David Warren, would you come up?
We have a new elder to announce this morning.
David and Dee, if you'll come.
Here at Springhouse, we do not elect eldership.
We don't vote and do a democratic process for elders.
We simply recognize elders.
And this has been a long time coming,
because David, you have functioned in this role
far, far longer than, you know,
between now and the rest of time that you have here.
And I'm so grateful for you.
Let me read some scripture.
And as I'm reading some scripture,
I'm gonna ask the eldership to make their way
down to the front.
Out of 1 Timothy 3, this is what the word says.
"An overseer must be blameless and beyond reproach.
"The husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible,
"respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
"not addicted to wine, not a bully,
"nor quick-tempered and hot-headed,
"but gentle and considerate, free from the love of money.
"He must manage his own household well,
"keeping his children under control with all dignity.
"And he must not be a new convert,
"so that he will not fall into condemnation
"encurred by the evil one.
"He must have a good reputation
"and be well thought of by those outside the church,
"so that he will not be discredited
"and fall into the devil's trap."
David, if this was a checklist of
what needs to be for an elder,
boy, you're batting a thousand, my friend.
We recognize your appointment as an elder of this house,
as an overseer.
We are governed by three agencies.
We have an admin board that does our finances.
We have the pastoral staff that run the church.
But the eldership, they're the ruling body,
the spiritual covering.
So this is a very important thing
that we add David to this group.
And I believe that it is the Lord's will for him
to be added to this group.
So we're gonna pray over David.
The eldership is here gathered around you.
We all affirm your call,
and we're grateful for your willingness
to serve in this capacity.
Would you guys stand and stretch your hand
over David and Dee this morning?
Father, we thank you for who you are.
And God, I thank you for the gift of David and Dee Warren.
And Lord, I thank you, Lord,
for this appointment of eldership,
actually, this recognition of eldership in David's life, God.
Lord, this is a mantle that is a weighty mantle, Lord,
but you carry it for us, God.
I pray that you would speak clearly to David.
I pray that you would give him discernment and insight
as he serves as a watchman on the walls for this house
and protection of the people that come
through these doors, Father.
I ask, Lord, that you would anoint him
and that you would use him.
I thank you for the way that his fingerprints
have already been used and are on the hearts of the people
all in this congregation.
And I ask, Lord, that you would continue
to use them in that way.
Father, I pray for he and Dee.
I pray a hedge of protection around their household.
I pray that you would strengthen them, Lord,
and use them in this day of battle, Lord,
as you provide every weaponry they need, Father God,
especially the weapon of love and grace.
And Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would render peace to them
as they continue to do your work and further your kingdom.
We love you today and we thank you for the gift
of David and Dee Warren, in Jesus' name.
And everybody said amen, amen, amen.
Be sure to hug Dee and David's neck today as you go.
And we just so appreciate you guys and love you, amen.
Well, God is good.
All the time.
And I just love to hear the stories of God's faithfulness
in the lives of his people.
I love whenever we're sharing testimonies.
You know, I've gotten a lot of feedback
by the testimony time we had last week in service,
especially the part where it was mentioned, that's church.
If that's church, that means we could have church
on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
'cause our testimonies are not reserved
for Sunday morning, right?
We can share them Sunday morning,
but boy, he's always moving.
He's always up to something and it's always good.
It's always really good.
Well, I'm excited about today.
Before we get up and rolling,
I do need to make an announcement.
We are going to be changing our service times
here at Springhouse beginning on Easter Sunday, okay?
This service will begin at 5 a.m.
(congregation laughing)
(laughing)
Okay, 5.15, no.
This gathering is going to begin at 11 a.m.
Just like last week, we are making a change
because if you've recognized, if you look around,
we are in the blessing of growth here at Springhouse
and it is a wonderful thing where the Lord
is bringing people to be with us.
In that vein, our early gathering
is supposed to be a repeat gathering,
but it's hard to be genuine in announcing
that it's a repeat gathering when we're not repeating
the gathering, yes, okay?
