This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. I want to talk to you real quickly about reminding the man of God. So look if you would at Exodus chapter 17, and I'm going to read the chapter with you. We'll get most of the order of service in, but we're going to go, I'm going to keep you awake while I got you awake. Exodus chapter 17 and verse 1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water." Underline that. There was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide, quarrel, argue, accuse Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why are you chiding with me? Why are you arguing with me? Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you tempting the Lord? Verse 3. And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee the elders of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, and take in thy hand, and go. 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. And he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah because of the chiding or arguing, quarreling, accusing of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? 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." And 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 sat there on. 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 discomfited, destroyed 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 Nisi for he said because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation Go with me if you would to verse 14 you'll find where I get the title of the message verse 14 the Bible says write this for memorial in a book and Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. That's probably the first time I noticed it this time as I was studying through this and I have preached all of this things at different times in my life and But did you notice what happens here? They're going to see some great stuff happen. God said, y'all write it down in a book and someday remind the men of God of what God did here today. Remind the men of God of what God did here today. Remind the men of God that I am going to be at war with Amalek, but rehearse it, recite it, tell it in the ears of Joshua one day. So I think that's a good thing for us to look at remind the man of God have a word of prayer with me if you would And we'll look at some things from this chapter father. I love you, and I thank you so very much for what you're doing I pray that your name would be honored and glorified and magnified. I pray you would build your church I thank you for the hard-working people that brought stuff and prepared stuff and cooked and fed all of us and I thank you for the spirit there is amongst our people. I thank you for the welcoming you gave people through your people here today. Now I pray God that you'd help us as we grow through the Bible, as we let it remind us and get into our hearts, and that you would get glory and honor from our lives. I give you praise for all in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me walk you through what's going on in Exodus chapter 17, if I could. Number one, maybe in the margin of your Bible beside verse one, The Lord leads them to a place of need. A place of need. I guess this is a very interesting thing. If you read chapter 17 and verse 1, by commandment of the Lord, they go where they're going. It's all the congregations of the children of Israel journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord, and they pitched where there was no water. And they set up their tents where there was no water. You would think that God would lead us where all our needs would be met immediately. There's something in most of us that think this. If I'm serving God, everything's going to go good. If I do right, everything's going to go good. If I give my tithe, if I go to church, if I read my Bible every day, if I pray, if I do all this good stuff, everything's going to go good. Exodus 17, that's not what happened. They just left the place where they got manna, and now God has led them to a place where they don't have any water. So you think that things are going to go good, but God often leads us to a place to test and strengthen our faith. They are not thirsty because they were disobedient. They're not thirsty because they were disobedient. If you look at chapter 17 and verse 1, they came by commandment. They're thirsty because He led them there. They saw God miraculously supply bread, manna, but now they need water. So there's a big lesson for you that we can all take home today from that one verse. That is, that being in the will of God doesn't mean we have a life free from trouble and stress. Being in the will of God doesn't free us from ups and downs in normal life. Being in the will of God just means that we'll have to trust Him and wait on Him to provide what we need. Being in the will of God means we'll have to learn to wait and not worry and not accuse. That's what the lesson is going to be. So would you look this way just a second, catch this with me. The first thing I want you to see out of this chapter is this, God led them to a place of need. And you might be thinking in your life right now, at Vision Baptist Church, I serve God, I love Jesus, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do, I've been through discipleship, I give, I give to faith, promise I do, I do, I do, and I still got problems. Okay, join the club. That's exactly what happened in Exodus chapter 17 and verse 1. You tend to think, well, if you do right, you don't have problems, and