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[0:00] Well, good evening, guys. It's good to be gathered together with you. Take your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 17.

[0:12] Exodus 17, we're just continuing to make our way through the Bible. I was speaking to someone the other day, I can't remember who it was, but I was talking about Sunday night service.

[0:26] I said, yes, I started in Genesis and I'm just making my way through. And they looked at me and they said, where are you at? I said, Exodus 17. They said, you're not going to make it. And I said, probably not, but we'll see how long the Lord allows me to tarry and how long he allows us to go.

[0:41] I said, at this rate, probably not. But Exodus 17, starting in verse 8, I'm going to be in verse 8 to the end of the chapter, which gets us to verse 16. So Exodus 17, verses 8 through 16.

[0:55] Before we get into it, let's go ahead and just open up with a word of prayer and then we'll just get started. God, we thank you so much again for this night. And Lord, so thankful that we have an opportunity to come and gather together to worship you, to sing songs of adoration to you, Lord, to be reminded of our need of you.

[1:16] And God, we just thank you for every opportunity, times of fellowship, times of stillness, Lord, times of rejoicing. And God, we pray now as we open up your word, that it would be you speaking to us again, O God, that there would be a fresh word from you, that it would penetrate our hearts and minds, Lord, it would have its application in our daily lives.

[1:36] But Lord, that you would be glorified and honored through it. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Exodus 17, starting in verse 8, the word of God says, Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

[1:52] So Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against Amalek.

[2:05] And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed. And when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.

[2:16] But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other.

[2:28] Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

[2:46] Moses built an altar and named it, The Lord is my banner. And he said, The Lord has sworn. The Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.

[2:58] Exodus 17, verses 8 through 16. To bring this up to speed, we are now in the wilderness wondering after the Exodus event proper, after the deliverance from captivity in Egypt.

[3:11] If we wanted to have its application in our daily life, it would be after we had accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but we are not yet in eternity with him, which is the promised land.

[3:22] We are in between salvation and glorification. That area that we refer to as sanctification. The days of your life after the moment you are saved until the time where you are finally glorified and ushered into the presence of God, your King, for all of eternity, from the moment of your new birth to the moment of the fullness of your life, you are in a process of sanctification, being made what you should be so that you can live where you are intended to be.

[3:54] We see this pictured in the book of Exodus for us in probably one of the most literal senses, and I love the Old Testament for this because it gives us hard pictures or historical pictures of New Testament realities.

[4:12] We've said it over and over again that we cannot rightly understand our salvation until we correctly understand the Exodus event, until we realize that we were born into captivity, a captivity which we could not overcome on our own, and God sent a man sent from God to usher us out of that captivity by the work of God, not by ourselves, as Moses told the people, stand and see the deliverance of the Lord, and that when we are delivered, we are enriched with the power and the presence of God, and we are led by His presence to the promised land of God.

[4:45] All these great pictures. The last few times we've been in the book of Exodus, we have been looking at chapters 16 and 17, and we've seen this wilderness wanderings.

[4:56] You remember Exodus 15 as the crossing of the Red Sea. They crossed on dry land. And then they have the song of praise of all of God's people saying this song of praise of God's deliverance.

[5:08] And then they enter into the, as many would call the wilderness university, or the school of testing. They come upon the bitter waters of Marah, and they complain, and they gripe, and they moan, and God intervenes, and He cleanses the bitter waters and makes them pure.

[5:25] And then they're hungry, and they have nothing to eat, and they want to go back where the pots were full and the bread was plenty, and God says, you want meat? Here's meat. Here's quail. You want bread? I'll give you the bread that nobody knows about.

[5:36] I'll give you the angels of heaven's food. I'll give you manna. And then they come to the place at Exodus 17, verses 1 through 7, where we were at last week. They came to the place of Rephidim, where there was no water.

[5:50] And they were upset, and they griped, and they complained, and said, oh, that we were back to what we used to be. And we saw how in every one of these trials, God was showing Himself. We saw last week how in verses 1 through 7 of Exodus 17, that the question was not, where do we get water?

