CALLED Together and SENT Out | Donovan Rillion | Who’s With Me?

morning, as Phil said, we are beginning a new

series called Called Together and Sent Out. Emphasis

on called and sent. It's my hope and my prayer

that through this series we will better understand

what it means to be called by God, what it means

to be shaped by Him, to be strengthened by our

community and sent into the world with boldness

and, emphasis on this word, grace. Because as

we've discussed the last few weeks, we've all

been called by God into his family. Regardless

of where we come from, what we've done, where

we've been, we're called to be a part of God's

family. And that call comes with a natural response.

And that natural response should be to live in

service and worship to God. So we now have to

allow God to shape us, equip us, strengthen us,

and send us. And we begin by looking in the Old

Testament, what we just read in Exodus chapter

Exodus 17:8–13

17, verses 8 through 13. So we're going to read

it again, and as I try to do most every Sunday,

we're going to pray about it, okay? So let's

read Exodus 17, 8 through 13. Then Amalek came

and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses

said to Joshua, choose for us men and go out

and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand

on the top of the hill with the staff of God

in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses told him,

and he fought with Amalek while Moses, Aaron,

and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever

Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And

whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone

and put it under him, and he sat on it. While

Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side

and the other on the other side. So his hands

were steady until the going down of the sun.

And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people

with the sword. Let's pray really quick. Father

God, we thank you for this morning, this beautiful

day that we get to be together, to sing songs

of praise, to pray to you, to ask you, to invite

you to fight in this fight of life with us, to

beg you to walk alongside us, to ask you to lead

us. And God, I pray this morning as we begin

this series, looking at the story where Moses

needed people. Not just people, but people that

he was close with. People that would see his

need and choose to offer him a helping hand.

God, I pray that we see this story and that we

read in Scripture exactly what you need us to

see. That our hearts hear what it is that we

need to hear. And God, if there's anything standing

in our way of growing closer to you, that's something

that we hear this morning. would help us to remove

that obstacle. God, I pray for everyone in this

room, including myself, that something said will

change our lives. God, I pray that you speak

in this time through your word and through me.

And I pray that we would all be receptive of

what it is that you need us to hear. God, we

love you. We praise you. It's in Jesus' name

we pray. Amen. So I want to give you a little

bit of context in this story. So what you see

in that first verse is that Amalek came and they

fought with Israel. So Israel didn't pick this

fight. In fact, what happened was the people

of Amalek, they surprise attacked the Israelites.

According to Deuteronomy 25, they actually attacked

them from the rear, which is the equivalent of

what we would call today a low blow. The Israelites

would have been, well, first of all, you attack

somebody from behind, but this is right after

they escaped from Egypt. So they're probably

a little bit tired, maybe hungry, maybe scared,

anxious, on edge. You can think of all of the

things that they may be feeling after just having

escaped from Egypt. But also, in the rear, historically

speaking, you would have placed your women. your

children, your disabled, basically your vulnerable

would have been in the back. So when the Amalekites

attack Israel from the rear, they're attacking

them at their weakest spot. So you've got a surprise

attack against your most vulnerable. So Moses

is justified in this. And his response is that

we're going to send our own people to fight back.

And so he responds by sending Joshua with some

men to go and fight on behalf of Israel. He then

takes his brother Aaron, and who many believe

to be his brother -in -law, her, up on a hill

to get good seats for the fight. I'm glad y 'all

laughed at that because I wasn't sure if you'd

get it. No. Moses goes up on the mountain with

his right -hand men. There's another joke, I'm

done, I promise. So he goes with his guys, his

close brothers, and he raises his hand over Israel.

And so right now I'm going to call a volunteer,

and I've got Cole. He's already been prepped

on what he's got to do. So Cole, come on up here,

brother. Cole is going to... be our illustration

for the morning. So Cole, if you will, grab these

stacks of paper right here and join me up here

on the stage, wherever you'd like to stand, up

on the hill, if you will. All right. So Cole

is going to hold these stacks of paper out right.

Oh, he wants to give you all a side profile.

All right. I love it. Okay. So he's going to

keep the, however you want to do it. So he's

going to keep these. Stacks of this, well, there's

two pieces or reams of paper. He's going to keep

this held out front. So imagine Moses here holding

his staff out. Now that's significant because

many scholars believe that Moses raising his

hand with this staff of God was a posture of

prayer. So Moses is possibly praying over Israel.

