The Lord Is My Banner (transcript)

com. Good morning. Everybody, turn to your neighbor and say happy birthday. Happy birthday. Today is tribe’s ninth birthday.

Happy birthday tribe. Skip around the room tribe. Double digits next year. So we’ll we’ll talk a little bit more about Travis birthday, but wanted to welcome everybody here as a birthday present on your seat. There is a little birthday gift.

Every week, I say, if you’re taking notes this morning, you can write the top of your notes. And so maybe some of you already have, like, a little journal where you take notes, things like that. Great. If you do, you can just say thank you so much and leave it right on your seat for the next service. But if you don’t have a journal or a place for taking notes, that is tribes birthday present to you.

Yeah? You’re welcome. Okay. We have we have a lot of ground to cover. We’ve we’ll we’ll talk a little bit about tribe’s ninth birthday.

Lissa and I just yesterday have returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia. We gotta talk about that. But first but first, didn’t Jacob and Gretchen and Amanda do great on worship last week? And shout out to Connor for prerecording the message and getting that going. Thank you, sir, for doing that.

And let’s get into God’s word together today. So if you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Exodus? It’s a great place to turn to after just having returned from Saudi Arabia. Exodus chapter 17. And here at Tribe, because of the format that God has called us to and the venue lends itself to it, we like to do things collaboratively.

We like to dig into God’s word together collaboratively. So I want us to have discussion over God’s word, and we get to read together. Not all at once. That’s too liturgical for me. But let’s take turns reading Exodus chapter 17 and double click on verse eight.

We’ll read verse eight through 16. We have a mic in the room for, for you to read. Of course, we could probably hear your voice, but we like to have your voice mic’d up as well, so that people who are watching the live stream as they’re at home, or traveling, or abroad, they still get to participate and hear all of your wonderful contributions. Who wants to kick us off starting in verse eight? Alright.

Thank you, Bethany. The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow, I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill.

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands were tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Then the Lord said to Moses, write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called it, The Lord is my banner. He said, because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from to generation. Okay. I’d love to hear.

As you use your sanctified imagination, what sort of imagery comes to mind as you read this passage? What either aspects or elements if we could Turn me this up. Alright. Do this over. It’s okay, baby.

It’s okay. Doesn’t bother me at all. I like to think of it as people’s hearts percolating and waking up and responding to God’s word. As you use your sanctified imagination, what elements of this story, like what visual do you get in your mind? What what do you think of?

What do you see in your mind’s eye? Do you have the mic, Adam? Yeah. I wanna say first that I can’t tell you how many times I have read this, and probably taught it, and shared it, and everything else, but I just had the most amazing visual evidence. It’s so important to know who you’re paired up with.

So important to know that you’ve got people on your believing team. If not, who would have held his hands up? Oh, okay. Okay. That’s one of my favorite things, is when as we’re having a discussion about God’s word, as you’ve read this over and over and over again, the Holy Spirit just whispers to your heart a detail or a phrase or something, and you can see it with fresh eyes.

I love that. What do you picture in your mind’s eye? What else? What other elements or aspects of these short few verses do you picture in your mind’s eyes? I imagine that he might have tested it, like put his arms down and been like, oh, they’re losing.

They are there. It’s true. It’s true. Like, put them back up. You know, like Yes.

Like, is this real because it seems like such a, not silly, but just as like a strange thing. Keep your arms up and they’ll win. Put them down. Like, there’s no actual correlation in the natural. Yeah.

And so, yeah, I imagine he, like, lowered it. That’s something you would do. Like, are they? Oh, they are. They are.

They are. Keep them up. And I imagine his fingers were tingly and numb, and even with friends holding him up. But, yeah. To to piggyback, I think it’s very interesting that he just needed to obey this the command was just keep the staff in the air.

Buds. But, yeah, I just find it very interesting Yes. In how the Lord just looks at our obedience Mhmm. Mhmm. With friends.

What does holding your hands above your head, standing on a hillside, have to do? What does holding a in one area that seems as though it’s completely unrelated to what you could find yourself currently going through has a supernatural divine connection that the Lord will reveal to you only after you have responded in obedience. That’ll preach right there. Or maybe it won’t even be revealed, but your obedience in one area unlocks victory in another area. That was a little bonus sermon, free of charge, that we just stumbled upon together.

Joy. Piggybacking off that too. His obedience was to put his hands up, which is surrender. Right? They’re equating obedience to surrender, which I think is really cool.

Also, aren’t the Amalek ites giants? Okay. Alright. Here we go. So I was just I was just picturing like, it’s one thing to imagine a battle that you’re winning or losing and how difficult it is, but it’s another thing to picture them dwarfed compared to the enemy and that it’s just Moses’s hands up in the air or down that is making the difference.

Like, there’s a lot there’s a really big it’s a bigger miracle even than just winning a battle, but winning a battle when you are outsized. Yes. Yes. So you’d need to do a little bit of genealogy tracing. And as you look at the Amalek ites and King Agag that, King Saul has to deal with, and then, a little further on in the story, there’s definitely some connection between the giant clans and King Agag, and he was an Amalekite.

And then even in, is it the book of Esther? I think Haman was an Amalekite. And so there is a genealogical history of some sinister sinisterism with these Amalekites. So that’s that’s a really fun rabbit trail that you can go down. Let me give you a little bit of background, if you’re not familiar with the story of what is happening in the large story arc just before likely person, Moses, to be his spokesman and the deliverer of Israel.

