In this sermon on Exodus chapter 17, the preacher focuses on the victory of the Israelites over the Amalekites. Moses instructs Joshua to choose men to fight against Amalek, and as long as Moses held up his hands with the staff of God, the Israelites prevailed. The preacher emphasizes the importance of the sword, which represents the word of God, in defeating the enemy. He encourages believers to quote scripture and rely on the power of the Spirit to overcome temptation and challenges in their lives. The sermon concludes with the reminder that believers are free in Christ and can trust in God's grace and strength to face any situation.

Chapter 17, Exodus chapter 17. I'm trying to pick out main sections and draw out of these passages a main thought, a key thought, in our desert survival series. And as we go through the rest of the trip, there's several key sections that we hit. Studying the life of Moses, the servant of God, as Moses leads the children of Israel to the promised land. It will be interesting to see how many make it. Last week we saw that Moses smote the rock and the water of life came out. And now we're going to find out what happened after the smiting of the rock. I've entitled this Victory on the Hill. Victory on the Hill. Let's read this passage real quick. Exodus chapter 17 starting with verse 8 and going through to verse 16. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephilim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men and go out fight with Amalek tomorrow. I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat there on. And Aaron and her stayed up his hands. The one on the one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady unto the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nessie. For he said because the Lord had sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Let's pray. Father would you bless the preaching of your word. Holy Spirit would you reveal to us Jesus Christ. Would we be able to see you Lord. We would just want to see what you have for us today. Spirit of God speak to my heart. Speak through me. Speak to us that which you would have us to hear. And may we have our ears tuned in. For God may say something to us that we should not miss. In Jesus name. Amen. I have an uncle. Works for Firestone down in southern Louisiana. This uncle is getting up in years. Not at retirement age yet though. Still has many years. He can work yet. But it's a very hard job that he does. He's a boiler maker. And hard work. Hot work. Working there. And when he comes home at night he's tired. But when he comes home this same thing always happens again and again and again. He gets home. And the phone rings. And they want him to come back to work. An emergency has popped up. And they want him to come back to work. And they are just wearing him out. There's hardly any rest. Because they always want him to come back to work. No rest. No rest. I want to talk to you today about victory. Victory in your life. Specifically victory in your personal life. That's what this passage is saying to us. And it's tied in with prayer. And I want to say this about prayer. You can live without prayer. I can live without prayer. You really can. And you know we preach against it all the time. But not against it. But for it. And about it. And how to do it. And when to do it. And everything. You can live without prayer. But you cannot live in victory. You cannot do it if you're not praying. And I'm not talking about just on your knees when you have your time with God. But I'm talking about in an attitude of prayer also. You can live without it. But you can't live in victory. And I'm trusting that God will show us today something that we need to know about a continuous victorious Christian life. Remember when John spoke on the victorious Christian life? That's the message that John Muster gave to us from God that just broke me. And he began to show me that I wasn't living a victorious Christian life on a consistent basis. We're to have it day by day. Now how to have victory on a day by day basis. It's revealed to us here. If we will see it. If we'll grab it. And if we'll use it. I want to take you through this passage. And just take a little time and have a Bible study with you. And then I want to make one point. Just one point. Got one point to the message. A little Bible study and then our point. No poem. We've already had our point. By Florence. Verse 8 of Exodus 17 says, Then came Amalek. Why did he come running? Why do Amalek come running? You want to know why he came running? Because there was water out there. There was nothing out there but the desert. And all of a sudden he heard that there was water over there. Moses had smoked the rock and there was water. And so he came over there to get the water. Water was a rarity out there in that desert. And so he comes running over and he's going to run off the desert lights and get the water. Now who is Amalek? Amalek is the direct descendant of Esau. Who is Esau? Well he was the brother of Jacob that sold his soul for a pot of soup. That type of guy that will sell out life cheap. He sees no value in the human soul. That type of person sees no value in spiritual things. Amalek is the same type of creature. Amalek is the one that cost King Saul his kingdom. Amalek was the one God said you go out there and destroy Amalek. Destroy everything he's got, all the goodies and everything. Destroy it. Amalek came back a captive with Saul. Saul didn't kill him. Saul lost his