“Jonah’s Flight” – Jonah 1

I have a scenario for you.  The year is 1942.  You are a Christian with a Jewish background living in New York.  Your parents were Jewish.  Your grandparents were Jewish and who knows how far back your Jewish ancestry goes?  You are very concerned about what is happening to the Jewish people all over Europe under the tyranny of Adolph Hitler.  So you pray and pray and finally God obviously speaks to you.

No, He doesn’t speak audibly.  It’s not a lightning bolt from Heaven.  No angel comes to you in a vision and yet you know without a doubt that what you have heard is from the Lord.  And He has told you to go to Germany to tell the people there that God is going to judge them for their part in this atrocity.  What do you do?

Here’s another scenario for you.  This one may be a little easier to visualize.  The year is 2014 and you live in Wise County as a Christian.  Maybe you have been a Christian for a week or 50 years but you can’t help but hear what God is calling you to do.  In your prayer time, your Bible study, your interaction with other believers, you understand that God is calling you to do something different; something you may have never done before.  What do you do?

Maybe He is telling you to do something with your time, your money or your talents.  Maybe He is telling you to stop doing something or to go somewhere or just to say something to somebody.  And I could probably stop right there because most of you, if you are halfway trying to be sensitive to God’s call already know the issue in your own life that God is working on with you.  The question before you now is:   what are you going to do?

Many years ago, I had a job working in a shop customizing trucks.  I worked with lots of guys who were not Christians but I had had a real burden for Rick.  Rick was an ex-drug addict who had been in and out of prison many times and I knew He needed Jesus in his life and so I prayed often for a good opportunity to speak to him about it.

I got that opportunity one day when I saw that he and I were going to be working underneath a truck together for a while and so I prayed that God would really give me the right words to say.  But as I gathered up my tools and started to get underneath there, nothing really came to me except to say something about church.  I “explained” to God the necessity of His giving me the right words and now was the time.  But all I got seemed to be, “Say something about church.”

Finally, out of sheer frustration with God’s lack of creativity in this area, I finally just said, “Well, Rick, we had a good day at church yesterday.”  And do you know what he said?  “Really?  Tell me all about it” And from there we talked about church which led to Heaven and Hell and sin and forgiveness and Jesus and how He died for us.  God used me even with a bad attitude to say what He wanted said to Rick.

Now, fast-forward just a few weeks later and I had gone to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels with some of my family for vacation.  We were waiting in line to ride some water rides and it seemed like we kept getting in line with a group of young men who were gay and wanted everyone to know.  They were loud and proud and it was very uncomfortable for me with my family.

And God might as well have said it audibly or with a lightning bolt or an angel that He wanted me to just go say hello to those guys.  That’s all I got.  Just say hello.  But I knew that’s what He wanted me to do.  And I had just recently seen what God could do with that kind of opportunity with Rick and knew that God would give me whatever He wanted said.  All I had to do was walk over there to where they were standing and say hello.

And do you know what I did?  I practically sprinted for the concession stand.  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty.  I just wanted to get away.  And do you know what happened next?  Nothing.  Nothing happened.  Unfortunately, that is the end of that story and all I can do now is pray that God would send somebody else to talk to those guys; somebody who was obedient to do that small thing that He was asking.

The book of Jonah is an absolutely fascinating story.  It is about a man who ran from God’s call.  It would go great with the sermon series “Story Time” we just left last week.  It’s another of those great old stories we grew up hearing as kids but that we probably haven’t looked at much lately.  For most people, they hear “Jonah” and picture a whale swallowing him.  But there is so much more to this story.  In fact, I want to spend the next few weeks looking at this story closer.

So, turn, if you would, to the Old Testament book of Jonah.  It is between Obadiah and Micah if that helps you any, in a part of the Old Testament not studied much with other prophets like himself.  Jonah lived about 7-800 years before Jesus but Jesus referenced Jonah and obviously believed the story to be absolutely true so I’m going with Jesus on this one, no matter what naysayers might put out.

Let’s read the first chapter of Jonah.  It’s not terribly long, only 17 verses.  So let’s look at Jonah’s flight; his running away from God.  Jonah 1.  “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  ³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.  ⁴ Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.  But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶ The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”  ⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”  ⁹ He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) ¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” ¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” ¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. ¹⁴ Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.  ¹⁷ Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. “

I have to admit that the most incredible, most fascinating part of this story, at least at first glance, is the very last sentence.  Jonah was swallowed by a fish.  I also believe it is the part that we need to focus on the least.  Sorry little kids but I’m not here to debate whether it was a whale or a fish or if he was really swallowed or it just felt like it to him.  I think a focus on the whale is misplaced.

We can learn a lot more about Jonah and similarly about ourselves and more importantly about God if we focus on 3 things.  Here we see Jonah’s negative response, his neglectful result and his notable revelation.  And I didn’t start out to try to make all of those start with the same letters but it did wind up that way and I think it’s important to see those specific things.  When I read a passage like this, I want to know what God wants us to know by putting a chapter like this in the Bible.  Is it to learn about the biology of fish?  I’m pretty sure that’s not it.

