Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Music is so comforting. It's comforting to sing, worship and to sing together about how great our God is. Is that Wendy and her kids over there? Whoa, have you ever grown up? Wendy, you've always been nice and grown up, but your children. It's so good to see you all here. So good to see you and it's so comforting to be together. At difficult times, it's so comforting to be together. Today, we have our last picnic of the season, and a few people said, “Should we cancel the picnic?” We said no because it's comforting to be together. We are going to meet up at the Corcoran Park, which is really easy to find. Talk to me afterwards and I'll tell you if you need directions.
If you are watching online and you are, didn't come to church today, come join us at the Corcoran Park. Everybody, bring your own lunch. Here is a tip. If you didn't bring a lunch today, Hy-Vee is really close to the Corcoran Park. Come pick up something. They have great to-go food, and join us. We can strengthen one another with fellowship and enjoy one another because you know what, life is so uncertain and every day is to be enjoyed to the fullest. I just wanted to say today to all of us to hug the people we love a little tighter. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I was going to get up and do that to you and I forgot. It's so nice.
Brian: It's easy to forget about me.
Jacque: No, no. I meant I was thinking about my words. Honey, how could I forget about you? Anyway, to hug the people you love a little tighter and to enjoy the day, enjoy our days.
Brian: That's right. That's right.
Jacque: The other thing that we are going to do after church is have communion.
Brian: We always have communion after the service. We don't always announce that, but every Sunday after church, we do serve commune and we have people scheduled to do that. From time to time, we serve community to the whole church, obviously in our Sunday morning service. But after the service, if you want to receive communion, we always have communion offered for anybody that would like to receive it.
Jacque: Communion and prayer.
Brian: That's right.
Jacque: I had another thought. I appreciate that there is just this balance when we go through these hard things. If you are kind of an empathetic person, because we all are different, and I'm kind of an empathetic person, so I think about the pain of the people left. My heart stays there and that's so sad, but oh, when we do think of heaven and what our moms who just passed away and now Dan and Bob are all experiencing, there is joy there.
Brian: Heaven has had a lot of gains this year. Heaven has had a lot of gains this year: Jim's mom, Shawn's mom and brother, our good friend, Greg Thorn, longtime friend from Souls Harbor, your mom, my mom, Paul Chase, Dan Peters, Bob. You can't go through relationships that you've had for virtually your whole life and then they end here and you not have a sense of loss. That's just normal. We still take captive our thoughts. We remind ourselves that Bob is completely healed today. We remind ourselves that he has entered into the joy of the things that God has prepared for him. He worked hard. He worked hard here Hope Community. He loved taking care of our cemetery. He would trim it just beautifully.
Jacque: He took such a personal interest in everything he did. He loved working for the Lord, working for the church. There was no job too menial.
Brian: No. When walked through the sanctuary, he would see a little piece of lint on the floor and he would pick it up. He always wanted to make sure that the host of the Lord was looking good.
Jacque: He knew how you wanted the rose straight.
Brian: He knows that I like straight rose.
Jacque: He wasn't here to do that last night. They are not straight.
Brian: They weren't quite as straight this morning for, in honor of Bob, I guess. Pray for Lee, as Pastor Jeff said, and Carrie and the rest of the family.
Jacque: They are just recovering from Kathy's passing, Lee's wife. So we need to hold each other up in prayer.
Brian: Yes. I think at this time, I just want to encourage us in the Lord and encourage us from God's word. How many of you know that this world just doesn't stop when somebody passes? There will be an end to this world sometime, but our dying doesn't bring an end to this world. Only the coming of Jesus is going to bring an end to the way things are here, and he is going to Institute a whole new government and a whole new beginning. But until that time, he leads us in so many different ways. God's way has so many reasons for following it. That's the title of my message. God's way has so many reasons for following it. There are so many reasons that God has for you and I to follow where he leads us. It's not always just to get there. How many of you know that?
