Well, good morning y’all. It is so good to see you. You may take your seats.
It is a privilege, privilege, privilege to be here in New Zealand with you again.
I just have so many incredible memories of two years ago when I was here.
So to have an opportunity opportunity to come back and to be with all of you at this incredible church is a joy for me.
Not to mention so many of incredible women of God that are also here.
This this weekend, you are going to just love hearing from Wendy Treat and Laura Togs and from Dr Carolyn Leaf.
They are some of my favorite people and I love that God is going to speak through them to all of us this weekend.
So to be able to partner with them in that effort is a, is a real joy for me.
I also have thought about the fact that there are quite a few sessions that you’re going to be in over the course of this weekend.
There is a lot that God is going to share with you and that He is going to want you and I to inscribe on our hearts and to read, adapt and adjust our lifestyles too because, you know, God does not speak to be hard.
He speaks to be obeyed. And so the reason why you’re here is because he has a word specifically for you.
That is why he brought you. That’s why he allowed you and I to be in this place.
And I was thinking about the fact that when I was on my way here, I had a trip a week or so ago.
And so my bag has kind of just sat in my bedroom wanting to be unpacked but not quite unpacked.
Does that ever happen to you where you just kind of get home?
But don’t really ever unpack and I’d kind of forgotten about the bag.
It was just kind of sitting there in the corner of my bedroom.
So as I began to pack for New Zealand to come here and to have an opportunity to be with you, I kind of set everything out on the bed and kind of got everything lined up, you know, all the different stacks of things that I needed to put in a suitcase.
And my boys were in the room with me and they were talking as I was packing and, and then it was time I had everything laid out, it was time to put it in the bag.
So I went over to the bag with my first stack ready to put it in.
Lifted up the cover of my suitcase realizing that there was actually no room to put the new stuff in because I had forgot to take out any of the old stuff.
And I thought that it is so like me in my relationship with God too, I come to the next Sunday morning or to the next conference and God’s got new stuff to give me.
The only thing is I have not unpacked what it is. He has already done that.
I have not done business with what God has already shared with me.
And so I thought that just for a few moments this morning before you and I go in together to this full day where God is going to set a banquet feast in front of us.
Listen, everything God wants to feed me. I want to feast on anybody with me on that.
It’s the worst thing in the world when there is a banquet feast in front of you, but you’re too full.
Isn’t that the worst? Like if there is extra chocolate, I wanna eat it.
And so God has laid out a banquet feast for us today.
What if we just pray and ask the Lord to help us to unpack steadily all day long, everything that he shares with us, to inscribe it, not only in our hearts, but to make strategic decisions and plans to live out what he shares with us so that we always have room for Him to continue to fill us up.
Let’s pray together, Lord Jesus. Thank you so much for this wonderful privilege and treat that we have to be in your presence.
Lord, we do not take it for granted that you the God of the universe would want to meet with us, speak to us that you would allow us to be in room.
There is not one of us under the sound of my voice that is here by accident or by chance you plan this from the very foundation of the world.
So I pray Lord that every spiritual ear will be open to hear your words starting with me all the way to the back of this room.
Lord, our ears are open. We want to hear what you have to say.
And so Lord just like your servant Samuel, we say speak Lord because we are listening.
We are making a commitment in advance to unpack the bags.
Lord to do something with what you give us today. Thank you Lord.
In Jesus name, Amen, my sister and I have this habit, my sister, my mother and I have this habit that when Thanksgiving rolls around in the US, we go on this little five K walk run together.
It happens on Thanksgiving morning every single year in the Dallas Fort Worth area, which is where I live in Texas in the States.
And this, this run that happens on Thanksgiving morning is called the turkey trot.
And so we go out for the Turkey trot. It is a lot of fun.
I mean, there might be 50,000 people that are out there for the Turkey trot.
And so we all go out there early in the morning. It’s kind of cool.
You’ve got your, they serve some hot chocolate out there and it’s just a fun kind of family thing to do together.
When our kids were real little, we would take our strollers out there and we would all push our strollers during walk or run.
You’re supposed to be running most of the time we walk and we would do this little run together, this adventure together on Thanksgiving morning.
For some reason, this past Thanksgiving, we missed it. It just kind of Thanksgiving snuck up on us.
We hadn’t registered for it in time and so we missed it.
So as Thanksgiving came and went and the Christmas holidays approached.
My sister got online and started to look for another run that we could participate in because it’s kind of a tradition of ours to do something.
And my mom was going to be traveling so she was going to be away.
But Crystal and I, my sister and I, we still wanted to do this run.
She found the jingle Bell run. It’s another run that takes place annually in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
We were so excited about the jingle Bell run.
One of the reasons we were excited is because it happens at night and it would be fun to run at night with 30,000 people and some folks, because it is a holiday run.
They come out there with, you know, reindeer antlers on a little band that’s on their head.
Or they’ve got these glow lights wrapped around their necks or around their wrist. People have jingle bells.
In fact, they pass out jingle bells when you arrive that you can tie on the shoelaces on your tennis shoes.
