So good to see everybody this morning. If you have a device or a bible, I want to invite you to go to Exodus 17, just two chapters past where we were last week. When I was growing up, my dad loved to watch war movies. I don't know what it was, but after, you know, just as time passed, there were movies that came out. For example, a lot of John Wayne movies, you know, the Magnificent Seven, all these different movies.

Chuck, that was a good Chuck Norris movie. I mean, I love good jokes about Chuck Norris, but if you watch the Chuck Norris movie, you had Rambo and all these different movies about war and military conflict. I remember one in particular that has always stood out in my mind. I guess I might say it's my favorite John Wayne movie, but it was inspired by this image or this situation. And some of you know what this represents.

There's a memorial at 1400 N. Mead St. In Arlington Ridge Park. And this statue of this photo represents victory and unity. It is a symbol of struggle and war, yet tenacity, grit and perseverance. It stands as a memorial to the Marine Corps and was dedicated in 1954 to, to all those who had died defending our nation since its founding.

It's an image and I was corrected last service and I absolutely appreciate it. By five Marines and one Navy soldier as they were going on top of Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. You see this was a strategic win for the United States in that time because Midway had happened years before, but now to get Iwo Jima would have secured the airfield that was there. And you're only six months prior to the surrender of Japan after the atomic bomb. Joe Rosenthal, who's credited for capturing this photo, was informed that this was happening and, and went to capture.

They actually raised it and then raised it again to capture this historic event. They had been fighting for days and this conflict lasted a month. 7,000 US soldiers died and 20,000 were wounded. If you put those two together, you realize that's the population of Stevens county alone were hurt or died in this battle after he took this picture on top of Mount Suribachi, a 500 plus foot tall hill on the southwest end of the island. Professor Richard Jesser was actually there at the time.

He was a 20 year old Marine who now who has retired recently from the University of Colorado after being hit in the back by shrapnel on the very first day. This was his first combat like this was his first exposure to fighting. They pressed on for four more days and he Wrote to his parents. He said, there is carnage all the time, every day, and you feel it every day that it's going to be your last. Can you imagine?

I don't know if you. I had a grandfather who fought in Europe during World War II, and even up to the day of his death, there were things he would not talk about. This was so true, traumatic to experience. But on the fifth morning of fighting, Jessa recalls this. As I looked, I suddenly saw the American flag flying.

I couldn't see anything else that was that far away, but I saw the flag flying and I started to shout, the flag is up. The flag is up. He said. The other Marines around me began turning around to look. Seeing that made us realize that our rear was now being covered by.

Because we had been under attack from the back and the front. He said, for me, it was a moment of being able to say to myself, maybe I will get out of this alive. And he added, in that sense, it was transformative for me and I remember it well. The photographer who took the photo said this. I have very two vivid memories.

The fury of their D Day assault and the thrill of that lofty flag raising episode. The Marines at Iwo Jima were magnificent. This last year, this Last spring marked 80 years since this event. No one in this room now feels young, but it served as a means to unify and inspire. Though the casualties were great, victory was won.

Our president wrote this last year in commemoration of the 80th year anniversary. We vow to never forget your intrepid devotion. And we pledge to build a country, a culture, and a future worthy of your sacrifice. All of us know about things that bring things to memory. Like, you have things on your wall, you have plaques, you have photographs.

But this one image is burned into the mind that for a young soldier on the beach of Iwo Jima, looking up and seeing the flag of the United States raised high gave them hope. It gave them a reason to keep fighting. It gave them a reason to keep pressing forward. And today we look back at events just like that and. And we should be thankful.

We should be thankful that there were men and women who died laying down their lives, sacrificing so that we could be in church today, so that we can have the freedoms that we have. But greater than that was something else that was raised on top of a hill 2,000 years ago. It wasn't Suribachi, it was Golgotha. And it was our Lord Jesus Christ being hoisted up on a cross to pay for the sins of mankind. So he could give you and me eternal life.

And if that flag served as a unifying mark to the men on that beach that day, the cross of Jesus should serve as the unifying symbol that drives us forward as the people of God to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. It is our battle cry. We're in a battle. Y' all realize that, right? Some of you have come in here today, and you're discouraged, you feel defeated, you're tired, you're wore out, you're depressed.

But I'm telling you what. God is ready to take you and lead you and fight the battle for you. Let's raise his banner. And so today we're going to read a story about the children of Israel, who, up to this point, God's done everything for them. You have that person in your life that pretty much gets everything done for them.

And you go like, hey, can you at least throw your trash away? And you think it was an act of Congress, Just put it in the trash can. It's three and a half feet from where you put it on the counter. Just put it in the trash. But up to this point, God's done everything for them.

He worked the plagues in Egypt for Pharaoh to let him go. And then when they left, they were being pursued by the Egyptian army. Well, God took care of that, too. They get through the Red Sea, and as we read last week, they start complaining they didn't have water. So what did God do?

He heals the water God, our healer, right? And he gives them water to drink. They go down, they drink more water from the palm, at the place of the palms, and then they set out on a journey in chapter 16, and they begin to work toward the wilderness of sin. And they get there, and guess what? They complain again.

It's a theme throughout this whole book, from here all the way through numbers. The people of Israel are never satisfied. And they cross their arms and pout. And not only do they grumble, they begin to backbite and they begin to threaten. And so here they are, and they're in this wilderness, and they're hungry.

So they say, you've led us out here to die. They just saw God split the ocean open, and they're thinking God's going to kill them out here. And so he says, okay, hold on. He sends them quail, and he sends them something called manna. Now, a lot of you kids may not know what manna is.

Do you know what the Hebrew. What the word manna means in Hebrew? What is it? Yeah, somebody said it over here. What is it like?

God sends this flaky stuff. It's not dandruff. He sends this stuff down and he sends it every day for 40 years. He makes a promise to him, I'll send it every day. But to test their obedience, he says, you can only take enough each day for what you need.

If you store it, it'll rot. And it does. And he said, and in fact, he set up a memorial. Raise a flag, something to remember. He said, I want you to take and fill up a jar with it, and it will be a remembrance throughout all your generations of the provision of God.

Do you think if they had to choose watermelon in Egypt or manna, which would they have chosen? They probably would have liked to have the watermelon. But God was trying to raise up a nation, a people of his own who would follow him and obey him. And they failed, over and over and over again. And so you get to chapter 17, and they come to a place called Rephidim.

And again they start complaining, we're thirsty. And they quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses is like, why do you quarrel with me? And why are you testing the Lord? In other words, they flipped it around.

They keep going to God and demanding these different things. So they're now testing him. So God, Moses says, well, what should I do to this people? A little more and they're going to stone me to death. That's how tense it's getting.

They wouldn't fight for themselves in Egypt, but they're ready to kill Moses because they don't have water. And so he's standing at Horeb, Horeb Sinai. It's the place where God met Moses in the burning bush. It's the place where Moses told Pharaoh, I'm taking the people to go worship God at the mountain of God. This has been their destination all along.

In a few chapters, Moses is going to go up on this mountain and receive what's called the Mosaic Covenant, the law that binds him to the people and the people back to God. And in verse seven, it says, and he named the place Massah and Marah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel and because they tested the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? And so you and I, we get in these situations, too. Things happen in our life, and we raise our hands and like, God, where are you, God? Why am I in this place?

Are you listening, God? I'm hungry and I'm thirsty. Lord, will you Meet my need, what God is looking at in his people. And we have a little bit of an edge up on them because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. What he's looking is for a people that will still be obedient to His Word.

And so throughout this narrative, you've seen how they've now complained three times. And I wish I could tell you that they were going to stop, but they don't. In fact, unfortunately, it's going to get worse. There's something else in here that's marvelous and interesting, and it's important to note before we get to the text we're going to read. Moses had a staff.

