The Lord Is My Banner

praise the lord and welcome to the new horizons church online worship experience we are so glad you are here on behalf of our pastor eric l wiggins lady camille and our entire church family we pray that you will encounter the lord jesus in a real and life-changing way god is doing a new thing at new horizons church according to revelation 21 5. so with the help of technology and our media team we can share god's love and word with you today if you are here with us for the first time we want to give you a special new horizons church welcome you could have joined so many other online worship experiences but you chose us thank you for worshiping with us today in keeping with our vision we are here to express our love for god through spirit-filled worship and to experience the greatness of god through the preaching of his word now please sit back in the comfort of your own surroundings and worship with us in spirit and in truth i wanna make his name great in this place [Music] i wanna see you i wanna see you open the eyes of my heart lord open the eyes of my heart i wanna see [Music] [Music] shining [Music] i wanna see [Music] oh [Music] shining in the light of your glory [Music] holy [Music] [Music] holy [Music] [Music] i want to give [Music] oh i gotta [Music] hallelujah we worship you jesus lord we want to see you lord we want to behold your people god we ask right now that your glory will reign oh god have your way in this place jesus open our eyes that we can see you god then we can feel your presence oh god have your way father we bless your name jesus we bless you lord [Music] hallelujah father in the name of jesus we thank you we thank you for being god we thank you for being our savior thank you for being our healer and our deliverer we thank you for being our shepherd and our guide god we've come to the moment we set aside this morning to hear your word to hear your instructions to receive encouragement and inspiration from you god take my thoughts and think with them take my mouth and speak with it that the people would hear your wisdom through my words you said that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god help us to preach and proclaim the good news of jesus christ with clarity so that those that hear it would be able to make right choices in their life god for somebody that needs to choose jesus for the saving of their soul i pray they would do it today in jesus name for somebody that needs to choose the right path and not the wrong path i pray they would do it today in jesus name god thank you for what you're getting ready to do what you've already done it's in jesus name we pray amen amen come on bless the name of the lord hallelujah stephanie keith justin thank y'all for taking us back to church amen amen it's good to be able to worship the lord in spirit and in truth together all right the lord has led me to a word in exodus exodus chapter 17 exodus chapter 17 and if you can stand in the presence of the lord we ask you to do that if you can i understand but if you can we like to honor the word of god being read in our hearing by standing and um i want to read all of chapter 17 but we'll focus in on exodus 17 verses 8 through 16 for our lesson today exodus chapter 17 verse 1 from the new king james says then all the congregation of the children of israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the lord and camped at refered them but there was no water for the people to drink therefore the people contended with moses and said give us water that we may drink so moses said to them why do you contend with me why do you tempt the lord the people thirsted for water there for water the people complained against moses and said why is it you have brought us up out of egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst so moses cried out to the lord saying what shall i do with this people they're almost ready to stone me the lord said to moses go before the people and take with you some of the elders of israel also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river and go behold i will stand before you there on the rock in horror and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink moses did so in the sight of the elders of israel so he called the name of the place masa and meribah because the contention of the children of israel and because they tempted the lord saying is the lord among us or not now amalek came and fought with israel and refered them moses said to joshua choose us of men and go out 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 said to him and fought with amalek and moses aaron and her went up to the top of the hill so it was when moses held up his hand that israel prevailed and when he let down his hand amalek prevailed but moses hands became heavy so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it and aaron and her supported his hands one on one side and the other on the other side his hands were steady until the going down of the sun so joshua defeated amalek and his people with the edge of the sword then the lord said to moses write this for memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of joshua that i may utterly blot out the remembrance of amalek from under heaven and moses built an altar and called its name the lord is my banner for he said because the lord has sworn the lord will have war with amalek from generation two generation the lord said to moses write this for memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of joshua that i will utterly blot out the remembrance of amalek from under heaven and moses built an altar