How many of you know that in God's economy, when he is leading us somewhere, it's not just to get us to a destination, but there are so many things that God has for us in this journey that he is trying to put into us to build in us, to extract out of us and so forth.
There is a wonderful story. We are all familiar with it. Probably most of us are. I want to go back and just highlight some of the verses from this wonderful story. It's an Old Testament story. It's the story of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and their sojourn coming to the red sea. The first verse that I want to read today is found in Exodus chapter 13, verse 17. Let's read that.
Jacque: All the verses today are from the NIV translation. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the roads through the Philistine country.
Brian: How many of you know that at times there are more than one road to go? Sometimes we will pick the road of, shall we say, least resistance, but that isn't necessarily always the road that God has for us. This particular road, God led them on the road— God did not lead them on the road that was going to go through the Philistine country.
Jacque: Though it was shorter.
Brian: And it was shorter. Yeah, it was shorter
Jacque: For God said, if they faced war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.
Brian: How many of you know that when you start with God, there can be some adversity? You face that adversity, and sometimes it's like, man, I didn't sign up for this. I think I've said this before, but when we planted hope community church, 24 years ago now, we are in our 24th year, when we were doing all the preparations being sent out from Souls Harbor, Calvary temple. We had done two-years worth of training and classes and people were excited about this new church that was being started. I'll tell you something, not one person ever told me during all of that preparation that people in our church we are going to die, not one person. That was not on my radar. It didn't take long. It didn't take long, and we had our first death. It was a very much of a surprise. It was unexpected. It was a 32 year old that died, no medical explanation. Shortly after that, a 19 year old, not even 19, 18 year old. He had just graduated from high school. He was a classmate of my daughter-in-law, Katie. He passed away sitting on a couch at his girlfriend's graduation party. Nobody prepared me for that.
There are a lot of things that God has for us on these roads that sometimes we just don't understand and there is adversity. Sometimes, God protects us from some of that adversity. Because in this particular case, he said, I'm not going to take the Israelites through the Philistines because they are too big of a giant for them right now. I have to build some things into their lives, into their character, for them to be able to overcome. It's not always the shortest road that the Lord wants us to travel on even though going through the Philistine country was the shortest road. His path, I think is rarely a shortcut. How many of you know that God doesn't take too many shortcuts with us?
His path is rarely a shortcut, but it is a path with a purpose and a path and the journey that you and I are on. Even through the tragic newness of this past year, there is a purpose that God has in it for all of us and for, for me. It's usually a much, much greater reason than just getting to where we are going, a much bigger reason than just getting to where we are going. Let's look at the next verse.
Jacque: So God led the people around by the desert road toward the red sea.
Brian: How many of you like the desert road? He led them around by the desert road toward the red sea, and yet when they were in the desert, what was God getting them ready for? Read the rest of it.
Jacque: The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.
Brian: Wow. So they were early on this journey. The first place that God brings him to is a desert road. There are all sorts of reasons why we try to aboard avoid the desert road. Probably the main reason is things die in the desert.
Jacque: It's a dry heat. You get thirsty.
Brian: You get thirsty. I remember Gordon Jensen wrote a song many years ago "in the desert of my days". Every single one of us is going to have a desert experience, sometimes multiple desert experiences. And you know what, things die in the desert. Sometimes are things in us that God wants to die in us, but there are some other things that he wants to spring to life in the desert of our life. Sometimes when you are in the desert, it feels like Satan is more alive and well than when you are in the lush valleys. Doesn't it? Somehow Satan just seems bigger and larger when we are in the desert.
One of the things that the enemy will do to us, especially when we are in the desert is he will resist our future. How many of you are alive today? Will you all raise your hand if you are alive? You know what that means? If you are alive right now, you have a future. It doesn't matter how old you are. If you are alive right now, you have a future. Satan is resistant to that future that God has for you. In the desert, Satan looks really big, and sometimes he wants to rob us of our future when we are in the desert, just like he tried to rob Jesus of his future when Jesus was in the wilderness. But what happened with Jesus and Satan in the wilderness? That's where actually Jesus got launched into his future and into his ministry, by going through desert.