It wasn't a magic wand. It wasn't endued with supernatural power. It wasn't from a special wood. It was nothing like that. But he had a staff.

In fact, when Moses is being raised up by God, he tells Moses, take your staff and throw it on the ground. And it becomes a snake. He says, now reach back down. He picks it back up, and it turns back into a staff. And he says, you're going to take this with you.

And when they won't listen to you, it's going to be a symbol of my mighty working hand. And so when he gets to Egypt, in Exodus 7, verses 9 through 10, we see it become a snake. In Exodus 7, 15, 20, he raises this staff over the Nile and it turns to blood. In Exodus 8:5, he raises the staff over the river again, and it produces a plague of frogs everywhere. If any of you have ever owned a pool, frogs are annoying and nasty.

They are. I don't know why they're so nasty. And people like frog legs. Well, they weren't going and catching them and eating them. And this was a plague of frog legs.

He stretched his staff over the earth, and a plague of flies and gnats. The first three plagues we read about all were connected to this symbol of Moses raising his staff, lifting it up. In the seventh plague, he reaches the staff toward the sky, and it sends forth hell. In the eighth plague, he stretches it out over the land, and it comes, and there comes locusts to invade the land. And then in Exodus 14:16, he lifts it up over the waters of the Red Sea, and God parts it and they cross over on dry land.

It was a symbol, just like the flag that day on Iwo Jima. It was a symbol to rally people around God. God and what God could do, and to trust him and to trust his word and obey him, rather than grumbling and complaining. Against him. Each and every time they turn around and they have a need.

Now, I'm going to stop you because here's the truth. We do the same thing.

God pretty much did everything for them. And if we were really honest and we looked at everything around us, wouldn't we say God's blessed us a abundantly? But as someone shared with me a little while ago, our power goes off and we're ready to go crucify the power company.

We open up the refrigerator and our milk's got a little sour smell to it. And we think, oh, my gosh, who left the cap off the milk? I mean, it's like your day is ruined because of one little thing. Can I ask you folks, if you believe that Jesus Christ died and was raised again? Do you believe that God has your life in his hands?

Do you believe that God doesn't go unnoticed to God, what you're going through and what you're struggling with? You know what I think God's asking us to do? Fight. Stand up and fight. Stop laying down in front of the enemy.

Fight. Stop giving up. Fight. Don't throw in the towel. Fight.

Fight, fight. That's what he's calling us to do. What would have happened on Iwo Jima if the flag hadn't been raised? What would have happened on that island with those soldiers? There have been more than 7,000 dead.

We need something that rallies us around the person of God, that we would be willing to rise up and to unify and not just walk into battle, but charge into battle. So stand with me before I preach. An hour and a half, starting in verse number eight. They are at the base of the mountain, not at the place where they're going to camp. They're at the base of the mountain and they get caught unaware.

Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. And so Moses says to Joshua, the first time we get to meet this young man, choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on top of the hill and the staff of God in my hand. Now you know why we had to talk about the staff. Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against Amalek.

And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. They did what God told them to do, no questions asked. And so it came about when Moses held up his hand that Israel would prevail. But when he let his hand down and it became heavy, Amalek would prevail. And so Moses hands were weary, so they Took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it.

And then Aaron and Hur supported his hand, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. And so Moses overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And then Lord said to Moses, write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, because there's importance there that he will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven. I know that doesn't make people very comfortable, but God is a just God, and he determined that people would be blotted out.

But aren't you glad God is also full of grace too? And we haven't been blotted out, so God's got a purpose for us. Then it says, listen, Moses built an altar and named it. This isn't God's name. This is the name of the altar.

The Lord is my banner. He's my flag. He's my standard to put on a high pole for all to see. And he said, the Lord has sworn. In other words, the language says he put his hand on his throne and said, the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.

