Impossible Moments - Part 11

Lion’s Den - Daniel 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Good morning everybody, good to see your faces. How are we doing We're doing good. We're doing well. See a thumbs up in the back. That was good. That's all I needed. Someone's doing well. It's okay if you aren't. It is? We're at church. Man, I'll be honest. I am feeling the season. The season for us is back to school. Everyone getting back in the groove. So you parents out there know what this is like. Getting school supplies and meeting teachers and all that stuff. It's good, it's busy, so I'm thankful for a Sunday where we get together and a little bit of a break, a little bit of a Sabbath. Excited to continue in our series. We're almost done, just a few more weeks. Today we're going to continue in our book, if you were with us last week or watching online we were in the book of Daniel. We're going to be there again.

Now if you grew up in church, and you were in Sunday school as a kid, we pretend that we had this big flannel graph, you know, you guys remember what those are? You have to be old enough, I think, to know what that is. And this was one of the most popular flannel graph Sundays in Sunday school, and that would be Daniel and the Lion's Den. They had the little flannel lions, you put them on there. And they were peaceful, if you know the story. But we're going to dive right in, Daniel and the Lion's Den, in the book of Daniel. Today's message is another impossible moment, but it's not just an impossible moment, it's also full of biblical hyperlinks. And you're like, "Andre, what in the world are those?" That's a fancy word. Hyperlinks is a fancy name for references in a certain biblical passage that hyperlink us to another biblical passage. And it helps us understand the trajectory and the tone for the story at hand. Basically, it's scripture helping us understand scripture, which is awesome. God has given us and provided us a way to better understand His Word. So throughout our passage I'm going to be referencing some of those today. The setting is the same as last week where Israel is in captivity to Babylon, except there's a new ruler in charge. And while last week we looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, today we'll look at the prophet Daniel himself. And how will Daniel respond to an impossible moment? Daniel is an advisor to the king. Remember the process for Israel being taken captive was that he took the brightest and the smartest, the strongest young people of whatever country they overtook, and they took him back to Babylon to use him for their own. So Daniel was one of those people. And his time in Babylon is one of success. He's got a track record, so far, of being very valuable to the kingdom and to the leaders.

By chapter 6, our point today, he's already had a few distinguishing moments. Upon his arrival, remember being taken captive, upon his arrival, the process for those captives was to be treated really well. They were given really great food, they went and were taught so that they could grow up to be influential leaders. But Daniel decides to make the process a little different. Instead of eating the king's food, he decides, he says, "Hey, we're only going to eat vegetables. No other of the nice, great, rich, awesome food that you have, we're just going to eat vegetables." And the king's like, "Well, why? I'm going to provide you all this stuff." And he says, "Watch God work. When we eat vegetables for a certain time, watch us be in better health than all the other people who are eating all your food." And sure enough, at the end of the time, on just a diet of vegetables, they are stronger, they look better, they are smarter. And it right away signals to the king in Babylon that this god, whoever the god of Daniel is, is he's got power, he's got influence, he can do things. Another moment for Daniel is that he interpreted dreams for the king. When no one else was able to provide answers for the king who had this dream, Daniel comes and by God, God giving him understanding and clarity to what's going on, Daniel's able to tell the king, "Hey, this is what your dream means." And then there's the incident, which you may also recall, which is the writing on the wall where God's hand appears before the king and writes some mysterious thing, and the king is freaking out. He's like, "What just happened? What is going on?" And no one is able to tell him what that means except for Daniel. Daniel comes and says, "This is by God, "and this is what God is talking about." So we know that Daniel's very important, and Babylon knows that Daniel is pretty important. He's a man of God, serving to the best of his ability in captivity, while still following and worshiping Yahweh. So we're gonna be in chapter six today, and before we get into our verses, I just wanna summarize the first part, it's kinda long. But we see that a new ruler has come into power, and he has appointed Daniel, along with two others, and 120 governors underneath them, to rule the entire kingdom. So there's three, Daniel's one of the three, and there's 120 governors underneath them. And Daniel's doing so well in this position that the king wants to make him in charge of all of it. He's like, "Wow, you are thriving. "My kingdom is great because of you. "Let's just put you in charge of the whole thing."

All right, pause here for our first hyperlink, all right? Gonna be using that word a lot, hyperlink. This is, if you're familiar with the Old Testament and its people and its stories, this whole plot might sound familiar because there was a man named Joseph, a different time, a descendant of Abraham, who was also taken captive, and found himself in a foreign land and started interpreting dreams for leaders, including Pharaoh, and rose to prominence, and was placed in charge of all of Egypt. And Joseph, way back in Genesis, is an example of someone who, coming from lowly places like Daniel, a captive, who by God's favor arises into a power of position and prominence to not only bless the foreign kingdom, but to bless God's people. And so this comparison, this hyperlink, is very present throughout the whole book of Daniel. We follow Daniel's story, you just keep them like, man, this sounds so familiar, this is just like Joseph. And it helps us to understand that God is the one really pulling the strings here. Even though Daniel is the vessel, he's the one chosen, the servant of God, it's God, just like we saw with Joseph, it's God doing the work. And as long as Daniel, like Joseph, remains faithful to God, there is blessing in his situation. Despite being a captive, God will favor him and use him for his purposes. And if you know the story of Joseph, it ends well. It's a good story, it's a happy story. He's a good guy doing great things, the leaders like him, and so we know, as we're reading the tone of this story, we're like, hey, this is gonna be a happy story, right? Even though it's gonna get a little hairy, it's gonna get a little scary, this is good. This is a good, something good is gonna happen. But before we get to the happy ending, we gotta go through our story. So Daniel is dealing with a lot of success in his position, and it's making the other leaders jealous. They don't like it. They don't like that Daniel is doing so well, to the point where they're gonna take some action. They just, they can't deal with it anymore, and so they are gonna do something about it. They know how much the king favors Daniel, and appreciates all that Daniel's done for Babylon. So they have to kind of get crafty. They gotta be creative in how to get rid of Daniel. Time for hyperlink number two. All right, the governors, these leaders who are jealous of Daniel, they hearken back to the snake in the Garden of Eden. They know that the straightforward approach will not be as effective as something conniving and crafty and sneaky, twisting words and truths to trap someone, just like the snake did in the Garden of Eden. They are going to try and bring the downfall of someone while presenting it as the best option. So that hyperlink tells us that these guys are bad. If it wasn't obvious, these are bad guys, and bad things are going to happen because of them. But also, they're going to get in trouble. So we kind of know where the story's going before the story even starts. A little more set up before we dive into our passage. These governors convinced the king with flattery and massed admiration, to pass a law that no other God or being can be worshiped besides the king for 30 days. It's not good. It's not a good law. The king signs off on it, but they know that Daniel, this is all for Daniel, they know that Daniel lives a life of integrity.

And there wasn't anything that they could catch him on. There was no dirt on Daniel. They tried, they looked, they said, if we could just get him on something, we can get rid of this guy. But there was nothing. nothing to blackmail him over, there was no leverage to be found to use against him, they had to create the situation for him to fail in. This is so evil and manipulative. This is like some of those political movies or TV shows, I don't know if you watch some of those, but it seems like every person in that show is out for themselves and everything they do is a chess move and everyone's got ulterior motives. I don't know if you've watched any of those. You just, you expect like in this show like something's gonna go wrong, someone's not telling the truth, I see a nod of head, yes. There are those shows out there. This is what's happening here. It's very, it's very bad. So King Darius, unaware of the ulterior motives, agrees to this plan. He's like, sure, yeah, that sounds great. Me, you wanna worship me for 30 days? Me only? Good with that. And this law is put into place.

And now if you would turn in your Bibles to Daniel 6, it'll be on the screen too. We're gonna start in chapter 6, verse 10. It says, "Now when Daniel learned that the decree "had been published, he went home to his upstairs room "where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. "Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, "giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. "And then these men went as a group and found Daniel "praying and asking God for help. "So they went to the king and spoke to him "about his royal decree. "Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days "anyone who prays to any God or human being "except to you, your majesty, "will be thrown into the lion's den?" The king answered, "The decree stands "in accordance with the law of the Medes and the Persians, "which cannot be repealed." Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles "from Judah, pays no attention to you, your majesty, "or to the decree you put in writing. "He still prays three times a day." When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him. This first section shows us Daniel's response to what just happened, and his response to this impossible situation of a law that tells him that he cannot worship Yahweh, his God, the God of Israel, is going directly to God. He just says, "I hear that, and no. I'm not going to obey that. I'm still going to pray. I'm still going to worship God." And Daniel is seeking God's counsel, his guidance, his direction, wisdom, discernment. He's even facing Jerusalem, which I love this note in here, which symbolizes that he is giving all of his focus and attention on God. Because think of this, he's a captive, right? From Israel, away from home, and he's looking back toward his land, where Jerusalem held the temple of God, where God was known to dwell. So he's looking at God's house and he's saying, "God, I'm surrounded right now by foreign people who are out to get me. You are the only focus I have. I'm looking out my window directly to you." It tells us that Daniel continued to do what he always did, which was pray. Daniel was consistent in his communication with God. so he could recognize and hear God's voice, because they talked all the time, three times a day, formally, probably more than that, informally. And it exemplifies the importance of remaining in close relationship with God.

So I want to ask us today, what is our relationship and communication with God like? Is he only hearing from us in times of need, when we are in crisis? Is he only hearing from us we have no one else to turn to? Are we treating God like a last resort? Or, is God hearing from us immediately as something comes up? Is God hearing from us when things are also going well? Is he a part of our regular rhythm in life? Does he hear appreciation for the good times and the bad? Does he hear from us often? Daniel had a healthy habit of communication, and it's something that we should strive for too. Well, like last week, it's Daniel's obedience to God that gets him in trouble. These men knew that Daniel wouldn't stop his spiritual practices, living faithfully to God, worshiping God, and so they knew that they could catch him praying, and they do. They go over, they see him, he's praying to God. So they go and confront the king about Daniel and how he's broken the law. And the king is distressed, he doesn't like it, which I find interesting. Usually our biblical characters are under attack even from the rulers, but this time the ruler's like, oh man, Daniel, I like Daniel, he's one of my guys. And he does not like that now Daniel's caught up in all of this and Daniel has to face punishment. And it even tells us that he tried everything until sundown to help Daniel get out of this situation. In verses 12 and 14, it shows that the king is limited in his power. Even though he put the law into place, he doesn't like what it's causing him to do, and he has no way to get out of it. He is bound by his own law. He can't operate outside the law. He can't change the law to do something that is right. The group of men who schemed all this make it very clear to him. They remind him, like, "Didn't you say this?" And he's like, "Yeah, I did." And as we see the limitations of a human ruler, We're reminded of who isn't limited. It's the God that Daniel serves. It's the God that we serve. Because God and His law, God and His word, are perfectly in sync. There are no moments where God is trapped into a situation by something He said, into regretting something that He enacted or that He is forced to do. Psalm 19, seven says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. As we see King Darius's limitations, we can be reminded of how powerful and perfect Yahweh is. God's law is not out to get people. It's there to help us grow closer to Him. The law of the Lord isn't a trap to get people into trouble. It's there that we would grow and and thrive in loving, perfect relationship with God, just as he intended.

So, Daniel's facing all this, let's see what he does. Verse 16 says, "So the king gave the order, "and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. "The king said to Daniel, 'May your God, "'whom you serve continually, rescue you.'" I love that. "A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, "and the king sealed it with his own signet ring "and the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating, without any entertainment being brought to him, and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. And when he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguish voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?" And Daniel answered, "May the king live forever. "My God sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions. "They have not heard me, "because I was found innocent in his sight. "Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, your majesty." Stop right there. In this scene, it just shows Daniel's steadfast faith and trust in God. The king who is bound by law gives the order and throws Daniel in. But in this moment, the king is hoping that the God of Daniel will save him. Did you guys notice this? There's an unbeliever who is placing their hope in God. He doesn't necessarily know who Yahweh is, who the God of Daniel is, but he wants that God to save Daniel. I love it. I think there's something innate in humanity that recognizes its creator to some extent, and maybe in certain situations, there is something in us that when life is at its darkest, we look up and we cry out to God. And for us who believe, we know who that God is. We know who we're talking to. But for those who don't, we see that they too will look up and cry out to the God that they don't know, but asking for help and putting their hope in someone bigger than who they are. Obviously people don't, or maybe the thought of recognizing creator had never come to the forefront of their minds before they get into that impossible situation but when people are in their darkest moment and are so desperate, people are often brought closer to God's presence and that's the king here. The king, being in a dark and desperate moment, is being brought closer to God. Daniel's impossible situation continues as he's lowered into the den of the lions. And the stone is brought over and the kings and guards seal it. And the king is so anxious that he can't sleep. He's restless over Daniel's wellbeing, again, showing his care and concern for Daniel. In 19 through 22 is a beautiful picture of this unique friendship. As the morning rises, the king, first thing he does, runs over to the lion pit to see if Daniel is alive. And this picture that we get of the king running is not a very kingly picture. Kings are very noble, they're very articulated in what they do. They don't run to go see someone that serves them. This is not the scene. So it shows that he is so invested in Daniel that he does not care if he looks like a fool, running to where someone should have died. And the king is giving credit to Yahweh. He's just crying out in hope. He's like, I don't know if there's a voice that's gonna come from this pit. Has your God saved you? Because he knows that if Daniel is alive, the only way that he could be living is from Daniel's God. There's no other explanation. And to his joy, Daniel responds. He says, "I'm here, I'm still alive, King." And he explains, I imagine this like still in the pit, like Daniel's still in the pit, he's like, "I'm here, and here's how it happened. "The angel shut the mouths of the lions around me right now." Maybe he's like, "Can you get me out, "and I'll tell you all about it, "but can you get me out of this pit?" But he said, "The angel shut the mouths of the lions "and kept them from hurting Daniel "because he was found innocent." And I love that he puts that in there, just God saw me innocent, and by the way, King, I never really did anything against you either.

Now, time for a major hyperlink. All right, we're going to nerd out here for a little bit. And if you could just follow and track with me, I think it'll pay off. But come down this rabbit hole with me. What we see from Daniel here in this moment, in this scene, is also similar to someone else, not Joseph. We already did that hyperlink, different hyperlink. They also faced certain deaths. So if I had the big flannel graph-- I know Pastor Chris has talked about getting a flannel for Sundays because it's so exciting. But if I had one here, I'd like to be holding the next character and I'd be putting him out. Any guesses on who we're talking about here? Okay, yeah, I know a little call and response in church, you can speak up if you have any answer, if you're feeling confident. Okay, I'll just slap on the biggest, most used character in flannel graph. Jesus, if you had the Sunday school answer, that would be correct. Look at these similarities between Daniel and Jesus. Daniel faced leaders conspiring against him. Jesus also faced leaders at that time conspiring against him. Daniel, his first response is to pray to God. He goes up to his house and he prays. Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and prays to God. Daniel submits and is faced with the decision of a ruler over him. Jesus also submits and faces the decision of the rulers that decide his fate. Daniel is found guilty of the law and Jesus too is also found guilty of the law. Now the law for me would be like in quotes because the law was something just to trap these people. It was used not for the law's intention, but to trap Daniel and to trap Jesus. Daniel was found innocent in God's eyes and Jesus as we know was perfect and innocent in God's eyes. Daniel was put to death, put in the lion's den. Jesus was put on a cross. Daniel, saved by God, came out of the lion's den alive. Jesus defeated death, rose again, and there was an empty tomb. And Daniel had the king in the morning running to him to see if he was alive, and Jesus has Mary and the disciples running to the grave to see if Jesus is alive. I'm being a little, I think this is so cool. The mirrors here, the parallels between the two stories. I love it, these comparisons show us, again, a trajectory and a tone for the passage, and it is one of a miracle. The God of Daniel, the God we serve, is the only God who can do what he does, the only one who has power over death, who can make the impossible possible. Our minds being drawn to Jesus here remind us of this is how salvation works. By putting your trust in God, our faith in God, you will be saved. Daniel put his trust and faith in God and was saved. When we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, we too are saved. I love how the Old Testament points us to Jesus. And this story is like neon lights flashing. It's pointing us to Christ. Pointing us to the wondrous work that God would do in sending his son to earth. But, okay, hyperlink over, back to our story, we gotta finish.

Let's finish our chapter, verse 23. It says, "The king was overjoyed and gave orders "to lift Daniel out of the den, "and when Daniel was lifted from the den, "no wound was found on him, "because he had trusted in his God. "At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused "Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion's den, "along with their wives and children. "Before they reached the floor of the den, and the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Yikes. Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language and all the earth. May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves. performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. So that Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. This is all about King Darius' response to seeing God work. And King Darius invoked justice immediately. He orders the men who plotted this whole scheme be thrown into the lion's den And before the men even reached the floor, the lions devoured them, which show us, it's not just to show us that that's a crazy scene, but it's to show us that this wasn't like the lions were full or anything before Daniel was thrown in. There was no natural explanation as to how Daniel could be saved. These lions were ready to eat. They were ferocious. This was a whole thing that the Babylonians had set up. We keep these lions starving so that when we throw anything in there, they will kill anything in there. And so it's to show that this was indeed a miracle. The king continues in this joyous response. He sends to all the earth a command to worship God. See how this has changed from the very beginning of our chapter where the king enacts this rule of you cannot worship Yahweh, to now he's saying to all the earth, you must worship Yahweh. Oh, how the turntables. It's so cool to see a Gentile king using his power and authority to spread the name of God and to tell people to worship him. God used this entire situation, meant for the harm of one of his own people, to actually have the entire world hear who he is and what he can do. This is amazing. I get why this was a flannel graph story.

Everyone should know about what happened. King Darius has a response of seeing the Lord work and his response is worship. But what about us today? When we face impossible situations, what will our response be? We saw Daniel's, we've seen King Darius's, what about us? Well, we may not face the exact situation. I'm praying that none of us get thrown into a pit of lions. Yikes, would not be good. But we do, like we say every week. we all face our own impossible situations in our lives. What are we going to do? Well, number one, be like Daniel and go to God immediately. Just as Daniel went to his room and faced Jerusalem, his first thought, the first move, is to look to the heavens and pray. Get your attention focused upward on God. Start talking to him. Pray that God would give you direction. Pray that God would intervene. Share your feelings with him, whether it's frustration, or you're scared, you're hurt, maybe you're happy. Whatever it is, ask God for help, share, just start talking. Go to God immediately. Our first responsibility is something I call get eye contact with God. Do you know, okay, when you're in a situation, you're with maybe a spouse, a sibling, your best friend, and something happens, and your first reaction is to make eye contact with that person. Be like, did you just see that? Are we on the same page here? Did we both just register what just happened and acknowledge that? Do that with God. When something happens, be like, "Look at God." Be like, "Okay, God, we both just saw that? Okay, we want to get on the same page here." Make eye contact with God. Figuratively. Okay. Number two, live with integrity. This is all about remaining innocent in the eyes of God. Sometimes our impossible situations will tempt us to compromise, to look the other way, to live in a way that betrays God, betrays our belief in Him. It will tempt us to sin. Daniel could have stopped praying. He could have been like, "God, look, for 30 days I've got to not talk to you. Sorry, I'll talk to you later." Whatever. There could have been many things, many options where God turned His back on God. Our impossible situations will tempt us to turn our backs on God.

