Read-along
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Hey Rock Point, how you doing? Alright.
Man, I missed you guys. I love you guys. It was so good to be back. Had a good Christmas break and now I know that I think with everything going on in the world, it's like I'm concerned like when you say the seasons greetings kind of stuff, I think you gotta change it. Like I think we need to put a question mark on Happy New Year.
See, think that's You just gotta add the question mark I suppose. But I don't know but even when I was off, did something recently that I tend to do sometimes. Maybe you're like me. You'll see something, it'll trigger a thought, and all of sudden you start thinking about it. I don't know. I think I was flipping through the channels and saw something where they're showing bears or whatever. Then it got me thinking about
what are you supposed to do if you run into a bear? I mean, know what I do with everybody, and I thought I pretty much did. But then I thought through what I've learned, and I've heard things that don't say the same thing. Like, you get loud and big.
And then others are like, no, you back away. You're quiet. I go, what are you really supposed to do? So I started Googling it. Next thing you know, got two hours later. You're like, that's two hours of my life. I'm never getting back. But at least I learned some things. And what I realized is, it depends on what kind of bear.
Well, unless you're like, you know, Grizzly Adams or something, you're out hunting all the time. Everyone that's an outdoor, you know. But for the most part, if you just occasionally go out there, how is that ever gonna help you? I mean, you're gonna be like, because it can be very opposite stuff.
And so I was thinking about this and then sometimes freaking out like, well, I hope I don't see do the wrong thing with the now I know just enough to probably get myself killed quicker.
And I was thinking about it, and then I was telling this to some of our staff. We're in a meeting this last week, and one of our staff people used to be a flight attendant that would go to Alaska.
She goes, yeah, we go out sightseeing, and there are these places where you know you might encounter a polar bear. And she goes, Yeah, they have these signs up. It says, If you encounter a polar bear, make sure it knows you're human. What does that mean?
Like, Oh, I'm totally safe. How do you make sure a polar bear knows you're human? I mean, what do you do? Do you go, Hey, hey, look, I have thumbs. I have opposable thumbs. I can pick up something with one hand. You can't because you're a bear. I'm a human.
Leave me alone. What do you quasi moto it? Like like, I'm not an animal. I'm a man. You know, how are you supposed to let it know you're human? And so then I got thinking about that. And not that I didn't trust my this staff person, friend of mine, but I said, Does it really tell you to do that? So I went back online.
And I tried to look for any signage or whatever, and I found a brochure that they make into signs in Alaska that talks about what you're supposed to do if you encounter a polar bear, the largest, most dangerous bear on the planet. And look, you think it was complicated.
You do two different things depending on what the bear is doing. So it says like, if the bear doesn't know you're there, I guess you don't say, surprise. That would be a bad idea. But if the bear doesn't know you're there, it says quietly back away and leave the area.
And it says either in the direction you came or make a wide detour around the bear. I don't know why they have to tell you that if you have to get to the other side of the bear, why do they need to remind you to take a wide detour? If someone would go, well, I'm supposed to go back the way I came. Alright.
And walk right by it? I I don't think that's gonna happen. But it says don't run, move quickly, or make motions that might attract the bear's attention. Keep that in mind. Don't make motions or or or or anything. Stay downwind if possible. You know why? So it can't smell you.
Then it says, keep an eye on the bear. That's under the no doubt rule. Who would say, did everything right but then I just started looking at this flower and I lost track of where the bear was. And now I'm in the hospital or dead. But then it says, if the bear knows you're there and shows signs of being curious.
Like what's a curious bear? It tells you. Starts moving slowly with frequent stops. That sounds like me these days. But I move slowly and make frequent stops. Standing on his hind legs, sniffing the air. All these things, Holy says, if it starts to show these signs, then you do something else. Look what it says to do.
Help it to identify you as a human. Really? She was right. It tells you to do that. But then it says, remember up here if it doesn't know, back away quietly, stay downwind, keep an eye on the bear. But part of the back way is don't make any big movements. Help it to undefeated human. Wave your arms over your head
and talk in low tones. So the first list says don't do something like this. The second list says to do this, which I know with the black bears in Arizona, you do this, but you get loud. You get forceful. But no, the polar bear, it wants you to do two things that seem very opposite.
Wave your hands over your head but speak calmly in low tones. Have you ever tried to do that? In your entire life, when you have ever had to do anything where you start waving your hands like this, has it ever been that you spoke calmly?
Hey, I just wanted to say, I left my wallet in your car. It doesn't work. You naturally it's almost like the arms going up, pulls your voice up, pulls the tension up. Every time we do this, you're like, stop. Wait. Don't go yet. And now we're supposed to do that, and yet talk calmly.
I mean, so this is how we show it we're human? Hey, buddy.
I have thumbs. You don't. Don't kill me. I don't even understand this. And then it tells you to move upwind, not downwind. But if you get that opposite
Here's the hard thing with this, is when you read this, every statement here actually makes sense. You know what it says. Right? You even know what it said to do. I understood telling us to do that. It's not the knowing. It's the how do you actually really apply that. Especially who unless you are
working for the the game and fish department or something. How are you gonna remember the difference of this? And literally live this out in an actual polar bear encounter. Because I'm telling you, everything in us with that fear in that moment will make us do the opposite of everything it says on this list.
Well, that's what we're going to talk about today in this true north. What do we do when we run into the polar bears of life? Like 2020, the polar bear pandemic, the polar bear everyone hates each other, The polar bear political division. You name it, it's happened.
What are we supposed to do in those moments to really live True North? As Pat did a great job last week, didn't he? Did Pat do a good job? Yeah. He might be in here somewhere. Don't know. Are you in here, Pat? I don't care. No, just kidding.
In opening up the series, True North is, you know, when you navigate, you navigate by True North. That's how you get to know where True North is. That's that constant that you can find where you're going as you navigate. We wanna do that. But how do we how do we say true north? We navigate by Jesus.
And Pat did a good job last week of saying, hey, the first thing you gotta understand is God is totally consistent, but absolutely unpredictable.
And that makes it hard. But okay, if He's totally consistent, He loves us, He wants to be with us. There's consistent things you always know He is going to do. The problem is He's very unpredictable in the way it happens. So how do we live that out? How do we do that? How do we navigate that?
And so we wanna talk about this practical way of doing that. And we've been looking at the story of the Israelites in the book of Exodus as they were slaves for hundreds of years. God supernaturally
you know, sent all these plagues and got Pharaoh to release them. And then they go on this journey and we're watching how God leads them through this exodus. Because guess what? The principles in which he does, the way he loves his people, the way he guides, those principles are consistent.
But he's very unpredictable in the how he lays it out. So how can we understand this and know this? And so today's big idea of what to do when we run into the polar bear moments of life is when we're looking to escape, God's inviting us to engage.
When we're looking to like think about it. The reason reading that list sounds crazy if you've never seen a point and you're not gonna remember any of it and you're probably gonna do the opposite, is because you get incredibly fearful
and all you wanna do is get out of there as fast as possible. And all I know is in with every bear, if you get loud and run screaming at the same time, that's a bad thing.
You never wanna and that's exactly what we want to do. We wanna not wave our arms and run away and that'll get us killed. Same thing in our everyday life. When we run into the polar bears of life, we naturally want to escape.
And I wanna talk about that a little bit. We're gonna unpackage this in looking at a story here in a minute of this of what the Israelites. And the problem is we can't have an escape mentality. We need to have an engaged mentality.
Meaning, of trying to escape from the problem, escape from the scenario, escape from where I'm at, I need to understand every one of these moments is an invitation from God to engage in a deeper relationship with him. To be able to trust him
and and to be able to get somewhere with him. If I take an escape mentality escape mentality says I wanna get away from this as quick as possible. And usually escape mentality is I'm looking backwards.
I'm looking in the rearview mirror and what I'm really looking for is I wanna get away from that pain, that problem, that struggle, that way. But you know what you really wanna go though? Is I then wanna circle back around and get back to where I was. Meaning everyone is so sick of 2020.
And then 2021 hit and we're like, oh, it didn't magically go away. And now we're But you know what everyone We think when we have escape mentality. I can't wait for this to be done and us to get back to normal. In other words, I can't wait till it gets back to what it felt like in 2019. Escape mentality looked backwards.
Engaging with God is always moving forward. That's why we call this true north. Because when it comes to navigation, here's a statement. When you're navigating, navigating isn't looking and concerned with where you're coming from. Navigation is not where you're coming from. It's where you're heading.
