The Leading Of God

Exodus 13.17-22

When Israel come out of Egypt it was in great need of Divine Leadership. For 430 years the developing nation of Israel was in Egypt (12.30). It was a nation with a nation. Suddenly they were free. They had organization along family lines from Jacob's 12 sons but that was about it. Moses was the human instrument through which God spoke. 600,000men- probably over 4 million people or more were out of Egypt's borders and needing to get across the Sinai. They were on their way to the land God promised on oath to give them.

There are truths here in this passage about the way God leads His people. We are in great need today of what Israel was in need of over 3,400 years ago- God's Leading in Our Lives.

1. God's Ways Are Not Our Ways v.17
Isaiah 55.8-9 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, "declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

He knows everything! Everything! What happened, is happening and will happen. He knows our hearts. He knows the road through the Philistine country. He knew Israel.

Without Him we can do nothing (John 15.5)
No less chart the course of our lives.
We do not know what a day may bring forth.

We cannot lean on our own understanding and expect good results.
If they had leaned on their own common sense with all those people they would have taken the road through the Philistine country, what we call today the Gaza Strip, and they would have encountered HUGE problems. So detours many times are the Hand of the LORD directing us in a path of less resistance for our own good and to carry out His plan.

The Holy Spirit kept Paul the apostle from preaching in the Province of Asia (Acts 16.6)
There are times faith makes no sense. I am sure for Paul it was so.
However faith missions would have never been launched unless someone was willing to trust in God rather than the opinions of man.

2. Sometimes God Leads Right Through The Desert v.18
Through! He brings us through the parched land. Sometimes it is His will and in wisdom He does this. Psalm 63.1 O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. David, a man after God's own heart, wrote these words.

Times of heat, (I hate the heat. This fall weather is heaven to me) thirst, times which tax us physically- difficulties come, are encountered as we follow the LORD- He brings us through them.

AND UP TO HUGE OBSTACLES v.18b
The Red Sea- no bridge, no boats- the sea on one side- the Egyptian Army on the other. -14.9

3. Keep The Promises Made To God As You Go Through Tough Times. v.19
The last time we saw Joseph in Genesis 50.24-26 Moses is fulfilling that promise the children of Israel - his forefathers made. Levi was among them Moses' great grandfather had been part of this oath.

Psalm 15.4 Who may dwell in your sanctuary... he... who keeps his oath even when it hurts. Moses had a lot (understatement).
We are to offer the LORD the first and the best of our lives.
Consecrate the firstborn... later when they farmed the land it would also be the first fruits... even in difficult times like we are in - September home foreclosures topped 100,000 for the first time. Unemployment is up, the dollar is down. We are to faithful with what God blesses us with.

4. The LORD Leads Us Through The Day and Through The Night vs.20-22
He is always leading... sometimes we must employ Psalm 27.14
Sometimes in bright sunshine with a clear view
Sometimes where we can only see the next step. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119.105

Proverbs 3.5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direst your paths.

The Lamb of God

Exodus 12.1-11

The Passover has been celebrated approximately 3,456 years by the Jewish people. On the night before Jesus died He celebrated it with His disciples. As they reclined to eat He said, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22.15)

The Passover would become the LORD's Supper. The focus of the Passover was the lamb. This one in the upper room in Jerusalem had the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world seated there among them, Jesus Christ. He was there in symbol in that first Passover, which we just read about.

1. A Lamb For Each Family vs.1-4
God created the family. It is the foundation of social structure.
"As goes the family, so goes the nation." - Ronald Reagan
This feast was centered in the home- small intimate group- God reminding them again that the nation began as a family.

It was the father-husband who got the lamb for the family. I can remember specific things I did with my dad. Young boys who went along would have this in their memory. Every household was covered- every person. Acts 16.31

v.4 Share the lamb We are to share Christ with our neighbors, in our neighborhoods- no one should be without the Lamb.

This lamb was to be very special.
2. A Perfect Lamb v.5
It was to have no defects.
Leviticus 22.22 Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured, or the maimed or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire.

God wants our best, God deserves our best. God gave us His best, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, going back to Abraham's word to Issac in Genesis 22.8 God Himself will provide the lamb/ God will provide Himself the lamb.

It is sad that so many want God to give them His best but they offer God the scraps of their lives. So many have little regard when it comes to giving of themselves but they want God to give to them.

