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Wonderfully Stuck: Learning to Trust God to Fight Our Battles (Exodus 13:17-14:31)
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Sunday Message re-recorded 26 November 2025
by Deacon Mark Vickers
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Trusting God in Battles
00:00:06
Speaker
Good day to everyone listening. Today we're going to be preaching from Exodus chapters 13 verse 17 1431 and we're going to be talking about being wonderfully stuck learning to trust God ah to fight our battles.
Childhood Collectibles and Lost Value
00:00:26
Speaker
and growing up, there were a couple things that I got into collecting growing up. One of them was comic books.
00:00:35
Speaker
And I remember growing up when I started reading comic books, my dad always told me this story about how he... had collected comic books when he was a kid, and he had all the old comic books. He had the first Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.
00:00:54
Speaker
And then when he went to college, his mom threw him out. And he was like, oh, if I only still had those today, do you know how much that was worth? And then the other thing my brothers and my friends, we really got into collecting growing up, was baseball cards. And my dad told me this story that when he was a kid, they would buy baseball cards and it would come with a stick of gum and they would buy it for the gum.
00:01:22
Speaker
and they would chew the gum and they would either tear up the baseball card or they would hook the baseball card to the spoke of their bicycle so that it would sound like a motorcycle.
00:01:33
Speaker
And he just imagines that he may have had a Mickey Mantle card hooked to the spoke of his bicycle to make a motorcycle. And as we talked about that, like in today's terms, if he still had the Amazing Spider-Man comic,
00:01:50
Speaker
it ah values at $336,000. And that was something he's like, oh if I only had this, you know we could pay for everybody's college, we could buy everybody a car.
00:02:02
Speaker
And the Mickey Mantle baseball card that all the kids put in the spoke of their wheels, that would be $12.6 million dollars if you had a good condition, one of those today.
00:02:13
Speaker
And so I remember him telling me those stories like, oh, if only i had kept those things.
Reflecting on 'If Only' Moments
00:02:19
Speaker
And, you know, when we talked about that, he was saying it sort of wistfully and just remembering, because as a kid, you don't know what anything's going to be worth one day, right?
00:02:29
Speaker
And you don't want to be a hoarder and keep all your stuff. But we we all have those if only moments, right? Oh, if I had only known and invested in cell phones when they first started coming out.
00:02:43
Speaker
Oh, if I had only known and had invested in Amazon, if I had only known and maybe I could have taken that job. And it's one thing if we're reminiscing about some things we had lightheartedly, but if it's another thing, if when we're saying our if onlys, if it keeps us moving forward in life.
00:03:02
Speaker
And you see, there was this movie we watched growing when I was a little bit older, probably came out about the time I was in college, and it was called Napoleon Dynamite.
00:03:13
Speaker
And if you Napoleon Dynamite's a great movie if you've never watched it. It had a lot of quotable lines that my brothers and I and friends and Mindy and I would quote to each other.
00:03:25
Speaker
But the character I remember most from that movie was Uncle Rico. And Uncle Rico was just stuck in life. Like he lived in a van, he was selling Tupperware door to door. and And the reason he was stuck is because he was hung up on the fact that his coach didn't play him in the championship game in football. And he's always saying, oh, if coach would have only put me in in the fourth quarter in 1982, we would have won the championship.
00:03:58
Speaker
Oh, how my life would have been different if only he had played me in that game. ah I would have made millions of dollars, gone on to play in the NFL. I'd be living in a big mansion with my soulmate. Life would just be perfect if Coach had just put me in the game 1982.
00:04:15
Speaker
in nineteen eighty two And then as you watch the movie, you see why the coach never put him in the game because he has the worst throwing motion you will ever see in a football game.
00:04:26
Speaker
But he is completely stuck. And in our lives, we don't want to be Uncle Rico. We don't want to be stuck in the past dreaming about, if only i had done this.
00:04:39
Speaker
why our whole future falls apart. And so the question that I hope we get to answer today as we look at God's word is how do we get unstuck?
00:04:50
Speaker
How do we keep from becoming Uncle Rico? And so in order not to get stuck in life, in order not to be sitting around just wishing our life was different, the first thing we have to do is realize why we are stuck.
