We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton about when reality sets in. That's right, When Reality Sets In is our message from Dr. Don Wilton today as we study God's Word.
Nowhere available for you at 866-899-WORD and online at www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Well, I want to pray for you today, and here's the reason I want to pray for you. And I want you to listen to what I'm about to say. If you are like me, and many of you are, I hate to break the news to you, but you are. You know, I'm a Christian man, and I do my best to love the Lord Jesus.
I'm trying jolly hard, in fact. And you know, the Lord speaks to us in special ways, doesn't He? I know of quite a number of you that you really are living for the Lord, and you're trusting the Lord. You believe in Him, you're holding on, you're saying, Lord, I know that I can do this. In whatever your life may present to you, it may be a physical challenge, something with a son or a daughter, maybe to do with your work situation, and you trust in God.
This is not about the fact that you have not said, Lord, I'm going to do what you tell me to do. But now reality is beginning to set in. Life is reality.
You know, we say this, and I want to put my tongue in my cheek, but it doesn't work, because it's true. Here's a couple, they fall in love, and they're about to get married, and life just presents everything but love to them. Now, what's reality? You know that, I know that, life is jolly tough. Is there a single married couple that you know that wouldn't get up and say, I hate to tell you this, I know you're in love, I know you're committed, I know you love the Lord, but life is going to present some very difficult challenges to you.
That's reality. And the issue about knowing Christ is that he never leaves us and he never forsakes us. Don't give up.
Don't stop. The Christian life is the call of God to follow hard after him, to be persistent, and I'm praying for you. We're praying for each other, not just when we're on the mountaintop, but when we're in the valley. I want you to open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 13. Very important for you to see this in your Bibles today, and I want to read to you a section of scripture beginning in verse 17 of Exodus chapter 13, and then I'm going to read through verse 14 of chapter 14. So, we're going to begin in Exodus chapter 13, and I just want to say this to you. God showed up, and he set his people free. They left Egypt. God delivered them.
All right, let's read about this. Verse 17 of chapter 13. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer, it was a shorter distance. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and want to return to Egypt, nothing will make you want to turn around more than the challenges of life. If there is anything Satan is going to want you to do, it's going to get you to stop, turn around, and go back.
If he can get you to do that, he's got you. Verse 18, but God led people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. People of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here. They moved up from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went out before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night, both in the valley and on the mountaintop. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
So now I'm in chapter 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp between Phanarath and between Migdal and the sea from Baal-zephan, and you shall encamp facing it by the sea. For Pharaoh shall say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. Somebody right now that I'm talking to has been shut in by your wilderness.
Who are you? You're in the wilderness. I've got such good news for you today, and I want to encourage your heart. Now if I could right now just walk out of here and just give you a big old hug.
You're not alone. Verse four, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, and they did so. And when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from being slaves for us? So he made ready his chariot, took his army, took 600 chosen chariots, all the other chariots and the officers, and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. Satan is going to go after you. He's going to throw everything at you. The devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's going to come at you with everything. Verse nine, the Egyptians pursued them. All of Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and army, overtook them in camp by the sea.
And when Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. I can understand that. It's not a nice thing to lose your job, you know. It's not a nice thing to be diagnosed with a disease. It's not a nice thing to face surgery.
It's very uncomfortable. It's not nice to see everything that you've worked for begin to disintegrate. And especially if you put your faith and trust in the Lord, because you're going to start asking questions. Where's God?
Why did God let this happen? I think I was better off before. Well, let's see what happened to these people. So in verse 11, they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us bringing us up out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, for we would rather be in bondage to the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die out here in the wilderness.
You mean this is what we get for being faithful to God? And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, for he will work for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You only have to be silent. May the Lord write to you.
To be silent, may the Lord write this word upon our hearts. You know, I wish we had time today to go back and rehash and look at all that happened in order to get these people to this point. Remember when you gave your life to Christ? When you look back in the rear view mirror, these people had been slaves for over 400 years. They'd suffered greatly, and God intervened, raised up Moses. And we know the incredible story and how that by the power of God, they were set free. And they left Egypt. Now, when they left Egypt, there were four things that I think we must just place on the table. Number one, when they left, they were divinely directed. That's what the word says here in verse 17, God took over the controls. He drove their motor car.
He became their pilot. And it's interesting to know if you get out the map, and by the way, I just happened to have been to these places that I'm reading to you. I mean, this is an interesting part of the world to say the least.