When you navigate, you're not worried about where you're coming from. You gotta know where you're at before you leave, but you're navigating. Your whole purpose is to look forward and where you're heading. Escape mentality
is worried about where you came from. I wanna get back to normal. I wanna get back to this. I wanna get back and that's not. God in his unpredictable ways will use stuff like a global pandemic to invite you to trust him more.
Hey, we're gonna see it right here. We're gonna look in this very well known story. It's in Exodus 14. And I don't know if you've ever heard of the crossing of the Red Sea, the story in the Bible. Have you ever watched Prince of Egypt? It's
this miraculous event. And what I'm gonna say is if you've been in church and you've read this and you've heard sermons about it and thought about it, even I was guilty of this. I'm gonna just put a theory out there that most of us have focused on the wrong thing when it comes to this story. Most of us celebrate
on what God did back. Like the fact he parted the sea, they escaped, which God does help us escape probably. He will take care of us. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. But the focus is we look at how they got to cross over and then how he destroyed Pharaoh and his army. Like he took care of that. So most of us are focused on the woah of that moment. But you don't realize, I think the point of this whole story is not about wiping out Pharaoh and where they came from. It is completely about God opening a door so they can go where he wants them to go.
That's the point of the story. So what I wanna do is I wanna read the whole story.
Just go through it. Make a few comments. And then I'm gonna come back and and and make a couple points on how do we accept the invitation to engage. How do I understand what to do in the polar bear moments of life? How do I really
accept God's invitation to engage with him instead of just crying out to God, get me out of here, get me out of here, get me out of here. What does that look like? So here we go. Exodus 14 starting in verse five says, when the word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled,
Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. What have we done letting all those Israelite slaves get away? They asked. So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops. He took with him 600 of Egypt's best chariots along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with its commander.
The Lord hardened the heart of pharaoh, meaning he was let him be resolved to just go after the Israelites, the king of Egypt. So he chased after the people of Israel who had left with fists raised in defiance.
The Egyptians chased after them with all their forces in Pharaoh's army. All his horses and chariots and charioteers and his troops. The Egyptians caught up with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore of of Pi Hacharath across from Baal Zephon. As Pharaoh approached,
the people of Israel looked up and they said, it's okay. We heard Pat's message last week and we know that God is consistent. This is just one of those unpredictable moments. Actually, didn't say that because they didn't hear Pat's sermon.
Had they, they might not have reacted this way. It says, as Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What
have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? See the fear? They're looking backwards. Didn't we tell you I love this. Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? Did you ever heard anybody tell you that? I told you this was gonna happen.
And he says, We said, leave us alone. Let us be slaves to the Egyptians.
It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness. Think about that. Last week, Pat was talking about how they they get fearful and they get mad, and that this is what I'm explaining, like that escapism. I can't believe this. I want out of here. Out of here. Law always looks backwards. Goes back to when was the last time I liked what was going on. I wanna go back to that. And the funny thing is sometimes we exaggerate how good it was, and so we wanna go back to stupid stuff. Last week, I talked about some of the complaints they'll do is, well at least back in Egypt we had free vegetables.
It's my best Pat impersonation right there. We had free vegetables. Know, this is worse. They're not even complaining about free food. They're saying, you know what, at least back in Egypt we had better cemeteries. And we got to be slaves. I wanna go back to Egypt. I'd rather be a slave and and have a better grave marker.
They'd rather go back to slave slavery and death. A place that they would rather die there than here. And you're thinking, how dumb is that? But think about it today. How many of us I just I just wanna get back to what was and you don't remember what was going on in 2019.
You don't remember how far away that there was things in your life that you probably weren't close to God, you weren't trusting God on then either.
It's just right now, the pain in the moment wants you to get back. I mean, a perfect example is how many people, maybe some of you in this room, are currently or have experienced, you're in a bad relationship. It was bad from the beginning. People said, I told you so. You know, and yet
you kinda get away, but you keep going back. You keep going back because the pain of being alone seems, and the fear of that, seems to overwhelm the reality of how abusive and terrible that relationship is. Pete, we do this all the time. That's what they're doing.
They want to escape. Escape is focused on getting back to something.
Escape is focused on get rid of the problem as quick as possible, so I can get back to something I thought like. We're engaging. God lets these moments happen as an open door invitation to engage with him, to enter into a relationship with him and a trust in him and see him work in a way you never would have experienced before.
Because he is always consistent.
