Hold On To Your Confidence And Push

Introduction:

We are living in a world that has been transformed from one of perfection to imperfection. We as believers are going to suffer. I know that people have lied on you, tried their best to tear you down, they have planned private attacks on you, they have tried to get you fired on the job, they have tried to lead one of your family members astray, and have even tried to get your spouse to turn against you.

But there is a reason for all of this. This world that we live in was perfected starting at the beginning when God created everything. All of this was simultaneously transformed into imperfection. This world was perfect when God and His mighty hand created it, but it slipped into imperfection when the poison of Satan contaminated the two perfect beings, which were Adam and Eve with his lies.

They both were created perfectly; however, they still had a permissive will to obey or to disobey. The Bible says that Satan is the father of all lies. John 8:44 says, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

You know the story of the fall of man. Every since the fall of man, man must toil the earth for a living, a woman must bear pain in conceiving a child, a man’s life is only for a short season and then he will eventually die.

Genesis 3:19 says, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

All of this is because of sin entering into a perfect world. I know this may sound a bit harsh, but through it all I still have some Good News. Stopping here I just want to spend a little bit of time on two points if I may.

Development:

Point #1: Things May Look Bad, But We Still Have a Guarantee

Point #1: Things May Look Bad, But We Still Have a Guarantee

Life is often very cruel. We have hopes that have risen to great heights and before the sun goes down, they have fallen into grave disappointments. Everywhere and everyday millions of people are facing:

 Disease

 Suffering

 Death

 Loss of a job

 Shortage of money

 Bankruptcy

 Broken relationships and the list goes on.

When we go through hard times and at appears that there is no way out we all have asked the question,

 God Where Are You?

 God Are You Listening?

 Where Is God When I Really Need Him?

These are the cries of the human heart. If you haven’t been there yet, just keep on living my brothers and my sisters because your chance is just around the corner. This was the exact same situation that the Israelites were facing at the Red Sea. They had lost their confidence.

They had totally forgotten what they had seen God do with Pharaoh. They had lost their confidence in God. Now we can’t be too judgmental with the Israelites because if the truth must be told our confidence is not where it should be.

Now according to Webster’s dictionary, the word confidence means to have full of trust, belief in the powers, reliability of a person or thing.

Let me try to paint the picture of what the Israelites were up against. The Egyptian army at that time was top of the line in military technology for war. This army had 600 of the best chariots and 800 other chariots and horses of Egypt. Pharaoh had the most powerful army on earth.

But if we really dig down deep and look at the Israelites as ourselves, the problem here was not Pharaoh and his great military power. The problem was not the Red Sea. The problem was closer to home. The problem was the fear and lack of confidence that was hidden in hearts of the Israelites. In their hearts they had the secret thoughts of:

• "God, why are you allowing this to happen?"

• "Why me? This is not fair."

• "If only we had stayed in Egypt, life would be so much simpler."

I know life will at times take you down a road that seems that this just might be the end. Your job may fold up, you could loose a loved one unto death, or sickness may have your body.

Sometimes life and the pressures of this world can have you so low that getting up isn’t on your mind. You may be in a storm of life and all you see is darkness and you are calling out to God, and your cry is, “God where are you? Lord, have you forgotten me? God, do you hear my prayer?”