Lessons from Jonah: The Stuck Prophet
00:05:05
Speaker
See, because there's two kinds of stuck we see in Scripture. And the first kind of stuck is when you get stuck like Jonah. And, you know, if you've been in church a long time or if you grew up in church, you probably heard the story of Jonah. You may have even heard it if you didn't grow up in church. Jonah was swallowed by a big fish.
00:05:24
Speaker
And the reason he was swallowed by a big fish was because God called Jonah, the prophet, to go to a different country and tell those people to repent. And Jonah said, no, I'm not going to do that.
00:05:38
Speaker
In fact, he tried to run the opposite way to get away from God because he didn't want to see God be merciful to this people that Jonah didn't like. And if you know the story, Jonah gets on a boat, tries to go the opposite way of Nineveh, away from where God called him. And God sends a storm It turns out the storm was because of Jonah.
00:06:01
Speaker
Jonah eventually tells the people, hey, if you want to live on the boat, you have to throw me overboard. And they throw him overboard and a big fish swallows him. And Jonah is stuck in the belly of this fish.
00:06:14
Speaker
Why God works on his heart and calls him to repentance. So if you're stuck like Jonah, if I'm stuck like Jonah, well, we're stuck like Jonah because of our sin, right?
00:06:25
Speaker
Jonah was stuck because of his refusal to obey God. And if we're stuck like Jonah, the way to get unstuck is first to repent and then to obey.
00:06:37
Speaker
And so that's one kind of stuck. in And we can get stuck in life like that when we're not doing the things God called us to do. And then we're surprised when we're not receiving blessings in life.
00:06:49
Speaker
But if we want our if we're stuck like Jonah, we have to repent and obey. But there is another kind of stuck in the Bible that I want us to look at. And this type of stuck we see in the children of Israel.
00:07:05
Speaker
And you can be stuck like the people of Israel were. Now, people of Israel, you'll remember, they all came from one family, from one man, Abraham, who God called to follow him. And he promised Abraham, even though Abraham was childless and wouldn't be able to have children, that he was going to make him a great nation, that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea. And God kept that promise to Abraham.
00:07:33
Speaker
And he was faithful to Abraham and to the generations after him. And eventually the people of Israel, it went from Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob and Esau.
00:07:44
Speaker
Jacob was the child of the promise and Jacob had 12 sons. And these sons became the 12 tribes of Israel and they grew into a great people.
00:07:56
Speaker
But before they became a nation, they were living as slaves in Egypt. And their life there was bitter and hard. And in the book of Exodus, it tells that story of how they were in slavery and God heard their cry. And he used a man named Moses to go and tell the Pharaoh to let God's people go.
00:08:19
Speaker
And there's this whole back and forth between God and Pharaoh where Pharaoh hardens his heart. God hardens his heart. He won't let the people go. God sends plagues on Egypt. And eventually after the plague of death to the firstborn in of the land of Egypt, Pharaoh agrees to let people go.
00:08:38
Speaker
And so that brings us to where we are in Exodus. And we're going to start in Exodus 14, 1 and 2 and see how the people of Israel are stuck. In chapter 14, verse 1 and 2, it says, then the lord says to moses tell the people of israel to turn back and enca in front of pi harhira between migdal and the sea in front of be siphon you should encamp facing it by the sea And so the people we see in verses five through nine says, when the king of egypt was told that the people had fled the mind of pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people
00:09:20
Speaker
and they said what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us. So he made ready his chariots and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with the officers over all of them.
00:09:36
Speaker
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel with the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all the Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and the army and overtook them and camped at the sea by Pi-hahiroth in front of Baal-zaphon.
00:09:58
Speaker
Okay, so we see the people of Israel were stuck because they followed what God told them to do. They were stuck because they actually obeyed.
00:10:09
Speaker
And so this is different than how Jonah was stuck, where he was stuck because of his sin and disobedience. They found themselves stuck between an enemy and obstacle because it's where God had placed them.
Understanding Why God Allows Us to Be Stuck
00:10:23
Speaker
And let's think about that for just a second. This is a brand new nation. They are just now leaving their place of slavery, heading to the place of promise that God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to all their descendants after. And one of the first things they do, God, instead of leading them straight to the promised land, leads them to where they are between an obstacle that they cannot overcome and an enemy that they cannot defeat.
00:10:56
Speaker
And if you're the people of Israel, if you're like me, when you get stuck, you might say, God, why is this happening? We followed exactly where you wanted us to go.
