Notes from Steven Furtick's In*Fin*8 series (Elevation Series), Part 2.
(Click on Part 1 to get notes from Part 1.)
Summary from site:
Keep Calm & Carry On
PASTOR STEVEN FURTICK
If all we want is a life of convenience and only convenience, then God's way is not the best way. Because when it comes to God's will and His plan for our lives, His way is not always the shortest way or the easiest way. It's better than that. In the second part of our series IN•FIN•8, Pastor Steven uses the the story of Moses and the Red Sea to show us that God's way is the way that causes us to press in towards Him, stretching our faith and increasing His glory.
God had delivered the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt with a promise to lead them to the Promised Land. But He knew they weren't ready for the blessing. Their hearts needed preparation. For with blessing comes a battle.
Exodus 14:10 (ESV) When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 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. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, andstretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 AndI will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19 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, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night andmade the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 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. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch theLord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
How different are we from the Israelites?
God has just shown His power to deliver in our life.
Then, yikes, a crisis looms. We look for God. He seems to have disappeared completely. We could not see that He has gone behind us and between the encroaching enemy and our backs.
And so, we cry out, it would have been better back there!
The Israelites suddenly yearned for the predictability of their slavery to the uncertainty of this new freedom.
They were familiar with bondage. They glossed over the pain of their slavery.
But God brought this on, not to give the Israelites panic attacks, but to show the Egyptians who He is, His glory, His power.
The Egyptians had power by worldly standards, great chariots that could overtake the weary Israelites on foot. Easy.
But the Israelites had God, the Lord God, who clogged those mighty chariot wheels.
Not a problem.
What are the chariots in your life that seem so massive, so impossible to stop?
Is it the debt? The illness? The singleness? Depression?
"Glory" means weight. God is building the pressure big time so that He can reveal that only His weight of strength and power is able to annihilate those 'chariots.'
Doesn't it seem sometimes that just when you need Him most, God simply 'disappears'? But decrease in visibility does not equal decrease in His Presence. He has promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you..I am with you always."
Just as with the Israelites, God always has your back!
So, let's keep on keeping on!
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