He's consistently gonna lead you where you need to go. He's gonna consistently lead us and and pull us and call us and invite us to come into a deeper, loving relationship with him, where we trust him. Always. That is a 100% consistent. The actually unpredictable part is He will let the world go crazy. He will allow pandemics.
He will allow things in your life to just go completely out of control for that purpose. And if I have the escape mentality, I will act like the Israelites were right there. Well, at least it was better when I was in that moment. And then we cry out to God, and it says, and they yelled at Moses.
I have some experience in this, as leading God's people. That when y'all get mad at God, you like to take it out on me. So trust me. That's what's happening. So here they are complaining. In verse 13, but Moses told the people, don't be afraid.
Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the people get moving.
Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. That's pretty unpredictable. Talking about unpredictable. Get your staff and raise up over the sea. Look what he's telling to do.
Hey, sea. God wants you to split wide open. Okay?
That was dumb. Sorry.
Can't help it.
He goes, verse 17, and I will harden the heart of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots and his charioteers.
Basically saying, I'm gonna wipe them out. And my glory will be displayed through that. Verse 18, when my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord. You see that? The wiping out of Pharaoh and his army. Who was that for? Egypt.
That part of the story was more of a message to Egypt. He was trying to show them, you are following false gods. You're persecuting the people I am trying to bless. You don't understand, and I need you to see that I am the Lord God Almighty.
And down the road, that's the way one way God. Sometimes he'll try to draw you to him himself. He was trying to show Egypt he got it wrong. The primary point of this story wasn't for the Israelites to look back. It was to prepare them to move forward.
He says, then the angel of God who had been leading the people of Israel moved to the rear of the camp. Wait, wait. The angel of God who had been leading the people? The angel of God could have been the actual angel or it most likely is a pre incarnate Jesus, the angel of the Lord. It's Jesus
in pre and He's leading and He know what He brought with him? A pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. This big pillar that would blow like a whirlwind during the day led them.
And then at night it would light up, which that must have been impressive. I wonder if it happened like our night lights do. Like right around dust just goes, oh, the lights went on.
And so think about it. They're yelling at Moses. We've been left out here to die. You led us to die. God, they're crying out at God and complaining and really yelling at Moses. What have you done here? All that. And you'd think that they felt like God's abandoned us. God's not here. You really think that it's like, did God lead them to a spot and lead them all on their own? And now they're sitting there freaking out, and then he's gonna come riding in to save the day? You do realize from that verses,
he was with them the entire time. You realize right now people, God himself, the Lord Jesus, and his power has been with us this entire time. We
don't need to panic and act like he's left us. He's there the whole time. Why we're we're panicking? Because we don't understand the unpredictability of what he's trying to do. So we need to lean in and grab our arms and hug the consistent things we know. You need to lean into the consistency of God in order to understand the unpredictability of God.
So he's there the whole time and look what he does here. This pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. It moved in between them and the army.
So it stopped the army from being able to get them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and the Israelites did not approach
each other all night. So kept them at bay. Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. They did not see that coming. The wind blew all that night turning the seabed into dry land.
So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground with the walls of water on each side. That must have been a pretty impressive thing to see. Probably a little scary too. I hope this stays here the whole time. That's all I'd be thinking.
Then the Egyptians, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, charioteers chased them into the middle of the sea. But just before dawn, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army in the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw their forces into total confusion.
He twisted their chariot wheels, making their chariots difficult to drive. Let's get out of here, away from these Israelites, the Egyptians shouted. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.
When all the Israelites had reached the other side, the Lord said to Moses, raise your hand over the sea again. Then the waters will rush back and cover the Egyptians and their chariots and their charioteers.
So as the sun began to rise, Moses raised his hand over the sea and the water rushed back into its usual place. The Egyptians tried to escape, but the Lord swept them into the sea. Then the waters returned and covered all the chariots and the charioteers, the entire army of Pharaoh, of all the Egyptians who had chased the Israelites into the sea, not a single one survived.
But the people of God had walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground. As the water stood up like a wall on both sides. That is how the Lord rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day. And the Israelites, here you go, saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore.
When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, They were filled in awe before him. They put their faith in the Lord and his servant Moses. Their intent of seeing that was not a message back to Israel.