and called its name the lord is my banner that's what i want to preach from right there in verse 15 the lord is my banner amen you may be seated in the presence of god um god is real he's as real as anything you can see hear touch taste or smell and i believe i got some witnesses in here because that's what we've been doing we've been worshiping god even though we can't see him he knows all about you and he knows all about me but god is interested in us knowing more and more about him god is not just interested in blessing you with relative resources he will do that but what he's more interested in is having a real relationship with you and a real relationship with me god is a god of relationship and what god knows is that in order for us to get to know him better sometimes he has to take us through some things and he has to bring us out of some things so that because of our experiences with him then we can truly say i know the lord somebody is trying to figure out in your life why are you back in church when the pandemic is going and your answer is because i know the lord somebody's trying to figure out why are you a christian and a believer in god for so long in your life and your answer is because i know the lord somebody's trying to figure out why do you serve and sow and sacrifice and do all of the praying and things that the faith requires of you to do and your answer is simply i just know the lord and even as you know him there's still some things that you don't know about him and god wants you to know him even as he knows you and so in this passage of scripture today god introduces himself or i should say he reintroduces himself to the people of god he's getting ready to show them a side of himself that they've not seen or experienced before and can i tell you that's what god wants to do with you today i know you already know him that's why you showed up here today to worship him but god is showing you a side of him that maybe you haven't seen before so that when you come through this experience that you're in now you won't just say i know the lord but you'll be able to say i really know the lord here's what's going on in the text let me give you the context and then we'll get into it um the children of israel as you know joseph uh left his family he was sold into slavery and he ends up in egypt and as joseph is in egypt he's there for a purpose but he doesn't get to his purpose until he has to go through some problems he's accused of trying to sexually assault potiphar's wife he's working in the house and he gets falsely accused of that he gets put in jail while he's in jail um he's he's helping other people he's prospering the jailer he's doing his job and he even though he helps other people they don't help him but then one day he gets promoted out of prison to be in the second in command in all of egypt next to pharaoh the reason he gets promoted is because he's there to help the government financially save the grain in the good times so they could have grain in the famine that's coming and joseph does his job in egypt and all the land surrounding all the peoples around them are able to eat and survive the famine but joseph's family then moves to egypt and at first it's a good relationship but as the people of israel as joseph's people grow in numbers the new pharaoh comes on he says i don't notice joseph and it could be that if the enemies come and attack us instead of them fighting with us they would fight against us and so the pharaoh of egypt put the israelites in bondage he enslaved them and made them work as his slaves and this went on for some 400 years generation after generation after generation god's people are in bondage they're slaves and they're agricultural people they are builders but but they're still slaves and they're crying out to god and god hears their cry and he sends them a deliverer named moses you know the story moses is the deliverer he goes to pharaoh and says let my people go pharaoh's hard-headed and hard-hearted and god has to keep sending plagues and problems one after another and finally pharaoh relents and he lets god's people go and now moses is leading the people of god out of bondage and he's trying to get them to the promised land now the promised land is supposed to be an 11-day journey from where they were to where god wanted them to go but because the bible says they were a stiff-necked people you know what stiff neck means don't you it's what my grandmother used to say they were hard-headed and you know what a hard head makes right it makes for a soft y'all laugh at the children of israel we got some stiff neck people in here today that what god is trying to do he's trying to get you from where you are to where you want to go but sometimes because of us being hard-headed it takes us longer to get there than it should take look at your neighbor say stop being hard-headed don't be hard-headed don't take the hard route to just do what you're supposed to do but that wasn't a story of children of israel because they were hard-headed and hard-hearted it ended up taking them 40 years in the desert which what should have been an 11-day journey to get to the promised land so while they're out there in the desert they are they are trying to get to the promise and they're in the desert and if you go back in verse chapter 16 they get hungry out in the desert because they there's no farmland out there there's no livestock there's there's nothing to eat and so god sends some bread from heaven he literally drops it down and feeds them for the day but he tells them only eat what is necessary for the day don't save