In order to do that, we have to have the same amount of time
in both gatherings and so the family focus moments,
the baptisms, the baby dedications, things like that
that are usually moved away from that gathering
and just in this gathering, we'll make an appearance there.
But starting Easter, we will have our services
at nine and 11, nine and 11.
And so we invite you to be a part of that.
Now, as I mentioned last week, if you're looking
for an opportunity to serve us in an eclectic way,
as you can see, I believe that when visitors come
to Springhouse, most likely they're gonna come
to this gathering and if you have the capacity,
if you're only coming to one gathering
or you have a desire to serve in children's ministry
during this main gathering where there's a lot of kids,
Sherry needs help back there, if you would make that switch
to the nine a.m. gathering, that would free up space
not only in this room but in our parking lot
for visitors to come and be a part
of what we've got going on here.
That's just a unique way that you could serve
but God is doing good things here, amen?
And you're a part of that and we are just so grateful
for you, we're continuing our series, we took a beat
because of the conference but we're continuing our series,
The Greatest Stories Ever Told and you are a part
of The Greatest Story Ever Told and the great thing
about the story is that it's not about you.
The best part of the story is that it's about Jesus
and the change, the radical change that he's made
in your life, if Jesus Christ has changed your life,
would you just say amen?
So we have a story, we have a story connected
to the King of Kings, the author and the finisher
of our faith, the star breather, we are connected to him
and it's so wonderful to be able to share those stories.
We're gonna be going to the story of Moses and the Red Sea,
probably one of the most famous stories in scripture,
many of you know the story about what happens
at the Red Sea but what I wanted to do as a little bit
of a setup before we dive in this morning is just
to remind us that the stories in the Old Testament point us
to Jesus Christ, what I love about the Old Testament stories
is you will see a common theme, you will see a common thread
of God's character all throughout scripture, why is that?
Because the scripture tells us that Jesus Christ, God,
he is the same wind, yesterday and forever.
God never changes, would you look at your neighbor
and say God never changes?
Now we change, we change because we're fickle
and we need to change because we need
to look more like Christ.
I'm not there yet, anybody arrived?
I'm not there yet, okay, we need to change.
God never changes and I need a God I can depend on
to be the same, God is faithful, he is true
and he is sovereign, we're gonna stand today
and we're gonna read two very brief scriptures.
I am gonna read the story of Moses to you in the Red Sea
but we're gonna read these two scriptures together
beforehand, would you stand with me
and let's read with gusto this morning.
(congregation murmuring)
The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.
Oh, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Father, I thank you for every single truth
you've given us in your word, I ask Lord
that it would implant on our hearts today
and change us for all eternity, in Jesus' name
and everybody said, amen.
Well, I told the early gathering
that we're gonna do something different today
but I realized that that's a common thing that I say
and so we're just gonna be in keeping with the same,
it's just gonna look a little different
than we know, it's unique, okay.
And so I'm gonna tell this, we're gonna read actually
this story of Moses at the Red Sea.
It's essentially what we're gonna do this morning,
we're gonna read just right through the story
but you're gonna help me tell the story.
And the reason I wanted to do this this morning
is because I want us to understand that our lives
and our circumstances, our situations can parallel
the stories that we find in scripture.
God's character and how he moves within the scriptures
in the Old Testament, those principles we can apply
to our life today.
And so I have a question to present to you this morning.
Are you stuck in the in-between?
Have you been released, relinquished, redeemed?
Have you been allowed to walk out of?
Has the Lord allowed you to relent from
what you've held onto?
And you come to a place where there is an obstacle
or a wall or something unexpected in front of you
and you're stuck in that place of the in-between.
I wonder if anybody would be here.
Now many times when we talk about that,
I think our minds tend to lend itself
to going directly to sin issues.
And that's appropriate because we need to address
sin issues in our lives.
But I wonder if there might be somebody here
who's in a place where God has released you
or called you out of something and called you to something
but you're running up against obstacles
and you don't know how to pass through.
