Episode Transcript
[00:00:30] Speaker A: To my feet your way is the only way for me.
It's a narrow road that leads to life but I want to be on it.
It's a narrow road but the mercy is wide. Cause you're good on your promise I'll
[00:00:57] Speaker B: take you at your wor.
Turn it I'll believe it.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: I seen how good it works.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: If you started you'll complete it.
[00:01:13] Speaker D: I'll take you at your word.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: And the chaos fell in love
[00:01:32] Speaker E: I
[00:01:34] Speaker B: cause I've seen it in my life.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: It's a narrow road that leads to
[00:01:42] Speaker B: life but I wanna be on it yeah it's a narrow road and the tightest time be part of the water.
[00:01:54] Speaker C: I'll take you at your word.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: He said it I'll believe it.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: I've seen how good it work.
If you started, you're completed. I'll take you at your word.
If you said it I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works.
If you started, you're completed.
[00:02:27] Speaker E: I take you at your word.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: You'll be good on your promise.
Yeah.
You said your love would never give up. You said your grace is always enough.
You said your heart would never forget or forsake me.
Hallelujah you said I'm saved you call me yours. You said my future's full of your hope.
[00:03:02] Speaker C: You never failed so I know that
[00:03:05] Speaker F: you'll never fail me.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: I'll take you you at your word.
If you said it I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works.
If you start it, you'll complete it. I'll take you at your word.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: If you said it, I'll believe it.
[00:03:33] Speaker D: I've seen how good it works.
[00:03:37] Speaker C: If you started you'll complete it.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: I take you at your word.
Cause you're good on your promise I'll take you at your word.
Yes. Amen.
[00:03:56] Speaker G: Our God is good and we can trust him. Amen.
Have a seat, please. Welcome. Welcome to everyone. Welcome to those of you who are members, those of you who are regular attenders, those of you who are new to Westgate, maybe those of you who are here for the first time and to our online people who are joining us online, welcome. What a privilege and blessing it is that we can be here freely together to love and encourage each other, to worship together and to have God's word spoken over us and to guide us and lead us. If you are newer and you want to get deeper connected here at Westgate, we would love that too. And there are two ways to do that. You can fill out the connect card in the pew in front of you and give it to our guest service people in the back behind these doors, and they will gladly help you get connected.
[00:04:38] Speaker F: Or.
[00:04:39] Speaker G: Or you can download our Westgate Chapel app and you can fill it out on there. And that Westgate Chapel app also has lots of other resources there available for you as well. I have. Oh, and sermon notes, if you want to have sermon notes, they're always available on all of the tables located directly by all the entrances into the building. And our wonderful ushers always have them available for you. And they are also also on the Westgate Chapel app, so it's very handy. I have two announcements for you. The first one is, our church picnic is coming up on August 23, right after the second service in the fields right by the church. For those of you who have been to that, you know, it's a great, relaxing time for us to get together as a church family and just enjoy a meal together and do some activities. If you've never been, I would encourage you to check it out. You don't have to bring any food or any chairs or anything. Just bring yourself ready to socialize and have fun with each other.
The second one is in your bulletin. There's an insert that has all of the Bible studies that are coming up, and there's several options there, so please check those out and see if any of those days and times work for you. I know that me being a part of a Bible study outside of my personal quiet time has really been a great part for my faith journey. So I encourage you to check that out and see if any of those work for you. That is all I have for you this morning. So I'm gonna hand it over to Pastor Dan and he has some stuff for you.
[00:05:58] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:05:58] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:05:58] Speaker D: How we doing, Westgate?
[00:06:02] Speaker I: Love it.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: So pumped you guys are here this morning.
Parents, in case you didn't know, school is starting back up. Right. Who's excited for that?
Some. Yeah, get the kids out of the house.
And so. But what I'm excited about is when school starts back up, that means Westgate students starts back up. And so we're super pumped for that. And so this morning, I didn't just want to come up here and share, like, all the stuff we're gonna be doing this school year and all the fun things and Jesus things. And I just wanted to come up and share, like, why I think student ministry, like, matters, like, why I think it's a big deal this year. Your students are gonna have, like, thousands
[00:06:44] Speaker I: of voices coming at them.
[00:06:47] Speaker G: Right?
[00:06:48] Speaker I: Right.
[00:06:48] Speaker D: While they're at school, friends at school, social media, teachers, coaches, culture, and all those voices are gonna be telling them something about who they are, who they should be telling them about what matters, what success looks like, what relationships should look like, and ultimately, right, maybe in
[00:07:09] Speaker I: what they should believe or believe about God.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: And so what Luke and I believe that Student Ministries is about is creating a community where your student can walk through things with people and leaders that
[00:07:25] Speaker I: are going to point them towards Jesus.
[00:07:29] Speaker D: Like Luke and I, man, we want your students to be known by name at Westgate students. We want leaders to know them by name. We want them to have friends who would encourage them. A place where they can ask hard questions, a place where they can struggle and not be judged. A place where they can worship Jesus and then a place where they can
[00:07:49] Speaker I: have fun and be a teenager.
[00:07:51] Speaker D: But more importantly, we want them to have a community that helps them follow
[00:07:56] Speaker I: Jesus when they leave this building or when they leave Monday nights.
[00:08:03] Speaker D: And student Ministries, I know Luke and I, we want to come alongside families, right? We want to support you as you support your kids, as you pour into them, right? We want to reinforce what hopefully you guys are teaching your kids at home.
And I know that life is busy.
[00:08:20] Speaker I: Who has a busy life in here?
Okay, everyone better raise their hands.
[00:08:23] Speaker D: Everyone says they're busy.
I know there's sports, right? I know there's games and practices. I know there's homework. I know there's family stuff. I know there's a lot of things that our families and all of us do.
And sometimes Monday night can feel like just another night.
You know, we need a break. We need to take away something.
[00:08:44] Speaker I: Let's not go to, like, youth group or something like that.
[00:08:48] Speaker D: So what I wanna encourage you as families or maybe aunts and uncles or if you know a student that's in middle school or high school to encourage them to make student ministry like this
[00:09:00] Speaker I: community, a priority in their life.
[00:09:03] Speaker D: Cause to be honest, your student isn't gonna remember the lessons that I teach
[00:09:08] Speaker I: them or Luke teaches them.
[00:09:12] Speaker D: I think the foundations are instilled. I remember when I was in youth group, I don't remember one thing my
[00:09:16] Speaker I: pastor taught on Wednesday night. Okay.
[00:09:21] Speaker D: I believe the things that he taught,
[00:09:22] Speaker I: right, built a foundation in my life. But I couldn't tell you, oh, like
[00:09:26] Speaker D: this day, this time, he said, you
[00:09:28] Speaker I: know, that really cool thing.
[00:09:29] Speaker D: But what they will remember is, like,
[00:09:32] Speaker I: who they walk through middle school and high school with.
[00:09:35] Speaker D: What they will remember is that leader or those friends at church that prayed
[00:09:39] Speaker I: for them when they Were struggling.
[00:09:42] Speaker D: They're gonna remember that friend that sat beside them the night they worshiped Jesus. And like for the first time, like something clicked that they're gonna remember the conversation that happened in small group, right? The community that reminded them like, you are not alone, like we love you.
Like we want Westgate students to just be more than a place that they
[00:10:04] Speaker I: attend, but something that they are a part of, right?
[00:10:09] Speaker D: Like all those things I just mentioned, those are things that I remember from
[00:10:12] Speaker I: student ministry that I loved about youth group, right? Being a part of something.
[00:10:19] Speaker D: So we want your students to be
[00:10:21] Speaker I: a part of this community because we believe it's important and it builds a strong foundation.
[00:10:26] Speaker D: And so August 31st, 6th grade through 12th grade, we're having our kickoff party in the parking lot. We're gonna be doing blow ups and games and giveaways and stuff like that. But we're gonna be starting with worship this year because we believe it's important that we wanna start the year off
[00:10:44] Speaker I: on the right foot, right?
[00:10:45] Speaker D: Not we're gonna have the fun and do all the cool stuff, but we
[00:10:47] Speaker I: wanna start worshiping God, giving him the praise right from the get go.
[00:10:53] Speaker D: And so if you're a parent, if you're an aunt and uncle, if you just see some students running around, be like, hey, you need to be a
[00:11:01] Speaker I: part of your student ministry community and
[00:11:05] Speaker D: encourage them to get here on the 31st to get connected within this ministry.
Because I think it makes a difference
[00:11:13] Speaker I: in their life, right?
