Forward in Faith

Thank you very much for the beautiful operatory and special music. It certainly is appreciated. It's amazing how much music adds to things, you know, and strengthens a service especially. Certainly do appreciate the hard work that went into it. Thank you very much.

Brethren, it's kind of a no-brainer question, but I'll ask it anyway. Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you were uncertain? I hate people chuckling like, duh, of course, right? A time where you had no idea what to do next. A time where your options have run out, or maybe the way out of the situation hasn't made itself apparent yet, or there's three or even four doors available to you, and you do not know which one to even walk towards. Completely 100% uncertain. Whether you have no options or whether you have a bajillion options or two extremes of the same situation, it's uncertainty. And, you know, it's not when we asked the question earlier, a few folks kind of chuckling a little bit. When isn't life uncertain, right? When isn't it uncertain? You know, Stephen Covey once said, there's one thing in business that's certain, uncertainty. I think you've substituted the word life for business, and you're a bit closer to reality. Life is uncertain. There are times that we are unsure how best to proceed.

We really don't know. Sometimes it's external factors, sometimes it's job decisions, sometimes it's education decisions, or it's financial decisions, or other goals that we have. Everybody has goals. Goals are a good thing. We're trying to decide between these goals, and others' times it's a little more difficult because it's internal factors.

It has to do with our own internal sense of who and what we are.

Ultimately, whether we're happy with what we see when we turn and look in the mirror, maybe we have our fears and our doubts and our worries. Now, regardless of whether our uncertainty is derived from external or internal factors, regardless, whether it's external or internal, it's stressful. Uncertainty is stressful. Those of you that have experienced it before, think back to a time in your life—and I don't want to end up crashing anybody out here—but think back to a time in your life, or recently or even in the past, that contained a great deal of uncertainty for you. Can you recall the feelings of stress that went along with it? I see heads nodding. Of course we can, right? Those are visceral feelings. What were those feelings like?

Depending on the situation, depending on your level of uncertainty, it's highly likely that it wasn't a very good feeling. It's not necessarily a feeling that we would like to experience again, most likely. Humans tend to function a little bit better when we feel certain in what it is that we're doing. Not everyone. Some people thrive on uncertainty, but others, most folks, prefer to have some certainties. There's two main categories of stressors in life that are recognized in the mental health world.

There's distress and there's eustress. Distress and eustress. Technically, both are forms of stress, but when we use that term, when we say stress, we're talking about distress. More often than not, when we talk about, oh, I'm really stressed out, you're talking about distress. You're talking about the negative form of stress. But not all stress is negative. Not all stress is negative. In fact, research has recently shown stress is not all bad. Stress is not all bad. It's not always negative. Eustress is the positive form of stress that tends to motivate us, tends to focus our energies, tends to help us learn how to cope with difficult situations.

Eustress can improve our performance on certain tasks, and it can be exciting. What complicates things is that every person's stressors are different. For example, for some of you going out for a 10-mile run might be eustress. For others, might be distress.

Right? For many of us, probably more of a distress. Moving, packing all of your things, throwing it in the truck, and going to some other place. For some of us, it's distressing beyond any of our imagination. I want to move! I don't know if you've seen our piano. We jokingly said every time we've moved, we've needed to get new friends, because someone had to haul that thing.

It's got to weigh 900 pounds. It's insane. But moving for some of you, that might be an awesome opportunity and an exciting opportunity. It actually might be eustress to you, where for some, it's probably distress. Flying, traveling can be distressing to some, but for others, it's exciting and it's fun. So everybody's stressors are a little bit different.

Eustress, one of the biggest important aspects of eustress is short-term nature. It's often not a long-term thing, positive stress, because even positive stress, if it's undergone for a long period of time, can have a distressing effect. Let me give you an example. Lifting weights is a good thing. You know, there isn't much that the health research agrees on. In fact, you've all known that. You know, red wine's good for you. Just kidding, it's bad for you. Just kidding, it's good for you. Just kidding, it's bad for you. Back and forth and back and forth things go. The vast majority of researchers agree that weightlifting, lifting weights, you know, whether it's a lot of weight or a little bit of weight, it's good for you.

It's hormetic is the term. Hormetic is the term, meaning that that small exposure to stress has a positive benefit. That small exposure to stress has a positive benefit. It breaks down muscle fibers. It releases dopamine. It releases serotonin and norepinephrine. And it helps a person improve their health, which ultimately, down the road, makes them feel better. It is by definition you stress. However, if a person lifts weights too frequently, too often, doesn't provide the muscle an opportunity to repair itself and to rest, you can burn right through that positive effect straight into injury and burn out. You know, the phrase that says too much of a good thing is a bad thing, in this case, it can be.

