God Is Bigger Than....impossible Series

TEXT: Exodus 14

TITLE: God is Bigger Than…IMPOSSIBLE!

SERIES: God is Bigger Than…

TOPIC: God’s Power and Might

OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, October 19, 2008

PROP.: God is big enough to handle the impossible events that we may face in our life! When Moses and the Israelites were facing a dead end; God moved the water to make way for His people!

INTRODUCTION: Today we are going to re-visit a familiar story. A story that has even grasped the attention of Hollywood movie makers. The story is found in Exodus chapter 14. It’s the account of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. It’s really important that all of chapter 14 is read…and since even IIIIII get tired of listening to the sound of my own voice, I’ve asked some people to come forward and help read.

Please follow along as together our scripture is read…

HEATHER MOHR (Exodus 14:1-10)

SHANE MOORE (Exodus 14:11 - 20)

JIM PRINTY (Exodus 14:21-31)

I believe the reason there is so much interest in the story that we have just read is because it’s a story of the impossible! And this story of the impossible is made possible because God is a God who SPECIALIZES in the impossible!

I need to quickly give you some BACKGROUND…REALLY QUICKLY, I need to tell you where the Israelites and Moses were when this story takes place.

TRADITIONAL SITE:

--Here we see where the traditional Mt. Sinai was. Only there is no evidence to suggest that 2 - 3 million people ever lived here.

--No evidence of a water supply.

--No remains of dwellings.

--Not enough room at the base of this traditional mountain for 2 - 3 million people to

Camp

--No altar

--No caves found

ILLUSTRATION: when I was youth minister and we would take youth trips…when we would arrive home and the kids would hop out of the van, you would see evidence that they had been in the van! You’d see wrappers left behind, clothing…bibles…there was evidence that people inhabited the van! And that was only 15 people in a van!

Now if 15 people can leave proof in a van that we were here…you would think that 2 - 3 million people would leave evidence that they were living in the land for two years. But no such evidence has been discovered at the traditional Mt. Sinai.

However, there has been some new evidence that has come to light at the NEW site.

AT THE NEW SITE:

--evidence of a large water supply (including the rock that Moses struck and water poured forth).

This is a picture of the rock that is believed to be the rock that moses struck and water came forth.

This rock is 60 feet tall.

You can see that it sticks up quite noticeably out of the ground

You can also see that there would be plenty of places for the water to gather into ponds so that people could come drink.

Look at this: The rock is worn smooth. Because of water erosion. In a desert area that only receives 2 inches of rainfall in a years time, this rock is worn smooth with water!

--plenty of room to camp!

--altar (the altar that Aaron built as Moses was on top of the mountain getting the 10 commandments? placed the golden calf upon.)

This looks like a just a bunch of fenced off rocks…until you look at it closer.

Then you can see the inscription of cows all over it!

These drawings look like Egyptian hyro-glifics.

----the remains of dozens of dwellings have been discovered!

The would be portable and easily moved. And there are literally dozen of these remaining around the base of this new mountain.

Plenty more evidence…but no time to hit on it this morning.

--boundaries along the base of the mountain

--even a cave!

So if this is the new site of Mt. Sinai…that means that Israelites and Moses crossed the Red Sea at this location: The Gulf of Aquaba

WHY DID I TAKE TIME TO SHARE ALL OF THIS WITH YOU? Because I want you to know that this story of the impossible has EVIDENCE that it really happened just as the Bible says it happened!

Soon, the Israelites would realize that God is BIGGER than the IMPOSSIBLE!

And that’s my hope for you today. Whatever situation you are facing in your life, I want you to realize that God is BIG ENOUGH to handle it!

First, let’s talk about…

I. The Pursuit (vs. 5-8)

A. THE ISRAELITES:

There was a chase going on. A hot pursuit. The Israelites had just escaped Egypt. They had been there for over 400 years. During that time, their numbers have grown to the mind boggling figure numbering 2 - 3 MILLION people. Their visit to this point really hadn’t been all that great. They were turned into slaves. They were beaten. Forced to work for the Egyptians. So Moses rushed in (well maybe rushed isn’t the right word…) with God’s guidance and was going to lead the nation of Israel to their own land. The Bible calls it the PROMISED LAND because God promised his people that they would inhabit their OWN land.