The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Well today we are continuing in our series of messages on Exodus part 2 I just want to make one tiny tweak to what Chris just told you you’re doing an incredible job hosting But the meeting at Shelby townships tomorrow night Monday night So if any of you want to join me over at Shelby Township at 7 o’clock or your Shelby Township resident That’s where we’ll be and we’re excited about that to get an update Hopefully just pray that Shelby Township just goes You know, what looks like everything looks good to us and says approved Because if you remember last month, we told you they came up with 31 things that Chick-fil-a had to overcome When we went a year ago for our site plan, that’s what they did They said you guys are so good at this. Everything looks great. You’re approved.

Praise God for that and Chick-fil-a They’ve given them a little bit more of some hoops to jump through So but today we’re gonna be looking at Exodus chapter 2 and today it happens to also be a special day For our tribe you could say our network of churches There’s about 300 churches in the state of Michigan 6,000 across the country. Does anybody know what today is? All right, some of you know, it’s actually Reformation Sunday Reveration Reformation Day is actually on October 31st. I know you thought it was Halloween But it’s actually Reformation Day.

We’re in the 1500s guy named Martin Luther Was just moved by the Holy Spirit to kind of stand up and and really bring the church back to how it Originally started with that. There is absolutely nothing you or I could do to earn or deserve our salvation Amen And so the the key to all this as this is all new to you is that we are just a grace Preaching grace extending church and we want God’s grace in our life We don’t want to have to try to earn our salvation or do anything to get his attention We also wanted to take that grace that he has given us freely given us and extend it to those around us. Amen All right, so that’s what we celebrate today as well.

And as I mentioned, we’re in Exodus part 2 This is basically the end of this series So today is actually week 8 and then we have three more weeks to go Those of you that are reading along with us in the reading plan. I would encourage you to keep doing that stay strong It’s been an incredible series so far. Amen.

And so let’s just end this strong if you haven’t been with us Let me just catch you up really quick. God rescued the children of Israel out of Egypt They were in bondage and slavery for over 400 years You might know parts of this He takes them out and they’re in the wilderness and they come to a body of water called the Red Sea All of a sudden their enemies are coming back for them by chariots So they’re riding on chariots this army and God parts the Red Sea the children of Israel go through it and when they turn around And they look back the chariots are coming through the Red Sea But God performs another miracle by causing the sea to fall upon itself Wipes out the army Everybody is killed and they have a big celebration because they know that God has saved them From there they start going into the wilderness. They had three days without water That God provides water for them they have several days without food God provides food for them and then last week again We see another miracle that took place With God making sure that he’s sustaining them in this desert by once again providing water for them So I want you to think about this All that these people have been through does anybody feel sorry for him There’s people at the nine that said no you believe that I Mean The the way that God has challenged them and challenged their faith and challenged them to be reliant upon Him and so here they are They have finally gotten through yet another obstacle.

Their bellies are full. They’re not dehydrated They had a good night’s sleep and wouldn’t you know, they’re gonna have another obstacle to overcome this week So you if you have your Bibles if you want to turn Exodus chapter 17 We’re gonna start in verse 8 where it tells us this They wake up the next morning and the Amalekites came and what did they do? They attacked them What is going on here? First of all, who are the Amalekites? Where did they come from? The Amalekites believe it or not. They’re actually a nomadic tribe and if you don’t know much about Nomads, this is kind of their mo They don’t really have a settled land They don’t have you know a place that they call their own and so the way they survive is by attacking others And by living off of others hard work And so when they see the Israelites and they see that they’re kind of easy prey they go and they attack them And so now they’re in this situation of how are they going to overcome it? In fact, we’re introduced to the Amalekites it all started with a guy named Amalekite in Genesis chapter 36 Esau’s son there actually was combined with a concubine named Tima who bore him Amalek and so here you see the beginnings of this tribe So out of one person out of sin really this this child is born and then now Generations have come and there’s a whole tribe and community of them And so as we start this it’s kind of interesting to just right at the very beginning in the very first verse You can kind of enter into the frustration that must have been going on with God’s people I mean, they don’t have a place to call their home.

