Keep Your Hands Up

Well, it is great to see all of you this morning.

Welcome to Church at the Grove.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you, my name is Russ.

We're all excited you're here.

We hope that you experience God's presence more than anything.

We hope that you experience some meaningful connection and some friendship and maybe a feeling of being a part of a family.

Excited to have our online church and our online campus worshiping with us this morning.

As a matter of fact, would you join with me again this week as we welcome all those that are worshiping with us online?

Excited to have them.

Excited to have Kevin Gibson.

He has become our online pastor.

And so thankful that we have the opportunity to welcome people online.

Ken and Gail Fraker have been a part of our church.

Ken and Jeff Baker are really the leaders of building this building.

Excited.

If you're a guest with us online, we're excited that you're with us.

And we just ask everybody, whether you're here physically at one of our campuses or whether you're online, we'd love to have a record of your time with us.

We tell people you can actually pull out your phone, download the app in just a matter of a minute or two, and then you can fill out what's called an encounter card electronically.

You can always do it actually on paper if you want to, out at the little connection desk that we have.

But we want to get connected to you.

We're talking about that this morning.

We believe that community, true community, that Jesus died for, that God desires for us, it happens when we we move beyond just sitting in a row, staring at the backs of the heads of other people, and we get into circles or we get into serve teams, we get into community groups, and we get connected.

And the way that you can begin that that journey is simply filling out that encounter card.

And I know sometimes if you're new, you want to check us out for a few weeks, whether you're online or in person, and that that is completely understandable.

At some point, we want you to take a little bit of a step of faith and get connected, begin to get involved.

I'm wearing my Kids Grove shirt this morning.

Our Kids Groves are jumping up to their next grade level.

Um our middle school and high school students will be uh promoted here as they go back to school in the next couple weeks, and some of them this week in Walton County, and uh, but excited for that.

As a matter of fact, let's just stop for a second, whether you're online or you're here in the room.

If you are an educator in a public or private school, would you just stand up right now?

If you're an educator in a public or private school, just stand.

So thank you guys.

I'm I want to I want to pray for you.

Yes, yes.

Um remain standing.

I know this is really uncomfortable.

Um at least, Leslie, you're over here by yourself, bless your heart, but uh we got some community over here, right?

Um if you are um the parent of a child that that's about to start back to school, or you're a home educator, you educate at home, you stand up.

Now, this is preschool to college.

Feel free to stand up.

I've got, I got, I got, I got kids.

I mean, this is this is you know, this is a busy time.

It can be a difficult time, especially if it's the first time.

Uh some of you, this is this is old, you know, this is your experience of all this.

If you're a student that's about to start back to school, or maybe you already have, or you're going to in a week or two, stand up.

Stand up, students.

Got a few, got a few of them in here, yeah.

Would you just join me?

Then I'm am I leaving anybody out?

Did that cover everybody?

Would you join me and let's pray over the families, parents, students, and educators.

Let's do that right now.

If you're sitting, just stretch out your hand toward uh some of these folks that are around you.

Um, and let's pray together.

Father, Lord, we thank you for the opportunity that you give so many of us to educate, be educated, and to go through the process of learning.

Thank you for uh our our school systems.

I thank you for our public school systems, our private schools.

Lord, thank you for families that are educating their children at home.

Lord, I pray that you'd be with all of them.

God, have your hands upon them.

Lord, I do pray for uh those that have maybe children either for the first time uh going to school, whether that's preschool or elementary school, uh, or maybe they've got children that are moving from elementary to middle or middle to high or high for to college or whatever the transition is, maybe graduate school.

I pray that you have your hand upon them, calm their heart if it is anxious, and you would lead and guide all of these teachers and students and parents to be influencers and to carry the banner of Jesus Christ and to take advantage of every opportunity to love on people in the name of Jesus.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You guys have a seat.

Have a seat.

Um I was planning to do that at the end, but I decided let's do it.

Let's do it.

I was thinking about it, and it's good to do that.

Um, have you ever been tired?

