Stuck in the Middle,
Smack Dab in the Middle
Exodus 14:1-31
Big Idea: Being stuck in the middle, smack dab in the middle sometimes is the best place to be to see God do his thing.
Introduction: Remember when you were a kid and you’d come home from school, throw your books on the floor, and head for the refrigerator and the cookie jar? You’d reach in and grab a hand full of cookies and a nice cold class of milk; sit down about two feet from the Television in the living room, even though you knew eating was off limits in the living room, and you’d sit and watch The Little Rascals, the ABC After-School Special, or your favorite Simpson show. Times were great as a kid. Seemingly not a care in the world until your mama came home and saw that you hadn’t finished your homework or done the chores, then you were in real trouble.
We all wish life were like a glass of cold milk and some chocolate chip cookies.
One thing I like about cookies (and chocolate chip are my favorite), is scientists (jokingly) or chefs continually create new kinds or blends of cookies. For instance, the chewy chocolate chip cookies, or the cookie bars, and now my newest favorite, the Chips ahoy Cremewhiches…They are fabulous. (TAKE ONE, DIP INTO GLASS OF MILK AND EAT IT IN FRONT OF CONGREGATION.) Cremewhich cookies are a lot like Oreo cookies (also my favorite… but you can’t eat them in public because they leave your teeth all black.) Anyway, Cremewhich cookies are great because they have chocolate chip cookies on the outside and delicious crème filling on the inside. THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED.
FUN FACT: Did you know for one person to eat all the chips ahoy cookies made in a single year, it would take 5927 years if they ate two cookies per minute. At this rate, if a person starting eating when the Great Pyramids were being built in 2,500 BC they would still have to eat for another 1,200 years.
WOW! I’d get sick even after 2 packages and I love cookies.
I have to say life sure was great as a kid, eating all those cookies without a care in the world. However, life isn’t like a glass of milk and a handful of cookies anymore, is it? For many of us bad days seem to be the norm. Work is a bother, Stock Market ups and downs, perhaps fighting with your spouse had taken a toll on your marriage, or the car breaks down, or you just get a flat tire and got laid off from your job all in one day. The reality is we feel squeezed in the middle, smack dab in the middle with all the pressures of life closing in upon us. SOUND FAMILIAR?
*(HOLD UP A COOKIE). I want to suggest that all of us today we can identify with the crèmewhich cookie – squeezed in the middle, smack dab in the middle. We know what it is like to be sandwiched between two opposing forces, seemingly with no way to break free.
We are not the only ones who have lived in similar situations. The Israelites in the book of Exodus encountered life just as we encountered it. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 14 where we pick up the story of Moses and the Israelites stuck in the middle, smack dab in the middle of Pharaoh and his army and the nemesis Red Sea.
STORY RECAP. God had told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. Through 10 negotiation meetings, Pharaoh decided to let the Israelites free to go with Moses. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and Pharaoh raged with anger that his son had died and the Israelites plundered their city of gold, silver and livestock. Now they were gone and Pharaoh was full of anger took off after Moses and the Israelites. Now God could have taken the Israelites the shortest distance but chose to take them toward the Red Sea. And here is where we come into the story. They were stuck in the middle, smack dab in the middle of Pharaoh and the Red Sea.
Now, they were truly stuck. To go back meant total annihilation from the army of Pharaoh and to go forward without a life raft or a boat with all there possessions meant that they would all certainly drown.
To be stuck in the middle, smack down in the middle is a terrifying place to be.
I want to share three (3) things we need to know when seemingly there is no way of escape from our current situations.
Point 1. Know the Opposition
Knowing whom the opposition is is crucial to every situation. Opposition used here is not necessarily a negative. Example: FOOTBALL A football team would never go to a football game without studying and knowing who the team is they were playing, the statistics of the team and who their players are, and their strengths and weaknesses. There are some of us here that know more about football, baseball, and basketball than we do about spiritual warfare. We sit on the sidelines and call plays for the coach hoping he will hear us and take our advice. I know because I’ve done it myself. But for some reason, the coach never hears me.
Blindness or ignorance is a sin. Blind to the knowledge that the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 that Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Bob, a clerk at Mardels Christian bookstore made a statement to me that has made me think. He stated that Satan uses Error to attack us. Think about it for a minute. Our sins give Satan a foothold on us. The Israelites looked at Moses, terrified, stated, “Was it because there were no graves in the Egypt that you brought us here to die in the desert.” The Israelites immediately erred on the side of Moses leadership and the Manifest Power of God.
Moses response to the Israelites was to not be afraid, but to stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.
Why? Because Moses personally knew Pharaoh, his strengths and weaknesses and the capacity of his army. He knew God would defeat them because he had promised to do so, and he also knew that when the Israelites left Egypt, they left ready for battle. (Exodus 13:18).
Okay, knowing the opposition doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the offensive.
Which leads to our second point.
Point 2. Knowing your position, your strengths and weaknesses, and the tools that are available is crucial.
a. KNOW YOUR POSITION AT ALL TIMES.
It is sheer foolishness for anyone to take off for someplace without first knowing where they are and then finding out how to get where they are going by using all the tools that are accessible to them.
God could have sent the Israelites through the Philistine country, but he knew where they had come from, whom they will encounter and what they might do if they encountered them. So he said, they might turn and run back home. So God led them around the desert to the Red Sea (13:17-18), knowing full well, who they might face, where they were from and what tools were available to them.