But like Daniel told King Darius in verse 22, he said that he was saved because he was found innocent in God's sight. We too wanna be saved by being innocent in God's sight. Live with integrity. All the time. When it's easy, yes, but also when it's hard. The that we had to Jesus is helpful here, right? Jesus, who was unjustly beaten, who was unjustly accused, unjustly put to death the entire time, He remained faithful, obedient, without sin in all of it. We too, that's gotta be our aim. We wanna be like Jesus. And to live with integrity, we need Jesus. We can't do that on our own. As hard as we may try, we will fail. We need Jesus. So part of living with integrity is depending on Christ. And number three, trust God at all times. Whether the impossible situation for you has just begun, or you're deep into a season of despair and chaos, remember that God works at any time, any time that he chooses. I mean, look at Daniel here. God was present with him through it all, but he also allowed Daniel to get to the worst part, which was being thrown into the lion's den. He could have changed King Darius' mind. He could have wiped out the men who plotted against Daniel. He could have done anything before Daniel had to go in the lines then, but he didn't. But it's at Daniel's moment when he's about to face death that God then intervenes. Pastor Lauren brought this up a few weeks ago with the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Sometimes deliverance means still going through the entirety of the difficult situation. But it's the fact that you make it through. That's God's working in your life. So trust God at all times in your impossible situation. Trust Him at the beginning, when you're entering a dark season, and continue to trust Him when it's getting worse and worse and worse. Keep your faith in Him. Just because your impossible situation may be leading to your demise in the way you view it, it doesn't mean that God isn't gonna intervene at some point in some amazing way. And, just like last week with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even if He doesn't intervene, He is still worthy of our praise. He is still good. This week, as we all go about our lives, our encouragement and prayer for you is that your first reaction to whatever is going on in your life is to pray, is to go to God, is to look heavenward and say, "God, that was something I need you right now." Get that conversation going. And then strive to live with integrity. Ask yourself this week, how can I live more like Jesus in my day to day? Are you asking God for strength and the provision through His Spirit to live like Christ in every moment? And let's grow in our trust and faith in Him, holding on when life is throwing us all over the place, on our knees in prayer, with our hearts looking heavenward, trusting God in every moment.

Let's pray. God, thank you for this story of Daniel in the lion's den, which is famous. We know that Daniel lives through this impossible situation, and I pray that it would bring us courage, it would bring us hope, God, for whatever we are facing. And if we're not facing anything, God, I just pray that it would strengthen our relationship with you. It would deepen our roots of faith and belief so that when we do face impossible situations, we are anchored to you, knowing that you can work out anything for your good, for your purposes. God, we pray for a deepening of our relationship with you. We pray for hope and despair. We pray for strength and weakness. We pray for joy and chaos. You know where everyone is at in this room and what they need. And I pray that right now, through the teaching of your word, through the worship, we do in singing that you would fill us up, that our hearts would be a little bit lighter leaving today. God, we know who you are and what you can do and we praise you for it. May we feel empowered and encouraged and equipped to give you our everything. Be with us this week. Draw us closer to you. We pray this in your name. Amen. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

Impossible Moments - Part 10

Fiery Furnace - Daniel 3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We've been bouncing around in our series in the Old Testament looking at impossible moments. where by human perspective there was no way forward, no option, no way to succeed. And by now we're in week 10 of our series, there's little to no surprise about how these sermons go, right? We know how it ends. We know that there's an impossible and probable situation, we know that at this point God intervenes in some way, whether through providing physical resources and answers or by providing supernatural answers. God is the one making the impossible possible. And so there are no surprises, and yet, each Sunday, a story can hit us differently. Each week we come here having experienced a different week than the week before, being in a different place, our hearts and our minds may be ready to pick up on a different aspect of God, of who He is and what He does. And so while we are week to week maybe repeating some similar themes in these stories, it only does our heart good to hear how amazing God is over and over and over again. All that to say, don't tune out. Don't tune out today, don't tune out, we still have a few more weeks in the series. Each week God may want to speak to you about something different.

So last week we were in Exodus, Pastor Lauren talked about Moses and the Israelites and as they were being led out by God away from Egypt, through the Red Sea, as a part of God's plan of deliverance. And today we're jumping ahead, far beyond Israel in the desert, far beyond Israel in the Promised Land, beyond King David and Solomon, so we're actually, sadly, the Kingdom of Israel is falling apart. We're going to be in Daniel today, and Israel's kingdom at this time, by this point, has been divided into two. We have the Northern Kingdom and the southern kingdom. And this foreign nation of Babylon has captured the northern kingdom of Israel. Part of the process of Babylon taking over nation after nation is that they would take the brightest and strongest young people of whatever nation they took captive. So they took the brightest and strongest of Israel back to their own so that way they contribute to the power in the kingdom of Babylon. And some of those taken from Israel were Daniel, and also three names that you may be familiar with, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those who were taken faced a new challenge of being immersed into a new culture surrounded with religious beliefs and practices that they did not hold and might even go against what they believed. And so they had to discern and navigate through that every day. They had to ask the questions to themselves, "How do I live out my faith in God? How do I believe and worship Him while being surrounded by false gods, false practices, and a view of this world that doesn't align with how God taught me to view this world?" So just imagine the daily struggle they faced in choosing God, it was a choice every day. And in that setting, following God was riskier, even more counter-cultural than what we experience today. While we at times may get a glimpse of having to choose Jesus every day in our settings, be it at school or at work or some social setting where we feel the waves of the world pressing in, We feel sin and darkness all around us. I still believe that Daniel's situation and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's, theirs was all that and more. Because their punishment for not following the religion of Babylon, not worshiping their gods, including their king, was death. We're gonna be in Daniel three, and I'm gonna summarize the beginning of this chapter. We won't read it at this point, but at the beginning of Daniel three, we learned that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had made a statue of himself, as you do, I guess, when you're king, you just start making statues of yourself.

By the way, in the Old Testament, if you just see someone making a statue out of gold, it never leaves, that's a down, that's a bad, bad thing. Don't do it, it always ends up bad, but he does it, it's gonna end up bad for him. But it was declared after the statue was made that all nations and peoples of every language are to fall down and worship the image of the king, and whoever doesn't will be burned up in a fiery furnace. And so the setting here in the eyes of the people, specifically the Jewish people who are now in Babylon, is that there are two gods. There's a false god, King Nebuchadnezzar, and the true god, Yahweh. Which god will the Jewish people worship and which god will they obey?

Daniel 3 continues that after this statue is made and the instructions are given to the people. If you were to worship it, you're to bow down to it. Some of the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar comes to him and says, "Hey, some of your officials," reminder, this is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're not just brought to Babylon, but they hold important positions. They are officials in the king's cabinet. And so some others rat them out and say, "Hey, some of your officials are not bowing down to your statue, specifically Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." And Nebuchadnezzar is furious. He feels betrayed to an extent. He's like, "I brought you people here, you're mine. "I gave you positions of leadership." And so he goes up to these guys and he confronts them. He says, "Is it true, you guys? "You're not worshiping my statue? "You're gonna be thrown into the fire. "And if you're thrown into the fire, "I mean, if you don't start bowing down to the statue, "who's gonna save you?" And remember, throughout this passage, there's a comparison being made here between Yahweh and Nebuchadnezzar. Who is the real God? And Nebuchadnezzar is coming to the three Jewish men, obviously mad, but also, in his mind, as a God who can save them. He's doing them a favor. He's mad, but in his mind he's exercising his godly, kingly authority.

In verse 15 of chapter 3 it says, "Then what God will be able to rescue you from My hand?" Basically saying, "I'm coming to help you out, you three. I'm giving you a chance." Technically, you should already be thrown in because you haven't been bowing down, so that means you should be thrown into the fire, but I'm not gonna do that yet, bow down, just do it from this point forward. And because if you don't, then what God can save you? If I can't, as a God, as a king, then no one can. That's what Nebuchadnezzar is communicating to the three. Who can save them? Well we know, it's week 10 in our series, right? We know, we know what's gonna happen. So let's start reading in verse 16 their response, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." We'll pause right there. What an amazing example of a God-honoring stance in an impossible situation. An amazing response by these three gentlemen, God-fearing, Yahweh-worshipping men who are less about defying the king and more about obeying their God. Now, their obedience to Yahweh does mean that they are defying the king's orders, but that's not their reason for their actions.

They are seeking to obey and worship God. And really that's the point of their response here, is we are taking a God-honoring stance in this impossible situation. These men fully know what they face being thrown into the fire, which is a sure death. There is no, by human means, there is no way to escape that, no way to survive that. And in their response we see incredible trust and faith in their God. They say, "God will save us and deliver us from your hand, and if He does not, we will still not worship these gods and these statues." The trust and faith in God comes from who they know God to be. They don't even know for sure what God will do, but they know what He can do. They believe that God will deliver them, and they share at the same time. They understand that He may not, and yet we're going to continue worshiping God and honoring Him and obeying Him no matter what. See, church, so often it's easy for our faith to become transactional. "God, if you do this, then I will give more of myself to you. God, because you did this for me, now I will offer more of myself to you. Now I will give more of my time or my finances." But that's not the case for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Before anything has happened, they proclaim their loyalty, their allegiance, and their obedience and their hearts and actions for God. whatever happens, whether they are saved from being burned to death or not, their hearts are clear. And that's what we need. Despite whatever happens in our lives, we need to be clear internally and know that our worship is for God. It's not contingent on how well or poorly life is going. It is consistent, it is always, and it is all of us worshipping Him."

Let's continue to read in verse 19 and see what happens next. "Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, majesty. He said, "Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the fire, and the state traps, prefects, governors, and royal advisors crowded around them. They they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language, who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be cut into pieces, and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

How amazing is this story right here? This is such an incredible example of obedience in an impossible situation. In verse 19, we see that the king ensured this impossible situation having the three men tied even tighter and the fire made even hotter. This is showing the full effort and capability of the king, his strongest men and the hottest fire, to the point where the fire even consumes the guards that were in charge of throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in. This is everything that King Nebuchadnezzar could muster. This is all of his power. And is it enough? No. Not for God. Because for God, anything is possible. And so these three men are thrown into the furnace, bound with all their clothes, their turbans and robes and all this, again communicated in Scripture to express that if the guards died just from being near the furnace, surely the three of them, with everything that they have on would be consumed in fire. But what happens next? There's four people in the fire. And I just, I love this moment. You want to talk about God meeting people where they're at, in their hardest situations, in the midst of whatever they're going through. This is a prime example. God sends an angel to be with them in the fire, to rescue them, to comfort them, to assure them that their obedience to God brought him joy. Can you imagine this scene, just being in the fire? This is all my thoughts on it, so this is not necessarily Scripture, but I just imagine this scene where maybe they're feeling terrified, confident that they made the right decision, but you can still be terrified about being thrown into a fire. And then you open your eyes after falling in, and you realize you're alive. And you look around and you see your friends also alive, and you see someone new. A divine being, an angel of the Lord there. And I just imagine that angel smiling, being like, "Yeah, this is happening. You're alive." And just, you can even hear the roaring fire. Fires are loud, just a furnace roaring. And I just imagine this calm joy swelling up inside of them as they realized that they didn't die, that God showed up. We knew He could. We said that He would, and He did. And maybe the angel is there saying, "Yes, you are alive. God loves you." They're just chilling in a fire, just walking around, just talking. This is amazing. One of the coolest moments in the Bible. They're just hanging out until Nebuchadnezzar calls them out referring to them as servants of the Most High God. From that moment, people know who they serve. The king sees now who they worship and sees the power of Yahweh. I think he recognizes how inferior he is. Everyone can see how the fire did not damage them at all. Their hair, their clothing, something that was impossible was made possible.

And then in verse 28 we see the kings praising Yahweh, looking back at the actions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and seeing that this whole time they were just being obedient to God. The defiance to Him was all about them being obedient to Yahweh. and he even makes this decree that no others from any nation that Babylon is in control of can say anything against Yahweh. This is just an amazing account of God working in an impossible situation. And so now I want to finish our time this morning with focusing on how to have this obedience to God in the midst of our impossible situations. I know many of you have We are faced, or are facing, and I'm sure we all will face at some point in the future, more situations and moments that seem impossible. Maybe it's making it through a difficult, broken relationship, where the way forward with that person seems bleak, improbable, hopeless. Maybe there's someone that you're in a relationship with that just seems to be going in the wrong direction. And it's heartbreaking. Maybe it's navigating a difficult work situation, where coworkers or management or even the work you do is just soul-sucking, bringing you close to compromise, and there is little to no joy and what you spend so much of your day doing. Maybe it's processing the loss of someone close to you. Whether they have passed or maybe you're processing them being in the end of life stage. But maybe it's overwhelming, it's lonely, and it's terrifying to think of life without that person. Church, we face impossible situations in our lives, and what God desires of us, wants of us as we go through each of these, is our obedience to Him.

Obedience to God in impossible situations is of the utmost importance. Obedience to God in an impossible situation may mean not knowing the outcome of what will happen next. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they proclaimed their faith and trust in God without knowing for sure what would happen to them. Will you do the same? Will you have a faith that is untethered to what happens in the future, but anchored in the character of God? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean trusting God more than you ever have. Talking about steps of faith here. When we face new situations, harder situations than we faced before, it requires a deep trust in faith. And will you trust God and have faith in Him when those moments come? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean infuriating the people around you. Just like Nebuchadnezzar was enraged by the three men's obedience to God and therefore the defiance to Him, we may face similar reactions from people in our impossible situation. They may not understand. They may be confused. They may even be offended and upset by our obedience to Christ. But will you stand firm? Will you remain obedient to God? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean the end of life as we know it. But Now I'm not talking necessarily about life or death situations. I think here in Rocklin, Roseville, Sacramento area, we're not facing a lot of those circumstances. But sometimes obedience to God still means a change to our lifestyle or our comfort. The reality is that we serve a God and belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. The things that people pursue and value in the world are different than what we as people of God what we value and what we pursue. So whether coming to faith in God and it's new for you or you've been following God for years, know that obeying Him may at some point mean a change, a drastic, life-altering change. And will you obey in that moment?

Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean entering or remaining in what seems like an impossible situation. Sometimes we're in the midst of difficult life circumstances, and sometimes they get even worse. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were facing death, the king then stoked the fire even hotter, tied the bonds even tighter. Sometimes our impossible situations are long, they call for endurance, they get worse. And when that will we continue to obey? Will we continue to follow Him? Now also, obedience to God in impossible situations also may mean the blessed experience of getting to feel God's overwhelming presence. Like the angel that came to comfort the three of them, when we are obedient to God, we can know that God will meet us where we're at. Who doesn't want to have the comfort and peace in his overwhelming presence in the midst of our chaos and darkness. Whether that's an angel of the Lord or you just know you feel in that moment, God is with you. You can know that God will be with you through it all. And lastly, obedience to God in impossible situations may mean people come to know and and learn who God is. At the end of our passage, even Nebuchadnezzar recognizes God as the most high God.

Your obedience in your impossible situation is a witness to people. God can use you in your experience to draw people closer to Him. So will you be God's witnesses in this world through your steadfast obedience to Him in all situations? That's a choice that you can make every day. Church, your impossible situations are not impossible for God. Take courage in whatever situation you are in. If you're in an impossible situation right now, take comfort in God. Know that you are loved and supported right here. And I don't want to just say that from the pulpit. You hear that week after week, like I hear that God loves me. We want to live that out. We wanna be there for each other as a church and family of believers here. I mean, you are loved and supported. Look around this room and we love and support you. We don't wanna just say it, we wanna live it out. And so I'll say this, if you are in that moment right now, you are feeling like you are in an impossible situation, we wanna pray for you. After this last song that we're about to sing and the service were dismissed, Come find myself, Pastor Chris, or elders, or just turn to someone next to you. If you trust them and are able to open up, be prayed for this morning. Do not leave this morning. If you are feeling like you need love and support, don't leave without being prayed for. And if you are not in an impossible situation, and that's okay, you're in a blessed moment of life, that's great, be there for someone else. Be a brother and sister in Christ today. Don't leave this Sunday only to check in next Sunday and say, "Hey, how was your last week? Was it good? Cool, I'll talk to you in a week.” Be there for each other now, throughout the week. Let us be the church, holding up those who are feeling down, supporting those who are in need of love. The best thing we can do to love someone is to pray and to pray with them. We can pray for them, we can say, "Hey, I'll be praying for you this week," but if you can, take a moment, pray for someone today. This is what being a part of God's family is all about. This week, let's remember this. In whatever situation you're in, family situation, relationship situation, work situation, and the others, in all situations, let's be obedient to God, faithful, and steadfast in everything, all the time with everything we have.

Let's pray. God, we are thankful for your example and account that you have shared with us through your word of what it looks like to be obedient in the most impossible of situations. God, to see how you empowered the three men in our passage and how you sent your angel to comfort. Lord, we want that in our lives. We want to feel your presence. If we are in the midst of something challenging right now, God, I pray that your presence will be felt by those who are feeling down, who are feeling hopeless, who are feeling lonely. God, this is our heart, that we would be obedient to you in all things. And we need your help to do that. God, through your Spirit, empower us, equip us, encourage us daily to be obedient to you. We want to give you all the glory. We want to give you everything we have. We want to live our lives for you. Help us, Lord, to do that. God, I pray that we as a church would grow in loving and supporting each other. For those who are feeling that they're in an impossible situation, give them the courage to speak out, to reach out, to say, "Because I need help. I need prayer. I believe that God is going to do something, but I just... Please be with me." And God, for those who are in a good place, help those to have courage to reach out and offer that support. We want to stand together united as a church, as a family, pursuing you together. So God we pray that you would empower us, equip us, and encourage us this morning. And that we would leave closer to your presence throughout this week, for you to continue to speak to us, continue to draw us closer to you. I pray this in your name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 9

Miracle Through The Sea - Exodus 14

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, I'm Pastor Lauren if I haven't met you and I'm just honored to be with you guys today. We've been in our Impossible Moments series this summer, and we're just gonna continue on that. We are looking at Old Testament stories specifically, where there was just an impossible situation, and God shows up in really cool ways, in really big ways, and just does the impossible. So throughout this series, we've actually talked about Moses and the Israelites, and when Moses was a baby, and we talked about the manna in the desert. So we today are actually gonna talk about the Red Sea Crossing, which I feel like is a pretty popular story. I mean, Prince of Egypt, anybody like, is that a thing still? Like, I looked it up, it's like 1998 that that movie came out. Oh my gosh, that's a really long time ago. It doesn't feel, the 90s doesn't feel like that long, but it was. So Prince of Egypt, great movie, but it's a popular story. And I wasn't really sure, like, should we do this? People know it. But the more I dug into it and studied it, I realized there's just so much of God's power. It was truly an impossible situation. And I just, I think there's a lot for us in this story.