[6:07] The real question is, is God among us or not? Is the Lord present? We saw the water from the rock, because Moses struck the rock. And we looked at that reference, how the rock really is a picture of Christ, struck once to provide what we will need forever.

[6:24] And now we come to a very unique setting up to this time. We come to the Battle of Amalek. Something that we're familiar with, because we all have probably heard, at least in reference, or at least seen the story of Moses on the hilltop, holding up the staff, and needing two people beside him, Aaron and her.

[6:45] We have at least heard of the story, and heard it of account. I've heard sermons preached out of it, and I've heard revivals preached from the passage. And just to be quite honest with you, I've heard some that I thought preached it very incorrectly.

[7:01] Some that I thought came upon the passage, and did not do the passage justice, and read into it things which they should not have read. And it is with that in mind, that I want us to try to see it accurately, hopefully, by the Lord's guidance, not by my own wisdom, that we will see what it is it has for us.

[7:21] I want you to see tonight, fighting the battles along the way. These are God's people, redeemed, completely free, living the life God has called them to live, following him across the wilderness, going where he tells them to go, and they're still fighting battles.

[7:41] Fighting battles along the way. A number of things I want you to see tonight, but the first one is this. I want you to see the point of attack. The point of attack.

[7:52] The first verse we read, verse 8 says, Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. It says, Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

[8:03] I'm not going to take a lot of time to explain to you the tribe of Amalek, but I want you to understand a little bit where they came from. Amalek is a descendant of Esau. If you remember, Esau was the brother of Jacob.

[8:15] He was the hairy one. Esau is the one who chose not to go the way of the Lord. Really, he despised the way of the Lord, and we get this from the book of Genesis, and Amalek came from him. The tribe of Amalek is a pretty unique tribe in history.

[8:27] They were the first ones that they think in history to domesticate the camel, or to use the camel in battle. And because of their use of the camel, if you think about the wilderness, they could attack very quickly, and they could get out of the way very quickly.

[8:41] They had a long range of attack. They were a marooning or raiding band of individuals. They were not just this big empire, and they would go around and attack certain people. And we see this being a tribe.

[8:54] It is fitting for us to know where they came from so that we can kind of understand more of the biblical picture. It is amazing when you start digging in and kind of getting into your text, the Bible does not get more confusing.

[9:05] As a matter of fact, it just begins to get clearer and clearer and clearer. Sometimes it used to scare me to dig too deep into it, but really when we dig deep into it, we begin to see the beauty of it all, how everything is connected.

[9:19] Why? Because God is not just telling the story of history. He is telling his story of his people. And we see here the point of attack. It says, Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

[9:32] When is then? It was Warren Wiersbe in his commentary in the B series on the book of Exodus who said this, There is no record, now pay attention to this because this is important, there is no record of the nation of Israel having fought a single battle while enslaved to Egypt.

[9:52] The first battle we find them fighting is after they are free. There is no record of the nation of Israel having to fight any battles.

[10:05] Now, could they have? Sure, I mean, theoretically they could, but there is no record whatsoever of them fighting any battles while slaves. But then, after they are free, after their redemption, after their deliverance, now all of a sudden, they are fighting a battle.

[10:23] Why? It is the same point that we alluded to this morning. You don't fight battles until you are saved and redeemed. Because the Bible tells us that we fight not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the air and the spiritual forces of darkness.

[10:37] Rather, our battle is a spiritual battle. And my friend, listen to me, until you are redeemed, there is no spiritual warfare in your life. That's just the crux of the matter.

[10:48] We fight battles after our deliverance, not for our deliverance, because the battle for our deliverance has already been fought. Remember, the nation of Israel, Moses said, be still and see the salvation of the Lord.

[11:00] You don't have to fight to be delivered. They stood there. I mean, what happened when the nation of Israel was delivered? They were sitting at a table eating lamb and bitter herbs.

[11:12] And God was fighting their battle. They were having a fellowship meal. Everybody in their household gathered around the table, sitting there eating, and God was fighting the battle for them.

