UnStuck Part 2

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Intro:

Recap last week

Israelites enslaved by Egyptians

God leads the Israelites to a place of being stuck

What if we are stuck with a purpose?

What if we need to get stuck to move forward?

Today we continue with this story

Exodus 14:1–18 (NIV)

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this. 5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. 10 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!” 13 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. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 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. 17 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 his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

Has anyone ever heard of “Main character energy?”

Main Character Energy is a slang term used on social media to describe or refer to someone who is or wants to be the center of attention or wants more focus on them.

It's when someone puts themselves first and takes control of their narrative, experts say. Not in a selfish way, but in a self-affirming way that prioritizes self-care.// The problem is, "I find that sometimes people really do want to be the main character in everyone's story and want everyone to like them," says Raquel Martin, licensed clinical physiologist. (USA Today)

Experts say that this idea has become such a phenomenon and that the pandemic only heightened it culturally. Because more and more people were more and more isolated with little to do that videoing and posting yourself on SM became more popular which in turn caused people to think more and more about how they could perform for their spectators.

Summarize - Main character syndrome is when somebody presents, or imagines, themself as the lead in a sort of fictional version of their life.// Digital communication platforms make it easier for people to fall into the trap of main character syndrome. It could be (somewhat brutally) suggested that main character syndrome, itself, shares traits with psychological problems, like narcissistic personality disorder, and any disorder involving delusions. I suspect that this is only the case for a minority of people indulging in main character syndrome, but there is a suggestion that this type of fantasy can lead to behaviors that eventually mimic those seen in, if it becomes too ingrained. (Psychology Today)

When you have the main character syndrome, you could cease to value the people around you and instead view them as supporting characters and extras that are only there to move your story forward and support you. (Aislesoflife.com)

These are the kinds of things our kids are facing today.

Being so infatuated in self that I is the only thing that matters and my story and the main part I play in it trumps everything and everyone else

Now, this is directly associated with SM but how often have we find ourselves in this same line of thought regardless of age or use of social media?

How often do we insert ourselves into situations, conversations, circumstances as if we should be the main character?

How often in our minds, does everything revolved and point back to us?

I would imagine our answer, if we are honest, is far too often.

Today we are going to look at a story where we may misidentify the main character

and hopefully what we learn is that, it’s ok to not be the main character all of the time.

I want to go back in this story just a little to see how this part begins

Exodus 5:1–2 (NIV)

1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Moses and Aaron come to Pharaoh to tell him that the Lord has declared that he should let the Israelites go

And look at the question that Pharoah asks: “Who is the Lord?”

Now, imagine, Pharoah is one of the most powerful men in all of the world. There’s no telling how many times that he was called lord.

And here Moses says, “hey the Lord says, let my people go.”

And so Pharoah had to be thinking, “I don’t know who you are referring to as lord but around here I am lord.”

And so he asks “who is this Lord you are coming in the name of?”

So, even from the beginning of this story there is a question asked by Pharoah and it’s as if here in chapter 14, God, our creator and sustainer says “I will show you who I am and what I am capable of.”

Because look at Ex 14:4

Exodus 14:4 NIV

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

Exodus 14:18 NIV

18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

So, the crazy thing is, we read this story and we assume that this part of the story is all about the Israelites.

But, if anything, this part of the story is more about the Egyptians.

We can see that Israel being stuck, and ultimately rescued is FOR them, but it is ABOUT the Egyptians knowing that He is Lord.

God uses the parting of the red sea to speak to the Egyptians just as much as He used it to speak to the Israelites.

Here is the main point and could even be called the theme of the book of Exodus: Everything that we see done, that Egypt would be destroyed and Israel delivered was for one overriding purpose: the GLORY OF THE LORD.

When it comes to our self centered tendencies a truth that will always be true and help reign us in: is that everything that God has ever done, is doing now, or will do is for His glory.

That is clearly the reason for Israel's deliverance through the Red Sea.

And when it comes to how God is glorified we must understand that He is glorified both when He judges the wicked and when He saves His people.

His perfect justness is glorified in judgement and His grace glorified in His salvation

So no matter what your do, God gets glory. My hope is that His glory is seen through me by His grace and mercy on my life, not His judgement and wrath.

In seasons of life where we feel stuck, maybe we should ask ourselves the question, “is this even about me?”

Because, much of what is going on in our lives may be more directly about what God is doing in someone else. And that's ok.

WE GET TO BE PART OF A STORY THAT IS NOT PRIMARILY ABOUT US, AND THAT IS OK!

- a journalist on Medium.com “According to the New York Times, the average person knows about 600 people, and let's say that each person represents their own story. This means that in our lives, we play the side character about 599 times while only playing the main character once.// Either way, our actions, our words, and our presence are all influential to these stories. Every story, every person, is interconnected and understanding this, understanding our role in other people's lives is way more important than living in a way in which our story is the only one that matters. So I'm sorry to say, but no, we aren't the main character for the majority of our lives. But luckily, we are in supporting roles all the time. We have the opportunity to be influential and make other people's stories more interesting. And truthfully, that sounds more fun and more rewarding than being the Main Character ever would."

What if most of our lives we aren’t the main character?

In fact, What if most of our lives we are given opportunities to have an effect on someone else’s story?

What if our lives, ultimately, aren’t about us?

And what if everything we do is an opportunity to bring God glory?

From the beginning of our relationship with the Lord we can see the purpose of God's glory. Even in our own salvation.

Salvation/redemption/The Gospel is for us, but it's not primarily about us.

This does not lessen the implications of the Gospel for us, but it frees us from the weight of it all being about us.

You don’t have to work for it, you don’t have to earn it, you can’t mess it up, it doesn’t fall and rise on you. It doesn’t get better if you get better and worse if you get worse.

The Gospel is primarily about the glory and grace of a loving and holy God who upheld His love and holiness through the sending of His son to make atonement for our sin, in our place, by bearing our punishment, for the glory of His name.

So, I think it could be said that our attempts to live our life as "the main character" rob God of His glory in our lives.

At VBS our kids learned about the light of Jesus and how we are called to shine the light of Jesus

You and I are still learning that truth here today

We all have a spotlight.  We can use it so that we shine, or we can shine it on Jesus.

How much of everything you do is about you?

How much of what you do is about Jesus?

How are you using the gifts, the opportunities, your job, your roles, your conversations, your attitude, your time, your resources, your life to bring God glory?