Today, we move further into the Exodus story. Moses has said yes. God has sent the plagues. Egypt has been broken. Pharaoh has finally released the people of Israel. After 430 years of slavery, they are free. Can you imagine that moment? Families gathering what they could carry. Parents telling their children, “God heard us. God has not forgotten us.” People celebrating. Singing. Laughing. Dreaming about a future they had never been free enough to imagine. And as they begin their journey, in Exodus 13, we learn a few details that we talk about often.  First, we find out that God didn’t take them on the direct road because he wanted them to avoid a fight with the Philistine people that could discourage them.  We also learn that God is visibly leading them. A pillar of cloud by day. A pillar of fire by night.  God’s presence is not hidden. It is right there in front of them. This is one of the greatest displays of God’s power in all of Scripture. And something that can be overlooked, which is one of those little details that Scripture wants to make sure we see, almost goes out of its way to make sure we know it.

Exodus 13:18 So God led the people in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.  Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.  NLT

They leave with joy and celebration, but also ready for battle, poised for a fight to both survive and stay free.  

God doesn’t lead them on the most direct route to the Promised Land; He leads them towards the Red Sea. God is basically sending them down a road, with a big giant sign that says, “No Outlet.” This route traps them between the wilderness and the sea. And Scripture makes it clear: this was not an accident; their Google Maps App wasn’t acting up; God led them there, to what feels like a trap in many ways, and as we get into Exodus 14, God explains why.

Exodus 14:1 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites to turn around and make camp at Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Camp on the shore of the sea opposite Baal Zephon. “Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are lost; they’re confused. The wilderness has closed in on them.’ Then I’ll make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn again and he’ll chase after them. And I’ll use Pharaoh and his army to put my Glory on display. Then the Egyptians will realize that I am God.” MSG

God tells Moses exactly what is going to happen. Pharaoh is going to see Israel in a vulnerable position, trapped between the sea and the wilderness, and he is going to come after them. And God says, “I am going to reveal who I am through this.” This is really important, and I want you to see this as we get started today.  This was intentional.  God led them and will lead us into places where we feel vulnerable, which isn’t fun in the moment, but helps us grow and understand Him and His faithfulness.

Let’s be real, none of us enjoy vulnerable places. We do not enjoy seasons when our health feels uncertain. We do not enjoy seasons when money is tight. We do not enjoy seasons when relationships are strained, when our future is unclear, when we feel weak, or when we cannot see a way forward. But sometimes the very place that feels like a dead end is the place where God is about to show us something about Himself that we could not have learned any other way.  As I think about this, it’s hard not to think about this famous statement from Jesus…Ken brought this up last week.

Matthew 5:3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”  MSG

Some of us, are sitting here today thinking, well then I should be the most blessed individual on the planet because I’m running out of rope in my life, it’s so hard, and I feel so exhausted in all of it, and Sam, I don’t really want to hear about what a gift or blessing my pain, stress and fears are in my life right now, I just want relief.  Hey, that is fair!  I get it.  If you are in that spot, feeling busted up and empty, it’s really hard to hear someone say, " Hey, this is a blessing because now, at that place, there is less of you and more of God in your life!” I get that, and feel it too…but as hard as it is in the moment, it is true.  We will come back to this, but for now, just try to process this. Here they sit, vulnerable and trapped, led by God to a dead end, even told by God, " Don’t worry about it, I’m using you all as the bait in my trap, to show my glory here!”  And Pharaoh takes the bait and does exactly what God said he would do. He gathers his army. Six hundred of the best chariots, along with the rest of Egypt’s military strength, chase after Israel, and they catch up to them, where the Israelites are camped by the sea.

Exodus 14:10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 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? 12 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!” NIV

Ok, what just happened here?  Remember that little detail from the last chapter?  The Israelites leave Egypt, battle-ready, like an army ready to fight for their lives and their freedom. They knew this was a real possibility, and that moment is now here, and this battle army isn’t inspired; they are terrified.  From the thrill of victory to the terrorizing fear of defeat.  Fear shows up. In their fear, I think we get one of the most fascinating statements in this story…they look at Moses and ask in verse 11, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?”  Really? After everything they had just seen? After the miracles and the ten plagues. After God’s protection. After the night of Passover. After walking out of Egypt free. After seeing God visibly lead them day and night, with that pillar still right there in front of them, their immediate response is to look around at their circumstances and conclude that “God brought us here to fail.” And we read that and think, "Who would do that?" Who would experience God and immediately assume He has abandoned them? Who would watch God move powerfully, then doubt Him the moment life becomes difficult? The answer is: We would. We do.  Their story is our story. 