kingdom over this guy. And Samuel took the sword and killed him. Amalek was the descendant of Esau. Amalek, get this, represents the flesh. He represents the flesh that dwells within us. His name means warlike. The flesh wars against us. When you receive Christ, you know what happens? A war starts. If you don't have a war going on inside of you, then you're not saved. If you don't have a battle going on to read the Bible and to pray and the battle is to keep you away from prayer and the word, then you're not saved. If you don't have a battle within to talk about Jesus to others and share Jesus, and on the other hand the flesh says, no, what are they going to think of you? You can't talk about Jesus. If you don't have that battle going on, you're not saved. I don't care what kind of experience you have, what church you belong to, or how many times you've been baptized. That's the description of the Christian life. It's warfare. It's warfare. And Satan wants to keep us from finding out the secret of victory. Because we're no problem to him. We're no threat. We never lead anybody to Jesus. We never draw others to Christ. We're no threat. So, if he can keep us down, he will. Now notice, then came Amalek and fought with Israel. As soon as you get saved, the battle began. My battle began the moment I gave my life to Christ. There wasn't the battle the nine years before when I thought I was saved. They would just stop doing what I wanted to do. There was just the misery of being unsaved. But the battle wasn't there. Let me read you a couple of verses. The first one is Galatians 5, 17. Listen to this. The spirit. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you, and the flesh is going to fight against the spiritual part of you. For the flesh lessens against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. That's warfare. And these are contrary to one to the other. One's a positive and one's a negative. They repel each other. They fight against each other. These are contrary to one to the other. And listen to this, Galatians 5, 17. So that you cannot do the things that you would. It's because you let the flesh have control and win out that you're not able to do the things that you will. And almost invariably, every time you sin as a believer, as soon as you do it, there's guilt and remorse, and you're so sorry that you did yield. Isn't that right? That's the way it is. We're just sick, and we're not happy with ourselves. And if the devil can do it, he will keep us down after breaking us. And at that point, then he will keep us under the feeling of guilt and kick us around and kick us into a corner. This is why as soon as we sin, we're to deal with it and come back to God in brokenness and humility and confess to Him that we have sinned again. Now I've taught you how to get victory over that. But I'm going to give you a principle this morning. Now let's keep going. Another verse, 1 Peter 2, 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in this world. We're a stranger and a pilgrim. This whole world's not my home. I'm just passing through. I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which wars against the soul. The reason it hurts so bad is because it's hurting the spiritual part of you. It's hurting your soul. When we yield to sin, we wound our spirit. We hurt our inner being, the part of us that God made us to be like Him. We wound that part besides being a bad testimony to others. So he says, stay away from it. Don't play with it. Don't pick it up. Don't tease the flesh. Don't give it an opportunity. Don't give old Amalek any right to your life. You know what Amalek did? The Bible says in Deuteronomy that Amalek, he'd come along behind and all of the stragglers, anybody that would wander out away from the main crowd, Amalek would get them and destroy them and take them captive. He would get whoever he could. So if there was anybody that dropped out behind as they marched through the desert, Amalek would get them. And finally Moses says, that's it. We're going to go out here and take care of old Amalek. Because he was picking them off one by one. Satan will do that with you. If you do not stay close to Christ and stay close to the fellowship of believers, he will pick you off. And we've seen some picked off. We don't go and play around in other areas. It's dangerous out there. It's dangerous to wander from the camp. It is. I've almost been captured myself 20 years ago after I gave my life to Christ. The charismatics almost got me. They were drawing me off, drawing me away. And after I got exposed to it and found out really what it was, Jesus drew me back out of it. And I was so glad that they didn't get me. You know what saved me from going that route? And I don't talk about this very much. And I'm not going to share my experience in it. I haven't spoken in tongues because it's not of God as I can see in the scripture. But the thing that saved me is I was memorizing scripture. I had two groups of friends. One were the charismatics and one were the fundamental Bible believing, scripture memorizing people. The others were emotional oriented. I loved them both and they're both my friends. And I still love them both. Just because someone is something else doesn't mean that we cease to love them. I love everybody. I love them. But these guys were not in the scriptures. It's just all emotion. And they went up and they get these experiences and they were making me feel bad because I didn't get it. And they were drawing me off. These