Three Steps of Faith

Hello again. So last week I spoke about Judgment Day. Judgment Day that will come for each of us. And for us, this Judgment Day is now, and it's going to be based, as I shared, on the decisions that we make. Whether we love God and love our neighbor as Jesus Christ commanded us, or whether we're going to love ourselves or in our own self-interest as the God, small gee, of this world commands us and influences us.

And what I talked about last week was that the law and the prophets, that's what Jesus said in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, should be our guide. We have the law and the prophets. It's not about a miracle. It's not about some special resurrection. We have the law and the prophets, and that's what we should look to as we make our decisions to do the right thing. To do the right thing. But a lot of times doing the right thing means stepping out in faith. Because doing the right thing isn't always the easy thing. In fact, often it's not the easy thing. In fact, it's the hard thing. And so we have to step out in faith.

You know, Peter stepped out in faith when he stepped out on the water to walk to Jesus. But we know what happened, right? He faltered. Esther stepped out in faith when she walked to the king when she wasn't summoned. And she prevailed and saved her people. And we know that Daniel walked in faith to his room as he did every day and knelt down to pray, even though he knew it would be certain death. And what happened?

He was thrown to the lions. But he was protected. So the outcome of the decisions we make are very uncertain. We can look through the Scriptures and see all sorts of variations. In Hebrews 11, we see that in some cases people were raised from the dead. In other places, people were sawn in two. So stepping out in faith means not knowing what the outcome is going to be. We're no different. Sometimes we falter.

Sometimes we prevail. Sometimes we're thrown to the lions. Right? We don't know what might happen. So how do we obtain the courage to do the right thing? We don't want to wake up in a pit, as I described, with a blinding light and a terrible thirst and realize that our chance is over, as the rich man did, as Jesus shared. How do we have the courage to do the right thing when every fiber of our being says no? When every fiber of our being says, I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed, I'm scared, and I don't want to do this.

Today I want to examine a defining moment in the history of Israel and see what God said to them as they were standing on the precipice of this great decision of faith. Let's turn over to Exodus 14 and verse 1. We're going to look at what God told, or inspired Moses, I should say, to tell the children of Israel, three things.

And we're going to get to those three things in a moment, and that's going to be the outline that we'll follow. But let's start with the story in Exodus 14, verse 1, the Red Sea Crossing. We'll obviously talk about this as we reach into the Holy Day season and spring Holy Days, but I think in terms of a follow-on to the Judgment Day, I think it's informative. Exodus 14, verse 1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before fie, ha-hirath, between Migno and the sea, opposite Baal, Ziphon, and you shall camp before it by the sea.

For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land. The wilderness has closed them in. And then it will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh, and over all his army, and the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord, and they did so.

And so for anybody sort of watching this massive group of people, 600,000 men, plus children, mixed multitude, going through these sort of ways, they didn't take the way that everyone would have thought they would have taken. They took away such that there was the sea, and there was the desert, and there was probably some sort of marsh, and so they were sort of hemmed in. And yet it was for a purpose. It was for a purpose, so that Pharaoh would say, hey, these people don't know what they're doing.

They've marched out there, they're lost, and this is my chance to go back and take my revenge for everything that these people did to me, and take them back captive, and so forth. And so God is going to have a purpose here. And so in verse 5 it says, Now, 600 choice chariots. Okay, what does that mean?

Well, if you look at jewishhistory.org, it's a website that kind of goes through some of these things, they describe how the standard Egyptian chariot formation was set up. They were set up in basically a triangle. So you had a chariot in front, and you had two chariots kind of right behind, but not directly right behind, so you kind of had this wedge.

And the chariots were equipped with various blades, knives, and spears. So you had spears and knives going forward out of the chariot, and then you had blades and knives coming out the sides of the chariots. And so when you would ride these three chariots in formation, they were designed to break through an infantry line. That's what it was intended to do, because you had the army that would come from behind.

So you would have in these great sort of ancient battles, you'd have these infantry lines, these long lines of men with swords and spears. And what you would do is you would send the chariots in these formations, and they would break the infantry line.

