Just a few weeks ago we saw John Roberts sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. We watched as he was grilled over and over about his stance on certain issues. And now sometime in the near future we will see Harriet Miers going through the same things. But I doubt if either one of them will go through the gauntlet like Clarence Thomas did. Jack Danforth in his book called the "Resurrection and Confirmation of Clarence Thomas," talks about the circumstances that surrounded the affirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The book talks about the accusations made by Anita Hill, that he had acted inappropriately towards her ten years earlier. This was an accusation that completely devastated both he and his wife. Thomas said, “I have not always been a Christian but the accusations brought by Ms. Hill simply are not true.” But even with the convincing evidence that the accusations were not true, Hill was allowed to testify on national TV. More than a half dozen women testified to his outstanding character. But the media had a field day. Thomas kept asking, “Why are they doing this to me? Why are they trying to destroy me?”
Here’s a fact if you are a leader: you are going to encounter obstacles. You will encounter various trials and difficulties. This morning we don’t have any Supreme Court nominees with us, but we do have many leaders and potential leaders in the church with family, sports, community, business and some public officials. The obstacles that we face may not be as threatening or well publicized as Clarence Thomas but there will be opposition, trouble and criticism. How we cope with these problems will determine how well we lead and how much of an influence we will have.
This was true with Moses. God gave Moses a call at the burning bush; go tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Moses tried to cast the vision to a doubting Israelite nation and to a very stubborn Pharaoh. But even though it was a struggle, the Jewish people were freed and over a million of God’s people walked out of Egypt with their faces fixed on a promised land. But Moses encountered one obstacle after another. This morning I want us to look at three major trials he faced and as we study his trials.It is my hope that we can learn to cope with our trials as we go forward as well.
The first trial that Moses faces was hostile opposition. It wasn’t long before Pharaoh began to regret his decision to let the Hebrew slaves go. It was the last of the ten plagues that finally softened his heart, the death of the each first born in Egypt, including Pharaoh’s son. So Pharaoh had had enough and he said, "you people are a curse to our nation. So go and never return." But just a few hours later, he thought again, we have released all of our man power and he ordered the armies to pursue the Israelites and bring them back.
Exodus 14:9 says, "The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen [a] and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon." If you dare to be a leader, you are going to come up against some intense opposition, especially if you are trying to lead people to Christ. Bill McCartney, who began Promise Keepers, calls men to keep their promises to their families, to be men of integrity. But Promise Keepers in the past have had to withdraw from many venues in America because as one of the enemys of the ministry put it, “Promise Keepers is a male, supremacist, conservative, religious organization that strongly advocates gender bigotry.” It is not that at all. It is an organization that encourages men to be faithful to their wives, and to be a better father to their children. It is an organization that draws men closer to God by worship and by Word.
A few years ago James Dobson and Focus on the Family were run down as a group that may have even caused the death of a young homosexual man out west. It was absurd, but it made national headlines and was on all the news shows. This was so unfair. If you try to lead in moral values, you will be opposed. It may come from the government or the press or even your own family or friends or by someone in the church who thinks you are badly mistaken. Just like Moses though, when we are faced with opposition, we must press on toward the goal. Moses told the Israelites when the Egyptians came, to stand firm. Don’t run away. Don’t go back. Stand firm.
It is human nature to be intimidated by a powerful opponent and react according to their threats. Nobody wants to be sued. Nobody wants bad publicity. Nobody wants to be gossiped about or talked about. Nobody wants their reputation flawed in any way. Nobody wants hard feelings. We can’t allow the opposition to set the agenda. What would have happened if Moses told the Israelites, "uh oh here comes the Egyptian Army; everybody run!"? Sometimes it means to stand firm, the way he told the Israelites to stand firm, sometimes it means finding another way to accomplish the same thing. Sometimes it means to wait on God’s timing. But it always means to not allow the opponent to kill the vision that you know is right.
Let me give you a practical example. As parents, you want to teach your kids about the Lord and have them walk in a Christ-like manner. That means we teach them respect for authority, we teach them obedience, and good manners. Doing this over and over again, you start to see some good results, but there may be those around you who don’t support you completely. Maybe they say, you are just way to strict, you shouldn’t spank, you are too overbearing with your kids.
When there is opposition, you must ask yourself two questions. 1. What does God want me to do? 2. How are people going to react? Both are important but anytime you allow question #2 to become more important than question #1, you are defeated. You’ve lost sight of the goal. Moses said, "don’t run stand firm! Wait on God."
Pharaoh’s opposition brought about a second trial for Moses, and that created dangerous circumstances. Look at verse 10: “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.” That’s understandable. This was a fearful situation. They didn’t have any weapons. And if they did, they weren’t trained to fight. And here came the world’s most powerful army after them. They had the army on one side and the Red Sea on the other. They were trapped.
When you lead there will be times when the circumstances will appear insurmountable. This statement reminds me of war movies, and what it must have really been like to be at the Battle of Normandy and D Day. Movies like the Battle of the Bulge and Saving Private Ryan display this pretty well. I wonder what the leaders said to their men as they faced some seriously dangerous circumstances, knowing of the dangers, knowing that most of the men would die. Now at Spencer Christian, we don’t face life and death events but we do face life and death matters. The decisions we make, the things we do affect people both now, and sometimes even forever.
