Natural Sight Shows Us Challenges

Brethren, today I've used the preacher's outline in the sermon Bible commentary for preparing for the sermon. I'd like to put your mind at a certain location. Let's imagine that you're an astronaut. We talked about traveling at the light of speed. Let's imagine you can do that. Let's imagine you can travel at 186,000 miles per second. Now, you and I, we don't understand what that means. Let me give you a brief clue as to what that means. When you say the word Jerusalem, if you're traveling at 186,000 miles per second, when you say the word Jerusalem, you can go around the earth seven times. Think about that for a second. You say the word Jerusalem, you've gone around the earth seven times. That's that fast. At that speed, you can reach the moon in less than two seconds. At that speed, you can reach the earth star in four years.

At that speed, in 120,000 years, you can reach the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Two million years, you can reach the constellation Andromeda. And on and on, I can just give you fact after fact after fact. But I thought it was interesting with all those facts that one of the first Russian astronauts who first circled the earth went back and remarked to the press that he went out in space and he couldn't see God. Couldn't see God. Now, that's a pretty interesting perspective, isn't it? A farmer looks at cow manure as something in which you must endlessly shovel in the barn. He may look at that as a pain in the neck, but to those who are growing flowers or something like that, they view it as a heaven-sent. Again, a matter of perspective. Right now, what is our perspective of the world? It's the way we look at things. It's our vantage point, our point of view. It's how we see ourselves, it's how we see other people, it's how we see circumstances that affect our lives. Which brings us to the question, why is perspective so very important? Let's take a look at Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. Isaiah 55, verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. So here we see that God has a much different perspective than we do. For as the heavens are higher than the earth's, or my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts, than your thoughts. Our perspective isn't always in tune with God's perspective. And of course, during these days of unleavened bread while we're trying to be in sync with God, this is something we want to think about, something we meditate on. So today, brethren, if you want to take notes, you want to put something across the top of your paper, this is what I have for you today. Natural sight shows challenges. Spiritual sight shows solutions. Natural sight shows the challenges. Spiritual sight shows the solutions. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 14, and we want to keep a marker there because we're going to be going from this chapter to other places in the Scriptures. This is going to be our launch pad today, talking about astronauts. We're going to start here in Exodus 14. We'll be going other areas, as I said. But we'll continually return to this area. How strong is your godly perspective? How true are you to the things that God would have you view the way God views them? Exodus chapter 14 gives us a few things we need to be concerned about. Exodus 14, verse 10, This is one of the warning signs you and I could detect if our perspective is not what it should be. Do we live in a state of fear? Not throughout all of our life, but in different compartments. Our life is multifaceted. But is there a part of your life where fear is too much of a motivating force, too much of the perspective? Maybe we are fearful about our income, or we're fearful about our health, or fearful about our marriage, or our kids, or schooling. Any number of things. There may be certain fears we have in some areas of our life. Another warning sign about a skewed perspective we see in verses 11 and 12.

Then he said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, had you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we might serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. Now, the skewing we see here, a warning signal we see here, is a distortion of the truth. They're not speaking truth here. They're not thinking truth here. It's a distortion of reality. The reality as God sees it. Now, this may have been their perspective, it might have been their reality, but it wasn't the reality that God was viewing. And again, we want to get in line with God's perspective. Verse 15. Dropping down to verse 15. And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

Go forward. Another warning sign about our perspective is that we may be clinging to the world too much. And only each of us in our own hearts and minds can answer that question if we're clinging to the world too much. So, brethren, how are you doing right now when we're thinking about having a godly perspective? Is fear in some area of your life too much of a motivating factor? Do we tend to distort the truth?

Do we tend to exaggerate what's happening in our life? Do we want to cling too much to the world and our society around us? Well, here in 2 Corinthians, again, put your marker there in Exodus 14. Go to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. Here we see where God wants us to be. We see a godly perspective, something that has to be cultivated.

2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. For it says, For we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. How does one walk by faith? Is there a section of the Scriptures that show us how to do that? Well, the answer is yes. The answer is we're going to go back to Exodus 14. We're going to dissect that chapter.

We're going to examine that chapter. As you and I do that, we're going to see words from God, words of wisdom, God's own special, unique counsel that will tell us how we should be walking by faith and not by sight. Several years ago, one of the astronauts who walked on the moon was interviewed, and he was asked this question, What did you think as you stood on the moon and looked back at the earth? Now, of course, you can think any number of things when they're asked that kind of a question.

I don't even remember how many men have walked on the moon, not that many. But when the astronaut was asked this question, What did you think about when you stood on the moon and you looked back at the earth? He's going to give a response here, and that response is going to be his perspective. He replied, I quote, I remembered how the spacecraft was built by the lowest bidder.