WE prepare ourselves adequately.
Pragmatically, we must daily analyze our Spiritual, Physical, and emotional and mental perpetuity because this is vitally important.
Example: Illness. You wake up in the morning and you can’t breath, sore throat, achy, stuffy, etc, and you say to yourself, NAH, that’s normal. I’m ok. Is an example of clearly denying the state you are in. As a matter of fact, you would never get any better if you didn’t take care of yourself.
Example: Spiritually. How about taking a spiritual inventory of our lives. When was the last time we got down and dirty with the word of God and the Holy Spirit and really got real about our relationship with Jesus? Are we living in a vital, life sustaining relationship with Jesus? Is there any power in our faith? Is there anything dynamic happing in our lives?
b. Knowing your position is important but knowing and understanding your strengths and weaknesses are as crucial to survival.
BOOT CAMP ILLUSTRATION. Before battle ever begins for a soldier they are sent to boot camp. At boot camp every person undergoes a rigid and strenuous tests to ascertain his/her physical, mental and emotional agility. They run, hike, dig, get yelled at, fall down, climb, jog, read, take test, are pushed beyond usual human limits all in an attempt to assess that persons strengths and weaknesses before they go into battle.
Exodus 13:18b states that the Israelites when out of Egypt ready for battle. God had prepared them to fight if necessary. What he found out what that when they came face to face with the enemy, they turned to Moses and begged for help. And Moses said once again, STAND FIRM.
Without pragmatically assessing where we are at all times, we cannot know where our strengths and weaknesses are.
WEAKNESSES
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK?
Test this when you get home with your spouse. Have him or her grab your wrist as hard as they can. Then take your arm and turn it until you can see where their two fingers touch, then pull your wrist away from them. Eventually you will break free. I guarantee it.
If we are only as strong as our weakest link, then we must understand that the strongest temptation in our lives that we falter at the most is our weakest link. John 10:10a states, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
The Israelites weakness wasn’t the domination of Pharaoh, it was their active faith in God.
STRENGTH
The Israelites strength came when they turned to Moses and Moses responded with these words: DO NOT BE AFRAID. Stand Firm and you will see the salvation the Lord will bring you today…the Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still.
Moses turns to God and God tells Moses to raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the see to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
2 Things
1. Moses knew Gods position as creator of all things
2. Moses knew God had the strength to make what happened whatever he commanded.
As Christ followers, we too have to understand our strengths and weaknesses.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
BUT your were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Our strength for followers of Christ is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who died on our behalf, out of love for us, so that we, too, may have eternal life with God in Heaven.
TOOLS
The Israelites were provided every tool necessary to accomplish their task, which was to go to the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. Exodus 13: 21,22 says, by day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on there way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in from of the people that God went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
We no longer have the pillars of cloud or fire, but we do have a promised gift from Jesus to his followers, the promised Holy Spirit. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR WEAPON AND OUR DEFENSE AGAINST THE SCHEMES OF SATAN.
Knowing your position, your strengths and weaknesses, and the tools that are available is crucial but there is one more act for us to take into consideration and that is this, we must…STAND FIRM
Point 3 STAND FIRM
Moses said to the Israelites, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, STAND STILL, AND SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, WHICH HE WILL ACCOMPLISH FOR YOU TODAY.”
TEA KWAN DO STORY On Friday evening Brenden joined Noah at Tea Kwon Do lessons. If you know anything about self-defense, you know that one of the most important things is how you ready your stance to fight. If you stand with your legs together and your knees locked, you WILL get knocked down. Your stance must be open, feet firmly planted, knees bend and aware of your opponents position. Sometimes you may have to change your stance in order to prepare for your opponent’s next move.
Your foundation is critical to your defense. In the Bible Jesus is considered the cornerstone and Peter is described as the rock the Church is built upon.
Isaiah 28:16 says, So this is what the sovereign Lord says, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.”
2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
I Peter 5:8 says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the World are undergoing the same kind of suffering.”
The Israelites had all the tools necessary for battle. They needed to use them according to their intended purpose. Being stuck in the middle isn’t always the worst place to be. It is when we are stuck in the middle; smack dab in the middle that we are able to see God at work. It is when we are stuck in the middle that we are able to worship God for who he is and what he has and will do for us.
Moses did not save the people, God did. God parted the waters and destroyed the Egyptians.
If you haven’t been in the middle, smack dab in the middle of a crisis, hold on, you will be some day and remember God’s advice to his people. “DO NOT BE AFRAID, STAND STILL, AND SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, WHICH HE WILL ACCOMPLISH FOR YOU TODAY.”
Conclusion:
(Jokingly and lightly) I love chocolate chip cookies. Even better yet, I love these cookies with the crème filling in between them. If you don’t mind, I’m going to sit back and relax and enjoy the snack that God provided for me because I can rest assured that God would do exactly what he promises he will do, at just the right time he will do it. So, in case any of you are thinking of trying to attack my cookies and milk…well, I’m standing firm on my foundation, trusting God that non of you will succeed in getting any from me…unless, of coarse, you ask. Then I will do as God has done for us James 1:5 and I very liberally paraphrase, If anyone lacks cookies and milk, let he ask Robert, who gives liberally and without objection, and it will be given to you.
Pray and offer cookies to everyone.
Dismiss
