Crossing the Uncrossable

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

In our Groundworks Home Group, we have been discussing a couple, on a couple of different occasions, what God is saying versus what we are thinking, right? That's not always an easy distinction to make. And it made me remember this idea from Dr. Keller, and he brings it up pretty often. And considering that the text that we're looking at today and the series that we are in, I thought it'd be appropriate to open with this. Last week we began a series on Following God. It's called Follow God. It's a pretty appropriate title, I think. And we looked at how God will lead us if we follow. God will lead us if we follow. And following Him requires our whole hearts and nothing less. That it requires remembering Him, it requires sacrificing, it requires discerning His voice. And we have a tendency to let things fall into a rut

when it comes to following God. We do the same things without mentally engaging those things. We just kind of run, like we attend church services, right? We read our Bible, but eventually what happens is you attend a church service and nothing happens. You read your Bible and you're not really engaged in it, and you're expecting, I don't know, you're expecting something to happen inside of you, and nothing is happening. And you're like, but I'm reading my Bible, but you're not really mentally engaging it. You're not really kind of digging in. Another way to say all of that is that we have a tendency over time to replace our spiritual interactions with a personal God with religious practices that we perform.

Let me say that again. We have, and this is what Dr. Keller was talking about, we have a tendency to replace hearing the voice of God, interacting with God personally. We have a tendency to replace that with religious practices that we perform. And so then, instead of hearing God's voice, we just hear really a projection of our own. We're never, God never disagrees with us. God never shows us anything new. God never kind of challenges us. We're never kind of in a position where we're praying, and God's like, hey, that was super dumb. Don't do that again. That never happens to you, because you're not interacting with a personal God. You are performing religious rights, thinking it's somehow going to change you or make you okay.

And so this is the way to test that, right? Does God ever challenge you? Does God ever call you into a tough situation, a situation where you think, well, that could really be a tough situation to be in. That might expose some of my insecurities. That might cause me to risk a few things that I really care about. Does God call you into those kinds of situations? Let me just say, if He never does that, if God is overly concerned with your safety and your personal bubble, you're probably not worshiping God. You're probably worshiping a projection of yourself. Because God, as we see in Scripture several times, over and over and over and over and over again, and today included, calls people into situations where they are challenged.

Calls people into situations where they don't know how to make sense of it. So today we're gonna be in Exodus 14. 14 and 15, but 15 is just a song about 14, so we're gonna be in 14. We will not sing the song of Moses today. I'm just, my Yiddish is too rusty. No, I know, we're all disappointed. We're all disappointed that I'm not singing. Okay, Exodus 14, we're gonna start right at the beginning. Exodus 14, one and two.

And if you don't have a Bible with you, there is one on your phone probably, and there is gonna be some, we're gonna have the verses on the screen. There should also be a physical copy of a Bible near you maybe, under a seat somewhere. But you can follow along at any capacity. Exodus 14, one through two. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of P. Ha-Hiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-Zephon, you shall encamp facing it by the sea. Okay, I know, I know you're like, oh, Baal-Zephon. Yeah, right there. Normally, location does not play a main part, but today it is kind of a big deal, okay? We need to know a little bit about P. Ha-Hiroth and Baal-Zephon and Migdol, okay? So let's read the next couple of verses to see why. Verses three and four. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land.

The wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, and they did so, okay? All right. The location that God is leading them toward, it goes like this. They've left Egypt, and they've gone through the wilderness. They are going through the wilderness, because we have a couple of places in Exodus 14, not really the ones that we're gonna cover a lot today versus like 10, 11, 12. Pastor Daniel's gonna be actually getting to a lot of that tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow when we have, you're preaching tomorrow, buddy.

Next week, they're in the middle of the wilderness, and they've been there a while, and they're wondering when they're gonna get out of the wilderness, okay? This is still happening. And then he's leading them away from Egypt through the wilderness for a while, and then to a place where there's a dead end, a place where Israel is going to be physically, by the geography, hemmed in. And in part, we know this because when Pharaoh hears where they are headed, he moves on that information.

