Cornered

Have you ever felt like you were in some sort of desperate situation you cannot get out of or cornered by something that has happened in your life?

cornered by something that has happened in your life?

because often times we gets cornered by all sorts of things that are happening to us.

We feel cornered because we have debt or we do not know how we are going to pay our bills and we get that cornered mind set where we get backed into a corner and go “how am I going to get out of here?”

We have a medical issue in our life and say “my life is never going to be the same”

People start a rumor about us and we start to get into a corner and say “can I really go to school or go to work tomorrow?”

We get anxiety, we get depression and we feel cornered there.

There are so many situations where we look at what is happening in our life whether we have been doing what God is calling us to do or not and we just get cornered down.

and we get this cornered feeling.

And today we are going to be looking at a story where the people in the story feel cornered.

because we can have all sorts of different reactions when we feel cornered.

So we are going to be diving into that today.

But if you have not been with us the past few weeks we have been looking at the story of a man named Moses who ran away from where he lived but then God called Moses to free his people from slavery.

and what happens is Moses ends up giving these amazing signs from God to free the hebrew people from slavery.

So they end up being free but the ruler of Egypt changes His mind and decides that they are going to get back at the Hebrew people who ran away and this is where the story picks up to day.

So we are in 6

and basically in this passage the people are cornered and they have to decide how are we going to respond to this.

So once again it is 6 and it says

Exodus 14:10–16 NIV

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 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? 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!” 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. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 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.

So what we see in this story is the Israelites are cornered down pretty badly.

On one side of them there is this army that they stand no chance against, and they are planning to end their lives most likely.

But on the other side of them is this body of water that for them would be impossible to cross.

And they get this feeling where they are terrified.

I mean they really are looking at what is happening and really even we are reading it and there is no way out of this for them.

They are cornered and when we get cornered as I mentioned its easy to get that terrified feeling.

and that feeling can be pretty natural. our feelings often are pretty natural, (we get depressed we get anxious, we get terrified, and sometimes God does provide peace during times like that but what I want to look at the different responses that we have when we are terrified, when we are depressed, when we are anxious, when we are experiencing whatever emotion.

Because look what happens when the people realize they are cornered and terrified.

It says at the end of verse 10 and into verse 11 because it says they called out to the lord but did not really have faith in Him, because they start to go we are going to die here.

And then they start playing the blame game

And whats crazy if you have been with us in our series they have seen God do some pretty amazing things and a lot of the amazing things that God was doing we dident even cover.

But now they are here cornered and completely forget all that God has done for them and they are just thinking that God has abandon them.

And I am reading this and I relate to these people because I am the person who something small will come up, (I get a bill in the mail I didn't expect, something unexpected pops up and I go God why did you bring be to this point to abandon me?

I am just like the hebrew people going did you just bring me here to kill me?

And I think a lot of us react that way also.

We get cornered and we say “God why did you bring me here?”

I have been faithful to you and I have been doing your will and this is how you treat me.

But look back in the story we are in because Moses is right there with all of these people who are mad at him and are questioning God, but look what Moses does in verse 13.

Because Moses is a little more stressed then everyone else because people are blaming him saying this is all your fault.

but Moses awnseres them by saying “Do not be afraid.We are going to be delivered by God from the Egyptians and we are never going back”

“The Lord will fight for you”

Moses believed that God was going to make a way.

Because he knew that God brought them this way for a reason.

and he trusted God and had faith in Him.

Have any of you ever questioned when you sit down in a chair if it will hold you?

chances are you have never question that.

You typically don’t shake the chair or put only a little bit of weight on it .

You just plop down on the chair

why because you sit in chairs all the time and almost every-time it will not drop you.

And I think this is why we see Moses’s reaction is so different from everyone else, because he is not even saying “I think God is going to help me” But he is saying God is going to deliver us and fight for us”

Because you look at Moses’s life and God has not failed him so why would he fail them now.

Like I said there will be challenges but in the midst of the challenge Moses says “I trust you”

What would happen if our lives looked like Moses’s here?

What would happen if when we are scared to death we said God I trust you.

because when we face a circumstance in our life we can either react the way the Hebrew people did

Questioning God

Playing the blame game

Forgetting His faithfulness

Of we can react how Moses did by saying I will trust in you.

Because when we say God I trust you in this situation he makes a way.

because look what happens when Moses trust God

In verse 15 God tells Moses move forward!

This is before the God even did anything so God is saying get ready because I am going to deliver you.

So they move forward and Moses takes the staff and parts the sea.

And the the Israelites are delivered in the midst of their fear.

So where do you see your self today.

Are you like the Israelite people where you just say I am cornered and tI dont see how I am getting out of this this.

This debt is to large

This medical issue is to much

This depression is killing me

there is no way out of this.

But think about this and I stole this quote from someone else but the Isralites greatest momment of deliverance came in one of their greatest momments of doubt and fear.

God will not abandon you where you are right now.

God is right there saying I am here for you.

And maybe you are like Moses and you trust God but God is wanting you to move.

He is saying that is great that you trust me but I want you to take a leap of faith and move forward.

Prepare for me to deliver you.

So how are you responding to the situation in your life.

Because we can either cry out in fear or cry out in faith.

And we cry out to Jesus he will deliver us.

He will deliver us from our situation

That corner you are stuck in God can knock it down.

And if you look at what happens to Mosses and the Israelites its not all up hill but God does not abandon them.

He is right there with them

God is right here with you just saying come to me and give me the situation.

Because

Let pray

Pray

but more importantly he