[00:11:14] Speaker D: Being a part of a community that loves Jesus and it's gonna point them
[00:11:18] Speaker I: to Jesus, I think that changes the trajectory students lives.
And so that's why I believe student ministries is important.
[00:11:28] Speaker D: And so this morning I would love for you guys to get up, greet someone and say, hey, I love that
[00:11:33] Speaker I: you're a part of this Westgate community.
[00:11:48] Speaker E: Look at the flowers in all of their beauty I don't have to wonder you know what you're doing.
So why would I worry at all?
You're faithful to me to supply everything I need Everything I need My father has it. My father has it Every single time the Lord will provide My father has it. My father has it all My father has it.
Look at the sparrow lacking for nothing no fear of tomorrow and what it will bring.
If I have you, I have enough Cause your love will satisfy Everything I need Everything I need My father has it.
My father has it Every single single time the Lord will provide My father has it My father has it all.
First the kingdom and its treasures Everything else will be added all that I'm needing.
I know the Lord will provide.
I know my God's not empty handed. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing.
I know the Lord will provide.
See first the kingdom and its treasures.
Everything else it will be added.
All that I'm needed.
I know the Lord will provide.
I know my God's not empty handed. He gives us blessings Far from blessings. I'm still believing.
I know the Lord will provide.
Everything I need.
Everything I need.
My father has it.
My father has it.
Every single time.
The Lord will provide.
My father has it.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: My father has it.
[00:15:41] Speaker E: Every single time.
Everything I need, My father has it.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: My father has.
[00:15:51] Speaker E: Every single time.
The Lord will provide.
My father has it.
My father seeks first the kingdom and its treasures.
Everything else it will be added.
All that I needed.
I know the Lord will provide.
I know my God's not empty handed. He gets us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing.
I know the Lord will provide.
I know the Lord will provide.
[00:16:47] Speaker D: I know the Lord will provide
[00:16:54] Speaker F: it.
[00:17:29] Speaker H: A thousand generations falling down in worship.
To sing the song of ages to
[00:17:39] Speaker F: the land
[00:17:43] Speaker H: and all who've gone before us.
And all who will believe Will sing the song of ages to the land.
Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all.
All thrones and dominions. All powers and positions. Your name stands above them all.
And the angels cry holy.
All creation cries holy.
You are lifted high, holy, Holy forever.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: If you've been forgiven and if you've been redeemed.
Sing the song forever to the end.
And if you walk in freedom.
And if you you bear his name.
Sing the song forever to end.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: We'll sing the song forever and amen.
And the angels cry
[00:19:25] Speaker F: holy.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: All creation, Christ.
[00:19:31] Speaker F: Holy.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: You are lifted high,
[00:19:38] Speaker F: Holy.
[00:19:41] Speaker D: Holy forever.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Your people sing holy to the king of kings.
[00:19:58] Speaker F: Holy
[00:20:01] Speaker C: you will always be
[00:20:04] Speaker F: holy.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: Holy forever.
[00:20:14] Speaker H: Oh Jesus. Cause your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name, it stands above the them all.
Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Jesus. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands alone above them all.
Above all thrones and dominions. All powers and positions. Your name stands above them all.
And the angels cry holy.
All creation cries
[00:21:18] Speaker F: holy.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: You are lifted high
[00:21:25] Speaker F: Holy.
[00:21:28] Speaker C: Holy forever.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Hear your people sing Holy to the king of kings.
[00:21:45] Speaker F: Holy, Holy.
[00:21:47] Speaker D: You will always be
[00:21:51] Speaker F: holy.
[00:21:54] Speaker D: Holy forever.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: You will always be
[00:22:05] Speaker F: holy.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Holy forever.
You will always be
[00:22:18] Speaker F: holy.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Holy forever.
You will always be
[00:22:33] Speaker F: holy.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Holy forever.
[00:22:48] Speaker D: Amen.
He is holy. Church. Amen.
Amen. You can take a seat.
So, just as we've worshiped God, hopefully with our hearts and with our voices and with these instruments, we're going to worship God through our giving this morning.
And so I'm going to pray for
[00:23:11] Speaker I: us and then give you some direction of what that looks like.
[00:23:14] Speaker D: Dear Heavenly Father, we pray this morning just with thankful hearts.
[00:23:18] Speaker I: I know I do. I'm thankful to be here, God, with these people, at this church, in this place.
[00:23:25] Speaker D: And, Lord, I just pray as we come. And we not only give our worship
[00:23:31] Speaker I: through our words and our songs, but
[00:23:33] Speaker D: we give our worship through what we give.
[00:23:36] Speaker I: So, Lord God, I pray this morning
[00:23:37] Speaker D: that all of us give from a
[00:23:39] Speaker I: posture of, Lord, I get to give to you, not I have to.
So, Lord Jesus, I pray with the things that we give this morning, from the music to our tithes and our offerings.
May you get the honor and glory.
[00:23:56] Speaker D: And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you
[00:23:57] Speaker I: bless this and may you use it to move your kingdom forward.
[00:24:01] Speaker D: I praise in your holy and powerful name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:24:04] Speaker I: Amen.
[00:24:04] Speaker D: So we got our baskets in the middle, and you can pass them outwards this morning.
[00:24:24] Speaker F: Sam.
[00:25:09] Speaker I: My Bible's falling apart as we speak.
It's from when I was in sixth grade, so it's very well worn.
[00:25:20] Speaker D: The front's duct taped. I haven't gotten to the back yet.
[00:25:22] Speaker I: I should probably do that.
And so, church, I'm glad to be up here with you this morning.
[00:25:29] Speaker D: If you came in late and weren't in here when I was giving our
[00:25:33] Speaker I: student ministry thing, like, it's okay, I forgive you, but. My name is Dan.
I am the student ministry pastor here at Westgate Chapel.
[00:25:41] Speaker D: And it's always a privilege to be able to bring God's word to you.
[00:25:46] Speaker I: It's a big deal to me.
[00:25:47] Speaker D: And so before we hop into anything, I just want to spend a moment
[00:25:50] Speaker I: and just give this time over to the Lord. So will you pray with me?
[00:25:55] Speaker D: Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you and we thank you for your word.
[00:26:05] Speaker I: It's powerful and it's real and it's alive.
So, God thank you for it. And, God, I pray that I can bring you honor and glory today as I try to teach from it.
And, Lord, I just. Holy Spirit, I pray that you are just here with us. I know we got a bunch of believers here, so, Holy Spirit, I know you're here. And so I just pray that you just move powerfully this morning.
Help us to see what we need to see or be reminded of something that maybe we forgot Holy Spirit has always helped me to say the things I need to and keep me from saying things that I shouldn't.
I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
[00:26:40] Speaker D: Okay, so as I was preparing for this morning, I was trying to figure out how I wanted to start things off.
[00:26:48] Speaker I: Like, if I was gonna do, like,
[00:26:49] Speaker D: an illustration or something fun or, like, clever. But instead, I landed on.
[00:26:54] Speaker I: I just wanna be honest with my church family of where I'm at.
[00:26:58] Speaker D: And so Rob asked me to.
[00:27:03] Speaker I: So let me rewind here.
[00:27:04] Speaker D: Rob gave us dates of times we could preach.
[00:27:06] Speaker I: Okay.
[00:27:07] Speaker D: Like the August 16, September, whatever. And so by the time I got to it, there was August 16th. So that's why I am preaching this morning at this time.
And it is funny, but also, I
[00:27:22] Speaker I: don't think it was by, like, a coincidence.
[00:27:24] Speaker D: And so I remember Rob, like, okay, I was like, I got August 16th. And so I looked at what the thing is, and so what's the series we're going through?
[00:27:30] Speaker I: You guys remember the Life of Moses?
[00:27:34] Speaker D: I love a good response.
[00:27:35] Speaker I: Thank you.
[00:27:35] Speaker D: So we're going through the life of Moses. And so this morning, when I looked at what Rob had, like, kind of like the little big idea said, caught
[00:27:44] Speaker I: between fear and faith.
[00:27:47] Speaker D: And so a couple months ago, when I looked at it, I was like, oh, like, I love the book of. I love the book of Exodus. I love the story and life of Moses. Like, we're gonna be in Exodus 14. So it's like the parting of the Red Sea. I'm like, oh, such a good story. There's so much cool things happening.
And I was like, oh, come between fear and faith. That's a cool concept.
[00:28:04] Speaker I: Like, I can't wait to teach that.
