The Waze of God
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Back in July my family and I had the opportunity to go on vacation. It was such a good time with friends that we only get to see about once a year. We went down to Tennessee to see them, and we decided for our trip that we would download an app that many of our friends have been using for years. It’s an app called WAZE. It’s such a cool app. It tells you where there are road hazards and stopped vehicles on the side of the road, as well as when Highway Patrol officers have been reported. All really helpful things. We used it on the way down there and things were great. We used this app on the way home and it seemed to be chaos. We got past Louisville and it told us to avoid an area of interstate 71 so it took us a back way along the ohio river and brought us into Florence, KY. Then as we got back on the Highway it said to not take 75 but to go east on the outerbelt, then it took us off the outerbelt and on to some city streets. It took us through some neighborhoods that looked very different than Sidney, OH. Eventually it got us back on I-75 about 7 miles north of the Ohio River. If you would ask my family I was frustrated. I thought this app was stupid, I didn’t trust it. Does it really know what it is doing, I’m sure that if I would’ve just went my way it would’ve been better.
I prefer predictable. I want to know where I am going and stick to the plan. Unpredictable makes me uncomfortable. But there has never been a more unpredictable time that I have ever experienced than right now. As soon as we think we have a handle on things, and things are moving back to normal there seems to be a new statement made that puts us right back in to scratch your head mode saying “now what are we going to do?”
We are in this unpredictable time, and it is a reminder that God is unpredictable. God’s character is unchanging.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
God is consistently consistent, he is reliably relaible. He was a waymaker, his is a waymaker, he will be a waymaker. He was is and will be a healer. The only thing that keeps us from losing our everloving minds during this time is that God is the same.
But his ways are unpredictable. In the new testament there are times that Jesus heals, by saying a word, and then there are other times that he waits four days. Sometimes people just touch the hem of his garment, and other times he makes mud with his spit. And other times that someone prays three times, and God kinda says, “No, I kind of like it that way”
“God things have never been this bad” but “Spiritually things have never been better”
I have never been in this much pain, but you’ve also never been in this much prayer.
Instead of changing the situation, I will give you grace to get you through this.
I am so thankful that we have a God whose character doesn’t change. But although His character never changes his actions are unpredictable. In the passage of scripture that we are going to look at today. God has called Moses, and he tells Moses that He will use him to set the people free from the bondage of the Egyptians. He tells them that God will use Moses to lead the Israelites into the promised land. And Moses is very reluctant, but he eventually gets on board.
In the beginning of Exodus we have the story of the Plagues; the Water is turned into blood; the frogs, gnats flies, and livestock die, and boils and hail and locusts. Plague of darkness, and then we read about the passover and the plague of the firstborn. And up until the last plague Pharoah says he will let the Israelites go, and then he goes back on his plan. Finally after the death of the firstborn Pharoah lets them go, and they are headed out of Egypt. And that brings us to our passage of scripture.
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.
I didn’t see that coming
My quality of life will be determined by my ability to respond to what I didn’t see coming.
I was on the way home this week from Dayton and the Reds were supposed to be playing baseball, but there was a rain delay, and they were playing an interview of Joey Votto. They asked him a question about Houston Astros, and about them cheating. For those of you that don’t know the Astros were using a camera to predict the pitches and someone was in the dugout hitting a trashcan to communicate the the batter what pitch was coming. But Joey Votto said that he doesn’t really want to know the pitches, because if you do it can give you a false confidence in what will be thrown. He said a great hitter is ready to hit and can adjust to whatever pitch is thrown.
If I were saying this to a baseball player I would say the quality of your at bat will be determined by your ability to respond to the pitch that you didn’t see coming.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
This is a season of life where it seems like every day we have no clue what is around the corner. What God has been showing me is that an unpredictable life is really the way it has always been. We just get confident in our own plans and forget that life is unpredictable.
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Life is full of surprises. This means that
If you are going to live well you must be willing to relinquish control
What is odd is that we need to relinquish what we don’t really have anyway. What we really need to give up is the illusion of control.