And this morning, I believe God wants to minister
both to the person who's struggling with a sin issue
but also the person who is looking for God's direction
on God, I don't know how to get out of what I'm in right now
in order to move forward and fulfill your will.
Amen?
So I need this morning the six best sinners in the house.
If you could come up here to the stage.
I've got one, two, three, four, come on up here.
The six best sinners, come on up here.
Oh yeah, come on up here.
We don't wanna elevate sin for sure
but we definitely want you to get your sin in the light.
There's gotta be another good sinner.
Okay, here we go.
All right, come on.
All right, get in line over here.
Let's let Justin be first, he likes that.
Go on over.
Okay, step back just a little bit, okay?
That's okay.
Oh yeah, you're a bunch of ragtag sinners for sure.
Okay, if you guys could do me a favor,
this is gonna be hard.
If you could flank to where you're kind of diagonal.
That's a little bit too far landed.
There you go, I like that, okay.
These guys are gonna represent this morning Egypt.
They're gonna represent Pharaoh and the army in Egypt.
Now, as we have it in the story
where we are in Exodus chapter 14,
Israel has been liberated, has been set free
from the grips of Egypt.
Remember there was all of the plagues, right?
All the plagues happened.
And that final plague with the Passover,
Pharaoh finally relents and says, "You can go."
Not only does Israel go,
but they go with stuff in their hands.
They plunder Egypt.
They're able to take things with them.
Later we're gonna find
that they don't just leave, but they leave boldly.
They leave boldly and their God is with them.
But as we're talking about paralleling our lives
to the scripture, we're gonna look at Egypt
because we're not contending with Pharaoh.
We're not necessarily contending with an army,
but we're contending with some other things.
And now I want us to understand
that we're in a place in the scripture, in the story
where Israel has been liberated.
So we're gonna be looking at these things
from a past perspective.
Yes, a past perspective, okay?
So we're gonna look at past struggles,
past mistakes,
past positions,
past behaviors,
past security,
past relationships.
Come on up here.
And this good looking guy,
he's gonna represent all of you, okay?
He's gonna represent all of you.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
and he has liberated you from your past,
your past is your past.
Say that, your past is your past.
And so he has liberated us from our past.
So let's look at what the scripture says with this story
in the context of Egypt being in our past, okay?
Here we go.
When the, I'm gonna read.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,
Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them
and said, "What have we done?
"We have let the Israelites go
"and have lost their services."
I want us to take particular note of the yellow,
changed their minds and we have lost their services.
I want us to understand this morning
that the world offers instability and will leave you empty,
but God is always stable and promises you life.
So our past always is willing to offer us
a level of instability.
Pharaoh and the army changed their minds.
There was a moment, the firstborn was taken
from all of Egypt and Pharaoh said, "Anthetically,
"you can go."
The decision was made.
But once he took, have you ever had somebody in your life?
I didn't expect to go here.
You ever have somebody in your life
that God has liberated you from,
but the minute they start seeing you be victorious,
they start to change their mind about letting you go,
they start chasing you with some stuff that was old
instead of the new that you're in, anybody?
Or that's just me.
God liberates us from our past.
He doesn't want us standing on unstable ground.
A double-minded man is what?
Unstable in all of his ways, right?
And so your past has instability to offer you an emptiness
while God is stable and promises you life.
So Pharaoh has changed his mind
and he has said, "We've lost their services."
Do you notice that the world wants to suck the life
out of you?
Pharaoh's like, Pharaoh wasn't like,
"Oh, we care about them, we wanna take care of,
"we wanna make sure that," no.
We've lost our services.
We've lost what we gained from having them with us.
And so he says this.
So it says this, "So he had his chariot made ready
"and took his army with him.
"He took 600 of the," say this, "best chariots
"along with all the other chariots of Egypt
"with officers over all of them.
"He doesn't just take chariots,
"but he takes the best chariots."
Why?
"Your past will throw its best at you,
"but what God has is always better for you."
