SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, One Church.
SPEAKER_00: It is so great to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're online or in Overflow, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER_00: I've known Pastor Greg and Shaylin for many years, and I'm not surprised that the church is thriving and growing.
SPEAKER_00: They're incredible leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I do have a Greg Ford story, though, that I want to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: We had Greg come and speak at CLC in Dayton a few times.
SPEAKER_00: And we like to have a stage about like this, and we would often sort of illustrate in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And so I talked to our prop manager, I said, okay, Greg's talking about the story of the woman in the Old Testament that the prophet said, get big clay pots, and we're going to fill them up with oil and see what your faith can handle.
SPEAKER_00: And so I told our prop person, if you can get some clay pots to sort of have on stage as the illustration.
SPEAKER_00: And then what we were going to do is have people come forward at the end for prayer and then give them a takeaway.
SPEAKER_00: And we found online they weren't pots, but they were, think of like a test tube about that long with a cap on it.
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with oil.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll give them this little takeaway vial of oil as a reminder of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So that was the plan.
SPEAKER_00: We had a Saturday nice and two on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And Greg gave an amazing sermon Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00: First breakdown in communication.
SPEAKER_00: You ever have a breakdown in communication, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Was the prop person did not get like clay pots, I'm thinking like Old Testament style.
SPEAKER_00: They bought glass vases like you would buy from a florist when you order flowers, okay?
SPEAKER_00: They're like yay tall, some are straight, some are like this.
SPEAKER_00: Again, they're clear, and they're all across the stage.
SPEAKER_00: That was breakdown number one.
SPEAKER_00: Breakdown number two was when they left the prayer time, they were supposed to get one of those little tiny vials, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Saturday night, maybe six or eight people came forward.
SPEAKER_00: Greg takes the glass vases and gives them to the people who came forward.
SPEAKER_00: They're walking away with these vases.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's this about?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so a whole thing didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: So next time you see Greg, ask him about vases that he gave away.
SPEAKER_00: So as I said, it doesn't surprise me the church is growing, and now that I'm not pastoring full-time myself, I get to speak, I get to consult with pastors and church leaders, but also businesses.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the big great problems they have is growth problems that you are having here.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the areas that feels the pinch the most is kids' ministry, okay, in next gen.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have three services, we did that for several years before we built our new auditorium.
SPEAKER_00: When you have three services, there's a lot of coming and going, and by the time the team has been here for three services, they kind of want you to pick up your kids after kid after church, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Sort of fast, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And some of you look at it like it's kind of free babysitting, have a cup of coffee before we get the kids.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, well, one great way to hurry parents to pick up their kids.
SPEAKER_00: So if you see this sign the hallway next week, it's my fault, but I assure you you won't wait long.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get your kids if you see this.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna give your kid a shot of espresso and a free kit and take that.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, well, let's uh dive into the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't like to be a talking head.
SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: I'll ask you to repeat things, I'll ask you to participate.
SPEAKER_00: And so to kick it off, I want you to help me illustrate it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're able, would you please stand, all right, wherever you are?
SPEAKER_00: And imagine yourself trying out for a bit part in a movie, and you're in a movie studio, and you only have your lines, you have two words.
SPEAKER_00: Would you say now what?
SPEAKER_00: All right, good.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not gonna get you the part in the movie because now what?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine it's kind of between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_00: There's trouble ahead, trouble behind, you're trying to figure it out now what.
SPEAKER_00: So at the count of three, I want you to turn to two different people and say now what?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to do it with as much anxiety, stress, panic, whatever in your voice.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, go.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: You get the part.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you had more caffeine or what, but it's gotten progressively better.
SPEAKER_00: You by far did the best of all three services today, so give yourself a hand.
SPEAKER_00: But the title of today's message is Now What?
SPEAKER_00: When unwanted, unexpected things happen.
SPEAKER_00: We don't ask that or panic when great things happen.
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: But boy, when we're we're between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say, okay, now what?
SPEAKER_00: And I would add to that when unexpected, unwanted things happen on the way to what God has promised.
SPEAKER_00: We have a God of promise, and I don't know what people told you was promised to you when you accepted Christ, but if they told you you accept Jesus, everything works, there are no problems.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't, they they lied to you, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to following after Christ, the promises he has given us for sure, two that I really lean into, one is Philippians 1 6.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says, I'm confident of this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: He who began a good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The promise is yours.
