Walking the Board of Christianity with Faith

Thank you, and good afternoon to everyone. It's great to see everyone. It's good to see a full house over here, and a bunch of faces I haven't seen in a while or haven't seen before, so that's excellent. Many of you probably figured out along the way that I enjoy analogies. It's one of those things that I can definitely connect with and think through. Well, today's message is going to be based around what was actually just given in passing, but it was given in passing by a sermon by Gary Petty that's titled, The Race to the Kingdom of God. And the basic analogy goes like this. Imagine that I laid out in this room a board that was one foot wide and 30 feet long, and put it down this middle aisle. And then I asked us all to come forward and to walk across the board. Now, I have strong confidence that everybody in here, whether we have the rattle balls young kids or the senior citizens, would be able to do it, and we could probably do it very quickly. I haven't really time to see how long it would take, but probably it would be between five and ten seconds we could walk and cross that board. Now imagine if I took that same 30 foot long board and I raised it on top of cement planks so it sat about three feet above the ground.

How would you feel when I then told you to walk the board? No doubt. Well, let me step back a little and give you a little bit of confidence. I want you to know before you raise the concern that that board will have the exact same strength and stability. You don't have to worry about that. But I bet many of you now would not walk across the board. And those who did cross the board would walk much slower than if it was just sitting on the ground and you walked your way through. Well, why? Because there'd be more fear of falling off the board. Remember, it's the exact same strength as when it was on the board, on the ground.

So now let me connect this analogy to our message today. Christianity is putting that same one foot wide, 30 foot long board, and laying it across the chasm 300 feet deep with sharp pointed rocks on the bottom pointing up at us. Oh, boy! We're also told that if you have faith, walk across the board. But there's more. It's a little more complex than that because we also need to know that while we're crossing, we're going to have heavy, changing hurricane force winds, blowing in all directions that we have no clue which way they're coming from. Oh, wait, I think I left out some other things, too. As you go across, you should expect that Satan, his demons, will be throwing and shooting projectiles at you. And there might be random obstacles that we have to step over and around as we're walking that one foot wide, 30 foot long board. Would you cross it? Yep, that was an honest answer there. Nah, I love it. I think intellectually, the rest of us in our mind as we sit on nice padded, cushiony seats in an air-conditioned room know that the correct answer is that we should have faith and we should focus on God and we should move forward. But the truth is stepping forward in faith as a Christian is crazy hard. And it's scary. And if it was only up to our own ability, it'd be impossible.

At its core, living at Christians is about who we rely on for our strength and what we focus on.

That's at the core of what it's all about. And when life makes us look down and we see that scary chasm in the pointed rocks, we naturally think only of falling.

We have those chasms in our life, don't we? Those are the scary points in life. But God wants us to have confidence in what he has and what he will do for us. So even if we have to get on our hands and knees or on our belly, we need to crawl and pull ourselves forward in this Christian journey. And we need to focus on God. So with this analogy, I'd like us to look at four key principles to help us walk the board of Christianity with faith.

I'd like to share a story to lead into the first principle. It was told that there is there was in a place that had an amazing, magnificent, 100-foot waterfall. And it cascaded into this narrow river, so it was just a beautiful scene to behold. There was also an even more beautiful garden on the other side of the waterfall that had the most amazing exotic birds. Many people came and visited the waterfall. Many more desired to go to the other side and to see the beautiful birds. The challenge is the only way to get from one side of the waterfall to the other was through this long, thin steel cord. Now the good news is there was an ex-circus tightrope walker who offered to take people across for free. But for some reason, not many people took him up on that. I wonder why. No doubt, their trust in his ability to get them across safely didn't match their fear of if it didn't work. And it's almost didn't get there. It said that there's two reasons that people don't trust others. Either they don't know them or they do know them. Well, when it comes to success, we're given enough to know we can trust God. But it's an issue of whether we're able to push past our human doubts and have faith and trust in God. And that takes us to the first principle. And that is we must not doubt but believe. We must not doubt but believe. Please turn to Exodus 14, verses 10 through 14. Exodus 14, verses 10 through 14. A very sad truth about humans over time is that we have engaged. Our weaknesses are the same. And the basic fact is we doubt God. And we doubt God a lot.