What they needed to see was God is unpredictable and took care of them and wanted them to trust him more. And when they did, they went to the other side and now they had more faith and trust in God. Now they're looking forward. God wanted them to get to the other side of that sea. But in order to do it,
in order to encourage them to even cross over, to even think about this journey, they had an army behind them. You ever thought about the last year was God's attempt to invite you into a deeper faith and trust and engagement with Him? But we got to let go of all these other things or we never will see it.
So how do I do that? Because I said this is gonna be practical. Well, if you go back to verse 13 through 15,
there's a few statements there that I think is exactly what we're supposed to do. How do I accept the invitation? What am I supposed to do when I run into these polar bears of a of a of a life story. And starting in verse 13. But it says, but Moses told the peoples when he responded, he was speaking for God to them.
Don't be afraid. You can underline that if you have your Bible. Just stand still. Underline that. And watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm, underline that.
Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving, underline that. So it says there. It says, don't be afraid. Stand still. Stay calm. Get moving. Those four statements are actually saying three things.
There's three things we need to do if you're gonna accept the invitation. What we should be doing with all the craziness in our life right now is is these three things. And the first one is stay calm. I know it said don't be afraid first, but then it circles back around and says again, stay calm. Because I think stay calm is actually defining what he means when he says don't be afraid.
Because when he first says don't be afraid, we can get confused by that. Is because don't be afraid can you really tell someone that not to feel something? I mean, guys, how many of you have tried to tell that to your wife? And then you immediately felt something different.
Dads, how many of you look at your kids? You're crying? You want me to give you something to cry about? Has that in world history ever stopped a kid from crying? Has that ever snapped him out of it? He's not saying don't be afraid. He already He's saying don't be afraid because he already knows they're afraid.
That's why he says stay calm. When God says don't be afraid, he's not trying to command you to fail. And the problem is if you think that's what he's saying, when you stop, you don't stop being afraid. And then you feel like a failure or you feel like God's abandoned you.
You're gonna feel afraid. The don't be afraid is saying, don't let the fear make your decisions for you. Don't let fear control you. Stay calm. What it means to stay calm, just like in any moment like you run into a bear. If you lean into the fear and you don't stay calm, you know what you're gonna do? And
run away and die. And in our walk through life, when we run into a part of life that turns into a polar bear, we don't get it. It's confusing. It's hard. It's not normal. It's really restrictive. It's fearful. The stupidest thing we can do is do the first thing we think will get us out of the situation the quickest.
It's just the way. My dad's telling me, in combat, same thing. Usually the dumbest thing you can do is do the first reaction you can think of to try to get away. You understand that when we give in to fear, we're actually letting the fear control our decisions. So we're not staying calm.
I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to look at our world over the last year and say no one is staying calm. And when you don't stay calm and you react in fear, you try to get out. And when you can't get out and you can't control it, like I've said before, it's kind of my soapbox. We try to control everyone else.
And that's why so many of us are Facebook fighting. I mean, I'll say this and I'll watch one of you go post a Facebook fight right when we're done. Really people? I'm not telling you not do it because I'm mad at you. I'm telling you, you're you're It's not helping you.
Why do you feel the need to argue with someone in this anonymous way over anything? Because life's out of control. And you can't make it work. So you see someone that you disagree with, and you're like, well, you know what I can do.
The only thing I like about it is when people start commenting back and forth, I get popcorn. It's like better Netflix right now. I can't believe these people are so worked up over this. You're doing that because you're not staying calm. And you can't control.
So you fight with anyone that disagrees with you to try to get some semblance of control. I am telling you, that's why you're doing it. You're not, oh, I just feel the need to defend. I need to help these people. You know them well enough that you think you should speak into them, then you know their phone number.
And you can call them and have an actual conversation with them. Just saying.
But that's we don't stay calm. And I'll be honest, one of the most frustrating things for me, the Moses moment for me is I think Christians have been some of the worst people to stay calm over the last eight months.
Because then we hyper spiritualize everything. And somehow we think we're supposed to fight the battle of the end times on the behalf of God. Even in this story. Every story where God has to save them, He says, stand back, watch God, watch him fight for you.
What we're supposed to do is go where he goes. So we need to stay calm. And the second thing is he just stands still. But stand still what? Stand still in the Lord. Stand still and watch him. Watch what the Lord will do. So when you stay calm now, instead of reacting to the fear, you can now watch
where is God working? When it comes to me personally, this was an actual event, but in your own life, it says stand still long enough. Stay calm and then stand still and watch for the Lord.