I paid attention this morning as I greeted people, and I that's just I how are you doing?

Are you doing well?

Uh how's it going?

And so the the common responses are busy and tired.

Busy and tired.

And I think we we just we that's the lifestyle, that's that's who we are.

I I get tired.

Somebody asked me this past year, they said, you know, after we had COVID, after we've been diagnosed, me and a few of our family members, they said, have you experienced the COVID fatigue?

I said, I don't know.

I said, what are the symptoms?

They said, well, you're tired all the time.

It's from morning to night.

Sometimes it gets intensified in the afternoon.

I said, I've been living with that for the past five years.

I mean, yeah, I'm 55 years old.

What is I can't distinguish the difference.

But there is, there are times that we we get more fatigued or we go through a season.

Back in May, um, we had a family in our church that tragically lost their adult son.

Um, and he passed away.

And at the same time, one of the uh sweet senior adult ladies that had been a part of our church for several years, she passed away after a battle with cancer.

And so both of those funerals were on Sunday.

And so I preached on Sunday morning twice and then took part in both of those funerals.

Now I'm just gonna be honest with you, it took me days, maybe weeks, to get over that fatigue because there is a soul-level exhaustion that comes with walking through lost yourself or walking through loss with somebody else.

And sometimes that that fatigue is just it's exhausting.

Some of you experience fatigue.

You're tired, you're busy, and and there's our there's a physical tiredness, and some of that, sometimes that comes from from good physical labor.

I think every young man and even even uh young women, they need to learn a little bit of physical work, and and there's something about being um uh with with other people in your family and working hard all day, and at the end of the day, you're just physically tired, and it's a good kind of tired, and you sleep really well at night because you've done physical work.

We don't have as much of that in our culture today.

But you can remedy physical exhaustion and fatigue through a good night's rest.

But there's a whole other level.

There's emotional fatigue, and it's when you experience loss.

It's when you had a death in your family.

Uh I I continue to walk with my aunt.

Some of you know that my my mom's younger brother passed away from uh COVID uh back.

He he got he came down with his first symptoms on Christmas Day and he passed away on Sunday, two days later.

And just walking through that, sometimes there's still emotional fatigue.

It's just difficult, but you've walked through that yourself, or you've experienced loss, or you've walked through it with somebody in your family.

You've experienced loss, or you've ministered, or been there to support other people through loss.

There's emotional fatigue, or you've given of yourself.

You have served, or you've been you've been on the front lines.

My uh my buddy Nick has been in the Ukraine all summer, and there's there's a there's an emotional fatigue that comes through ministry and being around poverty and being around people, and you're pouring your heart out, sharing the gospel, not to mention learning how to speak and how to communicate, and then and and all the cultural um uh you know curve that you've got to learn and deal with.

And then there's mental fatigue.

Sometimes those of you that have you own your own businesses, or you are managers, or you are leaders, and you have to make lots and lots and lots of decisions, and it's constant.

Maybe you go through a season and you've lost some personnel or you've had to make some difficult uh decisions about some of those things.

You just have you know, have you have mental fatigue, you're tired.

I told, I told our church staff after uh that day on, you know, when I I've told them other times, and Nathan experiences this man, after making, after going through something with other people, I can't make any big decisions for a few days.

I just can't, or they'll be bad.

It's happened.

There's mental fatigue, and then all together, those things together can cause a soul exhaustion.

There can be a deep level where all of those things combine, and you're just tired beyond what you can explain.

And it's just, it's, it, it's, it goes deep, deep down.

I think we've experienced my there's some people in my families, there's some uh family members who have just begun to come out of a soul exhaustion related to isolation during COVID.

We take for granted those of us that are that are that have been connected to other people.

My mother-in-law, who's the sweetest, one of the sweetest, godliest ladies, you know, that I know, she has been involved in church.

She's got a great community of people in a Sunday school class.

She's got people she exercises with, and then she went through isolation during COVID, and she came out of that, and she she couldn't explain it in this way, but what I thought she was experiencing was a soul-level exhaustion from being isolated and not being connected to people that had a temperature.

