Skip to content Guest Speakers: Go Forward Aug 8 · 43 min ...more
Guest Speakers: Go Forward
August 8, 2021 · 43 min
As the world changes and difficulties arise, looking to true stories in the Bible like the Exodus of the Israelites from captivity and the parting of the Red Sea are so important. As we walk through Exodus 14, we will find it teaching us how to wait on God, navigate life's struggles using Scripture and it will help us to find ourselves walking in God's will for our life. Speaker: Justin Hart
Series BRAVE Church August 8, 2021 · 43 min · BRAVE Church
As the world changes and difficulties arise, looking to true stories in the Bible like the Exodus of the Israelites from captivity and the parting of the Red Sea are so important. As we walk through Exodus 14, we will find it teaching us how to wait on God, navigate life's struggles using Scripture and it will help us to find ourselves walking in God's will for our life. Speaker: Justin Hart ...more Show the full description Show less As the world changes and difficulties arise, looking to true stories in the Bible like the Exodus of the Israelites from captivity and the parting of the Red Sea are so important. As we walk through Exodus 14, we will find it teaching us how to wait on God, navigate life's struggles using Scripture and it will help us to find ourselves walking in God's will for our life. Speaker: Justin Hart
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Well, with that, I want to share some of my heart with you guys today. And I got to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to shepherd you in this place over the last year and a half. I started right before COVID0:11 hit. Like, literally, it was like Wednesday, I was being introduced to a lot of the people here as the new campus pastor that would step in. And it was that Sunday that we closed everything down and0:23 started. And here's what I need to tell you, I cannot believe how awesome it has been watching God do so many cool things in the middle of difficult situations. Like, there are so many stories that0:35 I could share with you guys. There's so many stories that I could share with you guys with people probably sitting next to you that you don't even know where God is healing marriages. He's been giving people physical0:46 healing. People have been brought back from potential suicide. There has been story after story after story, and it may be more awesome to just share all those stories today, but we want to amplify the word, so we're0:58 going to that speak. Here's what I want to do today. I really want to share a message of hope. Because my concern has been, as the world gets darker here in the US1:10 especially, and things have been a little bit difficult, our tendency is to be looking on the horizon and forget as Christians that we need to get our eyes up and be focusing on Jesus. Faith that isn't1:22 tested isn't real faith. Right? And and as our world tends to dislike and be frustrated with some of the Christian ethics and values that we have, we're gonna need to actually walk1:34 as Christians and trust God through this season. But there's a silver lining, okay? And you need to know this, that that pressure that we're experiencing, if we can trust God, if we can press into what he's doing, then
1:45 we're actually positioning ourselves perfectly for miraculous move of the Holy Spirit in our life. And I want to show you that from our text today. So if you guys want to go to Exodus chapter 14, if you don't have a
1:56 Bible, there are definitely some in the back. If you don't have 1 at all, you're welcome to take that home with you. We want you to have that as a gift. We're going to read verses 1 through 15 today.
2:08 Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pihihiroth between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal Zephon opposite by the sea. For Pharaoh will say
2:20 of the sons of Israel, they are wandering aimlessly in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. Thus, will harden pharaoh's heart and he will chase after them and I will be honored through pharaoh and all of his army
2:31 and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord and they did so. When the king of Egypt was told the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart towards the people and they said, what is this we have
2:41 done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him and he took 600 select chariots and all other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
2:53 The Lord hardened the heart of pharaoh king of Egypt and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly. Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of pharaoh,
3:04 his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea beside Pihihiroth in front of Bazaphan. As pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they
3:16 became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us
3:27 in this way bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we had spoken to you in Egypt saying leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die
3:37 in the wilderness. But Moses said to the people, do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them
3:48 again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Will you pray with me?
