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TEXT : Exodus 14:10-20
TOPIC: Facing the Impossible
Bible Survivor Series, First Baptist Church – Icard, Message 7
Pastor Bobby Earls, October 21, 2001
SLIDE 1
Please complete this quote from Jesus if you can...(Jesus speaking of rich men getting saved): Matthew 19:26 Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are POSSIBLE."
Try to complete this quote from the angel who met the young virgin Mary and pronounced she would soon become pregnant and give birth to the Son of God.
In Luke 1:37 the Angel said, "For nothing is IMPOSSIBLE with God."
Complete this quote from Jesus made in conversation with a distraught father who had come to Him asking Him to exercise an evil demon from his possessed son.
Jesus said to him in Mark 9:23b, "Everything is POSSIBLE to him who believes."
Do you believe those statements today?
I mean really, really believe that:
*What is impossible with men is possible with God,
*Nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible with God!
The power of God is displayed when we move beyond ourselves and face the impossible.
In Exodus 14, the children of Israel had moved way beyond their own comfort zone and found themselves facing an impossible situation.
With an angry Pharoah and the Egyptian army behind them, the Red Sea in front of them and the endless desert on either side of them, their options were few.
In fact, they faced three options.
They could go back to Egypt, stand still where they were, or go forward, even in the face of an impossibility.
America is at the crossroads today.
Our past is filled with glorious achievements, and grand accomplishments.
Before us is one of the greater challenges in the history of our nation.
How will we face what many believe to be an impossible situation with the war on terrorism?
Our church, in many ways, is also at the crossroads.
Behind us is a great history of walking forward as a progressive and an innovative church.
In front of us is the seemingly, uncrossable waters that block our pathway.
How will we, as a church, face our impossible situations?
SLIDE 2
WHEN FACING THE IMPOSSIBLE WE CAN SAY, “GO BACK.”
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.
Exodus 14:10
Someone has well said, “There are no endings with God, only beginnings.”
We may wish to go back when God has just begun to go forward.
The children of Israel wanted to go back when they had only begun to go forward with God.
They thought the beginning was the ending!
This was the first real challenge they faced after God delivered them from Egypt.
Notice that they did the right thing, but in a wrong way.
Verse 10 tells us “the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.”
They cried out to God but they cried out in fear not in faith.
It was right to call on God for assistance, but wrong to call out in fear.
They did the wrong thing.
They also did the wrong thing when they began to blame their leadership.
In their fear, they failed to acknowledge the guiding hand of God upon Moses.
They did the unthinkable as some would have preferred to return to the past living in bondage and disobedience.
They also did the inexcusable thing.
They forgot the blessings of God in the past and failed to see the prospects of God’s future blessings.
Most churches today own a calendar that correctly says 2001, but operate their ministry as if it were 1951.
Church growth experts across the country are right when they say the church is antiquated fifty years!
First Baptist Icard has never said, “We will go back!”
Our destiny is fixed.
Our resolve is sure.
Our aim is high and our goal is set.
We are a disciple making church that understands the price that must be paid for obedience.
We will not go back!
SLIDE 3
WHEN FACING THE IMPOSSIBLE SOME SAY, “STAND STILL.”
SLIDES 4-5
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.”
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.
14“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Exodus 14:11-14
Some would want to do nothing.
Frozen in fear, caught in confusion, hindered by hesitation, and delayed by deceit, many would choose not to choose.
Standing in the paralysis of analysis, the only decision that is made is to decide not to decide.
When Moses said, “Stand still,” he was not advocating doing nothing.
Instead, he was instructing the children of Israel to look to their only source of hope.
His fuller statement was, “Stand still and see…” See what?
“Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you!” Once again, the grace of God at work for man’s salvation is clearly seen.
It is never enough to stand still.
FBI does have the luxury to say we will simply stay where we are.
Churches do not have that luxury.
They are either moving forward or going backward.
Christians do not stand still.
Every day we are either going forward or backward in our relationship with God, but never still.
If we stand still, time and our community will pass us by.
I read about a foursome of senior golfers who hit the links of a course they had played many times over the years.
One ole boy said, “These hills are getting steeper as the years go by.”
Another complained, "These fairways seem to be getting longer too.”
Then the third senior player said, “and the sand traps seem to be bigger than I remember them too.”
At which their fourth partner, who was the oldest and the wisest of the four of them at 87 years of age, piped up and said, "Just be thankful we're still on the right side of the grass!"
Some church mottoes seem to be, “We shall not be moved!”
Others love to sing “Standing on the Promises,” while they are sitting on the premises.
And then there is always the seven last words of the church.
You heard them, “We’ve never done it that way before!”
When facing the impossible, some will say, “Go back,” while others will say, “Stand still.”
But there is a third and a correct option.
SLIDE 6
WHEN FACING THE IMPOSSIBLE GOD SAYS, “GO FORWARD.”
And the Lordsaid to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me?
Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
Exodus 14:15
SLIDE 7
There is a time to pray and there is a time to act.
In verse 15, the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”
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