00:11:09
Speaker
God, why would you lead us here where we're going to be destroyed? And so if you're asking yourself this, why does God lead his people to where they'll be stuck, where they're between enemies and obstacles?
00:11:24
Speaker
And if we look in God's word, what we'll see is there's two reasons that God allowed the people of Israel to be stuck between these enemies and obstacles. And it may be the same reason he allows us to get to a place where we feel like we're stuck in our life today, even though we're doing everything he's called us to do, even though we're following him like he wants us to follow him.
00:11:47
Speaker
So just like the people, why would God bring us to a place with enemies and obstacles that we cannot handle? And in God's word, we see two reasons.
00:11:59
Speaker
We're going to go back just a little bit to Exodus 13, and we're going to read verses 17 through 18.
00:12:05
Speaker
It says, when pharaoh let the people go god did not lead them by the way of the land of the philistines although that was near for god said list the people change their minds when they see war and return to egypt but god led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the red sea and the people of israel went up out of the land of egypt to quipped for battle So the first thing we see is that God will allow us to get to a place where we face enemies and obstacles, where we feel like we can't move forward because it's for our good.
00:12:42
Speaker
See, the people of Israel, they weren't even a nation yet. They were slaves that didn't do anything to free themselves from slavery. And so they needed to learn to walk in trust and walk in obedience to God. And God knew the places he was taking them.
00:13:03
Speaker
There were going to be people there that were evil and stood against God and would either try to defeat the Israelites or try to change their hearts, turn their hearts from God to idols.
00:13:17
Speaker
And God could see the battles that were going to lay ahead of them. that he was going to lead them to. And if they didn't know how to trust God, they would want to run back to Egypt.
00:13:30
Speaker
So God was taking them to a place where they had to trust him so they could develop those muscles of obedience and muscles of faith. that It's like getting reps in practicing before the game.
00:13:45
Speaker
so that you're prepared. God was doing this with his people. They were a people, even though they were dressed for battle, they weren't equipped to fight because they needed to learn how to trust God. So the first reason God made the people of Israel be stuck and he may let us be stuck is because it's for our good.
00:14:07
Speaker
that God who knows everything knows the battles and things we're going to face in our life. And if we aren't learning to trust him, walking with him every day, those battles are going to make us turn from the promises God has for us, from the blessings he has for us.
00:14:23
Speaker
And we don't want to lose that. So first of all, God will allow us to be stuck for our good.
Israelites' Reactions to Obstacles
00:14:31
Speaker
But secondly, God will allow us to be stuck for for his glory.
00:14:38
Speaker
We're going to read Exodus 14, one through four again. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Beelziphon.
00:14:52
Speaker
You shall encamp facing it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land, the wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and will pursue them.
00:15:06
Speaker
He will pursue them. And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, and they did so. So you see, the second reason is not only does God allow us to be stuck in hard places between enemy and obstacles for our good, to develop our habits and our muscles of faith and obedience, but he allows it for his glory.
00:15:33
Speaker
He puts us in a place where the only way out is if God comes through for us so the world may know that he is God. so that Pharaoh and all his hosts, the Egyptians, shall know that I am the Lord.
00:15:47
Speaker
And they did so. So now that we know the two reasons why God may allow us to be stuck, what we have to do is decide, how am i going to respond?
00:16:02
Speaker
Because you see, everybody in life is going to face some sort of enemy and some sort of obstacle. And we get to choose how we we react to it. And we're going to see two different reactions here in the following verses.
00:16:16
Speaker
So we're going to start in verse five and we're going to see how Israel reacts. It says in verse 5,
00:16:31
Speaker
and they said what is this we have done that we have let israel go from serving us So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him and took six husband hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
00:16:49
Speaker
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, a king of Egypt, and pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, and Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army overtook them and camped at the sea by Pi-hahiroth in front of Baal-ziphon.
00:17:10
Speaker
And then in verse 10 through 12, says, When the Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes. and Behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and feared greatly.
00:17:23
Speaker
And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken ah us away to die in the wilderness?
00:17:34
Speaker
What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? And you see, this is Israel's reaction to when they got stuck. When they were between the sea and the army of Pharaoh, the first thing they did, it says in verse 2, they lifted up their heads. Behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly.
00:17:58
Speaker
So first thing they did is they became afraid. And, you know, Maybe they were afraid because life had been bitter for them in Egypt.
