Close, But No Cigar!

August 13, 2017 (rev)                NOTES NOT EDITED

Close But No Cigar

2Kings 12:1-18

SIS:  Many people let stumbling blocks keep them from fully experiencing a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.

This past presidential election has been nothing short of fascinating, even earth shattering.  The election of a non-politician, multi-billionaire outsider like Donald Trump has sent shock waves through the Washington political establishment.  We have never seen anything like this, at least not in my lifetime.

In anticipation of a "revival and renewal" in America, the Stock Market jumped.  It seems America was ready for a change, even if Washington was not.  There is a sense across the land that America is about to have a "new day" and begin pulling ourselves out of a ditch we have been in for years.  There is renewed hope that the failed policies of past administrations, both economically and morally, may be coming to an end.  Some of that hope and optimism has faded with the never-ending Trump bashing of the political establishment and media propaganda machine.  We are—or at least were—on the edge of a “revival.”

But, America has been close to revival before.  Recall that the attack on 911 shook America to a heightened awareness of the need to return to God.  In fact, in the weeks immediately following 911, people did return to church by the thousands.  But it didn't last.  Revival was close, but it never came.

There is a term for an event that has great promise of reward but the reward never materializes.  That phrase is:  "Close, But No Cigar."

I've used this phrase many times throughout life when my hopes and expectation for a great reward seemed within reach, but never quite materialized.  I decided to see if I could find out where the phrase came from. 

As near as I can find out (and nobody seems really sure) the phrase goes back to adult games at a carnival around the turn of the last century.  Often, the prize for winning a carnival game was a "good cigar."  If an adult attempted a game, but did not win, the Carney would holler:  "Close, but no cigar." 

This phrase could certainly be applied to our nation at this time in our history.  We are so close to a revival and a return to God and His Word.  We certainly need it -- desperately. 

Many individuals in church are really close to a personal "revival,"  Many people, many churches, are so close to a spiritual breakthrough where the windows of God's heaven open up and shower upon us great blessing.  We are so close, but will we get the cigar? 

Most people cannot experience revival.  Revival means, “to live again,” that is, “to live again spiritually.”  Most people cannot experience “coming alive again,” because they have never come alive in the first place.  Most people are still, “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).  But, the Word of God reminds us that when God’s people get revived, a result of that renewal is that many people get saved.  Look what David said in Psalm 51:10-13:

¹⁰ God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit.  ¹³ Then I will teach the rebellious Your ways, and sinners will return to You.

When saints get right—sinners get saved!

Today, we are going to examine a time in the life of the Nation of Israel, specifically the reign of King Joash.  This story is a perfect example of what it means to be "Close, but get no cigar."

Let us read our text together and then I'll give you a little background on what's going on.  2Kings 12:1-20:

In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. ² Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

After years living under wicked, rebellious, sinful kings, Israel was on the verge of revival when Joash became king.  Joash began his reign with great promise of a "New Golden Age" for Israel after some very dark and troubling times both personally and politically; however, “they were close but no cigar!”

Joash was the great nephew of King Ahab, one of the worst king's in Israel's history.  Since Ahab, pagan worship was rampant throughout Israel.  Ahab's son, and then Ahab's nephew continued the evil traditions of Ahab right to Joash's father, who had the same name as Ahab's son.  It all gets a bit confusing so I'll cut the chase.

The terrible King Ahaziah, Joash' father reigned for a very short time until he was killed in battle when Joash was just a baby.  Joash's grandmother seized control of the throne by killing all the royal family.  She would have killed Joash--next in line for the throne--but a kindly aunt hid him away in a secret place in the temple of six years.  Finally, a godly priest by the name of Jehoida staged an uprising against the wicked and idolatrous grandmother and placed Joash on his rightful place on the throne.  And, thus, there was hope that a new "Golden Age" would come to the nation.

But, no Golden Age came.  No revival and renewal came to Israel even though Joash had great potential, especially with the godly counsel of the priest, Jehoiada.  But, Joash had no convictions.  He had no principles.  He stumbled and eventually fell.

