January 19th 2020 - Pastor Jeff Shipley - Honor in Victory

Honor in Victory: Facing Opposition With Faith

Andrew, I don't care what you got to do. Hire Doug, you know, hire him. I don't care. Figure out something for him to do. Hayden needs help in maintenance, so hire him for something. This is the next to the last sermon in talking about honor.

We're going to be in Exodus chapter 14. And, you know, guys, my whole life, I feel like I've been a coach in various medium, but I feel like I've coached folks my whole life. And one of the things, especially in talking with young men, one of the lines that I always use is act like you've been to the dance before.

Act like, you know, I had a fighter one time tell me before a fight that he was going to kill the... Hey, baby. I'm so happy to see you, Maria. I guarantee you, no one drove further to church today than Maria.

I promise you that. One of those guys, he was talking about, yeah, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill his family. Like, no, you're not, man. You're going to go in a ring. You're going to fight for nine minutes as hard as you can.

One of you is going to win. You're both going home. What he's doing is he's overcompensating. He is getting in a place in his little brain where he has this emotional overload of something that is entirely not true.

Ladies and gentlemen, we in our lives, whoever's up there, make these better. We have this thing in our lives where when we are faced with adversity, we overcompensate emotionally to try to motivate ourselves or try to get rid of the fear with emotion.

Let me tell you something. Emotion has nothing to do with victory. Emotion can be a result of victory, but it is never a game plan for victory. I remember a president, I won't say his name, but one of his campaign slogans was hope.

That's your strategy? Let's hope? Hope don't get you nowhere, guys. Hope don't get you a date with a prom queen, okay? It is going to take work and strategy. It's going to take sacrifice. It's going to take facing fears to get glory and the honor of your goal.

Fear, Doubt, and Discouragement in Exodus 14

Let's look in chapter 14 of Exodus, and I'm going to give you a little back story here, but let's read first. Exodus chapter 14, starting in verse 10. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, saw the Egyptians coming after them.

Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. They said to Moses, now y 'all listen to this. They said to Moses, it is because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us out in the wilderness?

What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn't this what we told you in Egypt? Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

Now, we can all sit here and go, oh, those silly Israelites, there they go again. Oh, man, they're so faithless. But guys, come on, man. If total depravity doctrine of universal sin has taught us anything, it's that we are all in the same boat.

I don't care who you are. I don't care what you're struggling with. I don't care if you're a homosexual, a drug addict, an alcoholic or whatever else. You're on the same level as everyone else in this room.

You're a big poo-poo head, right? And whether you have a gossiping tongue, whether you have a faithless checkbook, whether you have a silent heart in evangelism, we all struggle with overcoming certain things.

But you know, there is no glory as great as overcoming something really powerful and awesome. Look, I can still fight. I'm 51 years old. I can still fight. Bring Nadine up here, fighter. I'll win, I guarantee it.

Right, you all laughed, right? Now, give me Conor McGregor and I'll whoop him. There's a difference, you see, because the adversity is greater, the glory is greater, the honor gives greater glory to the victory.

Now, let's look at three things here about having honor in victory. First one is this, there has to be an opposition to the goal. I remember a guy telling me, he was very proud of his daughter. No one took the watermelon, really?

God, losers. That's the best fruit in there. A guy telling me that his daughter was an athlete. And I remember asking him, oh, really? What sport is she in? And he said cheerleading. And in my little brain, because remember, I was born in the 60s when men were actually men.

I remember in my little brain going, well, that's not a sport. And he was taken aghast. Come here. Cheerleading is not a sport. Sorry, it's not. Does it take an athlete to do it? You betcha. It takes an athlete to be a WWE wrestler.

I couldn't do that. It takes years of training and athleticism. I get that. But a sport is defined, and it's not my definition, but it's a good one. A sport is defined as something opposing an individual or a group trying to achieve a goal.

In other words, bowling is not a sport. It's a game. And there's nothing wrong with it, but it's just in a game. It's an event. Golf is not a sport. Jim Matusik plays golf. Look. Jim athleticism. Right there, it doesn't go, right?

He played college baseball, but golf is not a sport. It takes opposition to define it as a sport. Ladies and gentlemen, honor takes opposition. Fear has to be prevalent for faith to take hold. You cannot, you sitting in here listening to a sermon and listening to praise and worship music, is not exhibiting faith.

