Exodus: Moving Forward

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Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, thank you for that truth that glory awaits, uh, but glory doesn't wait.

Uh, it awaits us, uh, but but but we get to live lives here in this world that bring you glory.

Uh the Bible's clear about that.

And so say something today that has our name on it, that will provoke us, that will beckon us, that will call us, that will shape us, that will inform us, so that we are the salt and the light.

We're the salt of the earth and the light of this world.

So the salt doesn't lose its saltiness.

It seems that the salt is losing its saltiness, and we're blending in better than we should.

Uh, and we're not here to be different, we're here to be faithful.

Talk to us this morning about what it looks like to go forward in faith.

We pray and we listen now in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seed.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

If you're a guest, we're going through the book of Exodus.

Uh, and we come up to the point today uh where Pharaoh has let God's people go.

He unleashed ten plagues on them and let the Israelites go, and then he has a change of heart.

But I want to talk to you today about going forward.

About going forward.

You say, what do you mean?

Uh, because there's gonna be situations and circumstances in your life, in your marriage, in your career, in your business, in your relationships, where you feel like you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

For the children of Israel, we're gonna read this morning in the Bible, they're up against the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army is bearing down on them.

And so it looks like there's really not a good option.

And God says to them, go forward.

Go forward.

And so they're like, there ain't nowhere to go.

We don't know what to do.

But when God tells you to do something, how many of you know it's for a reason?

Hello?

When God tells you to do something, it's for a reason.

So for that reason, I want to talk to you this morning from Exodus 14 about going forward.

Let me start reading in Exodus chapter 14, verse 1.

Exodus 14:1

And then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and to encamp in front of Pi Haharoth between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal Zephon, you shall encamp facing it by the sea.

For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, They are wandering in the land, the wilderness to shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

And they did so.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?

So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him.

And he took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel, while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

The Egyptians pursued them, all of Pharaoh's horses and chariots, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamp by the sea, at the sea, by Piharoth, and in front of Baal Zephon.

Verse 10 says, When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.

And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?

Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

Moses said to the people, Fear not.

Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you.

You have only to be silent.

And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?

Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I've gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.

Now, when I say going forward, well, again, there's going to be circumstances and situations in our life when we're our human nature is to kind of find a place that's comfortable, that's manageable, and it's financeable, and we kind of sit down in that and we just kind of squat down and stay there.

And God kind of says, Hey, go forward.

You never arrive, you never get to a point where you can say, now I have earned the right to do nothing, stop listening, and just kind of sit down here.

And so when it comes that time to go forward, there's four things that you need to remember from the text.

And the first one is this that God has a motivation for everything he does.

God has a motivation for everything he does.

And one of the things you'll see in the text is the insufficiency of reason and the power of motivation.

Allow me to demonstrate.

We think in terms of reason, but God thinks in terms of motivation.

Here's why.

We love reason because reason somehow in our mind obligates God to us.

It means that God owes us an explanation.

And if we can't, we don't agree with the explanation or we don't get an explanation, then we don't have to believe whatever's happened.

That's why you meet many people who say, you know what, I can't believe in a God that would let so-and-so happen.

Or I don't see how this could happen.

If God's a God of love, how could this happen?

That's a person that sees God through the lens of reason.

Now, some of you may be in here today, and let me be clear.

I'm not discounting what happened to you or what you experience or what happened to somebody you love.

I am saying that if you try to look at God through the lens of reason, you'll never see God clearly.

You'll always have unanswered questions, and you'll always give yourself an excuse for why you don't believe.

That's why one of the fastest-growing demographics in America is what they call the nuns.

Have you ever heard this phrase?

Not nuns like N-U-N-S.

It's people they say religious affiliation, Protestant, Catholic, whatever, they say none.

None.

I don't associate with any religion.

It's the fastest growing demographic in America.

And one of the one of the reasons why is because they look at God through the lens of reason.

But here's the danger in this, beloved.

It shrinks God down to the size of whatever you can understand.

If you can't understand it, then it can't be God.

And so therefore, God is as big as whatever you can understand or agree with.

Case in point, this happened years ago.

A young lady, 17-year-old girl, was sent to see me.

She said, Hey, my parents, the lady called me and said, Hey, I work with a lady, and she says that you help people, you meet with students and stuff.

We've maxed out all our insurance.

