Well, hello, crossing church. How are you doing?
Are you having a? Good day it.
Is good to be in the House of the Lord with the people of the
Lord and I want to welcome you. I want to welcome all of our
locations all across these three states.
If you're inside or online, we're so thankful for you as
well. And let me just tell you this
everything that God does he does with a purpose.
Amen. He does.
And God's purposes in many ways don't have to be mysterious.
A lot of times I think we think of God's purposes, we think so
much distance between us, but they don't have to be that
mysterious, especially if we understand a bit of the nature
of God. Reminds me of a prayer that I
learned as a child. Many of you learned as children.
We were praying for our food. It began with God is great, God
is good. You know, sometimes we need to
forget all that we've learned as adults and go back to the things
that we learned as kids, and that's one of them, the duality
of the nature of God. You know, God is awesome in
power and in control, and there is absolutely nothing that does
not fall under His powerful authority.
His rule and His authority is not something to ever be trifled
with, and He is rightfully to be obeyed.
But listen to me. God is not only all powerful,
all knowing and ever present, He is also a good God.
God is great, sure, absolutely. But God is good and his love,
the goodness of his love goes beyond our ability to even
comprehend it. I think that His love is best
described in First Corinthians chapter 13 verses 4 to 8.
Very familiar to many of us. It says this love is patient,
Love is kind. It does not envy.
It does not boast. It is not proud.
It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking.
It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
It does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails.
Just a little bit of liberty with that scripture.
And I could say this since I know that God defines himself
with this word. God is love, God is patient, God
is kind. He does not envy, He does not
boast, He is not proud, He does not dishonor others.
He is not self seeking, He is not easily angered, he keeps no
record of wrongs. He does not delight in evil, but
rejoices with the truth. He always protects, he always
trusts. He always hopes.
He always persevere, perseveres. He never fails.
If you want to see a demonstration of what that love
looks like, the apostle Paul wrote it down for you in Romans
5/8 it says, But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this why? We were still sinners.
Christ died for us. That's a perfect picture of the
love of God. Now God has an upper story plan
for each and every one of us, and that plan fits perfectly
into His sovereign will and power.
But He also gives us a choice to live in that upper story plan or
to choose to stay in the lower one.
He gives us that choice because of His nature.
And that nature is love. And when God created us, He
created us in His image. So part of that image is to have
the capacity to love and be loved.
And let me tell you something about love.
Love is always a choice. Can you think of a time?
Can you think of a relationship? Can you think of a way that love
could be love and not be a choice?
It is always a choice and God chooses love.
Jesus chose love. The question isn't about them.
The questions about us, whether or not we will choose it and
then demonstrate that choice in obedience.
Sometimes God gives us challenges to help us understand
where we are though. They're like a it's like a gauge
to see how am I doing in the love of God or that meter, how
are we doing in love and how are we doing in obedience?
And Henry Blackaby in experiencing God calls this the
crisis of belief, Chapter 7. It's a fork in the road.
And the choice that we make will define for us what we actually
believe about God. It will define where actual
actually our relationship is with God, which Rd. we take in
that crisis of belief. And I'm sure that we all have
stories of that happening personally in our lives.
I also have stories of that happening as a church, not just
in my own life, but in the story of the crossing.
I remember it when we negotiated for the John Wood building and
how those negotiations completely broke down and we got
to this place where it was over and then God stepped in and
completely reversed it, changed it all.
I remember when we needed to sell our former building on
Payson Road to have money for the down payment and everything
went against us and it continued to go against us and we got
right down to the last day or two.
And then once again, God provided And you know what I
learned about God is like, he'll take us to the edge of the Cliff
and then he puts his hand like in our waistband or belt and
then he just kind of leans us over the Cliff and he goes, how
do you like? The view and.
If it isn't for him holding on to us, we're going to fall.
But he doesn't let go. He doesn't let go of us because
he wants to build our trust in Him, take it out of the Bank of
trusting ourselves and trust Him.
Now we're going to see that play out dramatically in this part of
the series. Decisions in the desert,
trusting God in trial and in triumph.
We catch up with Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness.
Now they've just left Egypt, they've left victoriously,
they've plundered Egypt. They have all the riches of
Egypt with them. And God had brought a bought
their freedom through these 10 plagues.
The 10th being the most consequential.
When we think back historically, 70 Israelites went into Egypt
430 years earlier and now over 2,000,000 come out.
Interestingly enough, it was on the exact same day the Exodus
was on the exact same day that they arrived in Egypt. 430 years
before. They could have gone through the
Gaza Strip from Egypt into Canaan.
It would have been a short route of easy route to traverse, but
it had been occupied by the Philistines and God didn't want
them to lose their resolve by going to war.
So he led them the impossible way.
