In Focus

This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. It's a treat you back here this week. I'm not sure how many of you were able to make it to UPC last Sunday. We had a chance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mother our sending church here, but it was quite a treat and saw many of you there and I hope that that you missed it. You can go back and I think the message and things like that we post online at some point through their webpage. But it's an exciting journey as we look back and we can celebrate there and reflect. And there's a few journeys in the Bible that are known as well as this particular journey. If you're realizing what we're reading next is 14, if we're the Israelites who have been in bondage and slavery in Egypt for some 400 years are finally being delivered from that by Moses and are now as this passage tells us this morning, they're cornered between the Red Sea, which at this point has not parted yet. Of course, we know the rest of the story, right? And Pharaoh and his armies coming behind them in the midst of this. But just wanted to unpack it just a little bit more because this specific passage has really been something God's been using to encourage me lately and I'm hoping and praying that there'll be some things that might encourage you as well on your unique journey and our journey as a church as well this morning. Some of the things that you may not be aware of in this particular passage here on that is that in this specific chapter here, it's been about 24 days since Israelites had left Egypt. Sometimes you get to kind of miss some of the context of, you know, is it a one-day journey from when they left Egypt and they got to the Red Sea. No, try 24 days. Now, they weren't traveling all those days, at least 17 of those days from the text we can learn that they were actually traveling. How far were they? Do you have any idea how far they were going? We'll try 250 miles. That's the distance that they were traveling. That would mean that on those 17 days, they would have to average about 15 miles a day. Now, that's a pretty good trek for any of us. There's a few of you here in the room that could do a 15 mile trek here today. Most of us probably couldn't but imagine doing it with everything you own, literally, everything you own. Imagine doing it with the elderly, maybe, you know, grandma, grandpa. Imagine doing it with infants, toddlers. Imagine doing it with your livestock. Literally everything you had, everything you owned with everybody. 250 miles, 17 days, 15 miles a day. Part of the time we even learned earlier in this chapter, we didn't read the very first four verses but part of it, we get an insight that God had actually told Moses to lead them and actually have them backtrack at one point. Backtrack at one point, the reason being, so Pharaoh's spies, those who were the outlooks would see and would come back and report to Pharaoh that the people are wandering and to give Pharaoh the impression that they had nowhere to go. God actually set that up. So not only are you traveling those 17 days, 250 miles, 15 miles a day with everything everybody you have, but you're backtracking. Can you imagine that when you forget something on a trip and you have to turn around and go back home? I just want you to step in to what it would feel like to be an Israelite on this particular journey. Imagine some of the feelings that you might have had on this. We're told here's a picture of what's pretty good when a Pharaoh's army behind that and that that cloud by day that pillar fire by night that's given there with here with their backs that have begun to red-see in this particular picture. Pharaoh's army with 600 chariots were told following and closed pursuit, but imagine how you would have felt. Maybe challenge by the travel, maybe bewilder why God had you backtracking, maybe tired, if you're an Israelite, maybe you were confused, maybe you're struggling with doubt already. It's been quite a number of days. Maybe you're even feeling angry, maybe you're feeling resentful, embittered, maybe you're feeling abandoned at this point. Well, you could put all of these, I think, would have been different fears and emotions if not all of them. Maybe every Israelite was feeling at that moment, but they all could probably be put into the category of fear. Some way, some version of fear, some feeling that resulted in fear, but fear, I think, would have been a common denominator through all this. And you and I believe honestly would have felt exactly the same way if we were here. So don't just think, oh, God, that these amazing 10 plagues on Egypt and they should have come out and been like, yeah, this red-see is going to part for us. They had no idea the red-see was going to part. Understand that just how you're feeling right now because there's some of you here that are struggling with fear. Uncertainty about the future, consequences of the past, struggling with feelings of shame and guilt of sin, struggling with your own doubts about the reality is God really there as you really care, feeling with pain and suffering, loss, maybe you need a job, maybe you need a relationship, maybe you have a broken relationship. You can step in and you can enter in the story, and you can identify with God's people. And I hope that you'll do that here this morning. Because I know I can as well. Well, a few things you're following along in your insert that I want you to follow along with. You're taking notes, I'd like to do that. The first thing I want you to think about this is that fear follows focus. Fear follows focus. Now, there's lights. Their focus had been at least to start with on God, not their circumstances. They had seen some amazing things. They had seen the provision of this guy named