Your past is always gonna come and say,
"Okay, I gotta conjure up the best of what you have."
It's like that carrot that's dangling.
It's like that momentary fix from that vice
feels good for just a few moments.
And sometimes we get tunnel vision
and all we can see is that little fix
and we don't see the destruction that surrounds it.
So he's coming after Israel with his best chariots.
And the word says this,
"The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,
"so that he pursued the Israelites
"who were marching out," what?
"Boldly," let me tell you what this tells me, Israel.
Israel was shackled, was shackled to the past.
Come on over here.
Hold that, there you go, come on over here.
- Yeah.
- Now I'm just gonna have you strapped
to your past struggles right here, okay?
I gotta lock it up in case you try to get out, all right.
Okay.
Israel was chained to slavery for over 400 years.
Israel was property of Egypt,
had to do anything that Pharaoh told them to do.
They were enslaved.
And there have been many years of your life
that you were enslaved to your past struggles,
past mistakes, past positions, behavior,
security and relationships.
Jesus Christ came along and said, "I want you.
"And so I'm gonna pay a price,
"a penalty of death on a cross,
"and I'm not just gonna stay there,
"I'm coming back to life.
"And I'm going to render the key that you need
"to be liberated from all of these things."
And so Jesus comes and he unlocks the chain
so that you can be liberated and the,
just drop the chain.
And what the scripture says is,
"He who the Son sets free is what?"
Say it again.
- Free.
- Look at your neighbor and say, "Are you free?"
- Free.
- Israel has been freed from slavery.
So come right over here.
And they marched out boldly.
That tells me that Israel knew
that God was fighting on their behalf.
How do I know that?
You don't leave boldly something,
you don't boldly leave this stuff
if you're not confident of where you're going
and who's with you.
And so they boldly, it's like you getting an experience,
having an experience with the holy God here
in this altar space and being liberated and set free.
You know that you know that you know.
There's a story in the New Testament
when the guy, Jesus, healed the blind guy.
And the people were like, "How'd this happen?
"Who did it?
"When did it happen?
"What Kool-Aid was he drinking?"
All of these questions.
And the guy said, "Listen, I don't know any of those answers
"but this is what I do know.
"I once was blind, but now I see.
"But now I see."
Here we go.
As Pharaoh approached the Israelites,
saw the, I'm sorry, as Pharaoh approached,
I feel super calm there.
The Israelites saw the Egyptians marching after them.
So Pharaoh's approaching the Israelites
and the Israelites, we're going this way.
Oh, wait a minute.
There's a red sea, there's an obstacle here.
And guess what?
I hear something.
I turn around and I see something.
Go ahead and turn around.
Okay?
Are you with me?
(congregation laughing)
I've got an obstacle in front of me.
I don't know what to do.
So I turn around and it says,
"They were terrified and cried out to the Lord."
Guys, your past should terrify you.
The world you lived in, it should terrify you
if you go back there and try to shock yourself to it.
"They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.
"They said to Moses, 'Was it because there was no graves
"'in Egypt that you brought us into the desert to die?'
"'What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
"'Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone,
"'let us serve the Egyptians?'
"It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians
"than to die in the desert."
Why were they afraid?
Think about it.
When she turned and faced this way.
The word tells us back in Exodus 13
that God Almighty, an angel of the Lord,
a pillar of cloud by night, fire by day,
led Israel out of Egypt.
Now, I don't see a cloud.
I don't see fire.
They did.
They saw the physical presence
of a supernatural move of God.
Yet, they were, it says they were terrified.
Why were they afraid?
The easy answer is, well, they were afraid of Egypt,
and they're afraid of Pharaoh and the army.
I don't buy it.
I don't believe that they were afraid
of Pharaoh and the army.
I believe they were afraid because they didn't have
the faith to believe for their way out.
How do I know that?
Because of what they said in the scripture.
If they were truly afraid of Pharaoh and the army,
they wouldn't be saying, "Take us back.
"Put us back.