So it’s just 30,000 jingle bells are ringing as everybody runs through the night. It’s a whole lot of fun.
They serve you hot chocolate when you get to the end of the three miles.
And we actually did run these three miles this past Christmas for the jingle bell run and the run went right through an area of Dallas Fort Worth called the Design District.
Now, I wasn’t real familiar with the design district district.
I have lived in the Dallas Fort Worth area my entire life, but I haven’t really kind of gone into the depths of the design district, but I know exactly where it is and what it is.
If anybody were to have ever asked me about the design district, I would be able to point it out to them.
In fact, most people in the Dallas Fort Worth area, even if they’ve not gone all the way into the design district, they know where it is because the main freeway that passes right through the city of Dallas is highway 35 Life.
And when you are driving north on the highway 35 or south on highway 35 there is a huge sign, a giant billboard right off the freeway where the design district is that says the design district.
This is where a lot of interior designers and artists and photographers, people like that, that have their own studios and things like that.
They kind of are stationed in this little area. So I knew exactly where it was.
But this area started at a hotel that is in or this particular run started at a hotel that is in the area of the design district and wove throughout the streets of that particular area.
It’s the first time I’d ever had an opportunity to kind of get into it and go through it.
And so there we were running through the little streets of the design district and every now and then I would, I would tell my sister, I needed to stop to see something interesting.
Really. I just needed to catch my breath, but I would run for a little while and I would look at a studio, a wonderful studio that had art lining the walls.
I would kind of look in the windows and see the art lining the walls or the beautiful interior designs that some decorator had put together in her showroom.
And I was very intrigued every few minutes to just stop and see a cute little cafe that I never knew was there.
I’ve been in Dallas my whole life and I’d never seen that photography studio or that artist studio or that decorator showroom.
I’d never seen any of these details, even though I knew about it and had seen it from afar.
I didn’t know any of the details of it until I went through it in your relationship with God and in my relationship with God, it is not enough for him, for him to have Children that just know about him from afar that are able to point other people in his direction because you know, they’ve been to church all their lives.
And so, yeah, this is God. These are the scriptures.
You know, I read a verse a day to keep the, keep the devil away.
So, you know, I’ve got a few little things in my arsenal to share with you about God.
That’s not good enough for him. He wants you to know the details. He wants you to know his character.
He wants you and I to be introduced to what he loves and what he doesn’t love what he likes and what he doesn’t like what his personality is, what his plan is for you.
But most of the time, the only way that you and I will ever encounter the details of the character of God is when he takes us through something, when he allows us to be in a scenario in our lives that honestly, we don’t particularly care for that we have to go through in the power of the Holy Spirit girded by the strength of God around us.
And it’s as we go through that particular season in our life or that particular um situation or issue that occurs in our marriage or our finances or our singleness or on our job or in our ministries.
It’s when we go through it, that we really get to see who God is.
And if we were to take this little microphone that I have on and pass it around this room starting at the very front row all the way to the very back.
The reality is that if we were to give our testimony about the times we’ve really learned about who God is for the most, for the majority of us, it would be during a season where we had to go through something and we learned, we really learned what it means to lift our hearts up to God in prayer, to lean on him, to trust Him, to have faith in him.
All of that stuff is matured in our life when we go through some, I wonder if there is anybody in the room this morning that’s going through something.
Anybody just me. Yeah, through something when you’re going through something.
And by the way, if you’re not go going through anything this morning, we want to say we are happy for you.
But each and every one of us in this room are in one of three places in our life.
We’re right. We’re either right smack dab in the middle of something right now, on our way into something or on our way out of something.
Jesus said in John 1633 in this world, you will have trouble.
You don’t have to go looking for trouble, just keep living in trouble. We’ll come and find you.
But it’s while you and I go through it that we get to really see the details about who our God is and listen, he wants to be known.
He wants to reveal himself to you.
He doesn’t want you and I to be satisfied just hearing about him at the conference or at church.
He’s so glad that we hear about him.
But he wants and you and I should want more than anything to experience this God of the Bible that the same power we see demonstrated in the miracles of scripture.
They become the reality of our life that we don’t just think this stuff is good for other people that, that we believe it’s true for us as well.
That the same God who divided the Red Sea is the same God who can divide the problems of our life.
The same God who raised Lazarus from the dead is the exact same God who has the strength and the power to raise to life, something in your life or in mind that seems like it will never be resurrected again.
He wants to be known. And so he takes you through it.
He allows you to go through it for the privilege of bringing you out on the other side, bringing me out on the other side.
More fully aware of the glory of God.
If you have your Bibles with you and you want to turn with me.
If you actually still use a Bible with paper pages like I do or if you’ve got your ipad, your iphone, any manner of Ius, just flip on over to Exodus chapter 14, think they’re going to put it on the screens as well.
Exodus chapter 14 as you turn there, let me just tell you that the Children of Israel have been released from about 400 years of captivity and they are on a journey in the wilderness, headed toward the promised land and in the midst of this adventure with God, he’s going to take them through something.
