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00:01 Thank you. Good morning. Of all the uh
00:07 Am I on? Yes. No, I'm not on. Do I need to yell?
00:14 Maybe I'll use this mic. I'm on. Yes. Okay. Good morning. Of all the
00:19 narratives in the Bible, u this chapter probably takes the cake. This is
00:26 probably considered the most exciting, vivid uh chapter uh showing God's power
00:33 in the Bible. And we are on.
00:39 And here are some illustrations. It captures our imagination. I mean, who wouldn't want to be there to to see this
00:46 fantastic event of God parking the Red Sea and and and know I I always wondered
00:53 how would God do it? No. I mean, you know, you know, Moses looks a bit like uh Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, you
00:58 know, imagine him putting out his hand, you know, like some Shaolin master,
01:06 you know, really gives you your imagination. So, people ponder about it. James Cameron wrote a a book about it.
01:13 There was a a story on History Channel how a eastern wind could actually blow
01:18 uh the waters across. People are fascinated about it. You know, here's a kid trying to be his kung fu master. You
01:24 know, everyone is fascinated with this event. And there was a movie some time
01:32 ago by uh Jim Carrey called Bruce Almighty. And the story is quite
01:38 fascinating. And what Bruce gets is he gets the power of God for a short time. And what's the first thing he does? He
01:43 parts his tomato soup. Well, really very useful thing to do. Uh, and of course
01:50 later on Bruce gets into a jam. You know, his sports car is stuck at the back and what does he do? You seen the
01:55 movie, he goes like that. And of course, the cars part and boom, you can go through. And I think a lot of you who
02:02 were caught in a thunderstorm on Thursday night, you would have appreciated this. But here's the point.
02:09 In such a dramatic event as the parting of the Red Sea, the question is this.
02:15 How do you apply this to our lives? Certainly not the way Bruce does it, but
02:22 this seems like such an over-the-top dramatic show of God's power. What has it got to
02:30 do with you and I in our everyday life? And today we'll look at this account.
02:36 And I just want to just maybe give it a bit of context. The parting of the Red Sea is only one
02:44 small part of the whole story. And when we look at the context of the story,
02:49 what it really is is an escape. And for God Almighty, he could have done
02:54 a bridge. He could have done a tunnel. He could have parted the water. Is is nothing to God. And the real context of
03:00 the story is the escape of the Israelites from the Egyptians. And so we
03:07 have titled this morning's message the great escape. What were they escaping from? What were they escaping to? How
03:15 did they escape? And I think these are lessons that we can apply to our everyday life. Let's come before God in
03:20 prayer this morning. Lord, we thank you this morning. Is a good morning and your presence is here with us. Lord, um we're
03:28 reminded this morning uh in your songs of worship that worthy is the lamb, oh
03:33 Lord. worthy indeed is the lamb that all glory goes to you. Lord, this morning I ask that uh the spirit moves here that I
03:41 would humble myself entirely. That every word spoken will be in accordance to your will. Open me to correction. Let
03:49 not my pride be up here. Let me be open to rebuke and really may may anointing
03:55 just flow. And Lord, we're reminded again this morning that you are Jehovah. You are Jehovah Gyra. You are our
04:02 provider through bad times, through tribulations, through difficulties. You are our Jehovah Gyra. We are reminded
04:10 you are our Jehovah n you fight for us, oh Lord. You who broke the shackles of
04:15 the penalty of sin for us. You are our defender. You are our king and warrior.
04:20 And lastly, oh Lord, you are our Jehovah Shalom. that you have welcomed us oh
04:26 Lord in Christ as you welcome us into fellowship in church by the work of the
04:31 cross and we say this in Jesus name. Let me tell you a common way of reading
04:38 the text. This this is this is what most people like to read the text as. And I
04:43 just want to spend a few minutes to to talk about a common what we call interpretation.
04:48 You see we're very fond of metaphors. So the metaphor is this that the sea
04:55 represents your problem. We use it in our language, isn't it? I'm drowning in my problem. No, I have a sea
05:03 of problems. Now there's some truth to that because in the book of Revelation, the sea
05:08 disappears because the sea represents all there's bad and uncontrolled etc
05:15 etc. So the common way of people reading this text and people do it with good
05:20 intentions is to say right this is a story of trials and tribulations.
05:26 The sea is my problem. How should I go through my problem? And then people read
05:34 uh verses like what Moses says in verse 13. Do not be afraid. Stand firm. God
05:40 will fight for you. So that is the common way of reading it. this is your problem. God will find a way when it
05:48 seems to be no way. Now, and I think there are some good intentions in this.
05:55 But is this what the text is saying? Some people say it is about going through problems. The text is trying to
06:02 tell you when you go through a problem, God teaches you to be firm. God teaches
06:08 you uh to to be focused, to not go back. And and that's all very good, but we
06:15 must remember there's only one line that tells us about the Israelites going
06:20 through. It simply says the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground.