so God must be punishing them. Exodus 17, verse 1, by the commandment of the Lord, they were led to a place where they would find no water. He did it on purpose. He was leading them. The second thing I want you to look at. Go with me, if you would, to chapter 17 and verse 2. Chapter 17 and verse 2, if you would. The Bible says, wherefore the people did chide with Moses. That word chide means to accuse, to quarrel, to complain. They needed somebody to blame. When things don't work out, you often blame the spiritual leader. They asked Moses to do for them what he could never do. Moses, give us water. Moses give us water Moses realized the complaint wasn't against him, but against the Lord because he said in verse 2 He said why are you tempting the Lord? He knew that they were tempting the Lord. We quickly forget that God has brought us out of Egypt We forget quickly forget that God has given us manna and we blame it on Moses instead of thinking how God did great stuff. They immediately became desperate We quickly forget our blessings. We quickly forget our blessings. I need to be aware of how fast my emotions can change. I need to be aware of how fast my emotions can change. I can be so excited about what God is doing one minute, and discourage the next. I can be thankful one minute, and accusing God the next. I can be pleasant to be around one minute, and then in my frustration, strike out at those that I love the most. I need to learn not to live by my emotions. I should let the Word of God influence me more than my emotions. I can feel, but I can't live off of feelings. That's the second thing I wish you'd get this morning. You can feel, but you can't live off of feelings. Look this way just a second. Isn't it amazing? Do you not realize we're in Exodus 17? They've only been out of Egypt a few chapters, two or three chapters. They just saw God work ten great miracles. They just saw God open the Red Sea, close the Red Sea, destroy their enemies. They just saw God provide them with guidance day and night. They just saw God give them manna. I mean, they've been living on top of the mountain. Everything's been going good. And all of a sudden, when they find themselves in a little bit of a difficulty, they immediately get angry and mad. And they're mad at the preacher. They're mad at the leader. They're mad at the general. They're mad at the captain. They're mad at whoever they can be mad at because they forget it was God that brought them there. It was God that provided for them. It wasn't Moses. And that's a big lesson for us. Everybody in this room, man, we are all going to have all kinds of emotions. And we men like to talk about how women are emotional basket cases, but most men are too. We're like, one day we're excited, one day we're depressed. And we've got to stop that and start saying, I will live on the promises and not pout because of the circumstances. I will live on what God said and I will believe Him and put that to practice in my life. Go with me to chapter 17 and verse 4. The third thing I'd like you to see from this chapter Moses knew where to go when he had problems. Moses knew where to go when he had problems. You have problems, where do you go? Verse 4, Moses cried unto the Lord. And he said, they're ready to kill me. Look at verse 4. They'd be almost ready to stone me. They're about to throw rocks at me and kill me. Verse 5, the Lord said unto Moses, go, get your rod, go to the rocks, smite the rock. Moses did it. God gave the water. Then he named the place the place of murmuring and tempting God. They gave it a name. When you're in trouble, turn to the Lord. People will disappoint you. People will fail you. Looking at people will only cause you to get wrong attitudes and think and do what will embarrass you later. You can't trust people. You can't look to people. One of the best testimonies I think I ever heard one of our missionary wives give was given by Gretchen Masters, Tyler Masters' wife. And Tyler and her were having some issues. She's giving this testimony right here, so this isn't disclosing a secret. They were having little issues and little disagreements, and they weren't too happy. Tyler was off doing stuff. And when she was in one of her moods one day, the Lord seemed to say to her, you can't depend on him for your spiritual leadership. You can't depend on Him for your spiritual life. You have to walk with God. You don't need Him. And she said, I do need Him in the right way. I do lean on Him in the right way. But I found out that God would meet my needs. And then Tyler got arrested. And when Tyler got arrested, Gretchen said that's when really God made it clear to her And I would just like to say to you that we all are so dependent on another person So if somebody falls in sin it destroys us if somebody messes up it destroys us somebody in our family does wrong it destroys us we look at people way too much and And they came to Moses and said, Moses, why is it that we don't have any water? Give us water. And they accused Moses. But it wasn't Moses. They had a quarrel with God, really, and they were murmuring against God. I think it's a big deal for you to learn this. Don't look at men. Within this past week or so, the leader of a major megachurch and a good church of Florida stepped down from moral failure. They ran 20,000 in attendance in 10 campuses. And he stepped down because of moral failure that he admitted to. But you know, in all honesty, the church people, and I hope they will, they