The Exodus Week 4 | 4.18.21 | The Pursuit

so hey welcome to uh really our last week of our exodus uh sermon series thanks for hanging with us the last number of sundays here really sensing that god is doing some incredible things here on sunday morning i know i'm a little biased because it is the church that i have a privilege to help lead but i really truly believe that there is no place like pursuit and so thanks for hanging with us and supporting and uh believing in really the word from god that we have uh for uh this region as mentioned in our announcement video as you guys know starting this thursday we have conference coming up with really some world-class uh speakers that we were fortunate enough to partner with uh for this event if you haven't already signed up we're going to encourage you to do so and we're going to be excited to host that this uh coming uh week you know as a church we don't do a lot of conferences some churches and some church cultures it's like they have a conference every three days and uh in some charismatic environments that's not our environment we haven't done one for a number of years but really felt like this was a divine time a divine window of opportunity for the church to continue to take the next step here in this region so please be praying for us as we head into conference week i hope to see uh many uh of you uh there one of the things that we're excited about and and uh if you haven't had a chance yet to check it out you're gonna want to uh we've been working with our team to really redevelop uh our online experience with our website and a lot of the forms there now you can fill out online and submit right there in your browser and so one of the things that we've uploaded is our membership form and i would encourage you if you haven't yet considered becoming a member of this house please do we'd love to have your formal support as a member of this team and may 2nd we're going to be introducing all the new members here in this community several hundred of them and so if you haven't already considered membership please do so and we'd love to have you here in the house of god this morning i'm going to share with you a little bit out of the book of uh exodus and in chapter 17 it records a story in the life and in the timeline of the israelites that is is rather important it's happening about a year after moses has led them out of egyptian captivity in fact most of the book of exodus is covering that first 12-month journey out of captivity in the wilderness looking for the promise of god and in exodus 17 is is no different it happens about 12 months after moses leads the people out and they're in the wilderness and one of the things that they're facing in the wilderness is not just issues of prosperity and issues of food and water and all sorts of things but also these nomadic tribes that are seeking to war against god's people and exodus 17 tells us about one of those tribes and they're named the amalekites and the amalekites are doing war against god's people and and god has a conversation with moses uh in regards to that construct and i think it's helpful for us to dive into that a little bit this morning and maybe uh uh receive uh from from what scripture communicates about the ethic of what it looks like to follow god exodus 17 starting in verse 8 the bible says this the amalekites came and attacked the israelites at a city called rephidim the amalekites came and attacked the israelites at a city called refidem just let me start there this morning and share with you this principle any good idea that comes from god never manifests without a little resistance in fact as a believer i began to internalize resistance as a sign that we're actually pointed in the right direction not the wrong direction jesus tells us to his disciples he says in this world you will have trouble or conflict but be of good cheer for i have overcome the world so we understand as christ followers we have signed up to follow jesus not because it is easy but because it is worth it and i think sometimes when people talk about christ followership they make it sound like every day you're going to wake up everybody's going to cheer you on you're never going to argue you're always going to win the lotto and you'll never have any problems and the problem is we have sold people short on what the gospel actually communicates jesus says it this way unless a man deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me he cannot be my disciple if a man seeks to save his life he will lose it but if he loses his life for my sake he will find it the ethic and the culture of the kingdom of god is upside down to our world today it is antithetical to the systems that govern what it looks like to have success in our world today and in exodus 17 uh the israelites have come out of about 430 years of captivity under pharaoh as slaves in the egyptian system they finally get in the wilderness and you would think that god in his kindness and in his grace would have smooth sailing until they get to the promised land but 12 months in they revolt against moses they say take us back to egypt at least egypt had onions at least egypt had some seasoning at least they had some good food we'll go back into slavery but at least satisfy our flesh and so moses is dealing with disbelieving people who are grumbling and complaining against god who have lost sight of the promise only a few months into their 40-year journey and then out of the blue they are attacked by the amalekites at a city called referendum you know i got an email this week from somebody just letting us know