Because you can't experience what I'm talking about through Zoom and through electronic connections.

You sometimes you need to be in the same room with somebody with a temperature.

One of the principals this past week is we were feeding educators, she said there's nothing that takes the place of being in the room with the children, being with my coworkers, being with our staff.

And so we've got to understand, and so isolation, isolation, even for those of us that are introverts, that's when I say us, it's not me.

I'm not an introvert, although I I've become a little more introverted sometimes when I'm exhausted, I'm an introvert.

But for people who, their personality style, they still need connectedness.

We begin this series called Breakthrough, and we're we're talking about finding freedom through biblical community.

And here's here's what a lot of people are gonna think when we when we push you or we challenge you or we we and it's not we, sometimes it's scripture, it's Jesus, it's the Heavenly Father that challenges us.

Hey, you need to take a step and get into biblical community.

You need to take a step and join a community group.

You need to take a step and get into a serve team.

What we're saying is God has created us for community.

As a matter of fact, God exists in community, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God exists Himself in community.

We're created in His image, and so thus we are created for community.

And you're gonna say, I don't need anybody.

I'm good.

Me and God are good.

Well, here's the danger.

If you think you and God are good, there's a danger of either one of two things, pride or disobedience.

Pride or disobedience.

I don't need anybody.

Well, that's prideful.

I'm not gonna get connected.

That's disobedience.

Now there are those of us that are a little bit afraid.

There's fear, there's fear of being hurt, there's fear of being uh of under, you know, fear of being let down, fear of uh of being um uh of something bad happening, something that that's out of our control.

Um something things can happen uh that that cause you know uh community groups to be affected.

We had a uh one of our men in our church that passed away this past week named Charlie Johnson, and and and he was a community group leader.

And so that that affects his community group.

You think, well, I don't want to get I don't want to get connected to a new community group leader.

Things happen, we can't control it.

We got to keep moving on, moving in faith.

Some of us are doing okay, even after dealing with COVID.

If I asked you, how are you doing emotionally, physically, um uh how how you're doing mentally, you say, Oh, I'm doing pretty well.

I'm okay.

Well, let me let me say this.

You're gonna think I'm okay, so I don't need that, but I'm telling you, you're okay for the benefit of other people.

There's somebody in this room, there's somebody watching online that is not doing okay, and somebody needs to rub shoulders, encourage them with words of encouragement, and and walk alongside with them, bear some of their burdens, and so you your okayness, your goodness, your your emotional, physical, mental, soul health can help somebody else that's struggling.

Some of you aren't okay.

You're struggling, and you're struggling, and so that struggle is gonna keep you from taking a step, and that's exactly what the enemy wants.

Here's the big idea for this morning.

Breakthrough in life's battles come when others lift us up.

Breakthrough in life's battles come when others lift us up.

In this new series, we're encouraging you over the next few weeks, be willing to try, take a step, experiment, um, jump off the cliff into community.

We we have what we call a growth track, and it's a it's a new process, and we're we're we're still kind of onboarding this and uh creating uh pathways for people to take steps.

And the first step is to know God.

And if you went to our website or you went to the church app, we have a series of uh of videos and exercises and devotionals for you to know God, for you to have a relationship with God, how Jesus came to live and to die and to he was resurrected so you could have a connection and a reconciliated relationship with your heavenly Father.

The second step that is what we're talking about the next three weeks is finding freedom through biblical community.

The third step is discovering your purpose, which is spiritual gifts and your personality and your passions.

And then the fourth is to make a difference that God has called you to be Jesus in your neighborhood, in your with your neighbors, with your coworkers, in your network of relationships.

And so this morning we're focusing on building relationships.

Breakthrough comes when others lift us up.

Breakthrough in life's battles come when others lift us up.

We're gonna be in Exodus chapter 17.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

We're going old school, old testament this morning.

Old school, old testament this morning.