He was "close" to a great revival, but "no cigar."  Several stumbling stones tripped Joash up along life's road that kept him from fully experiencing a life-changing encounter with God.  Here are the stumbling stones that hinder "revival and renewal" in our lives, in our churches, or in our nation.

1.  Joash lacked PERSONAL CONVICTIONS (v2)

Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

Unfortunately, as we will see, Joash inherited the bad spiritual genes of his father and grandfather.  He, like they, was always drawn to worshipping pagan idols.  This is a propensity that we all seem to have.  We always drift into loving “other stuff,” rather than God.

While Jehoida, the priest, was around Joash took his counsel and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  He was not perfect, but as long as he listened to Jehoida, he did really well. But, borrowed convictions are not true convictions at all, and do not last.

The problem is that Jehoida did something older people have a tendency to do--he died.  2Chron. 24:17-18 describes the death of Joash's mentor, Jehoida:

¹⁷ After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

When Jehoiada died, Joash simply adopted the convictions of a new crowd—a wicked crowd that “abandoned the temple of the Lord.”  If all a person has is the convictions of a leaf, those convictions change every time the winds shift. 

We all need mentors and guides in our lives as we grow through life, but we need “godly” mentors who will help us establish our own “personal convictions.”   We, however, all have the tendency to suffer from "celebrity blindness."  We tend to follow those people who have gained a sense of notoriety in the religious community.  It may be Billy Graham.  It may be John MacArthur.  It may be Beth Moore.  God forbid, it may be Kenneth Copeland or Joel Olsteen.  It may be just about anybody who gains celebrity status and we allow them to access to our hearts and minds.  We abandon the “temple,” or God’s church, for Christian conferences, and the newest celebrity teachers.

The problem becomes:  "faulty followership."  One borrows the conviction of others, instead of developing our own personal convictions based on the Word of God.  We are never to follow a man (or a woman) no matter how godly they may seem, or actually be.  We have one Lord, and that is Jesus Christ.  We have One Book that tells us about Jesus Christ and that's the Bible. The Written Word leading us to the Living Word is the only leader we should be following.

Paul gives us wise counsel about avoiding "faulty followership" in 1Cor. 3:

Since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

God alone is our Guide and Mentor.  Paul again stresses this idea in Hebrews 12:2:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,

Joash's problem was he had no convictions of his own, but was swayed by whoever happened to be preaching in his ear at the time.  He was NOT like the Bereans of whom it is says in Acts 17:11:

 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

If you are following any man, save the God-Man Jesus, it is only a matter of time before that man, or woman, lets you down or leads you astray. And, that certainly applies to me.  Never take what I say as the gospel unless you verify by "chapter and verse."

Joash stumbled and missed the "Cigar" of revival and renewal because he had "Faulty Follwership."

2.  Joash tolerated, even embraced,  the Secular (v. 3)

³ The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

These "high places" were private altars scattered all over the countryside where sacrifices were made and incense was offered to God.  The Israelites had patterned this practice after the pagan inhabitants of the land.  Thus, sometimes the worship of Yahweh was mixed with the worship of local pagan deities.

Besides that, these private altars became a sort of competition for the worship at the Temple.  Thus, these high places led to a mixed-up, often corrupt, competition with true worship.

Against the good advice of Jehoida, Joash tolerated these "high places."

“Tolerance” is a word much revered in modern American culture.  We seem to be able to tolerate just about anything.  We overthrew prohibition and now have come to tolerating drinking at the drop of a hat, including a recent church fund-raiser I attended.  With Engle vs. Vitale we threw God out of the classroom in our public schools along with prayer, and now instead of bringing Bibles to school, kids bring dope and guns.  In Roe v.Wade we booted the idea of the sanctity of life to the curb and now we kill babies at the rate of over 2 per minute, some even after being born.  We have confused civil rights with what’s morally right and now homosexuality is tolerated at every level of American life—including the right to marry in some states.  We tolerate any kind of religion from witchcraft to Scientologist.  Many Americans are supporting the building of a Muslim Mosque near the site where Muslim terrorists flew two planes into Twin Towers killing over 3000 people.  We are a cultrue that seems to worship “tolerance.”  There seems to be no ideology or behavior we will not tolerate – except of course, for Christians who dare to take their Christianity beyond the walls of the sanctuary.  Then, we as a nation are quite intolerant.