When David spared of his circumstances, he said, now I will perish one day by the hands of Saul. Right? Now, did that happen? No. Saul died at Gilboa and David's throne was established forever, according to God's promises. Elijah hit it in a cave and then begged to die. He was scared of that very powerful jestle. But dogs licked up her blood, and Elijah was freed by our whirlwind safety. In Exodus 14, we're stepping into the story of the children of Israel. Contact. This is after 10 mind-blowing miracles. After they were begged by their foremasters to leave Egypt. No, by the way, take my fortune. Let me give a whole bunch of riches as you get out of here.

But it didn't take long for that celebration to stop. When they saw Pharaoh and his armies approaching, Exodus 14, verses 10. When Pharaoh denier, the children of Israel lift their eyes and behold the Egyptians and march after them. So what's their response? Did they trust God? Did they look to Moses and say, what would the Lord have us to do now? Now let's keep reading. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. So verse 10 says, they became afraid, and because of their fear, they cried out to the Lord. Did they cry out in faith? They cried out in a fever. They trusted God for their initial deliverance, but not to overcome their ongoing circumstances. And I'm going to use that concept several times because I think it's something that we struggle with a lot. They trusted God for their initial deliverance, but not overcome their ongoing circumstances when times got tough. Reflect on your own lives. Do you do that? Let's continue. Then they say 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 up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? We love this slave thing. Don't take the dis of me, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. I'd like you to kind of picture this aerial view of all the Israelites gathered there at the face of the water, mumbling to each other. You could hear them almost complaining along the way, discouraging each other, saying, what am I going to do now?

And they were showing doubt, and they were showing unbelief, and they were saying things like, you know, I've become all this way only to die. What's this Moses guy thinking? Is it because there's no graves in Egypt? You could just picture them getting each other all stirred up. It's unbelief that makes us forget who guards us day and night. The Israelites had a cloud by day to stand between them and the enemy, and they had the fire by night to light their way.

But friends were really no different. Put yourself back on that 30-foot-long narrow beam over that 300-foot drop. We also have Christ standing between us and the enemy. The Bible assures us of that, and He's lighting our way forward and keeping us safe. And if you look back at the story of Israel's Exodus, you will see they had one lonely man standing between the Israelites in the water.

Moses was a type of Christ. He was playing the role of the deliverer, and the cry that he said to them is, do not fear. Verse 13, And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which we will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, who you see today, you shall see and know more forever.

The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Friends, friends, fellow believers in Christ, when we were baptized, God stood between us and our sins. Right? So why do we still doubt that He also can't stand between us and our circumstances? Why do we question that if we were okay to pay for baptism, being convinced that He could stand between us and the sins of our past?

Because there is no circumstance that God can't overcome. Please turn to 2 Timothy 1 in verse 12. I read a quote by a gentleman named Charles Henry McIntosh. He was an early ninth century Christian preacher in the Plymouth area, and he said this, He said, Unbelief leads us to interpret God in the presence of the difficulty, instead of interpreting the difficulty in the presence of God. Faith gets behind the difficulty, and there finds God in all His faithfulness, love, and power. I think it's a brilliant point. And Paul displays this very well in this next set of verses. I'm going to read it to you in the new Living Translation.

2 Timothy 1 in verse 12. This is why I am suffering here in prison, but I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return. If you and I had faith that God would bring us out of our own Egypt at baptism, why don't we have faith that He could safely keep what we've committed to us or committed to Him, and to carry us through to wherever our journey and this life ends?