[00:28:06] Speaker D: Cause in my life, I've never really
[00:28:09] Speaker I: necessarily been a fearful person.
Not a lot of things that happen
[00:28:13] Speaker D: where I, like, kind of like, man, I, like, terrified or freaked out. And most of my life, I've lived with kind of, like, I feel invincible.
[00:28:19] Speaker I: That's changed as I've gotten older.
I'm getting hurt more.
[00:28:27] Speaker D: But then a couple weeks ago happened, and my family found out that my dad has cancer.
And so I remember coming back to
[00:28:37] Speaker I: this and then kind of looking at it from a whole different perspective because
[00:28:41] Speaker D: I found myself being like, okay, like,
[00:28:44] Speaker I: I'm afraid right now. Like, I'm afraid that my dad could pass away. Right?
[00:28:51] Speaker D: And so, like, this morning, I just come to you in saying that as
[00:28:56] Speaker I: I have gone through Exodus 14, I
[00:28:59] Speaker D: believe the Lord's been ministering to me, and I don't believe it was a coincidence that I have to preach this
[00:29:03] Speaker I: just before I'm getting this news.
[00:29:05] Speaker D: And. Right.
[00:29:06] Speaker I: I'm wrestling with these words that I'm going to be giving you this morning.
[00:29:11] Speaker F: Right.
[00:29:13] Speaker I: I've been sitting with them this week,
[00:29:14] Speaker D: so I've had a little more time than you to digest them, because you're
[00:29:16] Speaker I: gonna get them right now.
But I just wanted to be open with you all. And just, like, this is where I'm at, and this is how I'm bringing God's word to you this morning.
[00:29:25] Speaker D: So I spent a lot of time in my office, the Holy Spirit talking to me and teaching me some things.
[00:29:31] Speaker I: So I'm just gonna bring to you what I believe the Holy Spirit brought to me. And my prayer is that it'll be beneficial for us this morning.
[00:29:40] Speaker D: And so we're going to get right into it. So if you got your Bibles, open it up. It's important. Go to Exodus, chapter 14.
And we're starting in verse one, and we're ending with verse 31. We're going through 31 verses this morning. So it's gonna be a ride. I'm excited for it, and I'm trying something new. I'm doing Pastor Rob. Like, Pastor Rob's iPad thing, I've never done before. I'm a little nervous. Technology skill. Like, I'm always worried, like, it's gonna go off or shut off or freeze.
[00:30:06] Speaker I: I'm gonna be stuck up here. But first, service, no hitch. So the Lord provided.
[00:30:14] Speaker D: And so let's go to Exodus, chapter 14.
[00:30:16] Speaker I: I'll get there myself.
It says this.
[00:30:22] Speaker D: Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Piherioth between Migdol and the sea.
They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite BAAL Zephon. 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
[00:30:41] Speaker I: he will pursue them.
[00:30:42] Speaker D: But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
[00:30:49] Speaker I: So the Israelites did this.
[00:30:54] Speaker D: And so what do we see God
[00:30:57] Speaker I: doing here with Israel?
He's redirecting them.
[00:31:05] Speaker D: Okay. And so right off the bat, the first point I want you guys to get. I was gonna do no points this morning, but I was like, I know you guys.
[00:31:12] Speaker I: You need that. And so we're doing points.
[00:31:15] Speaker D: God's path isn't going to be the easiest.
And at first I had. Isn't always going to be the easiest. And I Was like, I threw that always out. Cause I'm like, no, I'm just gonna put a period on it.
[00:31:26] Speaker I: The truth is God's way is not going to be the easiest in this life.
[00:31:34] Speaker D: And so what we see happening in this story is before that God already made their path not easy. As they're coming out of Egypt. He made them go the long way around.
[00:31:46] Speaker I: Okay.
[00:31:46] Speaker D: So I imagine they're already complaining and upset about that.
[00:31:48] Speaker I: Like, why didn't we just go the easy way, the straight way through?
[00:31:52] Speaker D: But God knew, right? Okay.
[00:31:53] Speaker I: Like that's philistine country, right? Probably won't be the best for you guys.
[00:31:58] Speaker D: And then there's all these.
[00:32:00] Speaker I: I'm not like, who's directionally challenged in here?
Anyone? Okay, my hands up with you.
[00:32:05] Speaker D: I am as well. I GPS everywhere. Even.
Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker I: Going. Yeah.
[00:32:09] Speaker D: Places I shouldn't.
[00:32:10] Speaker I: I gps.
[00:32:13] Speaker D: And so I'm directly challenged. So I was like reading through this and like kind of studying like where God was taking Israel and moving them. And I'm like, okay, so I'm not gonna have a map up this morning. I'm not gonna like connect the dots for you. God is redirecting Israel, okay. He's having them turn back from the
[00:32:31] Speaker I: direction that they were moving. I think we all can comprehend and
[00:32:35] Speaker D: understand that and actually tells them to camp essentially in a cul de sac. Do you guys know what a cul de sac is?
Yeah. Everyone know? If you don't know, we have a lot of them.
[00:32:45] Speaker I: Toledo, you should know.
[00:32:46] Speaker D: It's a one way road. You come in, it's like a little
[00:32:48] Speaker I: loop and you go out the same road you came in.
[00:32:51] Speaker D: And so essentially God has the Israelites in a cul de sac. They got the Red Sea on one side, they got the mountains all around the other side. And then they got this one lane
[00:32:59] Speaker I: road in and out, right?
[00:33:01] Speaker D: Because if there was another way out,
[00:33:04] Speaker I: I don't think we'd be reading about Exodus 14 and the Red Sea and Jesus parting it because they just would have went down that way. Right.
[00:33:12] Speaker D: And so we know they're in this cul de sac.
And to be honest, that's not ideal. That's not an ideal place to be. Especially with kind of like the information
[00:33:22] Speaker I: that God just told Moses, right.
[00:33:26] Speaker D: Kind of be in a place where
[00:33:28] Speaker I: there's one way in, one way out.
So we see that God has redirected the Israelites path.
[00:33:36] Speaker D: And as I was reading this, I was just like, and those of you who followed Jesus for a long time, does that surprise you?
[00:33:44] Speaker I: What God is doing right?
[00:33:46] Speaker D: Right off the bat, he makes them
[00:33:48] Speaker I: go the long way, right?
[00:33:50] Speaker D: And then he has them turn back and like, backtrack a little bit, right? I'm like, okay. Like, that kind of tracks with how
[00:33:57] Speaker I: God sets things up in our life, okay?
And even though we know that, I
[00:34:03] Speaker D: know there's lots of times I'm like,
[00:34:04] Speaker I: God, what are you doing?
[00:34:07] Speaker D: You're confusing me. Your way doesn't make sense.
It's kind of annoying me. It's frustrating me. Like, it's making it hard to follow you. Like, you redirecting my paths, the ways that I want to go, you're not
[00:34:20] Speaker I: allowing me to go there.
[00:34:25] Speaker D: I think God's revealing, right, that following him isn't always going to be the
[00:34:30] Speaker I: easiest option for us.
But what I know is that God chooses the path we would never choose ourselves because he knows what it's going to do for us, right?
[00:34:45] Speaker D: And as Americans in 2026, man, like, we want the path of least resistance, okay? We want the road that doesn't wind, that is straight, that has zero bumps, right? We don't want, like, when I first came to Toledo, I didn't know about, like, those speed bumps in, like, neighborhood areas, right? When I grew up, it's just these little speed bumps at like, Giant Eagle or like parking lots. So I'm coming for my interview down Wilford. I'm kind of going 35, 40, and then BA boom.
I'm like, what was that? I thought my car was done for. And I was like, okay. Like, Toledo has five foot bumps in the road.
[00:35:20] Speaker I: It was insane.
[00:35:21] Speaker D: But we don't want those bumps in our life. We don't want the curves and the twists and, like, the ups and the downs. Like, we just want to be smooth and easy.
But God knows what kind of faith that would create if that's how life was.
Create a soft faith, a faith that honestly doesn't require that much trust or
[00:35:45] Speaker I: obedience or reliance on him.
[00:35:48] Speaker D: So he positions the Israelites in such
[00:35:50] Speaker I: a way that he is going to grow their faith.
And we see that God has a plan.
[00:36:01] Speaker D: I don't know if the Israelites get
[00:36:02] Speaker I: all the information that Moses gets, but
[00:36:05] Speaker D: essentially, right, the plan is I'm gonna make it look like you're confused, like you're lost. Pharaoh's gonna hear about it and he's gonna. Cause Pharaoh has eyes everywhere. They're still in Egypt, you know, territory. And so he's gonna see, like, hey, like, these people seem like they don't know where they're going.