There’s a problem, there’s a scenario, there’s a situation, there’s a difficulty that they cannot figure out for the life of them, how they’re going to be able to get across this difficulty so that they can move forward with God.
Just like so many of us that are in a group this size, there have to be more than a handful of us who are right now staring at what looks like a very impossible and seemingly impassable situation.
And you cannot, for the life of you figure out how you’re going to be able to get through this thing so that you can move forward to what it is that God has for you.
The Children of Israel know exactly how you feel if you’ve ever been in that scenario because as they try to move forward towards the land of milk and honey that represents the grace and the favor, the promises, the provision of God and the land of Canon.
They come across a problem called the Red Sea. Verse 13.
Moses says to the people do not fear, stand by and see the salvation which he will.
Somebody say he will come on say he will, he will accomplish for you today.
For the Egyptians whom you’ve seen today, you will never see them again forever.
The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.
I’m gonna read those two verses again.
Moses said to the people don’t make excuses about why you can’t get over the Red Sea, no excuses.
He says, I’m gonna tell you four things that will take you through and onward with God.
He says, do not fear because ain’t nobody got time for that.
He says, stand by and see the salvation which the Lord will accomplish for you today.
The Egyptians whom you’ve seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you.
He’s got your back while you keep silent.
Four things I want to share with any of you that are going through something right now in your life or that will ever go through something in your life.
That’s all of us. Moses says to the Children of Israel, the four exact things that the Holy Spirit of God wants to say to you.
And I today he says, be fearless, do not fear. He says, be still stand by.
He says, be watchful, see the salvation of the Lord.
And he says, be quiet, right?
You and I are going to do business with these four little very simple things.
These are actually very foundational of so simple things that sometimes the power of them, the potency of them can be lost on us because they sound so simple.
And if I were the enemy, if I were your enemy, what I would want to do is devalue the importance of the most significant weapons that you have.
If I could get you to think that the simple things were not critical to your success, to getting through something with your head held high in the power of God.
If I were your enemy, I would want to disarm you of the very things that I knew were your ticket to success.
I want to hand you back the power.
My friend of the four things that Moses tells the Children of Israel is their ticket through so that they can move forward with God the very first.
And I think most critical of the four is that Moses says to the Children of Israel be fearless.
He says, do not be afraid. This principle of choosing to live fearlessly.
Oh my goodness, you and I in the church of Jesus Christ across the planet and especially in this Bible teaching church have heard so much about this issue, this principle of being fearless, of not being afraid.
We’ve heard it so much that sometimes we wonder whether or not we should even talk about it anymore because we’ve all just heard it so much that that fear can paralyze us.
We wonder if I even sometimes wonder man is a little waste of time to spend too much time this morning.
On this one principle, I thought about that this morning before I came.
They’ve heard that all before, but it is fear that the enemy will use more than anything else to cripple you and to cause you to be disabled from doing what God has for you.
That’s why Moses needed to say to the Children of Israel.
The exact same thing God’s spirit wants to say to you again this morning.
Do not be afraid y’all. This issue of fear.
It is important And it was so critical that in the scriptures, some rendition of this command is given over 300 times.
It is said in different ways, different variations, but it’s basically the same thing, fear not, do not be afraid, be fearless, fear, ye not over and over and over again in different ways.
God wants to say to us the exact same thing.
In fact, it is so critical and so important to him.
He gets to the New Testament and Paul writes a letter to a young man named Timothy and he says, Tim, this is what you need to know that he has not given us a spirit of fear.
He says of all the important things, Timothy that you need to know in your life.
And in this ministry that God is sending you through too, as you go through things in this journey of life that you will inevitably go through.
He says, would you remember that what our God does not give?
And by the way, our God is in the gift giving business.
But one thing that He will never wrap up and tie a bow on to give to you is fear.
He just doesn’t do fear. That’s just not the way he rolls.
He gives power and love and a sound mind.
Look at the woman next to you and say, girl, you have a sound mind.
You are not insane. You are not crazy because the reality is sometimes we don’t feel that we have a sound mind, do we?
We hit the right traffic jam on the right day.
The kids have the right argument in the right setting, the chores that we have lined up at our job or in our home.
If they line up in just the right way or overwhelm us too much.
We can begin to forget that we do in the power of God. Have a sound mind.
I cannot wait for Carolyn Leaf to get up here and talk to y’all about having a sound mind.
I love it so much.
He does not give fear, he gives sound mind and I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just need to be, need to be reminded by God that I am not crazy that I am not insane.
Sometimes I feel like I have six different people in my brain talking to me all at the same time.
Anybody know what I’m talking about. There’s just so much going on in your life.
But what God does give to you is that sense of strength and stability to carry you and I through whatever it is that He brings into our life or allows into our lives.
He does not give for you.
If we believe that our God does not give a spirit of fear, but you find, or I find in my life that there is a spirit of fear attached to something specific in your life or in your journey, an opportunity that you’re intimidated by a relationship, an endeavor, a ministry, a um an interest of yours that just seems to cause you to feel a little bit paralyzed and insecurity of fear or fear.
