Please turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Exodus. We're back in Exodus today, continuing chapter 17. Last time we studied Exodus together, it was a couple weeks ago, we saw God's provision of water for Israel, his protection of them by preventing them from dying of thirst, and his presence with them throughout their trials. And yet, they doubted him. They tested him. They refused to believe him. So God allowed another test. And this one was from the outside. The Amalekites came and attacked Israel. Here's a spoiler alert. The Israelites won the battle. But there's a lot more to the story than that, and that's what we're gonna spend time talking about this morning. The fact is, this situation was very different from what happened at the Red Sea. Unlike the Egyptian army, which was drowned in the Red Sea, this enemy was defeated, but not destroyed. And we're going to see some relevant parallels to our lives today. Hope you've found your place, so you can follow along. Would you stand with me please, and I'm going to read our passage. Exodus chapter 17, and we're gonna read verses eight to the end of the chapter. Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, choose us some 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 Hur went up to the top of the hill. And 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 Hur supported his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side, and 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 a 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. For he said, because the Lord has sworn the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Let's pray together, please. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this opportunity to study it together. Lord, even in a historic section like this telling us about a battle, we believe that your word is profitable to us. So would you help us by your Holy Spirit to understand what this text means and how it applies to us today? Holy Spirit, I'm asking for your help that you would anoint me to speak your word accurately, truly, clearly this morning. that your truth would come through and that you would show us exactly how you want us to change as a result of this time together in your word. Give us ears to hear. Give us hearts ready to obey. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. We are in a battle today. A spiritual struggle, whether we know it or not. Who are our enemies? Who or what does not want us to believe in and follow God? Give me a little feedback. No. Satan, that's the one I'm looking for. Our culture, our world, yes. There's one more I haven't heard yet. What? Ourselves. Yes. Those are the three. I'm going to call them the world, the flesh, and the devil. And as much as I would love to explore all the references I have there, if you want to write them down and explore them on your own later, or maybe we'll come back to it another time, but those are some of the verses that describe our enemy to spiritual growth. The world around us, the flesh within us, and of course, Satan, the devil. Different question. When did this spiritual battle in ourselves begin? Have you ever thought about that? Some of you realize, okay, there's a struggle taking place within me. When did it start? I submit to you, it started when you believed in Christ. When you began to follow Him, then the struggle inside you began. People who are unsaved, people who don't know Jesus, and have a relationship with him, they do have struggles. It's a fallen world, right? But they don't have spiritual struggles. When they sin, they don't necessarily feel bad about it. When they're tempted to sin, if I feel like it today, I'm gonna do it. But we get convicted about things, right? We struggle with what's going on inside us. As far as we know, the Israelites didn't have to fight any battles while they were slaves in Egypt, but now they were free. They had enemies, they had to fight. Warren Weersbe said, so it is with the Christian life. When we identify with Jesus Christ, then his enemies become our enemies. And we must begin to fight that good fight of faith. So of those three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, our focus this morning is going to be on our flesh. So what does that mean? It means our sin nature. The flesh refers to the sin nature that is within us. It has been present in every person since Adam and Eve sinned. And it wars against the Holy Spirit in us. That's what Galatians teaches us. You can read more about that. Galatians chapter 5 talks about the war between the flesh and spirit. Romans 8 does the same. Our flesh is the reason behind our pride, our selfishness, our anger, our lust, our laziness, and so on. Have you ever sensed the Holy Spirit prompting you to share your faith with someone? And all of a sudden, you have 10,000 reasons that you shouldn't do that. You don't want to go disturb that person. You think that person will laugh at you or be mean to you or that person's heard it before. All of a sudden, your mind's racing. No, I don't need to do that. That's your flesh. Have you ever thought you should help your wife or your friend or your neighbor and you just didn't feel like it? That's your flesh. Have you ever tried to pray or read your Bible and all of a sudden everything on your to-do list just starts scrolling through your mind? Things you didn't know you needed to do, now you know you needed to do them. That's our flesh. It is at war with the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. So I have two main ideas for you this morning. Number one, you are in a battle against your flesh. We're gonna see that in verse eight right off the bat. And number two, you need help in the battle against your flesh. We're gonna see that in verse 12. I'm gonna repeat that. You and I are in a battle and we need help. What does that help look like? What forms does that help take in this passage? I'm gonna offer you four of them. And please understand, as I work through this passage today, I'm going to give you the historical. I'm going to try to explain what the passage means. But a lot of this is applicational today. And that's where I'm getting these. It's not that Moses and her and Aaron were up on the hill saying, okay. Centuries from now, they're gonna need to know how to do battle with the flesh. That's probably not what was going through their mind. But I do think that since we have the Holy Spirit and we have the New Testament to explain some of these things, we can apply them in appropriate ways. So here's what I see. The helps for spiritual warfare that are in this passage are number one, prayer. Number two, community. Number three, scripture, and number four, worship. We're gonna see all four of those as we work our way through this passage. So with that in mind, I'd like you to go back with me to verse eight, and we're gonna go verse by verse through this section. Keep in mind this first point, you are in a battle with your flesh. Verse eight says, now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. It would help if we know who Amalek is. Amalek is actually a person. It's talking about a nation, just like we talk about Israel as a nation. But Amalek is a person, a grandson of Esau, who was one of the sons of Isaac and the twin brother of Jacob. Amalek became a chief among the Edomites, which were the descendants of Esau. His relationship to Esau is important because in the Bible, Esau is associated with the flesh. Hebrews 12 makes that very clear. Esau is probably best remembered for selling his birthright to his brother Jacob. Now Jacob tricked him, but he sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of bean soup. What does that tell us about him? He didn't care. He had no interest in eternity or the things of God. He was concerned about the here and now, the physical, not the spiritual. So with that in mind, our passage today says that Amalek, now we know who he is, he's a descendant of Esau, he's a picture of the flesh, Amalek fought with Israel. One of my study Bibles said the Amalekites were a fierce nomadic tribe They made part of their livelihood by conducting frequent raids on the other settlements and carrying off booty. In the process, they often killed simply for pleasure. These were mean dudes. Today, we might call them desert pirates. That's what they were like. And verse nine tells us that Moses said to Joshua, choose us some 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. This is the first time we've seen Joshua in the Bible. First mention of him, and Charles Ryrie thinks that he was about 45 at this time, so maybe in his 40s, definitely younger than Moses, we think. He became Moses' assistant and later his successor. We have the book of Joshua that follows the five books of Moses. Technically, his name at this point in time was Hoshea, which means salvation. But his name was changed later to Joshua, which means Yahweh is salvation. That is the Hebrew equivalent, as you may know, of Jesus. Jesus is Greek. Joshua, is the way we would pronounce that Hebrew name. Here we see the beginning of his military career. He was supposed to recruit soldiers and lead them into battle while Moses stood on top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand. So let's talk about the rod of God for a minute. Is this a magic wand? Is it that he's gonna take that to the top of the hill and they're gonna win? Not quite. It had become a symbol of God's presence and power and judgment. When Moses held it out at the Red Sea, God parted the water so that the Israelites could walk through on dry ground. And then he held it out again, and the walls of water collapsed and drowned the Egyptian army. When Moses struck the rock, in the passage earlier in this chapter that we studied last time, he struck the rock at Horeb, God caused water to flow out abundantly. And now, when Moses held up that rod, God gave Israel The victory. How? Why? Well, it's an act of God, but I'd like to know more about it, wouldn't you? David Jeremiah said, by holding the staff of God, Moses physically demonstrated total dependence on God's authority and God's power. And before we move on, let's talk about this battle plan. Joshua was supposed to muster a fighting force, few if any of which had ever fought a military battle in their lives. And Moses' part was to climb the hill and stand there with the rod of God in his hand. So how would you expect this to go? Does this sound like a good battle plan? Humanly speaking, I think it's a lousy battle plan. Verse 10, Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up on the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. We need to introduce a couple more people. Aaron, we've read a lot about. Who's Aaron? Aaron is the older brother of Moses. He is a leader. We'll see him as a deputy in a couple more chapters. And he was the spokesman, primarily there at the beginning, when Moses went before Pharaoh. God gave Aaron to be his mouthpiece. And then we have this guy named Hur. This is the first time Hur is mentioned in the Bible, and he doesn't get any introduction. It doesn't say the son of, it doesn't say anything, it just says Aaron and Hur. Hur may have been a leader as well, Douglas Stewart thinks he was one of the chief elders of the nation. One tradition, Josephus, tells us that her was married to Miriam, Moses' sister, which would make him Moses' brother-in-law. We don't know. Whatever the case, both men assisted Moses during this battle. How so? When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. So what is that all about? Well, if you're paying attention, the word hand or hands comes up a lot in these couple of verses. And at first, the reference