I want to show you a couple of things about fear today.  

First, Fear convinces us we are on our own.  It just has a way of taking what God is doing and making us believe the exact opposite. Israel was not at the Red Sea because God had forgotten them. They were there because God was leading them. But fear distorted everything. Fear made them believe that God’s leadership was actually abandonment. And if we are honest, fear can do the same thing to us. We walk through a hard season, and we begin to wonder if God has left us. We face something we cannot control, and we wonder if He is still good or cares at all. We see no clear path forward, and we assume there is no way through. But just because we cannot see what God is doing does not mean God is not doing something.

Second, fear seems to cause memory loss.  One thing I have noticed about fear is that it causes us to forget what God has already done. Fear forgets answered prayers. Fear forgets past provision. Fear forgets the ways God carried us through things we thought would destroy us. Fear focuses entirely on what is standing in front of us to the point where it becomes all we see.  Israel could not see the plagues anymore or all that God did to free them from 430 years of oppression.  They can’t even see that giant cloud pillar right now; all they see is danger and death. They could not see God’s faithfulness. They could only see the sea in front of them and the angry soldiers behind them. And we are not much different. God provides for us financially for years, and then one unexpected bill arrives, and we panic. God carries us through difficult seasons, and then another hard season begins, and we wonder where He is. God has answered prayers, protected us, forgiven us, sustained us, and given us strength again and again. But when fear gets loud, we can forget all of it. Fear says, “Look at what is in front of you.” Faith says, “Remember who has been with you all along.”

Third, fear convinces us that we see is the whole story, but we don’t. Israel saw water in front of them. Mountains and wilderness around them. An army behind them. From a human perspective, they were trapped. And honestly, humanly speaking, they were. But they were evaluating their situation without considering God. And when we remove God from the equation, fear almost always wins. We do this with our marriages. Our finances. Our health. Our children. Our jobs. Our future. We look at what we can see and conclude that it is all there is. But faith has always required us to look beyond what is visible. Faith does not pretend that the problem is not real. Faith does not deny that the sea is there or that the army is coming. Faith simply remembers that God is there as well. The sea was real. The army was real. The danger was real. But so was God. And God was greater than all of it.

Fourth, Fear assumes the worst.  Notice what Israel says: “Why did you bring us out here to die?” Nobody had died. God had not abandoned them. Nothing had happened yet; in fact, they left, knowing this was a real possibility, they left like a battle-ready army.  But fear assumes the worst. Fear writes stories that have not happened. Fear creates disasters in our minds before they become reality. Fear convinces us that tomorrow is already ruined. Have you ever done that? You get a phone call and do not know what it is about. Your mind immediately goes to the worst possibility. Someone does not respond to a text. You assume something is wrong. A relationship feels strained. You begin imagining the end. A doctor’s appointment is coming. You begin living as though you already know the news. Fear has a powerful imagination. And too often, we spend more time listening to the stories fear tells us than listening to the promises God has given us. Fear says, “This is the end.” God says, “You do not know the end of the story yet.”

Fifth, fear is connected to control. We want certainty. We want guarantees. We want answers. We want to know exactly how things are going to work out. But God rarely gives us all of that. Instead, He gives us Himself. Remember Moses at the burning bush?  Who am I to lead your people?  What was God’s reply?  I will be with you.  You get God…and that is enough.  And that is what makes faith difficult. Faith means trusting God’s character when we cannot see His plan. Faith means believing He is good when circumstances feel confusing. Faith means moving forward without having all the answers. Israel did not know what God was about to do. All they knew was that they felt trapped. And that is where many of us live. Not because God has abandoned us. But because we cannot see what He is doing. 

So, now we get to see how Moses responds; he has been through this lesson before at the Burning Bush and in Egypt, and responds to their fear with an incredible statement here.

Exodus 14:13–14 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” NIV

This is so awesome.  The people are panicking, and Moses says, “Do not be afraid, stand firm and watch what God will do.” They are trapped, there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and Moses says, “The Lord himself will fight for you…you need only to be still.” Let me ask you: if you feel trapped and vulnerable, with an angry army bearing down on you, is your instinct not to be afraid, to be still? It takes a lot of faith to respond that way, doesn’t it?  I can’t say that is how I feel and react to fearful moments, and as I look back over my life, I can tell you many times where I wished I could have been still, because in my emotions or fearful reactions, I seemed to make things worse rather than better.  Sometimes the hardest thing God asks us to do is not do anything, to be still and let Him do it for us. Most of us would rather do something. Anything. Because doing something feels productive. Waiting feels powerless. Waiting feels vulnerable. Waiting feels uncertain. But throughout Scripture, God teaches His people to wait. Wait for His timing. Wait for His direction. Wait for His provision. Wait for His deliverance.