Or if nothing else, he's inviting God to take

over in this battle. But Moses is human. And

he gets tired like the rest of us. So his hands

may start to lower. But when his hands lower,

Israel starts to lose. When it stays raised,

Israel prevails. And so like the good friends

that they are, Aaron. And her support Moses.

And they support his hands so that he can continue

keeping them raised. So that Israel can continue

to prevail. Whether he's praying or not, Moses

is letting God work in this battle. And his friends

help him invite God to keep bringing victory.

So now, Cole, who are you going to choose to

come help support you? Your closest supporters.

Also people with a little bit of strength. He's

calling somebody. Who's he calling? Here's one.

All right, we've got one friend. We need one

more. Who are you going to bring? Who's he bringing?

Chad, all right. Okay. Not Moses. So Cole, tell

us who you've chosen. Wyatt and Chad. All right,

so why did you choose Wyatt and Chad? You thought

of them quick. Okay, so he has no reason he thought

of them. Maybe that's why Moses chose Aaron and

her. But I'm going to go out on a limb because

I've watched you guys. You and Wyatt are pretty

good friends, right? And so you would say you

trust Wyatt. And Chad is one of your shepherds,

and you've probably known him most of your life,

right? And so you pick two people, yeah, because

they were right there, but there were other people

that were right there. There's something special

that your brain said, I'm going to choose Wyatt

and Chad. Can we give it up for Wyatt, Chad,

and Moses here? Thank you, guys. See, in this

very first battle ever for the Israelites, their

first ever war, they learned quickly how much

they needed God and how much they needed each

other. How much they needed the people closest

to them. Talk about an object lesson. We see

a similar story in the New Testament in Acts

Acts 4:23–31

4, verses 23 -31. When they were released, they

went to their friends and they reported what

the chief priests and the elders had said to

them. And when they heard it, they lifted their

voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord

who made the heaven and the earth and the sea

and everything in them, who through the mouth

of our father David, your servant, said by the

Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the

peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth

set themselves and the rulers were gathered together

against the Lord and against his anointed. For

truly in this city there were gathered together

against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed,

both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever

Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take

place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats

and grant to Your servants to continue to speak

Your Word with all boldness while You stretch

out Your hand to heal. And signs and wonders

are performed through the name of your holy servant

Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in

which they were gathered together was shaken.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit

and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

To give you some back story here, in verses 1

-22, Peter and John had just been arrested for

proclaiming the word of God. Then they stand

trial before the Sanhedrin. And then they're

released. But they're not released without threat.

Basically, they're told, chill out on the proclaiming

Jesus stuff. We don't want people hearing that

message. We don't want people thinking some other

scriptural foundation. We don't want any other

religion trying to take place over what we've

got going on. So they're threatened. with some

serious punishment. And so they leave there.

They return to their friends not to complain,

not to talk about how awful this is, not to say

we're scared, not to say we need to pray that

God will take action upon them. What they go

and do is they pray for boldness to keep proclaiming

the Word of God. They pray for boldness and for

God to keep healing people, for God to keep changing

people's lives. for power, and for God to work

through them. They don't say, God, strike down

our oppressors. They don't say, God, make us

above them. They don't ask for this might. They

don't even ask for power over these people. They

ask for power to proclaim the Gospel. Once again,

we have this theme. of a hard battle in front

of God's people, of something standing in their

way. And the response of God's people is not

to run away from it. It's not even to complain

about it. It's to face it head on and invite

God in to provide the victory. And see, this

time it's not a physical victory that they're

asking for. It's not a war that they're asking

that God give them victory in. What they're praying

for is for God to be glorified through them.

For God to be glorified through their struggle.

For God to take action in this fight. And that's

the point of this series. We are called to give

glory to God before men so that they may too

glorify Him. That's our call. Our call is to

glorify God, to do things, to say things, to

be a people that when the world sees it, they

say, I want to know something about that God.

I want to receive that transformation. I too

want my life to be changed by this gospel. We're

called to do that regardless of the circumstances.

And maybe you know this, that the circumstances

aren't always ideal. In fact, they usually aren't.

So the questions we have to ask ourselves are,

what do we do when the battle before us is too

big for us to handle on our own? What do we do

when the circumstances aren't ideal? Who do we

face these challenges with? Who holds up our

hands when they grow weary? And how do we fight?

