Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Does fear or anxiety have a grip on your life? Here’s what to do about it. The only cure for fear is to keep our eyes on the Lord. The only cure for anxiety is to keep your eyes on the Lord. Look to the Lord, follow him closely. We walk by faith, the Bible says, not by sight. What are the kids learning in VBS? Exactly what I have in my notes.

When the storms come, Jesus takes a nap. Don't you care, Lord? Don't you see what's happening? Oh, I see everything that's happening. I guess you don't. Get your eyes back on the Lord.

Larry: Ever been backed into a corner where there appears to be no way out or any hope, and you were greatly afraid? It’s a common experience, and one the Israelites were all too familiar with. Today on Abounding Grace, Pastor Ed Taylor shares the details surrounding the parting of the Red Sea, one of the great miracles of the Bible, and encouraging too. The Israelites looked as good as dead, but God changed everything. We’re in Exodus chapter 14.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Notice verse 10 now. This is interesting. Turn our attention from Pharaoh now to the children of Israel, who just must be so filled with faith, right? This is just amazing what they're a part of. They are literally watching the hand of God work. 400 years, generations of slavery ended in a moment.

Verse 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." Now, that sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? They cried out to the Lord.

But then what did they do to poor Moses in verse 11? "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? 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 we should die in the wilderness."

Can you believe your ears? Just a few moments after being delivered, just a few days after being delivered from generations of slavery, they're telling Moses, "Didn't we tell you we never wanted to leave? Didn't we tell you we liked life the way it was?" This tells us they are just not thinking clearly. Why was Moses sent to them to begin with? Because God heard their cries. Because they were asking for help. Because they were in a different desperate situation that God met them in.

This is the first of many times where the children of Israel will cry out with murmuring and complaining, where they really do believe their way is better. And it comes, notice at a time in verse 10, you might want to mark it: they were very afraid. It was a crisis. It created panic. Ahead of them is the Red Sea. It's uncrossable. On either side of them are mountain ranges or hills, impassable. Behind them are an angry, pursuing, marching Egyptian army. And they begin to panic and cry out to the Lord.

What were they crying out to the Lord? A form of what they were telling to Moses. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So they didn't switch to, "Oh, Lord, you're so good. You're so wonderful. We're so glad we're stuck. Moses, don't you see, it's all your fault that we're stuck." They didn't change that quick. It's all in there. They're crying out to the Lord and they're taking it out on Moses.

By the way, those of you that want to be in spiritual leadership and you want to be a pastor one day or whatever, this is your life for the rest of your life. People are crying out to the Lord and taking it out on you. And you've just got to learn that. Most of the issues that pastors and leaders and overseers experience in the church really have nothing to do with the pastor or the overseer. It's just somebody's going through something and you're the closest one that they can take it out on. That's usually what it is.

You're the one that represents God to them in some way, or you're just proximity-wise the one that has to take the burden and help people get through things. And it's really not that personal after all. But here, when you see the children of Israel, what was their problem here? I would suggest to you that they have an eye problem. Not "I" the letter, not a self-centered problem, but an eye problem—E-Y-E. Did you notice this? They lifted up their eyes.

And all of the rest of it comes from what they saw. They have an eye problem. What they were looking at determined their actions. And what does this look like to the eye? It would look like exactly what you would see. You would see the same thing if we were there with them. I don't know that we would be too much better than them. We would see the same thing. We're headed out, we're making progress, and the Red Sea's before us.

We have no idea how we're going to get our stuff and our children and our wives. We don't know how we're going to pass that. And there's really no option to go right or left. It doesn't seem like the right way to go. There was an easier way. And here they are. They say, "Well, let's go back." And they see the dust rising. And they hear the noise. It would be the equivalent of us taking off in a direction and we've got nowhere to go and when we turn around, the United States Army is coming after us at the order of the government.

