Exodus chapter 17. Exodus 17, and beginning in verse 8. If you're there, say a word. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So 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. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he set thereon. And Aaron and her 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. And Joshua disconfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Quick rewind. Israel set free from bondage in Egypt. God brought them out. They come to the Red Sea, the Egyptians chase them, God parts the Red Sea, gives them victory over Pharaoh and his army. But ever since that victory in Egypt and that victory at the Red Sea, The children of Israel have had an eventful journey, let's say, in the wilderness. It's not been easy at all. Last week, we saw they faced bitter water and thirst and hunger. And in every situation, God provided. He made the bitter water sweet. He made manna and quail for them. He gave them water from a rock. And so through every trial they have faced, God shows his people who he is. He's continually revealing more about who he is and what he will do for his people as they go especially through trial. Do you think the people of Israel would have known God the way they ought if they never went through any trials? I would say no. They would have probably thought this is all about Moses. He's the man. He's great or we're great. But because they went through hard times and had to look up and see God's deliverance and God's helping them, they learn more about who He is. You see, God not only delivered them, but He also is sustaining them through this wilderness experience. So that leads us to chapter 17, verse 8. And this is the first time, I mean, they've had, you know, some issues, some struggles, some trials. This is the first time where they're going to be under actual attack. So my first point is a question and an answer. How does God give victory is the question. The answer is we are a dependent people. So let's talk about the story we just read. So a group of people called the Amalek, Amalek, actually descendants of Esau. And so connected to Israel, but not part of Israel. Amalek was actually the grandson of Esau, according to Genesis 36. They are a warlike tribe, nomadic tribe. Amalek would just wander around and try to see who they could overtake. In this case, they see Israel, and I'm sure Israel seems strong in number, right? There were a couple of million at this point. But they probably seem weak in organization. Again, they're kind of new to this wilderness journey. And so Amalek decides to attack them. And so it's an unprovoked attack. Israel was not looking for a fight, but a fight came to them anyway. And so what happens is, as you read in verse nine, Moses tells Joshua, you need to get us an army together. Pick out a group of guys and go out and begin to fight. these people we have to defend ourselves and the very interesting thing about this fight I love this text and I think you probably all heard it before the plan was not to just go out and have an amazing battle it was much more to it than that Moses said I'm going to hold up on the top of the hill hold up the staff that God's given me And as we see there, as the staff is held up, Moses' hands are up. Joshua is having success. When Moses' hand comes down, what happens? Amalek starts to win the battle. So what's the point of this raised hand, raised staff? What's the point of Moses being on that heel, overlooking the spike, lifting up his hands? R.C. Sproul said, Emelech's attack on Israel was not a small tribal skirmish. It was actually a rebellion against the purposes of God. The Lord's war with Emelech is his war with all that resist his redemptive will. So this is a fight not just amongst two groups. This is a fight amongst the people of God and these people who are attacking the people of God. So what do we take from this? How do we see the victory here? What do the hands and the staff matter? Well, we are a dependent people. And this is not easy for us, by the way, as we apply it. It's not easy for us because we like to be in control. We like to think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps. As the old saying used to be said, I like to get things done myself. But when it comes to our lives, when it comes to things, spiritual things, especially. Doing things on our own does not work, but it might work for a time. But when it comes to spiritual things, we must be dependent upon God. I was at a of youth camp many years ago. And we were sitting in this room with all the leaders, pastors, youth pastors, lay leaders and churches, probably 50 people in a room. And the leader of the camp got up and he gave a devotion, a very good devotion. It was from Isaiah. And he began to pray, and he basically prayed like this. He said, Lord, if this service, because we're about to go into a worship service, he said, if this service is not going to be about you, then we're just going to stay in this room until it is. He said, we're not going to leave this room and go to the service until we're all on board with the idea that we must depend on God to speak to us through his word. And I thought that was a very