4:00 Father, I'm just asking, that you would do a mighty thing in our hearts today, Lord, as we let our guards down and let your word impact us. Jesus, we want to hear from you today and what
4:12 you would have us, listen to God, what you would have us walk out and actually do. Give us receptive hearts, Open our minds and we would have wisdom and understanding to know how to apply this in our lives. Jesus, we
4:23 honor you and we love you and we thank you, in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, so here's some things that you need to know right off the cuff. All right. This verse is quoted roughly 2 dozen
4:35 times in the New Testament. All right. And it's alluded to way more times than that. This is a massive theme throughout the entire Bible and that's no different in the New Testament from the Old
4:46 Testament. 1 Corinthians 10, it actually talks about the Israelites being led through a baptism of Moses, kind of showing us in a lot of ways that this is a type of what
4:58 was to come. They were led through a baptism similar to what we are. Alright. So they had a mediator. We have a mediator. They were in bondage. We were in bondage. The death of the firstborn in Egypt
5:10 is what led the people out of slavery and the death of God's only begotten son is what leads us out of slavery. And I could tell you guys that the whole picture how Jesus actually sets the captives free in
5:22 Egypt and then later at Sinai gives them a better way to live. And then we see in the New Testament Jesus setting us free in the same way before we were doing the right things. And then God telling us here's a better way
5:33 to live. Here's how to actually walk this out. And I could talk about the fact that we're in there and not yet. And they were in this place in between where they were called out of bondage but not yet quite to the the
5:45 promised land. Here's what I want you to see. This this story is our story. The the picture that this is painting is is our story and it's and it's throughout the entire bible. So I think it's important that
5:57 we really look back at the faithfulness of God so that we can learn how to go forward in faith. Amen? Okay. So so here's what I want to do. I want to kind of paint a
6:08 backdrop with the first point, showing you guys, here's the big picture. Here's the narrative. Here's what you need to see. This is how God works all throughout time. This is a picture that we're seeing everywhere in
6:20 scripture. And then I want to narrow in on 3 more points that are going to help us navigate the in between. Because if we don't understand the big story, if we don't understand the big picture, we can interpret isolated
6:32 incidences incorrectly. Right? Alright. So so let's get going. Here's the first gift that I want us to receive from this text today. God's plan includes total victory
6:44 over the darkness. God's plan includes total victory over the darkness. And for the believer, I want you to know our future because of Christ is
6:55 eminent victory. We win. Like that's the story and I want us to see this because this story is an ongoing narrative within the bible our salvation and victory. And here's the deal, we can grab onto these principles
7:07 and actually see that this is God's way of treating and loving and leading his covenant people throughout history. So this is important right now because we live in a time where it is so easy to focus on
7:19 all the things going wrong. It is so easy in our culture because it's just inundated inside of the church and outside of the church with this type of mentality that is obsessed with focusing on all
7:31 the things that are not working out and all of the things that are frustrating in our life. How many of you know that if you treat your marriage with that kind of focus where you just pay attention to all the things
7:41 going wrong, it's not going to go well for you? How how many of you have had a job where you started and it was awesome and you loved it and you love being a part of everything that was going on and then you realize,
7:52 man, you just start focusing on all the frustrating things happening and 3 months in you're like, I don't want to be here anymore. God clearly didn't call me this. I don't know what's going on. Like I've been in some
8:01 small group discussions where we actually go and it's supposed to be life giving. We're like we're supposed to meet together and it's awesome, but sometimes it can take a negative turn and everyone's talking about all
8:11 the frustrating things going on. And it starts to sound more like the smoker section at work than it actually is a life group. Is this a life group or a death group? I don't understand what happened. I've got to say
8:23 this. All right. There is not a single verse in the Bible that tells you to focus on all of the things that are not going your way. There's not a single 1. There are tons of verses in the Bible telling you what you're
8:35 supposed to focus on. All right. So how about like Colossians 3 1, like getting our eyes up on Christ and where he's seated and what he is doing. Or we have, you know, Romans 12 that's telling us to renew our mind and to
8:47 offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, get your eyes up or or my favorite like Philippians 4 8, whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent or admirable or praiseworthy, fix your mind on these things.
