Has Life Turned Out As You Imagined?

Introduction

How many could say this morning that you are a blessed person?

I would pray that you could sing with the great Russ Taff, “Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me.” “Jesus has been so good to me.”

But, I do want to ask you another question:

How many of you can say unequivocally that life turned out exactly as you had it planned when you were 18 years of age graduating school? Did life turn out as you imagined?

If we broke that thinking down to its smallest components, there would be some here that would say, yes, I went to school to learn a trade or attended a college of higher learning and I ended up with the career I sought after. I would say, good for you.

Others here might say, no, I never imagined that I would end up in the career field that I worked in these many years.

Others of you could say I never imagined that I would end up here in South Montgomery County or living in Alabama for that matter. Others might say that I never saw me marrying the spouse that you are married to for reasons such as:

-we were just friends.

- Initially, I thought they were not my type.

-Or, I didn’t think they would have anything to do with me.

Honestly, I never saw the chain of events in my life on the radar.

And, there could be some here this morning that if you were honest with yourself you might say “I never saw me being where I am at this moment.”

If I asked each one of you to share, it would be difficult to cut you off due to the twist and turns that came about over your course of life.

Israel was God’s chosen people and God loved them. God did not save Israel the way in which Israel thought they should journey to salvation. Trust had to be developed. God carried Israel in the way that God thought they should journey and dearly beloved, God’s ways are best. Amen?

Oh dearly beloved, we are Israel. We are a frail people that are selfish, self directed at time and we can be like children in the terrible two’s, as rebellious and stubborn and hard headed, yet while Israel made poor choices at times, God was still providentially in the shadows of life working His will regardless of their rebellious and uncooperative spirit.

This morning you may find yourself in such a place. You are at a place and for the love of God, you do not understand why things have turned out the way they have.

Today’s text reminds us that God loves us. God is at work in the undercurrents of life to push us in the blessed life He has in store for us. We simply by faith must place our trust in Him, being obedient and cooperative with His will for our lives. Amen?

Let’s get started.

Our time together spans Exodus 14. We will read the first four verses as a focal passage.

Exodus 14:1-31 Focal Passage Exodus 14:1-4

Exodus 14:1–4 NKJV

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’ 4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, I am so thankful my life did not turn out the way it could have ended up had I been leading the charge. Lord, thank you that when we all have wandered, thank you that you are a Shepherd that lovingly, graciously guides us back on your course for our lives. Lord, help us to see today that your ways are truly best for our lives. Lord, help us to understand a little deeper today your great love for us and your desire to offer Your best to us. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, Amen.

Message

We are studying on Sunday nights a study called Kingdom Heroes by Dr. Tony Evans. We are studying the biblical heroes that are spelled out in the Heroes Hall of fame in Hebrews 11.

Dr. Evans is quoted from our last Sunday night study saying:

Faith is trusting God to do what He says He will do.

Our journey today is growing in our trust of God’s will and direction for our lives.

You know at this point in the Exodus that Israel had been released from the enslavement of Egypt and the journey began in freedom to journey toward the promised land.

God is Divinely at work Influencing His Objectives for Your Life

Exodus 14:1 “1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: speak to the children of Israel.”

I’ll. Cantey family at store.

The beauty of our study here in Exodus 14 is that we have a comprehensive top down vantage point of identifying all the moving parts and have complete understanding as to what God’s objective was in the life of Israel and the life of Egypt and Pharaoh in this story.

What was God’s will? It states it right here in the text:

“I will gain honor over Pharoah and over his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.”

Who are the players in this scene? God is always the main character in a Bible story. Amen?

Moses represented the voice of God influencing the scene. Pharaoh represented the principalities and powers at work around us that are orchestrating to take us off course of the will of God for our lives. The people of Israel are us. We can identify with Israel because we never completely understand all that it is God is working to accomplish around us and in us at the time life is happening.

When life gets crazy we must learn to ask, Lord, what are you trying to teach me?

Exodus 14:31 “31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.”

This story ends great and we see at every juncture what the Lord was working to do. Yet, in the story, Israel did not know as it was happening what was coming next.

Dearly beloved, that is called life. We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds our future. Amen?

God was speaking to the people of Israel represented in the voice of Moses.