And once they broke the infantry line and they were behind, then the army could come within. So you had 600 chariots. So what that meant was that you would have 200 of these formations that would come against this multitude. Now this wasn't an infantry line that they would be attacking. These were not men that were prepared for battle with spears and so forth. These were civilians. That's what we would call it in our modern day.

This was going to be a massacre. They were going to take these chariots, these 200 chariots, in formation with their blades and their swords, and they were going to run them into a crowd of people, like we saw in Nice, like we saw in England. But this time it was going to be bloody. And how many were going to be killed? 10,000? 100,000? I mean, Pharaoh would obviously want to bring some of these people back, but he would also want to teach them a lesson.

And so these chariots were ready. And now it says in 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. And so the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them, camping by the sea besides Phi-Hiroth, before Baal-Zephan. And when Pharaoh drew near, verse 10, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.

And so they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. You could imagine. You could imagine. They probably knew when they walked out. This is the greatest military power in the world. This is the greatest military power in the world. And they just walked out. And they were probably wondering, are they going to come after us? Are they going to come after us?

And they walked out, and here they were. These chariots, the dust, the sound. You can almost kind of feel the earth rumbling, right, as this army was approaching them. In verse 11, they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt?

We told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. We don't want any sort of your rebellion. We don't want to be walking out of here. You know, you're just going to get us killed. That's what you're going to do. You're just going to get us killed. Haven't we told you that? And now here we are. This is that moment. We're all going to die. And you can imagine, they were probably coming up with emissaries. They were probably like, OK, now who's going to go out?

OK, let's go out and meet them and say, you know, we don't know who this Moses guy is. We're going to bound him up and give him to you and just don't kill us. You know, they're probably coming up with all sorts of strategies and trying to figure out what they're going to do. And there's a panic that's going through the people. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

This was a bad time. This was a time of panic and worry and doubt and fear. And there was no way out. They were completely trapped and they were going to be massacred. Women were going to be raped. Children were going to be killed. Old people were going to be killed and they were going to be taken captive. And you know, at that time, there's all sorts of different things. You know, the Assyrians like to put needles through the lips, right, and have people march with needles through their lips back into captivity.

I mean, who knows the kinds of things that the Egyptians would have done as they took them back? This moment that came, this is the ultimate asymmetrical warfare. There was no way out. And yet, look what happened. Verse 13.

And these words, he's telling people of Israel three things. Fear not, stand firm, and be still. And that's the outline that I want to go through today. Fear not. Stand firm, or in this case it says stand still. Some of you might have a translation that says stand firm. We'll talk about that. And the final one is hold your peace or be quiet. Be in silence. Stand still. That's what I'd like to talk about today. This is how we walk in faith. Three steps to walking in faith, and that's the title of today's message, three steps of faith.

Let's walk through these three steps of faith, because each of us are going to have these moments in our lives where it is hopeless. And indeed, it is hopeless. It probably is. There's no way out. It's certain whatever it might be. The end of our job, maybe the end of our lives, a challenging situation that we'll face.

These are three steps of faith, and let's go through these. The first one is fear not. He says in verse 13, do not be afraid. Now, that's kind of obvious, isn't it? Almost like somebody walks up, don't be afraid. What, are you kidding me? There's 600 chariots that are out there that are about to slaughter us.

What do you mean, don't be afraid? Don't be afraid. Isn't it interesting? That's one of the first things that Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. There's nothing to fear, but fear itself. I mean, fear is a very serious emotion that we face. Abraham was told not to fear. You can make that note in Genesis 15, verse 1. God told Abraham, don't be afraid.

He also told him, don't be afraid in Genesis 26, verse 24. Joshua was told to not be afraid when he went into the Promised Land, and Joshua 1, verse 9. God says, don't be afraid in a lot of places in Scripture, actually. Don't be afraid. Even though everything is telling you to be afraid. Because when we do the right thing, we're going to be afraid. It's going to be frightening, because we don't know what's going to happen.