00:18:09
Speaker
Maybe they remember how hard it was to work under the Pharaoh, how Pharaoh tried to beat them down, how he even killed their male children when they were born or sought to.
00:18:21
Speaker
And maybe they remember all the times he promised to let them go but wouldn't. So maybe the fear came from some trauma that they had had in their life. So they were greatly afraid.
00:18:34
Speaker
And then the next thing they did was complain. It says that Israel cried out to the Lord. And you know, when you first hear that, you think crying out. Well, that's a good thing, right?
00:18:44
Speaker
Because we think of crying out for salvation. But when I was studying this, it said that the word cried out is more like complaining, like yelling at, throwing a fit.
00:18:56
Speaker
And so it could be that they weren't crying out to the Lord for salvation, but they were crying out to complain that God had led them to a place they didn't want to be. That it was too much. It was too hard. They were too afraid. They didn't trust God was going to save them.
00:19:13
Speaker
And then the third thing they did is they blamed the person that represented God to them. The person that God had picked to lead them, they blamed Moses. Look at what they said to him.
00:19:25
Speaker
Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt? So they were Israel's reaction was to fear, to complain, to blame others, and then to say, if only.
00:19:45
Speaker
In verse 12, he said, the people of Israel said, Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.
00:19:56
Speaker
For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And you see one thing about the people of Israel. God said back in chapter 13 that he brought them to the sea.
00:20:12
Speaker
Instead of taking them through the land of the Philistines, the direct route, he brought them to the sea where he knew Pharaoh would catch up and that they would be trapped because he needed them to build the faith and obedience to prepare them for the battles that we would have to do to take the promised land.
00:20:31
Speaker
And already we see as soon as the first hardship comes, they want to run back to Egypt. And unfortunately for the people of Israel, this isn't the only time they said, oh, if only we had stayed in Egypt.
00:20:45
Speaker
If we kept reading the story of the people, every time something happened, they would use Egypt as, oh, we should have just stayed there. If only I had stayed there.
00:20:57
Speaker
In Exodus 16 and Numbers 11, they cried if only when they were hungry. And they were like, why did you bring us into the wilderness where there's no food? We could have stayed in Egypt.
00:21:12
Speaker
In Exodus 16, God gave them manna from heaven. And you know, what a miracle that is. It's like some sort of sweet cake coming down from heaven that God fed them with every day. And it was just the right amount. They weren't to take more because it would spoil, except for the day that was the Sabbath.
00:21:33
Speaker
To prepare for the Sabbath, God miraculously kept the bread from heaven from spoiling. So God is feeding them bread from heaven. And, you know, like I've heard a pastors say they think it might have been like frosted flakes or something, you know, sort of that consistency.
00:21:52
Speaker
But how amazing is it that God is feeding them something sweet that will sustain them as they travel to the wilderness? And you think if you were one of the children of Israel, you would be like, oh, look at what God's done. And you would trust him the whole time.
00:22:09
Speaker
But in Numbers 11, they start complaining that all they get to eat is bread. All they get to eat is like cake from heaven. And they're crying out, oh, if we only had meat, like when we were back in Egypt.
00:22:22
Speaker
And God's like, well, I'll give you meat till it runs out of your nose, right? And it was a constant thing with them. Every time something happened, we should have stayed in Egypt. We had meat in Egypt. We had food in Egypt. Exodus 17, when they were complaining to Moses, did you bring this out in the wilderness so our families and our cattle can die of thirst?
00:22:44
Speaker
Oh, we had plenty to drink in Egypt. We should have stayed there. When Moses went up on the mountain, ah to receive the law of the Lord in Exodus 32, the people were afraid that he had died.
00:22:59
Speaker
And they were like, we should have stayed in Egypt. When they became scared, when they got to the door of the promised land, and all they had to do was go in, conquer the people and possess it in Numbers 14.
00:23:14
Speaker
But the 10 spies came back with the bad report. And they said, we were afraid the people, they're like giants and we're like grasshoppers in their eyes.
00:23:25
Speaker
And only joseph or Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. The people were scared. They're like, oh, we should have stayed in Egypt. And you know, their if only really makes no sense because their life in Egypt was horrible.
00:23:41
Speaker
It's an irrational if only situation. I mean, they lived in a place where their life was bitter, where the people over them were killing the male children that were born, where they had no real hope.