"It's better for us to serve Egypt and Pharaoh and his army
"than to continue to be here and die in the desert.
"You don't go back to something you're afraid of."
And so the fear was birthed from,
"I don't have the faith to believe, God,
"that you can get me out of this situation."
And I wonder how many of us are in that place of fear
because we came up on an obstacle.
God made us feel good, it looked good, we had a blessing,
we had an open door, we had a confirmation, we had a dream,
we stepped into this and bam,
something happens that's unexpected.
And we take that towel and we throw it in.
Take me back to slavery.
Take me back to my past struggles.
Take me back to those past relationships.
Why were they afraid?
They were afraid because they didn't know
how to get out of this.
They were afraid because they didn't have the faith
to believe, listen, one of our largest issues
is that when we come upon obstacles in our life,
we look back instead of looking up.
We look back instead of looking up.
He always has a way out.
He always has an answer.
Are we looking to him?
Here's the thing.
Moses answered the people and he says this,
"Do not be afraid.
"Stand firm and you will see the deliverance
"the Lord will bring to you today.
"The Lord will fight you, fight for you.
"You need only to be still."
You know what this is right here?
This is David Warren.
This is David Warren's job
when he sees you walking in fear.
David Warren or the eldership
or your spiritual leadership says, hey, don't be afraid.
Let me remind you of the God who's for you
and not against you.
Do not be afraid.
Stand firm and you'll see the deliverance.
The Lord will fight for you.
You only need to be still.
And guys, in our culture, we don't know one bit
about what it is to be still.
We are so conditioned to act.
I'm trying to fix every situation
within 30 seconds of it coming into my lap.
And God says, I don't want you to fix the situation.
I wanna fix the situation for you.
I might fix the situation through you,
but I want you to be still.
Be still and know that I'm God.
Here's the thing.
The world in your past will provoke you to act.
God invites you to be still.
He invites you to be still.
So what's our motivation?
Justin, what's our motivation to lay down our past struggles,
our past mistakes, Boston, Landon, our past behaviors,
Robert, our past relationships?
Like, okay, I mean, I understand.
I'm not supposed to say,
I understand I get liberated from this, but here I am.
Surely God doesn't just want me out here
flailing my arms by myself.
Flail, no, you're not gonna do it, okay.
Just out here on my own wandering out here.
No, there has to be something more and there is.
I need nine more volunteers to come up to the stage quickly.
This way, this side.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
If you'll make a pair of diagonal line here
just like they did just on this side, okay.
Now, when I was making these signs this week,
what I wanted to paint a picture was
what we're going toward is future security,
future relationships, future resources,
future all those things.
And you know what God said?
That's not true.
God doesn't always provide future security for you.
He doesn't always provide future resource for you.
He's not looking for you to go from one struggle
to another struggle and forget about him.
So it's not what we're going to, it's who we're going to.
And God has a lot of names in the word of God
and it tells us about his character.
So when we're leaving our past struggle,
we're going to El Shaddai, God Almighty.
When we leave our past mistakes and relationships,
Jehovah Shalom, the peace of God.
We're going to Jehovah Jireh, our provider.
We're going to Jehovah Ratha, our healer.
We're going to Elohim, our creator.
We're going to Jehovah Ra, our shepherd and our friend.
We're going to the star breathing God.
We're going to Jehovah Nissi, who's a banner over us.
And we are going to Emmanuel, God with us.
And let me tell you something,
there's a reason why I put more signs on this side
than this side, because there's always more
when you're going toward God.
There's always better when you're going toward God.
There's always much more that you can receive
when you're going to God.
Let me tell you something,
when you've got the peace of the Lord,
you've got the resource of the Lord,
you've got the banner of the Lord,
you've got an almighty God on your side,
why in the world would you ever want to turn around
and go back to these past things?
These past things pale in comparison greatly
to everything God has.
And so our motivation is that we see,
we're not flailing our arms,
walking in confidence boldly toward Jehovah God,
to a sovereign King, to a God who is stable
and He's faithful and He's mighty and He's true.