So, effective leaders must learn to anticipate problems. There is an old saying, “No pain, no gain.” And there would be no Promise Land without the Red Sea. An effective leader will make every attempt to confront the obstacle before they become an emergency. John Maxwell said, “Good leaders are seldom blin-sided. They recognize the punch that knocks them out is not the hard one. It’s the one they didn’t see coming!”
Exodus 14:4 says, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." So the Israelites did this.” Moses knew in advance of the attack. The responsibility of a leader is to see problems before they come. A leader has to see the problems before they come. Larry Travis says, “An effective leader recognizes the difference between an obstacle and an impossibility. An obstacle can be overcome with courage, perseverance and teamwork. That takes immediate action and God’s help. But an impossibility cannot be overcome without a miracle from God and that takes patient prayer. A good leader has to know the difference.”
This reminds me of the church that wanted a new building but they didn’t want to pay the price, and they didn’t want to have to relocate so they passed four resolutions. 1. They would build a new building, 2. They would build the new building on the present location, 3. They would use the material from the old building to build the new building, and 4. They would continue to meet in the old building until the new building was finished.
There are some impossibilities that have to be accepted as such, and we have to develop a new strategy. Do you know that God sometimes puts us in situations where we can’t get out? Sometimes He puts us between the rock and a hard place so we have no alternative but to trust Him. Moses recognized that the situation was impossible unless God intervened. Look at verses 13 and 14. “Moses answered the people, ’Do not be afraid. 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."
When we face impossible situations, we stand still and trust God, and wait for his deliverance. Somebody said, "a bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn." God was going to provide a strange turn of events but the Israelites had to wait and trust, and then follow.
This leads us to Moses’ third trial, unhappy followers. Exodus 14:10-11 reads, “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 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?" Notice that they did the right thing. They cried out to the Lord but as soon as they said, "Amen," they turned on Moses and complained to him. They were cutting in their criticisms, "was it that there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die?" They had built the pyramids, and so they were saying, "weren’t those big enough for you Moses?" And they were harsh. "What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?" Now the Lord had done it, but they needed someone to blame. "Yeah Moses, you and your big vision." And they were disrespectful. "Didn’t we tell you, Moses, that we could have stayed and served the Egyptians? We should have never listened to you." And they were negative. "It would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die here, like this." Well, the Egyptian army didn’t come out to kill them, but to return them Egypt. However, people who are emotional will always exaggerate the problem and they will lose the vision.
These people had to be a real test for Moses and his leadership. Rick Warren suggests that God teaches us to love people by putting us around people we don’t like, just to see how well we will do. I think he is right. How many of you have to work with people that you don’t like? Now don’t point, but some people can be a real test. Moses had this whole group of negative, critical people and it had to have been a real test of his leadership and compassion.
If you lead, you can write this down, there are going to be some unhappy, pessimistic followers. I heard about a female lion tamer who was the hit of the circus. She really had the animals under control. Now the grand finale of her act was she would drop her whip and the biggest lion would come over to her, put his paws on her shoulders, give her a hug and would snuggle up to her ear. The audience roared but one man who said, "ah, that’ nothing, anybody can do that." The ring master was a bit irritated and said, "oh really sir? Would you like to try it?" He said, "sure, but first get those lions out of there!"
No matter how dynamic your leadership, you will have one or two people who will be negative. And they may not have any better ideas, but they will be very vocal. You see, everyone will not believe that your dream is possible. Some will not want to pay the price. Some will not trust the leadership. But we have to be like Moses and raise your staff and say, "let’s cross over. Come on over if you want." We have to put our faith into action.
Look at Exodus 14:19-22. "Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left."
On March 16, 1992, USA Today carried an article called, "Bible Story Explained." It read, "ten hours of gale forced wind could have parted the Red Sea, as described in the Bible. And an abrupt change in wind would have caused the waters to crash back drowning the Egyptians." They based their findings on their calculations of the interaction between water and wind.
The fact is, whether they have found it to be possible on earth or not, God performed a miracle, and everything is possible with God. I heard about a little boy who went to visit a church that was very liberal, and the Sunday School teacher said that the children of Israel crossed at a point where the water was only 6 inches deep. The boy said, "wow, what a miracle." The teacher said, "nah, it wasn’t a miracle, the water was only 6 inches deep." The boy replied, "no, that was some miracle for God to drown all the entire Egyptian army in 6 inches of water."
Make no mistake, God had performed a great miracle.
I want to share two lessons with you from this great story. Number 1: Obstacles are sometimes our most promising opportunity to lead others. Moses’ most dangerous moment turned into his greatest moment. Here is lesson number 2: Impossibilities are always God’s opportunities to lead us, if we would only trust Him. Sometimes God will bring you to the Red Sea so you will have no choice but to trust Him. And Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9, “you will reap the harvest if you don’t give up.”
I want to close with the 10 Commandments of Leadership. I hope they will be an inspiration to you. Here they are. They were written by Kent Smith in 1968. For all who are called to lead, they are a great reminder of what we should do:
1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered (including me). Love them anyway.
2. If you do good to others, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the littlest people with the littlest ideas. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them. Help them anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the best you have anyway.
You know what leader did that? Jesus Christ. He saw us helplessly trapped between the accuser and the sea of death. He came down to assist us and we spit in his face and crucified him but through that sacrificial service he parted the sea of death so that we could walk through. When we walk through the water of baptism, He buries our sins in the sea and we see them no more. And he became our leader through the wilderness to the promise land of eternal life. I want you to know that He wants to lead you there this morning.