I say this all the time. This is not my ministry. Pastor, you're a preacher. That's your ministry. Any idiot can preach. That is not the work of a pastor. A pastor is not a preacher. You should all be preachers.

Every one of you, well, except for you godless heathens that are going to hell. But everyone else in this room that is a born again believer in the Son and the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, you have been called to preach.

Now, how do I know if I'm doing that enough? Come here. Are you facing opposition? Well, not really. I mean, you know, I tell this guy to come to church and we laugh in the break. You're not preaching.

You ain't doing nothing. You're not giving honor and glory to God. Does your personal testimony require sacrifice? Do you face ostracize? Listen, kids at schools face opposition. If you're going to stand up for Jesus, it's going to cost you, OK?

It's going to cost you. And if it ain't costing you, you ain't standing tall enough. Look at these people. They understood opposition to the goal, but they used fear as the paradigm to see opposition.

First of all, what is fear? Well, number one, it's doubt. Look at verse 10. It says, as Pharaoh approached, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, the Israelites looked up. Now, here's the first thing, ladies and gentlemen, and another lesson to you young men, especially if you're going to be a member of Witten.

Young men, listen to me. Stop walking around like this. God, please, man, have a little pride in yourself, man. Pull your shoulders back. Stick your head up. And when you talk to another man or a lady, look them in the eyeballs.

Quit... all the time. You look defeated all the time. Here are the people of Israel. They have been enslaved for generations after 400 years. God had just set them free, right? They should be like, woo-hoo, right?

But what are they doing? The past still dictates the emotion of the present. Your past is still telling you you're a loser. They're looking down doing this right here. Oh, it's us. Oh, it's us. They still hear the taskmaster's whip.

Child of God, if you are born again, your sin remains in effect on you no more. Guys, you have to look. When you get an understanding that the oppression of your past is not relevant in your present, you're going to have a whole lot of sense of what honor really is.

Well, my people were oppressed 400 years ago. Oh, I'm sorry. So were mine. Well, you owe me. Have you heard about reparations? Have y 'all heard about this? I don't know if this is a new thing. I just read about it a couple, three weeks ago.

There is actually a congresswoman who says that America should repay every black person in America today because their ancestors were in slavery. Okay, I'll vote yes. I'll vote yes. Now, here's what I want.

I come from poor white trash, Irish and Italian. If there is ever two people groups that are slandered more than others, I don't know.

I mean, when you ask an Italian, what do you think of? What are you going to do, right? I'm oppressed in the movie. When you think of Irish, what do you think of? Drunks. Where's Johnny? He ain't here.

You think of drunks. That's what you think of. That's oppression to me. Guys, that is silly. That is stupid. We cannot look at the past. Name me one cultural civilization that has not experienced slavery in the history of mankind.

Name me one. There ain't none. Universal sin. Guys, when you look at the past, you're going to look down. Your problem, I don't know what's wrong. Something ain't doing right up here. So this is coming on.

Hey, I can't see. Who is that? Yeah, make this happen. Forget this thing. This is about to drive me crazy. All right. God, I can't walk. Oh, this is going to stress me. All right, anyways, listen. Doubt looking at your past.

I had a guy text me this weekend. I don't see him in here today, which is kind of ironically humorous. He said this. Can I lose my salvation because I keep doing wrong things? You know what you're looking at?

Your sin is more powerful than God's grace. Guys, opposition is doubt. Here's the second thing. It's discouragement. Do you know what discouragement is? It is the absence of courage. Discouragement is the absence of courage.

Look at verse 11. This is what they're saying. Not only do they need to look up, it says here in verse 11, they said to Moses, is it because there were no graves in Egypt? You took us out in the wilderness to die?

In case you missed that, it's sarcasm. Now what's going on here is their anger is not towards the Egyptians for holding them in slavery for 400 years. Their anger is at Moses and God for delivering them because you will be comfortable in sin.

You will be comfortable in defeat. It is easy to be a loser. It really is. And guys, guess what? Losing becomes a habit, but so can winning be. And when you step up and you stop looking down and looking behind and start keeping your eyes focused on Christ, you won't use sarcasm or political rhetoric.

You'll start having faith in God instead of having man solve all your stupid problems. Despair. What's the difference between discouragement and despair? Here's despair. Eeyore. God. Man, those people drive me up the wall.