So we are gonna be in Exodus 14 today. So if you wanna turn there in your Bibles or your phones or on the screen, we are gonna look at Exodus 14. And we're gonna read most of the chapter today in smaller chunks, and we'll talk about it as we go. So I have some thoughts for us. as we go, so if you're a note taker, awesome, love it. If not, that's cool too, you can just follow along with us. But before we get started, let me pray. Jesus, I just thank you for who you are. I thank you for these impossible moments that we get to study and learn and remember to learn more about who you are and to grow our own faith, God. I just pray that you will be with us in this moment today, that you will speak to us and that you will be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're just gonna dive in. We're gonna just take it section by section here, but we're gonna start with Exodus 14, verse one. It says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back "and encamp near Pihiroth between Migdal and the sea. "They are to encamp by the sea "directly opposite Baal-zaphon. "Pharaoh will think the Israelites "are wandering around the land in confusion, "hemmed in by the desert. "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them. "But I," the Lord, "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. Okay, so a little bit of background for us. The Israelites just experienced the 10 plagues in Egypt. So God exhibited his power and showed the Egyptians and the Israelites, through these 10 plagues, Pharaoh finally let them go, let the slaves be free. So they gathered up what little they had and all their people and they left Egypt. And they went out into the desert. And now here they are camping in the desert, facing the sea. God also said in this first part that he was gonna harden Pharaoh's heart. And that's a hard concept, I think, for a lot of people to reconcile. A lot of the time in scripture, that phrase is used a lot in the plague narrative and also in this sea crossing narrative. And it's often translated as God giving Pharaoh over to his own desires. He allowed him to make that decision. But in this case, it actually means to strengthen, which I found very interesting. It means to, it seems like Pharaoh needed to be strengthened. He had just lost his firstborn and he allowed thousands of slaves to leave his country. He was probably a little down and distraught, but God actually strengthened his heart, kind of revived him a little bit. And Pharaoh kind of woke up and realized, oh no, what did I do? But God says up front right here in these first four chapters, regardless of what Pharaoh does, regardless of his heart and heart, I'm gonna get the glory. He just tells them, the Israelites right up front, what's gonna happen. And as we'll see, everything that the Lord says is gonna be fulfilled. He says, "I am Yahweh, and everyone, including the Egyptians, will know it.”

So we're gonna keep going. We're gonna go down to verse five and read through 14. "When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, 'What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services. So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with them. He took 600 of the best chariots along with all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And just as a side note, chariots were like top of the line technology at this time. So like, you had the Israelites with like nothing and then you had the Egyptians with the best of the best. So they're like rallying the troops ready to go. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt so that he pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth opposite Baal Zephon. 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? This is a little tongue in cheek here because Egypt was actually known for the sheer amount of land they allotted for graves. So they were like, what, there weren't enough there? We gotta come out here to die? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. how soon they forget what God has already done for them. They had barely even left Egypt and they already forgot that God had provided for them, that he did these powerful plagues and helped them escape slavery and now they're asking to go back. 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.”

Verses 13 and 14 are basically a sermon in and of themselves so I'm gonna read that part again. "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." So that's our first part, our first notes, if you will, today. Don't be afraid, stand firm, and be still. Sorry, going fast. Don't be afraid, stand firm, and be still. The Israelis were terrified. This is they were terrified and they cried out to the Lord. They had a reason to be. They were literally in the middle of the desert in an unknown place coming out of slavery. And they were between the sea and a very powerful army. Anybody would be afraid in this situation. But Moses says, "Don't be afraid. "You don't have to be afraid because God is with us. "Yahweh is here. "He told us what he's going to do. "He's going to help us. "We don't have to be afraid." And then he tells them to stand firm. Stand firm in the faith of who God is and of His word. Now, I don't know how great their faith was. They'd been in slavery for over 400 years. Their faith might've been a little questionable. But Moses was affirming to them that God is trustworthy. He is worthy of putting our faith in. So he says, stand firm in that. And then he says, be still. And this doesn't mean to do nothing, like freeze up, don't do anything, don't move. Here, be still actually translates more to peace and silence. It's this idea of keeping your peace and closing your mouth and letting God do what only He can do. God didn't need the Israelites to give Him ideas of how to fix the problem. He needed them to be silent and to keep the peace He was giving them. Something else just to note here is this idea of deliverance. Moses says, "You will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today." I recently read another theologian talking about how the idea of deliverance often we think about, it feels like we're getting plucked out of a situation. Well, if the Lord will deliver me, he will take me out of this terrible situation. But sometimes like giving birth, You have to go through it. You don't get to be out of it. He takes us through it. He delivers us by walking through it with us, not just plucking us out of the situation. And that's, as we'll see, the literally had to walk through the Red Sea. They had to be delivered by going through it.

So after this, the Lord tells Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand, and the seed was gonna divide. And then he says, "The Egyptians are gonna come in after you, "but I'm gonna take care of it, "and I will receive the glory." So he's giving them step-by-step directions, which wouldn't that be lovely when we're facing a tough situation, when we're stuck in an impossible moment, I would love step-by-step directions. But here, God is actually giving that to them. So we're gonna skip down to verse 19. And this is kind of where the miracle happens. 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. So if you're not familiar, there was a cloud that literally led the Israelites through the desert. They knew if the cloud moved, we follow. But in this case, the cloud actually went behind them. They didn't need the cloud to direct, there was one way to go through the sea. They didn't need someone leading them, they need protection in the rear. They needed a wall behind them. But something I never noticed before was this idea of the light and the darkness. I had never seen this. How God, with this cloud, shone light on the Israelite side and darkness on the Egyptian side. Like the dividing of the water is like really cool. I think that's the miracle. But how cool is it that he gave this super practical gift of light and then the darkness to blind the Egyptians essentially. It was the middle of the night. They needed light to see where they were going. And he gave that to them. And he blocked the Egyptians. The reality is they were powerful, they were faster.

The Egyptians would have overtaken the Israelites had God not intervened. So he provided this very practical miracle for them by giving them the light and the protection. And while this light and darkness, it was very practical, it also is a vivid picture of spiritual light and darkness. One commentary I read said, "This is how it is for believers and non-believers. God's word and work are like light to those who believe, but are like darkness for those who do not. For sinners or those who choose not to believe in God, The gospel is offensive and like darkness. But for those of us who believe, who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it is light. God's word and work are our light. Proverbs 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path." He doesn't promise to light the whole way, but he gives us enough light for the next step. We need His Word, we need the Bible, we need the work He does in our lives through our relationships with other believers. We need all of that to light our path. And He's good to do that. He's gracious in that. He wants to give us that. So He is our light. His Word and work are our light.

All right, I'm just gonna go ahead and finish out this story so we're gonna jump back into verse 21. 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. Not muddy, not a little bit of water, 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. The Egyptians pursued them and all pharaohs, horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and there are chariots and horsemen." Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and at daybreak, the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen. The entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea, not one of them survived, like God said. But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day, the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant." All right, there was a lot packed into that. So Moses chose to be obedient. He said, "Okay, God, I don't know what you're gonna do, but I'm gonna stretch out my hand and raise my staff. So he did that as an act of obedience. It really was a sign of a prayer. And the waters parted. I picture it like walking through one of those aquariums where it's just like the wall of glass and you see all the fish come up to you, but there's no glass this time. It's just water. That's gotta be trippy. So he lifted up his hands, And this action wasn't the miracle. God used Moses, but it wasn't even, it wasn't Moses' power. It was a sign that the miracle was an answer to prayer. The east wind that came was from God. The east wind is what actually divided the waters. And that was a sign that it was by God's power. The miracle came from God. Matthew Henry commentary says, "God can bring his people through the greatest difficulties and force away where he does not find it. The God of nature has not tied himself to its laws, but when he pleases, dispenses with them. And then the fire does not burn nor the water flow." God is the creator. He made it all. So he's not limited by it. The width and the depth of the sea was not a problem for him. It did not thwart his plans. He made the sea, so why couldn't he divide it? He caused a natural thing like wind to come through and do this unnatural miracle in this impossible moment. After the Israelites crossed over, the Egyptians went into the sea, and God caused more confusion, jammed their chariot wheels. Technology's great until it's not, right? He used what their strength was against them. And then he told Moses, once again, "Raise your hand in your staff, and I will have the waters come back to their original place." And the Egyptians were drowned and washed up on shore.

But did you notice, before that happened, did you notice what was said in verse 25? He jammed the wheels, so he jammed the wheels. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." The word the Lord there is not just another word for a God. They use the word Yahweh here. The Egyptians called him Yahweh, the one true God. Back in verse four, he said, "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, "that I am Yahweh." And they did. They could see that God was fighting the Israelites battle. And they were terrified because of it. God used this not only to protect the Israelites, but to show the Egyptians who he was. (silence) Because of all of this, because of everything that happened, the being stuck in a tough place, this impossible moment, the parting of the Red Sea, the Egyptians coming in after them, all of it, this whole experience grew the faith of the Israelites. Verse 31 says, "And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant. God revealed more of himself to them through this in order to build their trust. He showed his power, his provision, his sovereignty, his all knowingness. He knew it was gonna happen. He told him it was gonna happen and it happened. See the Israelites, they knew about God. They knew about Yahweh because they had a family history of it. They had Adam and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and just, they had this history. They knew about God. But they had been in slavery for 400 years. So they still feared him, but I have to wonder if their relationship was a little unstable and their faith was maybe a little shaky. They needed to see God's power in order to grow their faith. So here's what I know is true for us too. We must truly know God, not just know about Him. The Israelites knew about God, but this experience helped them to get to know who He was. This week, a rabbit showed up on our porch. Literally looked like Peter Rabbit, hopped on our porch. It had a vest, like a harness, like it literally looked like Peter Rabbit. And so we've been fostering this rabbit all week long. And actually I had rabbits growing up, and so I know about rabbits. I've been Googling a lot this week. Learned a lot about rabbits. But I don't know this rabbit. I don't know its actual name. I don't know what kind it is. I don't know what it likes and doesn't like. But Chris and I actually had a dog for nine years. He was our baby before we even had kids. His name was Ace. We knew Ace. We knew about him. We knew facts. But we also knew him. We knew what he liked, what he didn't like. We knew that after a certain TV show, there was this jingle that played and if we didn't mute it fast enough, he'd howl. We knew this dog. I knew about the rabbit. I knew my dog. Now if the pet analogy is lost on you, what about humans? I was thinking how we know a lot about like celebrities, maybe what they've been in or who they're married to, how many kids they have, but we don't know them. I can't call them up and say, "Hey, wanna go grab some coffee?" But I know my husband. I know who he is, what he values. I know his character. I know facts about him too, but I know him.

We can know the Bible. We can know facts about God. We can know things that are true. We can memorize scripture and still not know who God is. Still not have a relationship with Him. But I do know that God wants a relationship with us. He wants to be known by us. That's why he reveals himself through scripture. Sometimes it's in a really ordinary things or simple conversations or silly things like a rabbit showing up on our porch. But it's also in the big moments too, in the impossible situations, in the hard things and the celebratory things, he reveals more of his character because he wants us to know him. He wants us to be in relationship with Him. So if you don't know God, you don't really know Him and you want to, or you wanna learn more about that, please come talk to me, or Pastor Chris or Pastor Andrei, we wanna talk to you about that, what that looks like. But if you do know Him, if you proclaim Him as your Lord and Savior, and you know Him and you have a relationship with Him, will you consider today the fact that it's really easy to slide back into just knowing about him. We can rely on facts and information and make it seem like we know him, that we're intimate with him without actually being in a relationship with him. We must choose to not be afraid, even when the circumstances feel impossible. We get to choose to stand firm in our faith, even when it's a little bit shaky. We get to be still, to hold onto the peace that only comes from God. We get to allow Him to be the light on our path, to light our way when things are really questionable. And we get to invest in this relationship that He has offered to us so that we can know Him.

I'm gonna pray for us, and we're just gonna go ahead and head out into food. We're so glad you're here today. I pray that you will know him today, that you will get to know him more and more today. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for revealing your character to us, for telling us more about you, for meeting us in the impossible moments. God, I pray that you will strengthen our faith, that you will grow us, that you will deepen it. God, maybe we haven't had a Red Sea moment, but there have been moments in our lives that have been tough, that felt impossible, that felt like we were between a rock and a hard place. And God, help us to trust you in those moments. Help us to believe who you say you are. And help us not to just rely on facts and information and things we can rattle off about you, but help us to get to know you. We love you. We thank you for this Spring Valley family. We pray over our lunch. God, may it be nourishing to our bodies as your word is nourishing to our souls. We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 8

Divine Wisdom - 1 Kings 3:16-28

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well it's good to be back with you. If you don't know, we were gone last week driving back home from San Diego. It's good to be back, enjoyed seeing some of you guys midweek this week at the Conversations event. I love, I just love that time. More time with church family, right? We see each other every Sunday, but glad we get to see some of each other in the midweek too. And this week we pondered and processed the pastor's approach and the congregation's approach to church and asked the question, who is at the center of our hearts and minds when we go to church? Is it us or is it God? So I just really enjoy that conversation. We're looking forward to the next one next month. But this morning, we're continuing in our Impossible Moments series. Last week, Pastor Lauren had a great message about Gideon from Judges. We watched it on our drive. We had our phone up there safely. It was totally fine. And I love this question that she asked, talking about being available for God. But then, are we willing to follow up that availability with obedience? That question just kept popping up in my head this week. And so, if you haven't listened to it, I would encourage you to do so. Go back and watch.

Today, we're gonna be in a different scene in the Bible. I love the format of this series, this little vignettes of the Old Testament that we're just kind of hopping around and seeing God work. And so, today we're gonna be talking about King Solomon in a career-defining moment that he had early on in his reign. Solomon, as many of you know, is considered Israel's wisest king, maybe the greatest king. And he was known for his wisdom. Even people who are not raised up in the church still have heard of Solomon in some way, whether they believe he was true or a fictional figure. But Solomon is a character known for his wisdom. And toward the beginning of his reign, the Bible tells us that Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given to him by David. In other words, he was walking with God. And I love what the Bible uses this imagery of, this illustration of walking with God multiple times to show when someone is living in righteousness, is living according to God's will and purpose. And so even from the very beginning, we have this image of Adam walking in the garden with God. That's a beautiful moment right there. We have Noah, who at that time was the only one walking with God. Or Abraham and Moses and even the Israelites when they were being good, 'cause they weren't always good, but they were walking with God at times. And so we see here Solomon is walking with God. Well as he's doing so, at the beginning of his reign, there's a moment where he's offering sacrifices to God, and God appears before him saying, Solomon, whatever you want, ask me for it, and I'll give it to you. Now that is a pretty sweet blank check from God, just like, hey, Solomon, whatever you want, ask and I will give. I'm hoping that God says that to me someday.

But how many of us in this moment, if asked by God, would our minds go directly to something that's maybe right in front of us, right? We just had a prayer time this morning and maybe that would be what we ask God. Hey God, I'm having relationship issues. Please bring restoration to that. Or God, finances are a huge hurt right now and more money would be really helpful. If you could give me that, that would be great. Or God, my health, or someone else that's close to me. Those are all good things, not wrong with asking, there's nothing wrong with asking for that. But Solomon asks for something else. And in chapter three of 1 Kings, Solomon responds, now Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child, and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant here is among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern these great people of yours? Now, a couple things. Solomon isn't actually a boy at this time. He's actually a father at this point. But it's an idiom in the Hebrew language to show the inexperience that he has, to recognize with humility that, hey, I don't know how to do perfectly what you've called me to do. And so God, you do. And so in comparison to you, I'm just a little boy when it comes to this matter of ruling over Israel. And if we can bring that verse back up actually, verse eight and nine in that passage is just so rich. Solomon here has the purest heart. There's moments of his reign that are up and down. And this is one of the highest moments of his reign. This is so good. We can, this could be a whole other sermon for another time but it's not, it's not, so we're just gonna breeze through this really quick, but the phrasing here, people too numerous to count, and the phrase, who is able to govern this great people of yours? There's a couple things, one is that it touches the covenant that God made back in time with Abraham, with Moses and Israel, too numerous to count, right? That's the covenant of I will give you a people that is greater than the sand. And so it communicates that Solomon is in touch to some degree with God's plan and direction, looking back over Israel's history, and also that other phrase of who is able to govern this great people of yours. God was meant to be king over Israel. And it wasn't until the people demanded that they have an earthly king, a human king, that God gave that to them, and then Saul became king. But this line acknowledges, Solomon acknowledging with humility that, "Hey, you've appointed me to this position, "but God, you are the one who can truly govern your people, perfectly. Even me, who you've called to this position, God, you are the true king. So it's just an amazing response to God's offer. And God is so pleased with Solomon in this moment. God is saying, yes, a ruler who gets it, right? Someone who knows their boundaries and their limits. Someone who wants to depend on me, Yahweh, depend on my qualities and my character. And so God responds to Solomon by giving him what he asked for.

In verse 12 of chapter 3, God gives him a wise discerning heart. And he also gives him what Solomon did not ask for, wealth and honor. And God says, "If you continue to walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you long life." I don't know if there could be a better start to a reign for a king. You get God's favor, you're receiving God's promise and giftings, securing God's partnership and blessing over your reign. This is pretty amazing, right? You get wisdom, you're getting wealth and honor as a bonus here, and if you follow God's commandments, you will also have long life. That's amazing. Now, while Solomon's reign gets off to a great start, his entire life is, again, an interesting case study. And it seems that he may have started at the top and and kind of slowly went downhill. But he was the wisest king, and he brought Israel into its most flourishing season, amounting wealth for the nation, prosperity for the kingdom, and world-renowned reputation for God and for the people. And so you may be wondering, well, Andre, where's the impossible situation? Sounds like everything's perfect. Sounds like he's got everything he needs. Well, right after this incredible moment with God, we are given a unique scene where Solomon gets to demonstrate the wisdom given to him by God.

So if you would turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings 3, we're gonna start at verse 16. You guys can follow along as I read aloud. It says, "Now two prostitutes came to the king "and stood before him. "One of them said, 'Pardon me, my lord, "'this woman and I live in the same house, "'and I had a baby while she was there with me. "'The third day after my child was born, "'this woman also had a baby. "'We were alone. "There's no one in the house but the two of us. "During the night, this woman's son died "because she lay on him. "So she got up in the middle of the night "and took my son from my side "while I, your servant, was asleep. "She put him by her breast "and put her dead son by my breast. "The next morning, I got up to nurse my son and he was dead. "But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, "I saw that it wasn't the son that I had born. "The other woman said, 'No, no, no, no, "'the living son is my son. "'The dead one is yours.' "But the first one insisted, 'No, the dead one is yours. "'The living one is mine.' And so they argued before the king. And the king said, "This one says my son is alive "and your son is dead. "Well, that one says, no, your son is dead "and mine is alive." So, maybe you have heard of this scene before. And if you haven't, it's a startling scene. Yeah, this is in the Bible. Two women have babies and one sadly dies in the night and the mother takes the living baby to try and pass it off as her own, swap the dead child for the living. And in this situation, this is just a terrible, awful scenario full of sorrow and distress. In the morning, that mother recognized that it wasn't her child that was dead and put together what had happened. And today, if this were to happen, we have ways of figuring this out. There's DNA testing. This is not an impossible situation for us today. But back in that time, this is an impossible scenario. It is simply one woman's word against another woman. this story or that story? Which one will Solomon believe? How will he know who is telling the truth?