When Pharaoh sees, verse three, that they are wandering the land, and the wilderness has shut them in, what Pharaoh knows is that when they go that way, there is no way to get out of that way. He knows that the land is going to shut them in. In other words, without the location doing what it's supposed to do, the whole narrative breaks down. Pharaoh doesn't see that Israel is gonna be hemmed in in the wilderness, and he won't move on that. God is leading them, particularly by the sea. We see that in verse two and a couple other places. He's leading them by the sea. We find out later that this is the Red Sea, okay? And the Red Sea, the actual name of the Red Sea

in Hebrew is Yom Suf. I know, you're just like, yeah, yeah, Yom Suf. I know exactly what that means. The problem is people, very smart people, archeologists, some biblical commentary people, will tell you that that means the sea of reeds, okay? It actually doesn't mean the sea of reeds. It means the sea of plants. Okay, sea of plants. Now, plants can be reeds if you're looking for freshwater, but they can also be seaweeds if you're looking for saltwater. But the reason that some archeologists will say this is known as the sea of reeds is because they wanna put the physical location somewhere where there's freshwater and it's marshy, right? To explain away exactly what happened later, okay? I fought long and hard with myself. Do I go down this road or not? I decided not to because it would be its own sermon. If you wanna have coffee and talk about the Red Sea crossing,

I am your guy, okay? I'm locked and loaded. I've read more on it this week than you could possibly imagine in the last couple of weeks. However, suffice it to say, God brings Israel to a place that is hemmed in to a location that is a dead end. And no one actually knows where this is. All the place names have changed. Nobody knows where Baal Zephan is. Nobody knows where Migdol is. Nobody knows where P. Ha-Hiroth is. Nobody knows. However, we do know this. We do know that Egypt pursues them to that location. Look at verse nine. Exes 14, nine. The Egyptians pursued them. All Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army and overtook them and camped by the sea, the Red Sea, by P. Ha-Hiroth in front of Baal Zephyr.

Okay, we should notice, this is kinda what we need to see here. I know we got a lot of place names. We need to notice that God is orchestrating this whole thing. In other words, that the location is telling us that God is hemming his people in on purpose. Because remember in verse one, this is where he told Moses to bring the people. He's naming the place by the sea at this place, right next to Migdol. It's going, like go there, that God himself is building the tension between the rock and the hard place, literally. A lot of people think Migdol was a mountain. So literally, he is guiding his people between a rock and a hard place, and God's people are flipping out. And they are beginning to blame Moses. They're beginning to grumble. We're gonna talk a lot more about that next week. Not tomorrow, next week. Pastor Daniel's gonna be taking us through Exodus 16 and a couple other places.

But Moses, in response to that, look at verse 13 and 14. And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today, for the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. So Moses points to the Lord's salvation and says the Lord will bring that salvation to you. You only need to be silent. In other words, shut up, God's coming. Okay, shut up, God's coming. I feel like that could be an encouragement for me, 60% of my life. Shut up, God's coming should be, I should get a tattoo that says shut up, God's coming. Okay, that's how good shut up, God's coming is. And in response to that, the Lord says something to Moses, which is super funny. Verses 15 and 16, the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. Okay, we really have to kind of keep this, I know this is a familiar story, right? Israel across the Red Sea, there's great movies about this, we've heard this very many times, but I really want you to focus on the fact that the Lord is not coming up with this plan as some response plan. This isn't plan C because Israel got stuck somewhere. This is plan A, God intended for this. God is orchestrating this. God is bringing them to this spot. And you find out this was in mind, this was in his mind the whole time. Look at verses 17 and 18. This is what the Lord is saying to Moses. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. It's hard to really understand what kind of military might, what kind of world power Egypt was at this time. For God to get glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen, that's legendary stuff. That's a major victory. You know, you ever talked to a guy, it's always a guy, and they know a lot about World War II. You ever happened to you, you're talking to somebody and they just start spitting facts on World War II and you're like, that's amazing. Do you know why people have World War II facts? Because it was an incredible victory. Because a lot hung in the balance in that war. Because at one time, it didn't look like we were gonna win that war. And I know it's hard to know that on this side, right? But in the middle of it, there were people that weren't,