Everything is bad. Here's a million dollars. Oh, I'll probably lose it anyway. God, they call me and I can feel my neck just tighten up. You know? I want to take these guys and smack them around a little bit because here's what's really disturbing.

They're passing that on to their children. I guarantee they had an insecure wife. I guarantee they got insecure. I guarantee they got insecure children. Listen, despair is you always are pessimistic. Now, I am overly optimistic when it comes to you guys, but I am really pessimistic when it comes to me.

You can win great battles for Jesus. I can't, you know, because I'm a schmuck. Guys, here's what despair does. When you're looking at yourself and your abilities, all you're going to see is less than, unless you're a narcissistic, right?

But when you take your eyes off of you and your abilities and in faith put them and trust them to Christ, man, your whole paradigm and perspective changes real quick. And the last thing is this. Fear is depression.

I deal with a lot of people who struggle with despair, who struggle with discouragement. Depression is its own animal. Now guys, if you've never dealt with depression, and I'm talking about depression, if in your brain you go, I might be struggling with depression, you're not.

You know, you know,.

Because it is a trichotomic effect. It takes over your body, your mind, and your soul. Man, it is debilitating. Trust me, it is debilitating. Now, there's a special thing that you do for depression. You do the same stinking thing you do for everything else.

Guys, I know it's hard. I'm not telling you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but this is what you need to do. God, if I die right now, it is well with my soul. Right now, before I finish this next sentence, even though the fear of death, if you decide my heart should stop, so be it by the hand of God.

Father, I am totally incompetent as a parent. I lay my children upon the altar. Do with them as you will. Take them, keep, let me keep, I don't care. They're yours. God, my finance, I don't care anymore.

When you reach the point where you stop caring and you reach the point where you don't care, that's when depression hits. I know that sounds weird, but listen. Apathy is depression. The thing that get, man, I'm telling you, it's depression.

And what you just need to do is change the few words of I don't care and saying I don't care, like I don't really care what happened, to God, I don't care. You let your will be done. Make me a tool in your hand.

Your mind changes. Guys, fear will cause things to jack you up. But here's the good news. Any great glory to God in any victory you're gonna have is gonna have to face great opposition. And sorry, that's not cheerleading.

Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

Number two, here's the second thing you gotta do. You gotta have to go outside your comfort zone.

Man, mm, mm, mm, mm. I love doing this.

I love looking at people and when they don't see what they're capable of, I love putting them in positions they never thought they would be able to do. I love doing that. Because see, I learned that personally.

You go ask anybody, I mean, Coach Jim Hines, I don't know how many of y 'all know him. He was instrumental in my life. He just recently passed away. He was the football coach at Evangelical Christian School and also at Briarcrest.

He was a great man. Five foot nine, I never heard him yell. In fact, one of the most fired up times I ever got is we were losing. He came into the field house at halftime, looked at us all and go, I have never been more disappointed in you boys.

And turned around and walked out. And I was like, ah, I'm ready to strap it on, right? I love that guy. One of the things he did though, in coaching is he made me face things that I couldn't do in my brain and then I found myself doing them.

Y 'all realize that in the most stressful situations, you're usually still only going 70 or 80%. You can go a little bit. You think, oh no, I'm done. No, your body can still keep, it's your mind you're fighting, not your body.

I tell my kids all the time when I used to coach, I used to tell them, man, you will know when you reach the end of your limits when you're dead. Until then, keep going. Why? Coach, I'm breathing so hard, I taste blood in my mouth.

Well, taste and blood ain't bad. Keep going. Well, coach, I can't. Yes, you can. If you're still talking, you're still breathing. That means you're still capable of work. What honor does it cause us outside of our comfort zones?

We're sitting in this silly building being the church of God and that's great. But what's even greater is calling us out of the building to be the church out there. Well, we have a great music program.

We have a great kids program. We have gold faucets in our bathroom. Pastor, I'm so sick of the walnut going all the way to the ceiling. I don't care. Please stop telling me that. I don't care the wall doesn't go all the way to the ceiling.

If you want to fix it, I promise you I'll fix it. Hand me 20 ,000 bucks. No, shut up. Guys, who cares about the stinking wall? There's no honor in that. Here's the honor. Listening to Brandon get up here and pray.

