Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, August 28, 2016 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister TOPIC:

Trials, Christian Living, Faith

“How To Respond To An Impossible Situation” Exodus 14: 1-14 (NKJV)

Please turn with me in your Bibles to EXODUS the fourteenth chapter. And let's read verses 1-14. Exodus 14:1-14 (NKJV) 1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’ 4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so. 5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. 7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. 8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness. 9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon. 10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

INTRODUCTION ILLUSTRATION “Nine year old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School that day. ‘Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkietalkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.’ ‘Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?’ his mother asked. ‘Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!’”

Sometimes we all find ourselves in a difficult situation that seems so impossible it seems there is no way out. There's even a little idiom we use to describe those kinds of impossible situations. We call it, “Being caught between a rock and hard place.” We have all been in situations like that haven't we? Well in tonight's message we are going to see how GOD sometimes leads us into impossible situations to strengthen our faith and trust in Him.

The passage we are looking at tonight is one we are quite familiar with. After his people had experienced TEN CATASTROPHIC PLAGUES Pharaoh finally gave Moses permission to take the Israelites out of Egypt. But a short time later GOD HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART and he changed his mind. He realized he had just lost the services of TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ISRAELITE SLAVES....which meant SLAVES the Egyptians were going to have to start doing all the slave labor the Hebrew children had been doing. So Pharaoh assembled his Egyptian Army and pursued the Israelites. The Israelites had come to the RED SEA and set up camp at a place called PI HAHIROTH. HAHIROTH (means “mouth of freedom”) All the sudden they see a mighty cloud of dust in the distance that seemingly is getting closer and closer. They soon realized they were being pursued by PHARAOH and HIS ARMY OF SIX HUNDRED CHARIOTS. They now found themselves in AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION with no apparent means of escape. They were literally “between a rock and a hard place.” -In front of them was THE RED SEA. -Behind them was THE APPROACHING EGYPTIAN ARMY. ARMY -To their left was an Egyptian Military fortress. fortress -And to their right was A RUGGED MOUNTAIN RANGE . It appeared they had just two options: One, turn and fight the Egyptian army, which would no doubt result in the death of thousands of Israelites. Or two, try to swim across the Red Sea, which would also result in the deaths of thousands of Israelites.

By all appearances, it looked like the Israelites were trapped with no way out. But as we will see in tonight's message, GOD taught the Israelites as well as you and me some valuable lessons on “How To Respond To An Impossible Situation.” Our first response should be to........

I.

RECOGNIZE God Has A PURPOSE For Your Situation EXODUS 13:17,18 (NKJV) 17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt. 18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. EXODUS 14:4 (NKJV) 4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.

1. Had Moses and Aaron done the “typical guy thing” and not even looked at a map of where they were going when they came out of Egypt? Had Moses turned LEFT when he should have turned RIGHT? Had the Israelites wound up at the RED SEA by mistake? 2. NO! This wasn't an accident.....a mistake.....or a miscalculation! The Israelites were in this seemingly impossible situation because that is exactly where GOD wanted them to be!

3. GOD'S PLANS ARE NOT ALWAYS LOGICAL! LOGICAL GOD'S PLANS DON'T ALWAYS MAKE SENSE TO US! US GOD DOESN'T DO THINGS THE WAY WE WOULD DO THEM. GOD DOESN'T THINK THE SAME WAY WE THINK! GOD is WISER and SMARTER and STRONGER and GREATER than you and I would ever hope to be! 4.

5.

GOD led the Israelites right into this impossible situation on purpose! And there are two reasons why He did it: First, so that His glory, and power might be seen by both, the ISRAELITES and the EGYPTIANS. And secondly, to teach the Israelites to put their complete FAITH and TRUST in Him! You and I need to understand that the events and circumstances that come into our lives don't happen by fate or by accident. In our human way of thinking, we believe our lives would be better if we lived stress-free.....problem-free.... trouble-free lives.......sorrow-free lives. But GOD in His great wisdom knows better.

6. GOD knows that “impossible situations” teach us valuable lessons we would never learn otherwise. -Impossible situations break us of our INDEPENDENT spirit and teaches us just how DEPENDENT we truly are upon God. -Impossible situations HUMBLE us by revealing just how WEAK we are and how much we must rely upon God's STRENGTH. STRENGTH.

-Impossible situations teach us just how LIMITED our human WISDOM is and how desperately we need God's WISDOM to guide us. 7. So any time you and I find ourselves in a seemingly impossible situation, whether its a family situation.... or a tough situation at work.... or a serious health issue ... or a serious financial problem or whatever......our response whatever...... should be, “Father, I may not like this circumstance and I may not understand it, but I know You have allowed me to be in this circumstance for a reason. Help me to be patient and to put my faith and trust in You. Now here is what our second response should be to an impossible situation.......