we weren't sure, we weren't sure that we were gonna be victorious, it looked like Hitler was going to win. There were some missteps, they're all famous, you can ask the guy who always is talking about World War II, don't ask me. But for God to get glory over Pharaoh, his chariot, his horsemen, this is a battle that is up there in legendary status. The Lord is doing this on purpose. He's moving people around, he's literally, he's putting his people between Migdoll and the Red Sea to bring about his purpose. And then God completes the setup. Look at verses 19 and 20. It says, then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was a cloud, excuse me, and there was the cloud and the darkness.

And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. So you gotta, so have it in your mind here. You've got Egyptian forces that are far superior to whatever Egypt has, excuse me, to whatever Israel has to fight with. And they're between, the whole army has them up against, essentially, the shoreline. There's nowhere to turn left to right. It's a dead end.

And right then, God, who has been leading them from the front, comes to the backside and protects their rear guard. And they stay like that all night long. And all that night, the Lord is separating the water. It's not just, it doesn't just happen like that. It's a slow, it says that God used a wind. And that wind came, and eventually, there were walls of water. It took a while to develop, probably all night. And so all night, Israel got to sit there with their enemy on one side,

and this provision on the other, and they're watching it happen in slow motion. Crazy, I mean, crazy. There are times in your life whenever God will lead you toward something that is uncrossable, intentionally. There are times in your life when God will lead you toward something uncrossable. It's tough to begin to apply this because uncrossable looks very different for each one of us. It looks very different for different maturity levels. It looks very different for all of us. Here are some possible examples of just some uncrossable situations.

And these four things that are listed are things that could be hanging in the balance, that could be at stake, right? Where your professional reputation is at stake. Where your integrity, your relationships, your future is hanging in the balance. Let me just give you a couple of examples. I'm doing this slow because I want you to think through kind of what those uncrossable situations are, or if you've been through any, or if you're headed toward one. With your professional reputation, maybe you are suffering undue criticism by somebody who's trying to push you out. Maybe you are being dismissed for genuinely following Jesus. You might be getting passed over. You might not be taken seriously in the middle of a meeting

because you're that Christian. You're that crazy one. You're the one who wants to share their testimony all the time. Can't shut that guy up. They definitely don't wanna hear from you in a meeting because you've already, you know, you've already made them feel uncomfortable with sharing your testimony. Your professional reputation, sometimes you are dealing with a situation where

to do anything about it would cost you professionally. Maybe it's your integrity. Maybe you're in a situation where you are having to push back on a dating partner, dating partner who wants to go too far sexually. It's tough. You got a person that you like a lot, but then they're wanting to push and go too far and you're saying, okay, hey, you know, what am I risking here? Maybe you need to reprimand somebody for breaking the rules. That's really tough

because you don't wanna be the mean person, but you also can't let this thing slide. You got your integrity kind of hanging in the balance. What do you do? How do you cross that situation? What about your relationships? Maybe you have recognized in your life that you have a dear friend who is way toxic and you've gotta leave them behind. It's hard. Maybe the Lord is calling you to point out some destructive cycles in somebody's life. Maybe it's your future. I'll give you two more. Maybe the Lord is calling you to ask for a pay raise when you know it's risky, when you know even asking for the raise might hurt your job.

Or maybe the Lord's calling you to quit your job and start a new venture. Either way, your future is at risk. You will come to or you have come to or you're in the middle of a situation that can seem uncrossable. And again, it's going to look and feel different for everyone. Things that seemed uncrossable to me when I was 25 don't seem uncrossable anymore, right? But now I'm facing some new things that seem way uncrossable and it's difficult to know what to do. I find myself seeking a lot of wisdom in those situations. Whatever situation you find yourself in, you need to know that God intentionally brings us into uncrossable situations for two reasons. There's probably a lot more. We're just gonna look at two. He intentionally brings us into uncrossable situations in order to grow us and in order to reveal himself. Both of those are true. He wants to reveal himself, he wants to grow us,