They know that God is preparing the promised land for them They don’t know when they’re going to arrive They just know that they have to be obedient to Moses to his brother Aaron They’re following this cloud by day this pillar of fire by night But they have no idea from day to day the challenges that they’re going to a face And so let me ask you this right up front with this message this morning, how do you respond when you’re being attacked? What do you do You fight back Notice how the people that said fight back answered first right right away fight back some someone punches you you punch them back Someone says something bad about you. You say something bad back. Some people what they do is when they’re being attacked they panic They freeze They don’t know what to do Some people actually withdraw anybody have this happen when you’re being attacked you just find a closet in your house and you lock yourself in there and You wait and you wait and you wait Or how many of you when an attack comes the immediate thing that you do is drop down to your knees and you turn to God? That’s not usually the response because we’re human and so often we want to solve problems on our own And we want to try to figure out how to navigate life Not that we don’t love God.

It’s just usually our default mechanism Sometimes we assume that when trouble comes into our lives. It means we did something wrong. We must have made God angry We must have screwed up and that’s often not the case God allows his children to go through trials and circumstances and we don’t always Understand why we go through the hardships that we do God’s promises is that he’s never gonna leave us or forsake us And so think of it this way sometimes with attacks right in particular Sometimes it could be a diagnosis like all of a sudden you’re just going along your merry way and you get Diagnosed with something and you’re like now all of a sudden I have this new battle that I have to face I have this new reality that I have to kind of Navigate and figure out how I’m going to take these steps forward and getting the healing that I need Maybe the attack is mental.

Maybe it’s your maybe it’s your own mind And sometimes you allow the negativity that’s in the world around us To actually take root in your mind in your heart. For example, I Know some of you are excited that it’s October in November Do you know that and I know that all of you when you turn the news on you? Love watching all the political ads in the campaign ads, don’t you you’re like? I just I hope this goes through Christmas and even into the new year And did you ever notice and even when you’re scrolling social media there is never ever ever anything positive It’s always negative and I came up with this idea that I should run for office How many think that’d be a good idea if I ran for political office, right? Wouldn’t this be fun and this is my campaign idea is that I would say nothing negative about the other person I would only say positive things about them Do you think I have a chance of winning? Why not What if it could change the entire tide of the world that we live in? I was meeting with one of our members this week and she’s beaten cancer not once but twice and She was telling me the kind of the daily battle that she goes through when you’re a cancer Survivor that the devil has a way of getting in your head and sometimes making you think oh It’s just gonna come back and you’re not gonna live as long as the life as everybody else And so you’re constantly dealing with this negativity Maybe the attack is an addiction and there’s something that’s just overtaking you and and you’re trying to get help You’re trying to get the resources or go to the groups And but it doesn’t seem like it’s ever working and so you just keep trying and trying and trying so Attacks can come from all different ways and in different forms Look at what they do in this circumstance Moses turns to Joshua and he says choose some of the men Don’t you find that fascinating not all of the men some of the men I Mean, can you imagine some guys being like, you know what you guys go ahead into battle? I’ll stay back with the women and children and I’ll take care of you know, the animals and those things No, he’s going out. He’s hand-picking these guys and they’re gonna go and they’re gonna fight the Amalekites But wait a second.

They haven’t been training for war. They weren’t trained back in Egypt I mean all they’ve done is move from location to location and they’ve been obedient to their leader Moses up to this point and Then he says you’re gonna go fight them Joshua and I’m gonna go stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands So that our army the staff that has represented so many things up to this point from the parting of the Red Sea to to getting water So that that we would be nourished This is what has led and guided us and I want them to know that this represents God is truly with us Now some of you might be asking who is Joshua and where did he come from? This is the first time that we’re introduced to him. In fact, he’s gonna be a major character from here on out He’s a very important biblical character But he actually goes believe it or not all the way back to Genesis when we did the sermon series on Genesis He’s actually from the lineage of Joseph and so through several hundred years now God actually prophesied that that Joshua would be there that Joshua would be part of helping continue to protect God’s chosen people And so it’s fascinating that when God makes a promise that he still fulfills it hundreds of years later Amen, which we have to believe that when God makes us a promise that he’s still gonna fulfill it Maybe not even in our lifetime, but maybe in the generations to come.

Amen So what happens Joshua? He’s out there He’s fighting the Amalekites as Moses had told him and ordered him to do and then here you have Moses Aaron and her Who’s her? We don’t know Me and they go up on the top of the hill There’s not a lot written about her must have been something that Moses trusted Must have been somebody that was part of his inner circle and then it says this as long as Moses held up his hands The Israelites were winning But whenever he lowered his hands the enemy started to win Now what you might not know as well is that many people believe the Amalekites Were actually sorcerers that they were into demonic type activities, so these are not Christ these are not God followers. They’re they’re kind of the opposite of that and Not only so that they that they could fight in battle But some of the things that they would say or their behavior would be in that realm as well Which is why people believe that Joshua had to go and pick certain men. I want you to think about this guys He had to go pick certain men that not only could fight in battle.