shouldn't have been looking at him. He wasn't the source of their strength. He wasn't the source of their leadership. We look to the Lord Jesus. Your husband can fail you. Your wife can fail you. Hey, you can fail you. But God doesn't fail you. So Moses knew, let's go to God. There, when he got to God, he got instructions. He got instructions about what to do in his time of trouble. That's what you need to do. Get instructions directly from God like Moses did. Now, I want you to listen closer to this. God no longer speaks to us that way. You really need to put your seatbelt on right now. I'm fixing to tell you some stuff you don't even, you're going to have a hard time believing. That's why a lot of times you don't need to be praying so much about decisions you're making. You need to be reading more than praying. So many of us are like, I don't know what God wants me to do here, let me pray about it. Most things, first off, God's not going to speak to you outside of His book. And I'll just be honest with you and tell you, God doesn't speak to you if He don't speak to you in Bibleese. That's the language He speaks. So if I'm praying and I say, well, I just want God to tell me what to do here, I need to know what the Bible says about it. I'm thinking about punching Eric in the nose after this. God, Eric's made me mad. I need you to direct me. When do I hit him? How do I hit him? Tell me what to do. I'd pray about that all day long. I don't need to pray about that. Does God say punch him? No, I can't punch him. So quit praying. Don't punch. Amen? I'm just going to tell you, hey man, we change churches over nothing. We change spouses over the same thing. I'm praying about whether or not God wants me to get a divorce. I'm like, well, He don't, so don't pray. Amen? You don't need to pray about that. Just get it right. I had one man in my church a long time ago. He prayed about his children's discipline. And I said, you don't need to pray about it. Just spank them. I said, we've been told what to do in Proverbs. Read Proverbs. Whip their little rear. Amen. And he said, I'm praying God will whip it. I said, he ain't going to whip it. He put the whip in your hand and told you what to do. You don't get to tell him what to do. Amen. And so we pray about things we shouldn't pray about. How about that? You see, Moses could have gone over and prayed and meditated, or Moses could go talk to God. Now, when God spoke to Moses, it was different. God said, hey, Moses is talking to you, buddy. Look at me. In fact, just go ahead and write down five books. I'm going to give you five books. I'll tell you what to write. You write, and we'll make Bible. He doesn't talk to me like that. That's why you've not heard me one time in eight years that I've been the pastor of our church, you've not heard me come in here and tell you this is what God wants us to do, unless it was in the Bible. Because I can't say to you, This is what God wants us to do. Don't come to me and say, also, what do you think I should do about buying this house? I want to be like, I don't know. You like it? Can you get a loan? Is the loan within your payment? I'd say, go ask somebody who knows something about buying houses. I ain't that good at that. Because I can't say, yep, yeah, he just told me. Yeah, he told me if you're not going to buy that house. That's not how it works. So when you want direction, go to the Bible. It's why often we pray and hope that God will say something while what He is saying is, I wrote it in my book. Learn to go to the Word of God and see what God would say. Learn to ask God for wisdom and then search His book of wisdom. Learn to ask God for wisdom and then search His book of wisdom. Don't ask God to not let something happen. I hear this all time. You guys will say stuff like well I'm asking God if he don't want it to happen to not let it happen What? What? Wake up. I'm gonna go stand in front of a train and say God if you don't that train to kill me don't let it I just wouldn't stand for the train advise you I Think I'd be a whole lot smarter say a man right there Well, I'm gonna ask God. I'm gonna try to buy this house if God don't want to happen. He won't let me get the loan Yeah, he will He'll let you get the loan and then look at you and say, you idiot, you got the loan, now deal with it. There's no place in the Bible that says God won't let the bank take advantage of you. Don't need to pray about that. You'd do better with a calculator than a prayer. Now you're mad at me, aren't you? But see, the truth is, we pray dumb prayers. I know she's lost. But I'll do some missionary dating, and I'll get her saved, and I'll marry her. And if you don't want her to marry me, then you stop her from marrying me. It's kind of like what I prayed when Betty and I were dating, when Betty and I were getting married. I was a dumb young kid. I didn't know about the Bible much. And I'm standing at the front of the church, and Betty's fixing to come down to the altar. She's standing at the back of Fellowship Baptist Church, Rome, Georgia, August 18, 1973. When she started down there, I said, God, if you don't want me to marry her, kill her now, quick. That was a dumb prayer. What kind of thing that prays a prayer like that? First, I should have prayed. If I should have prayed, kill me. I mean, why am I trying to kill somebody else? Kill that woman on that man's arm down there. It ain't her fault I asked her, but I, yeah. Dumb. Man, we pray dumb prayers. A lot of things don't need