Overcomer: Overcoming the Attack
2016-07-31
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
In this series thus far, we have focused on the internal battles we often face in becoming all that God intends us to be. We’ve talked about overcoming our past, overcoming our insecurities, overcoming our personal situations. Today, we’re going to take it from the internal to the external. How do we overcome when we are being attacked?
Memory Verse:
Exodus 6:1 (NKJV)
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
Exodus 5:1-11 (NLT)
1 After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.” 2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.” 3 But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the LORD our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.” 4 Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! 5 Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.” 6 That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: 7 “Do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves! 8 But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy. That’s why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.’ 9 Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!” 10 So the slave drivers and foremen went out and told the people: “This is what Pharaoh says: I will not provide any more straw for you. 11 Go and get it yourselves. Find it wherever you can. But you must produce just as many bricks as before!
Overcoming the Attack
1. Our Battle Is Bigger Than We Think
5:2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”
– Our battles are not simply against people who don’t like us, our battles are about people who don’t like our God!
– Eph. 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…
– We cannot be shocked or discouraged when the world is attacking us for believing what they don’t understand or what they don’t know
– But….
2. Our Hope Is Bigger Than We Believe
5:3a But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared.
– We must continue to stand on truth and stand on God’s promises
– When God calls us to a work, no matter how great the attack, nothing can stop HIM
– Persistence in the face of attack is the first step towards victory
3. The Attacks May Keep Coming
5:7 “Do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves! 8 But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota.
– Pharaoh had already said “No, they cannot leave…” But now he’s making it even worse, punishing Moses, and all of Israel, for God’s call.
– This is so familiar to all of us. When an attack happens, it seems as if they keep coming at every turn. There might be attacks on several fronts, from many attackers, all showing up at the exact same time.
– Your response (and your attitude) in the face of adversity is the single greatest predictor of the outcome.
4. The Victory Is His
Ex. 9:16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.
– God says, “I have raised you up…” so He can show His power in you. Important statement: “HIS POWER”
– If you manipulate and market your way to a public platform, you will lack the muscle to fight off a horde of demons waiting for you on it.
Ex. 10:1 Now the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him,
Ex. 10:2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
Ex. 14:4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
Ex. 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Ex. 14:31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.