8:58 Like it's literally saying, pay attention to this. In fact, when we look at scripture, the consistent theme seems to be that those who fix their hearts and minds on the things that they can't change and set set
9:10 themselves to grab on to what they can't possess and control what they can't actually control end up like pharaoh. I mean, in Exodus 7 times, it says that
9:22 God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And 7 times, it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And people have been arguing for millennia about exactly how that works out. And I'm not going to get into that here.
9:34 Don't think that's the point of the text. But what I do want us to see is this consistent theme of God giving the wicked over to a depraved mind. Alright. He gives them over to the things that they spend all their time
9:45 thinking about and desiring God's wrath against the wicked according to Romans 1 is handing them over to their own way. And God's blessing and mercy on his covenant people and children
9:57 is giving them a new way to not do the same thing, to not have a rise in that place. What we set our hearts on will define us. What we set our hearts on will define our families. It will define your
10:09 future and eventually teach our children what is the most important thing to talk about and focus on. As children of God, Jesus is calling us to get our eyes up and see the victory that we have in Christ.
10:21 Alright. He hasn't called us to fix our minds on the things only he can change. That's his job. Look at me. You don't want God's job. You you it is not your responsibility to put the things that only God can change
10:33 on your shoulders and carry them around all day. That's not for you. Jesus came to take a weight off, not put a weight on you. Matthew 6 27 says, which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? The answer to
10:45 that, no 1. Nobody. Nobody. I don't know exactly how God will bring about the victory. I don't know exactly how he's going to fulfill his promises, but I promise you
10:56 church, he will fulfill every single 1. That's what he's going to do. And I understand how difficult this is. Okay. So I don't want to throw stones at anybody that feels like they're in the thick of it right now. But I
11:08 do want us to understand that God's plan includes total victory over the darkness. That needs to start in our hearts and minds and work into our marriages and families right now, not to mention the world that's actually
11:20 around us. And in this historical event, if we hadn't seen Charlton Heston pretending to be Moses and we didn't actually know the end, and I thought about, should I add that in or not? I told my wife, and I was like,
11:29 half of them will understand, the other half will not. If we hadn't seen the end of this story, would it not feel a lot like what's going on in our life right now?
11:41 Would it not feel a lot like, man, I'm in the middle of this, I don't know the outcome, this doesn't seem great, darkness breathing down our neck, everything looking as if it's not going to work out and feeling an
11:52 immense pressure from this ticking clock waiting for situations and different things to fall apart. But church, we know the end game. Alright. Outside of creation itself, every miracle
12:03 in the Bible is preceded by a difficult situation. Every miracle in the Bible is preceded by a frustrating or dark situation and it's God's way of inviting us into his plan.
12:14 Listen, God has a plan for victory for his people and an imminent destruction waiting for those who set themselves up against the plan and people of God. Amen? I don't know what you're walking through
12:26 right now, although I do know some of you. I don't know what kind of darkness is breathing down your neck, but you need to know today that God is for you. He has a plan for you and that involves God's hand on your life
12:38 even in difficult situations and dark moments. Look at me church, God is not done. Get your eyes up. God's not finished yet. He's still working. Trust him. If you're in Christ, God promises to be with
12:50 us when darkness is chasing us down and he promises to be there to with us to see darkness meet its end. Take heart Christian. There is a clock ticking, but it's not a clock for things to fall apart. It's Satan's clock
13:01 ticking because his time is coming to an end. That's the clock that's ticking. Awesome. Now, know what some of you were thinking. Okay. That's nice pastor, but I'm
13:13 in the middle of it right now. Which begs the question, how then do we wait for God's victory over the darkness? And the next 3 points are really all about how to do that
13:24 well. Because I know you have the big picture, but I want to be able to show you here's how we wait, here's what it looks like to actually follow through on this. So let's look at verses 10 through 12 together. As
13:36 Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, is it because there were
13:48 no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to in Egypt saying, leave us alone that we may
13:58 serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Church, grab onto this. Hear this with me, okay? God's call to freedom is not
14:10 a call to comfort. God's call to freedom is not a call to comfort. So often, we miss the importance of difficulty in our life. We miss the importance
14:22 of of frustrations and the things that come along. And in John 15, Jesus literally tells us, he prunes those that he loves. He's clipping things off. He's bringing things back. He's putting us through some
14:34 things so that we can grow back stronger with more fruit and bear much for the glory of God. Alright. Listen, you can take the slave out of Egypt, but to take Egypt out of the slave, you're going to need some pressure.
14:46 You can take the slave out of Egypt, but to take Egypt out of the slave, you're going to need some circumstances that are actually going to allow that to go away and birth something new. And I have to tell you, this
14:56 principle rings true for us as well. Okay. We don't get a free lunch on this. The Israelites, so far as what is written down in Exodus, said none of the things that they're saying in this text right here.
15:08 All of this mumbo jumbo about, oh, disagreeing with Moses and not wanting to do this and not wanting to do that. No, everything written down that we have is then in full agreement with Moses and saying, yes, we want to
15:19 get out of here. No, we don't want to be in bondage. God, please take us out of this place. We've been crying out. We've been hoping that you would do it. It cracks me up. Not only are they imagining this fictional
15:29 reaction to Moses trying to bring them out of slavery, but later on in the desert, apparently they're imagining themselves eating whole pots full of meat. Like they're like, oh, it was so good. We were just getting
15:40 buckets full of filet mignon. It was so amazing. I'm absolutely convinced that the gluten free fad really came from the Israelites wandering around in the desert, frustrated about the amount
15:52 of manna they had to say. This gluten allergy is from God because he only gives us listen, they were constantly focusing on the wrong thing. They were constantly interpreting things incorrectly in
16:04 their life. And it was leading to this place where man, they were looking back and saying, this is why I didn't do this. This is why it wasn't gonna happen. It's jacking them up. They're saying things like, this is why I
16:15 didn't wanna try. God, this is why I said I wasn't gonna do this because I knew if I did what you wanted me to, you were gonna take me to an uncomfortable place. You're gonna do something difficult in my life and
16:27 they're literally saying it was so much better when I wasn't doing the right thing. But here's here's what I know church. When we're in a difficult place, when things are frustrating, when we actually start taking steps
16:38 into something difficult that God has called us to do, isn't that what our hearts do? We look back and say, man, I I shouldn't have done this. You know, I told God I can't believe that he would do this in my life. And
16:48 here's the reality. When we were in bondage, man, we were crying out for God. When we were in pain, we were in frustration, we couldn't get free from things. That was the first thing we were saying is God,
17:00 save me from this. We just get frustrated when it looks different than what we had anticipated. Amen. And for Israel in this moment, this is a reality. So I want to show you a slide real quick.
17:12 I have been watching Shark Week with my wife and I can't unsee what's happening here. So we have the Israelites kind of up in the land of Goshen, or it says Ramses up there. And I want you guys to
17:24 see this. On the bottom of this shark tooth, have Migdol, which is a tower. And then you have Pi Hisheroth, which literally means the mouth. And it's, if you can see the little cutaway. And then you have Baal Zephon,
17:35 which is this little kind of island area right there. So this is 1 of the few times where you can actually look right at what the scripture is saying. And you can say, oh my gosh, that's literally where they were
17:44 standing. That's right where they were. And here's what you need to see. Everything on that right side of the screen over there is mountains. And they're literally coming down this funnel.
17:56 Like, I don't know about you, but for me, I'm looking at this and like literally God is leading them between a rock and a wet place. Like this is not good. I don't know if any of you are like me. But I do this
18:07 thing where I have like a whiteboard in my head when I feel like God asked me to do something. I'm like, here's the pros, here's the cons. There's no pros. There's nothing is
18:19 good about this situation. They have found themselves at the end of a trail that leads to the sea with mountains behind them and Pharaoh's army coming down like an elevator that's lost its brakes. How many times have you
18:31 found yourself as a Christian between a rock and a hard place? It seems like following God almost always takes us to a place where we need to rely on him. In fact, Jesus tells us that he's going to send us
18:42 the comforter in John 14 because apparently, you're gonna need to find comfort somewhere other than your external circumstances to actually have peace in the Christian life. I wanna tell you guys a brief story about
18:54 when I first gave my life to Christ. I was probably a year in and all fired up. It was probably 11 o'clock at night. It had been pouring rain. I had just kind of finished. Everything was soaked and I'm out there in
19:05 muscle shirts and my basketball shorts and a cup of tea and I'm like plucking around on a guitar like a hippie And praying a little bit. My brother's back there nodding because he's seen me like that. So here's
19:17 what I want to tell you guys. I'm sitting there and I feel like God is telling me, hey, I want you to step over the fence and walk over to the sidewalk. And the sidewalk kind of goes down this trail and then comes up
19:27 against this huge green belt that was in the back area. And I'm just charismatic that I'm like, Okay, I'll try it out God. Let's see, maybe I'm not crazy. And so I walk over this fence and I'm standing on the sidewalk
19:39 and I feel like God tells me, want you to walk down the hill. And I'm kind of looking around like, nobody's looking at me. Sure. Okay. Yeah. I'll try it out. All right, Jesus. So I do. I go ahead and I walk down the hill
19:48 and I'm standing at kind of like the precipice of where all the grass starts and my socks are wet and I'm sitting there like, I'm a crazy person. This is not right. And I feel like God tells me, of course, walk into the
20:00 field. I'm like, this is how Justin dies. This is the end of my story. This is where I get murdered in this weird field and my wife's going to be like, what in the world was he doing romping around in wet socks and gym
20:10 shorts. Anyways, so I get out into the field and I'm standing there and I'm having this clear feeling of this is not God. I'm losing my mind. This is ridiculous. And right before I about turn around and walk out, feel
20:21 like God just lays it on my heart so heavy. So this is where you're going to find me. Where you're uncomfortable. Where you don't totally understand why I've brought you where I brought you. Where
20:33 you're unprepared. You're you're in wet socks and shorts and you are exactly where you're supposed to be. Here's what I want you guys to see. God's plan for your life is not comfort, but to take you places that you
20:45 wouldn't normally go to produce in you what would only happen if he placed you there in the first place. Listen, if they don't go down this road, if the Israelites don't go down this road, we
20:57 don't have this story. If the Israelites stop and say, that's a death trap. I'm not doing that. We don't have the picture of them walking through the Red Sea untouched.
21:09 We don't have it. We don't have our faith today because the Israelites stay in bondage and stay slaves if they don't actually do what God is asking them to do. So I have to ask you this question. What are you
21:21 not doing right now that God is calling you to do? What do you feel like is in your life? You're like, I know he's asked me to do this but man, it's uncomfortable. That's not my thing.
21:33 That can't be what God's calling me to because I don't see a way out of that. Or maybe you're on the other side of the boat where God's actually calling you out of some bondage. He's calling you out of some slavery
21:44 saying get out of there. Quit dealing with that. Quit. I've asked you to stay out of bondage. I told you to get out of slavery and you're like, yeah, but it's more comfortable knowing my outcome than actually
21:56 having to take a step and risking the discomfort that comes along with getting free. Here's something that we can't miss in this text.
22:09 Let's look at verse 13 together. But Moses said to the people, do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never
22:21 see them again forever. Third point church, God is calling us to lead with obedience when we can't see the end. God's calling us to lead with obedience when we
22:33 can't see the end. Give the Israelites a little bit of credit. Alright? God doesn't tell them everything that's gonna happen. Anyone been in a situation where you didn't know how you're going to get through or you didn't
22:43 know what would happen? Couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to smuggle some Bibles into this country which I'll remain unnamed with a group that will remain unnamed because I think
22:55 they're recording this. We were able to get to this place and the plan was to get to this airport and pick up all of our stuff at the same time that there was a ton of other people there.
23:07 Because if there's only a few people, they run every single bag through security. But if you show up with a bunch of people, they open up a gate and they only pick select people to get their bags checked. Well, we showed
23:19 up and it was crickets. I mean, we're we're looking around and I'm thinking to myself, God, you asked me to do this. Like, God, there's no way we're carrying thousands of
23:31 Bibles into this country to see all of them confiscated and some bad things go down right in the middle of this airport. There's no way. Like you you told, you sent us here and so all of us are without obviously with
23:42 each other praying, we're grabbing our bags and we're getting over there because if you sit too long in that area, they're going be suspicious right away. So we start working that direction and it was like the flood
23:50 gates opened. Probably 4 planes came in at the same time. The whole place becomes like overrun with all these people that are grabbing their bags and running towards the area and it was, I'm not kidding you, like
24:02 4 people were in front of me before they opened the gate and allowed the rest of us to actually go through. It was like watching God part the waters. It was an amazing situation of just getting to see God come through
24:14 when I had faith and wasn't just trying to control what happened. Alright, I tell you that story to help you see something. The opposite of faith is not fear. Alright, faith is a verb. It's better
24:25 translated faithing almost. It's an action. And if we live and allow faith to be chalked up as a feeling, then we're going to let emotions run our life and not the truth of God. Alright, faith is a
24:37 conviction of the truth that is active. We're not saved by faith and works but we are saved by faith that works. So the opposite of faith is not fear. The opposite of faith is
24:48 control. Faithlessness is most evident in someone or someone's life that is desperately trying to control an outcome. There's a story of this
25:00 missionary family that was actually out, in the bush. He had brought his son and they're ministering to this tribe. And this this child is playing under a tree, and his father looks at him and says, son, I need you to
25:12 drop down on all fours and very quietly come to me. And I'm so glad it's not my kid because he would he would have probably thrown a fit. Done something else. Everyone in childcare is like, yeah, probably.
25:24 So but here's the deal, he actually comes and his father, you know, looks at him and says, great job. And the son asked him, dad, why did I why did I do that? And he turns him around, he points at the
25:35 tree. And you can see there's a very poisonous snake hanging about 2 inches from where his son was playing. And if he would have asked in that moment or freaked out or said, why I'm at no doubt, I'm playing. What what do
25:47 you want? It could have gone very badly. You see, he led with obedience and he asked why on the backside of being obedient. All of us should be taking notes about how to raise our kids
26:00 and how to think about our relationship with God. Here's the irony. God actually did tell them what was going to happen. All right. Not all of the details, but
26:11 the reason they have been sent between a rock and a hard place is because God wants to give the Egyptians over to their wicked hearts. And you need to see this. Even if you know what God is going to do, even if you know
26:23 the end game, it wouldn't necessarily make you feel any better in the moment. It doesn't mean it's all fixed. We have this illusion that if we knew more about the things that were going on that we would suddenly feel all
26:34 better about it and then it would be fine. Listen, we have more information readily available at our fingertips today than we ever have and WebMD is not helping anybody feel better about anything going on
26:46 in their life. All right? God is asking us to follow him into his story so that the greatest story that's ever told can be your
26:58 story. But he isn't asking you to have all of that figured out. Okay? That's his job. That's what he's doing. Alright. We know that God's overall plan
27:10 for his people is victory. We know that God isn't calling us into comfort and we know, that we need to lead with obedience in those difficult situations. But all of those things are primarily
27:21 intellectual first. Right? We're priming our minds for the way in which we are to interpret life and how we're to think about these things so that we choose the right things. But there are some actual things that we need
27:32 to do and that's where I want to take you in 13 through 15. So we're to read through 13 again, but all the way through 15. But Moses said to the people, do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which
27:44 he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying
27:56 out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. God's calling in difficult moments looks like standing firm and
28:07 moving forward. God's call in difficult moments looks like standing firm and moving forward. Our faith today is so badly in need of stories like this because it should remind us that you
28:19 never want to bet against God. You never want to bet against the church and you never want to bet against faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Look at me church, the world around us is getting dark. There's difficult
28:30 circumstances on the horizon. There are frustrating things going on that are difficult to manage. But here's what I want you to know. If you press in, if you're having faith in Jesus, if you're walking out what he's
28:41 asked you to do, then you were positioning yourself perfectly for a move of the spirit in your life. That's the truth. That's the truth. This isn't the end of the line for the Israelites. This
28:53 this is actually the beginning of their story. I mean, think about this. How many of them thought, well, it was nice. I guess we'll follow Moses. At least we didn't die in Egypt. No, like this is the beginning of
29:03 everything that God is about to do with their lives. All right. And so there's 2 things that I want to talk about here that we see in this text. Alright. So we want to talk about standing firm and moving forward.
29:15 And I want to start with talking about standing firm because it's literally the derivative is where we get the word for standing firm in the gospel or it means to to stand with a conviction or to make a stand might be a
29:26 better way to say this. When we talk about standing firm, we talk about really understanding what God's will is. Right? Because if you will have the ability to stand firm if you actually know what you're standing
29:38 for. Now, I want to give you an illustration and I know no 1 in our congregation has ever done this before. Where you've taken your bible and you're in a difficult spot and you're
29:50 trying to figure out what the future is. So you open the window and you take your bible and you let God blow the pages to whatever that divine verses that you need for the day and
30:02 you bring it back and say, yes, Lord. I don't understand what that means, but that's what it was for. All right, listen. I really want to communicate something with you today. There are a lot of different
30:14 wills that the Bible uses when it's talking about the will of God. We need to make some distinctions. Okay? So the efficacious will of God or his sovereign will, is the will that is bringing all things about. It is what
30:24 he has stated it will happen. And then we have his will of disposition, which is literally the way he feels about the things that are happening. And then there's something called his prescriptive will. And you know this.
30:36 That is what he has stated how to live. This is how you should live. This this is the 10 commandments kind of stuff. This is how to live your life faithfully. The right things to do. In Deuteronomy 30, he says, I've
30:47 laid before you life and death. Choose life. And what he means by that is pick the right things. There is a way to live that's better. And you guys need to understand this. All the
30:59 verses about finding finding out what the Lord wants you to do, what his will is, and doing the will of the Lord are hammering on the prescriptive
31:10 will of God, not trying to get you to figure out the future. It's gotten a lot of people jammed up in the past. All right. You know what God's will for your life is? I'll tell you right now. Be faithful.
31:22 Trust God. Walk in obedience. Spend your days falling in love with Jesus Christ and letting the love that you have experienced from him pour into everyone else around you. It's not
31:34 complicated. It's simple. Just not easy. We don't like waiting. Alright. We must lead with obedience, not trying to stick our bibles out the window and divine what the future is that God hasn't asked us to do that.
31:45 Alright. And here's the deal, when we do that, we're usually ignoring what God has already asked us to do. You do realize that God has already asked you to live a certain way, right?
31:58 How many of you guys, maybe just me, how many of you guys when you hit a difficult spot or you're jammed up because you're so concerned about the things that are coming up in the future, you literally stop being obedient
32:09 to the commands of God? I'm in a tough spot, so I'm just you know, I'm taking a break from church for a little. I'm in a really difficult spot, I'm just not gonna read the Bible right now. I'm in a difficult spot, so I'm
32:19 treating everyone else badly around me. I have to tell you, we burn up so much energy trying to finagle the things in our head that we can't
32:31 control. And then we rob ourselves of the energy that we need to actually be obedient to what God has asked us to do. We don't want to do that. We want to trust God. We want to stand firm in what the will of God is
32:42 for our life. I love this verse in Isaiah 30 verse 20. It says, although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, meaning God is sometimes sending you into the difficult spot.
32:55 Don't always give Satan credit. Sometimes God is putting you there. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, you will see
33:05 them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. And everyone who's been watching Mandalorian is like, here here's here's what I want to tell
33:16 you. There is a way to walk. There is there is a truth that even in difficulty and and struggle, Jesus has said, this is the way. This is how you're supposed to live your life.
33:28 Do these things. Hear me on this church. There is no better place to be than to be standing exactly where God has led you. There's no better place to be than
33:39 standing exactly where God has led you. There's no safer place to be than standing snack dab in the middle of God's will for your life, faithfully living in righteousness. You see, it doesn't matter what's going on in
33:51 the school system or legislatively or globally if we're burning hot for Jesus Christ wherever you are and being faithful to where he has placed you. That's the truth. We can bank on that. There
34:03 are so many promises that go along with this but first Corinthians 15 57 and 58 is 1 of my favorite places. It says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay.
34:15 There's your backdrop. There's your victory. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toil is not
34:27 in vain in the Lord. It's not in vain. Faithfulness under pressure produces glory. That's the truth. Faithfulness under pressure produces
34:38 glory. And the last part of this verse in verse 15, or this chapter in 15 is 1 of my favorite parts of the passage. Alright. I believe it's the message for our campus today and anyone that is joining us in this spot, I
34:50 believe this is for you. Let's read 15 together. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Don't stop.
35:03 Keep going. Go forward. I literally I love how God is literally telling Moses, like, why are you crying? What's your deal? Do you think
35:15 this is on you? It's like he's he's telling Moses. Moses, you haven't been driving since the burning bush. You you realize it's not you doing these miracles. Right? Like you realize that it hasn't
35:27 been you doing all this cool stuff and God have been working really hard with all these miracles. I mean, don't know how I'm doing, but I'm really pulling a rabbit out of my hat with this 1. So you owe me big. I don't
35:36 know why you're saying No. It is God. And listen, Moses isn't some special guy. I want you to realize this. In your life, when God asks you to do something, he is going to meet you there. It may
35:48 not be comfortable. It may not be what you are thinking is going to happen, but God does miraculous things through people who set their hearts on him, who walk faithfully and trust that God has a
35:59 plan. It wasn't about Moses, it was about Jesus. Jesus is leading us. And he's telling us to keep going even if we can't see the outcome. I'm a tell you a nerdy story
36:11 for a second. Alexander the Great, who is conquering the entire known world at the time, was really an insane conquest, finally had come up against an opportunity to
36:23 lose. Darius the third was standing in his way with a better battleground with enormous Persian army that had the opportunity to actually win.
36:35 And Alexander the great decides to stand up in front of all of his military generals and leaders. And he actually has taken all of his clothes and all of his
36:46 armor off. And he's standing in front of everyone and he turns around and he says, do you see where my scars are? He says, all of my scars are on my front. I will never run.
36:59 Will you follow me? And I want you guys to think about this for a second. In life, difficulty is going to happen. Frustrations are going to happen.
37:11 But I want all of my scars to be on my front from faithfully pursuing what I feel like God has actually led me into. I want all of my scars to be from relationships with difficult people that
37:23 I know God has brought into my life. I want marriages, well my marriage and other people's to get better because we're walking into difficult things because we know God has said, this is better. This is the way.
37:35 If you're going through difficulty, if if you're going to suffer, I wanna suffer knowing that every ounce of what I was going through was meaningful, purposeful, and ordained by God to produce
37:46 righteousness in me. I want my scars to be scars from running to Jesus, not away from him. I want my scars to be scars from running into the battle, not away from it. And I started this message by talking about our
37:58 cosmic victory over the darkness and the hope that we have in our future because of Christ and I need you to see this in verse 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from
38:09 the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Church, I need you to know that at some point in your pursuit of Christ and in your standingShow more
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