If you and I know what we know now based on the scriptures that God does not give fear, but you sense that there is a spirit of fear attached to something in your life.
And you know, God didn’t give it. That means, you know, who did.
And if the in enemy has placed a spirit of fear on something in your life, it must mean that he is trying his best to keep you away from something.
And if he’s trying to keep you away from it, that must mean there’s something in it that he does not want you to have.
So as the Children of Israel sat on the edge of the red sea.
If they were to shrink back in fear and not pass through it, then he knew if he could keep them from passing through it, they would also be kept from the promised land on the other side of it.
Listen, my friend, if the spirit of fear is attached to something in your life, would you know that that is likely the enemy’s way to keep you from passing through it because He knows if you pass through it on the other side of it is the destiny to which God has called you.
And so one of the main ways that He will keep you an eye from achieving what it is and doing what it is that God has called us to do.
And who he’s called us to be is that he will attach a spirit of fear to the very thing that He knows is the channel way to your destiny.
He wants you and how to be so paralyzed, so crippled, so disarmed, so disinterested from the very thing that He knows is exactly what God wants to take you through so that He can bring you to a new place in Him.
Do not be afraid. One of the ways that I can even begin to discern the Lord’s leading in my life, I will tell you this.
If there are two things in front of me, two options.
And I’m trying to make a decision between A or B and honestly, there’s one of them that I just don’t feel drawn to at all and I’m leaning towards the other one.
But as I pray through it, when I’m trying to discern God’s leading in my life, as I pray through it, when I whittle down all of the reasons why I don’t want a particular option.
If when I get to the bottom root level of the reason why I don’t want something, if there is any intimidation or insecurity or fear attached to the reason why I do not want to choose something, I automatically assume that if the enemy is working that hard to keep me away from that thing, there must be something in it that he does not want me to have.
And I don’t know about you.
But when I find out that the enemy is behind something, a holy indignation rises up on the inside of me.
Anybody know what I’m talking about because everything God has for me, I want anybody with me on that do not be afraid.
Now, listen, it does not mean that you won’t feel fear.
It made sense in this scenario that the Children of Israel would be afraid. It made complete sense.
They had just been in 400 years of captivity.
They are just several days, really just hours even into the wilderness when they come up against a barrier that seems to board them in.
It seems like they’re going to be kept from walking into true freedom.
It makes sense that they would be afraid because not only is this body of water in front of them that they can’t see across, nor can they see a shoreline on the east or west.
But the problem is that now Pharaoh and his army is coming up on the rear and listen, scholars say that this army would have been so wide and so vast that they likely would have spanned around the east side and the west side of the Hebrew pilgrims.
So not only are they blocked in front and not only are they blocked by an army in back, but really, they are blocked on either side as well.
In other words, they are completely surrounded, you know what it’s like to be surrounded, you know what it’s like to, to fix this problem right here.
Only to turn this way and realize there’s a problem right here.
Then to take care of this one, only to realize there’s another one here and another one here.
Anybody ever known what it felt like to be completely surrounded on all sides, the Children of Israel know how it feels.
And it makes sense that in their scenario, that they would be afraid, just like it makes sense that in your scenario, with the difficulty you’re facing right now in your marriage or in your health or in your finances, in your own hearts, in your parenting that with difficulties, like the ones we saw on these screens with these four incredible testaments to the grace and the power of God that stood before us singing the praises of God.
Despite all that it is that he has allowed them to go through in their life.
It makes sense that in scenarios like that my friend that you would be afraid.
So the command is not to that you will not feel fear.
It makes sense in our frailty, in our humanness that we will feel it.
The question is whether or not you will choose to wallow in the fear that you feel.
The question is whether or not you will make a decision to sit with it, to make friends with it, to pull out tea and crackers and have a party with it.
The decision that you and I have to make is will we guard our minds with the word of God and in the power of God, will we do war against the enemy’s attempts to cripple us from moving forward in God in God?
Don’t let fear paralyze you my friend.
Every time you feel the emotion of fear or insecurity or intimidation creeping up on, you don’t make friends with it.
Take that as your cue to drop to your knees and to offer that fear up to God.
And then in the very next breath, command the the promises of God’s word over your life and your circumstances.
Y’all, we don’t live on a playground. We’re on a battlefield.
We got to go to war with this enemy that seeks to cripple our mind and to disarm us from what it is, the power that we need to move forward in him.
I have three boys. I told you all this a couple of years ago, but I’ll share it with you again.
Three boys that are rapidly getting bigger. I think that I have a picture of the boys.
They might have to share with you. They are some big giant boys.
I will tell you that my oldest son, Jackson is on the far left side over here.
Your right side, Jackson is getting ready to be 12 years old. He wears a size 11 men’s shoe.
I’m not sure what the size would be over here.
I don’t know if it’s the same sizes but big he wears size big. Ok.
He’s very close to his father’s shoe size. And then little Jerry Junior, he’s really not that little.
