Are You Fighting Alone? | Matt Baker

When life feels like a constant battle, it’s easy to think you’re on your own.

In this message, Pastor Matt Baker unpacks the name Jehovah Nissi, which means “The Lord is my banner.” Looking at the story of Moses in Exodus 17, we see a powerful reminder that God is not distant in our battles.  He’s present, fighting with us and for us.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Well, it is an honor to be with all of you here today. I'm, I'm typically not here on a Sunday. I am up at the Kingsway campus, but I do want to give a, a shout out to everyone who is watching online to those of you here at the Millwood campus, to those of you at the Tigger campus and to the Kingsway campus. Know how much I love you. I love that we can do this together and I'll be back with you next week. Well, I'm wondering, I have a question for you. Have you ever met someone who has the same name as you? Now, I'm not referring to just first name because if you have a common name like Mike or John or Kathy, you could guarantee you know, someone right now, maybe in this room, , that has the same name as you. I'm referring to knowing someone who has the same first and last name as you. Now, my full name is Matt Baker. Throughout high school I was in homeroom with a girl whose younger brother's name was also Matt Baker. And for some reason she would often tell me this, um, by the end of grade 12, she must have told me a hundred times. I'm not sure why I needed that information that much. Um, but then I started going to church when I was 18. And lo and behold, the church I went to was the church that family went to. And so I met and still know personally to this day that Matt Baker now I started serving at that church with the, with the youth group. I became a youth leader. And so people started to, to know my name. But now, because there was two Matt Bakers in the church, it got a little confusing for people. So a couple times, uh, someone would come up to me and say, excuse me, are you Matt Baker? And I would say, yes. Uh, and then, um, their next question, which would be, which one are you ? Are you Christina's son? Are you like the youth guy? Well, since my mom's name is Sharon, I knew that I was, I would say, well, I'm the youth guy. And they would say, oh, okay. You're not the one I'm looking for. I was never the one, but they were looking for except one time. Um, I had hung some posters all around the youth room and eventually went to take those down. And of course, I used the wrong tape. And so I removed paint off the wall all over the room. This church had something called a building committee. And this was a group of people, uh, they were responsible for making sure the building looked nice on the inside. Now important. Great. Well, they saw what I did. And let me tell you, they knew my name and who I was pretty fast . See, our names are one way that we're identified, right? You know, our how we look, our, our, our facial appearance. So that, that, that's definitely an identifier. Uh, the government knows us by our social insurance number. That's an identifier, but it's really our name that brings clarity to someone about who someone else is. For example, if I were to ask you, Hey, do you know that actor with the brown hair? No, you don't know who I'm talking about. If I said, Hey, do you know that actor, uh, with the brown hair, but it was in the superhero movie? You might have a couple guesses, but you still don't know who I'm talking about. But if I said, Hey, do you know the actor Robert Downey Jr? Chances are, yeah, you, you would, I heard some yeses. You would know, right? Who that is 'cause our names identify us. Well, we're in a summer series here at Hope City. It's called What's in a Name. And we're looking at the different names of God in the Bible. And the reason we're doing that, 'cause these names help us to help us understand who God is, help us relate to him, but they also help us identify the qualities that make him who he is. And so far in this series, we've looked at the names Add anai, which means the Lord, our master elai, which means God Almighty Emmanuel, which means God with us. And last week, pastor Ken talked about Jehovah Gyra, which means the Lord, our provider. And today we're gonna be looking at a very, another very important name of God. Now, it would be naive of me to say that no person has ever been faced with a difficult circumstance, right? It would be silly for me to stand here and say that there aren't people today maybe in this room that are just battling something in their lives. Now, I've met with people that have just received, you know, a, a critical diagnosis. I've stood with people that have recently experienced loss, and I've prayed with people who are addicted to something that has just taken over their lives. These are recent experiences I've had with real people battling real things. What are you battling today? What are you fighting that is depleting you of all your strength? Maybe your joy, maybe your patience, maybe even your character. But maybe you're hearing, you wouldn't say you're really battling something right now, but you can, you know, you can easily recall a time when you did.'cause