And so He invites us to be still
because sometimes our past,
you know how they came up here and started talking,
I was like, simmer?
Our past starts to whisper in our ear,
hey buddy, hey, come over here.
Hey, hey, don't you miss me?
Right?
And we get this little itch, you know,
this little thing, you know?
But we keep our eyes focused on our God.
We keep our eyes focused on our God.
Then the Lord said to Moses,
are you ready for this?
Why are you crying out to me?
I want you to think about that for a second.
Wait a minute, Pastor Kevin, listen,
I've been liberated,
you just asked me what to do when I'm stuck.
I see that God's in front of me,
but I'm in this place where I'm stuck,
I'm stuck struggling with sin,
I'm stuck struggling with that call
that I didn't answer completely
or I laid down this job in this vocation
and God hasn't opened the door over here,
I stepped out on faith, I'm in this middle season.
And God is saying, why are you crying out to me?
Never knew God would ask you that type of question, huh?
The reason that God, I believe the reason
that God asked the question,
why are you crying out to me, was two things.
He was with them and He has given them
everything they needed to move forward.
How did He ask Moses to split the sea?
He said, take your,
stake your,
you can say staff and you say it loud,
take your, staff, and your hand
and put it over the water.
Was the staff, did the staff just appear?
Just out of nowhere, just appeared at this moment?
Or was the staff there all along since the burning bush?
So that tells me God has given Moses every tool he needs.
He's given you everything you need
to take a step of faith forward.
Now, remember, God isn't,
He's not just mystical or imaginary,
He's literally physically, He's with them.
Like the presence is there with Him.
We're gonna see that in a second.
He's literally with them and He's saying,
why are you crying out to me?
Tell the Israelites to move on.
Raise your staff and stretch your hand out over the sea,
divide the water so the Israelites can go through
on dry ground.
God requires us to step out in faith.
Are you with me?
Guys, this is central to the point of this morning,
to understand that when salvation has come to your life,
and He has done the redemptive work,
part of your obedient posture to Him
is to be willing to step out when He tells you to go,
to be able to take the next step
whenever He tells you to go there.
When there's an obstacle in front of you,
you realize this obstacle cannot destroy me.
No weapon formed against me will prosper.
Nothing will come against me because my God is bigger,
my God is greater.
Greater is He who is in me than who is in the world.
And you step out on faith.
You take the next step.
Some of us have added years of delay
for what God wants to do in our lives
because we're going, "God, help me, God, help me,
God, help me."
And He's saying, "I've given you everything you need.
You're just afraid of the wrong thing.
You need to be walking in reverent fear of Me,"
says the Lord.
Stop fearing what they say.
Stop fearing what money you're gonna make.
Stop putting your fear in the world
and all of these past things,
your security, your relationships,
they're not gonna like me.
So what?
God says, "I'm more important.
I'm alpha and omega.
I'm the one God that gets to be on the throne of your life."
Step out on faith.
Take the next step.
What do we see what Scripture says about faith?
Can we say these first two words each time?
Bye.
Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born
because they saw he was no ordinary child
and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
Bye.
Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known
as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Bye.
He left Egypt not fearing the king's anger.
He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.
Bye.
He kept the Passover and the application of the blood
so that the destroyer of the firstborn
would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
Bye.
The people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land,
but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
By faith.
I want to please my God.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Would you say that?
Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
It's not without faith you might not please God.
Without faith, it's subject to your interpretation.
No, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
So the Israelites have a choice.
You have a choice.
I have a choice in the midst of these struggles
and mistakes and all this stuff in the in between
looking at Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah-Ra, the star breather.
I have a choice and my choice must be laden by faith.
What is faith?
Boy, I'm placing a hope that God is going to move.
I don't see it right now, but guys,
this is why we took two minutes this morning
and shared the goodness of God.
You need to be reminded about the move of God.
I read this story.
Can I be real and transparent with you?
I sometimes read this story, Justin.
I read this story and I go, this is horrible, ready?
