They are exhausted!!!
For a short time they were celebrating
But now they found themselves at a dead end….
There seemed little hope
It looked like all the promises of a new life were about to fade away
Why did they listen to this man?
This man who said he was sent from God…
He had lead them here….
But how could he get it so wrong?
They were that close to freedom
But now it looked like instead of being free….
they are close to being killed
You can hear the murmuring around the crowd
“If there is a really a God…this wouldn’t be happening?”
“Why did we listen to Moses….
we would have been better staying in Egypt, serving the Egyptians??
It would have been better than listening to God!!!
At least we had food and a roof over our head.
What is God doing for us now?”
The rumbling of the chariots were getting closer….
Then from amongst the crowd steps that man…
A shabby…short looking fella
He yells to crowd in his stuttering voice…
“Do not fear!
Stand firm and see the salvation that the Lord will provide for you today!!
You will never see the Egyptians again.
The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still!!!”
“Are you kidding??” Someone murmurs
Any fool could see that they were in trouble
They were cornered
The red sea on one side
and the only way out was back from where they came…
but coming down that way were a lot of angry Egyptians in their chariots.
No wonder people were asking….”where is God now?
What is God up to?
How can we trust Moses now???
How can we trust God now???”
a middle aged man …points his finger towards Moses…
and yells….”don’t tell me to be still…where is God when we need Him.”
“why did we trust you…why did we trust God???”
Ever found yourself cornered?
Ever found yourself in a situation questioning where is God?
Why has God lead me this far…then it is like He has deserted you?
When life gets to this point….our faith in God can be challenged?
and there is the temptation to give up on God!!
Now giving up on God takes various forms
The most extreme of these is….
Rejecting God completely
Believing that there is no God
For many years Robert was a faithful worshipping Christian
Life wasn’t spectacular….but it was ok
then out of the blue
for no reason at all it happened.
As Robert’s son, Max, crossed the road
A car came around the corner
The driver wasn’t speeding
The driver just didn’t see Max
Max was killed instantly
Almost immediately Robert stopped his relationship with God
For Robert what had happened to Max and to him was unfair
He asked what many would ask,
‘How could a loving God allow this to happen?’
Not only did he ask this question…
He refused to believe God could exist
Not only had has life been rocked….
but his faith in God had been completely shattered
Robert was fortunate to have a good friend from church who stuck by him
Who continued to be a friend to him,
visit him regularly
even though Robert had openly said he no longer believed in God.
One day this friend gave him a simple little book…
If I were God, I’d end all the Pain….by John Dickson
Normally Robert would have rejected the book
But the title caught his eye
It was exactly how he felt….
IF I WAS GOD, I’D END ALL PAIN!!!
So he cautiously opened the page
What harm could reading this book do
and anyway it wasn’t too thick
Almost immediately as he opened the pages he found himself drawn to wanting to read the next word, then the next line, then the next page
He thought to himself
what could I lose….
by the time he had finished the book what he had lost was the wall he had created between him and God
After many years of rejecting God because of his pain
Robert was now back with God
allowing God to help him, to love him, to heal him
Not only had a friend never given up on him
But God never gave up on him
As Psalm 117 verse 2 says
For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD.
But for many people giving up on God is not about a complete rejection of God
But it is about not trusting God fully
and so giving up on God…
involves rejecting God’s call of allowing your whole life to be a life of following the Great Commission
of making disciples of all nations…
Frank has not always found life easy
No matter how hard he tried
unfortunately the attacks that came with being a Christian lead him to putting God at arms length
His friends outside the church…
were scoffing about Christians
Frank knew they didn’t really understand what Christianity was about
However with every scoff, whether they realised it or not, Frank felt attacked
with every attack a little bit of doubt entered his life
But what was even more hurtful and damaging came from those he thought were his friends in the church
People who were supposed to walk with him and be encouragers in the faith
They seemed to be constantly attacking him because of his belief that God was important for everything in His life
For Frank Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 were some of his favourite verses
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For Frank…God was not just some insurance policy to get to heaven
But God affected everything about your life
However he was doubting this.