we all battle something at some point. But we've learned already in this series that we serve at an eye, our Lord, we serve El Shatai, the God of the impossible. We serve Emmanuel God with us, and we serve Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. But the battles we face can sometime become the battles we accept. And what I mean by that is we can just give in right to the battle, give in to the difficulty, and it just allow whatever we're facing, what whatever's going on, just to have total dominion over us. But see, God never designed us to carry our burdens. In fact, scripture tells us the complete opposite. Peter is one of Jesus' original disciples. He writes in his letter, it's found in the New Testament, very simple scripture, one of my favorites. He says, give all your worries and cares to God for he cares about you. See, when we face difficulties, we need to lean on the one who can actually do something about it. Who can fight them? That is El, should I? That is Emmanuel, that is Adonai, and that is Jehovah Gyra. But God can only fight our battles if we give over the battle to him. Think of it this way. When, when you get a, a cut or scratch or something on your arm, if you keep touching it, it it's not gonna heal. Right? Same goes for our circumstances. When we give our worries, our cares, our difficulties to God, we actually have to give them to him. Another translation in the Bible says, cast our cares unto God means you're releasing it to him.'cause what this does is this gives the Lord space to now move, heal, and provide within whatever we're facing. But if we keep touching it, meaning we keep stressing, we keep worrying, keep trying to figure things out ourselves. We're not allowing God to do only what he can do. See, from these past weeks, we have a better understanding that there is one who is Lord. There is one who's almighty. There is one who's always with us, and there is one who provides for us. And today we're looking at another name of God. And that name is Jehovah Nii, and it means the Lord, our banner. So the name Jehovah Nii, it appears only one time in the Bible. We find that in the, in the Book of Exodus. It's the second book in the Old Testament. And before I read the passage of scripture that has the name, I just wanna provide some context as to what's happening, uh, you know, in the story at that time. So, uh, a few weeks ago, pastor Paul, he taught us, um, that God's chosen people called the Israelites. They were freed from their slavery in Egypt. They were under the reign of the king whose name was Pharaoh. So God chose a man, his name was Moses, and he chose him to free the Israelites and help lead them to a place called the Promised Land. And in the Bible, the Promised Land was a region of God designated for Abraham and his descendants as an inheritance. But when we read in the Book of Exodus, the Israelites, right? God's chosen people, they just complained. They complained of the circumstances they were facing as they traveled to the Promised Land. They were freed from slavery, traveling to the Promised Land, but just complaining about what was going on, what was happening. So in fact, it took 40 years, 40 years for the Israelites to reach the Promised Land. And really the the 40 year delay was because of their just lack of faith and their disobedience. See, God already promised them the land and was taking them there, but they just kept doubting God's ability to provide for them and protect them. So it took them that long. Now, we also read in Exodus about a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites. The Amalekites, they were a tribe from the region of Amalek, and they were known primarily for their longstanding hostility against the Israelites. And, and so the Amalekites came, they ambushed the Israelites. And, and which at this time in the story was shortly after the Israelites exodus from Egypt. Now, I do just wanna pause here for a moment and, and, um, just talk about why so many names in the Old Testament end in ites, right? ITES maybe you've wondered that. So throughout the Bible you'll come across names I've already said too, right? The Israelites, the Amalekites, there's the Amorites, there's the Midianites, the Hitite Mosquito Bites. . No, it's not there. Well, the ites or the ITS, it's very simple. It actually means a descendant of, so it means that the Israelites are descendants of Israel, the Amalekites descendants of Amalek Midianites, descendants of Midian and so on. And mosquito bites are just annoying, right? But we're gonna go to the book of Exodus chapter 17, and we're gonna read the story. It says, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Eddo. Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered. And Moses, Aaron, and her went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up, one on one side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amal army with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it.'cause I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. But listen, chapter or verse 15, Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner. So the Lord is my banner. It's a phrase, it's transliterated from Hebrew to English. The phrase is the name of God, Jehovah Nii. So Jehovah is the Hebrew name for God, right? He's introduced in the Book of Genesis as the creator of the universe and everything in it. Now, the name Yahweh, which we've already heard in this series, comes from the Hebrew word for I am. And it was trans transliterate as Jehovah. But then there's niecy means banner for all the Oilers fans watching, you know what a banner is? Hockey season means banner season. But in Bible times, a banner was more than just a flag. It was a symbol used for identification, for rallying, for signaling. And it was used, uh, especially in military and religious context. Now, the Hebrew word often translated as banner is ness, NES. And it carries both practical and spiritual meanings. And I'm gonna explain some of those right now. So as I said, a banner had religious and symbolic use. So banners represented God's presence, its protection and his victory. And we already read in Exodus 17, right after the victory over Amalek, Moses built an altar, named it the Lord is my banner. As I already mentioned, a banner had military use. So in battle, each tribe or group would have its own banner. They call it a standard like a flag. And this helps soldiers recognize their unit and organize their unit. And then the armies would march under their banner. So in the book of numbers, it says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, the Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family. And then third, a banner had spiritual imagery. So in Old Testament books such as Isaiah and Song of Solomon, um, banners would sometimes symbolize love, salvation, or divine calling. In the book of Song of Solomon, uh, chapter two, it says, let his banner over me be love. So it can represent God's presence, his victory, a call to action. And it's often used in prayer, worship, and spiritual warfare. So when we hear the name Jehovah Nii, we know this, we are his, and he is ours, we're covered, called and protected under his name. So in this story, Moses leading the Israelites right to the promised land. With the kits they declare war. Moses sends Joshua. So Joshua is Moses second in command. Um, Joshua's actually the one who ends up leading the Israelites into the promised land after Moses death. But at this time, Moses sends him to lead em battle. So then as we read, Moses then stood on the hill with his staff in the air. This is the same staff that Moses used to part the Red Sea to draw water from a rock and to bring many of the plagues against the Egyptians. So when Moses had his staff up, the Israelites would dominate, but he would grow tired.'cause that's tiring. After a while, right? His arm would drop. Well, then the Amalekites would dominate. So as we read Moses brother Aaron and one of their companions named her, they then held Moses arms up one on each side as Moses sat on a rock. And with the staff of God in the air, the Israelites defeated the Amalekites. So by building an altar and calling that the Lord is my banner, Moses was declaring something. He was declaring that God was their rallying point, he was their strength, and he was their victory. So what does it mean then to serve Jehovah Nii? I wanna give us three answers to that question. Number one, know that he's our victory in battle life brings battles. We all know this, whether they're spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, they happen. But sometimes we feel that we can just kind of take care of things ourselves. I think sometimes we just don't realize we're doing that. Maybe we just think that stressing and worrying or doing things our way is the better way, but it's not. See, God's way is always the better way. And Psalm 18 confirms this. King David writes, says, as for God, his way is perfect. The Lord's word is flawless. He shields all who take refuge in him. See, the truth is, we cannot win our battles with our own ideas, our own strength. It's not gonna happen. True victory comes when we recognize that the battle belongs to the Lord. Second Chronicles in the Old Testament says, do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours but Gods. See, whenever we raise our eyes to Jehovah Nii, we're reminded that God fights for us that he can do something about it. So whatever battle you're in, know that Jehovah Nii is there and he's fighting for you. So what does it mean to serve him? Number one, knowing's our victory and battle. Second, know he's the one we rally around. See, in a divided and distracted world, banners still symbolize allegiance. And people rally under different flags, right? Political flags, ideologies, even brands, hockey teams, right? But as believers of Christ, we rally under the banner of the cross, which is the mighty name of Jesus, the Apostle Paul. He writes to the church and Philippi, he says, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We need to ask ourselves this question. Am I carrying the banner of the one who can help me see, is my passion attention focused on the banner of someone else or something else? Because when God has our attention, then we're able to hear from him and we can receive from him. We can walk alongside him in the direction that he has for us. So what does it mean to serve