06:26 Verse 22, we don't know how they felt. Were they running through? Were they
06:32 scared? Maybe they were like tourists, you know. Oh, look at that nice fish.
06:37 Oh, look at that jellyfish. We have no idea.
06:43 No, better than going to the aquarium in KCC, you know, just walk through the
06:48 we don't know. Now, the way to read the text is to
06:53 first look at the focus. Now, the focus of the text isn't the Israelites.
07:01 Meaning, the focus of the text isn't my problem or your problem. The focus of
07:06 the text is the glory of God. We find it very clearly in verse four. I
07:12 will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and his army and the Egyptians
07:18 will know that I am the Lord. The text is about the glory of God.
07:27 We find this in other writings in Isaiah 51. Uh Isaiah refers to the Exodus
07:32 account and is about the mighty hand of God. But there are two particular uh uh
07:39 readings in the New Testament which I want us to just look at to give us a sense of what the New Testament says
07:47 about Exodus. And and Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 10. I do not want you to
07:52 be ignorant of the fact brothers. Their forefathers were all under the cloud and
07:58 they all passed through the sea. That's an obvious reference to the Exodus to
08:03 chapter 14. But here's an interesting verse. He says, "They were all baptized into Moses
08:11 in the cloud and in the sea, baptized into Moses." Now, that's an
08:18 interesting verse. Without going into details, what Paul is doing, he's linking the parting of the Red Sea with
08:26 baptism. So, let's talk about baptism. After all, we are Baptists.
08:32 I have no idea what a Baptist means. Anyway, I'm a accidental Baptist.
08:37 Now, we have some great news for you. Yesterday, me, Mel, Peter, Richard, we
08:43 had a meeting about our baptism pool. You know, the baptism pool behind you, very oldfashioned.
08:49 There's some good news for you. We're going to do an instant baptism
08:55 pool for you. So, what W is going to do in a new renovation place, there's going to be this great co with a fountain, you
09:01 know, with music. D now you know you know you know the
09:07 church must move with the times you know it's like buying airline tickets you know everything you do online so this
09:13 baptism must have passed all of that so now how you going to get baptized you
09:19 go out there this marrow idol you can blame him he's a pilot travels too much now when you go out there there's going
09:25 to be a vending machine vending machine the vending machine will
09:31 say baptism Would you like to be baptized? If you like to be baptized, please press
09:38 A. Would you like a sermon to go with your baptism? Please press B. Would you like
09:45 a photograph? Please press C. Thank you for being baptized. Have a nice day. Press D.
09:51 It's great, isn't it? Now, why is that never going to happen?
09:58 Not because they have nobody. Because the whole idea of baptism
10:05 is this is not a form or whether it's going to be a mobile baptism pool or a
10:10 big pool or fountain or the issue is the intention of baptism is to remind you of
10:18 what your salvation. Doesn't matter how you do it. Whether it's going to be a musical fountain or
10:24 whatever, if the baptism doesn't remind you of your salvation, the baptism has
10:31 no meaning. Now, that gives you a clue. The clue therefore is the text is not so much
10:37 about us going through difficult times. Is about salvation. Is asking us to remember of how God
10:45 saved us. And Jesus said that quite nicely. He said this in John 5:24. I
10:51 tell you the truth. Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has
10:57 eternal life and will not be condemned. And he says, for he has crossed over
11:04 from death to life. And chapter 14 is not so much about what God will do for
11:12 you when you go through difficult times, but more so what God has done for you in
11:19 that he has saved you. And because he has saved us, how that will help us
11:25 through difficult times. And we want to break the text into three ways. What have we been saved from? How were we
11:32 saved? And what are we saved for? And here the problem with some of us jaded Christians you know we've been longtime
11:39 Christian we say ah gospel story about the cross very boring heard in meland one times
11:46 it doesn't impact our lives the gospel becomes an entry point to our
11:51 life it doesn't become center to our everyday life so it's good for us to refresh what is the meaning of the
11:58 gospel in our everyday life but there's another more deeper meaning I think the
12:04 question is this. You know, just because you come to church and you
12:10 think you're safe doesn't mean you have crossed over.
12:15 Doesn't mean you have crossed over from death to life. The Israelites think they are safe. And you will find from the
12:22 rest of the Exodus story, they are not. Just because I believe I'm a Christian
12:28 doesn't make me a Christian. How do I really know I'm a Christian? Now, that's what the rest of the sermon will tell
12:34 us. And the first part of the text is really good because we are told in the early
12:43 chapters that the Israelites were suffering. They were in bondage.