You're standing on the moon. Can I get back? I don't know if I can get back. You know, this craft was built by the lowest bidder. That was his perspective. Not, oh, the earth is so beautiful in this. Can I get back to that good old planet earth? Dr. Martin Luther King said this, and I quote, Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. You don't have to see the whole staircase.

Just take the first step. And, Brevin, we're going to talk about that as the sermon goes on, because that is so very true. We go back now to Exodus 14. Let's dissect this chapter, because this chapter has a lot to tell us about walking by faith, not by sight. It shows a lot about how natural sight shows us the challenges, but if we want to walk spiritually, our spiritual sight will show us the solutions. Point number one. For those of you who take notes, point number one. When we're walking by faith, God presents us with challenges.

Now, is that any news flash to anybody in this room? As a pastor to most of you, and as a friend to hopefully all of you, I look out into the room today and I see any number of people who have gone through some world-class challenges in the last 12 months or so. World-class challenges. God's going to let us go through those world-class challenges. So we're going to take a look here at this instant at the Red Sea. We're going to look at this as a teaching tool. Exodus 14, verse 1.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and cap before Piah Hyrath between Migdall and the sea, opposite Beowzaphon, you shall cap before it by the sea. So here Israel is going in a certain direction. Just like many times your life is going in a certain direction. And lo and behold, God tells Israel, Well, I want you to go a different direction now.

Or lo and behold, in your life, you're going in a certain direction that you're relatively happy, things are relatively peaceful. Then all of a sudden, God has you going some other direction. You know, it was interesting, just as I was preparing this sermon, I received a phone call from a woman that calls from time to time. She lives out of state. She's a dear soul, and she called, and she was talking about the sermon I'd given on the first Holy Day. And we got to talking about that.

She's on Mr. Delisandro. She said, I've had a number of jobs here in my life, and every one of them I believe God led me to, and every one of them has been a disaster. You know, I tend to find these jobs where I work with these women, and these women are nothing but backstabbers, and they are hurtful people, and so on and so forth.

And God led me to this place! Well, God is leading Israel to this place. Where has God led you this last 12 months? Maybe you felt you've been led to your red seat. Maybe you've had your back up against the wall. Well, so certainly God is doing this to these people, and there's a reason God is doing this. Verse 3, so Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in.

God wanted Pharaoh to say, you know what? These people don't know what they're doing. They're zigzagging here and there. They're going to and fro. I want to go get them. Of course, God is in the background. He's working things out here. Verse 4, then I will harden Pharaoh's hearts, and he will pursue them, and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all of his army, so that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord, and they did so.

Brethren, I've said on so many occasions, our God is an all-inclusive God. All those people who ever lived in history, not one of them is perished, and God is forgotten. Every one of them, God is remembering. It says here that God was going to have honor over the Egyptian army, over the land of Egypt, over Pharaoh. And that's true. And when these people are resurrected, when they get their opportunity in the Second Resurrection, one of the last things, or one of the first things that will come back to their mind is how they follow the Israelites into the Red Sea.

And they're going to remember, you know, that wasn't such a bright idea, because we were fighting against the real God. Not the gods of Egypt, this God of Israel. They're going to remember them. And this is going to be a teaching tool God's going to use for them. But it's also a teaching tool that God does for all of us.

Leading us into areas in our life where we just feel we're being ambushed. Leading us into areas in our life where it just seems, boy, this is extremely painful, very difficult. Verse 5, Now when it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants, was turned against the people, and they would say, why have we done this? Why have we let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariots and took the people with him. He took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, the captains over every one of them.

We talked about this on the first Holy Day. Pharaoh had his own panzer division. We talked about Adolf Hitler, and how he stopped his panzer divisions just short of the troops at Dunkirk. And that was God's doing. Because the troops, the British troops, the best of what was left of the French army, they had their backs up against the wall as well. And again, God was there to teach a lesson in all of this.

Verse 8, And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with boldness. Well, it's like us many times, brethren. You and I can go through a trial. We can be successful in the trial we've just gone through. And then another trial comes, right on the heels of the trial we've just had. And there are times we're not so bold.

Like we talked about last week, you've got Elijah talking about beating the odds. Took on 850 prophets of Baal. Beat them all. One guy against 850 had them all put to death. And right after that, Jezebel, Queen Jezebel said, Elijah, you killed my 850 prophets. By this time tomorrow, you're going to be dead. You're going to die. And what did Elijah do who just came off this tremendous, this mighty miracle?

