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Jan 07, 2018

An Amalekite in the Midst

An Amalekite in the Midst

Speaker: Dennis Gallaher

Series: Transformation

Category: Sunday Morning

There has always been a clear contrast between light and dark in the Scriptures. Jesus said that we would be the light of the world. Yet so many times we walk in darkness, powerless. This sermon from Pastor Dennis Gallaher helps us understand what often robs us of that effectiveness.

Opening Scripture:
2 Corinthians 4:6  For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

John 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Matthew 5:14  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

There is always a contrast between light and dark.

The first act of creation was the separation of light and dark.

Genesis 1:3-5  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

3 Creation Facts:
1.  Light was the creation of God.
2.  It was the beginning, the Genesis of creation.
3.  The light was good.

Light was also contrasted with darkness in these Bible examples:
- Adam and Eve contrasted with satan
- Cain and Abel
- Abraham and Lot
- Sarah and Hagar
- Isaac and Ishmael
- Jacob and Essau

In the story of Jacob and Essau, we have twin brothers who couldn’t be more different. Jacob, though born second, becomes the son who would foster Abraham’s linage to the stable in Bethlehem.

One son represents the coming light of the Gospel, while Essau, is filled with darkness.

Genesis 36:1-3  Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

One of these sons, Eliphaz, took a concubine by the name of Timna bore a son named Amelek, who would be the symbol of evil for all of Israel.

vs. 12  Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah.
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Among ancient Jewish Rabbi’s, Amelek was considered:
- The symbol of evil.
- It was written that “He came before all to make war with Israel.”
- Amelek was “an eternally irreconcilable enemy.”

He is the Old Testament portrait of what Paul spoke of as “the old man.”

Romans 6:6  Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

Colossians 3:9-10  Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

Amelek is the flesh, the old man, which is the enemy of spiritual maturity and Christ living formed in your life.
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Read Exodus 17

Exodus isn’t just about getting God’s people out of Egypt, but it’s about getting Egypt out of God’s people.

vs. 8  Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

The greatest most common battle is not against others, but against that old man that wants to rise up in us.
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Hundreds of years go by and finally it is time. Saul is named king, and the prophet Samuel, is sent to give him instructions.

Samuel 15:2-3  Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

But Saul doesn’t obey.

vs. 8-9  He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

vs. 14-15  But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

If you don’t deal with the flesh, with sin, the flesh will win the day.

vs. 22-23  Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

Don’t toy with the independent spirit of this world. Do not think that God changes the standards from one generation to another.
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Saul doesn’t repent. His heart is to save face and look good in the eyes of the people. Because of this, David is anointed the next king, and the story of light and darkness begins another chapter.

In the end, we find Saul seated at the feet of a witch calling out to Samuel beyond the veil of death.

1 Samuel 28:18  As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

As the battle ensues, the Philistines rally and Israel is near defeat. Saul and his son, Jonathan, are slain, while David is in exile awaiting news of the battle. Then a man comes to David with news.

2 Samuel 1:5  So David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”

vs. 6-10  The young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and behold, Saul was leaning on his spear. And behold, the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely. When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said to me, ‘Who are you?’ And I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ Then he said to me, ‘Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me.’ So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”

The Amalekite, the flesh, will show no mercy to the people of God.
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The cold rationality which makes us question everything we do or experience, is…
- Be careful how much you commit.
- Don’t buy in all the way.

But God’s call is to surrender all and follow.

Will you commit to that in 2018?