He’s 10 years old. He stands nearly, almost about my height when I don’t have heels on.
Just a really big guy. And then my little one, he’s getting ready to be six years old.
So I’ve got Jackson Jerry Junior and Jude and I named that little one Jude on purpose because that’s as close as I could get to Revelation because it is finished.
It’s the end of the line.
So I’ve got Jackson Jerry Junior and I have Jude and these boys, as you can see are into athletics, they are into sports.
That is one way that their size really does work to their advantage is that they love whatever sport happens to be in season at the time.
And I remember when baseball kind of took on American baseball kind of took on with my old two boys.
It was one Christmas and this particular Christmas, this is before Jude was even born.
So my oldest was five, my second son was three years old and it was Christmas time.
And you know what happens on Christmas Day? Your kids don’t really understand what holiday means.
So they get up early in the morning and they come into your room and tell you how important and critical it is that you head to the Christmas immediately to open up those gifts.
Now, you need to know that at my house.
We, we have up until recently bought as many of their little Christmas gifts as we could from the Dollar store.
Do you have dollar stores here? Ok.
So we would go to the dollar store and we buy them, you know, like a yo yo, you know, a little Rubik’s cube, you know, little cheap things because, you know, we decided to milk that as long as we could, as long as they were old enough and didn’t know what we were doing.
So we would put just two or three things under the tree.
And the reason why we would do that is because my Children have grandparents.
Can somebody say Hallelujah, are their grandparents, any grandmothers in the room this morning?
We want you to know we love you.
You just keep doing what you do because about noon on Christmas day after my boys have finished opening up a few little cheap trinkets under our little tree, we are going to nanny and Poppy’s house.
Those are my parents and that is where my boys get the loot.
But on this particular Christmas, we bought them a couple of things from the dollar store.
But my husband had kind of gone out to Toys R us, the big toy store and bought them this little baseball machine.
It was a plastic machine that catapults, plastic baseballs out at a certain frequency and a certain velocity.
The kid stands there with a little plastic baseball helmet on and a plastic bat and just swings at these balls that are coming out.
So they opened it up. They were so excited by years old.
Three years old, they could not wait to get outside early on Christmas morning.
Have their father put together this little trinket so that they could play this, this game.
So there we are wrapped in our robes. The sun is just coming up. It’s cold outside.
It’s early in the morning. But there is that sweet little three year old. He’s got that plastic helmet on.
He’s got that little plastic bat.
He is at least swinging at every single ball that comes out of the chute.
Now, his older brother is a little bit more cautious and concerned and calculated about things than his younger brother is.
He was standing off to the side that Christmas morning watching these balls coming out this frequency and this velocity of these balls.
And he just wasn’t sure about that. He’s watching his little brother swing at it, but he’s like mom.
I don’t, I don’t think I can do that. I’ll just let him do it.
And I said, no, buddy, you can do it. I’m encouraging him. He said, no mom, I can’t do it.
Those balls are too fast. I said, buddy, yes, you can do it. He says no, mom. No, I can’t.
I said yes, you can and you’re gonna do it because it’s early in the morning and it’s cold out here and you brought us out here early in the morning.
You gonna do it? I wasn’t playing.
So it’s finally his turn.
He puts the helmet on, he grabs the bat and he stands there looking at the machine.
I felt so bad for him because he was so intimidated. So insecure.
And I wish I could have said really, I did say it to him, but I don’t think his five year old brain could compute it.
I wish I could have helped him realize that his father who loves him so much had gone behind that little machine.
He had opened up a little flap on the machine that revealed some gears, these gears could be manipulated so that the frequency and the velocity of the balls was matched with the capability of the person that was standing at the plate.
So my boy had no reason to fear because he had a father who loved him who had already set up the circumstances so that he was set up to win.
The reason why you have no reason to be afraid.
My friend as God calls you to go here or do that or go through this particular thing in your life is not because you’re so capable.
It’s not because you’re so prepared. It is because you have a daddy who loves you.
He has already gone behind the scenes.
He has already orchestrated and stipulated events and people and circumstances so that all he needs is a woman that’s willing to say yes Lord and stand there at the plate of his grace and his glory and his calling on your life and to do what he’s called you to do.
And if you and I will just do it, we will realize we’ve been set up to hit a home run every single time.
So if right now there is something crippling you, the enemy is working overtime to cause you to be afraid in your life.
Will you hear this message from the Holy Spirit today? Step up to the plate. Do not be afraid.
Your God has got your back. Do not be afraid.
The next message that Moses had for the Children of Israel.
And by the way, do you notice in this passage that it’s never really a debate whether or not they are going to cross over?
Did you notice that? He said this victory is a victory that he will accomplish for you today?
There’s no question as to whether or not you will come to through victor victoriously, my friend.
I don’t know whether or not you’ve read the book but, but in the end, we win, the victory has already been given to you.
Your only goal. My only goal now is you go through that thing in your life is just to claim to lay hold of what it is that has already been granted to you.