were in the scriptures. And I was memorizing the scripture. I was trying to have both, really, at the same time. And God showed me that this wasn't scriptural. And this would let me down. And I saw it destroy my friends one by one. And this is what sustained me. Memorizing the scripture. That's how I made it. But I was wandering away from the camp. Trying to play out there with old Amalek. And this is what Amalek was doing. So he came and he fought with Israel. Israel was the enemy. And Amalek was Israel's enemy. Now, do you know one of the things the Lord revealed to me is that there was no fighting in the house of bondage. When Israel was attacked, there was no warfare. Do you realize that? There was no warfare. They were slaves. They were captured. What was there to fight about? They couldn't get out. The enemy was too big. Egypt was too powerful. Pharaoh had them. The only thing that could rescue them was a deliverer. And so the deliverer came. Jesus came, took them through the Red Sea. They went through the baptism, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And they were free. They were in the desert. God gave them water. God gave them food. But what else did they have? They had a war. They never had that in bondage. Now they had warfare. They had to fight with old Amalek. And that's the description of the Christian life. When we receive Christ, warfare begins. Because you see, when we receive Christ, the old nature, the flesh, it's hooked in with the skin. It doesn't go. So there's warfare. And the flesh will fight against the spirit. And who you yield to, the spirit or the flesh, depends on who gets the victory. Now this is how to get victory on the hill. Now notice verse 9. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out, men, go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. How's Moses fight that battle? I was going to find me a rod, but I never did. He goes out there, and he holds this rod up. And whenever he holds it up, what happens? Israel is winning the battle. When his arms get tired, they begin to lose. There are two things I want you to notice in this verse. There are men in the valley fighting, and there are men on the hill interceding, praying. All of our life revolves around prayer. Everything we do revolves around prayer. One of the reasons I've made so many mistakes is because I didn't pray about it. I wasn't living in the attitude of prayer. In other words, I wasn't talking to it about Jesus. Lord, what about this? Should I buy this? Or should I go there? Should I do this? Should I go here and there? Just to talk it over with the Lord. And once you get used to that, it's a fine tuning. He just sort of speaks to you. He just says, no, you shouldn't go. The Spirit of God just will give you a witness like that. But we get dull of hearing, because we get used to thinking ourselves through things, logically. So, there's men in the valley fighting, men on the mountain praying. And Moses says, I will stand. And you know what I wrote in my notes? But he couldn't stand for long, alone. And this is where we make one of our mistakes in our Christian life. We think that we can make it alone, but we need each other. I need you. You need me. We need fellowship. We need to pray together. We need to share the Scriptures together. We need to share our trials together. Satan says, you can make it alone. You can't. I can't. If I didn't have fellowship here, I would seek it out somewhere. I would seek out. I've got to have it. And that's one of the reasons I have survived, and probably Victor has survived. Because we were raised up early to fellowship together with Christians. Even before I was saved, I was trained to fellowship with Christians. And that's been one of the things that saved me from a lot of problems. It's because I was taught, I couldn't make it alone. You need it. Now, he says, I'll go stand on that mountain. I'll go stand on that mountain. But he couldn't do it. The old rod began to come down, you know. He got tired. You try it. All day long, the battle fought, and it says, till the setting of the sun. He couldn't make it alone. Now, you know, Max shared with me, there's three things, and I'll go through these things. If we are going to see God work in a powerful way, we're going to have to have these three things. I've gone over them before. I'll go over them again. We're going to have to have visible unity. When Aaron and Herb held up his hand, that was visible unity. You can see it. When we meet together, that is visible unity. And then the second thing is explicit agreement. Their agreement was, you hold up one side, I'll hold up the other. You hold it up in the middle. We're going to hold you up. We're going to hold your arms up. Every time the thing would come down, some of their men would get killed. Maybe some of their relatives would get killed. Some of their brethren. Every time we drop our hands, the enemy gets somebody. It's real. Every time we hold them up, somebody gets saved. Somebody gets reclaimed from the enemy. He says, I'll stand. Visible unity, explicit agreement, and extraordinary prayer. Let me tell you, that was unusual prayer. It's the unusual prayer that sees things happen. Before we had our revival, I've shared this before, I'll share it again. God was waking me up at 2 o'clock in the morning, almost consistently, 2 or 3 times a week. And keeping me up to 5 or 5.30 to pray. To pray. That was extraordinary prayer. To put in the special times of prayer. Maybe you can't