Jacque: Brian, plants that grow in the desert are really hardy plants.
Brian: They are very hardy.
Jacque: Yes. And then there is this beauty that comes out. We have a little flower right now on our deck. That's a desert plant, just a beautiful flower.
Brian: It's beautiful. Sometimes when you are in the desert, it may only be a few weeks, it may only be a few months, but it seems like an eternity. Doesn't it? It seems like a very, very long time. It's also a lonely time if you've ever been in the desert because you know why? A desert experience isn't a group activity. It's not a group activity. It's your desert. You can have a lot of people around you, but you still feel very alone, very alone and isolated. It seems as though one area after another of weakness is being exposed by God in our lives, one area after another of weaknesses is continually being exposed. When these weaknesses get exposed, one of the things that happens to us, which we have to be really aware of is that our sense of self-worth goes into the tank because when things in your life are being exposed, especially things that you struggle with, things that you failed at, it's hard to feel like you are a success when all you can see is the failures. The desert exposes a lot of that.
There were a lot of things that were going to be exposed in the Israelites in the desert. We have to remember that they weren't this godly people. They were for the most part, pagans. They were really for the most part pagans because they had lived under pagan rule for 430 years, much longer than America has been a nation. Can you imagine that pagan influence upon generation after generation, after generation, after generation and all of a sudden that pagan influence becomes the norm. So now God brings deliverance to them. They still had some roots that they were holding on to the roots of Abraham, but they didn't have the law, they didn't have any instructions. They didn't have anything except a few oral traditions.
So they were, for the most part, pagan and God had to get a lot of paganism out of them in one of the best places to do that was the desert. However, even though they were in the desert, God still said they were armed for battle. They had been slaves for a large portion of that 430 years, not the whole 430, but a large portion of it. They didn't have weapons. You know what their weapons were? Pitchforks, hoes, they would till the ground with it, sticks. That was their weapons, but they took what they had and they armed themselves for battle. I really liked that, that they were ready to try to conquer what was before them. Let's go on to verse 19 now.
Jacque: So Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said God will surely come to your aid. And then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.
Brian: Remember, Joseph was like the number two man in the kingdom and his brothers ended up moving into Egypt. They ended up, uh, kind of landing in an area called Goshen. The family grew and they were blessed there. They weren't always slaves there, but later on the scripture says there a rose of Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. So that was sometime after Joseph had died. The rose of Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and that Pharaoh said, "Man, look at all this free labor," and he indentured the Israelites and put them into slavery. That's where they lived for probably at least 300 years, maybe longer.
While Joseph was still alive, he prophesied that when the time came, God was going to bring deliverance. Most of the people who heard that prophecy probably didn't realize, I mean, they probably scratched your head and said, "Deliverance? We have it good here. What do we need deliverance from?" But sometimes the good in our lives is the enemy of the great that God has for us. God has greatness for every single one of us, but that greatness may not look like greatness to the rest of the world, but it's great for you because it's what God has purpose for you.
Joseph made his posterity, made a promise to him that when that time of deliverance would come, that they would take his bones up. They kept the oath of those who had gone before them. They had made an oath to their dad, Joseph. Now it was maybe 350 years later, and they felt the importance of keeping their word. How many of you know that when you give your word to somebody, it needs to be kept? It needs to be kept.
Joseph had prophesied this deliverance from the Lord and his bones were to be carried out when that happened, because Joseph knew something very important. Joseph knew in his heart, in spite of the fact that they were protected by the Pharaoh that was alive when Joseph was alive, they had a good place to live, they had crops to grow, all of this sort of thing, Joseph knew that Egypt wasn't the final destination for the Israelites. Joseph knew that. Sometimes we allow ourselves to settle and not go to the final destination that God has for us. Jacque and I pray quite a lot nowadays because we are getting into what some people call the golden years. I'm not sure why they call it golden when it hurts so much. We pray often that we will finish well. We will finish where God has purposed us to finish. We will complete what God has called us to do, and when it's done, we can say with the words of Jesus, it is complete. It's finished.