You are not fighting for victory, you’re fighting from a place of victory. Your stance is already victorious.
It changes the way you look at the challenge when you know the victory is already yours.
So he says to them, he says, be fearless.
And the second thing he says to them is be still some translations read, stand by others say stand firm still others say stand still notice the two parts of this command, the standing part and the stillness part, neither of which are particularly simple for me.
The standing and the stillness.
Actually, I have a problem with both of these commands, problem with them because if I had been there on the edge of the Red Sea and I’m watching the chariots and the bows and arrows and the soldiers that are approaching from behind and all around the sides when I am cornered like that in a scenario where I feel like there will never be any way of escape in this particular scenario that I’m in.
It just does not make sense to me that Moses would look at me as an Israelite in that particular predicament and say, here’s what you, what you’re going to do.
I want you to just stand still, Moses.
You mean you do see this wood right here.
You don’t want me to get this wood and start carving out a raft and getting it together so that we’ll have something to sail on to get over this body of water.
Mo Moses. You do see that we’ve got some swords here.
You don’t want me to pick up this sword and get ready to fight Mo You do understand that.
I’ve got a bow and an arrow here.
You don’t want me to pick up this bow and arrow and get ready to shoot it into the crowd.
Moses, you mean you don’t want me to take my earrings off and get some Vaseline on my knuckles and get ready to go.
No, Moses says to them, I do not want you to lean to your own understanding as to what you would think would be the best solution in this particular problem.
What I want you to do is to plant your feet firmly to stand and I want you to be still in faith and confidence and trust that the God that we serve the same God that delivered us out.
Egypt is the same God who will carry us through the Red Sea.
He says, stand still sounds like a very passive command in the midst of very active circumstances.
But I want you to think about this for just one second when I come home from a long day of work, when you do as well, or running errands or whatever.
When I walk into the house after a long day. The last thing I want to do is stand.
What I do is I take my shoes off and then I, what do we do?
We sit, we find the most comfortable chair that we can and we collapse into it or lay flat on our bed.
And the reason is because all those standing seems like a passive action.
It actually there’s nothing passive about it.
Sitting is passive, laying is passive because then we’re allowing something else to carry our weight.
But when you stand, it requires a decision of your brain that transfers down to the muscles and the joints in your body, it requires a resolve of your mind, your actions, your muscles, your your frame to keep itself upright.
When you’d rather just relax into something else to carry your weight. Standing is not passive at all.
It requires a decision, a choice, an action on your part, a resolution on your part to plant your feet on something and not be moved.
You need to know that our culture, the culture in which we live globally wants us to relax our standards, wants us to no longer plant our feet firmly on the word of God doesn’t want us to make a resolution that we will not be moved to the left or the right that when we’re going through something that seeks to challenge everything that we thought we knew to be true about our God and about His commands.
What we will not do is allow our feet to be moved away from the firm belief and confidence and trust that we have in the promises of our great God.
It takes resolution in the culture in which we live y’all to plant your feet and stand firm, high school student.
You gotta stand firm, university student, you got to stand firm wife, mother, single woman in order to do and be who it is that God has called you to be you.
And I are going to have to plant our feet solidly on the truths of God’s word.
And believe that everything he said is true and applies to our lives, that it’s not just a book written with historical facts, that’s good for history, that it is a book that has been inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
And that applies to us today. Plant your feet on it, my friend and stand right.
Stand firm. Ephesians six puts it this way, having done everything to stand, stand firm.
Therefore, in other words, you just keep on standing.
I know that it might be a little bit tiring, a little bit exhausting.
You might feel pushed to the left or the right.
You might even want to take a step forward or backward or go out in your own power or your own strength, come up with your own solution for this incident or this issue, just plant your feet, trust God and stand firm.
He really does have your back And if God is for you who can be against you, there was a young woman that um interned with, with us at our ministry just for the summer.
She was with us for about three months.
She was from a smaller town in the States called Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
She was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and she moved to Dallas Fort Worth, which is a much larger metropolitan area than Baton Rouge.
And she moved for just the summer so that she could intern with us.
Now, Katie hadn’t done a lot of traveling, but when she did travel, her main airport was the Baton Rouge airport, smaller town.
It’s just kind of a smaller airport. Well, the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is a monster airport.
So the very first time she traveled with us out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport, she was just kind of like because it’s huge when you go out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport in order to catch your flight, the very first thing you have to even know is which terminal you need to go to, to even find your plane.
We have five different terminals, terminal A terminal B, terminal CD or E.
So you have to know which terminal You’re going to first and then you have to know not only which terminal you’re going to, but which gate you’re going to go to when you get to that terminal, most of the terminals have up to 36 gates between 30 and 36 gates.
Well, that would be enough except that some of those gates have a part a and part B.
So you might be going to terminal e gate 32 a on this particular time.
This is the first time we were all traveling together. Most of the time my entire family travels with me.
We all travel together. All five of us were together and Katie was traveling with us.
I believe we were going to Los Angeles from Dallas Fort Worth.