God, you've got a word for us today. Let it sink into our heart in Jesus name. Amen. I promise you I won't go an hour and a half. But if you'll take your study guide and go ahead and fill in the first of the blanks at the top, the title here is Yahweh Nissi or Jehovah Nissi.

N I S S I the Lord, My banner. Again, that word banner means a standard. And they would put these things on the top of a pole. You know, talking about war, you might think back to medieval times when. When kings would march out and usually there'd be somebody in the front of that pack leading, and he would have a staff in his hand.

He might have a coat of arms on there. If you think about back to the Civil War, during a gentleman's war, the opposing sides would come out, and what would they usually have on the front line? Their flag. You know, that's one of the reasons why we played the game capture the flag, because if we could take their insignia, if we could take their symbol of strength and unity, we've beat them. And so it's the same thing.

Here they are caught unaware. But Amalek and all of the nations knew the Israelites had just been miraculously rescued from Egypt. They were not a force to contend with because they Just as the Israelites would have seen a cloud by day and a fire cloud by night.

But God let them come here and didn't tell them. Remember how we talked about how at Marah the waters were bitter, but God led them there? Well, guess what? God led them here, too. And I think he was leading them to teach them a very big lesson.

From this point on, I'm not going to do everything for you. How many of you remember having that conversation with your kids? I'm not doing your laundry anymore. It's time. Not picking up after you.

It's time. You can make your bed. If you can play video games, you can wash your clothes. If you can do this, you can do this. And everybody said, all right, kids, I'm sorry, y' all going home and having to do your laundry today.

But you know what's interesting about that, though, is, like, if you tell somebody to do something like fold the. I'm very. This won't surprise you. I'm very particular with how I fold my clothes. Yeah.

Even my towels. And so I remember one time, one of the kids was folding the towels, I said, uh, like, the corners weren't lined up. And, I mean, I had to show them how you match the corners and see, because here's the thing. If God tells you to do something a certain way and you don't do it, you know what that's called? Disobedience.

And God is still testing them, and they're still failing. And, you know, the tragedy is, as we think today as Christians, we're like, oh, man, I would have never done that.

You think somehow, because you got to read their account that you're smarter than them. Or you look at the disciples and you see the mistakes that they made. Oh, I would have walked out on water, no questions asked. I wouldn't have doubted. Like Thomas.

I wouldn't have been sitting over there like Judas, going, 5, 10, 15, 20. I wouldn't have been doing that stuff. I know better. And that is the most foolish thing you can ever think. Because the truth is, you don't know without God.

And you don't go without God. You don't breathe without God. You don't exist without God. So let me ask you a question. Are you tired in your life of raising up your own coat of arms?

Or are you ready to raise up the banner of God and let him be the standard by which you follow and the rallying cry for all of those that are around you? What difference would it make in Toccoa, Georgia, if his people were on the same page, with the same unity, with the same intention.

Because we may sit here and think, man, I'm so glad I'm at church. You realize that over 80% of the county this morning is not in church. They there is lostness here just as much as there's lostness in Vegas, in New Orleans and New York. In the most unreached country. There's lostness here too.

And without us being unified around the Gospel, we'll never penetrate that darkness. He is our banner that we must raise up and which we must draw to. He must be the flag that we're raising up that the world might see.

So I just want to make a couple of observations and I'll give you some points, but I want you to see again how the staff wasn't what made them win the battle, but the staff was important. It was important enough that here's Abraham raising up a young man named Joshua. Isn't it interesting that all of a sudden Joshua just appears out of nowhere and he says, joshua, go get some men and y' all go fight. This man had to have already proved himself competent and capable, but also faithful. He was like minded with Moses.

And we see at the end of Deuteronomy and into the book by his name, Joshua, that Joshua will be taking over and leading them into the promised land. This battle God had orchestrated, and it raised up a young man who would become a leader down the road. And then there's Moses. By this point, he's at least 80 years old now. Back then, aging was a little bit different, but he was 80 years old the same distance of time from when Iwo Jima happened in our nation.

