|
Tired
of battling
I would like to begin today with a question. How many
of you think that the more you try, the less territory
you gain? In other words, how many of you are fighting
a battle against things or circumstances that appear to
be invincible? I ask these questions because many of us
are confronted with situations in our daily life,
whether it is in our family, workplace, or church that
on many occasions seem to be invincible or impossible.
Due to this, many of the people of God get tired of
battling, and consequently surrender to the forces of
the enemy. Many get tired of battling and surrender
territory to the enemy that does not belong to him. We
surrender territory and he encamps his army of demons in
our surroundings. An army of demons that is ready
invade our life with the sole purpose of destroying what
God has initiated in us, and with the purpose of
stealing the blessings that God gives his people. This
is something that happens frequently, and that is why I
would like for us to focus on this subject today.
The truth of the matter is that the ministry is in
serious trouble. Let me pause here for a second and
clarify something. When I say the ministry, I am not
referring to this ministry in particular, when I speak
of the ministry; I am referring the church of Christ.
The ministry is suffering due to the apostasy,
negligence, and discouragement on the part of the people
God. But it also suffers greatly because on many
occasions, God’s servants get tired of battling. So
today we will be utilizing some verses that will
demonstrate what the church needs. We will be analyzing
what is needed in every moment in all congregations.
Let’s now turn to the word of God, and let’s learn what
is needed today by studying the past.
Exodus 17:8-13
- Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in
Rephidim. 9And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I
will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in
mine hand. 10So Joshua did as Moses had said
to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and
Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11And it
came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel
prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek
prevailed. 12But Moses hands were heavy; and
they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat
thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one
on the one side, and the other on the other side; and
his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his
people with the edge of the sword.
Here in these verses we find that soon after leaving
Egypt, the people of God enter into a great battle with
the kingdom of Amalek. Please note that it was “soon”
after their departure from Egypt, because this is a
pattern that the enemy uses with frequency. In other
words, what I want us to notice here is that the enemy
launched a strong attack against the people of God after
a great blessing. When we analyze the chapter from the
beginning, we see that that the people of God was
discouraged and was starting to take a rebellious path,
and it all started because they were thirsty in the
middle of the desert. This is something very well
reflected in Exodus 17: 2-3
when we read “Wherefore the people did chide with
Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do
ye tempt the LORD? 3And the people thirsted
there for water; and the people murmured against Moses,
and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up
out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle
with thirst?” However, even with this initiation of
rebellion, God shed a great blessing over his people.
God glorified Himself so that there would be no doubt
in their minds that He would supply and guard them in
their walk. This is something clear for all to see in
Exodus 17:6 when we read
“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock
in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall
come water out of it, that the people may drink. And
Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
So, without any doubt we can see the pattern of the
enemy, he attacked the people of God in a very strong
way right after they received a great blessing. I ask
you, does this continue to happen today? I tell you
that what happened to these people is not much different
than what happens to us individually, and what happens
to the ministry. What happened to them is something
that continues to happen to the people of God. I say
this because if we were to analyze the times when we are
most harshly attacked, we would soon discover that in
the majority of times it happens right after a great
blessing.
The Amalekites were a nomadic and predatory tribe; the
enemy’s army is not much different. The enemy’s army is
constantly looking for people that are not completely
firm, it is looking for people that may be in a
situation similar or the same to the people of God in
those times, trying to find people that are starting on
a path of rebellion, people that are not trusting in the
grace and providence of God. They are looking to attack
the people of God to rob them of the blessings that God
has given them. What lesson should we learn from this
historic event? There are three essential points we
need to learn.
FIRST:
We must recognize that all of us here, all of us who
follow Christ have a common enemy. Here Moses and this
nation had the Amalekites who wanted to destroy them.
We have to realize that just like that nation confronted
the Amalekites; we are in a state of war against the
army of the powers of darkness. This fact should not
come as a surprise to any, as it is something clearly
stated in Ephesians 6:12
when we read “For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Our
enemy is very astute in his tactics, and he will try
anything at any moment to destroy us. He will take
advantage when we may be tired and our guard may be
down. I have said it in various occasions, and I do not
get tired of repeating it, the main field of battle is
our mind, and the enemy uses it to trick, tempt, lie,
inspire bad thoughts, confusion, doubts, fear,
discouragement, etc. This war has been fought for a
very long time, and the kingdom of God has suffered
great losses. In the battle that we are studying today
we see that two armies participated, the Amalekites and
the nation of Israel. In the spiritual war, there are
also two participating armies, the army of God and the
army of Satan. A great reality concerning our adversary
is that he is a powerful and evil governor. Our enemy,
just like the Amalekites, comes to destroy and rob, but
Christ came to the world so that we may receive the
blessings of God, and that we may receive them
abundantly. Jesus said it best in
John 10:10 when we read
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill,
and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly.” The
reality of it all is that our enemy has great power, he
has at his disposal an army of demons that does not
rest; he is a masterful tactician; he is extremely
intelligent. But with all of this that he is, he is
also something else. What else is he? Satan is a
defeated enemy. This is something clearly reflected in
Colossians 2:15 when we
read “And having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in
it.” And because Jesus has defeated him, we, as
children of God can also defeat him and drive him out of
our life. This is something that is clearly reflected
in 1 John 4:4 when we
read “Ye are of God, little children, and have
overcome them: because greater is he that is in you,
than he that is in the world.” Jesus destroyed the
works of Satan! Look carefully at what we find in
I John 3:8 when we read
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the
works of the devil.” And because Jesus did this, we
too can drive the enemy from our life.