So our predicament also reveals a couple other things. Just for some context here, as king, king gets to hear a lot of the big cases that are happening in his kingdom. There are judges for lesser cases. Not every single issue came before the king, but ones that were more difficult or ones having to deal with human life did get the attention of the king. And so we see Solomon's care here. From the social positions of these women, they're prostitutes, the simple fact that this case, given its nature, came to him shows that Solomon believes injustice and sound judgment be applied to all cases and made available to all subjects regardless of gender or social status. It's a very God-like quality that Solomon is exercising here. But the impossible situation remains, right? Who is the real mother? Now, of course, as the readers, we know, we get to read this, and we're reading it knowing who is who. But Solomon has to distinguish this harlot or that harlot. And so let's read what happens next in verse 24. "Then the king said, 'Bring me a sword.' So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order. cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other. The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, 'Please, my lord, give her the living baby. Don't kill him.' But the other said, 'Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two.' And then the king gave his ruling, 'Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is the mother.’"

So here we have our ruling, right? This is Solomon giving his answer. He asks for a sword to be brought out to cut the baby in two, to give a half to each mother, which is very extreme. Each woman has a different reaction to Solomon's order. The first, the one we know to be the true mother, she's overwhelmed with compassion and love for her child. The Hebrew here in this phrase literally means that her bowels or her womb grew hot, which in ancient times is what they thought the emotions came from, from this the gut. And so she is feeling the verdict of Solomon's order. She's feeling the outcome in every fiber of her being. She is so moved out of love that she would rather surrender her child than have that baby die. It's another moment of someone in this story having godly character, an act of sacrifice, an act of love. The second woman sadly has a very different reaction. She's okay with this second baby dying, which is, again, a very extreme response, but we have to remember that she's already lost her child. Her state of mind is dealing with all sorts of emotions, anger, hurt, loss, pain, jealousy, and even a false sense of justice. In her mind, it's fair that the other mother also lose her child. Now, you may say, "How does that make sense?" Well, let's take this into a different scenario that maybe we can all relate to. Okay, we're going into a figurative story here. Let's say there are two little siblings. I didn't come up with names. So there's a little boy and a little girl, and their brother and sister. And on a summer day, they both get a popsicle, right? And one of them accidentally drops the popsicle. It's melting on the ground. And they're like, well, what do I do now? Well, my sibling has a popsicle. Let me ask if they'll share. Can I have some of yours? The other's like, no, this is mine. You lost yours. I get to keep mine. Well, now that first sibling who lost the popsicle is feeling, well, this is not fair. They're enjoying something, and I can't have it. So what do they do? They knock that one out of their hand. They knock it to the ground. And that one's like, what are you doing? He's like, "Well, if I can't have it, you can't have it." And in their minds, that is justice. That is fair. And I think... Now, given this context much more serious, but I think that's what is happening here. This mother is saying, "If I can't live the life as a mother, you can't either." It's a false sense of justice, but it's what makes sense to her in that moment. That's held in contrast. Her thinking is held in contrast to real justice and fairness and wisdom.

Solomon's verdict represented God's justice and wisdom. He was able to discern both of these women's hearts. Their reaction to this scenario was a glimpse into their hearts. The heart is typically something, the Bible tells us, that only God can know, only God can discern and understand what is going inside of a person's heart. But in this moment, Solomon, through God's wisdom and discernment, can see into their hearts. Maybe you too have had moments where you've been able to see into someone's heart, you've seen their motivations, their reasons for what they're doing. And sometimes it reveals the good. You see that that person was trying to love, that person was trying to care or be kind, compassionate. And other times you see in that person's heart the sin, the evilness, where there's jealousy or pride, selfishness. story is an illustration of Solomon's wisdom. He's a man who can see beneath the surface and discern people's motives and character. This impossible moment, impossible for everyone else except this man bestowed with the wisdom of God, who's able to see what usually only God can see, beneath the surface. And by God's wisdom, Solomon is able to discern who the the real mother is and give the baby back to her. Let's look at the aftermath of this ruling. Verse 28 says, "When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice." So the aftermath of this decision is that Solomon's reputation grows, and therefore so does God's because people know that God is the one who gave Solomon the ability to be able to do that. It was thought at that time that kings had a supernatural ability and wisdom. They had a connection to the divine. And this reinforces that their king, Solomon, truly did have a connection with God. Divine wisdom is more than just knowledge, which Solomon possessed in abundance, but it includes the ability to render difficult judgments. Solomon presented that he, as a king, had that ability. True wisdom is from God, and Israel knew this, and soon the whole world began to know this too. God, wisdom to help govern God's people is used perfectly here by Solomon.

This is a great scene, impossible scene at the beginning, undone by God's wisdom and a great picture of what God's kingdom could have looked like. Israel now sees this and says, "All right, this is our king. This is our king, that if he follows God, look at what can happen. We can have true justice. We can have an amazing era in Israel's history." Solomon navigated an impossible situation at the time in a cunning way finding the solution to determine the true mother and His wisdom and relationship with God are an example for us today. How do we like Solomon walk in wisdom? Well, we may not be Rulers over Israel. We're not I know all of you. We're here We're not over there and but you guys still have you in a sense you rule over your life and you have a responsibility to people in your lives, maybe your families, friends, maybe your kids. And so wisdom is still an essential part of living for God, something that we should all be striving for. Proverbs 9 10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." So it starts, walking in wisdom starts with fearing and believing God. Now, wisdom is a term with... It's a big term. It's got a large scope. And so from the Bible, we kind of see these different sides of wisdom. We see that there's perceiving wisdom, which is along the lines of what we read today, being able to discern situations around us through the lens of God. There's also action-related wisdom, which focuses on the right behavior. In everyday life, how are we gonna apply God's word and live like Jesus in every moment? There's also a communicating wisdom, which is focused on teaching and learning wisdom, like the book of Proverbs. So just as Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, we wanna live according to the wisdom of God, which is all those types of wisdom. So how do we do that? Well, here's a couple things. First, pray and ask God for wisdom. Simple step. Pray and ask God for wisdom. This goes back to early in the chapter, that example that Solomon gave us when he asked God for discernment. We are inexperienced, right, just like Solomon. And only God knows how to live this life in the best way. So let's ask God on how to do it. Let's ask Him for that wisdom. Pray every morning, "God, give me the wisdom to get through the day in a way that honors You. Give me wisdom to love and have compassion on those around me. Give me wisdom to be like Jesus in every situation I find myself in. Solomon writes in Proverbs 3.5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." In order to not lean on our own understanding, we need to have God's understanding, right? We have to ask for that. If we believe that God is perfect in every way, that He is all-wise and all-knowing and and perfect in love, then why would we lean on our own understanding when we can fully depend on Him? He is the source of true wisdom. It comes from God. It's something that God gives, just like He gave to Solomon. And oftentimes when someone is able to give something, what they want is for someone to ask. So God is waiting for us to ask for wisdom. I love this quote about the connection between wisdom and God. It says, "In the Bible, intimacy with wisdom is not distinguished from intimacy with God. Divine wisdom is a communication of God showing the path to life.”

It starts with knowing God, having a relationship with Jesus. with God will lead to wisdom from God. We know that we cannot live righteously without Him. We need Jesus in our lives. We need the guiding work of the Holy Spirit and we need God's wisdom. So let's ask for it. Secondly, exercise wisdom in your life. After we've asked for that wisdom that we are assuming and we trust that God will give us that wisdom to help us honor Him and help us obey Him. Now we've got to live that out. Proverbs 8.20 says, "I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice." Ephesians 5, 15-16 says, "Be careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." When approaching situations in life, it's easy to go through them quickly, relying on our own knowledge and our own wisdom. But what would it look like to pause and pray and discern what God might want us to do in that situation, to understand what the Lord's will is in that moment? There was a question back when I was growing up that kind of became gimmicky, but I think it still applies. WWJD, anyone know? Yeah? Do you anyone have a bracelet? Or like 10 on your wrist? What would Jesus do? Honestly, still a great question to ask. When trying to exercise wisdom in life, when trying to discern what God's will is, how to honor Him and live like Jesus, what would Jesus do?

At the board meeting we had this past week, the elders were talking about how as one gets older, the decision time becomes longer. At a younger age, we're so quick to just pull the trigger and keep going, almost like out of reflex, like just go, go, go, life is happening at a fast pace. But as one gets older, they realize in most cases that there is no need for a rush, and it's okay to sit and ponder and think about what might be the best way forward. I think that's what God wants us to do. Maybe we still do that quickly, but he wants us to take a moment to pause, breathe, and pray as we exercise wisdom in life. Exercising wisdom also means a submission to God's plan, realizing that I don't have it all figured out, but I do have the desire to apply God's truth, His word, to this situation. If we don't submit to God's plan, if we lean on our own understanding, then we are falling deeper into sin. Our own way, what we naturally think is best, is actually selfish and sinful. And thankfully, Jesus came to save us, "and He is the truth, the way, and the life." When I think of the wisest people that I've ever known, one of them being my father, it's not that he knew a lot, well, he does know a lot, but it's that he took the time, it was his approach. He did his best to apply God's word to every situation. That's still an example to me today. As frustrated as I was as a little kid as to why we haven't done this, and he's talking about it and thinking about it, I see now that he was just trying to best honor God in those situations. I also want to say this though, wisdom is often associated with age, right? The older someone is, the wiser they are, and generally that is true. But there are also younger people who apply God's truth and commands and decrees to life and are considered wise beyond their years. I think of the young people in this room who I think are personally very wise for just graduated and still in high school. 'Cause I know that you guys are trying to apply God's word to your life, and that is wisdom. Keep doing that. In our lives, how can we exercise more wisdom? How can we live more according to God's truth and will every moment?

Lastly, witness with your wisdom. Solomon's decision, his use of wisdom, became a witness and a testimony to God's role in his life in the nation of Israel. And the same can be true for us today. When we live a life that honors God, we exercise wisdom, sometimes through impossible situations that we face, people will notice. Whether we ever know about it or not, when we apply God's word to decisions we make, we are pointing people to God. It could just be one decision that someone witnesses and they see it and they turn towards him, or it may be a lifetime of decisions that exercise wisdom that finally make an impact on someone. But be aware and conscious that your wise decisions can be a way for the gospel to be spread. You know whose life was a great example of this? Someone who lived according to God's wisdom and pointed people to God? is Jesus. Sunday school answer, Jesus. One thing about Solomon is that he points to the need for Jesus. You see, even though Solomon was a great king, the wisest the world has ever seen, he could not, for the entirety of his life, walk perfectly with God. As wise as he was, he was unable to walk with God and live in the path of righteousness perfectly. And so Israel's wondering, well, if Solomon can't do it, Who can? Who is gonna be our perfect leader? And it points to the coming of Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of perfect wisdom. Throughout his ministry, he is known as the wise teacher. He is the truth incarnate, and he communicates God's perfect will to humanity. What a blessing that we get to know Jesus, that we have his teachings through his word, and that we can seek to live like him. So, as we strive to live like Jesus, with God's wisdom, we can be a witness. Now, let me be clear. While sometimes our decisions that are wise decisions will point people to God, other times our wise decisions may be baffling to people. Know that what God considers wise, the world may consider foolish. It's still witnessing. It still points people to God, but it may not make a lot of sense to them. Ruth Haley Barton is an author and she has this to say about wisdom. She says, "Our ability to think things through and apply reason to our decision-making is a gift from God. However, the Scriptures are clear that human wisdom and the wisdom of God are not the same thing. Part of becoming more discerning is the ability to distinguish between the two." Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." He also says, "Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

I love what both of those, the quote from Ruth Haley Barton and what Paul is saying here, reassure us that following God may not make sense to the world. We may be getting weird looks, puzzled answers of, "Why are you doing what you're doing?" That does not, that's not what you should be doing. But as you live your life for Jesus, walking in wisdom, you are living in His perfect will, and God could not be more happy or pleased. Follow Jesus. It may not make a lot of sense to people, but it is the wisest thing you can do. So in whatever impossible situation you find yourself in, or just in your day-to-day life, how will you walk in the wisdom of God? Are you asking God for wisdom daily? First thing when you wake up, a simple prayer, "God, give me the wisdom I need to honor you today." Are you exercising wisdom in your life? Not just in the biggest moments where it's maybe obvious to stop and pray, but even in the small mundane moments? Are we exercising God's wisdom? And are you aware that when you walk in true wisdom given by God, you are a witness to the people around you? Our prayer is that God would give us wisdom here at Spring Valley Church and use us for His glory and for His kingdom.

You guys pray with me. God, thank you for the example of Solomon. It is so encouraging to see how you want us to walk with you. You desire that for us. You will give us what we need that we don't have on our own to be able to do that. You will give us wisdom, God. We pray today, the days to come and the weeks to come, that you would pour out on us your wisdom. Our desire is to walk in your paths of righteousness. We need your help to do it. We just prayed earlier in our service, God, about all these situations that are going on in our lives. And in every one of those situations, we need wisdom. God, we don't want to lean on our own understanding. We don't want to be selfish and prideful and go down the path that leads to sin. We want to walk in Your righteous paths. So God, from the mundane and the small stuff of life to the biggest decisions that we have in front of us, we pray for Your discernment, We pray for your guidance. We pray that we'd be able to see with clarity what you are calling us to do, where you are calling us to go. Pray that we would have patience to wait until you give us that wisdom. God, encourage each and every person in this room as we seek to live a life that exercises wisdom. And may we be conscious of how we are a witness to others as we do so. Give us strength. It is hard sometimes to go against the current of the world, to do what does not make sense in the world's eyes. But I pray that you would give us courage. Help us be steadfast in our decision to follow you every day. We love you, Lord. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 7

Victory Against All Odds - Judges 6-7

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

And we have been in a series called Impossible Moments, And we have talked about tons of stories. We've been focused on the Old Testament, but stories like Moses and David fighting against Goliath and Noah and the Israelites having food just appear for them in the desert. So many different stories of God just coming through when it felt impossible. And the thing I love about this series, and really, I mean, let's be real, it's all of scripture, but the thing that's really cool about this is we get to see these stories and be reminded, maybe we've heard them many times, so maybe we're being reminded of them, but we get to learn more about who God is. That really is the whole point of the Bible. He wants a relationship with his people. There's no other God that wants a relationship like our God. He wants a relationship with his people. And how do you build a relationship? You get to know them. And so through these stories and through his word, He reveals more and more of Himself to us. Now He's infinite, we're never gonna understand Him completely, but how cool is it that He is so good and in His kindness, He shows us His character and who He is. And in turn, because we're learning about God and because He created us, we get to learn more about ourselves and how we relate to Him, how we relate to this world. And so I just, I am loving this series.

And today we are going to focus on a story where God basically says, you know, this army is just too big. Ever heard anyone say the army's too big? Not me. Usually it's the opposite problem. But God said this army is too big. We are gonna be talking about Gideon. We're gonna be in the book of Judges today. But before we get started, let me open us up with some prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to get to know you better through your word, through the people that you've used, through your scriptures. I pray that you will be present in this place, that you will be felt. Holy Spirit, come speak to us and to our hearts. We thank you so much for this opportunity to worship together and to learn more about you in your name. So while you're gonna be in Judges, We're gonna start in verse six. I want us to have a little bit of background of who Gideon is. You may be really familiar with him, you may not. Gideon was a judge, hence the book of Judges, but he was one of the judges of Israel. And the Israelites at this time were under oppression from the Midianites. And so there was a lot of distress, a lot of struggle. And we find Gideon in Judges six. We're gonna start in verse 11. You can turn there on your phone, in your Bible. We got it on this screen. We also have blue Bibles in the chairs. We're gonna be in the NIV version today. So turn with me to Judges 6, verse 11. And we find him in a winepress. So let's read. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiserite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. Pause for a second. He was threshing wheat in a winepress, not typically what the winepresses were for, but he was scared of the Midianites. So he was basically hiding while he was getting his work done. So this little section's gonna tell us a lot about Gideon, and we're just making a note of that here. Okay, verse 12. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Another translation says, "Mighty man of valor." 13, "Pardon me, my lord," replied Gideon, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? When they said, "Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?" But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" "Pardon me, my Lord," Gideon replied, "but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family." The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive." Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the Lord said, "I will wait until you return.”

So Gideon goes off and prepares a meal, and brings it back to the answer of the Lord, and it burns like a burnt offering, and he receives that. And that's the sign for Gideon to know, oh, this is real, this is really the Lord talking to me. Okay. So, like I said, we learn a lot about Gideon here in chapter six, and he's not, doesn't seem like the guy for the job, you know, by human standards. He's hiding in a wine press, threshing wheat, first of all. But God calls him a mighty warrior. And God calls him that before he's ever gone into battle. That I find that so interesting. Gideon hadn't done anything of valor or of warrior likeness, but God calls him that. Gideon himself actually didn't really think very highly of himself because in verse 15 it says, "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least, "I'm the youngest in my family." Birth order and clan order, that was all very, very important in this time. So he's like, "Are you sure you got the right guy? "Because I don't think I'm it." But something else we learn is that God says, "Go in the strength you have, not that you will have, "but that you currently have." So God is speaking into Gideon's life saying, "You have this strength. "I am giving it to you now. "You are a man of valor. "You are a mighty warrior right now, "before you've done anything." We see Gideon's lack of courage in this, and we see maybe his fear or his lack of confidence in God's choice of warrior.

But we also see some other really cool things from Gideon. He starts asking God for signs. You may have heard the idea of asking, laying out a fleece for the Lord. This is where it comes from in chapter six. He puts out a fleece and he says, God, if this is you, make the fleece wet and the ground around it dry from dew and God does it. And then the next night he said, okay God, I'm gonna ask you to do it again, but the opposite. I want the fleece dry and the ground around it covered with dew and he does it. Now, at first reading, I'm kinda like, oh, Gideon. Kinda pushing the limits here, asking God for all these signs, but it's okay. God wasn't offended by it, he wasn't intimidated by it. He actually, in his goodness, allowed Gideon to have these confirmations so that he could build his confidence. We may look at Gideon as modern day readers and say he had a lack of faith, but how many times have we done it? How many times have we questioned? God, is this really you? Are you sure? I don't think you have the right guy. I've definitely given God plenty of reasons of why I'm not the right person for the job, why I'm not capable or equipped or good enough. And God doesn't make mistakes. So, he has the right person. I think a lot of times we want to be available. I think Gideon, as an Israelite, as a follower of Yahweh, wanted to be available, but are we willing to follow up that availability with obedience? Honestly, for a lot of us, I think the answer's no. If we're truly honest with ourselves, because we're scared or we're unsure, we actually are putting more faith in ourselves other than God, or over God.

But the funny thing is, in this series, and really throughout the whole Bible, Every person that God used was not good enough. David was too small to fight Goliath. Moses should have been killed as a baby and then as an adult and had a stutter. Elijah was rolling solo up against 300 of Baal's prophets. Noah built an ark for somewhere that never had rained before. It didn't make sense. But God made them enough. He gave them what they needed. He equipped them and he called them to do it. So he was gonna make them enough. Same thing with Gideon. Maybe he was the least of his family. Maybe he was in the smallest clan. But God, as we'll see, as we continue, we'll see that God gives Gideon exactly what he needs. And he'll give us what we need too. He is not gonna call us to something that he will not equip us for. He's gonna give us exactly what we need. So now we have a little bit of background of who he was. We can see that he is not wildly courageous or wildly confident in himself, but he asked God to build his trust. He asked for signs. He even went so far as to tear down an altar of Baal. Now in that time, Yahweh and Baal were basically worshiped equally. For many people in the area, including Israelites, both of them were worshiped. So it was a big deal for him to tear down this altar. In fact, he was so scared to do it that he did it in the middle of the night. But in that time, he can't really tear down a altar of a god and it not be noticed. So they figured out who it was, but he did it. It also says that He was, that the Spirit came upon Him.