God delivers Israel with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand through the wilderness of Sinai to the Gulf Of Aqaba. I have a a big map. Let’s look at that real quick. Yes. This is the big map.

Egypt, little tiny Israel. This is the Sinai Peninsula. This is the country of Saudi Arabia, Jordan. How many of you remember this map from last week? We looked at it last week.

So God leads through Moses, the nation of Israel, out of Goshen, and into this region called the Sinai Peninsula. Now it’s scholars are divided on the exact route that Israel took through the wilderness of sin, s I n. Not the word sin that we think of. That’s just a proper name for this part, of the region. No connection to transgression of the law.

Just it’s just called sin. Got it? Yeah. Okay. And then they cross.

Some people believe that there’s like this little swampy, marshy area called the Sea Of Reeds that was divided that Israel crossed through. I my God, the God that I serve is a really big God and he’s like, come on. Give me something better than a swampy area that’s across. How about we just rip the ocean in half right here? The Yes.

The deeps will rip the Gulf Of Aqaba in half and I’ll lead the nation of Israel through. And so they are led through the Gulf Of Aqaba on dry ground into what is today the modern country of Saudi Arabia. He does some incredible things to take care of them. And they arrive just before what we read, they arrive at a place that had no water. And they were thirsty and grumbling and complaining.

God tells Mo, No. Oh, yeah. No. Oh, wait. Leave that.

Leave that. Leave that. Leave that. So it’s a zoomed in photo. Where I dropped that pin is roughly the area of where this story unfolds.

So, this is near Mount Sinai, but this is the area, known as the Rock At Horeb. Do I have a picture of that big split rock? Okay. Not that one. Yeah.

There we go. There we go. Okay. So this is known, by long, many generations of Bedouin travelers as there you go. Leave it on that one.

It’s about it’s about five stories, that rock itself. Yeah. And, there is no, there’s no, plaque that Moses, put in there. We don’t have there’s no way of knowing absolutely for sure. And to be fair, there are a number of features similar to this, but nothing by comparison, comes even close to this prominent feature.

And the Bible talks about God telling Moses, go to the rock, the rock. Which rock? Well, all the mountains are made of rocks. There’s not a tree anywhere to be seen. There’s a lot of rocks, but this rock really stands out.

It has been cleaved in half one way or another. You could see signs of of water moving on both sides of this rock. And God says to Moses, strike the rock and water will come out. Water pours forth from the rock depending on how you count the number of Israelites. The Bible says that there were about 600,000 men that were led from the exodus and that they’re married and families.

The Bible also talks about, 600,000. The Bible also talks about many Egyptians coming with the Israelites. So, conservatively, there could be well over a million people that are out in this wilderness and a million people get really thirsty really fast. And would you go to the the big the big wide one now? There we go.

So this picture is taken right, like, right in the same area. A huge, vast, flat area where it certainly looks like you could put a million people camping out. I said there were no trees anywhere. Okay. Well, hyperbole, there’s five.

There’s five right there, and that’s it. But they are pretty cool trees. They’re great for shade. Look at that. You could put a million people out in that flats.

This is one of, several rock escarpments in the area. And then would you go to that photo of what was a rock, but it actually has some rock art on it? Okay. So from where I was standing, if I look down to my left, there is a petroglyph. Do you know what the difference between a pictograph and a petroglyph is?

What? Okay. Well, yes list, but you’re helping this is yes, it’s Tribe’s birthday, but you don’t wanna help them too much. Oh, really? Oh, yeah.

Only look at this one As everybody means. A pictograph is made with pigment paint that’s painted on or blown on with your mouth or with a straw. If you know anything about cool rock art in the Desert Southwest. A petroglyph is chipped into the rock. What do you think this is?

Pictograph or petroglyph? Oh. Yes. Here. I might get in trouble.

Oh. The the swiveling or the reveal? I see. Yeah. Yeah.

Can you see it better there? Alright. What do you think that is? Petroglyph or pictograph? Think about how old this is and we’ll talk about how old it is.

And we’ll talk and look at its location. Which would last longer? Chipped in scratched into the rock or painted onto the rock? Scratched onto the rock. So is this exposed to the elements?

So even though you weren’t there just from looking at the photo, it is a very safe to surmise that this is a petroglyph chipped into the rock. And I can tell you that it’s been chipped into the rock. Now, if you look carefully and you need to kind of squint slash use your imagination, at least doing it right now. Oh, feel free to just, borrow Joy’s glasses or come on up. What if you were to use your imagination, what does this perhaps look like?

Adam. It looks like three crosses. Yeah. Yeah. A A family.

Okay. Three, you’re onto it. I really hope the podcast picks up that audio. Joy said it looks like a figure with Richardson go out into the desert and chip this into the rock? We don’t know who did this.

You cannot date petroglyphs because it’s very very hard to date rocks. You need organic material if you’re gonna date it. But there are other ways of determining more or less the age of the rock art by the amount of desert varnish or patina that has regrown over the sandstone. In in this case, it’s basalt rock. So the amount of desert varnish, and, I am I’m an expert in farting around in the desert and have seen lots of pictograph panels and petroglyph panels in the Desert Southwest, in the Canyonlands region.