It would instill fear. But it wasn't the truth. It was just what they saw. And that's what's deceptive. Jot it down: not everything you see is the truth. Just because you see it doesn't mean your conclusion is the truth. Not everything is as it appears. So, yeah, you're assessing everything. Red Sea in front of you—true. Two hills on either side of you—true. Egyptian army behind us—true. "We're done." Well, we don't know that yet.

And not only do we not know that yet, what do we do? We fall back on the promise of God, who said he was taking us into the promised land. That's what he said. "I will deliver you and take you in all the way." What it appears to be is a trap. And the trap is, what it appears is that the children of Israel are led into a trap. But that's not the truth. The truth is God setting the trap for Pharaoh.

It's the exact opposite. It's not they're trapped; Pharaoh's trapped. The Egyptian army's trapped. Pharaoh is falling into God's trap. He should have just let them go, as he was told 10 times to do. He should have just let them go. But now he's trapped. This is what God does when you follow him, church. This is a part of the Christian life. He's going to lead you into places where your enemies will be caught, where you will be delivered, and they will be trapped.

It's hard to believe because we only see and feel what we're seeing and feeling. Just like David so many times, we only see and feel what we see and what we're feeling and seeing. David said in Psalm 27 verse 2, "When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell." He says that after the fact. Psalm 56 verse 1: "Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up. Fighting all day, they oppress me. My enemies hound me all day, and there are many who fight against me, O God."

And then notice, turn over to Psalm 124. I want you to see this. It's a quick Psalm. And this is one of the many reasons why we like to read through the Psalms together as a church because it plants these things. And it wasn't too long ago that we read Psalm 124. Listen, in Psalm 124 verse 1, it says: "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side," let Israel now say, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive.

Their wrath was kindled against us, and the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul. Then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

And to that the church says, amen. This is the word of the Lord. But it doesn't always feel that way. I want to write a Psalm like that. Well, you've got to get through the first seven verses, don't you, so you can get to the eighth. And what would verse 8 really mean if you didn't experience the first seven? Where you can actually not just hear it with the ear and see with the eye, but you lived it. It is your testimony. It is your true story.

It is what you have seen God do in your life. But the first seven verses of Psalm 124, just like the children of Israel here, are filled with terror and pain and panic and hurt. And this is the key for the nation. As long as they kept their eyes on the fiery pillar and followed the Lord and were walking by faith, no enemy could touch them. They don't even need to worry about the enemy because if they saw the fire stay put, the pillar of fire by day, the cloud by night, if it didn't move, they weren't supposed to move.

That was God's message to them. They knew it would be safe. They knew that's where God wanted them. They knew that they could bed down for the evening. They knew they could tuck the kids in. They knew that if God didn't move the pillar, then they were safe. If God didn't move the cloud, they were safe. But they took their eyes off of the cloud, they took their eyes off of the pillar here in the day, and they looked to the enemy.

Let me just tell you, church, you pay attention to the enemy all the time, you'll be freaked out too. You look at what he's doing in the world today, it'll freak you out. You take your eyes off the Lord and you see the attack of the enemy, you see the work of the enemy, all you're worried about is your enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Woe is me, look at me, I'm given over to sin, it's my problem. You want to live that way, you're going to be a miserable person.

You can live that way if you want, disobediently. You take your eyes off the Lord, all you're going to see is your enemy, and your enemy's going to freak you out. Scare you, undermine you, lie to you, undermine your faith, increase your anxiety. If you're already an anxious person, the enemy's going to play with that. If you're already a fearful person, he's going to mess with that. If you don't have the fear of the Lord but instead you have the fear of man, you're trapped already.

And then what happens? If you're a complainer, if you're a murmurer, if you attack your spiritual leaders because of your own problems, it's because you lack faith in God. You've left the place of trust. If that's all you're worried about is that guy over there and why do we do this and you're just the complainer and a murmurer, here's the root. The root is your faith relationship with God is broken.

You've chosen not to believe God. You've chosen to trust in other resources, trust in what you see, trust in what you feel. And this is how it is. When things are okay, we're okay. If things seem to be not okay, we get in a panic. The only cure for fear is to keep our eyes on the Lord. The only cure for anxiety is to keep your eyes on the Lord. Look to the Lord, follow him closely. We walk by faith, the Bible says, not by sight.