I've got a few answers that I want to offer to

you. First is the who. Second is the why. And

third is the how. So the who. Just like Moses

had Aaron, her, and Joshua, and the Israelite

army. Or just like Peter and John had their friends

who were likely the church and the apostles.

Just like Cole had Wyatt and Chad. And both groups,

all groups, had God. We too need a community

of faithful servants and God. We most importantly

need God. That's the key to all this. But unfortunately,

Satan likes to tell us this lie. And the lie

is that you can do this on your own. You can

fight the battle on your own. You can hold up...

What it is that you need to hold up on your own.

And you can make it through life by yourself.

You don't need community. You don't need the

church. You don't need supporters. He lies. From

the beginning, he's been lying. And from the

beginning, we've seen that we need community.

God makes Adam. He looks at Adam and says, oh

my goodness, this ain't going to work. He needs

a woman in his life. And men, you know that's

true, right? That we need, whether it's your

mama, your grandmama, your aunt, your wife, or

your sister, you need a woman in your life to

help you. And so God looks at Adam. He says he

can't do this alone. Or we read this wisdom literature

in Ecclesiastes that says two are better than

one because they have a good reward for their

toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his

fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls.

and has not another to lift him up. Again, if

two lie together, they keep warm. But how can

one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail

against one who is alone, two will withstand

him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Maybe you've been by yourself in some of your

darkest times. Or maybe your biggest battles

that you've had to face You've tried to face

them on your own. And I don't know about you,

but I've never been successful in that effort.

Every time I try to do things by myself, I fail.

But when I lean on community, I get a little

bit better. When I lean on community and God,

I start to see victory. Now, it doesn't always

look how I want it to, but I can see where...

it's a lot better than what I had. We even see

the way that Christ sent the disciples in groups,

and ultimately he established the church. All

throughout the narrative of Scripture, we see

the need for community, for togetherness. Satan

wants you to believe the lie that you can handle

things on your own. He wants you to believe the

lie that you're strong by yourself. There's this

passage in Scripture that talks about Satan going

around like a roaring lion. Maybe you've heard

that before. Do any of you know how lions hunt?

So when a lion targets this group of, we'll say

gazelles, the lion will look at them and he'll

pick out maybe the weakest one or the smallest

one or the slowest one. Because what he knows,

is that whenever he starts running to attack,

they're all going to run too, right? But he also

knows if he can pick just one out, he gets dinner.

And Satan knows that if he can pick you off,

if he can get you by yourself, if he can get

you alone, if he can get you doubting your community,

if he can get you believing that you can handle

it on your own, or you're faster by yourself,

or you're stronger when you get to do things

your way, if he can convince you of that, he

gets to win. He needs you alone to devour you.

Moses was by himself up on that hill. And his

arms did grow weary and they fell. Would the

Israelites have had victory? No. What happens

if Peter and John don't go back to their friends

and say, we need to pray for boldness. We need

to pray for God to work through us. Does the

gospel ever advance? What happens when you try

to fulfill your calling by yourself and things

get hard? And maybe anxiety sets in or depression

sets in or you face these obstacles and life

gets difficult. Do you ever fulfill your calling?

And that's the why behind the need for community

with people. If we ever feel like we can fully

honor God and live abundant lives on our own,

we leave ourselves subject to destruction. And

now we talk about how we win the battle. Because

the truth is, some of these battles are just

too big for our communities. of people to win.

If I come to you and I say, hey, I love y 'all,

but the city of Blairsville told me I'm not allowed

to talk about Jesus anymore. And we just all

decide, well, we're going to go up to the town

hall and we're going to raise a fuss. Maybe they'll

listen. Maybe they won't. But if we go raise

a fuss and... We pray that God will give us the

boldness to not just raise a fuss, but to tell

people about Jesus. And we start changing this

community and people's lives start to be transformed

and good things start to happen because people

are coming to know Christ. Maybe the government

will look at it and say, hey, we kind of like

this Jesus thing. In fact. What we see in history

in the first century is the Christians weren't

just complaining about the Roman government oppressing

them. They weren't just complaining about the

Jewish government oppressing them. What they

were doing was they were just telling people

about Jesus. And they were changing people's

lives. And God was transforming people. And the

Roman government saw something happening. And

they said, you know, maybe there's something

to this Jesus thing. Imagine if Christians would

invite God into this battle and say, God, we

see the things going on in our country. We see

the things going on in our world. And what we

want to do is not complain about them. We don't

want to try to take it by force. We don't want

to make it happen. We want you to transform people.

