Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace from Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: This is what we learn. No matter what you see, God has a plan. He has a way where there is no way. He has an answer when you don't have it. He has money when your bank account is empty. He has relationships when you don't have one. He has friends when you need them.

God is in your life. You can trust Him, but you've got to camp there. You can't wiggle out of it. You've got to camp.

Guest (Male): Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado presents Abounding Grace with Ed Taylor. Good to be with you. Turn, if you would, to Exodus chapter 19. We've seen previously how God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and now they're in the wilderness and on the way to the promised land. Along the way, there were some noteworthy life lessons. Lessons we can benefit from too. Here's Pastor Ed to draw our attention to some of them.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Chapter 19. We start another chapter in our verse-by-verse study in Exodus. Exodus 19 and the title of our Bible study is "Learning Life's Lessons Along the Way." One of the reasons I think it's important that we learn these lessons is because for some reason we're more interested in the destination and what happens when we get there, wherever "there" is, and miss the whole journey and what there is on the journey, what God has for us on the way.

We are dropping into a time in the children of Israel where they are on the way. Where are they headed? They're headed to the promised land, the land that God promised them. They're leaving slavery and a whole identity behind them. Generations of slavery ended through the leadership of Moses and they're on the journey. We will see tonight a few of the stops along the way by way of review of life lessons that they've already learned.

I think the life lessons they learn are life lessons that we too get to learn. Now, we've learned in earlier studies that God is not the author of confusion. We know that. We know that He loves things done decently and in order. So we know right away, as we've learned in previous studies, that when confusion arises, we just know it's not from the Lord. When we're puzzled about something, when we're baffled about a situation, that gives us time to pause so that God might give us the wisdom to make the right decision.

As you pray and ask God for wisdom, you know what God does? He answers that prayer and gives you wisdom. That's what James says. If any of us lack wisdom, let him ask of God who will then give us wisdom without partiality. He'll give it in abundance to anybody that asks. It's important that we learn to wait on the Lord in the circumstances that we're in. So if you think about it, we're going to look at some of the stops that the children of Israel have made so far along the way.

You also have to ask yourself some of the stops that God has had you on. You may even want to jot them down. Some of them might be represented as a very difficult season in your life, but that was a stop and there were lessons to learn. For others, you can also in that list say some of the high points in your life, but that was a stop. Sometimes you celebrate and you learn. Sometimes you're like, "I don't want this to last," but God has these lessons along the way.

As you're in it, God wants to give you wisdom for what's ahead. As my pastor would always say, God is always preparing us for what He has prepared for us. There's always a work now for what's ahead and we anticipate what's ahead by being faithful today. Far from being the God of or the author of confusion, the Bible says that He's a God of order. Let all things be done decently and in order. That was an instruction to the church in Corinth, but it's also a demonstration all the way back in Genesis in the order of creation.

So we're traveling here in Exodus. Two and a half, three million people, former slaves, with each day and each step one day closer to the promised land, one day farther from their past and the life of Egypt. Whenever you think of Egypt, remember it becomes a type of the world, the world in which we live. The world's behind them and now God's bringing them into the new land, a new way of life, new laws, and with each new day, each new month, there's new order.

God wants the children of Israel to live life to its fullest, but in order to live life to its fullest, in order to enjoy life to the fullest degree, they needed to follow the ways of God. There is a purpose in all the direction that God gives. You know it's God's will for you to enjoy life. Did you know that? God's given us all things richly to enjoy. Jot it down, 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

James chapter 1 verse 17, I love this, "Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." So remember your life is not merely getting to a destination. It's not just heading in a direction, but rather enjoying the journey along the way and taking it all in. For some of you, this is very easy for you to do. I think sometimes it's tied to our personality and how God made us.

Some of us have to really slow down and pay attention and smell the roses or whatever, just looking at the sunset. Sometimes it's hard not to, but many times you have to slow down and take it all in. So much is lost because we're not paying attention to what's in front of us, just in the moment, always wanting something else instead of enjoying life along the way. Notice, come back to Exodus chapter 13. Hold your place there, come back to chapter 13 just by way of review.

In verse 3 here in Exodus 13, Moses said to the people, "Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. This day you're going out in the month of Abib. It shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of Canaanites and the Hittites, Mamreites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service." Verse 6, "Seven days you're going to eat unleavened bread." Verse 7, "Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days."

You're going to tell your son in verse 8, it's going to be a sign on your hand, verse 9. You're going to keep this ordinance, verse 10. And it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and he gives it to you, that you're going to set apart to the Lord all that opens the womb, every firstling that comes from the animal. But every firstling, verse 13, of a donkey you shall redeem. You shall redeem, verse 14. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come saying, "What is this?" What shall you say to them? But by strength, mark this, by strength of the hand of the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

God doesn't want us to miss this. This is, can you imagine, you have to use your imagination just a little bit, but if you were in Egypt and you automatically it's time to go, get ready, it's time to go. Don't you think you would be so caught up in the moment that you want to get out? You want to get out before it's too late. You want to get your stuff, you want to gather everything, but some I'm sure were standing there just thinking, "I can't believe it. We're gone." Can you believe this? We're being delivered.