What are the kids learning in VBS? Exactly what I have in my notes. When the storms come, Jesus takes a nap. Jesus takes a nap. And in that little makeshift boat they were making today, they made one of those kids lay down and pretend to be Jesus. Every boat had a Jesus in it so all the kids could see his rest and his care and his abiding in the Father's will. Everything was going to be okay. Why?

Because Jesus said we're going to get to the other side. You hold on to his word. "Don't you care, Lord? Don't you see what's happening?" Oh, I see everything that's happening. I guess you don't. Get your eyes back on the Lord. It happened right here with the children of Israel; they started to murmur and complain. When we come to verse 11 again, put yourself in Moses' sandals for a moment. I can get a little bit of what he's thinking.

It's like, "God, I didn't want to do this to begin with. Didn't I tell you? Send somebody else. This is not for me. I didn't want to go to Pharaoh and I definitely don't want to hear murmuring and complaining the rest of my life." But we don't see that. Later on, Moses is going to describe himself as the most humble man on the earth. There was a quality about Moses that God saw that he didn't even see.

So that when he denied it, said he didn't want to do it, and send anyone else, God said, "Go ahead and get it out, emote, Moses, but you're the guy. I already know it, you're the guy. You're the only guy. You're the only one I want to do this. You're the only one that's going to be—I have trained you for 80 years. You're the guy. So you'll get through the murmuring and complaining. Moses, what you don't know"—and God didn't tell him yet—"is that you're going to be doing this for 40 years, buddy.

And these complainers, they're getting professional complainers. And they're going to want to go back more than once." It's hard, though. The nation that you love, that you serve, has turned on you. But that is a part of spiritual leadership. You see it all throughout the Scriptures. We're following the life of Paul, and the very people that Paul would sacrifice his life for and get beaten and stoned and thrown in prison would also turn on him. It's just a human condition.

If a leader can't keep his eyes on the Lord, then he'll be really messed up because now he's not living by faith and has to deal with all the difficulties for the people that he's been led to serve. But it's interesting for the children of Israel because they saw the 10 plagues, they saw the power of God, the cloud, the pillar of fire, the release from captivity, and they still complain. To me, this section is a very convicting place in my own life because I know what it's like to complain and I know what it's like not to like something.

I know what it's like to disagree with the leadership of a church. I know what it's like. None of us are innocent of these types of things. But even so, as the Scripture's convicting for me, I want it to be convicting for you too. When you just think about complaining for a moment, what does complaining do to help the situation at all? It just makes it worse. Now we have the problem that you have so clearly identified and now we've got to deal with your bad attitude on top of the problem.

And no doubt, if you're complaining, then other people are agreeing and joining with you. You're like infecting people with your bitter complaining and now we've got all kinds of problems. You go, "Come on, Ed, you're exaggerating a little bit." I'm not. This group that's leaving the nation of Egypt and being delivered, this group—read ahead—they die. The whole generation dies in the wilderness because of a bad report of the leaders, the elders that were sent into the promised land.

They thought they were going on a reconnaissance mission, but what they were really going in is to see God's faithfulness and bring back a report: "We're going to be just fine." And they didn't, which is another Bible study all together. I think so much more could be happening in the kingdom of God if we would stop complaining, stop murmuring. So much could be happening for the kingdom of God in this world if we just stop complaining.

Like, go ahead and say it once, "Look what's happening," and then stop. What now? You don't need to say it 50 times. Now what? What are you going to do about it? How are you going to step into it? Turn that complaint into a prayer and see how God might use you to be a part of the solution. But, church, don't look at the devil. And don't give him your time. Don't talk to him, don't bargain with him, don't compromise, don't mess around with the world.

