The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: You and God together make an unbeatable team. You never lose. You always win.

Guest (Male): Life is a battlefield and victory is never accidental. Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris continues "The Names of God" with a message titled "How to Be a Winner" from Exodus chapter 17. We'll learn about Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner, and how true victory is found in His strength alone.

Pastor Jack Morris: The Amalekites came. These were the masters of the peninsula of Sinai. They lived, the Amalekites, on this peninsula with their families, with their herds, and with their flocks. The Israelites needed to pass through that part of the country on their way to the promised land. The Amalekites were moved with suspicion, with jealousy, with contempt, and they purposed to be an obstacle to keep them from passing through to the promise that God had given to the Israelites.

Now there's something that we need to know about the Amalekites. They are descendants of a man called Amalek. Amalek was the grandson of Esau. Esau was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. All right, let's go all the way back to Abraham. Remember Abraham took Isaac, his son, to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. And he did indeed sacrifice him in his heart, although he never laid the knife to him.

Isaac was the one through whom Israel was going to become a great nation. You couldn't number them. You could number the stars of the sky or the dust of the earth before you could number the people, the great nation that was going to come from Abraham and from the son Isaac. Well, Isaac then married Rebecca, and they had two sons. They were twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first and in a matter of seconds, Jacob was born.

Here are these two young men. Esau, according to the ancient law, was going to be the person through whom the blessing of Israel, the nation, the Messiah was going to come because he was the firstborn. But one day when these boys were grown, these twin brothers, these grandsons of Abraham, one day they were out in the field and Esau was very, very hungry. Matter of fact, he said he thought he was going to die of starvation and he approached Jacob and he said, "Give me some soup." There was a big kettle there and soup out in the field.

A fire was under it. And Jacob said, "I will give you a bowl of soup if you will give me your birthright." And according to ancient law, a person could verbally take an oath before witnesses. It was legal. It was everlasting. And Esau, being not a spiritual man, not a man seeking spiritual things, he was not following the God of his grandfather Abraham or his father Isaac. He said, "I would rather have a bowl of soup. You can take the kingdom of God, you can take God, you can take the promised land, you can take the promise of the Messiah. Give me a bowl of soup."

Now that's about how some people today feel about spiritual things. They could care less. They think they're going to live forever. They think that this life is all there is and they could care less about spiritual things. Well, Esau could care less about spiritual things. But here was his twin brother Jacob, who believed in his grandpa Abraham, who believed in his father Isaac, who believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and later on we'll hear Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And he said, "Here's a bowl of soup. You swear in these witnesses and you give me Grandpa's kingdom. I'm going to take the clan. That will make me the head of the clan." And later on, Jacob had 12 sons, which became the head of the 12 tribes of Israel. And Jacob's name was changed by Almighty God to Israel. And Jacob became head of the clan.

Well, here is Esau, who now has a son, who now has a grandson. His grandson is Amalek. I'll tell you parents, you need to be careful how you live in the presence of your children. The Bible says in Exodus chapter 20 that the sins of the father will be carried over to the third and the fourth generation. Not that God's going to hold one person accountable for another person's sins. What it is telling us is your kids are going to mimic you and they're going to follow the life that you model for them.

If parents are happy, chances are the kids are going to be happy. If parents are following the Lord with true submission and humility, even though those kids may go astray, the Bible says train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he'll not depart from it. And here is Esau who despises his birthright and here's a grandson of his who could care less, just like Grandpa, about spiritual things.

So here comes Israel, Jacob, Israel. Maybe a million and a half to two million of them on the way to the promised land that flows with milk and honey. But they had to pass through the peninsula of Sinai and there they met their distant cousins, the Amalekites. The Amalekites knew the promise of God. They knew about their grandfather Esau. They knew what God had promised through Abraham. They knew.

Most people today know. You already pretty well know what's expected of you. You know what God wants. But there's some people who know and still they're not going to change. They're not going to do it. They're not going to submit. They're not going to obey. The Amalekites knew the promise of God. They knew that Jacob and Israel, the Bible uses those terms interchangeably, the house of Jacob or Israel. They knew these were their distant cousins. They were coming through and the Amalekites proposed to stand in their way and to block them.

It was a terrible scene. Household against household, brother against brother. Talk about a civil war, there it was. The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. They attacked them. And when we turn to Deuteronomy chapter 25, it says how they attacked them. They were a cowardly bunch of people who used guerrilla warfare tactics. They moved around behind the Israelites.