II. REGAIN God’s PERSPECTIVE On Your Situation 1. Seeing the RED SEA in front of them and THE EGYPTIAN ARMY behind them, the Israelites did exactly what many of us do when we find ourselves “caught between a rock and a hard place”............THEY PANICKED! v. 11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? v.12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

2. WHY DID THE ISRAELITES PANIC? Because they lost their their PERSPECTIVE on their situation. -GOD had protected them from the TEN PLAGUES -GOD had spared their FIRSTBORN FROM DEATH. -GOD had SECURED THEIR RELEASE FROM THE EGYPTIANS. 3. But now, confronted with this IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION they have forgotten all that! Rather than responding with FAITH and TRUST in the GOD who had already done all these marvelous things for them, they looked for “the easy way out of their situation.” In essence what the Israelites were saying was, “We know we can't fight Pharaoh's army and win, and we know we can't swim across the Red Sea and survive, so we will just surrender and go back to Egypt and continue being Pharaoh's slaves. 4. Do you see their thought process? “We don't have the answers.” “We don't know what to do.” “We can't handle this situation” ........so the best thing for us to do is GIVE UP ........QUIT......SURRENDER! 5. When we find ourselves in a seemingly impossible situation don't we tend to do the same thing? “I don't know what to do,” “I don't know where to turn,” “I can't handle this,” “I'm whipped!” “The best thing for me to do is to give up.......quit......and throw in the towel!” 6. Of course that's how we are going to respond when we look at our impossible situation from our own human perspective. But what if we looked at our impossible situation from GOD'S PERSPECTIVE?

7. Don't ever forget this! GOD never looks at our impossible situations the same way we look at them. Where we see HOPELESSNESS God sees HOPE! HOPE Where we see IMPOSSIBILITIES God sees POSSIBILITIES! POSSIBILITIES Where we see DEFEAT God sees VICTORY! VICTORY Where we see OBSTACLES God sees OPPORTUNITIES! OPPORTUNITIES Where we see DARKNESS God sees DAYLIGHT!

8. You see, when we look at our impossible situation through the eyes of FAITH rather than through the eyes of FEAR, FEAR, we gain a whole new perspective on our situation that gives us COURAGE and CONFIDENCE that GOD HAS EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL!

When we find ourselves in an impossible situation, our FIRST response should be to RECOGNIZE God Has A PURPOSE For Your Situation. Our SECOND response should be to REGAIN God's PERSPECTIVE On Your Situation. Our third response should be to.........

III. RELY On God’s PROMISES In Your Situation v. 13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. v. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

1. Look at the “iron-clad” promises God gives the Israelites. Promise 1: “Today you will see the SALVATION of the LORD!” Promise 2: “The Egyptians whom you see coming up to attack you from behind, you will never see again after today.” Promise 3: “I will fight this battle for you.” 2. WOW! GOD was promising the Israelites that He was going to make the impossible possible! He guaranteed their DELIVERANCE through the Red Sea in front of them and the DEFEAT of their enemies behind them! 3. All the Israelites had to do was put their FAITH and TRUST in the promises of GOD! 4. That is all GOD asks us to do when we find ourselves in an impossible situation!

5. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” - If God is for you, what enemy can defeat you? -If God is for you, what obstacle can stop you? -If God is for you, what situation can ruin you? 6. You see, when you and I find ourselves in a seemingly impossible or hopeless situation, and our heart is weighed down with despair and discouragement, and our spirit is crushed, BY FAITH WE CAN STAND ON GOD'S PROMISE TO WORK ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD! (Romans 8:28) **************************************************** CONCLUSION ILLUSTRATION: I will never forget something my third grade teacher, Mrs. Olive Canada used to say to us. She said, “Don't ever say I CAN'T. CAN'T. Remove the word CAN'T from your vocabulary. Always say, “I can!”

Isn't that what the scriptures teach us? “I can do ALL THINGS through CHRIST who gives me the strength.” Brothers and sisters, THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS A GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE! Luke 1:37 (NKJV) says, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (See Chuck Swindoll summary on next page)

As we close I want to share this interesting observation on this passage by Chuck Swindoll: “The Red Sea is just as much a part of God’s plan as crossing it. A predicament in God’s hands is only a highway to the Promised Land. Why does God allow these predicaments to happen in our lives? Because it often takes these tight place to get us to look up to Him for our help. “It may be that you have developed a rather materialistic lifestyle. Like Moses, and the children of Israel you have rubbed shoulders with folks in Egypt most of your life. You work with Egyptians. Think like Egyptians. Read Egyptian newspapers. Listen to Egyptian music. Do commercial battles with Egyptian entrepreneurs. You’re in the competitive world of the Egyptians, so its only natural that you react like them.” (We must always remember that WITH GOD THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS IMPOSSIBLE !) [Charles Swindoll. Moses: A Man of Selfless Devotion. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1999). p. 223.]