Awakened to Grace

Chad Roberts: Welcome to Awakened to Grace. I'm Chad Roberts and I am so glad that you are joining us today. I believe God has connected us for a great purpose. We are just weeks away from the national release of my new book, "Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness," that is being published through our partners at Lifeway.

It's available on Amazon or anywhere that you buy books in any format you prefer. Through this book, we will learn together how to trust a God you can't see. I hope you'll go right now and pre-order your copy of "Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness."

God will fight for you. You know what? God has positioned you in a beautiful place. It doesn't look like it right now, but it's going to turn out that way. What amazes me about this story is every twist and turn, Moses knew what was happening. Beginning from the burning bush to all of his in-person encounters with Pharaoh, through all of the ten plagues of Egypt to the very night that they left Egypt and observed Passover.

To now in our story in Exodus 14, Moses knew every twist and turn what God was doing. See, God told Moses before they ever saw the Egyptian armies coming after them, God had already told Moses, "I've hardened Pharaoh's heart. He's going to come after you and I will get glory out of Pharaoh." Now, God did not tell Moses the details yet. God just promised him the outcome. Do you know that the same is true for our lives today?

God does not push you out into this big, unknown, dark place and just say, "Figure it out if you can." No, God's eager to speak to you. God's eager to lead you and navigate you and help you. God wants to do those things for you. Now, He may not tell you every detail. He may not tell you everything along the way, but God will speak to you.

When my eyesight began to rapidly deteriorate, I didn't know what the outcome would be and I didn't know what would happen. You know how Christians are. Christians tell you everything. Some of them tell you hang on, some of them tell you let go, and you don't know what to do. Everybody's telling me everything. I had a world-famous pastor, and that is no exaggeration, have an opportunity to meet him. He laid hands and he prayed over me. My eyesight was almost gone and he told me, "You're not going to go blind. God's not going to allow it."

But I had this other little saint, an older lady. I don't know her extremely well. We've just been in some prayer gatherings together. I know her reputation. I know she walks with the Lord. She came up to me in that same season and she said, "Pastor Chad, the Lord spoke to me about you." I'll never forget this. She said, "God is going to allow you to go blind, but for a season, and God's doing it on purpose."

She said, "Listen to what she said." Now here's a world-famous pastor, but let me tell you what this little unknown, nobody knows who she is saint said. I'll tell you, hell knows who she is. I'll tell you that right now and heaven knows who she is. Let me tell you what she told me. She said, "God is going to allow it, but it's for a great purpose."

She said, "Chad, the spiritual sight that you will gain, you will say it was worth it." She said, "Here's what the Lord told me to tell you. This was eight years ago. She said, 'It's only for a season.'" See, just like Moses in front of the Red Sea, I don't know any details. I don't know how the waters could possibly part. I don't know, but there's one thing I do know. God is sovereign.

The same God that created the sea, He can part the sea. The same God that created the eyes can heal the eyes. He's the same. So all I know is the promise. I may not know the details, but I know the promise. I may not know the timing, but I know the promise. And so it is with you, brothers and sisters. God's promises will not fail.

Stand still. Are you at peace today? Are you at rest today? We were driving down the road. Sadie, of course. We were driving down the road this past week and I just told the Lord again. I've told him many times, but I told him again. You know, David said in the Psalms, "I wait for you all the day long." Prior to blindness, I would think, well, that must mean that David is impatient. That must mean that he's like, come on, God, come on. It's been all day. Let's go. I've waited.

No, that's not what I hear anymore. What I hear David saying is, "I wait for you all the day long." I hear David say, "It's my pleasure to wait on the Lord. Oh God, you're worth waiting for. It's my pleasure." Are you at peace? Are you at rest? I don't know when God is going to open these eyes, but here's what I do know. I'm at perfect peace. I'm at rest. I am lying in some of the most lush green pastures I've ever known and it's because He makes me to lie down.