And it's the it's the story of Moses as he stands over the recently freed slaves, God's people, the nation of Israel, he stands over them, holding his arms up in battle as they fight below him in the valley.

And so you've got you've got to know that this these people that have been liberated have spent 400 years in Egypt as slaves.

They are not a warrior nation.

They are not a nation equipped for battle.

They have no weapons, they have no Navy SEAL training, they have no training.

They are weak.

They haven't even been able to adjust to what it's like to have freedom.

And so they've experienced all of these miracles, the miracles of the plagues, the miracles of Moses' leadership, the miracle of the Red Sea, and then they get out into the wilderness.

God is supernaturally providing water.

You see this early in the chapter, in chapter 17, where water comes out of a rock.

He is feeding them with this miraculous manna from heaven.

But in this story, they're being attacked by another nation called the Amalekites.

Moses, this powerful leader, is about to lead God's people into physical battle for the first time.

Look at what it says, verse 8, Exodus 17.

It says, While the people of Israel were still at Rephedim, the warriors of Amalek attack them.

The warriors of Amalek, the Amalekites attack them.

You see, the Amalekites surface all through the Old Testament.

The Amalekites, next week, we'll talk about Gideon, the Midianites.

The Amalekites and the Midianites are these two common nations that battle.

They represent evil spiritual forces attacking God's people.

You see that the Amalekites are the ones that end up killing King Saul.

The evil Haman in the book of Esther is linked to the people called the Amalekites.

And in the book of Esther, they're trying to commit genocide and kill all of God's people.

And so you've got to understand that we don't make we may not have Amalekites living in our community.

We may not be physically being under attack right now, but there's spiritual attack.

There's spiritual attack.

Jesus said that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

And Jesus says, I've come that you would have life and have it abundantly.

Now, who does he attack?

Who does he begin with?

Moses recounts this story later in Deuteronomy 25.

Verses 17 and 18.

He said, Never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt.

They attacked you when you were what?

Exhausted and weary.

They struck down those who were straggling behind.

They had no fear of God.

Isn't this how the enemy works?

So the Amalekites, they didn't attack.

There's no respect.

You know, they didn't attack from the front.

What they did is they came around to the back end.

And if you've got a nation of people, hundreds of thousands, maybe uh, you know, close a million or more, and and so who is gonna be at the back?

The most vulnerable, the weakest, the physically weak, maybe those that are on the on the end of life, you know, they're they're they're physically just can't keep up.

Whoever it is, it's the most vulnerable.

That's how the enemy attacks you, and that's how he attacks me.

He attacks you at your most vulnerable.

Vulnerable place.

He attacks you when you are at your weakest.

That's how he attacks you.

And so what we see here is this is the disconnected people become easy prey.

Disconnected people are easy prey.

Let me say this.

You can have perfect attendance in church.

You can come 52 weeks out of the year, which is almost unheard of.

I don't even go to church 52 weeks out of the year.

At least one week a year, probably, right?

That I get permission.

I'm sick.

Or whatever, you know, we don't have service between Christmas and New Year's.

There's usually one, at least one.

You know, a lot of times when I'm off, I go worship somewhere else, but but you can have perfect attendance and you think, man, I'm knocking it out of the park.

And you walk in here every Sunday and you sit where you sit and you stare at the pastor, at a screen, you might even sing a couple lyrics.

And you look at the back of somebody's head and you think I'm all that spiritually.

And you could you could never be more disconnected because you've not had any meaningful relational involvement.

Serving, community group, getting involved, building relationships, not to mention we've come off a year that we've had this past year where we've all been isolated and we've had to worship online.

Some still worshiping online.

We're thankful for that.

And so disconnected people become easy prey.

Look at look, let's read back through this again.

While the people of Israel were still at Refanim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them.

Moses commanded Joshua, choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us.

Tomorrow I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.

So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek.

Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and her climbed to the top of a nearby hill.

As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage.

But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.

Do you get the picture?