I go, you idiots.
You ever said that?
- Losers.
- You idiots.
Have you ever read scripture and said that, Barbie?
She's so pure, she would never call anybody idiot.
Listen, I read the scripture, I'm like, idiots.
God is like, he's burning a blaze of fire
like right before you and you're turning back
and then God said, numero uno right here.
Because how quickly I forget how he's moved in my life
over and over and over again and then I doubt him
the minute I have opposition.
And I have to have people in my life who love me enough
to remind me, stand firm, be still.
God is for you, not against you.
He's gonna fight this for you.
And so here's the thing, you are not alone.
Somebody needs to know this truth today.
Somebody here believes a lie.
And you need to know this morning, God of the universe,
the God of the universe says, you are not alone.
All of this, all of God's character is available for you
if you will just lean into him.
You are not alone.
Are you ready guys?
It gets crazier.
The angel of the Lord who had been traveling
in front of Israel's army withdrew and went where?
- [Congregation] In the middle of the cloud.
- Okay, the pillar of cloud also moved from in front
and stood behind them coming between the armies of Egypt
and Israel, okay.
Huh, I wonder what that looks like.
I need two more people.
Quickly, please.
Great, come on up here, love it.
Just need you to stand on that chair.
Yes, that's right.
The next person's gonna juggle.
Okay, come up here.
You can do this by faith.
Yes, by faith.
Okay, I need you all to hold this out,
stretch it out and hold it.
Let's go this way.
Just stretch it out, stretch it out.
There you go.
Okay, come here, stand right here.
Okay, so are you seeing this?
Okay, God Almighty, cloud by night, fire by day,
was in front of Israel's army
and he positions himself behind Israel.
What can Israel not now see?
Can't see the army.
God will provide a barrier between you and your past
so you don't have to contend with it.
See, here's the thing.
God has provided this barrier, but we kinda like this.
Is it true?
It's like we're trying to peep, God is saying no.
He is providing, he literally stood behind them
so that the Pharaoh and his army could not touch Israel.
Do you understand that it was always God's plan,
listen, this is crazy.
It was always God's plan to destroy Pharaoh and his army.
It was always God's plan to destroy this past of yours.
It was always this plan.
Even whenever you hear the rumbling,
you have the thought of the past,
you're like, no, that is in the past,
that is to be destroyed.
I don't have to worry about, I don't have to contend.
I don't care how loud the army sounds
or how strong it looks, your destiny is destruction.
I don't have to worry about you
even if you get right up on my pant leg.
He has provided a barrier between Israel and Egypt.
Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness
to one side and light to the other side,
darkness over here and light over here.
Why?
So that their eyes could be fixed
on an almighty sovereign God.
Your provider, who are you looking at?
Are you stuck in the middle?
Who are you looking at, guys?
Are you looking at God with you?
Are you looking at your peace?
Are you looking at your provider?
He's there, he's right there.
He wants you to look at him.
He's wanting you to see him.
Stop being distracted by the past.
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
and all that night the Lord drove the sea back
with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
The waters were divided and the Israelites
went through the sea on dry ground
with a wall of water on the right and the left.
The Egyptians pursued them.
All Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen
followed them into the sea.
During the last watch of the night, what does it say?
The Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud.
Imagine that for a moment.
Pharaoh and his army are here.
They're coming after.
And the word tells us that the Lord looked down.
Looked, can I tell you that every knee will bow,
every tongue will confess.
God Almighty looked down.
What do you think they saw?
What do you think when the Lord God Almighty looks down?
Did they see the face of God?
Did they see, I mean, because here's the thing,
I've never in scripture, it says,
it threw them in confusion and then it goes on to say,
he jammed the wheels of their chariots
so that they had difficulty driving.
No weapon formed against me.
And the Egyptians said, let's get away from the Israelites.
And then what do they say?
The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.
I have not heard one time Pharaoh or the Egyptians
call God Almighty Lord until right now.
Why?
Because the Lord God Almighty looked down on them.
