Fighting To Win – Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Douglas MacArthur once said, there is no substitute for victory. Moses knew that as Israel faced its Amalekite enemies, and from that conflict of old come principles to assure victory in the battles of our everyday lives. Today, more lessons from the life of Moses on fighting to win. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, sometimes the pressure seems unbearable, and our victories seem very far away. You know, Dave, I have to say very honestly and candidly to everyone who is listening, unless we are blood earnest in our fight against sin, in our fight against Satan, we will lose. I find the tendency in my own life, and certainly I see it also in the lives of others, people coast along and they think they are going to coast into victory.

It does not work that way. That is why it is so important for us to look at this passage of scripture and to see how Moses fought. I have written a book entitled Getting Closer to God. It is actually lessons from the life of Moses.

At the end of this message, I am going to be giving you some contact info. I have a pen or pencil in hand. So what was Moses' strategy? First of all, the sword in the valley, and secondly, you have the rod on the hilltop.

And both of those work together. And then thirdly, another part of his strategy was the banner, was the banner that really encompassed all of those strategies. It says in verse 14, then the Lord said to Moses, write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua. Moses was into journaling. The Lord told him, write it down. And actually what he wrote down is the book of Exodus.

He is the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And so the Lord says, Moses, write this down and recite it to Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and named it the Lord is my banner. The Lord is my banner. What does this banner represent?

It represents the fact that Moses and Joshua were actually fighting under the direction, the leadership, and the strength, and the name of the Lord God. They were under the flag of the Lord of hosts. This past fall when we were in Europe, we were in a little country called Liechtenstein. Most people don't even know that it exists.

I didn't even know it. This little country is so small, it is only four miles wide and sixteen miles long, but incredibly beautiful right next to Switzerland. And when we stopped in Liechtenstein, they showed us a huge castle on a hill that goes back to the 12th century. And the prince of Liechtenstein, the king and the prince, lived there in that castle.

And you can't find a way up to the castle, at least very easily, and certainly if you got up there, you wouldn't be let into it. But they said to us that whenever the flag is flying, the flag of Liechtenstein, you know that the prince is at home. Well, isn't that interesting? You see, the flag represents identification. And it should be that when the world looks at us, and when they see us, and when they see our lives, and they see Christ in our lives, that they should say that these people belong to the king of kings, the prince is home. There is evidence within our lives that God is among us. Years ago, the older people used to say that one of the true marks of the church is, quote, the manifest presence of the living God. You read the book of Acts and you find that that was on every single page.

God dwelt with his people, and it was the presence of God that either attracted or repelled the world. Their flag was clear, was a mark of identification. It was also a mark of protection. By the way, when we were looking at that flag in Liechtenstein, we could scarcely see the flag, and even if we had had binoculars and could see it more clearly, we would not have been able to see its insignia.

And there's a reason for that. We couldn't see the design, and that is because it was so incredibly calm. You see, in order for you to know what is on a flag, you need a storm. It is the wind that causes that flag to fly. And then you can see its colors, and then you can see its design. And that's why God sends storms. Because, you see, everybody claims to have a flag hanging on the doorpost of his life, and the question is, what is on that flag? It cannot be seen until the wind begins to blow, and then it becomes clear. So a flag is a sign of identification.

It is also a sign of protection. As Joshua and Moses marched under the banner of the Lord, figuratively speaking, they had all of the resources of deity. They had all of the might of God of the Lord of hosts at their disposal to win against Amalek, to win against the flesh and this enemy that wanted to keep them from entering the promised land. How then do we win? Well, we win, of course, first of all, with a sword in the valley. But my dear friend, today we cannot win with a sword in the valley until we know something about the rod on the hilltop. The sword is beneath the rod, and the rod is beneath the banner. And in this way, we win battles for Christ.

Let me just take now all of these concepts and boil them down so that we can apply them specifically and understand them. First of all, I want to remind you that the battle that we are talking about, the battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, the conflict within the soul and the conflict within our culture is a battle that is for keeps. It's a battle that's for keeps. Amalek was not in this battle to simply wound Israel. Amalek was in this battle to exterminate Israel. And Israel, therefore, had to take the position of exterminating Amalek because there is no such thing as compromise. In the very same way, we cannot compromise with Satan. Every single compromise we make with sin is done with the recognition that eventually Satan is willing to give us an inch in order that he might take a foot. Interestingly, the Lord God many centuries later told King Saul that he was supposed to exterminate also the Amalekites and he didn't do it because he said there were some people among them that we should not have killed.

He kept the king and then he kept some of their animals and he disobeyed the voice of the Lord. And then when Saul tried to commit suicide and couldn't quite pull it off, here's an Amalekite running along and that boy ends up finishing King Saul off. As a reminder of the fact that sins that we do not conquer will eventually conquer us. All the opportunities that we have in life that we sometimes use to compromise actually turn against us and end up defeating us.