And if people are transformed, our country, our

world will be too. Imagine if we responded to

difficulties. By relying on the power of community

and even more on the power of God. We need that.

Moses doesn't go into battle with Joshua to handle

things via combat. He sends Joshua with an army

to do that part. But he also goes up on the hill.

Whether again, whether his holding up the hand

was a posture of prayer or if it was just a symbol

to say, God, work here. What Moses did was go

up on that hill to utilize God's power and God's

might in this fight. Peter and John don't go

tell everybody at church what awful persecution

they face so that the church can pick up their

pitchforks and torches and storm the Sanhedrin.

They go to receive the support and the prayers

of the church and that's what they get. And in

both instances and all throughout Scripture,

God responds accordingly because it is only by

the strength of God that we can have victory.

It wasn't Moses' hand. that won the battle for

the Israelites. It wasn't the words of Peter

and John and their friends that made the gathering

place shake and the Holy Spirit move and fill

them. It was God showing, putting on full display

for all to see His power and His might. We win

the battles necessary to bring God's people home

and to bring His message to the world through

the support and the prayers of our community,

which is the church, and the power and the might

of our Savior, who is God. We cannot do it alone

because if we try to, we will grow weary and

our arms will lower and we will lose the battle.

We'll face persecution. We'll face... Threats

that threaten to slow down the advancing of God's

kingdom. We'll have moments where the evil one

tries to get us on our own. Where he tries to

destroy us. And when we do, we have to remember

who's on our team. Who's in the fight with us.

And we have to remember how we receive victory.

So as we wrap up this morning, I want to give

you some points of application. The first one

is to lean on your people. Lean on your Aaron

and your Hur. Or lean on your friends. Lean on

your brothers and sisters here in this body.

Ask yourself the question, who's holding your

arms up right now when they grow weary? Who are

you letting in? Who are you inviting into the

battle with you? Who are you praying with? Who

are you confessing to? Who are you standing alongside?

God designed us for community. And over the next

20 years or however long I'm here, you're going

to hear me say God designed us for community

over and over and over and over again because

that's true. We're designed to be with people.

And so some practical ways that we can try to

not fight alone. Get involved in a small group.

Join a prayer group. Be a part of a men's or

a women's ministry or a youth ministry. Be surrounded

by people. I've got to tell you, on some of my

toughest weeks, the thing that holds my arms

up is the Wednesday night gathering. Just being

together with people in the middle of the week

because the truth is, is Sunday is not enough

sometimes. It's kind of like my youth minister,

and you'll hear me talk about him a lot because

he's such an interesting guy, but also just a

great man. He'd show up on Wednesday nights to

church and it'd be 7 o 'clock at night and he's

still drinking coffee. And I'm not decaf. Like

he's still drinking just straight up coffee.

And I make coffee in the morning and that's it.

Like two cups in the morning and I'm good. But

for some people, and maybe some of you are this

way, you need it all throughout the day. Some

people are, they need a cup in the morning and

then a cup at the middle of the day and they're

good for the rest of it. And that's kind of how

I am with church. Like I need my cup on Sunday

morning and then I need it again on Wednesday

because by Wednesday I'm just barely making it

through and then I'm crawling in on Sunday morning.

We need to be with people that love Jesus, that

are fighting the same fight as us, that are in

the same race as us to make it to the finish

line. Be together. As often as you can. We say

this all the time. Maybe some of you grew up

as the every time the doors were open type people

with the church. Sunday morning, Sunday night.

Maybe you had a Tuesday night men's group and

your dad drug you along to it. Or you had a Tuesday

morning women's Bible study and your mom made

you go. And then you had Wednesday night. And

maybe there was a Saturday night prayer gathering

over the Sunday morning. And you were there for

everything. And if you were in the youth group,

you went to every single thing. And we complain

about that sometimes, but I've got to tell you,

I think I need more and more of that as the days

go on. Because I cannot make it without community.

And the truth is, neither can you. We need people.

And the second thing is to be a person that people

can lean on. You're going to lean on people,

and they need somebody they can lean on. That

sounds like a song. Somebody should write it.

We need to be people. That people can lean on.

You may not be the one on the hill today holding

up your arm, but you sure as well, you can be

one of those people that's holding up somebody's

arms. Ask yourself, who do I know that needs

encouragement? Who do I know that needs prayer?