SPEAKER_00: He will help you become more and more like Christ until the day you die or leave this planet.
SPEAKER_00: That's promise number one.
SPEAKER_00: The other promise is in Revelation chapter 21, verse 1, the Apostle John said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: If you think this world's a mess, it is.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan is a do-over.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 4, he says, There's no longer any curse, no crying, no pain.
SPEAKER_00: We are done with that.
SPEAKER_00: Those two promises I hang on to, those are the promises that I'm pursuing.
SPEAKER_00: I invite, encourage you to pursue.
SPEAKER_00: So as we are, and today I assume I'm preaching to the choir.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us here have accepted Christ as our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, you're gonna want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're on that faith journey, first thought, you know, adjust your expectations.
SPEAKER_00: There have always been problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Would you say there have always been problems with the promise?
unknown: There have always been problems.
SPEAKER_00: Oh come on.
SPEAKER_00: What happened to the group just a minute ago?
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, there have always been problems with the promise.
unknown: There have always been problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Just for fun, turn your neighbor and say, I mean always.
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, you've got an adversary who likes to park on your shoulder and whisper words of defeat and discouragement and quit, and there's something wrong with you if you run into problems.
SPEAKER_00: And a great example of that as a founding father of faith, his name is Abram when we meet him.
SPEAKER_00: He is famous throughout the Old Testament as Abraham and in the New Testament as Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: This is one righteous guy.
SPEAKER_00: And when he first, God first encounters him, we meet him in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: God says, Abram, I want I want to give you a threefold promise.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to leave your father's territory where he's from, your father's household.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Dad was filthy rich.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to leave all that.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go to, I'm going to give you a land that you can't, that's as far as north, south, east, west you can see.
SPEAKER_00: I promised that land to you, the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: I promised to make you a great nation.
SPEAKER_00: And at that time, he's 75 years old.
SPEAKER_00: They have no children.
SPEAKER_00: And through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Christ comes from the family land of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham says, okay, that threefold promise, I will follow you, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: And he heads out on chasing after, pursuing the problem, the promise that God has for him.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me if you notice the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read for you, Genesis chapter 12, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Then Abraham, Abram proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.
SPEAKER_00: And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
SPEAKER_00: Get this.
SPEAKER_00: Now there was a what?
SPEAKER_00: Famine in the land.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: I told Dad, God has spoken to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to leave you and all your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to the promised land, and we pack up and we travel to the promised land 100 miles or more, and we get there and there's a famine in the land.
SPEAKER_00: That's not supposed to be in the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: See, there have always been problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Pursue the promise anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Tell your neighbor and say, pursue it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought about that.
SPEAKER_00: How true is that?
SPEAKER_00: Is it true in my own life?
SPEAKER_00: And on my way here this morning, I was driving and praying for you in the service, and I just did a trip down memory lane.
SPEAKER_00: I can say a hearty amen in my life that there's always been problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: I go back to when I was in my undergrad, I had a double major in management and biblical studies.
SPEAKER_00: Those weren't common back in those days together.
SPEAKER_00: And it took me five years to get that degree.
SPEAKER_00: I was at Evangelic College and I remember it was April, uh, near the end of my first senior year.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, God, I have got to know one way or another.
SPEAKER_00: Am I supposed to go into business or ministry?
SPEAKER_00: I've got to know this summer.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I I prayed, I got up, and I'm like, well, now what?
SPEAKER_00: No answer right then.
SPEAKER_00: I found myself uh fast forward on staff at Evangel Temple.
SPEAKER_00: So you know how that first now what got answered?
SPEAKER_00: I was a staff guy, married my wife, we met there.
SPEAKER_00: One of her big dreads of marrying a pastor was I don't want to be moving all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, uh, about a year and a half into it, a friend of mine comes to my office and says, Man, I know a church in Dayton, Ohio looking for somebody just like you.
SPEAKER_00: Give me your resume.
SPEAKER_00: I gave him my resume reluctantly.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward, we're now at Christian Life Center in Dayton, Ohio, a church that we would serve for 41 years.