Israel was not going to be complete if they stayed in Egypt, and so Joseph said, "There is a better place for us. There is a better place for our family, our people, and when you go to that place, carry my bones with you." And so they kept their word to Joseph. Verse 21.
Jacque: By day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them a light, so they could travel by day or night.
Brian: We are familiar with this. They had a cloud by day, fire by night, and God was always with them. No matter if it was daylight or night time, God was always with them to give them light, to give them warmth, of course, from a fire, to give them direction. And we have to remember something: God owns the night, not the devil. God owns the night and he will guide us in the nighttime, just as much as he will guide us in the daytime. It wasn't more difficult for God to guide them during the nighttime than it was the daytime. It might've been harder for him to guide them during the daytime because they could see more, and what they would see with their natural eyes scared them. This cloud was before them during the day, and that at nighttime, the fire was there to lead them, guide them, warm them if they need warmth.
He is at work even in the very darkest of times in our lives. I know that Dan's family today feels like it's very dark and I'm sure Bob’s family, and even some of us feel it's a little dark. Bob was such a help in our facility here. He is going to be gone. We need people to step up and take his place. We need to fill that void. There is now a void here, and that can feel dark. Can't it? It can feel dark. And yet God is always at work even in the darkest of times, even in the darkest of times. Let's go on to verse 22.
Jacque: Neither the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Brian: So I like this, the word in front of the people. There are times where God will be our rear guard. There is a portion of this story where he does that, but more often than not, God wants to be where in front of us leading us. He doesn't want to be behind us pushing us. He is in front of us, leading us. He is in front of the people. And they were to keep their eyes focused forward, not backward, focused on where God was taking them. Sometimes, I've joked with a few people. They would stop by my house and they would ask for directions. They would say, "How do I get to here?" And I'll joke with them. I say, "You can't get there from here. You got to go someplace else first." Well, that's kind of how God is. You can't get there from here. You've got to go here first.
That's what happened with our property even right here. We originally bought the property across the street and God had that open for us. We had visions and plans and all that sort of stuff, but that's not where God wanted us. That was just where we had to go to get here. God had made prophetic declarations as to the destination of Israel. That was to be their focus. Their focus was to be what God had declared for them, not what the enemy was doing, not the Pharaoh that was now with 600 chariots chasing them down. The focus was that they needed to focus on where the fire was and where the cloud was. That was to be their focus, not the enemy or those things that, shall we say, appeared to be in their way.
Have you ever come across something that appears to be a stumbling block or appears to be in your way? If God has said for you to do this, then it will be done. One of the reasons why— remember the story when Jesus was sleeping in the boat and the storm came up and the disciples were all afraid? In the in the King James Version, it goes something like this: carest thou not that we perish. In our modern day language, it is "Wake up, Jesus. Don't you know we are dying here?" Well, Jesus woke up and he was a little bit irritated with the disciples. On the surface, it's like, well, that's a little, a little bit insensitive of Jesus to be irritated. I mean, the storm, the waves are coming over the boat. Doesn't it make sense that they should be a little apprehensive?
Why was Jesus frustrated with the disciples? I'll tell you why. Because when they got into the boat, Jesus said, "We have to go to the other side. We are going to the other side." There was the demoniac over there that needed deliverance, and we are going to the other side. And then he just takes a little rest before the encounter with the demonic realm. Well, the storm comes up. The devil didn't want that deems delivered, and the storm comes up and so forth. What did the disciples focus on? The storm. They focused on what was right in front of them rather than what God had declared for them, what God had declared for them.