Now, as Christians and Christ-holders, this side of the resurrection, we hear that more of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or when a Holy Spirit comes into our heart or our lives. We are given the Holy Spirit. But in the Old Testament, most of the time, it's understood as the Holy Spirit coming upon someone. And we see here that Gideon had the Spirit of God upon him. He was anointed. He wasn't just told to go do something. God was going to go with him. Gideon also started building an army. He's like, "Okay, well, I gotta go defeat the Midianites. "I guess I need some people to do this with me." So he started growing an army. His trust in God grew. His confidence in who God said he was grew. So we're gonna go ahead and jump ahead to chapter seven. We're just gonna work section by section here. So Judges seven verse one, early in the morning, Jerubal, who's called Gideon, and all his men camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley, near the hill of Morah. The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me." They would say, "My own strength has saved me." Now announce to the army, "Anyone who trembles with fear "may turn back and leave Mount Gilead." So 22,000 men left while 10,000 remained. The math is not mathing, okay? This is not making sense. First of all, just for some context, the army, the Midianite army had what was estimated as 135,000 men. So with 32,000 Israelites in their army, they were already severely outnumbered. But God said, "No, you're too big. "Because if you defeat them with 32,000 men, "you're gonna take the glory. "You're gonna say that you did it in your own power." And that's not how this is gonna go. So he said, "If you're afraid," which obviously many were, because they saw this vast army in front of them that they were going up against. So 22,000 went home. and they were left with 10,000. Seems really small amount of men to go against this army. I was reading a commentator on this passage and he said, "If we really believe the principle from Zechariah 4.6 "that says not by might nor by power, "but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts, "then our smallness does not matter. "If we really believe the principle, "some trust in chariots and some in horses, "but we will remember the name of the Lord our God," from Psalm 20, verse seven, then smallness does not matter. 10,000 men was small, but it didn't matter. All right, on to verse four. "But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. "Take them down to the water, "and I will thin them out for you there. "If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go. "But if I say this one shall not go with you, "he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues "as the dog laps from those who kneel down to drink." 300 of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. So God basically said, if they get on their hands and knees and they put their head in the water and they're just drinking, They're not being alert, they're exposing their backs. Send them home. The ones that picked up the water and laughed at like a dog and stayed alert, stayed ready, were on the lookout. Those are the ones God wanted. Unfortunately, it was only 300 of them. But small doesn't matter with God.

The same commentator wrote, Now the Israeli army was less than 1% of its original size, and the proportion was 400 Midianite soldiers to one Israeli soldier, 400 to one. Gideon could only trust in God because there was nothing else to trust. Gideon already didn't have a lot of confidence in himself. Now he didn't have an army to put his confidence in. He only had the option to trust in God. Sometimes we feel that way, we get to the end of our rope, we got nothing left. Hopefully we put our trust in God before we get to that point, but sometimes it takes us getting to the end of our rope to realize he's all I need to put my trust in. All right, verse seven. The Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. God was gonna use 300 men. So now Gideon has asked for signs and he's received signs, building up his confidence. And then God pared down his army to 300, probably broke his confidence down a little bit. But God knew and He is good and He is kind. And so He's like, you know what? I'm gonna give you another sign, Gideon. I'm gonna show you that you can trust me. So we head into verse nine. During that night, the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down against the camp because I'm going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant, Pirah, and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Pera, his servant, went down to the outpost of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the other eastern peoples had settled in a valley thick as a locust. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed. His friend responded, "This can be nothing "other than the sword of Gideon, "son of Joash the Israelite. "God has given the Midianites "and the whole camp into his hands." He was telling the Midianites that they were already gonna lose. That's a confidence builder. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up, the Lord has given the Midianite camp "into your hands." Dividing the 300 men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches inside. "Watch me," he told them, "follow my lead. "When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. "When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, "then from all around the camp, blow yours and shout "for the Lord and for Gideon." Gideon heard the dream and the interpretation and his confidence was built again.

He knew God was gonna give him the victory. And what was the first thing he did? He worshiped. So I wrote this as a quick side note, but in the middle of the night, the Lord kept bringing this up to me. And I feel like this is maybe the most important part of this passage. Gideon worshiped God before he had the victory. So whether you're on a mountaintop and things are going well, and your relationship with God is good, and things seem to be smooth sailing, you get to worship him then. But even if things aren't going well, if things feel really low, if you are in the thick of anxiety or depression or financial crisis or relationship issues, whatever it may be, we still get to worship. Gideon knew that God was gonna come through. He knew he was gonna give him the victory. So he worshiped that part of God. He worshiped that God was good. He worshiped the God that was going to bring the victory before the victory came. And I know so many of us are praying for a victory in some area in our lives. And it feels really hard to worship right now. It feels like, what am I worshiping? You haven't given me the victory. I haven't seen the end. And for some of us, we may not even get the victory this side of heaven, but it is coming. And we get to worship now. We get to praise Him because of who He is, not because of anything He's done. So, even before they took the Midianite camp, even before they did anything, Gideon worshiped God because he was worthy. He was worthy of being worshiped. He was worthy of being honored and praised, simply because of who He was. So Gideon receives the signs, he builds his confidence, and then he gives his men empty jars, trumpets, and torches. What I find interesting here is that Gideon, of all the things he questioned, he did not question the weapons of choice. Now, scripture's not clear on whose plan this was, but because we know that the Holy Spirit came upon Gideon, it's safe to assume that this was the Holy Spirit's idea, to fight with torches and trumpets and glasses and essentially household items. If there's ever a time that I'm going to question God's plan, it's when he gives me a household item to go into battle. That's what I'm gonna question it, personally. Call me having a lack of faith, I don't know. But it's just, I struggle with that. But Gideon didn't, he just was rolling with the plan.

So, verse 18, we'll jump back in. "Gideon and the hundred men with him "reached the edge of the camp at the beginning "of the middle watch," so the middle of the night, "just after they had changed the guard. "They blew their trumpets and broke the jars "that were in their hands. "The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth-Shi-ta toward Zor-ah, as far as the border of Abel-Meholah near Tabeth. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh were called out and they pursued the Midianites. The Israelite army, the 300 men, barely had to lift a finger. They blew their trumpets and they shouted. And now, granted, if you were in the dead of night, dead asleep, and then you're suddenly surrounded by fire and shouting and torches, That would freak me out too. But it says that the men held their ground. They literally just stood there. And the whole army, the whole many army got up and fought against each other. And the ones who didn't die ran. And then as we see more tribes of Israelites joined in and pursued them as they fled. But the 300 men didn't even have to fight. God fought. God won that battle. God did the work. Gideon and those 300 men just had to be obedient.

I'm not well versed in war strategy, but glass jars and trumpets don't seem like a great strategy to me, but it doesn't matter. He just wanted their obedience. And even more so, God got the glory. 'Cause not only were they severely outnumbered, it didn't make sense who he chose. The weapons of choice made absolutely no sense. So God got the glory. There was no argument of who won this battle. It was God. Gideon was the weakest. He was everyone's last choice to be called to do something impossible. It didn't make sense on paper. It didn't add up for our human minds. It doesn't add up. But it doesn't have to because in God's upside down kingdom, it works somehow, but it works. He doesn't need it to make sense. He just needs our obedience. He just needed Gideon to say yes, I'll go. It seemed like an impossible moment. It seemed impossible with 32,000 men. And then it seemed even more impossible, and more impossible. But that is when God shows off in the coolest ways.

So, a few truths for us today that we can take away from Gideon in his story. First of all, we can trust who God says He is and who He says we are. God is mighty and powerful. Scripture talks about that. He is all powerful. He showed that through this story, how powerful He is. But He's also trustworthy. And I know that through the failure of some human relationships, it can feel really hard to trust a God you cannot see. But I promise you, he is trustworthy. And because he is trustworthy, we can believe what he says about us. Not only can we believe what he says about himself, but we can believe what he says about us. He called Gideon a mighty man of valor, a mighty warrior before he ever went into battle. Gideon had to trust that. He had to trust God that he was gonna make good on it. God calls us beloved more than conquerors, his sons and daughters co-heirs with Christ. It may not always feel like those things are true. We may not always believe it, but it's true. And we can trust that.

Number two, we can know that He will equip us to do whatever it is He's called us to do. 2 Corinthians 12, nine says, "My grace is sufficient for you, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." God's power is made perfect in our weakness. I don't really know a better promise 'cause I feel pretty weak sometimes. But then God gives us his power, and he equips us, and he strengthens us. Sometimes we get caught up in our ability and what we can do, or our lack of ability. And we discredit ourselves, we discount ourselves, we tell God he's got the wrong person. Like Gideon, we list all the reasons why not. But we know that he equips those that he calls to do his work. We just have to be more focused on our availability over our ability. Second Peter 1.3 says, "His divine power "has given us everything we need for a godly life "through our knowledge of Him "who called us by His own glory and goodness." He's gonna give us everything we need for life and godliness and for what He's called us to do.

Lastly, we too are called to obedience even when it doesn't make sense. This kind of goes hand in hand with the last point of knowing that God's going to equip us, but we can know that he will equip us, we can know it in our head, and still choose to not be obedient. Gideon could have seen all these signs and know that it was truly God talking to him and still not been obedient. We can desire to be used by God, we can desire to be available and not actually take any action. But as Christ followers, we are called to a life of obedience even when it's hard, even when it doesn't make sense, even when we don't understand it. Which is like usually, right? Like, it's like most of the time. Just like Gideon, it's okay to ask for confirmation, to ask God for a sign, maybe it's in his word, maybe it's seeking wise counsel and receiving confirmation from another believer. Maybe it's just praying about it until you have a piece. But we can't let those things delay our obedience. We can't let those things be an excuse to not obey. Hold on, I gotta pray about it. Hold on, let me just, let me just say, pray about it, please, pray about it. But don't let it be an excuse. So often, God only gives us the next step. We don't get to see 10 steps ahead. We don't get to see the whole picture. Wouldn't that be nice? Can I get a text message, God? Like that would just be super helpful. Unfortunately, no, it's usually just the next step. But we can be obedient with that next step. And then the next, and then the next. Because God is trustworthy. He wants us to lay down our selfish desires. He wants us to lay down our own sin. He wants us to give up our own need for comfort. I don't like that one. He wants us to surrender to Him, to His calling, and to be obedient to what He's calling us to do. But the cool thing is, if we trust in who God says He is and who He says we are, if we believe that He will equip us to do what it is He's calling us to do. It's gonna be so much easier to be obedient and following Him every step of the way, even if it's just the next step.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this story, for Gideon and all of his fear and anxiety and lack of confidence. God, He still trusted you. He still took those steps of faith. He asked for signs and in your goodness, you gave them to him, God. And I just pray that you will help us as you call us to new things, new situations, new stages of life, God, whatever it is you're calling us to, no matter how big or small, God, give us confidence in you, not in our own ability, but in what you can do in and through us. God, you want to use us. You want us to be co-laborers with you. Help us to be available, to be open, and to just take action, to be obedient, to choose obedience even when it doesn't make sense. We love you, Lord. We thank you and we praise you in your precious name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 6

A Prayer Unlike Any Other - Joshua 10:1-15

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

How are we doing this morning? We doing well? We doing good? Yeah, good. Another question, just gonna keep rolling through questions here. How are you guys enjoying this series? Impossible moments. Good? Like it. Yes, you don't have to say that. Thank you guys so much. That's great. I hope it's been encouraging. Bringing... It's alright? That's alright. That's fair. That's fair. Bringing good reminders of faith. We hope that that's happening. Or new insights that are drawing you closer to God. Pastor Chris, myself, and Pastor Lauren next week. We're just loving the series. Even for pastors most of the time, speak for every pastor. We love studying because I mean we get a lot out of it. We probably get more out of it than you do because we spend all week just like pouring over it and so we're really liking it. We're hoping that you guys are enjoying it too.

I want to start this morning with a truth that you probably know better than myself and that is that communication is one of the biggest components or keys to a healthy relationship. Good communication takes makes clarity, trust, intentionality, understanding between two people. Communication becomes effortless sometimes with another person when you're on the same page. And sometimes it even means little to no words can be spoken and you guys, two people can read each other's minds, just know exactly what the other person is thinking. Maybe it's just a nod or like that eyebrow look that you're like, I know, I know what my spouse or my best friend is thinking right now in this moment. I, again, you're going to get a lot of sports analogies from me and a lot of Lord of the Rings references. So I think of this in sports. You know, I played, I grew up playing soccer and I was most of the time in the back, defense, and I could tell when one of my teammates was wanting to make a run or go down the field, they'd look back and I could see the look in their eyes and I knew like, all right, he wants it down there. He didn't have to say anything. He wasn't yelling or anything like that. I just buy a look and I try and try my best to kick the ball downfield. Or football fans, if you're watching football, NFL or college, there's a broken play and the quarterback is back there scrambling, trying to figure out what receiver to throw it to. And sometimes the receiver, the quarterback and receiver just have this connection. No words are spoken. He just gives a look or a nod and the quarterback knows, "I know exactly where I'm putting this ball for my receiver to catch it." Communication can get to this point where it's effortless, where minimal, you know, actions are taking and two people can be on the same page. One last question for you this morning is, how is your communication with God? Have you ever had a moment where you've been on the same page with God? Where you felt that connection? Where maybe after something happened, you and God are processing together in the same way. You're like, "God, we're thinking the same thing right here. We just saw this, or we witnessed this, or we were a part of something." And you can tell that you and God are on the same page. Another way of asking this might be, "How is your prayer life? Do you pray and connect with God, not just in the morning, maybe not just at night, but throughout the day, just talking with Him, listening, talking, going back and forth?

Today we're going to look at the account of Joshua in the Old Testament and look at his example of communication with God. We're jumping a bit forward from our sermon last week where Pastor Chris talked about Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. We're jumping forward to now they are entering the promised land. Before Joshua is in leadership, we get a little background on Joshua here, before he's in leadership we know that he is a courageous man. He is one of the 12 spies sent into the promised land by Moses to scout it out and he is one of the only two that believe that God can do what he says. That God said I'm gonna deliver you the promise, I'm gonna give it to you. Even though there's a bunch of people there, a bunch of enemies, I'm gonna give it to you. Well the other 10 spies say we don't think we can, we don't think it can happen Moses. We went there, we saw it, no good. But Joshua and Caleb are the only ones that say, "No, we've seen it. We've seen all the enemies and we think that God can still deliver the promised land." So we know that Joshua has faith. He sees God as a protector, as a leader, and he sees him more capable than other people seem to think that God is. Joshua has courage and his biggest leadership quality is his deep trust in God. If God is calling Joshua to do something, we see throughout Scripture, throughout especially this part in Joshua, that he goes no matter the circumstances because he trusts that the Lord will do what the Lord says he will do. Joshua is very much a new Moses in the eyes of Israel as they share in so many similarities. They both lead the people through water on dry land, they both send spies into the Promised Land, and they both are known for the reading of God's word before the nation of Israel. And so after 40 years of wandering the wilderness under leadership of Moses, Moses hands off the leadership to Joshua. And Joshua is gonna be the one who leads them into the promised land. And so they go from the wilderness and Joshua leads them through the Jordan River, which is a mini Red Sea moment. We think back to when Israel went through the Red Sea who escaped Egypt and Moses, God threw Moses, part of the Red Sea. Well now, Joshua parts the Jordan River. And the Ark of the Covenant goes through and the flood waters are so high, but still the waters separate and all of Israel passes through the Jordan River. He leads them against Jericho, Joshua does, and I won't go too much into that 'cause that might be another impossible moment we cover. But Joshua leads the people in obedience to what God instructs them to do at Jericho. And it is God who defeats Jericho, but it's Joshua and the Israelites who obey God's instruction and execute his plan. And so city after city, people after people, God is giving the Promised Land to the Israelites.

And right now at this point in Israel's timeline, it's all about capturing the Promised Land. God is fulfilling the covenant that he made generations ago to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, And then again to the Israelites in the wilderness, Israel will finally have a land to call their own. They've been made a nation, that part of the covenant was fulfilled, and now they're gonna have a place to call their own. In fact, in the book of Numbers chapter 34, while Moses is still alive in the wilderness, God gave the people the exact dimensions, the exact property lines that they would have in the promised land. This is amazing, they're in the desert, and he's like, "Hey, you're gonna have that land." They're like, "Okay, we've never been there. Don't worry, let me tell you exactly what every tribe will have. It's gonna go from this border over here to this border. This tribe is gonna have this much land. So God is doing it all. And that was before Zillow. So that's pretty impressive that they could know, heading into it, what they would have. That joke didn't land very well. It's okay. It's too scripted. It's too scripted. But God is setting it all up. And I wanna pause here. We haven't even got to our passage yet. So I want to pause here and just reflect on all that God has done for the Israelites. Because God is the one making it all happen. Israel's along for the ride, and they still have to do their part, but God is the one making it all happen. So God freed the people from slavery. He rescued them. God performed the miracles to save them over and over again. God provided food and sustenance, like we talked about in last week's sermon. God is fulfilling His promise, and God is the one fighting the enemies. look at all that God can do. Sometimes we need to pause and reflect on all that God has done in our lives and in the world around us. If there's nothing else you hear from this sermon, just do that. Sometime this week, later today or this week, just pause, maybe journal, get out and just start listing all that you know that God has done for you, for people you know in the world around you, and see how that list grows, and take comfort and joy and just reflect and praise God for what he has done. So far, they're not even in the promised land yet. God has done so much for Israel. Tonight, or today we're gonna take a closer look at this time when Joshua and Israel are taking over the promised land and something impossible happens.

So if you could turn with me to Joshua 10, as I, you guys can follow along as I read aloud. It says, "Now Adonai-Zadok, king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai, and all its men were very good fighters. So Adonai-Zadok, king of Jerusalem, appealed to Ho-ham, king of Hebron, "Pyrrhum, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachesh, "and Dabir, king of Eglon. "Come up and help me attack Gibeon," he said, "because it has made peace with Joshua and Israelites." Then the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachesh, and Eglon joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. "Do not abandon your servants. come up to us quickly and save us help us because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us so Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army including all the best fighting men the Lord said to Joshua do not be afraid of them I have given them into your hand not one of them will be able to withstand you after an all-night march from Gilgal Joshua took them by surprise the Lord threw them into confusion before Israel so Joshua and Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth-horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Maquedah. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth-horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them and more of them died from the hill than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Son, stand still over Gibeon and you moon over the valley of Ajailon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies as is written in the book of Jashar. Sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. And then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. Would you guys pray with me? God, as we open up your word, as we dive into your truth, I pray that you would work in our hearts, soften our hearts to hear what your spirit has to say to us. I pray that we would be drawn closer to you, that we'd be made more into the image of Christ, that we'd be reminded of who you are and what you can do through this passage this morning. I give you all the praise. Amen.