Let’s start by looking at Jonah’s negative response in the first 3 verses.  In the original Hebrew, God actually tells Jonah to “get up” and go to Nineveh.  “Get up” insinuates that Jonah was sitting or lying, not doing anything but now God has a job for him.  It’s not the first thing God has asked Jonah to do.  He is used to preaching to his home country of Israel and that seems to have worked out pretty well for him but now God changes his job description.

He is no longer to have home field advantage.  Now God tells him to go *gasp* to Nineveh.  Cue the evil-sounding music.  Boo!  Hiss! Nineveh!  This is like God asking you to go to Iraq or Iran and preach to Al Queda that if they would just repent that God will forgive them.  God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and he goes the opposite direction.  God says go east.  Jonah goes west, way west.  God says go to Dallas.  Jonah went to California.  You get the picture.

It’s also interesting to note that God says to “get up” and Jonah just goes down.  He goes down to Joppa.  He goes down to the boat.  He goes down below deck.  Then he goes down into the water and down further in the fish!  We will have to wait until next week before Jonah starts to see a pattern forming.

It says at the end of verse 3 that Jonah sailed to Tarshish to flee from the Lord.  In Psalm 139 David writes, “You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.”

For David it was great comfort knowing that God was always with him.  We comfort each with those words often in difficult times.  It’s great to know that God is always with us…unless we are trying to outrun Him.  And we would read this about Jonah and think how ridiculous it was for him to try to run away from God.  He was a man of God.  He knew better.

So why did he do it?  Why did Jonah run away?  He had a lack of fear of God.  He had a lack of faith in God.  And he had a lack of forgiveness for the people.  And again, I didn’t try to make those all start with the same letter.  Sometimes it just works out.  He had no fear, no faith and no forgiveness.  Remind me later to preach on those 3 points!  But what that boils down to is that while he was a man of God, in that he was a prophet, he was not a friend of God or a child of God.  I’m not judging whether he went to Heaven or not.  I’m saying he didn’t really know God.  He only knew about God.

Because when we really start to know Who God is and how He works, fear, faith and forgiveness come on us and change our lives.  When you have a relationship with the Almighty God through His Son Jesus, then you start to see His sovereignty, His power, His grace, love, mercy and forgiveness to you and that changes how you live.  If it doesn’t; if your life has not been changed for the better and continues to grow in fear, faith and forgiveness then today needs to be the day of your salvation!

Jonah had a negative response to God’s call.  Learn from his mistake and fear God and His wrath and have faith that He will protect and provide for you, and remember His forgiveness of you.  Because when you have a negative response to God’s call like Jonah did, you may well wind up with a neglectful result like he did.  Let’s see his neglectful result in verses 4 and 5.  Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.  But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

There is a lot to be gleaned from these 2 verses.  It says the Lord sent a great wind on the sea.  Have you ever noticed that when the weather causes a problem insurance companies call that an act of God?  A nice, refreshing rain is never an act of God.  Beautiful weather and a cool breeze is never an act of God.  Only hurricanes and tornadoes and the like.  Well, this weather problem is definitely an act of God.  God takes full credit for it. 

The NIV says He “sent” a great wind.  Other translations may say He “ordained” or “appointed” the wind.  This is a word you will see several more times in this book.  It speaks to God’s sovereignty and His power.  In fact, if you see nothing else in the whole book, I hope you see that God’s ultimate will is going to be done.  I heard the great, powerful preacher Dr. Joel Gregory say that God is so great that He can take what you do, that He didn’t want you to do and get done what He wanted to get done.

Jonah neglected to do what he was supposed to do and so God sent a great storm.  Now, one of the problems with neglecting to do what you are supposed to do is that you rarely ever do it by yourself.  And the result is that the people around you naturally have to suffer as well.  It’s not fair to your spouse when you are disobedient to what God tells you to do.  It’s not fair to your kids.  It’s not fair to your friends or even your enemies.

Even if God is calling you to Iraq to preach to Al Queda, ultimately your family and friends and everyone around you will be glad you did because your disobedience will spill over into their lives.  Jonah probably thought his disobedience wouldn’t hurt anybody else.  It was a victimless sin, he thought.  But I guarantee you the sailors on that ship knew differently.  There is no victimless sin.

Because our lives share connections, the way we live our lives will share consequences.  And when you are going through a storm because of your disobedience to God, that storm affects all of us as well.  Having grown up in the church I have seen many times the storm that comes with the sin of unforgiveness.  Jonah struggled with it.  Maybe you do too.  Well, it’s time to repent and get over that.

I have heard people tell me that they just can’t forgive someone and so they are leaving the church.  I hate that.  I hate that they can’t get over that and they willingly continue to live in sin.  And I will not chase them down the road trying to get them to come back.  I’ll let them take their sin-storm on down the road because we don’t need that here.  I’m not saying that you have to be perfect to go to church.  Not at all! I’m saying that continuing to live in sin of any kind will sooner or later bring a storm in your life because while God loves you enough to accept you as you are when you come to Him, He also loves you too much to allow you to stay that way.

Jonah neglected to do what was right and he and all those around him suffered as a result.  His negative response led to a neglectful result but in verse 9 Jonah finally talks and gives a notable revelation.  He says, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”  Isn’t that fascinating?  When asked who he was and where he came from, all he could do was tell the truth, even if he wasn’t living the truth.