12:49 They cried out to God. God sends Moses and God tells Moses, "Right, take them
12:55 out of Egypt." And the Israelites say, "All right, let's go." And what happens? We have 10 miracles. And the Israelites
13:01 saying, "Yeah, go God, go. Oh yeah, that's right. You know that's right in your face, man." You know, you Egyptians
13:08 see come on, come on. And we told in the earlier chapters, they walked out confidently. The number story is they
13:15 walked out in full defiance. And suddenly change language, you know.
13:21 Now what do they say? They say, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt, you brought us to the desert to die?
13:27 What have you done by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, "Leave us alone. Let us serve the
13:35 Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in
13:40 the desert." Now, that's quite strange, isn't it? Nowhere in the early chapters do we see this.
13:47 Now, there are few things quite interesting about this this crazy talk.
13:52 Some people say the first point is this. When things are going good is
13:58 hallelujah, Lord. Praise your name.
14:03 When things are bad, didn't I tell you I didn't want to d
14:12 I say I didn't want to. This Christianity stuff is all d
14:18 suddenly truth is very relative. You know, you know when it becomes relative
14:24 when things go bad for us. When things go bad for us, suddenly
14:29 whatever we said before changes. In Malaysian politics is better. There's a favorite phrase I learned nowadays. I
14:36 can't remember. Not referring to anybody. Cannot remember. Other things can
14:43 remember very well, but cannot remember. So the first thing is this. When you put
14:49 a guy in a difficult position, his real colors come out. And here the Israelites
14:55 who have been praising God in Goan who been saying, "Hallelujah, we have a God. This is our Jehovah n our Jehovah Gyra.
15:04 This is the these Israelites, they have seen 10 miracles." And when they pushed
15:09 to a corner, they change their tune. Now, doesn't that sound a lot like us?
15:18 Secondly, have you noticed what's entirely missing from their conversation? Absolutely missing
15:26 entirely. There's no mention of God.
15:31 God has disappeared. Why? Because they see this. You see, the
15:37 Egyptians are the superpower of the day. You know, they're like America or maybe
15:42 America before the shutdown. you know, to qualify ourselves a little bit. Sorry to all Americans here, but you know, but
15:50 you don't mess with the Egyptians. You don't mess with the man. And and you look at some of their paintings, it
15:55 shows you when the Egyptian war chariot went, you look at how they they depict
16:00 the enemy. They are like being rolled over like like, you know, like a bowling alley and a boom. You're a bowling pin,
16:06 you know. So, the Egyptian war chariot was their super weapon. This is their weapon of mass destruction.
16:14 You don't mess with the Egyptian war chariot. And what happens is this. When
16:21 they see it, two things happen. Number one, God disappears from their lives.
16:27 Number two, the fear of man overcomes the fear of God.
16:34 And this is quite important for us to learn in our everyday life. Let me put it graphically. It's like this. You see,
16:41 you're running and suddenly behind you, you see a whole hoorde of the Egyptian army.
16:47 Now, God is still there because the text tells us the cloud is there that traveled by day and the pillar of fire
16:54 at night is there. So, this is what happens. They there see pillar of fire,
17:00 Egyptian army. Pillar of fire, Egyptian army. Okay. Serve God. No, no, no. Serve
17:06 Egyptians. Serve God. Serve Egyptians. I You know what? I'm going to serve the Egyptians. That is the point.
17:13 That is the point of the text. And and sister Kaye shared it really right. You see, for us, you can come to church
17:21 daily and sing songs and all rosy dozy and everything's nice. Hello, brother
17:26 Anna. Hello, brother Peter. Le very good.
17:31 You just need a bad day. You just need to have go through trying circumstances.
17:38 Then you ask yourself, does God suddenly disappear? And why? Because you're so afraid of
17:46 what's going to happen to you. Edward Welsh wrote a book which is great. You know he says when people are
17:54 big but God is small and the book tells
17:60 us about the fear of man how sometimes what is in front of us so overwhelms us
18:07 we forget that our God is faithful and that's what exactly happened to the Israelites. Here is a simple way of
18:15 illustrating it. Let me give you a simple example. Last
18:21 few months my life was very fine. No major problem. Go jogging every morning.
18:28 Sometimes healthy but money in the bank. Never fight with people. My wife loved
18:36 me. I have to say that I don't today.
18:41 But life was great. Life was smooth. No problem. One day
18:47 went for a meeting. Had a phone call from my office. Boss, boss, there's some people in the
18:52 office. I said, who? Oh, they here to check your software. Okay,
18:58 so I I shared this at a beta class. So, one fine day, I get raided
19:04 by the people who check whether you got illegal software out of the blue.
19:09 Let me put it to you very simply. That particular visit, I wrote the single largest check in my
19:16 entire life to legalize my software.
19:21 It made me very depressed. It made me depressed for quite a while.