3. The Blood of the Lamb. vs.6-7
v.13 Passover- when I see the blood.

It is Jesus Who said when He took the cup and gave thanks and offered it to His disciples in that Passover Feast the night before He died. "This is My Blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for many." Mark 14.24

Under the first Passover there was a lamb for each house. Under the New Covenant, "Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. I Corinthians 5.7

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. God so loved the world... John the Baptist, "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

4. Bread Without Yeast and Bitter Herbs v.8
Sinless Perfect Lamb of God
Bitter for Christ in His Death- for us in life's trials

Jesus spoke of His return in this feast- Mark 14.25 I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.

John writes in I John 3.3 Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
His return makes us want to be free from sin and causes us to seek to be pure and make necessary changes to do so.

5. Nothing Leftover vs.9-11
This shows the sacredness of the Passover and the LORD's Supper and Christ and His work.We need to recapture that reverence and awe of Him today.

One more thing on this... When Jesus fed the 5,000 in John 6 He said Gather up the fragments. Let nothing be wasted. We waste so much food here in America. It is a sin- a big sin. There is coming a time if Jesus tarries when we won't be able to. Excess is never an excuse for waste. Asking God to bless the food we are going to eat and then throwing half of it out is wrong. I never saw that happen in the weeks I spent in China.

The main thing here is the Sacredness of the Lamb

Lamb of God
Jesus, Our Savior
God's Own Son
Heaven's Favor

He came to die
Upon a Cross
Gave Himself up
To save the lost

He shed His Blood
For Adam's race
On Golgotha
He took our place

Our sins are covered
By His blood
Jesus, Our LORD
Son of God

Mercy In Judgement

Exodus 9.13-10.7

A closer look at these chapters in Exodus reveal a facet of God in His judgement which are seldom seen and highlighted or brought out. In judgement He often shows mercy. There is a difference between grace and mercy. Grace is getting what I don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what I do deserve.

After God had judged Jerusalem in 586 BC, following Jeremiah's pleading with the nation to repent and it rejecting that message he brought, Jeremiah lamented. He wrote down his lament and it is recorded in Lamentations. Tradition says Jeremiah was looking over the city, just under Golgotha, and wrote his lament as we are told the smoke was still rising from its ashes.

Lamentations 3.22-23 (19-26)

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

God had continued to press the same point over and over again to Pharaoh- v.13 "Let My people go so that they may worship Me."

1.The LORD Always Warns Before He Judges. vs.13-15

He was telling Pharaoh that things were going to get worse. They were already bad. God knew Pharaoh would not listen and yet He warned him.

If the LORD has been warning you today, listen! And obey. Draw near to Him.

America has been, and continues to be, warned in various ways that God will judge it unless there is national repentance. In our Constitution's Preamble are the words that all men have been endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Yet in our education system the idea of a Creator has been rejected for decades now. In our laws there is more protection for animals than babies in the womb. The breaking of the Ten Commandments has been glorified in entertainment and life. God continues to warn. We pray that the nation will listen.

However understand that

2. The LORD Does Not Take Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked. Ezekiel 18.23

"Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked?" declares the Sovereign LORD, "Rather am I not pleased when they turn from their wicked ways and live?"

He always offers man a way to escape His judgement.

v.19 God is giving shelter from the stormy blast to men who listen and their animals.

He cares: Noah and the Ark; Jonah and Ninevah Jonah 4.10

v.20 There were officials who feared the Word of the LORD

They hurried = to take flight, escape, flee, drive harshly, to disappear

The fear of the LORD shows up in what people do.

3.God Keeps His People When He Is Judging -v.26

God's people are kept by Him during Judgement, if not physically, then definitely spiritually. We need to be careful here. Hebrews 11.37 speaks of those who were stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword (and brought to heaven).

Some people we pray for to be healed are healed and sometimes sickness leads to death or a life long illness or condition. We need to remember the suffering persecuted church today In Cuba and Sudan and Nepal. People serving the LORD suffer. We give thanks for those the LORD delivers and leave the questions of those He does not with Him.

v.27-28 Some people, many people, who turn to God in times of difficulty, do not truly repent and follow the LORD. They are looking for relief from their sufferings.

There are seeds of the Word of God which fall on rocky places. Mark 4.5-6, 16-17

4. The LORD Still Answers That Prayer of Habakkuk Habakkuk 3.2b

in wrath remember mercy

The LORD did not totally destroy their food supply v.31-32

10.2 tell your children and your grandchildren pass on His mighty acts to the children

The LORD had told Pharaoh that He could have wiped Egypt off the earth by this point. In God's wrath He remembers mercy. We may need to pray this soon for our nation.

We are still in a time of grace and mercy. Let's share the love of Christ. Let's look to heaven. Let's pray for those who are not walking with the LORD today, let's pray now.