Be still today and know that He's God. See the salvation of the Lord. Now again, Moses knew every twist and turn. He didn't know the details, but he knew the outcome. Brothers and sisters, let me teach you right here. This is what faith is. Faith is not saying, "Well, I'll believe it when I see it." Is that faith today? No. Jesus said, "Here's what faith is: receiving from the Lord and then believing."

Look how unnatural that is. Receiving and then believing. What does that mean? That means you see the victory before it ever manifests. That means you see the healing before it ever manifests. That means you see the deliverance before it ever happens. That means you see the provision before the provision ever comes. You see through eyes of faith, and Moses saw the salvation of the Lord before anybody else did. Do you? You can if you see with eyes of faith.

I'll be swift in sharing this, but it's just so apt to share here. Maybe a year ago, it's been many months ago, I was getting ready to go to bed. I mean, it's 9:00. I go to bed at 9:00. I'm not kidding, I do. It's 9:00 and I'm ready to go to bed. The Holy Spirit speaks to me the most unusual thing. The Holy Spirit says, "Go look in the mirror and fix your hair."

Well, Lord, number one, it's my bedtime. Number two, I'm not going anywhere. And number three, I've not looked in a mirror in years. What's the point? I mean, sometimes you forget and I guess it's just muscle memory. I went the other day and I opened up my refrigerator and I just scanned it left to right. Then I thought, what am I doing? Isn't that funny? But I've not looked in a mirror in years. No need to.

And the Lord said, "Get up right now. Go fix your hair." Silliest thing I've ever heard in all my life. I lay there for a couple of minutes debating and I'm just like, why would the Lord want me to do this? Then I realized it's an exercise of faith. It's an exercise of faith. I got up out of bed. I went to the restroom. I turned the light on. No need for that. I turned the light on and I looked in the mirror and felt like a fool. I took my hairbrush and I started combing and I fixed my hair.

Is that not the silliest thing you've ever heard? But do you know what it did in the spiritual realm? It called what is not as though it were. Faith was exercised. Why would I do that? Because I don't have a timetable and I don't have details and I don't have answers. But I'll tell you what I do have. I've got a word from God. I've got a promise from God. I hold to that promise that God will fight for me.

Exercise your faith. Stand still and see what other people don't see. See what others can't see. When you see no way of escape and you see no way out and you see no answers and no solutions and no hope, you remind yourself salvation is coming because God is fighting for me. Then He says, "Move forward."

It's after you are at peace and it's when you can see through the eyes of faith. That's when God says, "Now go and the waters will part." Let me show you this and then we'll begin our descent. Thank you for flying Preaching Christ Church. You can put your trays in their upright position and we will begin our descent.

Do you remember last week we said, why was the tenth plague the death angel that killed the firstborn of every Egyptian? Why did we say that? Because do you remember what Pharaoh did? He murdered the firstborn of the boys of the Jews. Now, what was the means of deliverance for the children of Israel? I want you to try to imagine hundreds of feet of water.

See, the Bible tells us there was a wall of water on their right and there was a wall of water on their left, and underneath them was dry land. It was nighttime and the Bible says the fire of God lit up the skies. Can you imagine walking down into this massive sea with hundreds of feet of water on both sides and at nighttime? God has lit up the ten, twelve-mile stretch and God says go by faith.

Can you imagine what it was like? Do you know there are some 1,200 species of marine life in the Red Sea? I just wonder if you just walked through the water and you saw some of them. I don't know. I think it was terrifying. I think it was surreal. You can't even find words to describe it. But listen, what became a way of deliverance for the people of God became death and destruction for the people of the world.

So it is in our day. Do you know why Israel was able to cross? We're talking over a million people. The Bible documents there were 600,000 men plus their families plus their livestock plus their belongings. You know what? Not a one of the Israelites was lost. Not a one. All night long, these 600,000 plus, over a million people, they cross on dry land.

