Lets pray…
Please turn in your Bible to Exodus 17: 8-13 and read with me...
—Brothers and sisters, this is a thick passage of Scripture.
—As I was studying and praying and preparing, I found so many lessons in these six verses that really this could be a month long series.
—But I’ve got one shot up here this morning so I’ve got to break it down into a smaller chunk. Even then, though you’ve got to get into this with me. You can’t tune out on me.
— I want you to put yourself into this Scripture, Amen?
— I was praying that God to guide me, to narrow it down and to get to the heart of what He would have us understand from the text today.
—So we are looking at one main point. Here it is:
You, you, you, and all of them, and I are gonna’ be attacked!
— There’s an evangelist and bible teacher named Clayton King who points out that each one of us is either in a battle right now, or we are just getting out of a battle, or things are great and it’s the calm before the storm and a battle is coming.
But today we’re not talking about random acts of violence.
Today we’re not talking about your mean boss.
Today we’re not talking about your husband or wife who betrayed you or let you down. We’re not talking about your parents who just don’t get what it’s like nowadays.
All of those issues are real and I won’t make light of them, but today we are going to talk about sin and the flesh or that old carnal nature.
Lets look again at our text: Exodus 17: 8
—How do I get our battle with the flesh from Israel’s battle with the Amalekites?
— Let’s unpack it.
— If you are a believer, you are the Israelite in this story. Romans 2:28-29. Romans 4: 16-17 point out that we are part of the family of God. We are His chosen people by our faith.
— So it’s always helpful to look at the history of the Israelites and see where we are reflected
— Next we look at the Amalekites to find our flesh, our sin our carnal nature.
• They were decedents of Esau.
• Esau was the twin brother of a guy named Jacob and they fought from the get-go.
Genesis 25: 21-23 tells us that they even fought in the womb. A pre-natal wrestling match.
• Anyway, Esau was first and foremost recognized for his propensity, his habit of doing things to satisfy his fleshly desires despite the horrible consequences that might follow.
• The most famous example is when he gave up his right, as the first born son, to the larger part of his father’s inheritance for a BOWL OF SOUP!
— Seems dumb right?
— Before you make fun of him think back to some of the things you have done that gave you a moment of satisfaction and ended up causing a whole lotta heartache or a whole lotta headache long after that satisfaction was over. Give Examples: sex, gossip, anger, you fill in your own blank here.
• Now, back to Esau. He went on to spawn the Amalekites, who ended up in our passage today.
— And if you didn’t know, Esau’s brother Jacob, who he wrestled with in the womb, Jacob was renamed Israel and it’s his people who were attacked by Esau’s crew.
Now we’re back full circle.
— We are God’s people, and we are going to be (some of you are right now) under attack. An attack of sin on our born again spirit.
And again, I can’t possibly name off every attack you are under, but think internal not external. For you it may be greed. For another it may be jealousy, another self-righteousness, another lust, another rage, another self-pity, another pride, another unforgiveness.
You get what I’m saying. I asked you not to tune out but do think for a moment about where the Spirit of God is trying to do some sanctifying this morning.
Matter of fact lets pray.
Father God, thank you for your presence here today, please quiet our hearts and reveal to us individually and corporately as a body of believers where we are under attack.
Amen.
Okay
So what do we do? What do we do when we’re under attack? Let’s read on… Exodus 17: 9-13
What do we do when we are under attack? We Fight!
We fight it. And, to fight we must prepare for battle.
A soldier came up a few weeks ago and spoke to us about his time in Iraq.
How many people think the national guard soldiers just leave their jobs in the offices and on the farms, just leave the classrooms and just fly out the next day and fight?
No, no they prepare. They know a fight is coming and they so they train for it.
If we know that we are going to do battle with our old sin nature, we must prepare, we must condition ourselves for the fight.
We prepare through prayer and meditation. Not just praying on Sunday morning and at dinner when other Christians are around. We pray — one on one with our Father God and we meditate on his Word.
We prepare by digging into the Scriptures. It’s true that all that is required for salvation is a knowledge and repentance of our sin and a belief that Jesus Christ is our Savior. You don’t really even need a Bible for that.
But, there is so much more that God wants to reveal to us in His word and we prepare for the battle by digging into the Bible.
Finally, we get together with other believers. So that when the battles come we will have someone that can go into battle with us.
Now to the fight. There are two ways that Moses and Joshua and the Israelites did this.
1. Moses got up to a place where his people could see him and he did what we must all do before anything else; he pointed them toward God.
a. We must fix our eyes daily, truly moment to moment on God. On His promises, and on His commandments.
b. Not only did Moses point toward God he did so with the staff that had been a symbol of God’s presence since the day God called His people out of Egypt, out of slavery.
c. We must not only look to the revelation God gave to all of us in the Bible, but we must also look back and honor him and remind ourselves, and our children of the many times that God has already come through for us personally.
i. If you are a new Christian, this may simply mean that you remind yourself and witness to others about who you were before you were saved, what happened and what life is like now.
ii. Others, of you have been heaped with so many blessings that you are beginning to take it for granted. Always look back on that so that you won’t be terrified or hopeless when the trials come.
2. Joshua FOUGHT the flesh.
a. Now, you cannot win without God. He has to come first but with God, who can be against you? No one. Not even your old sin nature.
b. The point is, Joshua didn’t just say, well this is who I am, I’m no good, the Amalekites are stronger, I know I’m gonna loose out anyway.
i. That’s the argument that we use when we blame family history — you might say, well, my parent was an alcoholic, or my parent was abusive, or my parent was a gambler, or a racist or whatever and so I’m gonna end up that way too. What’s the use of trying.
1. No! Be Bold, You are a child of the MOST HIGH GOD! Amen?
2. You may be old and you may be giving into self pity, saying well Ken you don’t understand my pain or my loneliness, or my frustrations.
3. I say you are right. But God does understand, and whether we are 16 or 103, we are servants of God. So, we ask him each morning how we can serve Him and we hop to it. It may be with your writing or your prayers or your or whatever gift you have that you’ve been holding back.
4. If you are here you still have a purpose to fulfill. Don’t let anybody, not even your self say otherwise!
Finally, look to God.
People are taken away, people fail our expectations. That holds true for our spouses, parents, friends and even our pastors.
At the same time whoever is leading is to be followed if they are pointing us to Christ and they need people to Hold up their hands.
Lets pray...
