LITURGICAL OPENING — PSALM 34:1-8
• I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
• My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
• O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
• I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
• They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
• This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
• The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
• O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
(Psalm 34:1-8)
GREETING
Good Morning ... and too, God be the Glory!
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. And there is a Word from the LORD ...
So let us turn our hearts and our Bibles to the book of Exodus ... chapter 14, beginning at verse 10 ... and then to the prophet Isaiah ... chapter 40, beginning at verse 27.
SCRIPTURE READING — EXODUS 14:10-13; ISAIAH 40:27-31 (KJV)
(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.
(14:11) And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
(14:12) For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
(14:13) 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.
(Isa 40:28) Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
(40:29) He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
(40:31) But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
NEIGHBOR TURN
Turn to your neighbor and say ... Neighbor — TRUST IS NOT BUILT IN THE GOOD TIMES. IT IS TESTED IN THE HARD ONES.
You may be seated ...
PRAYER
Father ... the task of teaching Your Word is once again in my keeping. I commit myself to do the very best that I can. Speak to me ... that I may speak for You. Right now, Lord ... remove self. Remove pride. Hide me behind Your cross. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight. This is my prayer. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
We have arrived at the fifth and final pillar of C3PT. And I saved this one for last on purpose. Not because it is the least important. But because it is the one that holds all the others together.
TRUST.
You can have communication, collaboration, culture, and perseverance. But if there is no trust ... none of it holds. Trust is the currency of culture. It is the thing that makes everything else sustainable.
And here is what I need you to understand about trust: it is not built in the easy seasons. It is tested in the hard ones. The easy seasons reveal your strategy. The hard seasons reveal your character.
Point 1 — What Happens to Trust When the Egyptians Come
Point 2 — The Command That Rebuilds Trust
Point 3 — Waiting as an Act of Trust
POINT 1 — WHAT HAPPENS TO TRUST WHEN THE EGYPTIANS COME
Exodus 14:10-12
The children of Israel had seen the plagues. They had been delivered from four hundred years of slavery. They had witnessed the most spectacular divine interventions in the history of Israel. And the moment they looked up and saw the Egyptians coming ...
All of that history evaporated.
Verse 11: "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?"
That is sarcasm. Sharp, bitter, frightened sarcasm. And verse 12: "It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness."
They were willing to go back to slavery rather than trust God through the Red Sea moment.
The Hebrew word for "sore afraid" in verse 10 is YARE MEOD — yaw-ray meh-ode — exceedingly afraid, gripped by terror.
(Hebrew: yare meod — yaw-ray meh-ode — to be exceedingly afraid, overwhelmed by fear)
YARE MEOD will destroy trust faster than any betrayal ever could. Because when we are exceedingly afraid ... we stop trusting the person who brought us to the Red Sea. We stop trusting the process God ordained. We start looking back at Egypt ... at the familiar bondage ... because at least the familiar is predictable.
Patrick Lencioni writes in "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" that the absence of trust is the foundational dysfunction: "Trust is the confidence among team members that their peers' intentions are good, and there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group."
(Patrick Lencioni, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," Jossey-Bass, 2002)
Fear destroys that confidence. And before you know it ... the team is not a team anymore. The church is not a church anymore. Each person is looking toward their own Egypt.
POINT 2 — THE COMMAND THAT REBUILDS TRUST
Exodus 14:13
In the middle of the panic ... Moses gives a three-part command that is the antidote to broken trust.
Command 1: FEAR YE NOT.
The Hebrew is AL TIRA — al tee-raw — a direct authoritative command: do not be afraid. Not "try not to be afraid." AL TIRA. Stop.
(Hebrew: al tira — al tee-raw — a direct prohibitive command: do not fear, stop being afraid)
Command 2: STAND STILL.
The Hebrew is YATSAB — yaw-tsab — take your position and hold it. Do not retreat. Do not advance on your own. Stay where God assigned you.
(Hebrew: yatsab — yaw-tsab — to station oneself, to take a position and hold it firm)
Command 3: SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD.
The Hebrew word for "see" here is RAAH — raw-aw — not just to observe but to perceive with understanding. See what God is doing in the situation.
(Hebrew: raah — raw-aw — to see, to perceive, to understand what is being revealed)
Trust is rebuilt not by pretending the Egyptians are not behind you ... but by refusing to let the Egyptians determine your next step. You acknowledge the threat. You feel the fear. And then you say: AL TIRA. YATSAB. RAAH. Fear not. Stand still. Watch God work.
POINT 3 — WAITING AS AN ACT OF TRUST
Isaiah 40:28-31
Isaiah asks in verse 27: "My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?"
Some of the people in exile had concluded: God has forgotten us. God does not see what we are going through.
And Isaiah responds: "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? That the everlasting God, the LORD, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding."
God's capacity to handle your situation is not limited by the size of your situation. He does not grow weary. He does not run out of wisdom or care.
And then verse 31: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength."
The Hebrew word for "wait" here is QAVAH — kaw-vaw — and it does not mean passive sitting. It means to bind together like a rope ... to stretch toward ... to expect with confident anticipation.
(Hebrew: qavah — kaw-vaw — to wait with expectant hope, to bind together in anticipation, to stretch toward what is coming)
Trust at its deepest level is QAVAH. Binding your hope to the character of God. Stretching toward what you cannot yet see ... because you know WHO is holding what you cannot see.
The Hebrew word for "renew" is CHALAPH — khaw-laf — to pass through, to be changed, to emerge different on the other side.
(Hebrew: chalaph — khaw-laf — to pass through, to change; the image of coming through something and emerging renewed)
You do not renew without going through. You do not emerge with wings as eagles without first going through the valley.
THAT is trust that can be tested. (Repeat)
THE CLOSE
Somebody in here has been waiting on God for a long time. You have been standing still when everything in you wanted to run. You have been holding your position when the Egyptians were getting closer.
I came to tell you today ... the waiting is not wasted.
Every day you held your position when you wanted to retreat ... God saw.
Every day you chose AL TIRA when the fear said run ... God saw.
Every day you stretched toward Him instead of reaching back toward Egypt ... God saw.
And He has not forgotten you. What He started in you ... He will complete.
The trust that can be tested is the trust that is worth having. Because untested trust is just preference. But tested trust ... trust that has been through the Pharaoh behind and the Red Sea in front ... that is the foundation of a culture that does not break.
FEAR NOT.
STAND STILL.
SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD.
THEY THAT WAIT ON THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH. (Repeat)
ALTAR CALL
Every head bowed ... every eye closed ...
The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Come down this aisle ... give me your hand ... and give God your heart.
BENEDICTION
Leave today with Isaiah 40:31 ringing in your spirit:
"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
He has not forgotten you. Hold on.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
— Rev. Kelvin L. Parks, M.A. | C3PT Kingdom Culture Ministries | c3ptexecutivesolutions.com