We don't know if we're going to get thrown to the lines. We don't know what actually is going to happen next, because we're completely outside of what we're used to doing, perhaps, or what we would know what the outcome would be. Paul told Timothy that we do not need to have the spirit of fear.

In 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, you can write that down as well. There's all sorts of references. I just gave you four, just to give you some idea that this is not the only time that God says, don't be afraid. But let's turn to Matthew 6, verse 25. And let's look at what I'll call the sons of fear. The sons of fear. Worry and anxiousness. Matthew 6, verse 25. Much has been written about the difference between worry and fear. Think about it. What's the difference between worry and fear?

Now, some people will say that worry is voluntary and fear is involuntary. Some people will say that. Fear is sort of this involuntary reaction, right? A car pulls out in front of you and you're going to be in a crash and you have this sort of instantaneous involuntary reaction of fear.

That could be some delineation. Others say that fear causes worry. So, for example, I'm worried about my job because I fear losing my job. So you worry, right? I'm worried about going to the dentist because I fear the dentist. So you can say that potentially fear causes worry. And still others would just say, you know what? They're just synonyms. Fear, worry, anxiousness. These are all just part of the same equation. But Jesus talks about this in Matthew 6, verse 25.

He says, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. And, you know, sometimes when you hear that, you might say, well, that's easy for you to say. You know, you're not going to worry about my life. I'm worried about my life. I'm worried about where I'm going to work. I'm worried about how I'm going to feed myself. I'm worried about how I'm going to live in this very expensive area that I live in here.

You know, I'm worried about my health. I'm worried about getting older as I get older and how I'm going to manage and who's going to take care of me. These are all worries. But Jesus says, don't worry about your life. What you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, nor about your body. Don't worry about your body. You know, I don't think he's talking about body image necessarily, right? I think he's talking about health. Don't worry about these things.

Or what you'll put on. Is not life more than food and body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for then either sown or reaped or gathered into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, could add one cubic to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. And they neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so closed the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you, of little faith? You see, fear is often that first step we have to overcome as we step forward in faith. We have to overcome fear. And that's why I think Moses said the first thing. Don't be afraid. Verse 31, Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own evil. People worry about their jobs, their health, and all these things. Getting married, having children, fill in the blank. God says, Don't worry about those things. Don't be afraid. We go over in Philippians 4, verse 6. Another son of fear.

Philippians 4, verse 6, is anxiousness.

We get anxious. You know, sometimes it's subtle. We don't even realize we're anxious. Somebody says, You know, a little anxious? I guess I am a little anxious. Why are you anxious? I don't know. You should figure that out. I'm anxious for this. I'm anxious for that. But Paul says in Philippians 4, verse 6, Be anxious for nothing. But in everything and by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus from anxiousness. It kind of all goes back to fear. Look at 1 Peter 5, verse 7.

1 Peter 5, verse 7 talks about this anxiousness. We use the word anxiety. I think Mr. Kozer talked about anxiety. People, you know, that New Yorker cartoon was really very well stated. How do you balance these things? 1 Peter 5, verse 7, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. You know, sometimes this word care is translated anxiety, certain translations. Casting your anxiety or your cares upon Him for He cares for you. There's another son of fear over in Psalm 31, verse 7. Worry, anxiousness. Again, these might be all synonyms, but if you want to start digging into some of the differences, they all have kind of their play. Psalm 37, verse 1 says, do not fret. Fretting. That's kind of just fretting. Sometimes there's sort of this idleness of despair that can come on. People talk about idleness of despair, right? You're so worried, you're so fearful that you don't actually do anything. You become sort of idle. You sort of fret. You kind of do something without doing something. Sometimes people, when they have some sort of an assignment and they're kind of overwhelmed with the assignment that they have to do, instead of actually doing the assignment, they're so overwhelmed with the assignment that they kind of fret and they do other things and they distract themselves and then you get into procrastination and things. But in verse 1 it says, do not fret because of evildoers. I think that the Egyptians were evildoers. I think they were definitely worried about what the Egyptians were going to do. Do not fret about evildoers and what they might do. But instead, if you look over at 1 John 4, verse 18, verse 18, God says something about how we deal with fear and its children fretting or anxiousness or worry. 1 John 4, verse 18, a very powerful scripture, says there is no fear in love. When we love God, because that's what we're supposed to do, that's the first of the great commandments, is to love God. And that's a choice we have to make, whether we're going to love God or whether we're going to love ourselves. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. So when we love God and know that God loves us, when we love our neighbor and we treat our neighbor in a kind and loving way, then there is no place for fear. Because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