I was just like, wow. Listening to people go outside their comfort zones. Verse 13, it says, don't be afraid. Hey, you know how many times in scripture, you know how many times in scripture it says don't be afraid?

Well, pastor, I feel afraid right now. It's not talking about your emotions. That when it says don't be afraid, it's calling you that in spite of your emotions have an outward sign that you're not afraid.

In other words, your knees, boys, remember when you got in a fight and you get the rubber knees, right? That's okay. Fight anyways. I remember facing a little five foot two Filipino dude. And I was just like, I'm going to kill this guy.

He beat me senseless. He was nervous.

He was very scared, but he faced that not from the emotional side, but the sacrifice side.

And he beat my brains out.

Guys, fear is not getting rid of the emotions. I hear preachers say that all the time. Well, if you want to have real faith and you're afraid, you need to have more faith. God, you're just putting a guilt trip on someone.

That is not what scripture is talking about. We keep reading the verse, do not be afraid. It doesn't stop there. Verse 13, it says, do not be afraid. And what? Stand up, stand. You see, I'm not telling you not to have the emotion because you can't have faith without fear.

What I'm saying is even in that emotion, stand anyways. And then it says this. It says, go and join your local Baptist church. Go to four years of seminary. No, go to EE. Go learn Evangelism Explosion.

Wow, now Conference 32, SPC 85. Oh no, we're going to have 42 keynote speakers to encourage you. Guys, if you've been saved longer than three years and you still have to be motivated by a motivational speaker or a song to get fired up for Jesus, you and Jesus need to reconnect internally.

You're still a baby wanting daddy to tell you a story when you go to bed. You're still a kid wanting the light on when you go to sleep. Well, brother Jeff, you don't understand. No, you don't understand.

God says in the midst of your fears, stand up anyways. And then he says this, watch. He doesn't say pick up a sword yet. He doesn't say any of that. He just says watch because I am fixing the show out.

I am going to do that. Guys, the standing up is having faith. There are some of you in this room that have codependent relationships that you can't understand peace and can't understand why you're not close to God because your God is sitting right next to you.

Your God is sitting in here. Some of you don't have struggles believing in God because your first name is the name of your God. Guys, let go. Follow God. Stand up and watch him and not watch yourself.

Trusting God's Salvation and Taking Action

Last thing and I'm done. I love this part. God tells him, stand up. Stand up and see what I'm gonna do. And then he tells him this, verse 13. But Moses said to the people, don't be afraid. Stand up and see the Lord's salvation.

He will provide it for you today. For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see ever again. One of the things, man, I struggle with how stupid I was in my sin. I still have nightmares over it. I still have moments where I'm sitting there thinking of it and I go, God, I can't believe I did that.

I wake up some nights and I gotta change the sheets. Just sweating like a pig. But in the consciousness of truth, my walk with Christ does not include me looking down and seeing the fires of hell. I don't look around me and see the detractors or even the persecutors of life.

I don't see behind me the stain of sin waiting me down. Guys, through the veil of time, I see the hope and glory of God Almighty calling me home. Most of you except Rena will probably still be alive when I die.

I love you, Rena. Guys, at my funeral, if you come, I want it to be said nothing more than this. Well done, now, good and faithful servant. That's all I want. Well done, now, good and faithful servant.

Good job, boy. I still wanna hear my father on that day say, well done. The honor's gonna come from the reality of my past will not be the deciding factor for my future. Christ paid it all and I'm free.

Look at this. The Lord will fight for you. When you need to have honor, you need to have faith. You know, shock value is so prevalent in our society. Let's just be shocking or let's just be loud. If we disagree with something, let's just be loud and obnoxious.

There's no honor in that. Standing for truth takes guts, it takes courage. But understand that ultimately the fight belongs to you. I have a lady, it belongs to the Lord. I have a lady in here who's scared to death to go street witnessing, especially on mission trips in a foreign country.

Guess what she does every time she goes to a mission trip? She's gonna go street witnessing, I guarantee it. I won't have to beg her, I won't have to plead with her. She gonna face them fears. And here's what you need to remember.

The most powerful thing is not the doctrinal or theological comprehension you have, but the willingness to be the patriotage of God's grace in someone's life. A word or a testimony is stronger than a thousand sermons.

I promise you, your testimony is worth 5 million sermons. Guys, stand up, watch what the Lord can do through you. And then lastly, verse 15. One of the things I used to do with my kids was this. I would tell them something and then I would tell them to do the exact opposite.