They had to be strong spiritual men men of prayer and men of faith Because Jewish scholars actually will tell you Amalekites and this whole tribe one of the things that God was constantly Doing with the children of Israel was getting doubt out of their hearts Remember we said this throughout this series God not only got Egypt out God got the children of Israel out of Egypt He had to get Egypt out of their hearts just like today. God has gotten us out of the world through his son Jesus Christ He’s rescued us But God this side of eternity is constantly getting the world out of our hearts and our lives And so if you will with me this morning realize Amalekites is still them fighting the doubt that God is going to provide for them and Then it says this is That when Moses his hands grew tired Because imagine how long you can hold your your hands up in the air and yet he’s holding on to this stick as well It says they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it Does anyone ever sat on a stone before? It’s not very comfortable is it? You kind of get this picture of sometimes. There’s a struggle There’s a there’s a physical struggle and there’s a spiritual struggle as well And sometimes for us, I think we just give up too easily Sometimes we just need to go to God in prayer with our hands held high pleading with him Whether it’s for our behalf or a member of our family or maybe a member of our church family That’s struggling and saying God.

I don’t know how to solve this problem I don’t know how to get through this this obstacle or this enemy that is in front of me But I know that you do I know that God in your mercy and grace that even when I’m in the midst of this Difficulty that you see me and you know me and you hear me and that you will never stop working out your plan for my life Now what’s interesting is this last weekend my family took a little Side family vacation trip to this place in Ohio called Hawking Hills. Anybody ever been to Hawking Hills? I Fascinate I’ve never been there before and my wife took care of all the details and renting one of those Airbnb things and aren’t we all glad now that the Airbnb you don’t have to take the sheets off and wash the dishes you guys all See that come out Total side note there. I just got excited this week because they announced that from now on when you rent a house You can leave when you’re done renting the house You don’t have to clean the house and do the dishes and wash the laundry.

It’s great. Anyways, so we’re there and It’s fascinating because you go to these different places and when you go to one of the locations, you know what there are there’s a bunch of stones and You can walk over the stones you can walk under the stones or you can walk beside the stones and Then when you’re done looking at the stones at one location you get in your car and you go to another place at Hawking Hills and guess what you see more of and Then when you’re done at that location you go to a third location and guess what they have at the third location and thousands of people flock to this place every single year and Every once in a while someone just said it here. You might actually see a little drip of water coming down from a stone Here he is.

He’s out on a stone this Concrete thing he can see the people that he is led going to battle and wouldn’t you know? God blessed him with Aaron and her and they’re holding up his hands one on one side and one on the other And so that his hands remain steady until sunset Imagine how exhausted they would have been Talk about having people standing in the gap on your behalf People that are that are praying for you and encouraging you and lifting you up And I think this is so important because what I see in our society our people are just nasty People the what the the words that they say and The attitude that they carry around and and sometimes people even put marks on other followers of Jesus You know I’m talking about people that just walk around with bad attitudes And you’re like Jesus rose from the dead Jesus is our victorious Savior. Why are you such a sourpuss? Why is never anything ever going well in your life, and why are you constantly attacking me? Or why are you constantly attacking others go get some flippin help? Amen Anybody have this in your life? Anybody don’t raise your hand have a spouse Or a kid Or a parent Or a fellow church Member that’s supposed to be you know part of team Jesus, and they seem like every time. They’re just Negative negative negative negative negative.

I mean man. It just wears on you after a while this is what we need we need people in our lives that will come along and Lift us up and encourage us and support us I’m so blessed here at Shepherd’s Gate for so many reasons You guys know this that we put together a full rehearsal of our worship services on Thursday mornings whoever is preaching preaches their message to a small group of people before we ever come up and preach before the Gathering of God’s people on Sunday and one of the other blessings that we have as preachers before anybody preaches on Sunday morning we go into a room and our prayer partners lay their hands on us And they pray over us that we won’t screw it up Amazing people they come here early and they consider it that their ministry to church to pray over their pastors and preachers You talk about people that encourage you and lift you up What’s so fascinating is that? This account in Scripture this battle is actually Listed in the book of Deuteronomy and in the book of Deuteronomy God is reminding His people what he did and how he delivered them so look at this it says when the Amalekites Remember this what they did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt Yes, you were you were on that path you were on that journey toward the promised land but look at what it says when you were weary and worn out And when I read this I was like wasting time out God you gave him water you gave them food You gave them water again. You reassured them over and over again.