Jehovah Ey? Number one, know that he's our victory and battle. Number two, know he is the one we rally around. And, and last one, thirdly, know he's the source of our identity. See, in the wilderness, Israel was becoming a nation, but they had no land, no king, no laws, but they had God. He was their banner, he was their identity. Jehovah Niecy defines who we are and whose we are. I'm gonna go back to Peter one more time. He says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. See, under Jehovah Nii, we're not defined by our past, our failures or our battles. Thankful for that. You are defined by how he sees you. And this is how God sees you. He sees you as his handiwork. Ephesians two says, for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do, he sees you as his friend. James chapter two says, in the scripture was fulfilled, that says, Abraham believed God. And it was credited to him as righteousness. And he was called God's friend. He sees you as his chosen people, the Book of Colossians. It says, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And he sees you as the one he cares for. Psalm 95 says, come let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God. And we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. So do you know what all this means? You matter to him. You really do. Even when you feel the farthest away from God, you matter to him. And when something matters to you, you take care of it, right? You're, you're present. You, you will do whatever you can to protect it and help it. And that is what the Lord our banner does. Jehovah nii fights for you. He's the one who could do something about it. The victory is in his hands. So what are you battling today? What is on your mind when you open your eyes in the morning and when you close them at night, Jehovah s there, he's your banner. And with him there is victory. But in order for this godly transaction to take place, we need to do one very important thing. We need to stop declaring defeat and start raising our banner. See, it's the banner we can raise because of the cross. It's the banner we can raise because we've made the decision to follow Jesus with our lives. And it's the banner we can raise because that's the reason the banner is there. It's for us, it's for you. But are, are you here today? And you've maybe accepted defeat? Does one of the following statements apply to you? Maybe you've caught yourself saying these words. I guess this is just how it is now. I've prayed and I've prayed and just nothing has happened. Maybe you've said, it's too late for me. Or maybe you said these words, I'll never be free from this. See, nothing is too big, too difficult or too impossible for God. That is the truth. A truth. You need to accept and believe. In the book of Jeremiah, God spoke through the prophet, he said these words, I'm the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? So how do we trust Jehovah Nii? Know he's our victory and battle. Know he is the one we rally around know he's the source of our identity. So I ask you again, are you feeling defeated in your battle? But are you seeking victory? Do you need God to show up and move in your circumstance? If yes, look to Jehovah Niesi, the Lord is our banner. He's our strength, our refuge, and our identity. Let's not fight our own, in our own strength, but in the name of the Lord our God. About 20 years ago, I was working in a warehouse back in Ontario where I'm from and I, and we specialized in plumbing, valve shipping and receiving plumbing valves, some that would fit in your hand, some that were about eight feet tall. Weighed about 2000 pounds. Part of my job was do a monthly inventory. So I had every month, you know, different kind of product groups that I had to check this. One particular day I was counting a product group. It included some very large, very heavy valves, about about 2000 pounds each. And, uh, two of these valves, they were each in their own crate, but they were on a rack. So one was on one set of beams, one was on the other. And it was at the back of our warehouse, right against our, we had a cement shipping dock, like a ramp. And it was against it. Um, so to do my job correctly, I actually had to look in at the valve, at the na at the plate on the valve to make sure what it said matched the outside of the crate. So instead of taking the crates down with a forklift and looking at them, I decided to, to walk up the shipping dock and decided to climb over the safety railing. So I was, now, I had one foot on the, on the dock. I was holding the railing and I was about to step on one of the metal beams of the rack with this 2000 pound crate. Um, what I didn't realize is that the beam I was about to step on had popped out. And so when I stepped on it, it buckled. And this caused the 2000 pound crate to slam me up against the shipping dock. 2000 pounds. So it was crushing me to death. It was scary and it was starting to actually pull me down, but I had one foot. So I, I kind of, you know, I'm, I'm here, I'm holding. But my leg, it's almost like ripping my leg. It happened so fast. I was in such shock. I couldn't yell. I could, no one knew what was going on. All my friends, all my colleagues were, were working. No