I heard the story recently of a man who knew God was calling him to preach but he didn’t want to be a preacher and so he ran away from God and his call.  He did other things and tried to keep busy but he couldn’t shake the fact that God was calling him.  But he didn’t want to do it and he put it off so long it started to cause problems for him and his family.  Remember what I said about the storm affecting others?

He finally got so bad that he went to see a secular psychiatrist.  He talked with this woman who was not a Christian for a while and finally the woman asked him, “Sir, do you think God may be calling you to preach?”  She knew it.  He knew it.  All he had to do was admit it and be obedient.

Jonah finally admits who he is and in that revelation he tells them a lot more than just his name and profession.  His revelation was that he knew Who was causing the storm.  He had heard from Him.  He was just trying to run away.  His revelation was so notable that the sailors understood immediately and believed him that God was in control of the storm.

We see in later verses that they believed and repented and even prayed to Jehovah God to save them.  They asked for His forgiveness for throwing him overboard.  They evidently became converts to the very God that Jonah was running from.  What Jonah was trying to avoid, the Pagans receiving God’s forgiveness, was happening right there on the boat!

There is power in the name of the Lord.  Just His name is able to save.  Just His name brings forgiveness, mercy and peace.  God wanted Jonah to go and witness to the lost.  Jonah said no.  God used him to do it anyway.  But counter that with the ministry of Jesus.  God told Him to go and He went.  He left the perfect glory of Heaven to come to earth to save the lost.

God said go.  Jonah said no.  God said go.  Jesus just said yes.  Jonah said, “Not your will but mine.”  Jesus said, “Not my will but thine.”

We are all called to do something.  What is God calling you to do?

"Story Time" - The Empty Tomb - John 20:1-18

Have you ever been half-way through a passionate argument…and realized the other person was right? I bet if you were honest that most of you would say yes to that. And what do you do at that point? Do you continue to argue because you don’t want to lose the argument or do you admit it and do things right? Maybe you come to realize that - oh, no! - your spouse is right and squeezing the toothpaste from the bottom really is the best way. Or that maybe you should leave 5 minutes earlier instead of being late every time.

But what about a subject that is really important? Wouldn’t you want to know the truth? How many of you have ever been really wrong about something really important? You realize that somebody is speaking truth to you but you have been wrong about it all your life. And now, to change what you believe is going to change your whole life. What do you do? Do you continue to follow the wrong path just so you don’t look wrong? Or do you change your way of thinking and your life if necessary?

I have said before that I think that everybody, deep down, wants to know the truth. Nobody wants to go through life doing it wrong, even if some of us don’t always act like it. And we all want to think that we would change and follow the truth if it were revealed to us but - the truth is – most people don’t. And to get a good idea of this we need to see what our lives would be like without the truth…and with the truth.

And nowhere is that better illustrated than in our last installment of “Story Time”. In this sermon series we have looked at several of the great Old Testament stories; those old stories we were told and taught as little kids that involve great miracles but are really stories of great faith.

We saw the faith that it took Noah to build the ark. We saw the faith that it took Moses to just hold his hand out as God parted the Red Sea. And last week we looked at one of my favorites and saw young David, in great faith, sling a stone into the forehead of Goliath. And those are wonderful, powerful stories that show people using great faith and God showing great grace and mercy.

But I will be honest with you. If you want to jump on the unbelieving band wagon like lots of people have and say those stories are just myths or symbolic or can be explained away in some other way, then you can do that and still get to Heaven. Your eternity is not at stake if you don’t believe, as I do, that those events happened as literally and miraculously as they are written. I don’t know how you can decide some of the Bible is true and some of it is not but that’s another thing.

But you will have a problem; in fact, you will have an eternal problem if you don’t believe today’s “Story Time” is true. To put it biblically, if you do not believe this story is true and literal then you will spend eternity separated from God and Heaven in a real place called Hell. So, let’s see what life is like without the truth and what life is like with the truth in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 1-18.

You know, as many times as I have read this story, I still can’t really wrap my head around it. I can’t comprehend what it must have been like to see anyone crucified, must less Jesus. But to see the One who was the Christ bleeding and dying, struggling to breathe, crying out and giving up His Spirit. It’s too much. My brain won’t let me process the whole gory scene. And to think He was abandoned by almost everyone who knew Him except John, the author of this book, and a few women, one of whom was Mary Magdalene.

Let’s pick up the story early Sunday morning as she goes to where Jesus was buried. John 20:1-18. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” ³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. ¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ¹³ They asked her,“Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ¹⁵He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”(which means “Teacher”). ¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them,‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

Luke chapter 8 tells us that Mary Magdalene had once been demon-possessed but since she had been healed she followed Jesus everywhere she could. I’m sure she had seen Him heal lots of people but it was the miracle in her own life that made her a believer. She had given up everything she had known and everything she had been taught and had followed Jesus, even to the cross.