He ran for his life. He had a big pity party. He said, Why me, God? I don't think Elijah's the only person in life who's ever had a pity party. I think if we had a sign-up list, we could pass it row by row. And by the time we got to the back of the room, that sign-up list would be pretty big if people had pity parties.

Right? Verse 9, so the Egyptians pursued them all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them there by the Red Sea. So again, brethren, when you take a look at your life, has God presented you with challenges?

How does it look when He presents you with challenges? Are you and I only seeing the challenge? If you and I are only seeing the challenge, and we're seeing that clear 20-20 vision, if we're not seeing some of the solutions, then are we on God's wavelength like we should be?

I'm not saying we should always see these things immediately because we don't. We're human beings. We're fallible. We're clay. And many times it takes a great deal of prayer and fasting and study. But if we don't ever seem to see the solutions, then maybe there are some issues there for us. Some issues there for us to think about. I'm not going to turn to these various scriptures, brethren, but think about Joseph. Joseph, his brothers sold him into...

talk about family issues. His brothers sold him into slavery. And you know the whole story of Joseph. And at the very end of the story, the very last chapter of Genesis, what does Joseph say to his brothers? The brothers thought that maybe he was going to take vengeance upon them. And what did Joseph say to them? He said, you know, you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good.

And sometimes, brethren, you and I can look at our trials and we can think that, boy, this is nothing but evil. But God wants something good to come out of this trial that you and I are going through. Think about Esther. Here's a beautiful young woman, and she's put in harm's way. She's put a tremendous amount of weight is put upon her shoulders, where she has got to be thinking about her entire, all of her people around the known world.

Like any human being, she had second thought. She was thinking about, maybe I could just run away. And her family member, Mordecai, we don't know whether it was her cousin or uncle, but Mordecai said, you know, Esther, I think you and I have come, and God has put us for this time and this place. Brethren, what are you going through right now? Whatever you're going through right now, God has put you there. You were perhaps at your Red Sea.

You were at the base of your Mount Everest. And God has led you there, because God has something in mind for you. We say, we want to know God's will. If we know God's will, everything will be okay. And I've passed. I've gone through Acts 16. It's a good study for you. Go through Acts 16. Paul wants to go to a certain area and preach the Gospel. That's a good thing.

God says, no, you're not going to go to that area and preach the Gospel. I want you to go over to Northern Greece. I want you to go over to Macedonia. You go over there, you're going to preach the Gospel over there. And so Paul and Silas, they go there. They're following God's will. They get there, and what happens? Well, one of the first things that happens, they've got to deal with a woman who's demon-possessed.

And then after they, you know, when they deal with her, the people who were around her, who used her for, you know, fortune-telling and that sort of thing, they began to lose their livelihood. When they began to lose their money, they began to complain to the authorities, and Paul and Silas were brought to the authorities. They were stripped down. They were beaten. They were thrown not only in jail, but in solitary confinement.

Now, these are two people, Paul and Silas, who are following the will of God. So, Britain, we can follow the will of God, and sometimes we're going to have some real interesting times. We can't just look at the challenge. We have to ask God to show us with spiritual insights what the solutions are.

So, point number one, God presents us with a challenge.

Point number two, look to God's instruction.

Look to God's instruction. So many times we want to look to our other places for instruction, but we always go first. What is God's instruction? So, back there to Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus chapter 14 verses 13 through 15. Let's take a look at God's instruction here. And Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid. So, the first thing he says here is, fear not. Fear not. And obviously, these people were confronted by a very dire circumstances. You know, it wasn't like, well, should I get a red car or a blue car? You know, should I have one piece of pie or two pieces of pie? You know, it wasn't anything like that. It was, am I going to lose my life? Is my wife or my spouse and my kids and my grandkids, are they going to be slaughtered by Pharaoh and his army? We're talking about some pretty dire things. Some things people could naturally be afraid of. You know, in a church, we've got people, not only in our church here, other churches in Michigan, people I talked to via email from all around the country, members facing bankruptcy, members facing long-term unemployment, other financial difficulties, people facing relationship issues, divorces, separations. People call me and they say, well, my children no longer talk to me. I don't get a chance to see my grandchildren. These are difficult things. People have various diseases, you know, cancer and other issues. Big deals, deals with which it would be easy for us to be fearful. And as you and me, understandable for us to be fearful. But one of the things we see here, it says, don't be afraid. Now, Reverend, I've been through difficult circumstances, too. I made mention of that on the first Holy Day. I don't need to keep on repeating that. But there were times when if God would have taken my life, that would have been fine by me. I came to see that was a very selfish way to look at life and repent of that. But we've all been in a very dark place from time to time. But we also have to realize when we're in those dark places, we've got to look to God. When Elisha's servants saw the armies around the camp where he and Elisha were camping, and he was so fearful of this vast army that was around him, Elisha said, Father, show them what we've got. And Elisha's servants, his eyes were opened, and he saw this whole army of angels around their position to take care of them.