powerful moment. And we all began to just pray, you know, one at a time, pray together and ask God to do the work we could not do. And I'll never forget that moment for many years ago. But that's the idea of being dependent. And to be honest, how many times do we just rush in the church? And I do this, I got to get my music together, I get the sermon together, got up, you know, we got to make sure the sounds good and do all these different things. Or even you, how many times you rush into church got to get the kids here got to get this going on. How many times though are we coming in saying God, we need you to do something in the service. Speak to us through your word. Help us to praise you in our songs and our prayers. We need to be more dependent on him. And that's what God shows them in this section. He shows them, they must be dependent on him. Because as they're attacked, did God say there to run away? He didn't tell him to run. And then Moses says, Joshua, we're going to fight. But this fight is not going to be because Israel has a great army or great expertise in war. The fight is going to be won because of God's power. So Moses holds up his hand, holds up the staff. Was there magic in the staff, y'all think? Was there magic in Moses' hands? Special power, no. Where did the power come from? From the Lord, from above. Amazing story. I love the picture of when his hands are up, they're winning. I can just imagine them watching Joshua down there fighting. Going good. He's getting tired because he's there all day long. His hands go down. Hamlet starts winning. Wait a minute. Let's lift him back up. And then Joshua starts winning again. It's a visible, this story of the hands going up and down of Moses is a visible reminder that victory only comes when God's people depend on him. That's when we have victory. Doing it ourself does not bring the victory, depending on him brings the victory. And the uplifted staff and the uplifted hands to me, it's also a symbol of prayer, right? Because prayer at its very heart is me saying, I don't depend on me, I depend on him. Even something as simple as praying for our food, right, Lord, thank you for this daily bread. And I know I would I would venture to bet most of us don't pray for every meal like we probably want to be busy running around. If we go to a drive through line, I'm not praying while I'm driving down the road. I mean, I don't do that, but I could. But but every time we stop and pray, even for the small things, we're saying, Lord, I depend on you. I depend on you. One preacher said the rod in Moses' hand was more powerful than the sword in Joshua's hand. They won this victory because of God and their dependence on him. But the second thing that they learned to be dependent on, not only the Lord first and foremost, but they learned to be dependent on one another. Because if you remember the story here, what happened when Moses got tired, verse 12, He got tired, and first Aaron, his brother, and then her, another leader of Israel, they take a stone, they give him a chair basically, right? A stone, hey Moses, sit down and take a break, let your legs rest. And then, okay, now I'm seated, I'm doing all right, but the hands start going down, and what do those two men do? I love this picture, they begin to hold up his hand. They begin to hold up his hands. I love this. Joshua needed Moses's intercession. And then Moses needed Aaron and hers assistance. And the people, the whole group needed God's power. I think this is such a beautiful picture of the church. God's work is never meant to be done alone. Right. Not one person in this place is called on to live your Christian life all by yourself or to do the Christian life, the Christian walk or the work of the church all by yourself. I'm thankful here. I don't have to do that. I'm thankful here. There are certain things that y'all do right. I don't have to do the things I do that y'all don't have to do. We we share the load of what God's called us to do. And that's what makes the church such a beautiful thing as each part works together as it ought. So Aaron and her hold up his arm and give us a beautiful picture of what the church should be like. So after they win the victory, finally, verse 13, God tells Moses, write it in a book and make this something to remember. And Moses writes and says, basically, the Lord is our banner. The kids say it like this. I don't know if they still say it, but they'll say when somebody does something good, they'll say, put respect on my name. I put respect on his name. The Lord is my banner. That's Moses saying, put respect on his name. He's the one that won the battle. He's the one that fights for us. And don't ever forget it. Now, guess what's going to happen? They're going to forget it. But he's going to keep reminding them over and over again. The Lord is our banner. Moses is saying, if we will fight in history, we will have more and more victories. If we fight in our strength, we're going to have failure. I don't think I put this on the notes up there, but do you see in this story a foreshadowing of Christ? You know, Christ is the greater Moses. And as Moses lifted his hands for victory, Christ on the