But, what has been the net effect of all this “tolerance of the secular?”  Well, America is quickly slipping behind on the global scene in nearly any category you want to measure.  We are up to our eyeballs in debt.  We were once a nation of manufacturers, now we are a nation of servants.  We once led the world in education.  Now we can barely stay ahead in literacy.  The American dream is quickly becoming a nightmare. 

We were once a nation with man like Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope.  Now we have Barak Obama, no cash, and no hope!

Everyone wants their own "high place."  They want spirituality without truth, religion without requirements, and worship without substance. We have tolerated the secular and it is strangling the life out of our churches, and as a consequence, out of our nation.

Tolerating the secular, anti-God, pagan ideas of the world put the brakes on Israel’s revival and recovery.  Such tolerance will – and is – putting the brakes on America’s revival and recovery.

3.  Surrendering the Sacred (17-18)

¹⁷ About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. ¹⁸ But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

On the heels of tolerating everything secular, always comes surrendering all things sacred.  They go together like Hansel and Gretal, Laurel and Hardy, or peanut butter and jelly.

 I’m not an old man (though I am a proud grandpa), and I remember the Blue Laws.  As a boy, it was against the law to sell beer or liquor before 2:00 pm.  It had to be covered up with white paper.

 I’m not an old man, but I remember when no self-respecting person would mow their yards on Sunday.  It just wasn’t done, whether you were a Christian or not.

In my grandfather’s generation (three or four generations back now), 55% of the American population attended church regularly.  Now, polls say about 25-30%, and I’ll bet it is really half that.

When our nation was founded for the purpose of the free expression of religion and free worship of the Almighty God of the Bible, the most important building in any town, was the church with its steeple rising high into the air as a sort of "lighthouse for the sea of humanity," pointing everyone in the community in the direction of God. 

There was a time when America placed a much higher value on Christianity – and consequently, held a much higher position in the world.   “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.”

When Joash surrendered the sacred objects to purchase worldly protection, he surrendered any hope for revival or renewal in the Nation.  So it is with you and I:  when we surrender the sacred time of worship each week to chase worldly pursuits, we surrender any hope for a revival and renewal in our lives.  We stumble and fall and never quite reach the finish line – much less, win the race of life.  We get close to godliness, but don't win the cigar.

4.  The final stumbling block in our failure to gain
      life-changing revival and renewal comes from
      "IGNORING THE WARNING." 2Chron 24:19-22

¹⁹ Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen. ²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’”  ²¹ But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

Chronicles is a second account of the kings of Israel.  What we read here is pretty sad, and quite ironic.  It is sad because God spared Joash when all the other royal family was murdered.  God hid Joash in the temple.  Now some 40 years later, Joash is stoned to death in the temple.  The Golden Age of revival and renewal never came for the nation of Israel--it never came personally for Joash.  He was "close, but no cigar."

God always sends judgment upon sin.  Habakkuk 1:13, “ ¹³ Your eyes  are too pure  to look on evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” Ezek. 18:20, “The soul that sins will surely die.”  Psalm 7:11, “God is a righteous judge and a God who shows His wrath every day. ¹² If anyone does not repent, God  will sharpen His sword; He has strung  His bow and made it ready. ¹³ He has prepared His deadly weapons; He tips His arrows with fire.

Man is utterly without any excuse. From one end of Scripture to the other, and all points in between, God has given abundant warning that “sin brings judgment and wrath!”  Man ignores this warning at his own eternal peril. 

The Chronicler declares that “God sent prophets . . . but the people would not listen!”