up nothing because what he was trying to show him is every day i'll provide bread for you that's what jesus was referencing when he says give us this day our what daily bread he says god will provide for you for every day that comes there's new mercy that shows up every day and so god feeds them that's why they call it manna from heaven he feeds them this every day they go out and they get it they eat it and the next day is some more fresh manna from heaven he does this and then in chapter 17 you turn the page god has been provide providing for them in chapter 16 bread from heaven every day now they get to chapter 17 and chapter 17 they're traveling to this place called rephadom and when they get there now there's no water because they're in the desert and you would think they would pray to god the same one that gave them the bread in chapter 16 they would pray to him to give him water in chapter 17 but no they stiff neck people hardheaded instead of doing that they get up in the pastor's face and they get mad at pastor moses and they sent a delegation i can imagine they sent a delegation to say uh y'all go talk to him because y'all know he's crazy and tell him we got issues with why he has led us out here in this desert to die so they go to moses and and they say why did you lead us out here to die in the desert with no water for our children no water for our families why have you done this to us and and watch what moses says he goes to god and says god what do you want me to do with this people because they're getting ready to stone me but it's really your problem can i help some leaders here today when folk get upset with you they really not upset with you they're really upset with god you're just the closest representative that they could get in touch with that that's what i've learned in 15 years of pastoring god's people when people come to me with problems and issues with what the church is doing or not doing many times not always but many times they're not really upset with me they're just frustrated with what god is doing or not doing in their own lives and since i'm his representative and they can't get an appointment with him so to speak they say i'll take it to the pastor and and i've had to learn mr mcdonald in 15 years rather than going back at y'all i've had to learn god these ain't my people to begin with these are your stiff neck i ain't talking about you i'm talking about god's people i'm just letting y'all in on me in my conversation with god like god why are you sending them to me they getting ready to drive me crazy they're getting ready to stone me they want to put me out they they mad at me god and they it's not my problem i don't have no water to give them why they in my face and and when you have problems in your household when you have problems when you're in leadership you're trying to get stuff done and people are mad at you many times they're not really mad at you they're just mad at their circumstance and you are the representative that they can get in touch with and can i tell you when that happens don't don't don't go back at them just just look at them and smile and then go in your prayer closet and say god what do you want me to do with these your people moses goes into prayer and god says tell you what to do most go get some elders go get some mature ones out of the group cause there's always some mature ones you can talk to and y'all go to the rock and watch what i'm going to do i'm going to take the staff or the rod that is in your hand and i want you to hit the rock at horror the same way you hit the river but this time i'm gonna cause water to come out of the rock the last time i used it was to part the river so they could walk through the river the nile river or the red sea excuse me on dry land this time when you hit the rock water is going to come out of the rock can i tell you you got what you need to handle the problems that are in your life is already in your hand even before the problem showed up god has already given you the solution to the problem is already in your hand you just got to learn how to use what you got look at your neighbor say use what you got use what you got god has already given you the solution you just got to find out from him how does he want you to use it to fix the problem that's in front of you moses hit the rock and when he hit the rock the water came out of the rock and the people are drinking everybody's happy again everybody's on the same page the fellowship has been restored they love pastor moses now because he provided for them some water from the rock he's the greatest of all time again everything is good but then all of a sudden in verse 8 the bible says amalek came to fight against them and can i tell you you're in one of three places today you're either coming out of a fight you are either in a fight or you're waiting for a fight to come about there's one of three places that you're in right now today everybody's in this house you're either in a battle coming out of a battle or a battle is coming your way and god has already assigned the battle to show up in your life he's already put the enemy in place to show up in your life now watch this because he wants to show you another side of him that you haven't seen before can i tell you the fight that you're in right now it's a fixed fight it's already been put on the calendar and the end has already been determined and so you're trying to figure out well if it's already been determined pastor why do i have to go through it you're going through it because god wants to show you another side of him that you wouldn't necessarily