If we're afraid, my recommendation is to write down what we're afraid of. We're facing some sort of trial or difficulty. Sometimes the Pharaoh's chariots are right before us and we don't have time to write it down, but other times they're not. And it's not about fear, it's about worry, or it's about doubt, or it's about anxiousness, or it's about fretting. If we find ourselves fretting, if we find ourselves worried, I recommend you just write those fears down and take them to God. Lay them out, go into your bedroom, close the door, get on your knees, take that list, put it there right before you and say, God, here are my worries, here are my doubts, here are my fears. Please take these from me and cleanse me with your love. Cleanse me with your peace. Because there is no fear in love, it's cast out when love fills me. I wonder if that's what Daniel was saying when he went to his room and he prayed that day, when he knew that that would be the end, that he would ask God to take that fear from him.

Let me provide a practical example. Many unmarried people would like to get married. What I've observed is sometimes they're afraid. They're afraid to get hurt. They're afraid they aren't good enough. They're afraid of rejection. They're afraid to ask someone on a date or to accept a date. They're afraid they aren't ready to be married. They're afraid they don't have enough fill-in-the-blank for the relationship in some way. They're afraid of relationships perhaps. They're afraid of what people might say.

They're afraid they might find somebody, but then they're going to hurt them later, and so they don't want to do that. Or maybe they've been hurt before and they don't want to go through that again. They're afraid they'll end up, if their parents didn't have a happy marriage, they'll end up like their parents in an unhappy marriage. You get the idea, right? I mean, I can keep going, right? The list gets really, really long. Afraid. But instead, if we... if you're in that position, if you thought about love, you might say, well, yes, I'm afraid I'm going to get hurt, but I know God loves me and wants the best for me. And so I really have nothing to fear through that process because God loves me, and I'm going to just walk out in faith. Instead of saying, well, I'm not good enough, you might say, well, you know, God gave his son for me, died for me, that I might have access to him, so I must have some value in God's eyes. That's about love. Afraid of rejection, you might say, well, if I have love for the other person, my hurt isn't what really matters. It's the other person that matters, and providing that person the kind of positive time that they need to have. In terms of asking someone out on a date, you might say, well, going out doesn't have to be about an engagement, just about having a nice time, just giving to someone. Giving is a way of loving. Instead of saying, I'm afraid of not being ready, you might say, well, you know, God knows when I'm ready. I'll put that in God's hands, and he'll guide me as to whether I'm ready or not. Being afraid of a relationship, well, you know, we're called to relationships. It's how we love our neighbor. That's the second of the great commandments. It's just about loving our neighbor. That's all we're doing when we go out on a date, or we accept to go out on a date. Well, what people might say, well, you know, are we going to look to what people say, or are we going to look to what God in Christ says? And look to that for affirmation and trust in them. We might be afraid that what people might say are being hurt later, but Romans 8, 28 says that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. And so we can claim that promise. And if we're worried about how things might turn out, well, you know, God's Spirit transforms us. See, when we start focusing on love in 1 John 4, 18, then that fear has no place. There's no place for it. Our cup is full with that love. I challenge everyone who is not married, but would like to be, to write down every fear of marriage and relationship that you have and take that list to God and give it over to Him.

Fear not. Fear not is step one of the three steps of faith. Let's go back to Exodus 14, verse 13. Exodus 14, verse 13. After he says, don't be afraid, Moses says, stand still.

Now, some of your versions might say, stand firm.

Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. And what else? Because the Egyptians, excuse me, see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you. The Lord's going to fight this battle for you. Stand firm in your convictions about who you are and who God is.

What has God done for you in the past? He had done so many things. He had made His will known. He had shown great miracles. And Moses is saying, stand firm. Whatever the trial God is going to bring you, God is greater than that trial. Rest in this conviction. And don't compromise. Don't panic. Don't contradict His will. God had a will in mind here. That's why He led them through this strange place where... Basically, He would lure the Pharaoh into a trap. The Pharaoh was being lured into a trap.

Pharaoh thought that the children of Israel were being in a trap, but it was actually the other way around. Let's turn over to Matthew 26 and verse 5. Let's see an example where somebody did not stand still or stand firm in their convictions. They compromised their convictions because they thought what they were doing was right. Matthew 26 and verse 5. This is the story of Peter and cutting off the high priest's ear.

Matthew 26 verse 50. I said 5. Matthew 26 verse 50. Jesus said to him, that is, to the people that come. If you see in the verses right above, there are people with swords and clubs. They are coming to take Him before the authorities. This is going to be His arrest and this is His final time.

In verse 50, Jesus said to him, Why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him. You can imagine, I'm sure they didn't say, I'll come over here. If you've ever seen video of police beatings, think that. They laid hands on Him. I'm sure there may have been a need to someplace. Who knows what might have been going on? This was not a pretty sight. They laid hands on Him and took Him. Suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus, and this is Peter we see from the Gospel in John, drew His sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

I think you've heard this described before, right? He wasn't aiming for his ear. I mean, the high priest was lucky that he wasn't, well, we can't say lucky because that doesn't make sense, but the high priest narrowly escaped from being decapitated, is what happened. And this man, Malchius, who was named in John, he only lost his ear. Imagine Peter, three and a half years with Jesus. Do you think that during those three and a half years they were doing sword practicing?

Was Jesus like, you know, let me tell you how to sharpen this sword, Peter. You want to have this thing nice and sharp going into battle. Where did this come from? Where did this violence come from? It didn't come from Jesus' instruction. This is Peter not standing firm. This is Peter violating everything that Jesus Christ taught him. This is Peter being violent.

This is Peter taking things into his own hands. He was ready to murder somebody. This is not standing firm. Jesus said to him, verse 52, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels?

I mean, you know, it's like Peter, how many times have I told you the son of man is going to be taken? This is that moment. If I needed to be protected, I could be protected. But Peter jumped in and took things into his own hands. How, then, could the Scripture be fulfilled that it must happen as this? You know, if you look at scholarly commentaries on these types of things, this incident is mentioned in all four Gospels. And there's people who want to pick apart the Bible. They want to say, that didn't happen and that was made up and this is a legend and this is a fable.

All the scholars agree this had to have happened. The reason this had to have happened is because there's no way that the early Christian church would want to talk about Peter's actions here. This has got to be just one of the most awful things to imagine that Peter, this great apostle, or a disciple and later apostle, would actually be ready to kill somebody, contradicting everything that Jesus had done.

The remarkable story. This can be our reaction sometime. We want to fight. We want to fight back. This isn't fair. We're going to do something about this. Have you heard what's going on in Washington? Have you heard what's going on in California?

That's what we want to do, right? We're going to fight! It's prophecy. Let's allow God to work these things out. Let's stand firm in our convictions. Let's not compromise our convictions. Let's let God take care of these things. Look over in Deuteronomy 1, verse 30.

Deuteronomy 1, verse 30. This is again, these themes are just everywhere in Scripture. Deuteronomy 1, verse 30. They're about to go into the land. But you know what? There's giants in the land. There's people. There's scary people there. And we can't go. But Moses writes here, In all the way that you went until you came to this place, he is going to carry you like a man carries his son with love and tenderness. Look over in Deuteronomy 3, just one page over. Deuteronomy 3, 22.

This is talking about a king who was menacing them. And he says, And he says, Actually, he's talking about three kings.