SECOND:
If we want to defeat the attacks of the enemy, we have
to do it united like the great army of God that we are.
In these verses that we are using today we read: “Moses
said to Joshua: Choose some of our men and go out to
fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of
the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” Here
we see that Moses chose Joshua as leader and told him to
unite an army, to unite men to go out and fight against
the enemy that they would be facing. Let me tell you
that the army of men that Joshua gathered was nothing
compared to the army of the Amalekites. Joshua set out
to fight against this army with great disadvantages; the
army that Joshua united was lacking discipline, was not
armed well, and was afflicted due to a long time of
slavery. But it would not be the force of the army that
would defeat the Amalekites; it would be the
intercession and prayers of Moses that would give them
the victory. It would not be the military power that
would give them the victory; it would be the power of
God.
Continuing we read, “As long as Moses held up his
hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he
lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.”
While Joshua fought, Moses prayed and had the staff of
God in his hand raised to the sky; Moses would lift up
the staff to encourage the soldiers, it was like a
raised flag that would wake up the enthusiasm in them.
They would fight, but Moses interceded appealing to God
so that He would grant them the victory. The great
error that we make is that in many occasions we start
interceding for a person or a situation, but when we do
not receive an immediate answer, we stop praying. In
many occasions we start interceding with fervor, we
shake up the heavens with our prayers, but quickly lose
interest and we do not persevere because we have not
received the results we were waiting for. In other
occasions, we get so involved in the things of this
world, we forget to intercede. We are so preoccupied
with the things of this world, our mind is so
preoccupied with insignificant things, that we forget to
raise a loud cry to the heavens. We forget the promise
that we have as we find in
Philippians 4:19 when we read “But my God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.” This is why I say unto to
you today, STOP! Stop allowing the enemy to plant the
seed of doubt in your mind. Stop allowing the enemy to
break the line of communication between you and God.
This leads me to the third point.
THIRD:
We all need help. Because the battle was not easy or
ended rapidly, here we read that something happened, we
read “And Moses hands grew tired”. I want to
pause here for a moment and analyze this of being tired
in more detail. In the case of Moses, we see that his
arms grew tired of holding the staff raised in his hands
for a long time. Fatigue is something that affects many
is this walk. It is something that affects the people
of God in general, but I can tell you that it is
something that greatly affects many leaders, that
greatly affects many pastors, deacons, and ministers.
Just like Moses, there comes a time in the life of many
leaders in which they are completely tired of struggling
and battling. The leaders are tired of seeing that the
more they try, the more they make an effort, the less
response they receive from the people, and note that I
said from the people, not from God. The people of God
today is very discouraged, very apathetic, it seems that
the more of God’s word they hear, the less they
understand. That is why we see that the sects and false
religions grow more and more each day. That is why we
see that many abandon their ministry; others undervalue
the blessing that God has given them to be able to serve
his church. We see how our brothers in the faith get
tired of battling against sin and consequently fall
again in Satan’s trap. We see all this because the union
and support inside the church that should exist, does
not. The hands of Moses grew tired, but notice that at
that moment they did not abandon the battlefield, at
that moment they did something that we should learn and
do, the word tells us, “they took a stone and put it
under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands
up, one the other, so that his hands remained steady
till sunset”. They helped him at the moment that he
was weak; they helped him at the moment of exhaustion
and weariness. If we want to have success as a church,
then we must recognize that we need each other. This is
something that is very well reflected in
Philippians 2:3-4 when
we read “Let nothing be done through strife or
vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves. 4Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things
of others.” We must recognize that we need to lift
and hold the arms of those that may find themselves
debilitated. Paul said it best in
1 Thessalonians 5:14
when we read “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them
that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the
weak, be patient toward all men.” We must recognize
that we all need help, we all need intercession, and it
is the responsibility of each one of us to help our
brothers and sisters with those loads that debilitate
them or cause them weariness. This is something clearly
stated in Galatians 6:2
when we read “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ.”
In conclusion:
Like I told you at the beginning, the ministry is in a
grave problem; the church of Christ is in a grave
problem. The church needs you! The leaders cannot do it
all; the leader cannot be the only one responsible to
battle. We need men and women like Joshua; we need
people that are obedient and willing to confront the
battle, willing to face the army of the enemy, even when
the number of people that you lead is not the most
powerful. We need men and women like Aaron and Hur,
people ready to lift up the arms of the weary. Ready to
help at all times everyone that may find themselves weak
or weary. When this happens, when we take the
responsibility that belongs to us, then we will obtain a
victory. What happened with the people of God in this
instance? The word tells us: “So Joshua overcame the
Amalekite army with the sword”. We can also be
victorious. As the people of God we also should be
moving forward at all times, because we also have the
sword which is the word of God. But we must take our
positions and responsibility. Joshua fought, Moses
interceded, and Aaron and Hur served as support; a
complete team defeated the attack of the enemy, through
the power of God and not their own. The church needs
this team; the body of Christ needs these types of
persons and interaction amongst believers. I began today
with a few questions; I am going to leave you with
another one, what type of person are you?
© Jose R. Hernandez |
Christian
sermons