to be prayed about. Do I need to give? No, you don't need to pray about that. Just ain't no need to pray about that. Do I need to attend church? You don't need to pray about it. He already told you to. Do I need to love that brother? You don't need to pray about that. He already told you to. So Moses went to God. Moses went to God. I think prayer is often the excuse we use to do what we want to do and say God told us to when there's not one word of the Bible that says it. And I know I just made you mad at me, but that's okay. Don't ask God to make the circumstances like you want them, but rather get His wisdom and obey it. Remember, if they had prayed like we do, then they would have never gotten thirsty. Or they would have been frustrated, just like you feel right now. Because you've been praying when you should have been obeying. Let me show you how we would have prayed the prayer. So I can help you understand the picture. God, we love you, and lead us not into places where we get thirsty. You take care of us. You meet our needs. Okay? Thank you. Then they walk over here and they've got no water. And as soon as they've got no water, they say, I asked God. He led me. He brought me here. I'm thirsty. Prayer don't work. That's where they get to. Prayer doesn't work. It's not that prayer doesn't work. God had another lesson. God had another plan. Don't fall into that trap. When you find what God says to do, in this circumstance, then just do it, whether you feel like it or not. Remember that murmuring and complaining is actually accusing God. It's telling God, you do not believe that He is here with us. Our doubts are accusations. Our complaints against God are praise to Satan. How many times did places in your life need to be named Meredith? The place where I doubted God, the place where I accused God, the place where I told God He had left me. That's what they named that place. I'm fixing to go to the next point, but I would just like to say to you quickly, please listen to this. Number one, you get led to places where things don't work out right. I look back in Peru and I see all the bad stuff that happened and I could name all that bad stuff that happened. Daughter getting raped, losing her virginity, land being stolen, getting beat up, all the bad stuff that happened. And I could write a book about the bad stuff that happened and I could say, why did God leave me here? I remember the day we found out Chris had diabetes. He was 14 years old. He got he was very weak. He couldn't see but about six, eight inches in front of his face. We didn't know what was going on. The provian doctors didn't know what was going on. And when the doctor finally said he's got diabetes, I went outside and I sat on a bench. I said, What are you doing, God? What are you doing? Do you know who you're messing with? I am a missionary. I left America. I live in this God-forsaken, flea-bitten country of yours, trying to preach the gospel, and you give my boy diabetes. And you say, you ought not have felt like that. I know you shouldn't either. But we do, don't we? And God led me. God put me in places that things weren't. That's what happens. Then you go to the Bible. And when I go to the Bible, I'm told, don't think like that. Okay. So you say, well, it's hard not to think like it. I know, but that's not the point. The point is He said, don't you think like it. Think on these things. Amen? Know that God's going to work stuff out. So that's the lesson. You get led places that aren't always the best, and you've got to learn that we go to God in prayer to find out what He wants us to do. Exodus 17, verse 8. Exodus 17, verse 8. Standing and fighting. That'd be the word you'd write in a margin if you want. Verse 8 and following. Moses said to Joshua in verse 9, choose us out some in and go out. and fight with Amalek and I will stand. Some would go stand, and some would go fight. Verse 10, Joshua did like Moses said. Moses takes Aaron and Hur, and they go up on the top of the mountain. And Moses holds his hands up. And while Moses holds his hands up, Israel prevails. You know the story. You've heard it told a lot of times. Moses is up there. He's got the rod up. He's holding his hands up, got the rod up. He gets tired. And as he gets tired, he starts letting his hands droop. And when they droop, the battle starts going the other direction. Joshua starts losing. Aaron and Hur grab a rock, set the rock under the preacher. And the spiritual leader is not a preacher at all. Not a preacher at all. He's just a man of God. But you're all men of God. Everybody in this room is a man of God. They ain't just one in this room. This is a room full of men of God, women of God. Amen. And so they set a rock under him, and he sat down, and the other guys got on his arms, and they held his arms up. And as long as his arms were up, they won the battle. So look, if you would, some things I think you should gather from that. Number one, Moses chose Joshua to help him lead the army. Joshua will begin learning from Moses from this point forward, maybe before this, but that's the first time Joshua gets mentioned or seen in the Bible. His training will mainly be from spending time near, helping Moses, learning by watching. It's more caught than taught. Joshua will write the next book, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Deuteronomy, Joshua. After the five books of Moses, Joshua will write a book. He's going to be the next man of God. But he starts out here just being a