We don't have to worry or doubt. That's the first thing. But we also don't need to take things into our own hands and compromise our values to try to make sure the right thing is done. God is going to make sure the right thing is done. And we'll be able to do that. But there is a diligence here a little bit later. I'm not talking about being a passive person who sort of sits in their room all day and pray. There is diligence, and we'll talk about that in a moment. Go over to Psalm 46, in verse 1. If you're at a moment where it kind of feels like you're between the Red Sea and 600 chariots, go to Psalm 46 sometime and read the whole chapter. It's a very encouraging chapter that gets to this exact theme. Psalm 46, verse 1.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. Though the earth be removed, and through the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, we will not fear or be troubled. And then if we go down to verse 8. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth, he makes wars cease. To the end of the earth, he breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. We don't need to take those things into our own hands. Turn back a few pages to Psalm 37. In verse 7, we read about fretting. Psalm 37 verse 1. Look, see what it says here in Psalm 37 verse 7. It says, Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Rest in the Lord. You know, when I was in business school, I had the opportunity to take different sort of skills-building, team-building, scenario training. And one of them was a survival training. And we were to imagine that we were on a plane, and we had just crashed into the desert. And we had 15 things that we had to take with us. We had 15 things that we had to prioritize. And we had to make a decision whether we were going to stay at the plane, and that would kind of guide what was most important in terms of the things that we needed, or we were going to walk something like 80 miles to get help. And it's supposed to be 110 degrees in the middle of summer, and so forth. And so you have to make this decision. And I've done this team-building exercise in a few different places. And invariably, everybody wants to leave the plane. We're going to leave the plane. We're going to walk. We're going to go get help. Because sitting here, well, you know, that's people... leaders don't sit here, right? Leaders go get help. And yes, there are some instances where that has occurred. There's a very famous instance in South America, but that was in the winter. But in the summer, and all experts will agree, the best thing is to stay at the plane and wait for help. That's the best thing. And there's all sorts of things you can do. You can build sills. You know, you can... It's endless, actually, the things that you can do to survive. Weeks! But you go out in the desert, and you start walking to get help. You'll be dead in 24 hours, 48 hours. Why? Because you're going to start walking in circles. That's been proven. You're going to start walking in circles. You're going to start walking in circles. Even if you can walk as far as you can walk, you can only walk a certain distance in a certain amount of time. You can't walk in the heat of the day. And so you're going to die. You're going to die in the desert. And my group died, and the other groups died, and pretty much every time I've taken this test, everybody dies. Because they always want to take things into their own hands, instead of resting and just waiting. Look over in 1 Samuel 24.

Let's see what David did. When the opportunity came, this great trial that he had been going through for all this time, and now his moment had come. What was he going to do? 1 Samuel 24, verse 1. Now, it happened when Saul had returned from falling to the Philistines that it was told him, saying, Take note, David is in the wilderness of Enge David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. And so the man of David said to him, This is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him, as it seems good to you. And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Now, it happened afterwards that David's heart troubled him because he had cut off Saul's robe. This was the moment David had his chance. This man who had been pursuing him, who wanted to kill him, God had delivered him right there. This was his moment. He was going to strike him. Well, except that's one of the Ten Commandments. And he was the Lord's anointed. He was the king. And so instead he cut off a portion of his garment. But even then he started feeling bad because he compromised his values. He didn't stand still. He didn't stand firm. He just wanted to take action. So verse seven. So verse six. And he said to this man, the Lord forbid that I should do this. Excuse me. The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master. The Lord's anointed to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David restrained his servants from these words and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way. And David also arose afterwards, went out of the cave and called out to Saul, saying, My Lord, the king. And when Saul looked behold him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed down. David was going to allow God to take care of the situation. And we can see this in verse 15 if we skip down. Actually, after he talks to Saul and he says these things, verse 15, he says, Therefore, let the Lord be judged and judge between you and me and see and plead my case and deliver me out of your hand. God is going to fight for me. Let God judge and he'll decide, I am not going to take this unto myself. I am not going to do these things.