Exodus 14:2 “2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea.”

God speaks to us His children in many ways. Obviously, here God spoke directly to the people through the voice of Moses. God speaks directly to us through His Word.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Matthew 4:4 “4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ””

God’s very words are life for the Christian. They offer us direction, comfort, peace, correction, and the list goes on.

Furthermore, God’s Word blesses our lives and God can use His Word in us to grow the kingdom.

Matthew 13:23 “23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.””

But we must understand that God’s Word only impacts our lives when we do the things He tells us to do.

You might say to me, Brother Luke, I do not hear the voice of God speaking to me. I can not gain a sense of His will for my life. And I would in turn ask you, what are you taking in?

What are you habits of intake? Your output is totally related to your intake.

Each of us intake those things that are of interest to us. And many might say, I do not read the Bible, I do not understand it. Keep reading it. Make sure you are reading a translation you can understand. Do you attend a small group Bible study? What do you listen to in your car? What do you listen to or watch on your Ipad? What do you watch on TV?

Simply put, I find the more godly influence I have in my intake, the greater output of understanding I receive when God is trying to direct my steps.

Psalm 119:105 “105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

Look at the end of verse 4:

“And they did so.”

Israel did what God called them to do, but they did not understand it.

James 1:22 “22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

John 14:23 “23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

And that leads to my second point.

You Will Encounter Obstacles and Objections at Times During Life’s Journey

When we are found faithful to God I would love to say you will always understand every juncture you find yourselves in. That would be a false statement. We are not privy to all that God is working to accomplish about us.

In our story of the Exodus this morning we are privy to the other objectives God was working out.

In verse 2, the Israelites knew from their 400 years of enslavement and working in different regions of Egypt that they were not taking the shortest route to get to Canaan. Bible Scholars and historians can not pinpoint where Pi Hahiroth or Migdol or Baal Zephon were located at that time in Bible history. They had enough sense to realize they should have been traveling direct east rather than a southeastern direction. A southeastern direction was in total opposite direction of the promised land.

What is important to understand is that God had not directed the people to take the most direct route. This is now the third time they have been instructed to camp and for the distance they were to travel, something seemed odd to the people. They were not traveling what would be considered the obvious route to take.

Exodus 14:3 “3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’” Israel was not aware of these attitudes that Egypt had formulated in their minds. They did not know all of the undercurrent of activity going on behind the scenes of life. All they knew at the moment is something of this nature:

God, we love you, we trust you, but we have waited four hundred years to flee Egypt, why now are we spinning our wheels?

Look at verse 5 with me:

Exodus 14:5 “5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?””

Israel was clueless to these new formed attitudes toward the people of Israel. They were oblivious that Egypt was rethinking their actions.

Listen dearly beloved, I stated Pharoah and the people of Egypt represent what the Bibles calls “principalities and powers” at work against God through us in thwarting the will of God at work in our lives.

Ephesians 6:12 “12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

You might say, I do not get it. Pharoah and Egypt’s actions do not seem to be so devilish, it seemed more basic than that, it was carnal, selfish. And dearly beloved, that is where Satan begins his work in us is in our carnality.

Pharoah and the people of Egypt’s motivation was so much more basic that this grand deviant behavior. They missed being served. They missed the labor force that the people of Israel represented in Egypt. They could not accomplish the building projects at the same rate with Israel gone.

When you water it down, that same mindset was the mindset of the south in the Civil War. The slaves were the labor force for the economy of the south. There is no way we will be able to manage the row crops and cotton without a labor force. And by the way, we provided the slaves employment, a roof, food to eat. What are they going to do when they are free and have no gainful employment, no education, no place to live? But, the people in both cases were not free.

Oh dearly beloved, God wants to offer us His freedom. Free from the burdens of this world. Free from the guilt of sin. The Lord wants you liberated from your failures and falters of past called sin. He wants to offer you newness of life in Him. Amen.

Life is full of principalities and powers at work to keep you from fulfilling what God wants for you.

Has life dealt you a set of cards such as this?

The company I have been employed at 21 years has gone through a merger and they are downsizing and I was dismissed Monday morning. Yes, the company leadership is operating in more of a basic mind frame-to make greater profits for the owners and downsize overhead.

