Wednesday, February 24, 2021 PM

Exodus 17 and the Need to Support a Weary Pastor

I have something to share with you tonight, but before I do I want to remind you of a story I was just asking Red about it. It's in Exodus chapter 17 and it's about a battle between Israel and Amalek.

Moses is standing up on the hill watching the battle holding his arms up and as his arms are up the Israelites are prevailing, but he grows weary and his arms are falling and the battle begins to turn in favor of the enemy.

And so Aaron and Hur come up and hold his arms up and the Israelites prevail and win the battle. Our pastor's arms are weary. You know what I'm saying? And he needs us to come in support, you know, in whatever way we can.

One major way is we can pray for him, and so I thought well let's just open our meeting tonight with a prayer for Michael. He needs our prayers. We'll talk about him a little more later. Red,.

Would you like to lead us? Cleanse us from every sin, fill us with your spirit, and Holy Spirit help us for our pastor, our brother, overtaken by an unexpected ailment. We thank you that it looks like the news that will be taken care of.

We want to lift him up. Lord, he needs strength, needs encouragement, needs the fullness of your spirit. Yes. Needs the angels to surround him. We ask for that. There's total protection by the host of heaven, however many you need to send out.

Holy Spirit, that you would not only fill him and encourage him, but that you would give wisdom to the doctors and the nurses that take care of him. Be able to work and minister even beyond what they know now if it's necessary.

There will be no mistakes, no slip-ups, no errors in his care. And Lord, we know also when someone is faithful to live for you and especially to preach your word, he becomes a target of the enemy. That's why we are warned of Satan pacing about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour any way he can do it.

He's filled with hate for all mankind, but especially, especially for your servants, your preachers, your prophets. And so we come to do special warfare for Michael. Yes. In Proverbs and James 4 -7, without any conditions, except that we ask in faith, that we do it in faith.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The word means to stand out against him like a soldier lining up a battle. That's a position we take together as a church tonight. We stand out against the devil.

Yes. And all his plans, all his thoughts, all he would like to do when we tell him, no, you can't do it. We resist you and you have to flee according to the Word of God, so get out. Yes. Leave him alone, leave us alone, leave this church alone.

And let me just remind you, Satan, where you're gonna spend eternity, in a lake of fire. Think about that. Be gone. We rebuke and resist and forbid any demon that serves you to have anything to do with Michael or with his church or with its members.

We plead the blood of Jesus over him and over us. We rebuke the health problem itself. Jesus rebuked the fever in Peter's mother-in-law. We stand against the disease, against the ailment, against the imperfection that's in his body.

We claim quick and complete healing for him. Yes. And because you are God and because we are praying to you according to your Word, we thank you in advance for the healing. You will soon restore him to his family and to the church.

He may continue his ministry, faithfulness in teaching your Word and preaching your Word. In Jesus' name,.

Amen. Amen. The last word I got was that Michael was going to be taken to Mercy Hospital North and that he may have a hernia. Mercy South? Okay. And so that's the last word I got, the situation. And so not sure it was a surgery at nine o 'clock in the morning.

Do they know for sure what the problem is yet? Some type of hernia. Okay. Inverted hernia. Continue to remember Michael. Have you ever in your Bible reading, been reading and the message is just flowing through and then all of a sudden you just come across a little passage that just seems to come out of nowhere.

You know what I'm saying? It just, you know, if you just sort of took it out, everything would just continue to just flow right along, you know, the thought, you know what I'm saying? But this just seems to get stuck in, you know, and you wonder where did that come from?

Right here. And I have run across a few of those recently, and if you want a really rewarding study, check them out. Let me give you an example. In John 15, it's a passage you're familiar with, I'm sure.

You know, when Jesus speaks of I am the vine, you are the branches. Okay. It starts out like this. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, he removes.

Every branch of mine that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. And then pops in this little verse, already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. Okay. And then it picks up the vine and the branches narrative again, you know, abide in me and I in you as, you know, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Okay. It goes on with the narrative there and you wonder where did that little section come from? You know, already you are clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Well, you got to check it out.

There's another one that I just recently discovered. It's in John chapter 1 about verse 16 or 17. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.

And then you would think the next verse would be, and from his fullness we have received grace upon grace. But, stuck right in the middle of that, okay, is a parenthetical expression. As a matter of fact, in my Bible it's set off by parentheses.

Okay. And it says, this is the one that John the Baptist spoke of who said, he comes after me but he ranks before me because he was before me. Okay. You know, just stuck in there. Might be interesting to check that one out too.

I suspect you've run across some of those situations. Here's another one. We're going to look at this one tonight. It's in Psalm 8 if you want to turn there. We'll spend a little time there. Psalm 8, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.

What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him. You have made him a little lower than thee. You have given him hands. You have put all and also heavens and the fish of the sea.

Whatever passes along the paths of the seas, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Now where did this little phrase, out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.

Now see, if you just take that out, okay, it reads like this, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the stars which you have set in place.

You see how it just continues to flow right along. Where did this, you know, this business about babies and infants come in? You know, it just sort of stuck in. Check it out. Check it out. First of all, notice, O Lord our Lord.

Now in your Bible, those two words, Lord, should be different. The first Lord should be all caps. The second Lord should be capital L, lowercase o r d. Is that true in your Bible? If it's not, get rid of it.