[00:36:21] Speaker I: Like, maybe you Go get them back.
[00:36:23] Speaker D: And he's gonna try to, right, seize the opportunity, okay? And what we know is that God's the reason he's doing this is not just because.
That's because he wants to make their life harder or more difficult. It's because he says, I'm not done
[00:36:35] Speaker I: with Egypt just yet.
[00:36:37] Speaker D: He has one final move that he wants to do that's going to make
[00:36:40] Speaker I: a lasting imprint on this Egyptian nature nation.
[00:36:46] Speaker D: We're going to come back to it later.
[00:36:48] Speaker I: He says a few statements of getting glory, right? Allowing these people to know that he is the Lord, capital L O R D, because of what he has planned.
[00:37:01] Speaker D: And to be honest, as I read about this, I'm like, I'm kind of impressed with Moses, okay?
God gives him this plan. And I would first glance, I'd be like, that doesn't sound like a good plan.
That sounds like a pretty scary plan.
You're going to put us in a cul de sac, which means there's one way in, one way out, surrounded by a sea and some mountains.
[00:37:22] Speaker I: And then you're going to have this
[00:37:23] Speaker D: massive strong army, like, come after us.
[00:37:27] Speaker I: And God's like, yep. And then that's it, right?
[00:37:31] Speaker D: Like, I'd rather not know the plan.
[00:37:32] Speaker I: God, that sounds scary, right?
[00:37:37] Speaker D: He says that, but he doesn't say,
[00:37:38] Speaker I: I'm going to then drown the Egyptians.
[00:37:40] Speaker D: I'm going to. I'm going to open the sea so you can get through. He simply says, right, I'm gonna put
[00:37:46] Speaker I: you in this space.
The Egyptians are gonna come get you. They're gonna come after you.
And we see that Moses trusts God.
I was like, huh, that's interesting.
[00:37:56] Speaker D: Cause before Moses, you guys remember, like, at the burning bush, every. Every excuse he could make, right? He's, I don't wanna do this. I can't do that.
I can't talk or whatever. I'm not ready.
[00:38:08] Speaker I: Like, he's like, I'm not doing this, God.
Ultimately he does. He steps into this fearful moment with the Lord,
[00:38:16] Speaker D: right? The reason he can be like this,
[00:38:18] Speaker I: in this moment is because he has spent time with God,
[00:38:23] Speaker D: right? Moses has experienced God. Moses has been used by God. Moses has been saying yes to God for a while now, right? He's seen God move, right? He said, yes, I'm gonna do this thing that you're asking me to do. I really don't want to do it. I'm gonna go talk to a pharaoh that could kill me, but I trust that you're gonna protect me. And he moved through it, even though he was scared.
[00:38:40] Speaker I: Cause he trusted God in it.
[00:38:42] Speaker D: And so he's already seen how God can work in his most fearful moments. So when he hears his plan, he's like, okay, sounds scary,
[00:38:51] Speaker I: but I know what you can do.
[00:38:52] Speaker D: God,
[00:38:54] Speaker I: he's been saying yes to him.
[00:38:56] Speaker D: And so when we're actively living out our faith, when we're actively saying yes to Jesus, living closely with Jesus, I think those times when those moments of fear come into our life, with those
[00:39:05] Speaker I: situations that we're facing, if we have
[00:39:08] Speaker D: that kind of faith, that kind of
[00:39:09] Speaker I: time with the Lord, it's not going to outweigh that kind of faith.
[00:39:14] Speaker D: Moses knew what God was about.
[00:39:17] Speaker I: He had experienced what God was about.
[00:39:20] Speaker D: But we're gonna see, right? The Israelites at this point, they've kind of been spectators to all the things
[00:39:27] Speaker I: that God's been doing or everything that God's been doing through Moses.
[00:39:31] Speaker D: Like last week, yes, they took part in the Passover. I do think that was a big deal in working through, okay, we have to trust God with our firstborn and with our families here. So they did the blood and all that. But ultimately, up to this point, like Moses and Aaron, man, they've been doing,
[00:39:43] Speaker I: like, the heavy lifting.
[00:39:45] Speaker D: They've been saying, yes, they've been walking in front of Pharaoh and his people day in and day out, right? That powerful king that could be like, I don't like what you said. Take his head off.
[00:39:54] Speaker I: And they've been seeing God move in the midst of it.
And now I think the Israelites are going to be faced for the first time, maybe the second time with a
[00:40:02] Speaker D: question, right, that all of us have to answer in our life. Are we going to.
[00:40:05] Speaker F: Are we going to
[00:40:08] Speaker I: give in to fear?
Are we going to be fearful?
We're going to be faithful in the situations that we find ourselves in.
[00:40:19] Speaker D: And so verses five through nine, the fear shows up.
[00:40:23] Speaker I: Let's continue.
[00:40:24] Speaker D: It says, when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, what have we done?
We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services.
So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took 600 of the best chariots along with the other chariots, with all of the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So he pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the Sea near Piheriath, opposite baal.
[00:41:01] Speaker I: Zephon or Zephon.
[00:41:06] Speaker D: And there is a mistake in your notes.
[00:41:07] Speaker I: I apologize.
[00:41:09] Speaker D: The point that's right there is not
[00:41:10] Speaker I: supposed to be there.
[00:41:11] Speaker D: And so don't worry, I'll get to it.
[00:41:14] Speaker I: You will have that fill in. But it's not going to be right here.
What God said was going to happen, happening.
Are we surprised?
Maybe, maybe not, right?
[00:41:30] Speaker D: Pharaoh wants his possession back after all the things that went through, right? God hardens his heart. But he's like, he sees an opportunity. He's like, let's go get back what was ours.
Like, we just let a lot of people go. That's a lot of free labor. They're confused. They don't know where they're going. Like, okay, let's get after them, okay? And so he.
He gets everything that he has. And I think there's a reason. I think he understands who he's about
[00:41:54] Speaker I: to go against, right?
[00:41:55] Speaker D: He knows there's a lot of Israelites, but also he knows what God has been doing for the Israelites. And so he's like, I'm getting my best chariots. I'm getting all the officers, like guys that were battle ready that knew what they were doing. And then I'm getting all the other chariots, all the other troops, and then
[00:42:10] Speaker I: we're going after him. Okay? He doesn't bring some of them, right?
[00:42:15] Speaker D: God's like, I'm going to bring the
[00:42:17] Speaker I: entire Egyptian army after my people.
Because he knew it was going to happen. So Pharaoh brings everybody and it says that they overtook them.
[00:42:31] Speaker D: So worst case scenario, in the cul
[00:42:34] Speaker I: de sac, the sea, the mountains, Egypt's right there.
That army is nipping at their heels, right? They want them.
[00:42:45] Speaker D: And I think this is right where the story shifts right up to this point. God has been giving us his plan, kind of what he's doing. We see it unraveling and unfolding. And now I think for the first time, the Israelites realize what's going down. They realize kind of what is about to happen or what could potentially happen.
The problem is going to be standing
[00:43:07] Speaker I: right there in front of them.
And so what are they going to do?
Verses 10 through 12, they do this.
[00:43:18] Speaker D: As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians marching after them.
They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?
What have you done to us 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 than to die in the desert.
[00:43:50] Speaker I: So this next point is that fear makes us look at our circumstances instead of God,
[00:43:59] Speaker D: right? I think this is the most human response ever. The Israelites look up and they see
[00:44:05] Speaker I: this Egyptian army, like, roaring after them.
[00:44:10] Speaker D: Could you imagine yourself being in your cul de sac, right, Sitting on your front porch and you see some tanks and humvees with 50 cows coming down your road saying, hey, we're coming for you.
Be terrified, right?
Like, what are you going to do against a tank and a Humvee? Like, nothing. Like, that's what Israelite is up against here, right? The chariots, man, those are like the tanks of those time, of their time.
They're like, we're done. Like, we are in a hopeless situation. So they. It says they were terrified.
They look up, they see their physical present situation, right?
[00:44:44] Speaker I: And they were scared.
[00:44:47] Speaker D: We do see, right? Says they cry out to the Lord, okay? Like, good job, Israel.
You kind of realize, right, God, you should cry out to him.
But then what they do directly after that I think kind of reveals the
[00:44:58] Speaker I: posture of their heart.