So I’ve seen a lot of rock art, but I don’t I have never studied it academically. However, on the trip that Lissa and I were on, we had several notable archaeologists, none of whose names you will know unless you’re like really into archaeology, but they certainly thought of themselves as a big deal. And their expert opinion was this particular, rock art is has got to be thousands of years old. Between 6,500 years old, in their professional opinion, which would have put the creation of this rock art more or less right about the time of the events that we just read. How about that?

So we have the nation of Israel camped. There’s like like you could almost throw a rock from this rock art to the large split rock. There’s planes, would you go back to that big wide one of planes? So there’s planes like this on this side of this rock escarpment, and there are planes on the other side. One side is a little bit closer to the rock at Horeb.

And standing up there, if you’re looking for the low spot, the low spot kind of drains to the north. This is looking essentially to the south. So what if you had Israel camped to the north, the rock at Horeb, this escarpment, one of the the the major high points in the area, this would seem like a good place for a battle. What are there other pictures related like that we haven’t talked about? Oh, there’s Joel being Joel.

Yeah. Keep leave it leave it on on that one. On the ones with the vehicles. There you go. So I’ll just let that you can see that one pretty good from here.

Right? Okay. Okay. So, the Amalekites, while the nation of Israel is camped in this area, the Amalekites attack. The Amalekites were the descendants of this guy named Amalek, who is a grandson of Esau.

And for generations, they were desert dwellers. Think of them similar to today’s modern, Bedouin nomads living in a really harsh, arid, barren environment. And all of a sudden, Israel shows up, water appears. How is Israel being fed, by the way? Quail.

They’ve just had a feast of quail. Quail doesn’t happen often or regularly, but it did for them just before this moment. And then all of a sudden, Israel gets attacked. Here’s a question. Why does why do the Amalekites attack Israel?

What do you think? Why do the Amalekites attack Israel? You can just shout it out and if it’s good, I’ll have you repeat it in the mic. Did I say that part out loud? Why did the why did the Israelites get attacked?

Yeah. I mean, the Amalekites, if if they are living in that, then anybody else, you have a competition for resources. Right? And so, it would be maybe not that much of a stretch for the Amalekites to want to chase them off. Although, would you go back to the big broad wide picture?

There you go. I mean, as you can tell, there are not that many resources. Why should a person love, bless, and support Israel? I mean, I’m just saying. Wherever Israel is, there’s fresh water.

And there’s food in this land of nothing. Why does Israel get attacked? Yeah. God’s chosen people. Whether they like it or not.

Whether they want it or not. So you can ask that question, why does Israel get attacked? You can ask that question. But here’s the reality that stretches from 3,500 ago right down into the week that you may have had, had, Shay. Life tends to come with bad guys showing up on the scene.

Bad guys just always have a way of showing up. Well, here’s another question. When did the Amalekites attack? Right after after water gushed forth from the rock. They no water here y’all.

And now how much water would it take to slake the thirst of a million people and their livestock? So much? Did you know that a camel can drink 10 gallons of water in under three minutes? I did. But I don’t think I’m too far off.

Joy’s like click click click click click. I’m not too far off. My wife knows me so well. Okay. How did Israel respond?

A million people. Think about this. It helps when you can physically stand in an area and read God’s word. Now, maybe you have in your mind a battle of epic proportion like an eight minute scene from the Lord of the Rings movie. In reality, since resources were so valuable and the expenditure of energy of any kind comes at such a high cost.

When you read about the Amalekites or the Hittites, or the Perizzites, or the whatever ites, think less in terms of like something that you would see, in in an epic battle scene movie. And more like clans and tribes raiding parties that took place maybe something that, like, if you’re trying to put an image to it, maybe something like, maybe that happened here in The Americas as one Native American tribe raided another Native American tribe. Not these large scale siege battles and formations and but more of skirmishes, like rushing in, attacking on the flanks, and rushing out, and and and and lower casualty rates than, you know, something that you would picture, you know, maybe like in like medieval times where there’s just a a battlefield strewn with bodies. Those did happen large scale, but in this case, it was more likely a small scale battle. A million plus Israelites being attacked by an Amalekite raiding party was probably experienced by at most maybe only a few thousand Israelites that were camped on that side of camp.

It was not it was not nothing, but it was more of a nuisance and inconvenience, a harassment than it was the entire nation of Israel fighting. And imagine how word travels at the opposite end of the camp. There’s what going on on the southern flank of the camp of Israel? Who? And imagine the people at the northern end of the camp.

I think those pea the people in the South are making it up. That’s a conspiracy theory. I mean, how are you gonna walk through a million people to the southern end of the camp to identify and verify. So I’m just trying, I’m just trying to like put it into perspective. How did Israel respond?

Joshua and some men went out to confront the Amalekites head on. And as long as Moses held his hands up, the Israelites had the victory. I wrote this down in my notes. While the Amalekites have been tossed into the dust bin of history, by the way, along with any other nation, group, or ideology that tries to wipe Israel off the map. The problem of the Amalekites still persists today.

And I’ll prove it to you. Have you ever been That’s a perfect face, Joe. They exist today. And you probably haven’t encountered some Amalekites. And maybe some of you may even this morning find yourself under attack from some Amalekites.