Control is only for God, and when we attempt to control we carry the weight that God is in God’s job description. Some of you get panic attacks over this. The reason you get them, is that that responsibility is above your paygrade. You know how I know, because I sleep and the world still spins. I go to bed at night and the sun still rises the next day. We are not in control. IF we are going to be successfully we have to wrap our minds around what this text is teaching us.
How to manage in unpredictable seasons. This story tells us that we may be really excited about the things that God has in store for us, but we might be surprised by the route that he takes us.
In the Old Testament the Promised land was a physical location. But for us the promised land is a picture of the life that is available to us through christ, both here on earth and for eternity.
Picture Moses, he gets a word from the Lord. We are in Egypt and we are going to the promised land.
That’s an exciting sermon to preach to the israelites....
Egypt-Promised Land (those are the only two destinations in the conversation)
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
Wait a minute God, you promised I was going from Egypt to the Promised land...
He didn’t lead them through philistine county though that way was shorter.
We always assume that God will give us a straight path to the promise
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
God knows the battles that we aren’t ready to fight.
I could take you that way, but if I did you would be exposed to trials that you aren’t ready to fight.
Every Blessing has a backside
They were ready to get into the promised land, but they weren’t ready for the trials that would come along on the short path.
I’m not holding you up because you aren’t ready for frontside, I’m holding you up because you’re not ready for the frontside. I’m not telling you “no” I’m telling you “not right now” so that when I give it to you, you are ready to handle the responsibility that goes along with it.
Someone here is experiencing a divine delay. It’s just delay it’s not denial. Maybe you are ready for it, but you aren’t really ready for it. You can be ready for the pay-raise and not ready for the pressure. Maybe at this time, God is working to make sure your heart is prepared for the gift you are going to receive. If he gives us the gift too soon our heart may not be mature enough to handle it, and what we asked for as a blessing actually become a curse if you get it too early.
Can we pause right now and thank God for every time he delayed something that we asked for. We should be just as thankful for the doors he opens as the doors he closes.
“IF they face war, they might change their minds and return to egypt.”
So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.
Some versions say desert, others say wilderness. This is a destination that God left out of the conversation.
Egypt and Promised Land - no mention of the desert or wilderness.
That means that God intentionally withheld information from Israel until they were out of egypt. He held out the information until they were too far into it to Go back.
There are times that God intentionally withholds information from us because if we knew everything we were saying yes to we might not say yes. He waits until we are too far out of Egypt until it’s too far back in the rear view mirror, because if we did we would’ve never started the journey.
Lets face it, we like the promised land but we aren’t too sure about the wilderness. Thats kind of negative. I dont like that, I don’t want that. It’s negative, but what if it is necessary!?
The wilderness is only negative if you stay there longer than required
The wilderness is the surprise seasons, its what you didn’t see coming, and its what we would never prefer.
Wilderness seasons are necessary because they are seasons of preparation. Its preparation that God keeps you uninformed about. He’ll teach us a seminar that we don’t remember signing up for. While we are in the middle of it we have no clue how it could be beneficial but afterwards we look back and see how God’s hand was all over it. And he was teaching and guiding us the entire time. Jesus is not just your savior, he is your teacher and we need to receive the lessons so that we can receive the blessing.
He puts them in the desert and it’s this place of preparation, and wherever there is preparation there is pruning. Sometimes moving forward isn’t about what we start doing but about what we stop doing.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Issues
When the egyptians are in the desert or the wilderness, GOd is doing some pruning. Maybe during this season God wants to prune some of the issues that are in your life that can’t go in the promised land that he has in store for you. If you don’t take care of the issues now, your future will seem like wilderness because it’s full of the same problems.
Maybe it is a pruning of individuals
Walk with the wise and become wise,
for a companion of fools suffers harm.
Individuals
It doesn’t say a fool suffers harm. It doesn’t say the fool gets hurt. You don’t have to be a fool to suffer harm, you just have to hang out with them.
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Issues, individuals
Attitudes
All this time they were in egypt they were slaves, and God was making them into a fierce army. They were out of egypt but egypt wasn’t out of them. God needed to adjust their attitude so they could see themselves properly. Because you will behave in a way that is consistent with the way you see yourself. That is why I consistently speak about finding one’s identity in Christ.