Too much good stress can be a bad thing. Change can be good, but too much change or change is coming too quickly or can't be managed is extremely distressing. So, as a result of that, humans have this little bubble in which we live our life. We colloquially call it a comfort zone, right? We have this little place in which we reside, a place where we feel comfortable, where we feel safe, where we feel at ease and we feel secure.

And all of us, all of our comfort zones are different. Everybody's got their own little internal lines drawn. You know, again, some people love to travel, others don't. Some people love to rock climb, others don't. Some people love to, you know, bicycle hundreds and hundreds of miles, others don't, right? So, everybody's got kind of their own little thing that they're comfortable with. But we all know internally where those lines are, because we get right up to the edge and we go nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I'm not going any further than there.

Our natural human response is typically to stop short of that line. Maintaining our comfort, maintaining our safety and our security, we do not want to step out of that zone. We want to remain where we are. What complicates this in our lives is that our God operates outside of that comfort zone. He operates outside of that comfort zone. In encouraging us to grow, God subtly, and sometimes not so subtly nudges us out of that bubble and provides us with opportunities to learn and opportunities to grow if—this is a big if—if we're paying attention.

If we're paying attention, we can learn from these things. He did it with ancient Israel, and brethren, he's doing it with us as well, because God knows that remaining where we are, staying in that comfort zone, results in physical, mental, or spiritual atrophy.

A person that remains in that comfort zone and never leaves it will waste away, physically, mentally, or spiritually. So what do we do when we're faced with uncertainty? When we're plagued by worry or anxiety over things that we can't control, or maybe we can control, but we're unsure of exactly which way to proceed. Brethren, we go forward in faith, and that's the title of the message today, Forward in Faith. With the time that we have left, I'd like to examine this concept in light of the miracles that God did for his people historically on this last day of Unleavened Bread, and the miracle that he is doing in all of our lives today. I'd like you to draw a picture—for those of you taking notes, those of you doing this electronically, this would be more difficult, I apologize—but for those of you that are taking notes, a piece of paper, or whatever, I'd like you to draw this diagram. That way we can kind of reference back to it. It's going to be a four-ringed bullseye. Keep the inside of the bullseye a little bit bigger, but then have three kind of equally sized rings on the outside of it. There's a lot of different diagrams that help kind of model this concept and look at this concept. This one's pretty good because it includes another zone that doesn't often get discussed. Often we talk about our comfort zone, we talk about kind of our stretch zone, I should say, for lack of a better term, and then we talk about injury and burnout. Well, there's another zone that's pretty important as well. So you've got your four-ringed circle, right? You've got four bullseyes there. On the inside of your bullseye, would you write comfort zone, please? Comfort zone on the inside of the bullseye. That's where we like to stay. That's where we like to remain. The next zone out, the next ring out, would you write consolidation zone? Consolidation zone. And then the next ring out stretch zone. And the final ring snap zone.

That's the zone like snap, like broken. That's the zone we want to stay out of as much as we possibly can. Doesn't mean we don't go there occasionally. It doesn't mean we don't end up in a place where there's so much stress on us. We feel like we're going to break. But if we remain in that zone for too long, we will. We will burn out. We will wreck ourselves in some way, shape, or form. So again, there's a number of diagrams that kind of illustrate this. But you've probably already guessed this as you're looking at the diagram in front of you. We live our lives in this comfort zone. We remain and spend the vast majority of our time in this place. It's comfortable. It's unchallenging. It's routine. This comfort zone feels good because it doesn't push us. Nobody likes to be pushed. People enjoy their comfort, right? Physically, if you think about this from a standpoint of kind of how this would work from a physical analogy, in order for us to grow, we have to leave that comfort zone and move into our stretch zone. You'll notice we jump right over the consolidation zone. For us to grow, we have to leave the comfort zone and move into that stretch zone. But we can't stay in that stretch zone. We have to move back into that consolidation zone to rest and to recuperate. And then, after we've kind of stretched and then recuperated and then stretched again and recuperated, that's how we build strength in our lives. Now, whether it's physical with exercise, whether it's mental with learning something new, or even spiritual, where we have experience of stretching ourselves by stepping out on faith, as we do this repeatedly, as we stretch and consolidate, stretch and consolidate, stretch and consolidate, we grow. If you think about it from an analogy, muscle itself isn't built in the stress zone. The actions that tear down the muscle break up the muscle fibers, yes, occur in the stretch zone. Where's the muscle built? During the rest phase, during the recovery phase in that consolidation. That's when the body is rebuilding. That's when the body is recuperating. And so we stretch and consolidate, stretch and consolidate. And as time goes on, as we adapt our body to the stresses that we place on it, again, whether it's physical, spiritual or mental, our body's ability now to take more stress increases. You know, when you start weight training, you start out lifting a small amount of weight, as time goes on, you end up being able to lift quite a bit more. As soon as your body's gotten used to it, your body's adapted to it. It's the same thing when we act on faith. We step out on faith, we grow spiritually.