do something unusual all the time, but you can do it occasionally. And whenever you get a chance to do it. Just go out and go for a 2 hour walk alone with God. Get that unusual time. He says, I'll stand alone. But he found out he couldn't. And then notice, verse 10. Joshua did as Moses had said, and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. That's number one, visible unity. You know what, somebody said this. Any banana that leaves the bunch is apt to get peeled. Isn't that profound? Any old banana that leaves the bunch is apt to get peeled. That may be the most profound thing that's said today. But that's true. Amalek was picking off the banana that was straight from the bunch. And he'll pick you off too. If you don't stay with us. If you don't pray with believers together. Any old banana that leaves the bunch is apt to get peeled. You know, you go play with a skunk. And he's going to rub off on you. If you spend more time with those that don't love Jesus. And those that don't have godly values. You will begin to become like them. You spend enough time with a skunk. You won't have to tell folks where you've been. They'll know. They'll know. He just rubs off. Spend time with those you want to be like. And those who you support and agree with. And then, let me share this with you. So verse 11, it says, It came to pass when Moses held up his hands that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Does that look profound to you? It should. Because that's the description of the spirit warfare that we're in. And what it's saying is exactly what Galatians 5.16 says. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit. Hold up yourself to God. Keep tuned in with Him. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. When we drop the rod. Then we begin to walk in the power of the flesh. Galatians 5.16, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How can you get victory in your life? Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. And we've taught the Spirit-filled life. A printer's come in here and taught it. We teach it all the time. It's dying to self and living sensitive to God. Obedient to His Word. Staying clean and obedient. Clean and obedient. Dealing with sin and then obeying God. Walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then, let me just share some lessons with you from this verse. Verse 11. It came to pass, Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Let me just share these lessons with you. Number one, you can't overcome Amalek by your own effort. You have to walk in the Spirit. It has to be God doing it through you. I've had habits that I've fought with for years. Until I learned to walk in the Spirit, I never would get victory over them. And struggle and fight and feel guilty and mad at myself and discouraged and depressed and everything. Because I couldn't get victory. It wasn't until I let Jesus do it that I got the victory. You just cannot get victory in the flesh. You walk in the Spirit. And I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Here's something else. Success only came by the uplifted hands. That was a symbol of prayer. David said in Psalm 28. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracles. Oh God, would you deliver me. It's the symbol of prayer. The lifting up of the hands is a symbol of prayer. Just because you lift the hands up doesn't mean you're praying. But it's a symbol of prayer. Oh God. It's a symbol of prayer. Paul said, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And what he's saying, he says, I want every man to pray, lifting up holy hands. He says, listen, don't worry about praying if you don't have a clean life. It's not going to get anything done. Lift up holy hands. Have a clean heart. Moses had power with God because he was clean. One of the reasons you don't see prayer in your life answered, and I don't see prayers in my life answered sometimes, is because there's filth in there blocking off the light beam. Blocking off the power. Here's another lesson. Verse 12. And this is a good one for me. Moses' hands got heavy. You know what? While Moses was holding that up, the flesh is talking to him. It says, hey boys, let's take a break. Man, this thing is getting heavy. And isn't that what happens when you want to pray? The old flesh says, hey man, let's go to sleep. Let's pray some other time. The body will run your life. It'll run mine if I let it. Moses said, I can do it. But the flesh is weak. Jesus said to the disciples, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You can't win in the flesh. The flesh rebels against prayer. Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint. Always live in that prayer attitude. Talk to Jesus all the time as you're tightening that nut up on that thing. Lord, I praise your name. I crank this thing tight for you. Just keep your mind on Him. As you're driving down the road down, Lord, this is a beautiful scenery out here. This is great, Lord. I love all of this grass. Praise your name. Beautiful. I mean, I see a tree every now and then. You know, you go down through the sand hills. But just keep your mind on the Lord. Thank Him for things. Get used to it. And there's something else. To quit praying. To quit praying. To drop that rod. Moses said three things. We as a church, if we quit praying together, we'll say the same three things. One, I've gone over this before too. Our dependency is on ourselves. When we quit praying, we say, I can handle it myself. We can handle it