But my friend said, You're free.

And I like, I love how this is going already.

And so I said, Sure, I'd love to see your daughter.

I said, Tell me the situation.

They said, Well, she fell in love with this boy, and this boy and her got together.

We forbid them, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And long story short, she crawled out her bedroom window one night.

Second story, by the way, that's commitment.

First story, you're in love.

Second story, you're committed.

Climbed out on the roof, shimmied down, got in his car, and drove to New Mexico.

Now, Romeo and Juliet, if you're thinking about this, let me just tell you that if you take a miner across the state line, it's called kidnapping.

And so, yeah, we're serious.

And so the girl walks in, and I could- I knew it was gonna happen because she's like, you know, we've been to see therapists and psychiatrists, and I don't disparage any of that.

I think we need good godly psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counselors, blah, blah, blah.

I'm not any of those.

All those people are smarter than me.

I'm just a guy who drinks too much coffee and doesn't mind stating the obvious.

So she walks in and she sits down, folds her arms, and she goes, What are you gonna tell me?

And I thought, hmm, God, can I whip her?

Can I just come around my desk and just take my bathtub and I'm gonna tell you right up in here?

But I didn't because I'm a man of the cloth.

And so instead I said, Here's what I'm gonna tell you.

I think you're 17 years old.

I think you're capable of deep affection, and I think you're you're capable of loving someone from the depths of your soul.

And she's like, And the look on her face was like, no, wait a minute, I'm not used to hearing that.

I'm not, uh-uh.

And I said, and and I think you really do love this person.

And so she said, Well, I've been to all these therapists, and I said, I'm not a therapist.

I said, I'm just a pastor.

She says, Well, it doesn't matter, they're all the same.

You're gonna tell me the same thing they tell me that I need to obey, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, Well, I could tell you you probably should obey, but you I can't make you obey.

That's right.

You can't make me obey.

I said, So what kind of music do you like?

She's like, I said, Well, you don't want to hear anything I gotta say.

And so let's just talk about music.

She goes, I like all kinds of music.

I said, Oh, really?

So what do you think about George Jones?

And she said, Who's that?

I wanted to whip her all over again.

Well, I said, how can you not know about music if you don't know who George Jones is?

And so I played her a George Jones song that that James Taylor later covered.

The song is called She Thinks I Still Care.

And I said, This is this is about loving someone from from from the way from the depths, like I think you love this guy.

We talked a little bit later on.

I told her about, I said, he's got another song.

I'll play her a little bit of it called He Stopped Loving Her Today.

I said, This is about, this is so good, this will make you just want to just lay in bed and eat chocolate right here.

I said, this is a song about a man that loved a woman who never loved him back, and he loved her to the day that she died.

Matter of fact, he had underlined in red every single I love you, and she was like, And I said, I think you, as far as you know, you love this guy like this.

Now, you probably wonder, why are you telling us about all this?

Because in this 17-year-old girl's mind, she didn't want to hear anything about a God or from a God or anything have anything to do with God that couldn't agree that she needed to be with her soulmate.

And I just said, Hey, then I ask you a question.

You think this is the last good thing God has in store for you?

Because you're sure fighting for this with all your might, it's kind of like, I've got to make this work because there may not be anybody else.

And she looked at me and she goes, I didn't say that.

I said, Yeah, that's what you did.

I said, I mean, you've already violated all the authority you can see.

How do you think you're you're you're you're pleasing the authority you can't see God when you're not even obeying the authority you can see in your parents?

My mom told you to say that.

Your mom's not that smart.

She goes, I agree with that.

And so we just said, why why am I saying I'm not making fun of a 17-year-old?

We'll get back to this in just a minute.

But but here's the thing the tragic consequences, if anything happens that I don't agree with or I don't see the reason for, then it can't be God.

And there can't be a God, or if there's a God, then He can't be trusted.

Like one of the questions I asked her, I said, Do you think care God, you think God cares about your satisfaction?

That's a stupid question.

I said, That's what people say who don't have an answer.

So let me back up the truck and come again.

Do you think God cares about your satisfaction?

Well, I mean, I I don't know, I guess.

I just want to be happy.

What's the difference between happiness and satisfaction?

Because the older you get, the more you're gonna want to be satisfied.

Because you can be not happy and still be satisfied.

She goes, How's that possible?

I said, it's called marriage.