guy that's being told what to do. By the way, he's going to pour water on the hands of the man of God. He's going to fight battles. He's going to do whatever he's told to do. As he learns, he's in an apprenticeship. Joshua chose out men to go and fight. Joshua goes out among the men of Israel, and he chooses those that will go and fight. I would hope that I'd be the one that he would choose. I would hope that I would be ready, practiced with my weapons, living the life that would cause those in leadership to want me to be on their team. I think it's a wild story. I don't know if you notice what happens. There's a whole nation of Israel. Moses calls Joshua. He said, come here, buddy. Go out there and find us some soldiers. Get them ready. We're going to go out and fight. And so Joshua goes out, and I could just see him, you can go, you can't go, you can go, you can't go, you can go, you can't go, come with me, you go with me. And Joshua picks out an army and takes them out with him. He went and chose out men. And as a pastor and as a spiritual leader, I know there are people I can call on, people I can count on, people you want to go to war with and other people you love them, they're kind, they're sweet, they're good, but you don't know if they'd be there. I want to be the guy that gets chosen to be in the battle. I want to be the guy that God would choose to use, and I hope that you have that same desire. While Joshua fights, Moses prays. Joshua will be in the valley fighting, but he'll still be praying. I think you can't get over the idea, you can't think, well, one guy's up on the hill praying. I guarantee you, if I was slinging that sword and there was blood going everywhere all around me, and I mean blood spurting out of somebody's jugular vein and hitting me on the side of the head and in the back, and swords are slinging and spears are flying, you'd think I wouldn't be praying. I'd be praying, Lord, help me not get hit. Lord, help me chop his head off. Lord, help me as I swing my sword. It's not that you don't pray, but it is interesting that God shows us clearly there were two groups going on there, one standing, one praying. He swings the sword while Moses is asking that God gives him strength and ability. There's not a separation of praying and serving, but an example of how you get involved. If you're one of the ones on the ground fighting, we should all go. And if you don't go, you ought to be praying. All pray either way. Men helped Moses pray. Moses holds up that rod. That rod is a sign. They're going to name it Jehovah Nissi, the banner of the Lord. They know that they win because the banner of the Lord is lifted high. It's the symbol of God and His power, not the symbol of Joshua and his sword. So as the rod is up, they win. As the rod drops, they lose. The work of God goes forward on the prayers of God's people today, just like it did back then. As you pray, God works. Will you be the Moses that prays? Will you be the Aaron and the Hur that help the prayer? and the prayer. We need both standers and fighters, senders and goers. Pray for the man who swings the sword. Help the man that holds the rod. But get involved. But get involved. Feel the pressure of accomplishing something for God. I don't know how to... As a pastor and a guy who starts things, And to go preachers in a pulpit, I'm often extremely pressured. I've come in knowing, man, this is the moment. I need God to work. I'm not that good. I can't speak that well. I don't have much intelligence. How am I going to keep them awake? How am I going to get the message across? God, I need you. I often feel like a boxer getting ready to go in the ring. I'm almost dancing around scared. I often come to the pulpit thinking to myself, am I going to get anything done today? And I feel a pressure on Sunday nights. I love Sunday nights. As soon as Cobb County is over tonight. As soon as I get home tonight, about 9 or 9.30, I'll get back to my house. I promise you, it's like vacation time till Monday morning. And then I'll start getting ready to preach for the next time. But I'm just telling you, I feel this pressure. All of us ought to feel that pressure. Everybody in this room ought to be like, we need people to get saved. We need the gospel to go out. We need the money to send missionaries. We need the money to take care of our needs. We're under pressure to do something for God here. One side of us says God's going to do it all. Hold the rod up. The other side is get in the valley and fight. Swing the sword. Both got to go on. We ask God, but we work. I hope that you get involved in the ministry. Feel the pressure. God's at work. But in no way does that mean he wants us to think like this. I will just sit, soak, and sour. Joshua will see great victory this day. Go with me to verse 14. Exodus 17, 14. Keep telling the story to Joshua. Now, I'll just be honest with you, this verse was written for me. Bad as that sounds, it really was. I needed this verse when I read it the other day. The Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book. Write it so you all will remember it. Get a memory book and keep it. And rehearse it. Recite it. Retell it in the ears of Joshua. That's mind-blowing to me. We're in the book of Exodus. We're going to get Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy before we ever get to Joshua. We've still got years to go before old Joshua steps forward. This is like one of the first battles you see Joshua leading in. But in a few