[00:45:00] Speaker D: We're in Hosea right now in Sunday school, and there's a part of chapter six where Israel is seemingly repenting.
But then later on the chapter, we find out that through what God is
[00:45:13] Speaker I: saying about them, it's like, oh, they were just kind of saying the right
[00:45:15] Speaker D: words because they wanted God's help.
[00:45:17] Speaker I: They really had no intention of, like, changing their ways or going back to the one true God.
[00:45:24] Speaker D: God.
[00:45:24] Speaker I: And Hosea said, you guys, love is like the morning mist, right? Like, it's here for a second, then it's just gone.
[00:45:32] Speaker D: And so I think this is kind of happening here where the Israelites cry
[00:45:36] Speaker I: out to the Lord.
[00:45:38] Speaker D: But then what directly follows after that?
They go to Moses. They're like, yo, Moses, what's going on here? Did you just bring us out here to die?
They start complaining, they start blaming, right? They go straight to, hey, remember when things were comfortable, when we were slaves?
Like, that's the rationale when we were slaves.
That's the kind of life we want to go back to.
So the second point is, right, that
[00:46:06] Speaker I: fear becomes controlling when our circumstances, right,
[00:46:11] Speaker D: become bigger than our view of God with those circumstances, that we're focused on those instead of him. Like, that's going to control how we
[00:46:18] Speaker I: react to this fear in our life, to the hard things that induce the fear in our life.
[00:46:27] Speaker D: They're like, how are we Going to
[00:46:28] Speaker I: make it out of here alive against this massive army.
[00:46:37] Speaker D: And Israelites, right?
[00:46:37] Speaker I: They respond with like, we need you, Lord. But then I think what they do after reveals their true heart posture.
[00:46:47] Speaker D: Like, how many of us cry out to the Lord in a situation, but
[00:46:50] Speaker I: then go straight to complaining or blaming
[00:46:56] Speaker D: or God, why me? Why this? Why this path?
[00:46:58] Speaker I: I don't want to be right? All those things, right?
[00:47:00] Speaker D: You believe in Jesus. You believe that he lived and died. You believe all the stories in the Bible. And this is where I was at this week. I was like, God, I believe in everything that I know about you, but
[00:47:10] Speaker I: do I really trust you in this situation? In my family, do I really trust that you can and want to heal my dad?
[00:47:21] Speaker D: Do I really trust that you're going to walk and carry me and my family through this hard situation?
Do you have faith that God is actually going to show up? When you're between an unpassable sea, an unclimbable mountain, and an unbeatable army, will you cry out to the Lord and
[00:47:39] Speaker I: then just cry out to him and
[00:47:42] Speaker D: then trust instead of complaining and blaming
[00:47:46] Speaker I: and wishing you were somewhere else?
When you're stuck, it seems like there's nowhere to go. Do you believe God can still move?
[00:48:03] Speaker D: And so the Israelites, right, they show us what it looks like to respond to fear probably when we're honestly not
[00:48:10] Speaker I: super grounded in God, in our faith.
[00:48:14] Speaker D: Because honestly, up to this point, right, they've been spectators. Like, they haven't been like real participators.
They haven't been in it like Moses and Aaron. I think their faith is a little soft right now. That's why, right? God has been orchestrating a lot of what's happening.
They haven't had much time spent with saying yes to God and having to
[00:48:32] Speaker I: walk through scary things with him, right?
[00:48:36] Speaker D: So when this fear has appeared, right, this army that's going to take them out, it truly feels impossible to like, what's next?
[00:48:46] Speaker I: So they look to the guy, the human, and they're like, what are we gonna do? How do we get out of this, right? They start like, this is an awful situation.
The cool thing is we get a poor response.
[00:48:59] Speaker D: But in this chapter, we get a
[00:49:02] Speaker I: positive response to fear.
[00:49:05] Speaker D: We don't just get what we shouldn't
[00:49:06] Speaker I: do, we get what we should look like.
Moses and the Israelites are in the same situation, right?
[00:49:14] Speaker D: Moses isn't on top of the mountain looking down and say, hey, good luck. He's not like in a boat saying, hey, I got my way. You got to Figure out yours. He's right there in it with them.
And he responds completely different.
[00:49:28] Speaker I: They don't respond in the same way.
[00:49:29] Speaker D: So let's look at verse 13.
It says, 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.
The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.
And so you see, like, the stark
[00:49:52] Speaker I: difference in responses here.
[00:49:57] Speaker D: Moses is right here with the people.
He has a little more information. I'm not sure the information he has
[00:50:02] Speaker I: is helping him with his fear or not.
[00:50:03] Speaker D: I'm not sure how I would feel.
But Moses knows that God is up to something. He can see something unfolding, right? He said God said these things were gonna happen to Alkesa. Okay, there's Egypt. It's happening.
But he doesn't know what happens next. He can see something unfolding.
And so what I got from this, right, is that, like, faith.
I don't think it denies fear.
I think faith refuses to let fear
[00:50:29] Speaker I: have the final word, right?
[00:50:32] Speaker D: Or faith doesn't allow fear to have control.
The Israelites lost focus.
Their focus was on the situation.
[00:50:45] Speaker I: Moses focus was on God.
And he says, there's a bug on my screen.
[00:50:56] Speaker D: Moses tells him, like, these. Like, I believe. I believe that Moses is proclaiming these words over these people. He's not softly saying them or like,
[00:51:04] Speaker I: hey, guys, let's not be afraid. Let's, like, not freak out.
[00:51:07] Speaker D: Is like, like, don't be afraid.
Like, you're about to see the salvation of our Lord right now. Like, these people that you see, you will never see them again because God is going to take care of them for you.
And that just kind of challenged me. Like, sometimes I'm like, like, God, like, I need you.
[00:51:23] Speaker I: Like, help me. I'm like, sometimes, man, I need to proclaim his word over my life or over a situation because it is real and it is powerful, right? He has given us real power in him through his Holy Spirit.
[00:51:35] Speaker D: And so he tells him, like, to not be afraid. I was like, all right, how do
[00:51:38] Speaker I: I not be afraid then? God, in this situation, in my life,
[00:51:40] Speaker D: how do I not be afraid? So he says, like, stand firm.
[00:51:43] Speaker I: I was like, okay, how do I stand firm?
He brought to my mind Matthew 7, 24, 27.
[00:51:57] Speaker D: Like, what kind of foundation is your
[00:51:58] Speaker I: life and your faith built on?
[00:52:00] Speaker D: Jesus shares this parable with the people around him, that there's a house that's
[00:52:05] Speaker I: built on the rock. There's a house that's Built on the sand.
Very different foundations, right?
The rock is a firm, solid foundation.
The sand not so much.
Right?
What is your foundation built on?
[00:52:27] Speaker D: The rock of Jesus, the living Word of God. A faith foundation that is built right on this. Not just knowing what it says, not just having knowledge about it, but obeying it, right? Being not just a hearer of the Word, being a doer of the Word, growing in the fruits of the Spirit, Right? Trying to look more like Jesus Christ as we live this life with him, asking God for opportunities to bring his name, glory, praying for people, sharing Jesus with people, with your words and with your actions, Right? Is your foundation built from real intentional time with God?
[00:53:02] Speaker I: Like Moses just spent real intentional time, the past, however long, with these plagues and trusting him in these fearful moments.
[00:53:08] Speaker F: Moments.
[00:53:12] Speaker I: If it is, then right.
[00:53:14] Speaker D: As you know, that's right. If the rain comes, the flood, right? When the rain falls and the flood comes and the rain is blowing and hitting your house, right?
[00:53:22] Speaker I: You're gonna stand.
You're not gonna crash.
[00:53:25] Speaker D: It made me think of when your house is built on a firm foundation, you know, like, you saw it. Like, you know, you saw the concrete and the post going to the ground. And, like, you know that that foundation is solid. So when it's storming out, you're sleeping like a baby.
[00:53:39] Speaker I: Because you know your house isn't gonna rock, man.
[00:53:44] Speaker D: Compared to. Right. If your faith is kind of built on just showing up on a Sunday morning, reading your Bible or serving God, like, when it's convenient for you, right? Not that much real effort, intentionality put into your time with the Lord, right? When the rain comes, when the floods come, when life is just smoking you, and you're like, I don't know what's happening, right?
[00:54:05] Speaker I: If you're in a house and the
[00:54:06] Speaker D: foundation is not built well and you
[00:54:08] Speaker I: know it, you're like, okay, what's leaking? What's gonna fall apart? What's gonna fall over, right?