see if you didn't have to go through the fight that you're in right now somebody you fighting with your family right now and you trying to figure out why am i going through this battle with my family why is it so hard cause god's getting ready to show you something on the other side of the battle that's been raging in your family somebody you've been battling with something going on on the inside of you it might be mentally health related it might be a physical health ailment and you're trying to battle with you're trying to deal with it you're trying to say god if you already know what is going to happen why do i have to go through this gossip because i'm trying to reveal something about myself to you that you wouldn't otherwise see if you didn't have to go through this and fights never show up michael at opportune times they seem to always show up when you're not looking for the fight to happen amalek just shows up on the scene in verse 8 and says it says he showed up and came against the children of israel a couple things that i'd be out of your way when the battle comes and rochelle it is coming i don't care who you are i don't care where you sit i don't care how faithful you are god will allow the enemy to come in and set up camp against you and when it happens here's the first thing that pastor moses teaches us to do you don't have to fight this battle alone watch what moses does amalek sets up camp against the children of israel they just got out of a church fight just had a bad church meeting and god saw the church meeting everybody's harmonious and happy again but now there's an enemy outside the camp moses says joshua come here he calls joshua to his side because he says joshua i've got an assignment for you watch what i want you to do joshua i want you to go get some men in the camp that can be an army for us to fight against amalek because when the enemy comes in you don't have to fight him by yourself you go get some more people that are willing to go into battle with you because one can put a thousand to flight but two can put ten thousand to flight you don't have to take this battle on by yourself look at somebody after you take your own note and put it in your own piece of paper and look at him and tell him you ain't gotta fight this battle by yourself look at him say we got some partnership in here we got some people that you can connect with we got some folk that'll go into battle and fight with you you don't have to deal with what you're dealing with by yourself joshua i want you to go find some other men that we can go into battle with and fight against amalek now let me press on this point for just a minute be very selective about the people you choose to go into the battle now notice what moses didn't say he didn't say go get all of the men he said go choose some men okay he didn't say go throughout the camp and post a bunch of flyers and say volunteers wanted for a battle you don't want that not for this enemy you gotta fight okay y'all ain't feeling it with that um i'm gonna mess this sermon up he didn't say go out and post on facebook get you a bunch of face false phony friends to follow you and think you got something to fight with not for this enemy you getting ready to fight facebook friends ain't what you need he says go choose some men in other words interview them ask them do they know the lord ask them do they pray ask them do they study the bible ask them who is your pastor ask them what role do they serve in their church ask them do you know how to get a prayer through ask do you know where genesis is can you find revelation in the first five minutes of a bible study he says choose some people because we gotta fight to get into can i tell you it's time out for picking friends like you in a school yard you got to pick some people that are blood bought and blood washed believers in the death burial and the resurrection of jesus christ i don't care what you had for breakfast this morning i want to know did you get in the presence of god i don't care what kind of makeup you wearing i want to know do you have the mercy of god operating in your life i don't care where you go on vacation do you have any spiritual victories that you can tell me about cause i got a devil to fight [Applause] how many followers you got on twitter facebook friends you got show social media man if i had hours to preach i tell you all right i gotta i gotta keep moving building your brand god said he'll make your name great make his name great exalted you don't have a brand one wrong post and they'll cancel your brand you better promote jesus and exalt him and let him make your name i wish i okay joshua choose some men that you can go into battle with and meet me back here when you got your crew joshua goes through the camp get some men look man we got to battle a fight and and here's here's what i discovered uh about about some folk um you you can kind of tell michael um if they like to fight yeah i got some friends they ain't quite right yeah yeah and some of y'all in the church some of y'all my friends i know y'all yeah y'all ain't quite right cause they they got kind of a short fuse as soon as something looked like it's getting ready to jump off it's on y'all have no friends like that soon somebody look a little cross-eyed they they ready to get it on them them the ones you want you know they're just a little off they ain't all there like you know don't push that button too far you know what i'm saying they all dignified they get dressed up but but but if they if somebody started talking crazy too long come on keisha come on keisha keisha come