A Methodist pastor and a Baptist preacher stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!" Not long after they started holding up the sign, a car drove by.  The man in the car slammed on his breaks, rolled down the window and began shouting obscenities at the pastor, and saying, “Leave us alone, you religious nut.”  Then he sped off down the road.  About a minute later, from around a curve in the road, you hear a loud explosion and a large plume of smoke rising just in air.  The deacon looked toward his pastor and said, “Do you think instead of saying, ‘The End Is Near,’ we should have said, ‘Bridge Out Ahead?”

God’s warnings are much clearer, but still the majority of people ignore them.  As the Chronicler says, “God sent prophets to the people, but they would not listen!” 

Joash and Israel continued to stray from the righteous ways of God as he had been instructed by Jehoida, even as God pleaded through His prophets for them to listen.  

But, God in His mercy did not give up on His people.  He sent the son of the Godly priest, Jehoida, to warn Joash calling on the Nation to repent and turn back to God.  They killed Zecharia, Jehoida’s son, as they killed the prophets before and after him.  The sad result was:  "they would not listen."

Still, God has not given up on us. He continues to warn us, and to woo us back to Himself.  In these last days, God sent his Son Jesus to warn us of God’s wrath upon sin and offer us mercy

The hymnwriter makes this plea:

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

Come home.  Come home. 
All you who are weary Come home

People who do not heed God’s warnings, will certainly face God’s wrath.  People who “listen to God’s prophets, respond to God’s Son will discover revival and renewal and escape wrath and judgment.”

Week after week we open the Word of God and there is ALWAYS a call to repentance.  None of us is ever as close to God as we need to be.  There is always the sad reality that we will be "close, but no cigar."  Revival is near at hand, but will we reach out for it?  Or, will we miss the good?  Will we sacrifice the best for a few momentary pleasures? 

So many people "slip into hell with their hand on heaven's doorknob."  So many get started on a path toward new life and then stumble short of a life transforming encounter with the Living God, Jesus Christ.   Too many Christians lack true personal convictions about Christ and the church.  Too many Christians tolerate too much worldliness in their lives.  Too many Christians abandon the sacred things of God and allow their once thriving spiritual lives to decay.  Too many Christians do not heed God's warning to repent, return to Him, and experience revival.

Lost people cannot be revived, but will die in their sins stumbling over Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

I pray that we will NOT miss God's best and we will fully surrender and gain the revival in our personal lives that God wants us to have.  There is a prize laid up for us in heaven, "the high calling of God in Christ."  Let's heed the Word, and gain that prize.

Mission Impossible!

August 6, 2017                                           NOTES NOT EDITED
Mission Impossible!

Exodus 14:10-20

Sermon-in-a-Sentence:  God’s miraculous power is manifested when God’s people are moving forward.

Would you like God to do something big for you?Is what you are thinking big enough to qualify as “impossible?”  If your dreams and hopes for life include the “impossible,” then I have good news for you – the God of the Bible is the God of the impossible.  In fact, with God nothing is impossible!

Sooner or later, all of us will be faced with difficult circumstances.  It may seem that every option we have is “undesirable.” Our circumstances may be so devastating that we are in danger of being paralyzed.  It may seem there is no way out.  Going forward seems impossible.  What do we do?  Well, there’s a lesson for us right here in the Bible.  Israel faced an “impossible” situation.  They had three choices: go back to bondage in Egypt; stand still and be overrun by Pharoah’s army; or go forward into the Red Sea.   Let’s read that story together (Exodus 14:10-22):

¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out  to the Lord for help. ¹¹ They said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” ¹³ But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.” ¹⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. ¹⁶ As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.  ¹⁷ I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh, all his army, and his chariots and horsemen. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” ¹⁹ Then the Angel of God,  who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them.  ²⁰ It came between the Egyptian and Israelite forces. The cloud was there in the darkness, yet it lit up the night.  So neither group came near the other all night long.  ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided,  ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left.

In our text they were faced with “impossibility” on every side.  What was true for our ancient brothers, is true for us today.  Before them was the impassable Red Sea.  Beside them was the unforgiving desert.  Behind them was an angry Pharaoh and his mighty army.   The situation was dismal.  The prospects were disheartening. 