Watch for where the Lord's invitation is. What is he trying to do in your life through this? Like sometimes instead of Facebook fighting, ask yourself, get alone with your word of God. Parents say, why is that person making me so mad when I read their post? What if you started with, why am I so angry?
Why am I so frustrated? Why am I and and and let the Lord speak to you. It's an invitation
for him to say, maybe you're trusting the wrong stuff. Maybe you're really worried because you're afraid I'm gonna abandon you. Maybe, you know, whatever it is. He'll talk to you and let him engage with you. Watch him. In other words, to stand still means you watch God, not the problem.
You keep your eyes on him, not the problem. See, sometimes we try to stay calm, and then we stare at the problem instead of staring at Jesus.
And if you do that, in this story, if they just kept looking at the problem and reacted out of fear and didn't stay calm, they're not gonna see the waters part. They're not gonna have a moment to go into the sea breeze. You know what they're gonna do? Instead of sitting still and having that faith, that calm faith, they're gonna either freeze
or fight on their own.
And you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna act, but they're not gonna stand still. They're gonna freak out, freeze, and then fight or surrender. In other words, if they didn't take the time to stay calm and watch the Lord, they would have either went out and tried to fight the army of Pharaoh on their own and died,
or they would have just said, hey, I don't know what's You know what? We wanted to go back anyways. Take us back to be slaves where we have better cemeteries and free vegetables. And that's what we do. When we try to react on our own and we don't stay calm, we act out of fear. We will get moving,
but without looking for the Lord. And we will move towards something that will not help us. It'll only hurt us. And actually, when we move in that way, we move away from the Lord. We don't move with Him. So you stay calm, you stand still. And then it's interesting. The last thing is you get moving.
He told Moses, why are you standing around here crying out to me? Why are guys all whining to me? Get moving.
Crying out is a version of prayer. Like why are you belly like God, like why are you saying, God will you stop this? Will you stop this? Will you do this? And he's saying, what are you screaming to me? I already opened a way. Get moving. Move in the direction I've called you to go. Come with me on the journey I've said. Start moving towards my mission for you. Start moving towards my love for you. Start moving towards this. That's what we're always supposed to be as the church. We need to stay the church. We should be moving in the direction the church is moving, which is point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's what we move towards. That what we try to be. We reach out to Jesus. Get moving.
And that sounds confusing if you don't understand the first two points. Because the second one says what? Stand still? And then he says get moving.
Hey. Hey. That's what it sounds like it's saying. Because what he's saying is if you don't stand still and see where God wants to take you and how he wants to work in you, you will move in the wrong way. But once you stay calm and you look to what the Lord is calling you to be and do, quit procrastinating. Start doing it.
There's not, oh, when and then. So many of us don't move towards what the guys say. Well, when this calms down then. It should be then and now. Since God is over there and He's called me, now I move towards Him. Instead of when this changes, then I'll move out. No. Stay calm. Stand still, but then get moving.
That's what we need to be. And I think it's it's just been a weird last year because we've experienced something as a at least us in The United States out here, this has been some tough, weird times that make no sense. And I was talking to my mother-in-law and my my wife just the other night.
And my mother-in-law, you know, at her age, she's like, she goes, but I just get worked up that you're we're talking about the message. And she goes, I'm just fearful. I just don't wanna this happen and this. And I'm worried about the politics and all these people going this direction when I think the country should go this way and getting so frustrated with it all. And she goes, I wonder what my mom would say. Her mom who lived about the same age as my dad actually.
You know, and went through the Great Depression as their childhood. You know, World War II, my dad, you know, fought in Korea and all these horrible things. My dad spent years of his life in moments that are way worse than anything we are sitting in right now. And he did that for years on end.
And yet he looked back and said, I love my life that the Lord gave me. How do these people do that? How do these people from this other generation do that? You know how? They basically applied a CS Lewis quote. You know how to endure suffering? You suffer through it.
They're not special. My dad wasn't any better in that sense. He just had to go through it. The only way you can get to be that way is to go through that.
And we are in a culture right now, especially as Americans, but primarily as Christians, as a church right now, we are having a moment to go through a refining fire that is drawing us to be closer to God. We can either try to escape from that or we can embrace it. On the other side, we'll experience the joy. But you can't experience the joy if you don't go through it. And
you have to understand that trusting God is not about the escape. It's about the engagement. Because if you look at the story, everyone stops in. It says they got to the other side. They saw all the the you know, Pharaoh's army did the dead man float.