Now think about what I said.

That's not a dig at my life.

How many in this room are married?

Can I see your hand?

Hold it up real high.

All right, put your hand back down.

Then we'll go see who the liars are.

How many of you would say, I'm not always happy, but I'm satisfied?

Let me see your hand.

Look around, all you single people.

Yeah.

Don't go into marriage with these rose-colored glasses, like I'm always gonna be happy.

No, you're not.

But you'll be satisfied.

See, that's what I mean.

We think in terms of reason, because reason in our mind, it obligates God to us.

Let me tell you something.

God doesn't owe you and I an explanation for anything.

Because God doesn't look at me, don't check out on me like, oh, that's it.

I'm uh I'm a nun.

No, no, no, no, no.

Hey, hey, hey, we look at God through the reason works for us because it makes God somehow responsible to us.

The only person God's responsible is to himself.

And God is consistent with his own nature, okay?

God doesn't look at the world through reason.

God didn't he doesn't think in terms of reason, he thinks in terms of motivation.

God has a motivation for everything he does.

So the children of Israel are on their way to freedom, and God says, Hey, turn around and turn back and camp right here at this specific place, and I'm gonna kind of put on the map with three fixed points of reference.

And then he says, and by the way, this is why I'm doing this.

This is my motivation, because I'm gonna get glory over Pharaoh.

Because Pharaoh, by the way, don't miss that.

God already, God knows what Pharaoh's gonna think in his head.

God says, Hey, Pharaoh's gonna think that you guys are hemmed in and you're confused out here, and he's gonna come after you.

See, the motivation, when I say God thinks in terms of motivation, God's highest motivation is his own glory.

That's why he says, I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

See, this is God's motivation.

It's Jehovah, I am the Lord, Jehovah, I'm the one true existing God.

Now, let me just say this.

At first glance, you can think, man, that's arrogant and self-centered.

But let me just tell you something.

If God really is, as he says, and the Bible teaches, the one true God, would it not be in his nature?

Would it not be a highest expression of love and mercy to make that fact known to everybody?

Even the nuns, even the people say, I don't believe, I don't want to believe, I don't I don't care about any of that.

Yet God makes himself known, he establishes his existence in what he created.

That's why the Bible says, hey, what made me known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious so that men are without excuse.

So God comes along and says, Hey, I don't, I'm not a God that looks for a reason.

I have a motivation.

And sometimes my people are headed out the door and they're headed to freedom.

And I say, hey, turn around and come back in camp right here because I'm doing something, okay?

You can't see it right now, but I'm doing something.

My motivation, by the way, God's motivation is not always our comfort.

Don't be those people that go, Well, I know God don't want me to be uncomfortable.

No, no, no.

Build and bank your life on what God, what you know God's about, and what God's about is glory.

All through Scripture, you see this consistent theme to what motivates God.

Isaiah 53, verse 6 and 7.

Isaiah 53:6

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

Everyone who's called by my name, whom I created for my glory.

Now just think just for a second, okay?

Think.

Just follow with me.

You're smart people.

The Bible says you're created for God's glory.

Yes?

That's pathetic, people.

The Bible says, stay with me.

Are you awake today?

The Bible says you're created for God's glory.

That's what Isaiah 43.

Hey, everyone who's called by my name, whom I created for my glory.

So you're created for God's glory, right?

But the Bible also says in Romans 3 that we've sinned and we've fallen short of the glory of God.

When you become a Christian, you get restored to your native environment, which is the glory of God.

Which is why the Bible says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.

The Bible says this is your and what God is saying is join me in what motivates you.

What motivates me is my glory when he says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.

What he's saying is, hey, join me in the shared motivation.

Have a passion for my glory like I do.

Why?

Because that's what you were created for.

You were created by God to be to be a person who kind of you're created for glory and he restores you to live for glory.

That's the difference.

See, we think of God in terms of reason.

God thinks in terms of motivation.

So when it comes time to go forward, you got to tell yourself, God has a motivation for everything he does.

Don't look for the reason.

Look, try to understand the motivation.

God's consuming, consistent passion all through the Bible is for glory.

And if you don't understand that, then much of the Bible won't make sense.

Second thing we need to understand is that God's doing more than we can see.

God is doing more than we can see.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but let me just draw your attention to verse 6 and 7.