And we must never forget that. Oh, I know that even if we are believers, we must realize that the flesh can overcome us. Eventually we will be saved, yes, because those who trust Christ as Savior are not lost eternally. But in the meantime, we may be overcome by the flesh.

We may be put on the shelf that God might not be able to use us. The battle is for keeps. Secondly, the battle is continuous. Notice it says, I will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. That's the last part of verse 16. God says this conflict is going to continue. And I want you to know today that the conflict that you and I face spiritually speaking is a conflict that we will have until we die. The flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and they are contrary the one to the other so that we can't do what we will.

And all of us know something of the conflict that is within our souls. But finally, and most importantly, the lesson to be learned from this passage is that the victory in the valley is really determined by the victory on the hilltop. There's a beautiful blend in this passage of scripture between human agency and also the divine intervention. When you stop to think of it, a mystic would have said, all that we need to do is to go to the hilltop to pray. That's what the mystic would have done. The humanist would have said, all that we need to do is to fight in the valley because what possible connection can there be between some man praying with a rod in his hand on this hilltop and winning this battle. But interestingly, both would have been wrong. The Lord says, I want Joshua to fight in the valley and I want Moses to pray on the hilltop. And both of those were necessary in winning this war. You say, well, if I begin to pray on the hilltop, if I begin to intercede on the hilltop, how much responsibility, what great area might my prayers cover?

Is it something like a cellular phone that has a certain amount of limited access or a limited range? The answer to that is, of course, no. You see, when you and I are there on the hilltop praying, when we are there, we can influence all kinds of outcomes within the valley. Praying on the hilltop, we can cross the ocean and we can stand with missionaries in Bosnia, in Romania, in Central America, any other place in the world, we can be with them. Praying there on the hilltop, we can get into apartment complexes and we can pray for children who are being abused in situations that otherwise we have no control about.

What we do there on the hilltop will influence all kinds of victories or defeats in the valley. Some of you, bless your heart, some of you women have given up your children for adoption. I remember a woman saying to me, I would give 10 years of my life if I could take my boy who would be about six years old now and just spend one hour with him, but I will never see him again. And you think to yourself, all of my influence in his life is over. There's no way that I can affect him. My dear friend, with a rod of God in your hand is standing on the mountaintop. God knows where he is in the valley.

You don't, but he knows his name and he knows where he is. You can influence the outcome of his life through prayer because God says that the victory on the hilltop turns out to be the victory in the valley. And when we become weary on the hilltop, we become weak in the valley. I don't need to tell you today that the evangelical church is filled with all kinds of conflicts in the valley. We're grateful for Christian activism. We're grateful for all that is being done to be able to hold the line morally and spiritually as our culture begins to collapse. But we have not seen all of the victories that we would like to see accomplished, and sometimes all of our activity has been very disappointing. But what is true of us as churches is true of us as a church. It is also true of us as individuals. My friend, this might explain why you had such a tough time in the valley this week.

It may explain why it is that this week you lost. It may be that this is why you gave in to that temptation, why you felt that the powers of evil were so overwhelming, why it is that you cried up to God and there seemed to be no help, and in your desperation you did not know where to turn. Do you know what your need is, my need is, and the need of Moody Church is? Is to learn the secret of praying on the hilltop. When the Apostle Paul lists the armor of the Christian in Ephesians chapter 6 he gets to the end and then he says, with all praying at all times in the Spirit.

And that's what we need. I hope that we have a lot of people here at Moody Church, a lot more who pray at home consistently than we see Wednesday evening at prayer meeting. I hope that you understand that those of us who are leaders within the Christian community, we need people like Moses and her to come up and to hold our hands. We need those who will hold up the hands of our elders and our pastoral staff and our Sunday school teachers and those who are going through the valley of defeat. What we need to do is to understand that it is the rod on the hilltop that will eventually transform the battle in the valley. You know God loves to make connections where human beings see none, he makes those invisible ones. There's another story actually in the book of Numbers about the disease that came among the Israelites. And they were so sick and many of them died and God said to Moses, Moses put a serpent and put it on a pole of brass and everybody who looks at the serpent is going to be healed. I can imagine many people said, you know, what possible connection could there be between the disease that is in my body and the serpent that is on a pole? How can looking to that serpent change something within my soul and body?

Yet the Bible says those who looked lived and those who refused to look died. I mention that because there are some of you here today who need to look to Christ. You know the Bible says that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. You say today, Pastor Lutzer, I am so weary. I don't know where I'm at in my relationship with God. I want you to see Jesus Christ today on that cross as your savior, as your redeemer, as the one who takes the initiative to reach down into your heart and to save you through faith.

