Positioned For A Miracle

Positioned For A Miracle
By: Bobby Sullivan

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https://www.facebook.com/bobby.sullivan.33633/videos/10163626185955436/

TEXT:  EXODUS 14: 1-18
TITLE: GET IN POSITION
Your positioned for a miracle.

Vs 13And 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 you see today, you shall see again no more forever.15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me” Tell the children of Israel to go forward” 16. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…”

I like the way the LB puts it…..”Then the Lord said to Moses, “quit praying and get the people moving! Forward, march!”

It’s time to transition your position for a miracle.

You may have given up on your today, but God is already in your tomorrow.

NMNM=No mess, no ministry! God does his greatest miracles in the midst of our mess. I do want to encourage you with “Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your way acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

Which for some of us the only direction we need is from the bedroom to the bathroom.

Most of the time we want a miracle without the mess, or a miracle without going through a mess.

Desperation is the set up for revelation. Moses had nowhere else to go. I’m not sure he was a good swimmer nor a good floater. His back was against a wall while pharaohs warriors were on the warpath.

FAITH CAN’T FUNCTION IN THE FAMILIAR!

Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose”

All things work together for the good when God gets involved

STOP AND SEE The Salvation of the Savior, Moses had a destination, but he also had a distraction. That distraction was about to disrupt his destination!  

We always want God to be our ride, but he wants to be our guide.

God always shows you who you are by what he brings you through.

What was God about to show Moses that would make the nation of Israel better on the other side of the RED SEA?

The pathway was Gods provision to the promise land. God paved the way when there seemed to be no other way.

* Why are you praying for more faith when you keep feeding it more fear?

*Quit feeding yourself fear when you’re supposed to be working out your faith

* Stop living by feelings and start living by the word!  Keep your eyes on the miracle ahead and Don’t worry about what’s behind you.

We all need to put the news behind us and keep the good news (THE GOSPEL) in front of us.

STOP LIVING BY WHAT YOU SEE IN FRONT OF YOU. What seems to be an obstacle for you is an opportunity for God

Seven steps to crossing with confidence:

• Challenges Come:

Vs 2. ..encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea.” Vs. 4 “But I will gain glory for myself.” They were literally stuck between a rock and a hardplace. Surrounded by mountains, an enemy attacking, an option to retreat and a sea in front of them.

• Fear Not: Vs 13 “Don’t be afraid.”

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out all fear

2 Timothy 1:7 AMP “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control”

Fear is the one thing God never gave but the one thing he can take away.

Joshua 1:9.. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go.”

How can you tell me not to be afraid and discouraged when this virus is chasing me like Pharaohs  army? I have never faced a foe like this before!

Just because you feel afraid doesn’t mean you have to be afraid.

Just because you might have a little fear doesn’t mean fear has to have you!

We are a people of resiliency not retreat.

REPEAT! I HAVE A DESTINY AND IM NOT DONE!

The real enemy is not this virus, not your lack of income, not your neighbor!  You need to fight your fear not be afraid of it!  Fear will freeze your faith if your not faithful and prevent you from moving forward!

• Be Confident: vs 13 “Stand still”

Philippians 1:28 “ Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.”

Philippians: 1:28 AMP “And do not (for a moment) be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and adversaries, for such[constancy and fearlessness] will be a clear sign [proof and seal] to them of [their impending] destruction, but [a sure token and evidence] of your deliverance and salvation and that from God.

Hebrews 10:35 New International Version (NIV)
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.”  (It won’t be long now)

Has your confidence in Christ ever been compromised?

Turn to your neighbor and say, “My confidence is coming back”

You must focus on Christ in your Crisis!

How many would agree that a Crisis Can Cripple your Confidence?
How many of you would also agree that in spite of it all that Christ Conquers Crisis through Confidence, Christ can conquer your crisis through confidence!  Why? I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me! 

If your confidence has been compromised you need a community.
You have to follow Christ for yourself but you can’t follow Christ by yourself You are a candidate for a new community.