He says, So he, Pharaoh, made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

Now listen for a second.

The Bible says that Pharaoh took 600 of his chariots, right?

And then it says, and he took all of the other chariots of Egypt with him.

When I say that God's doing more than you can see, the nation of Egypt, if you went and nerded up like I did in preparation for today, the nation of Egypt was not a military power again until the time of Joshua.

Why?

Because God wiped out their entire army.

God's doing more than we can see.

Now, what does that mean?

Let me bring it down to where we live.

Don't let your life get boiled down to just what you can see.

And it's with great reason the Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

If you live in bondage to the visible, you will live in fear most of your life.

Let me say that again.

If you live in bondage to the visible, you will live in fear most of your life because you're going to see some scary things.

I mean, if you listen to Donald Trump, you think America's one day away from sliding into hell.

That's just fear.

That's just fear.

And when I say God's doing more than you can see, I was reminded of this and I was pierced by this yesterday as I was for my 30th birthday.

My wife got me a book, put together a bunch of letters from friends of mine, and most of them wrote 30 things that they know or observe about me.

One of the people that wrote was my mom.

My mom, who's a paranoid schizophrenic.

My mom has bipolar, she's been diagnosed, been institutionalized, takes medication to this day.

Love my mom, one of the hardest working people.

And number 13, my mom put on the list was even when I get down, Neil just announces, my God is a great God.

I sat at my breakfast table yesterday and I read over that and I just wept because not because I was like, oh, it's sad.

You know, my mom has mental illness, and not any of that.

Here's why.

Because that little voice in my spirit, the voice of God said, you know, it's been a while since you said that.

Now, by the way, back when all that happened, I was a new Christian.

I'd been a Christian maybe a year, uh, if that, and and we were broke.

I worked to help buy groceries and and pay for stuff.

I would go to work and I would come home and sit in front of the TV.

My mom and I would eat dinner and watch mash, and then I'd go to my room and read my Bible because I didn't want to go out with my buddies.

I didn't want to go to the club and do what I used to do.

All I knew is that I'm not that person anymore.

I'm not better than those people.

And I just want to understand what it means to be a child of God.

And so we didn't have hardly anything.

And I was going around saying, My God is a great God.

And yesterday I was kind of like, you know, God, that's gotten harder to say the more I've accumulated in life.

And he just said back, that's because you trust in yourself.

And I was like, oh and my wife walked through at one point and started asking me questions, and I was like, I was trying to talk to her, but saying, I don't want to talk right now.

Why?

Because God's doing more than we can see.

And so when you pray tonight before you go to bed, look at me.

Just take some time to say, hey God, I want to thank you for all the stuff you're doing that I can't see.

That's uh back to my 17-year-old friend who's all just full of vim and vigor and angry.

She couldn't see that God's doing so much more.

God's doing a lot more than what you can just see.

He's not just delivering his people, the Israelites, he's wiping out an entire army.

Third thing you got to remember when it comes time to go forward is that faith is sometimes still and silent.

Faith is sometimes still and silent.

We think of uh uh of Christianity like whitewater rapids, like it's always an adventure.

Hold on.

Actually, it's more like the Mississippi River.

You've seen the Mississippi River lately?

I remember we're driving over, my in-laws living in Pensacola, and I was trying to point out things to my kids when they were little, and I go, and that's the Mississippi River.

And Mass just glanced out the window of the mini van.

Oh, that's not impressive.

Went back to watching her little video.

I didn't know if I should pull the van over and whip that kid or what.

But here's what I mean, I didn't, but here's why.

Kids are used to white water, you know.

She went the Mississippi River, the current is so deep.

That's what the keel of the ship gets down in, and it moves tons of cargo.

White water is white water because it's shallow water flowing very quickly over rocks.

No one can live in that.

You can't move cargo through white water.

And so when it comes to saying, hey, faith is sometimes still and silent.

Sometimes biblical faith is like the Mississippi River.

It's this innocent-looking body of water that moves slow and deep.

And sometimes not at all.

God tells these people, hey, you just need to be quiet.

You need to just not do anything, okay?

Now, let me just say this.

Um, I want to read verses 10 to 14 again, but I want to read them in the context in which they happened because the Bible did not happen in a context like you're sitting in right now.

You know that, right?

There wasn't air conditioning, there wasn't lights, there wasn't a stage, there wasn't patty chairs and coffee.