Would you reach out to him? And remember that it is the victory of Christ on the cross and the victory of his ascension that makes life in the valley tolerable. You can endure tomorrow.

You can take the rest of the week no matter what because the victory is being won at higher levels. Let's pray together. Our Father, we want to thank you today for the courage of Joshua and for the faithfulness of Moses. And we think, Lord, of the need that there is in this day and age for us to fight successfully on the hilltop. Help us to understand, Lord Jesus, that through prayer and through faith we can effect victories that we don't even know about if we believe. And then I pray for those who may be here who have never received Christ as savior, who've never trusted him, I pray that at this moment they may reach out and say, Lord Jesus, I look at you. I look at the cross.

I look at your victory. And I believe. Before I close this prayer, I want you to talk to God.

What is it that you need to give him? You've never received him as savior at this moment. You can look to him and be saved. Or what battle are you losing?

And how much time have you spent on the hilltop? You talk to the Lord. Our Father, we want to thank you today for your faithfulness. We thank you that we march under the banner of the Lord God. Help us to go in his name with the flag clear and our commitment undebatable. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I have to say that I like that phrase, that victory is won at higher levels. And you and I walk in that victory to the extent that we understand that and we look to Christ, not to others, not to ourselves, but to him, to his victory, to his ascension and his triumph. Well, this is the last week we're making a special resource available for you. It's a book I've written entitled Getting Closer to God. It studies in the life of Moses. As a matter of fact, you can actually use this in your devotions. But it's the kind of resource that you can read and then you can pass along to others, even as you and I learn lessons from the life of one of the greatest men who ever lived. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you.

Here's what you do. You go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. I want to speak to you directly and let you know how much we appreciate your prayers. Yesterday I was talking to some people who assured us of their prayers and my own heart was blessed and we want to thank you today. Because of people just like you making an investment, this ministry goes around the world. Connect with us.

Go to RTWOffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember, this is the last week we're making this resource available for you. The title of the book, Getting Closer to God. Time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Taking extreme measures in prayer, that's the issue for Mina, who listens to us in Illinois.

She told us this, my son has gone wild and out of control. I'm planning to fast and pray for 40 days with one meal only for him. Please guide me as to how I should pray and how to stay disciplined. Help me best use this time in prayer. Thanks. My dear sister, I'm so glad that you connected with us and you are asking a very good question What do you do when your child is out of control and you want to fast for 40 days?

That's fine. I do want to caution you, however, that fasting isn't some kind of a technique that twists God's arm to do something. I hope you don't look at it that way. It is true that fasting is a sign of our desperation before God. It's a sign of how we greatly desire him.

We desire him above all else, but it is not some kind of a formula that we can use and get an expected result. The other question that I'd like to ask you is, have you ever fasted before? Have you fasted for a couple of days or a week? I think it's not wise for you to simply take up a 40 day fast unless you have some medical input so that someone can help you during that period of time. It's a very, very long time to fast. Now also, when your son is wild and out of control, there may be a lot of demonic activity in his life. And maybe the reason that you are fasting is that you want to make sure that you lay hold of God for your son during that period of time.

And of course you can do that and I encourage you to do that, but even a shorter fast, I think could accomplish the same result. That being said, what I want to do is to give you some guidance as to how I think you should pray. First of all, I think that what you should do is to pray that God will change you and change the heart of his father. I don't know where you are in your relationship and where the father is in all of this, but sometimes God uses prodigals to change the parents of the prodigal. Pray for your own heart, for the surrender of your own pride. God often uses prodigal children to bring us very, very low.

And it is when we are low that we finally really do yield to God. Second, pray for a change in his heart. You know, sometimes when kids are sleeping together, you find that parents say, oh, you'll have to quit this. Well, it's not going to change the heart of the child. It's the change of heart wrought by God that will then enable them to live righteously.

Your son needs a heart change. Next, let sin run its course. You know, the father of the prodigal was waiting for his boy, but what really brought the kid home was when he was in the pigsty.

It's there where he came to his senses. And I think our children come to their senses when they are in difficulty, when sin has run its course, when the consequences become so great that they begin to cry out to God. Pray that that will happen soon in the life of your child, that the consequences will pile up and he'll realize that he too is headed for the pigsty and must come back to his God and to his mother. And be there to welcome him home. Give your child to God.

You know, of course, that you can't have any input in his life anymore, very probably. God has to do it. And so I encourage you to trust God for that. And like the father of the prodigal, be there when he comes home.

And I hope and pray he will. A word of wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Today we learned that unfinished business can sometimes finish us. Erwin Lutzer brought part two of Fighting to Win, the eighth in a series of 12 messages about the life and times of Moses, a man getting closer to God. Next time, a visit to Mount Sinai and what happens when God comes. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.