 Confidence comes from a commitment to Consistency:  

     Let’s not get weary in well doing, we will reap if we faint not.
Cyrena Williams was asked a question when she won her GRAND SLAM.
“How do you deal with the pressure”  She said, “I play a lot of tennis”

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded

4.) See the Unseen:  vs 13 “……see the salvation of God”.

Hebrews 11:27 “ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

C.H Spurgeon daily devotions, “These words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand and on the left; what is he now to do?

The Master’s word to him is, “Stand still.” It will be well for him if at such times he listens only to his Master’s word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. Despair whispers, “Lie down and die; give it all up.” But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness. Cowardice says, “Retreat; go back to the worldling’s way of action; you cannot play the Christian’s part, it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles.” But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. What, if for a while thou art called to stand still, yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time.

Precipitancy (rashness or suddenness of action) cries, “do something. Stir yourself; to stand still and wait, is sheer idleness.” We must be doing something at once-we must do it so we think-instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it and expect a miracle.” But Faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, “Stand still,” and immovable as a rock it stands. “Stand still”;-keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”

• Trust him: vs 13 “The Lord will fight for you.”

2 Samuel 23:11-12 (KJV) “But he stood…defended it, and slew the Philistines; and the Lord wrought a great victory.”

“Those who leave everything in God’s hand will eventually see God’s hand in everything.” Author unknown

Isaiah 41:10

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

 John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

• Stay in Peace

Vs 14 “and you shall hold your peace”

Jericho…marched around it and don’t speak!  Why?  Were they Negative? May not have heard the trumpet or talked to much.

Isaiah 26:3 “ You will keep him in  perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trust you.”

• GO forward! Vs 15 “tell the children of Israel to go forward. You have to release your faith vs 16 “Raise your staff and stretch out your hand.

Joshua 3:1-3 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. ² After three days the officers went throughout the camp, ³ giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.⁴ Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.

Ark was acacia wood –humanity and covered with gold-divinity. God got you covered.

12 million people

It doesn’t say (its) never been this way before. It says, (YOU) have never been this way before.

Whether it’s a staff that Moses had or the ark that the priests were carrying, you are to move from your position and follow the power of his presence. I’m not following the pathetic poor us predictions!

You may have given up on your today, but God is already in your tomorrow. 

CLOSING:

Newton discovered gravity and calculus in quarantine.
Shakespeare wrote King Lear in quarantine

The play was acted in front of King James I on Boxing Day 1606, the first performance on record, and it’s a decent bet that it was scripted that year or the year before. As the theatre historian James Shapiro points out, there was a major plague event in London in summer 1606, which led to the Globe and all other London theatres being closed. The outbreak wasn’t as bad as the one three years before that killed more than a 10th of London’s population, but it raged through the summer and early autumn, and the City of London parish where Shakespeare lived was one of those affected. Indeed, the playwright’s very house was touched: one of those who died that year was his landlady, Marie Mountjoy.

Macbeth, conceivably written during the 1606 epidemic, contains a short, knotty speech that would have struck fear into many spectators: “The dead man’s knell / Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives / Expire before the flowers in their caps / Dying or ere they sicken.” As Shapiro notes: “Though less than four lines long, there’s probably not a better description of the terror and malaise plague carried with it.” And King Lear is even more brutally direct. Lear’s right-hand man, Kent, yells at the servant Oswald: “A plague upon your epileptic visage!” Lear describes the “plagues that hang in this pendulous air”, referencing the common theory that the disease could be spread by airborne transmission. And in one of his numerous rants, the King calls his daughter Goneril “a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my / Corrupted blood” – a nastily specific reference to enlarged lymph nodes, one of the symptoms of bubonic plague. Quite a thing to say to your daughter.

If the playhouses had stayed shut and his pandemic-forced career as a poet had taken off, there might have been no Lear – or Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, or any of Shakespeare’s best works.

Positioned for a Miracle, Sermon notes to print, PDF