You know, one of my experiences on the job, one of my worst job experiences, was a situation where one of the people who worked for me was leading one of the teams, walked off the job. Literally, I was having a crisis situation. People were working a lot of hours. And he just couldn't take it. He was highly recommended. I received all sorts of calls from all sorts of people saying, I'm so sorry that we recommended this person. I can't believe he's done this. Literally, he just left his badge and his computer and just walked out. He never told me. He never talked to me. He just literally walked out. And I had to step in. I had to manage this team. It was coming to the end of an earnings release process. We ended up having to delay our earnings release process. There were death threats against the CEO. It was a terrible, terrible time. I was interviewing people to take this. I wanted this new person to come in and relieve me of this strain. I think my wife and I calculated that I worked 100 hours a week for four straight weeks. That's hard to do and keep this app. There are only 144 hours that you can work. You don't have much time left. After four weeks of the strain, we finally found this right person. I had human resources working. It was all hands on deck. Finally found this right person. They were going to be just the right person. There had been several people that weren't right. But it was a Friday afternoon. We needed to make the offer, but the Sabbath was coming. It was kind of like five o'clock or so. I couldn't make the offer. I had to let go. I had to say, I can either try to take and use all my powers of persuasion, and if he wants more money, I'll give him more money. I'm going to do what it takes to get this person in, because I've got to relieve this pain that I'm under. But I had to let go. I said to the head of HR, Why don't you go ahead and make the offer? Tell me how it goes. Send me a note. I'll pick it up on Saturday night. I had to completely let go of that and know that, you know what? That head of HR, they're like, Oh, you know what? We're not going to give you more money. Oh, yeah. I see why you don't want to take the job. Well, I wouldn't want to take the job anyway. I had to leave it completely in that person's hands. But I wasn't leaving it in that person's hands. I was leaving it in God's hands. I just walked out, and I said, It's going to be fine. And before I even got home, the person accepted it. I just got this note on my phone. I'm like, Okay, I didn't even have to check my email. The person accepted. It all worked out. I didn't have to compromise my values for something or some terrible trial that I was going through. Stand firm in our convictions. God will fight for us. And whatever trial we have before us, eventually we will see it no longer. Stand firm, step two, in the three steps of faith. Step three, let's go back to Ezekiel 14. Exodus 14. Exodus 14. Verse 14. And you shall hold your peace. You shall hold your peace. The NIV translates this as, to be still. The French Bible translates this to be silent. And in fact, there's a notation in my Bible that says, Be quiet. Be quiet. Be silent. Be still. The Expositor's Bible Commentary makes a note on this phrasing. It says it is a state of mind. It calls it being inactive. Inactive. Why wouldn't you want to be active? Look over in Psalm 62, verse 5. Psalm 62.

Because now we're talking about a state of mind. It's not about an action, but it's about a state of mind and a state of being. Psalm 62, verse 5. My soul will be satisfied as with morrow and fatness. I'm sorry, I was reading 62, verse 5. My soul waits silently for God alone. Silently. You're not making noise. You're silent. You're at peace. My soul waits silently for God. Silence! What an interesting way of putting it. Be quiet. Be silent. Look over at Abacach 220. Now that's a tough one. How many times should we turn to Abacach? Let's see if we can find Abacach. That'll be a good assignment for everybody. I think it's right before Zephaniah. There we go. Okay, Abacach 2, verse 20. It's good that we turn to some of these minor prophets sometime. We see some things. Abacach 2, verse 20. But the Lord is in his temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. To be silent. To be still. You know, we often confuse activity with results. And effort with outcome. We want to do something. We can't do something. Okay, I'm not supposed to compromise my values. But I'm going to do something anyway. No, just be still. Be silent. It's okay. You don't have to do anything. God is looking to form a king and a priest from each of us. And he's looking for an end result. And sometimes that end result is just to be silent. I think I might have told the story when I first went to Thailand. I came from our culture here. We have a very vibrant culture. We talk and move and do things. So I flew to Thailand, and I was going to be working with Buddhist monks. And the monks, they don't talk as much. There's a lot more silence involved in their discussions. And so unknowingly, for us, my group of six people were taken to a hotel to supposedly wait for somebody. We got there at 10 o'clock, and we waited until, I can't remember, 4 or 5 o'clock. And we found out later that it was just to get us to calm down. Because we were coming from a society here where things are always moving. There's always something going on. There's always something happening. And it was just to get us to just be patient. Just wait in that place for six hours and just talk, think, just consider, just meditate. Because that's the kind of assignment that we were going to be on. Sometimes God just wants us to be silent. It's time to just have a state of mind of peace. You're not going to do anything right now. Nothing. I'm going to take care of everything for you. Look over in Isaiah 26, verse 3.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. His mind is at peace. His mind is stayed on you. You know, I made a reference to Daniel. Daniel went and prayed in his room. And I'd like to go turn there. And I want to read the story. And I want you to think about what Daniel said, how he spoke up.