The first Lord, okay, when you see that expression of Lord with all caps, it's God's name. The one who revealed himself to Moses as, I am. Or in Hebrew, it's the four letters which we transliterate as W-H, let's see, Y-H-W-H, Yahweh.

It's his name, okay. Translated, it means I am, okay. The second Lord is Hebrew word, Adonai, which just means Lord or Master, okay. So it's, O Yahweh, our Lord, our Master. How majestic is your name in all the earth.

How majestic is your name, referring back to the first Lord, his name, okay. How majestic is your name in all the earth. Or your translation may say, how excellent is your name in all the earth. Or maybe it says, how wonderful is your name in all the earth.

Because his name, you know, it's, don't misunderstand me. It's more to, I mean, just read it. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory. You know, that's, the Bible refers to, you know, the lower heavens, you know, where the birds live.

And then there's the heavens, you know, where the stars are, the sun and the moon and the stars, okay. And then above that, you know, there is another heaven, okay. These are all heavens, if you will.

And where is the glory of God? It's above that, okay. How majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.

Interesting, interesting. When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him.

You know, now that is a common thing. I suspect every one of you, okay, has at some point in your life gone out and looked in the heavens at night, okay, and thought, wow, you know, that is just incredible.

Who am I? You know, where do I fit into this, you know, incredible universe that God has created? When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him, have made him a little lower than the, what does your translation say, angels?

Okay, I think King James says angels, okay. This translation says heavenly beings. The word there is the Hebrew word Elohim which is, and if you turn back to Genesis chapter one, it says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, okay, in the beginning God.

It's the exact same word that's here, okay. You have made him a little lower than God. Some translations, that's how they read. You have made him a little lower than God or the heavenly being or the angels, okay, and you've crowned him with glory and honor and you've given him dominion over the works of your hands, okay, and then at the end of this psalm it repeats, verse one, this message, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Now where did this little section about babies and infants come from? It came from the Spirit of Christ. He moved into the human author that wrote this, okay, a psalm of David. Turn to Matthew chapter 21, as Matthew describes the triumphal entry, starting at verse six.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, Who is this? And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you made it a den of robbers.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple," Now notice to the son of David, Hosanna is a word of praise, and it's a word of save me, O Lord.

They were indignant, these chief priests and scribes. They were indignant, and they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read? Yes. Have you never read?

Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise. Now notice it's just a little different than what we read in song. The mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of the enemy.

Now that's what's happening here. That's what's happening here. Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have praise. Jesus quotes the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, okay. You see they had two Old Testaments, you know, one in Hebrew, one in Greek.

That's because in this day, around the turn of the century, give or take a couple of hundred years, the Jews weren't speaking Hebrew anymore. They were speaking Greek. Many, many of them were speaking Greek, especially if they lived outside of Jerusalem.

It was only, you know, in the area of Jerusalem that they read the Hebrew scriptures. Everywhere else, and in Jerusalem, they also spoke Greek. So they read the Old Testament in Septuagint, and if you've been coming on Sunday night, you know what I'm talking about, okay.

So they had two Old Testaments. And which one does Jesus quote? He quotes the Septuagint, the Greek version, okay. Why does he do that? If you go back and look at Psalms in the Hebrew version, okay, it says out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength, okay.

It doesn't say what their babies are saying. It doesn't say what's coming out of their mouth, but it does say that as they do say something, strength is coming forth and the enemies are being stilled, okay.

And who are the enemies here in Matthew 21? It's the chief priests and the scribes, okay. And you'll notice that after Jesus quotes this passage of scripture, you know, have you not read, and then he quotes the scripture, and they don't say anything else.

They are stilled. They are quieted, okay. And it says here that what does come out of the mouth of these infants, okay, praise, praise. And he applies this to himself. In Psalm, the praise in the Psalm goes to the name that's over all the earth, whose glory is above the heavens, and in Matthew 21, the praise goes to who?

The Son. What an interesting study. What an interesting study. You see, God works through weakness. Remember when Paul prayed about his thorn in the flesh, how many times did he pray? Three times. He asked God to remove it, and did God remove it?

Did God do something better? And Paul said of Jesus, my strength works through weakness. That's the way God works. I mean, think about this. How did He destroy the enemy of your soul and forgive, make it possible for Him to forgive all your sins and to bring you into the kingdom of God through the cross, right?

Not with an army, you know, not with mighty weapons or chariots or horses, death on the cross. My power is made perfect in weakness, and when children give me praise, my power goes forth. So, I encourage you.

As children of God, offer up to Him praises every day. Okay. Any questions? Last words? Yes. Thank you for reading that. It goes right along with the whole idea, right? His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

I want to pray. Excellent. Hallelujah. Where have I heard that before? A few times, over and over. Yes. Psalm 1, what is it, 112 through 118, the Hallel Psalms. Somebody's been telling us all about that.

In verse 16. Yes. I mean, you're, yes, yes. Yeah. So, there's a really good reason why that little verse is stuck in there, you know, just dropped out of heaven, you know, stuck right in there. So, I encourage you, when you come across one of those, don't just bypass it and go on.

Camp out a little bit and see why it's there. You'll be blessed. Yeah. Every jot and tittle. Check out some of those jots and tittles. There's a principle there of how God works, and you can find it revealed throughout the scriptures, throughout the scriptures.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, that was good news that you shared with us about Michael. And we want to continue to pray for Michael, not only for his health and the current situation, but for.