Even if that means crossing a 30-foot narrow board over a scary drop-off, it's our unbelief that causes us to forget the past, the bondage, the anguish, the sins that we put behind us at baptism, our own Egypt. It's unbelief that makes us desire to return to it, just like the Israelites did. Turn to Philippians 4 and verse 13. I'll ask you some silly rhetorical questions, friends. Were you on the cross helping Christ redeem you? Were you with Him in the tomb? Did you hold His hand to help Him rise up? Or somehow give Him a boost so that He might ascend to the right hand of majesty on high?

You see, God created the universe, and you and I can't even make a pine needle. God holds the world together by the words of His power, and we struggle to balance our bank books. In the great scheme of things, we look to the wrong place for our strength, and so we doubt and we don't believe. And that's what the Passover is for each year, is to kind of give us that perspective and reflect, just like each week, the Sabbath is to give us that perspective on how we fit into this world.

And we need to realize that the power that changes life isn't ours. But if we live life to obedient Christians, it doesn't mean scary things aren't going to be thrown at us. But God wants us to have faith in Him and stop searching for avoidance. Or for someone else to deliver us. He wants us to look to Him. Because there's no other way, I'm sure you all have spiritual goals, there's no other way we're going to get to our spiritual goals without Him.

Otherwise, it's like us trying to hold the wind in our arms and carry it around. We can't do it. Instead, the solution is in Philippians 4 verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's the only way.

We must not doubt but believe. I'd like to share another story now that's going to lead into the second principle that I'm going to share. And think on this as you imagine again, crossing that long narrow beam across the chasm. In 1989, there was an earthquake which almost flattened Armenia.

And the deadly tremor killed over 30,000 people in less than four minutes.

In the midst of all that confusion, there was a father who rushed to his son, who was at school at that time. And when he arrived, he saw that the building had been flattened like a pancake. So he stood there looking around the school and then he remembered a promise that he told his son. Over and over he told his son, no matter what, I'll always be there for you.

And tears just started flooding his eyes.

And he just couldn't take his mind off that promise that he'd made. So he remembered that his son's room was in the back corner of the school. And he went around there and started digging through the rubble. And as he was digging through, more and more parents came up and they started crying out, my son, my daughter. And they tried to pull him off, saying, it's too late. They're all dead.

Even a police officer and a firefighter came up and said, just stop it. But to each of them, he responded and said, are you going to help me now?

And when they didn't, he went back and continued to dig, stone by stone. Because he needed to know for himself, is my boy alive or is he dead? The man dug for eight hours and he dug for 12 hours and for 24 hours, for 32 hours. It was at hour 38 as he pulled back a boulder that he heard his son's voice. And he screamed out, Armand! And the child responded, dad, it's me, dad. And then the boy said, something is really quite priceless. He said, I told the other kids not to worry. I told them, if you were alive, you'd save me. And when you saved me, they'd be saved. You promised that, dad. No matter what you said, I'll always be there for you. And here you are, dad, you kept your promise. The second principle is this. We must realize where our strength, protection and support comes from. We must realize where our strength, protection and support comes from.

All of you as parents know that babies learn to walk by holding on to things. And more often than not, they learn by holding on to the hands of their parents, right? And so the parent is holding their arms and they gradually let go and a little wobbling baby starts taking off with confidence. But sooner or later, that balance isn't quite there and they fall over. And then the loving parent's hands quickly reach down, lift him up, give him more courage and confidence, and they go off again. Our Father God wants to hold our hands to help us walk through, walk worthy of his calling in just the same way. And when we fall down, our Father God is always there to pick us back up, so we step out in faith and obedience again. The analogy is absolutely true for what we go through.

The key is we have to realize where our strength and our protection and our support comes from.

So I'd like to go back to the analogy and the example of the Israelites. If you'll turn to Numbers 13 verses 31 through 33. Numbers 13, 31 through 33. Now, we're about to read a verse that right now, if you were to talk to psychologists or study psychology, it's where a psychological description today comes from. Numbers 13 starting in verse 31. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, the land to which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants, the descendant of Anak who came or came from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. And so we were in their sight. That phrase, we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. Not in their sight. And so this is called in psychology the grasshopper complex.