For many years God had been the engine for his life
Essential for him in everything
But recently things had changed
Life wasn’t going that well
Even though some good things were happening
All Frank could see was negative
No matter how much effort Frank was putting in
from Frank’s perspective nothing was happening
Nothing was changing at church or in his personal life
From Frank’s perspective God was letting him down
and because God was letting him down
He began distrusting God
he didn’t stop believing that God existed
but he stopped believing that God would deliver on His promises
and as a result He stopped being actively part of the Body of Christ
He simply saw God more as hood ornament than the engine for his life
Something good to have there
but making very little difference to his life
As a result
Frank’s worship attendance was no longer regular or important to him
Instead of weekly…
he came to church when he felt like it
He only listened to those parts of the bible that gave him comfort
and supported what he wanted to do
and quickly discarded or ignored those parts that confronted him or encouraged him to live differently
His heart turned from wanting to serve others so they may know God…
to serving others so he could get something from them or so he could feel good about himself
If Frank’s relationship with God was a marriage
it would be like ships passing in the night
it existed but it wasn’t healthy
No matter how much God was trying to love Frank
Frank kept put pushing him away….kept God at a distance
From Frank’s perspective God’s view point wasn’t really relevant or important any more
and especially wasn’t relevant for what Frank wanted to do today
Frank had given up on God
The reality was God was asking Frank to be part of a life time journey
but Frank had now ditched God only part of the way into the journey,
illogically hoping that it would be enough for him to get to heaven…
Fortunately though God has this remarkable way of being persistent
of never giving up!!
On one of those days when Frank was casually reading the bible he read
2 Peter 3:8-9
Dear friends, don’t forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day. The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.
Then just as God does
Shortly afterwards, Bob from church called Frank and said a man was looking for him
It turned out Frank and Bob had helped this man some years ago
Even back then Frank had thought they had wasted their time with this man
but it turned out that this man had not only appreciated their help
but now he was back on his feet wanted to repay them with a meal
and more importantly to tell them how their help had helped him know of a loving God
It then hit Frank
It wasn’t God who had been unfaithful or not interested
It was Frank!!!
Frank had lost patience with God
Frank wanted results…
and wanted them quickly
or at least in a time frame that suit him
and because they weren’t happening
Frank had thought God wasn’t interested or doing something else
So Frank stopped serving and trying to make disciples
But God had not given up on Frank
It was Frank who had given up on God
And in our reading from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13-15
we are encouraged to stand firm
When Paul wrote this to the Christians in Thessalonica their faith was under attack
It was under attack by false teachers attempting to convince people differently about Jesus from how Paul and the apostles had been teaching them.
This is also a challenge for us today…
We live in an era where we like innovation, new things
And as people called to be actively involved in making disciples we are called to share the traditions of the church in relevant ways,
which often means we need to be innovative.
However unfortunately this desire for innovation…
can at times see us wanting to discard some of the orthodox and historical teachings of Jesus and the faith
Teachings that are well found on scripture
for new ways of looking at the faith,
that are not consistent with the teachings that come from scripture.
We do this to make Jesus more exciting, more palatable and more acceptable to people.
We want to mould Jesus rather allow Jesus to mould us and others.
This is also giving up on God.
Trusting that who God is and what God is on about is not enough.
But remember the words from Proverbs 3:5 and 6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight
Now fortunately Moses hadn’t given up on God
Just as the Egyptians came rumbling toward the Israelites
Moses obeyed God
Moses raised his staff….
then something strange happened
Something no one could predict happened
The waters part
an unexpected escape route appeared
If it wasn’t for the chariots getting closer…
there may have been more hesitation of walking between the walls of water
However the crowd runs as fast it can
Dads pick up their kids
mums pulling their daughters along
An old people who could barely hobble…
seemed to get a new lease on life
then just as they reach the other side
the path disappears
the Egyptians and their horses are swallowed up by the waters.
God has come through
and that same middle aged man who was questioning why he and everyone was trusting God is now celebrating.
He is dancing around
He is yelling
“see what happens when we trust God”
“see what happens when we listen to God.”
The celebrations begin
Around the camp that night the singing started
“I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
(Exodus 15:1-2)
God never gives up
Never give up living for the God who never gives up
Amen