00:23:55
Speaker
And that's why they cried out to God for deliverance. But how quickly, when hard times came to them, did they forget how bad life was without God? And they wanted to run back to Egypt.
00:24:08
Speaker
How much lack of a faith in the God who provided, who conquered the greatest nation of
Encouragement to Trust and Move Forward
00:24:15
Speaker
that day, who pulled them out of Egypt, who would take them to the wilderness.
00:24:20
Speaker
But they were quick to turn away from God and try to run back to Egypt. And this is the reaction we don't want to have in our own lives, right? because we are gonna have tough times.
00:24:33
Speaker
The Israelites walked through the wilderness before they made it to the promised land. We live in a broken and fallen world where there's sickness, where there's death, where there's tragedy, where other people sin against us and it makes life hard.
00:24:47
Speaker
And when it it gets hard, not that we're sinning, but that we follow God. When it gets hard, are we gonna react like the Israelites? Are we going to be afraid?
00:24:59
Speaker
Are we going to blame? Are we going to complain? Are we going to be like Moses, who in chapter 14, verse 13 and has a different reaction It says in verse 13, And Moses said to the people, fear not stand firm And the we need in our lives.
00:25:25
Speaker
which he will work for you today for the egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again the lord will fight for you and you only have to be silent and you see moses' reaction is the reaction we need in our lives We need people like Moses. We need leaders like Moses in our lives. And I'm thankful for the people and the leaders we have in this church who do like Moses remind us, hey, fear not.
00:25:59
Speaker
Just stand firm, be silent. Don't complain, don't blame. Watch the Lord fight for you.
00:26:11
Speaker
And see, if we're obeying God, we don't need to fear. Because if we're obeying God and he's brought us to a hard place, it's exactly where we need to be for our good and his glory.
00:26:23
Speaker
Just like the people of Israel. And you know, it is hard to stand firm when you look ahead of you and all you see is obstacles and you look behind you and all you see is enemies ready to tear you down.
00:26:36
Speaker
And I'm sure the people of Israel were afraid and they didn't know what they were gonna do. But instead of looking at the obstacles and looking at the enemies, we need to look at God. That's what Moses reminded us of.
00:26:49
Speaker
Watch the Lord fight for you. Yeah, there's an obstacle in front of you. There's an enemy behind you. Your path is blocked, but look to the Lord.
00:27:02
Speaker
See, in our fear, we often try to come up with our own solutions. And they they often fell us, right?
00:27:13
Speaker
It leads us to doubt, to to despair, to depression. And then we cry out, oh, if only i had done this. But instead we need to fear not, stand for, and see the salvation God has brought.
00:27:31
Speaker
And I hope we have people in our lives like Moses who will remind us of that. when things are getting hard and we're starting to complain that they'll say, hey, be still, be silent, watch what God is going to do.
00:27:47
Speaker
And so what I want us to do with some of the rest of our time is see what God did for the people of Israel. So we're going to read the rest of the chapter, verse 15 to verse 31, and we're going to see what happens when God fights for his people.
00:28:07
Speaker
So in Exodus 14, verse 15 fourteen verse fifteen It says, the lord said to moses why do you cry to me tell the people of israel to go forward lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the people of israel may go through the sea on dry ground and i will harden the hearts of the egyptians so that they shall go in after them and i will get glory over pharaoh and all his hosts his chariots and his horsemen
00:28:37
Speaker
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. Then the angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them.
00:28:51
Speaker
And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud in the darkness, and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night." Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
00:29:17
Speaker
And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea.
00:29:29
Speaker
All the Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen in the morning watched the Lord. And in the morning, watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.
00:29:57
Speaker
Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
00:30:17
Speaker
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. Of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had flowed followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
00:30:35
Speaker
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power of the Lord used against all the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord in his servant Moses.
00:30:55
Speaker
See, when the people of Israel were still, When they didn't fear and they looked to God instead of the obstacles in front of them, instead of the sea in front of them and the army behind them, God fought for them.
00:31:10
Speaker
And when we are still in quiet, we will see God fight for us. And there are certain things when God fights for us that miraculously happen. First, God turns our obstacles into paths.
00:31:24
Speaker
Notice in verse 21 22 that they parted the water. that the people of Israel, the ocean or the sea that was in front of them, the Red Sea, that they couldn't walk through now became a path for them to be free from the Egyptians.