The more we do that, the more comfortable we are when we step out on faith. Once again, though, if we end up in this stretch period for a long enough time without that recuperation, or if we stretch right past that to the point where we just can't do it, we reach that snap zone and we reach a point of burnout. That can be physical, it can be mental, it can be spiritual. Often all three go together, honestly, in a burnout situation. You know, you stress out mentally, your adrenal glands will go out too because your body's so used to producing all this adrenaline and everything else and you're fatigued. Often that causes an adrenal often that causes an immense physical, mental, and spiritual injury. But God has guided his people through periods of stress and uncertainty in order for them to grow. God does this frequently. But what does He want them to grow in? Does He want them to grow in spiritual maturity? Does He want them to grow in faith? Does He want them to grow in knowledge? What is it that God desires that we grow in? Ultimately, God desires that we grow in faith and trust in Him. And through that faith and through that trust in Him, we gain knowledge and spiritual maturity and we grow in our relationship with God. We reach a place where we trust God even more because we realize He got me through this last thing, He'll get me through this next thing too. And then He'll get me through this next thing and this next thing. And after a while, sometimes those next things are huge and you think they're going to sink the ship. And God gets you through them as well. Let's start today by turning over to Hebrews 11. We'll turn over to Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. And we're going to begin in verse 1 of Hebrews 11. We go here pretty frequently when we talk about faith, for good reason. There's a section where it talks about what faith is and what faith does. It's a section where we have examples of individuals who lived a strong faith. And so it's a good place to begin when we're talking about faith. Let's start in Hebrews 11 and verse 1. Hebrews 11 and verse 1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are seen, I'm sorry, were not made of things which are visible. Verse 4, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it he, being dead, still speaks. And we have his example recorded for us. That example still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God. Verse 6, this is kind of the big memory scripture out of Hebrews 11, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now when we read this passage we often take a look at this concept as more of a definition, something that we can put our finger on and say, there it is, that right there, that's faith.

But in this passage God has inspired the author to illustrate what faith does.

Not simply what it is. To illustrate what faith does, the Greek word substance that's in verse 1, the Greek word substance is the Greek word hypostasis. And when you take a look at the definition of that particular word it is the underlying state or underlying substance. In other words, it's the fundamental reality that supports all else.

So we can say faith is the underlying state or substance of things hoped for. We might say it is the foundation of hope. It is the foundation of hope. And ultimately, as a result of that, the beginning of anything spiritual. Additionally, faith is the elenchos, the Greek word elenchos, the proof or the cross-examination of things that are unseen. Faith provides an underlying foundation of hope and a proof of what we cannot observe. Maybe stated in another way, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Faith is more than simple belief. We recognize that. That's where it begins. It begins with a belief. It begins with an understanding. It begins with us beginning to trust. And as time goes on, a true faith puts that faith to work.

A true faith puts that faith to work. And as our confidence in God grows, we begin to truly trust.

And that trust is God's ultimate goal for us in His relationship with each and every one of us.

Is that we reach a point where we trust Him implicitly.

That when He says it's time to go, we say, yes, Abba, it's time to go. That we trust Him implicitly.

As Hebrews 11 continues, He goes on to discuss the individuals who exhibited great faith throughout history. We see a mention of Noah, that he was warned and in godly faith he followed through, building an ark and saving his family. C. Abraham obeyed God and left his country for a complete unknown, complete and total unknown, and was blessed immensely. We see Sarah listed here. She judged God faithful and believed that he would fulfill his promise. Of course, she laughed at first. She came to understand later as time went on. Verse 13 of Hebrews 11 will continue. It says, these all died in faith. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. So we see that even in these examples of individuals recorded in Hebrews 11, there were additional promises that they had not received in this life. They had not yet received those promises. They were waiting on those promises to be fulfilled. But they were assured of them.

They believed God. They embraced those promises. They trusted Him, and they died in full faith of their eventual deliverance. They died with no question in their mind that the next moment that they would know would be the Kingdom of God.

The account goes on to talk about Jacob and Isaac and Joseph and Moses. And then in verse 29, the narrative shifts gears slightly. It shifts gears slightly, moving from Moses to the congregation of Israel as a whole. Now, if you've read through the Old Testament, there are not a lot of places where God is positive in His complementing of Israel and their behavior throughout time. He loved Israel. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say He didn't. He loved them. He loved them. But they struggled to trust. They struggled to have faith.