I can’t imagine how difficult that had to be for her. The Savior, the Christ, God Himself had been killed. She saw it. She was there. She watched in horror as they whipped Him and beat Him and then pounded nails into His hands and feet and dropped that heavy cross into a hole and left Him there to die. She saw all of that. She watched Him take His last breath. She knew He didn’t just faint or swoon or pass out like some want to suggest. She watched Him die as dead as any corpse in the graveyard.

And now…now she just wanted to show Him respect even if He was dead but now somebody has moved or maybe even stolen His body! It’s almost more than she can bear. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t know why. She doesn’t have the facts. She doesn’t know the truth. And she is miserable. Friday and Saturday were horrible enough but this is just too much.

She was evidently crying so hard and in so much pain that she couldn’t see clearly or think clearly. Some of you may be able to relate to that. It didn’t register to her that those men were angels in the tomb, nor did she even recognize Jesus when she saw Him at first. Have you ever been so hurt and wounded that you could just barely function at all? Your tears and the blackness in your heart blinded you from everything else?

That is how Mary Magdalene was here. And that is how it is to not have the truth. She wanted the truth. She was trying to get there but her mind couldn’t grasp it; not until Jesus called her name and revealed Himself to her. And look how that changed everything. She went from being blind with heartache to seeing Jesus for Who He really is and it changed her whole life.

She was blind without the truth but saw clearly with the truth and the first thing she wanted to do was worship Him. And while there is a time for that, Jesus said the first and most important thing she needed to do was to go and tell others. Do you know that our lives are contagious? What we know and even what we think we know are contagious and will spread to others.

She was miserable and blind without the truth but with the truth her life was changed and she now had a testimony. And look what a simple, yet powerful testimony it is. In verse 18, we see what she went and told the other disciples. “I have seen the Lord!”

“I have seen the Lord!” She had an encounter with the risen Savior and while she couldn’t explain everything, she could say that. The truth had been revealed to her and now she was obedient to go and tell others. She wanted them to know that her life had been changed. She wanted them to have the truth and not live in tears and blackness but to live in joy and peace that only Jesus could give.

And that is my sincere prayer for you today. I want you to know the truth. And the truth is that Jesus died on that cross, was buried and rose again to pay the price for your sin and mine because we couldn’t pay that price. In fact, Jesus Himself said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” The question now is, “What are you going to do with this truth?” Are you going to accept it, believe it and follow it or are you going to keep going down the wrong path?

Without the truth is eternal darkness, blindness and tears. With the truth you can have eternal joy and peace. The choice is yours today. I can’t make it for you and none of us are guaranteed another breath. What will you do with this truth?

“Story Time” – David and Goliath – 1 Samuel 17

Maybe it’s just because I’m a guy. Maybe it’s because I was raised watching boxing with my dad. Or maybe it’s entertaining to everybody. I don’t know. But I love to watch a good fight. I’m not talking about street-fighting or when some loser punches his wife. I just mean I like to watch 2 athletes box or wrestle or kick box or Karate or that MMA stuff in a ring. And the best fights are always when the underdog wins.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a whole Rocky movie but isn’t that the premise behind most of them? Rocky is too young or too old or too something and he surely can’t win the big fight…but he does. I think everybody likes a story like that even if you don’t like to watch boxing. Maybe that’s why they made 6 of them and I think they made just about as many Rambo movies but that’s another sermon.

I did a little research, and as always, when I say I did some research I mean I googled it, and found out that everybody likes an underdog. And it is true in every sport from boxing to tiddlywinks but it is also true in every other aspect of life.  We have a political season coming up and you will hear certain politicians being referred to as the underdog. 

Don’t be fooled.  That is not an accident.  If somebody calls them an underdog they are most likely being paid by that politician to say it because politicians know that being an underdog works heavily in your favor.  Studies have shown that being labeled an underdog can make your actions seem more virtuous and your face appear more beautiful. (The Underdog Effect -Why do we love a loser? By Daniel Engber)

Being labeled an underdog gives the impression that you try harder, have more heart, more courage and more gumption.  And that may or may not be true but that is how we look at underdogs.  What it boils down to is that everybody likes an underdog because everybody sees themselves as an underdog.

We can all relate to being the underdog and for most of us we never seem to win anything and so we root for the underdog because we long for some kind of justice in this world.  How much more so when we see the underdog as being young and pure and on the “right” team and his opponent is just a big ol’ meanie-headed jerk!  Which is what makes the story of David and Goliath such a timeless classic and the perfect underdog story.

If you would like to read along with that story, turn to 1 Samuel 17.  And since most of you have not read this story in a good while, and probably haven’t turned to the book of 1 Samuel in a while, I will set the story up for you as you find your place in 1 Samuel chapter 17.  The Samuels are in between the books of Ruth and 1 Kings.

I have been looking forward to preaching from this passage for a long time.  It is one of my all-time favorite stories in the whole Bible.  I have said many times that I grew up reading about David growing up and now it seems like we are old friends.  And this story has fascinated me since before I could read it for myself.  And it has continued to fascinate me as I have been studying it lately.