[11:23] There was no fight for their deliverance, but after their deliverance, their battles began. So not only is the point of attack after the deliverance or after salvation, but it says, it came and fought against them at Rephidim.

[11:38] Now, Rephidim, we have mentioned in Exodus 17, verses 1 through 7, as being the place that they came to and camped and there was no water. And Rephidim then became a very place of contention.

[11:48] They got real upset. They started quarreling. They started fighting. They started getting mad at Moses. Moses, for the first time, began to fear for his own life. He said, Lord, they're going to kill me. And they began real upset and they said, is the Lord even here?

[12:00] So Rephidim, a place of contention, a place of disagreement, and then all of a sudden, Rephidim becomes this great place of God's miraculous power because out of the rock flows enough water to completely quench the thirst of probably about two million refugees.

[12:15] In an instant, Moses says, here it is, took the elders, struck the rock, the Lord was before him, the water comes out, and now this place has become a place of the supernatural. But friend, listen to me.

[12:26] It was then that the enemy attacked. Maybe you haven't seen this true in your life or maybe you have and maybe you've never really caught on to it.

[12:40] But it is very true that often, after God does some of the greatest works in your life, the enemy comes from behind and attacks. While you are still living in the spiritual moment or the spiritual high, still drinking from the water of the rock of Rephidim, the enemy shows up.

[13:04] Why? Because Satan knows when we are distracted. Satan knows when we let our guard down. When do you let your guard down? In the moment when you know God is present and when you know that God is working and in the moment when you see the miraculous going on, is that when you let your guard down or do you let your guard down when you're in the midst of the battle and nothing seems to be working?

[13:24] No, it is usually in moments of ease and God's presence that we let the guard down. It is usually in moments of God's working.

[13:35] That is the point of attack. To really get a good understanding of this, we would have to turn to the book of Deuteronomy. So I'll give you the reference. Deuteronomy chapter 25 verses 17 through 19, Moses, Deuteronomy is the second telling of the law.

[13:49] That's what it literally means. Deuteronomy 25, 17 through 19, Moses is speaking of this event and he is reminding the people, he said, remember at Rephidim, the tribe of Amalek attacked you.

[14:02] And it says here, Moses clarifies us really how it happened. He says, he came up from behind and attacked you when you were tired and attacked those who were struggling behind and attacked the weak because he did not fear God.

[14:19] That's how Moses describes Amalek. What's his point of attack? From behind, when you're wore out, the weak, those who can't keep up, simply because he is not a regarder of people and he is not a regarder of the Lord God Almighty.

[14:36] Friend, I want you to understand this. we have an enemy just as sure and true as Amalek and his point of attack is always when we least expect it from the least likely direction to the weakest one.

[14:51] Always. He doesn't regard people because he doesn't regard the Lord. That's the point of attack. Number two, not only do we see the point of attack, we see the preparations of battle because now all of a sudden this group of slave brickmakers are all of a sudden called to be warriors and we're introduced for the first time in the Bible to an individual that becomes very familiar to us, that is Joshua.

[15:18] After this first introduction he will be mentioned some 200 times in the Bible from this point on. He becomes the man who seeds Moses. He is the one who leads them across the Jordan River and he leads them into the promised land.

[15:32] It is Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho. Remember that? It is Joshua who leads them on this great campaign and divides the land. But before we can ever meet Joshua the leader we have to meet Joshua the servant because Joshua serves as the servant of Moses.

[15:47] And really what fit him to be the leader of God's people is that he became a follower of God's man. He became the one who would hang out with Moses. Joshua serves a very unique position in all the nation of Israel because God had his chosen man and Moses and then Joshua hung out with Moses.

[16:06] He went with him up on the mountain. He was up there when Moses was down. You say, how do you know I thought Moses was on the mountain? Well, when we get there and you read it you'll see that Moses is up there and Joshua says, I hear the sound of rejoicing.

[16:19] And Moses says, that isn't the sound of rejoicing, that is the sound of idolatry. So Joshua was up there with him. Joshua went with him to the tent of meeting. Joshua was always hanging out with Moses when Moses hung out in the presence of God.