What? Have you ever found yourself just trucking along in life? Like, you’ve got a you’ve got like like some money left over at the end of your bills and all of your responsibilities. Your job is like going okay. School is like good.

You’re turning homework in on time and, like, you’re, like, you’re, like, keeping your head above water with your grades. Like, sports, like, you’re doing alright. Things are good with your friends. Like, life is, like, good. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you get sideswiped by some type of opposition or calamity or curve ball.

Has that ever happened to anybody in here under the sound of my voice? Raise your hand up. Keep it up. Every single one of us have been attacked by Amalekites. Look at Israel.

They’re out in the they’re out in the wilderness. They have been living for several days under the fear of pharaoh and his army. They’ve been led through the Red Sea. They’ve now they have not arrived yet at Mount Sinai. They’re following this Moses guy who was gone for forty years and appears back on the scene.

They’ve been so hungry. They’ve been fed with manna and quail. Now they’re thirsty. They’re parched. They’re grumbling and complaining.

They see Moses, like, hey. I think tomorrow he’s gonna do something. Like, make sure to turn in, like, watch the live stream. The this Moses guy is, like, gonna do something. Where?

What’s he gonna do? I don’t know. See that big rock over there? Everybody could see the rock from a rock. Just keep your eye there.

Maybe maybe, like, oh, I think I think I see, like, guys going up there. What are they doing? And then what is he doing? Oh, I think that Moses is mad. He’s whacking the rock with the holy cow.

A fountain. A geyser erupts. How many have seen old, old faithful in Yellowstone? That’s kind of what I picture. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water come pouring out.

And I will say this, I don’t know if ever if you’ve ever spent enough time in the in the back country in an arid place long enough, but you would be surprised at how quickly your sniffer can pick up the smell of water when you have been away from it for any length of time. And they could smell it probably long before they could actually taste it. Things are now going well. Their bellies are full of water. They’re sloshing around.

The children are playing in it. Things are going well for the Israelites. And then out of nowhere, bam. The Amalekites strike. In a similar way, maybe you have been cruising along in life where things are copacetic.

They’re a okay, like it’s going well. And then out of nowhere, a curve ball is thrown to you. And I wasn’t quite I didn’t take account, but it looked like every single one of us put our hands up. We’ve all experienced that at one time or another, and or you might find yourself right now in the midst of an Amalekite attack. Why that happened?

Why it gotta be that way? I didn’t put this verse, up on the screen. The amount of life that I have gotten to do with some of you going on many years now. One verse comes to mind that is, Amanda quotes it all the time. It’s not up on the screen, but John sixteen thirty three, I have told you this so that you may have peace in me.

Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows, trouble. But then what does he say? Take heart because I have overcome the world. And here’s what Jesus is saying. Life comes with Amalekite raids.

It just happens. Why does that doctor’s bill have to come in this month? I was just finally getting ahead. I just paid off last semester of my kids college school stuff, and now they got this or whatever it is. I think a lot of people throw their hands up in surrender or dismay at Amalekite raids on their life?

Can I tell you with as much pastoral fatherly love as I can muster in this moment, Baby girl, you’ve got a cowboy up? Life comes with Amalekite raids. Jesus Himself has said it. In this life, you’re gonna experience Amalekite raids, but then he has he gives us hope. But take heart because I’ve overcome the world.

Now I’ve got a couple of insights to share with you about Amalekites. This is not on the screen, but let me tell you these, and then I’ll get you to some stuff that you can write down. When the Amalekites attack, number one, it’s important to recognize an Amalekite attack. An Amalekite attack usually pops up right as things are going well for you. If you find yourself in the midst of a season where, like, life is good.

Watch out because an Amalekite attack could be right around the corner. Now, we don’t you don’t need to live in fear and in trepidation. Things are going well. Oh, no. When are things gonna go bad?

That’s an e r way to live. Don’t live like that. But many people are so thrown off when an Amalekite attack happens, a curve ball gets thrown to them, that they they they just the wheels fall off immediately. No. Don’t let the wheels fall off.

When an Amalekite attack happens, be like, alright. Should have known this was coming. I’m ready. What are you gonna say? Buckle up.

What is the purpose of an Amalekite attack? This is really important. Is to distract you. The purpose of an Amalekite attack is to distract you. And distraction most often takes one of two forms.

It can be and most frequently is opposition. Now let be be careful to hear what I’m saying and don’t hear what I’m not saying. To hear what I’m not saying would be to over spiritualize what we’re talking about. So that anything that comes after you or against you is an attack of the devil. It just very well may be that overdue parking ticket.

Like, that’s not the devil. That’s you parking illegally and you got a ticket and they just now got around to sending you the ticket in the mail. That’s not the devil. That’s you. Okay?

Okay? But I also don’t want to under spiritual wise. Thank goodness. Each of you who have invited Jesus into your heart, made him the leader of your life. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within you.

And one of the operations of the Holy Spirit is a thing called discernment. Hey, that’s a ticket that a parking ticket that you got. You probably shouldn’t have been parked on the town square for six hours. That’s on you, bro. But he but but even that dirty devil can use that as an opportunity to heap condemnation on you.

So you have to you have to have discernment. Okay? Okay? So the purpose of an Amalekite attack is to distract. Most often distraction comes in the form of opposition.