God's Grace and God's Judgement

Exodus 7.1-7

There are two levels of the LORD's work here in these few verses.
Pharaoh is falling under God's judgement. Israel is about to experience God's grace, power, might and deliverance.

For Pharaoh, his troubles began back even before he became king. Exodus 1.8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. Nations take a step towards judgement when they lose touch with their activities with the LORD in their past. Joseph was used by God to save Egypt in a time of famine. He made it plain that the ability to interpret Pharaoh's dreams was God's. Genesis 41.16 "I cannot do it," Joseph replied, "but God will give to Pharaoh the answer he desires." This was all forgotten among Egypt's leadeship 350 years later when Moses was born.

The Pharaoh of the Exodus took it a step further. His question and statement started the Hand of God upon himeself and the nation he led. Exodus 5.2 "Who is the LORD that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."

1. When a person or a nation forget about God and their past with Him they will be judged.
That is what was happening to Pharaoh and Egypt.
This attitude towards God and His Word is a frightening and sobering thing.

Pharaoh was given a simple command by the LORD. "Let My people go."
He disobeyed. Disobedience brings judgement. Ten plagues followed.

Pharaoh could have escaped the great judgement upon him and his nation if he would have taken the warning from God. We've all watched Gpod warn people when they are going the wrong way and the many who do not heed His warning- well we just don't understand.

2. Israel was kept by the LORD during Egypt's Judgement.
*He delivered them
*They were set free- God uses judgement at times to set His people free- Paul and Silas in the Philippi jail (Acts 16.25-34) The earthquake caused everyone's chains to come loose.
*God's Hand was guiding and protecting Israel as opposed to Egypt going against God andHis Hand extended (nathan) upon them in mighty acts of judgement. God vindicates and punishes..
The LORD brought Israel into the Land of Promises.

3. Egypt was given many opportunities.
Before jugdement God always warns.
ex/ Noah and the ark- Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Luke 13.1-5 Repent or perish

Judgement begins on earth- the consequences of sin.
ex/ A person who abuses their body with substance- body falls apart, liver disease from alcohol
Worry is not good for us internally- ulcers from acid
Hatred has physical and spiritual conditions.

These are two ways to know the LORD- by His Grace or His judgement.

God judges when the people He is speaking to leaves Him no other option.

Hebrews 12.14-29

Lessons From the LORD In The Desert

Exodus 2.11-3.1

Moses went from the palace of Pharaoh at 40 years of age to the fields, tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro. We are told in Acts 7.22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. He fled because he killed an Egyptian and now Pharaoh was going to kill him. Moses acted alone in this murder. He took matters into his own hands. Now he ends up doing what we were told in Genesis 46.33-34 is detestable to the Egyptians- shepherding, for the next 40 years.

Moses tended the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, a far cry from the palace comforts and position he had in Egypt. 40 years in the desert tending sheep- What did he learn out there in the desert?

1. Moses was taught to wait.
He wasn't alone. For David it was 10 years between the time he was anointed until the time he became king. for Joseph 13 years elapsed from the time he had those dreams until their fulfillment began to come to pass. Perhaps David penned Psalm 27.14 after that decade of running from Saul and waiting.

Difficult to wait while others of your age are going on with their lives.

When we are waiting we need to find things to do, even when we are in line at the bank or the grocery store or waiting in the doctor's office. We are told we will spend 5% of our lives in lines or waiting in one form or another. Bring a book, text, pray, journal. Work- Moses was working, not realizing God was training him, preparing him for something that was beyond his dreams. He would need patience- lots of patience for the next 40 years as he led an unbelieving people across the desert. God was preparing him in this forty.

Loneliness is a part of waiting and a part of leading. Jesus spent time in the wilderness, Paul spent 3 years in the Arabian Desert after God called him. God, in times of preparation, calls His men and women aside so He can speak to them.

2. He was taught to lead people God's Way.
Moses had been groomed for leadership in Egypt. The Egyptians drove the Israelites. God leads His people, He doesn't drive them.

Jacob was the first to say it, "God, Who has been my Shepherd all my life to this day." (Genesis 48.15) The way of the shepherd is the way God leads us. It is in our hymns: Like A Shepherd, Savior Like a Shepherd, He's the Great Shepherd...

Moses, the man of God, out in the desert, taking care of sheep, belonging to his father-in-law, Jethro. Before he was a warrior, ruled by emotions; now a shepherd taking care of sheep.

He had Israel on his heart, when he murdered the Egyptian but it wasn't God's time. Habakkuk 2.3, Acts 7.23-25

Shepherding in the desert- after 40 years of leading a flock of sheep he was ready to lead a nation.
*Humbled Moses- broke him, tested him
*Molded Moses
*Taught him to do things God's way
Remain teachable. Moses, because he had a teachable spirit, was learning skills for leading the nation. He received his marching orders there.