And so we got to terminal D we pulled our car up to terminal D we knew that that’s where our flight was going to be leaving from.
And we got all our bags out of the car, got ourselves out of the car, we walked into the airport, checked our bags and then we got in line for security.
My family and I happened to be shuffled to one line.
Katie was in another line, but we were both going through, all of us were going through the line at security.
And so we commenced to all basically take off all of our clothes so that we could get through security so that we could board this plane.
And my line, our line went so much faster than Katie’s.
I don’t know what the hold up was, but there just was one hold up after another and she couldn’t get through.
And so all five of us had gotten through security and were on The other side of security and Katie was still back there waiting to come through.
And so we just kind of waited a second and waved at her.
She lifted up her shoulders, unsure of what was going on.
My husband sent her a text and said, we will meet you at gate 22 a.
Now, when you come through security, that particular gate was literally right to the left, we could see the gate from where we were standing.
She checked her message, we saw that she got the message. She waved back to us. Thumbs up.
I will meet you at gate 22 a.
So we went and we sat down at the gate after a few moments, they started uh boarding for the flight.
And so I decided to go ahead and get the kids on, get their bags in the overhead compartment, get them all buckled in and ready to go.
And so we were sitting there on the plane, we’re still waiting for Katie and now we’re getting a little bit nervous because Katie is still not there and really half half of the plane is already full.
And so uh people keep lining onto the plane, we keep looking for Katie.
We do not see her and we finally hear the airline calling her name over the loudspeaker.
Now, you know you’re late when they start calling your name over the loudspeaker.
So they call her name over the loudspeaker and we’re really nervous now because everybody is on the plane, they’re about to close the door of the jet bridge and she still has not gotten on the flight.
And we really think at this point that she is going to miss the flight, we have tried to call, she hasn’t answered.
We have texted, she has not responded.
We don’t know what is going on and literally moments before they’re about to close the door of the airplane.
Katie comes racing down the little small narrow aisles of the plane. She races down. She is sweating bullets.
Her hair is plastered to the side of her face.
She races down the aisle, plops it into her chair, takes a deep breath and wipes her face and buckles up and she looks up just in time to find all five of us looking at her like this.
We said, Katie, what in the world happened?
Security was just right there and our gate was just right here. What in the world happened?
She said, well, I saw on my text that Jerry sent me that it said gate 22 a but I just assumed that he meant a 22.
So I got on the airport train that takes you to all the different terminals in the entire airport.
I went from D all the way over to a on the other side of the airport went down to gate 22.
Obviously, I realized that was the wrong gate.
So I had to get back on the train, go all the way around, back to here so that I could hopefully make the flight.
She was like, I didn’t even think that I was going to make it.
My husband looked back at her like this and then he said something to her that I will never forget.
He said, OK, Katie, if you would have just believed that exactly what I wrote is exactly what I meant, could have saved you so much time and so much energy, so much sweat, so much frustration.
If you would have just believed that exactly what I wrote is exactly what I meant.
I wonder how much sweat and how many sleepless nights and how much frustration and how much worry and concern and anxiety would be saved us.
The daughters of God. If we would just believe that our father wrote exactly what he wanted us to plant our feet and stand on.
Do not lean to your own understanding in all your ways, just acknowledge him.
He will make straight your path even when it does not make sense, even when it doesn’t seem rational that this would be the way to come to any sort of resolution in that particular problem that you’re facing.
Lord, you don’t want me to do this. This just seems like a better option to me. Lord. No, no.
Plant your feet on what I said and stand still most of the time when we have a friend that is having a problem or she’s in trouble.
We don’t say to stand still. We normally say girl don’t just stand there, do something.
Moses says the opposite girl don’t just do something. Stand there, trust God.
So Moses says, you want to get through this thing, you be fearless.
And then he says, you’d be still. And thirdly he says, be watchful. I love this one so much.
He puts it this way. He told the Children of Israel see the salvation of the Lord.
Now, remember they have no idea at this point that the Lord is gonna cause that Yahweh is gonna cause the walls or the Red Sea to divide like two walls on either side.
They have no clue what miracle is, is even going to be performed.
If a miracle is going to be performed, they have no clue at all.
So they are still looking at the problem as it currently is and with the Red Sea rushing in front of them with complete doubt in their mind as to how they’ll ever be able to traverse this particular issue that they are facing.
Moses says to them, see it. He says, see the salvation of the Lord before the miracle.
Now he’s not talking about when the miracle comes.
He’s saying before you have any clue of how God is gonna take care of this scenario.
I want you to open up your eyes and see what’s happening right now.
Now, this is a problem for me.
I gotta tell you Rebecca because when I have a problem in my life, the last thing I wanna do is look at it.
I want to close my eyes and sleep through it.
I want God to hurry up and let it pass.
I want to rush through that thing and miss as much of it as I possibly can so that I can just move on to the good stuff.
Moses says, don’t wait on the good stuff. This is the good stuff.
He says, while you’re looking at your problem, your is still a disaster.
Your child is still struggling with that issue. Your health still hasn’t been turned around.