But in verse 29, there's a mention of the congregation of Israel. Verse 11, or chapter 11 and verse 29, shifts gears again from Moses talking about keeping the Passover with the sprinkling of blood in 28. And then it goes on to 29. By faith, they, the congregation of Israel, passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned. Verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. You know, there is something that ties these two events together beyond there being examples of faith in God that was delivered upon. According to Jewish tradition and according to scriptural timing, these two events appear to have taken place on the last day of Unleavened Bread. They appear to have taken place on the last day of Unleavened Bread. Let's take a look at both of these accounts in a little bit more detail. Let's go over to Exodus 14. You know, this is obviously the big one when we talk about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Exodus 14, it's been memorialized in movies like The Ten Commandments, honestly a bunch of others. It's kind of a big deal. Exodus 14. And we'll see as the passage progresses, the Israelites are boxed in. We see that they lose their faith waivers a little bit. I won't say they lost their faith. Their faith waivers a little bit. They're a little concerned about exactly what's going to happen here as they move forward. But their complaints to Moses were kind of regarding the method by which they felt things needed to be done. They had a little bit of a different idea of how they felt things should be done. And Moses tells them, look, stand still and wait on the deliverance of the Lord. But instead, what does God say? Verse 15 of Exodus 14. God says, and the Lord said to Moses, verse 15 of Exodus 14, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Might have had a moment if you realize there's a bunch of water right there. It says, lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. Do you think there was any question as to who and what God was after this moment?

You know, even for the Egyptians that were in the process of drowning in the bottom of the sea, that last thing going through their head was, I think we messed with the wrong God.

This may not have been such a good idea. Thanks a lot, Pharaoh.

Verse 19, the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went around behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud in darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. It took time to get across that. God needed to hold them back as they were crossing. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. You know, and traditionally we see that in the movie, we see that in the cartoons or whatever it might be, whether it's Prince of Egypt or the Ten Commandments, or I'm trying to think of some of the other ones that have done it. I think even a lot of other movies have done it kind of as a trope, but you see the wind blow in and dry things out. You see that water just start to build on either side. It starts to get higher and higher and higher. We don't know how high. We don't know kind of what it looked like exactly. I like to think it was up there ways, at least enough to be concerning to them as they went through it. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea. All of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And now it came to pass in the morning watch that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians. So as it gone through the night and into the morning now, they're in the process of crossing. God is harassing the Egyptian army. So he took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them with difficulty, and the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Something happened between that statement and their eventual drowning. They were either driven forward or whatever ended up happening, but they ended up in the ocean or into the sea.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, and the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians... I'm sorry, they were returning out of the ocean.

They heard it crash. The Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, not so much as one of them remains. Verse 29, But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. Verse 31, Thus Israel saw the great work, or the mighty hand, the strong arm, as was mentioned in the opening prayer today, the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt.

So the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Israel saw the strong hand that delivered them. What was the result? Well, they feared God. They believed, or as that word is translated, they were firm. They were reliant upon, or they were faithful to, what they saw. They saw the mighty hand of God, saw this incredible miracle that was wrought on their behalf, and they had a great respect for the Lord. They feared Him and they trusted God and His servant Moses. They had faith in God and Moses both following this event.

They trusted them. They believed them. Israel moved forward in faith. Imagine after this is done, you're standing there on the shores. You've got, you know, dead Egyptians. You've got the water still kind of maybe crashing together a little bit as things often do as they come back together, and you turn around and there's this wilderness in front of you.

What else do you do but go forward in faith? Can't go back. That way is sealed off. The only way back through at this point is going through Gaza, which is going to get you in trouble with the Philistines, right? So at this point, you go forward. You go forward in faith. This was a moment of spiritual growth for Israel. They've been put into a situation that was unwinnable, that honestly pushed them past their stretch zone and in some ways into their snap zone as they start to go, well, would you bring us out here to die?

Were there no graves in Egypt? They didn't think they were going to make it out of this. It wasn't so much a stretch as it was a snap in the case of the Israelites. They pushed back against Moses and God says, look, watch. Trust me. They did. The ocean parts, the host of Israel walks through the Red Sea, kind of figuratively baptized in those waters as it talks about in 1 Corinthians 10.

And God redeemed his people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Now, as they move forward from that day, yes, they moved forward in faith, but that faith and that trust in God would waver at times. They would question him. They would rebel against Moses. They would demand their own way. They would desire a return to what God had delivered them from, kind of a, I don't know, institutional amnesia in a way where it really wasn't that bad.

I mean, yeah, they whipped us, but at least we had, you know, this kind of food and this kind of food and this kind of food. As time went on, God became increasingly more disappointed and more angry with Israel. Numbers 14, if you flip forward, Numbers 14, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 11. In Numbers 14 and verse 11, we see a very frank conversation between God and Moses. Numbers 14 and verse 11, we see a very frank conversation. We also see Moses intercede on behalf of his people, and we might initially say, well, successfully. Sort of. Sort of.

So what happened? Let's take a look at it. Numbers 14 and verse 11. It says, Then a Lord said to Moses, How long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me? How long will they not trust me?

How long will they not believe me with all the signs which I've performed among them? You know, God at this point is asking, I have done all of these things.