Come on, let's go. We gotta get out of here. But you're like, "There's two and a half million people. I can wait a million or so and just take it all in and just soak it all in." Some of you, this is a word from God for you. You need to stop and take in what the Lord is doing, not always complaining or upset about what God's not doing. How's that been working for you? Just living the life of what God's not doing and what you wish he would do or what he's doing for your friend and he's not doing for you.

How's that working for you? Not too good. It doesn't bring you into the spirit. But if God has you a place right now where he's working, and he is working in your life, just take it all in. Just receive it. God has done a work, he's going to do a work, but there's the in-between. God has brought you out, he's going to bring you in, and then notice, in between, you know what there is in between? Your testimony. When your kids ask you, you need to have an answer for your kids.

You need to be able to tell them. God says they're going to ask and this is going to be your heritage. This is going to be your story. This is going to be what you rehearse over and over. You're going to say it so many times that it sounds so normal, so routine to you, but for the person listening to you, it's going to blow their minds. Your story, your life, it's going to blow their minds. You're like, "Yeah, it's my story again." And even some of you might say, "Oh, I know your story, I know your story." Yeah, but you know what's special about your story? It's your story.

It's God's story of redemption in your life. Each of these people coming out of Egypt, each of the nation, they're going to have their own story. They're going to experience it their own way. In order to enjoy life, we need to live within the parameters that God has set for us. There is a right way and a wrong way. Here they finally come to Mount Sinai in chapter 19. They come to Mount Sinai. God has brought them out to bring them in. Notice in verse 1. In the third month, this is chapter 19, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

For they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the desert of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. Three months into their journey and they stop yet again. Three months in. Now, looking back, I want to take some time and we're going to review before we get into a few more verses in this chapter. I want to review some of the previous stops. Some of them will be very familiar to you because we stopped at that time and actually taught in-depth on where they were.

Some of them may not be so familiar because we didn't spend a lot of time on them. We're going to spend some time on them now. The first one I want you to go back to is in chapter 12. Go back to chapter 12 in verse 37. If you're taking notes along the way, I want you to notice these stops along the way and the lessons God had for the nation. Perhaps God would have you see some of the lessons that He has for you. The first place they stopped was in Succoth there in chapter 12 in verse 37.

The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot besides the children. Even a mixed multitude went up with them, flocks and herds and a great deal of livestock. Succoth literally a tent town, you could translate this. It was the first time that on the journey that they could actually stop and breathe, perhaps taking it all in and go, "You know, this is for real. This is for real." They're really just pilgrims. They're no longer bound by the slavery and the cruel, harsh leadership in Egypt.

They were moving through tent town, just pilgrims. The earth is not our home in all that we're seeing right now and all that we're experiencing, especially with a heightened political environment as we see in cycles in our country. It can really bum you out if your eyes are only on the world. It's a very, I speak for myself, it's a very challenging time to watch what's happening in the world today. It's very challenging. Now, you may have your reasons why, but one of the reasons I see is difficult political environments and division and oppression hurt the very people that we're seeking to reach as a church.

People suffer because of this. When there's ungodly leadership, the people suffer more. When there's semi-godly leadership, the reality of even though God using it, it's very difficult. I need to remember that earth is not my home. We were talking earlier, just looking at some of the difficulty we're just walking in the office this morning. One of the sisters we're walking in, talking about how hard it is and then she was, "Well, you know what the Bible says, it's going to get worse." And like, "Yes, it's going to get worse." And then she went to her office, I went to my office and I'm like, "Yeah, but how much worse can it get?"

There's so much suffering, so much pain, so much oppression. And yet, there's a category of people that it seems to never touch. One of the things in Revelation that always struck me, even from an early time before I got in ministry or anything, when I was reading the book of Revelation, one of the things that struck me was in the middle of the Great Tribulation period, the worst seven years of human history, there's a group of people, a group of leaders, world leaders that are enjoying wine and oil. The whole world's suffering and dying and they too will suffer and die soon enough, but until then, they have, they're living in the lap of luxury amidst the suffering of the world.

We see a taste of that today. There's a group that just seems to be untouched. But we need to remember like Succoth, we need to stop at Succoth ourselves and remember, "Hey, we're just passing through." We're just passing through. Really, if you want to remember something along the lines of your pilgrimage is that we want to take as many people to heaven with us as possible. We desire to be used in that way. That's our heart and our desire. Don't worry about your mansions here.

