Well, if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Bob Kedlesic, and I'm one of the pastors here at Bridgewater, and we're in this series called Same God. And I don't know about you, but Christmas season for me feels chaotic, which is ironic because it's not chaotic, it's very scheduled. There's all these extra events, you know, there's youth group tonight at 4 o'clock. Maybe some of you are at Christmas in Montrose, or volunteering for that. And then there's, you know, family get-togethers, and then you've got to get all the gifts, and then you have to strategize what subjects am I going to change to if my family starts talking about politics and fighting. And right, and then, you know, all of these extra, there's winter track practice, and there's a basketball game, and there's the choir concert, or the band concert, and, you know, it just over, it shouldn't be called the Christmas season, it should be called the overloaded season. And what that does to me emotionally is it just feels chaotic, even though it's not, because it's just too much. But even beyond that, our world seems so chaotic. All the different deaths in our church family over the last two weeks. I had a friend that I used to hang with and do stuff with and get together a little over 20 years ago, and I just recently found out that not only is he divorced, but his daughter has committed suicide. And I'm, what? Like this doesn't make sense. This is chaos, chaos all over in our world. And so many times in our lives, I think we feel like our back is up against a wall, or in the story we're going to look at today, our back is up against the Red Sea, and in front of us is the most powerful army on earth at that time, charging down. And there's, you know, what am I going to do? And it's just, it's just chaos. And so I want to look at a story that's 3,400 years old, and it starts in Exodus 14. It says, "Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses," and we're jumping in the middle of the story. And just to kind of summarize, Moses was born in a time where Pharaoh was trying to kill all the Jewish boys. And so he was putting a basket in the Nile River, and to hide him there. And a princess of a daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river, saw this little baby boy, said, "I want to adopt him," and so raised him in her palace. He was raised, though, by his Jewish mother, as kind of the nanny, and his sister. And they taught him about their people, and so at 40 years of age he saw how the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt and oppressed, and he rescued one of his fellow Jews who was being beaten by killing the Egyptian slave owner and taskmaster. And when that became known, Moses realized that his life was on the line, and so he fled into a desert wilderness, and for the next 40 years, from 40 to 80 years of age, he was a shepherd out in the desert and in the wilderness. And then God appeared to him in a burning bush, and the bush didn't burn up, and he went to see it, and God spoke to him out of the bush and said, "Now it's time. I want you to rescue Israel. I want you to leave them out of slavery to the Promised Land." And he gave all these excuses, but God said, "No good. I want you to do it anyway." And so he did that, and God did all these incredible miracles, the ten plagues. And so finally, Pharaoh said, "That's it, please leave." And they left, and that's where we pick up the story. The Lord gave these instructions to Moses. See, next slide. Order the Israelites to turn back and camp by. You know, if you ever get this stuff like this and you read to your family, you just say it with confidence. I didn't say it with confidence, I practiced. Ha'eroth, pyhatharoth between Miggle and the Sea. Camp there along the sea shore across from Baal Zephyrin, and go to the next one. Then Pharaoh will think the Israelites are confused, they're trapped in the wilderness, and once again I will part harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after you. And I've planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. And after this, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. And so the Israelites camped there as they were told. And so this is kind of hard to wrap your minds around, but so Pharaoh lets Israel go. And then he changes his mind because they're wandering. So here's a map of where they went after they left. So this is kind of like a map of most of your lives, I think. So here's where they start, here's where they need to go. And so obviously God takes them this way, right? If you look back on your life, some of you are old enough to do this. Maybe some of you are too young, you haven't seen this yet. But it's like, I want to get there. And so where does God take me? He takes me over there. And then you're like, okay, I want to get there. And then he turns and you're like, yes, no, and he takes you over there, right? And it just seems like aimless wandering. And now they're at a spot, you know, and this is theoretical, we're not sure exactly where they were. And some say this is actually better translated, the Sea of Reeds. And so there's some, but basically it's not in a straight line and it's not going the right way. And so Pharaoh hears that they're way down here now. And he's like, you know what, I thought God was with them, but God must not be with them. Because what kind of a God would wanting to go from here to there, take them down there and over there and down there and like clearly that a smart God is not leading them. And this is true in your life as well. You know, things happening in your life, loss, illness, hurt, betrayal, you know, you might be, your marriage might be hanging by a thread right now and you're thinking, where? Why is God led me here? Some of those baptism stories, there's times in all of our lives where we're like, I thought, I thought God wanted to take me here and now he's taken me down here. And so it goes on in the next verse, Exodus 14, verse 5 says, when word reached the King of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. What have we done? Letting all these Israelites slave get away, they asked, you know, and during the Civil War, before the Civil War, most of the financial, you know, like if you were to add up what everything was worth in the South, slaves were worth more than the land and all the stuff combined. So slaves are expensive. And Pharaoh's saying, what were we thinking? Now we got to do the work ourselves. Like let's go get him and so Pharaoh's harnessed his chariot and called up his troops and he took with him 600 of Egypt's best chariots along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with its commander and as Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them and they cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? What happens when a crisis hits your life? Many times what we do and in our country, when there's a crisis, what do we do? We blame our leaders. And many times it is their fault. They're like, why did you do this? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? We didn't want to leave Egypt. Actually you did. Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? 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. You know, they felt like God had betrayed them. And I know there's people in this congregation right now because I'm texting them and I'm talking to them who feel the same way right now. Loss, confusing circumstances, pain. And God said, I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope in the future. But where is that now? I don't have hope. I don't think I have a future. Israel was in the same, in fact they were in a worse situation I think than anyone here. Like literally there was death behind them and death coming toward them. And I think in their minds, in their human minds there was no way out of this. They didn't have weapons. They weren't trained fighters. The most powerful army on the planet was charging down on them. And you got to remember of all the plagues, what was the last plague? The death of everyone's firstborn sons. So these soldiers are not in a mood for mercy. These people down there, they're the reason my little boy died. And it's time we get them. And so the Israelites, I mean they're just, God had betrayed them. And here's an interesting thing about fear. Fear and treasure are a two-sided coin. Pastor Tim Sullivan and Conklin kind of pointed this out and I think it's really true. And whatever you treasure points to your fears. So if you're afraid of something, it's pointing to something that you really value. Now in this case they value their lives. That's a good thing to treasure. It's a good thing to value. They value the lives of their family and friends around them. That's a good thing to treasure. But whatever you treasure will be something that you can fear because it's something you fear is taken away. And so if you treasure comfort, then you're going to fear pain and discomfort and things like that. If you treasure the approval of others, then you're going to fear rejection from other people. And so fear and treasure are really connected. And the next verse says, "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 or some translations have it there. Be still." So there's this stillness and then the Lord will rescue you. That word rescue means literally make a wide path. The Lord will make a wide path for you. And He literally does that moments after saying so. And you just got to stay calm. So this is what we need to do today. We need to be still in the chaos. And again, that word, the original Hebrew language, it literally means to show deafness. Right? Just totally ignoring everything. And this isn't a lack of motion or emotion. Okay? So, in fact, in a little bit, He says, "Stay calm, be still." And then God, like yells at Him and He says, "Tell these people to get moving." You're like, "Wait a minute. Which is it?" No, He's not saying like, but He's saying, "Even when your shoulders are moving from the sobbing, it's not an emotional state. Even when your heart is racing 180 beats a minute, you can be still." It's this idea of trusting God in the midst of chaos. And so how do you do that? How do you trust God when an army is marching toward you, or when you've lost someone you love, or your marriage is falling apart, or someone has just betrayed you, or finances are terrible, and you're behind on your rent, or you're behind on your mortgage. And like everything, it's like there's this little string, and you pulled it, and oh my goodness, now everything is coming undone. How do you be still? How do you trust God like that? And I have four different ideas of what to do, and the first is just write stuff down. This is preventative. If things are going well right now, in fact, everybody who was baptized, maybe family members of them, or others of you, and maybe like me a month ago, I became a grandpa, right? This was awesome. I wrote stuff down. Like praise God. She was healthy. Things could have gone wrong. Things happened, and I thought, oh no, and nothing was wrong, but just writing down, because every time our fears get, you know, are right on top of us, we think it's the first time. We act like it's the first time. The Israelites, you wouldn't know that they had seen more miracles than any other generation in the history of humanity, except Jesus' generation. They saw so many miracles of God, and so many times where Pharaoh got harder, and then God struck back even harder, and they saw God deliver them over and over again. And yet they're like, nope, nope, none of that happened. All I can see is what's in this moment. And so write things down. I have a notebook, and you know, I even saved in that notebook a test of a spot on my back. My dad's had skin cancer three times, a third of his nose cut off at one point, you know, and so I had a spot on my back, and so they took it off, and they sent it away for testing, no cancer. You know, yeah, that happens to people all the time. It probably does, but you know, I prayed, and God answered that prayer, and I need to remember. He's come through for me in the past. Pastor Brett has a -- and Nicole, they have a little blessing box, they call it. And in that blessing box, they got a lot of things, one of them's a little tiny hat from James, their son, when he was born. He was born premature, and God allowed him to grow and be healthy, and that dude's a healthy