I called my mom just this week and said, “Mama!  Did you know that Goliath was 9’6” tall???  His armor weighed 150 pounds!  The head of his spear alone weighed like 16 pounds!  That’s incredible!”  I felt like a little kid again saying, “Mama, look at this!”  I love this story!  It has action, drama, suspense, an underdog and a big ol’ meanie-headed jerk.  And the big ol’ meanie-headed jerk gets his big ol’ meanie head cut smooth off.  How great is this?

But I’ll tell you what else it has.  It has a twist in the story.  Because it looks like as you read it the first time that the story is all about David and Goliath.  But while this story does star those guys, the Author, the Producer, the Director and the One who made it all happen is God.  This story is more about God than it is about David or Goliath.  Let’s read the story and we will see on the other side why I say that.

1 Samuel starting in chapter 17.  I’m not going to read the whole chapter but I will read most of it.  And it’s ok.  I promise it won’t take any longer than usual so just sit back, relax and enjoy “Story Time” this week.

Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. ² Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. ³ The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. ⁴ A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.^{[a] 5} He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels^[b]; ⁶ on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. ⁷ His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.^[c] His shield bearer went ahead of him. ⁸ Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” ¹⁰ Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” ¹¹ On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. ¹² Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. ¹³ Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. ¹⁴ David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, ¹⁵ but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. ¹⁶ For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. ¹⁷ Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah^[d] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. ¹⁸ Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance^[e] from them. ¹⁹ They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” ²⁰ Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. ²¹ Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. ²² David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. ²³ As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. ²⁴ Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

Now skip over to verse 32.  ³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” ³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” ³⁸ Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. ³⁹ David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. ⁴⁰ Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. ⁴¹ Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. ⁴² He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. ⁴³ He said to David, “Am I a dog,  that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴ “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” ⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” ⁴⁸ As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. ⁴⁹ Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. ⁵⁰ So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. ⁵¹ David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. ⁵² Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath^[f] and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. ⁵³ When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. ⁵⁴ David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.


Isn’t that a great story?  Do you believe it’s true?  I hope so.  I sure do.  And while some scholars disagree about just how tall Goliath was – some say only 6 something while others say he may have been as much as 11 feet tall – it doesn’t matter.  Again, as in all great biblical stories, critics want to pick it apart and say that there is no way this could have happened because of such and such reason.  I won’t even go into the ridiculous things they said about this story.  Either God did a miracle or He didn’t.


Either the story is true or it isn’t.  Either the whole Bible is true or none of it is true!  And when you get distracted by debating if Goliath’s helmet covered his forehead or not or if both of his legs were covered in armor or just one of them, then you miss seeing what this story is all about.  I want us to see that God intervened here.  I want us to see that it was God’s grace and mercy at work, not a slingshot.


I want us to specifically see that God gave David a divine encounter.  God gave David divine talent.  God gave David divine confidence.  And then God gave David divine victory.  Look again at verse 23 to see how God gave David this divine encounter.  As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.


Do you think it is just coincidence that David showed up when he did?  Do you think it was just good luck, good karma, chance, fate or happenstance that David happened to be at the right place at the right time to hear Goliath defy Israel and God Himself?  Do you think it was coincidence that it was 40 days exactly that he had been doing this when 40 days in the Bible is nearly always symbolic of trials or testing?


So often, God shows up in the Bible and brings relief at 40 days.  And that is exactly what He does here with this little teenaged shepherd boy from the sticks.  God brings about this divine encounter and does it in a way that only God can do.  And what do we call it when God does something only God can do?  That’s called a miracle.  And miracles don’t happen by chance, good luck or certainly not by some made up thing called karma.


Why did God give David this divine encounter with Goliath?  Was it to show how strong David was or how brave he was?  Or to prove he should be king while putting Saul in his place? Was it because nobody else was able to defeat Goliath?  No.  In fact, I am confident that if David had not been obedient to what God told him to do that God could just have easily have used any other man, woman, child or tree on the battlefield to do the job.


God would have found somebody else to do it and David would have had to suffer the consequences of disobedience while the other was blessed for his obedience.  And either way, God gets the ultimate glory, not the person.  And I will tell you why I am so confident in saying that in a minute but we see in our next point that God gave David divine talent.  He gave him the divine encounter with Goliath and now we see in verses 34-37 that God also gave David divine talent.


But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”


Now, when I say that God gave David divine talent, I, of course, do not mean that God gave David the talent to be divine or to be god-like but that the talent was a divine gift.  And it was obviously a God-given gift that David had to be able to kill a much more powerful enemy.  This is not Samson who had great strength.  God had given David the talent and the ability to think straight under pressure, to be able to move quickly and to do what was necessary to kill a lion and a bear.


Now, don’t you wish you had that kind of talent?  And if you do…why?  Because what possible good would it ever do you?  When would the ability to kill a lion and a bear be of any use?  What about the ability to use a slingshot?  Wooo, there’s a talent!  Big deal, right?  Don’t you know David must have practiced with that slingshot a thousand times, wondering what good it would ever do in the scheme of things?


I bet he prayed, “God give me some real talent.  Sure, I’m good with this stupid slingshot but I want a real talent that will help me in life.”  Doesn’t that sound ridiculous now?  How God must have smiled to hear a prayer like that from David!  And how He must smile when He hears a prayer like that from you!  Because He knows what you don’t know; that He is going to give you a divine encounter with somebody and He is going to use you to bring about change in their life because He has gifted you with the talent that person needs.


