Saturday, January 3, 2015

December 31, 2014 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Exodus 14:13-15 “IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON!”



NEW YEAR’S EVE
December 31, 2014
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Exodus 14:13-15

“IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON!”
1.     With appreciation of the past.
2.     With confidence for the future.

Exodus 14:13-15 (NIV 1984) “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. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”

          The beginning of a new year is a natural threshold for people, a time to look back and look ahead at the same time. The words of God I just read to you occurred when God’s people, the Israelites, were on a threshold of sorts, looking back and looking ahead. When they looked back they saw Egypt, the place that had been theirs and their ancestors’ home for about 400 years. When they looked ahead they saw a desert land that they knew nothing about. A little more urgently when they looked back they saw an angry Pharaoh with all his chariots and horses and soldiers in hot pursuit. The last plague, the tenth plague that killed the firstborn in every house of Egypt, had finally broken Pharaoh’s spirit and he had agreed to let the Israelites go. But now with his hardened heart changed once again Pharaoh was determined to get his slaves back and take a little revenge. When the Israelites looked ahead they saw the Red Sea, unable to be crossed without the aid of boats. Can you imagine being there? What would be going through your mind? What’s going through your mind as you get ready for a new year? Anything you’d like to leave behind? Any potential dilemmas for you to face in the year ahead? Tonight let’s use the words God told the Israelites as we close out one year and enter another. It’s time to move on!
Actually we don’t have to guess what was going through the minds of the Israelites as they stood at their threshold. God tells us what they said. “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!" Now while we might have hoped for a little more faith from people who had just seen the miracles of the 10 plagues I think if we had horses and chariots bearing down on us we would be afraid as well. In an indirect way, however they showed some appreciation for the past. There had been blessings from God for them in Egypt. Some a little easier to see than others. They had homes. They had food. They had work to do. God had fought for them with the plagues and had freed them from slavery just as he promised. Then there were the blessings that didn’t look or feel like blessings. Pharaoh making their life hard which God used to make the people want to leave. The overseers making them work harder and harder which God used to strengthen the people for their journey. Now it was time for that journey. Moses encouraged 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. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." But God said, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” The time for looking back was over. It was time to move on.
          Tonight as God’s people gathered in God’s house we do take the opportunity to look back. Only we will very deliberately appreciate the past. Like the Israelites we too can see some obvious blessings to be thankful for. Most of us have had relatively good health. Some of us went through surgeries that successfully improved our quality of life. We all had more food than we needed and were blessed by God to be able to do more than just survive. We had another year of grace. We were not treated as the sinners we are but instead were treated by God to His goodness and love and a far higher standard of living than most of the people on the planet. Now let’s move on to appreciate those blessings that did not look or feel like blessings. Some of us had loved ones die. There’s no getting around it. That hurts. But those who die in in the Lord are blessed. God says that. They get heaven. Some of us had family or work problems to deal with. Some lost jobs. Some had relationship problems. Some had health problems that didn’t go away. Surely those aren’t blessings are they? While Satan sends things and causes sin problems to harm us, God turns them for good. He gives us a chance to show our faith in Him, to practice what it means to follow Christ in forgiving. He cuts off from us people and things that harm our relationship with Him and strengthens us so we can be more useful and a blessing to others who are also stuck living in this sin messed world. We are grateful for that but it’s time to move on. We don’t live in the past. It’s time behind last year’s hurts and disappointments. God has and will use them for good. It’s time to leave behind last year’s grudges and pet sins. They have no place in our hearts. It’s time to leave behind last year’s blessings. They were for last year.
It’s time to move on and as the Israelites found it’s time to move with confidence for the future. Remember the setting. Furious Pharaoh and blood thirsty soldiers with the ancient tanks called chariots rushing at them from behind. Uncrossable Red Sea in front of them. The choices are bleak. Remain where they were and absorb the wrath of Pharaoh with most of them returning to slavery. Make a run for the Red Sea. I don’t think slave children were allowed to take swimming lessons so you know what that option meant. But there was a third option. "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on,” God had said. Their third option was to listen to the word of the Lord and move on to an unknown future with confidence, confidence because the LORD was with them, that’s the all powerful God of grace and mercy who comes to save His people.
          You know how it turned out. That is if you read your Bibles instead of watching bad Hollywood movies that inaccurately try to portray Bible truth. The Israelites moved on. The angel of God as a pillar of cloud moved between the Israelites and the Egyptians protecting them. The all powerful God of grace and mercy came to save His people by having a miraculous wind part the Red Sea and dry up the ground so the Israelites walked across in safety. Once the Israelites had crossed God let the Egyptians pursue and when they were in the middle of the Red Sea, He threw them into confusion. He made the wheels of the chariots fall off and the Red Sea return to its place and all the Egyptians who had pursued them died in the place where the Israelites had followed on dry ground. Wow! Amazing. Now I’d like to be able to tell you that the next time these Israelites ran into a rough spot that they reacted by saying, “Hey let’s see how God gets us out of this one. We know he will.” But I can’t. They often grumbled and complained instead. Pretty pathetic, right?
          And not what we want to do. We want to move on into 2015 with confidence and we can. We can because the same Lord, the all powerful God of grace and mercy who loves to save His people is with us. We may not have seen the parting of the Red Sea but we know what He did there and in so many more places. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that what God will place before us in 2015 will not be nearly has hard or as challenging as what the Israelites were asked to do but we will have our own challenges. If trends continue it will be harder to live as a Bible confessing Christian. Carrying out the work of the Lord will probably get harder not easier. Some will face cancers or other health problems. Some will face deaths. Some will struggle financially. But you know what?  It’s time to move on and move one with confidence for our future. God is with us.
And when like the Israelites we face another problem and doubt or complain instead of trust remember you live with the LORD, the all powerful God who loves to come and save His people and think back to another miraculous parting He did. When He put His Son between you and the Devil and parted your sins from you through His death on the cross. Confess your sin. Hear His forgiveness. Let go of the guilt. Step forward with confidence because it’s time to move on and we move on with the LORD! Amen.

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