Moses. Even though he had disappeared for 40 years, he had come back to deliver them talking about some burning bush and some promise that God was going to, he's heard their prayers for 400 years, he was going to deliver them. They had seen God's power over Pharaoh with the 10 plagues. Remember the different 10 plagues that came? As I already mentioned? This would have been an amazing thing. They've been going, wow, look how God worked and moved and how God had protected them with the 10th plague by surviving their firstborn sons if they had the blood painted over their doorstep. Survived. They even left Egypt, were told with flunder from Egypt. They didn't just, they didn't just leave, but they were able to take their possessions and livestock with them. God had blessed them in that way. And as I mentioned earlier, they had this pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night that was guiding them. I mean, how many times have you and I thought wouldn't be great to have the physical presence of God right there going before us? They had it in a way they could visualize and see it. They started out focusing on God in the circumstances of that situation. We're blending out in the distance because they could see God's power and see Him working. They feared God's character in His holiness because they had seen what it had done to the Egyptians and Pharaoh. They feared God's power in glory because they had seen His miracles and they saw this pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. And they probably had a healthy fear of disobeying this God who was a holy and a righteous God who was clearly in charge. But something happens in this particular story, this particular time period here. There's a shift that happens. When I was thinking about this, the sermon as we got thought, what's a good example of this? And I went back immediately to a movie that's actually pretty old. You might see the movie ransom. You know, if you're a parent, it's a terrible movie, do not see it because this child is kidnapped in the midst of this. But without, you know, I don't remember all the details of it, but I remember one scene in the movie here where they've actually had gotten the child back. The child apparently was blindfolded or didn't know exactly who his captors were. All he had heard from one of the captors was just their voice, but it turns out that it was a voice of one of the police detectives. And when at one point, that police detective comes to report and see how the family is doing because the boy has gotten returned to the father. The boy is in another room and he's been back with his mom and dad for a few days. Now it gets him being his dad and he's overly joyful, but there's a point where in the other room, he hears the voice. It's a police detective, but it was the one who kidnapped him who he had not seen, but he heard his voice. In the moment he hears his voice, there's a shift. They might see the movie, remember this? The boy's face turns pale. The boy cannot move. The boy wets his pants literally as he standing there. And his father's going, what's going on? There is a huge shift of focus from the embrace and the comfort of being home with mom and dad with realizing that his capture, because he absolutely recognizes that voice is in the other room and knows he's there. There's a shift in the shift. I didn't know if that movie happened in a second shift for us like that could happen. We can be trusting God in one moment, be seeing his power and work in the very next moment. A circumstance can step in and as fast as it did for that boy movie, it can shift for us as well. Looking verse 10, 10 A, now the very part of those first verse, when Pharaoh drew near the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. God had done all these wonderful things that moved and delivered and worked on their behalf, but they looked back, they're cornered by the Red Sea and Pharaoh in his army, 600 cherished or behind them, and fear follows focus. Their focus moves from God to their circumstances. The shifted to the focus of the Red Sea blocking them, the focus of the fear of approaching Egyptians, the fear that maybe there really isn't a promised land after all that we'd heard about. Fear that maybe Moses really doesn't have a clue what he's doing. Maybe he's making this up as he goes along, fear of returning to be a slave, fear of death perhaps, fears were numerous on that particular day. My question for you this morning though is where is fear your focus this morning and is it on coming from circumstances? Where is your focus, circumstances or God this morning? Because fear will follow focus. When we focus on God we will have a healthy fear in their rightful place. When we focus on circumstances we will have an unhealthy fear in the wrong place. So here's the key point I want you to come away with and think about this morning is to focus on Jesus. The most important thing we can always do and ever do. How many have you seen this picture before? All right, those that haven't seen it, if you stare at this picture right there, those three dots in the middle for about 30 seconds. Something illusion something weird happens with your brain and you'll see the picture the face of Jesus if you turn away. So some of you are going to be like freaked out for the next 30 seconds and try to figure that out on it. But my point is this, as this illustration recognizes is that there is power in focusing on Christ and this is the thing I want you to walk away with and take away with fear will follow focus and that's important. I'm not giving you time to really do this experiment. You can look it up online later because focus fuels faith. Fear follows focus. Whatever you're focusing on will be what you fear. Fear of the Lord or