He led them to the edge of a Cliff and he leaned them out
over it. It was to a natural barrier
called the Red Sea. Now the Egyptians changed their
mind from letting the Israelites go, and instead they became
angry and pursued them. Their desire was to eliminate
him, to kill them all. And I'm sure that they
considered themselves lucky that Moses had led the nation of
Israel into a corner that they couldn't get out of the army
coming at them and the Red Sea before them.
But this was not a place where the Israelites are going to be
slaughtered. This is a place where the enemy
is going to be defeated. In Exodus 14 verses 13 to 18,
Moses himself recounts this. Moses answered 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, Why
are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide
the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry
ground. I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will gain
glory through Pharaoh and all of his army, through his Chariots
and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I
am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his Chariots,
and his horsemen. Here are three things I want you
to consider as we move forward in the these thoughts.
Here's the first question. What is the place in your life
that was meant to defeat you, but that has become the place
where God has fought and won your battle?
Do you have a story like that? A place where you were meant to
be defeated, but instead God has fought your battle.
Secondly, we all know what God's going to do in this story,
right? He's going to part the Red Sea.
But I want you to see something deeper in this story.
This is not just about God opening a door through the sea.
This is also about God shutting one.
You see, as far as the Israelites are concerned, once
they cross that sea and God closes it, he's shutting the
door. And there's no way back to
Egypt, at least not the way they came.
They can only move forward. So I'm asking you, what doors
has God opened in your life for you to pass through them and
then shut them behind you so that you'll go forward and not
backward? Thirdly, the slave masters had
been defeated, so the Israelites were no longer slaves, but they
sure didn't act that way. Why is that?
Because even though they're slave masters were dead and
gone, they were still enslaved in their hearts.
That identity was still inside them.
And you know what? That's a battle we fight.
That's a battle that we win sometimes and we lose sometimes,
and we fight that battle and go to that battle every single day.
And you notice when we do that, sometimes we tend to go back to
the things that enslaved us, even though we've been set free.
My third question is this. What enslaving things do you
tend to want to return to? So I want us to go deeper now.
So we've done some application of that first part.
I want us to understand a little bit more of what might seem to
be a mystery, to understand the mind of God.
Like what is God's strategy that he's going to use to defeat this
enemy? Well, we can read about it in
Exodus 14. The first move that God uses is
a defensive move. In 19 and 20 of Exodus 14, it
says then the Angel of God, who had been travelling in front of
Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them.
The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind
them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.
Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to one side and
light to the other side, so neither went near the other.
All night long He defended them. And this is interesting because
we think about God being a cloud in the daytime and a pillar of
fire at night. But that's not what the
scripture says here, that at night he was a cloud to make it
even darker to the enemy. And he was a pillar of fire on
on the other side. So he had a cloud side and a
fireside and God was in both. He was both the cloud and the
fire at the same time for to defend his people.
The second part of the strategy. Strategy was the forward move.
This is where God sets the trap. Verses 21 and 22 it says Then
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.
And all that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong
E wind and turned it into dry land.
And the waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the
sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on
their left. This is God's provision to move
the Israelites forward, but it is also to move them forward,
but it's also setting a trap for the enemies of His people.
The third strategic move that God uses is He baits the trap
and the Egyptians took the bait. We read that in the 23rd verse.
The Egyptians pursued them, and all of Pharaoh's horses and
Chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 4th Strategic
move, hindrance and entanglement.
God slowed the enemy down. We read this in verse 24 and 25.
It says during the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down
from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and
threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their
Chariots so they had difficulty driving.
And the Egyptians said let's get away from the Israelites.
The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.
And finally, the 5th move in strategy was defeat and
destruction. This is where God's saying,
don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the
sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and
their Chariots and horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea. And at Daybreak the sea went
back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing
toward it. The Lord swept them into the
sea, the water flowed back and covered the Chariots and
horsemen. The entire army of Pharaoh that
had followed the Israelites into the sea.
Not one of them survived. Wow, what a story to see your
enemies defeated before you and you don't even lift a finger to
do it. And God fights your battle.
What would it be like if you could experience something like
that? If you could experience God do a
thing like that in your life? Well, hold on.
The story of Moses the deliverer, the Israelites called
the children of Israel, and the enslaving Egyptians.
That's a true story that happened in history, but it is
also a grand illustration of a grander story.
I want you to apply all of those strategic points to what Jesus
did. Moses was a great deliverer, but
let me tell you about my deliverer.
He puts Moses to shame. The children of Israel were a
large multitude of broken, faithless people.
But how are you and I any different from them?
Enslaved by the things of this world and the results of bad
choices either that we made or that were made for us, that make
up our lower story reality. And Pharaoh is a ruthless and
evil ruler, but nothing like the Prince of Darkness, nothing like
the Prince of the power of the air, nothing like the Deceiver,
nothing like the liar, nothing like Satan.