that they were unhappy with our conference they're going to be outside with protest signs at pursuit conference this coming week i thought to myself man bring your friends you know just i've just began to internalize that resistance not all the time but a lot of times is a sign that you are pointed in the right direction and so instead of becoming depressed or down or having a pity party or feeling bad about your life or saying woe is me you're complaining to god because you think you deserve so much better maybe we ought to understand the construct of conflict as one of god's most powerful developmental tools in our life do you know that there are some spiritual quantities that will never be developed in your life until you face conflict in the wilderness and god in his grace and in his mercy walks with us through a lot of different seasons in life knowing that there are a lot of different areas of our heart our spirit our character our emotional intelligence that got to be developed through seasons that we would rather fast forward i don't know if you have been in a difficult season i imagine you have and our temptation is to say god rescue me out of it instead of develop me in the midst of it and the response of spiritual maturity is god even when i don't know what i'm doing i know what you're doing and i'm going to trust that you walk with me both through the valley and the shadow and there's development on both sides of those elevations and so for you and me today we haven't signed up for easy living we've signed up for worthwhile living knowing that god is working in us all things together for the good of those who love him think about it like ingredients with baking a cake nobody likes those stand-alone ingredients as a dessert but when they're all mixed together baked at the appropriate temperature left in the oven just long enough what it produces is something that is worthwhile but we don't want the oven we don't want the mixture we don't want to take the time we don't want to allow ingredients that otherwise would function as oddities we don't want any of that we just want what's on the end of the journey but god loves you enough to not give you everything you want god loves you enough to not give you everything you want but instead walks with you through every season of life he is the master developer he knows what we need more than we know what we need friend if our chief objective in life is to have movement without friction we will never grow beyond this spiritual moment the israelites weren't looking for trouble but trouble was looking for them and it happened while they were in a city called rephidim the reason why i keep bringing that up is because that city's name in the original hebrew means this a place of rest friend listen what looks like strategy to the enemy always looks like opportunity to god's people because we are actually at our strongest when we are at rest you can't afford to be a depressed intercessor you can't afford to be a worn out christian you can't afford to be a disengaged believer in this hour we do our best warfare from a place of rest in fact this is the principle of the sabbath while we are most at rest god is most at work let me say it again while we are most at rest god is most at work i think we have looked at rest as the absence of action but that's not how god describes rest in fact rest is an attitude it's an action it's a verb that shows motion what it's describing is this element of continuing to serve god running and not growing weary but not doing it from a place of trying to earn his love or earn his acceptance but doing it from an understanding of your identity that i already have his love and have his acceptance see when i operate from a place of rest i'm not trying to earn through striving god's stamp of approval on my life because i already have it because of the blood of jesus i've been seated in heavenly places invited to enact heavenly business and what god says about my life my future and this church is the final word and so you'll have detractors and you'll have protesters and you'll have everybody who loves to give every opinion about every situation in life but the reality is this when you are a person who refuses to give away your rest it prepares you to engage in strategic warfare for the hour ahead in deuteronomy 25 the bible says this when the lord your god gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance you shall blot out the amalekites from under heaven do not forget in one translation of deuteronomy 25 19 the bible records that god says he will blot out the memory of the amalekites from every generation i want you to understand that one of the reasons why we engage in spiritual warfare is not just because it's focused on our own individualized self-actualization like i want to have a better life and i want to be a better person so therefore let me engage in some of these spiritual principles do you know that when you engage in a life worthy of following christ when you live to the high call of god which is in christ jesus it's not just about giving you freedom or giving you breakthrough it's about doing something in the generations which means this obedience echoes in eternity and so when i'm a person who refuses to lose my peace refuses to lose my rest refuses to lose my focus stays in a place of worship stays in a place of surrender it's not just about me living my best life it's about me setting into motion a generational inheritance that my kids kids can carry on friends in this church we are standing on the shoulders of people who came before us who plowed in