on can i get come on keisha keisha one of my friends like that i ain't putting keisha on french i'm talking spiritual now i'm talking spiritual i got some folk just let me mention something going wrong pastor we can ray pray let let me not smile enough pastor what's going on what we need to pray about no i'm good man i just i'm just i'm just a little tired i'm just good now perhaps we agree fast and pray we the devil is alive he ain't getting a victory over my past i'm like they're just a little off you know what i'm saying pastor what you need what you need what you mean i'm good i'm good i'm good i'm good because any sign of spiritual warfare and they're ready to go those are the ones that you need to bring close those are the ones you need to cultivate the relationship those are the ones you need to pull in and have the conversations with why because when it gets ready to go down in verse 8 show up and you don't have no warning you ain't got time to go out and get some folk you got to have some folk already by your side saying pastor let's pray pass it less fast pastor let's go into spiritual warfare we got a devil to fight i ain't got time to be playing with you i got something that's getting ready to try to tear my family up can you go into battle with me and let us get the victory together joshua go choose some men that are ready to fight and watch this and moses says now now joshua here's what we're going to do he says i know you've never been in a fight before you're a brand new general but i'm going to send you into the battle he said now what we're going to do is you're going to go down on the plane because the way they would fight in in the old testament they would um fight in the low planes there would be a hill and there would be a valley they would the two armies would meet in the valley and and moses said my brother aaron and i'm take her with me i'm gonna go up on the mountain and i'm going to lift up the rod of god and i'm going to pray while you are fighting on the level that you are on can tell you the second thing you need to do you need to you need to get some some some faithful people to to surround you but number two you need to have a faithful pastor in your life um moses said i'm going to be up on the hill praying while you down in the valley fighting he says because we got to fight the battle on both levels and and the text says that that when the battle started moses lifted up his rod and as his rod was lifted up then joshua and the children of israel started to prevail against amalek but whenever moses would let his hands down then amalek would prevail against the children of israel watch this the battle ebbed and flowed based on the prayer of the pastor at another level that that what was going on in joshua's life was connected to what was going on in his leader's life that what was taking place on the battlefield physically was a reflection of what was going on on the battlefield spiritually can i tell you that the enemy will do everything he can to disconnect you from your man of god but when you got a man of god in your life you can get some battles one on your level because the pastor you connected to is doing battle on another level and that don't mean we always got to be in the same place at the same time for you to experience the victory you got some victories and you didn't know how you got them it was because somebody was praying for you at a whole nother level you had some doors open and you didn't know how they opened but it was because your mama and daddy was praying for you at another level you made it through some situation that should have took you out but there was somebody that were on their knees praying for you and asking god to give you the victory can you give your praise up today for god sending some intercessors into your life that got you the victory while you were battling in your situation [Applause] moses is praying up on the hill while joshua is fighting in the valley it's an all-day battle see i i like i like people that say this um you better bring your lunch because it's gonna be an all-day fight if you come with me i ain't just here for the first round i'll go 15 and then we'll go longer if we need to it's an all-day battle joshua's in and moses gets tired and and and aaron his brother oh moses brother and her are up on the mountain with joshua i mean with moses now let me help some people um that are going to get opportunities to get close to leadership when when god gives you an opportunity to get close to leadership it doesn't matter whether it's leadership in the church leadership on your job leadership in in the community wherever whatever area leadership when god allows you watch this to get close to leadership is not to enjoy the view see some people chase getting close to leadership because they like the exalted position that being close to the leader gifts moses is up on the mountain aaron and her with him that that's an exalted position moses is on the mountain aaron and her with him that's that's a premium spot to view the battle that's that's an exalted position but whenever god gives you an opportunity to get close to leadership it's not for the scenic view it's for you to serve to help get the victory and what god will do is he will show you watch this the weakness of your leader now see some people can't stand seeing the leader weak it messes with their faith it messes with their view of leadership because when you get close to god's leaders what you see up close is different from what you see from a distance i'm gonna pull back the veil i don't know if y'all can handle this