It's so easy for us to get all of our attention on all these other things. There is another wonderful, great story about Elijah and Elisha. Elisha asked Elijah, I want a double portion of what you have and Elijah's instructions to him and said, "Well, when the time comes, keep your eye on me." And then what happened? This fiery chariot comes; the wind starts blowing all sorts of things start taking place. It had been really easy for Elijah to look at the chariot, look at the wind; look at all of these distractions. But what did Elisha do? He kept focus on Elijah. That's a whole typology for us today that when the storm comes, when all of these distractions come, when all of these hindrances come, we are to keep her eyes on Jesus; we are to keep our eyes on what he has said us to do. So don't lose your vision of Jesus. Remember Don Nelson. Do you remember the words of that song?
Jacque: Don't lose your vision of Jesus. Keep your eyes always looking to him many friends and their loved ones have lost their way. They have lost their vision of him.
Brian: It always touched my heart because I have known people who started well. They started well and then they lost their vision. They didn't keep their eyes on Jesus. They got their eyes on the storm or the discouragement or the opposition, and they've lost their way today. Jacque and I encounter them almost on a regular basis, people from our past who have lost their way. They were running so well. It's like Paul in the book of Galatians who says "You were running so well; what happened?" They lost their vision of Jesus. They lost their vision. They got their eyes focused on what appeared to be something in the way. No matter what our circumstances may be, nobody can take away our ability to love Jesus. Nobody can take that away from us. So keep loving Jesus, keep loving Jesus. Sometimes on this journey, God tells us to do something that we just don't want to do. And we find that in verse 2 of chapter 14.
Jacque: Tell the Israelites to turn back and in camp near— can you say that word?
Brian: No.
Jacque: Okay. I was going to figure it out before church and then I got distracted.
Brian: Pi Hahiroth.
Jacque: Okay. I'll start over. Tell the Israelites to turn back and then camp near Pi Hahiroth.
Brian: How many of you like that? You are on your way. You've been walking and walking and walking and going and you went through the desert and you are doing all this. And then God says, turn around and go back. Those just really aren't the words that you want to hear, are they? But he says, turn around, go back.
Jacque: Between Migdal and the sea. They are two in camp by the sea.
Brian: They had been moving south. If you go to a map, they had been moving south to go around this lake that's in part of Egypt and God said, "No, I don't want you to go that way. I want you to go straight north up to the sea." Well, this makes no sense. This makes no sense. I think this is where the phrase comes from. What was God thinking? I think that's where this phrase comes from. We see why it makes no sense because in verse three and four, this is why it makes no sense.
Jacque: Pharaoh will think the Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion hemmed in by the desert. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. So the Israelites did this.
Brian: The Israelites actually obeyed the Lord and their obedience, they found deliverance. What God had asked him to do is go up to the red sea and the desert was behind them, and they literally were hemmed in. They literally were hemmed in. It sometimes feels that way to us, that where God leads us, we are hemmed in, but God has a purpose in that hemming in for us, so that even the world or Egypt will know, as it says here, that I am the Lord. That was the goal of God, that all the world, that all of Egypt, all the people that would ever read this story would know that he was the Lord. Now we see in verse 10, this incredible thing.
Jacque: As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified and cried out to the Lord.
Brian: I'll admit that we do get terrified at times. We get terrified. Who's going to do this? All these people are leaving. Who's going to do that? Or I lost my job. What am I going to do? Or in Renee's case her husband, what am I going to do? How am I going to go on? It can be very terrifying. We do get terrified at times. It's natural for us to get terrified because we are looking through our natural eyes, but when we see things from God's view and God's perspective and God's eyes, which is a challenge to see things from God's eyes. But when we see things from God's perspective, you know what comes into our hearts, peace his serenity. They were terrified because they saw the Egyptians behind them. They saw the red sea in front of them and there was no place to go. I can just hear God looking over to Michael, the Archangel and he is saying, "I got them right where I want them. I have them right where I want them, where only I can bring deliverance." Let's go on, verse and 12.