I asked my ChatGPT, "Why would the land have been dry?" Oh, she doesn't believe the word of God and it's funny to me. AI does not have faith. It tried to give this reason and that reason. Oh, it's so silly. No, let me tell you. The same God that created the sea can dry the land. The same God that shaped the retina can heal the retina. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyways, dry land. What does that mean? They had firm footing. Christ is our firm footing. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, now verse 29 of Hebrews 11: the people crossed as it were on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. What was a way of deliverance for God's people was a way of destruction for the world.

And you know what, brothers and sisters? One day you and I will cross from this life into eternity. There'll be some that cross on dry land. We'll go through the valley of the shadow of death, but we will fear no evil for He is with us. We will cross on firm, solid footing and we'll make it to the other side. But those who were not in Christ, those who are of the world, no, it will be a means of destruction for them. What was deliverance for us will be destruction for them. What a warning.

Lastly, Moses told them something by faith. Moses said when their hearts were struck with fear, here's what Moses said: "The Egyptians you see today, you will never see them again." And when the waters collapsed back over the Egyptian army, and in the same way that Pharaoh murdered an entire generation of Jewish boys, he drowned in the waters of the Red Sea. The Bible said the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the shores and Israel never saw them again.

Can I give you a word today? You know what this story also means? This is where some of you are and I want to leave you with a word of encouragement. Some of you are right here where Israel was. God's brought you out of Egypt. He's brought you out of the world. Somehow, like some bondage, some oppression, some addiction, some attitude, whatever, God's brought you out of Egypt and you've marched out of Egypt victorious.

The blood of the lamb is over your life and somehow you thought surrendering everything to God would be the easiest thing in the world. But now, all of a sudden, you're in front of an impossibility. All of a sudden, God's led you to a Red Sea and you don't understand why. You thought it would be easy and now you're finding it's hard. Like the Egyptians, that oppressor from the past, it's in hot pursuit of you.

You thought you laid the bitterness down, but now it's pursuing you again. You thought you had forgiven, but now those feelings surface. You thought you were past your past, but now your past is pursuing you. You thought you were past the addiction. You thought you were past the negativity. But here it is in hot pursuit.

Brothers, sisters, I want to give you a word from the Lord today that Moses gave the people of God. The Egyptians you see today, that addiction, that old habit, that past life, that old bitterness, that resentment, by God's grace, you'll never see it again. God will destroy it once and for all.

You know what God's anointing does? God's anointing does not just break the yoke because if it was broke, it could be put back. No, you know what the scripture says? It destroys the yoke. Let God destroy some things in your life. He came to destroy the works of the devil, to make them null, to render them powerless.

So today you're in front of a Red Sea and you don't know which way to go. Let me tell you which way to go. Hit your knees. Be at peace. Stand still. You will see the salvation of the Lord. Start to look for the miraculous. Start to look for the unusual, for the uncommon, for the unexpected. And you'll find that the same God that created the difficulty, the same God that made the Red Sea, the same God that led you to it, is going to lead you through it.

And you'll watch God do wonders in your life. Let's bow our heads today. Are you on dry land today? Is Christ your footing or are you hoping in yourself, hoping in your good, your good intention, your good works, your kindness? Hoping in any of that is muddy ground. Hoping in Christ is dry land. Put your hope in Christ.

Are you facing a challenge today that you don't know if you'll get through it? To you, there seems to be no promise that you'll get through it. But brothers, sisters, that's why you need to stand still today because God has given you promises. God has promised you in Isaiah 43:2, "When you pass through the waters, they will not overtake you."

That's God's promise to you. And you say, Chad, I'm here today and I'm so overwhelmed. Then stand still. Chad, I see no hope. Then look for the salvation of the Lord. Chad, I'm paralyzed with fear. Then go forward. This is the word of the Lord to us today. Can we receive it today?

Did you know that I'm a pastor, husband, and father of four who suddenly went blind in 2018? Today I teach people how life is not random, but it is actually orchestrated by God for a great purpose. Learn more about my story and Awakened to Grace at chadroberts.org.