The notes here are supplemental to the notes for message 4.
Chico Alliance Church
Pastor David Welch
"BOXED IN FOR GROWTH AND GLORY" Pt 2
I. God deliberately designed a difficult situation 14:1-9
A. He positioned His children up against an obstacle 1-2
God deliberately instructed Israel to camp next to an impassable obstacle; the Red Sea. Of course they did not as yet perceive it as an obstacle at the time because they were not yet aware of the pursuing enemy.
B. He prepared the difficulty and predicted the outcome 3-9
God always has the end in mind. God does not do anything that does not have some connection to His ultimate purposes. He knew exactly how Pharaoh would interpret this most illogical escape strategy. It suddenly dawned on Pharaoh that he had allowed his free labor force to escape. Now that the cataclysmic divine pressure was behind him, he decided to pursue the runaway slaves. The situation now became critical for the Hebrews as they lay camped by the impassable Red Sea. The Red Sea was not only an imposing impediment to the realization of their promise but now became a threat to their very life.
At this point we have a choice to make. We can either trust God to keep His promise (Fruitful living) or blame God for putting us in this predicament. The difficulties of life serve to make us better or bitter. Life’s trials can challenge us to trust or crush us. The difference between the two depends on our decision to trust or doubt. We can embrace our God and claim His promise and purpose or we can resist God and try to protect ourselves from the pain of a maturing faith. God deliberately causes us to face difficulty and even prepares difficulty so that He might exhibit His glory and we might experience growth.
Note! Even though God broke Satan’s claim on us through the work of Christ on the cross, he will NEVER stop seeking to bring us back under his control. Peter (1 Pet 5)warned the believers that the devil goes around like a hungry lion looking for someone to devour.
II. The people defiantly developed a destructive spirit 10-12
We can follow a devastating sequence of responses caused by unbelief. When we fail to trust God we end up resisting God.
A. They fell prey to panic 10
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and noticed the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.
All of the difficulties of life present us with a choice to trust God or turn from God. They forgot the promise of God in the face of their predicament. Actually they most likely did not forget God’s promise but doubted His ability or willingness to keep it. Abraham set the example of absolute trust in the promise of God in the face or contradictions.
Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Ro 4:19-22
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18it was he to whom it was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED." 19He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Hebrews 11:17-19
In the face of a most impossible impediment to the promise of God, Abraham trusted and obeyed anyway. That is why Scripture calls him the Father of faith. He is the example of what it means to live by trust in God’s promises. Aware of the impenetrable obstacle in the front of them and the imposing enemy behind them, the Israelites had no where to run. It was precisely where God wanted them. It is where He does His best work in us as well. Whenever we focus on our immediate plight instead of God’s ultimate promise, we lose perspective and sink into panic. Unbelief inflames panic and panic wilts into obstinate self-pity.
B. They lapsed into a pity party 11
They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
“Why me!” There appears to be no consideration of the mercy of God that, just days before, released them from the torment of Egyptian slavery and blessed them with the treasures of Egyptian wealth. There appears to be no consideration of God’s promise to bring them to a land filled with milk and honey. Their marching song changed from “We’re Bound for the Promised Land” to “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?” Their perception changed from “God wants to bless us” to “God wants to kill us.” They began to listen to the suggestion of the enemy that maybe God isn’t that good. There is nothing like the difficulties of life to expose the hidden self-centered perversions of the heart. Rather than cry out to God in humility and desperation to intervene, they criticized God for the process and questioned His very character. Promise breaker! Malicious! Remember God had deliberately designed this difficulty to gain glory for Himself and generate growth in His people. Our unbelief concerning the character and purpose of God hinders our focus not only on His ultimate plan and design but the very nature of God and fasten our focus on our immediate pain and discomfort. Like us, the Israelites continued down the slippery slope initiated by unbelief and choose paralyzing passivity over transforming trust and obedience. Unbelief energizes this merry-go-round of misery. Anywhere along this cycle, a decision to trust will disrupt the process. Not so for the Hebrews.
Their unbelief turned to panic, and their panic turned to pity and pity turned to passivity.
C. They turned passive
“Didn't we say to you in Egypt, `Leave us alone that we might serve the Egyptians."
This makes no sense. Didn’t we tell you we preferred slavery to Egypt than service to God?
We would rather go back and serve Egypt without hope than have to hope in God. A life of trust in God to daily deal with the painful obstacles and defeat the pursuing opposition is not for sissies. The walk of complete trust in God takes great courage. The walk of complete trust in God requires a devoted heart. The walk of complete trust in God demands a heart committed to God’s purposes over mine. It insists on trusting God’s heart even when we can’t trace His hand.
Once the heart lapses into this poor me, self-centered state, it becomes very difficult to focus on God or His promises. We are unable to even discern what is good and what is better in this life.
D. They demonstrated a perverted perception of good and evil. 12
“It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"
Unbelief produces Panic, which produces pity which in turn promotes passivity which in the long term becomes the basis for a perverted view of what is good and evil. This evil unbelieving heart perverts a balanced view of God’s character which further hinders trust and encourages more doubt which incites more panic and the spiral of devastating doubt spins on.
To the unbelieving heart, everything about God’s plan looks negative. We make choices that we think will relive the pain but in actuality bring deeper bondage. We even call those choices better than what God wants to do in our life. Hearing and trusting God’s word produces deeper insight into what is right before God. Continual resistance to the truth and trusting God’s word produces dullness of heart and an inability to discern what is really good.