Let's go to Daniel 6, verse 10. Let's read this. Daniel is going to face a trial. And let's see how Daniel represents himself to the king. Let's see what choice words he chose to convey what was his beliefs and his feeling. Daniel 6, verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, that is to say that everyone had to worship this king and none other. And this sort of this thing that was going on here in the area.

And he went into his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem. And he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before God, as was his custom since early days. So he prayed. And then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. And they went before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree. Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any God or man within 30 days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?

The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes of the Persians, which does not alter. And so they answered and said, Before the king, that Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored, till the going down of the sun, to deliver him. Then these men approached the king and said to the king, No, O king, that it is the law of the Medes of the Persians, no decree or statute, which the king establishes may be changed.

And so the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you. And then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring, with the signets of his lords, and the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed. Did you hear Daniel say anything? He didn't say anything. Nothing! They brought him, they took him, they put him in the lion's den. There's nothing recorded. We don't hear what Daniel's prayer was.

We don't hear Daniel saying to the king some long speech. It's just thrown into the lion's den. In fact, you don't see Daniel say anything until verse 21, when he says, O king, live forever. Isn't it interesting? Sometimes there's just no need to say anything. Now, let's not confuse this with diligence. Let me just make sure we don't swing too far over here. Go over to Proverbs 10 verse 4. Because somebody might say, and I have met people who are like, you know, they're not working, you know, they're basically kind of living based on money people give to them, and they say, well, you know, God's going to provide.

God will provide. I'm at peace. I know. I trust in God. Right? Well, no, I mean, there is diligence, right? So Proverbs 10 verse 4 says, He who deals with a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes one rich. Diligence is something else. So let's not confuse, you know, if, you know, we're going to school to improve our skills, if we're looking for a job and we're, you know, going to networking to build that job, if we're learning how to, you know, work on a resume.

That's diligence. We should all be diligent. I'm not talking about, you know, sort of not being diligent. I'm talking about a state of mind. I'm talking about compromising our values. Nobody's compromising their values by going to a networking class to learn how to, you know, do a resume or signing up at a community college to improve their skills or, you know, seeking some sort of promotion so that they can continue to grow in their career. That's all diligence. And that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is a state of mind here of confidence that God is going to step in.

Daniel still prayed. Daniel still had a job to do. Daniel still did those things that he was supposed to do. You might have heard this quote from Ernest Hemingway. It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet. Ernest Hemingway.

This is a state of mind, what we're supposed to do. Go over in John 14, verse 27. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. This is that state of mind we're talking about.

Where there's just a silence, there's just a stillness. It's a famous song, right? Be still and know that I am God. Be still is step three of the three steps of faith. Fear not, stand firm, and be still or silent. These are the three steps of faith. When we stand before the Red Sea, our Red Sea, or our enemy like David, or the lion's den as Daniel, or the king as Esther, we trust in God and stand in awe.

For that enemy that pursued us, that lion that wanted to devour us, that king that would kill us, or that chariot formation that was going to break through and kill all of our loved ones, we will see no longer. That's what God promises if we step out in faith because we're desiring to love God and follow His commandments.

I hope that's encouraging to us as we think about doing the right thing in our lives.