00:31:41
Speaker
And they dried the ground and they walked through it. And you know, sometimes in our life, the things that we see as obstacles, God uses as a path to benefit in our life and to bring glory to him.
00:31:56
Speaker
that as he makes our way through that obstacle, that people come to see God for who he is. So the first thing when God fights for us is he turns our obstacles into paths.
00:32:08
Speaker
The second thing is he keeps the darkness at bay. See, often when we're stuck, we feel like God has abandoned us or he's led us somewhere to be destroyed, just like the people of Israel.
00:32:19
Speaker
But the truth is God is the one keeping our enemies from overcoming us. keeping our sin and death and the spiritual forces of the world from overcoming us.
00:32:30
Speaker
God is holding them at bay when we follow him and are doing the things that he commanded us to do. And just like that cloud that stood between the people and the Pharaoh's army that kept them from coming towards the people of Israel all night,
00:32:48
Speaker
God stands between us and the evil and the darkness that would try to overwhelm us. And so God turns our obstacles into paths. He keeps the darkness of at bay.
00:33:02
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He removes our fleeing enemies. Remember, God promised the people of Israel, Pharaoh and his army who are coming after you today, you will never see again.
00:33:14
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And see if the people of Israel had tried to outmaneuver them on their own and they got away, that Pharaoh's army would have kept pursuing him. But when God deals with your obstacles and enemies, he removes them so you never have to see them again.
00:33:30
Speaker
And so we need to take the time to trust that God will defeat enemies. And this was an enemy enemy that people of Israel would have never been able to beat. They were too strong and too powerful. They had kept the people of Israel in slavery for years and years and generations and generations.
00:33:49
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Only God could free them from these people. Only he could destroy that enemy. And so we need to see God fight for us to remove the enemies as they flee from him.
00:34:04
Speaker
A fourth thing that happens when God's fight for us is he keeps us out of the muck and mire. Notice that the people walk through on dry ground. yeah had a friend I traveled with in Life Action. He always thought, I wonder if there were some kids who you like went over and put their finger in the water as they walked through. If you could see the fish, it was like a giant aquarium on both sides, right?
00:34:27
Speaker
But the people of Israel walked through. They didn't even get mud on their feet. But then when the chariots came in, they got stuck in the muck and mire. See, we can be in the midst of a place that we don't want to be.
00:34:40
Speaker
We can feel stuck like our life isn't moving forward. But God is keeping us from being pinned down in the muck and mire of the world. He's keeping the darkness at bay. He's making our obstacles in the past. He's making our enemies flee before us.
00:34:57
Speaker
if we just trust him and watch him fight for us. The fifth thing God does is he saves his people.
00:35:08
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Every person of the people of Israel made it through on dry ground. It says in verse 30, the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
00:35:23
Speaker
Just like he saved the people then, God saves us today. He saves us from our sin through the work of Jesus Christ. And then finally, in verse 31, reminds us when we let God fight for us, when we have feared we fear not, when we stand still and firm and we are silent,
00:35:48
Speaker
We see God fight for us. He is glorified in the nations. Verse 31 says, Israel saw the great power the Lord uses against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and they believed the Lord and his servant Moses.
00:36:09
Speaker
So we see that the people of Israel, even though they were stuck, and not stuck because of sin like Jonah, but stuck because they were following God, that when they were still and let God fight for them, God removed the obstacles.
00:36:26
Speaker
He made it a path for their feet and God destroyed their enemies where he would never see them again. And see, I need to be like the people of Israel.
00:36:37
Speaker
I need to realize when I'm stuck, why I'm stuck. Is it because I'm sinning against God, not walking in obedience? Or is it because God is working something that only he can do for my good and his glory?
00:36:50
Speaker
And I just have a few questions for us. Maybe you can talk about with a friend. Do you feel stuck? I mean, let's all be honest. There are times in our life where we feel stuck, right?
00:37:05
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Do you feel stuck? Why are you stuck? Is it sin or is it because God's gonna do something miraculous that only he can do? What are your if onlys?
00:37:19
Speaker
And see, this is one that I can really relate to because a lot of times when things are going well, I think, oh, if only i had done this. I remember one of the if onlys was I had a chance to take a good job working as a civil auditor in the Navy um out of college to apply for that job, but it wasn't something I was interested in.