You're like, "Well, Ed, I don't have a mansion here." Well, then don't worry about the mansion you don't have. Don't worry about it. Be careful. What does he say here or what is it a reminder from Rameses to Succoth? Remember in verse 38, a mixed multitude. When you think of the tent city in your pilgrimage, you be careful of the mixed multitude. The Bible warns us that evil company corrupts good habits. Don't you think that you're the exception to that biblical truth.

Also, in your own life, don't be bad company. Seek the Lord while He might be found. Obey Him, surrender your life to Him, get serious about the things of God. We're living for heaven, not earth. We're seeking first His kingdom. If you live for heaven, you get earth thrown in as a bonus. You have all to richly enjoy, but remember, if you live only for earth, you're going to be greatly disappointed if you haven't been already. Disappointment after disappointment. That was stop number one.

Notice stop number two, chapter 13 verse 20. It says they took their journey from Succoth and camped at Etham at the edge of the wilderness. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. He didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Etham, Etham speaks of the edge of the wilderness. They went from a place of reminding that their life on earth is not permanent. They're just pilgrims to the edge of the wilderness.

Before them is this large and ominous desert and God took them to Etham and reminded them that He was with them. You say, "Ed, where do you see that?" Well, He didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night. He has His presence is with them. It's here at Etham where He says, "I'm going to be your personal guide. Just watch me. Just watch me. Pay attention. In the daytime, you can watch the cloud. Watch the cloud by day. At night, there'll be fire. A pillar. It'll be very obvious." All they needed to do was learn how to follow His lead.

And you say, "Ed, why is this such an important thing?" Because in Egypt, they didn't live like this. This wasn't their life. They listened to a different voice. They had a different routine. They had a whole different set of habits. So much of their life was not the decisions were not made by them. They were made for them under harshness and cruelty. But here at Etham, just God was saying, "I want you to know I'm adding something to your life. I'm ready to lead you and guide you. You've just got to look to me." You have to go eyes wide open. You wouldn't see the cloud or see the fire if your eyes were closed, if your hands were over your face, if you weren't paying attention, if you were rebellious, if you refused. This new life at the edge of the wilderness would be a life of faith.

Notice the next stop, chapter 14 verse 2. Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon. You shall camp before it by the sea." Now they're led to a place you'll recall that seemed absolutely wrong. They were led into a trap. They were led to a place where they didn't see the hand of God. They only saw their circumstances. Isn't that life sometimes? They only see their circumstances. That's all they can see what's in front of them. What's in front of them is the Red Sea. What's behind them is an Egyptian army. What's to the left and to the right are seeming insurmountable mountains.

I say, "I want you to stop there. I want you to pause here. I don't want you to move here. Don't run away. Don't try to escape." And what do we learn here? This is what we learn. No matter what you see, God has a plan. He has a way where there is no way. He has an answer when you don't have it. He has money when your bank account is empty. He has relationships when you don't have one. He has friends when you need them. That God is in your life. You can trust Him, but you've got to camp there. You can't wiggle out of it. You've got to camp.

"Yeah, but you don't understand. The Egyptians are behind me and if I stay here one day longer, I'm a goner." "No, no, that's why I want you to stay." "What is wrong with God? Have you brought me out? Have you brought us here to kill us?" Circumstances can be heavy, but God has a plan and a purpose, not only to deliver and keep His word to the nation, but to show His power to the world, to Egypt. He's going to do it and He provides a way of escape when there was none.

God always provides a way of escape when it comes to temptation. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but with every temptation, there is always a way of escape. Do you know that way of escape? You know how you often live out and take the way of escape? You learn this word. You ready? "No." You say no to sin. You say no to temptation. You say no to a person that is tempting you. You say no. Most of the time the Lord's power latches onto that and you have taken the way of escape. "I'm not going there. I'm not doing that. I'm not hanging out there. I'm not compromising." And on and on you can go. Pi Hahiroth, boxed in. So often that's how we feel.

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we've listened into a portion of Pastor Ed Taylor's study in Exodus. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com. By the way, have you had a chance to download our app? This is another great way to take in the teaching of God's word. Download it for free today by searching for Ed Taylor.

Well, we enjoy hearing from our listeners. Even just a quick hello telling us the station you listen to means a lot. Maybe you don't realize it, but Pastor Ed reads these. Let us know how we can pray for you too. You can email us through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com. And please remember Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. We look to the Lord to guide and provide.

And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of *Anger is a Choice* by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. This is a must-read for anyone who struggles with anger or is dealing with someone who does. You'll come to understand where anger comes from, how it does or doesn't show up, and what you can do about it. You'll go through an anger inventory and other helpful exercises that offer healing for damaged relationships.

To order a copy today, call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. Ordering resources like this is also super easy through our online store. Check it out at calvaryco.store. Ed Taylor is the pastor of a church nearby many of you, Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora. For our service times and directions, visit us on the web at calvaryco.church. We hope to see you sometime soon. And be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus. That's right here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.