NOT AROUND, BUT THROUGH
EXODUS 14: 15-31
APRIL 22, 2001
INTRODUCTION: B.U.S.Y.
Satan has called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep the Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them form reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ and if they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can’t gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!” “How shall we do this?” shouted his angels. “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered. “Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!” Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.” “Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, digitally retouched models on magazines covers so husbands will believe that external beauty is most important, and become increasingly dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!” “Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don’t let them go out in nature to reflect on God’s wonders. Sent them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.” “Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!” It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there.
The question is: Has the devil been successful at his scheme in your life? Does “Busy” mean: Being Under Satan’s Yoke?
THESIS SENTENCE: THERE IS A DELIVERANCE FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD!
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for today brings us up to date with the people of Israel after God had put an end to their busyness. There are many lessons to be learned here. What is the Living God saying to us in this day of bondage? Are we any different than the Israelites? The key word for today is DELIVERANCE, NOT AROUND, BUT THROUGH the obstacles of life!
WHAT DOES DILIVERANCE LOOK LIKE?
I. DILIVERANCE MEANS GOING THE LONG WAY
A. God chooses the long way
1. Exodus 13: 17 – 18, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.”
2. A few observations from these two verses. After being in bondage 430 years, exactly to the day, (Exodus 12:41), do you think the Israelites were ready to fight? No! Long term Bondage takes the fight right out of you. The fight had been beaten out of them!
3. Yet, did you take note of that last phrase? “The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” God knows that the way we appear on the outside is possible not the reality on the inside. Men are often like this! They look tough, but they have no “REAL” fight left in them!
4. The bottom line here is that God knows what we are up to and what we are not. HE CARES THAT MUCH, OR DOES HE?
5. He headed his flock straight to the sea?
B. God chooses the way of most resistance
1. How many times did Moses have to say to Pharaoh, “Let My People Go”? SEVEN TIMES!!
2. How many times did God have to PLAGUE PHARAOH? Count them, 10 times God “Plagued” Pharaoh before he would let go, and if we count the Red Sea, possible 11: Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Livestock, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and First Born.
3. Why did God have to do that and Did God Make Pharaoh Sin, or was Pharaoh predisposed to disobey Another God?
AN ASIDE HERE: Pharaoh’s considered them selves to be gods, Sun gods. After a history of 430 years of great slave labor, who would want to have to work? HOW MUCH ARE WE LIKE PHARAOH, WANTING TO DO THINGS OUR WAY REGARDLESS OF THE OPOSITION? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A TWO YEAR OLD THROW A TAMTRUM?
II. DELIVERANCE DOESN’T MEAN EVERYTHING WILL GO SMOOTLY
A. Just because the enemy is beaten, it doesn’t mean he’s through.
1. How many of you have seen a great scary movie where the enemy, villain, or demon is presumed to be dead, and as the hero turns to walk away, the monster attacks one final time and scares you to death.
2. Just when you think, Pharaoh has had enough, here he comes again. His own advisers had said, Hurry and leave, “for otherwise, we will all die (12:33).” And again, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt (14:25).”
B. Just because God works miracles, doesn’t mean you have to like it!
1. After all the ways God had worked for the people of Israel, wouldn’t you think, they would just have so much faith that they would all completely trust GOD and Moses? NOT!
2. 14:10-15, “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by 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!”
3. What is up with “Nay Sayers” anyway?
4. Did they not get it? Did they not know what God had done? Did they not understand that Freedom is better than Slavery? Do “Nay Sayers” like Slavery or Bondage, or just plain ole suffering?
5. Dick Whitner once told me that it was a sin to eat to much, and a shame to eat to little when so much is available. What does this mean? God wants so much more for us than we want for our selves. We want Slavery and God want Freedom. We want bondage and God wants Liberty. We want misery and God wants Joy! We want pain and God wants Healing. Do you get it yet?
AN ASIDE HERE: In Exodus 14: 13-14 Moses tells the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” This has got to be one of the most powerful scriptures in the whole of the Bible. But did you notice verse 15, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” This also is a very powerful verse, but did Moses practice what He preached, or did he let fear get a hold on him also? Do you remember Peter walking on the Water? He stood before Jesus Himself and SUNK!
BOTTOM LINE THEORY: WHEN WILL WE GET FAITH, OR WHEN WILL FAITH GET US? GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS, FOR NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!
III. DELIVERANCE IS BASED ON GOD ALONE!
A. GOD GETS INVOLVED!
1. Where does it begin? Was it a mother placing a baby in a basket and sending it down the Nile River (2:3)? Was it a conscience pricked at the treatment of his people (2:11)? Was it a kind father in law who took him in (2:21)? Was it God at the burning bush (3:2)? Was It God hearing the cries of His people (3:7)? Was it God sending Moses to Pharaoh (3:10)? Was it in the Plagues (7-11)? Was it the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (13:21)? Was God telling the People to “Move On” (14:15)? Was it in the Red Sea (14:21)?
2. God uses a man! Could God have side stepped Moses and Aaron? Does God need us? He chose to use Moses!
3. God has fun? Verse 24 tells us that when God saw Pharaoh and the Army getting close, HE confused them! In verse 25 it tells us that God made the “Wheels fall off so that it was hard for them to drive!” Even the Enemy knows when God is against them. “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt (verse 25).”
B. In the Beginning, middle and End, God Gets the Glory!
1. “But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant (14:29-31).”
2. When God does a thing, it is usually a big thing!
3. God finishes what He sets out to do!
4. Back in Chapter 6, God says to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country (verse 1).” And again He said, “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my won people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians (6:6-8).”
5. Have I made a point yet? I sure hope so! God is all about deliverance! It is all about HIM and me. But, me won’t stop HIM! HE knows what I need and HE wants to supply my every need according to HIS GLORIOUS RICHES IN CHRIST JESUS (PHILIPPIANS 4:19)!
ILLUSTRATION: WHO HE IS (SM LOCKRIDGE) HE IS:
CONCLUSION: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
SATAN WANTS US BUSY
SATAN WANTS US IN BONDAGE
DELIVERANCE MAY TAKE A WHILE
DELIVERANCE IS NOT ABOUT A QUICK FIX
DELIVERANCE IS ABOUT THE LONG HAUL
DELIVERANCE DOES NOT MEAN EVERYTHING WILL GO OUR WAY
DELIVERANCE DOES NOT MEAN THE ENEMY WILL GIVE UP
DELIVERANCE PROVES GOD DOES NOT LET UP
DELIVERANCE IS NOT STOPPED BY OUR FEAR
DELIVERANCE IS THE REALITY OF GOD
DELIVERANCE IS BASED ON GOD ALONE
DELIVERANCE IS BASED ON THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD
DELIVERANCE IS AVAILABLE FOR US TODAY
WHAT HAS YOU IN BONDAGE? ARE YOU READY TO GET DELIVERED? GOD IS ABLE! WILL YOU BE SET FREE?
CLOSING HYMN “I WOULD NOT BE DENIED” Praise and Worship Hymnal #238