the region who believed who prayed who fasted who interceded for a move of god in the northwest we are not people who are self-built or self-engineered no we are simply the next domino in a generational effect of obedience and it is also true about your life what you do in this hour matters you might be facing stuff today and thinking why me but i'll tell you what people who have a generational perspective say i rather it be me than my children so let me get victory in this region let me get victory over this issue let me get victory over this pothole or speed bump or ditch in my life so that my children's children don't have to face the same battles that i faced and so for us in this region as we're standing in this place of spiritual intentionality warfare worship it's not just about what god is going to do in 2021 but what he'll do in 20 31 41 51 and 61 long after we're gone it's about what god does in the generations let's say we've made faith so individualized but scripture doesn't speak about my faith it speaks about our faith it speaks about the commonality of the faith of the brotherhood the idea that when we come together it matters for eternity do you know that the new testament word used for church is ecclesia and that's a word that the authors of scripture borrowed from local government it was a word that meant the gathering of governmental officials to conduct official business that's why church is important it's not for you to be entertained because they'll share good messages and and then and i'll preach a couple of messages that aren't so good and you'll have great worship experiences and there'll be other times where you're not feeling it it's not about our entertainment it's about our activation as people who operate with governmental authority to conduct the business of the king so that's why scripture says if you bind it there it's bound here if you loose it there it's loosed here jesus says i no longer call you servants i call you friends why because friends know and transact the business of the master that's why scripture says you are ambassadors of heaven not seated in earthly places but seated in heavenly places do you know that when we gather on sunday morning it is with the authority to shift principalities and powers never sell yourself short on the gathering of god's ecclesia paul says this in ephesians 6 12 for our struggle or our battle or our conflict is not against flesh and blood but against rulers authorities powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms let me expose a lie this morning some people believe that the more christian i am the less conflict i'll have here's the truth the more christian you are the more conflict you'll have but the less conflict will have you and that's what it means to be self-differentiated i'm okay in the sea of things that aren't okay in the midst of storms that are happening around me i'm gonna be okay because my eyes are on the one who has already finished my story and it always ends better than it started because he's working all things together for what the good not the average not the subpar but the good of those who love him and when moses tells the lord show me your glory else i'm not leaving this place the bible says god hid moses in the cleft of the rock and his goodness walked in front of him that's maybe the most basic definition for the glory of god it's his goodness on full display when we gather here on sunday morning we are celebrating the goodness of god in the land of the living we are celebrating and interacting with the way the canopy the covering of god's glory that is deposited on his people friend there's something that matters connected to our worship connected to our confession connected to our praise connected to our lifestyle there is something that matters in verse 9 the bible says this moses said to joshua choose some of our men and go out and fight the amalekites and tomorrow i'll stand on the top of the hill with the staff of god in my hands and so joshua fought the amalekites as moses had ordered and moses aaron and her went to the top of the hill and as long as moses held up his hands watch the israelites were winning but whenever he lowered his hands the amalekites were winning and i was reading that verse this week and i felt like the spirit of the lord said this to me as long as the church will stay in a place of worship and surrender the region will have victory now you might say well it's nice that the spirit of the lord spoke to you that but where do you see that acts 16 about midnight paul and silas were praying and singing hymns to god and the other prisoners were listening and suddenly there was an earthquake a shaking in the region such so that the foundations of the prison were shaken at once the prison doors flew open watch and everyone's chains came loose not just the chains of paul and silas not just the chains of the church not just things that help people back who deserve breakthrough but the chains of everyone came loose which tells me this when the church refuses to be moved from a place of surrender and worship it's not just about us getting free it's about the people who are impacted by the shift of the spiritual principalities and powers oh it's not just about singing a nice song no in worship in worship we do violence against the works of the enemy the bible says this the kingdom of god suffereth violence and the violent take it by force no fred you are right now engaged in violent conflict no not against people but against spiritual forces and dark rulers and authorities in the region and why is there such this thing that