19:26 So I went back, oh yeah, you know, make money. All the money now gone. You know,
19:32 why you got to write a check? Write a check also like that. No, they send me traffic. Oh, we have checked your
19:37 office. We have found in terminal Z blah blah blah. You have illegal software blah blah blah blah blah. We therefore
19:43 give you x number of days to legalize other we going to come after you and all the rest. Yeah. Right check give. Now I
19:51 tell you the the my first thing the first thing happened was I was very upset. Oh yeah no make money all my
19:56 money go blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And you know what happened in my entire anger? I never
20:04 thought of God. God disappeared. I had to speak to brother David. I don't
20:09 know whether he's here today. He shared with me online know and my wife and then
20:14 the simple thing which God told me was how am I honoring God in this or dishonoring God few number one I speak
20:22 in church no got illegal software what business have I got to stand up
20:27 here to tell you how to walk by the word of God when I'm not honest so God told
20:33 me shame on you that's number one really had to bring me to my knees what business have I God
20:40 makes me a hypocrite. You see, the moment you bring God back, God puts it in perspective. Number two,
20:47 God told me very clearly, hey, not your money, you know, you're only holding it
20:53 for me. And when I learned stewardship and I learned to put God back a little bit in my life, that check didn't become
21:01 so big anyway. But here's the thing I want to tell you. If God is only with
21:06 you on Sundays, he is not God. God has to be with you every day of the
21:12 week and God has to be with you during very difficult trying circumstances. So here's a here's a tip I want to tell
21:18 you. Whenever you go through a really really really bad situation, you pause,
21:24 take a deep breath, and say, "God, what would you want me to do?" That's exactly
21:30 what the Israelites did not do. They blamed Moses, and God was outside the picture. You know why? because these
21:37 things will hold you. And here's a question which we hear repeated in the words of the Israelites. And we find
21:45 this in the verse is repeated twice. It says this in verse 12. Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone? Let us
21:53 serve the Egyptians. Then he repeats it again. It would be better for us to serve the Egyptians. So here the
21:59 question this morning, who do you really serve? And I was really spot on. There's part
22:06 of us that want to serve God. But you really want to know if a guy serves God, you put him in hot water. Uh then you
22:14 really know whether he serve God. And if you don't serve God,
22:20 the text is telling you you'll be serving another master. No one is absolutely free.
22:28 I give you example. For example, if if if I have a self-esteem problem and lack
22:33 of confidence, you know what I'll be serving? I'll be serving my desire to be
22:39 accepted by others. If say for example I um
22:46 I have I like pleasure, illegal pleasure, no mention whether
22:51 online or other thing I will be serving that
22:56 if say I I feel angry towards people. I feel hostility. I feel that that
23:03 know I have life has been given me a bad break. That hate, that anger, I'll be serving
23:09 it. Do you know what we call all of this? It's called idolatry. Simple as
23:16 that. And here we see the Israelites at the point of crunch.
23:23 They are deciding, should I serve God? You know what? Maybe I'll go back and
23:28 serve this master. Yeah, this master abuses me. This master beats me up, but
23:34 I'm scared. So, what are you really afraid of? This is this is another great book which Edward Welch wrote is about
23:41 addictions. And I've been reading a bit of this and this is what he says about idols. Idols
23:47 include anything we worship. The lust for pleasure,
23:53 respect, love, power, control of freedom from pain. The purpose of all idolatry
23:60 is to manipulate the idol for our own benefit. This means that we don't want
24:06 to be ruled by idols. Instead, we want to use them. We don't want to be rude by alcohols, drugs, sex, gambling, food, or
24:13 anything. No, we want this substance or activities to give us what we want. good
24:18 feelings, a better self-image, a sense of power, whatever our heart is craving.
24:26 I think this is really, really true. And we pause about it. We are all in many
24:32 ways like the Israelites. Idolatry is very close to our hearts. We may not
24:38 admit it. Edward goes on to say this, "Idols, however, do not cooperate.
24:44 Rather than mastering our idols, we become unslaved by them and begin to
24:49 look like them. As idols are deaf, dumb, blind, utterly sensless and irrational.
24:55 So those who trust who make them will be like them. And so all who will trust in them. Idolattors lose their spiritual
25:02 moorings. They are lost at sea. Idolattors are controlled by the love of the sirens. This is the way to feeling
25:09 good, pleasure, belonging, and a better selfimage. But they're doomed to crash on the
25:16 rocks. And that's quite poetic, isn't it? Because that's what happens to the Egyptians. They crash on the rocks.