Going back to Exodus 14, so one of the things, you know, we need to look to God and not be fearful. It says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Stand still! Stand firm! Don't waver! You know, there's a time for everything. There's a time for, you know, looking at things is a time for action. You know, we as Americans, we love to act. We're action people. But there's a time to stand firm. There's a time to just stop and think and get our bearings, to recalibrate our thinking.

If we're terrified, we've got to go to God and say, Father, I'm terrified at what I'm facing, and you've got to help me get away from that. We need time to stand still, to get on God's wavelength, and get away from Satan's wavelength. Stand still! it says. Stand firm! And we need to stand firm. In your notes, you might want to jot down 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7.

I'll read it for you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. We've got the spirit of fear. We don't have enough of the spirit of God. We need to ask God for more of that. Ask God for Him to enhance our hearts and our minds. You might jot down 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58.

Again, I'm not going to turn here. I'll read it for you. 1 Corinthians 15 and 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

So be steadfast, be unmovable. We go back and we see something else. We're told not to be afraid. We're told to stand still. But after we've stood still, after we've recalibrated our thinking, we've got our spiritual bearings, we've gone to God. Then what does it say here in verse 15? And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?

Tell the children of Israel to go forward. So here's the third thing that God is telling the people there. To put it in a vernacular, God's saying, Would you stop crying and get moving? Stop crying and get a move on. Now, as Solomon said, there is a time for everything under the sun. There is a time for tears. There is a time for crying. There is a time for sorrow. But then there is also a time, brethren, when you and I quit blaming ourselves. There is a time when we quit blaming other people.

There is a time when we stop our analysis, we stop all the planning because we've done enough. We've probably done it three or four times over. There is a time to simply arise, get up, and move forward. Get a move on. And just as these people had to do, they had to trust God to roll back the problem, to roll back the Red Sea. And you and I need to have faith that God will roll back our issue, whatever that issue may be.

Again, I'll quote John 9 and verse 4. I'm not going to turn there to John 9 and verse 4. Where it says, So there is a time to stop, stand still. There is a time, though, to stop our crying and move forward. And, brethren, I'm not trying to be heartless here.

I've had my share of times of crying and tears just like you have. But there comes a time, I know there's come several times in my life, where I just stop the crying and say, you know, enough of that. I can be maudlin and mourning and crying and looking over my shoulder the rest of my life.

And what does that get me? That doesn't get me down the road. That doesn't get me where God wants me to be. It's where Satan wants me to be. Stuck in a ditch. Stuck in a rut. Stuck in a grave. We don't want to be there. So point number two is look to God's instruction.

Point number three, let's go back to Exodus 14. Point number three is look to God's intervening power. As we're walking by faith, as we're looking for a spiritual site to show us the solutions. Number three, we want to look to God's intervening power.

Because God's going to make a way. We don't know how He's going to do it. Brethren, did it seem plausible, if you were there with the Israelites before it happened, did it seem plausible that God was going to open up a sea? Did that seem like the solution? I mean, God could have taken and just totally killed all the Egyptians. He could have had an earthquake swallow them up. There's any number of things that could have happened, but for the Red Sea to have opened up?

You know, it's interesting, just as a side note, as I was researching this, when you're researching the route that the Israelites took, you've got people who say, well, you know, the Israelites took this route and they went by the Red Sea. You know, they kind of waded through this pond to get away from the Egyptians. I think to myself, give me a break. But when you take a look at the Red Sea, I didn't realize the dimensions of the Red Sea.

There's parts of the Red Sea. I'm not saying this is where Israel went through, but there are parts of the Red Sea that is over a mile deep. The average depth of the Red Sea is over 1,300 feet, and that's the average depth. Now, by comparison, the average depth of Lake Superior is 500 feet. Now, can you imagine, brethren, you and I, as a group, we're standing at the foot of the Lake Superior, and all of a sudden, God says, I'm going to roll back the water, and you're going to walk across Lake Superior?

At that point, they said, you know, we need to get another pastor besides Mr. D. He must have fallen out of bed. He must have hurt himself somehow. Now, that man, there's something wrong with that man. Okay, Exodus 14, verse 16. But 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 indeed, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, so I will gain honor over Pharaoh and all of his army, his chariots, and all of his horsemen.