They no longer saw the god who destroyed Egypt and led them through the Red Sea. Now, if you put together all the context, the cloud had to still be at the tabernacle at that time. They ate manna that morning, right? But all they saw were big men who seemed bigger than their god.

Turn forward a chapter to Numbers 14 and verse 10, and we'll kind of see how this worked itself to its crux along the way. Numbers 14 says, and all the congregations said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. So out of fear, this congregation, these massive Israelites, were about to stone and kill Joshua and Caleb. This chosen nation was about to riot. Why? They were going to kill two scouts because they pointed the people of Israel toward their all-powerful god and what he said he would do for them. And he had already shown he would do for them.

And that lack of faith, of course, led to 40 years walking in the wilderness and all those older than 20 dying, except for these two scouts that actually did trust God.

Turn back now to Exodus 12 and verse 41. Exodus 12 and verse 41. I'd like to contrast this with how the Israelites started the Exodus. My friends, we always have the choice between two voices. Two voices that are going to tell us how we should see the world around us. There is the voice of fear that sees all the challenging circumstances and surroundings. And there's the voice of faith that sees God and has confidence, knowing that he made and controls it all. And whether we trust and obey God or not reveals which voice we're listening to. But we all face that same contrast between fear and faith. Now, Exodus 12 and verse 41 has one of the most amazing statements in the Bible. So as we read it over, I want you to see if you can catch which phrase I'm referring to. Exodus 12 and verse 41. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on that very same day it came to pass that all of the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. So do you think I'm referring to the fact that a prophecy of the children of Israel being delivered was fulfilled 430 years later to that exact day? That's not the phrase I'm looking at. What I'm referring to is the fact that it says all of them went out. Because if all of them went out, that means all of them obeyed the instructions of the Passover and stayed inside obediently until they were told to come outside and they all did what they were supposed to. This has to be the only time in history that an entire group of people actually did what they were told by God.

Didn't last long, though. Fear snuck back in and they forgot about the ten plagues. And instead, they began to realize that they couldn't get to the freedom they wanted by relying on their own power. So they started looking around and they saw how dry the desert was. They felt how hungry and thirsty they were, right? They saw how strong their enemy was. Have we been there? Do you start focusing on all those things around you that are scary and that are tough going on in your life? Don't ever let anyone tell you that the Bible is about stories that don't matter anymore, because it's as true today as it ever was. All these things relate to characteristics that haven't changed.

All the people who've lived in the world from creation till now struggle with the same things, and it's about where we look for truth and where we look for confidence. Turn forward now to Exodus 13 verses 17 or 17 through chapter 14 verse 2. So Exodus 13, 17 through 14 too. The first thing I want you to see as we read this is to realize we are talking about a redeemed people. The Israelites were delivered already out of bondage. They're free.

Freedom wasn't something that they worked to achieve. Remember, we're talking about crossing that 30-foot board over a certain drop to our death. We can't do it on our own any more than the Israelites were able to. But they had been delivered just like if we've been baptized, we have been delivered. And they stand free like we stand free. Free with the spiritual potential in front of us. Now verse 17. Then it came to pass when Pharaoh had led the people or let the people go that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, less people, I'm sorry, less perhaps the people, changed their minds when they saw, when they see war and returned to Egypt. So God led the people across around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. So as to go by day and night, he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn in camp before Pihirath, between Migdul and the sea, opposite of Baal Zaphon, you shall camp before it by the sea.

What you see in these verses is God was extremely specific. He was telling them exactly the directions to precisely the point at exactly the time he had in mind. Could God have safely had Israel cross the Red Sea before the Egyptians got there? Sure. Could God have had all of them die when they were putting the saddles on their horses trying to get the chariots set up? Of course.

God could have done anything he wanted to remove the nation from difficulty.