Psalm 46:1-3, 10 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging…10 be still and know that I am God. NIV

Be still and know that I am God.  Whew, the waiting is so challenging, and I often say time is an incredible filter. We can fake it some of the time, and we can be ok for a little while, but the waiting will eventually reveal what we truly trust. Anyone can trust God after the sea parts. The challenge is trusting Him before it parts. Anyone can trust God after the answer arrives. The challenge is trusting Him while we are still waiting. Anyone can trust God after He comes through for us; the challenge is trusting Him when all we can see is the problem.  Anyone can be faithful when things are going the way they want, but it isn’t so easy when they aren’t going the way we want.  It’s like the old saying, everyone is classy when they are winning, but what do they look like when they lose?

You are going to find this shocking, but I’m not great at being still and waiting on God.  Patience, waiting, relaxing…just not my strong suit, or instincts, especially with people, and things that I care deeply about.  One of the hardest lessons God has been teaching me lands right in this area, and it’s all about not carrying what isn’t mine to carry.  God seems to have to keep reminding me that I cannot save people. That sounds obvious. We are in church. We know Jesus is the Savior, and believe me, I clearly understand that I am not Christ, but when you love people, you want to help. You see someone making choices that are hurting their life. You see someone drifting from God. You see a marriage or family falling apart. And because you care, you start trying to fix it. You have another conversation. Send another text. Make another phone call. Try another approach. Pray another prayer. You hurt because they are hurting, but before long, you are carrying a weight God never asked you to carry. I have walked through so many points of emotional exhaustion, not simply because ministry, parenting, or family life is hard or scary, but because I was trying to do God’s job. I am finding that I often want people to change more than they want to change. I want to rescue people from consequences they are not ready to leave behind. And the more I care about a person, the harder this is for me.  I want to solve problems, but the problem is that I can’t do that; only God can. And somewhere along the way, that weight got heavy enough, carrying everyone else's problems, that half the things they don’t even see as problems, that I had to stop and ask God what is going on here…I began to realize that so much of my depression, stress, and just pain came from trying to fight battles that belonged to God. I can love people. I can pray for people. I can tell the truth. I can point people toward Jesus. But I cannot change a heart. Only God can do that…this is hard, and the more you care about someone, the harder this actually is.  At the beginning of this talk we looked at the fact, that God intentionally placed them in vulnerable positions, like trapped between the sea, the wilderness, and an angry army, well, God places us in vulnerable situations too…because it’s in those vulnerable, emotional, intense moments when our faith becomes very personal…not faith that God can save people, not faith that God can transform lives…we already believe those things.  The hardest, and most important faith is believing that God loves these people as much as I do, and He is working in ways that I cannot see, even when I cannot fix, what I see…that is real faith, a much more vulnerable type of trust and faith, and reveals another thing, that we stated all the way back in week one of this series, that the challenge for these people and all of us is about trusting God and loving Him most.

I think one of the hardest prayers of my life has been to pray this way: “God, I trust You with them.” Not because I stopped caring. But because I finally realized He cares about them even more than I do. That is harder than it sounds, and the more you care about someone, the harder that can be.  Because trying to fix things feels responsible, being still, and waiting on God can feel well, passive, even lazy, or irresponsible. After all, who is going to fix it if I don’t?  Well, the point is we can’t, only God can, but we have to let Him!  Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is stop trying to control what only God can change. And I wonder if that is a big part of what Moses was teaching Israel at the Red Sea. “Do not be afraid, stand firm, just be still, The Lord himself will fight for you.” In other words: Stop carrying what belongs to God. Stop trying to solve what only God can solve. Stop acting as though everything depends on you. Stand still. Trust Him. Watch what He will do.

The last time I was with you, we were at the Burning Bush, watching Moses explain to God all the logical reasons he wasn’t right to do what God asks, and towards the end of the talk, we spoke a bit about fear, and here we are again…looking at fear.  I told you that in the end, fear can mask itself as wisdom, intelligence, we can say it’s our cautiousness, or our amazing gift of being detail-oriented, but in the end, it’s fear, which is typically coming down to one thing, control.  Fear is always trying to grab control. Israel wanted control. I want control. Parents want control. Spouses want control. We want to know what is going to happen. We want to protect the people we love. We want to fix the things that hurt. And God’s answer is still: “Do not be afraid, just stand firm, be still, the Lord himself will fight for you.”