SPEAKER_00: And we were married six years, seven years, and I was kind of raised, plan your work and work your plan.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I still like to plan my work and work my plan, but I found out that life always doesn't work out like I planned.
SPEAKER_00: So we get married, and okay, well, in about two years we'll have kids.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in about two years we'll have kids, about two years we'll have.
SPEAKER_00: And we battled infertility.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever battle infertility, we did for almost seven or eight years.
SPEAKER_00: This is horrific.
SPEAKER_00: And we had uh done all the medical interventions we were ethically comfortable with, and no child.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember trying to comfort my wife who was really trying not to be depressed and just feeling now what fast forward to 1990.
SPEAKER_00: It was the first Tuesday of June.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget it.
SPEAKER_00: And the pastor's secretary called me and said, Pastor wants to see you in his office.
SPEAKER_00: It was five o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: I was about to go home.
SPEAKER_00: And I walked into the office of a hard-charging leader, and he sat behind his desk, a crumpled, broken man, just came from the police department and confessed a pretty twisted moral failure.
SPEAKER_00: And that Sunday would be his last day, and I thought to myself, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward that same summer of 1990, and uh, much to my surprise, I ended up being elected lead pastor of that church.
SPEAKER_00: And when I started ministry, I never thought I would be a lead pastor.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't an ambition of mine.
SPEAKER_00: I'd served that for 34 years, but but that Sunday night when I went home, I thought to myself, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Let's fast forward a year into it, a very tumultuous first few years, trying to sort through all the chaos.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife called me from the pediatrician's office and said, You've got to meet me at Children's Medical Center at the hospital at the surgeon's office.
SPEAKER_00: And she's crying.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting to the surgeon's office in the waiting room, holding little Jonathan, and my wife is quietly crying in there, and this voice hit me.
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: And then if you go a little further, I I remember sitting at the Global Leadership Summit, a simulcast with hundreds of thousands of leaders across the country watching it, plus worldwide.
SPEAKER_00: And Bono from U2 was being interviewed, and he said, poverty and AIDS are ravaging the continent of Africa like nothing since the time of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the church?
SPEAKER_00: This is the early 2000s.
SPEAKER_00: And friends of mine behind me leaned forward and said, if CLC ever goes to Africa, we're in.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we ended up going to Africa, and we thought we'd plant a church and not 45 churches so far on our way to 60.
SPEAKER_00: But when we did, I took my family for a Christmas missions trip.
SPEAKER_00: We paid for it ourselves, and we're there over Christmas, about two years in.
SPEAKER_00: And my daughter, our daughter got sick while we were there, seemed to recover, and yet on the plane home was so violently ill.
SPEAKER_00: I heard the flight attendant ask if there's a doctor on the plane, and I realized they were doing that for our daughter as she lie almost convulsing in shock on the floor by the flight attendants covered with blankets.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife is a nurse and the doctor trying to force IVs on her to keep her from going into shock.
SPEAKER_00: And I found myself sitting there in the dark of that plane thinking, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward to COVID.
SPEAKER_00: Every pastor in the country asked, Now what?
SPEAKER_00: And I add to that, my wife came down with a breast cancer in February.
SPEAKER_00: And by the 4th of July, I didn't preach that weekend because I was next to her bedside in intensive care.
SPEAKER_00: Later the doctor said he thought we were gonna lose her.
SPEAKER_00: And I sat there thinking, now what?
SPEAKER_00: I find that now what is a common question whether we say it or not.
SPEAKER_00: And I, in prepping this message, anticipated, probably not quite as much as has been this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot of now what going on in these seats.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your circumstance is, whether it's physical health, emotional, mental, family health, relationships, career, academics, internal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know what it is, but some of you are at that now what moment.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the nice thing about Abraham is that when he left the promised land, he went to Egypt under God's guidance.
SPEAKER_00: And when he went to Egypt, it was plan B, and God often has plan B for you in your life.
SPEAKER_00: When he went there, he messed up royally when it comes to having integrity and honesty and courage.
SPEAKER_00: Because he gets there and he realizes, whoa, my wife Sarah is really hot.
SPEAKER_00: And the king's gonna want her.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Honey, how about if we tell him you're my sister?
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, how would that feel?