And of course, you understand what takes place here. That Red Sea is opened. It's divided. And who are these people? Who are these Israelites? Brethren, they were gods redeemed. They were gods redeemed. Who are you? Who am I? We are gods redeemed. Gods redeemed. And just as God took care of them, God will take care of you and I in a way that you and I would never even consider. In this situation, he opened up a sea. Water on either side.

Tremendous sight. You can think about the Apostle Paul. I'm not going to turn there, but you might want to jot down 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10. Paul wanted a miracle so that he would be healed. The inferences we get from Scripture were that Paul was going blind. In one of his letters, he said, now see how I'm writing to you. I'm using these large letters as I'm writing to you. So it may well have been that Paul was, at any time, people took rocks and pelted him with those rocks.

Maybe one of them found a mark near his eye or on his eye. He was going blind as a result of that. And he asked God for a miracle. He asked God to give him healing. You know something? God didn't heal him. There are any number of people sitting in this room who have asked for healing, and God hasn't healed you. I'm still wearing glasses. I'm still basically deaf in one ear. God's not healed. I've got very, very flat feet. I make a nice impression of a duck. I get my feet wet and I'm walking around. But God's not healed those things.

Now, is it because Randy Delosandro doesn't have faith? Well, that may be a part of the solution, but maybe not. Was Paul a man of faith? Absolutely he was. The people in Hebrews 11, were they people of faith? Absolutely they were. So sometimes, brethren, I think we kick ourself for the wrong reasons. It may not be a matter of our faith.

It may simply be a matter where God says, You know, you want me to perform this great, mighty miracle in your life right now, and I'm not going to do it. But what I am going to do, as he said to the Apostle Paul, God said to Paul, He says, My grace is sufficient for you. I will give you my strength on a daily basis to get through that day.

And brethren, I think that's miraculous all to itself. I think when God gives us a miracle on a daily basis of just getting through the day, just getting through the day, I know a number of people in our church culture whose family members will not speak to them because they're a part of another church, and that church does not allow them to speak to their family members.

How sad? How sad? You know, those of us who love our families, and I'm sure that's all of us, how sad if you wouldn't be able to talk to your kids or your grandchildren because of a church as a part of our church culture? How sad? So point number three is look to God's intervening power. Look to God's intervening power.

Point number four. Ask God to help you take that first step. Ask God to help you take that very first step. Many times, brethren, that first step is the hardest one. That first step is the hardest one.

Before Israel can cross the Red Sea, they had to get right up to it. They had to get right up to that thing.

And that was an awesome thing to behold. I'm sure God allowed them to have really good vision that night. You know, you had between two and three million people, and they had to pass through that Red Sea in one night. Of course, you have the mathematicians who do the calculations, how wide would the opening have to be, for two and a half to three million people to pass a given point in one night.

Mostly the mathematicians say the gap had to be at least a half a mile across, maybe a full mile across. It couldn't be ten people marching at a time. One person figured that out. If you've got ten people marching at a time, it's going to take you 14-15 days. No, but they went through there in one night. But I bet you God gave them great vision. I bet the light of that moon was as bright. It wasn't a full moon, but I bet you it was as bright as it could be. So God could let those people see what they were getting themselves into. Now, I know a little bit about taking those first steps. I remember so many times when Mary and I have an extra-long weekend, three-day weekend or something, if we can sneak off, we like to sneak off and go to Chicago. It's a great town. We enjoy going there and seeing the sights. Here a few years ago, we took a trip over to see some of Mary's family. It was her niece and her niece's son in Chicago. We were taking the sights, and one of the sights we wanted to see was the old Sears building. Now it's called the Willis building, or the Willis Tower. The Willis Tower is 108 stories. It's 1,450 feet high. At the time it was built, it was completed in 1973, it was the tallest building in the world. Tallest building in the world. Held that record for 25 years. It's still the second tallest building in the United States. It's the eighth largest freestanding structure in the world. If you go to the Willis Tower, the Willis building, on the 103rd floor, you've got an observation floor. You don't go up there free. I think it costs us 18 bucks a ticket just to get to that floor. When you're looking out the window, you get in a good day, a clear day, you can see four different states. On that floor, on that 103rd floor, they've got several of what they call these cubicles.

They're plexiglass. They go about 4.5 feet out from the building. It's plexiglass all around. Plexiglass underneath, clear, the sides, the top. When you look under that thing, there's no support. There's no beams or girders. You just walk out four feet and you can look straight down 103 stories. Now, Mary's a brave little thing.

She wanted to get into that, and she wanted to go for that. She said, come on, Randy, you can do it. I said, well, us and the chickens will be in the back. We stood in a line. I thought, okay, Alessandro, my underwear's not pink. Let's go for this.