The Israelites were faced with three choices –none of which were very exciting.  You might say that the road ahead was uphill in every direction!  What were their options?  ONE: they could go back to bondage in Egypt and live as slaves.  TWO: They could stand still and refuse to move in which case they would surely be annihilated.  THREE: they could “move forward” into the Promise of God.  Option three certainly was the only choice that offered hope, peace and prosperity.  The only problem -- a huge sea was between them and the promise of God and they had no boat.  Option three was simply “impossible.”  But . . . that was the option that invited the participation of God.  We serve a “God of the Impossible.”

God delights in parting the sea of circumstances to bring His people into the land of promises.

I really believe God’s wants to do something “impossible”

through our church and in your life.  I really feel that God wants to do something “supernatural” and “spectacular” in and through your life today.  We are God’s people and we are faced with a choice.  One: we can go back to living as a slaves to sin.  Many former church attenders have chosen this option.  Two: we can stand still right where we are and eventually become extinct without ever experiencing the miraculous power of God in lives.  Or, we can plunge into the impossible challenge of getting on mission with God.  We can make the choice to make our church a “place of miracles.”  It’s our choice.  Let’s examine our options before we decide on where we go from here.  

1.  You CAN choose to go back to your life of sin (10-12)

(Exo 14:10-12)   As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. {11} 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? {12} 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! "

By “better,” the pessimistic group meant “easier.”

I collected a poem years ago I call, “The Easy Road.”  It reminds me of man’s propensity to take the path of least resistance in life.

The easy roads are crowded
And the level roads are jammed;
The pleasant little rivers
With the drifting folks are crammed.

But off yonder where it's rocky,
Where you get a better view,
You will find the ranks are thinning
And the travelers are few.

Where the going's smooth and pleasant
You will always find the throng,
For the many, more's the pity,
Seem to like to drift along.

But the steeps that call for courage,
And the task that's hard to do
In the end result in glory
For the never-wavering few

One of the great shows of strength in nature is the migration of the Atlantic Salmon returning to the exact place in the rivers where they were born in order to reproduce.  These salmon overcome the strong current of swollen rivers rushing over natural falls, as high as 20 feet, in order to meet their objective.  Not all of them succeed in swimming against the current.  Many salmon end up “swimming” with the flow of the current—they are the “dead” salmon.  Only dead salmon swim with the current.

It takes effort to move forward.  It takes courage.  It takes persistence.

They almost “got it right.”  Look at verse 10:

¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out  to the Lord for help.

When faced with difficulty they “cried out to the Lord!” This is exactly the right approach we should take to the impossible circumstances we will surely face if we choose to be a church on “mission with God.”  When the going gets tough, the tough cry!

How many men in this room feel comfortable with letting other people see you cry?  Most of us would rather die than cry in public.  We are “men.”  Men aren’t supposed to cry . . . or so some people have been led to believe.  

I’m not big on crying either I must confess.It doesn’t fit the image of what I’m supposed to be as a “man.”  It’s not macho.  It’s not cool.  But, the older I get the easier it is for me to cry.  I have cried over people I’ve watched blossom in the Lord and then go back to a life of sin.  I’ve cried when people have attacked our church and the vision God has given us.  I’ve cried when one of our dear church members have passed on to glory.  I cry a lot – but most of my crying is “unto the Lord.”  The Israelites did the right thing to “cry out when they faced an impossible situation.”  

But then they made a terrible mistake.  They started playing

“the blame game.”  Look at verse 11:

(Exo 14:11)   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?

This is a very popular game – the blame game. Adam was the first to play the “blame game.”  Adam blamed Eve for giving Him the forbidden fruit.  Eve played too, “she blamed God for letting a snake in the garden.”  

The number one excuse people use for leaving the “mission of God”

to go back to a life of sin is almost always the “blame game.”  Almost without exception backsliders will blame the “hypocrites” in church for driving them back into a life of sin.  I’ve seen it over and over again.  I’ve seen it dozens of times just in this church alone.  People leave church and go back into the world and they usually “blame someone else.”