25:25 You know, uh, when I became a Christian, you for those non-Chinese, folks, this
25:31 is the for for all American friends, African friends and non-Chinese friends, and you never been in Malaysia long
25:37 enough, go to any coffee shop, you'll see these three gods. They're in a small corner in in either
25:43 in an altar or in a corner. Now I want to make a confession if especially if you're not a Christian here. This
25:49 morning must be honest. When I became a Christian, I used to I
25:54 used to look down on people do this stupid you think heaven got these three old men no teeth on heaven got no dental
26:02 service. Ah you know I I used to be very condescending you know it was very
26:08 disrespectful. So whenever I go to coffee shop and I see the the folk I say
26:16 you think you die you go up there you see the three old boarding men why why haven't no cannot give you two P you know I used to make a lot of bad remarks
26:23 I used to insult in my mind but here's the thing I want us to pause
26:28 a bit because I spent some conversation with some Buddhists and some Hindus over this
26:33 matter the Hindus have another god it's called Lakshmi do you know what the real idol is the
26:38 idol isn't folks You know the real idol is prosperity, longevity and health. Am
26:46 I not right? It doesn't matter whether it's three or one. It is the intention behind the
26:54 idol. I I I saw a program on TV years ago. It was this guy who wanted to gamble. You
27:00 know, he wanted to gamble. So he had a little idol which he brought. He polished the idol so that whenever he
27:06 gamble oh we not one day this was oh he'll win you know so one day he saw a bigger idol a bigger idol k said I get
27:14 even better so he ditched this idol he got a bigger idol the point was what was
27:20 his god his god wasn't the idol his god was what gambling
27:26 now why am I lab boring on this because if I insult a Buddhist and if you're a
27:32 Buddhist here I want to apologize for my insults I say you people believe all of this. If I'm a Buddhist, you know, I'll
27:37 say to you, you Christians any different? You Christians any different?
27:45 And I I I don't want to insult people from other churches. I'm not here to run anyone down, but there are a lot of
27:50 dangers in the teachings of the church today. Some people don't like me running people down. Yes, I won't. Give you my
27:57 word. But there's a very big difference in honoring God and honoring the blessings God gives. You know and if
28:04 your focus is because you want to prosper financially if your if your focus is you want to have your best life
28:12 now your focus is you want to economic breakthrough what different are you from
28:18 a guy who worships folks it's the same thing because your idol are these things and
28:27 what happened with the Israelites are this they wanted a safe ride out out of
28:33 Egypt. No pain, no problem. The first sight of pain, the first sight of
28:40 trouble, they're going to dumb God. So here's the thing we ask ourself. What are we saved from? We are saved from the
28:47 bondage of sin. What does sin do? He will try to master us. How do we know
28:53 whether in a bondage of sin? Ask yourself, what are your idols? How do you know what are your idols? Ask what
28:59 do you serve? What are you afraid of? That will tell you what are your idols.
29:05 And if we are honest with ourselves, brothers and sisters, we got a very long list. You know, I I know I got very long
29:10 list. So, how do we go past that? How do how do we get rid of this sinful nature? And
29:17 here's the second point we want to talk about. How are we saved? And here's
29:22 interesting verse because Moses tells this to the people. He tells them in verse 13, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm
29:30 and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians
29:35 you see today, you will never see again. Verse 14, the Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. Hey, that
29:42 sounds great. That's what leaders do. But what does God say? Then the Lord
29:47 says to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Like, huh? Didn't he just say something right? So
29:54 why is God rebuking Moses? And here's the cruncher. You find in verse 15 a
29:60 clue because in Miriam when she sings the songs he says to God, you brought out your right hand. Hello Miriam,
30:07 it was Moses who brought out his right hand. And what we see in this text is
30:13 that Moses is personifying the people. He is taking over as a mediator. We find
30:20 this in the incident of the golden calf. And Moses says this after the people sin. He says, "Moses sought to favor the
30:28 Lord, his people. Oh Lord, why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out Egypt with great power
30:34 and a mighty hand?" So here's the deal. I can't save myself for my idols. I
30:42 don't have the power. The more I fight, the more these things pull me back. These things that bring death. The more
30:48 I fight sin, sin fights back. What will save me? I need a mediator.
30:55 And who is our mediator? It is Christ. And how do I get to to internalize this
31:03 power that pulls me from idolatry? Two things. One, gratefulness
31:09 and how it anchors us through difficult times. Let me just bring you through a bit. We find here the Israelites
31:16 complaining to uh uh Moses. You know the text we brought. Why did you take us?
31:22 Didn't you leave us alone? So what what does God do? God does a miracle we have never seen before. Boom. He he he passed
31:29 the Red Sea and the Israelites go through and what happens? And we found in verse 29, when the Israelites went
31:35 through, what did you do? They praise God. Verse 31, and when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed,
31:41 the people feared the Lord. Well, you talk very good, right? If I see something like that, I say, well, you
31:48 know, I'm going to serve God. You know, some people say that. They say I don't believe in God because I don't feel God.