see from a distance you see moses hit the rock water gushes out of the rock and we all get water he's a miracle working leader but when you get close to him he's praying one minute and then he ain't praying the next minute one minute he's strong in the spirit the next minute he's weak in his faith and can you handle getting close to leadership and seeing their failures and their weaknesses because the reason god gives you access to it is not to point out the problem is to step in and solve the problem if if if the only reason you close to leadership is to say uh this is wrong this is wrong this is wrong this is wrong this is wrong but then leadership turned around and asked you well what are you going to do to solve it i ain't doing nothing i'm just here to point out this is wrong this is wrong i already know what's wrong i'm tired i already know what's wrong my hands have given out i already know what's wrong is there anything you can do to help other than point out what's wrong ben or point out what's wrong with her or point out what's wrong aaron help me get this victory because i got some folk down in the valley that need my help and while i'm weak they are losing i don't need you up here complaining about it's too hot in the sanctuary it's too cold in the sanctuary it don't do this we need to do that we need to do that no man go get some help and help the leadership if you close to it let me mess this sermon up some more let me come to your house wives just look ahead if you just look here whenever i know i'm talking about you you the only one know the weaknesses of your husband like uniform maybe you and his mother but his mother tried to warn you but you didn't listen she tried to tell you you wasn't listening and when you get close to a husband you start seeing this falcon as failures but the reason you're there is not to point them out you're there as a help me to strengthen him where he's weak husbands the more you get to know about your wife the more you find out about her areas of weakness that's not to criticize her but the word of god says that's to wash her with the water of the word so that she can be everything god intended for her to be the word will make up the difference on your job i'm gonna mess some of y'all up you not there to complain about the supervision your job is there to be a support to the one who needs the help that's why they hired you to do the job okay let me show you what i mean aaron and her said moses is tired he's weak he's been praying all day he's holding up the rod his arm's getting tired let me go get this stone and sit it up under him so he can sit on it and get some rest if i had hours to preach praise god for people who have come alongside myself and my wife and i to help us get some rest whether that's financially whether that's spiritually whether that's helping with our children whether that's helping at the church whether that's helping whatever when they come alongside and they set up a stone under moses they're giving him the support that he needs and then they stood by on each side and they held up his hands so that even when he got weak he was still strong because they said we're not going to let you fail because if you fail then we fail but if we use our strength to help hold you up we understand you being held up is going to help joshua get the victory and if joshua gets the victory we get the victory because we are all tied in this together i want to help somebody understand this that when you get close to leadership your job is to support and strengthen the leadership because it's tied into you getting to your destination this was a few years ago pastor johnson told this illustration it's a true story these people were on this bus and they were they were going across the country and they were going across the country and this this terrorist this this this murderer was on the back of the bus and he he gets up from the back of the bus and he has a knife and as he walks from the back of the bus he goes up to the front of the bus and while the bus is driving the bus is going 60 70 miles an hour he takes the knife and he cuts the throat of the bus driver and and kills the bus driver and the bus driver loses obviously control of the bus and the bus turns over and people on the bus ended up losing their life now i had two issues about that why would the guy on the bus cut the throat of the one who's driving the bus to get him to his destination that's that's insane to me if you cut the throat of the one driving the bus you are destined not to get to your destination and when people complain against the leadership that god has given them and try to cut their throat you're not just cutting the throat of the bus driver you're not just cutting the throat of the leader you cutting your own throat because you now put your own life in danger cause if the bus driver can't drive the bus you can't get to your destination but not only him the people on the bus how many people did he get to walk past with the knife before somebody would have said you ain't cutting this bus driver's throat you might cut somebody else's bus driver's throat but this guy is driving the bus that i'm on and if you cut his throat then it's going to affect me getting to my destination you can't let folk take out your pastor you can't let folk talk about your man of god why because this is how you get to your destination you might talk about another pastor you might run down his name in the barbershop in the beauty shop but when it comes to my man of god that's the way i get to my destination so you might want to keep your lips off of