ourselves when we quit praying together. We had a good time Wednesday night. Half of us were here. Half of us were here to pray together. God will bless when we pray together. It encourages each other. It encourages me. We encourage each other. But once we quit doing it, we say, I can make it on my own to pray together. Here's something else. Number one, we lose our dependency on God. Number two, we submit to the flesh. The flesh says, hey, you don't have time. You can't afford it. It's like not changing the oil in your car. You don't have time. You can't afford it. What happens? Your engine's not going to last very long. Neither will our spiritual life. Number three, to break the visible unity of the church. When we quit praying together, we break our visible unity. Visible unity. Unity is all together. All together. Then verse 12, there's something else. And they took a stone and put it under him and he sat there on it. There's the explicit agreement. They agreed to help hold each other up. They needed Moses because he's the one that had the power with God. But Moses needed them. It's just the way it is. That's the way it always is. We just need each other. We can live without prayer, but we can't live in victory. With the three things. To agree together. Visible unity. Explicit agreement. What was that third one? To not break the visible unity. And his hands were steady. Did you notice that? This little Bible study, his hands were steady. Why is there so much unsteadiness in churches, in Christian lives? This is why. Because of the dropping down of the praying. And then 13, slipping on down. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. How did Joshua beat the enemy? With the sword. What does the sword represent? The word of God. Hebrews 4.12 says, The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Even dividing asunder a soul and spirit and the joints and marrow is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4.12. It's a good verse. But it was with the sword that he defeated them. It takes prayer and the word. By word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. The sword of the spirit is the word of God, the Bible says. Ephesians 6 and verse 17. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. When the temptation comes, quote Scripture. Lord, I thank you for the victory. You said, thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the temptation comes to drop down your banner. To drop down your rod. To drop your prayer. Quote Scripture to the Lord and claim the victory. Pray Scripture to the Lord. The sword of the spirit. The power of the spirit of God is the word of God. Ephesians 6.17. You know Paul said I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. What do you think he fought most of all? It was a flesh. It was a flesh. I don't worry about, I don't worry about these guys out here. I don't really worry about Satan that much. But I really do worry a lot about this old flesh. This is the thing that bothers me the most. This old flesh. Paul said but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away. He says listen. I watch that my body does not dictate and make me do what it wants to do. But I make it do what I want it to do. So many Christians are a slave to their body. A dictator it is. A dictator. And then 14 as we flip on down to the end. And the Lord said unto Moses write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-Nancy. For he said because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Someday God is going to relieve me of my flesh. My Amalek and yours too. The Bible says for this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. But until then we got to guard it. Because Amalek is not destroyed when we receive Christ. He stays alive in us. We just receive the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat him and to keep him down. But we got to use it. We got to use it. And this is what this passage is saying. God said in this passage listen. Amalek wasn't destroyed. He wasn't finished off. He's just rendered powerless to bother Israel anymore. When Jesus came in. The old Amalek the old flesh was rendered powerless. And I'll illustrate this in a second when I close. He doesn't have any power over you anymore. He doesn't. There's a greater thing. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Satan neither. Neither the flesh or Satan has greater power than God does. The problem is that we voluntarily say would you like to take control of my life again please Mr. Amalek. Or Mr. Satan I'm going to place myself right here and you can do what you want to with my life. You can direct me. We do that when we yield to sin. We give the old flesh the right. We give the old devil the right. It's just nothing but a traitor when we do that. But God says someday I'm going to relieve you of the flesh. As I live and as you live and as I live I find life a battle. Every day is a battle. But it's a sweet battle when you're having victory isn't it. But it's a rotten thing if you're defeated. As I live I find life a battle. As I live I will lift up my banner. Jesus is my banner. What did verse 15 say? Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah my banner. Jesus is my banner. I will exalt Jesus every day. Every day as I go along I will exalt him through prayer and praise. I lift up my banner. Do you get it? As you lift up your banner you have victory. Here comes a temptation. I lift up my banner. Lord I praise your name that I don't have to yield to sin. I praise your name I don't have to go there anymore. I praise your name I don't have to do this habit. I don't have to get angry. I don't have to lust. I don't have to get discouraged. I don't have to be depressed. I don't have to because I'm free. I exalt you. You take care of this thing that's coming at me. It's bigger than I am. I lift up my banner. And as I lift up my banner I have victory. As I let my banner down and say oh this thing is greater than me. I have defeat. How do we have victory? We lift Jesus up. We praise him. We pray to him. We exalt him. We glory in him. We praise him. We talk of him. We thank him. We focus on him. When the rod went up they were focusing on God and his power. When the rod came down the flesh was taken back over again. And you and I as we walk out of here today we will decide who will get the victory. The old flesh or Jesus. We just keep our eyes on him. As I lift up prayer. As I lift up the word. I have victory and exalt my savior. And the Bible says from generation to generation. Oh Amalek plagued him from generation to generation to generation. And just what Oh Amalek does. He does it from generation. Here is the main point. And we are going to close up. After a little story maybe. Here is the main point. You can live without prayer. You can live without your banner up. But you can't live in victory. No way. Just exalt Christ. Lift your banner. Praise him. And you will have victory. Focus on him. Lift up your banner. And you will have victory. Old Fred was retired from his job. Old Fred for 49 years had been a mud stomper. That was his occupation. 49 years he would get up in the morning. And he would go out and he would stomp mud. And they would throw straw in that mud. And he would stomp. And they would throw water in there. And some more clay. And some more straw. 49 years. There goes the buzzer. Old Fred got his time card clocked out. Went home. Soaked his feet. Went to bed. Got up the next morning. Walked back to the factory. Checked in. Went back and stomped mud. 49 years. But one day, Old Fred, he says, Praise the Lord, I'm retiring. And he checked out the last time he went home and wiped his feet. And he was free. He retired from mud stomping. When Old Fred walked out of Egypt and into the wilderness to walk with Jesus, to be led by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night for 40 years. To be fed manna from heaven, water out of the rock. He had it made. Old Fred was free. He wasn't a slave master anymore to the old Egyptians, the Egyptian taskmasters. He was free. And all he had to do was follow Jesus. And Jesus would take care of everything he needed. But one old day, Fred was following along and he heard this voice. The old devil hollered at him out of the bushes. Fred, get back over here and stomp Fred. Stomp mud. Fred ran back over there and was stomping in this mud. He stomped around. What am I doing in the mud? I'm free. And he gets out of the mud. And he goes back. And this is just exactly what happens. We don't have to stomp mud anymore. We don't have to do it the flesh style. Jesus said it's free. Read chapter 6 of Romans if you don't believe me. Romans chapter 6 says that you're free. We don't have to. We don't have to stomp mud anymore. We can just hold up our banner and praise the Lord whatever comes along. Lord, I exalt you. I praise you. I can't handle this. You're babysitting kids and you're about to pull your hair out. Lord, I can't stand it anymore if these kids come back up to me one more time and say, I want a cookie. I'm going to wring their neck. No, you say, Lord, thank you that you give me grace to hear that one more time that if they want a cookie, I'll just give them a cookie. You can give me victory. One more time if my boss comes up and wants me to do that, I'll do it for your glory. But if we're not in the Spirit, the old boss walks up and we say, I ain't doing it anymore. We throw it up. The kid comes up when we grab the kid and we say, you know what? That's why we've got to learn to have victory on the hill or we'll have defeat in the valley. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the victory there is in Jesus. Thank you that you've shown us in your Word that all we've got to do is stay with Jesus and stay clean. Stay out of that old mud pit. The old devil will have us out there stomping mud and the old flesh will have us out there stomping mud. But we don't have to. We only stomp it because we obey the wrong master. You said that we're free in Jesus. We thank you. And Lord, and that's been said. Your people have heard your Word and I've heard it. And you gave this message to me and I thank you that you let them get it too. There's one other concern and that is there's some here that are still back there in Egypt stomping mud. They've never stepped out of the freedom. They don't know what it's like to drink of the rock and eat of the manna. They don't know what it's like to have their spiritual thirst quenched and to have their spiritual hunger satisfied. They don't know what it's like to love Jesus. And I'm just going to exalt you, Father, and thank you that you set us free. But there's some here that aren't free. They think they are. They've been trying to fool themselves. They maybe have been baptized, joined a church, prayed to receive you, but they never have received you. They haven't let go. They haven't walked free. And we're going to give an invitation for you, for them to come to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.