So I'm thinking about this. Just as the Israelites are thinking about taking that first step between the water and the Red Sea, I'm thinking about taking that first step onto that Plexiglass thing. The closer I got to that, the more my bravery was melting away. Just before us, there was a fella and a woman. I don't know if this was his girlfriend or his wife or who this was, maybe his sister. But he wanted them both to get out there just by themselves. And, of course, everyone's accommodating. They got out there, and the poor woman was shaking like a leaf. I mean, she was like this. She had her lay down flat on her back so that he could take a picture of her face. And I'm thinking, you know, we should take that guy out and beat him.

But bless her heart, she did that, and she felt so vulnerable. She was literally shaking. But when it came time for Mary and I, she just jumped out there. Her little size, six feet, she's jumping. Oh, that is wonderful! Where's Randy at? Have fun, lady! I don't know who you are. Mary who?

So, brethren, sometimes taking that first step is the hardest thing to do. Whatever we're doing in life, sometimes taking that first step is the hardest thing to do. And that's what Israel had to do. They had to, you know, go there with God and take that very first step, which is difficult.

Exodus 14, verse 15. And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. So they had to take that first step, and they took it. So point number four is ask God to help you take that very first step. Point number five. I've got seven of them here. Point number five. Point number five is trust that God will be with you with each succeeding step. Trust that God will be with you with each succeeding step. One step doesn't get you anywhere, right? There's a lot of steps we need to take if we're going to make a journey with God's help.

So we need to be thinking that God is going to be with us with each succeeding step. Exodus 14, verse 21. 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. The word divided here is an interesting word in Hebrew. It's like you split a log. It's like you take a rock and you split a rock. It's not like it's just this light little splitting here. We're talking about an aggressive, violent splitting of the Red Sea.

God ripped that sea in half to let his people go through it. Verse 22. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on the right hand and on the left. How many of you have been to Niagara Falls? Probably all of us have been to the falls a bit on May to the Mist, right? You enjoy that? I enjoyed that. You get on this boat, I don't know what that thing would hold, maybe a couple of 300 people, and they give you a raincoat. Because if you don't wear a raincoat, you're going to be soaking, because they take you right to the foot of the Horseshoe Falls.

I think I've done it two or three times. Every time I've done that, the little ship gets there to the foot of the Horseshoe Falls, and you're looking down at this water. The Horseshoe Falls are only 170 feet. But when I'm there, I'm thinking, okay, I'm an Israelite, and I'm going through the Red Sea, and this is what it looks like.

This is what it looks like. Powerful water, I'm like a little gnat. All that stuff starts coming onto me. There's one drowned Italian there. You've got to trust God for every step and every succeeding step. So God opens this sea up, and people are looking at that, they're standing in line, they're making the first step, they got in line.

The Israel had to be organized, they were organized into companies, and then the first company starts to go into the Red Sea, and then there are all these other people behind. Just like me at the Willis Tower, the closer you're getting to your turn, the more and more difficult it's going to be. The water's been divided, you're in that like the Horseshoe Falls type setting, and you're waiting your turn. You've got to ask God to give you the help you need when it's your turn to take the succeeding steps.

Back in the 1970s, there was a movie called Jaws. Probably most of us have seen that movie. A story about a great white shark who did his share of damage to a small town, eating various and sundry people. I remember seeing that movie, and it was kind of interesting after the... I think it was 1976 or 1977, somewhere in there. Right after the movie, I took my kids out swimming.

That wasn't the brightest thing to do. So I'm over at Stoney Creek, Metro Park, I'm in the water, I'm swimming with my kids, and wouldn't you have this little tiny fish that comes niddling on you? I was like a porpoise up in the air. There's no great whites there at Stoney Creek, Metro Park. But it was interesting in that movie. Robert Shaw played the man who ran the boat, the boat called Orca, and his name in the movie is Quint.

And Quint was talking about his being on the Indianapolis in World War II. Those of you who never saw the movie, there was a heavy cruiser during World War II called the Indianapolis named after the city. That ship had the duty toward the very end of the war of delivering parts for the very first atomic bomb. So that bomb could be dropped on one of the cities of Japan, Hiroshima. So the Indianapolis does its job. It delivers its parts.

It's coming back home. It's still under secrecy as to what its mission was. On July 30, 1945, the Indianapolis torpedoed. That heavy cruiser goes down in 12 minutes. There were roughly 1,200 men on board. 1,196. Roughly 1,200 men. 300 men went down with the boat, with the ship. 900 men went into the water. And those 900 men were in very much shark-infested waters for a number of days. 900 men went into the water.