14But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 5:14
Praise the Lord He always provides a definite escape strategy. God never designs a predicament without a plan that will bring Him glory and cause us growth. Although God’s way of facing obstacles may vary, I believe this passage provides a basic framework to address any difficulty.
The principles here are applicable to your situation even today.
No matter what “Red Sea blocks your progress…
No matter what opposition threatens your life…
…deliverance can be found through unwavering trust in God’s promise and person.
III. God directly dictated a definite strategy for deliverance 13-18
A. Don’t despair 13a
Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid.
Stop thinking only of your own limited resources which always produces fear. Focus on the unlimited power of your Awesome Deliverer.
B. Rest and watch God work 13b-14
Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."
Remember! God is not mad at you, He is maturing you. He is gaining greater glory for Him and generating greater growth in us. Stand still and watch Him work.
C. Renew trust and walk forward 15-18
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
• Trust purges panic
• Rest purges pity.
• Movement purges passivity.
• Acting on faith purges perverted perception
IV. God dramatically delivered a distinct solution
God never deliberately designs a difficult situation without a dramatic solution!
A. Special Protection 19-20
B. Supernatural Provision 21-28
C. Steady Progress and faith 29-31
D. Stirring Praise Ex 15
V. CONCLUSION
1. Don’t be deceived but renew our thinking concerning tribulations.
2. Don’t despair but rejoice and wait on God
We can face difficulties with a whole different attitude when we understand the purpose.
The issue that makes or breaks the application of this principle is the value we put on growth.
If we see no value in a changed life…
If we do not consider transformation a thing to be desired above all else…
If becoming more like Jesus here is not a priority…
…then we will never properly respond to life’s difficulties.
As long as we value comfort over character…Happiness over holiness…Amusement over maturity…We will continue to pour our energy into making life work for us any way we can.
We will continually run the cycle of perverted thinking and deeper unbelief. Panic, pity, passivity(leave me alone), perverted perspective (better off serving other purposes but kingdom purposes) Don’t despair but rejoice and wait.
3. Don’t defect but rest and watch God work
Stand still and see God work; for it is God at work IN you until you both want to and do what pleases Him. God calls us to cease striving so that we may know that He is God.
Psalm 46:1-11 Psalms 5:3
Stand firm against the enemy. Don’t defect and let him drag you back into bondage. Don’t think that a life of bondage and darkness is preferable to a life of trust and obedience. It IS NOT better to serve Satan than trust God. Don’t despair but rejoice and wait. Don’t defect but rest and watch.
4. Don’t delay but renew trust and walk forward
Here we have the sometimes delicate balance between waiting and walking. The life of faith is a continual interplay between moving when God says move and waiting when God ways wait. Most of the time we want to act when God ways wait and we want to wait when God says walk.
Heb 12 urges us to lay aside every sin and every encumbrance that prevents us from running the race, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and perfecter of faith. The man with the withered hand was asked by Jesus to by faith do what he felt couldn't be done. He was asked to reach out his withered hand. We must go on to maturity. The whole issue in Hebrew 6 has to do with moving on to maturity. Don’t stay dull of hearing and unable to discern what is good and evil.
There is only one option for the genuine Christian. You can’t get saved again for that would be a serious affront to the completeness of the work of Christ on the cross. That would be saying that it didn’t work the first time. The problem is not with the deliverance but with the delivered.
That leaves only two options. Stay where you are and reap the consequences of fruitlessness and discipline or move on to maturity.
11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12
Here God told them to quit moaning and get marching. It is time we quit moaning about our circumstances and move on toward them so that God can supernaturally make a way through them. Resist denial. (There are no Egyptians and the Red Sea is not really stopping me)
Resist escape mechanisms (I’ll settle for slavery to the Egyptians and do what I can to feel good about it. The trauma of slavery is better than the torture of maturity.
Don’t pound your tent stakes too deep. Don’t stay in one place too long. Doing so will encourage the enemy and you will lose your freedom. It will also incite God and you will miss His promised rest.
5. Don’t doubt but rely on God’s promise and wait for God’s provision
It is the same action Jesus took while facing the horrors of the cross.
22 Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 25For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:21-25
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should entrust themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do right. 1Pe 4:19
God will bring a dramatic solution. It may not always the way we envision it to be.
• He will defend us.
• He will defeat the enemy.
• He will deliver us through our obstacles.
Take us through it, over it, around it, or the power to live above it or with it.
• He will develop our level of trust.
• He will demonstrate His glory though out obedience.
Be assured that however God delivers it will have as its primary purpose to bring Him the greatest glory and produce in us the greatest growth.
If we desire holiness rather than happiness…
If we long for maturity rather than amusement…
If we consider relationship with God more valuable than the “treasures of this world”…
Then we will appreciate the fact that:
God deliberately designs difficulties to display His greater glory
and direct our greater growth.
And we won’t…
1. Be deceived but renew our thinking concerning tribulations.
2. Despair but rejoice and wait
3. Defect but rest and watch God work
4. Delay but renew our faith and walk forward
5. Doubt but rely on God’s promise and wait for God’s provision
When God does bring that deliverance we will sing along with the Israelites…
Celebrate your deliverance by reading Exodus 15:1-20