A big doctor bill, a park whatever, like a financial thing, like that that is an opposition to your bank account. Right? Or something happens at work. Opposition. But here’s where many people get suckered into scrapping with the Amalekites unnecessarily because opposition.

If that dirty devil can’t get to you and distract you, stressing you out, making your mind spin, thinking and thinking and meditating on the potential negative consequences. If he can’t get you with opposition, his other favorite tactic that comes in the side door that many people aren’t ready for is not opposition, but do you know what it is? Opportunity. Opportunity can be as much of a distraction as opposition. Somebody tell me what I mean by that.

What are your thoughts? How can opportunity be a distraction? Think about it. John Bevere wrote this book many years ago called Good Verse God. And he spoke just about that where he’s just said, you know, the enemy can distract you in so many ways.

Like, yeah. Okay. In theory, is feeding the homeless good? Yes. Is giving to philanthropic endeavors good?

Yes. But he just if it’s not in the way that he explains it, I agree with. If it’s not in God’s will, he’s like, sure. Go feed all the homeless. Go do all the things, which is great and has its purpose.

But it could those opportunities for good could be a distraction from what the Lord is really wanting you to drill in and look at and focus on. Well, that’s great. In his sovereignty. You know that that dirty devil has no problem with you being moral? He has no problem.

In fact, he would encourage you to be a moral, upright, outstanding positive contribution to society. What he can’t stand is surrender and obedience to Jesus Christ. And he’s convinced us. He has convinced us. The devil would like to try to convince the masses that morality equals Christianity.

Oh. Good. We’ll get to heaven. Oh. Yeah.

Can you see that sinister trap? Getting suckered into fighting an Amalekite battle by being a good person? Can you imagine their, the the the indignation of a person standing before a righteous and holy God. But God, I I did this, and I posted this, and I stayed away from that, and I volunteered at the And he’s like, you never surrendered. I didn’t call you to that.

Okay. So distraction can come in the form of opposition or opportunity. And here’s what that often looks like. You are praying through. You’re at a you’re at a crossroads, maybe a big crossroads in life.

So many young people come through this valley and and enter into a crossroads of what am I doing with my life? What’s the next thing for me? Do I stay? Do I go? Do I do I take this job?

Do I, you know. And they begin to get a sense of what it is that God is inviting them to. Lord, how do I know this is you? And the Lord’s like, well, there’s one surefire way. Step out and try it.

Do you know that the Lord will never punish you for between option a and b and you’re not quite sure taking a step or two down option a to help hear his voice and clarity to to know that a option a is the right way or option b is is the right way. It’s never it’s not always binary. Wouldn’t it be great if it were? But when when trying to hear from the Lord’s voice, here’s what I have seen play out many times. You begin to get a sense of what it is that God is calling you to or how he is inviting you to respond.

And you begin to take some tentative steps, even some non committal steps towards that path. But then, some other opportunity, bright and shiny and sparkly, just all of a sudden springs up on the horizon. After you have kind of committed to this way. Be careful because that opportunity could just be a distraction. I’ve had it happen to me many times in life.

Just a quick story. Back in 2012, Lissa and I put our yes on the table to going to Mongolia. Lord, we feel like you’ve called us to do this. We don’t know how it’s gonna there were so many questions about how we were gonna pull it off, what all we were gonna do, how it was gonna happen, how it was gonna come together. But we had put our yes on the table to going.

And within days, I got an invitation to a promotion at my job. I was the children’s pastor. Pastor. And I got invited to have like a like a 10 times larger role, more responsibility, more influence, and a significant raise. And not only that, but I got a random job opportunity church that we actually, like, liked better.

But we’re serving at the church that God called us at. You know, we weren’t called that. Guy contacted me out of the blue. Heard you’re doing great things at children’s with children’s ministry in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Like, I would love for you to come, like, do children’s ministry on our team and, like, perk and benefit and benefit and benefit.

It’s a great opportunity, but I would have had to say no to us going to Mongolia. Will you say something? Yeah. I was just gonna say something. So, like, how I got called to greet her.

Similar to her. It’s like I I just I pray, like, if I can do your will will or I could serve you, let me know. And literally the next day, Jay asked me if I wanted to start greeting. And so I was just like, you just gotta talk to him. You just gotta ask him what to do.

Yeah. Lord, what do you have for me? Now how many Sundays have you encountered some opposition in your role as greeter team lead? People bailing out the last minute or maybe it’s fresh powder day on a Sunday. You got your sled deck on.

Sleds are gassed up and you’re like, A malachite attack. Fresh powder, a malachite attack. I think it’s particularly hard too when you have been walking with the Lord for a while and you know what you’re good at or what God’s gifted you at and you get an opportunity in that area. It’s really easy to think that, well, of course, it’s from the Lord and when we were in Tulsa as well, we were having a really hard time getting plugged in at the church we were at. And I had been a worship leader for all these years and we’d been in full time ministry and I couldn’t sing in the bathroom, like, at this church.

Like, I couldn’t there were no open doors whatsoever. And then And I was like, what are we doing here? Like where our gifts aren’t being used. And so we asked the Lord like, what should we do? And so we thought what’s the Maybe what’s the least role that we could play?

And so we cleaned up the chairs after youth ministry for, I don’t know, six months. And all of a sudden there were, worship team auditions. And I said to Brian, should I should I try out the worship team? I was like, well, I don’t know. Let’s pray about it.