3. Moses was maturing.
Maturity was a by product, a fruit of waiting and learning.
Ephesians 4.11-16
Maturity eliminates a load of problems- immaturity is fraught with all kinds of things. Deeper and Deeper... If we keep in step with the Spirit, He will take us on into maturity. The desert purges us- gives us time to make changes. Takes away frustrations.

4. The LORD was at work while Moses was in the desert.
He is at work in your life today.
"God keeps on working"- Mike Mancini

God brought Moses to the appointed time- God has set times. Moses' family was established there.

Many are the lessons the LORD teaches us in the desert, when we think we are just working hard. Like the original Karate Kid movie... Daniel LaRusso waxed cars, painted the fence, sanded the deck, and painted the house. What he thought were menial tasks was really Mr. Miyagi teaching him the moves in the art of self defense.

While we are going through life and its challenges, deserts, God is at work teaching us invaluable lessons so He can use us in His Kingdom.

September 12, 2010

A Promise For Life

Psalm 55.22

I Peter 5.7

My family in Florida was in shock at the death of Christopher. Two weeks ago this morning, in my cousin, Lori's home, I got up early before we were to leave for church and was reading my Bible and journaling. The day before I was on a Southwest Airline flight out of MacArthur. I had been reading Psalm 50-70 while I waited. These are some of David's psalms of difficulty written while Saul was pursuing him and trying it take his life. I encourage people to read these psalms while going through deep grief. I discovered how much they can help from my own experience.

Suddenly Psalm 55.22 jumped out and grabbed my heart there in MacArthur Airport. That is the verse for my family I thought. I took my journal out the next day, on that Sunday morning and wrote down the verse, "Cast all your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you." I had no sooner written it than Lori my cousin, came out and greeted me with a "Good morning". She picked up what had been our Nana's (Rose Biggs) old Promise Box, full of scriptures, Nana had based her life upon.

Then my cousin Lori began to tell me a story about it.

She showed me how she had one card sticking out of it. She said that during a very difficult night in her life, she could not sleep, so she got up to clean. She was dusting and she accidentally knocked Nana's Promise box off. It fell on the floor and one card flew out. She showed it to me. It was Psalm 55.22 and I Peter 5.7. I showed my journal in which I had just written out Psalm 55.22 and how the day before as I began my trek to Florida the LORD had given this to me for my family there. And suddenly we realized we in the Presence of God. We prayed, thanking God for the wonderful gift of our heritage. Our Nana had gone to heaven 22 years ago but the influence of her life lived on and the LORD was showing us that and that those promises were as true today as the day He gave them and the day our Nana read them and the night that card popped out. Our God is an Awesome God.

There are times when we find life's situations to be unbearable. I think of Tiffany, Christopher's fiance. Wedding Invitations all sent out and now he is gone and what was to be three weeks of wonderful expectation has become difficult beyond description. Horatio Spafford and Joseph Scriven knew about this. They wrote, It is Well With My Soul and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Scriven's fiance drowned the night before they were to be married.

God's people turn to God's Word when faced with the times in life where they have more than they can bear. During times of terror and shock, unspeakable pain and loss, the Word of God stands!

1. The LORD Cares For You I Peter 5.7

God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth cares about you and all the things you carry on your heart, the things you are perplexed over. Life can bring us into places where there are no answers, where we have to fall back on the fact the LORD loves us and cares about us.

Matthew 6.25-34

2. The LORD Calls Us To Cast Our Burdens On Him. Psalm 55.22

Hurl, fling, throw your burden, your lot on Him.

Why do we continue to mentally carry them?

1- Hard to let go.

2- Lack of faith in His ability

3- Fear

4- Pride- trying to reason- leaning on our own understanding

5- We have become used to carrying them- pheasants for sale- man bought them and said untie them and let them go. He cut the ropes and the poor birds just kept running around in circles as if the ropes were still around their necks.

3. The LORD Sustains his People. Psalm 55.22b

He holds our hand Psalm 37

He holds us up Psalm 16.8

He nourishes us with His Word. Deuteronomy 8.3

He supplies our needs Philippians 4.19 What a supply! Glorious, Endless, Heavenly

On the bottom of that promise card

in my Nana's box were these words:

And shall I still the load retain,

Which Thou hast offered to sustain?

No! At Thy bidding I will flee

And cast my burdens all on Thee.

Next Week

Due to Hurricane Earl my return flight ws canceled. I am planning on flying out tomorrow and will have, LORD willing, the Sunday Morning Message up and running again.