man, you know? And just to remember, there was a point where we didn't know if he would make it. In fact, I was talking to Brett on Friday, and he said, you know, he had a tree branch or a log, just randomly snap. It wasn't even the tree they were felling. It was another tree that it went by, and it snapped off, and the thing came down, hit him right in his back, hit his scapula, broke it, knocked him out. If it was just a little bit more to the left or right, there would be no Brett Bixby, you know? And just remembering what God has done in the past. So write stuff down, save things, and another thing is just to listen to God's people. The Israelites at this point, they needed to listen to Moses. Moses was saying, keep calm, like be still, it's okay. We've been through this before. I know not exactly like this, and it's different, but we have a big God. And we need to listen to God's people. That's why it's so important to come together as God's people. In fact, this is why it's so important. This is why we force everyone getting baptized. Nothing in the Bible that says those getting baptized have to share how God has worked in their lives, but we just think, what a great opportunity to share what God has done in your life. And so for all of you to hear what God is doing in those ladies and those men's lives, and even little Jackson's life, like to hear what God is doing, that helps us to know, you know what? If God was there for them, the same God can be there for me. And if God was there for Moses and the people of Israel, that same God is here today in my life, and I can trust Him. Listen to God's people, and listen to God's Word. Read God's Word, and remind yourself, and I don't know where you're reading. If you're going through a difficult time, read the Psalms. There is a Psalm for how you're feeling. If you are on cloud nine and you are so happy, there are Psalms like that. It's talking to someone recently, going through some difficult things. Where are you reading in God's Word? Psalm 91. A couple of days later, where are you reading in God's Word? Psalm 91. And a psalm that connected, that this is what I'm, if it's, if you're grieving, there's psalms of grief. If you're angry, there's psalms of anger. If you're confused and you don't know what's going on, there's psalms of confusion where David just comes to God and he's honest with his emotions. And then at the very end, usually, not always, he's still. And he says, "But you are a God in heaven and you are a good God and I can trust you." And just to remember, read God's Word, you know, you can read the psalms. If you're struggling, you can start in Matthew reading about Jesus and what he did and how he came through. And then, yeah, so how many of you ever left a baby in a church nursery? Didn't even have to be yours. Any of you leave a baby in a church nursery at some point in your life? Okay, I don't do that anymore. I broke that habit. But no, whatever we'd leave a baby in the church nursery, and I'd get a, got a picture of a baby, what a baby looks like when you leave them in the church nursery usually. At least this was our experience, okay? They all went through, all four of them, they went through a phase where every time we dropped them off, they cried when we left them. And then they'd get better and they'd start playing with toys and stuff, and then they didn't want to leave. And every time we picked them up, they'd cry again. So two guaranteed cries and temper tantrums every Sunday morning. If that is your child, you have a normal child. Here's the thing, baby, a baby, let's say a little baby boy, you leave them in the church nursery, he has no understanding why. And he sees walking away, not only his mom, but his friend, his refrigerator, his sleep aid, his playing companion, right, his everything. There is no reason why mom should ever leave me because everyone knows my life revolves around me, right? And this is not good for me, you know, but in reality, not only is it good for mom to get away from me. Amen. Do I have a witness, yeah. But it's also good for the baby. It's good for the baby to realize, oh, when mom leaves, she comes back and dad does too. And this is a normal part of life and it's okay. And I can live without them for a few minutes, you know. And so my intellectual mental capacity is much closer to a one-year-old than it is to God. And there are times in our lives, don't be that baby who screams and throws a tantrum because I can't understand why God would do this. We're going from here to here, why does he take me south and back me up against a body of water and I can't swim? You know what? With an army running down on me, don't be the baby throwing the temper tantrum. Understand, you know what? God's got this. The same God I read about in the Bible, he is in my life and I can trust him. And then the fourth thing we need to do to remember to be still is sing God's songs. The music at the beginning of the service, it's not the warm-up act for the preacher. Okay, that's not what that is. That is a very important part of our week and our days to sing about who God is. And I guarantee you, if you are depressed, first of all, you are not going to want to sing praise songs about who God is because you don't feel like singing at all. And it's important to remember who God is and through the week then to have those words come back up, you know, you are the same God, you are the same. And man, do this in the car, sing out, maybe do it at home, maybe not, I don't know. My daughter Amber, I think it was Amber, when I would sing at home, she would be like, "Dad, he don't sing. Like an I sing good, you know?" But she just, you know, I don't know if it meant, you know, she was okay to sing, but not daddy. I don't know why that was, but so maybe your family doesn't appreciate you singing. But this is important, a way to remember that the crisis I'm in now or whatever situation I'm faced with now, it's God, God is in it. And I might not understand what's going on, but I can trust Him. And so we need to walk in the deliverance He's given us. So that sounds like a contradiction. So first of all, Pastor Bob says to be still, and then he says walk. Like what in the world is going on? And