You know, Pharaoh, Pharaoh, oh baby, let my people go. If you grew up in church, you know that dumb song. And as they're watching, it says they were in awe. They celebrated.
But think about it. You know how you celebrate? Well, was amazing. God bless. Whoo. Whoo. And you're all upset. But you know what? At some point, the party starts to die down.
And think imagine what it must have been like to be there with millions of people. They just crossed the sea. They saw this moment. They're celebrating. They're all excited. And then they start to calm down. And then they're like,
where the heck are we?
You know where they were when they crossed the earth? They were in a worse wilderness. A more inhospitable wilderness. People didn't live where they went. You couldn't live where they went. God took them to a worse place. They went to a worse place.
And that's where God sometimes just because he helps you through this moment, engagement's the goal. The navigation is not to go to a better place all the time. It's to be with him. He'll take care of you over and over. He's trying to teach you. It's not about where you're at. It's about who you're with.
And he takes them to a worse wilderness. Think about it. How many of you I mean, all how many? Me too. I'm not yelling. I did this too. Let's be honest. Be on. Don't let me be alone up here because it just feels awkward. Tell me that some of you, as the clock struck midnight on the thirty first,
you didn't have just this weird sense of felt a little bit like maybe we're Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings when he finally destroyed that ring and he got to go, it's finished.
I mean, did you did you kinda hope in your heart that because we all said we're so sick of 2020, so sick of that. Like, just thought that magically because a day changed. Magically because we only created calendars because it just
knocks off the time. How how much time does it take us to circle the sun? So since we magically started a new circle, a new lap, that didn't you kind of am I the only one that didn't kind of think that maybe it'll stop being the way it was? Anybody? You just don't want to admit you're as dumb as me, do you?
I get it. Just leave me hanging out here.
That's escapism. Because they crossed over that Red Sea and we look at that story. This why I think most of us heard the story like, now they're there. No, they're in a worse spot. We'll see. They bellyache some more. Because God was trying to teach them what we just talked about here. Stay calm. Stand still. Get moving.
But you know what was on that other side in that inhospitable desert wilderness? God. And there was a spot there called Mount Sinai
that he wanted to take them to, to covenant with them, to give them his word so they could know him on a deeper level. They can understand the consistent nature of God so they will have trust with Him through the unpredictable moments of life.
I believe this last year has revealed the depth of our faith in God more than anything else.
And I can tell you, the first part of the year, there were some moments where it challenged me. This last year, I've said, was probably, probably, definitely the toughest time to lead in my thirty years as a leader. This was the hardest battle, the hardest fight, the hardest thing.
And I had to choose to cling to this. Stay calm, stand still, and keep moving where God wants us to go. And like I said, I think God grew me. And I think I learned how to do it. And I think I fought the good fight. Some of you disagree with me. That's okay. You have your God given right to be wrong.
But the point is, I hated every minute of it in so many ways. I felt fear and frustration and fatigue. But now looking back in order to look forward, I have grown as a leader in the last twelve months more than I did the first eighteen years of leading this church. I just have.
And you know what? I have a desire. Always have. My personality makes me want to tell jokes and have fun. But it's funny how I'm called to lead in a bold way in directions that sometimes we don't want to go. But I actually have a personality style that likes to be liked.
I know nobody else has that. Nobody likes to be liked but me. But it's really dangerous. I could easily just go,
and I've had to draw something going, nope, this is where we need to go. And I've had a lot of people not too happy with me. And what God has done is I have never felt the confidence. I'm not saying it stopped hurting.
But I have never felt a more boldness if I get over it quicker in the sense that I truly understand at a much deeper level in my relationship with God that as a leader appointed and called by him to do what I do, I don't answer to people. I answer to him.
I would not have engaged at that level if the unpredictable nature of God didn't allow me to be in this moment. You realize this last year has just been a Red Sea moment for us. We've been caught between an army and an ocean. And we keep thinking the answer is to go around the ocean or fight the army. It's not
to engage with God. Engage with the Lord at a deeper level. Because if we don't, we miss out. The reality is we're the ones that miss out.