fear of circumstances and focus fuels faith. Very important for us to understand. Back in 1998 at a high school in Tennessee my teacher complained one day of a pungent gasoline like smell in her classroom. The news article says soon after she smelled that she felt ill, felt ill, reported symptoms such as nausea, shortness of breath, dizziness and a headache. And almost immediately several of students in her class started experiencing similar symptoms and before long the rest of the school was stricken. The building was evacuated, firefighters, ambulances and police arrived in the scene to tend to the sick. That evening the local emergency room admitted 80 students, 19 staff and 38 were hospitalized overnight. As you can imagine there's a big investigation. Government agencies came in to explore where the gas smell was coming from and found nothing. No evidence whatsoever. Blood tests were done on all the patients that came in the hospital trying to find out whether they're any harmful compounds found in the blood that would be responsible for these symptoms. Not a single person had anything incorrect with their blood. According to Timothy Jones, a local epidemiologist, the fear of being poisoned had spread, fueling the symptoms experienced by everyone inside. Even the New England Journal of Medicine did a look at this case and attributed it and came up with that term called mass psychogenic illness, which occurs when the fear of infection spreads just as violently as the disease itself. What happened? Well, who knows what the teacher smelled, okay? But somewhere along the way, the focus shifted and the fear moved in and it fueled a belief. So much impression that people literally came up with symptoms and that were apparently self psychologically generated for that. It is a powerful thing. What you focus on has a powerful influence on what you believe and how you act. What you focus on has a powerful influence on what you believe and how you act. You see, we're all exercising faith a some way in some place or another. The only question is what is the object of your faith? And in general, is it on God or in general, is it circumstances in ultimately self? See, focus fuels faith. For the Israelites at the beginning here, they're in this story, circumstances had fuel the faith that led to fear, that led to panic, that led to despair. Look at verses 11 through 12. The people said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken this away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us? Bring us out of Egypt. It's 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. And here's what I want you to note from this. They weren't lacking faith, but the object of their faith had shifted and it was not on God. They had faith in their perception of the circumstances that they were in. They had faith in their feelings of what they were experiencing in the moment. They had faith in their circumstances being the greatest reality of what they could see with their eyes. They have faith in their illusion of control. Why? Because now they have faith in their lack of control. They were lacking faith in God in his promises to take them to the promised land. And interestingly, the response of this kind of faith as it is often is blame. What? They blame Moses and ultimately they're really blaming God.

Focus fuels faith. Now think about the chains that happens here in just the next few minutes. Their focus of God, their focus moves from circumstances on to God as they hear God speak through Moses and challenging them and commanding them and it led to intimacy and it led to courage and it led to hope their shift went to the faith in God rather than their circumstances. Faith in his promises rather than what they were seeing around them. Faith that God is in sovereign control, even if it looks like nobody around them is in control especially them that God has it and this kind of faith rather than leading to blame what leads to if you were to reach chapter 15 is worship. When faith is in God, it feels worship and verses 1 through 21 of chapter 15 is a worship service which is what they did when they got to the other side of the red sea. Focus fuels faith. So my question is where is your focus this morning? And is your focus on Jesus? Why? Because as they learn, as we already mentioned, faith moves you forward. Faith always moves you forward. What you are placing your faith in is what is driving your thoughts. What you place your faith in is what is driving how you speak Jesus to himself out of man's speaks out of the overflow of his heart. What you believe in in your faith is what is driving your actions. Each of us is moving forward by either trusting in self to handle our circumstances of life or trusting in God in his promises despite the circumstances. It's one or the other. Each of us is moving forward by either trusting in ourselves to handle the circumstances of life or trusting in God in his promises even despite circumstances. So those are our two options here which I believe are the ones that the Bible gives us here. Let's look at each of them really quickly. Number one is option number one. Option number one is moving forward and trusting self to handle the circumstances of life. Pharaoh is example of this one in the story in some ways here or a good example of it. It's all about him. Pharaoh is concerned about his reputation we're told in the earlier parts of this chapter. Here are the people that had been serving him. Even though he just lost his first born son here he comes around. Even though he had had all kinds of reasons to fear the living God all of a sudden pride takes over in his life and he realizes that what am I doing? Why am I letting these people go? Look I see them wandering out. They don't even have a