And most of us don't even realize that happened. But here's Moses. And as he would raise the staff, they would win. And as his arms would fall, they would lose. And he would raise and he would lower.

Y' all want to do that a few times? Some of you that work out regularly, you can do that pretty good. You probably take some weights and hold them out like that. Now the kids think we're doing a wave.

His arms were raised out.

What does that look like to you?

And his arms would fall. So he needed some people around him to hold his arms up. So I'm going to tell you another truth before I even get to my points. I may not even get to my points. I might just tell you all to scrap it and throw it in the garbage.

Are you tired of trying to live the Christian life by yourself? If you frequented in here because you go, like, you know, I just need to do my worship duty today. Check mark, and that's it. I'm telling you, you cannot live the Christian life without other Christians. You need the people of God.

You need to be in study and prayer and support with other people who've got their eyes on you, who lovingly care for you, who want you to succeed in your faith walk and your life. Why? Because we're all being unified under the same call, the call of the gospel. You see, it's interesting because when he made this altar, after the battle was over, after they had subdued them, if you go back to the beginning of the Bible, this was kind of common with Noah. After the ark beaches and they get off, he builds an altar to thank God for saving him with Abraham.

In Genesis 12, 7 and 8, Abraham builds an altar at Shechem, and. And then he builds one at a place called Bethel, which is important because it means house of God. As he was journeying into the land of the Canaanites, again, God called him, and he goes again in 13 8, he builds another altar at a place called a Hebron. Abraham, three different times stopped and built an altar to make sacrifice to God in thanksgiving. Isaac mimicked his dad in Genesis 26:25, doing the same thing.

Builds an altar and calls on the Lord. And then Jacob in Genesis 33:20, after he returns from, he goes, he gets married, he has his kids. He's coming back. He makes peace with his brother Esau. Well, if you remember in the book story of Genesis, he ran from Esau and he came to this place called Bethel.

We just heard about it, right? And there he has a vision of a stairway to heaven. And God confirms that the covenant is coming through him, that he will have land and he'll have descendants. And after he has made peace with Esau, decades later, he comes back to Bethel and he builds an altar there. And he names the altar El Bethel, the God of the house of God.

So Moses is just doing what he heard about. I'm going to build an altar, and I'm going to give it a name.

Now, I don't. I think he was kind of. I mean, I kind of see it like, here's. Here's Sinai. And there had to be just this other hill over here overlooking the valley.

And he builds this altar up where people could see it. Why? So they would remember every time they passed by there that God gave them victory. See, guys, I want you to know a hard truth today.

This is the first second blank in your study guide. We are not casually strolling through life.

We are at war. It's not this idea that I can lay down at night and rest. Satan doesn't take a break. He's whispering to you. His demons are attacking us, constantly fighting against us.

I mean, you could sit here and say, well, I didn't make war with them. Well, they didn't get that memo because they're making war with you. And you know why? Because you are attaching yourself to the baby, the baby Jesus and the serpent. The dragon wants nothing less than destroy the children of faith.

That's what he wants to do. We are fighting. Paul said it best in second Timothy 4, 7 when he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. He told Timothy in his first letter to fight the good fight of faith.

Guys, Christianity cannot be passive in your life.

You can't just stroll through life and just believe when it's convenient. God is asking you to trust him with, with your life, to trust him all the time, not just some of the time to fight the good fight of faith. Jude 3 uses the same words when he says, I'm writing to encourage you to contend for the faith. We gotta fight for the faith. But listen, I'm gonna tell you something.

Some of you were like, well, you know, I really wish that my brother would be saved. Well, fight for him. Are you praying for him? Are you looking for opportunities? Like, you know what, you're going to share the gospel and mess it up.

But God's word never returns void. It's not hinging on how articulate you are. Moses wasn't articulate. He told God, you want me to go speak? He needed Aaron to even be his mouthpiece.