In reality, people want to go back to a life of sin because it is easier—even if it isn’t as pleasant.  It was easy in Egypt for the Israelites.  They didn’t have to think – Pharaoh did their thinking for them.  They didn’t have to worry about their property – they didn’t have any!  They didn’t have to worry about the money they had in savings – they didn’t have any.  Life was certainly not better in Egypt, but it was more predictable. Sinning is easy.  Just do what comes natural.  Even a dumb rock knows enough about gravity to roll down a hill.  Doing what comes natural takes no effort or thought—and, at first it takes little sacrifice.  But know this (Proverbs 20:17):

Food gained by fraud [that is, sin] is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth is full of gravel.

Oh, yes, dear friend, holy obedience is hard – you have to do what is “supernatural.”  It will take a miracle to move forward in God’s mission.  So, we all can decide today . . . are we going to go back to a life guided by sinful desires, or are we going forward into a life of blessing.

2.  Another option is we can STAND STILL AND STAY WHERE

   WE ARE (13-14) 

¹³ But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see  the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.”

If you have a KJV of the Bible, standing still is exactly what God through Moses is telling the Israelites to do.  The KJV says in verse 13,  “Fear ye not, stand still!”

Most of you know from hearing me preach and teach that the Bible was not originally written in English.  The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew while the New Testament was written in Greek.

Sometimes when you translate one language into another, you lose something in the translation.  That’s why most Southern Baptist pastors are trained in the original languages.  Our job is to help you get the most out of your Bible.

The Bible is sometimes like a Picasso painting for people. If you have ever seen a Picasso painting you would probably say, “What in the world is that!”  Picasso was a cubist.  This is a form of abstract art that uses strange shapes to communicate what the artist is feeling.  Picasso paintings are worth millions – even though they don’t seem to make much sense at first.

One day Picasso asked his friend Rodin, also a famous artist, if he liked a painting he (that is Picasso) had just painted.  Rodin studied the painting from all different directions with a puzzled look on his face.  After some time Rodin remarked to his friend, Picasso, “Whatever else you do . . . be sure to sign the painting.  If you do that . . . we will know which way to hold it!”

We have in verses 13 and 14 something of a Picasso painting. On one hand it says, “stand still,” but on the other hand, that would be a clear mistake as Pharaoh’s bloodthirsty army approached.  Remember, many of those soldiers, like Pharaoh, had first born boys that died because of the plague brought on by the God of Israel.

These two verses give us a great principle for helping to avoid the paralyzes that can come when we are faced with seemingly impossible situations in our lives as we serve the Lord.   What happens all too often when the going gets rough, is that we are paralyzed.  We are like a deer on a country road that gets surprised by the headlights of an on-coming car.  We freeze.  We stand still.  We are immobilized.  We are numb.

Many churches, and individual Christians are like deer caughtin the headlights of an on-coming car – We freeze.  We become the frozen chosen.  Our doctrine is right on, but we aren’t making any

progress.  We are on the right track, but we aren’t going anywhere. It is only a matter of time before we are crushed by the on-coming train of life.

Let me help you turn the Picasso painted by this verse right-side-up. The verb translated ‘be still’ by the KJV is better translated, “be firm,” like we read in the NIV and CSB..   In fact, oddly enough, the word translated “be firm or be still” can also be translated, “continue,” as in, “move forward.” The idea of “being still before the Lord,” does not mean surrender, but it means, wait for God to move first.  Wait on God’s power.  Don’t move presumptuously.

The idea is that when we are faced with trouble in life, we need not be paralyzed by fear.  If we stand firm and trust in God,

then we can move forward.  Why?  Look again at verse 14,  The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

So many churches die and Christians never move into the Promised Land of living as an anointed child of God because they allow themselves to become frozen in the tundra of status quo.   Too many churches stagnate in the pond of familiarity and comfort because too few Christians are standing firm on the promise of God.