he wants to grow our faith. So we're gonna look at the three parts. God doesn't intentionally, he leads us to and creates us to uncrossable situations, excuse me. He does it intentionally, he does it to grow us and he does it to reveal himself. So he does it intentionally. Besides the text that we see here, I want you to consider Jesus and how he's handling the disciples. What does he tell Peter to do whenever he's walking on water? When Jesus is walking on water, what does he tell Peter to do? Come walk on the water. Actually, Peter says, can I come out? And Jesus is like, sure, come on, it's great. Jesus, whenever he's feeding the 5,000, what does he tell the disciples to do? Go and see who has food. And the disciples are like, you're nuts, bro. There's no food here. And he says, no, just give it to me. Just go and get it, go and see what anybody has.

Even rising from the dead, right? These are uncrossable situations that Jesus crosses. These are, even whenever he calms the storm, do you remember this story? Jesus is on the boat and he's sleeping. He's sleeping and there's this huge storm raging on the sea and these people that are freaking out are not novices. It wouldn't be like me on a boat. I am useless on a fishing boat, okay? I'm dead weight. I'm actually less than useless. So these guys were fishermen. They've seen those kinds of storms. They know what's up and they're freaking out. And Jesus is asleep. Why do you think Jesus sleeps? Do you think he doesn't know what's going on? You think he's unaware? No, what's he doing? He's building the tension.

Why? To grow his disciples and to reveal himself. It's all God ever does. It's all the situations that you are being led into or that you have been brought through or that you are about to face. That God intentionally does these things. It's an intentional display of God always coming through. Look at Exodus 14, 21 through 22. Says, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided and the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Look, I've been in like an aquarium where you go through the tunnel and you can kind of see the water all around you. I think that's a pretty pale comparison to this. That's the closest I can get and that was pretty cool. To see some shark swim over me, I'm like, well, as well.

They are seeing the faithfulness of God in a wall of water on their left and their right. And I'm sure it was terrifying. Can you imagine? I know some of you don't even like to get near the rail in Hulen Mall, right? You don't like to get near the edge of anything. They've got a wall of water that is being suspended by the Lord God in heaven. That thing probably could crash at any moment, but you've got to walk through it. You're like, are you sure the waves won't, the walls of water won't come down? Are you sure that everything's gonna be okay? Are you sure it's gonna stay dry ground? I mean, it's daytime now. The sun's coming up. Is the water gonna change now? You've got all these kind of things swimming around, but you must understand that God uses these things, these ordinary and sometimes very miraculous means to provide in a specific way, in a way that you didn't expect,

in a way that you wouldn't prescribe, in a way that you probably don't understand, and in a way that you will not see coming. All of those are true. You cannot figure your way out of whatever situation you're in. I promise you. And the reason I know that, not because I'm psychic or something, but it's because I've read the Bible, okay? And in the Bible, what I see over and over and over again, including Israel crossing the Red Sea, is that God intentionally brings people that He is shaping into these impossible situations that bring them to their wits end, that bring them to a state of panic, that bring them to a place where they're going to be shaped and moved. And this is how God uses those things to grow us, because His desire, His desire is not for you to always end up in the isle of safety, or in the isle of wealth, or in the isle of health. This is where a lot of prosperity teaching breaks down.

They'll say something like, this is the year of the Lord's favor. I've looked at the numbers, all the numbers of this year, they equal up favor. And they say that every year. It's always a good year. It's always high cotton. It's always a high harvest. It's always gonna be awesome. It's not. They say God wants to grant you success and healing and protection. And when there is failure and sickness, whenever that finds you, what's the answer? Well, you gotta pray harder.

You didn't do enough. You gotta know more. You gotta read this. You gotta do that. Let me tell you the truth. Here's the truth. When chaos hits your life, when you have the colossal failure, or you get caught in the colossal sin, or when you get the terrible diagnosis, or when you have been betrayed by somebody that you held very dear, God is not wondering what happened. God is not somehow panicking in the moment. God is inviting you into something deeper where you can begin to hold on to something that is real. Because what is happening, what is growing you, what is changing you is that you are letting go of things that are unreal. You are letting go of a security that you had in your identity in some capacity, or a security that you had because you had a great job, or a great marriage, or great kids, or you were awesome at church, or you were a deacon, or whatever.