Josh Jones, Pastor Josh gave a great illustration because I'm not a baseball player, but I've been to a few major league games. And if I'm, if you want to torture me, I'll watch them on TV because in the park, they're exciting on TV, unless you get into all the stats, oh my word, you know, like it's just sometimes it's boring. But you notice the picture, like, and it can be the world series, right? And there's tens of thousands of people cheering, and he's on the mound and he's looking at the catcher. No, not that pitch. Yeah, that's the pitch. That's the pitch. And then what does he do? There's this moment where he just stops and he is still. And then he winds up and he throws the pitch. There is a moment of concentration. My mom used to ask me in high school sometimes. She's like, when I would play soccer, did you hear me cheering for you? No. Almost never did I hear anyone cheering, right? Because there's a focus and there's a mental stillness when you're involved in concentrating on something that it doesn't matter what is going on, right? And that's what we need. If you don't take a time every day to be still before God in the chaos and noise of this world, you're missing out. There's a weakness in you that will crack. I want to encourage all of you. What is the time for me first thing in the morning, sometimes after I pee, but other than that, it's first thing, right? You know, I'm in my fifties, all right, it's the way it is, all right? But to have a time where you're just, you know what, I'm just going to be still and remember who God is and maybe reading God's words stories about what He's done because it's the same God 3,400 years ago with Moses. Dallas is sermon last Sunday, same God 4,000 years ago with Abraham, same God 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born. He is my God and I just need to center myself, take that little pause and then go, that's what the next verse says, Exodus 14 verse 15, then the Lord says to Moses, He says, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving. You want me to understand?" This thing is still there. A lot of you know the story where God parts the sea of reeds and there's walls of water on either side and they pass through, He hasn't even done that yet and He's telling them get going. And so then skipping ahead, then Moses raised his hand over the sea and the Lord opened up the path through the water with a strong East wind and the wind blew all that night, turning the sea bed into dry ground. But the people of Israel, now I'm skipping ahead farther, it's kind of recounting what had happened. They had walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground as the water stood up like a wall on both sides. And this is how the Lord rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day. And these are like saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore and when the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, they were filled with awe before Him. They put their faith in the Lord and in His servant, Moses. And this is so important for us to do the same. So don't run away from God, don't panic, don't, you can trust Him. Here's a couple lies that we often believe about our situation. No one has gone through this before. Now with Israel, I think that was actually the case. But for us today, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says there is no temptation that it sees you except what is common to man. Everything you face, somebody else has faced. No matter how horrendous, no matter how wonderful, no matter whatever. And you're not alone in it. And so don't think you are. And then God is not here for me. It's another lie. Where is God? That's what the people thought. Where is God? He's not here. I can see the army, I can see the ocean. I don't see God. But Christmas is a time where we remember Emmanuel, one of Jesus' names. It means literally God is with us. This is too much to endure. We're not going to make it. No, He's with you. He'll help you through it. There's no way out or through this. There is. Just hold on and trust God. And I just want to close with this thought about the Christmas story. And I got a little picture of Mary and Joseph there with the baby Jesus. This is a principle that came even in the Christmas story. When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant and it wasn't his. And she's going on about this whole angel appeared and God and all that. We all know that's not how it works. Joseph wanted to run. He wanted to divorce her. The angel Gabriel came to Joseph and basically his message to him was, "Be still. Don't run. Don't you need to stay where you are. You need to stay with Mary. You need to marry her." And then after Jesus was born, God said, "Now it's time to walk." Right? It's time to walk to Bethlehem and then Herod hears about them. It's time to walk to Egypt. You know what? The Christian life is not a sprint. That didn't tell the Israelites, you know, Moses didn't say when they're, and I would have said this, "Run! We don't know how long those walls of water are going to stay. Are you going to be like, like get as fast as you drop your stuff?" But that's not what he said. They walked. Christianity is at a walking pace. Walk with God. Each step of the way, if this Christmas feels chaotic, stop and pick a time every day. And you might say, "I'm so busy. I can't do this." If your life depended on taking 10 or 15 minutes in the morning, maybe a half hour in the morning and stopping and being with God, you would find time. And maybe it's not the morning, maybe it's the evening, maybe it's right after dinner. I don't know when it is, but be still before God. Heavenly Father, I just thank you. For your Word, I thank you for your reminders. I thank you for who you are. Help us to remember that in the chaos around us, in the confusion, in the things that we don't understand, that you are the same God, that rescued Israel from Egypt. You're the same God that sent Jesus Christ, not only to be born as a baby, but to die in the cross for us and to rise again. God, help us to be still before you this week, every day to find time to be still and know who you are. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