him cause i got something to do when we get into this destination i love aaron i love her because they they support the man of god getting to their destination i said all of that to tell you this moses is praying he gets the support he needs he's sitting on the rock they hold up his hands while he's getting the support he needs joshua is getting the victory in the valley and once they get the victory and the battle is over they destroy amalek watch what god tells moses to do i love this and i'm finished he says moses write this down in the book for a memorial and rehearse it in the life of joshua and moses wrote it down in the book and he made it so that joshua had to read it because this wouldn't be the last battle that joshua was going to have to fight as a matter of fact when moses goes off the scene joshua is going to be the new leader and joshua's going to have to fight battle after battle after battle after battle after battle in order to get to the promised land and he says i want you to remember the first battle you went through and the reason you got the victory joshua you didn't get the victory because you were so strong and joshua you didn't get the victory because i prayed so well joshua here's why we won that battle that day because you know how we are we do one thing and we think it was all on us we we we get one victory and we think it was because we were so smart we were so spiritual we were so good we were so talented or we think it was it's because of the pastor and and that might be a part of it but that's not the reason why you got the victory it's because of who god is and what he did he said write it down rehearse it then moses builds an altar and here it is he calls the place jehovah nisi the lord is my banner watch this he's introducing another side of himself that the people of god haven't understood yet in the in the in the desert he led him with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night because when you are wandering around god will be your god so what they knew god as as a god when pharaoh started to come after them they got to the red sea they couldn't cross it they needed a guide to navigate the red sea god said to moses hit the water the water parted east wind blew all night long the people walked through god guided them through on dry ground when pharaoh tried to follow him the red sea came back over drowned pharaoh and his chariots and his army because when you were in the desert you need and you're wandering you need a guide but when you're in warfare you need a general joshua i know it looked like you were the general that day but the lord is our banner oh okay i know why y'all didn't catch it we don't we don't understand what banners mean when when um professional teams and college teams win championships and win a lot of games what they'll do is they will hang a banner in the arena roosevelt to remind everybody who comes in of our previous victories and who was responsible for helping us get them so they lift their name and their number up to the rafters so that when people walk in they go yeah we are part of a championship organization and the reason we got that victory is because a so and so did something great to help us get the victory that's why we lift up banners in oregon arenas and for organizations to remind us that we're part of a winning team and the reason we got the victory in the first place when god is your banner it is a reminder that every time you go into battle the reason you got the victory is cause god was leading the team okay y'all didn't get it with that um in in the israelites day when you would go into battle they didn't hang banners from a rafter it was it was like a flag that was planted on the battlefield and it was a flag that indicated who we are fighting for and what his name is and and moses was saying the lord is our banner and see when when when the banner was stuck in the battle when the battle was raging if people got disoriented in the fight they could always look up and see the banner and remember what they're fighting for when you get disoriented in your fight and when you get disoriented in your spiritual battles god is your banner and when you look to him it is a reminder of who you are fighting for and when you can see that the lord is with you in the battle no matter how the battle is going it is a reminder that i cannot lose because i'm battling on the side of god when you have god on your side you and god make a majority god is undefeated god cannot lose and so no matter what it looks like when i know that god is my banner he is jehovah nisi he is the banner of victory that is over me no matter what my circumstance looks like i'm not looking to the fight i'm looking to the one that is above the fight to give me the strength and the victory to keep fighting on i'm preaching to somebody today you need to remember that the lord is your banner he's trying to help you understand you will get the victory moses is trying to help the children of israel like i'm trying to help you understand that god wants to show you a whole nother side of him that you've never seen before but he shows it to you by the fights that you have to go through i'll close with this i'll close with this um when you are in a relationship with someone um the whole idea is to spend time with them so you can get to know them god already knows everything about you and everything about me the bible even says he knows what very numbers of hairs that are on our heads you were created and made in his image and in his likeness you're tall enough short enough dark enough light enough your eyes are