Overcoming The Amalekites In Our Lives

SERMON

BY BRO. SETH A. ARYEE

LOCAL PREACHER, BETHANY METHODIST CHURCH, DZORWULU, ACCRA-GHANA

THEME: OVERCOMING THE AMALEKITES IN OUR LIVES

EXODUS 17:8-13

TEXT: “THEN CAME AMALEK, AND FOUGHT WITH ISRAEL" - EXODUS 17:8

This morning, I want us to ask ourselves some simple questions. Is Ghana a nation after God’s heart? Are we actually children of God? Are we daughters and sons of God? Are we heirs and joint-heirs with Christ in the Kingdom of God? Do we really feel deep down our hearts that we will be counted among the number in Heaven when the saints go matching in?

If we are truly "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9) then we should at all times have Christ as our Banner

Many committed Christians who have really tasted the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living will testify profusely that the Christian life, although unique, is not a bed of roses

The moment you surrender your entire life to God is the time for Satan to buffet you with ill health, failing finances, loss of job, and marital problems. Satan knows that “For whatever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). The purpose of Satan is, therefore, to draw us from faith in the Lord

In spite of all these failings, Our God is not unaware of our physical and spiritual disabilities for which He is there to support us. We are in a world in which we are constantly fighting spiritual battles: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12)

This situation should be frightening. A fight in the spirit? Then we need spiritual eyes. Do we have them? Even in our dreams we are not able to see beyond our human powers to allow the good things we dream of come to reality or to cause the negative things we dream of not to come to reality. How then do we fight to be victorious?

But “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5)

The Israelites experienced a similar situation after the Lord had delivered them from the 400 years bondage in the hands of Pharaoh and Egypt

During Israel sojourn from Egypt to the Promised Land - the land flowing with milk and honey - they had their very first battle encounter with the Amalekites. Amalek was the grandson of Esua (Genesis 36:12) who hated Jacob because of the birthright and blessing and this battle was an effort of the hereditary enmity

Esau was a man who preferred the physical to the spiritual. We are told in Hebrews 12:16 that he was a profane and an irreligious individual who cared not for God neither the things of God. By this act, he lost the blessings that were due him, and in return, this is what he received: "By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother, and it shall come to pass when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck" (Genesis 27:40)

Esau hated his brother and swore in his heart to kill him so as to break the yoke from off his neck. Amalek was, therefore, an old enemy whom Israel had robbed of blessing

The Israelites had been delivered from the attack of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. When they entered into the wilderness, they had miraculously been provided with water - to quench their thirst and to give to their flocks to drink; those who had not bathed washed their bodies and the women washed their clothes. What a great joy! The signs were there to show them that the Promised Land was for them for the taking

Moreover, they were fed with manna in the wilderness. For a second time, the Israelites were given water when Moses cast a tree into the bitter waters to make it drinkable. Amalek and his men owned that piece of land and had no source of water for many years

So when Israelites began to receive their divine blessing in that same land, the Amalekites moved in to resist them; they attacked Israel without notice. They did not see why the Israelites should prosper in the land. The shouts of joy suddenly turned into screams and fearful cries