Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, August 28, 2016

Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina

by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister

TOPIC: Trials, Christian Living, Faith

“How To Respond To An Impossible Situation”

Exodus 14: 1-14 (NKJV)

Please turn with me in your Bibles to EXODUS the fourteenth

chapter. And let's read verses 1-14.

Exodus 14:1-14 (NKJV)

1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between
Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea.

3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the
wilderness has closed them in.’

4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor
over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.”
And they did so.

5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh
and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done
this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him.
7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains
over every one of them.
8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the
children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.

9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen
and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal
Zephon.
10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the
Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel
cried out to the LORD.
 11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us
away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of
Egypt?

12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve
the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that
we should die in the wilderness.”
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of
the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see
today, you shall see again no more forever.

14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

INTRODUCTION

ILLUSTRATION

“Nine year old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday
School that day.

‘Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the
enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon
bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-
talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in
bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.’

‘Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?’ his mother asked.
‘Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!’”

Sometimes we all find ourselves in a difficult situation that seems

so impossible it seems there is no way out. There's even a little
idiom we use to describe those kinds of impossible situations. We
call it, “Being caught between a rock and hard place.”

We have all been in situations like that haven't we? Well in

tonight's message we are going to see how GOD sometimes leads
us into impossible situations to strengthen our faith and trust in
Him.
The passage we are looking at tonight is one we are quite familiar
with.

After his people had experienced TEN CATASTROPHIC

PLAGUES Pharaoh finally gave Moses permission to take the
Israelites out of Egypt.

But a short time later GOD HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART

and he changed his mind. He realized he had just lost the services
of TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ISRAELITE SLAVES....which
SLAVES meant
the Egyptians were going to have to start doing all the slave labor
the Hebrew children had been doing. So Pharaoh assembled his
Egyptian Army and pursued the Israelites.

The Israelites had come to the RED SEA and set up camp at a place
called PI HAHIROTH.
HAHIROTH (means “mouth of freedom”)

All the sudden they see a mighty cloud of dust in the distance
that seemingly is getting closer and closer. They soon realized
they were being pursued by PHARAOH and HIS ARMY OF
SIX HUNDRED CHARIOTS.

They now found themselves in AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION

with no apparent means of escape. They were literally “between
a rock and a hard place.”

-In front of them was THE RED SEA.

-Behind them was THE APPROACHING EGYPTIAN ARMY. ARMY
-To their left was an Egyptian Military fortress.
fortress
-And to their right was A RUGGED MOUNTAIN RANGE .

It appeared they had just two options: One, turn and fight the
Egyptian army, which would no doubt result in the death of
thousands of Israelites. Or two, try to swim across the Red Sea,
which would also result in the deaths of thousands of Israelites.
By all appearances, it looked like the Israelites were trapped with
no way out. But as we will see in tonight's message, GOD taught
the Israelites as well as you and me some valuable lessons on
“How To Respond To An Impossible Situation.”

Our first response should be to........

I. RECOGNIZE God Has A PURPOSE For Your Situation

EXODUS 13:17,18 (NKJV)

17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God
did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that
was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds
when they see war, and return to Egypt.

18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red
Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the
land of Egypt.

EXODUS 14:4 (NKJV)

4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain
honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am
the LORD.” And they did so.

1. Had Moses and Aaron done the “typical guy thing” and
not even looked at a map of where they were going
when they came out of Egypt? Had Moses turned LEFT
when he should have turned RIGHT? Had the Israelites
wound up at the RED SEA by mistake?

2. NO! This wasn't an accident.....a mistake.....or a

miscalculation! The Israelites were in this seemingly
impossible situation because that is exactly where GOD
wanted them to be!
3. GOD'S PLANS ARE NOT ALWAYS LOGICAL!
LOGICAL GOD'S PLANS
DON'T ALWAYS MAKE SENSE TO US!
US GOD DOESN'T DO
THINGS THE WAY WE WOULD DO THEM. GOD DOESN'T
THINK THE SAME WAY WE THINK!

GOD is WISER and SMARTER and STRONGER and GREATER

than you and I would ever hope to be!

4. GOD led the Israelites right into this impossible

situation on purpose! And there are two reasons why
He did it: First, so that His glory, and power might be
seen by both, the ISRAELITES and the EGYPTIANS. And
secondly, to teach the Israelites to put their complete
FAITH and TRUST in Him!

5. You and I need to understand that the events and

circumstances that come into our lives don't happen
by fate or by accident.

In our human way of thinking, we believe our lives

would be better if we lived stress-free.....problem-free....
trouble-free lives.......sorrow-free lives. But GOD in His
great wisdom knows better.

6. GOD knows that “impossible situations” teach us

valuable lessons we would never learn otherwise.

-Impossible situations break us of our INDEPENDENT

spirit and teaches us just how DEPENDENT we truly
are upon God.

-Impossible situations HUMBLE us by revealing just

how WEAK we are and how much we must rely upon
God's STRENGTH.
STRENGTH.
 -Impossible situations teach us just how LIMITED
our human WISDOM is and how desperately we need
God's WISDOM to guide us.

7. So any time you and I find ourselves in a seemingly

impossible situation, whether its a family situation....
or a tough situation at work.... or a serious health issue ...
or a serious financial problem or whatever......our
whatever...... response
should be, “Father, I may not like this circumstance and I
may not understand it, but I know You have allowed me to be
in this circumstance for a reason. Help me to be patient and
to put my faith and trust in You.