The Israelites were coming through, not in one great big circle company, but elongated. They were coming through. Their company stretched out for several miles. And what had happened, the Israelites began to stretch out and not stay together. And the older people kept slipping back. The children kept slipping back. The weak and the infirm kept slipping back and they were on the tail end of the march.

Well, the Amalekites swung around and hit them from behind and started killing off the older people, the children, and the people who were lagging behind and working their way up. It was a terrible, ugly sight. But the Amalekites were determined, just as your foe or your enemy Satan or the works of the flesh are determined to keep you out of the promised land that God has for you.

You need to be careful when you start lagging behind, when you become indifferent to spiritual things. Now a person that isn't in the house of God, Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church." I want to be in the place where the gates of hell can't touch it. I don't want to be out there on my own. Out there, I believe hell can get to me.

The Amalekites and this story are written in the scripture so that you and I might learn how to be true followers of Christ and to serve Him and be part of His people. We need to know who we are. We're Christians. We need to know whose we are. We're Christ's. We need to know where we belong. We belong together. We are the family of God. And you can't be part of the family of God and never be in the family of God.

And this is written to tell us that the foe came around and began to knock off the laggers. He began to kill them and began to destroy them. You cannot be part of the church and never be at the church. You can't be a lover of the Word and never turn to the Word. You can't believe in the power and presence of God if you never talk and pray to God. It's a dichotomy. It's a paradox. It just isn't so. It can't be that.

And this was what was happening to the children of Israel. This is why it's written to help us realize that we need to be astute in spiritual matters. If we were just as astute and as smart and as diligent about spiritual things as we are about other things. People say, "Well, I've got to take care of my family. I've got to take care of my job." Sir, you've got to take care of your soul. You have to take care of your relationship with God. A garden, leave it alone and it's going to have weeds. And there's a lot of Christians who really need a lot of help today.

Look at the scripture. It says that in verse eight, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Rephidim means resting place. Why is this here in the Bible? This is a true story. God is telling us you better not rest. You better not back off. You need to be careful that you don't lower your spiritual guard. There's no time to rest. We are soldiers of Christ. We are the church of the Lord. We have been summoned to go someplace. And God is taking us there as the church, as His flock, as His fold. And we are part of that fold.

Verse nine. Read it together. "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 hand.'" The staff of God. What is the staff of God? The staff of God is symbolic of the Word of God. I will stand on the top of the hill with a Bible in my hand, with the Word of God in my heart.

Moses had a relationship with God and the staff of God. This was before the Word was ever written. But this represented the promise of God, that staff with that crook. That was the staff that was put out over the Red Sea and the Red Sea opened up. That was the same staff when it was over, he put it back over the Red Sea and it came together and drowned the army of the Egyptians. That was the same staff that was taken into the wilderness and pointed to heaven when people were starving and God sent food and God sent manna.

That was the staff that Moses used to smite the rock in the wilderness when there was no water. And when he smote the rock, water came out. That staff represented the power of God, which is the Word of God. You're strong, I'm strong, when I have the staff of God in my heart and when I believe in it and when I live according to it. Moses said, "I'm going to stand on the hill. Joshua, you go into the valley. And whenever you start getting tired and you become faint and you feel like quitting the battle, I want you to look up on the mountain because I have the staff of God over me."

I'm under the Word. I'm in submission to the Word. I'm under the shadow of the Almighty. I'm in the pavilion of God and we will win. That's the only way you win, friend. That's the only way you win when you are in the Word and when the Word is in you. That's the only way you win, but you win.

What's the sermon title? How to Be a Winner. Now you know how to fight. You fight with the staff of God in your hand and you go out there in the name of the Lord under the authority of the Word. Let this Word cast a shadow over my life. Everywhere I go, in every relationship, at my job, at my home, wherever I am, I'm under the authority of the Word of God. No wonder there are problems in the home and on the job and in personal lives. You'll never win without the Word. But you will always win and be victorious when you follow the Word of God and do what's right.

Verse 11. Read verse 11 with me. "As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." Notice those first three words: "As long as." Just as long as Moses held up his hands. And I know what God is saying to us today and I want you to hear it. As long as you follow the Word of God.