But here they are, standing with the mountains to the north. In the south, they had desert and people who had allegiance to Egypt. And behind, they had Pharaoh and all these chariots and dust being kicked up. God led them there. And he was extremely specific in that direction. Why? We see that in the next two verses. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in. Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his armies, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord and they did so.

I am sure it wasn't long after the Israelites left Egypt that they started grumbling. Because that's what we do as humans. And they started wondering if Moses knew where he was leading this massive group of million people. But we see in verse 4 that God planned it out. And he did it because he wanted to make it appear to Pharaoh that these free slaves were wandering aimlessly. So he pursued them. Why? So that God would be honored through Pharaoh when all of his armies and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. That's why. See, we often don't trust God to be our strength and our protector and our deliverer. Because we can't understand what the Lord is doing in our lives. Right? Why is he leading me the way he is? He doesn't. I know that's the wrong way to go. So we grumble about desiring to do God's will, but then do what makes sense to us.

The outcome? We make no progress and we don't have God's help when we need it most. We stress out because we're trying hard, but it doesn't work because the effort is involving faith.

Faith in God's strength. Exercising faith enables us to trust God to fulfill his word and that character. Trust, if you want to go back to the analogy I used earlier, is to walk across, to take that free offer of transport with that rope walker and cross across that bridge.

Trust in God's strength. God says, I totally abandon my life and all that I am and have in God's hand. Trust his will and trust his plan. Because if you want to take the analogy, spiritually, Jesus is that tightrope walker. He gets us over the gorge of sin. He gets us to where God has provisions and abundance. Things we can't even imagine. Salvation will happen, but our involvement in it will be based on if we will put our trust completely in his ability and in his power. If you'll turn to Romans 8 and verse 37. Romans 8 and verse 37. The lesson, friends, is we don't need to know every step of the way.

What's happening? We don't need to understand why we are where we are or where the Lord is leading us. If we've repented of sin, if we've placed our faith in Christ's shed blood and followed our leader out of Egypt, if we're yielding to the way he tells us to live, he will guide us. We may not get exactly where we're being guided at times or why certain things happen, but our salvation will be completed just as we believe that he began the work in us.

We must remember that his purpose in helping us is so that his name will be honored, though it's not about us, because that's usually when we start sidetracking ourselves, right? We're like, this doesn't make sense for me. It wasn't supposed to make sense for you. It didn't make sense for the Israelites to be there with water on one side and all cornered in. It wasn't about them. Our calling isn't about us, but God's outgoing concern for others. Romans 8 and verse 37. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors. I love that phrase. How does it achieve? Through him who loved us. That's the point. Okay, let's transition now to the third principle of walking the board of Christianity with faith. Okay, we get that we shouldn't fear but believe. We get where our strength comes from. The point is that should then lead us to action. The third point is we need to keep moving forward. We need to keep moving forward. I don't know if you've thought about it, friends, but there's a difference between living faith and walking in faith.

Living can be passive. We can just sit and do nothing. Living can be motionless. That's pointless. Turn to Ephesians 4 and verse 1. We're not taught to just sit around and do nothing. We're told instead that we're supposed to get up. We're supposed to walk. We're supposed to move forward and be an example of what Christ has set out in front of us.

It's progressive, if you want to think of it that way. Religion in Christianity requires action. Ephesians 4 and verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. This Christian life is a daily walk with God.

And so I want us to focus on a few of the words here that are in this little simple verse. If you see the beginning of it, if you go to the various translations, you sense urgency. What Paul wrote is, I urge you, I beseech you, I exhort you, I plead with you, I beg of you. There's a whole lot of passion here about what he's about to say. And then he uses the word therefore, which is connecting in the first in chapters 1, 2, and 3. It talks about the love and the grace and the hope that God has pointed out toward us. And so basically what it's saying is we're expected to respond. If we're going to talk the talk, then we need to walk the walk. If the theology we profess is real, then it should show interactions, right? It should show in how we live and what we do.