31:54 If God does a great miracle in my life, I will believe in your God. We see this
31:59 again and again. This Christianity, I don't feel it. But if God does a
32:04 tremendous miracle, I will believe him. So end of this service, I I touch a lot of people. People start to fall down
32:10 now. Wow. I'm going to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. Hallelujah. But you
32:15 find that's not the case. This grumbling becomes a pattern.
32:20 Look at the second grumbling. If only we had died. You you if only we had died by the lost hands of Egypt. There we sat
32:26 around pots of meat and at all the food we wanted. Hello, you had no bouet in Egypt. You were a slave. You know,
32:33 again there's the same thing. Why do you bring us out of Egypt and to make us die of thirst? This grumbling continues
32:40 again and again. So here's a pattern to know how salvation impacts us. When
32:46 things are good, praise God. When things are bad, why did God allow that to
32:52 happen to me? That is our pattern. You know, we raise our hands and say,
32:57 "Hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise you, Lord." We clap our hands and we pray to God. But things are bad. We cleanse our
33:05 fist on God and we say, "God, why do you allow that to happen?" And the story of
33:11 the Exodus is a reflection and a warning to us. And what is the lesson here? The lesson
33:17 is this. I want to ask myself and you how grateful are you for God's
33:23 salvation. If you don't make a habit of spending time with God and thanking him for his
33:31 salvation, the little things he does for you, for giving you blessings in life, you will learn to be like the
33:38 Israelites. You make demands. You make demands on God. And God doesn't
33:44 exceed to anyone's demands. So the first thing is this. We are saved by mediator
33:51 by grace, not by our works. We did not deserve it. And that should make us grateful. And that grateful attitude
33:59 should lead us to obedience. In the preamble to the ten commandments, what does God say is I am the Lord God who
34:07 brought you out of Egypt. Because of that, you honor me. So here's the
34:13 question you ask. How grateful are you? And there's one thing that prevents us from being grateful. It is the most
34:20 insidious of idols. There's one idol here all of us have. Some of us got
34:25 lust. Some of us got anger. We got many things. But there's one idol I think every one of us here has. And this text
34:33 talks a lot about it is seen in this guy, the pharaoh. This is the man. And I
34:39 want to just reenact what he did when he came at at the tip of of the Red Sea,
34:44 you So imagine the pharaoh coming out no this king with his super power weapon
34:49 and then he sees boom the waters part and try to imagine a conversation the
34:54 conversation could be something like that uh you know he he could say um you know boss red sea uh look like be parted
35:01 you know how do you think pharaoh will reply he probably said something like that
35:07 we won't we won't we won't say so many words so he's probably like
35:13 no now if you You you are any common sense man. You say hello. You just went
35:18 through 10 plagues. God just beat the pens of you. Your firstborn sons have
35:23 all just died. How how thick are you? And now you see the wall of water
35:29 parted. Hello. Hello. Anyone home? Anyone home? So he's probably there. H
35:36 like that. So, so his assistant asked him one more time, uh, boss, um, do we go after them or do we go back? Uh, this
35:45 answer you all should understand. One, guarantee you. Okay.
35:53 Correct or not? Hey, king of Egypt, you know,
35:60 go back to Egypt empty-handed. More mean man. How can that be? I got 600 chariots
36:08 behind me. Boss, go or don't go. Go back. No face. Kelly, not only Americans
36:14 have face, we also want to be the best. So he does like what wise, intelligent Malaysians do. He goes forward.
36:22 And we call this the price of pay, the
36:27 price you pay for hardening your heart. And there's a phrase that repeated again
36:33 again at chapter 14. We won't go into detail what hardening your heart means,
36:38 but it's a simple English word. It's called pride. The most insidious idol we all have is
36:45 pride. Self-sufficiency. I don't need God. I only need God as a
36:50 visa to go to heaven. I'm not sure whether there's a heaven, but I'll just use him as my visa. But God, thank you
36:56 very much. I don't need you in my everyday life. superpowers not very intelligent even up to today you know
37:04 not very intelligent and and I I don't want to get into argument of this but I I follow this with quite great interest
37:10 and the here's the question I ask you when they finally reopen the government
37:17 you think anyone's going to admit they made a mistake pride in this country to say you're
37:24 wrong is a sign of weakness but in scripture Saying you're wrong, admitting your
37:30 mistake is a precursor to something which is foundational to our faith. You know what that is? It's called
37:36 repentance. Repentance is saying, "Lord, I made a mistake. I see your power. I see the
37:45 wall of water. I'm not a superpower. I'm a sinner. I
37:51 repent. I repent." It is always a case of choosing not to
37:59 believe instead of not being able to believe. There's some in the midst here today who are not Christians who have
38:06 been with us a while. I want to challenge you this morning to come to know the living God.