is singular. His hand is presumably the hand that's holding his staff. What does that represent? We just said it represents God's power, his presence, and his judgment. And that's how some Bible scholars interpret this entire passage. That it's a symbol of God's presence, power, and judgment, and that's true. I don't discount that or disagree with them whatsoever. But could there be more to it than that? And I personally believe that yes, there is. Because it goes from talking about his hand to his hands. His hands being lifted up. No doubt holding the rod, perhaps with two hands. But there's another picture that we have several times in scripture about hands being lifted up. You know what it represents? It represents prayer. It's a traditional posture of prayer. Here are some Old Testament and New Testament examples for you. Psalm 63, three and four says, because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I'm speaking, singing to you in praise. Thus I will bless you while I live. How? I will lift up my hands in your name, praising him, praying to him. Psalm 141 verse 2. Let my prayer, this one is very clearly prayer, let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. That's Old Testament, let me give you one from the New Testament. 1 Timothy 2.8, I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. So there's an association in the Bible with lifting up hands and praying. I think that's the picture we have here. I realize that some of us are more reserved by nature. The idea of speaking in public, the idea of lifting your hands in a service is just petrifying. I understand, that's okay. But we do have biblical precedent. So I would encourage you, pray about it. And if and when the Holy Spirit lead you to, in your prayer closet at home, sitting on your bed, kneeling on your floor, lift your hands. When God is working in your heart to praise him, lift your hands. Don't manufacture it. It's not the, okay, I want everybody to think I'm holy now, so I'm putting my hands in the air. That's not it. But if the Holy Spirit has filled you and you're moved to do that, you go for it. Moses was expressing his own dependence on the Lord and representing Israel's dependence on the Lord. As he prayed, they prevailed in the battle. So the first help in spiritual warfare is prayer. What's the big deal about prayer? It's just talking to God, right? Yes, but it's more than that. It's expressing our dependence on God. Prayer is expressing our dependence on God. If you're not praying on a regular basis, it's probably because you're not aware of your need for God on a regular basis. And that's bad news for us because we are in a constant battle and we need help. The type of prayer Moses was engaging in is called intercessory prayer. That means he was praying for someone else. In this case, Joshua and the Israelite forces. Who's praying for you? Jesus is praying for you. Yes, he is. The first people that come to your mind might have been your mom, your dad, your grandma, and hopefully that's true. Maybe a relative, maybe a friend. But there is someone always praying for you, and Jeffrey just said Jesus, that is the correct answer. There's a second correct answer. You know what the second one is? The Holy Spirit is always praying for you. How do you know that, Bob? Because the Bible tells us. Where? That would be good to know. Romans chapter eight. I love Romans 8, verse 26 and 27 say this. Likewise, the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us. He prays for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the heart, still talking about the Holy Spirit, knows what the mind of the Spirit is, The Father knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He, the Spirit, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So here is comfort for us. If I don't know what to pray for, you ever been there? I don't know what to pray for. Or you're praying about God's will. I don't know what God's will is in this situation. I have no idea. Guess what? The Holy Spirit is praying, in some cases even correcting our prayers to be conformed to the will of God. That's comforting to me. There are lots of times I don't know what to pray. One of you will come to me and share a request, and I'm glad to pray with you, but lots of times, I don't know. I'm not God. But as we pray, the Holy Spirit is also praying for us. But that's not all. Later, same chapter, Romans 8, verses 33 and 34. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, declares righteous, makes right with God. Who is he who condemns? We're sinners, we deserve condemnation. So who's gonna condemn us? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God, here it is, who also makes intercession for us. The one who has every right to condemn us, the one who died in our place, bore our sin when he had committed none, prays for us forever. for the rest of your life here on earth. You can count on the fact that Jesus is praying for you. He is praying for you this morning. I think that's awesome. He is pleading our case before the Father. Who's the accuser of the brethren? The devil. He wants to accuse us. What is Jesus doing? He is acting as our defense attorney. He is pleading our case before the Father. He is praying for us. So Moses was praying for Joshua and the others who were fighting. Then what happened? Moses needed help. That's our second point. You need help in the battle against your flesh. And what is the second help we're gonna see this morning in spiritual warfare? It is community. First prayer, second community. I'm in verse 12. But Moses' hands, plural, became heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. When it says Moses' hands were heavy, I thought about it. I decided not to do it, but I thought about just having to hold up your Bible or your purse or something and see how long you could hold it up during the service. You get tired. You would get tired. and his hands were tired. He grew weary fighting this spiritual battle in prayer. Here are some words from Jesus, Mark chapter 14. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Your flesh, my flesh, weak. How many times did Jesus' disciples fall asleep on him when he had told them to pray? Multiple times in the garden and even times besides that. When Moses' hands were heavy, who came to his aid? Aaron and Hur supported his hands. They helped Moses as he interceded. There will be times when you are serving God, doing exactly what He wants you to do, and you're tempted to stop or at least ease up. Your flesh is crying out for a break. Now, I realize there are times we need rest. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. He gave this group of people the Sabbath. They didn't have to go collect manna on the seventh day. We're gonna get to the commandments, the fourth commandment, that we're supposed to remember the Sabbath day, the seventh day, remember to rest. That's important. I'm not minimizing that. I'm not meaning to contradict myself at all. But the fact is, lives were at stake. When there's a battle going on, we need to pray. That famous passage, Ephesians 6, when Paul's talking about the armor of God, he finishes talking about different pieces of armor that we're supposed to put on in order to fight the spiritual battle. And here's what he says in verse 16. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. It's almost like he's trying to get something across there, isn't he? Always, at all times, in all ways, praying for all these things. Why? Because there's a battle going on. Moses couldn't take a break right then, so what happened? His friends supported him. Maybe they prayed for him too, but at the least they served him and helped him while he stood. And I'm gonna say interceded, prayed. That was Moses' battle with the flesh in this story. He was tired, he was weak, but he had friends to help him and encourage him not to quit, and they won the battle with God's help. Earlier I asked you who was praying for you, and that's a good question to ask. Now I'm gonna ask, who is praying with you? Who do you have? When you're in a struggle with your flesh, and all of us are, but there are times that it's more intense than others, whom can you call? Whom can you text? Your spouse? Your parents? Your coach? Your sibling? Your friend? A fellow church member? You need God's help, and that's a given. but you also need one or two people you can talk to to confess sins to and ask for help from, especially in praying for you. There's strength in that. There is healing in that. Some of you need to talk to somebody before you leave here today. You need to grab coffee with somebody this week and let that person share your burdens. You need help in your spiritual battle and you know it, but you haven't told anyone else. And I'm telling you this morning, it's time. You need to humble yourself and ask for help from one of your brothers, one of your sisters. And while we're on it, I'm gonna add that if you're a man, you need to seek out the help of a man. And if you're a woman, you need to seek out the help of a woman. Or if you're struggling as a couple, then fine, reach out to another couple. Now, we have some people in our congregation from a Catholic or a different religious system kind of background, and some of you are probably thinking, Bob, I know my Bible. I don't have to confess to a priest. I didn't say anything about confessing to a priest. I do want to show you this verse, because some of you may not be familiar with it. James 5.16 says, confess your trespasses, that's another word for sin, that's a type of sin, confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, why? What's it say? That you may be healed. I wanna have victory in the spiritual battles I'm fighting, do you? One of the important parts of that is to have community around you, to have friends that you can talk to, even confess your friends to, who will pray for you. It's not so they can go tell somebody else, that's why you're not gonna tell a lot of people probably, but that you have one or two people in your life that you can say, hey, I am struggling right now. I need help. Will you pray for me? And James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying there's healing, spiritual healing in that. And I believe we can go further. There's spiritual victory in that if we will follow the biblical process. We're ready for another help in spiritual warfare. This one is the Bible itself. Number three is Scripture. Verse 13 says, so Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Joshua defeated Amalek. Was that because of Joshua's vast understanding of military strategy? No. Was it because his forces were far superior to or outnumbered the enemy? No. Was it because Moses was such a good prayer warrior? No, no, not exactly. James, next chapter, says that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, and Moses was a man of God, but ultimately who gave the victory? God gave the victory, that's not a trick question. God gave the victory. You can't win the spiritual battle, any spiritual battle, in your flesh. But God can win the battle. How? How does it say Joshua defeated Amalek? With the edge of the sword. Now again, he wasn't out there wielding a Bible, okay? I'm not saying that. I am applying this to us in our day and time. But what was going on then, they were fighting a real battle with real weapons, and God gave them the victory. Thankfully, most of us have not been called to fight that type of battle. with the modern equivalent of swords. Some of you in the room have. Thank you for serving in that way. But most of us, it's just a spiritual battle. So we need a spiritual weapon, true? That passage I referred to earlier, Ephesians