Paul then highlights that it isn't about simply walking, but it's walking worthily. Now, Mr. Graham could fill in much more, but as I looked at that, it's an interesting word, because it's an adverb in Greek that pictures the two sides of a scale being brought into balance.

And so it's like a weight has been put on one side of the scale, and if you are walking worthily, then you bring the other side back in equilibrium. In other words, the life of our daily practice as a Christian should weigh as much or be equivalent to how we profess to have faith. Do our actions equal what we profess?

Are you and I today walking worthily of the calling that we have received as believers, or is our life out of balance? How are we doing with that?

Are we walking with obedience across that board of faith throughout this life's journey? Or are we looking down and seeing the scary things that are down below us, or the obstacles around us? Where is our focus? I'd like to now transition to the final point.

Bill can relate to this one because we both work together. In the colder months, both of us will get exercise at work by walking through the lower concourses at State Farm that connects seven buildings in what's called Corporate South. And it's a little over three-quarters of a mile if you do the one-way path. But as I was putting this message together and thinking about that, I started realizing that there's long stretches that are either six inches, 12 inches, or 18 inches wide. So that got me thinking about this message. I thought, let me try this thing out. So here's what I learned. At first, I started walking along and I thought, well, let me just look down on my feet. And that works well for the short term. You can definitely keep it aligned that way, but you kind of get this vertigo thing going on if you're just staring straight down, and you have to look up to get your bearings back of what's going on. So then I thought, I'm just going to look to the horizon. You can walk really fast that way. You can just take off, kind of keep a straight point out there and walk. And for the most part, you're good. But every now and then, you look down like, oh, I just figured. What I noticed to work best was if I looked 10 to 15 feet in front of me. Because when I was doing that, I could see the destination I was going, but I could also see if my feet were getting offline.

The fourth principle is this. We must focus both on our spiritual destination and the path in front of us. We must focus both on our spiritual destination and the path in front of us. One thing you learn as parents is if your kid is going through, especially at a young age, some kind of an emotional reaction, you want to kind of redirect the focus. Now, that's a whole lot harder when we apply to ourselves as adults when we're facing scary situations. That's when this principle becomes much harder. But no matter what age we are, when we focus on life's difficulties, we become fearful. We become overwhelmed.

When we focus on what we've lost, how we become bitter. When we, a lot of people we've seen, I'm sure, throughout the years of the church, give up their faith because they feel they've given up or been asked to give up something that's greater than what God promises to give. It's really stupid logic, but it makes sense when you think of the circumstances around us. If we're focused only on the moment, those things are overwhelming.

We have to focus in the right directions. Turn back to the Exodus story. Turn to Exodus 14 in verse 13. The point that I'd like you to consider as you look at these next verses about the children of Israel is that they are told what to see and they're told what they won't see. Exodus 14 in verse 13. It says, And Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, who you see today, you shall see again no more forever. Stand still. God intentionally told them to do their part by walking across the water. Basically, at this point, he was saying, chill, chill, you guys. You're focused in the wrong direction. They were reminded that what all they had done was done without their help, thank you very much. And in most cases, it was probably, in truth, being done despite their interference. I'm sure if we wanted to, there'd be a zillion stories of the Israelites that would show them interfering person by person, if nothing else, and thoughts, if not in actions, all the way through. But we're told to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for us today. And I think it's important. It's important for us to recognize that in order for the Israelites to set their eyes on the salvation, he was telling them they needed to take their eyes off their problems. They couldn't cross the Red Sea by looking backwards and seeing all of the Egyptians storming at them. They wouldn't know where to walk.

They couldn't be gazing north at the mountain, or they weren't going to get crossed the open areas of the water, or south to the desert in those nations that were supportive of Egypt. Instead, they were told to face forward in the direction God himself had led them, and not to concentrate on their fears, and not to concentrate on anything other than their deliver.