SPEAKER_00: All right, he lied, and that often passes those flaws generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: You read Isaac, he did the same thing, and Jacob was a real deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what's nice about that reading about Abraham, this man of faith, his failure, is that God didn't say, You messed up, I'm done with you.
SPEAKER_00: No, you messed up, how about some amazing grace?
SPEAKER_00: Because I still have a path for you to follow.
SPEAKER_00: I still have a promise I want you to achieve, I still want you to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: So you give God a hand for that one.
SPEAKER_00: But when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place, would you say, Don't panic?
SPEAKER_00: Say it, say don't panic.
SPEAKER_00: Don't complain, don't blame.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, I mean it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a perfect bad example.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the stuff in the Bible is not there to tell us how we should do it.
SPEAKER_00: It also shows you how they did it when they weren't supposed to do it that way.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the setting.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel, now, hundreds of years after Abraham, have spent four centuries in Egypt as slaves.
SPEAKER_00: They cry out for a deliverer, God raises up Moses, he goes to Pharaoh, let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: And Pharaoh says, No, no, no, the king of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And God uses ten miraculous, horrible plagues to pummel Pharaoh into submission.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, okay, go get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: They are delivered from slavery, they're traveling to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And as they get to the promise, they're getting on their way there, they stop at the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: 1.5 million people, scholars estimate.
SPEAKER_00: That's a camping trip, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden they're like, You hear something?
SPEAKER_00: You hear something?
SPEAKER_00: And they look back behind them and they realize this little whatever haze is a cloud of dust.
SPEAKER_00: It is Pharaoh and his army.
SPEAKER_00: They've changed their mind.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming to get us, and they freak out because there's the sea, there's the army.
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it for you in Exodus chapter 14, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel, as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them, camping by the sea, beside that place, in front of that place.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna fake you, I don't know how to pronounce this place, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Pharaoh, I remember I used to read it, and people go, I'm so impressed you know those names.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I'm just sounding it.
SPEAKER_00: So Pharaoh drew near the sons of Israel, and they looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened.
SPEAKER_00: So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Then they said to Moses, Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: Say, die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Very important phrase.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to it.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you dealt with us in this way?
SPEAKER_00: Bringing us up out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Is this not the word we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?
SPEAKER_00: It would be better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the way to handle your now what.
SPEAKER_00: I said, no panicking, no complaining, no blaming.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at six lessons from now what.
SPEAKER_00: Let's back up.
SPEAKER_00: First lesson I want to pull out is from chapter 13, verse 17, and that is that divine detours happen.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near.
SPEAKER_00: For God said the people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a map of the Middle East, all right, here's Egypt, there's Israel, the promised land, going a straight line was right through the territory of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: And God knew if they are not warriors yet, and they're not going to be ready for war.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines were horrible warriors.
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to be ready for that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to detour them around Philistia.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are at places in your life right now, and you're like, oh, this is taking so long.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else ever noticed that God's will takes longer than my will?
SPEAKER_00: I thought the answer would be here by now.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't think I'd go through all this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like when I was coming here, uh GPS told me that there are two lanes closed, but you are still on the fastest route.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God's positioning system, God's GPS, GPS, he doesn't take you on the fastest route.
SPEAKER_00: He takes you on the route he knows is best for you.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are in detour seasons.
SPEAKER_00: You need to stop claiming and rebuking and binding and not just stop this because God's like, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I've got you on this detour.
SPEAKER_00: You're not ready for the path you think you are.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: The next thought goes right with that, and that is that worthless wanderings can be good for you.
SPEAKER_00: You go to Exodus chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Tell the sons of Israel, turn back, camp before this place and that place.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll camp in front of that place, opposite by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, they're wandering aimlessly in the land, the wilderness has shut them in, and I'll harden Pharaoh's heart, he'll chase after them, and the Egyptians will know that I am God.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh had spies, and he hears from the spies, Ha! Idiots, they're by the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: They're trapped.
SPEAKER_00: They got wilderness on either side of them.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna just swoop in, they will be easy pickets.
SPEAKER_00: We've got them.
unknown: Ha!
