Back to Egypt

How to Run Forward, when you feel like running away!

Intro

What do you do when you don’t feel like going on?  How do you keep going?

What do you do Christian when it seems like the Lord is far away and then all of a sudden the old way of  doing things, the old life starts to get attractive again?

The Bible is so cool in that it shows us that we can be real with God.  It shows us how great men of God or people of God felt like giving up sometimes, felt overwhelmed, and sometimes failed miserably

Most are familiar with the story of Moses leading the enslaved children of Israel out of Egypt.  There were many signs and wonders done to deliver them such as had never been seen on earth before.  There could be no doubt.  The ten plagues, the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of could by day to lead them and show them that God was with them, the supernatural appearance of food every morning to feed them, their clothes would never wear out and in fact would grow with them.  With all of this and more…when they were on the threshold of receiving the promise of they doubted God.  In fact in Nu. 13-14 upon hearing that their were giants in the Land that God promised them they started crying like babies and cried out “oh that we would have died in Egypt…let’s go back…wa wa wa”

After all the miracles, all the evidence that God loved them with all His heart, they wanted to return to the very place that God had delivered them from.  The place where they slaves.  Their women were raped, the men beaten and whipped, their children locked in chains instead of being able to play and be kids. 

Unbelievable right?  What a smack in God’s face!  But not so unbelievable.  We do it all the time.

When our emotions take over our lives in a negative way, they can lead us back into slavery…they can make us desire the former life…the more comfortable way.

NT example.  Peter the “Rock”  When the Lord met him, he was a fisherman named Simon then the Lord renamed him “the Rock.”  He was the original.  But when Jesus was arrested and being taken to be crucified “the Rock’s” fear overcame him and he denied that he even knew Jesus.  And later after Jesus had been crucified we find Peter the Rock back at his old life.

He had failed and it was overwhelming him.  He wasn’t out turning the world upside down for Jesus as he was called to do….he was fishing.

He went back to the familiar, the comfortable, the life that required no faith.  After having seen all the miracles of the Lord, and even performing some himself in the Lord’s name, still he walked away because of fear and shame…emotions.  The cool thing is that Jesus sought Him out and chased him down, and restored him.  God will chase you if you run, but it’s always better if you don’t run.

So what do we do?  All of us are susceptible to these feelings of wanting to run away.

3 Things we can do:

1.  Remember milestones (altars) along the way

The Great men of God would always build an altar of stones or whatever anytime they had some great God moment in their life.  Jacob wrestling with the Lord all night ‘til he was blessed, Joshua when the Jordan’s waters parted for the people, etc.  Why?  So they would not forget.

We would call them milestones today which are figurative.  But when you at a time of great personal distress simply call to mind the faithfulness of the Lord in the past. 

His character doesn’t change.  He has provided all the grace already that you will ever need in life.

Were you blessed and felt the power of God at an altar time during Forerunner?

Did Jesus rock your world at one of our WWR retreats?

Did He whisper something to your heart among the thousands of teens at Youth Convention?

In the quiet time in your room when it was just you and Jesus, did He show you a scripture in the Bible that leaped straight to your heart?

Remember that God was there then, and he is here now!  His love for you hasn’t diminished in the slightest.  His love for you is all consuming, it is perfect, and it is full.

2.  Speak the Word to your soul

Psalm 42(NKJV) " As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go with the multitude(crowd); I went with them to the house of God (to Forerunner), With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me;

(Point #1)

Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God."

All through this you see overwhelming emotions that are yelling at him to run away, but not only does he recall great God moments of the past in his life, he actually speaks out to himself.  Telling himself to Hope in God, and with faith he says ‘for I shall yet praise Him!’

3.  Think (truth)

Use your head…do you really want to return to the slavery?  Remember how the past truly was, not just the temporary excitement of the sin.  Remember the emptiness, remember the lack of fulfillment…remember the TRUTH not the lies of the enemy.

Remember that there is an enemy that wants to kill you…it doesn’t matter if it is slowly or quickly.   He will manipulate your negative emotions

Cost benefit ratio

Altar/Summary

Feeling dry?  Failed lately?  Afraid of trusting Him?  Frustrated with where you are at?  Feel like running away?

Forerunner:  We have seen, but there are giants in the land

Personal:  You have seen and felt the touch of the Lord yet when confronted with the difficulties you turn away.

Prodigal –God patiently waited

Job 13:15 “though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…”