And that same lesson is really true for us today as Christians, isn't it? As we walk across, to follow the analogy, that board of our Christian walk during this lifetime, because we have to keep our focus forward, we're not told to look back at the Egypt we left, the sins that we did in the past, the things we might long for, because supposedly we've given that up, and we've confessed to God that that's not what we want anymore. We're not to be looking at these hurricane-force winds that are blowing at us, or threatening us, or the scary dangers that might come down below us, and not to get distracted, but instead, nothing but our long-term focus, our long-term objective, is what we're supposed to focus on. It's hard to do. Don't get me wrong. But that's the lesson that this analogy is trying to bring out. And if our attention is projected forward toward the goal God has set for us, we will see His salvation over and over again, because He will help us out. Turn back to Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 3. The message Bible translation captures thought for thought and not word for word. Sometimes, though, it does a really good job to convey the emotion and the feeling that's supposed to come out in a verse. So I'm going to read this, first of all, from the message translation. It says, in light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk. Better yet, run! On the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline, not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourself out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences, and quick at mending fences. Convey the passion and the feeling in a more modern wording. But I love the way it starts it. It's saying, get out there and walk. Better yet, run! It shows an urgency. God wants our walking to have a right direction. We're not supposed to chart our own paths along the way, and we're not just to take a leisurely walk in the park, but instead we're to walk worthily on the road that God has marked for us.

And we see the reason of it. I'll read it to you again now in the New King James version. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.

The Greek makes it clear that Paul's focus is that we walk worthily by living a life of love.

That's why he uses the phrases in verse 2, with all humility and gentleness and with patience, love one another. If you want to translate, I read one translation that said verse 2 could literally be translated with all humility and gentleness and with patience, love one another with love. Basically, it's conveying this concept that we can't complete this work on our own and we can't just focus on ourself. We're supposed to be focused on each other. That is God's ultimate goal. That's the reason the Israelites led up against that body of water and were faced with fear because it wasn't about them. It wasn't about them. And so this links to that concept that life isn't fair. We're going to face challenges and God is going to sometimes have us face things that are painful to us, but it may be a light to others, believers and unbelievers, that therefore afterwards they can look and say, ah, I see how faith in God is supposed to work and the blessings that come from it. This is what happens if you trust in God daily. It's not about us.

But I want it to be, right? That's the tempting thing that we tend to focus and feel.

If we know our place in the battle, it makes it simpler. The goal is to get to the other side of that beam or the board. The goal is to get to salvation. It's not about the obstacles and the winds that are around us and the challenges that seem unfair because somebody else's board has less obstacles and the wind seems to be less for them. Okay. That's not what this is all about. God is the one who fights the battles and were to be His servants and follow and obey. But how many times on a bad day does our mind get sidetracked from that, right? So easily done. Life isn't easy, but God is still God.

And as we walk forward on the board of Christianity, our focus must be on Christ, even when our plans aren't working out.

It's life, and it's tough. So let me make this personal. What challenges in your life today is ruining your focus? Something we think about as we approach the Passover. Is it challenges in a job, a change in a job, people at work? Is it your health? Is it a life situation? Is it something that somebody else is struggling with or your family, your financial struggles? Those times are tough. Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 in verse 16 to 18.

When times are tough, we're all too focused on how narrow that one-foot beam is, right? The wind that's been hitting us with the hurricane force suddenly feels harder than ever, right? We start looking around, and those objects that are in our way seem even more terrifying and even bigger and more impossible. Or the rock sticking up 300 feet down, it feels like it's a thousand feet down. That's what happens when we focus on our fears. But the Bible tells us that we need to rejoice because of how good and how awesome our God is. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 16. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. And everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. There is nothing that you and I are going through that God can't bring us through. And so let's reflect back again on Israel's exodus as they were leaving Egypt. And consider what would have happened had they chosen any other course. If they would have gone north, they would have run up against the mountains, and they would have gotten stuck. They would have run south, they would have run out of food, gone through the desert, and nations that were allies of Egypt. If they would have turned around and fought, come on, these are a bunch of slaves. They had no weapons, they didn't know war, they had elderly, they had little kids, they would have been wiped out.