SPEAKER_00: And all the while, God didn't say, Moses, I want you to look like you're wandering around in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: No, he had them wandering.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we go?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I got a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Because Pharaoh sees your wandering, and Pharaoh's laughing, thinking that he's gonna go ahead and come back and conquer you.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is I'm gonna destroy Pharaoh through what seemed like worthless wandering.
SPEAKER_00: And so some of you are in a worthless wandering season and you're wondering where God is, and he's like, I'm right here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm working a plan.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what it is, but trust me, because I've got a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you woke up this morning, God didn't say to the host of heaven, I don't know what to do for her today.
SPEAKER_00: He is out of luck because I'm out of ideas.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's got a strategy that he's working and developing with your life.
SPEAKER_00: Third lesson would you say this out loud?
SPEAKER_00: What you say matters.
SPEAKER_00: Say it.
SPEAKER_00: You get to verse 10 of chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them.
SPEAKER_00: They became very frightened.
SPEAKER_00: So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, God help us.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's allowed to be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You're allowed to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a now what moment.
SPEAKER_00: But then what you don't do is the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Then they said to Moses, Is it because there were no graves in Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: You've taken us.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: What you say matters.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 18 21 reminds us that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who eat it will love its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the most powerful, wonderful, incredible moments of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the most damaging, devastating, depressing moments of your life.
SPEAKER_00: In both words were said by someone, to someone.
SPEAKER_00: And you either love to remember them or you can't get your you can't forget them though you want to.
SPEAKER_00: Words are powerful.
SPEAKER_00: What you say matters.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of the work of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Alman, who's a Christian psychiatrist and brain physiologist.
SPEAKER_00: And he worked with Rick Warren to develop the Daniel fast, obviously, along with a guy named Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: But he makes a statement.
SPEAKER_00: He says, here's a sentence you should say first thing in the morning to help set the direction of your day in a positive way.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Repeat this after me.
SPEAKER_00: Today is going to be a great day.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, physiologically, when you say that, it sounds to me a lot like Psalm 118, this is the day the Lord has made.
SPEAKER_00: I will rejoice and be glad in it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a choice.
SPEAKER_00: He says, what happens physiologically is when you say that, the Bible says, out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: So your soul, your internal is already in sync with, I just said it's going to be a great day.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, your subconscious will look for scenes to validate what you said all day long.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a great day.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great day.
SPEAKER_00: And well, I got 10 wake-up statements that I say, and I'm going to try to put them in my blog by tomorrow night if you want to check out my standarp.com.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I don't feel like standing today's going to be a great day.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, like as far as I can tell, today's not going to be a good day.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to remind myself, this is the day the Lord has made.
SPEAKER_00: I will rejoice and be glad in it.
SPEAKER_00: So today's going to be a great day.
SPEAKER_00: Another statement that we could say that I try to say daily is nothing is going to happen to me today that God and I can't handle.
SPEAKER_00: You've already been through every worst day of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 31, Paul asks a rhetorical question.
SPEAKER_00: What then shall we say to these things?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: It's rhetorical, but I ask you, when you are at a now, with the sea of your life in front of you and Pharaoh closing in, it's bad.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say to those things?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're going to die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doomed now.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the power of your words that the Israelites learned.
SPEAKER_00: What the Israelites learned is, God says, okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00: You want to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: Die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Because looking back on that generation in the wilderness, God said, they became as those who grumble in adversity.
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't fond of that.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I, as a follower of Christ, when I believe God and I grumble in adversity, I am basically saying, I don't care what all these songs that I sang about how great you are, how faithful you are, whatever, I'm going to grumble and complain.
SPEAKER_00: I show my lack of faith and trust in the one that I say I trust.
SPEAKER_00: And so they became as those who grumble in adversity.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Fine, the power of your words, you want to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: Die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And that whole generation that was there for 40 years died in the wilderness and never made it to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
SPEAKER_00: Do these things?
SPEAKER_00: What you say matters.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth lesson.
SPEAKER_00: Look and imagine what God is working out for you.
SPEAKER_00: You look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said to the people, Do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.
SPEAKER_00: For the Egyptian whom you have seen, today you'll never see them again forever.
SPEAKER_00: Stand by.
SPEAKER_00: Watch what God's going to do.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 tells us, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, sometimes God fights your battle for you.
SPEAKER_00: I can look back over my life and say, wow, I didn't lift a finger.