How many of you got coffee and brought it in here this morning?

Yeah, aren't you glad there's coffee?

You just walk in, you're just like, this is awesome.

There was no Starbucks on the way to the Red Sea.

I picked my oldest up on after school on Friday.

She said, Oh, Dad, I gotta be at the church at 4:30.

We're leaving for the breathe retreat.

And I said, Let's go to Starbucks.

We're gonna Starbucks.

I was just talking, my kid leaned across because she orders.

It's like a scroll.

She's like, she leans across and the guy said, Just tell me what you want.

I can't remember all that.

And she goes, I want a grande salted caramel frappuccino with two extra shots and some whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

And I thought, okay.

Caught to the driving window,$7.10.

I looked at her, I said, Well, you ain't going to college now.

I gotta check the price of these things, boy.

How much of them shots?

What kind of shots are they putting in there?

Whoa, we gotta get to the bottom of this deal.

But say, hey, they're not all sashed out there to the Red Sea with their salted caramel frappuccino with two extra shots, kind of going, hey Moses, you the man.

No, it didn't happen in this context.

And so here's what I want to do.

I want to read this little section of scripture.

I want you to hear what Moses said, what the people said, in the context in which it happened.

This is, by the way, little kids are scrambling up their mom's skirt.

Their men are weeping.

And their families are looking like, Dad, do something.

And Dad just stands there because Dad knows this is bigger than me.

This is what it sounded like.

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians marching after them.

They feared greatly.

The people of Israel cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, Is it because there were no braids in Egypt?

You're taking us away to die out here in the wilderness?

What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?

Leave us alone that we can serve these people?

It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

Moses said to the people, fear not.

Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.

The Egyptians who you see today you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.

It sounds different when you hear it in the context in which it happened, doesn't it?

You have only to be silent.

Notice he says in verse 14, he doesn't say you need to only be silent.

He says you have.

In other words, this is your only option.

You have all you got to do.

What have I got to do?

This is all you have to do.

You have only to be silent.

Faith is sometimes still and silent.

It's not about when you pin down between a rock and a hard place, between the Red Sea and this army bearing down on you to kill you.

What do you do?

Your faith is often demonstrated by what you don't do and what you don't say.

It's not in what you do and what you say.

Sometimes if you're really a man or woman of faith, you just because see, here's the thing.

They were about preservation, but God was about proclamation.

Let me say that again.

I'll demonstrate.

They're about preservation.

They just wanted to save themselves.

They were willing to live as slaves.

They say, hey, is this what we told you back in Egypt?

We told you to leave us alone.

You brought us out here in the wilderness so we could die.

What?

Were there not enough graves back in Egypt?

You had to bring us out here and make an example out of us.

That's us.

We would choose slavery over the fear that often accompanies obedience because slavery is familiar.

We'll just choose slavery.

We'll say, yeah, well, yeah, uh-huh.

Yeah.

Why?

Because our human default is preservation.

God's default is proclamation.

They wanted to settle back in Egypt and say, hey, I'll just, this is good enough.

Let's just make the most of this, which is exactly what we do.

We settle for being a slave to our addiction, our pet sin, our old friends who won't stop, so they don't want us to.

So you know what?

If I got new friends, if I stop hanging out with these people, I don't know what I could do.

But I uh by the way, where the fear comes from is when life gets like this.

It's not just what you see, it's what you hear inside of you.

Every once in a while, when I meet with people, uh, I'm not a smart man.

I just try to tap into what's going on in their soul.

And I ask people, what do you hear in your head these days?

One of the things that we hear when life gets us pinned down and God says, go forward, and we're like, forward! Hello, there's a C there.

What are we gonna do?

Here's what paralyzes us because most of us in this room, unfortunately, here's what you hear in your heart and in your head when you get like this.

This is what it sounds like.

You have this foreboding sense that someone's coming to get you.

Remember 1976?

How many of y'all saw the movie?

For all you young people, the movie was called Jaws.

Scared the bahooty out of me.

I haven't taken a bath since 1976.

I take a shower and I keep my eyes open.

I'm looking around.

This is what bad parent my mom was.

We went to see my mom out in Phoenix for two weeks.

My mom took sixth grade, my mom took me to see that.

Mess me up.

My wife, part of it was filmed in Pensacola.