Jacque: They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die."
Brian: Their first response was, "We had it better in Egypt."
Jacque: And they were kind of blaming.
Brian: Yeah, they had the B and Cs: blaming and complaining. They had the B and C. What have you done to us by bringing us out to Egypt?
Jacque: What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians and to die in the desert.
Brian: How quickly we are to blame and complain because we quit seeing what God is up to. We just have to be patient because he is always working to bring his love and his grace and his deliverance to us. He is always working to do.
Jacque: We have to be so intentional to remember the truth.
Brian: You know what our real problem is? We have made a God in our own image because our grace comes and goes. Our love comes and goes. Our commitment comes and goes. As long as you are doing this for me, then I'll be committed to you. But that is not how God's commitment is to us. Aren't you thankful for that? Regardless of your behavior, regardless of how you think, regardless of how much faith or unbelief you might have, God is still always working on your behalf. He is always going to be working. So they began to grumble and complain. If you and I were sitting up on the throne of God and we heard this grumbling and complaining, my attitude probably would have been okay, I'm not going to do what I was going to do for you.
Jacque: I'm glad you are not God.
Brian: Aren't you glad I'm not God? That's not the first time you've said that, by the way.
Jacque: I'm sorry.
Brian: He is always working to bring his grace and deliverance to us. So now look at it. Here is the leader's response to the grumbling and complaining. This is what Moses did.
Jacque: Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again."
Brian: This is what leaders need to do, In adversity, in darkness, in the night seasons in a time of discouragement, when things go awry, when they are obstacles in the path, what a leader needs to do is this. We have to declare what God has declared. We have to declare what God has declared. We are to state clearly what God's will is for the people. You may not think of yourself as a leader, but if you are a parent, you are a leader. You have children that you lead or grandchildren that you lead. We are to be responsible to keep saying to our children and our grandchildren and any people that we have leadership with and over is what God's will is in that situation, what God has declared in that situation and the things that have been a torment to us, will never be seen again. This is what God says here: the Egyptians that you've seen, you will never see again. We need to encourage one another in the Lord and in the word of God, that those things that have tormented us, those things that easily beset us, we need to be able to declare over our friends and over our family and over our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, you will not be tormented by this anymore. You will not be tormented by this. That is God's deliverance. That is God's deliverance in this. Look at verse 14.
Jacque: Oh, Brian, no matter who's around us, no matter what the situation, we can rise up and be a leader for God and say the truth and point people to Christ. Absolutely.
Brian: In his word.
Jacque: And his way.
Brian: Verse 14.
Jacque: The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.
Brian: Ooh, that's a tough one. Isn't it? But this has God's heart. God wants to defend every single one of us. It doesn't matter your age. You can be teenager. You can be a child. You can be beyond your golden years. You can be in your “never mind” years. It can be the tough time of your life, whatever, but this has God's heart. He wants to defend us. He wants to take care of us. What did Jesus say when he overlooked Jerusalem? How often have I wanted to gather you like a hen gathers her chicks. This is God's heart, but we need to be still and know that he is God. You know what we need to do? We need to calm ourselves and we need to be quiet. We need to be quiet and just submit ourselves to him. We need to say, like I say, many times a day: Jesus, I give everything and everyone to you. I give everything and everyone to you, Lord. I give this person, I give this situation. I give my concerns, this anxiety I'm feeling right now in my chest, Jesus, I give it to you.
Jacque: When I think of the word still, I just think of peace. And when we purposely become still, we can receive his supernatural peace.
Brian: Yes. Now, Moses is getting a little frustrated because the people are complaining, the Red Sea is in front of them. The Egyptians are bearing down on him with 600 chariots, and God has some very comforting words for him here.
Jacque: Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me?"
Brian: What are you crying out to me for?
Jacque: Tell the Israelites to move on.