[00:54:12] Speaker D: Your mind starts to go to all
[00:54:14] Speaker I: the things that could happen, and you're gonna crash.
That's a spectator faith, not a participator faith.
[00:54:27] Speaker D: And if you're not going to him
[00:54:28] Speaker I: now, why would you go to him when he's allowing hard things to happen?
[00:54:31] Speaker D: Like, you can't build a foundation in a storm.
[00:54:35] Speaker I: You gotta make sure that sucker is built before it, right?
[00:54:38] Speaker D: So you can only stand firm by standing with the One and serving the
[00:54:42] Speaker I: One and obeying the One who can keep you steady in an unsteady situation.
[00:54:50] Speaker D: And then right after that, he says, stand firm and Then he says, right, God's gonna fight for you. So all you have to do is
[00:54:55] Speaker I: be still or be quiet or be silent.
[00:54:58] Speaker D: And I think standing firm and then being able to be still, having a firm foundation, being able to stand still,
[00:55:08] Speaker I: go hand in hand.
[00:55:10] Speaker D: So if you don't have what we just talked about, a real intentional relationship with Jesus, a firm foundation in Christ.
And when you're caught in a hard
[00:55:20] Speaker I: moment in life, not if. When your mind and your soul aren't going to be still, they're going to be frantic, right?
[00:55:29] Speaker D: Your mind and your soul and your actions, your reactions are going to look like the Israelites. What did you do? Why is this happening?
[00:55:35] Speaker I: Like, right, frantic. Instead of Moses, like, don't be afraid.
I know that our God has this situation under control.
[00:55:48] Speaker D: So it reminded me of Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am God.
And so the only way I think
[00:55:58] Speaker I: you can be still and know that he is God is if your foundation is planted on him, right?
[00:56:07] Speaker D: For you to know that when these hard things come, that his will and
[00:56:10] Speaker I: his way are better, no matter what the outcome might be.
And you're not going to get there if you don't have that firm foundation first.
[00:56:21] Speaker D: And so Moses kind of hits Israel
[00:56:24] Speaker I: with some deep theological truth and inspiration, right?
[00:56:28] Speaker D: Stand firm. Don't be afraid. Like, the Lord's going to fight for you, man. You just have to sit back and watch. And then God says something in verses
[00:56:38] Speaker I: 15 that kind of confused me a bit.
[00:56:40] Speaker D: So let's read it. It says, then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
[00:56:47] Speaker I: Oh, okay.
[00:56:48] Speaker D: Moses said, stand still. God's like, let's move. And so 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. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will gain glory
[00:57:01] Speaker I: through Pharaoh and all his army, through
[00:57:03] Speaker D: his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh and his chariots and his horsemen.
And so I was like, okay, Lord, what does.
[00:57:14] Speaker I: Like, how do I kind of work with that?
[00:57:16] Speaker D: Because Moses just said, stand firm. All these things about being, like, grounded, and now you're saying, like, let's.
[00:57:23] Speaker I: Like, let's get a move on. Like, stop crying out to me.
[00:57:26] Speaker D: And I think it's something important.
[00:57:30] Speaker I: If you can stand firm in Christ, then you can be still, whatever is happening, right? You can have Peace when seemingly unpeaceful things happen to you.
[00:57:44] Speaker D: And as I was in my office and I was like, holy Spirit, how
[00:57:46] Speaker I: do I kind of work with this?
[00:57:49] Speaker D: Of like Moses saying this and then you saying this. And it's like when you have a firm foundation, right? Your heart and your mind and your
[00:57:55] Speaker I: soul, it can be still.
Whether you hear you have cancer, someone you love has cancer, you just lost your job, or like, you're heading into school and you don't really know anyone, right?
You can be still
[00:58:09] Speaker D: because of that.
[00:58:10] Speaker I: Then you are able to clearly follow God into the next steps of whatever it is you're going through.
[00:58:19] Speaker D: Your fear wants to keep you stuck. Your fear wants to keep you frozen, right? That's what the enemy wants for you. God wants to move you forward through
[00:58:27] Speaker I: whatever that hard thing is.
That's exactly what he's about to do with Israel.
[00:58:35] Speaker D: And notice up to this point, right? He still doesn't say, don't worry about the sea. It's still there. He doesn't say, hey, the Egyptians aren't coming.
[00:58:42] Speaker I: They're right behind them. He says, let's move.
And I think the only way you're going to move forward with God in a hard situation is if you can stand firm on your foundation and who he is.
And then you can be still and you can hear and see him saying, all right, let's see what's next.
[00:59:06] Speaker D: And then the cool thing is God says, let's move.
[00:59:10] Speaker I: And then we see God start to move.
He makes a way where there wasn't one.
[00:59:19] Speaker D: And so let's look at 19 through 25.
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side, light to the other side. So neither went.
So neither went near the other all night long. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all the night the Lord drove the sea back with the strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea. And on dry ground, with a wall of water on the right and on the left. The Egyptians pursued them, and all the Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at Egypt's army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of the chariots come off. So that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, let's get away from the Israelites. And the Lord, capital L O R D is fighting for them against Egypt. And so God says, let's move. And then we see God get to work.
There's a lot of things happening here, a lot of miracles. I think that God's doing that just is mind blowing. First of all, the pillar and like the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud they're following. That's incredible. But what we see, the Israelites moves across the sky over them and divides Egypt from Israel.
First miracle.
[01:00:52] Speaker I: That's insane.
[01:00:53] Speaker D: I couldn't imagine, right, seeing that happen
[01:00:56] Speaker I: in front of me.
And then there's a couple other miracles.
[01:01:00] Speaker D: What's like, what's the big one?
The Red Sea, right? The Red Sea gets parted and then there's another one.
And I never really noticed it
[01:01:12] Speaker F: because
[01:01:12] Speaker D: maybe when I read this, I just really was focused and pumped on God
[01:01:15] Speaker I: parting the Red Sea. Thought it was so cool.
[01:01:18] Speaker D: But then there's something else that he does, is that he says he turns
[01:01:23] Speaker I: the sea floor into dry land.
[01:01:27] Speaker D: Because if God just moves the water that ground, it's gonna be wet and it's gonna cause a big issue and a big problem for the Israelites to walk through.
So I thought it was just a really cool detail that God incorporates, right? He not only cares about the big, terrible, hard, fearful thing in your life, right? That I do believe he's going to work in and through.
He also cares about how you're going
[01:01:50] Speaker I: to walk through it with him.
And so that next point is that faith means trusting God enough to take the next steps.
[01:02:03] Speaker D: And I believe this is a pretty scary situation for the Israelites. A lot of times we think like, oh, like God parts the sea and they walk through. It's like, this is pretty cool. Like, there's fish and, you know, jellyfish or whatever.
This is a high tense moment for Israel, right? Like they, like, God is holding back Egypt just enough, okay? Like, they're gonna be walking, they're gonna look back. I'm like, oh, like, now Egypt's coming. It's not like they get up to the other side and then God's like, okay. Then they start coming. It's like they're right on their heels. And maybe think about when I was
[01:02:37] Speaker I: growing up and maybe even now
[01:02:41] Speaker F: when
[01:02:41] Speaker D: you're like in the basement and you shut the light off and you're like, you get moving. Cause you feel like something's like right behind you.
That's what I feel like. The Israelites are feeling, right.
They know Egypt wants them bad and they're coming, and there's nothing they can do if they reach them. And so they're like. Like they're getting through this as fast as they can.
And I believe they're still probably scared. But the thing that I saw that's really cool is that they noticed God
[01:03:08] Speaker I: started working and moving, right?
[01:03:10] Speaker D: I guess maybe they really didn't see the cloud of fire and the whatever in front of them. But then they see it move and
[01:03:16] Speaker I: they see it divide, and they're like, oh, God's doing something.
[01:03:19] Speaker D: Then I imagine they see that sea spread open with this water walls up against them, like. And they're like, holy smokes. Like, God is doing something.
They're starting to experience God in a
[01:03:32] Speaker I: way that they never have before because of this hard, terrible, fearful moment that they find themselves in.
I'm gonna say it one more time.
[01:03:45] Speaker D: They start experiencing God in a way
[01:03:47] Speaker I: they never have before. I believe because of this terrible, scary moment that they find themselves in, right?
[01:03:57] Speaker D: God moves in ways we can't comprehend or understand.
I think the loudest or maybe the biggest, right?
[01:04:05] Speaker I: In times of our life that probably seem the worst.
