Sunday Sermon: On Fire, September 27, 2020
Sunday Sermon at Grateful Church in Phoenix (UPCI)
On Fire
Christian growth and maturity do not occur in isolation. Our stories, testimonies, or shared life experiences are escorted into the unknown by faith. We are most vulnerable as a lone wolf isolated from the pack. We grow, mature, and are inspired through other’s experiences and stories. The story of God’s eternal hatred for Amalek is to: (a) inspire rejection and the destruction of sinful memories from our hearts and minds, (b) celebrate divine justice, equity, and retribution to support the weak, assure victory, and God’s deliverance in difficult times, and (c), give confidence to a struggling Christian or believer. Reading from the text:
Deut 25:17-19
17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt.
18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.
19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies roundabout, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.
Sin (Amalek) is the enemy of God: Oppressing the new believers coming out of the house of bondage (Egypt) without regard to God
Sinful attitude has no regard for the things of God and is in enmity with God
Rom 8:7-8
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Sin like an adulterous person lies in ambush for the weak, feeble, fainted in heart, and stragglers to discouragement and divert them away from God. As Satan’s agent, we do not make treaty with the world of sin
James 4:4
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Rom. 7:21-25
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Fatigue, weariness, or burnout along the way comes when we are in doubt. Doubt and unbelief of God’s salvation (a) drain our desires to live for God, (b) make us faint hearted, and (c), to lag behind for Satan’s attack
Ex 17:7-8:
7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?
Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
Knowing that we are vulnerable when we are in doubt, we must
Consecration our hearts and minds from memories of doubts, unbelief, or sinful past. King Saul was rejected for failing to consecrate the land of the memories of the Amalekites
Like Joshua, our sun should not go down until we finish our work to wipe out the memories of sin in our heart and mind.
God sworn to wipe out the Amalekites and died on the cross through Jesus to destroy the spirit of Amalek from the memories of mankind. So, we must stay on the fight until we wipe away the spirit of sin from our lives
Eph 2:15-16
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
The key to victory over Amalek lies not in isolation but in the unity of the body and the intercessions of other believers. Our Christian growth does not occur in isolation. Moses at some point got physically exhausted that Aron and Huh had to intercede with him, holding his hands up for victory to occur. Instead of 2 hands there were 6 hands hold up the rod of intercession to God. Our stories need to be shared to encourage and inspire the faith of others to believe in challenging times.
Eph 4:15-16
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Rev 12:11
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Comentários