So Moses goes up on the hill and he holds his hands up, and as he keeps his hands high, that Joshua and God's people had the advantage over the Amalekites.

When Moses grew weary and his hands began to drop, the Amalekites would gain the advantage over Joshua and God's people.

Here's what I learned in a little bit of the study of this.

I've always thought that there's something magical or mysterious about Moses' hands being lifted high.

And there is an aspect to that.

I think it's the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the Old Testament.

But it was also part of Jewish culture, is to this day.

It's what you do when you pray, when you approach God, you come, even in the New Testament, lift up holy hands to the Lord.

And so as you think of God and you want to honor God, as you pray to God, as we worship God, if some of you are Baptists, and you're uncomfortable right now watching me with my hands raised.

I'm a recovering Pentecostal, okay?

There's something about just coming to pray, there's something about hands lifted up as we honor and approach God, who he is, and his holy nature.

There's power in lifted hands.

This song that we as a church have been singing in this past season, written by Phil Wickham, called The Battle Belongs.

He says, So when I fight, I fight on my knees with my hands lifted high.

Oh God, the battle belongs to you.

Every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night, O God, the battle belongs.

And so there's something about fighting and being in the midst of battle, our hands lifted high in community with other believers.

We're not alone.

We're human, but and so we don't wage war as humans do.

The Apostle Paul says, 2 Corinthians 2, 3 and 4, he says, we are human.

We don't wage war as humans do.

We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

You want to give the devil a black eye?

Then you got to fight spiritually.

How do you fight spiritually?

We fight in community.

We don't fight disconnected.

We fight arm in arm.

We fight with our hands lifted high, which means we honor and we worship and we exalt God together.

Verse 12, Moses' arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up.

And according to Deuteronomy 37, that describes Moses when he passed away at 120 years old, he had perfect eyesight.

He had good help.

Otherwise, so this is not a physical tiredness.

It was the burden-bearing fatigue of being the leader of God's people, being in the priestly role, being in between God and his people.

Moses is a picture of Jesus in this story.

Jesus extended his arms.

That was the most battle-weary thing he could have done was to extend his arms on the cross to go before us and to take the punishment of our human inadequacies, our sin upon himself.

And Jesus didn't even fight alone.

He models for us what it means to pull away alone and to pray to the Father.

But do you know that in Jesus' most vulnerable moment, he said, Hey, y'all come.

Can y'all watch while I pray?

Can y'all be with me?

And he goes before the Heavenly Father and he says, Father, can you let this cup pass for me?

Not my will, but your will be done.

He turns, you know, he he prays that more than one time.

And each between each time, he's he looks around.

Where what are his disciples doing?

They're asleep.

They're not with him.

We've got to be with one another.

We've got to we've got to step in, we've got to be there because we can't allow just one or a few people to bear the burdens.

We've got to bear the burdens, we've got to be in the battle together.

So Aaron and her found a stone for him to sit on, verse 12.

Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands.

So his hands held steady until sunset.

As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

Here's what we learned: Biblical community makes our burdens lighter.

Biblical community makes our burdens lighter.

And so Moses, he's a picture of Jesus, but he's a human man and he can't bear the burden.

And so he needs help.

He needs help.

And Aaron and Earth come and hold his arms up, one on each side.

So they could win the battle.

So what do we see in this?

I've heard pastors preach this and they'll say, I need help.

Let me tell you that this is not a picture.

Moses does not represent a local church pastor.

Okay?

I don't, I can't even, there's no local pastors can't, shouldn't be called to stand in the gap like Moses.

He is a picture of Jesus.

He represents the Spirit of God.

The power of the Spirit of God is what's at work.

I believe that Aaron and her represent the local church in this story.

The local church needs to come together and to bear the burdens.

Joshua, you know what his name in Hebrew is?

Yeshua.

You know where what Yeshua is in the Greek language?

It's Jesus.

And so Yeshua, Joshua is on the field of battle.

Jesus fought against the devil to provide for our freedom.

Paul says Galatians 6, too, bear one another's burdens.