My wife grew up.

She's like, I ain't getting out there.

Somebody said to us one time, hey, said to me one time, I'd love to bless you and your wife and give y'all a cruise.

I said, You couldn't duct take my wife on a cruise ship.

No.

You want to bless us?

Give us something on dry land.

Oh, but we have cruise points.

And I said, not gonna happen.

Why?

Jaws.

Many of us, hey, when it gets hard, what's what we hear?

That's a soundtrack.

They say, dunum, dunum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dun.

And you're like, oh, you live with this foreboding sense of, hey, my my worst fear is about to come true.

Let me just ask you this question.

Do you really think that's God's heart for you?

Then why is that the soundtrack that you hear in your head all the time?

See, I said earlier that, hey, we we we we come at this through the lens of reason.

God comes at it through motivation.

See, because God is a God of proclamation, not preservation, not, hey, let's just hunker down right here and make the most of this because we don't want to trouble God and sound ungrateful and like we're not happy.

Let's just make the most of this.

No, no, God's a God of proclamation who says, I'm gonna get glory over Pharaoh and his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

Because this is true.

You know what?

When you get in a situation and there's no way out, you know what the soundtrack of God's heart is?

This is what it sounds like.

Put your hands down.

You know, I don't have to tell you what that movie's from, but I will tell you this.

He ain't the first guy to come and make things right with a whip.

And Jesus didn't wear a hat when he flipped over the money changer's table and took a whip and drove them out.

See, that's the soundtrack to place in God's heart.

He comes riding in.

He's like, I got this.

Are you kidding me?

There's no, don't, no, don't.

Who's gonna get God?

Who's God like, oh, I hope that, oh, oh, I don't want to swim in deep water where I can't see the bottom.

No, is anything too difficult for God?

So when you when you get down there, you gotta realize, hey, sometimes it's just that's why he says, Oh, uh, you have only to be still.

Your only option is to believe what you know to be true about God.

But here's the rub.

Look at me, beloved.

Some of you don't believe enough to be still.

That's why you grab the steering wheel.

When things begin to get out of control, you just tighten your grip on it.

It's like driving through a thunderstorm for four hours.

You get there, your neck and shoulders are all tense.

Why?

Because you've been gripping that wheel.

When it comes time to go forward, let me tell you one last thing.

The fourth thing is ask the right question.

You still with me?

Look at verse 15.

The Lord said to Moses, see, God's been talking, the people have been talking, Moses has been talking.

Now God talks in verse 15.

The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?

Underline that in your Bible.

Why do you cry to me?

Here's why they cry to him.

Because it is human nature to look for someone to blame for what's happening.

It's just human nature.

We start with, it's not my fault.

It's got to be somebody else's fault.

Who can I hang this on?

And God says, You ain't sticking this on me.

I'm the God that just sent 10 plagues on these people.

I just killed their firstborn.

What are you guys afraid of?

You think I'm all out of ideas and goodness?

You think that this somehow vexes me?

Why do you cry to me?

And then he says, This tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Ask yourself this question this morning, and I and I'll be done.

In what area of your life do you need to go forward?

What area of your life have you just kind of just settled in and just kind of said, let's just hold on, let's just don't let's don't press our luck.

You think this is about luck?

Let's don't get crazy.

This is the best we can hope for.

What area of your life do you need to go forward?

And God says, What why do you cry to me?

What have I done?

Have you forgotten?

Or is the Bible says, Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Why are you crying to me?

And it's not God being uncaring, it's not God being sarcastic, it's God being God.

God saying, You think this circumstance is bigger than me?

Why are you mad at me?

You think I'm the reason you don't believe?

If you're in this room today, you can't blame God for your unbelief.

Well, it's happening, and I just I got a problem with the God to let that happen, so I'm not gonna believe in that God.

God says to you today, why do you cry to me?

Why do you and then he says back to Moses to tell the people of Israel go forward?

Go forward.

Beloved, let me just say to you today, go forward.

Let me just be even more honest and just tell you, I get can I got a little low-grade concern to me as a church that we've forgotten that we still need to go forward.

We're still patting ourselves on the back for the fact that we built a new children's building.

And God says, go forward.

Go forward.

What do you want?

A cookie?

You had to build that.

You had nowhere else to put kids.

