1. The first step for attempting great things for God is to be clearly called by God
2. The second step for attempting great things for God is to be openly dependent upon God
3. The third step for attempting great things for God is to be consistently unified toward God
4. The fourth step for attempting great things for God is to be boldly boastful about God
5. The fifth step for attempting great things for God is to be overtly thankful to God
EXODUS 17:8-16
In the late 1700s, a young bi-vocational pastor of a tiny country Baptist church in England caught God’s vision for missions. He became deeply concerned about spreading the Gospel to the world. But he was really just a nobody. How in the world could this little country preacher impact the world for Christ? He had a hard enough time impacting his own community. He couldn’t even impact his fellow pastors. In 1786, he stood up in a ministers’ meeting and told them that it was the duty of all Christians to come together and spread the Gospel around the world. One old hyper-Calvinist in the meeting shouted, “Young man, sit down—when God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid and mine.” But even opposition like that wouldn’t quench his concern for lost people. The Great Commission meant something to him. Jesus had called us to make disciples of all nations, and he was ready to answer the call. A few years later, he became a full-time pastor, wrote a very influential book on missions, and preached one of the greatest sermons ever preached. In that sermon, William Carey said these words: “Expect great things from God—attempt great things for God.” Finally, he overcame all the resistance and formed what would later become the Baptist Missionary Society—the great-great-granddaddy of our very own SBC. William Carey is known as the father of modern missions for his work in creating the missionary society, for his missionary work in India, and for all the Bible translation work he did. All that he accomplished… all of the souls that were saved as a result of his work… all of it was because he expected great things from God. And because he expected great things from God, he attempted great things for God. Thousands of years earlier, another man expected great things from God. Moses had seen the awesome power of God. He had seen the burning bush. He had seen the plagues in Egypt. He had seen the parting of the Red Sea. And he had heard God’s promises. He heard when God promised Israel a land flowing with milk and honey. He heard when God promised to protect them and care for them and make them a prosperous and blessed nation. He had seen God’s power and heard God’s promises and he expected God to be faithful to keep His promises. He expected great things from God because God promised He would do great things. And because of what Moses saw and what he expected, he wasn’t afraid to attempt great things for God. This passage recalls the history of Israel’s first battle in the wilderness. Joshua and the Israelites were going to fight their first battle as God’s chosen nation. To prepare them for the battles and blessings that awaited them, God dramatically showed them how to accomplish great things for His Name’s sake. War isn’t easy—especially when it’s you against the whole world. That’s what it was like for Israel. God gave them a land. Then He told them they had to conquer all of the nations who were currently living there. Dozens and dozens of nations. Many were larger and most had more military experience than Israel. Doing what God wanted in conquering the land was a great thing for them to attempt to do. Just like doing God’s will is a great thing for us to attempt to do. What is God’s will for us here? Well, one thing is that God has called us to reach our world with the Gospel. Not just our area—our world. That is a great thing for us to attempt. But how can we attempt such a seemingly impossible task? The same way Moses did. The same way the Israelites were supposed to do the seemingly impossible task of conquering all the nations in the promised land. We can look back to this ancient battle scene for a pattern to help us in our attempt. In this battle, we can see five crucial steps for attempting great things for God. The first step is to be clearly called by God. Look with me in verses 8-9:
READ EXODUS 17:8-9
In order to attempt great things for God, you have to be clearly called by God. God clearly called Moses to be the leader of His people Israel. Remember how it happened? Moses was an Israelite who was born into the Egyptian captivity. He was born an Israelite, but was raised in the house of Pharaoh. When he saw how Egypt was oppressing his people, it made him angry. It made him angry, so he took matters into his own hands. One day he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite. He looked around to make sure no one was looking and he killed the Egyptian. Notice something—we all know the story of Moses. God had a wonderful plan for Moses. The problem was, He hadn’t called him yet. Moses was attempting to do great things on his own. It was God’s plan for Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage and into the Promised Land. That was His will. It was Moses’ desire to rescue the Israelites from their bondage. But God hadn’t called him to do it. Not yet anyway. Moses was acting on his own. And it cost him dearly. It cost him 40 years of insignificance in the Midian desert. It also cost Israel 40 more years of captivity. But then God called. He called him out of a burning