Satan's been a liar and a deceiver from the beginning, but
in the end, it was him who was defeated and deceived.
He had no idea the trap he was falling into.
First, the defensive move, John one, one to four.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning. Through Him all things were
made, and without him nothing was made that has been made.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
We read on in John and we read that the people that have walked
in darkness has seen a great light, people that had darkness.
Come upon them are now finding their lives being lit up
interesting. Darkness on one side and light
on the other. Right now Jesus stands in the
gap between The Dark World and the glorious light of our
promised land. The next part of the strategy
was the forward move. This is where God sets the trap.
Jesus comes to earth as a human being and he proclaims the
Kingdom is at hand. In John 129 to 31.
It says the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and
said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This is the one I meant when I said a man who comes after me
has surpassed me because he was before me.
I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with
water was that he might be revealed to Israel.
Notice that water is a part of it and that salvation is coming
through the water just like in the Red Sea.
Move #3 Baiting the trap because Satan was taking the bait.
John 1321 to 27. After he had said this, Jesus
was troubled in spirit and testified very truly.
I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which
one of he meant. One of them, the disciple whom
Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.
Simon Peter motioned to this disciple, that's John, and said,
Ask him which one he means. Leaning back against Jesus, he
asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is the one to
whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it into the
dish. Then dipping the piece of bread,
he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.
As soon as Judas took the bread, listen, he said.
I said the he was baiting the trap, Satan entered him.
Soon as he took the bread, Satan entered him.
So Jesus told him what you're about to do.
Do quickly, then hindrance and entanglement.
You see, God is going to slow the enemy down.
And do you know what he does to slow the enemy down?
He allows his son to be brutalized.
His son is arrested, held a illegal trial in the middle of
the night. He's beaten, then he's taken to
Pontius Pilate, Herod, and Pontius Pilate again.
And after he finds no fault with him, and he washes his hands of
his blood, Pilate does. And they take Jesus out to be
scourged. And then they fashion a cross to
nail him to, and they nail him to that cross, and they suspend
him between heaven and earth. And when he's dead, they pry his
dead body off of that cross, put him in a borrowed tomb, and roll
a stone over the entrance of that tomb.
And in that moment, Satan felt like he had won, but all he had
done was entangle himself by his own actions.
And then the last fifth part of God's strategy, Defeat and
destruction. And do you know what that looked
like? It happened on Resurrection
Sunday. It happened at the break of
dawn. Because you see, the blood had
been shed and the price had been paid.
And on that Sunday, on the break of dawn, an Angel rolled.
The. Stone of that tomb away and
Jesus walked out alive. He walked out alive and I think
that all of you and I think that I and I think that every one of
our locations need to stand together right now and we need
to proclaim a truth an. Incredible truth that we've.
Experienced greater than the parting of the Red Sea and the
defeat of the Egyptians, we need to celebrate the fact that the
enemy has been defeated. Amen.
And Death couldn't hold you
down. We're going to lift our voice in
victory. We're going to make your
phrases. Come on now.
The enemy's been defeated. And death couldn't hold you
down. We're going to lift our voice in
victory. We're going to make you praise
as loud. The enemy's been defeated.
Dead couldn't hold you down. Come on.
Lips are voicing victory. We're going to make you razors
loud. The yummy's been defeated.
Dead couldn't hold you down. We're going to lift our voice in
victory. We're going to make you razors
loud. The yummy's been undefeated.
Oh, if dead couldn't hold you down.
We're going to lift. Stay on your feet because I've
got good news. The good news is the enemy has
been defeated. We stand on the far side of our
Red Sea, the sea of failure and of sin and of damage and of
regret and of loss. We didn't fight this battle.
There was only one who went to that battle and he went there
for us and he fought Satan and all the armies of hell, and his
name is what Jesus? The place that was meant for
your defeat has become the place of Satan's defeat.
God has opened the door for you in.
Jesus Christ and has. Slammed the door to our ancient
enemy and the devil all of his lives.
So let's quit looking back to the past and the things that
enslaved us in our past, and let's shout to the Lord Lord in
prior for what He has done. Come on now.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
Shout out to God with the voice of praise.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
We lift your name up. We lift your name up.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
Shout out to God with the voice of praise.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
We let your neighbor. We let your neighbor.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
Shout out to God with the voice of praise.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
We let your neighbor. We let your neighbor shut up to
God with the voice of triumph. Shout out to God with the voice
of praise. Shout out to God with the voice
of triumph. We let your neighbor.
We let your neighbor shut up to God with the voice of triumph.
Shout out to God with the voice of praise.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
We let your name up. We let your name up.