And I didn’t feel one way or really strongly one way or the other. Went to the audition and the entire I mean, we’re it was like a American Idol audition. Like, it was crazy. High pressure. High pressure clipboards, like you get one song and they can kick you off at any moment.

I did not have peace Can you imagine anybody doing that to our Lissa? So I had I did not have peace about it. And I was like, well, you know, I kept making all these excuses. Well, maybe I’m just nervous. Maybe I don’t think I have what it takes.

Maybe I did did did did did did did. And these were such amazing amazing musicians and I didn’t have peace about it. Audition and thought, you know what? It’s okay I don’t have peace about it. I’ll never get asked to be on the team anyway and it’ll just be a good experience, you know, like for me to get over myself.

And then auditioned and got a call like three days later. And the moment I got the phone call where they said, hey, we would really like for you to be on the worship team. The fear of the Lord like I have never felt came over me. Like if you say yes, you are gonna be so outside of my will. And I had to say to the main worship leader which like for some people I’m sure it was like a dream come true.

He was amazing. But I just said, I was in total disobedience when I auditioned and I have to say no. And he’s like, no way. I mean, what are you gonna say to that? But I think sometimes, I’m just giving you an example of sometimes you have to take a step to know that the peace of the Lord is not there because I was like, worship leading is my calling like surely I’ll, you know, but I could have said yes and thought, well maybe I’m just getting confused.

But it’s the fear of the Lord that we have to listen to and then just be obedient. Oh, this is so good. This is so good. Thank you. Let’s talk about annihilating an Amalekite attack to use an alliteration.

Pastors love preachers love alliterations. Annihilating an Amalekite attack. Step one, don’t ignore the issue. Confront it head on. Just like Joshua did.

God didn’t tell Moses, assemble the whole army. But he says, you need to address this. My motto in high school was high school students plug your ears. Ignore a problem long enough and it will go away. It’s terrible.

Yeah. Right. That’s the only note you take for the whole sermon. Okay. I like that.

It’s terrible. Don’t ignore the issue. It must be confronted. So Lissa, let’s use Lissa’s in it. She gets an invitation to come on to the worship team.

She said that she could have said, okay, thank you. And then, like, never called them back, never dealt with it, just never showed up and, like, that would have been terrible. You gotta call them back and say, hey, thank you for the invitation, but I I need to decline. Confront it head on. The bill, it’s not going to go away by just ignoring it.

Even if you don’t have enough money to pay for it in that moment. Alright. Here’s the bill. It’s here. It’s a reality.

Anybody ever tried to ignore bills to see if they go away? Yeah. I have. It don’t work. People who you owe money to usually stay after you until you pay.

So number one, don’t ignore the issue. Confront it head on. And this is a sub point to number one. Was Joshua alone when he confronted the Amalekites? No.

He was doing life in a community of people. Not only did he have fellow Israelite soldiers, but just imagine in the thick of battle, the great comfort that he took being able to look up onto the high point and see Moses, his leader, cheering for him and her and Aaron. Somebody watching the live stream this morning made this contribution that I think is so good. Where did it go? Oh.

Wait. No. Where did it go? Oh, here, here, here, here. Okay.

About the battle with the Amalekites, the three stood above the battle fighting in the spirit realm. Alright. Aaron was a Levite. Her was of the tribe of Judah. Moses was the voice of God to the people.

So future priests and kings come together with the word of God in unity and submission to defeat the Amalekites. A pattern we should follow today. The trinity in the Tanakh, great contribution. Number one, don’t ignore the problem. Number two, stay in the shade.

Somebody tell me what I mean by that. Stay in the shade. Do you have to think? A little bit. Stay in the shade.

What do I mean by that? There you go. Like under the shelter of the Lord? Do. Yep.

Because what was happening to Israel in that moment, during that time? The bible says that there was a little night light and insulation from heat escaping the desert in the night, to go to the bathroom, they didn’t trip over the tent cords because they didn’t have headlamps. There’s a little glow, fire in the clouds at night keeping them warm. And then that cloud during the day protected them from the scorching heat. We were there in the end of October, and I tell you what, it was hot as really hot.

Blazes. Hot as blazes out there in that sun. And the cloud protected them. The Amalekites, did they have the cloud of God’s protection and covering over them? No.

Amalekites out there fighting battles in the direct sun heat, trying to draw out the Israelites. Stay in the shade protection and provision following the leadership of the Holy Spirit? Did you know that you can be under the shade of God’s plan and will in the sweet spot of his life for you and still encounter Amalekite attacks? Yes. So number one, don’t ignore the problem.

Number two, stay in the shade. And then number three, this is the last thing, look to a better Moses. Joshua had Moses standing on the hill. And I don’t see any reason why Moses couldn’t have actually stood right in that spot where that petroglyph is chipped into the rock to memorialize that moment. I don’t see why he could not have stood right there in that exact spot.

Maybe he chipped it. I’ll show these Israelites. Remember, I put this verse up on the screen. First John four four. Jesus is speaking and he says, but you belong to God, my dear children.

He loves you. He has wonderful things in store for you. His ways are higher and better than your ways. And even in the midst of an Amalekite attack, you are still his favorite. You have already won a victory over those people because the spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

Greater is he that lives in you than he that lives in the world. That is what arms you with strength to repel any Amalekite Amalekite attack of fear, of anxiety, of depression, of worry, of shame, of hopelessness, of brokenness. All of those are Amalekite raiding parties trying to come after you. But if Jesus is the boss of your life, greater is he that lives in you than he that lives in the world. Would you go back to that petroglyph?

