UnStuck Part 5

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Recap:

Israel are slaves

Moses is sent

Egypt is judged

Israel is released

God takes the Israelites the long way

To a place where they are stuck

We are not the main character and that is ok

And the point of all of it is Jesus

The Exodus story is pointing us to the cross

Jesus does for us what we can’t do for oursevles

He saves and delivers

All we need to do is stand firm, be still and let Him fight for us

God parts the Red Sea

He wipes out the Egyptian army just like He said He would

So, the Israelites are on the other side of the Red Sea victorious and free

And here is their response to that new reality

Exodus 15:1–21 NIV

1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. 2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. 4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea. 5 The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy. 7 “In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble. 8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’ 10 But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? 12 “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies. 13 In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. 14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. 15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; 16 terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone— until your people pass by, Lord, until the people you bought pass by. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance— the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established. 18 “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” 19 When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. 20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.”

The Israelites see victory over their enemy and rightfully so they begin to glorify and worship the Lord

For 21 verses they declare of the Lord’s might and provisions

His power and authority

That there is nothing that He can’t do

Then the very next verse here is what happens

Exodus 15:22–24 NIV

22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

They have this major triumph and victory over the Egyptians

They’ve crossed the red sea

They worship the Lord

All of these good things are happening

But all of it is short lived because once again Israel finds themselves “stuck”

They’ve gone 3 days without water

They finally find some water but they can’t drink it

They “grumble” to moses

And so Moses cries out to the Lord

You see, Israel may have made it out of Egypt, but Egypt hadn’t made it all the way out of them

Even after seeing all that God had done for them leading up to this moment, there was a still some doubt in them about God’s intention for them

The Israelites begin to build a reputation of being a grumbling people

We see it here in chapter 15

Just a couple of verse later in 16 they say

Exodus 16:2–3 NIV

2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

In the next chapter we see this

Exodus 17:3 NIV

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Israel had decided that in moments of victory and plenty they would worship

In moments of lacking and testing they would grumble

“It had yet to be demonstrated by testing whether the children of Israel were a worshipping people who occasionally murmured, or if they were a murmuring people who occasionally worshipped. Their true nature would be revealed in times of testing.” - David Guzik

Are the Israelites a worshipping people who occasionally grumble

Or a grumbling people who occasionally worship

Let me ask us the same question:

Are you a worshipping person who occasionally grumbles?

Or are you a grumbling person who occasionally worships?

You see, the Israelites viewed what they had as better than what God had for them

And when trials come we will be tempted to see our past as a pattern for our lives instead of seeing what God has for us moving forward

The Israelites still viewed Egypt as something they wanted to go back to instead of something that they had been saved from

And through trials we begin to see the hearts of God’s people

And more often then not, God had just become a means to an end

Not the actual prize itself

God had become the means by which the Israelites would get what they wanted and as soon as they didn’t they immediately turned to grumbling

And instead of focusing on what God had done they could only see what He hadn’t done

And if you aren’t catching on yet, and if you don’t see it yet, and if you don’t hear it yet, let me be crystal clear this morning:

We are the same way

Following Jesus is great until it’s not

And how do we respond during those times when it’s not?

Are we grumblers who worship for an hour on Sunday

Or are we worshippers who will occasionally grumble?

If we view God as a means to an end, He will only occasionally be worth worshipping in your eyes.

But, if we view Jesus as the prize itself, then we are going to have a really difficult time, not worshipping Him always.

We must learn that the Lord’s main objective for you is not to keep you safe and warm and cozy through life

His main objective for you is to get you to Him

And when we forget who God is and what He has done, we doubt His intention for us and we lose trust in His character

God’s character is to provide for His people

Not always physically or circumstantially

But fully, provide for His people

And Isreal has to learn this and believe it

Even here in Ex 15, God instruct moses to grab a piece of wood and to throw it in the water.

And He provides for them their needs.

He makes water that is bitter and undrinkable

To “fit to drink.”

In fact, the phrase, fit to drink, is translated to “sweet or pleasing.”

What a picture of the way God operates

He can take that which is bitter and not just make it not bitter but above and beyond to the point where it is sweet

That God can take things in our lives that are bitter and painful and even make them sweet.

God had taken Israel out of Egypt but Egypt was still being taken out of Israel.

The Israelites still needed to learn how to trust God whole-heartedly

And I believe that sometimes we have to get stuck for God to get out of us what is hindering us

And it may be painful and it’s usually not fun, but it is for our good

James 1:2–4 NIV

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I bought a mountain bike this week because I want to start riding some trails and different things. And i don’t know how much bike riding you’ve done in your life but to ride miles and miles through trails you have to have a certain amount of endurance. Now, I’m a planner and a researcher and so I’ve read pages and pages of the different kinds of bikes, the different components of one and what they do, I’ve read about the different riding you can do on one, I’ve watched dozens of youtube videos about all of it. I’ve thought all about it for some time now. Now, I can read all I want and I can watch all I want, but nothing is going to help me build the endurance that I need to ride one like getting on and riding one will. I can talk about it, I can read about it, I can watch it, I can even eat healthy, even go to the gym some, but to be able to ride 20 miles non stop on a bike, I need to first ride 2 miles and then 5 and then 10 and then 15

in vs 13 James tells us that when we are able to persevere through trials that we will receive the crown of life promised to us by the Lord

That we get the crown of life in Jesus

That we get Jesus

And so, when trials come, not only should we not blame the Lord or grumble to the Lord but we should consider the trials joy because it is producing in us the perseverance to trust the Lord no matter what life throws at us

And if we are able to fully trust, fully love the Lord no matter our circumstances, it leads us to Jesus the ultimate prize.

Yes, our flesh is weak, but the Spirit of God is strong, and so there is this process of getting the flesh out of us so the Spirit of God is stronger in us

So we must learn to trust God in all things because He is trustworthy through all things

We must stop treating God as a means to an end and start treating Him as the object of our worship and affection

We must realize that we are weak and we still have this flesh in us that will cause us to grumble from time to time

But to become a worshipping people who may grumble instead of a grumbling people who may worship

We must realize that we will get stuck sometimes

Sometimes that’s by our own doing, sometimes it’s intentional by the Lord

But it is always for His glory

And it’s always for our good

And I want to end today and this series with this thought

We might get stuck, God doesn’t

Just because there are season in our life where we feel stuck and there’s no where to turn and there’s nothing we can do about it

Doesnt mean that God ever feels that way

God always has a plan and a purpose behind what He does

We just have to learn to trust Him no matter what.