SPEAKER_00: God just fought that for me.
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't fight for you, he will fight with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it when God fights with me, and sometimes he fights through me.
SPEAKER_00: But one way or another, I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me.
SPEAKER_00: That's where scripture is good to have packed in here and here your word have a hidden my heart, so that when these things happen, the sea here, the Pharaoh there, what do I say to these things?
SPEAKER_00: I'm more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me.
SPEAKER_00: And then let me just remind you, he is amazingly creative.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: God said to Moses, as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that in chapter 13, when they were noticing, Pharaoh's coming?
SPEAKER_00: When they were noticing, the sea is there.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 13, Moses did not have chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure we talked to Moses in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, a half an hour before that happened, what were you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea.
SPEAKER_00: And then when he thinks he hears from God, and God says, okay, he can't, Moses, here's the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what?
SPEAKER_00: Stretch out your staff over the sea.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: How creative is that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a part of the waters.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna walk through.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh's gonna think he can too.
SPEAKER_00: And when he gets halfway through the sea, I'm gonna close the waters.
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
SPEAKER_00: The creator of the Aurora Borealis.
SPEAKER_00: Rocky Mountains, seashore, DNA, hummingbirds.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who you can turn to when it's now what, God?
SPEAKER_00: With that, stop dictating to this creator of the universe how to solve your problems.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm trying not to do as much as I used to.
SPEAKER_00: But I do it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: As though he doesn't know how to fix my problem.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want you to do this and then tell them and then fix that and then fail that and then and then I to wrap it all in a boat in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Because now you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_00: When I give God an ultimatum, you know what he says to me, excuse me, Stan, I'm God, you're not.
SPEAKER_00: The older I get, the more my prayers are, God, here's this mess.
SPEAKER_00: I can describe the sea, and I can tell you about Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: There you go, God, now what?
SPEAKER_00: It's yours.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us get frustrated because we think God needs us to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's not up in heaven going, hang on, guys, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting for the solution.
SPEAKER_00: He's not waiting for that.
SPEAKER_00: God is far more interested in you learning to trust him than he is in you figuring him out.
SPEAKER_00: And he even works in the opposition and in your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: You look at uh verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: As for me, God says, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so they will go in after you, and I'll be honored through Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put it in their minds that when they see you go through that sea, they're gonna be one of those Egyptian uh military soldiers, go, should we go in there?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm gonna put it in their hearts, let's go kill them.
SPEAKER_00: And they're all gonna rush into the middle of the sea to their own death.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm doing in the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: You have no idea that's happening.
SPEAKER_00: You follow Israel to the promised land, the first city they encounter is Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: Huge walled city, soldiers up on top, fierce looking, and the Israelites are not soldiers, and there's the Israelites are scared to death because they're gonna kill us.
SPEAKER_00: They send spies into Jericho, and and there's a prostitute who takes them in and gives them a place to stay for the night.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, Let me give you an inside baseball story here.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody inside Jericho, all these soldiers are scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: There's no fight left in them because we heard what your God did to the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: We heard what your God did on your way here.
SPEAKER_00: We are scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: And so, those of you who are tempted to be scared to death, you fail to realize.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what God's doing on that side of the equation.
SPEAKER_00: He's working in my adversaries, in my enemy, in my situation in ways that I don't even know yet.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the creator of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna allow him to do that and I'm gonna trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And then, number six, avoid wasted anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you with me ever worried about something and it never happened?
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, I have I have getting stressed out, bad mood, whatever, and then it never even came.
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites, God says, These Egyptians whom you see today, you've been so stressed out and freaking out about you will never see them again.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder the apostle Paul says, be anxious for the big stuff, be anxious for the recurring stuff.
SPEAKER_00: No, be anxious for nothing.
SPEAKER_00: But in prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it this way in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7 or 6.
SPEAKER_00: So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.
SPEAKER_00: Each day has enough trouble of its own.
SPEAKER_00: Can I hear an amen?
SPEAKER_00: I never went to bed saying I could have used more stress today.
SPEAKER_00: Each day has enough trouble of its own.
SPEAKER_00: But if I say to these things, God can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: If I say to these things, you know, there's always been problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pursue the promise anyway.