Why do they not trust me? At this point, I have delivered them from Egypt. I have arranged miracle bread from heaven. I've given them water. I've given them everything they needed. Why?

Why will they not trust me? God says, I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you, speaking to Moses, a nation greater and mightier than they. And Moses interceded, says to the Lord, the Egyptians will hear it. For by your might you brought these people up from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, and they will they have heard that you, Lord, are among these people that you, Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands above them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. God listens to Moses here. God listens to Moses here. He doesn't kill the entire host of Israel on the spot, but he does tell Moses what? He tells him that those who saw his glory, those who saw the mighty hand deliver them, saw the glory and the signs that were in Egypt in the wilderness and still put into the test, not obeying him, they would not see the Promised Land. I think we like to look at that, and I think we like to say, well, Moses changed God's mind. No, Moses delayed what God intended to do. Moses bought Israel time. Those that were in the wilderness still died in the wilderness. They just didn't die right then. Those that did not obey, those that tested God, those that saw the wonders and would not still trust God. Their carcasses rotted in the wilderness. Verse 20 of Numbers 14. Numbers 14 and verse 20, skip down just a little bit. It says, Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word, but truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. God, again, followed through on His word.

Forty years later, those remaining Israelites came to the edge of the Jordan River. God performs a very similar miracle to what He did forty years prior, a little, you know, maybe a little less majestic in stopping the waters of the Jordan so they could cross. You know, Jordan's a pretty good-sized river at times, especially in the spring. You know, but He dried that up so they could cross. And for the first time, the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land.

I did that on the tenth of a bib. We see in Scripture, it mentions a specific date. We see Joshua and the Israelites circumcised the whole host of Israel. A few days later, they kept the Passover and began the Days of Unleavened Bread. Now, it was at this time that the commander of the Lord's armies, the Word, came to Joshua. And he tells Joshua of the plan to take Jericho. Let's go to verse 2 of Joshua 6. Let's go over to Joshua 6 as we take a look at another event that was spanned the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Joshua 6, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 2. And note verse 1 as you're turning. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. They locked Jericho down. They were afraid. Word travels. It doesn't matter what it is, where you're at. I mean, Word travels a lot faster now with the internet and whatever else. But people heard things back then. Travelers spoke of this mighty God that parted the Red Sea and crossed up to potentially 1.2 million people across it. Word like that gets out. Well, it got to Jericho and they were scared to death. They locked down the city. They trusted in their walls. They said there is no way that force is getting in here. Lock it down. Shut the gates. Lock it down. They're not coming in. We got food stores. We can outlast them. They're going to run out of food before we do. No problem. Now, what happens? What happens? Lord says to Joshua, verse 2 of Joshua 6, See, I've given Jericho into your hand. It's king and the mighty men of Valor.

You shall march around the city, all you men of war. You shall go around the city once. This you shall do for six days. The seventh priest shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priest shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet that all the people shall shout with a great shout. And then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him. You know, it's probably a slightly different battle plan than Joshua was used to. You know, it's probably a little bit different, thinking about, well, I'm kind of familiar with this whole slings and spears and arrows and swords and, you know, storm the walls, go up the ladders, take as many as you can, you know, get boiling oil dumped on you, whatever. That's the plan I'm used to. But this whole just quietly do a circle around the city once each day until the seventh day and then do it seven times. I don't know about that. But we see, and kind of put yourselves in the sandals of the host. I mean, put yourself in their shoes.

Think about kind of what you would have thought if you were one of this silent group there marching around, not allowed to talk. Just circle around, Jericho, and then, well, we made our circles. Go home. Well, next morning, let's get up, do it again. Go around, circle. Go around. Next day, go do it again and again and again and again for six days until finally on the seventh day. It's slightly different. Now imagine for a moment you're on the other side of it.

You're the folks man in the wall of Jericho. You've been under attack before. You know how war works.

You see this giant host marching towards you and they start coming at you and they just go this way.

And then this way. And then this way. And here they are now behind the city. And now they come around the other side and they just march right on back to their camp. And they're kind of going, huh, that's a little bit different. I don't know about this.

They haven't attacked yet. They're just walking around the city parading themselves, not making any noise, which would be eerie. I mean, just really eerie, honestly. I mean, if you think about the number of people and yeah, it would have been eerie. You've heard of what the God in Egypt did. Now you're starting to maybe wonder what God did in Egypt for his people. You're kind of wondering a little bit maybe what's going on. And then on day seven, you know, they're not just out there doing their standard fun run. You know, they're not doing their 5k this day. No, they've gone around not once, twice, seven times, and then a nice big old trumpet blast and a shout.

And suddenly the walls that you're manning collapse out from underneath you and fall outward. And here they come. The war is on and this hideous fact. Done. Game over. That's it.