Alright, a little background on our situation here. We're jumping into the middle of Israel's conquest into the Promised Land. So I have a map here. We have a map. We got a map. There's a map. It's a little small. The farthest point on the right is where we're starting. That's Gilgal, that's where Joshua is, and then over to the left. So they're starting that way, they're heading left, and it says that they entered into like the middle of the Promised land and then they kind of swept south and a study Bible says that the victories of Jericho and I give the Israelites a foothold in the center of the land effectively dividing it and preventing the southern and northern cities from taking a united front so we see that little marked colored portion is the southern conquest and context there our passage today is taking place in that southern conquest so seeing what God had done at the previous cities the people of Canaan who are already there have different reactions to what's going on and to Israel coming in and invading their land. Both reactions, there's two, are out of fear of Yahweh and his people. The first happens earlier in chapter 9 where the king of Gibeon set up a peace treaty with Joshua. They said they were from a faraway land and they told Joshua, "Hey, we've heard about all that Yahweh your God has done. We traveled all this way to worship your God." And Joshua was like, "That's great. Oh my goodness, come worship God. Of course. That'd be wonderful." Well, it turns out that was a lie. They were actually from the land, but they did not want to die. And so they told the lie so that they wouldn't be killed. Joshua and Israel are obviously upset, but they want to honor the covenant they made before God, not to kill the people. So they come up with this punishment for the Gibeonites to become woodworkers and water carriers for the people of Israel, which was primarily used for temple service. So the Gibeonites are now working for the Israelites and our allies. That's one reaction. The other reaction happens in our chapter, chapter 10. The people of Canaan come together and form an alliance and say, "We don't like what's happening. Israel's gonna invade our land. Let's come together. Let's stop them." And so the five kings, Adonai, Zadek, Hoam, Piram, Jephiah, Deir, they all come together and they attack Gibeon, Israel's newest ally. and they're testing Joshua and Yahweh and Israel. Is Israel really gonna honor this treaty? Are they really gonna be able to defeat all five of us together? And Gibeon, now in battle, sends word to Joshua, asking for help. Verse six, the Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp, "Do not abandon your servants. "Come up to us quickly and save us. "Help us, because all the Amorite kings "from the hill country have joined forces against us." So what does Joshua do? Verse seven, so Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. He goes. This is like, okay, one Lord of the Rings reference here. The third movie, Return of the King, The Beacons Are Lit. This is that moment. If you know, you know. If not, you can Google The Beacons Are Lit, that phrase. It'll pull up the scene. It is awesome. So this is that moment where they're calling for help and the people that they're calling for, they respond. They do what they were supposed to do. And Joshua and all his men, they march. they marched all night from Gilgal to Gibeon. It's 21 miles. That, I've done a few hikes. That's a long hike. After not sleeping all day, you're just awake, and then Joshua, your leader says, "Hey, we gotta go hike to go into battle." So not only are you just hiking, but you're bringing all your armor and stuff, and you're tired, and then you're gonna go straight into battle. So this is not ideal, but this is amazing that they are able to do this. And they get there, and God says to Joshua, verse 8, the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." God gives complete assurance to Joshua, kind of in three parts here. The first part says, "Do not fear them. There may be five kings, there may be more soldiers on that side, but do not fear. Why? The second part of his assurance, I have given them over to you. God has given the enemy already over to Joshua and the Israelites.

This is a done deal. They get into battle and they can know that they're gonna win. Just imagine the confidence. Just knowing that going into war, this is a victory. I have only experienced that kind of level of victory maybe in in intramural sports in college, when as a senior we were playing, and then a bunch of freshmen who've never played before came to the field, and our team was like, "God, you have given us this victory. Thank you so much for this." That's the only way I can relate. But that, I just imagine, just the confidence of, "God, we got this. God has given this to us." And then the last part of that assurance is that the victory will be an overwhelming victory. It's not even gonna be close. God has got this. And so he offers his complete assurance to Joshua. What is Joshua's response? Verse nine, "After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise." Joshua shows immediate action. He moves against the enemy quickly. I love this, "Joshua had heard all he needed to hear in order to go and to go with God." What a good reminder for us today. When God calls, when God affirms, when the Spirit is leading you, not to wait for anything, but to go, to listen to that voice. Today we can follow Jesus through the guiding of the Holy Spirit, and we can follow with our everything in full confidence that God is going to do what He said He would do. Now it may be rare to have complete assurance from God, like Joshua does here. We don't often have that in life, where God clearly says, "I'm going to do exactly this." But nonetheless, our response to God's leading should still be immediate action and complete obedience. All right, so Joshua attacks and the Lord throws the enemy into confusion and the coalition of enemies begins to run. And as they flee, like out of a C.S. Lewis book or something, God starts hurling hailstones at them. This is just insane. More men died from the hailstones than by the hands of Israel. Can you just Just imagine a scene as an Israelite. You're fighting, they're in confusion, this is going great, you're already assured of the victory, they start running, and then God is sending hailstones to defeat them. Yahweh, your God, is fighting for you. He's on your side. Just imagine what that does for your belief and trust in God. Then imagine this from the enemy's point of view. It's not going well. The fight is not going well, you were already confused, your comrades are going down like and then you start running and it can't get any better because now stones are flying from the heavens and more people are dying. Yahweh, their God, is fighting for them, unlike anything they've ever seen before. A God, a deity, fighting on behalf of the people. It's the worst day of their lives, I think it's safe to say. And then Joshua speaks. Now Joshua and God throughout this time in Israel's history and definitely in this passage, are really on the same page. They are so in sync with each other. And I wanna bring back those questions that we asked at the beginning. Have you ever had a time in your life, be it a moment or a few days, a season, weeks, months, where you felt like you were step for step in stride with the Holy Spirit? If you have, if you can think of a time where you were like, hey, there is that time in life where just God and I were on the same page. Day after day, I just knew we were close. Our thoughts were aligned, our hearts were aligned. If you felt that, let that be a comfort, a guide, strive for that. If you haven't yet, that's okay. Maybe you can think of someone who you've seen their life and their walk with God, and that be a model. Or you can think of Joshua, strive for this. Joshua and God are so in sync, look what happens next. In verse 12, it says, "On the day that the Lord "gave the Amorites over to Israel, "Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Son, stand still over Gibeon, "and you moon over the valley of Ajelon." So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. As is written in the book of Jasher, "The sun stopped in the middle of the sky "and delayed going down about a full day." There has never been a day like it before since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. This is a prayer unlike any other that we've ever seen in scripture. And just to be clear on what happened here, Joshua, Joshua, the man, the human, told the sun to stay put so that Israel could continue the battle and continue to do what the Lord had instructed them to do. And God listened to Joshua and stopped the sun and the moon.

I don't know science that well. I don't know how this works. When I thought, I was like, I don't know, Did we stop orbiting around the sun? Did the sun, did everything stay? I can't explain it. I have no idea. Some people think that the theory is like some kind of eclipse happened. Rubbish, I don't think that. I think the only thing that makes sense is that God stopped the sun and the moon, just like it says in scripture, and that there has never been a day like it since. I mean, something impossible that no human could ever replicate. God did in a moment here. It's just amazing. I wanna spend more time though on the prayer because this prayer is also unlike anything else. A biblical scholar, John Barry, writes this. "The exceptional nature of this moment "is due to the specificity of the prayer "and immediacy of the response. "Even the life of Moses has nothing so immediate "and dramatic with such a direct "cause and effect relationship." Honestly, all this week, as I've just been reading this over and over again, I come to those 12 through 14, and I'm just dumbfounded. I'm in awe. I don't understand how this works. That's amazing. Never seen anything like it. Can't relate to it. I have not seen besides an eclipse, which again, I don't think that's what it was. That's just amazing that God would hold the physics of how the world works so that Israel could do what they were supposed to do. This isn't just about how great Joshua is It's not just about how great God is, which he is, but this moment highlights just how close the human-God relationship can be. This passage shows us that as we go about our lives in the day-to-day, we can be so in sync with God that we are attuned to more of what he is doing in and around us. This Joshua and God relationship is the goal that we should be aiming for. And so there are three reminders from the relationship between God and Joshua that I wanna bring to us today. First is the simple reminder that you have a relationship with God. It's a two-way street. He is continually involved in your life. And we have to continually make the efforts and put the work in and the time in to have a relationship with God. Just like we do with anyone else. Second reminder, God listens to us. God listens to his people. I think we've said this three or four times now in this series from different accounts of these impossible situations, but God is a God who listens to his people, responds to our requests, our prayers, our pleas, our cries. He may respond in the exact way that we want, or he may respond in a way that he deems better. I found that if he does answer in the exact way that I was hoping for, that's more of a reflection that I was more in tune with God rather than God just giving me exactly what I wanted. My desires at that time aligned with God's desires. We'll come back to that in a bit. The last reminder of this relationship is that God is for us. God is fighting for us. God can perform miracles on our behalf, not just for our benefit, but ultimately for His plan and for His glory. But there are many people who have a distorted view of God, who think of him more as a punisher or lean towards his anger, rather than his loyalty and love and compassion for his people. Remember that God is for you. Even just today, from the moment you woke up to now, when you're sitting here in church, God was fighting for you. God was doing things on your behalf. You may not be aware of them. Maybe you are. You're sitting here like, "Hey, I remember this moment "where blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And I felt the Lord be there with me, comfort me, provide for me, or maybe you're unaware. You just showed up here and God had already, unbeknownst to you, he's been working in the background, fighting for you, supporting you, encouraging you. Remember that God is for you. This relationship between Joshua and God is so, so close. It's one of my favorite relationships in the Old Testament. But as we close, I wanna shift our focus towards our relationship with God and the approach and mindset that we need to have when following Him.

So when it comes to communicating with God, praying with Him, I want us to realize this. When our will is aligned with God's will, when we are in sync with the movement of the Holy Spirit, when we are step for step in stride with God, we will witness amazing things. We'll see God working in and through us, and we'll experience a life that nurtures deeper faith and stronger trust in God. I wanna say that again. When our hearts, our wills are aligned with God's heart and His will, we will experience a life that nurtures deeper faith within us and grows a stronger trust and belief in God. Look at the life of Joshua. Experience after experience, trusting and believing and seeing God work, he comes to this point where he and God are on the same page and he can tell the sun and moon to stand still and God is right in sync with him. This prayer from Joshua is a prayer unlike any other. And it should encourage us in our own prayer lives in a few ways. It should encourage us to pray with expectancy. When we pray, and I'll be the first to admit, this is me sometimes. We pray as if we were just going through the motions, just saying words, maybe like at a counseling appointment, where we're just venting our frustrations, stating our desires, but we don't expect God to do anything about it. We're just like, "Hey, I know I'm supposed to talk to you, God, so here's what I'm thinking, here's what I'm feeling, but I'll get back to work and I'll make my life, I'll try to do it myself." Or, "God, if you intervene, great, but I don't expect you to." We don't say that necessarily, but sometimes we're thinking that. When we are aligned with God, our prayers will also be aligned with his heart and we can expect God to move. We can expect God to do something about our situation. There was a well-known pastor a few years ago now, who had cancer and he announced to his congregation that he had cancer, that he was gonna get treatment and he stated, "I believe that God will heal me." And he said, "Even if God doesn't heal me, I will believe and preach and praise that God is good, but I believe that he will heal me. God healed him. He expected God to work. Still gonna praise him and honor him, even if he doesn't work in the same way, but God did. He prayed and talked about, and expecting God to do something. We don't always have to know exactly what God will do, but we can still expect God to work. And so we should pray knowing that, believing that. This passage also encourages us to pray with confidence. This kind of goes hand in hand with praying with expectancy. I love Joshua's confidence in this passage, all throughout Joshua's life. He's just so confident. And it's not a self-confidence. It's not about, "Hey, I know I can do this." It's all based on God, who God is, what God does, and we can have the same confidence. Let's pray and talk with God confidently, knowing that He is there, knowing that He will move in our lives, knowing that He will hear us and respond to us. Again, confidence isn't necessarily knowing exactly what God will do, but that God is there and He will do something. Think of that list that maybe you'll write this week of all that God has done in your life. Or look at Scripture. Have that list be a source of confidence for you moving forward in what God can do. And then lastly, this passage encourages us to pray in alignment with God's will. Prayers like, God, please give me more money. I'm not sure if that's really the answer that God is wanting to give you. Maybe it is. Bless you if that is the case. That may not be God's will for you right in that moment. that may not be what's best for you, though you think it's the answer, is that really God's will for you? Something that, a prayer that is in alignment with God's will may be more like, "God, please provide for my needs. "You know what I'm going through, "you know where I'm lacking, "you know that I need this by the end of this month, "I don't have it right now, "God, can you in some way provide?" Whether it's in cash or whether it's some other miracle or whether it's a way we don't even know, God can work. And we can pray with expectancy, with confidence, and in alignment with God's will, that he will do something.

There are so many stories that I've heard, there are people praying, "God, I don't have this for rent at the end of the month." And somewhere along the way, some person shows up at the door and says, "Hey, I don't know why, but God wanted me to give you this exact amount." And that person's like, "That's exactly what I needed." Countless stories of, I can't even think of the, There's a person in New York who started a ministry, and this is a long time ago, and they would just pray for every meal. They didn't ever have food, enough food, for all the people that they were trying to serve, but every time, God would provide in ways that they just had no clue. Someone would show up and drop off food, and then everyone would be fed. The story, even in the Bible, story after story, of God providing. So praying in alignment with God's will. Prayers like, "God, help me love my noisy neighbor." That is a prayer in alignment with God, 'cause God wants us to love our neighbor, like literally our neighbor. He wants us to love, He wants us to have compassion. Instead of prayers like, "God, please put Nashville on my neighbor's heart. "Please get them out of here, please make them move." Probably not a prayer in alignment with God's will. But sometimes when we pray in specifics, we close ourselves off to so many other ways in which God may work. When we're so focused on, "God, I need it to work in this way. "You have to do it in this way." We put the blinders on to other ways in which God can work. I'm not saying you shouldn't pray for specifics, we should, but also just be open to God, here's the need you provide. Here's what I'm thinking, you figure out the way. I don't have to determine the way in which you're gonna work. Pray in alignment with God's will, pray in a way that aligns with his character, and pray in a way that aligns with what he wants you to be, the image of Christ.

This story of Joshua and God today showed that God, again, can do the impossible. Even things that are set in order, like the rising and the setting of the sun, things that we have no human control over, God can control and do what is humanly impossible. We worship a God who can do the impossible, who we can have a close relationship with, who we can pray to, who listens to us, and who responds. This relationship that we have with God is the most important relationship we have. our communication with Him. It's the most important communication we have with anyone. So this week, today, moving forward, let that be a reminder that you need to invest in that time. Invest in your communication with God. We should strive to be step for step, in stride with Him and what He is doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your word. And God, we just pray that you would make this a reality in our lives, that we would be drawn closer to you, that our relationship with you would be strengthened, that it would grow. God, that you would help us to communicate with you in confidence, knowing that you're listening, knowing that you hear us, and knowing that you will respond, whether it's in a way that we can imagine or whether it's outside the realm of possibility, but yet you can do it. I just pray that you would open our eyes to how you're working so that we could praise you more, so that we could have deeper faith and trust in you. I pray that we would be an encouragement to each other, that we would pray for each other. God, we know that this is a broken world, this is a world full of sin, and that we are all still struggling and striving to be more like you. So I just pray that as the body of Christ, we would come together and love each other, pray for each other, support each other, encourage each other. God, I pray that your work in us individually and corporately as a church at Spring Valley would continue, that you would grow us, God, closer to you, that we would reach this community, that your glory would be very apparent here. We pray all this, trusting you, knowing that you are gonna work and move. We pray this in your name, Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 5

Blessings In The Desert - Exodus 16 & 17

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Sermon Transcript

Well, we are jumping back into our impossible moments today, and I'm really excited to be sharing a little bit about a little grownup Moses. We've been through a couple of different, well, actually I say a couple, we've only talked about Moses once here and we kicked off the series, but we've talked about David and Goliath, we've talked about Noah's faith, we've talked about Elijah versus the prophet of Bela, we've talked about baby Moses, we kicked off our series, Pastor Andre, and today we're gonna jump into a little grownup daddy Moses. And so it's gonna be awesome. If you want, you can flip over to Exodus 16 is where we're gonna start this morning. But this idea of this series of impossible moments is really as we have it here, believing in God through life's challenges, really believing in God and pressing in when we face these impossible moments. And we're jumping around all over the Old Testament looking at different stories of when God showed up in impossible moments, when backs were up against the wall, when all hopes seem to be lost, when there was no chance that there was gonna be any escape, victory, resolution, anything. And at that moment, God shows up. And that in that space, God showed up. And in this, I hope, and in our prayer, Pastor Andrei and myself is that when you face impossible moments in your life, that you can look back and remember these stories. These aren't fairytales, these are true stories. And remember that God showed up in ways. And wherever you're facing, whatever you're walking through, big, small, medium, middle, hard, easy, surprise, known, coming, hardship, that God's got your back. That God wants to show up in your life, to show up in the impossible moment. And today we're gonna go a little bit different route. We're still gonna be talking about impossible moment, but the question for us, I want us to think about is what is our heart? What is our posture? What is our response when we face this impossible moment?

We're gonna be talking about God's chosen people, the Israelites in Exodus today. And they didn't always have the right response. They didn't always respond the way that they probably should have when they faced impossible moments. And they faced a whole slew of them. From the crazy, unexpected, to God doing some unbelievable things, even before their eyes, that we would hear the story and think, "You're a crazy person." That you would even say that that happened. God showed up. And so we're gonna drop in on the Israelites at this moment. And they had just come out from this place of being in slavery in Egypt for generations. They had been used by Pharaoh and the Egyptians to build stuff, to serve them, to grow crops, to do everything that basically nobody in Egypt wanted to do. The Israelites got handed the job and said, go do this. And so we find the Israelites here just being able, having been rescued from Egypt with impossible moments alone, with all the plagues and the craziness that happened. God, at one point, Moses tells them, "Hey, you're gonna have this meal and you're gonna sacrifice his lamb and then you're gonna take the blood and put it over your door." And they're like, "What's going on?" And then if the covering wasn't there with the blood, the firstborn male died in the family, it was just chaos in these moments. And then you come to this point where Pharaoh finally says, "Fine, I'm tired of all this garbage you've been putting me and my country through. Moses, Aaron, just take these people and get out of here." And so they pack up, "Hey, we're free." And they take off. And then God takes them through this crazy route. And then all of a sudden, they're sitting by the edge of this giant sea called the Red Sea. And all of a sudden Pharaoh has a change of heart. And he sends all of his armies with chariots and technology of weaponry that nobody would have at that day and age except for them. And they think we're gonna be slaughtered out here by the edge of the sea. And God facing impossible moments, splits the Red Sea. And they don't just trudge through muck and mire through the Red Sea, they walk on dry ground. Then they get to the other side. God closes the ocean, the Israel army is wiped out. And they get to the other side and they're doing okay for a couple, a while. And then all of a sudden they're having to find water. And they finally find this thing of water, but it's undrinkable. It would kill them all. God does a miracle. God tells Moses, "Hey, take this log that's beside the water, throw it in the water and it's gonna be made clean and you can drink it." And Moses is like, "Are you kidding me? This is crazy." People don't believe him. So Moses does, it throws a log in there, water's clean, they're set. And so when we come to this point in Exodus 16, they have already seen impossible odds and God show up in their lives. And so we would think they got it down. These Israeli people, they got it figured out. They know exactly what's gonna happen. They face even the hardest thing. They're like, "Nope, I know my God. "I know my Yahweh, he's got my back. "He's got this under control. "He's gonna do something crazy. "It's gonna be awesome and we're gonna be saved." But they don't. They don't respond that way.