bush. But now, Moses wasn’t so excited. He was comfortable and the plight of his Israelite brethren wasn’t so fresh on his mind. First Moses was ready to jump out ahead of God’s call. Now God was ready to call and Moses wasn’t ready to respond. But after wrestling with God’s call for a while, Moses finally submitted. And God gave him a sign of His call and authority. He gave him a rod. I’m sure it was a simple shepherd’s staff. But it was a symbol of the power of God’s call on Moses’ life. It was a symbol that served as a constant reminder of God, His power, and His calling. From that point forward, anytime Moses attempted something great for God, he had his rod there as a reminder of God’s call. As he stood on the top of the hill overlooking the battlefield, he had his rod. He had it to remind him that the only reason he was there was because God clearly called him. What has God called us to do? Has He placed a call on your life as an individual? Has He placed a call on us as a church? One thing He has called us to do is to reach the lost. That’s a clear call. It’s an unmistakable call. It’s a burning bush call. If we’re going to attempt to reach the lost in this area, we have to recognize our call. We have to carry it with us. We have to know that we’re not in it alone. We’re not acting on our own. We’re acting under the authority and power of Almighty God. The first step for attempting great things for God is to be clearly called. The second step is to be openly dependent upon Him. Look in verses 10-11:
EXODUS 17:10-11
In order to attempt great things for God, you have to be openly dependent upon God. What a great event this is. Joshua was the commander on the battlefield. And Moses was the intercessor. The rod was the symbol of God’s power. His authority. His call. And when the symbol of God’s power, authority and call was lifted high in front of the people, what happened? They were victorious over their enemies. Their attempt at great things was successful. But when the symbol wasn’t elevated. When it was allowed to be lowered in the eyes of the people. The enemies were victorious. Their attempt at great things failed. Isn’t that what happens in our churches? Isn’t that what happens in our homes? Isn’t that what happens in our lives? God places calls on our lives and our homes and our church. And when we lift up that call and the One who gave us that call, we will be victorious. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” All things! Even the great things we attempt to do for Him. When we hold up God’s glory and honor before all people, we can expect success in the great things we attempt for Him. But then we let the rod down. Whether we get distracted by the raging battle. Whether we get distracted by our own personal comfort. Whether we get distracted by the personal pride of victory. However it happens, we let the rod down. We lower the rod of God’s glory and honor and begin to elevate other things. And when we do that, we lose. If you look back at the history of most churches, it looks like a roller-coaster. To put it in the context of this passage, there have been wonderful times when God’s people prevailed. And there have been times when the Amalekites prevailed. What happened to cause such ups and downs? “Well, so and so did something here.” “So and so did something there.” This happened and that happened. No! Look in our passage—is there any mention at all about any specific battle tactics? Is there anything about so and so leaving their left flank exposed? Or so and so using a bad battle plan? No, there isn’t. Why is that? Because in and of themselves, those things aren’t what cause great attempts to fail. Focusing on those things causes failure. Our focus has to be on God and Him alone. His honor and His glory must be elevated in everything we do. I can guarantee you that in every case where the Amalekites prevail in our churches, God’s glory wasn’t being lifted up as it should have been. If we are going to attempt to do great things for God, we must depend on God and Him alone. We must lift up His name and His alone. We must lift up His honor and glory. Hold it high and never let it down. The second step for attempting great things for God is to be openly dependent. The third step is to be consistently unified toward Him. Look in verses 12-13:
EXODUS 17:12-13
In order to attempt great things for God, you have to be consistently unified toward God. I have heard it said many times that God didn’t create any Lone Ranger Christians. Around 200 years after the close of the New Testament, some Christians began to want to separate themselves from the world. They saw the evil in the world around them and wanted to completely isolate themselves from it. They were the first monks. They lived by themselves in caves or in the woods as hermits. One went so far as to live on top of a post for years. I’m sure it sounded like a good idea at the time. Completely isolate yourself from the world to keep yourself from sinning. But God didn’t build us that way. He built us for community. That’s why those types of monks didn’t last long. Most of them went insane. We know that God built us for community because of the wonderful thing He created on the day of Pentecost—the church. He gave us the church because He knows that we need each other’s support. We need to carry one another’s burdens. Moses couldn’t continually elevate the rod of God before the people by himself. He was just a man. He was guided by God and empowered by God, but he was still just a man. And I don’t care who it is, man will fail you. That’s why we are to be here for each other. That’s why God gave Moses Aaron and Hur. Now, notice what didn’t happen. When Moses began to lower the rod, did Aaron and Hur get off to the side and talk about all the things he was doing wrong? Did they give up and walk off? Did they call Joshua and tell him what he was doing wrong? No! What did they do? They made sure the rod of God was elevated before the people. Now, there is a word in here about leadership and that’s almost always how this passage is used. But there is even more in here about all of us. Not just about how we treat our leadership in the church, but in how we treat each other. Moses was a priest and a prophet. 