And you can choose to use your so-called “insignificant” divine talent to pray or to read or to use the internet or ride a motorcycle or use a slingshot to God’s glory and be blessed by it or God will find somebody else and bless them while you suffer the consequences of squandering your divine talents.  Phillips Brooks once said, “It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything.”


God hasn’t called any of us to do everything.  But He has called all of us to do something and He has provided the talents and abilities to do it for every one of us.  And when that divine encounter comes for you and you have the opportunity to use your divine talent, you can have divine confidence like David did.  Let’s look at verses 45-47 to see that.


David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”


That’s big talk for a little boy!  How does a guy like David get that kind of divine confidence?  Because if it were me looking across the field at Goliath the warrior I think I would have remembered the verse that says, “Be still and know that He is God.”  Instead, it says that David ran toward him.  Did you see that in verse 48?  David picked up 5 stones and took off running toward Goliath.  And maybe it’s just because I’m such a big fan of David’s that I think he picked up 5 stones because Goliath had 4 brothers behind him.  But I don’t know that.





How do you know when to “Be still and know that He is God” and when to run toward the warrior?  Because both take divine, God-given confidence; not confidence in yourself, but that God is going to do what He said He would do.  And that is where that confidence comes from.  It comes from knowing what God says and believing it.


And for David, we know he was taught the scriptures and I believe it was a scripture like is found in Deuteronomy 20:1-4 that gave him his divine confidence.  Let me read that to you.  This is a passage that David would have been familiar with, I’m sure.  It says, “When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. ² When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. ³ He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”


Now, as much as I would love to claim that verse, I can’t.  It is not a promise to everyone in the world.  It was given to the children of Israel and as a child of Israel, David could claim that verse and I believe he did, (or one similar to it) knowing that God was the One going with them to fight and that it was God that was going to bring about the victory.


David shows up on the battlefield, hears Goliath and thinks, “It’s not that he is so big that I can’t win.  He is so big I can’t miss because God is going to do the fighting.”  And while we can’t claim that particular verse and say that every enemy we are going to come across is going to be defeated, we do have thousands of other promises from God in His Word that we can hang on to because we know what it says and we believe it!


When God says He will never leave us; that He is our shield, our rock, our fortress, that His name is a mighty tower; when He says He will give us rest, He will give us a full and abundant life, He will give wisdom, forgive sins and not forsake His people for His great name's sake then we can have confidence in that to the point that we know without a doubt that He will use our divine encounters with our divine talents to give us that divine confidence which will ultimately result in divine victory.


Let’s look how that worked out for David in verses 50-51.  He has divine victory. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. ⁵¹ David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.


All the “Rocky’s” 1-6 can’t compare with that!  Some people might think this is not as big of a miracle as parting the Red Sea was but have you ever tried to use a slingshot?  Especially one like David had?  This was no small miracle.  In fact, because of that one kill, the ladies back home made up a song that went, “Saul has killed his thousands but David his tens of thousands!”


David had only killed one guy but the ramifications of that were bigger than just Goliath.  It changed everything for David and for all of the people around him as well.  God loved them so much He wanted to give them victory.  And God could have just done it.  God could have struck Goliath down with a heart attack.  But as we saw last week and we see again here, God allows us to be a part of His plan.


When we take advantage of our divine encounters and use our divine talents, He gives us divine confidence based on His promises.  And He does it to bring us to divine victory through Him and for Him when we are followers of Him.

"Story Time” – Parting the Red Sea – Ex. 14:21-31

If you were here last week, you may have seen my precious niece Kennedy here with my parents.  She is 6 and lives in north Ft. Worth and gets to visit here every now and then with them.  The 4 of us went out to eat after church last Sunday and while we were eating, Kennedy, who is terribly interested in this bump on my head, says to me, “Uncle Todd, when we were driving the other day…” and then she goes on to describe some trip the whole family was on months ago going someplace I don’t recall.

She said, “When we were driving there, you told me that you got this bump on your head from when you were mining for gold in Alaska and somebody shot you.  Is that true?”  Well, I don’t remember telling her that but it sounds like something I would say.  But before I could answer, she looked at her Grannie and Grannie shook her head “no” and ratted me out.  And that’s disappointing because I thought my story sounded a whole lot more interesting than the truth.

I mean, what was a cool uncle supposed to tell a 6 year old; that I was born without a soft spot and had surgery as a baby and this is how it grew?  Or…that I was mining for gold in Alaska up in the Yukon during the gold rush and had to shoot my way out of the camp?  Which would you rather hear?  I love a good story!  And sometimes my stories are true… if they are good enough.  But when talking to a 6 year old, I reserve the right to embellish things, or even tell a “windy” as Grannie calls them.

I have a scar from that surgery as well and evidently when I was a little boy, I told my SS teacher that I got the scar from wrecking my go-kart.  So, I am no stranger to telling windys or to embellishing the truth to make a story better.  Well, today we are going to look at a story that sure sounds like a windy.  The story of how God parted the Red Sea is probably the most incredible, most miraculous Old Testament story there is.  And we will continue our series entitled “Story Time” with this classic.