one could see 'cause I'm just there. My legs being crushed in an instant. My supervisor saw and he was able to come and get the forklift and at least get the forks under the crate to stop it from taking me down. I would've been killed instantly. But now the crate only had one direction to go against me more. So it began to crush me even more. And, and, and no one knew what to do. Everyone's just standing there until one guy, he was actually with us, uh, through a temp agency. He wasn't with us long. Instead of standing down and just like, you know, stand staring, just scared. He ran up the, the shipping dock and he came right beside me and he was able to put his foot through the, the safety, um, the guardrail and, you know, 2000 pounds. He was able to push the crate enough about an inch enough for me to get my leg free. This whole thing was like five minutes, like from the minute it happened to, it ended. It was really fast. But I was pretty banged up. But I was alive. See, when I was trapped, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything. As much as I tried to pull my leg or, or push the crate, I, I couldn't do it. I needed the help of someone else. I had to trust my life to someone else, to free me from what I was trapped in. Someone else had to come beside me and take the weight off of me. That's what Jehovah Nii does. So know this today, whatever you're facing, whatever you're battling, can I encourage you to do the right thing. Understand the need to give your circumstance and your worries and your fears and your pain to him.'cause he's there with you. He will come alongside you. He will take the weight of the pain and the circumstance off of you so that you can trust him as he fights for you. So trust him in the battle. Lift up his name above all else. Find your true identity in him as he is Jehovah isi, the Lord, our banner. If you're able to, would you please stand? God we love you. We call you Jehovah Nii 'cause you are our banner. You are there. You fight for us. We have victory in you. Lord, I pray for my friends today, for our church today. Anyone battling something? I pray that they would turn their posture from defeat to raising the banner of your name. That they would release their burden to you, their cares, their worries, their stress. And in replace of that Holy Spirit, you would fill them with your peace and your love and your joy. So much peace that even if they tried to worry, they couldn't. So I pray for a breakthrough today in people's lives, in the name of Jesus. Would people be free of the things that they're battling? And even if that battle takes a little longer, Lord, you're there. Would they release it to you and allow you to push that weight, freedom them of what is taking them down? So we look to you and look to you only today, and we give you all the glory. Amen. Maybe you're here today and, and you realize that your life is, is missing something. And maybe you've tried to fill it with different things and it's nothing's filling that void. What can I tell you that if you haven't made that decision to follow Jesus, that that's what's missing?'cause he created you in his image. He wants your attention today. That's what I'd like to do, is just say a prayer. And if you're here today and you wanna accept Jesus into your life, you know, Jesus came, he died on a cross for you. He rose again for you. He wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit. He wants to be with you now and for eternity. So if that is you here today, just you don't have to say it out loud, just be under your breath, in your heart. Just, uh, I just want to give you the words to say, would you pray with me? Jesus, I realize I need you today.- Please- Forgive me the things I've done. Please come into my heart, into my life. Would you transform me from the inside out? I declare that you are my Lord and savior. I wanna live for you and you only. So I lay all my stuff down to you and ask you to, to take it and move in. It help me to walk in what you have for me. So I surrender my life to you today. I love you. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you, you did an awesome thing. You made the best decision for your life you could ever make. You really did. But as your church know that, we want to help you process that and understand that. So there's a QR code on the screen. It's also in front of you. And you can take your phone out and scan that QR code. It takes you to a spot on our website. It's called Next Steps. There's a button you can click about wanting to know more about what it means to follow Jesus. It's a digital ebook you can download right to your phone. Helps explain that even helps you start reading the Bible, which is awesome. And there's some other next steps that are there as well. If you're here today and you are battling something and you would like prayer from, from someone on our team, I'm gonna, some of our team's gonna be down here to, to my right, your left. Please come and, and let someone pray over you. But thank you so much for being in church today. Remember this. He is jovani the Lord our banner. He is there. He's fighting for you. You'll find victory in him. So walk in that today. We'll see you next Sunday.