Now here is what our second response should be to an impossible situation.......

II. REGAIN God’s PERSPECTIVE On Your Situation

1. Seeing the RED SEA in front of them and THE EGYPTIAN

ARMY behind them, the Israelites did exactly what many of
us do when we find ourselves “caught between a rock and
a hard place”............THEY PANICKED!

v. 11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in

Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why
have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?

v.12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us
alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would
have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that
we should die in the wilderness.”
2. WHY DID THE ISRAELITES PANIC? Because they lost their
their PERSPECTIVE on their situation.

-GOD had protected them from the TEN PLAGUES

-GOD had spared their FIRSTBORN FROM DEATH.
-GOD had SECURED THEIR RELEASE FROM THE
EGYPTIANS.

3. But now, confronted with this IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION

they have forgotten all that! Rather than responding
with FAITH and TRUST in the GOD who had already done
all these marvelous things for them, they looked for
“the easy way out of their situation.”

In essence what the Israelites were saying was, “We

know we can't fight Pharaoh's army and win, and we know
we can't swim across the Red Sea and survive, so we will
just surrender and go back to Egypt and continue being
Pharaoh's slaves.

4. Do you see their thought process? “We don't have the

answers.” “We don't know what to do.” “We can't handle
this situation” ........so the best thing for us to do is GIVE UP
........QUIT......SURRENDER!

5. When we find ourselves in a seemingly impossible

situation don't we tend to do the same thing? “I don't
know what to do,” “I don't know where to turn,” “I can't
handle this,” “I'm whipped!” “The best thing for me to do
is to give up.......quit......and throw in the towel!”

6. Of course that's how we are going to respond when we

look at our impossible situation from our own human
perspective. But what if we looked at our impossible
situation from GOD'S PERSPECTIVE?
 7. Don't ever forget this! GOD never looks at our
impossible situations the same way we look at them.

Where we see HOPELESSNESS God sees HOPE!

HOPE

Where we see IMPOSSIBILITIES God sees POSSIBILITIES!

POSSIBILITIES

Where we see DEFEAT God sees VICTORY!

VICTORY

Where we see OBSTACLES God sees OPPORTUNITIES!

OPPORTUNITIES

Where we see DARKNESS God sees DAYLIGHT!

8. You see, when we look at our impossible situation

through the eyes of FAITH rather than through the eyes
of FEAR,
FEAR, we gain a whole new perspective on our
situation that gives us COURAGE and CONFIDENCE that
GOD HAS EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL!

When we find ourselves in an impossible situation, our FIRST

response should be to RECOGNIZE God Has A PURPOSE For Your
Situation. Our SECOND response should be to REGAIN God's
PERSPECTIVE On Your Situation.

Our third response should be to.........

III. RELY On God’s PROMISES In Your Situation
v. 13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see
the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For
the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more
forever.

v. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

1. Look at the “iron-clad” promises God gives the Israelites.

Promise 1: “Today you will see the SALVATION of the

LORD!”

Promise 2: “The Egyptians whom you see coming up

to attack you from behind, you will never
see again after today.”

Promise 3: “I will fight this battle for you.”

2. WOW! GOD was promising the Israelites that He was

going to make the impossible possible! He guaranteed
their DELIVERANCE through the Red Sea in front of them
and the DEFEAT of their enemies behind them!

3. All the Israelites had to do was put their FAITH and

TRUST in the promises of GOD!

4. That is all GOD asks us to do when we find ourselves in

an impossible situation!
 5. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

- If God is for you, what enemy can defeat you?

-If God is for you, what obstacle can stop you?

-If God is for you, what situation can ruin you?

6. You see, when you and I find ourselves in a seemingly

impossible or hopeless situation, and our heart is
weighed down with despair and discouragement, and
our spirit is crushed, BY FAITH WE CAN STAND ON
GOD'S PROMISE TO WORK ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR
OUR GOOD! (Romans 8:28)

****************************************************
CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATION: I will never forget something my third grade teacher, Mrs.

Olive Canada used to say to us. She said, “Don't ever say I CAN'T.
CAN'T. Remove the
word CAN'T from your vocabulary. Always say, “I can!”

Isn't that what the scriptures teach us? “I can do ALL THINGS
through CHRIST who gives me the strength.”

Brothers and sisters, THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS A GOD OF THE

IMPOSSIBLE! Luke 1:37 (NKJV) says, “For with God nothing will be
impossible.”

(See Chuck Swindoll summary on next page)

As we close I want to share this interesting observation on this
passage by Chuck Swindoll:

“The Red Sea is just as much a part of God’s plan as crossing it. A
predicament in God’s hands is only a highway to the Promised Land.
Why does God allow these predicaments to happen in our lives?
Because it often takes these tight place to get us to look up to Him
for our help. “It may be that you have developed a rather
materialistic lifestyle. Like Moses, and the children of Israel you
have rubbed shoulders with folks in Egypt most of your life. You
work with Egyptians. Think like Egyptians. Read Egyptian news-
papers. Listen to Egyptian music. Do commercial battles with
Egyptian entrepreneurs. You’re in the competitive world of the
Egyptians, so its only natural that you react like them.” (We must
always remember that WITH GOD THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS
IMPOSSIBLE !)

[Charles Swindoll. Moses: A Man of Selfless Devotion. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1999). p. 223.]