38:13 And I want to suggest something to you. If you do not know the Lord, the thing that holds you back the most is your
38:20 pride. You take that away and to follow a risen
38:26 savior who humbled himself on the cross, you can move forward.
38:32 Let me just end with a few things. If you don't, you harden your heart. I
38:39 want to end with one illustration. And when you harden your heart, many things happen. Let me just end with this
38:45 illustration. Everyone know this Batman Joker. Joker is probably the most famous
38:50 villain in history. But what most people don't know is the origin of the Joker. So DC Comics did
38:58 one graphic novel of the origin of the Joker. What made this guy mad, you know, and why is he called the Joker? It's
39:06 quite interesting. And the story goes that he was a normal guy like me and you in NBC.
39:11 He loved his wife who had a pregnant baby and then he had a bad day. He lost his
39:19 wife, lost his kid, got framed for robbery, fell into a vat of chemicals,
39:25 his skin turned white, and he went mad. Now, the the the the Joker is what you
39:30 call typological because you follow a comic, he doesn't have a name. You know why he's called the Joker? Because his
39:36 treaties is this, life is a joke. Why? And he says this to Batman. He says this, you know, I demonstrated there's
39:43 no difference between me and everyone else. All it takes is one bad day to
39:49 reduce the sest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. It's all a joke.
39:58 Everything anyone ever valued the struggle for is a monstrous demented gag. Why aren't you laughing? Now you
40:06 may think that's irrelevant. But what happens when you walk into a church one day and a suscept mama blown blows you
40:13 up? How do you go on? I I spoke to brother Darius. He's from he's he's from Karachi.
40:20 No, you were telling me they have gone numb in Pashawa. People go on. Here's here's why we are spending so
40:26 much time this morning on this. What happens in your nice little life? You go back and something bad happens.
40:34 Something so terrible that takes away your loved ones, takes away your dignity, pushes you to the
40:42 wall. Would you still be able to praise God the next day or would you become a shell
40:50 of a person and you lose faith? I had a friend who lost two children,
40:58 two two, you know. I spent a lot of time with him. He's
41:03 from another church. And he tells me I have no meaning in
41:08 life. He's got millions in the bank, big house.
41:13 He goes to church. He says he sees at the back. He walks off. Now why why am I laboring on this?
41:20 Because in our midst there are people who just come and go. Come and go.
41:27 There's no real faith. Why? Because the gospel is not central.
41:34 Because we haven't let go of idols in our life. Because we haven't learned to live a grateful life. Because pride in
41:42 our life and the warning of the Exodus story is when the storm hits you, can
41:48 you go through? And this is what Paul says. I'm convinced neither death nor life, angels
41:56 or demons, present or future, any powers, height or death, or anything
42:01 else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is
42:07 in Christ Jesus. Can you honestly say that is your prayer?
42:13 And if you're going through a difficult time, we want to challenge you at the end of this service to let us pray for
42:19 you that you can walk through this. In the end, God was saving the
42:25 Israelites not from the Egyptians, but from themselves. And the gospel was
42:31 an anchor to move forward in life. 40 years later, a racktack team of
42:37 Israelites finally reached the Jordan. Moses has died. They're very tired. They
42:44 look at the Jordan. They look across. The people will hate them. Yes, land filled with honey and milk, but God,
42:50 this is difficult. And they are afraid. They're very afraid. And Joshua tells
42:55 them this, you know, he he says, you know, word of the Lord, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will
43:01 never leave or forsake you. And he tells these very afraid people, be courageous. Life is difficult, but God will not
43:07 forsake you. But it's a different generation now, a generation that doesn't grumble. And they pledged to
43:14 Joshua, we will follow you. We will go through the waters and we will take the
43:20 ark of covenant with us and we will be obedient to God. And the story goes, as they step through the water, what
43:26 happens? The waters part. Now, we know why, right? Because God is
43:33 reminding them, I am with you like I was with Moses. Not as big as what he did
43:40 with Moses, but God is with him. God is with Israelites.
43:46 You see, this is what God does in our lives. If you're faithful to him, you step out, he will remind you, he will be
43:53 with you to go through your difficult times. And as the Israelites go through Jordan,
43:59 they will face every problem we all face and worse. But God's presence is with them.
44:06 I want to end with our favorite African son, Michael Kina. This is a picture he
44:12 sent to me in Ara. I just end with this. Michael came here five years ago to get
44:18 an education. His dream was to go to England to furnish finish his studies.
44:25 He came up here on the pit and told everyone he was going to go to England. Let me tell you, he didn't make it.
44:32 He didn't make it. He's back home without a job, without a visa, and the
44:40 future is uncertain. But I emailed Michael
44:46 and he spoke to me and he says, "The Lord is with me.
