"Eating Bologna Sandwiches instead of Steak!”
Exodus 17:8-16
Some years ago a young man looking for work approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked him for a job. “It depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you take this one down.” The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. The foreman was impressed and exclaimed, “you start Monday!” Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rolled by. Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.” Started the young man asked, “I thought you paid on Fridays.” “Normally we do,” answered the foreman, “but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind, or daily charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last place on Wednesday. “But I’m a hard worker” the young man objected, “I arrive first and leave last, and I even work through my coffee breaks!” The foreman sensing the boy’s integrity, though for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your axe?” The young man replied, “Well, no, sir. I’ve been working too hard to take the time.”
I The ENEMY
Ex. 17 says the Amalekites rose up and attacked the Israelites.
Moses calmly orders Joshua to organize the men and go to fight the enemy.
A. The Amalekites thought this would be an easy victory. They were
battle tested, seasoned by experience.
B. The Children of Israel were hardly worthy opponents. These
recent slaves who wandered in the desert were nothing but an
ill-equipped, ill-trained mob.
C. But little did Amalek know the secret of Israel of Israel’s calm
and confidence. They were the children of God. He was their
banner in war.
Verse: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul? Lk. 9:26
A The OBJECTIVE OF AMALEKITES
1. The objective of the Amalekites was to destroy Israel.
2. Do whatever is necessary to prevent them from experiencing the promise of God. Sound familiar.
10:10 says that Satan seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. The devil will do whatever he can to prevent us from experiencing God’s best.
Verse: Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. But you must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith. 1 Peter 5:8-9a
Quotation: You can’t strike a truce w/ an enemy that desires your demise. You can’t strike a truce w/ Satan. King Saul tried in 1 Sam. 15, and it brought about his demise.
Note: The Amalekites represent forces of evil that oppose the work and people of God. Thus, to compromise w/ sin affords sin’s insidious work to bring about corruption and destruction in your life.
Idea: If you knew you had cancer in your body, how long would you go w/out trying to have it treated? Not long
B. The STRATEGY
Satan’s strategy is to preys on us when we’re weak and weary, and he targets our most vulnerable areas. And he never fights fair. In fact, his mode of operation is to counterfeit – turning everything upside-down.
Word: Eph. 6 calls the devil’s ways schemes craftiness; trickery;
Verse: Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light!
“14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 COR. 11:14
Story: A frantic 9-1-1 call brought the police to a home. The caller only conveyed that she was being killed. When the police arrived, they found a bloody knife beside her lifeless body. Blood was splattered across the room, yet when the police examined the body, they found not a single cut or puncture wound – only a large mark across her chest and neck. Then they noticed a trail of blood leading to the next room. Following the trail they found a dying boa constrictor. The woman apparently had raised the snake, but on this day while carrying the snake around her neck, for whatever reason, the snake began to entwine itself around the woman’s body and began to constrict. The woman, sensing the danger, grabbed a knife and began to slash away at the snake eventually mortally wounding the reptile – only she was killed in the process.
II The VICTORY
A God Gives Us His Power
Moses called the inner circle together and shared the plan. He told Joshua to gather some men and fight, while Moses took the staff of God and stood on a nearby hill.
I want you to notice a couple of things about this story …
1. It was God who won this battle not Joshua, Moses, the
Israelites or even the staff.
2. Moses was a shepherd CALLED to lead the people our of
Egypt.
3. He had not power in himself, he was only the mouthpiece
of God.
4. The Israelites, didn’t hold the key to this battle.
5. They fought the Amalekites and often were on the losing
side. They didn’t win this battle.
6. Not the staff!!—Important thing-when lifted Israel—when down
they lost
Only when Moses held up his arms – as if calling on God and surrendering himself to God - could God act. When he forgot about God and dropped his arms - forgot that God was the key player and focused on his and his army’s own resources, God was not able to work.
God can influence what happens in this world and when we feel that we are under attack, God is always there to help us. He will do the fighting for us if only we are open to him and rely on him.
Demands and accusations may fly around us, we are to look to the Lord who stands before us and rally behind him.
Let me share with you first of all:
I. What Prayer Will Do
A. Prayer changes us.
It changes the ordinary man or woman and makes them
extraordinary.
1. Prayer changes us by drawing us closer to God,
Changing and molding us into His likeness in the
process.
The preacher was Charles Finney -- The year was 1830 --The place was Rochester, NY -- The results was in one year 1,000 of the 10,000 population of Rochester came to know Christ. --
Finney’s prayer partner was a man by the name of Abel Clarey.
Finney wrote, Mr. Clarey continued as long as I did and did not leave until after I had left. He never appeared ih public, but gave himself wholly to prayer.
B. David understood prayer’s power as a personal change agent.
In fact his prayer in Psalms 25 verses 4 - 5 describes the process that prayer takes a person through:
Verse 4. Show me thy ways, 0 LORD; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
These verses contain 3 key phrases:
Show me,
teach me,
Lead me.
You see, when God shows me, He has my heart.
When God teaches me, He has my mind.
When God leads me, He has my hand..
B. People come to Jesus for salvation, But that is as far
as they go but they live their Christian lives beneath
their privileges.
1. It’s as if God has prepared a huge banquet for
them and they are sitting in a corner with their
bologna sandwich.
Let me just stop and ask us tonight, are we living beneath our privileges and missing out on our potential by not praying?
C. You see, the table has all been set, we have received the
invitation. But now what are we going to do?
1. Are we going to gather others and come to the
Table
2. or are we going to eat our bologna sandwich alone in a
corner?
Oh, I am convinced that God can do far more for us than we could ever imagine.
In fact a verse that you will hear me quote often is Ephesians 3:20
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
God wants to do for us as a Church far more than we can ever imagine and I believe it will only happen as we covenant together for prayer.
John 9:31 "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper and doeth his will He hears"
I thank the Lord for the 8 or 10 that meet on Saturday evenings for prayer
But, I would like to challenge every single one of you to covenant with these 8 or 10 to be a prayer partner with your pastor.
I would to God that we would have at 25 or 30 Let me tell you what I really would like to see.
I would that there would be at least 7 people who would covenant together so that every day of week there would be someone praying for me and for the ministry here.
It would be great if there were 21 or 35 people so we could have 3 to 5 people each day praying for the church and the pastor.
What do you think would happen if there was a couple of people everyday of the week, and they took that day to pray for this church and the pastor?
I mean your day was Tuesday each week and all day long you held the pastor up in pray and you prayed for this church? What do you think would happen?
In 1 Pt.3:12 "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
Jesus said in John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done
to you.”
1. David taught us in Ps.66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me"
Luke 18:1 "That men ought always to pray and not faint."
James 5:16 says that " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
1 Sam. 12:23 "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you…”
Remember when we work, we work, But when we pray, God works
I read of Charles Spurgeon, who saw great results in his ministry, thousands came every Sunday to hear him preach and the whole country side was effected by his ministry.
One day some one came and visited what was known as Spurgeon’s Tabernacle and ask Mr. Spurgeon, what is the secret of your great ministry?
Mr. Spurgeon replied, I can show you the secret, meet me at the Tabernacle early on Sunday morning.
That Sunday, the visitor met Mr. Spurgeon and he took him to a trap door behind the pulpit, as he lifted it, it opened into a room beneath the platform there over 100 people gathered and were praying for their pastor as he would preach that day.
He said, that is the secret!
Prayer is the KEY to God!
"Pray without ceasing!"