place to go. They need to be back here. Pharaoh for example is a great example of someone moving forward trusting himself to handle his circumstances and even though he had 10 reasons and opportunities to realize he couldn't handle him he was going to give it one more try and send the 600 chariots after them. The Israelites were in danger of exercising this option number one too trusting their circumstances rather than God. Their corner between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army and even though the pillar of fires there that night with them they are scared and they have to make a choice. Will they trust the circumstances that are very real around them or will they trust the promises of the living God which is the second option trusting God in his promises and moving forward on that. Look at verse 18 we see what their choices verses 13 through 16 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 who you see today you shall never see again the Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. The Lord said to Moses why do you cry to me tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the people that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. I want you to see several things from this particular section that's why I put it on the screen for you here. One is faith in God always follows a promise of God. You will have no faith in God without a promise of God being given to you. Look here in verse the very first in verse 19 the Lord will fight for you is the promise that's given. Now the promise they already been given that they were going to be led out of Egypt to this promise land and now Moses is going to deliver them safely and so on so they already had previous promises but there's a specific promise in this example here where he says to them I'm going to fight for you. Their responsibility though that was to come along with it look at what it says in the passage here next fear not stand firm. What does that mean? Stop looking at circumstances. Stop focusing on them. You can't block them out. You can't really pretend they're not there but you are a complete control of where your focus is going to be. Trust that God sovereignly has you where you are right now. That's part of what it means. The word the original word there for stand firm means to take a position and to not budge and to be able to do that confidently knowing that God has brought us to this place to this point. I hope you're starting to connect us with some of the things going on in your own life. To not look at the circumstances that are screaming in your face right now. To trust that God sovereignly whether you made mistakes sinful choices whatever the case might be he's brought you to this place and he's in complete control and he wants you to fear not and to stand firm. Because he is about to work and move in your life as you trust him. Because his promises were not just for them they're for us today. And he goes on he says the Lord will fight for you you only have to be silent. Interesting thing interesting command to bring in in this in this context right. Look to him and his promises be silent or trust. I believe it's the real intent of what it's saying here. Isaiah 31 15 a great verse says this this is what the sovereign lord the holy one of Israel says in repentance and rest is your salvation in quietness and trust is your strength. Why is silence and quietness represent trust? Because you know your dad and heaven's got it. He's got you and he's made promises that he's going to keep and he's up to good in your life. So it's okay. Doesn't every child in the room know when it's a loving mother or father that at the right time can say it's going to be alright. We have a perfect father in heaven that has made promises that we can trust in and then he says tell the people of Israel to go forward to move forward in faith. Good reminder that faith is never an excuse to be idle. Faith is never an excuse to be paralyzed. Faith is never an excuse to be passive. Faith is never an excuse to be disengaged. Faith is active. Faith is acting upon an object and the right kind of faith is acting upon trusting God and his promises from his word. So they go forward and the water is reparded as we know the rest of the story. Moses starts first the people follow and they go around on dry ground and by the way just to be reminded it doesn't mean it's easy at this point. If you're like me sometimes I look at the story and as a kid I especially thought wow that was cool. The red sea parted and it was like party time. No okay it was at least 11 miles. People tell us at the nearest point that they would have been on a cross at this time was probably 11 miles it would have taken all night to go across with the elderly with the infants with your livestock with everything you know with the Egyptian army following behind you. You're probably feeling pretty good at this point like well this is looking pretty good for us but they're coming behind us. We can often think that in the midst of trusting God that it just becomes a take walk it doesn't. God is fulfilling his promise that he is working on behalf of that. But moving forward takes faith it takes strength it takes courage it doesn't mean it's an easy time. God will be faithful as he was to the Israelites but it reminds us moving forward in faith. The Egyptians as we know in the rest of the story they end up being wiped out. It was important for them to all enter and important for them to follow them so God in a massive way could destroy all 600 chariots with one swoop of letting the water close in on them. And we're told by they're seeking their worship songs the very night in the next chapter that follows dead Egyptians soldier bodies are washing up on the shore. Different kind