And I don't think fear is, like, unnatural.
[01:04:13] Speaker D: I think fear is something we just feel as humans.
[01:04:15] Speaker I: It's a feeling.
But it's what you allow fear to do in your life that makes the difference.
If you allow fear to control you and quench your faith.
[01:04:29] Speaker D: So maybe the question, right, it's not like, will I be afraid?
[01:04:31] Speaker I: I think we will different times in our life. The question is, when I feel fear, when that thing is in front of me, what am I going to do next?
What do you stand on?
Because the same God who made a way for Israel can make a way
[01:04:51] Speaker D: for you in the same way, right? Who redirected Israel's steps and made him go the long way, right?
[01:04:56] Speaker I: He's about to finish what he started.
And so let's read 26 through 31.
[01:05:04] Speaker D: It says, then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow
[01:05:09] Speaker I: back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.
[01:05:11] Speaker D: And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And at daybreak, the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it. And the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of the pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea.
[01:05:28] Speaker I: Did I skip something? I'm gonna read that again.
[01:05:30] Speaker D: The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea, not one of them survived.
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water to their right and on their left.
That day, the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians,
[01:05:54] Speaker I: the people fear the Lord and put their trust in him and Moses, his servant.
[01:06:03] Speaker D: So as I was kind of thinking
[01:06:04] Speaker I: through all of this, and this is
[01:06:07] Speaker D: like, the last point
[01:06:11] Speaker I: is that God is in control, like, before the miracle.
[01:06:17] Speaker D: Like, as you look from the first couple verses to these verses now, right? God was in the beginning, he was at the end. And it was clear he was a
[01:06:25] Speaker I: part of the entire middle part as well.
He didn't get distracted.
He didn't forget about them, right?
[01:06:35] Speaker D: He said, moses, this is what's gonna happen. This is what I'm going to do.
[01:06:40] Speaker I: Even though he didn't know the end, and then God finally did it.
And I don't know, this is. I'm just saying this, Moses, they probably picked something different for, like, God to do, right?
[01:06:51] Speaker D: You know how we pray? Like, God, I want you to do this, I want you to do that. And then, right? God does it in a way that we can't comprehend or explain.
[01:06:57] Speaker I: It's like, that was only God, right?
[01:07:01] Speaker D: God doesn't.
[01:07:01] Speaker I: Only thing that he can do here.
God had it under control.
[01:07:10] Speaker D: And I know you guys are probably
[01:07:12] Speaker I: like, we finally got to the miracle. Like, thanks, Dan. Like, that's kind of the coolest part about all this.
[01:07:20] Speaker D: God finally moved, right? Did this awesome thing.
But while I spent the majority of the time kind of working through all the stuff before, this is my experience
[01:07:30] Speaker I: personally and some people that I know and have talked to, right? Is that I know that's where I sit a lot of the time, right? The before the miracle.
[01:07:42] Speaker D: And I have written in here, like, that's probably one of the hardest places to be.
[01:07:45] Speaker I: Like, the before the miracle, you're waiting,
[01:07:48] Speaker D: like, God, where are you at? What's going on? What are you doing?
And as I said that the first
[01:07:53] Speaker I: service, I was like, I don't know if that's true. I think probably the hardest part is the after the not miracle.
After. God said, well, I'm actually not going to do the thing that you've been asking for.
That's a hard place to sit in.
And I think both of those moments, right?
[01:08:16] Speaker D: The before and then the after,
[01:08:20] Speaker I: those
[01:08:21] Speaker D: are things that are either going to
[01:08:22] Speaker I: crush you,
[01:08:25] Speaker D: they're going to bring you
[01:08:26] Speaker I: to a place of anger and disappointment.
[01:08:29] Speaker D: And like God, why'd you do this?
[01:08:30] Speaker I: I don't want anything to do. Like, it can bring you to a bad place.
[01:08:32] Speaker F: Or.
[01:08:34] Speaker I: I believe what God allows these things for us to go through is to bring us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with him than ever before.
And that's where I've been sitting a lot this week.
And if you notice, there's a few verses I didn't. I didn't mention the verses that talked about glory. Verses 4, 17, and 18.
[01:09:04] Speaker D: Three times God says, the reason I'm doing this, the reason I'm putting Israel in this hard situation, isn't just to put him in that situation.
[01:09:15] Speaker I: It's so that I can get glory over the Egyptians.
And that was something I had to
[01:09:22] Speaker D: even think about of, like, okay, the things that we go through in our life, they're not even about us.
[01:09:30] Speaker I: They're about him, and they're for Him.
Where we go through, what we go through, I think to first bring glory to God.
[01:09:43] Speaker D: Because I think about when us as believers, as we go through hard and difficult things,
[01:09:50] Speaker I: people are watching us, right?
[01:09:53] Speaker D: Like, if you're, if you're. That if you're a participator in God's word and following Jesus, right? People know that you follow Jesus. And so when they hear that someone you love is dying or hurting or the hard things in your life, you lost a job or you're having a hard time at job, it's not a safe place to be.
[01:10:10] Speaker I: Whatever it is, people look at you and they're like, how do you have the peace that you do?
[01:10:19] Speaker D: How do you have the joy that you do?
[01:10:25] Speaker I: In our most awful moments, where God has redirected our life and probably a place we wouldn't have choose to go, chosen to go ourselves, God reveals his goodness the most to us.
And I think through us.
I remember an example of that in my personal life.
I remember my grandma, she was in the hospital in 2019. It was during COVID And I remember praying for a miracle.
I remember being like, God. Like, I know she's, you know, older,
[01:11:01] Speaker D: and I know that she's all these things up against her, but I believe that you can heal her and all these things. And I remember going up to see her in the hospital, and she was on a ventilator at that point. And it's one of those things where I'm staring, okay, like, yeah, it looks
[01:11:14] Speaker I: like my grandma's going to die, you know?
And I remember sitting there and, like,
[01:11:19] Speaker D: sharing my goodbyes with her and just talking about sweet memories because, you know,
[01:11:22] Speaker I: they talk about hearing is one of the last things to go, and just
[01:11:25] Speaker D: trying to sit and say things I
[01:11:26] Speaker I: wish I would have said before, you know?
[01:11:30] Speaker D: And then my.
[01:11:31] Speaker I: My dad and his siblings made the decision, right, to. To take her off the ventilator because that's the only thing that was keeping her alive.
And I remember sitting in that hospital room and my grandma, like, taking her last breath, her last breaths.
And my dad and his siblings.
Around my grandma and, like, the whole room filled with her kids and grandkids and cousins and nieces and nephews, and we know she's dying.
[01:12:02] Speaker D: And to the world, this seems like
[01:12:03] Speaker I: a hopeless, really sad time for a family.
And my sister, she said we should sing her favorite song over her.
And her favorite song is Amazing Grace.
And so we're in this hospital, and
[01:12:18] Speaker D: there's doctors and there's nurses and there's peoples in rooms next to us.
And as they think, wow, these people are going through a really hard time. They're losing someone they love.
[01:12:26] Speaker I: We got to sing the gospel over her.
And so I don't know what the
[01:12:32] Speaker D: doctors heard or, like, I'm not sure
[01:12:33] Speaker I: what the Lord did with that.
[01:12:34] Speaker D: Maybe he planted seeds, maybe he didn't.
[01:12:36] Speaker I: I think that wasn't for nothing,
[01:12:40] Speaker F: but
[01:12:41] Speaker I: those people got to hear the gospel in a really hard time in our life. And God. God got the glory as my grandma died.
He got praised, he got glorified, and people got to see that through our family.
[01:12:57] Speaker D: And so we go through what we
[01:12:59] Speaker I: go through so God can get the glory so people can see him, right?
[01:13:05] Speaker D: He said, I'm gonna get the glory over the Egyptians, right? The Egyptians are gonna see him, right? He's gonna be glorified, and they're gonna know who I am.
Are the people in your life going
[01:13:15] Speaker I: to know who God is when we go through hard things, or are they just going to hear about the hard thing and nothing about our God?
[01:13:25] Speaker D: And the second thing we go through, what we go through, secondly, to grow
[01:13:30] Speaker I: our faith in God.
[01:13:33] Speaker D: As I mentioned earlier, my family where I found out my dad has cancer two weeks ago.
[01:13:38] Speaker I: And I mean, like, yeah, first time in a long time I felt some real fear of, like, all right, you just hear cancer and you just has a hopelessness to it, right, when you hear that word.
But I can say, the past two weeks, I've probably spent more time with God than I have in a Long time, right?