You're holding on to that, and God's like, look, that's not even worth holding on to, but you gotta let that go. I don't know if you're like me, but the only way I really let go of things is when I have to. I'm kinda stubborn that way. But when that chaos hits and God invites us into something deeper, we can read of our true hope. Let's just read a couple of things in the New Testament. I just want you to just hear this hope. Romans 8, 38 through 39, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

Keep them coming, Philippians 4, 12 through 13. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance, and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Kinda makes verse 13 sound different when you read verse 12, right? Verse 13's on the bumper of the car. Verse 12 usually doesn't make it on the bumper. I know how to be brought low. I've learned the secret of facing hunger, facing need. These are verses for you to memorize for the uncrossable times in your life. If you think to yourself, God, I know you're calling me to this thing, but there's no way I can do it, congratulations. You are at an uncrossable moment. Because in your mind, you're at a dead end. You don't know how you're gonna get over that. You don't know how you're gonna get beyond that. You don't know how life can look beyond that.

I don't know how I can face those people. I don't know how I can continue on. I don't know what life is gonna look like. My wife and I are about to have our last two children graduate high school, and we've had this kind of conversation many times. Like, what does it look like now, man? What does a week look like when we're not chasing kids around or carting kids around or anything like that? We've had a season where they both drive. We have twins that are seniors. They both drive, they both work jobs, they're both super busy, that's great. So we've kind of already been feeling it just a little bit, but it's about to get way real this summer. Y'all pray for us.

Pray for me. My wife will be fine. Pray for me. It looks uncrossable. It looks strange, unfamiliar. I don't know what it's gonna be like on the other side. I do know that as we're kind of memorizing these verses, as we're looking at what's going on, we know that God intentionally directs our lives, and he does it in deep ways that we do not always recognize. In fact, it's kind of shocking when we do recognize that God is doing that. But even in those chaotic moments, God's plans stand strong. He's not worried. And in this way, in this way, this is how these uncrossable situations reveal God to people. Not just to us, but to other people that are onlookers. Look at verses 27 through 28 of Exodus 14. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. Of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, none of them remained. What is God doing here? Is he just flipping the bat by killing all the Egyptians? What's he doing? Is he just spiking the football? What's he doing? God here is putting the period on the end of a story that will stand the test of time. The story likely happened, I don't know, 4,000 years ago. How many of the stories from 4,000 years ago we telling? Anybody, keep count.

Just this one, okay. Just scripture, just checking. We're not, this is one of the most known stories in the entire Old Testament. It is a story that will stand the test of time. Generations will remember how God saved Israel from Egypt. Generations will remember this last part here, verse 29. Generations will remember this. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and their left. What a testament to God's faithfulness in the midst of a really crazy situation. And as you look at how Israel is responding through all of that, is Israel freaking out? Does Israel know what to do? Man, Israel's all over the place. Moses is kind of giving them leadership as they go, but Israel, emotionally, they're just a pile of mush. They're nothing. Let me just help you understand. There is a cloak, a veil that can cover your eyes

when you come to a worship service on a Sunday morning. And that veil can say something like, everybody else here is doing great except for you. Everybody else here has everything together, but you don't. You're in some uncrossable situation and you're stuck. Friend, friend. It's, I'm almost at a loss for words. It's so hard to tear through that veil, and I don't know why, but here I am trying.