As long as you obey the Word of God. As long as you live under the Word, hands raised up with the staff of God, symbolic of the Word of God over me and intercessory prayer. Those two things make you a winner every time. As long as you continue that prayer and communion with God. As long as you do this, you will have the presence of God with you and you will win. But if you start resting in Rephidim, if you lower your guard, listen, it is only as long as. You can quit anytime. But as long as you keep fighting.

As long as you keep contending. As long as you keep believing. As long as you do this, you will win in your home, in your family, in your marriage, in where you work, and in your own life. Some of us, the worst enemy we have is something within us. There's doubt and there's unbelief and there's shiftiness. There's inconsistency. We're up and we're down. We are our own foe. But as long as you come under the Word of God.

My desire and my prayer and my commitment to you is that we will be, by the grace of God, a people of the Book and a people of prayer. And as long as we follow this Book, as long as we maintain a relationship, a holy communion with God, as long as we do those two things, we will have the presence of God in our lives, in our families, and in our church. Just as long as we do that.

I want to tell you something and I'm convicted over it. 25 years ago, we purposed that as long as there are lost souls, as long as there are teenagers unchurched and out of the fold, as long as there are family conflicts and divorce and hurt and pain, just that long, we're going to continue to pray, continue to believe, continue to work, continue to do, until God tells us it's enough. That's a decision that He must make, not one that I must make.

But I have made that commitment. That commitment is real today. That's my mission statement. That's my missionary call and it's more than words. You've seen it. It is an action and it is an activity. Words are only good when you walk them out and live them out. God promised the children of Israel a promised land and they believed in that God and in that promise. Amalekites or no Amalekites, they were going to make it to the promised land with the Word and with prayer. With the Word and with prayer.

God said you have to cross the Red Sea. You have to go through the deserts. And when you get into the promised land, there are going to be giants there. How often I've heard people say, "Well, if God were for us, why would we be having all this problem?" Because there's a devil that's against us and there's a God who's trying to grow us into strong, believing Christians. God said to the children of Israel, "You walk into that land. You walk into the land and you claim it with your feet. I have given you the land, but you have to go get it now."

God always pulls us into partnership with Himself. God's not going to do it all by Himself. You certainly can't do it all by yourself. That is, live this Christian life or anything else that He asks you to do. But you and God together make an unbeatable team. You never lose. You always win. You'll have some setbacks, some discouragement, even some failures on the surface, or at least it will appear that way. But in your heart, victory still rings and you know that you're in His will because you're fighting the good fight of faith with the Word and with prayer because you know who you are and you know who He is and you have His promise within you.

We need to come to the altar of the Lord. But I truly believe that you have heard enough today to stir your heart, to speak to your heart, to challenge your heart, and to bring you back. There are some of you who are lagging. There are people here who should be teaching Sunday School. For whatever reason, God gave you a gift and you despised it just like Esau. Some of you need to be singing in the choir. I don't know why you're taking the attitude of Esau, the attitude of comforting the flesh and doing what's convenient.

There are some of you who need to be pledging, but you're not doing it. I don't know why, but you need to stop resting and lower your guard. Some of you have stopped praying or prayer has become very slack. The Word of God has become very slack. You are dropping your spiritual guard and I can guarantee you the devil's going to deal you a knockout blow soon and you're going to wonder, "Pastor, what happened? What happened?" But I'm going to be kind. I'm not going to tell you I told you so. I wouldn't do that.

But I love you. I care for you. I just wish I could put my arms around you and say hell and the devil are out there after you, your family, your marriage, your children, your teenagers. I want to bring you in here where I can love you and protect you, but I can't do that by myself. You have to bring yourself to God. And we're going to come now into the presence of God. We're going to come and submit to God. Let us come and come under the shadow of the cross, the shadow of the Almighty, the staff of God and say, "Here I am. Here I stand." Like Martin Luther said, "Here I stand, so help me God. Here I stand." I'm a child of the Book. I'm a child of God's Word. I will not despise the Word. You say you don't despise it, but you don't turn to it. You say you don't despise prayer, but you ignore it. You say you don't despise church, but church is always in competition with your leisure time. Think about it, friends. We are in a spiritual warfare and the Word of God tells us very plainly in Ephesians chapter 6, we must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We can only be strong in Him.

Guest (Male): Victory comes when we stand under the Lord's banner. If you're walking through spiritual challenges, Pastor Morris's e-book, "God's Power for You," offers encouragement for daily victory. And you can hear more messages like this anytime at thehealingword.com.

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