the right color your hips are the right size everything about you is right uh there's no need to change anything about you because god made you the way he wanted you to be and he knows each and every detail about your life from beginning to end he's alpha and omega he's he knows it from the end he knows everything about you he loves you despite what you may think or anybody else thinks about you he loves you just the way you are but in the relationship he wants you and me to learn more about him he wants you to know he's your banner he's over you in love he's he's your protector he's your provider but sometimes we have reduced god to the waiter at the table versus the one we are with at the table y'all missed it uh i took my wife out on a date yesterday and took to a place to get something to eat and what i discovered was that when we got to the table another person showed up and that person showed up and they introduced themselves to us at the table and when they introduced themselves to us at the table they started a relationship and they asked us what we wanted and so we ordered some uh some drinks and then we ordered some appetizers and we ordered our food and and this waiter kept coming back and forth giving us what we needed and there was a relationship that was established but but the waiter kept going back and forth and and just meeting our needs now um that wasn't why i was there i was there to get our needs met because we were there to eat but the higher purpose was to get to know my wife a little better he said no your wife yeah i've been knowing camille for over 35 years but because she's my wife she's got so many multi-facets like a diamond that you can look at one side and see something and then turn around look at another side and see something else and after 35 years i still don't know why she says some of the things she says you would think i should know but i don't because she's multifaceted she says and does some things i don't understand i thought i figured it out because what it meant ten years ago it's different now so i got to go on dates to learn what it means today because it might have been something different yesterday so so what i had to do is i had to manage the relationship at the table i appreciated the waiter helping me get my needs met but i was there to learn more about the one i came with ah we got to elevate our relationship with god out of the waiter service relationship we just keep asking him for what we need he'll do that he doesn't have problem with that because he loves us that much but what he really wants is for you to recognize that he's at the table with you so he can introduce more about who he is so you can learn more about what he is meaning or what he means to you that's why god has you in the situation you're in right now not because he doesn't love you he just wants to show you another side of him that you wouldn't otherwise see you've known him as a provider but now he wants to show you that he's jehovah neesee the one that is the banner that will protect you you're either going in a battle coming out of a battle or you're in a battle right now no matter where you are no matter what your situation god is jehovah neesee he is your banner he goes before you and gives you the victory somebody give god praise his house today uh here's how we're gonna flow um if you're here if you're here and you need christ uh part of your life excuse me you've never accepted jesus as your personal savior or you know jesus died on the cross and god raised him from the dead for the forgiveness of your sin you've been filled with god's holy spirit he lives on the inside of you but you're disconnected from a church or church family then then i want you to know new horizons is the place that you can come to and find rest and find help and support you can come and serve and share and receive uh in this local congregation and so if that's you pass i need christ or i need um i need to get connected to this church what i want you to do is just simply um raise your hand right where you are and we've got ministers in the house we've got people that'll come to you and connect you with christ or get you connected to our church so if that's you and you're saying pastor i need jesus i i need to be saved i need to be forgiven of my sins by his death burial resurrection just lift your hand in the air or pastor i need i need to be a part of a church and this this is a fellowship that i feel comfortable in i like being here there's something right about being in church because there's something wrong about not being in church so that's you just lift your hand in the air real quick pastor that's me i i need jesus so i want to be a part of the church look at your neighbor and ask him do you do you do you need jesus or do you need the church look at him real quick bless the lord for that inspiring word our prayer for you is that god spoke a word that will light your path all week make sure you don't miss another video message by hitting subscribe on our youtube channel new horizons church indy stay connected by visiting our website nhcindy.org don't forget to like us on facebook at nhc indy and follow us on twitter at the nh church indy and instagram at new horizons church indy be sure to share this video message with your family and friends and anyone who needs encouragement this week thanks again for joining us be victorious [Music] you

Channel: New Horizons Church Indianapolis

Views: 178

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: cznzzzBR-as

Length: 60min 46sec (3646 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021