chapter six, the armor of God, there's only one offensive weapon. And it's the sword of the Spirit. And Paul tells us what the sword of the Spirit is so that we're not confused. What does that mean? It's the Word of God. 2 Peter 1 says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and that includes victory over our flesh. He can help us win, but our instructions, our marching orders, our battle plans are available only from His Word and by His Spirit. Are you seeking to know God's will through his word? Have you opened it this week? Have you listened to it on your phone? However you want to interact with it. There are lots of ways we can interact with the Bible, right? We can read it, we can study it, we can listen to it. We can meditate, meaning bring it back to our mind, think about what it means, think how to apply it. We can memorize it. But too often we ignore it. Psalm 119.11, if you've never memorized a verse in the Bible, or you haven't done it in a long time, this might be a good place to start, because it tells us why we memorize verses of the Bible. Say it with me, it's on the screen. Psalm 119.11, your word I have hidden in my heart. Why? That I might not sin against you. If we're going to fight this spiritual battle and we are going to say no to sin, we're going to say no to that temptation, we're going to say no to our flesh, what weapon do we have? The Bible. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us about the temptation of Jesus. When Satan himself came to Jesus all alone in the wilderness after fasting for 40 days, very weak, How did Jesus combat Satan? Did he say, I created you, leave me alone? He could have. He quoted scripture. It all happened to be from the book of Deuteronomy. He knew scripture. When we are faced with temptation, when there are thoughts going through our mind that we know aren't right, how are we gonna combat them? We've got to know the truth. We've got to read the Bible, we've got to study the Bible, we've got to know what it means, and we need to have enough of it tucked away in our hearts, in our minds, that we can pull on it when we need it. Your word I've hidden in my heart, why? So that I will not sin against you. Verse 14, then the Lord said to Moses, write this for a 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. This is the first time the word write appears in the Bible. He's saying write this down in order to remember it. Teach it to Joshua. What was so important that God wanted Moses to write this down as a memorial? What did he say? I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Is it just me, or does that seem kind of harsh? There are other people who came against Israel. Amulek was the first, and we have to go to a different passage to find out more about what they were doing that God did not like. It's Deuteronomy 25. I'm gonna read verses 17 and 18 to you. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt? How he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers, your rear, when you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God. That's probably the biggest one right there at the end, didn't fear God, but because he didn't fear God, he did these other things to you. Do you see the word stragglers? Like a predator in the animal kingdom. I know you've seen animal documentaries, right? And which gazelle is that lion gonna go after? The one that's off by itself, the one that's injured, the one that's smaller? Think about Peter for a minute. Where was he the night that Jesus was betrayed? They were together in the garden, and then it says that all his disciples forsook him and fled. We know as we read the four different gospel accounts, John ended up going into the courtyard, into the home of the high priest. Where was Peter? Anybody remember? Peter was following, there are three words that come after that. He was following at a distance. He's making himself kind of an easy target there, wasn't he? I'm very thankful to live in the United States of America. Don't get me wrong. But our spirit, the American spirit, is very much, I am independent, I am gonna make it on my own, I am gonna pull myself up by my bootstraps, I'm a self-made man, all that kind of thing. There's some ways in which that's very contrary to what God has put in place for us. We need one another. There are multiple reasons why we get together on Sundays and now on Wednesdays as well. The fact is we need one another, we need to be together. There is safety in that. If I am living with sin in my life, unconfessed, I know it's wrong, I'm doing it anyway, The last thing I want to do is the things we've been talking about. Pray, read my Bible, be around other Christians. It's a whole lot easier just to find something else to do on Sundays. They won't miss me. I don't want to go be a hypocrite. We tell ourselves all kinds of things. That's our flesh talking. The fact is that when we are together, there's safety there. There's safety being around other believers. God made us to need other believers for encouragement, for protection, for accountability. So we've seen prayer, community, scripture. There's one more, and it's worship. It's not what I would normally think of, but it's here. Verse 15. This is the first time we've seen reference to an altar since clear back in Genesis 35. Jacob built an altar when he returned to Bethel. And someone said that this altar was built for thanksgiving. What did he name it? There were times that others, patriarchs, named an altar. So this one was named. He named it, the Lord is my banner. In Hebrew, that's Yahweh Nisi. What is Moses doing by giving this altar a name? That's kind of weird. He's declaring that Yahweh, the Lord, is my banner. is the standard of his people. This is a military term, it's not one that we're thinking of, and banner probably is not a translation that's helping us. We