Very dangerous today. But you know, even the Bible says that had it been left up to the people themselves, or even to Moses, they would have taken the easiest shortcut road. But God knew better. God directed them. They were divinely directed. That's what happens when you leave Egypt.
God takes over. Number two, they were sufficiently armed. Now, it's interesting to me to notice there in that great verse of scripture there in verse 18, that the Bible says that they were armed.
Now, I want you to just ask this question. I hope I'm not being unkind to the Israelites. They thought they were sufficiently armed, but they'd been in bondage for 400 years. I don't think their tomahawk missiles would have actually been very effective against the Egyptians.
They were armed, yes, but they were armed as slaves. They took everything they could. They did their very best. Nobody's faulting them. God doesn't fault them. They did their absolute best.
But in this particular case, their best could never have withstood the might of the Egyptian army. I just want to say something here, folks. You have just gone through a period of time, God has spoken to you, and you've done your very best. But don't ever get to the point at which you believe that what you've done is enough. This is a lifetime. You have to get up every day and have an encounter with the Lord.
This is not just good for a 40-day period. The Christian life is an everyday life. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Don't go away. We'll have the rest of today's message in just a moment. But if you just tuned in or would like to share this message with others, you'll find it on our website at tewonline.org. That's right, this message in audio and video form online at tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Every time you have a conversation with the Lord Jesus and read his Word, he will bless you.
And he'll strengthen you and renew you. They were sufficiently armed, most certainly. I think we would have commanded them. When they left Egypt, they grabbed their sticks.
They said, you know this stick here? But it was no match to the Egyptian chariots and their special forces. Because Pharaoh had all the money.
He could get the best of everything. Number three, they were historically convinced. So they were divinely directed.
They were sufficiently armed. But they were also historically convinced. You know, I looked at that verse there about Moses and Joseph. Why would Moses have invoked Joseph, this one who was sold into slavery, going back to the beginnings of their slavery as a people? And the whole story about Joseph, a marvelous story. And it was Joseph going back those hundreds of years who said to them, God will surely visit you.
One of the greatest challenges that we have in our own lives is remembering what God has done because God has always been faithful. I think one of the big challenges we have in America today is that we are forgetting where we've come from. I look at these incredible heroes in our nation. I mean, you look even going back 100 years, go back to the Great War, the First World War, the Second World War. Our Korean veterans, Vietnam veterans, Desert Storm.
You look at all these people. Did they lay their lives down for no reason, for no purpose? And who are we today? Are we looking back and are we being reminded of what history tells us? Why we are here? Who our founding fathers are? What was the purpose for which we were founded as a nation? This God in whom we trust. When you begin to forget your historical context, you very quickly make a decision not only to go back to Egypt, but to entertain the gods of Egypt.
And before you know it, you begin to worship those same pagan gods. They were divinely directed. They were sufficiently armed. They were historically convinced. When they look back, they could see the hand of God. It empowered them. But not only that, they were practically guided when they left Egypt.
And I love that. They were practically guided. I love that little part there, don't you, about the pillar and the cloud and the light. And it's right there in verse 21, 22, pillar of cloud along the way by night, a pillar of fire. And the bottom line of that was that God guided them practically, whether they were on top of the mountain or in the deepest valley.
He guided them when it was dark and when it was light. You see, this God whom we serve, he never leaves us and he never forsakes us. I ran into a lady this week and she was very, very upset because she's facing a very difficult physical journey. You know, I wish I could say that I did something spectacular. You know, I couldn't heal her. I don't know there's a whole lot of anything that I really could do, but evidently what I did just blessed her and it blessed me. And I just put my arm on her shoulder and I said, I want you to know that I love you and I want you to know the Lord Jesus loves you and he's going to bless you and I want you to know I'm on your team. I'm praying with you too.
And it probably was the weakest, you know, in my heart, I was saying to myself, surely there could be something of substance I could have said to her, but evidently I did. They were practically guided. They were practically guided. You know, I love that phrase, God with us, the indwelling presence of the Lord. You came to worship the Lord today. We worshiping here and in that beautiful, incredible Genesis service and all the thousands of people by virtue of the encouraging word television broadcast. Aren't you glad you're just listening, just worshiping, just reading?
Somewhere deep down, God is giving you a practical guidance. So here these people, they are slaves for all of these years. They've suffered. God delivers them. He answers their prayer and they begin to set out and reality sets in.