Come on, shut it out. Minutes, you go ahead and have a
seat. We're moving in this time of
decision and that's what we're here for as believers in Jesus
Christ, whether you're in this room or you are watching
wherever you're watching from online, we have a reason to
praise, don't we? We have a reason to sing and to
celebrate. We are on the other side of the
sea and we can look back and we can think about all the things
that God has delivered us from. You could think about all the
ways that you're like, man, all those mistakes I made, all those
sins I've committed. He's forgiven me, but he's also
prepared me for something much greater.
And now we're not looking back and and saying, Oh, I wish I had
that life back. We're looking back and saying,
praise be to God. I'm no longer there.
He has me here and I have a reason to praise.
But as Christians, here's where the decision time comes.
Is there a person? Is there a name?
Is there a family member? Is there a Co worker?
They haven't experienced that yet.
They're on the the water's edge. They're living the lifestyle
that they want to live and they need people like us, people like
you, people like me, believers in Christ to on their behalf,
pray that their hearts and their minds are softened.
That we also pray to God that he gives us the boldness, he gives
us the words. He gives us the opportunities to
share the gospel, the good news that we just sang about and that
we can't stay quiet about. And during this time when the
music starts, in just a little bit, maybe that name that's on
your head, that's on your heart, you would just come pray for
them and you lift their name up and you'd say, Jesus, would you
do something? I know you're doing something,
but would you prompt me to join in that work?
I also know as Christians and you know this, you don't have it
figured out. I don't have it figured out.
There's probably areas in your life that you still feel like,
man, I'm entangled in this sin or I'm entrapped in this area
and I just, I don't know what to do.
But here's what I know to do is I need to lay it down to him and
say, Jesus, you can have it. Would you take this chain away
from me? Would you take this sin that I'm
struggling with and would you bring people around me?
Maybe for you as a believer, you just need to come up to the
steps and say, God, take this, I can't hold it any longer.
And for those of you in this room, you don't have an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Think about your path. Think about where your feet are
standing. Think about where you've
traveled to and where you're going to travel to.
Think about the situations that brought you to this room.
I want you to imagine you are on the water's edge.
You can look backwards and you could say, yeah, here's all the
ways that I've done things the way that I want to do them, and
it's not working out like I thought it would.
And I want you to look forward and I want you to see what's on
the other side. And on the other side is love.
And. Goodness and Jesus eternal life
and at 1st at first dog, you're like, well, I can just I can
just work hard. I can just swim to the other
side of the sea. I can do this.
You're not a good swimmer. You'll you'll drown.
You'll never make it if you do it on your own power.
Well, hey, I can I'm good with my hands.
I'm good with work. So I can be good and I can I can
I got money. I can buy a boat.
I can. Nope, you can't.
You can't afford it and even you could.
That's not what, that's not what purchases it, what purchases
your freedom. What happens when that sea is
split? It is God who does the work and
it is through his Son, Jesus Christ.
And if you've never started that relationship, you've never
trusted in the name of Jesus, that is how you get to the other
side. That's how he splits the sea.
When you say no longer can I do this in my strength, I know I
can't save myself. I know only Jesus can.
When you say that, that is when that relationship with Jesus
starts. And we're not talking about a
religion, We're not talking about coming to church.
We're talking about you being saved by Jesus.
So I'm asking you in this moment, maybe for the first
time, I'm hoping someone in this room or someone online for the
first time says I'm not satisfied with where I am or
where I've been, but I want to walk across this land on dry
ground. God provides the path you have
to choose whether or not you accept it, and you take the
step. And so when this music starts
for you, maybe your first step is just talking to somebody
coming up to these steps and just saying I want to start that
relationship with you, Jesus. I'm going to be right by the
baptistry here at 48th St. There'll be someone online that
would love to help you take that next step in your faith.
And I'm hoping that we celebrate in the waters of baptism where
you say I believe that Jesus is the Christ Son of the living
God, and you want him as your personal Lord and Savior.
There will be joy. There will be celebration.
Shout out to God with the voice of triumph.
Shout out to God with the voice of praise.
Church, we all have a step to take.
I'm choosing to take it. I'm hoping you'll join with me
as well. Would you stand with me?
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for
splitting the sea. Thank you for making a path.
Thank you for not making us do it on our own or trying to be
good enough or trying to earn our way.
Jesus, you are so good and I'm so thankful that it's dry
ground. And when we get to that other
side, not we're not just satisfied.
We can, we can praise you Jesus, for what you delivered us from,
what you saved us from. And God, I pray for that person
and a group of people in this room who just need to take that
step. And I pray God, you give them
the boldness to do it in this moment.
God, we love you and we are thankful for you and we give you
all honor, all praise, all glory, in Jesus name that I
pray, Amen.