, mentors who encourage, and faithful people who do the quiet work no one applauds, but that God sees and faithfully rewards. The truth is simple. The person on the platform may be visible, but it is the people behind them that are indispensable. So who are you holding up? What are you doing to help leaders succeed in the mission of God? Now we come to the third element, the third object of significance in this story: a sword. What do you think of a sword when you think of this word? Probably not pleasant thoughts. Maybe blood, war, fights. But here the meaning is another. The word represents action. You see, faith is not passive, faith is active. And while Moses is the one leading from above and Joshua is the one engaging from below, both are critical and important, but it takes courage to step into what God calls us to do without certainty of the outcome. I mean, Joshua just went. God told him to go, he went. He relied on him to help him win. And so we find that courage is absolutely necessary to go. Prayer and effort go together. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Corey Temboom, all courageous leaders. And so was Harriet Tubman. You might remember from your history class back in the day that Tubman escaped slavery here in the United States, but she didn't stop there. She escaped, but she returned again and again to lead others to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Every journey risked capture, torture, death. But yet she kept going back. And what makes her story such a powerful picture of courage is this. She was not fearless. She knew the danger. That is real courage. Because courage is not the absence of fear, it is the decision that something else matters more than fear. In ministry, leadership, faith, and courage is like taking the next step while your knees are shaking. It's like, God, are you gonna come through? God, are you really gonna do what you said you're gonna do? God, are you really gonna fulfill your promises for me? God, I don't know if I should go there. God, I don't know, that's too dangerous, that's too risky. I don't know if I'm supposed to. And God says, go by faith is how you're going to make it. Kate Bowler, she's a theology professor at Duke University, and she recently wrote an amazing excerpt on courage. I want to read it to you. It comes from her blog. She says, maybe at some point, courage stops looking like bravery and starts looking like willingness. The willingness to face what is new without any real assurance that it will be good. I keep expecting courage to feel like clarity or confidence. But more often it feels like standing at the edge of something unfamiliar and choosing not to turn away. Theologically, it's a quiet kind of trust. Not that everything will work out, but that we can step forward anyway. As Kierkegaard, a well-known philosopher once wrote, to dare is to lose one's footing for a moment. Not to dare is to lose oneself. Maybe courage right now for us is simply consenting to the life that is still unfolding. We can do it. Or maybe we can just try. Courage, friends. Courage. The lesson is this fear asks, what if I fail? Courage asks, what if I don't go? And that mirrors Joshua in battle. He entered the valley not because the fight was easy, but because the mission was necessary. Yes, we might fail along the way when we take a step forward into something God is calling us to do. We all do. We all fail at some point. But let me ask you, how did you learn to walk? I mean, you probably fell down many times and hit your head once or twice. But that didn't stop you from getting back up and trying again. That didn't stop you from getting back up and going anyway. That didn't stop you from getting back up and moving forward. Well, it's so it is in our Christian walk. We fail at times. We might not get it all right. But we must keep moving forward one step at a time. Get back up again. The Lord gives you the power and the strength. Get back up again. You've has to rely, you have to rely on a her and an errand to lift up your weary arms so that you can keep going forward by the grace of God. So that's why we get to the final object: the scroll. The scroll represents what must never be forgotten. The scroll represents the faithfulness of God. Did he do it before? He can do it again. Did he come through before in your life? He will come through again. You see, when we go through trials and tribulations, it's easy to get discouraged, lose sight of what God can do. It's easier to worry. And to think about that somehow by worrying, that will change our circumstances. But when we look up and see Jesus on the throne, he is the one who perfects our faith and promises, promises to bring us through whatever battle we must face. We must not only recall the faithfulness of God, we must talk about it to those who are following us, our children, our grandchildren, yes, even our coworkers, whom we might not even get along with. They're watching how we live. And if other generations are going to trust God, we must share what God has done in us. We must speak of God's name. We must cultivate an atmosphere of victory, not one of defeat. We are to move forward, we cannot continue to look back. After victory was attained, Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner, which in Hebrew is Jehovah Nisi. In scripture, the Lord is called many things. Jehovah Jirah, the Lord is my provider. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord is my healer. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is my peace. Jehovah Ra, the Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. But here we find an interesting name given to the Lord only once in the entire Bible. Jehovah Nisi. The Lord is my banner. This is a representation of God's protection over his people. This is a representation of God's mighty power, God's absolute authority, the one who oversees the work that he's carrying out through the church. He's the one that strengthens, he's the one that's our covering. He's the one that says, I will not fail, I will not leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth. He is the one who's sovereign, he knows everything from beginning to end. Therefore, he is worthy to be trusted. One of my favorite passages that actually describes how God is overseeing our lives and delivers us when we cry out to him comes from the story of Jehoshaphat. Now I was practicing my sermon this morning at home, and I woke up my daughter to my apparently yelling when I'm practicing my sermon, and she heard the name Jehoshaphat, and she's like, Mom, the ocean is fat? Who is that? I said, No, honey, no, it's Jehoshaphat. So I had to explain who he was. And maybe we don't remember who he was. He he was a very good king, actually, the fourth in the nation of Judah. And he's the one that is leading the people. And somewhere along the way, somebody heard, oh, he's a righteous king, he's a good one. He is known for his faith, reforms, military strength. We gotta attack him. Because you see, when you're doing good things, you think that, oh yeah, everything is going easy. Guess what? The enemy is gonna make you his target. Okay? So you you have to be watchful. And this is exactly what was happening with Jehoshaphat. He says, Oh my goodness, somebody's coming, a vast army is coming against us. So alarmed, guess what he did? He began to pray. And then he said, We're gonna fast. We're gonna seek the help from God. And this is what he prayed in front of everyone. It comes from Chronicles chapter 20, verses um six through nine. And I'm gonna try to find it here real quickly. If I don't find it, I'm gonna read it on this. No, I can't read a small print. Actually, I'm gonna read it from here. Chronicles 26, 9, he says, he's praying to God, Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment or plague of famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your name, and you we will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us. You see, they're relying on God's power and might, they're relying on God's strength and his promises to deliver his people. So no matter what we have to go through, no matter what we have to endure, no matter what's going on in our lives, guess what? He is able. We don't have to fight alone. This is what the Lord actually replied to this prayer. He says, Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle is not yours, but God's. You will not fight this battle alone. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. So they went out and began to sing and praise. Whoa, yeah, Lord, we love you. We praise you. I know that we're gonna do it. And the Lord is the one who set ambushes against the men, and they were defeated. How did they win? Well, they won simply by trusting in the promises of God. They began to sing and worship, they began to elevate their voices. And it reminds me of the story of Paul and Silas. Do you remember when they were sent to jail? And it was midnight, and they were singing and worshiping, and all the soldiers, all the people in prison were like, Can you, what are you doing? Like, it's midnight, go to bed. And they're like praising and worshiping. And all of a sudden, there was such a crazy earthquake, and all their chains broke loose. And they said, We're free because somebody stood praising and worshiping in the middle of our darkest moments. And this is when the breakthrough comes. When we elevate God's mighty hand against over any other thick situation that is against us. Now it is really that kind of trust that the Lord is seeking from the church. Because let me ask you again, what do you have in your hands? Well, maybe it isn't a staff, but it is prayer and praise. Who do you have in your corner? Your family and your church. Why have you been called a child of God? So you can go out with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Where will you put your trust? In the scroll of God's faithfulness. From a staff to a stone to a sword to a scroll. What do these things have to do with each other? Victory. With victory. With victory in the Lord. This is how we activate the promises of God and unleash his power over our lives so that we can go out in confidence that he who began a good work in us will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. And oh boy, I hope that day comes soon. I was just talking to my brother earlier this morning. How we are all waiting for Jesus to return. That day will be glorious. I can't wait to see him face to face and to give him everything and all the glory forever and ever and ever because that is what he deserves. Oh, and that better be practicing right now. We better start worshiping more, praising his name, praying for every single person in this place and those around the community and those who are yet to know the Lord and Savior of our soul. Someone invite you to stand. And I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna praise. Might as well begin to do that right now so that we can raise God's banner of victory over us. He is here to lead us closer to him, to give us the desires of our hearts as we delight in his presence. So, Father, we just honor your name. We glorify you. Maybe some of us, Lord, are weary, tired, like Moses. Raise up, Father God, raise up people, Lord, who will hold us up, who will lift us up. Father, maybe some of us, Lord, are hesitant, don't know exactly where to take the next step. But like Joshua, Lord, give us courage to step into what you want us to do for the name of your glory, Lord. Maybe some of us, Father, are in the back seat. Well, help us, Lord, be like her, who maybe nobody heard of, but he went because you told him to go. Father, whatever job you have for us, enable us, empower us, strengthen us, and give us, Lord, more and more and more of your presence so that we can go out through the victory of Jesus Christ and your faithfulness. In Jesus' name.

unknown 25:08

Amen.