Now the first time we looked at that, it just looked like a bunch of random peckings on rock art. Here, this is for you. With the central figure with his arms out and two figures underneath. But look at look at that rock art again and tell me what maybe you could see. Kind of looks like a cross.

That’s right. Kind of looks like a cross. Jesus paid the price for your victory. Now that sounds really good and motivating, but let me just address this for just a moment. How does that how does that relate to an unexpected bill?

Do you just wave the bill and say like Just hold it up. Hold it up like Jesus paid it all, like, and you just write you just write that on the bill and mail it back? Jesus paid my debt. Try it. Practically, here’s what that looks like.

The big bill comes in. I like to always like to be really, really practical. Okay? The big bill comes in. I don’t know, maybe this is completely unrelatable to the rest of y’all.

But the Bible says according to Philippians four, six or eight, don’t worry. Okay? So the bill comes in, I’m not gonna worry. The Amalekite attack, I’m not going to worry. Do not worry.

Jesus even prepared me in advance for this. In this life, you’re gonna have trouble. You’re gonna have Amalekite rates. Okay. I’m not gonna be thrown off.

I’m not gonna be caught off guard by this unexpected bill. And then you hold his word. But Jesus says take heart for I’ve overcome the world and greater is he that’s in me than he he that’s in the world. Lord, where where is that Moses on the hill that I can look to? And then you get a call from a coworker.

Hey, I I’m out sick three days. Could you cover my shift? And, I mean, Joshua had to pull his sword and swing and fight. You might have to say yes to those two or three extra shifts. But ta da, look at that.

God provides. He will always provide for you. Today is tribe’s ninth birthday, And for nine years, we’ve faced our share of Amalekite raids, whether it’s been paper thin finances, whether it’s been, facility rentals and contracts with places that we’ve rented going awry, people that have misunderstood me and or tribe, people that that have gotten their undies twisted and stomped off in a huff. COVID? No, man.

COVID. We faced our Amalekite attacks, but God has been so good to us and has given us the victory each and every time. And by God’s grace, he will continue to give us the victory. These are some of the we’ll just cycle through some of these photos as a snapshot of that Susan and Caleb getting married. Just a few highlights from this past year.

Christmas Eve on the town square, hundreds of people come into Christmas Eve. Temperatures that were just warm enough that your fingers didn’t freeze. And as we think about what God has done for us in this last year, at birthdays you look back and celebrate all that God has done, and you also look forward. Exact route that he has for us, But one of the things that I’m growing in confidence in, and this is bringing, at least for me, the beginning of the end of the wilderness of stay close. For almost five years now, the Lord has said, stay close.

Okay, Lord. What’s the vision? What’s the direction? Where are we going? I’ve literally had families leave, bless their heart, for coming to me and saying, Brian, what are we doing?

Where are we going? Where are we going, Brian? What is the vision? You’re the leader of TRIBE. What are we doing?

Where are we going? And I say the vision that God has given me is two words, stay close. And that vision was not satisfactory for them and they left. Hey, it’s alright. I am beginning to see a little further down the road, and I’m beginning to get the first outline.

You know when you’re driving at night and you look in the headlights, you can only see as far as the headlights go. When you throw in the brights, you can see a little bit further, but you don’t really know until you get a little closer. That’s kind of how I feel leading tribe especially this past five years. But I believe that I can see coming into the vision for tribe, the increased importance for tribe to find our next home. That is growing urgency in my heart, in our staff, in the pastor’s council, and in the board of trustees.

It is growing of increasing importance for tribe to find our next home. What that looks like, I have no idea. That’s a fun Easter service. But would you join me adding to your prayer list in your new fancy church notebook that you got today. 2025 as we go through to our tenth birthday that we’ll be praying for God showing us where our next home will be.

That may be a year from now, it may be longer, it may be sooner, I don’t know. What he will provide, I don’t know. But I just begin to feel the Lord’s like, alright, it’s time now. We’ll be taking some practical steps. Tribe is going to, with the board’s structuring, we’re gonna create a special fund, tribes next home.

And, as like you can you can tithe. Let’s say you tithe $25 a week, whatever it is. Dollars 25 a week goes into the tithe, the general tithe fund to be used as as we prayerfully see fit. But then we’ll create a special fund so that you can give an offering towards that, a regular offering. I’m gonna give $25 a week as I tithe and I’m gonna give $15 a week to the tribes next home fund.

As we create that fund, it’ll also be creating a vessel that the Lord can fill with his provision with who knows who will give what, but to help us in reaching and achieving that goal. And as the weeks and months go on, I’m sure that we’ll be able to share more vision with you. But Tribe has been amazing to us as a home. Thank you, Lord, for providing tribe for us, and I mean collectively us. Thank you for calling us to be a part of tribe.