00:37:43
Speaker
But that job probably would have set me on a career path to be a lot more financially stable than I am today. But I sometimes think, oh, you know, when things break around the house or the car is breaking or the bills are high or there's less money than I want in my bank account. Oh, if I had only taken that job, what would in my life have been like today? Oh, if I had only done this.
00:38:11
Speaker
And That's really saying I put my faith in money and not in God. And so we have these if onlys, right?
00:38:21
Speaker
Oh, if only we had moved here instead of to this town. If only um i had taken this job instead of that one.
00:38:32
Speaker
If only i had done this major. If only i had tried harder in school. If only i had played better when I was on my high school football team and my coach had put me in the championship game in the fourth quarter in 1982 like Uncle rica Oh, then my life would be perfect.
00:38:51
Speaker
But what that shows is we don't really trust where God is taking us. And so what are your if onlys? So that we recognize them and instead of saying them, we learn to watch what God is going to do.
00:39:05
Speaker
What enemies and obstacles do we need to remove, God to remove from our life? You know, it's very possible people listening this might be facing enemies and obstacles right now.
00:39:19
Speaker
And when we're tempted to complain and blame and ask if only. When what God's really waiting for us to do is to call on him and watch what happens when he fights for us.
00:39:31
Speaker
What enemies and obstacles has God removed in your life already? See, we need to hear those stories just like we hear the stories of God taking the people through the Red Sea in Exodus.
00:39:45
Speaker
We need to see that. And then, how has being stuck and watching God fight for you prepared you for the future battles and brought him glory?
00:40:00
Speaker
And you know, you may be sitting here today and it might be hard to think of a story like that. It might be hard to think of, when have I been stuck that God has delivered me?
00:40:15
Speaker
Well, I hope today that maybe You've already made a decision that when you were stuck in sin, that God made a way, that he defeated the enemies of sin and death, and he cleared a path through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
00:40:35
Speaker
See, we have an advantage that the people of Israel don't have, is we have the Bible that tells us of the work of Jesus. Because the people of Israel, they were a blessing to the nations just as promised to Abraham because Jesus came from the people of Israel.
00:40:52
Speaker
And through him, God is making ah people of every tribe, tongue, and nation. And he's not just freeing them from Egypt or defeating the Pharaoh, he's freeing us from sin and death.
00:41:04
Speaker
And so I hope today that you've already been freed from that. And if not, then maybe today would be the day that you quit being afraid of what's going to happen in life.
00:41:17
Speaker
What's going to happen when we die one day, because we all do. That you will turn yourself to Jesus Christ, that you will believe in him, confess your sins, turn away from them and confess he is Lord and you will be saved.
00:41:34
Speaker
So here's what I want us to take away today. as Christians, if we are following where God wants us and we find ourselves stuck, instead of saying, oh, if only, and Dre dreaming about what life would have been like if we make that one magical decision that would affect us everything, that we quit being afraid, we quit complaining, we quit blaming other people, that we fear not, stand firm, be silent, and watch God fight for us.
00:42:10
Speaker
because when we do, we're gonna build our faith. It's gonna be for our good and his glory. So what I want us to take away today is fear not, stand firm, be violent silent, and watch God fight for us.
00:42:26
Speaker
And we know he will do this because of Jesus Christ. I wanna close us in prayer. Father God, I thank you for this day. Lord, I thank you for your word.
00:42:38
Speaker
Lord, um I know often in my own life, when things get hard, i act more like the people of Israel than I do Moses. Lord, thank you for the people you've put in my life who don't allow me to complain, but remind me of your goodness and the trust in you.
00:42:55
Speaker
Lord, for anyone who hears this as a Christian who feels stuck right now, I pray that you would let them know, are they stuck because of sin or are they stuck because of you bringing them there for their good and your glory and that they just need to be silent and watch what you're going to do.
00:43:14
Speaker
Lord, for people here today who have heard this message, who are not Christians and who are stuck in their sin, Lord, I pray that they would come to know you as Lord and Savior, that through Jesus Christ, that obstacle of sin will be pardoned and the enemy of death will have no more hold on them, that it will be removed from them.
00:43:43
Speaker
Lord, thank you for sending your son. Thank you for delivering the people of Israel. Thank you for delivering us through Jesus Christ. In your name I pray, amen.
00:43:57
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.