“Principalities and powers are at work.”

I was two points shy on my ACT score to attend the desired college I wanted to go to. Principalities and powers are at work.

Ill. Tyler Perry spoke at Lakewood Church-Joel Osteen’s church-Booster Rockets-people are to be in your life for a season. They are not going where you are going. They are not bad people, they just are not traveling where you are traveling.

But we learn from this story that God caused some things to happen to play with the minds of Egypt and Pharoah to bring to past some actions.

Verse 4:

“I will gain honor over Pharaoh and all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.”

Listen to me dearly beloved, what appears in your life to be a detour or a delay may be the fact that God is not only at work to accomplish something in your life, but He may be using you to impact another life.

Have you stopped to consider that what happened to you at the particular worksite you were originally employed may have been toxic for you? Did God move you to a more Christlike work environment for you to grow in Christ? Or, did God place you elsewhere because He has assigned someone or some group for you to evangelize for the Lord?

Maybe God blocked you from a certain school because He knew you would not succeed in that environment as well as you would at the other school you attended?

Unanswered Prayers-Garth Brooks

… Just the other night at a hometown football game My wife and I ran into my old high school flame And as I introduced them, the past came back to me And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be

… She was the one that I'd wanted for all times And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine And if He'd only grant me this wish I wished back then I'd never ask for anything again

… Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs And just because He doesn't answer, doesn't mean He don't care 'Cause some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers (very cool)

… She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams And I could tell that time had changed me, in her eyes too it seemed We tried to talk about the old days, there wasn't much we could recall I guess the Lord knows what He's doin' after all

… And as she walked away, well, I looked at my wife And then and there I thanked the good Lord For the gifts in my life.

Obedience to God’s Will Brings Our Greatest Opportunities for the Kingdom of God

“and they did so.”

Once upon a time, there was a devout Christian named Jack who had a deep-seated trust in God. One day, Jack was walking along a cliff when he slipped and started falling towards the rocky bottom below.

As he plummeted, Jack cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Suddenly, a branch appeared out of nowhere, and Jack grabbed onto it. Looking up, he exclaimed, "Thank you, Lord, for saving me!"

But then, the branch began to creak and sway, and Jack realized it wouldn't hold his weight for long. Again, he cried out, "Lord, I need your help!"

A voice from above responded, "Let go of the branch, Jack."

Jack hesitated for a moment and then shouted back, "Is there anyone else up there?"

The story humorously highlights the tension between trusting in God's plan and our human inclination to seek alternative solutions. Israel got it right. They did what God called on them to do.

Did they have struggles in their faith along the journey?

V. 3 “They were bewildered by the land; the wilderness closed them in.” Or so they thought. That is what Pharoah thought.

Exodus 14:5–9 NKJV

5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. 7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. 8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness. 9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon.

Exodus 14:10–12 NKJV

10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

The Israelites were bold as the scriptures stated until such a dominant force came against them. They saw the situation as the cards were stacked in favor of the Egyptians and they cried out , “you brought us out here because there are no graves in Egypt. For it would be better for us to serve the Egyptians than for us to die in the wilderness.”

Exodus 14:13 “13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.”

Their eyes were on the storm and not on the Savior.

Matthew 8:26 “26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

In the Hebrews Heroes Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, listen to what it says about Moses:

Hebrews 11:27 “27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”

Exodus 14:15 “15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.”

As you live out the Christian life, there will be times that you will not fully understand all that God is working to accomplish in your life and about you. God is at work in every circle of life you find yourself in. God wants to work in your marriage, your family, your friends, your livelihood, and in this church. There will be times that matters become murky and miry and we do not understand why things are happening as they are. Understand, God is up to something and He is working His will not only in you, but in the lives of others. Could times of delay, distractions, obstacles, and opposition be related to a time of growth-yes, could it be a time to deepen your faith-yes, could it be a time to reach out to someone you would not ordinarily reach out to-yes to all of the above. God loves you and those about you and He is at work bringing lives to reconciliation with Him. Amen.

Lastly, obedience is the answer to knowing God’s best for your life even when you do not understand it. God does understand it and He knows best.

Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Let’s pray.