See folks, I want to talk to you today about following hard after God when reality sets in. They left, they did it all right. They followed their leader. They obeyed and they got out there, turned around and guess what they saw? They saw a dust cloud and they knew that Pharaoh was bearing down on them and their lives became threatened and they became fearful.
Reality set in. And then to boot, if I might add, they run headlong into a sea. So they got the Red Sea in front of them. They got the Egyptian army behind them. They got no water. They got no food. They armed in a pitiful way, even though they've done their best.
Now what do they do? And it's right here in the midst of all this fear and uncertainty and doubt that God gave to them what I consider six words of advice. And I just want to give them to you today. Six words of advice. I looked, I said, you know, Moses got up there and he said, people, let me just share this with you directly from the heart of God.
Here it is. Number one, be calm. Good old British phrase that be calm and carry on. I served in the English army, you know, so I understand that.
We used to get that all the time. Be calm, carry on. Now how do you do that at the same time? I want you to just think about it. You know, is there anything more somewhat rather ridiculous? In fact, it's utterly preposterous to look at somebody and say, you know, there's an army coming up behind you. There's a sea in front of you. You're about to be slaughtered here. Just be calm. It's like, thank you.
You know, let's go and get ourselves a biscuit. That word that he was saying, fear not, really is better translated. Just place your trust in God. Have complete confidence. Place your burden on him.
Just put it on him. Number two, be firm, be firm. He has the second word of advice. Moses looked at them and he said, be firm, stand firm.
I did a little study on that. You know what it means? It means be sure footed. Keep both feet on the ground. Because if you don't, you're going to wobble.
That's what he was saying. Stop trying to get on a rickety little step ladder all by yourself. Keep your feet on the ground.
You don't have to be able to change the air conditioner when God will do it for you. Be firm, be sure footed. Number three, be watchful.
He makes the statement here. He says, and see the salvation of the Lord. Keep your eyes open. Look around. I can't tell you the number of people that have blessed my life this week.
And I know that you're the same. God will always bring people in your pathway that are going to bless you. When you open, you're going to see God at work.
Look for him. Expect that. And if you're going to be watchful, it means you need to put yourself in a position to see him. See folks, we have a real problem with that.
We spend most of our time putting ourselves out of position to see him. It's a deliberate act. Number four, be expectant. He makes the statement.
He said, he will work for you today. It's like expectancy. It's like, Lord, I'm just expecting at any minute that you're going to do this for me. It's a heart that speaks of such a profound sense of trust.
You just know it's an anchor. Be expectant. Anticipate what God's going to do for you.
Number five, be confident. He says the Lord will fight for you. Now these Israelites, they're looking at the Egyptians.
They're looking at the sea in front of them. And the Lord will fight for you. See, only God could have overcome this impending disaster. Only God could do that.
They didn't have any power. Accept the fact that there are many times in your own life that you, you're not going to be able to do it for yourself. Let God do that. And God will bring in other people to help you do that.
Let us help you. That's a privilege. That's why we're a church family together.
And then the last one, and this one to me is the most powerful. Be surrendered. Be surrendered. That's what Moses said.
He said, you only have to be silent. You know, I thought about that. Wait a minute now. I may be, I may be wrong, but here they were all standing there at the Red Sea. They were all in panic and everybody was talking. Everybody had an opinion. They were all going at a hundred miles an hour.
And Moses was saying, I've got a word from God. Just, just stop. Just stop. Just stop. Just surrender. Stop all your talk. Stop, stop all your opinions.
Just get off your pedestal. Just listen to the Lord. What a challenge from Dr. Wilton as he's been teaching and preaching from the pulpit.
I pray that we'd all open our hearts to what Dr. Don wants to step into the studio and share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me. Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin and by faith, I receive you into my heart in Jesus name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. If you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton to rededicate your life to Christ or give your life to Jesus for the very first time, Dr. Wilton has resources he wants to give you and he wants to pray with you and for you. 866-899-WORD is the way to connect 866-899-9673 and we'll send you those resources right away or meet us online at tewonline.org where you'll discover great resources like this. My book, Saturdays with Billy, is about an extraordinary relationship with a precious man who impacted lives across the world.
You don't want to miss this opportunity to be inspired by his life too. Remember to get your copy. Visit us online at tewonline.org or call right now. 866-899-WORD is our number. That is 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect with you and connect you with that great book from Dr. Wilton about Dr. Billy Graham on our website at tewonline.org.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-06-08 04:02:12 / 2023-06-08 04:11:56 / 10