Brian: Tell the Israelites to move on. Sometimes I bellyache to God and he said, "What are you crying out to me for? Just tell the people what I've told them to do. Just do what I've told you to do."
Jacque: Keep moving it. Toby Mac has a great song I love to listen to in the morning, keep walking. Soldier, keep moving. Yeah, it's so good.
Brian: This is a reminder to continue to move ahead even when we don't feel like it. You know we’ve got to say? Feelings, get in the back of the bus. Feelings, get into the back of the bus. You are not going to take the steering wheel of this bus. I'm going to take the steering wheel of this bus. I am going to my destination and I am no longer simply going to be a prophetic declaration, but I'm going to be a fulfillment of a prophetic declaration. That's what we have to say. I'm not just going to be a prophetic declaration. I am going to be the fulfillment of a prophetic declaration. That's what we have to do. And so then here is what the Lord said to him in verse 16.
Jacque: Raise your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
Brian: I can just see Moses here. What are you talking about? We've read this story post the event.
Jacque: We watched it on TV.
Brian: We watched it on TV. We've seen Charles Hanson do it.
Jacque: It was awesome.
Brian: Yeah. But you got to understand they were clueless about all of that stuff, and yet Moses did what he was told.
Jacque: He had never seen that done.
Brian: He had never seen it done. I like this rod. The Psalmist, later on, writes about this rod and staff. He says, the rod and the staff what?
Jacque: They comfort me.
Brian: They comfort me. The staff was really a symbol of authority. It's really interesting. A staff could actually be used as a weapon. In some respects, it was a weapon in this case. It parted the red sea, and ultimately, it was the demise of the Egyptian army. But interestingly enough, it was also a violation of Hebrew law to kill servant with your staff. It 1:15:00 wasn't necessarily a violation of Hebrew law to actually take the life of a servant if they had not behave properly, but it was illegal, it was against the law to use your staff, to take the life of a servant. The reason for this is because those with authority are to shepherd and that staff is a representation of authority. If you have authority, you need to shepherd not kill. You need to shepherd, not kill. Sometimes there is correction that needs to be involved, but all correction needs to be redemptive. That's why I love God's correction. I don't like being corrected by man very often, but I don't mind God's correction because his correction is redemptive and it's not punitive.
We need to close here. You know the rest of the story. The Israelites walked through on dry land. The Egyptians’ lives are taken. When they try to follow, they get stuck and the sea covers them up. We see in verse 31, a conclusion to this story where God says this.
Jacque: And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of God displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him, and in Moses, his servant.
Brian: I would just say that, oh, that we would come to a place where we would truly honor and have reverence for the Lord. The fear of the Lord spoken up here is to honor and to revere. It's not to be afraid of. God doesn't want us to be afraid of him at all. That's why he talks to us in terms of him being our father. What God really wants is that we would come to a place of truly honoring him and have a reverence for him. And you know what? I want to become what God says I am. You can ask yourself the question today: what has God declared over you? What has God declared over your life? What things have yet to come to pass that God has declared for you?
I know Vivian still has desires for a future, and she is 85 years old. You talk to Vivian, and she is, she is got a big future in front of her because she knows the things that God has declared for her. I want to become what God says I am. And you know what? If I'm in a desert place, I'm there because God has led me there, not because he is mad at me. I'm not in a desert place because God is angry with me. I'm there because he has led me there. He is working with me. He is trying to things into me and he is trying to take things out of me that aren't for his glory. But at the end of the day, one of the things that you and I can really do is this, that the hand of the Lord can be displayed in our lives, and that people will look at what God is doing for us. They will begin to honor and fear the Lord fear in a sense of having reverence for God, and others will put their trust in the Lord because of what they see God doing in our lives.
Jacque: We have to keep remembering that God is for us. He is for us.