[16:31] So what fit Moses to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land was the influence of God's man upon him. Now, Moses is a type of Christ, right? So the man who hangs out with Christ is the one who is fit to be the leader of people.

[16:45] So what is our encouragement? Hang out with Christ, right? Joshua is also a type of Christ especially in this picture because Joshua is more of a warrior and the Lord our God is a warrior.

[16:56] I don't know if you figured that out. We serve a warrior savior. He fights a battle, the great battle, the battle of Armageddon in the book of Revelations. He annihilates the enemy himself. He is a warrior.

[17:08] I don't serve a weak savior. I serve a meek savior. Big difference, right? You can be meek without being weak and you can be weak without being meek. You can lack strength but have all the pride in the world but you can have all the strength and not be prideful.

[17:22] You can be meek. Two people in scripture described as meek by the way. Side note, Moses and Jesus. It's pretty good company if you want to be described as meek. That is strength under control. Both of them mighty warriors.

[17:35] But anyway, we see here now this preparation of the battle. The battle is there. Amalek has come. They are attacking them from behind. It's in this place of kind of vulnerability. So Moses said to Joshua, yeah, that's what I need.

[17:48] I need to be a Moses. Look for me at Joshua. So Moses said to Joshua, choose men for us and go out. Moses must have shown some strength in combat. Some say that he was probably in his early 40s at this time and I would agree with that.

[18:02] He had known the rigors of enslavement and now he's going to know the victory of freedom. He is one of the two, one of two of the 12 spies who came back and wasn't afraid of the giants, Joshua and Caleb.

[18:14] Caleb would be the other one. They brought the good report back. But it says, Joshua, choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill and the staff of God in my hand.

[18:26] So the first preparation I want you to see is that it is a preparation of dependency. So Moses said to Joshua, choose for us. some men that will go fight for us.

[18:41] It was a preparation of dependency. Now that we're in the midst of this battle, Joshua, now that God has allowed us to have an enemy that is coming against us, now that we are free but we have to fight and we have to fight this battle along the way, I'm going to depend on you, Joshua.

[18:57] Joshua, you choose the men, you go to the battlefield, I'll go on the hilltop and I'll take the staff of God with me. Moses is depending upon Joshua to do the work on the battlefield and Joshua is depending upon Moses to do the work on the hilltop.

[19:13] It is a battle of dependency. He didn't say, Joshua, go down here and beat them all up by yourself. He didn't say, Joshua, you go do the work and I'm going to hang out at the camp. He says, you do this part and I'll do this part.

[19:26] Why? Joshua was to do the physical work and Moses was going to do the spiritual work. Every battle we fight, my friend, listen to me, is both physical and spiritual. It is both physical and spiritual.

[19:36] I absolutely believe that sometimes you go through spiritual warfare and it affects you in the body. It can physically whoop you. But I also know this, you can't go through any of it on your own.

[19:51] And Moses says, I can't be in both places at one time so I need you, Joshua, to be doing the physical on the battlefield and I'll be taking care of the spiritual on the hilltop. But he says, I'm not going alone because it says, so Moses went with Aaron and Hur up onto the mountaintop.

[20:07] And he went up there on the hilltop and he had the staff of the Lord in his hand. Now this is the same staff that parted the Red Sea, the same staff that turned into a serpent, the same staff that he had in his hand when he met the Lord in the burning bush.

[20:18] And this staff represents the presence of the Lord among them. Okay, that's its representation. Apart from what it represents, it's just a stick. Okay, but it represents the presence of the Lord among them.

[20:30] And he takes up two with him and he goes up there and we'll get to it here in just a minute but he holds up the staff and they're winning. He lets down his arms and it says, but Moses' hands lost strength.

[20:42] Moses' hands lost strength. He got tired. I heard someone preach on this one time and it really kind of upset me. He said, well Moses should have never got tired and I've yet to find someone who doesn't get tired other than my Savior who daily lives to intercede for me and he does not wear out.

[20:58] And if Moses didn't get tired then that would have been okay but he didn't. He needed someone beside him. That's why he brought two others. He was dependent. Moses is a man just like us.