And yet these people were attacked when they were at their lowest You allowed your people to be attacked when when they were really struggling in life God. Why? Why is it that sometimes that’s what it seems like happens to us the attacks come when we’re already at a low point And so maybe maybe the tensions are already high in our life and our you know Our systems our internal systems are already struggling to just survive day by day Give you another example I had a conversation with my wife this last week and she said I need to talk to you about our oldest son Henry He’s one month away from getting his driver’s license She said we got to talk about this because he’s a really aggressive driver And just the other day I was in the car with him and You wouldn’t believe it. He was getting angry at the other drivers on the road and He was like honking his horn He was yelling at them because they weren’t turning into the parking lot in the time that they think that he should turn into the parking lot And I said really whose kid is this? And I was like tell more and She said she goes we got to talk about this and I say well, where did he learn this behavior from? And she did the I was like, I don’t call people jerks when I when they’re when I’m driving.

She’s like, oh, yeah you do. I Don’t honk. Well, I sometimes try to keep it to a three honk.

Can I ask this question? Why are we such angry drivers Why is Metro Detroit just a hot mess People tailgating people honking me included And she convicted me honest to God she can be at first I got defensive I first I said no, that’s just him and he probably learned it from your side of the family This is not something that I would The more I thought about it the more I realized that holy smokes he’s turning into me I got to figure out how to I got like one month to figure out how to reverse this And so I said this what if from now on Every time I have the urge to honk the horn or to correct somebody else’s driving that can’t hear me because they’re in their car Instead we say words of blessing over that person God bless them God prosper them God be with them and instead of honking the horn we put our hand toward them in that gesture of Wanting them to succeed What kind of community would change if we all agreed to do this together? What would change in us in our hearts? If we started embracing others in our community as not the enemy But as friends and people that don’t yet know the hope they can have in Jesus Let me ask you this who supports you when you’re weary and worn out Who has the ability to come alongside of you And to say I’m praying for you, and you know that they’re actually going to pray for you Who comes and without any questions or any judgment just says you know what I want to bless you with this I want to bless you with this Starbucks gift card, or I want to give you this meal Or writes out a card or become somebody that’s just there to hold your hands up as you are lifting your Burden to the Lord and as you’re releasing your burden to the Lord that God has actually put people in your life That would actually do that for you Do we thank those people do we recognize that they’re there in our lives We’ve talked so much about our society becoming more and more isolated Have we not and we know what technology and social media all the other things all the stats and data are out there And there was an interesting one that I saw just even this week That in the 1990s does anybody remember the 90s what a great era great music great hair I mean it was amazing In the 1990s think about this 50% of US households would have someone come to their household outside of their family So you would literally invite remember when people used to invite people over you invite them over for dinner You invite them over for dessert you invite them to come sit on your back patio Do you know in 2026 what the percentage is? 12% We are living in isolation folks We’re trying to not only you know Hold the rod up ourselves and solve our own problems We got to forget that first of all we first give it to the Lord And then second of all that God has actually placed people in our lives To come alongside us and to support us sure the negative people I would never ask somebody that’s negative that has a reputation for being negative that never says anything positive Don’t ask them to be your support system find the people that are positive find the people that are lovers of God and people of prayer that will come in and go through the difficulties that life throws at us together Some of you you’re in incredible families you have incredible support systems you have parents you have grandparents You have aunts and uncles that support you in every which way thank God for those people Some of you unfortunately you’re in households, or you’re what you’re with families that they just don’t support you spiritually and emotionally and I and I’m sure it’s frustrating and this is the beauty of why God has created the local church that the local church would Function as a church family that people would come together, and they would support each other and encourage each other That’s why we have the care program that we have it’s why we Pastor Eric is working double time and triple time to put people into small groups and communities and all these new Bible studies that are Coming up the Bible studies aren’t just to come together so we can open the Bible and learn those are all positive things We’re all for that But more importantly is getting people into community to be able to open up and to share life together That’s what we want for our church. Did you know that Shepherds Gate? We want everyone that calls Shepherds Gate home to feel like they belong here and that they are valued and That we want to be part of what it is that God is doing in their lives amen This is what ends up happening Joshua overcomes the Amalekite army with the sword They win the battle this battle out in the wilderness they Shoe these nomads away and are able to regain control of their possessions And then God does something interesting He says to Moses write this on a scroll is something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it Don’t you find this fascinating these instructions from God make sure that Joshua so that his ego doesn’t get inflated Make sure that he also knows who the one that did the real battling For the people of Israel because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven And this isn’t new to scripture. There’s actually a book of wars in the Old Testament God told them to write down these things as remembrance and if you look back just from our time with Exodus chapter 2 you can see this pattern that God has of Wanting us to put in writing memories that we have of his deliverance as soon as they cross the Red Sea folks Think about this as soon as they get to the other side they turn around they see that their enemy has been defeated What do they do they break out in worship and praise to God? God gave him the words and they’re repeating the words of the song and they’re Instructed to then teach that song to the next generation in the next generation in the next generation when God rains down manna from heaven part of his instructions are that you were to take part of that manna and you are to Put it into a box into a thing that people would then go and look at so that they would know that God Provided for his people and now here a third time He is telling them I am the one that defeated this enemy for you I want you to write this down in a scroll and I want you to carry this with you so that you can pass this down to the generations And what I love as well is not only is God Forcing them in and requiring them to have these moments these patterns.