SPEAKER_00: If I say to these things, I don't know what the all the created universe, what he's doing, as far as I can tell, at least in my life, the created universe does not feel obligated to send me my daily email or text.
SPEAKER_00: Stand, here's what I'm doing today.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And celebrate God and grow your faith.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus 15, after all this is said and done, Moses sang a song.
SPEAKER_00: And I was gonna read it and read, I decided for service, I'm just gonna sing it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I was in a youth group, we sang this as a worship song.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Clap, clap, how many?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's my God, and I will praise in my father's God, and I will exalt him, the Lord's my God, and I will praise in my father's God, and I will exalt him.
SPEAKER_00: Turn it into a song of praise.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you, whether you're in a now what time or not, sometime today, before you go to bed, take ten minutes and do like I did.
SPEAKER_00: I I was moved to tears in my car driving here on I-70.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking back on what are some of my now what's, God?
SPEAKER_00: When I was stressed out, when I was scared to death, when I was feeling like a failure, like I must have messed up.
SPEAKER_00: And all I gotta do is now what?
SPEAKER_00: You're so faithful.
SPEAKER_00: So faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And so I encourage you, whether you sing it, whether you write a little poem, or whether you just say it out loud, God, I thank you for that now what?
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for that one, I thank you for that one, I thank you for that one.
SPEAKER_00: And even there are always problems in the promise, you can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: And so, last point, when the next now what happens, notice not if the next now what happens, because there's always problems with the promise.
SPEAKER_00: When the next now what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Stand and see.
SPEAKER_00: I take you back to verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said to the people, do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to ask God, give me enough divine imagination to stand right now in my now what and just imagine what you might be working out.
SPEAKER_00: I went to an open house, grandopenhouse a couple weeks ago, and a young mom was there having some brain tumors and loads of serious issues, a friend of mine, and I said, I can't tell you, don't think about it, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you this however much time you spend thinking the worst case scenario, be fair to yourself and spend at least that much time imagine the doctor saying, You're cured.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the doctor saying, I don't know what's happened, but there's no progression.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine saying years from now, I thought that was gonna kill me, but somehow nothing came of it.
SPEAKER_00: At least imagine the hopeful side, plus five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's how I want to land this message.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking our prayer team if they would come forward.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask those of you that are like, you're in a now what season in your life, you know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And you look ahead, and there is the Red Sea of your life, and there is the Egyptian army of your life, and you're trying not to panic, you're trying not to blame or complain, but you need help.
SPEAKER_00: Then as Moses told the people, do not fear, stand and see.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close in praying for every now what person right now, and I want to, if you're here and you're like, I'm there, I want you just to stand.
SPEAKER_00: Just stand in your now what?
SPEAKER_00: Stand where you are.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: God, I am gonna stand.
SPEAKER_00: I've been panicking, maybe even everything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I've been panicking and blaming, complaining, whatever, but God, today I'm going to stand.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'd bow with me in prayer, if you stay standing, and after we're done, those of you are standing, somebody want to do a deeper dive in prayer, the team is here for you.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: Before I pray, would you just quietly whisper to God out loud, Lord, I'm standing because, and describe in a few sentences what it is you're standing about.
SPEAKER_00: Just tell it, God, I'm standing because.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him, I'm gonna trust you and keep and Lord, for some they're in that detour season, worthless wanderings, but it's not.
SPEAKER_00: You've got a purpose in that.
SPEAKER_00: Give them peace in it, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For some who are tempted to panic, Lord, keep us from that and just keep our hearts fixed on you and help us to trust you even when we can't figure you out.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I know forgive me, we tend to tell you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And we can ask, but help us to surrender it to you because you're the one who can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: Time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: And so, would you just quietly whisper to him, Lord, I trust you and I thank you in advance.
SPEAKER_00: Just tell him, I trust you and I thank you in advance.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, as we declare our trust in you, as we're in this now what moment and we're tempted to anxiety, instead, I pray that you would help us not to worry about tomorrow, but to trust you today.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you in advance, Lord, for what you have done and what you're going to do and the testimony that this test is going to turn into.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray a special blessing of peace, a blessing of an awareness of your presence in a life, especially if each person is standing today.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you in Christ's name we give you all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.