[21:09] He's in the flesh just like we are. So Moses had Aaron and Hur with him and it says, okay, they brought up a rock. They put this rock down and Moses sat down and then Aaron and Hur got on one side and one got on the other side and held his arms up and they held his hands until the sun went down.

[21:25] And friend, I want to tell you that the preparation for the battle is that we have to be ready physically, we have to be ready spiritually and we have to surround ourselves with those who can help us on all fronts.

[21:37] None of them could do it alone. Joshua choose for us. So man, I need you Joshua. Why aren't we introduced to someone? Joshua didn't look at him and go, yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

[21:48] You go hold a stick and I'll go swing a sword. Joshua said, okay, I'll do it. Pretty big contrast between those people who were mad at Moses and all of a sudden we find one who obeys Moses.

[22:01] But Joshua says, yes, I'll go. So now you have the battle being fought in two places. Really it's in three because you have Joshua on the field, you have Moses on the hill and you have the Lord in the heavens.

[22:14] That's a pretty good battle front. That's the preparation for the battlefield. Number three, I want you to see the power of victory.

[22:26] How did they win this battle anyway? Have you ever thought about this? I mean, this is a clan of people, Amalek is a clan of people who really were fit around raiding other companies.

[22:40] This is a clan of people who had designed their whole livelihood around battle. I mean, they had domesticated animals no one else had. They were fit for warfare. They could move swift. They could do all these things.

[22:52] The nation of Israel on the other side is definitely not that. They are slaves. They don't know anything of battle. They don't know anything of warfare. They don't know anything. All they know is to make bricks.

[23:03] I would love to tell you where they got the swords, but I have no idea. Okay? I just know that God always equips us for every battle we're going to see. Maybe as they were leaving Egypt, part of the plunder they took with them was swords.

[23:15] I don't know. We can talk about that in eternity someday. It would be a cool story to bring up. But we know that they're fit for them. We know that they're equipped with them. And all of a sudden they're here and out for the first time in any of their lives.

[23:27] Now they have to become warriors. How are they going to win this battle? They're not going to win it by numbers alone because we have Joshua and some men and Moses and two others on a hill and they're fighting this battle.

[23:39] But the answer lies in this. It says, so when Moses went up there and when he held the staff up when he held his hand up Joshua prevailed. When he left his hand down Amalek prevailed.

[23:50] So Aaron and Hur come and they hold up his hands and it says that he held his hands up until the sun set. It says thus his hands were steady until the sun set and in verse 13 it says, so Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

[24:06] So we see here that really the battle was not because Joshua was strong. The battle was not because Moses was present. The battle was in the intercession of Moses allowing God to have a part in the battle.

[24:22] We don't have any recorded prayer here but what we have is Moses raising his hands and we find throughout scripture over and over again this being a posture of prayer and a posture of intercession.

[24:33] And really the picture is I'm going to hold up the presence of the Lord over the battlefield and God I'm going to invite you into the battle in my life and you will be surprised how many people fail to invite the Lord's participation into the battlefield of their life because they say no I can do it I can do it I'm going to take care of this and no I have it I have it I've got everything under control and God does not force himself upon anything but God is waiting to be a part of everything.

[25:04] God will not force his presence but he is waiting for the invitation to join and what Moses is doing is interceding here and he is holding up the hands with the presence of the Lord there saying God I want you to take part in this battle and we see that Joshua prevailed and then we come to this great picture I'm going to skip verse 14 because I'm coming back to it in just a minute but in verse 15 Moses built an altar so anytime there's a great accomplishment in scripture just not anytime but most times in scripture where there's a great accomplishment either a pillar is set up or an altar is built I don't know if you've caught that in the Old Testament I mean they're building altars everywhere they're setting up Ebenezer these stone of help always remind them of something but it says here so Moses built an altar he did not build a statue he did not build a podium he did not build a picture of a man holding up a stick and he did not build a statue of Joshua swinging the sword okay what he built the altar to will always be that which signifies who won the battle so he built an altar to the Lord and he named that altar which is something very familiar this is where we get the names of God the Lord is my banner