I know that sounds really crazy, but I'd play mind games with them. One of the things I would always do is bring me a tool. Bring me a Crescent wrench. But then I'd start calling it an adjustable wrench.

Bring me an adjustable, why are you standing there? Son, go find it. And it was funny to watch them because they'd be like, huh, huh, huh. Bring me the 14 millimeter. Mechanics understand this joke. Bring me the 14 millimeter.

And it's really with me under the car. Oh, Dad, I can't find it. And I know that sounds really harsh and really weird, but what I'm getting them to do is not focus on what they can't do, but focus on what they were told to do.

In other words, it doesn't matter you can't find it. Steal one, make one, whatever, go get the job done. There is no excuse for failure. Well, Dad, there's no 14 millimeters on the whole earth. Then fly to the moon and get me one.

I don't care. I don't wanna hear I can't or I don't wanna hear it. Man, that's harsh, Jeff. Well, I know it is, I know it. And eventually I would go, oh, I have it right here, right? Eventually, you know what they start asking me?

Son, go get the 14. Dad, is it with you? Oh, yeah, it is, it is. Watch what God tells these people in verse 15. Watch, look what it says. Are you kidding me? The Lord said to Moses, why are you crying to me?

Tell the Israelites to break camp. Watch this, stand, be silent and watch the salvation of God, God, God, okay?

Why are you just standing there? Get moving.

God is taking a broken people who had spent 400 years in slavery and he's teaching them about his omnipotent power, but he's also teaching them this, that being a child of God comes with more responsibility, not less.

See, God does not believe in welfare. Sorry, guys, he don't. He don't believe in outcome-based education. That's why some of you have been Christians 30 years, have never gotten out of the first grade.

You're gonna repeat it until the day you die. And then when you go to heaven, God's gonna go, good, love you, man, glad you're here. Your house is on the third street over two houses down. Because you never learned a lesson.

You didn't waste your life because your kids are rebellious. You didn't waste your life because you didn't do this, that, or the other. You wasted your life because you didn't act by faith and grow. God tells them, why are you crying to me?

Why are you crying out to me? How many times has God said, call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things. Now, no, it's not. If any of you are tired, weak, let him come to me.

Let him call to me. Well, right, God says, call to me. But he doesn't say, then sit down beside the road and whine. He says, now that you've called to me, now that you've taken your focus off of self, now that you've taken it off the Egyptians and put it on me, it now calls you to action.

Understand this, that faith can only been demonstrated by action. It's never in here. Watch, I'm gonna show you all my faith.

See it? It's pretty cool, right? No, that is not faith.

Men, tell your wives, I love you, baby. I never knew angels flew this low. David used that one on Carrie. But then never sacrifice for them. See how much they believe you love them. Guys, it takes sacrifice.

It takes you knowing action to actually have and gain honor and victory. Ladies and gentlemen, as the music dudes and dudettes come up here, let me ask you a question. Listen, let me ask you a question.

Forget being entertained. Forget sermons, forget church. Listen to me. What is it that you're afraid to do? Here's an answer someone gave me. Well, Brother Jeff, I want to be a Christian, but I'm scared I'm gonna let God down.

So I'm gonna get everything together before I actually commit. That is stupid, y 'all. You're never gonna overcome the sin that's ensnaring you without first trusting in God because it's gonna take God to clean you up to get you to where you can actually be useful.

That's called sanctification. Well, Brother Jeff, I know what I need to do. I'm just scared to do it. Guys, you need to stand. Some of you are in this room and you know you're not a believer. You know you're not a Christian, but you're too scared to let everything else go.

Guys, let it go. You are holding back and living in chains and slavery instead of embracing the life that God could have for you. Some of y 'all, you are Christians, but you ain't working. That lying, gossiping tongue or that apathy of your heart, you're in the same place you were last year.

Stop it. And the way you do it is trusting in God and get some accountability. Church, your job is to be all up in each other's business because if we're not in each other's business, we're gonna be in left field, trust me.

You have to have accountability and your wife and your husband is not enough. Have accountability with your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you need to join a church, you need to get baptized. I'm gonna ask the men and the counselors to come up front.

If God has spoken to you, please stand. If God has spoken to you today and God has called you to action, which he has, you obey and trust and you come as God leads.