Pulling Tent Pins
TEXT: Exodus 14: 10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
11 And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:
The children of Israel have just been delivered from the strong, oppressive hand of Pharaoh. God with a mighty deliverance has brought them out of Egypt the land of slavery and oppression. They had started their journey with high hopes and expectations toward the land of promise.
But they have marched only a few days and suddenly they seem to be stopped in their journey. The Bible records they have encamped by the sea. Before them is the great Red Sea, on either side of them is a mountain and behind them are Pharaoh and his army closing in fast. On the surface it seems they are hopelessly trapped. For all practical purposes there was no way out. But in the midst of chaos and confusion the people come to Moses and begin to cry out to him, and as they cry to him Moses goes to God and he says God, what do you want me to do? They are getting ready to stone me, what in the world do you want me to do?¨
Notice the last 2 words of verse 15, the Lord said, tell them GO FORWARD.¨
The Hebrew word naw-sha Strong’s # 5265 “pull up tent pins”
The words of verse 15 are the heartbeat of what God would be telling us today PULL THE TENT PINS!
Gods message to the church today is I want you to PULL THE TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
We have to stop singing “I SHALL NOT BE MOVED”
Some may have been camped out in the place of hurt feelings for to long and its time to pull up TENT PINS! GO FORWARD
Some of you have been camped out in the place of anger for to long and it is time for you to pull up TENT PINS! GO FORWARD
Some of you have been camped out in the place of depression for to long and it is time for you to pull up TENT PINS! GO FORWARD
Some of you have been camped out in the place of bitterness for to long and it is time for you to pull up TENT PINS! GO FORWARD
Some of you have been camped out in the place of laziness or in the city of don’t care¨ long enough and it is time to pull up the TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Some of you have been camped out in the place of easiness or comfort for to long and its time to pull up TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Some of you have been camped out in the place of satisfaction and it is time to pull up the TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
God is ready to take you on a journey.
He is ready to take you out of that place of depression into a place of joy and happiness.
He is ready to take you out of that place of easiness and comfort and stretch you and take you places you haven’t been with Him before.
God is ready to take you out of that place of satisfaction and fill you with hunger and thirst for Him like you have never had and lead you into a greater dimension of His glory than ever before.
God tells Moses, there’s not but one thing to do get up and PULL THE TENT PINS!
>I didn’t bring you out to take you back;
>I didn’t bring you out to leave you now.
>I didn’t bring you out to camp here,
>this is not the land I promised you there is so much more.
>There is nothing to go back to,
>all that is left is to GO FORWARD¨ pull up TENT PINS
To the church the Lord would say, the fields are white unto harvest and what I want you to do is to rise up and go on to do the things I have called you to do & the things I have asked you to do. Forget the past, forget Egypt, forget the pain and agony of the past, bury it and GO FORWARD! Pull up TENT PINS
To individuals the Lord would say: Stop wallowing in your pity; stop wallowing in your agony and pain of the past and pull up TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Stop wallowing in your bitterness and anger and pull up TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Stop enjoying where you are and pull up TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Before the church can go forward you as an individual must go forward because it is individuals that make up the church.
Some people sit around and complain because the church is dry and cold and needs a revival but they never seem to be concerned to let revival start with them?
The church can’t do anything until you or I do we are the church.
God is calling us out of our comfort zones and calling us out of these places where we have camped out and wants us to pull up TENT PINS and GO FORWARD!
Let’s look at Five Reasons to pull up TENT PINS.
1. Pull up TENT PINS, to start walking by faith and stop living in fear.
Ex.14:10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
When they came out of Egypt, They marched out of there singing the songs of Zion. I believe the tambourines were playing and the people were dancing and rejoicing in the Lord.
They were on their way out of bondage to Canaan land they were going forward. As long as they were moving forward, they were full of faith and everything was all right.
When they stopped going forward faith was replaced with fear. Now, instead of an army full of faith singing the victory songs of Zion and marching toward Canaan they are like a bunch of scattered sheep crying and wailing in the wilderness and they are filled with fear.
2 Cor. 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
The Pastor asked us to reach out beyond the walls and a panic almost took over.
If you are here today and you are filled with fear, it is a good sign that you need to pull up TENT PINS. Your faith is being replaced with fear.
2. Pull up TENT PINS to stop murmuring and complaining. It wasn’t long before fear replaced faith and then complaining set in. They started complaining to Moses.
11 And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians,
than that we should die in the wilderness.
Notice how they blame all of their problems on Moses. They don’t want to assume any of the responsibility themselves.
Usually the problem is not with leadership it is with followers. Complaining is a sure sign of no forward progress.
The murmurers and complainers are they are the people who have stopped going forward.
They are the people who are not growing in the Lord anymore.
When you are spending time with the Lord in prayer and in His word and making progress in you spiritual journey there is no room for complaining.
When you are going forward with your eye on the Promised Land, you don’t have time to stop and murmur and complain.
3. Pull up TENT PINS to stop A backsliding spirit.
12. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness
Finally they said to Moses, why you don’t just take us back to Egypt. It would be better for us if we were back in Egypt.
We have a lot of people looking over their shoulders;
A lot are looking to the left and to the right because they have stopped going forward. They have stopped moving in the direction God wants them to go.
If we stop going forward we will start going backward.
We are to forget the past and move forward.
Php 3:13 forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
When the past looks better than the future you have stopped going forward.
4. Pull up TENT PINS to stop hindering somebody behind you
There were several million people in that valley. The people in the 50th row couldn’t go anywhere until the people in the 1st row moved.
There are a lot of people standing behind you just watching and waiting for you to make the right move, to go forward.
Moms and dads, there are children just waiting for you to stop fussing and get back on the right path and start moving forward.
There are Grandchildren, Neighbors, Coworkers, The City of Denison watching us and waiting for someone to PULL THE TENT PINS AND GO FORWARD.
Whether we like it or not people are watching us and because we aren’t going forward they won’t go forward. I for one don’t want to hold anybody back.
Someone has to start; someone has to begin to GO FORWARD!
5. Pull up TENT PINS to see Miracles
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:
God told Moses, You tell this people to start moving forward. You take that rod and stretch it out toward the sea, you’re going to move¨
When Moses obeyed and took the 1st step and did what God told him to do, the winds began to blow and the waters began to roll back on every side.
God always moves when we are willing to obey Him .
As thy moved forward they had: manna from heaven,
Water from a rock, Quail flying to them.
We say if God would do something then I would do something.
God says, you take me at my word you step out on the water you GO FORWARD and pull up TENT PINS!
Concl.
God is waiting on you and me. If you are willing to take the step to GO FORWARD, God will part the sea and destroy the enemy. He will do the miraculous.
Are you ready to live by Faith and not fear.
Are You ready to Let God use YOU.
Are you ready to stop blaming everybody else and pull your Tent pins.
Are you ready to start looking forward and forget the past,
Are You ready to see your children, grandchildren, neighbors, even the City come to know our Loving God.
Are you ready to see Miracles.
: pull up TENT PINS GO FORWARD!