[26:22] Jehovah Nissi the Lord is my banner now what does that mean well in those days the banner was a stake that was sitting on the ground with a long pole and had a flag flying above it and that was the Nisi and the Nisi would be where the troops would gather together to receive instructions to receive encouragement to receive empowerment to go out and fight the battle they would come back to the Nisi to get their orders that they needed to work out on the battlefield they would come back to the Nisi to get the tools they needed to fight the battle on the battlefield they would come back to the Nisi so that they could be encouraged when things were going wrong on the battlefield and what Moses was saying is the Lord is the one I run to he is who we went to when we didn't know what to do on the battlefield he is the one we went to when we needed to be encouraged on the battlefield he is the one

[27:28] I run to when I need tools to fight the battle on the battlefield he is the one I go to when I need strategy to work out on the battlefield so where is the power of the victory it is the Lord is my banner Jehovah Nisi it is the fact that God showed up in our game plan God showed up in our camp and he gave us directives he gave us empowerment he gave us presence he was the one who helped me fight my battle every believer along the way will fight a battle if not multiple battles some of them huge battles some of them small battles but we know this this is the first battle that the nation of Israel fought but it will not be the last but we need to be reminded there is a point where we come back and say God how do I fight this battle I want your work now I know

[28:29] Lord I'm going to have to fight understand that it is the battle is the Lord's I get that it is his but let us never be mistaken that sometimes the instrument of the Lord is us he wants to work through us he wants to do his purposes in us and sometimes these battles that we are being called to fight and these battles that we are being called to face some of them came up from behind us and we didn't see it coming but all of a sudden God's given directives for us on the battlefield there will be things we have to do yes Joshua had to go on the battlefield do the work Moses had to hold up his hands on the hilltop with the help of others but it was the Lord whose presence was there that was giving them directives of what to do in the battle the power for the victory really is Jehovah Nisi it is the Lord is my banner and I was going to stop right there but I want you to see this last and final one that is so good I want you to see the promise of final outcome because if we stopped right there it would be good news in that when we fought the battles the Lord would be there and he would help us win these battles but it would almost be discouraging news because it would remind us that there's always going to be battles that once we're free and once we're redeemed there's this thing called spiritual warfare and we are

[29:46] Christian soldiers sure we are redeemed absolutely but is that really all there is to it no there is this promise of a final outcome verse 14 it says then the Lord said to Moses write this in a book you need to make mention of this sometime because this is the very first time God gives a command to record something down in writing this little insignificant battle right here is the very first time God tells somebody write this down he says Moses write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua what does he want him to write down why Joshua's not going to forget about it right Joshua's going to know you know the very first battle I fought I won I mean many of us have played sports there's a lot of the games that we can go back and we can replay every one of those games especially if it was a good game for us it's amazing I played a lot of bad games when I played sports and I can forget every one of my bad games but if I had a good game

[30:46] I can remember almost detail those good games so Joshua's not going to forget I remember that battle yeah we won it Moses was on the hill Aaron and her were up there helping him me and some men were down here but look that's not what God wants him to remember he wants him to!

[30:59] remember this write this in the book as a memorial and recited to Joshua what? that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven he won the battle but God says I want Joshua to remember I'm going to win the war the complete outcome the final outcome is going to be Amalek will be no more and you say well that sounds kind of harsh well I want you to see something not every one of you read from the new American standards so when I read verse 16 you probably saw it a little different than I read it but I want to read verse 16 to you again because I was having a hard time understanding this too but I want you to see this okay verse 16 says after he named the altar the Lord is my banner and he said the Lord has sworn that's where some of your translations are a little bit different than mine some of your translation says a hand was raised on the altar okay or a hand was placed on the altar something of that nature but new American standard has this the Lord has sworn and the