Israel’s wilderness can say a lot to us today becuase we are in the middle of a surprise season. So what are we supposed to do during these times. We manage it. And how we manage the surprise season determines whether it is prolonged or made permanant.
So how do we manage these seasons. Because these seasons are a surprise, but they also bring trials that we weren’t expecting.
Israel is in the desert on the journey, and they get hungry. They start asking for bread.
The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
DO you know what manna means
“What is it!?”
God we asked you for bread - what is this.
God I asked you for strength - what is this
God I asked you for peace - what is this
God I asked you for peace - what is this
God I asked you for joy - what is this
God I asked you for gentleness - what is this.
Manna Represents Three Things
1.) The times when God’s performance doesn’t match your expectation.
They asked for bread and thought that God was going to provide loaves of bread. But what God provided looked so different from they expected that they didn’t even recognize that God had answered their prayer.
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
God’s provision came in the form of a project.
Look at this word they took what God gave them and they ground it. Sometimes you have to take what God has given you and you have to grind with it. For some of you today it’s grinding season, you have to take what God has already provided and grind it. And if you just grind you can turn it into what it was created to be.
Manna represents when God’s performance doesn’t match your expectation.
2.) When God supernaturally suffocates the supply.
Mannah only lasted for 24 hours except for the day before the sabbath. Ever day when they woke up they had to depend on God to provide. it wouldn’t be like that forever, but for that season. And everyone will go through those seasons, where God supernaturally suffocates your supply, so that every day you look to Him. God was telling the Israelites that there would be things that they would have to ask God for in the desert that you will have an abundance of in the promised land. And if you aren’t thankful for it in the desert, you will forget where it all really comes from in the promised land.
The promised land was flowing with milk and honey it was rich agriculturally. But before they got there, God had to teach them where their providence was really coming from. The source and the abundance wasn’t really from the Land, the source and the abundance was from God. God didn’t want them to get the blessing and forget about the Blesser.
Someone here today needs to make a stand that you will never see the blessing and forget about the Blesser. It was, has been, and always will be, GOD.
God is telling the Israelites that during this season he was going to teach them a different kind of dependance.
3.) Manna represents seasonal supply.
The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.
Some of us are in this season, and we are experiencing an anxiety and God says, “This is just temporary. This is just what I am doing right now, this is just to hold you over until you get where I am taking you.”
Manna was a temporary provision from God. So instead of experiencing anxiety from the manna they should have been so appreciative, that they would see God’s provision for what it really is. A MIRACLE!
Sometimes we can get so busy looking for a miracle, that we overlook the miracle that we are currently living in.
One of the largest problems Israel faces is that they forget how good the Lord has been to them, they do it time and time again. They are ungrateful for what the Lord has already provided.
What is the proper response to miracles? APPRECIATION. which in church language is PRAISE.
Praise isn’t just singing, or noise, praise is Good Manners because of the miracles of God.
Praise is the recognition of God’s provision in my life. Praise is the automatic response to God’s goodness. Praise is the gratitude for God’s miracles.
Yes we have experienced a lot, but I think we need to pause and thank God for the manna during this season that he has provided us.
This was to be a season for Israel, but you know what they did, they mismanaged it. So what was supposed to be a season, ended up being 40 years.
Just because you are surprised doesn’t mean you aren’t prepared. You might be surprised by the season that you are in, but it doesn’t mean that God hasn’t prepared you for it.
The way you manage your desert season is if you can recognize that God has prepared me for this.
I didn’t see it coming, but I am ready. I don’t prefer it, and I wouldn’t have picked it, but I’m ready.
The plagues, splitting the red sea - he was making them ready. He has made you ready, the question is, will you apply what your teacher has already taught you.
When you look at what God has done in the past, to doubt him today would be foolish. God always come though. SOmetimes I look at it and its manna, but if the Lord doesn’t give us what we think we need he will teach us to live without it.
You didn’t see it coming, but God got you ready for it.
Prayer
People who have been knocked off their feet.
Just because you are surprised doesn’t mean God hasn’t been getting you ready.
Pray for resilience.