1 Peter 2:9 says that we, as Christians are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We need to treat each other as such. We need to lift one another up. When one of us is weak, we need to lift up God’s glory before them. That is true unity. Unity around Christ and His glory. The focus there on the mountain wasn’t on Moses. It wasn’t on Aaron. It wasn’t on Hur. It was on the rod of God. It was on God and the representation of His glory. Those three men were unified toward God. And by holding God up before everyone else, Israel was able to unify toward Him as well. The same thing can happen here. As we attempt great things for God, we will succeed when we are unified toward God. The third step for attempting great things for God is to be consistently unified. The fourth step is to be boldly boastful about Him. Look in verse 14:
EXODUS 17:14
In order to attempt great things for God, you have to be boldly boastful about God. Immediately when the battle was won, God told Moses to write it down. Write it down and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. Record it. Talk about it. When God accomplishes something, He doesn’t do it in secret. How many times do we continually talk about the things that are going wrong in our lives? Now, how many times do we give credit to God when things go right? And look at the way that Moses recorded it. He didn’t spend pages and pages talking about the intricacies of the battle. He didn’t talk about all the heroic deeds of the soldiers. What did he talk about? He talked about God. He talked about how the battle was His and how the victory was His. He wrote it down to let everybody know that God did it. When He is glorified, He brings the victory. Don’t we act the opposite way? Don’t we tend to talk about all the things that have gone wrong in the past? Shouldn’t we start to memorialize God’s victories instead of man’s failures? Yes, we should remember the times when we lowered the rod of God. But only as a warning to keep our focus in the right place. If we’re going to attempt great things for God, the only kind of past we need to live in is the memorial to the awesome works of God. Boldly boasting about God’s works are the kind of past we need to write down. Boldly boasting about God’s works are the kind of past we need to rehearse in each other’s ears. Not the kind of past that focuses on man’s failures. Not the kind of past that drops the rod of God. The kind that boldly boasts about God. The fourth step for attempting great things for God is to be boldly boastful. The final step is to be overtly thankful to Him. Look in verses 15-16:
EXODUS 17:15-16
In order to attempt great things for God, you have to be overtly thankful to God. If you remember back several weeks ago on Wednesday night we talked about the different compound names of God. Well, this is one of them. YHWH Nissi. It means “The Lord is my Banner.” Just like a banner or standard was raised high above the ancient battlefield, God should be raised above our lives. Moses built an altar in overt public thanks to the God who he lifted up before the people. The God who brought the victory. Moses expected great things from God. He expected that God would be faithful to fulfill His promises. And the Israelites attempted great things for God. They attempted to defy the world’s most powerful nation in Egypt. They attempted to wander for 40 years in the desert with no food, water or supplies. They attempted to battle against the Amalekites. Those were all great things that they had no business attempting. But they honored their calling. They were dependent on God. They were unified toward God. They were boastful about God. And when He gave them the victory, they were thankful to God. Are we ready to attempt great things for God? We know that we’re called by God to reach the world for Christ. We just don’t know exactly how He wants us to do it yet. But are we listening for His calling? Are we dependent upon Him? Do we realize that we can only accomplish great things for Him when we lift Him up? Are we unified toward Him? No one person or group of people in this church can do it alone. We are the church—the body of Christ. He is the head—the only head. The rest of us have to lift one another up and support one another. Are we boastful about God? Do we remember His victories and tell of them? Or are we stuck on man’s failures? And are we thankful when He gives us the victory? Are we ready to attempt great things for God? If you answered no to any of those, you need to examine yourself. Examine your own calling. Examine whether you are dependent on God. Examine how you can better support your brothers and sisters. Ask yourself—which happened more recently: Did you boast about God—or did you dig up past failures? And examine your thankfulness.