Manning the wall, you are now dead. And you didn't see it coming. You didn't see it coming. It was a miraculous deliverance. The people of Jericho trusted in their walls. Israel had their faith in God. In fact, in Hebrews 11 verse 30, it was accounted to them as faith when Jericho's walls fell. God had now conquered the first of their enemies in the promised land in an incredibly dramatic way and this was not the last. Israel went through the promised land conquering peoples left and right when God fought their battles for them. When God fought their battles, they won. When they listened, when they trusted, God worked in their lives. So for the next generation of Israel, you know, these are the ones that had heard stories potentially about the Red Sea crossing. Now they're able to viscerally experience the kind of deliverance that God provides.

They saw it with their own eyes. God said it was going to happen. They did exactly what He said to do and it happened. Does that build faith? Does that build trust? Absolutely it does. Yeah, absolutely it does. Their faith, their belief and trust in God grew as a result of being stretched beyond their comfort zone. Having to reach out and stretch a little bit and trust that God was going to do it in this way. You gotta imagine some of those guys are going, well, can't we just go get them with spears? Like pointing in first? Seems like a decent strategy, really. God said, I've got other plans. I'm going to do this in a different way. Let's go over to Acts 12. You know, we take a look at the last day of Unleavened Bread. There is a very strong theme of faith and deliverance that is attached to these days. Very strong theme of faith and deliverance that's attached to these days. Let's go to Acts 12 and we'll go ahead and begin in verse 1. Acts 12 and verse 1, as we kind of move from the Old Testament into the New Testament now.

Acts 12 and verse 1, we'll see an example of this faith and this deliverance in the New Testament, in an example that we may not necessarily have considered being attached to this time of year. Acts 12 and verse 1 says, now, about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Now, some more than a little bit of harassment says he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. So Herod now is kind of making trouble a little bit with the church at this time. He's managed to kill James. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, James's death made the Jews happy. So he says, well, I'll make them really happy. I'm going to get Peter. I'm going to capture Peter. That'll make them really happy if I can give him Peter, like the way that I gave him James. Because it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to cease Peter also. Now, notice what it says. It was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It was the Days of Unleavened Bread at this point in time when this happened. Okay? So the commentaries believe this is roughly the year 44 A.D. I think it would be hard to nail down perfectly, but roughly 44 A.D. Herod's now harassed. Those are the ways captured. He's put James to death by the edge of the sword. And again, because you notice how much that made the Jews happy, he decided, well, I'm going to give him...I'm going to give him Peter. I'm going to go after the big one, the big kahuna, so to speak. So he captures Peter. He throws him in prison. Verse 4 says, so when he arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers. It's not like he's got one kind of, you know, absent-minded guard on the cell. He delivered him to four squadrons of soldiers, four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Notice the response of those in the church at that time. Verse 5, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

Could Peter have gotten out of prison on his own accord? No. In fact, if nothing happened, Peter dies. I mean, that's where this road's going for Peter. If nothing happens, if God does not deliver him, Peter dies, just like James. People were praying. People prayed like crazy. They exhibited a full faith and a full trust and a full assurance that God could and would deliver Peter. Now, Herod planned to bring him out and put him before the people once the Days of Unleavened Bread, referenced here as the Passover, was completed. You might notice your translation may say Easter, depending on which version of the Bible you're using it may say Easter. It's a mistranslation. It truly is. This paskav is the word which is always referencing Passover in Scripture. Easter wasn't celebrated by the Christian, quote-unquote, church until the second century. They would not have called it Easter in 44 A.D. They were referencing Passover.

Now, what's interesting is in Luke 22, verse 1, you can jot it down. We won't turn there.

Luke records that the Days of Unleavened Bread and Passover were used interchangeably, was used to describe the whole season. Passover was used to describe not just the Passover as we would recognize it, but also the Days of Unleavened Bread. Since Peter was seized during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Passover, what we would refer to as Nice and Fourteen, had already passed. So how could Herod had trotted him out after that Passover if he was captured during the Days of Unleavened Bread? The reference here is that once the Days of Unleavened Bread were finished, Herod planned to bring Peter out for the Jews. So the Days of Unleavened Bread progressed. Peter's in prison. Right up until we see Peter's miraculous deliverance in verse 6, Acts 12 and verse 6. It says, And when Herod was about to bring him out, the night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prisons. So again, not one absent-minded guard here. He's chained between two soldiers. There's guards on the door. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly. And his chains, Clink, fall right off of his hands.

I don't know how Peter woke up, but for me, I'd be going, Wait, what?

What's going on here? Find my glasses. Figure out exactly what's happening.

He says, light shone, verse... Sorry, I lost my place. Verse 8, Angel said to him, Gird yourself and tie on your sandals, and so he did. And he said to him, Put on your garment and follow me. So he went out and followed him, and did not know what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. So he thinks he's dreaming at this point. He thinks it's a vision of some variety. When they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord. Walked up and just... Open goes the gate.