Lord, we pray your blessing over tribe, that you would continue the work of the ministry of the gospel, making your name famous through the expression of the local church called tribe. You would continue to deepen our relationship with you here. We pray that you would continue to bring lost people to Jesus in this valley, especially those ninety day wonders that will be arriving any moment now. We pray that you would continue to use tribe to make an impact to the community like Saint John’s mission that you’ve seen, the Christmas outreach, other benevolence ministry things that we do here locally, the surrounding region, Riverton, the work that we partner with. And really, I’ll say this, leading other Christian churches in this valley in ways we influence them and lead them, and to the uttermost balance of the earth.

2026, for sure, really, I promise this time. I hope that the Lord will provide an opportunity for us to go to Israel, and we’re gonna work on giving you a really nice long runway so that you can have plenty of time to plan your either spring break or summer plans or whatever and make it affordable as you break it down into very manageable, like, payment thing because it’s not cheap to go over there. So Lord Jesus, I was kind of praying and talking, but this is for real. This is for real a prayer. This is the real prayer.

And you know that it’s real because I’m closing my eyes. And I’m starting by saying, Lord Jesus, thank you for being so good to us. Lord, help us to deal with Amalekite attacks. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you that we don’t fight for victory, but we fight from a place of victory. Thank you, Lord. And with everybody, with your eyes closed, as you allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, I would like to pray for any of you if for even just a moment I can be Moses holding the staff above my head cheering for you, believing in you, rooting for you, and believing God’s best and victory over your life. If there’s anybody here this morning that is like, I feel like I’m under an Amalekite attack. Will you pray for me?

Will you just slip your hand up right where you are? Hold it there. Just hold it there for just a second. Yes. Receive the victory of the Lord.

Receive his victory right now. Jesus, thank you that your arms never get tired. Will you take just a moment? You don’t have to keep your hand up, but would you just receive his victory for whatever it is in this moment? Talk to us.

Help us. Help us. Help us. Hallelujah. You stepped into my agent.

You took me by the hill. And you marched me out in freedom into the promise then. What a beautiful picture of things that we’ve read in the Old Testament and how we feel like we can apply them to our lives today. And I know every not every single scripture supplies to you today. You know, a lot of it’s stories and talks about different things about, man, God splitting the sea.

And then the way that that song that Lissa was just singing beautifully illustrates the way that God makes a way for us even today, in usually a way we wouldn’t expect or plan for. And it’s it’s just such a beautiful picture. So every time we come together as a tribe family, you know that we receive tithe and offering because we see that in scripture. It does the work of the local ministry. And this little local church called tribe, as long as we’re around, we shall see our tenth birthday, I believe, and longer.

But my covenant. My covenant. That’s fine too. But we’re to do the work of the ministry. Local churches are to help point people to Jesus, and we do that by many, many ways, but helping provide meals and loving on people, and it takes money.

That’s how the world works. It takes more than money, but money is a part of it. So we bring our tithe and our offering to the Lord in surrender to him. This is very different than morality. Right?

We do it out of surrender, and we say, it’s all yours anyway, God. So here’s a portion of my hard earned finances. Whatever you would put on my heart today to give, I give it freely and willingly even if it feels like, you know what, I was saving that for something, but God’s like, give it. Listen to him. Be obedient in that way.

You never know what he’s doing behind the scenes. We trust his sovereignty. So let’s pray as we give together today. Practical ways we bring our tithe and our offering is if you have cash or check, there’s a little box with our logo right there on your way out, or downstairs, there’s a black lockbox you can put stuff in always. You can drive by in the middle of the week if you want to put that in there.

It’s checked regularly to be safe. Chris, your Bitcoin from eight years ago is still there. Seven years? It is. And it’s accruing in its value, so this is why it’s still there.

We laugh every time we open the box. Don’t you, Lissa? Think of you, Chris. Another way to give is on our website, tribejh.com. There’s a giving link.

And, of course, as you can see on the screen, if you have a smartphone, the easiest way to give is by texting the word give, the number sign, to (833) 369-7847. Give any time. So let’s pray while we’re here together. Whether you’re giving now or another time, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we love you so much.

We trust you. Thank you that you are a sea splitting God. Literally and metaphorically, we just trust you in all things. Your ways are higher than ours, says scripture. Your thoughts are higher than ours.

You are infinite. We are finite. You are so much more than we sometimes give you credit for. Forgive us for those times where we’ve doubted. It’s a natural human thing, but, Lord, we just repent as a as a family and saints.

Forgive us for the times where we’ve discounted your infinite ability. You are the creator of all things. Look at the grand just outside this very window. And this is after years of, like, destruction. Lord, you are so beautiful in all that you do and all that you make and all that you create.

Thank you, creator of the universe, that you allow us to be part of what you’re doing in and through the world, Lord. We know that our job is to point people to you. Let us do that with our good stewardship of our finances as we give today, but also energy. Thank you Holy Spirit that we’ll just hear from you in obedient ways when we need to do that. We love you and trust you.

In Jesus name, amen. Amen. For announcements, check out the fridge on your way out the door. Brian, praise out. For next couple of weeks, we’ll be I’ll be sharing more about Saudi.

Took some videos, got some little Jesus nuggets for you. So keep an eye out for those. If you stand up, can I pray for you so we can get you out of here? Lord, my prayer for our tribe fam today is for total victory over any and every single Amalekite raid that would come our way. I command a blessing over our tribe fam.

Give us a great week. Help us to knock out all those last minute, get ready for winter projects. Lord, fill our freezer full of meat this winter. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen.

I love you so much. Have a great week. And remember, you got this.