He also Moses builds this altar To God to worship to God and he calls it the Lord is my banner Why? Moses wanted all of the children of Israel to know That it was because of God once again Because of his mercy and grace not because of anything that they had done but because God was with them He is their provider. He is their banner And then he says this because hands were lifted up against the throne of God The Lord will be a war against the Amalekites from generation to generation What is God continuing to battle in the hearts and minds of people doubt to this day The reality that God is who he says he is that he is the one true living God that he has sent his son to this Earth to die and to rise again for us And so I’ll think about it for us Today, what are the things that God has given us to remember him? What are some of the tangible things that we cling to? One of the ones that some of you you actually have around your neck Or we have one here like every church has is a cross We look to the cross and we can see that it’s empty That Jesus is the one that stretched out his arms Just as Moses had his arm stretched out and you can kind of you can kind of see the Foreshadowing of the cross even with Moses as he’s holding that piece of wood And as we look to the cross, we remember that our sins were not our fault Our sins were paid for by Jesus not something that we could ever do or earn his favor We not only look to the cross We look to the empty tomb because three days later was Jesus that came out of that tomb and he declared victory He won the battle for you and me over sin death and the devil Every time we gathered and how beautiful it was to see the baptism this morning That we got to see God at work in the waters of baptism bringing more and more people into his family Every time we gather and we receive the incredible sacrament of Holy Communion We receive his forgiveness we once again remember how good and gracious our God is and What a privilege it is to be Living in the time that we do where we have access to God’s Word I mean, let’s just be honest so many of us we have so many of these in our homes and yet It’s one of the hardest things for us to do is to pick this up and to read it But as we do as we read the pages of Scripture the promises of God fly off the pages And he gathers us here in worship so that we could see his word. We can hear his word.

We can digest his word Once again, we can be reminded about how much he loves us And that he will never ever ever stop working and fighting our battles for us. Amen Hear me this morning the battle you are fighting Belongs to the Lord Do you hear me today the battle that you are fighting belongs to the Lord All right, I’ll say it again the battle you’re fighting this morning belongs to the Lord All you have to do Surrender and Let God bring the people around you that are gonna help you and walk that path with you, man Will you bow your heads and close your eyes with me this morning Heavenly Father. I thank you God once again that you’ve gathered us together In this room as the people of God On our own wilderness journey through this world that you have placed us in With our heads bowed and our eyes closed God, you know every single person that’s here in this room or that it’s watching online You know the battle that they are facing God we pray in this moment that you give us the courage and strength to stop trying to do it on our own But instead now God to have the humility to just say it to you To lay it at your feet to hand it over to you To say God you have got to intervene in this situation for me You have got to bring a sense and wisdom and guidance Into this difficulty that I’m facing And God we also pray this morning For those that would come alongside of us That would walk life through life with us as support system to encourage us and to strengthen us God we thank you for them and we ask blessing upon them today as well We love you God for hearing our prayers and you answer them according to your will and in your time We pray all these things in your son’s most holy and precious name Amen.