God can speak through you. Do you believe that if God can speak through a donkey, he can speak through you? Now y' all are laughing now. No, I did not use the King James version there.

And all God's people said, now we're not going to use that translation, but the truth is, if he can speak through a donkey, he can speak through you too. Well, I just don't know. You know, how do you know you can't unless you take a step. And I promise you, if you take a step and you fail, God can always clean up your mess. But we've got to trust him.

Alright, let's get to the points. Point number one. Point number one. God's word must be our directive. He's going to be our banner.

The first thing is, God's word must be our directive. We we pound this over and over and over and over again. You need to know this book. You need to know this book. You need to love this book.

You need to treasure this book. You need to read this book. You need to study this book. You need to memorize this book. It needs to be the directive in your life.

You need to know where to go and how to go, and this book does it. He said to them. Listen to what Moses said to them again. He said, choose men and go out and fight. Choose men, go out and fight.

Now, what if Joshua, in that moment, would have said, now, Moses. Wait a minute. Let's try. No. When God says to do it, do it.

Now, listen, here's the truth. They were not under the same thing that we're under. Because we know that as believers, we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. Ezekiel 36. 27 says that he would put his spirit in us and cause us to obey his commands.

We do have something different inside of us. But listen, if that power is inside of you, pushing you to that obedience, and you disobey it, that's called quenching of the spirit. You should be uncomfortable if you are quenching the spirit of God. His directive. Our directive must be His Word, and we must live by it.

And therefore, if we live by it, then we've become a living banner to the name of the Lord. People begin to look at our lives and ask questions about. Well, how is it that you can be so calm in the midst of frustration or. Wait a minute. Well, I didn't see you be calm, but I saw you apologize for lashing out to somebody.

Why would you do that? Because there's something different inside of me. And when we let that be our banner, when we let that go before us, then we're fulfilling what. What Jesus said to do, if you love me, keep my commands. That we're going out into the world and teaching everyone to follow.

What? Jesus said that as Thessalonians write, as Paul wrote in the Thessalonians, that we are walking to please God. Our directive must be His Word. And they did exactly what Moses told them to do. If they had not done it, what would have happened if they gave in to the crowd, Every Israelite would have tucked their tail and ran right back to Egypt and begged to be a slave.

What if instead we go humbly to the one who died and was raised again and we become a bond servant of his? I mean, I think that that would be much better, don't you? Point number two. If I'm going to raise that banner. God's power must be my strength.

You and I don't. We literally, absolutely do not have the power to live the faith life. We need God living in our life. The greatest thing that ever happened to you when you became a Christian was at that moment of faith. Ephesians 1:13 teaches, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of God.

You know what? I'm going to apologize. Some of you went to churches and those pastors never told you what happened to you when you got saved. And that's an absolute travesty. When you put faith and trust in Jesus Christ, he promised by the covenant to put his spirit inside of you.

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. It's dynamite and it just wants to be let out. When we read Ephesians chapter six and we start talking about the armor of God, we love to focus on those pieces, but we forget the first verse. It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. We know we're fighting against things that we can't see.

We fight against them constantly. Satan is the one speaking in your ear, telling you at night that your boss is somehow a piece of pizza. You're dreaming this thing and waking up going, what in the world did that come from? You're fighting things you cannot see against thoughts that you cannot control. You need strength that you can't muster.

You can't go zap a power drink or a mellow yellow or a Mountain Dew and get up and go, well, I got it now. You need the power of God working inside of you. God's power must be our strength.

So when I am able to get through a season of time, I give my praise back to the One. But look at my motion there. I lift up holy hands. I lift up holy hands. I lift up the name of Jesus because he is my banner, he is my standard, and I raise him up.

That's what the call is. Point number three, God's intervention leads to victory. God's intervention leads to victory. You can't win this battle on your own. Now, I think I've given you a few verses there, right?

I'm not gonna read all of them, but I want. Here's what I want you to hear me say. It says, so Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Most scholars believe not a single Israelite died that day. That word overwhelmed means to bury beneath a huge mass.