Brian: He is so for us. Father, I thank you today for this incredible story, so many wonderful truths that we can garner and get out of it, Lord. And that Jesus, there are many reasons for following your way. We place our lives into your care and your safekeeping today. And I pray that, father, for those who are here and those who are watching on livestream today, and others who will see this telecast later, I pray Holy Spirit, that you will begin to touch their lives because when we are in a place of opposition and when we are in a place where things seem to be just going wrong and it can feel that way this year for us. There has been a lot of loss to us in this year, and yet, Lord, I believe you are leading us to a place where your name will be glorified and your name will be honored, and you will surely, as you said to Moses was to raise the staff, and surely you will see the deliverance of the hand of the Lord.
I prayed today that, father, we would see your deliverance. We would see your glory come and its fullness, that we would see a manifestation of your power here among us in a way that we've never yet seen. Father, I pray for those who are watching today by livestream that your power and your presence would enter their homes or their cars or their places of business, wherever they might be watching, Lord, that your presence would come right now, touch their hearts, draw them to you. I pray God, for those who might not know you yet, you have been drawing them.
The Israelites really didn't know you when they left Egypt, but by the time they had entered into the Promise Land, they had begun to learn who you were and how much you cared. Lord, we are all on this journey of walking with you and walking towards you, and I pray for those today who have yet to bow their knee to you, who have yet to confess that you are their Lord and savior, but their hearts are being drawn. I pray for them today, Lord. I pray for them that your spirit would continue to soften their hearts and minds that they would begin to begin to take this step of trusting you, trusting you.
Maybe today you are at a place where you've not yet ever prayed to receive the Lord. If that's you, I just encourage you to bow your head. Just say, Jesus, I receive you into my life today. I want to follow you. I want to follow you. I want you to be the light in the darkness, and I want you to be this cloud that I followed during the day. I want to follow you day and night, not just an hour or two a week. I want to follow you day and night. Father, I pray, and I pray for you people that are watching today, that you would be able to pray that prayer, that you would say I want to follow you, Jesus, for he is the light of the world. He is the light of the world. Jesus is the answer for your life today. Jesus is the answer for your life today. Above him, there is no other. Jesus is the way.
I want to invite Pastor Jeff to come and just join me here on the platform and just have a concluding prayer together. I'm so grateful for God's presence. I'm so grateful for his comfort and these times of loss. I think in these seasons, God is more real than any other time in our lives, any other times in our lives. Why don't you pray, Pastor Jeff?
Jeff: Great. We just never want to end the service without trusting the Lord for miracles, for people that need them. If you need a miracle today, if you need to healing, if you need a breakthrough, if you are watching by livestream or if you are here in the sanctuary, we know that God is right here to meet us exactly where we are at. Maybe you got the Egyptian army coming down on your back and the Red Sea is in front of you. That's how it feels. Anybody has ever been there? You know what that feels like, but it doesn't mean that God isn't right there with you able to work in your behalf because that's who he is. And he loves us so much that he can do that, that he will do that. So if you have a need in your life, if you need a miracle, just put your hand up to the Lord.
The first thing we'll say is father, I trust you. Father, I trust you. I see what's coming behind me. It looks like there is no way out. I need a miracle and I trust you. I'm going to pray for you. Father, just release your miracles into the lives of your children. Holy Spirit I ask that right now you will settle with your glory and your power on each one of us and that you will work the way only you can work in each of our lives, in our bodies, in our relationships and in our circumstances. In Jesus' name, I released the miracles of God. And then what we can all say is thank you, father. I trust you. Thank you, Lord. I trust you.
Brian: I'm so thankful that you joined us today. I want to give a special welcome to my brother-in-law, Larry Foths, and his family. Some of his brothers and family are here. So God bless you. It's great to have you here today. Welcome, all of you into the house of the Lord. Let's raise our hands together.
Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you keep moving forward knowing that God is leading you. Whether it's daylight or nighttime, he will never leave you or forsake you. This we pray in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Join us at the Corcoran Park for picnic today. We would love to have you there. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-29-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.