years, somewhere around 38 years, 37 years from now, Joshua will take over and lead the nation. And here's what God said, I let him have a little victory today, Write it down in a book. Write it down so you all don't forget it. And when he finally gets into a place of leadership, set him down and say, let me read you the story of the first time God used you. Let me remind you, let me rehearse to you how God used you. They would write it down. They would never forget how God won the victory that day. By the way, you should keep a regular record of how God has used you. Everybody in this room is being used. You forget them so easily. We used to sing a song when I was a kid. Count your blessings, name them one by one, and you will see what God has done. And the truth is, most of us, if we sat down, we could say, I remember when I spoke to that guy and I helped him and he's serving God today. I remember when I prayed for that person and God did a work in their life. I remember when I gave that money. I know it wasn't much, but God used my little bit of money and did something with it. I know when I taught that Sunday school class, boy, God's been good to me. Write down your blessings. Everybody in this room, we're in a battle. It's not just Austin. It's not just the staff. We're all in the battle. Write it down and keep a record. Remember His great deeds so that you can believe Him. Remember His great deeds so you don't get discouraged. They were to rehearse it or recite it in the ears of Joshua. I wonder if Joshua someday would need to be reminded what God has done with him. Would he need to be reminded of how God did it? Through the banner, the rod, the prayer, the chosen men, looking to God to do something. Would it be that God would want them to believe later when Moses wasn't there that God could still use Joshua. I mean, I don't know how you see this, but they're going to run together for like 40 years. I don't know how old Joshua was. Maybe 20. I don't know how old he was. No way to know how old he was. But old Joshua spends 40 years with Moses. And Joshua doesn't mind going out and fighting. If Moses says, go over there and do that, Joshua's like, yes, sir. You're the man of God. I depend on you. But one day, old Moses is gone. And now it's time for Joshua to step up. By the way, every dad in this room, you're doing that with your kid. The way you're handling financial problems, emotional problems, discipline problems, children problems, you're passing on to your kids so that one day they'll say, I remember how God worked through my dad, and now I am the dad. I remember how God worked through my mama, and now I am the mama. I remember how God Let me have a victory while daddy was showing me what to do. Help your kids learn those things. Help your kids remember all the great things God's done with them. Even your children have seen victories. Your children have seen victories. It'd be a good thing to recite that in their ears. To rehearse it. I love that word rehearse. That word rehearse doesn't give the idea you tell it once. It's kind of like you tell it and then you tell it again and then you tell it again. Isn't that what that means? It's a good word. Tell it again. Tell him again. Sometimes We're embarrassed to talk of the great things that God has done with us, in us, and through us. But we know for sure that God wanted them to remind Moses of it. You know how it is. When you sink the shot, when you hit the home run, you can bump chest and high five. When you shoot the deer, you can hang the trophy. But when God does it, we kind of think like, I'm not supposed to say anything. But as long as you know it was God that was doing it, you can say it. And just remember, God did it and God used you. Joshua, write this down. He was also to be reminded because God was going to totally get rid of this enemy, Amalek. The verse says, I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. I'm getting rid of them. Not you, Joshua. I am. If you look at the verse right behind my head, you'll notice a colon in there. They put that there so you'd understand that one side is as important as the other side. He said, write it for memorial. Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. Because I'm going to get rid of Amalek. Not Joshua. Not you. Maybe someday in the future, Joshua would want to make a truce with them or forgive them. Maybe the people would later want to see war, would not want to see war with Amalek. God wanted them to remember that he had plans of war and destruction for these people. The word Jehovah-Nissi is used here to be remembered. Often they give a characteristic to God by adding an ending to his name, like Jehovah, Jehovah-Nissi. That end means God is their banner, their flag, their rod. Jehovah is the leader, and he has plans that they should carry out. Now let me give you some things to remember. and I'll be through. Remember that God leads you to places where you will have needs and hurts. Can I remind you of that, please? We're not gonna be able to get our kids out of trouble. We're not gonna be able to avoid places where we get hurt. We're not gonna be able to avoid places where we get stung. We're not gonna be able to avoid it. God will lead us there. You can not expect that serving God means that all goes well and that you have no hurts and no disappointments. That's just not true. You cannot expect that. Praying that God will not allow you to make a poor decision is not the wisest prayer. Praying that God will