comes against the voice of the church in this hour because if the church is silenced and if we get moved from a place of worship and surrender and we begin to lower our hands in a spiritual sense all of a sudden we've given permission for another force to move in and to take ground when the church worships the foundations of bondage in a region are shaken loose frey we have an obligation to this region to stand and after we've done everything to stand to continue to stand you know what my prayer is in this hour god vindicate me without pouring vindicate me without pouring vindicate this region with a move of your spirit that's how god proves that quote unquote were right that's how god balances the scales of history he vindicates his bride with an outpouring of his spirit we owe the world an encounter with god we owe this region something more than dry dead religion we owe this region something more than a safe sunday gathering we owe this region more than a couple nice principles on sunday morning that never change your life and never impact your family we owe the region an encounter with god you might go well how is that even possible well if we just keep our hands raised and stand back we'll see god move now watch what happens you're here today because someone somewhere didn't give up and the region comes into blessing and victory when the church shows up in power we've got foundations of sickness and foundations of depression and foundations of false religion and and foundations of addiction and when the church engages in worship god begins to to shake things loose watch what happens in verse 12 but moses's hands grew tired and so they took a stone and they put it under him and he sat on it and aaron and her held his hands up one on one side and one on the other so that his hands remained steady until sunset so joshua overcame the amalekite army with the sword friend victory in this city isn't dependent on me it's dependent on us when you serve in kids ministry you're helping hold up my arms when you tithe in obedience to god's word you're helping me hold up my arms when you invite a friend pray for somebody at the altar connect with a new family you're helping me hold up my arms and together we are seeing breakthrough in the northwest and we've got to connect our faith to something more than the action of a few but instead know the partnering of god's people for divine strategy for the hour in which we live then the lord said to moses write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that joshua hears it because i will completely blot out the amalekites from under heaven and so moses built an altar and he called it the lord is my banner if you've been in charismatic world for any number of months or years you've seen a banner in worship but the way that it's used in exodus 17 is as a sign of war and as a sign of victory now those of you who know my story know that i used to work in in the governmental sphere i worked for the washington state legislature and there was always something that happened that was interesting when a foreign dignitary would come to visit olympia whether it was an ambassador from china or or japan or another trade partner somewhere else and they were coming to visit the state capitol there was always three flags in the rotunda and the highest flag was the flag of the united states and the second highest flag was our state flag and the third highest flag was the flag associated to the nationality of the ambassador who was visiting but it was like our elected leaders wanted everybody to know that when you walk through the halls of power the highest flag belongs to the nation fred i want you to see what's happening here in exodus 17 god is telling moses in the same way when you wage war and wage conflict that you raise the banner of the particular tribe that you're in i've got a flag that is higher than yours and it's waving over the city and it's waving over this region and it's waving over sickness and disease and poverty and conflict and it's a flag that belongs to the lion of the tribe of judah and he is raising that flag in this region and in this hour so that all who walk by it can see that our highest allegiance and our highest honor belongs to the one who is worthy the one who sits on the throne and the banner over the northwest belongs to king jesus and the church in this hour is being invited to partner with god in the racing of that flag and there's a part for you to play you may never stand on a stage and deliver a sermon but that doesn't mean that you have an excuse to not be involved there's a part for you to play and when the church shows up in power god responds from heaven and the foundations of the region are shaken and for too long in too many places we've allowed inferior voices to wave their flags as if they own this ground but the northwest has always belonged to god it was framed by his very breath when the spirit of god hovered over the darkness and his voice rang out in all of creation when he separated the dry land from the waters and his glory covered the earth friend the northwest has always belonged to him and the church in this hour is recognizing what has always been true and we raise our flag and we stay in that place of worship with our hands held high and we stay in that place of surrender with our hands held high and in doing so god gives us victory come on would you stand with me as we close

Channel: The Pursuit NW

Views: 249

Rating: 4.5555553 out of 5

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Id: 93gllIS5CSY

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021