They decimated that people that day, and it was God who did it would they have won if they had not trusted in God. And would they have trusted in God had they not seen his symbol on the hill high and lifted up? See, had God not intervened, had he not stepped in, they would not have won. When David is standing before Goliath, he looks at him and he says, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. In Deuteronomy 23:4, God tells the people, don't be faint hearted, don't be afraid, don't panic, don't tremble before your enemy.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemy and to save you. Zechariah 4:6. He said, it's not by might nor power, but by my spirit, says the lord. J. Vernon McGee said, It's not by brawn or brains, but by God himself. And we see the ultimate victory in the end with the resurrection.

But we'll come about this saying, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where's your victory? O death, where's your sting? The sting of death. Death is sin and the power of sin is law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What is our victory? If I stand before my enemy and I lose and my life expires right now, what's my victory? I know he's going to raise me back from the dead. Death will not hold me in the ground because it didn't hold my Savior in the ground.

And that is our victory. What we must hold on to. In fact, I got a whole nother little thing to deviate from. But I want you to hear me say this. This is the whole Aaron and her thing and why I said, you need people in your life.

You need people in your life called to intercede for you. And we're called to intercede together. Moses was up there. What was he doing? He wasn't playing tiddlywinks.

Cause he couldn't put his hands together. He was holding that staff up and letting it down. But don't you know, he was going, God give them victory. God give them victory. And they would notice.

And Aaron and her noticing this, they're probably going like, what should we do? Let's hold his arms up. And their arms were probably getting tired too. But guys, there's people in your life you probably have decided to give up on. Can I tell you, don't get on your knees and pray for them.

Hold their arms up. There are people in this room today that are so Weak in their faith. They need somebody to come around them and help them up and lift them up and to pray for them. We need each other. I know most of our prayers starts like, oh, God, thank you for this day.

And Lord, you've been so good to me. And Lord, I need this and this and this and this. And my stomach hurts. And my, oh, gosh, I gotta get to work. In Jesus name, amen.

Can I challenge you? This week, I want you to think of one person in your life that you know is going through a hard time. Write their name on a note card, I love note cards, by the way. And put it on the dash of your card every time you see it. Pray for them.

Go on your phone, your smartphone, and put their name in there and say, I'm going to pray for Michael every day at 8 o'. Clock. And when that pops up, you go, I'm praying for him. You can put it on repeat, get it every day. But we need to intercede for one another.

Because you know what intercession does? It brings unity. And it's an expression of unity. It's a statement of unity, It's a call of unity. Then it's a commitment of unity.

All of that comes together as we see this scene unfolding, that as Moses hands were lifted up, there were two men there alongside of him, helping him out. You don't have to measure prayer by minutes, measure it by moments, pray. And finally, as I know I'm way out of time, God's sacrifice is our banner. Notice again this image. The Lord is my banner.

Is God your insignia? Is he your coat of arms? Like when you look at the things you've surrounded in your life to remind you of things, what in your house reminds you of things? Of faith. You know, when I would go to my granny's house, she had this big tapestry on the wall of Jesus come from the Renaissance.

And as I got older, I went, gee, I don't know that that's the way Jesus looked. But she had it in there. Every time you walked in Granny's house, there was that picture of Jesus. He was staring at you with conviction.

What in your life, what in your environment is reminding you, he's our banner, he's our banner. In fact, I want you to look at this image and stare at it for a few minutes. Think about it. Jesus told Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that was another time the Israelites complained and snakes came among the Israelites and were killing them. But he said, take a golden A brazen serpent and put it on a standard, a pole, a banner, and raise it up.

And if they will look at the serpent, they will be saved. So Jesus says, as Moses raised up the serpent, so the Son of Man must also be raised up. In John chapter 12, a voice from heaven comes and says, this is my Son.

And Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. Folks, do you feel the Lord pulling you to him like a magnet? See, that's the power of the banner. That's the power of it being lifted up. That's why we need the flag hoisted, to say, come.

Like a lot of you, you see the flag, and you, you'll sing the national anthem, and you'll get chill bumps on your arm as you hear everybody playing it. I'm telling you, look at that right there and see if you get the same chill bumps and the same draw and that same desire to want to draw close to him. He bids us all come to the foot of the cross.

That's our banner. That's what we should say. This is what we lift up. And you know what that does for us? Our banner.

God himself is the insignia that unites and the signal for us to go. As our banner. God himself is the insignia that unites and the signal for us to go. Why? Because he leads the charge.

He leads the charge. He's calling us. You are at war. Whether you realize it or not, you are at war. Every day when you wake up in the morning, maybe you could start saying this prayer.

Lord, I know I'm at war today. Use me in some way to fight back and maybe rescue somebody else. Don't you love the scene in Forrest Gump? Some of you have never watched Forrest Gump, where Forrest keeps running in and out of the woods, rescuing people.

Something bit me. I mean, you know, he's running in and out, and he's rescuing people. Folks, listen to me, that's silly, but I'm going to get real serious for a moment. It's time for us to start running back into the woods. We got people all around us.

Some of them used to sit in this room, and they left. Some of them left and went to churches that aren't preaching the gospel. Some of them stopped going to church. Now, we could sit here and judge them, couldn't we? Shame on us.

Well, we should go. Is say, hey, listen, I miss you. What can I do to help you? What can I do to bring you? I'll come pick you up if you need me to.

Let's Go rescue people because we're in a fight. Let's raise that insignia, let's raise that banner, and let's go, guys. I can go on forever. Let me give you some applications as the band gets ready to come up and lead us in the last song. How mature are you in your faith?

If this is God constantly over and over and over again, testing the children of Israel, how mature are you in your faith? Do you see the conflict that God allows to come in your life as a means to help you mature in your faith? I mean, we've got 12 stones that we celebrate here. We say this expresses our core values. How are you attending church, and how are you sharing your life with others?

How are you inviting others? Are you learning about Jesus? Are you following him? Are you multiplying? Are you in a group?

How do you honor him in your devotion? Are you praying? How's your giving? Do you love people? Like, do you love people?

That's a hard one. But without love, you don't want to serve them and you definitely don't want to reach them. That's what we're called to do. Literally. Go this week sometime and sit down with your Bible.

Go, go online and just say, give me some important promises of Scripture and write them down. He told them, write this down and recite it to Joshua. Don't forget it. What promises do you. Maybe some of you need to hear that God's got a work inside of you and he'll see it to completion.

Some of you need to know that there is therefore now no more condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Some of you, you need to hear that you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. You need that word in your heart. So when the negativity comes and when the discouragement comes, you've got something to fight back with. So as we open this altar today and sing this song, I don't want you to eat it.

Maybe you need to give your life to Christ. Maybe you're lost. I told the staff this morning, I'm praying, God, I want to see somebody saved on a Sunday morning. That's selfish. I know.

I want to see somebody saved. Draw men to yourself. I. I'd love to see the opportunity that maybe even in this room today, somebody here, you're like, I don't know, Jesus Christ, I'm not saved. If I leave this room today and something happens to me, I'll bust hell wide open. But you don't have to leave.

That way you can come and repent of your sins and confess that Jesus is the son of God who died on the cross, raised again, and he can give you new life. You don't have to leave lost, but you can leave with something new. And maybe you need to ask, maybe today you feel that conviction that you need to be an Aaron or a her in somebody's life, that maybe you need to come down this altar and say, you know what? It's been six months since I prayed for my cousin. It's been five months since that co worker that I used to work with is lost and left.

And I'm thinking about him. What if today you came up and prayed for him and committed to praying for him for the days to come? Father, speak to us now as we get ready to go home. Lord, let us leave here today ready to go and charge and to fight in Jesus name. Amen.