I mean, remember coming down this hallway over here as a parent trying to get your kids like bumper, bing, burn, bring.

Go forward.

Why?

Because you ain't done.

And by the way, there's no big campaign announcement coming.

I'm just telling you, God's saying, go forward.

So keep your cynicism to yourself.

God says, go forward.

Go forward.

Don't just sit down and go, oh, this is great.

Isn't this great?

This is awesome.

No, go forward.

Why?

Because the promised land's over there.

That's why.

In preparation for today, I read.

I just find stopped reading.

Why?

Because all these people say, well, there are certain seasonal winds that would cause the water to part, and I'm just like, are you kidding me?

Then why didn't the wind blow until Moses raised his staff?

And the Bible says, not only did God part the Red Sea, but He dried up the bottom of the sea as dry ground, and his people walk through on dry ground.

That little bit of rain we've got over the past couple, three, four days.

There's a low spot.

There's a little kind of called a drain channel.

It kind of runs through my backyard.

It'll be wet for the next two weeks.

And God immediately dried up the bottom of the sea, and his people walked through.

And while they walked through, his angel, the cloud, went from the front to the back and separated the Egyptians from the Israelites until they got all the way through.

And then he just said to Pharaoh, Come on in.

The water's fine.

And then look at me.

He drowned all of them in the Red Sea.

Now that offends you unless you understand God's motivation.

Because this thing begins and ends with God saying the same thing.

And I'll just remind you of it.

He says simply this I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

God's highest motivation is his own glory.

He needs no external pep talk, no external stimulation.

He is motivated sufficiently by his own glory.

And then he says, and these Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.

So I want to close this morning by asking you, do you know that he's the Lord?

Do you know this God that we're talking about today?

Are you still in the category of the nuns?

Are you still one of those that's kind of like, nah, I don't, I go to church because I need a little pep talk.

I need to feel better because I went out and got freaky last night.

I didn't do it.

Yeah, all this is kind of, I'm kind of paying God back.

Do you know that he's the Lord?

He's the one and only true existing God.

God, it is our confession today that yours, the life you call us to, is the life that gives us reason to live.

Everything else is too small.

It's insufficient.

Let us be done with less wild lovers.

Let us stop just being in relationship to have something to do.

There's somebody we can we're called to become.

There's something we were created to be motivated by, and it's glory.

It's not our appetites.

Our appetites will destroy us.

Because they always say, now, now, now, at the expense of everything, now.

But your glory has a more eternal destiny, has a long-range target out there and a trajectory to it.

It explains, or at least it should explain why we live like we do.

We understand today we are created for your glory, so let us be motivated by it.

And the little and the big choices we make this week.

And let people get a sense and a savor of it.

That's why the Bible says, We're the fragrant aroma of Christ to those who are perishing.

Thanks for the privilege of smelling like you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

By the way, uh the 17-year-old girl, she got to leave my office and she got to the door and I said, Hey, by the way, send me a wedding invitation.

And she said, Oh, I'm not getting married.

And I said, Let me be your pastor just for a minute.

That's what your mom's saying.

I know your mom and your dad are jerks and they don't get you, but what they see is that you're you're kind of wasting a lot of affection and priority on something that's not gonna last.

But when you do get married, register somewhere really nice and I'll get you something expensive.

Because I I I think you and your mom and dad agree, you just on this guy, and he's not a bad guy.

It's just this isn't all you make it out to be.

And she said, okay.

And I said, How are you gonna send me an invitation to have my address?

So I wrote my address down and gave it to her.

I haven't gotten an invitation yet.

And that's a good thing.

Because the young lady walked out and thought, you know what?

And she said to me, That wasn't as bad as I thought.

Okay.

Because life changes when you go from looking at it through the lens of reason to looking at it through the lens of motivation.

What motivates you?

Make sense?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Come on.

Even the real men in the room, hold your hands out.

Tastes like chicken.

I see some of y'all by the way, you come like this.

One guy's wife goes, he's like, hmm, hold that like you're getting something.

Not from me, but from the Lord.

Here's why.

Every morning his mercies are new.

He doesn't see you through the lens of the last time you screwed up.

He sees you through the lens of new mercy.

A do-over, a fresh start, an alley alley in free.

Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and you'll find rest for your souls.

This is what you were created for.

Depart now and live in that sweet spot of your created purpose, which is God's glory.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.