Don't take that first drink, don't say yes to temptation, don't go dating an unbeliever, don't turn around behind you. Keep your eyes looking forward on the Lord and you'll be safe. All this stuff will be happening, but it'll fall to the wayside while you're following the Lord and his plan and his purpose for your life. Jot it down: Philippians chapter 3 verse 13. It says, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." So good.

Verse 13 now: "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 who you see today, you shall see again no more. For the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.'" Some of you, if you notice in your Bibles, you might have an alternative translation there. Mine says "you shall hold your peace." The alternative translation is "you should be quiet."

Do you know how we say that today? "Shut up." And in a very kind way. But he's like, "Stop it. Be quiet. Be quiet. Enough of this. God's going to do this." And then, you know Moses—he doesn't know how. So it does require some faith on him. He doesn't know. It would be just a thought away for him to join the complainers because he doesn't know. He sees the same thing, except that he has the Word, doesn't he?

The relationship that we see between him and God, that God was talking to him. God was with him. Remember the promises that God gave to Paul when he was ready and concern about the circumstance? "Hey, Paul, I'm with you. I'm going to protect you. I have a purpose for your life. I'm going to put people—there's so many more people, Paul, you haven't even met yet. You just look to me. You lay your head down on the pillow. I'll take care of you. You go to sleep. You rest. I'll take care of everything for you. You're going to be just fine."

Moses is basically saying the same thing with less words. Several times in the Bible God says, "Don't be afraid." Abraham, when he receives God's covenant: "Don't be afraid, Abraham." Joshua, when he's crossing over the Jordan: "Don't be afraid. You're going to be fine, Joshua." Solomon, Gideon, the women at the tomb—this is a phrase used over and over: "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't lose it. God is in control. He hasn't forgotten you." And maybe even you tonight God has led you into a trap on purpose. He's allowed this on purpose. He wants to show you his resources that you don't know of. Maybe you're in a corner and you don't know how you're going to get out. And the only way is that God will deliver you. Don't worry. Don't be afraid.

Larry: You’re listening to Abounding Grace with our Bible teacher and Pastor Ed Taylor. To give this a second listen, all you need to do is visit aboundinggraceradio.com or 1place.com. You can also listen through our app, and that can be found in the App Store or Google Play. Just search for Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed, as you were recalling a time when the children of Israel were murmuring and complaining to Moses, I couldn't help but think of Philippians 2:14, which says, "Do all things without complaining and disputing." As you know, this sort of thing is commonplace, especially on social media. So, can you suggest something that might help us steer clear of this sort of behavior?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, the antidote to complaining is praise. I know that's pretty simple, isn't it, Larry? But that's the antidote. The antidote is to praise God and be thankful. We can all see things that need to be improved, we can all experience things that we don't like, that we don't want to experience. The natural response would be to complain about it. But you know as well as I do, complaining doesn't solve anything. It only adds another thing to be upset about.

It is important that we obey the Lord to do all things without murmuring and complaining, but it's also important to develop a culture and a climate in our own hearts of praise and thanksgiving. When I praise the Lord and appreciate him and just see all the wondrous works, I get my eyes on him and off of the circumstance. Then I'll complain a lot less. And the other thing I would say, I know in my own heart, when I'm complaining—whether I complain outwardly or inwardly—is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when he convicts me of this sin and to repent and to really see it for what it is. And like my pastor would always say, apply some of God's spiritual soap, 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Larry: Thanks again, Pastor Ed. Abounding Grace is made possible through the generosity of our listeners. Each gift that comes in serves to help us present the teaching of God's Word on both the radio and internet. And think of this: you'll be helping thousands all over the world learn about God's amazing grace and how to grow by it. And today when you give a donation of $25 or more, we'd like to say thanks by sending you a useful resource. It's "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung.

Pastor Kevin writes, "Too often God's people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven't found God's perfect will for their lives, or even worse, they do nothing, paralyzed with indecision, waiting for clear direction." Discover a liberating approach to finding God's will in "Just Do Something." Just call 877-30-GRACE to make your request and donation today. You can also order online at calvaryco.store. And thanks again for joining us today for Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. May God richly bless you with his abounding grace.