Who do I know that needs me to just step in and

help them with their ministry or with what it

is that they're trying to accomplish? Who can

I stand beside this week? Who can I text and

say, hey man, I forgot you've got that thing

going on this week. How can I help? Or how can

I pray for you? Or hey, I know the loss of your

loved one was difficult. Is there anything I

can do? Or hey, I know you just had a new baby.

Is there anything I can do to step in? I was

really encouraged a few weeks ago when they talked

about the meal train for Georgia and Elijah,

and it was said that every day was filled. That's

awesome. We need more of that. We need more people

saying, hey, I need prayers. And everybody just

steps in and says, I'll pray with you. I'll pray

for you. We need more people saying, hey, I've

got this thing going on downtown. And I'm inviting

people. And we're just trying to help the community.

And we need everybody to show up. And everybody

shows up. In a few months, really excited about

it, I'm going to go ahead and plug this. We're

going to have a friends and family day. Who do

you know? That needs you to invite them to know

Jesus. We were at Meeks Park for the fireworks

on Friday night. And we met this random guy who

was sitting next to us. And before we left, Easton

goes, hey, I'll see you at church on Sunday.

And the guy was like, yeah. But we need more

people. Inviting people to come find the community

that we have here. Be a person that people can

lean on. Be looking to make sure that your people

aren't growing weary as they run the race, but

make sure that you're there to lift them up when

they start to get tired. And third, pray your

way through the fight. The power never came from

Moses' arms. It came from God's. The church in

Acts, they weren't able to transform all of Rome

by themselves. It was by God's power working

through them. There's a reason that Jesus leaves

and He says, I'm going to send something better.

And He sends the Holy Spirit. And there's a reason

that in all of these instances where you see

people doing amazing things, you see the Holy

Spirit working in it. In Acts 2, when you see

Peter preach this amazing sermon and all of these

people's lives start to change, who's involved?

The Holy Spirit. You see the Holy Spirit show

up over and over and over again in these crazy

moments because that is God working. And so I

don't know about you, but I want to invite the

Holy Spirit to work alongside us. Because I know

that no words that I say can change this city.

No words that I say can change this area. But

you know who can? God. And so I'm going to pray

every day that God works through me. That God

works through this church. That in my darkest

moments, in my toughest battles, when I'm growing

weary, that God be the one that pushes me on.

That God is the one. that lifts me up so that

we can keep working for His good. Pray your way

through the fight. If I can leave you with a

quote on that, it's lift your hands and surrender

before you lift your hands and work. Because

your hands, no matter how strong or tough you

think you are, are not tough enough. But God's

are. And if you'll let Him, He'll bring victory

in the fight. For the believers in the room,

maybe you are growing tired. Maybe you've been

at this for a long time. Maybe you're in a ministry

that you just feel like you have been working

in forever. Maybe you're trying to get something

accomplished whether it be in this church or

in this community. Maybe you're trying to bring

a message to people abroad. Whatever it is, maybe

you're growing tired. Your arms are weary and

you have been fighting alone. You do not have

to. And I would say you should not. We're here

to hold you up. We as a church want to be here

to fight alongside you, to pray with you, to

pray for you. Don't leave today without letting

somebody in the fight with you. Let somebody

that you trust. Let somebody that you can lean

on. Hold your arms up as you continue inviting

God in to bring victory. And if you've never

joined the family of God, if you've never trusted

Jesus with your life, with your battles, with

your future, you need to know this. You were

never meant to stand alone either. Just because

you're not currently a part of the family of

God doesn't mean you can't be. And we want to

let you know that you have an opportunity to

accept the victory that Jesus has already won

for you. Because He has already won the greatest

battle of all, and that is the battle over your

sin. And the battle for your life. And He won

it. The victory's already been won. Jesus wants

you to be a part of His family. And we want you

to be a part of this family. And so if you're

ready to say yes to Jesus, if you're ready to

step out in faith and keep fighting the battle,

or maybe you feel like there's a mission that

you're supposed to be on, or a ministry that

you're supposed to be in, or you want more information

about a prayer group or a small group, if you

want to know how you can get more involved on

Wednesday nights, we want you to respond so that

we can best help you along in the fight. Because

we have been called together. And this right

here is training grounds. This is where you get

your encouragement. This is where you get your

marching orders. This is where you find strength

to keep fighting another day. And so if you need

anything, whether it's to accept the call or

to get in the fight, we offer you an invitation

to come forward, to let us hold up your arms,

to walk with you. as we stand and as we sing.