You remember last week how we looked at the story of Noah and the Ark and I said that “scientists” had proven that it couldn’t be true?  Well, this week, I have learned just the opposite for this story.  “Scientists” have proven just how this phenomenon happened.  They studied the landscape and the tides and the effects of wind on water and have come to the conclusion that there are one or two areas of the Red Sea that could be parted at low tide and with 67-72 mph winds.  And if those winds kept up for the 6 hours of low tide, people could get across.

So, aren’t you glad that now you know how it happened?  Aren’t you glad that all you have to do is have faith in science and scientists?  Now you know that Moses wasn’t lying when he wrote this story.  I feel so much better.  Now, when the scientist was asked about how could 2-3 million men, women and children get across on dry land with all of their possessions in carts and with all of their livestock as near-hurricane force winds blew on them and do it all in 6 hours…I think his answer was something like, “Uh…hey, look over there!”  And then he ran off.

Well, thankfully we don’t have to have faith in science or in scientists.  Our faith is not in something that is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.  Our faith is in the Word of God that has proven itself to be true from the very beginning to the very end as well as in our own lives.  Continuing our focus on faith and obedience, we look at the great biblical story of how the children of Israel left Egypt and went back to their home country of Israel.

This is another of those stories that you might not have read or really studied in years and so I want to give you a little background before we read the text.  In Exodus 12:37 it says that about 600,000 men left Egypt.  This doesn’t count the women and children.  It also says that there were a mixed multitude of people that were not Israelites who went with them.  So we don’t know how many people all total there was but I think between 2-3 million would be conservative.  It may have been twice that.  We also know from Exodus 12 that the Israelites plundered the Egyptians when they left.  So all these people had all this stuff and all of it had to go across the Red Sea to get to Israel.

Now, studying the Red Sea, I found out that it is not like the Jordan River that you can walk across in two minutes and might be 10 feet deep in some places.  The Red Sea is called a sea for a reason.  It is 1400 miles long and in some places, it is 220 miles wide.  You can’t see the other side of most of it from shore.  It is also over 7000 feet deep in some places.  Think ocean and you will get a better visual.  Now, I assume that Moses led them to a place that was not necessarily the deepest but it had to be pretty deep to cover over all the army of Pharaoh.

So, as we read the story in Exodus 14, I want you to imagine the populations of Wise, Parker and Tarrant counties crossing a 4-6 mile span with a wall of water on each side and doing all of this in the middle of the night with all of their possessions.  Don’t you know there was at least one woman going, “Well, we can’t go now.  I just started dinner.  My clothes are a mess and you know what this water does to my hair.  Besides, Wheel of Fortune will be on in a few minutes.”

Ok, maybe not.  Let’s read what really happened starting in Exodus 14, verses 21-31.  “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed^[a] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward^[b] it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. ²⁹ But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”

Now, speaking of being able to tell good stories, have you ever known anybody that seemed to have all the cool stories of real things that had happened to them?  They had been places and seen things and met people and had things happen to them like nobody else.  Well, that is kind of how Israel is.  Since the very beginning, Israel has had things happen to her that no other country has.  Even today it is still in the news.

I was looking at the map the other day wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to tiny old Israel.  It has the whole world in a huge fuss and the whole country is not 1/30^th the size of Texas.  But for whatever reason, Israel is God’s chosen people and God has protected and provided for Israel from the very beginning and He will until the very end.  I have said before that God’s overall will is always going to be done and nowhere is that better proven that the nation of Israel.

More than one Pharaoh tried to kill them.  Haman couldn’t kill them in the book of Esther.  Almost every Middle Eastern country has tried at one time or another to wipe them out, not to mention that Russia, China and North Korea want to.  But God’s ultimate will is always going to be done.  So when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem and you support Israel as a country, you are supporting God’s will and there are blessings for doing that and consequences for not doing that.

And in this passage in Exodus, we see that it was God’s will to save the Israelites but I want us to see 3 things as we look at it closer.  The first thing we will see is that God’s will involves man.  Secondly, God’s will is not dependant on man.  And lastly, God’s will is a miracle to man.  Let’s look at verse 21 to see that God’s will involves man.  Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back. 

We didn’t read it but verse 16 tells why Moses stretched his hand out over the waters.  He did it because God told him to.  God most certainly was not trying to tap into the power that Moses had.   And I was going to say that God gave Moses the power to do it but it wasn’t that Moses ever had the power to part the waters.  So why did God want Moses to play a part in this miracle at all?  God’s will involves man because God wants man to be obedient. 

And when man is obedient to God, God blesses man.  Moses was obedient to God by raising his hand but God is the one who performed the miracle.  And I firmly believe that if Moses had not been obedient, then God would have found someone else to do it and been a blessing to him while Moses would have suffered the consequences.  But either way, God’s ultimate will was going to be done.

Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn't call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.  Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory."  (sermonillustrations.com)

God has given us free will and He will let you make your own decisions.  But you won’t be on His team.  And His team will have victory.  You can have faith in that.  But if you choose not to be a part of His team, God will get somebody who will and bless that person while you suffer the consequences.  You can see that in other biblical stories like when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and God wanted them to take back the Promised Land.  What happened?  They sent spies who came back and most of them said it couldn’t be done and so God didn’t allow that generation to go in.  Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed in because they were obedient in faith.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Studies In Theology, “God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. “  And I believe He chooses to use us because it gives us an opportunity to be obedient, which gives Him an opportunity to bless us.

So, we see that God’s ultimate will is going to be done and God’s will involves man.  But we also see in our passage that God’s will is not dependant on man.  Look back at verses 24 and 25.  During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

God jammed the wheels of their chariots.  Now, let’s look at this through the eyes of an Egyptian charioteer for a minute.  The last few months of your life have been horrible.  You have endured 10 different plagues and it is becoming more and more obvious that the Israelites had something to do with it.  You were never so glad as when they finally left and now your leader is commanding you to go back after them.

 

You have driven a chariot for years and you have never seen anything like what is happening here tonight.  First, you’re driving across the Red Sea on dry ground with a mountain of water on both sides.  That’s not normal.  And now your chariot wheels are jamming up for no apparent reason.  And you don’t have to be a “rocket surgeon” to figure out that God is not on your side. 

Have you ever felt like that charioteer?  Have you ever felt like your wheels were jammed; that you just can’t make any progress?  Have you ever felt like God was against you?  Could it be that God isn’t on your team?  How could God be so mean?  On the other hand, could it be that you aren’t on God’s team?

God’s ultimate will is going to be done.  And while it is not His good and perfect will that we sin, God gives us free will and He can even use that sin to bring about His ultimate will.  But sometimes He just chooses to frustrate our efforts.  Sometimes He does not allow things to happen that we wish, with our myopic vision, to happen.  Is that God being mean when that happens?  Is He just being some kind of divine bully?

No.  That is God being sovereign.  He has every right to do anything He pleases but the good news is that He is not only sovereign but He can be trusted to have your best interests at heart as He is sovereign.  That is what Romans 8:28 is talking about when it says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Now, of course, just because you are going through a rough time doesn’t mean that God is against you.  Job is a witness to that.  God’s will was going to be done through Job and Job’s comfort was not going to trump God’s sovereignty.  Job is best known for his patience but it was actually his faith that allowed him to be God’s servant.  And it is the same with us.  Because we know that God is love and that God is sovereign, we can have faith that He is working for our good when we are obedient.

So, God’s will involves man but it is not dependent on man.  I want to close with a look at how God’s will is a miracle to man.  Look at verses 30 and 31.  “That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”

I’m sure it was pretty easy to stand on the other shore of the Red Sea with all your family and friends around you with dry clothes and dead Egyptians floating to see that God’s will was quite the miracle.  Do you know what the Israelites did after this?  They worshiped God!  They sang.  They prayed.  There was music and poetry and laughter and dancing and praise.  It had to be an incredible time of worship.

And do you know how long that attitude of grateful worship lasted?  It lasted about 15 minutes until one of them got a little bit thirsty again.  Actually it tells in the next chapter all about how they worshiped and before the chapter even ends, the people are grumbling again.  And after God solves that problem, it’s the very next chapter that they say they wish that God would have just killed them in Egypt rather than to be out in the desert.

And they had that attitude because they refused to see that God’s will is a miracle to man.  What is a miracle, anyway?  A miracle is simply something that only God can do.  God allowed Moses to be part of the miracle but God did the miracle.  And it’s easy to see that God’s will is a miracle when He parts the Red Sea.  It’s easy to be grateful then.  It’s easy to see God’s will is a miracle when He provides a church to pay the lease in Runaway Bay.  And we were very grateful.

But what about when God takes something away from us?  What about when God allows us to suffer through something?  Paul said God’s grace was sufficient for him.  Grace is a huge miracle!  God’s love for us is a huge miracle.  That He allows us to live and breathe is a miracle especially since 1 Peter 5:8 says Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking to kill us dead.  Our protection against Satan is a miracle because it is only something that God can do.  And when we have that attitude, God can’t wait to bless us.

He blessed the Israelites in spite of their grumbling.  Imagine what He can do with a church that considers it all pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.  Imagine what He can do with an obedient group of followers who have the consistent attitude that we know it is a miracle of God’s will that we are here and we have this ministry and we are going to do everything He asks us to do no matter how hard it is or what anybody else says.  And we will do it because God has proven Himself to be faithful and true from the days of Moses to the days of Christ Fellowship.

Do you know how else God’s will is a miracle to man?  Do you know what the biggest miracle of all is?  The biggest miracle is not that God parted a huge body of water.  It’s not that He brought the Israelites into the Promised Land or made it rain manna or even that He has provided another church to make the lease payment in Runaway Bay (and I’ll tell you more about that tonight).

God’s greatest, most fantastic, outrageous miracle was allowing His Son to come to earth to be crucified and die for our sins.  And to allow us grace through faith that we can have eternal life with Him in Heaven.  That was something that only God could do.  And all we have to do is believe and follow Him.  Have you done that?  Have you accepted God’s miraculous grace and asked Him to be Lord of your life?

Our miracle of breath is only going to last a short time longer.  Do it today.