Your finances are still on the edge while we are still looking at the issue.
Moses says, open up your eyes and see what God is already up to.
He says there are a bunch of little miracles that if you’re just waiting on the big miracle, you’re gonna miss all the other things that God is already doing and accomplishing on your behalf.
Moses is basically saying, I don’t want you to miss what it looks like.
I want you to always recall what it looked like when I stood on the edge of this water and I held out this rod over the body of water before we even knew what was going to occur.
I want you to remember forever. What it looked like.
The expression on the faces of your toddlers and your elderly as they watched the Red Sea divide.
I want you to remember what it felt like to hold the hands of your sweet little grandma that you helped get across that body of water.
I want you to remember the details of what it felt like when that east wind starts to blow slowly at first across your cheeks, but then begins to grow and grow in intensity so much so that you’ve got to hold cloak around you or the wind will take it away when that Red Sea begins to divide.
I want you to never forget what it looked like when your sandal feet had absolutely no mud on the bottom of them because we’re walking across on dry ground.
He says, don’t just wait to see the big miracle.
There are a bunch of little miracles that God is already doing on your behalf.
Keep your eyes open and see the salvation of the Lord.
So listen to me, my friend while you’re yet praying for a miracle. I mean, keep praying.
You stay on your knees. The scripture says you and I can make our requests knownn for God.
And so we pray Lord, would you divide that red Sea Lord?
Would you change my doctor, my medical, the the report that has been given Lord, would you help my child Lord?
Would you take away this addiction? Lord would you smooth out this path on my job or in my ministry.
Lord, would you help my marriage to stop always Hanging on by a threat and cause us to be just fervent in our love for each other and passionate and have peace and friendship here.
You and I keep praying for the miracle.
But in the meanwhile, we thank him for what he’s done this 24 hour period.
We thank him for the miracles he’s already accomplishing on on our behalf.
We do not forget the benefits of the Lord, even while we’re praying for and looking forward to how he’s going to divide the red seas in our life.
You be watchful. See the salvation of the Lord.
You know what I’ve begun to do and I’ll tell you this uh quickly, I’ve got this little file on my computer screen on my computer.
It’s called, he speaks to me.
It’s a little Microsoft Word document and in it, I have a record of little things that I have seen God do when I have refused the tendency that I have to want to close my eyes and sleep through the difficulty so that I can move on when I have kept my eyelids open, force them open spiritually to see what God is doing.
I’m surprised because there he is, I’m surprised because his footprints just showed up over there.
There’s his handiwork that right there. That wasn’t a coincidence.
That was God and I write that down and as you write down what you’re seeing God doing, even while you’re waiting, you know what that does y’all, it builds a track record with you and God, it means the next time you face a red sea, it won’t be nearly as intimidating to you as the last one was because you remember, you can read a file of all that God has already done.
It builds your holy confidence, your remembrance of the power and the strength of God.
So be fearless, be still be watchful and finally be quiet.
Do not allow your mouth to open in complaint.
Make a choice that if you don’t have anything good to say.
Did you have that mom?
Uh My mom used to say to me if you don’t have anything good to say, Priscilla, just don’t anybody.
Yeah. Y’all had my mama. Mhm I was talking with Lisa, Vera.
I will close with this. This is a couple of years ago.
There was something happening in my life that was a challenge for me and I was discouraged.
I was a little bit afraid, kind of trying to combat that. And I knew Lisa.
Well, you know, y’all know Lisa, she’s not messing around.
So Lisa, I knew that she would pray with me through it.
So I wanted sharing details with her and as I’m just telling her what was going on in this particular part of our ministry and talking about it with her mid story.
She said to me, I’m, I’m sorry, Priscilla.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but just hold on now.
I need you to back up and start that story over from the beginning. Try again. Start again.
I said what she said. Yeah, I don’t really like your, your word choice.
I don’t like the words you’re using to describe this issue.
So if you don’t mind, I need you to go back to the beginning and start over and tell me all again.
And I need you to think wisely before you choose the words that you, that you speak about them.
She said, Priscilla, what you don’t understand is that the enemy is trying to form a weapon against you and the equipment and the tools that he needs to actually put that weapon together, you give him with every single negative word that comes out of your mouth before the word comes out of your mouth.
The enemy doesn’t have the tools he needs to build that weapon against you, but we hand them every single time we speak cursing instead of blessing out of our mouth.
She said on the flip side, the scripture says that the Lord watches over his word to perform it.
So you got to make a decision.
Do you want to give the enemy something to work with or do you want to give the Lord something to work with?
And so the Children of Israel, a steadfast watchful, silent bunch of Hebrews.
They saw the miracle of a lifetime. The Red Sea divided and they went through it.
Do you know that Hollywood uh created a movie years ago called the 10 commandments?
And it took Hollywood 18 months to figure out how to simulate what God did in a split second.
And the same God that divided their Red Sea and took them through it is the same God who will divide yours and take you through it.
If only you and I will be fearless, be still, be watchful and be silent.