And as Quinn says, and I looked it up to make sure it was accurate, of the 900 men who went into the water, and they stayed there for several days, waiting for the rescue. By the time one of those sea planes came in to rescue them, the men got in line.

And if you remember this story, Robert Shaw or Quinn said, you know, the most scary thing for me was waiting in line. Waiting for my turn to get into that airplane. You know how many people of 900 were saved or rescued? 317. Over almost 600 men were taken by the sharks. And they saw it all. They got themselves in little, tight little groups and tried to fight the sharks off.

But two-thirds of the men went down with the sharks. So sometimes, waiting your turn takes a lot of faith. Waiting your turn for God to answer your prayer. Waiting your turn for God to intervene in your life.

Waiting for God to open a door for you. In the movie, Quinn said, I'll never put a life vest on again. I'm not going to wait like that again. The bottom line, his thought was, I'd rather die than do that. So here we see the Israelites. They had to wait their turn. And that meant that they had to have faith with each succeeding step as they went through that Red Sea. Brethren, you and I need faith of each other.

But at what trial you and I may be going through now our will in the future? We need faith with every step. First step is big. Every succeeding step is also big. Point number six. Point number six. Realize that your reward may come in the future. So in this story, as you're well aware, in Exodus 14, Israel goes all the whole nation all to a half million or so. They make it across in safety. But brethren, when they did that, they were just leaving Egypt, basically. They were just leaving the reach of Pharaoh and his army. They weren't in the Promised Land yet.

You know, as you and I go through the trials we go through and we're successful, doesn't mean we've made it. We've just come a certain distance. The trial you're going through now, you may well have victories. I will have victories. But just because we've got victories along the way doesn't mean we're there yet. We've got to have faith that God will be with us until the very end. First step, each succeeding step, all the way through to the very end. To the very end. Deuteronomy chapter 8.

In verse 2. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all these forty years in the wilderness to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether we'd keep His commandments or not. So yes, as we go through life and we've got these new things, we've got these challenges that beset us. Many times they will be of long standing. They will tend to want to wear us down, grind us into powder. And God allows that. Not because He doesn't love us, but because He does love us. Because when He's all said and done with us, He wants a tremendous work to have been done. He wants us to be the very family of God in His kingdom.

Hebrews 11. Let's go to the faith chapter. Hebrews 11. I've talked about this. Let's take a look at this. Hebrews 11.

Verse 32. And what more shall I say for a time when I fail to tell my Gideon and Barag and Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms? That took some time, didn't it? You didn't just have one victory and you claimed, well, I'm to my goal, I'm done. Worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions. Probably they're referring to Daniel. Quench the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured. And remember, brethren, we're talking about heroes of faith. God didn't remove them from being tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trials of mocking and scourgings. Yeah, there are times when you go to work and people, they say all sorts of things about you, improperly. I hear any number of times from people who email me or phone me and say, you know, it's just so hard when I go to work.

And what the people say and the lies, and there's just no way for me to combat that, they say. And I bring out these examples and say, well, you know, maybe it helps me if it doesn't, but you're in very good company. You know, God's people have always had to go through trials of mockings, in this case also scourgings, imprisonment. And in Matthew, verse 37, they were stoned. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. That phrase there, sawn in two, probably refers to Isaiah, the prophet. A great man of God, stuffed in a log, the log sawn in half.

Were tempted, were slain with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute. Some of God's people, brethren, they didn't have a social net. They were financially ruined. When the Apostle Paul came after the New Testament Christians, they had to scatter. They left their homes. They didn't have social security to fall back on. They had some really hard times. And when they went through their hard times, what did they do? Did they curse God? What does the Bible say? You know, I gave a sermon on this some months ago.

What do you do after the worst day of your life? Well, in those people, they lost their home, they lost all their income, they lost everything. And what does it say about them? When they got to where they were going, did they shut up and say, I don't want anyone to know I'm a Christian?

No. They proclaimed the truth of God. Nothing was going to deter them from doing the work God had called them to do. No, I'm sure they used wisdom and so on. But they just didn't become, you know, an anonymous group of people. They had to realize, as we see here in this chapter, chapter 11, verse 8, So, brethren, there are times when our reward comes in the future.

For the Lord has made us a God. How many times have you and I seen people who stopped coming to church because they felt because they tithed or they kept the Sabbath of the Holy Days, that God was going to give them the best house, the best car, the best job, the best family? It just doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. God can give us those things, but He's not.

He doesn't have to give us those things. Some people come considerably short of that, but they have tremendous spiritual blessings. Verse 14, They seek a homeland, and truly if they had been called to mind the country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity. Verse 16, But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. They desire the kingdom of God. So, point 6, realize your reward may come in the future. And lastly, point number 7. Point number 7, give God thanks for the victory. Let's go back one last time. This time we're going to go back to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. I think it was three years ago that I gave a sermon where I went through this whole chapter.