[32:01] Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation now that's kind of a hard translation it's hard to translate that whole wording and a hand was laid on an altar especially if you put it in context but hopefully this will help us to understand it it reading or probably the more complicated reading it may be adding more words than it should be but it is something like this because someone laid a hand on my altar I'm going to do battle with Amalek from generation to generation and the reason I think that's kind of an accurate translation is this God says Amalek had no regard for me that's what he tells us in Deuteronomy 25 verses 17 through 19 because they had no regard for the Lord God and we are also reminded that Esau and his descendants opposed the people of God and God is telling us here when they messed with you they touched my altar and when they came against you they came against my purposes and my plans because you can't oppose the people of

[33:15] God and not mess with the altar of God so God says when they chose to fight against you they touched my altar and brought me into the battle with them and I will fight against them from generation to generation we have recorded for us in the Old Testament a number of times battles fought with Amalekites you may remember probably the most notorious where Saul the one that was king before David King Saul the first king went and he captured the king of the Amalekites and God had commanded Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites and he brought that king back and he didn't do it and Samuel the prophet walks up and says why didn't you do what God told you to do and he said I did I won this great victory and Samuel says then what's this man doing here and he said oh well I brought him back as plunder and Samuel says you should have annihilated the Amalekites and because he did not God removed the throne from the hand of

[34:17] Saul because Saul chose to make a friend out of the enemy of God he tried to keep that which had laid his hand upon the altar of God as we see here or upon the throne of God you have laid your hand upon the throne God says I wanted them annihilated because they opposed me when they opposed my people and then the Samuel the king of the Amalekites thinks that he's okay Samuel takes out a sword and probably one of the most gruesome word pictures you get in the Bible it says he hewn him to pieces he hacked him in pieces he got rid of him the Amalekites what are left of them the few remnant are finally annihilated under the reign of Hezekiah and the Amalekites are no longer in existence why because God said they laid a hand on my altar when they messed with my people they called me into the battle with them and friend why do I tell you this because the promise of final outcome is this you have an enemy and sometimes your enemy comes upon you when you least expect him sometimes your enemy comes upon you when you're at the greatest spiritual high sometimes he comes in the moment of spiritual low your enemy often comes up from behind you and catches you when you are weak and when you are weary and your enemy chooses to fight a battle you don't want but I want to encourage you with this the promise that God extends you is the final outcome when your enemy attacks you he's really attacking your

[35:53] God and your God will completely wipe out your enemy someday there will be a day where your enemy will no longer be in existence there will be a day where there will no longer be any battles fought but it is not today and God has promised us the final outcome is an outcome free of battles free of warfare and free of enemies because in every enemy is placed under the feet of the king we serve let's pray God I thank you so much for this night I thank you God that you are a God of leadership you're a God of companionship God you are a God who fights our battles for us even through us Lord we praise you for your word and pray that we would be encouraged to fight the battles of on the way

[36:54] Lord as we follow you and we walk across the wilderness of this life and we seek to be pleasing in your sight we realize that there are going to be attacks upon us God we just want to be faithful we thank you for intercessors and Lord we thank you that sometimes we have the privilege to be an intercessor of others God maybe right now we're not fighting any battles maybe we need to be a Moses who's interceding on behalf of those who are Lord I thank you for those who intercede for us Lord that when we're in the midst of it there are others praying God more than anything we thank you for your work your power and your purposes in our life we thank you for every promise you've extended us and God we ask that we would live in the reality of them we ask it all in Jesus name amen amen if you're able would you stand and turn to page 424 heavenly sunlight daddy daddy

[38:01] Amen. Amen.

[39:01] Amen. Amen.

[40:01] Amen. Amen.

[41:02] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[41:13] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[41:24] Amen. Amen. whether it's coming to Jesus Christ or into salvation or working through our sanctification, Father, we pray you continue to fill us with love for Jesus Christ and for others.

[41:44] Just fill us with the love that pours through us. We pray that your love flows through us to others. Father, I thank you for all that you do for us. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

[42:01] You might as well say it back down, but it's hard to get down. Amen. Amen.

[43:01] Amen. Amen.

[44:01] Amen. Amen.

[45:01] Amen. Amen.

[46:01] Amen. Amen.

[47:01] Amen. Amen.

[47:32]