I know most of you personally, and of those that I know personally, most of you I know something that's going on in your life that is not normal. It's not winning. It's not something you would wish on your worst enemy. Like it's not. Excuse me. You are going through something that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. That's a hard thing to talk through, sorry. You're going through something tough. Most people in here, I can look you in the eyes and I can know that about you. I know you're going through something tough. I do. I know the story. I've either heard it from you or from somebody who knows you really well. I'm not telling you, because I don't sit there and just,

so things are hard today. Tell me all about it. That's not how you start conversation, okay? It's just not. But I will tell you, I will tell you, there is a place for that. We have home groups. We have life groups. We do want to talk about the situation. I'm always available after the service. Pastor Daniels, available after the service. You can talk with us about this. But what I need you to understand is that whatever voice is telling you that you're the only one going through it is lying to you. Whatever voice is telling you that everybody else has it together, that everybody else really is their Facebook reel, that they really are that pretty and perfect the whole time. It's not true. It's not true. If I had a camera that followed me around 24 seven,

it's ugly, man. I got victories. I got defeats. So do you. We just don't post them all. We usually just post the victories. I want you to know, I want you to hear from me, and I want you to know this is true. I think, man, I've looked at several of you in this service. As I've done it, all of you are nodding to me. You're like, yeah, tell them, Drew. And it's because you're going through that too.

You're going through that too. Let me just, look, there's probably two of y'all having living at the apex of the rainbow right now. Everybody else but two of y'all. We're not. We're not there. Okay. And if you are, man, praise God for that season. That's gonna be awesome. That's great. Most people I know are not in that season. If you want to cross the uncrossable, it's going to begin with you trusting God's intention in your life. You have to understand that God is doing this on purpose, that this isn't punishment. Hear me. Jesus took all the punishment on the cross, okay? Jesus took all the punishment on the cross. You're not being punished for something you did 15 years ago still.

If you are in Christ and you've asked for forgiveness for that, it's forgiven, it's done. I'm not saying you don't have consequences in that. That's normal, but God's not still mad at you about that. God's not still making sure that you feel bad about it every couple of months or so. That's not true. Anytime I'm walking through a situation and I just have this intrusive thought of something really evil I did 15 years ago, whatever that is, I'm sure there's a long list. And that comes in and I wanna start to feel shame for that. I begin to pray right then. It's my encouragement to you, pray right then. Lord, that's not from you. I don't wanna dwell on that. I don't wanna think about that. You've forgiven me for that. And if you haven't forgiven me for that, forgive me for that now. It's done. It holds no sway over you. You're not wearing your shame because you need to.

You're wearing your shame because you don't understand that God intentionally brings you through those things. And he's growing you, he's shaping you, and he's revealing himself in the process. Look for what God is doing in you and around you. Have your head on a swivel spiritually. I recommended journaling last week, a couple weeks ago. I recommend it again.

Talk about, write down what God is doing in you. Try to make sense of it. Writing stuff down actually helps me make sense of things. It's not everybody I know. Lastly, part of why God is bringing you through that is to reveal himself to people. So share your testimony. You don't have to share the G-rated version that's all nice and tidy and done. Like 15 years ago, I was delivered from this. Okay, cool, yes. Praise God for you being delivered 15 years ago. That's awesome. What are you going through now? What's now? What's hard now? What do you not know now? Because that's real. What are you unsure of now? What's your uncrossable situation now? How are you struggling through that? You got a bad day? Tell your friend about it. Tell your spouse about it. Tell somebody.

Come on, I don't know. I don't even know how to pray. It's scary. It's scary to say things out loud sometimes. Here's my encouragement. Man, do it. Bring it to the Lord. Be honest with him. I've never ever regretted confessing something to the Lord. I've never regretted sharing my story. Might've made somebody else feel uncomfortable. They might regret it. But not me. Because I know that God is doing that in my life for a reason. He's doing it in your life for a reason too. He's orchestrating all those events. He's encamping you by the sea. He's sending the enemy after you. And he wants to make a way through. Let's pray. Lord, we know there's just so much that you,

so much that you're doing, so much that you have, that you are just lining up for us. You say in Ephesians 2:10 that you have good works lined up for us to do. And Lord, we know from Exodus 14, we know from how you led the disciples. We know that even in those good works, it will demand us to grow in our faith. Even in those good works of feeding the 5,000 that you asked the disciples to carry the burden with you.

Lord, you want us to work with you through all of this. And we don't know how. We're kind of just scared in the wilderness. Lord, meet us there, calm our fears, remind us that salvation comes from you and that we only need to shut up and follow you. Lord, help us to do that. It's your name that we pray, amen. Would you stand as we say.