And they went out and went down one street, and immediately then the angel departed from him. Now Peter, who was just in prison a little bit ago, chained between two soldiers with guards on his posts, is now standing in the middle of the street, no chains, no angel, going, What just happened? What's going on here? And when Peter had come to himself, that's an important point, when he finally realized, Okay, I am not dreaming. This is real. I am legitimately out of prison now. He said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. God delivered Peter in an incredibly miraculous way on the night before Herod planned to kill him, which corresponds to the ending of the Days of Unleavened Bread. It corresponds to this time frame. God's expectation of Peter was that he trust him and obey. And Peter went forth in faith. You know, Peter didn't tell the angel, No, no, I didn't argue with him. He did exactly what he was told to do. And everything went according to plan. God's expectation of Peter was that he trust him and obey. And Peter went forward in faith. Fast forward to today, brethren, and we're spiritually all gathered here to commemorate the last day of Unleavened Bread. Christ's blood has been poured out on our behalf. Our sins have been remitted.

God has miraculously delivered us from the bondage of sin, has broken our chains. And now, as we follow along in his plan, we've crossed the Red Sea. Those waters crashed in behind us.

Our sin lies on the other side of that body of water, forgiven, forgotten, erased from the record as a result of the blood of Jesus Christ. We've been redeemed. We've been bought back.

And it's important to recognize not of our own accord. We don't get to claim any of this.

Not of our own accord. We're simply coming along for the ride. This is all God. This is all God.

At times, we focus very strongly during the days of Unleavened Bread on the removal of sin from our lives, the removal of leaven in our homes. It is demanded by God. It's important. It's an absolute necessity of these days. But as we're undergoing that process, we have to realize the removal of sin from our lives is not all us. It's done by God the Father through Jesus Christ.

Now, we identify sin. We repent of that sin. But the sin is removed by God. The sin is taken away by God. We are overcomers through Jesus Christ. We spend our life in fine-tuning our obedience to His way of life and remaining, keeping up that repentant relationship of trust with God. So what does God desire of us as we're gathered here today to keep the last day of Unleavened Bread? He desires the same thing that He's desired of all of His people through history.

That we go forward in faith. That we not worry. That we not be anxious. But that we step forward in full trust and full assurance and in complete obedience to God for His protection, for His deliverance. Especially in the times that we have of uncertainty and trial. And as you well know, that is not always nice. It is not always neat. Sometimes it's very, very ugly. And there are times where you don't think you're getting out of this one. You know, we can say this and it's easy to say. But living it is tough. Going through those trials and going through that time of uncertainty where you just don't know how this is going to come out. That's hard. That's hard.

Sometimes growing in faith stretches us. Sometimes it stretches us uncomfortably.

Sometimes we're moved from our comfort zone into places that are very difficult for us. Places we don't even necessarily want to be. But it was done for us to learn and to grow. If you go over to 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, we'll go ahead and begin in verse 7 here as we start to bring things to a close today. 1 Peter 1.

I'm going to pick it up actually back in 3. 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.

4. Verse 7, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him yet believing, yet having that faith, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We have a faith in Christ Jesus. We have a faith in the promises that he has given us. We don't see him, yet we love him and we believe in him. And we go forward in our lives with full faith and full assurance and rejoicing in him, despite the trials that we face. Because through him, through our faith in him, we are justified. We're justified. Let's turn over to Romans 5.

Romans 5, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1 here.

Romans 5 and verse 1, we can receive peace with God through that faith in Christ and his sacrifice on our behalf. Through our faith in him, we are justified. We're given access to grace.

Because of this, we can rejoice in the hope of salvation. We can rejoice in the glory of God.

Verse 1 of Romans 5 says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Where does our peace come from? Through Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, through the hope that we have, through our justification by faith. Through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. That's tough, isn't it? Gloring in tribulations. Being thankful for the challenges that we have, for the stresses that we receive, for those opportunities to stretch us from our comfort zone. But not only that, we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. It's a building block. It's foundational. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Rather than our faith, our trust, our confidence is in God. Not in ourselves, not in our own abilities, but in God. You know, it's this faith that God desired in His people from the very beginning that they would in times of trial, in times of uncertainty, in times where you just had no idea what to do next, that they would rely upon Him. And God provides us with what we need, not always what we want, or sometimes what we think we need. So it begs the question, what exactly does God want of us in these times of uncertainty? What is God's will in our life? I think we often get bogged down with concerns over what God's will is. We're worried about our decisions. We're worried about whether we're deciding against God's will in our lives. God's will for us, brethren, is the exact same as it was for Israel and for the New Covenant Church. God's will is that we build and maintain a relationship with Him that is founded in faith and obedience. That is God's will for us. If you search out God's will in Scripture, there's a few places that explicitly define, for that is God's will for you... I briefly made a short list. You can jot the Scriptures down if you would like, but we're not going to turn there. God's will for you is that you be sanctified.