And so fulfill the law of Christ.

Bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.

Listen, listen.

The problem with the church, when I say that, the church in America is in decline.

Losing influence.

Less and less people going to church.

More churches, especially coming out of COVID, more churches will close their doors in the next few years than any period like that, probably in the history of our country.

Lots of churches unhealthy.

The problem is not what happens on a Sunday morning in about 60 or 70 minutes.

The problem with the church is what takes place in 167 hours outside of the one hour on church on Sunday morning.

So we don't have a one-hour church.

See, we could we could say, well, look, man, we need better music.

Listen, I don't, we've got the best worship leadership that I can imagine.

You say we need better preaching.

You probably do.

But see, you could you could twist and tweak and change some of the things we do.

I love our our kids' ministry.

It's the best.

I love our student ministry.

It's the best.

But we we listen, the problem is not with the one hour that we gather.

The problem is the remaining 167 hours we're disconnected.

After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses.

Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder.

Read it aloud to Joshua.

I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh Nissi, which means the Lord is my banner.

Here's what we, here's the challenge.

Let's be a church that relentlessly, relentlessly pursues community.

Let's be a church that's not just known for being friendly on Sunday morning.

Let's be a church that's known for relentlessly pursuing the disconnected so they can be connected.

Let's be a church that goes after people with the love of Jesus.

Jesus says, Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden.

He says, He says, Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy.

My yoke is light.

He says, I am humble and gentle at heart.

You will find rest for your souls.

Let's be a church that goes after people.

Here's what I think.

Here's something I've been thinking about at Church of the Growth.

People always acknowledge we are a friendly church, but I still don't think we take the next step in bringing people out of disconnectedness into connectedness.

It's one thing to speak to them and welcome them in a friendly way.

It's another thing to walk with people and make sure they not only know God, but they find freedom and community.

They find their spiritual gifts and discover their strengths, and then they learn how to make a difference.

If I open my home up, there's a boy, there's a boy that came and talked to me this summer.

He says, I like your daughter.

I'm just getting nauseous thinking about it.

I just, and so he is hairy-legged, he's nice, nice looking guy, but man, he just, you know, he's a boy.

And so this boy, he's gonna come to our house probably this fall at some point.

And so I I I can be friendly, but I wouldn't walk him over to a corner and sit him down and just walk away and say, hey, hope you have a good night.

I might want to walk him back out.

I wouldn't allow a guest to come in my home and be friendly when they came in the door.

And not speak to them or engage them.

And especially if somebody came apart become a became a part of our life.

Let's be relentless.

Let's be relentless.

Not just being friendly and not just enjoying our family.

Let's be relentless and connecting disconnected people and turning those disconnected people into family.

A family that continues to move on mission.

Are you with me?

Let's pray together.

Father, we pray and ask that you would continue to speak to us and move in our hearts as we continue to worship, as we make room for community in our hearts and in our lives.

I want to encourage those of you that need to take steps.

Maybe you are watching online and maybe you're limited in your ability to connect.

We want to connect with you.

Maybe it needs to be electronic for right now, but we don't want to leave you in that space alone.

We want to walk with you somehow relationally so you can continue your journey.

We don't want you to be disconnected.

For those of you that are in this room, maybe your first step is to move from being disconnected with God and to reconcile with your Heavenly Father by saying yes to Jesus.

That's your first step of faith is to know God through Jesus.

Maybe your next step this morning would be to have a conversation with somebody else in this place.

Maybe it's to join and serving in our Kids Grove ministry or our student ministry or joining a community group that will start back in just a couple of weeks.

The worst thing in the world is for you to walk out of here saying, Hey, we had a great time together.

And to miss out on the great plan that God has for your life.

So, Father, would you work?

Would you continue to speak?

Would you draw us into being a family that helps disconnected people get connected spiritually and relationally in the body of Christ?

God, may we be people that are willing to make room in our busy schedules and in our hearts for those disconnected people.

Father, lead us and guide us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Would you join with me?

What an incredible message that was.