And so we come to this point in chapter 16, and we see a back-to-back test of the faith of Israel. They had been traveling since their last spur of water that had been made clean for them. They'd probably been traveling for a little bit. And they find themselves in the midst of this faith struggle. And really as scripture would say, they find themselves in this place of functional atheism. They're trying to still figure out this God. They're still trying to figure out what this thing, because for generations, they've been led by the Egyptian religions that had thousands upon thousands of gods and the gods of the air and the gods of the sun and the gods of the earth and the gods of the water and all sorts of different gods. they came from this place of just polytheism. And so they're in this place going, "Okay, I know God saved us and he brought us out, but was that the God of water that split the Red Sea? Was it the God of the earth that made the water clean for us to drink?" Where they're wrestling with all of this stuff and they choose to respond in this moment out of a place of fear and anxiety. Pastor and Andre, we were talking about this a little bit this morning. And we read these scriptures and we see like, man, how could these people respond this way? They've seen God act and God move and God saved them time and time again, and yet they still respond in this way. And we talked and we go, I would think there would be more than just maybe Moses and Aaron that would say, we gotta trust God, we gotta trust God. But when we read scripture, we see the majority of them still choose this idea of fear and not trusting a sovereign God who's going to do what he said he's going to do.

The Israelite people choose to believe in this place of their lack of control. And these tests were actually a part of God's sovereign plan to teach them about his covenant and to learn for them to trust and follow him. And we get to this place in the story of Exodus 16 and 17, the Israelite people have been traveling for about a month. And they come to this place where they enter into the official wilderness, which is a geographical place that is vast, rugged, and harsh. Commentator, Philip Ryken talks about it this way. It says, "If being delivered out of slavery in Egypt was about Israel's salvation, then their time in the wilderness was about their sanctification. There's two pieces going on here. And this place and where God is trying to grow them and teach them and to change their hearts and who they are, not just rescue them. And this is where we jump into the story today. And this story itself is one of the most famously referred back to stories in the book of the Bible. Jesus talks about it, the early church talks about it, multiple references go back to this moment in this time when God does this miracle in the wilderness. And so as the Israelite people are traveling through the wilderness, you can imagine there's not much around. And we're not talking like a couple hundred people here. It actually says in Exodus 12, that there was a count of 600,000 men alone, not including women and children that left Egypt. So if we were to say one for one plus maybe a quarter or so for those who had kids that didn't have kids, we're probably talking roughly 1.2 million people trekking through the wilderness. So when you run out of food, it's a big deal. There ain't a Starbucks you can pull into and grab some egg bites. There's a McDonald's you can grab a happy meal for the kiddos. There's no subway where you can eat fresh. There's no place for you to just grab some food on your road trip through the wilderness. And so the Israelites are facing this place of life and death. This isn't just a, oh my God, a little rumbling in my tumbling. Like we are hungry, we have no food, and we feel like we are going to die times 1.2 million. So this is a serious thing that's happening. and the Israelite people find themselves in this place of the impossible moment, and what's their response? What's their response? You would think back, okay, you've been through this, you've been through this, you come out of Egypt, the Red Sea, you got in the water, you've been saved, you've been protected, all this stuff, what do you think? You think Israelites are like, you know what, God's got us, it's all good. No, they freak out. They freak out in this impossible moment. What should have been a supernatural moment for them to go, we trust God. He's got our back. They freak out. And this idea of they don't know yet, but they're just on the beginning moments of what's going to become this 40 year journey of learning and sanctification and testing that they are facing impossible odds.

So we jump in, Exodus 16 starting in verse one, it says this, "The whole Israelite community sent out from Elam and came to the desert of sin, which is funny when you think about this, which is between Elam and Sinai. On the 15th day of the second month, so two and a half months in, they came out of Egypt. In the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But you, you have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death. How quickly people turn when they get hungry, right? I will admit, I've had to apologize on many occasions to my lovely wife when I've gotten hangry. I'm not a pleasant person when I get hangry, okay? So I'm gonna give a little grace to the Israelite people here, they're getting hungry. But we drop in and they just go at Moses and Aaron. They just attack them. And I think, man, how could you do that? The Israelite people are 100% ungrateful for anything in this moment when they just run out of food. Even to the point, did you guys notice what they said? How chaos was it? We wish we'd rather had left us in slavery, at least we had food. So they are to the point where they are not even thinking straight they're so hungry, that they are saying, we would rather be in slavery under oppression, having to work whatever hours every single day before sun up to after sundown, at least there was food. What? Sorry, I don't know what dead end job I'm sticking around for because they got donuts in the morning and a coffee machine in the break room, I'm sorry. This is crazy. How could they respond this way? And so how quickly, and I think we're right there with them, right? How quickly do we forget when God does something in our life and then immediately we go, how could you do this to me, God? God's like, we're not even out of this moment over here where I did this for you. So I think there's definitely some relatability here to the Israelite people.

Let me try to point the picture this way a little bit. Everybody been around either maybe your child or a child you've seen where the temper tantrum begins to boil up. You guys seen that? Where it's something happens, kids not acting right. Maybe it was one of my children in the hallway. Never, never. Maybe it was a child at a restaurant or at the mall or at a store somewhere. And you see the temper tantrum try to start to unfold. And you start kind of going, okay, let's see what happens here. You're curious on two parts. One, you wanna see what happens with the child. And two, you wanna see what happens with the parent, right? You wanna see how they're gonna handle it. But then it gets to the point where it starts to escalate. Maybe there's a kick in the shin. Maybe they throw themselves on the ground. Maybe some words start coming out. Maybe you get the, "No!" No! And then you go, all right, now I'm fully glued in on this. I wanna see fully what happens here. And it's like, okay, what's mom or dad? What are they gonna do in this situation? This is what we're seeing right here. We're seeing Israelites go into a full temper tantrum right in the middle of the desert, right there in the sand. They are throwing a hissy fit because they're a little hungry. And they think that God who brought them all the way out of this slavery and bond for generation after generation, that they are just gonna, God just brought them out to watch them die in the desert. But we know that's not God, right? We know that's not gonna happen. And so right now, the Israelite people have a choice to make. They have a choice to make. Either they're gonna keep going this path of grumbling and moaning and crying and being hangry at God and that more specifically Moses and Aaron, 'cause they're the representative of God before them. Are they gonna go after them? Or are they gonna have this moment where they're gonna choose to look back, to remember and to have faith? Because every reason up to this moment should point them to this faith side. Everything that they have experienced, everything that they had gone through, And it's kind of absurd honestly, for them to respond the way that they did. And yet God responds in mercy. Let's read about verse four, it says this, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. "The people are to go out each day "and to gather enough for that day. "In this way, I will test them "and see whether they will follow my instructions. "On the sixth day," the day before the Sabbath, "they are to prepare what they bring in, "and that is to be as twice as much as they gather "on the other days. "So Moses and Aaron said the Israelites, "in the evening, you will know that it was the Lord "who brought you out of Egypt. "And in the morning, you will see the glory of the Lord "because he has heard your grumbling against him." Moses also said, "You will know that it was the Lord "when he gives you meat to eat in the evening "as quail and all the bread you want in the morning "as manna, because he has heard your grumbling against him. "Who are we? "You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord." So God, in a very loving, gracious way, says, "Okay, I hear you guys, I got a plan." And God tells Moses to tell the people what's gonna happen is in the evening, you're gonna get quail, a little bird to be able to eat for some protein. And then in the morning, you're gonna wake up and you're gonna find on the ground bread that'll be able to get you some carbs to get your blood sugar out for the day and get you going until I get you that protein at night. I'm gonna do this every single day, day in and day out. But there's some instructions in there. There's some instructions of how they're supposed to go about this, 'cause this is gonna be different, this is gonna be counter-cultural to what they know or experience and have experienced in their entire life up to this point. We read on in verse 11. "The Lord says to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. "Tell them, at twilight you will eat meat, "and in the morning you will be filled with bread. "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God. "That evening quail came and covered the camp. "And in the morning there was a layer of dew "around the camp. "When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground "appeared on the desert floor. "When the Israelites saw this, they said to each other, "What is it? "For they did not know what it was. "Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. "This is what the Lord commanded. "Everyone is to gather as much as they need. "Take an omer or a portion for each portion "and have in your tent." The Israelites did as they were told, "Some gathered much, some little." And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. When Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." However, some of them paid no attention to Moses and they kept part of it until the morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.

So the Israelites find out that God is gonna freely provide for them all of their nutritional needs. But there's some rules. There's some rules in this, is that you are only supposed to collect as much as you need for you and your family. And I love what it says in scripture there, how it says some were probably a little bit anxious, gathered a little bit too much, but it was just right. Some maybe didn't have enough time, they slept over, the alarm clock didn't go off for them in the morning. And so their spot of gathering had already been taken. So they had to quickly gather what they needed and they didn't think they had enough, but at the end of the day, they had enough. That's amazing. There's a story in a moment right there, in that piece right there. But Moses tells them, "Don't take too much." If you try to take too much and then hoard it, it's against the rules. It's against the way that God wanted them to live. Why is that? Well, the reality is what's going on here, the writer Douglas Stewart says it this way. It says, "These instructions given by the Lord were not so that he could see if they would follow directions, but in their hearts, but if their hearts were inclined to be his covenant people. So the question here that God is asking in this moment of providing for them, God is saying, will you follow me even if my way is different from yours? Because here's what's going on. The story is incredibly important because there's two things that are happening right here. And this idea of manna being referenced multiple times throughout scripture points to this symbol of God's provision for his people. And when we really dig deep into what this manna thing is, there's two sides to this. The first side of that is manna is satisfying. In these instructions, the Lord gives to his people, He says to them, you're gonna go out every day and gather a portion. That word there, omen, means a peace or what they needed for the day. And when that's all that you need, you come back and you don't gather too much. You get exactly just what you need. So he's setting up some guard rails here to try to lead them in this place where he needs them to go. And he says, whatever is left over, whether it's the result of you taking too much or maybe you had hungry eyes that morning and you went out and gathered a few extra two loaves and you get done at the end of the night and you've eaten up, you're like, "Oh, I've eaten my full, there's still some leftover." That's okay, you don't keep it. I don't know what they did with it or where they put it, probably someone smarter than myself knowing the Old Testament would say they gathered up, I don't know what they did with it. But they weren't supposed to keep it in their tent because God here is trying to take them to this place of trust. He's trying to grow them into this place where they press into God every single morning.

Because the reality up to this point was when you harvested food, you had a crop, you grew it for X amount of months, then you harvested it, you brought it back to the storehouse, and then you just hope and pray that either you planted enough or it grew enough, or you don't have kids that turn into teenagers in the middle of the crop harvest. And you pray to Jesus, to God, God make this last. Because why? Crops don't grow new every day. And so in the Israelites mind where they are, well, this man is here, I don't know if the man can be here tomorrow, I'm gonna take extra. But what happens to it? It goes bad. It goes bad almost instantly. Then God says, "I need you to trust me. "I need you to press in to who I am "and this way that I'm providing for you. "Yes, this manna is satisfying. "Yes, it has this peace that you are, "you're being nourished "and your physical needs are being taken care of, "but I need you to trust me." Charles Spurgeon has this great quote. He says this, "When we can't see his hands, we can trust his heart." God here is saying, "I got you and I need you to trust me." And what's awesome about this is that this is the beginning of God doing this for 40 years into the future as they wander through the desert. God is gonna do this day in and day out and provide for them as they travel to where God has them to the place called the promised land. God wants them to flourish, not just succeed.

There's a difference here between the two, okay? God is teaching his people that success in the times of tough is through him and that he wants them to flourish under his leadership. It's about achieving a certain aim. See, flourishing is about growing healthy in an intentional environment where succeeding is about getting everything we can and it's all about me and being me taken care of and me, me, me, me, me, me, me, I'm good. I don't care about you, me. God is trying to change them, which leads us to this place of the other part, which is manna is sanctifying. God just isn't providing for their needs for them physically. God is changing them and their hearts to focus more on who He is for their lives. Deuteronomy eight, when Moses remembers back this time in the wilderness, Moses says this, he says, "Remember how your Lord, your God, led you all the way in the wilderness for those 40 years to humble and to test you in order to know that in your heart, whether or not you would keep his command, he humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had even known what it was, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." God here is shepherding their hearts and teaching them to trust in Him every single day. Why? Because God is worthy to be trusted for bread, is a God that can be worthy of being trusted and obeyed for salvation. That's what's happening right here. This is what God is doing in their hearts. Charles Spurgeon continues on, he says this, "God desired them to teach them himself by the gift of the manna. He taught them first their care over them, that he was their God and they were his people, and that he would lay himself out to provide for them." Think of the care that God had over them, each and every one of them, to teach them, each of them, that their own portion of manna was not forgot. That God knew in his, God just didn't throw out manna or throw out quail. There's a record where one of the times God throws out quail about two feet, three feet deep for two miles around the camp, just to kind of go, fine, here. I love God's moment of silly in that point. But God knew their portion. God brought every day the exact amount that they needed for each and every person. That mean that God knew each and every person's position, even before they woke up, of how hungry they were gonna be, what that day was gonna entail, the hard travel, the hard moments, the struggles, whatever they were in, God knew and provided each and every one of them their exact portion. Spurgeon continues on, "Every morning, "there was sufficient quantity for every person, "according to the needs that day. "There was no more, there was never no less. "So carefully did God watch over each individual." The individual divine love is a great part of the sweetness of the story. To think about that God thinks of every separate child as his own, as his own. There's an infinite affection that each morning God would care for each details of each person's life. And that you would see your portion filled precisely to the ounce, that he will give you all you possibly need. and He will give you nothing that you can lay by to minister in your pride. They didn't have anything left over to be able to go, "Oh, hey, Susan, I'm short on manna. Do you have any?" You go, "Well, yes, I do. Here's your manna." They didn't have any to be able to do that. All they had was enough for them to go, "God, thank you for today. I have eaten to my fill. I'm good, thank you God. And to have that dependency each and every morning.

So it takes us to this question. Will we trust God for tomorrow? Will we trust Him as the Israelites had to each and every day, not knowing what tomorrow is gonna hold, not knowing what even this afternoon is gonna hold. Will we trust God for tomorrow, even before we face the impossible moment? Will we wake up and say, God, you got today, and that's all that matters because you got me and I got you, let's go. Is that our mindset when we wake up? That God wanted to test them in their hearts if they were inclined to follow him. This story is ultimately foreshadowing God coming, Jesus coming to bring salvation, the biggest need that anybody could ever have. That Jesus was gonna come and he was gonna provide fully, freely and finally forever in Christ Jesus for all of humanity. They move on just moments after this to this place where they run out of water. Just shortly, I mean, we're talking just a couple weeks or so, they run out of water and what do they do? They turn to Moses and Aaron, "How could you do this? We would rather be in here." And Moses and Aaron are like, "Are you kidding me?" Like again? So God tells Moses, "Hey, take the staff, they're the one that, you know, I did stuff in Egypt and the Nile and the Red Sea and this and that and the snake and all this stuff." Yeah, remember that staff? Yeah, Israelite people, same staff, same God. Go over that rock. God tells Moses, I got your back, I'm right there with you. Hit the rock, water's gonna come out. Goes over, hits the rock, water comes out. Again, impossible moment, chaos. Everybody thinks it's the end of the world. Boom, God shows up.

Time and time again, we have these stories about God showing up. In 1 Corinthians 10, one through four, it talks about manna. It says, "For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, "brothers and sisters, that our ancestors "were under the cloud, which God led them, "the Israelites and the widows, "to cloud by day and fire by night. "We were under the cloud. "They all passed through the sea, the Red Sea. "They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud "and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food "and drank the same spiritual drink, "for they all drank from the spiritual rock "that compared them with the rock who is Christ.”

So we come to the point of, cool pastor, cool story, pastor. What does this mean for me? Well, I think it means a couple things for us. This weekend we're talking about freedom, right? Fourth of July, America freedom, maybe you celebrated with fireworks this weekend, we had our showcase here, it was great. Maybe you saw us celebrate America in the park, maybe you're gonna watch some fireworks, River Cats, I don't know what you're gonna do, fireworks somewhere. And it's all about freedom, right? It's all about our freedom. But I don't want us to forget in this weekend and these times of celebration of where our true freedom comes. We get caught up in this idea of American freedom and it's a selfish freedom. It's not the kind of freedom that God wanted to bring the Israelites out of Egypt into him. The story goes, whether it's Abraham Lincoln or somebody else, that a person was visiting a slave auction and upon arriving, they saw a young slave girl who was up for bid. Moved by compassion, this person bid and won. After purchasing her, they told this disbelieving girl that she was free. To her surprise, she said, "What does this mean?" They replied, "It means you're free." What does it mean that I'm free? Does this mean that I can say whatever I wanna say? They said, "Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you wanna say." She then says, "Does this mean I can be whatever I wanna be?" They said, "Yes, you can be whatever you want to be." She said, "Does this mean I can go wherever I want to go?" She said, "Yes, you can go wherever you want to go." And with tears streaming down the face of this little girl, she said, "Then I will go with you.”

The driving disbelief with the American dream and American freedom is that we have control. That's all about us. And God says, yes, I've given you freedom. I've brought you out of Egypt, the Israelite people. I've given you freedom from death, eternal in hell through Christ Jesus' blood on the cross, the sacrifice, the rock on which they are brought, our impossible moment out of. We were brought into a freedom, but not a freedom for ourselves. That's the freedom that the Israelite people struggle with. They were free, but they didn't understand this freedom to fully step into. Because when they stepped out of slavery into freedom, they had to step into the true freedom, independence on God that meant they didn't have to worry about their food every day. They didn't have to worry about where they were gonna get water. They didn't have to worry about what the next day was gonna bring them. All they had to do was step in and as the response of the young woman says, if that is what it's about, then I'm with you. The question for us today, even in our American freedom is the freedom we have in Christ do we say, then God, I'm with you. God, I am stepping into you so that when we find ourselves in impossible moments, we press in to what God has for us, every single moment.

So what is our response in the midst of impossible moments? That's the question for us today. I'm gonna invite the worship team back up and close out with a few songs. But we need to wrestle with this idea that do we have the response to the Israelite people did? Do we grumble? Do we whine? Do we complain? Even when a smallest hardship comes our way. Or do we press into the freedom, this new found freedom we found in God that isn't even a fraction of what American freedoms is. But it's spiritual, eternal freedom in God to step into that to go, you know what? My God's done it before, my God's gonna do it again. My God has my back. My God knows the details of my life and what I'm walking through each and every moment. Do I trust God that He can make all things possible? That He is the one that's gonna take care of my every day. Reality is following Christ isn't easy. But the reality is that in stepping with Jesus, he has everything taken care of. And when we put our faith in Christ, and he comes on us, he covers us all. Tops of our head to the bottoms of our feet. And that he's gonna make everything be all right. whether it's here on this side or on the other side of heaven, everything's gonna be all right. Whatever impossible situation that you face, God's got it taken care of. So I encourage you, don't have the response that the Israelites had, have a response of faith to go, God's got my back, God's got it taken care of because His provision is sanctifying, but it is ultimately satisfying as well.

Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for today. God, I'm so grateful for the story of your care and compassion and mercy for your Israelite people. Those people that you cared for each and every day for those 40 years wandering in the wilderness, you had there every day. So Jesus, we're thankful for that. We worship you. We praise you. God, let us respond in the similar way that if that is freedom, then I'm with you. Let us choose that today, Jesus. Love you, we thank you.

Impossible Moments - Part 4

Showdown on Mt. Carmel - 1 Kings 18:16-40

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Alright, we're continuing in our series. I'm excited about about continuing in our series this morning. We've covered Moses, we've covered David, we've covered Noah. All these impossible moments or impossible odds where belief and faith in God were a must, and God was truly the only answer. What I'm loving about this series is that we are participating in a very simple ancient practice of sharing about Yahweh. I like using Yahweh because in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, that is God's name, and it distinguishes him from all the other gods that other cultures worshiped. But this ancient practice is really simple. It's all about sharing stories of God, of what he's done. And so from Israelites who would share with their Israelite children, to even other nations who didn't know or worship God, they would hear about Yahweh from these stories. They'd say, "Oh, you know, hey, little kid, we worship this God that did this for us, that in our past, he has done this, he has provided this in miraculous ways." Or these other nations that worship other gods would hear about Israel's God and say, "Oh, your God, Yahweh is the God that split the sea in two and had people walk on dry land." Or, "Your God is the God who brought down the largest fortress without any weapons." Or, "Your God is the God who helped people stay alive in the desert for 40 years." The people would come to know who Yahweh was by simply sharing these amazing stories of God at work. And before the early church, and before we had the Sunday format that we have today of coming to the church and hearing a sermon, this is how God was shared, was just telling stories about him.

So I love that we're doing that here on a Sunday. We're just sharing stories about what God has done in the past. Today, I wanna get into another impossible moment where the situation looked like it had impossible odds, but God shows up on center stage before Israel to remind them that he is God, that he's alive and that he is at work. Today, a little background with where we're at. in the era of the prophets. So we've had the kingdom of Israel, they've had a golden era, they had King David, a most amazing king, they had King Solomon, but after those two kings, it was really a short-lived golden era, those two kings, and then after that it goes downhill pretty quick. Those kings that follow Solomon, the tone shifts to very darkened and saddened as most of them drift away from God, and they disobey the number one commandment. Does anyone here remember of your 10 Commandments, your Sunday school, what is the first commandment? Okay, yes? Yes, yes. So, to not have any other gods before me. I do it in like the King James version, that's what I grew up with, but yeah. There's the "hath" and the "thou nots." But to not have any other gods except Him. And many of the Israelite kings have invited false gods into the culture, into the life of the Israelite people, specifically Baal or Baal. And if you were to read through 1 Kings, you would see this phrase, next to all these kings who continue to fail, it says, "And they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." I don't know about you, but I do not want that attached to my name at the end of my life. And for people to remember me by that, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. But that is what is attached to all these kings after Solomon, most of them. There's some good ones, but they're very few. but most of these kings are falling away from God and bringing Israel with them.

And we come to this, in this section of scripture, we come to this passage where we meet Elijah, this prophet. And so if you're reading your Bible, it's kind of this downhill decline of like, "Oh Solomon, uh oh, more and more, worse, worse." And then we have a little like, "Oh, who's this? It's Elijah. This is good." We don't have a lot of background on Elijah, he just kind of appears on the scene, but we do know that he's good because of how he's introduced to us. And it's through a couple small stories that let us know that he's going to be a good person. Kind of like David, there's this template in the Old Testament that sometimes we don't get the background on who they are, but we get a couple small stories, and they're good stories, like David and being able to defeat Goliath before he's king, or that he's able to kill a bear to protect the sheep, and you're kind of clued into, like, "Oh, David's going to be a really good guy." Well, the same with Elijah. We get a couple small stories that say, "Oh, Elijah's one of the good ones. He's working on God's behalf. And so the first story that we learn about Elijah is with this widow and her son. And right now at this time there's a famine in the land, and this widow and her son are on the doorstep of death. They're starving, and they're about to die, and they have a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil left. And they're planning their last meal. I mean, this is a very dark scene. And Elijah comes and he says, "I would also like to eat." Which, you're like, that's kind of inconsiderate. "This is their last meal, and you want them to share "what little they have with you." But God makes it go a long way, and it turns into a feast, and the oil and the flour don't run out. And so that's the first clue of like, "Oh, that's good. "This guy's a good guy." Next story is, sadly, that widow and her son, the son dies. And through the power of God, Elijah is able to raise that son from death back to life. And again, we're clued into like, "Oh, okay. "Elijah really is a good guy. "He's got the power of God with him." And so if you were reading the story of seeing all these kings fail, fail, fail, then Elijah, you'd be clued into like, okay, God's at work here, God's on the move, there's momentum shifting here, God is up to something.

The king of Israel at the time is King Ahab, and Elijah has had one previous encounter with him where he's told him, there's gonna be a famine in the land. There's gonna be a famine as a result of your disobedience to God, of your not being able to follow God's command. And so now Elijah is gonna come back and confront Ahab again, particularly about the worship of Baal and saying, "Hey, you gotta fix this "or it's only gonna get worse." So if you would turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Kings, we're in chapter 18, and I'm gonna read section by section, we'll pause along the way 'cause it's a long section of scripture, but we're gonna start in verse 16 And it says, "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, "and Ahab went to meet Elijah. "And when he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel? "I have not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied, "but you and your father's family have. "You have abandoned the king's commands, "or the Lord's commands, and have followed the Baals. "Now summon the people from all over Israel "to meet me on Mount Carmel, "and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

We'll stop right there for a second. Elijah and Ahab meet up, and initially Ahab tries to put the blame for Israel, for Israel's issues on Elijah. And Elijah calls him, I was like, hey, this is not me. This was all you, I told you before, this is why the famine's here. And I love that in verse 19, Elijah says, let's deal with this right now. It's clearly on your mind, this is why I came to talk to you, let's deal with it right now. And I love this immediate action from Elijah, 'cause it's very much not who I am, so I admire that someone else is able to do this. If there's an issue, I kinda take the slow approach, like, all right, let's discern what God wants us to do, let's see what my response should be. And I like how Elijah's like, you, me, all of Israel, outside, right now, let's go. He's like, we're gonna take care of this. And so our stage is set. We have all of Israel, that's a lot of people, we have 450 prophets of Baal, We have King Ahab and one prophet of God, of Yahweh, and that's Elijah. By the way, if we just look at those optics, that's a lot of representation for the false god, Baal. And no wonder you can kind of see why Israel's fallen away. The one voice of God, which technically they should all know God, they come from, they're God's people. They know the law, they know the stories, but they have 450 prophets of false God. That's a lot of representation. That's a lot of false teaching. That's a lot of influence pulling God's people away from Him. And before you judge Israel and say, "Hey, you should have known better," which we're all tempted to do, pause and think about the influences in your own life. What voices are speaking to you? What influences do you have in your life? And how many of them are speaking truth? How many of them are speaking the love, the compassion, the kindness of God? Besides the Sunday, which you're all here right now, So this is one voice. What influences and other voices are speaking God's truth into and over your life? Israel had a lot of false prophets, but we too can have a lot of false teachings, a lot of lies being poured into our minds, whether that be through music or movies, TV shows, social media, other people that do not speak truth, whatever the case may be, all those things might be pulling us away from God. Israel needed to hear from God. And Elijah helped set the stage to make this happen. And the odds are becoming very clear. In front of Israel's eyes, on Mount Carmel, we have 450 prophets of Baal. On this side and over here, we have one prophet of Yahweh. And I imagine right now, by the way, Elijah just looks epic. Kind of like, I'm imagining like Jedi cloak with a beard, like a Pastor Chris beard, like, you know, just like man of God. And he's kind of, I imagine him with like this game face. He's like facing the other, he's like, yeah, let's go. We're gonna do this right now. Just epic, okay? Imagine that right there.

Let's continue in our story. Verse 21 says, "Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between the two opinions? "If the Lord is God, follow him. "But if Baal is God, follow him. "And the people said nothing. "Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bowls for us. Let Baal's prophets choose one for themselves and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bowl and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire. He is God. And all the people said, what you say is good." So Elijah's not messing around. He doesn't miss words. He walks over to Israel and says, "Let's decide this right now. Why do you keep wavering between the two, Baal and Yahweh? You can only worship one God. And if Baal is God, worship Him. If Yahweh is God, then worship Him. But no more worshiping both." Just a thought on Elijah's words here is because it's not something we see often in Scripture. is the opportunity kind of presented to Israel to say, "Hey, if you want to go that way, go that way. But just don't do this thing where you're in between." Most of the time we hear the prophets and the people in the Bible and the scriptures saying, "You need to follow God." And this time they're kind of given this choice of like, "Hey, if that's what you want to do, then go do it." And I like that because I think we need that clarity today. Not that we would say exactly this to people. I mean, obviously use discernment and God's love and compassion. But it's kind of like saying, "Hey, if If you're calling yourself a Christian, then you gotta, you can't do these other things and follow these other things. You need to follow Jesus. Clarity is important here. Don't claim the name of the Lord being the one that you follow if you also follow these other things that are clearly not God. It doesn't help. It doesn't help you. It doesn't help the witness of God to other people. So this clarity is super important. I don't think, again, I would say this, but I do appreciate Elijah holding the people of Israel accountable to the law, to who they are as God's people. And sometimes we need to do that with people in our lives who claim to be followers of Jesus. Hold people in your life, the brothers and sisters that you have in Christ, accountable to the faith that they have in God. We just had a bunch of baptisms. I think about 15 students got baptized at camp this past week. And part of that public declaration of their faith is that they now belong to the family of God, to the church. And that means that we get to speak into their lives and say, "Hey, this is the way in which you need to go. Hey, you're a little bit off course right now. Let me help you get back." And also people can speak that into our lives. So maybe God is calling you to be a voice into someone else's life, to help them as they've wandered off course and have the courage, pray for the courage and the compassion especially to love and be that fellow believer to them.

In our story, Elijah gives the parameters to the challenge. So each side gets a bowl for the sacrifice. Each side will build an altar, and each side will call upon their God. Whichever God answers by fire, lighting that altar on fire wins, and wins all the people of Israel. If Baal wins, then Israel will go follow Baal. Pretty straightforward. If you're a fan of God, which I know all of you are, and you kind of know that this is exciting because God's gonna be at work, And God and fire have a good, you know, they have a good history. You know, God, burning bush, that was fire, that was God. The pillar of fire in the desert, leading Israel. So I feel like Elijah is sitting here being like, "Yeah, this is easy. "We got this one in the bag." Again, game face for Elijah. He's like very serious right now. And so the prophets of Baal go first. Elijah lets them go first. And again, knowing that if Baal were to answer, Israel would technically be allowed to follow them.

And the showdown begins, let's go back into our Bibles at verse 25, it says, "Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first. "Since there are so many of you, "call on the name of your God, but do not light the fire. "So they took the bull, given them, and prepared it. "Then they called on the name of Baal "from morning till noon. "Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response, no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder," he said. "Surely he is God. Perhaps he is deep in thought or busy or traveling. Maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened." And so they shout louder and slash themselves with swords and spears as was their custom until their blood flowed. And midday passed and they continue their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. This did not go well for the prophets of Baal. It was so bad that even the people of Israel stopped watching. The prophets had set up their altar and they start crying out to Baal, calling from morning till noon. That is a long time. Hours. And silence. Start dancing around, trying to get the attention of Baal. Silence. Elijah starts taunting them. And these are... There's not a lot of smack talk in the Bible, but this is good. These are some good smack talk lines. And he says, "Oh, is he tired? Maybe he's not home right now." The ESV translates it to, "Is he relieving himself?" Which, whatever tone or attitude you read that with, that's such a good line. Elijah knows that it's over. Like this is, it's over.

And before we get carried away, I mean, there is some humor to it. Before we get carried away with celebrating that the prophets of Baal are defeated, What happens next is really a very dark scene. They start to cut themselves. And self-mutilation was a common practice for false gods at that time of trying to get their gods' attention. It's a mourning ritual, saying we're so sad. And so you could see these prophets saying in sadness, like, where are you, Baal? We've been crying out to you. We're so saddened right now that we haven't heard from you. And as much as, by the way, Yahweh, just for the record, we worship an amazing God. He prohibits self-mutilation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, so God's not about that. But as much as this scene gives us a sense of justice, and it should to a certain extent, I also believe that the heart of God was also broken and saddened by this. These people who are still humans made in the image of God, and God sees them and sees just how twisted and broken and fallen their minds have become to worship a false god like this. These people really believe that Baal would answer. They truly believe that. And when it didn't go their way, they started to harm themselves. Israel saw this too, and they even just stopped watching. I think they started to realize what was happening. But the tone here isn't like a, ha ha, like this is so funny, you guys lost. But it's more of silence and pity from Israel over these prophets. looking like how sad this is and kind of embarrassing. This is not good. And for us today, where are our hearts? When we see people whose minds and lives are broken and fallen and living out some twisted form of the truth, are we still compassionate, loving, kind, and slow to anger all the characteristics of God? Do we still look at them as made in the image of God? Or are we cruel and hateful and taking joy in someone's pain and loss? Do our hearts reflect God's love in all circumstances? Despite what happens at the end of the story, we are still called to love the lost and the broken. Even when those people don't realize it, even when they're in the deepest form of their brokenness, we are still called to be a Christ-like example to them.

Let's continue in our passage, verse 30. It says, "Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." And they came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. Elijah took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he dug a trench around it, large enough to hold two sayers of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bowl into pieces, and laid it on the wood. And then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it a third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. Now, given our series, did we ever have any doubt? No. But still amazing to read God at work here. Elijah, it's his turn and he fixes the altar. That's a whole other side story that we don't get into this morning, but he fixes the altar.

And Elijah goes beyond the agreed terms. He digs this trench around the altar. He has them pour water over the bull, the wood, the rocks, and he has it done three times. And then he prays. He prays to God that God would answer so that the people's hearts would be turned back toward him. He's not praying for his own glory. He's not praying that people like God help him to see how amazing I am. He's praying that their hearts would yearn for God and that God would be glorified. I mean, do we pray like that? Do we pray with a mind and a heart that is yearning for God's glory? I wanna ask this this morning, how can we maybe change our hearts and change our prayers with more of a mind to seek God first in what is happening, even if it means hardship for us, do we have a heart and mind that is yearning for God's glory? This requires us to be in tune with God's heart, and to be mindful of God's desires, where he is moving, what he's doing, and requires us to know him. In order to yearn for what God yearns for, we have to know God. That comes through reading, praying, time spent with him. So Elijah prays, and what happens? God answers. And notice this contrast in the story. On this side, we had the prophets who are yelling, shouting, begging, cutting themselves, trying to get the attention of Baal. And on this side, we have Elijah who just prays. He talks to God and God responds. We worship and serve a God who hears us, who answers us when we call. And we can have a deep assurance that when we pray, God hears and responds. Verse 38 says, God's response was that the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. So what happened to that altar? Gone. The rocks, gone. The bull, gone. Wood, gone. The soil, gone, like burned. The water, gone. All of it, God consumed all of it. Again, this is just, I love how over the top this is. Like you have these prophets over here trying their hardest and nothing happens. And you have Elijah who's just like, "Poor water, yeah, just water. "Add water to this, let's make this even harder." And it's nothing for God. God burns it all. Game over.

The people of Israel witnessed this and saw something undeniable. They witnessed Yahweh in action. And they responded in the most appropriate way, falling prostrate and declaring that Yahweh was indeed Lord. There is a renewed submission to God, a renewed confession of faith. Not only, they're saying not only does Yahweh exist, He's one of the gods, He's the God, but they also have put their faith back into Him. And this is one of the few times where we look at Israel and say, "Good job, this is what we should do too." When your wrongs are exposed in life, when you realize and acknowledge that you have been going in a direction that's away from God, do what Israel does. Repent, turn back to God, declare your faith in him. Fall prostrate and declare that Jesus is indeed your savior, that your faith is in him. Remember the gospel, let it soften your heart. Don't get defensive about where you've been going and the direction that you've been going, but instead repent, be like the Israelites just fall before God and say, "I'm sorry, you are Lord. I got this wrong.”

Our story ends in verse 40, where it says, "Then Elijah commanded them, 'Seize the prophets of Baal, don't let anyone get away.' They seized them and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there." Now the end of the story has a very serious tone, as Elijah has all the prophets of Baal slaughtered. If you read to the end of the chapter, The famine that was in place because of Israel's rebellion is ended with heavy rains. The famine goes away and God brings rain back. And Elijah goes off to continue to do the Lord's work. But verse 40 is very real. And it was actually the mosaic penalty for prophets who promoted other gods found in Deuteronomy 13. Elijah is carrying out the law. And given the context of Israel having forgotten the law, the king forgotten the law, The consequence here seems to fit as a way of punishment for the false prophets. And also to remind Israel, "This is how I called you to live. This is the law, this is the word of God, this is the standard which I've set before you. And these are the consequences if you don't." Now let me be clear, that's not any application for us today. I don't know if it's spending a week with you students, I need to clarify that. We're not supposed to do what Elijah does in verse 40.

But instead, think about this, what thought or ideology or belief or distraction or sin or motivation do you need to kill in order to give God your everything? What do you need to get rid of in your life completely that may be holding you back from pursuing God with your everything? That's what it was for Israel. These prophets, this fixation with Baal was holding Israel back from pursuing God like they were supposed to. And while we may not have a ball in our lives, we do have other things in our lives that hold us back, that keep us from God. And so, this morning or in this week, think about what is holding you back. What are those things that are keeping you from pursuing God with everything you have? This is a great story of God showing up, of a prophet, God's servant, helping get Israel back on track.

And hopefully today you are encouraged to get back on track, or to be like an Elijah and help your brother or sister in Christ get back on track. Our series has a theme, "God can overcome anything." And He did so in our passage today for His glory, and also so that the people of Israel would be reminded of who He is and what He can do. And God can do the same in your life. Whatever you're going through, it is not enough to stop God. God can overcome it. God can show up when it seems impossible, when it seems unlikely, when it seems improbable. God can exercise His grace, His power, His love and strength to help you see Him more clearly. And sometimes we just need to pray and we can rest assured that God will answer. Amen.

Let's pray. God, thank you for this amazing story of seeing you at work. And thank you, God, that we can rest assured that you are there, you are living, you are a God that is not only present, but is deeply a part of our lives. And so I pray that you would draw us back to you. God, that you would help us identify the things that are keeping us from pursuing you with everything. Maybe some of those things are, in and of themselves, good things, but maybe they're out of alignment in our lives, and we have them too high of a priority. I pray that through your Spirit, you would help us discern where we need to adjust some things, and that we could run after you with everything that we have. God, I pray that for anyone who's dealing with difficult times, challenges, I pray that they would rest assured and take comfort in the fact that when they pray, you hear them and that you will answer. It may not be in the way that we expect. It may not be in an audible voice, maybe it is. But God, I pray that you would help them see how you are answering their prayers. That they would see and know just as Israel did, that you are God. We love you, Lord, and we give you our everything. We pray this in your name, amen.