You know there is something that really impacts me in this story, and that is how differently Moses responds to this intense moment, compared to how he responded to God in that first intense moment at the Burning Bush.  We see a lot of growth in Moses' life and faith, and a much different response compared to the people he is leading.  Moses is not the same person he was back at the Burning Bush, is he?  He was afraid back then and saw no way through. Remember, he wanted guarantees of outcomes back then, and God never gave him any. He learned that He doesn’t need certainty; all He needs is God with Him, and He gets it and knows that God is enough.  Moses has a different level of faith and trust in God here in this moment, because he has been through a lot since then and through all the pressure and fear and stress…just by saying “Yes” to God and leaning out in faith on God, Moses is in a very different place now than the children of Israel.  This is spiritual growth seen in Moses’ life, exposing the growth needed in the people of Israel… and how did Moses learn and grow? It was through intense, painful, challenging situations in his life that led him to that place.  I read this and see someone who has been through the fire, and now is on the other side of a critical lesson in life. You can see different stages of spiritual maturity and growth in this story, and I love that.  And often it’s in crisis, and intense pain that we see who someone really is, and maybe where they are at maturity-wise as well.  I see the difference here of someone who has gone through it, and someone who has not…often how a teenager responds versus an adult in life situations and pressures…and I’m not talking about age but maturity level when I say teenager vs adult.  Two scriptures that encapsulate this come from Solomon and James.  

Proverbs 24:10 If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. MSG

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

And that brings us to the conclusion of Exodus 14. Moses stretches out his hand over the sea. God sends a powerful wind. The waters divide. And the people of Israel walk through the sea on dry ground. The sea that looked like the end becomes the path God uses to deliver them. The army they feared is defeated. The place that looked like a dead end becomes the place where God reveals His power.

Exodus 14:31 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. NIV

They could not see the way when they were standing on the shore. But God could. They could not see what He was doing. But He was already working. They thought they were trapped. But God was setting the stage for His strength and power to be revealed to them, and that may be the very thing that some of us need to remember today.  The thing in front of you may look like a dead end. The fear may feel overwhelming. The future may feel uncertain. You may not see a path. But you do not need to see the whole path to trust the One who does.  And I will always say this to you…that is easier said than done, it preaches easier than it lives, but it is so, so true. 

Remember those five things we talked about that fear does in our lives. Fear convinces us we are on our own; it just has a way of taking what God is doing and making us believe the exact opposite.  Israel was not at the Red Sea because God had forgotten them. They were there because God was leading them. Fear causes amnesia.  Fear can cause us to forget all the amazing ways God has come through for us in the past, as fear washed over these people, they seem to have forgotten the incredible things God has done to get them this far! Fear convinces us that we see the whole story, but we don’t. Fear Assumes the Worst. Fear at its core, fear is about control. We want certainty. We want guarantees. We want answers. We want to know exactly how things are going to work out. But God rarely gives us all of that. Instead, He gives us Himself and that is enough.  because the God who led you this far has not abandoned you now.

So, as we close, let’s try to personalize this. Where are you feeling most vulnerable in your life right now?  Maybe you are in a spot where you feel trapped, and you can’t see a way through, or something is so big in your life that you can’t fix it, and you keep trying to fix it…whatever that it might be.  It’s in those moments that fear can speak louder than faith in your life. Is there something that is keeping you awake at night? What burden are you carrying, and the follow-up to that is, should you be carrying it? What future are you trying desperately to control, even if you logically know you can’t control the future? Every one of us has something. And God’s invitation is the same for us as it was for them: Do not be afraid.  Be still. Watch what God will do. Not because the situation is not real. Not because the challenge is not difficult, or bigger than you, it is difficult, and it is bigger than you, but that is the point.

I love this story we studied today.  At the Red Sea, we see the children of Israel learning an incredibly important lesson, one that we all must learn.  All through this journey, we will see God pushing in, wanting them to love Him most, and trust Him fully, and not to be ruled by fear. Who would struggle with this?  Well, we would.  We do.  Their story is our story…and I love what we spoke of today because we can all relate to where they are at, vulnerable, trapped, with no answer or way to fix it…there they are trapped with danger all around them, struggling with fear…but the God who brought them that far wasn’t abandoning them there.  Yes, the situation looked impossible; the sea, the wilderness, the army all seemed bigger than them because they were bigger than them, but they were never bigger than God. And whatever you are facing today is not bigger than Him either. The Lord himself will fight for you. You only need to be still.