More time talking to him, asking the Holy Spirit to minister to my heart and to help me in this difficult situation.
[01:14:10] Speaker D: There are times where I definitely responded,
[01:14:12] Speaker I: like the Israelites, where I complained. I let fear kind of start taking my mind to places I know it should have gone, Wondered what God is doing.
But even this week, as I was reading through this, right, The Holy Spirit gave me times where he was just ministering to my heart.
And he gave me a piece that I kind of felt guilty about of like, here's my family going through this hard thing, and my. My dad's sick, and he just gave me something where I was like, man, God, you are so good.
And I was able to say, like, whatever your will is for my dad, I'm gonna praise.
And that's nothing of myself. That is all because of the foundation that I stand on. The people that I poured in my life, my mom and my dad and the Lord Jesus Christ, being able to get me to a point of saying, God, I trust you. With my dad, I don't want to be a spectator.
I want to be a participator in this kingdom. I want a peace that surpasses all understanding.
[01:15:20] Speaker D: So when we're going through this hard, difficult situation, I know that I'm walking
[01:15:24] Speaker I: with steadfastness with our almighty God, who can split oceans in half and take out an army that is unbeatable.
And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna sing a song called Same God.
[01:15:42] Speaker D: And I know we've sang this song a few times.
[01:15:45] Speaker I: I only heard it once so far this summer.
[01:15:47] Speaker D: I've been out doing a lot of
[01:15:48] Speaker I: things this summer with students and whatnot. So just how God is just all over, I think just me personally and my wife and my family, is that the Sunday I was here, we sang the same God. And that was the morning after, like, we found out my dad had a mass on his pancreas.
And I just remember sitting over there and trying my best to sing this song, right?
[01:16:16] Speaker D: Try my best to, like, believe that, like, all this, like, you're the same God right now that you are in Exodus chapter 14, as you're making these things happen and move and doing this stuff for the Israelites. God, I still believe that you can heal my dad.
[01:16:31] Speaker I: But also, if not, I still want to follow you. I still want to believe you. And so I just sang, probably for
[01:16:37] Speaker D: the first time, the most genuinely in a long time, like, God, I need
[01:16:40] Speaker I: you now because I can't do this without you. I want to Stand on your faithfulness.
[01:16:54] Speaker D: And so I'm not sure where you
[01:16:55] Speaker I: guys are at this morning.
[01:16:59] Speaker D: You know where I'm at.
[01:17:01] Speaker I: But we're all going through stuff. We all got hard things that are staring us right in the eyes.
You know, I think the coolest miracle is, is that the creator of the universe wants to walk through it with you.
[01:17:17] Speaker F: Right?
[01:17:17] Speaker D: There's all these God does incredible things, not seeing amazing things happen. And I've seen him choose not to do amazing things, but he has always
[01:17:24] Speaker I: wanted to walk through it with me, and he wants to walk through it with you.
[01:17:30] Speaker D: And so as we sing this song, maybe for the first time, you're saying, oh, God, my God, I need you.
Or maybe it's for the 1,000th time, you're saying, oh, God, my God, I need you.
[01:17:40] Speaker I: Either way, God's here.
And I want to encourage you if
[01:17:47] Speaker D: you want to accept Jesus for the first time this morning because you want that kind of peace and joy and hope when hard things come, I would encourage you to say yes to Jesus. I would encourage you even to come forward and just receive Jesus and praise
[01:17:57] Speaker I: him and just get prayed over.
[01:18:00] Speaker D: And I also want to ask you if you got something in your life,
[01:18:02] Speaker I: you're like, man, I'm scared.
But you don't want that fear to control your life. You want faith to control your life.
[01:18:08] Speaker D: I want to encourage as an expression of saying, you don't want that fear to be your story. But faith, like, just come forward this
[01:18:14] Speaker I: morning and worship God.
There is power in stepping forward
[01:18:21] Speaker F: because
[01:18:21] Speaker I: you're putting movement to something that's going on in your heart.
[01:18:24] Speaker D: If you feel like you feel that
[01:18:25] Speaker I: nervousness, like, I feel like the Lord might want me to go for, like,
[01:18:27] Speaker D: that's the Holy Spirit.
[01:18:28] Speaker I: Don't say no to him.
He's doing it for a purpose.
Maybe in asking God, what are you doing?
I think today he's saying, stand firm, be still.
Trust me.
Now let's move together.
Let's pray.
[01:18:51] Speaker D: Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this morning. And I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the congregation's grace
[01:19:01] Speaker I: for me going long.
[01:19:04] Speaker D: Lord Jesus, I just pray
[01:19:07] Speaker I: that you just minister to us this morning.
You know who in here is struggling.
Give them what they need. Lord Jesus, may we truly to trust you.
May we stand on the foundation of you, Jesus Christ.
Your death and your resurrection guarantee of salvation through you.
What a hope.
I pray that for our church in
[01:19:40] Speaker F: your name,
[01:19:48] Speaker J: Calling on the God of Jacob, whose love endures through generations.
I know that you Will keep your covenant.
I'm calling unto the God of knowledge, Moses, the one who opened up the ocean.
I need you now to do the same thing for me.
For me.
[01:20:32] Speaker D: Every voice.
[01:20:34] Speaker C: Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now.
How I need you now.
Oh rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness.
On your faithfulness,
[01:21:02] Speaker F: yes,
[01:21:07] Speaker J: I'm calling on
[01:21:09] Speaker C: the God of Mary
[01:21:14] Speaker J: whose favor rest upon the lonely.
I know with you all things are possible.
I calling on the God of David who made a shepherd boy courageous.
I may not face good life, but
[01:21:44] Speaker C: I've got my own giants. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you. You now How I need you now.
Oh rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness.
On your faithfulness.
Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, God, I need you now.
How I need you now.
Oh rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness.
On your faithfulness.
You never change.
[01:22:48] Speaker J: You remain the same.
You heard your children.
You hear your children now.
You are the same God.
You are the same God.
You answered prayer back and you will answer now. You are the same.
[01:23:15] Speaker D: Do you believe that church?
[01:23:30] Speaker C: You are the same God.
You moved in power. Word moving power now. You are the same God we cry.
[01:23:43] Speaker E: You are the same God.
[01:23:46] Speaker C: You are a healer.
You are a healer now. You are the same God.
You are the same God.
You were a the savior then. You are a savior now. You are the same God. Yes, you are. You are the same God.
Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now.
How I need you now.
Oh rock, the rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness.
On your faithfulness.
[01:24:39] Speaker B: Oh God, my God, I need you.
[01:24:42] Speaker C: Yes, I need you. My God, I need you now.
How I need you now.
Oh rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness.
On your faithfulness.
You are the same. You never change.
[01:25:12] Speaker F: Oh, no.
[01:25:15] Speaker C: Thank you, God, for your faithfulness.
[01:25:17] Speaker F: Ram,
[01:25:46] Speaker J: You freed the captives.
You're freeing hearts right now. You are the same God.
You are the same God.
You touch the lepers.
[01:26:05] Speaker C: You are.
[01:26:07] Speaker J: Yes, you are.
You are the same God.
[01:26:16] Speaker D: I believe God is working today.
I encourage you just for a moment now, we've gone long.
Many of you are thinking about what's going on or what you're doing right after this. Encourage you stay in this moment here.
Stay in this moment right here, buddy. Bow your heads and close your eyes.
Stay in this moment Let this next last part of the song, let this be your prayer as you go out.
[01:27:01] Speaker J: Calling on the Holy Spirit.
Almighty river, come and fill me again.
Come and fill me again.
Yes, God, come and fill to me again.
[01:27:35] Speaker D: He is the same God yesterday, today and forever. And so, church, this morning.
Don't let the moment pass you up. If you still man, want prayed for, if you want to say yes to Jesus, man, we have our prayer team up here this morning. Morning, please come down.
[01:27:52] Speaker I: They want to pray for you, right?
[01:27:53] Speaker D: They want to be an extension of who God is and lift you up on his behalf. I'll leave you guys with one final thing.
You don't have to know what God is going to do.
[01:28:06] Speaker I: You just have to know who your God is, right?
[01:28:10] Speaker D: And that's my prayer for all of us. That's my prayer for myself.
[01:28:12] Speaker I: God, I don't know what you're going to do next. I don't base my faith on that. I base my faith on who I know you are.
And so we're praying for the miracle. We're trusting God no matter what.
We love you, Church. Thank you for being here. Have an awesome week.