might be thinking a pennant or a flag or something, and there's some validity to that, but someone said it would be better described as Yahweh is my signal pole. This guy said a decorated pole held high and used as a signal marker. It was a signal around which an army or army unit can rally, regroup, or return for instructions. So you had the picture. This is back before radios and cell phones and other things. They're on the battlefield. How are they going to know where the leader is? How are they going to know what point to rally around? Somebody's holding up a pole. And it's decorated in some way that you can tell, okay, this is where we need to come. This is where we need to come together. That's the person we need to follow. That's the person we need to retreat to, whatever the case is. Someone asked, what is your banner? What is the emblem of your hope? Where do you look for courage in times of difficulty and despair? Moses had the best answer. He said, the Lord is my banner. Whenever I am under attack, I run to his side. I'm gonna run to him. Now what about these Amalekites? It says, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. They were the perpetual enemies of the Israelites. And I won't take time to go into it, but there are multiple books of the Old Testament where we keep seeing them pop up and pop up and pop up. They were a thorn in Israel's side, so to speak. Kept attacking. So this is more prophetic. He said there will be war forever. Yes, you're gonna defeat them, but it's not gonna be a final battle yet. They're gonna be around for generations to come. And there will be war between, ultimately it's saying, between God and Amalek for generations to come. How does that apply to us? Your flesh has been defeated, but not destroyed. Our struggle against our flesh will continue as long as we are here on earth. But there's coming a day. when God will give us a new body. This old body will be done away with. And our new body's not gonna be corrupted by sin. I'm not gonna struggle with selfishness and pride and anger and lust and envy and all the other things that are the works of the flesh. They will be gone. And there came a point, the last named Amalekite, This guy by the name of Haman, you read about in Esther, says he was an Agagite, which makes us think that he is a descendant of Agag, who was the name of the king of the Amalekites. And God eventually fulfilled his word just like we would expect him to, and there will come a day when our flesh won't just be defeated, it'll be destroyed, it'll be gone. Our sin nature will be gone. Now today's sermon has been directed mostly at believers, and mostly in the room. I know your testimony that you are a follower of Christ. But there could be somebody online, somebody in this room, and you're actually thinking, you know what? I'm glad I don't have to be in that battle. Well, there's something much worse, actually. If we die without Christ, then we will be eternally separated from him. There's eternal judgment coming. But the good news is that you can receive his gift of salvation today, right now, while I'm talking. You can cry out to God and say, Jesus, save me, and he will. As we look at these points, the main points, there are just two of them, one last time, I'd like to personalize them and I'd like for us to say them aloud together. Would you do that with me? I am in a battle against my flesh. And what else? I need help in the battle against my flesh. What help do I have? Prayer, community, scripture, and worship. So I'll ask a question or two to go along with each of these for prayer. Who is praying for you? What human beings, and obviously we looked at the fact that Jesus is praying for you, the Holy Spirit is praying for you. We need prayer. Then we talked about community, and I'll ask again, who is praying with you? Is there someone within your circle of close friends that you can talk to when you're struggling spiritually? Someone who will hold you up. Someone who will hold you accountable in appropriate ways. Are you praying? Are you making sure that you have opportunity to be around other believers? Then scripture, what is God telling you? Are you seeking him in his word? Are you hiding his word in your heart? When was the last time you memorized a verse that was related to a spiritual struggle that you're having? And then let's not forget about worship. Where's your focus? Are you praising God and remembering on purpose the victories that he has won? It's called the Christian walk, the Christian life, and typically it's gonna have some ups and downs. We're gonna fail, but can you look back and say, God helped me say no to myself, my flesh, to that temptation. and I believe he can do it again. He gave me victory and he will continue to give me victory as I seek him and trust him and follow his ways. Are you running to him as your protection and as your hope? Is he your banner this morning? Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our Father, you know the needs, the spiritual needs in this room. I thank you for those who have indicated that you're working on them in some way. I don't know it, but you do, and they do. So give them the grace to humble themselves and obey, and do what you're leading them to do. For all of us, Lord, would you help us to depend on you to follow these applications from this passage? Because we are in a battle. There is spiritual warfare going on and we know that the victory is ultimately from you. But Lord, we need your help. We need the help of those around us. We need prayer, we need your word. And then as you give us victory, help us to express our thanks to you. Help us to express our worship and our praise. And that's what we'll do right now. Thank you for what you're doing in our lives and what you'll continue to do. Thank you that you are faithful, in Jesus' name. Amen.