cross spread, his hands were spread, and he won the ultimate victory. Christ's hands, though he was human and suffered and died, they physically were weary, right? But they didn't fail. As Christ left his hands up, he won a decisive victory that all who believe in him have eternal victory. I love finding these foreshadowings of Christ in Exodus. Well, so application, is there some area in life where you're finding in your own strength? Answer, lift your eyes to the Lord, he fights for you. Today's call to worship said some trust in chariots and horses, but we trust in the Lord. Now this could be, I have a list here on my notes, this could be a relationship problem. You're trying to figure it out on your own, Ask God to help. This could be a job related problem. You know, we all have maybe co workers or a ball so different things in work that might be a struggle. Ask the Lord to help financial situation. Ask the Lord to help some sin that we can't get over. Ask the Lord to help whatever it is a trial of sickness of struggle. Lift up your eyes to the heavens. See if God can help and the answer is he can help. Are you weary in prayer or ministry? Are you tired? Do you feel like, man, I'm doing so much and nobody's really helping me? Let other people hold you up. Be a part of the church so that we can encourage each other and be there for one another. I say this all the time, but I personally rarely ever leave this place feeling discouraged. I almost always leave this place feeling encouraged. And that says a lot, because in my previous ministries, I would leave Sundays oftentimes feeling discouraged, like not one person seemed to be listening to the sermon, or whatever. But on Wednesday night, y'all, I mean, sometimes we're tired when we get here, right? You've been working, or you've been doing this or that, and you're tired, but every time I leave, I feel revived in the Lord, almost every single time, because of our conversations, our prayers, our fellowship. So are you weary in ministry? Are you weary in life? Let the church hold you up. And then finally, when victory comes, we're going to give glory to God and God alone. Of course. So our first main point is how do we have victory in life? And the answer is we are to be a dependent people, depend on him and depend on each other. Chapter 18. I'm putting 18 with 17 because I think it's similar. But here, God provides wise leadership. There you go. Now, I'm going to summarize the first half of this chapter. After they win this battle, Moses and Israel has a visitor, and the visitor is a man named Jethro. Jethro is Moses' father-in-law. Jethro is from Midian, east of the Red Sea. Midian was actually a son of Abraham. So again, all these people are related distantly. But Jethro was not of Jacob, not of the tribe of Israel. And yet, even though he's not of Israel, Jethro comes to see Moses out in the wilderness. That's what Jessie said this morning. I was telling her the story. She said, we found him out in the wilderness? Yeah, I guess somehow he found him. He just went out in the wilderness and found him. But I guess it's a few million people. Maybe you can spot them. But Jethro finds them. And this man who again, not of Israel says, I've heard what the Lord has done. And He, as he learns about it, he even blesses the Lord. He even worships the Lord. And this, again, is a small preview of the promise God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that one day their descendants would only be a blessing to Israel, but to all nations of the earth. And so, Jethro is this small little example of that, as a man who was not a part of Israel comes to praise the God of Israel, showing the gospel will one day, again, reach all tribe, tongue, and nation. And so as the other comes, he brings Moses wife and his two sons. And by the way, something interesting I found this week, and you can see it in verse three and four. His two sons, Moses' sons, Gershom and Eliezer, their names mean, I have been an alien in a strange land, and the Lord delivered me. Moses' sons were named, I was a stranger in a foreign land, and God delivered me. Moses' sons' names were a picture of what God did for Israel. I think that's a very neat thing to point out there before we move on. because that's actually what happened so Jethro talks to Moses praises the Lord they see what's going on and then I want you to skip down to verse 13 it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people the people stood by Moses from morning into evening and when Moses father-in-law saw all that he did to the people he said What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning to evening? And Moses said unto his father, the father-in-law, Because the people come out unto me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God and his laws. So I'm out there judging. I'm out there helping figure out situations. I'm the wise leader. They're all coming to me. Verse 17. Moses' father-in-law said unto him, the thing thou doest is not good. Thou will surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou are not able to perform it thyself alone. Harken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. Thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds and rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. and let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. Thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, and thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said. And Moses chose able men out of all the Israel and made them heads of the people, rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons. The hard causes they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses said his father-in-law, let his father-in-law depart. And he went to his own land. God provides wise leadership. And the story I think is fairly self-explanatory. Moses is doing too much. We say that sometimes, you're doing too much. He was doing too much. And his father-in-law gives him very wise counsel and says, you're not going to last. You're going to wear yourself out if you do all this stuff. And not only is it going to be bad for you, it's going to be bad for all the people as well. So the counsel was pretty simple. Find godly men, appoint them to do leadership roles. And that will bring much less chaos and much more order and organization. And I think this is the important part because These people are about to continue to wander in the wilderness and go through many ups and downs and curves and they need leadership and they need some type of organization. They need some type of a lack of chaos, because it could surely get very chaotic out there. And God, through Jethro, is providing to Moses this good counsel. And the thing that I kind of put here in my notes is, if I were Moses, would I listen to wise counsel? I don't know. I mean, who was closer to God at this time than Moses? Moses could have said, I'm not listening now. I'm, I'm the leader that God taught you in a burning bush death row. You know, the guide is your staff make miracles happen death row. Moses could have had that attitude. But he didn't. Hey, I know, by the way, people like that. I know, pastors like that. Can't tell me anything. I'm a preacher. I know it all. That's the kind of preacher I was running from, by the way. I have friends that tell me stories like that. I tell them that I would run away from the preacher that knows it all, or the acts like he knows it all. I don't want to talk to the Christian that thinks they know it all. I want to talk to people that you can have good conversations, right, like we have here, trying to grow with each other. Moses, to me, shows humility here as a leader to say, you know what, Jethro, that makes good sense. I will listen to you. And it even says he did it and put it to action and it helped the whole people. God gives all of us strength to do certain things and gifts to do certain things, but he calls us to use our gifts wisely. Again, I'm thankful that, you know, that we have Kendall working that stuff back there. Junior doing the stuff back there with our services. I'm thankful that certain ladies make sure we have the food right all the time. for the devil does our financial stuff and other things around the church and all everybody has a part you play and that makes the whole thing run better. It would be really frustrating if I had to go back there every Sunday before the service and start the computer to record the sermon or, you know, it's like, all right, Shelby, you get together all the meals for this week, you know, that'd be really frustrating. That was my job on top of everything else, right? But we share because that's what we're supposed to do. And it makes things go better. And so some people have better strengths at certain things than others. And God, I believe, just like with Israel, wants the church to be organized that way. God, scripture tells us that Christ gave shepherds to equip the saints, Ephesians 4. God, Christ gave shepherds, pastors, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Listen to that verse again. Shepherds are called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So shepherds are not called pastors, elders are not called to do the work of the ministry, but to equip us all so that we can all do the work of the ministry together. That's a big difference. That's a big difference. And then that mindset of a church, then the mindset of it's the preacher's job to do it all, or it's this deacon's job to do it all. No, we say it's our job, the church's job to work together for the building up of the body of Christ. By the way, even chapter 18, in my opinion, points towards Jesus. Moses is trying to handle every situation on his own, and it is unbearable. He can't do it, he can't keep up. Think about Christ. Again, the greater Moses, the greater mediator, Christ bore the weight that Moses could never bear. as our, again, our mediator. I like finding those connections there. Our application for this point, honor godly wisdom from others. And it may not be a father-in-law, it may not be a mother-in-law, it may not be a, maybe it should be somebody at church or somebody you know. If you get godly wisdom, that should be honored and respected and accepted. I'm appreciative of people in this room who give me godly wisdom. I hope I can do the same. We should be seeking that