not allow you to make a poor decision is not the wisest prayer. We pray the dumbest prayers. You won't admit it, and you'll talk bad about me. But man, we'll fly down the interstate and say, God, let me see that cop if he's out there. And God, let him stop that other guy. Don't let him stop me. We pray the dumbest prayers. God's up at him saying, I ain't listening to that. That's a stupid prayer. Thinking that if you pray about it, you will not have problems is crazy. Complaining is like praising the devil. Your doubts will cause you to feel frustration and cause conflict with those that you love the most. Have you ever noticed how whenever you kind of get in a tight spot and you're not trusting God, you'll rip your wife's head off, you'll rip your husband's head off, You'll complain against the pastor. You'll complain against the father-in-law or the mother-in-law or the neighbor. You've just got to get mad at somebody. That's what happens in this story. Oftentimes over the years, Betty's such a sweet and kind wife, that over the years when I get tense and I'll snap at her, she'll say, Honey, anything wrong? I'll say, Nope. She'll say, How did you walk with the Lord? What's that supposed to mean? She says, Well, you're normally not that snappy when you're right with God. After she wakes up from the two black eyes, we talk about it. Your doubts will cause you to feel that frustration. Feelings are often good, but we don't live by them. Would you listen to that? In some churches that you go to, it's all about feelings. Man, the music jacks you up, and then the people sing and shout and run around. Everybody feels real good, but you can't live on emotions. Emotions are not how God directs us, are not how God guides us. I'm often worried when I hear people say I didn't get liberty as I prayed about that. That's OK under certain circumstances. But sometimes that's just a dumb prayer, guys. It means I didn't feel good about doing it. But you need to make your decisions based more on what the Bible says than how you feel. There are many times that I would make the decision if I went by my emotions not to preach, I would make my decision to run. We were in Arkansas when I was about to preach to a school there, a missionary meeting. And I didn't belong there. Big dogs run there. And I'm a little puppy. I'm a big fat puppy, but I'm a little puppy. And we were in the car. Mark Coffey was still here. And we were getting ready to leave to go out for me to preach. And I said, turn the car around, drive me back to Georgia, and call him and tell him I don't feel well. And he said, oh, hush. I said, I'm not teasing. I don't want to go here. He said, oh, shut up. And we drove on to the church. And I said, I want to punch him. And I got out and preached. They didn't invite me back, though. Proved my point. But you can't go by emotions. You'd run and wouldn't take care of your bills. You would run and not take care of your wife. You might kill your kid. I mean, your kid would get to frustrating you so bad, you want to chop his little head off. Micah doesn't believe that yet, but he might before it's over. But you don't go by emotions. When you have needs, get to God and His Word as soon as you possibly can. Realize that God seldom controls the circumstances to make everything go well for you. He does control circumstances to make everything train you, build you, and make you. Get involved in the battle wherever you are able. And keep remembering what God has done and remind your loved ones how good God is and what He's done. Never forget we're following God, not a man. Jehovah's our flag our banner and our rod. Let me give this last story and I quit our last statement. I quit I would like to challenge every one of you Have some little family meetings and ever so often just to remind your children how God's done good stuff in their lives Remind them recite rehearse What God did help them to know that you saw God moving in their life because you did if you'll think back You remember back when they answered, your little kid came to you and in faith prayed a prayer for God to do something. You saw God answer. Why don't you let your kid know, I watch God do big stuff in your life. It doesn't have to be the story about you, but share it. Help your children know. Remind the man of God of how God used him. I remember when I was young, a preacher said, if you'll look back on your life, and realize the number of times that you might have would have died had God not preserved you, you might realize He didn't mean for you to stay here. And I remembered back to a car wreck where I ran a car off the road at 16 and destroyed the car, totaled the car, and I got out of the car, went and called the cops, and my dad, and I was standing on the side of the road, and a policeman, everybody came up, and they said, that guy's dead. And I said, no, he ain't. I'm here. It wasn't me. I did that. And then I should have been dead, but God let me live. You should be dead and God let you live. God's got a plan for you. He's been using you. You're His. You count. He wants to do big stuff with you. Remember how big your God is. Father in heaven, I love you. And I thank you for all you're doing. And I pray you bless your people. I pray that you bring honor and glory to your name. I pray you glorify yourself. And I will give you great praise for all that you are, all that you do, who you are, and what you do. I love you and thank you. And I ask your name to be glorified in our midst.