20 Sep 2026 4 min read sermons

FLIC in Joshua

What are you fighting for? In Exodus 17 Joshua fights in the valley while Moses prays on the hill, and both battles need our attention.

Every day we fight for something: survival, satisfaction, joy, security. What we fight for shows what has hold of our hearts. In this second message in Full Life in Christ, Pastor Josh turns to Exodus 17 to show why the spiritual battle needs our attention alongside the struggles we can see.

What You Fight For

A bigger house, a future spouse and children growing up well are good things to want. They can also become the main things we fight for. What occupies your mind when you wake up? What keeps claiming your attention?

Even ministry can become a fight for personal success. Pastor Josh admitted that concern about attendance, church growth and whether people liked his sermons had exposed insecurity and anger in him. God redirected his concern towards people's growth in Christ, their marriages, their kindness and their experience of joy in Jesus.

Attention shapes character. John Mark Comer describes that connection:

In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.

The things we watch, read and listen to are forming us every day. Our children see the people we are becoming. They watch whether we practise kindness and generosity when those things cost us.

There Are Two Battles

In Exodus 17, Amalek attacks Israel. Joshua takes men into battle while Moses goes up the hill with the staff of God. There is fighting below and dependence on God above. When Moses holds up his hands, Israel prevails. When his hands drop, Amalek prevails.

We easily become absorbed in the battle we can see: work, finances, marriage and children. We can get the job or marriage we wanted and still experience emptiness. Ephesians 6 names a spiritual struggle against powers of darkness. That battle requires our attention too. We are already being formed by someone or something, whether we recognise it or not.

Both battles have setbacks. Moses grows weary, and Joshua's army loses ground. Believing in Jesus does not mean everything will work out easily. Struggle belongs to life in this broken world. A setback gives us an opportunity to learn what God is doing and to depend on him.

Don't quit. John Mark Comer uses the picture of a black belt:

A black belt is a white belt who doesn't quit.

Pastor Josh's son quit taekwondo, and later asked his dad why he had let him stop. Other students who had been less capable kept going and reached their black belts. Your hands may come down when you are tired. They can go up again.

Both Battles Need Companions

Joshua has an army. Moses has Aaron and Hur to hold up his tired hands. Nobody fights alone. Joshua is hardly Rambo taking on everyone by himself.

Radical individualism tells us we can make our own way and choose every influence on our lives. Yet even the things appearing on our screens are shaped by algorithms. God made us for community, where others can help form us in faith.

Attending a service without sharing life with others falls short of that calling. Listening to a sermon can become a weekly visit to a favourite preacher:

You just came to Joshua's fan club.

Church involves looking at one another, sharing meals, laughing, crying and carrying one another through weariness. House church gives that shared life a place to happen. When someone's hands drop, we help lift them. When ours drop, we need people who will do the same. A crowd can still be full of lonely people. Commit to the people God has placed in your life.

Community requires more than spending time with people whenever it suits us or taking what we need from them. We grow as we keep sharing ordinary life.

Joshua Had to Fight

Moses praying does not remove Joshua's responsibility. He still has to pick up his sword and fight. Both battles matter, and prayer calls for practical obedience.

That obedience includes ordinary decisions:

If you pray to forgive someone, respond to the Holy Spirit's prompting.
If you pray to love your husband or wife, spend time with them.
If you pray to build the church together, sit around the table and hear people's highs and lows.

Praying for these things while continually refusing to act makes a mockery of the prayer. The same applies to spiritual formation. Asking God to form us while ignoring the chances to learn and grow together leaves our prayer disconnected from our lives.

Train Yourself for Godliness

A marathon takes training. Buying new shoes and deciding to push through 42 kilometres will not give you the stamina you need. Start with 500 metres, keep running, then build from there.

The biblical concept is not trying harder. It's actually training harder.

His wife is not a sporty person. She started with 500 metres and now runs five kilometres every morning. On days when rain keeps her in, she asks whether the itch in her legs is what athletes feel.

In 1 Timothy 4:7-8, the instruction is to train ourselves for godliness. Physical training has value, and godliness has value for this life and the life to come. Daily practice matters. When you have a setback, keep going.

Depending on willpower alone leaves us measuring ourselves by success or failure, carrying guilt when we fall short. Teaching that only praises strong willpower and condemns weak willpower leaves out grace and what Jesus has done.

A golfer practises a movement until it becomes familiar. Spiritual habits also need repetition. Make space for prayer each day until it becomes part of your life, without a fresh negotiation every morning.

At home, Pastor Josh and his family practised expressing their love for one another until it became a habit, even during arguments. He wanted his children to know their imperfect father would always receive them and fight alongside them.

The eight-week Practicing the Way course across house churches in October offers a place to begin that training together. Read the book, use the audio or video, and ask your shepherd for help.

Talk to God

The battle can be present even as we approach prayer. Self-sufficiency, pride, regret, shame and guilt draw our attention away from God. Busyness insists there are more important things to do. Doubt asks what prayer could accomplish.

The belief that God only accepts people who are good enough forgets what Jesus has done on the cross. Bring that struggle to God too. Make time to be alone with him and speak to him. The closing invitation is direct: