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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 Take out your notes. They look like this. I wanna talk to you on the subject of it's time for a clean break. We are in a spiritual awakening in America. The death of Charlie Kirk has sparked something,0:25 has really just poured gasoline on a fire that was already burned. I don't know if you I mean, I feel it. I I know you feel it. This place is packed. Last week in North Attleboro, Do you know that last0:37 week at all of our locations, we had 159 people stand to receive Jesus? 159 people. The fire is burning. This past0:49 summer, we had 150 people, 165 in total baptized in our baptism outdoor event in Massachusetts. So I'm just privileged to be a part of what the Lord is1:00 doing here. Now when it comes to the future of our church, we are not gonna just sit in the moment and celebrate. We're gonna start putting things in place to fuel1:12 the movement. And so I'm pleased to announce at every location of Waters Church, our young adults are gearing up right now, putting plans together, and we're gonna have we're gonna open,1:24 TP USA chapters at all of our church locations to equip the next generation to defend the faith, to fight for our1:35 country. Amen. I told you that 2 weeks ago, the enemy wants this country. He wants this country because if he can get this country, he can stop gospel preaching. He can1:47 stop the missionary endeavors of the church. He can lock up men and women in the prison of socialism and communism, and we need to fight back. If we lose the country, it's on us. So we're gonna step up. We're gonna1:58 empower the next generation. They're hungry for it, and and Water Church is gonna do everything we can to empower the next year. I'm pleading. My wife and I are so plucked. We're brimming with pride that we've got 22:09 young adults who are gonna be part of that process, and your young adults as well are gonna be part of that process. And so god bless them. God empower them in Jesus' name. Now when it comes to significant moments like2:20 the 1 we are presently in, you better understand that significant moments call for significant action. And I'm talking about clean breaks. There are moments where you're just done. You're just done with how life2:32 was. God has started something in me that and I know it's happening in you where I'm just done being at all shy about sharing my faith.2:44 I don't know if you're feeling that. And you're like, pastor, I've never taken you for shy. Well, even even, you know, loud pastors like me at times can just feel a2:56 little bit of, you know, maybe I shouldn't go there. Maybe I shouldn't say it. Maybe I shouldn't text it. And I think it's I think it's just I'm done with that. I'm getting to a point where I don't care anymore.3:08 There's a battle to fight that's worth fighting. There are souls to save that are worth saving. And literally, anybody that texts me out of the blue now, I'm just preaching the gospel back to them. This last3:20 week, I got a text from a plumber I hadn't heard of I hadn't heard from since I moved from Massachusetts, and, he texted me, and he said, just thinking about you, and I just unloaded. Man, you gotta come to my church.3:31 Jesus has a plan and a purpose for you. I didn't get a text back. I got a text from another person. I oh, he closed my last mortgage, and and he said, how are3:43 you doing? And, just checking up. He said, just checking up. How are doing? That's all he needed to ask. Let me tell you how I'm doing. Jesus is on the move in my church. You gotta come. You should see it. The lord is3:52 moving. God has a plan and a purpose for you. I didn't get a text back from him either. I think we need to make a clean break from who we were and embrace what God is doing in this in4:04 this moment of this generation. Can I get a good amen? Clean breaks are necessary in life. How many remember the first time you drove in a car by yourself because you just got your driver's4:16 license? You know? Some of you are like, I actually did that before I got my driver's license. Repent. Confess and repent. There's forgiveness available. I remember, though, the first time I drove off my4:28 parents' property in my in my dad's truck. He'd let me borrow it. And I was like, man, the freedom. Oh, the freedom. And I remember, I actually was able to get up an hour later for school because I didn't have to wait4:38 for that stupid bus and all that stuff. And I just drove off that property, and a wave of absolute pleasure and joy, the endorphins, everything, just incredible. And I made a vow, and4:50 I said, I'm never going on that yellow bus again. And by God's grace, I never did. I was grounded once, and my parents said no car, so I5:02 bummed a ride off of my friend. But I was gonna make sure that I was not gonna be on that bus. How many how many know that, when you graduate high school, you gotta make a clean break from high school? Graduate college,5:13 clean break. I don't think there's anything more pathetic than people that hang around their school after they graduate. Even the people who are there are like, what are you still doing here? Go. Move. Get out of here.5:21 What are you doing? When you get married, you got to make a clean break from people that you used to, you know, be close to sometimes. That that requires some breaking. You know? You gotta break up with some people in5:31 order to be married. Some friends your spouse isn't cool with, and some friends are bad influences for your marriage, so you gotta make clean breaks. And then there's a big clean break. When you have your first child,5:42 what do you do? You make a clean break with what? Sleep. That's what you do. You make a clean break. I'm never sleeping again. That's the end of a good night's sleep. And and then and and I'll let you know when that5:51 stops. Amen, somebody. I've been doing it for 24 years. But the clean breaks are necessary in life. And I think about this moment in Exodus chapter 14. A clean break. The waters of the Red Sea6:03 becomes a moment of clean break for Israel to come fully out of Egypt, and it's a picture for us of water baptism. A picture for us of what I'm gonna invite you to do if you haven't already done it at the end of the6:14 service is to get baptized. And you don't have to it at the end the service, but just to get through the process, get to the process of water baptism, to say to yourself, I'm done with who I was.6:25 Now there are great stories in our history, and I think the best movies are based on clean breaks. Probably 1 of the best movies that was ever made is The Shawshank Redemption. I love that movie. You know,6:37 there's a there's a term called getting Shawshanked. You know, what happens is you're at your house and you're doing yard work on your day off, and you turn on the television and Shawshank is on TNT because I think it's6:48 on, like, every other hour. And and before you know it, yard work is postponed. You you lose the whole day because you're just stuck. You know, you're stuck in that prison with Andy, and you're like, come on. Get out.6:58 Get out. And I remember that moment in that in that scene where he's sitting by the wall next to Red, and he's realized that the warden's never gonna let him out of the prison. He realizes that the warden is never gonna7:10 fight for this guy's freedom. He's stuck. And he says, I know I'm innocent, and I've spent enough time here. And we can take that picture down. I don't know what that does not don't wait wait for that 1.7:22 And he says to Red, what? He says it's time to get busy did you watch Shawshank? You all said you were into it. Get busy living or7:34 get busy dying. And that night, we all know at the end of the movie, if haven't seen it yet, well, I'm gonna ruin it for you. You should have seen it by now. Should be like the first thing your mom and dad show you when7:44 you wake up, you know, when you're alert. Anyway, he crawls through that tunnel. He gets into that sewer shaft. What a scene. Right? He crawls through the sewer pipe 300 yards to freedom, and he puts up his7:56 hands. Oh, what a scene. And the rain is washing him. You know what that was? Yeah. I see that as a baptism moment. A baptism moment. He was he was free, finally, from the warden, from from the prison walls.8:08 You know, I I found out that there's actually a historical reference point for that movie. And now we can put this picture up. This is a picture of the Berlin Wall, a cultural prison. It8:20 separated east from west. It was actually a picture of the 40 I'm sorry, of the 60 plus year Cold War between the superpowers, the USA and the USSR.8:32 And they split Germany, the Berlin, the capital, with this wall to separate communism from capitalism or or enslavement to the state to freedom.8:44 And here's the fact, kids. Here's the fact. No 1 was trying to get out of west into east. No 1. Socialism is not cool. Trust me. Okay? They were all trying to get out of east into8:55 west. And and I found this out. There was 1 particular man. His name was Alexander. He went on a trip with his 3 2 brothers to Paris, and they came back. Because their flights got mixed up,9:07 Alexander ended up in East Berlin, and his brothers ended up back in West Berlin. And they were separated, and he couldn't get to them. No amount appealed to the state. No 1 would let them cross over. That's how9:18 vicious governments and authorities can become. Amen. That's why the bible never really shines a happy light on governments beginning with pharaoh, friends. Beginning with pharaoh. And and so he9:30 had to figure out a way. Well, do you understand that a bunch of East Berliners decided that they were gonna dig a tunnel from East Berlin all the way 145 meters9:42 under the wall, under checkpoints, under security posts to freedom in West Berlin. Do you know that the way that they hid that shaft that they were gonna build here's the picture of the shaft. You can put that up. This9:52 30 foot down shaft, do you know how they hid it? They put a porta potty on top of it. So the guards never went in it. And this was you know, nobody occupied it. And they this guy, Alexander, along with10:04 56 other East Berliners went down, in October of 19 64, 61 years ago. They went down into that shaft, and they crawled through a tunnel10:15 145 meters underground. I don't know if I could have done that. Anybody like me, I'm seriously claustrophobic. I get seriously, you know, scared when I'm in tight spaces, And they had to crawl, and this10:27 and the tunnel was just wide enough for a human body to go straight. And here's why they had to keep going. They couldn't turn around because physically, they couldn't turn around. If they tried to turn around, they10:37 would have gotten stuck, and then they would have stopped everybody else's progress behind them. They had to go all the way through. They had to crawl through 145 meters and climb to freedom to the West10:49 German occupied area. And and and by God's grace, that's exactly how Alexander got out of East Berlin, got back to his brothers, and he lived a very profitable, very healthy life11:01 as a photographer, and then died at an old age. And here's the thing. They had to decide. They had to commit. Somebody say commit. Commit. You gotta commit to things.11:13 You gotta say no to the past if you're gonna experience the blessing of the future. On the top of your notes, write this down, fill in the blanks. To experience the best God has for your future,11:25 you need to make a clean break from the past. And sometimes if we're honest, even as God's people, we are so hesitant to make clean breaks. So God decides, I'm gonna help you11:37 through it. I'm gonna bring you through a clean break because sometimes we just lack the will to do so. I wanna start back where we read in Exodus chapter 13 verse 17. The people of Israel are11:49 technically saved. The death of the firstborn and by the way, what did they do the night of the the night of the death angel? What did they do? Anybody know? They celebrated a meal. We call it what? Passover. You know12:01 that that's actually a picture of an ordinance for the church. The church has 2 ordinances. Passover, the Lord's Supper or some people call it communion or the breaking of bread and baptism. Both of12:12 those ordinances are rooted in Exodus 12 13 and 14. Exodus 12, they celebrate the Passover. When Jesus is arrested, the night of his arrest, they he celebrates the Passover. Then he says, I want you to eat this bread and12:24 drink this cup in remembrance of me until I come again. He he institutes the Lord's Supper on the night of Passover. So Passover becomes communion as a way to remind ourselves that we are saved12:36 by the blood of Jesus. We're not saved by the blood of lambs and goats and bulls. We're saved by the blood of of the precious son of almighty God. That's why we did it last week. We'll do it every month, and we do it at12:46 first Tuesday, first Wednesday. We celebrate. We remind ourselves that we eat the body and the blood of the lord Jesus to remind ourselves we're saved. But then there's the second ordinance of baptism that happens right12:55 here in Exodus chapter 13. So, technically, they're saved. They're coming out of Egypt. And remember the players in this script. Egypt is a picture of the world. Pharaoh is a picture of the devil. Moses is a picture of13:05 the Lord Jesus who leads us out, and Israel is a picture of the what? The flesh, us. And sometimes our flesh is our biggest enemy. Any man amen, somebody? Okay. So here's what13:16 happens. When pharaoh led the people verse 17. When people when pharaoh let the people go I like this line because this is important. God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was13:27 near or that was shorter. How many know that God is not in a rush? He doesn't rush your life forward all the time. There are reasons for it. Here's why. Because God knows what you're ready for, and God knows what you're13:39 not ready for. And here's what he says. God said, lest the people change their minds when they see what? War. And then they wanna go back to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the13:50 Red Sea. Interesting. Toward what will become 1 of their first major obstacles. And he doesn't lead them to check this out. He doesn't lead them to war. He leads them to the14:02 sea because this would be on them. God brings them to a place where he will do it for them. Hallelujah. Let me put this map up on the screen just so you guys14:14 can get a frame of reference because sometimes these are just figments in our mind. Here's Egypt, and here's the here's the actual what historians believe was the journey of Israel through the wilderness. So God14:26 could have easily led them up through here. And by the way, anybody recognize this place? What's that called? Gaza. Still called Gaza. And this is ancient Philistine territory. This little strip of land14:38 has been at odds with Israel since exodus. You think that some president's gonna solve this? This is ancient his hostility, and14:49 it's still going on to this day. And so god says, if I lead them through that area, these people are gonna attack them, and my people are not ready for war. My people are not ready for war. So we're going the long way15:01 because I know what they're ready for, and I know what they're not ready for. And he brings them up over here. Now the Red Sea is this little area right here. It goes way down. And there are 2 gulfs of the Red Sea that15:09 split off like this, and this is the gulf of of Agaba Agaba. And so what they do is they come right to this is where historians believe the Red Sea was split, at the gulf of Agaba, and they come to this point. And here's15:21 what I need somebody to to listen to for your life. God might redirect your life because you're not ready to fight the battle that he can easily win.15:32 You're not ready to take on physical enemies, spiritual enemies, you know, mental enemies, emotional enemies, but God needs to do something for you so that you learn15:44 to trust him. Oh, be thankful when he brings you on the long route. Be thankful for the for the waiting game. Be thankful for the wilderness. God knows what you're ready for, and even better, he knows what you're not15:56 ready for. So fix skipping ahead to verse 21. And the Lord went where? Before them. Oh, we got a nice new little tool in my arsenal. How's that?16:08 I love this toy. Okay. Let let them by the day and the pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, by night in the pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. God doesn't want you to16:19 stop no matter what the time of day it is. Hallelujah. And it says the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from where? Before the people. I am asking you to say these things for16:30 a reason. Okay. Now we'll stay there for just a second, and you have to understand that this story is just getting started. God gives them a heads up. God gives them a heads up in chapter 14.16:43 Take a look at this. The Lord said to Moses, tell the people, I need you to convey a message. I don't want them taken unawares by this. Tell them to turn back and16:55 encamp between Pi haharath and Migdal and the sea in front of Belzephan. Practice those names all week. You shall encamp facing it by the sea for pharaoh will say to the people of Israel, they are wandering17:07 in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. And God says, check this out, I I, God says, will harden pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them. Now this is the message that God gives to Moses to give17:19 to who? Tell the people. So God says, I want you to give my people a heads up. The enemy is not done. Just because you got saved, the enemy is not done.17:31 Are you hearing this? Just because you come to church doesn't mean the enemy's done. In fact, when you start doing the things God wants you to do, the enemy ramps up his attacks on you. You17:43 think that this is just gonna be easy? You think that this is just gonna be a cakewalk? You think that just giving your life to Jesus means that it's all over? No. The battle has just begun. You got 3 enemies, the world,17:54 the flesh, the devil. The world, Egypt, the flesh, Israel, the devil, pharaoh. And the devil does not give up just because you started making some good choices toward God. And he says, and I will get glory over pharaoh18:05 and all his souls. And the Egyptians shall know that I'm the Lord, and they did so. And and so Moses told the people, pharaoh will come for you. And by the way, god is gonna do this, and god is gonna use this to get18:15 glory for his name's sake. So beware. Okay. So when the king of Egypt was told that they had fled, his mind changed, and he said, what is this we have done? And I'm just skipping along here. And so he took his hundred18:26 600 chosen chariots. He said, like, these are the good ones and all the other chariots. And the lord hardened the just like god said, the lord hardened pharaoh's heart. He pursued the people while they were going out to18:36 finally verse 9. The Egyptians pursued them with all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, his horsemen and his army. Okay. Now God said he would do it. He does it.18:49 The people heard that God said he would do it and watched him do it. Verse 10 says, when Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes19:00 and behold, the Egyptians were marching where? After them. Okay. And they feared19:13 greatly. Here's what happens. What did God do when they came out? He walked where? Before them. When pharaoh comes out after them, after God told them this was gonna19:24 happen, they do what? What do they do? They turn around, and they look at what's coming after them. I tell you what we need to do if we're gonna make a clean break with God? Write this down on top19:36 of your nose. Point number 1, in order to make a clean break, we must stop looking back. The enemy is in hot pursuit of you. You came to Christ. Okay. Make a clean19:48 break. If you're walking with God, walk with God. You don't need to worry about your old friends. Some someone needs to hear that today. You don't need to worry about the fact that somebody20:00 didn't like that you are now walking with Jesus. Can I get a good amen? Amen. You don't need to worry about your this might be hard for somebody to hear, but you don't need to worry about what your sister thinks. You20:12 don't know you don't need to worry about what mom thinks. You don't you don't need to worry about what your friends think. Stop looking where? Back. This is exactly the enemy's20:24 ploy. He'll come charging with all of his best tools. Did you notice that pharaoh brought out his good cherries? Like, these are the cherries that he saves for special occasions. I think that the enemy has some20:35 attacks reserved for God's people when they're on the precipice of victory when when they're on the precipice of victory, and they're his best tools in his20:47 arsenal. Oh, the young girl that comes to Waters Church, I've seen it 100 times, and she gets saved, and she gets mostly, she first, she gets she gets saved by Jesus, but she gets saved from the20:59 deadbeat loser boyfriend. This guy who won't get a job, this guy who will, you know, treat her badly, will will disrespect her, and she's saved. She comes to church, and she and I've seen her in the front21:11 row, tears coming down her eyes, and she oh god. So good. Oh my god. And then she gets baptized and she puts the baptism picture on Facebook. New life hashtag praise hands21:22 Jesus. Yes. And then Monday, a text from guess who? Loser boyfriend.21:34 Hey. Saw you're into Jesus now. We should talk. And I I've seen it happen. Boys and girls. And I'm talking about a girl, but it's not always a girl. Sometimes it's a boy. And21:46 they talk. You know, some of some of you gotta have a don't talk list. Some of you gotta have a do not resuscitate list. DNR. Do21:58 not resuscitate that relationship. Stop looking where? Back. Some of you old habits. Old habits. That's what Egypt will represent as we do 1 more part of this series next22:10 week. Old ways that we look back and we eulogize the past. Oh, don't we always do that? We eulogize the past. Eulogy means to speak well of. It comes from the Greek word eugaleo. And so when22:22 when we get up at a funeral and the person's dead, we never talk about their their bad habits, do we? We never say, you know, John, I know we all love him, but, you know, he he had a swearing problem. No. Somebody we're22:31 always trying to dig deep for the good things that John did, all the nice things. Oh, John, he, you know, he smiled at me once. I know. Whatever. We can make the the biggest jerk look like a prince at that eulogy. Right?22:41 What we do with the past is we make we make the hell of our past look good. Why? It's the past. That's where we need to leave it.22:53 Don't look back. Alright. Passage for you. Hebrews chapter 12. It says, therefore, it says we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Underline that surrounded. There are a the23:05 what does he mean? What's surrounded by what witnesses? These are the Old Testament saints. If you if you have your Bibles open in that chapter, you can just skip back to verse chapter 11 of Hebrews when it talks about23:15 Moses, and it talks about David, and it talks about Solomon, and it talks about Samson, and it talks about all these ancient all these ancient heroes. And he and, basically, the the appeal here from Hebrews 12 is is that23:26 those people are watching you. They're watching our generation, and they're saying, you can do it. Keep going. Don't don't look back. Trust us. Don't look back. And up in heaven, there's23:38 lots saying, trust me. Don't look back. I lost my wife over that 1. That was a preacher joke. You missed it. Okay. Don't look back. He says there, let us throw off, lay23:50 aside every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us what? Run. Somebody say run. Run. You know, when the enemy calls, you need to run. When the old when the ex calls, you need to run. When the bad friends24:01 call, you need to run. Don't answer. Cut that off. Stop looking back and walk with God. He's in front of you, and he is going for he is ahead of you, and he's got great plans and purposes for you. Amen.24:13 Verse 2, he says, looking to who? Jesus. Just like Israel should have been they should have kept focused on the cloud and focused on the fire that was guiding them. That's what we gotta do. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the24:24 author and the perfecter of our faith. In the ancient world, the the the Greek games, the Olympic games, they used to have these these long running, you know, lanes. And at the end of the lane was the24:36 judge. They called that person the same Greek word that Hebrews uses here for author and finisher. And so the he would start this he would start the, race, you know, not with a gun, but he would start the24:48 race, and then they would run, and then he would determine who won the race when those 2 runners would won by him. And so Hebrews says that person is Jesus. He's the 1 who starts you, and he's the 1 you gotta keep24:59 focused on if you're gonna finish the race marked out for you. And and then it says this, verse 3, consider him who endured hostility from sinners. Consider him. He endured hostility. And and and he and so that25:11 way you don't get weary and you don't grow faint hearted. If Jesus experienced hostility, you're gonna experience hostility. But there is something inside of us there is something inside of us that refuses a lot25:23 of times to trust the process and to trust God in the midst of it. And I wanna show you that from this text back in Exodus. So how here comes Pharaoh, and they look up, and they they start25:35 looking back. Here's what happens. Again, this is all a picture of your life with Christ. This is all a picture of your life with Christ. When the enemy comes, they fear, but that's not the end. They're not just afraid.25:46 And the people of Israel cried out to the lord. They said to Moses, is it because there's no praise in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in 1 of us? I I I don't know if they said it like that, but that's how I25:57 hear it. What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt? Oh, Lord, did I ask for this? Oh, boy. Have you ever said that? Lord, I didn't want this. You did this. I didn't ask for this person. I didn't ask for26:09 this job. I didn't ask for these kids. I didn't ask for this ministry. You know what? I thought that if I started serving you, it would go better, and all of a it's gotten harder. Man, watch out for that. That's the26:18 flesh. That's the flesh reaping what, you know, the flesh does. Why have you done this in bringing us out of Egypt? And then what did they say? They said, is this not what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we26:30 may serve the Egyptians. What are they doing? Eulogizing the past. What were they what were they saying when they were in slavery to the Egyptians? What were they saying?26:42 Get us out of here. God, get us out of here. Isn't it amazing how we will ask God for things and the moment God starts doing things, we will start to think, maybe I26:53 shouldn't. Maybe this isn't the right thing. Why am I experiencing a little bit more prep? Why am I experiencing a little bit more heat? Why am I experiencing a little bit more, hear me, relational friction?27:06 I thought God was gonna give me good things. Yes. Sometimes the good things is to take out the lesser things that you were held on to in your old life. They said leave us alone. No. No. No. They did not say that. And27:17 Moses said to the people, here is the here is the commission. Are you ready? Moses said, and I love this. Number 3 things. 1, what? Fear not. Number 2, stand firm.27:29 See the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. The Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. I love this. If you've got your notes up, please underline verse 14. The Lord will fight for27:38 you. Praise God. The Lord will fight for you. This is a common theme in Israel's battles from Exodus all the way through the Old Testament. When27:50 God's people are at wits end and they don't have what it takes to beat the enemy, time and time and time again, God says, I'll fight it. I'll fight it. There's another moment in the in the Old Testament where28:02 God says well, no. Not God. The people of Israel say, the battle belongs to who? To the Lord. Your battle is actually not your battle. Your fight28:13 is not actually your fight. God's got it, and God is gonna fight for you. Somebody say after me. Every every location, say these words. Say, the Lord Lord. Will fight Will fight. For28:25 me. For me. Let's say that whole line together on a count of 3. 1, 2, 3. The Lord will fight for me. Do you believe it? Yes. It's all over the New Testament. It's all over the Old Testament. God will not let you down.28:37 Now he says, last thing, you have only 2, what? 3 things. So 1, 2, 3. Fear not, stand firm, shut up. Fear not, stand firm, be silent.28:49 Okay. Write this down. In order to in order to make a clean break, we must stop stressing and start trusting. Stop stressing. Stress is a hormone, and it's not29:01 necessarily real. Ray I know you're writing something down, so maybe bad timing, but raise your hand if you've ever worried about something that never came came to pass. Raise your hand if it's more often that you worry29:12 about things that never came to pass than actually did come to pass. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Researchers tell us that about 80 percent of the things that we worry about never actually happen. Never actually happen. Now I29:24 have a bad habit, so do you. And I actually read an article yesterday about this. It was like God's timing in the Wall Street Journal of all places. Said here's what you do when you wake up in the middle of the night.29:34 Anybody wake up in the middle of night? I wake up in the middle of night all the time. And I I wake up to go to the bathroom. So and then when I do, I lay back down, and all of these insane fears come29:46 into my mind. Things that I would never worry about in the normal, you know, realm of reality. Well, my mind is weak. I'm trying to sleep, and then I'm try and then and then you start thinking about29:58 the fact that no longer are you worried about what might happen that's not actually gonna happen. That's actually irrational fear. Now you're worried about the fact that you're not sleeping. And then you start to think30:05 about the fact that I'm gonna be more tired tomorrow. And I got these meetings and I got this stuff. And before you know it, 1 thing just snowballs and you just escalate it. And I think, like, this is how this is how the30:14 world works. This is how the flesh works. We we explode fears through stress and worry. So so what do I do what did I do with the lord?30:26 I made a deal. And last time I said this from the stage, I said it wrong. I said I made a deal with the devil. And I heard a gasp. People are like, okay. Here's what I meant. Here's what I meant. I I said to the devil, I30:36 said, if you wake me up in the middle of the night, I'm reading the bible. That's the deal I make with you. And by the way, don't read the bible in the middle of the night from this. Because this has just got that, you30:48 know, that light and you're gonna wake up. Pull out your paper bible. I'm telling you guys, get a paper bible before chat GPT rewrites it on you. Amen. And you open it up at night and you read it and31:00 there's just peace. There's peace. There's a passage in Isaiah, 26 that says, you will set in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed31:12 on you. Set your mind on God, perfect peace comes in. Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for nothing, but pray and supplicate and thank God and the peace of God, which should pass all31:23 understanding. We'll guard your heart and mind. And what God is saying here is that I'm gonna fight for you. You don't need to do it. You don't need to work it. He's got it. It's a reminder to all of us that our31:35 salvation is his work, not ours. Now let me show you a couple of verses for that. Titus chapter 3 verse 5, it says, he saved us not by works done by us according to the law or righteousness31:47 according to the law, but by his own mercy. He saved us by not our works, his works, by the washing and regeneration and renewal of the holy spirit. Got another passage for31:59 you. This is a famous moment in the old testament with a prophet who lived a whale of a tail. Come on, somebody. And Jonah's in the middle of the belly of the32:11 fish after he tries to commit suicide instead of serving God. This is God's prophet. Instead of serving God, he tried to kill himself, and he gets32:22 swallowed up by a fish. God says, you're not getting away with that. And in the belly of the fish, he starts singing. He writes his poem. When my life was fainting away, remember the Lord. My prayer came to you in your32:33 holy temple. Those who regard vain idols forsake the hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, this is language of Philippians chapter 4, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed, I will pay. And this32:45 line always just catches me. It's a small line. You might skip over it, but I love it. What does he say? Salvation belongs. The battle belongs to the Lord. My32:57 salvation belongs to the Lord. He's the 1 that saves, not me. You need only to be silent, fear not, stand still. Amen.33:09 There's another passage. Let's see if we can go there real quick. There's another passage where where somebody