1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3. God's will for you is that you give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8. God's will for you is that you be saved.

1 Timothy 2, verses 3-4. God's will for you is that you do good.

1 Peter 2, verse 15. God's will for you is that you live rightly. Ephesians 5, verses 15-20. God's will for you is that you repent.

2 Peter 3, verse 9. Brethren, in some ways, everything else is details.

In some ways, everything else is details.

You'll note in there it didn't talk about the job you'll have. It didn't talk about any of those things. God's will for you is that you build a relationship with Him based and founded upon faith and obedience.

So, do I have the right job? Well, does it enable you to build and maintain a stronger relationship with God? Does it enable you to focus on all of those things, being saved and sanctified and justified and doing rightly? Great! If it does, great! Would another job be better for you? Maybe.

Maybe. Will that job enable you to build and maintain a stronger relationship with God on all of those things? Can you do all of those things at that job too? If so, great! Change jobs!

If your job, however, is one that prevents you from maintaining your relationship with your spouse, with your children, you're a workaholic, and you're constantly putting work over family, and or you come home and you're so angry and you're so frustrated that you take it out on your family, and there's a negative impact on them, a negative impact on you, it might be worth considering finding something else, because now you're not fulfilling God's will for you.

Or maybe it means that if you're going to continue in that place of employment that you need to work on some coping skills. Take up a hobby of some variety of lathe law, some steam, maybe.

What college should I go to? What should I study? Well, will the college or your major impact your relationship with God negatively? If it does, I wouldn't seek that major. I would do something different. Would your chosen career be regularly impacted by the Sabbath? Is it something where, no matter what, you're going to get called on the Sabbath constantly? If it is, you might be going to want to think of something else. Is there a church area near the college that you want to attend? Or are you out there by yourself? Is there a solid group of people for support? Does your major capitalize on your talents and your gifts? Will you be able to positively contribute? If you go through and you get this major and you go and get this type of employment, will you be able to positively contribute and live God's way of life better? If so, go for it! There are all factors in the decision. All these things are factors in these kind of decisions. But the biggest two questions are, will this help me to build and maintain a stronger relationship with God? And will it enable me to better live this way of life? To be sanctified, to give thanks, to do good, to be saved, to live rightly and repent? Those are the things that we should be framing our decisions upon. It shouldn't matter what we want, so to speak. We include God in that process. Yes, what we want is fine. We have goals, we have desires, we have things that we would like to do. But the importance of including God in that process is essential. Those should be the things that are framing our decisions. Provided it doesn't violate His law, then in some ways any decision that you make in those parameters could be argued to be in line with God's will for you. Sometimes the things that we worry most about in life are not in the grand scheme of God's plans. And yes, listen, they're important to us. We're living the life, right? They're important to us. But if you have a moment to step back and try to see it with God's eyes, in the scheme of God's plan are some of those details really truly that important.

God's desire is that we learn to trust Him in all things, that we acknowledge and we consider Him in those decisions. So whether it was Israel standing on the banks of the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread so many years ago, or 40 years later when they entered the promised land and encountered their first walled city, or several thousand years later with James already dead and Peter awaiting His execution in a cell, or whether it's us in the modern era of the church today walking forward from this day with a repentant relationship with God in these last days. God's desires that all turn to Him in trust and place their faith in Him. God helps us to grow by allowing us to experience situations that stretch us beyond our comfort zone, situations that challenge us, which get us out of that nice, safe, and secure little bubble and cause us to stretch. And because we're human, often our response to that is to panic. Because I'm now out of my comfort zone. I'm uncomfortable. This is not what I wanted. This is not why I do not like this at all.

We begin to worry. We begin to become anxious. We begin to question the plan and question the situation. Sometimes we act decisively to move ourselves back to that comfort zone, whatever it is that God may have planned in that situation. And we ask the question sometimes, where was God during all of this? Where was God during all of this? During these difficulties and during these struggles that I'm having, where was God during all of it? Where was God when Israel crossed the Red Sea?

Right there in a pillar of fire in a pillar of cloud. Right there among the camp of Israel.

Where was God when they conquered Jericho?

The Ark was in the midst of the army as they went around and around and around and around and around.

God was with them too. Where was God when Peter was imprisoned?

Angels were sent by God to come and release him. He was nearby. He was right there nearby.

Brethren, in our times of uncertainty and difficulty and trial, he is right there with us as well. Dwelling within us. Brethren, not with us, in us, not amongst the camp, in here. Through it all, through all of it, whatever it may be, whatever uncertainty or trial that is in your life, God desires that we turn to him, that we trust in him, and that we go forward in faith.