Facing some Goliath problem in life.  Facing some impossible situation.  Stand firm in faith and expect a miracle – we serve The God of the Impossible.

Friend, today you can look at the future and say, Forget this whole mess.  Forget the church.  I’m going back to my old way of life.  Or, you can say, “I just can’t go on.  I’m tired.  I’m afraid.  I’m staying just where I am.”  Or, you can cry out to the God of Miracles and say,

3.  I’m going FORWARD (15 -20)

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! ¹⁶ Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. ¹⁸ When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!”  ¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. ²⁰ The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night. ²¹ Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. ²² So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!

Notice in verse 15, that God instructs Moses to “stop praying.”  Now, prayer is important—most important—but, it should never be an excuse for inaction but the instigation for godly action.  There is a time for prayer, and a time for action.  One scholar I quote often put prayer in the proper perspective:  “We can do great things after we pray, but we can do nothing of merit before we pray!”

Friend, there is a miracle waiting for you! But you must “raise your hands and stretch out your arms” (v16).  to receive it from the Lord.  God is anxiously awaiting your invitation to become involved in your life.  God is expectantly awaiting our church’s invitation to become miraculously involved in our church life.  God wants to part the waters of our circumstances and guide us into the Promised Land of His blessing.   God wants you as an individual, and our church as a community to  GO FORWARD EVEN IF OUR WAY SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE!

Look at verse 21.  Take note that there was “no way through the Red Sea.”  Often we find ourselves facing an obstacle in life and there is no way through it, no way around it, and no way over it.  Our only hope is a “miracle.”  Every week we remind ourselves that in matters that matter most only a miracle will provide the way.  We sing, “God will make a way, where there seems to be no way.  He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me.”  Listen to verse 21 in the New Living Bible:  “ Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water.”  God made a way!

Look again at verse 21, “all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.” 

Notice that God used a miracle of manipulation, not creation.  God controlled the natural phenomenon of wind to produce the miracle of dry land for the Israelites to pass upon.  This is no less a miracle than if God created a bridge out of thin air.  My preaching hero, Adrian Rogers, used to say, “There are no natural laws they are all God’s laws, and nature obeys them.”  God can use the laws of science to His ends, but science without God always leads to dead ends!

Physicists actually have a name for the phenomenon God created that day.  It is called, “wind set down.”  This can create the very same type of phenomenon.  So, don’t assume that God cannot use doctors to heal you, or wise counsel to guide you.  God is absolutely sovereign and He can manipulate circumstances as well as create new circumstances ex nihilo (out of nothing).  The fundamental issue is not so much what happened, but Who made it happen.

Do you remember the story of the big flood and the man who climbed onto his roof to wait for rescuers?  It had been raining for days and days, and a terrible flood had come over the land. The waters rose so high that one man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house. As the waters rose higher and higher, a man in a rowboat appeared, and told him to get in. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the rowboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him. The waters rose higher and higher, and suddenly a speedboat appeared. "Climb in!" shouted a man in the boat. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the speedboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him. The waters continued to rise. A helicopter appeared and over the loudspeaker, the pilot announced he would lower a rope to the man on the roof. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the helicopter went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.  The waters rose higher and higher, and eventually they rose so high that the man on the roof was washed away, and alas, the poor man drowned.  Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched straight over to God. "Heavenly Father," he said, "I had faith in you, I prayed to you to save me, and yet you did nothing. Why?" God gave him a puzzled look, and replied "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

The key is not to try to determine “how” God should act to bring about a miracle, but to simply trust Him to do so—AND MOVE FORWARD!

I want to ask each of you here this morning to make a covenant with God.  I want you to invite Him to do something miraculous in your life and in the life of this church.  Will you invite Him

to be a dynamic, active part of your life today?

Let’s not go back into our old ways.  Let’s not become stagnant like a pond of standing of water.  Let’s rush forward down from this mountain of worship and let God do something remarkable, stupendous, miraculous for us in our lives and in our church.  Like the great hymn says,

Onward Christian soldiers !