See, he revealed himself and there was no denying it.
Can I tell you something?
Your past has to bow down to the face of God.
Your struggles have to bow down.
That past relationship has to bow down.
All of these things have to surrender
so that you can walk in freedom toward the star breather,
toward the peacemaker, toward all of these,
God with you, the banner over your life.
So how does this work?
How does this work in our practical sense
in our lives right now?
(gentle music)
The water flowed back and covered the chariots
and horsemen the entire army of Pharaoh followed.
None of them survived.
That was their destiny.
They weren't supposed to survive.
Some of you are giving CPR to your past.
You're trying to resuscitate things
that are supposed to be dead.
And it's distracting you from giving your eyes
on what's next, where you're supposed to go.
God wants to destroy your past and illuminate your future.
This is what the word of God says.
Forget the former things.
Do not dwell in the past.
See, I'm doing what?
A new thing.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is what?
A new creation.
All things have passed away, all things have become new.
We know that our old sinful selves
were crucified with Christ
so that sin might lose its power in our lives.
Listen, look.
This happened last time.
You can get that last slide up.
You can trust in the Lord.
So what does this really look like right now?
I need somebody else quickly up here.
Please.
Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly.
Are you being my person?
Okay.
This is the cloud by night.
This is the light by day.
Okay, fire, fire by day.
Fire by night, cloud by night, okay?
Shine it over there, okay?
Okay, here's how we put practical things.
'Cause guys, we don't have this cloud.
We don't see a cloud, we don't have fire.
We don't have this manifestation around us
to help motivate us to see the reality of God.
Let me tell you what you have.
You have something better.
You have the Holy Spirit.
And so what this looks like
as God is redeeming your past
and He is shielding you from the pain there,
what it is is we're gonna follow the Holy Spirit.
The light is the Holy Spirit.
We're gonna follow the Holy Spirit.
And guess what?
We're gonna get into this tangible word of God.
We're gonna look at the word
and we're gonna step with the Spirit.
We're gonna look at the word
and then we're gonna step with the Spirit.
We're gonna look at the word.
Let's do that.
Here we go, we're gonna look at the word.
So go ahead and step.
Do not fear, I am with you.
Psalm 23, four, even though I walk through the darkest valley
I fear no evil.
Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength
and ever present help in trouble.
Do you believe it, church?
Psalm 118, the Lord is with me.
I will not be afraid.
John 14, 27, peace I leave with you,
my peace I give you.
Deuteronomy 31, six, be strong and courageous.
Isaiah 41, 13, for I am with you.
I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.
Hebrews, go ahead, Hebrews 13, six.
So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper.
Deuteronomy 3, 22, do not be afraid of them.
The Lord himself will fight for you.
And we read the word and we step with the Spirit.
We read the word and we step with the Spirit.
And guys, if we are taking up that discipline,
reading the word and stepping with the Spirit,
we don't have the capacity to entertain
the fools of our past.
We don't have the capacity to entertain
the demons of those pasts.
All of that is to be destroyed.
So I ask you today, where are you in the journey?
Are you in the in-between?
Have you been trusting God for something
and it seems like there's not an answer?
Have you been contending with something from the past
that you continue to go back to and you're like,
God, I just, I don't know why I keep going back
to that thing.
God wants to liberate you today
because he who the Son sets free.
This is free indeed.
Would you stand with me this morning
and those who are gonna minister this morning.
God has redemption, restoration, he has freedom.
You guys, thank you so much.
You can just lay the signs wherever
so we can worship the Lord.
If you're gonna minister this morning, come forward.
Please don't leave here the same way you came.
If you're believing God, maybe you're in a situation
where you're like, I need to be set free
from the bondage of my work environment
because I feel like the Lord's wanting
to do something else in me.
Wanting you to step into ministry somewhere.
Wanting to liberate you from a sin pattern or habit
or whatever it is.
This morning, you can encounter this God
because he is very real.
He is very real and he's very present today.
So come as we worship.