This chapter is called the Song of Moses. It's the first song written in the Bible.

It's a song of thanksgiving to God for what God did for the nation, giving them victory over Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

And just like any song, it's got a number of stanzas. The first verse is like a prelude. You're taking notes.

Stanza number 1 would be verses 2 and 3. Stanza number 2 would be verses 4 through 13.

And stanza number 3 would be verses 14 through 18.

Verse 1 talks about the triumph of God.

That first stanza, verses 2 and 3, talks about who God is.

Second stanza, verses 4 through 13, talks about what God has done.

And the third stanza, verses 14 through 18, talks about what God will do.

You know, brethren, there are so many times where you and I need to get on our knees.

And just as we've got a model prayer there in Matthew chapter 6, Exodus chapter 15 is an excellent chapter.

When you're getting on your knees and you're praying before God, it's an excellent chapter for you to open up and use this as a model for how to give thanksgiving to God.

For who He is, for what He's done, and what He will do.

What He will do. Exodus chapter 15 and verse 1.

Then Moses, in a children of Israel, sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for He is triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider, he is thrown into the sea.

Now, I'm not going to go through the whole chapter here. You can go back and take a look at an old sermon of mine.

I think it's like three years ago. It's online. You can go there and listen to it again if you want to.

But the term, triumphed gloriously, is a construction showing exuberance over the victory that the people have because of God.

The exuberance they have because of God.

Israel stood on the other side of the Red Sea, and they were able to stand on the other side, the side from the far back where they began, because of the grace of God.

How many times have I quoted one of my favorite verses, Romans 5 and 2?

That we stand in the grace of God. Romans 5, 2. We stand in that grace.

As they were standing on the other side of the Red Sea by the grace of God, so do you and I stand by the grace of God on the other side of our Red Sea, on top of our Mount Everest, or on the other side of our Mount Everest, or through Mount Everest, whatever way God wants us to get there.

Verse 1 says, the horse and a rider were thrown into the sea.

Again, this is a very pictorial expression in the Hebrew.

What is being shown here in the Hebrew is that God took each individual Egyptian soldier and threw them one by one into the sea.

The point that I get when I read that is that God takes a look at your life.

He sees all of the ramifications of your life, and he deals with each individual thing one at a time.

I think I may have mentioned a number of years ago, well, a lot of years ago, when I was still an ambassador college student, one of my friends owned a motorcycle.

And full of what I was, we used to go driving all over the place on that.

He always drove. I was always on the back end.

And he always had ball tires, and driving down the road and that thing, and I'm always looking behind my shoulder, and there's always some semi right behind you.

But we went all over the place as young kids, schoolers, and we thought we were something.

But one day, somebody was washing off their truck or something, and there was grease all on the road.

And we were coming around the corner, and we saw that grease, and they thought, oh, great.

And he began to power down his bike. He didn't power it down fast enough, and sure enough, we hit that.

We went over on our side, and we started skidding.

I'm thinking, boy, don't we look...if the girls are watching us now, don't we look great?

We look really tough now, don't we?

Tearing off skin and clothes and all that sort of stuff.

But, you know, I had a lot of cuts on my hand, and I couldn't just look at my hand and do a quick wash and say, that's going to do the job.

I had to attend to every little cut, every little scratch. If I didn't, then they would become infected.

And the same thing is true in our life. The same thing is true here in Exodus 15, verse 1.

As God took each individual soldier and did away with them, God will look into your life and say, what do you want to do with each little cut that you have in your life?

Each little cut.

And we need to go before God and ask them to take care of each one of those little cuts.

Otherwise, they'll become infected and we won't have good health.

Of course, we're talking spiritually here.

So today, brethren, we took a look at Exodus 14.

We tore the chapter apart, and as we dissected it, we analyzed it. We saw that natural sight shows us the challenges.

As human beings, we see those only too clearly.

But we also saw that spiritual sight, as we walk in faith, spiritual sight shows us the solutions.

As we went through chapter 14, I gave you seven points that I think God wants us to see.

Let me go through those one last time for you, and we'll be done for the day.

Number one, God presents you with a challenge.

Number two, look to God's instruction.

Number three, look to God's intervening power.

Number four, ask God to help you take that very first step.

Number five, trust that God will be with you through each succeeding step.

Number six, realize your reward may come in the future.

And number seven, give God thanks for the victory.

Brethren, I'm hoping that you have a great rest of the day.

We'll talk to you after services.