Let just close it with this, summarize with this. It's a story I've told it before if you've in church very long. But it's the best way I know how to make sense of how we miss out on all this if we just don't choose to stay calm, stand still, and get moving. And just understand that every time I want to escape, it's actually the invitation from God to engage.
And it happened when my wife was a little girl. She was her only child at the time. Her mom was actually eight months pregnant with her brother. And they were living in Dana Point, California, down by the beach. But they're poor and broke, they lived in these little
duplexes that are in this crowded part of Dana Point on a hillside right by Pacific Coast. It was really busy, especially during the summer. All the people would they rented out a lot of the places around them. There was a lot of people driving, don't know where they're going and stuff.
So the only place she could play outside that was safe, had one little side yard, this little side area. So my wife, well she was my wife then, she was out there playing. And her mom went out and invited her to come inside with her. She said, Hey, come on, come with me. And she didn't want to because she was having fun.
She was comfortable where she was. So she stubbornly and sassily said, no. I mainly tell this story so you can see how stubborn my wife is, so you'll take pity on me. I'm just kidding. Just kidding, Carrie, if you're watching. Seriously. Sorry. No. Just kidding.
No. And so she said, no. And her mom goes, no. So her mom's like, no, come here. She doesn't know how she acted. She's like, no. And she started to back away, like out of this yard. So her mom came out of the door and says, no, you got to come here. And she starts to back and get further. She's starting to go out of the yard. So her mom starts waddling a little bit quicker.
And then all of a sudden she tried to get her and she started running. And she ran out into the street. And now not only is she just being a disobedient child, she's now put herself in greater danger and she doesn't even realize it.
So now her mom starts moving way more aggressive, which I don't know how aggressive you can be at eight months, half months pregnant. I've never been pregnant. I mean, feel kind of pregnant right now. I'm about six months along, I think. But
she described the story as like, here it is hot out, and she's super pregnant. And now she's like freaking out. So her blood pressure and she starts like trying to run. And next thing you know, my future wife starts running down the street. No.
And just takes off running in and out. Cars are coming and almost hitting. She was freaking out and chased her and chased her and chased her. She ran my mother-in-law, her mom, an entire city block before she was able to catch her. And she picked her up and they came back home. Mother-in-law was like, She
actually went into labor the next day, two and a half weeks early. So any problems that her brother has, it's probably her fault. But she takes her back and she walks there. She said, why'd you want me? He's like, I liked where I was. I didn't want to come in. She goes, but you don't understand.
I just happened to flip the TV on and they never watch TV. They had those rules. They barely ever watch TV. So her mom was just she had made some popcorn and then she turned the TV on and saw that my wife's favorite cartoon, which she doesn't get to watch very often, was on.
So she goes, I made popcorn. I saw your cartoon. I was inviting I wanted you to come and sit with me and eat popcorn and we could watch the show.
But you ran away from me. I wanted to engage with you and you ran away. So now the show's already over. The popcorn is cold. And I need you to go sit in your room until my blood pressure and heart rate dropped low enough that I don't still want to kill you, basically. She missed out.
And you know what? That moment was so powerful to my wife that she remembered the story. She remembers the regret she felt. Not shame, but as much as I completely missed out and misunderstood my mom's intentions. How about you? Do you misunderstand what God wants to do in this moment?
And you're running out into the street, yelling and fighting and ignoring and you think and you're getting hit by cars. Some of you have already been hit and you're hurting. And and and the funny thing is, just like my wife, you don't even understand the danger you've put yourself in spiritually.
And god is running after you not in anger but with the desire to engage with you because he consistently loves you more than you can love yourself. So how about it? What would happen if right now you stayed calm And you stood still and said, where does God want to talk to my heart? Where does he want to engage with me?
And then get moving towards his mission in your life. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you love us enough to chase after us. I thank you that you love us enough that even when we act whiny and just want to escape, that you still protect us.
So Lord, I pray for simple prayer for myself and everyone in this room and everyone watching online. That we would learn that when we want to escape, we would accept the invitation to engage with you. Help us to understand what it means to stay calm in our moments, to stand still and look for you,
and then get moving towards where you want us to go. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. God bless you. We thank God. Hey. Did I tell you guys I love you guys? Because I do. So it was fun to be here. At least for me, don't know. You might not have had a good time. But
if you need to pray with someone in our prayer room and for those of you online, if you need to talk to someone, go to rockpoint.io. Click the need to talk tab. And other than that, God bless you guys. Have a great day.