When we turn away any other way than going straight forward with God, we run headlong into life's problems. So we just go forward. I want you to think about one item with that, too.

When we go forward on our own, not waiting for the Lord in His timing, we can march straight into a sea of insurmountable difficulties, and soon we and our efforts will be swept away. They would have taken off too early. Well, the water hadn't been cleared out yet, right? That wouldn't have worked. So what was Moses' words of encouragement? He said, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.

God can't use you and I until we stop focusing on ourselves and put our eyes squarely on Him. That's the summary of the Bible every time. That's what this life is all about. Turn to Philippians 3 and verse 13. If you feel surrounded on every side by something that's insurmountable, that's difficult, that's hard, the same person, the same being who set you free from sins has promised that He will go before you for the rest of your life, and that knowledge should give us confidence. I read about a situation where Winston Churchill apparently had to go through eighth grade three times because the difficulty he had learning English.

So, on kind of an ironic twist during the war times, Prime Minister Churchill was asked to address a commencement exercise at Oxford. Some of the smartest people in the world were there, and he came up in his normal props. He had his cigarette, he had his top hat, he had his cane, and as he approached, the crowd rose in applause and just kept applauding. So, he finally asked everybody to sit. He took his cigar down, and he took off his top hat, and he set his cane down, and he looked at the audience for several seconds.

And then he said with a strong authoritative voice, Never give up. And he was quiet. And he looked around for several more seconds, and he said it again. Never give up. He put his hat on, he took a cigar, he grabbed his cane, and he walked off. He was done with his commencement address.

But it's a powerful lesson, and it's what Paul is telling us in Philippians 3.13. He says, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. There's a lot in that little verse.

First, we're told, forget what's behind us. And there's a lot of ways we can think about what's behind us. We're not in the kingdom yet, right? The race is still going on. When the race is over, we can look backwards. You don't need to turn there, but Luke 9.62 says, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom. Think of the different ways you can apply looking backwards. Sometimes we dwell too much on our mistakes. Yeah, I ask God for forgiving me, but he's not going to forgive me. You know, we just dwell on them. That's not healthy. We aren't to be paralyzed in shame over our sins. If we've truly repented, we're supposed to grow from them. And we aren't to be satisfied by our prior successes. We're supposed to keep growing and going, giving and moving and serving and moving forward. Because Paul had a lot of successes, and yet a lot of sins, but he said, I'm not content. I'm moving forward. So in Philippians 3, 13, Paul says that we should reach forward. And that literally means straining toward the goal, kind of like in a race. And as we move forward, our motivation to the goal shouldn't be about us.

We reach our goal so that we can help other people see Jesus in us. God wants to use us to grow His family. It's not about us. That's the perspective life is filling us with. I'd like to finish this sermon by going back to the story of the Exodus for one last verse. If you'll turn back to Exodus 15 and verse 13. Again, I like analogies because it's easy to associate. I can picture the fear of walking across that board. And I hope the analogy has helped you picture that our Christian walk is one that's scary. And it's one that might have reasons to make us fearful, but we shouldn't approach with fear. That's what the Passover is about. And as Christians, we have trusted God to deliver us to stand between us and our sins. We did that at baptism. Through the rest of our life, we need to continue trusting Him to stand between us and our circumstances, whatever they are.

And if we do, then we can sing this song of Moses and the children of Israel when they reach the other side. Exodus 15 and verse 13 says, you and your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. God's holy habitation is what we are walking toward as we cross that board.

So friends, let's focus as we walk that narrow beam of Christianity and not see the enemy and not see the obstacles that are around us, but instead God's deliverance through every storm of life. And if so, at the end, we too will be able to sing the song of the Lord's redeemed.