of worship service right seeing God's power seeing God conquer their enemies God said I'll fight the battle for you they walked across the dry ground and watched God deliver them. Focus on Jesus why because fear follows focus because focus fuels faith and because faith moves us forward as we fear not sorry mine these were one two three four fear not number two stand firm three look to God in silent trust and four go forward in obedience which is what God commanded them to do in what they did by faith these are God's commands this is what it means to focus on Jesus it always starts with focusing on God and his promises and he tells them to fear not to put their fear in their trust in him rather than their circumstances to stand firm to look in God to be silent let me get real personal on this for you and why this you can probably put connect a lot of the dots for me as God is leading Lord and I to somewhere else new we don't know there's lots of opportunities to fear circumstances right now and I would be lying to you if I gave you the impression that we're just like good and we're like fine and we have no problems because that's not the case and sleep is not always easy every night and anxious moments come and play during the day sometimes and questions and what ifs and what if this doesn't happen and what if that's going to happen and you know and we'll you know what what happens when that paycheck ends with a new paycheck be there yet and what about insurance you know all those kinds of things so this is especially important they got like me to say God says in his given promises which he's given me several to be reminded of he's not going to lead me it's not going to leave Lord and our family he's going to be with us always that he has good plans for us plans to give us a hope in the future that you will not leave us for Seicus that whatever we need he's going to provide for us in Christ Jesus we have those to stand firm and to stand firm trusting his sovereignty in the midst of this knowing that he's got us right where he wants us to look to him and to be able to silently trust and rest let me tell you right now okay I can feel the frenzy day in and day out of like all right I don't know what length in is but figure this out okay you know what length in is if you've ever looked for a job you know what length in is okay man that is like a stressed factory right there trying to figure out what the heck that is you know trying to get your resume out trying to get word out trying to do this and do that my temptation to be frenzy every day is there or I can rest not that I don't act and move but rest and trust that's where I'm at that's where I'm feeling and he's so mean to go forward in obedience to trust him that he will show us what's next even though we don't have it figured out this is just where it's hitting me right now but where is it hitting Christ in him church we're going to spend some time at the end of the service today praying let me tell you we need a fear not as a church you need to stand firm trust his sovereignty in the moment the situation you need to look to him in silent trust you need to go forward in obedience with the spirit leads what about you personally in your life how's that hitting you I put a chart on your hand out there as well too that you can go in and spend some time today or tomorrow this week looking at what does it mean to the focus what circumstances am I tempted to focus on will what it means to focus on God there and what my encouragement to use to look for the promises of God that meet that situation maybe it's like I don't know where I'm going to pay these bills well you know in Philippians 419 my God says fight all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus tagging it up with the promise guilt of sin or shame with sin and tag it up with the promise that focus on God means that he says if I confess my sins he's faithful and just to forgive me my sins and cleanse me from all the righteousness just my encouragement do that fill in that chart some point here see where the circumstances you're tempted to trust in and look to God and his promises if you're not sure there's a promise for that Google's great trust God's say ask for God's promises when it to worry God's promises with marriage God's promises and you'll have verses that pop up what a great tool and then circle those promises which is what I love about the the application we're doing with the draw the circle book the draw the circle book is not saying pray for whatever you want it saying pray about the promises of God clean to his character and his promises look to him I don't know what the red sea is in your life I know what some of them are our lives but God has promised to curious the other side for his glory for his honor and for a credible story for you to share with neighbors with your children your grandchildren you're about one day pray with me God just ask that you would come now and you would remind us God of your glory your power of your faithfulness and God you would come and you would draw hearts you would quiet our restlessness you would remind us God because we will be tempted and we will focus on the circumstances that's going to happen but God would you bring us back would you let us see and focus on you zoom in on your promises and God wherever that is specifically for those sitting in this room this morning will you bring your promises to reminder to them promises to care for them to provide for them to be there for them to forgive them to love them and God may they trust and focus on you and know that they can move forward in faith that you will provide as you always have and you always will so we give you thanks that we can worship you as this kind of God because this is who you are for your