out, shouldn't we? I mean, do we not all need more wisdom for life? We all need it. No matter how young or old or what we're going through, we need wisdom. And of course, God gives it. We pray for God to give us wisdom. But sometimes the way God gives it to you is he puts somebody in your life to speak truth into your life. And we're foolish if we say, I'm not going to listen to that person. So God, give us wise counsel from others. Help us be wise counselors. Respect Godly leadership, those God's put in our lives as leaders for us. Respect those and serve faithfully where God has placed you. Whatever role God's given us, we're going to serve faithfully in that role. Conclusion. So in chapter 17, we see this battle where God shows them, I'm going to sustain you. Your own military, your own fighting, your own power is not going to sustain you, I'm going to sustain you. I'm going to be the God who fights for you when fighting needs to be done. Which, by the way, that's awesome. God said, I'm gonna fight for you. It's like the story, I've told you the story before, When I was in 8th grade and this guy threatened to fight me and I went and told my best friend Mark who ended up being a college football player, a real big guy. And we went out for the fight and it was me and this dude and a few of his friends and then the whole football team behind me and my big friend Mark. And the guy was like, Maybe next time. He walked off. His whole crew left. It wasn't because of me. I was a little 140-pound dude who couldn't fight anybody. But who was it? It was Mark and my home law team. It was my friends. I wasn't going to fight. Even if the fight broke out, I still wasn't going to be fighting much. It was going to be them fighting. They wanted to fight, really. God's standing here saying, I'm going to fight for you. Whatever you're going through, you don't have to do the fighting. You've got me on your side. Depend on me. Trust me. Turn to me like I turned to my friend Mark immediately. The fight coming. I need your help. Turn to the Lord immediately. I'm going through something. I need your strength. I need your power. I need the muscle. Lord, I need your help. So God shows them through this. He's sustaining them. And then he shows us through chapter 18 that he is the provider of wisdom. I'm going to sustain you by my power and I'm going to sustain you by my wisdom. He led them through so much, and now he says, look at me, wait for me, look to the heavens. So when we are weak, he is our banner. When you feel weak in any area of life, you say this, Lord, you are my banner. You are the only one who can do what I need done. I look to you, not to myself. And then finally, when you're unsure, seek his wisdom. We all have decisions to make about life, things we go through. How often do we make those decisions on our own? How much better would we be if we went first in prayer and in the word, and then secondly to a brother or sister in Christ and say, hey, can you give me some help? What do you think about this? The same God who gave them power, the same God who gave them wisdom, is our very same God who can give us power and give us wisdom. The first Thessalonians 5.24 says this. The Lord who calls us is faithful, and he will surely do it. We can depend on him. We must be a dependent people on God. Let's pray. So Father, help us to trust in you with all our hearts, to not lean on our own understanding, but in all things to acknowledge you. And we pray that you would lead our paths. And may we, when we're going through things, may we lift our eyes up, take our eyes off our earthly solutions and look to you first. Because we know that you do have the power, you do have the wisdom, the might, to guide us, help us individually, and even as a church. So Father, may this sermon, may the summary of the sermon be, we cannot do this life alone, but we know that we don't have to. So our prayer is that you would help us, you would guide us, you would lead us. I pray for each person in this place right now, Father. I don't know what everybody might be going through, I know day by day we still need you. Every day, every hour, every moment, we need your help, we need your guidance. And so I just pray, especially just for each one here and our other church members who are out, be with them. And may we continue all to grow closer to you and to each other. I thank you for the people in this room who've given me wise counsel, and I pray that we could all continue to do the same for each other and grow together in Christ. Father, I pray that you would lead us to be a light for people around us, that other people might see Christ. Father, I just pray that you would save lost souls because of our ministry as we serve you. May those who don't know you come to know you because they see or hear the gospel from our lips. So we pray for those in our lives, those around us who are lost. Please bring them to you. So Father, again, we thank you for your word. We pray that it can produce much fruit. Thank you for being by our side. Lord, may we never fight alone. May we look over our shoulder and understand that you are right there fighting for us. Make us a more dependent people on you.