44:52 Whatever the future holds, the Lord is with me.
44:59 Can you say that by yourself? Can you this morning say the gospel is
45:04 so in your life? Whatever happens, the waters will not sweep you away. I want
45:11 to ask the worship team to come up. And this is our verse, a memory verse
45:18 for today. I want to challenge you with one thing. We haven't done an outer call for a
45:24 long, long time. I want to ask the leaders of the church, several leaders to come in front.
45:31 As Moses raised his hands, the people walked. I want to ask you this morning as God
45:38 ministers to us in song, would you be prepared to come in front
45:43 to receive prayer? Maybe you're going through such a difficult time. You don't want to tell
45:48 anyone. Maybe your faith has dried up. Would you let us pray over you? Maybe
45:55 you have a some difficulty, some problems, some doubt. Would you let us pray for you? This morning, we want to
46:01 spend some long time in in intercession. So, I'm going to tell you now, we're
46:08 going to spend some time in prayer. If you need to leave, please do it quietly.
46:13 I urge you to stay back to receive prayer. And as the song plays,
46:19 as God draws close to us, would you consider coming forward to
46:24 receive prayer? Can I ask the leaders to come in front just to stand? Let us go through this song to draw close to God
46:32 and and as would the leaders come, would the pastors come, cell group leaders just come. Don't I I I have no ego. But
46:40 if you want to be prayed over, would you come in front to receive prayer? Put aside your pride. Put aside anything
46:48 that holds you back and draw close to God for God will draw close to you.
46:53 Lord, we come before in prayer. Oh Lord, we ask for your anointing to just move over this hall.
47:00 And if you're sitting there and you're afraid, would you come?
47:06 for he is Jehovah shalom
47:12 and he calls you on a journey on a journey of faith.
47:20 He is your Jehovah n he will fight for you
47:26 and he is your Jehovah Gyra. He will provide
47:32 as God's spirit moves over this place. Would you put aside your fear,
47:38 your anxiety? Would you come to receive prayer? Would
47:43 you put aside your pride to draw close to God?
47:58 Lord, as we coming now to an end of our service,
48:05 if you need to leave, we ask you to just quietly leave. We're going to continue
48:11 to minister to people. We want the spirit of God to just go in our midst that we learn to be still. So,
48:19 if you need to go, would you quietly leave? But we are going to we're going to let the Lord just fall on this place.
48:25 We're going to let the spirit of the God of the Lord just come before us. And I want to challenge you as we continue to
48:31 minister in song. Would you come to receive in prayer? Would you learn to be still? Would you come before our Lord
48:38 and receive his blessing? Would you come now and receive his blessings?
49:04 over me
49:11 in your mighty name.
49:16 And the ocean rise and thaw
49:24 in you.
49:30 Father, you are daily. Oh blood of blood.
49:37 I will be still for you are God.
49:51 My soul in Christ in Christ
50:16 when the ocean rise and thunder.
50:23 I will saw in you above the song.
50:29 Father, you are king. Your word of God.
50:36 I worship you.
50:49 Hallelujah. I will s with you above
50:55 all. You are king over
51:06 and know you are God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
51:13 Lord, just come over this place right now, Lord. Lord, Lord Jesus, would you just fall upon this place right now? Your power be on this place. Hallelujah.
51:20 Lord, would you just come here? Spirit, just anoint us. Anoint this place right now. Holy Spirit, just come in power.
51:25 Come, oh Lord, in power. Come in your glory, Lord. Come in your come in your strength. Break every every spirit
51:32 around you. Break every bondage, Lord. Break, oh Lord, any any spirit that resists you, oh Lord. Anything that just
51:38 prevents us from receiving prayer, oh Lord, just come before us. Come in your presence, Lord. Come, Lord. Pull back.
51:45 Do not let us hold back from receiving blessings from you, Lord. We just ask for anyone out there who's afraid, who
51:51 is fearful, would you break that bondage, Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, in the name of in the name of your
51:56 powerful name, in by the gospel, by the cross, break every spirit, Lord, that we
52:02 will be still and know that you are our God.
52:10 When the oceans rise and thorn,
52:17 I will so we do above the storm.
52:24 You are king over the blood.
52:30 I for you are God.
52:44 So is you above the storm.
52:51 All that you are king over the flood.
52:57 I will be still and know you are God.
53:04 I will be still and you
53:11 I will be still know you are God.
53:19 I will be still know you.
53:33 Lord, we thank you for your presence in our midst as we depart in peace. Oh Lord, we ask for your continued presence
53:41 in our midst. Ask, oh Lord, for healing here.
53:47 We ask for your power, oh Lord. We humble ourselves.
53:53 Now to him who is able to deliver us from any trials, any tribulations
54:01 be honor and glory and power forever.
54:07 We say this in Jesus name. Amen.