seriously messes up. His name is day David. And when Nathan confronts him because33:21 he slept with Bathsheba, produced an offspring that wasn't his, and then killed conspired with his generals to kill her husband. Nathan comes and says, what you've done is egregious to the33:33 Lord, and he writes Psalm 51. And in Psalm 51, he just repents to God. He pours out his heart. And he says to the Lord in verse 11, cast me not away from your presence. This is a man who has33:45 seriously blown up his life. This is a man who set a nuclear bomb off in his family. And he says, cast me not away from your presence. Take out your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of what?33:57 Your salvation. It's not mine. It's God's. So why does that matter? Because the same God who saved you34:09 is the God who seals you in the Holy Spirit and the God who secures you in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And listen to me, is the same God who will cause you to34:20 endure unto the end. He's the author and he's the finisher of your faith. Can I get a good amen from somebody? Amen. Just write this down so I know you're getting it. When34:32 we doubt, God does not back out. When we doubt, god does not back out. In fact, he just says, chill out. I got this. Psalm34:43 46 10, be still and know that I am god. I will be exalted among the nations. So the story continues, and the people of Israel who have been crying34:55 out, wondering what's going on. Well, God says, I'm gonna fight for you, and the rest of the story goes on. Moses, verse 15, it says, the Lord said, why do you call out to me? Where are you? Verse35:07 15. Why do you call out to me, tell the people of Israel to go forward, always moving forward, lift up your staff, stretch your hand over the sea, divide it, that the people of Israel may go on dry ground. I will harden35:16 the heart of pharaoh, and he will come through. Then the angel of God who was going before, I love this moment, he was in front of them. So check out the mercy and grace of God. And they're looking behind them. What does35:28 God's angel do? He goes and he moves and he went behind them. Sometimes God will be your rear hedge while you're looking backward. I hope this is bringing some hope to some people who have come to the35:40 end of their rope, who have failed God even as a Christian, who have felt like you're just not good enough. This is the goodness of God's grace. He will get between you and the enemy35:52 that is coming after you. And it says, and the pillar of cloud moved before them and stood behind them, coming between them and the host of Egypt and the host of Israel, and there was a cloud. Then Moses stretched out36:02 his hand, verse 21, over the sea. And the Lord drove back the sea by strong wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went in the midst of the sea on dry ground, the36:10 waters being a water of them on the right and the left. So what happens? Exactly what God said would happen. The Egyptians pursued them, went in after them, and all of pharaoh's horses. Everybody's in there. And in the36:19 morning, much, the the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces, and he saw that they were right where they needed to be. And he threw them into a panic and clogged up the chariot wheels,36:30 so they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us leave from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said to Moses, now stretch your hand out over the sea, he's on the other36:38 side, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians. We know the story. We've seen a bunch of movies about this, And the waters cover the chariots and the horsemen of Israel. So Moses stretched out over this his hand36:49 over the sea, and it returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled into it, and the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots of36:59 the horsemen and all the horses of pharaoh that followed them into the sea. Not 1 of them remained, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea. In other words, God said, I got this, and he did. Not37:08 only did he fully deliver them and give them a clean break, but he gave them the end of their former captivity. They brought he he he annulled the power of pharaoh37:20 forever in the sea. And through God's work, not theirs, they had made a clean break. Now if you're not getting it by now, you should.37:32 That ultimately is in God's hands to give you clean breaks in your life. Remember how the story started? Remember what God said? Let's back up. Chapter 14. What did God37:44 tell him to say? Tell the people of Israel that this is gonna happen. For Pharaoh will say to the people of Israel, I'm gonna come after them. And then verse 4, look at this, and I will get,Show more
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