A God Who Acts
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A God Who Acts
February 20, 2011
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
We want to turn to Scripture now. We are continuing to work our way through Exodus Chapter 14 and we are going to be reading verses 19 through 22. So I invite you to follow along on the screens in front of you.
The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
God’s Word for us today! Would you join me in prayer?
Lord thank you for your Word. It is alive and active and it is sharper than any two-edged sword. So Lord, we ask that you would yield it on our hearts this day. We ask that because of Jesus. Amen.
Well I start with a question for you today. How many of you know what a cast down sheep is? I don’t think so. That is not a term that we typically use, sometimes we have seen that phrase “cast down” sometimes in Scripture around Psalms, where it will say, “Why are you cast down?” But a cast down sheep, according to Phillip Keller who is a sheepherder as well as an author, he says that a sheep sometimes will get stuck on their back and they can’t roll over; whether it is because they are too heavy or there’s too much wool and they get stuck and they can’t move. That can become a dangerous situation for that sheep because what happens is gas begins to collect in their stomach and their stomach begins to harden. Then they can eventually suffocate if they are not taken care of. In addition, because they are on their back, their feet are in the air and their feet begin to go numb. They lose the circulation in their feet. At that point, the shepherd has to step in and do something if that sheep is going to survive because it is in trouble at this point.
So what happens is when a shepherd comes alongside, it has to begin to restore a cast down sheep and it isn’t something that you just kind of “Come on, get up, let’s go.” It takes a little bit of time and the shepherd has to kind of nurture the sheep back to health. So the shepherd will begin to massage the legs to try to get the circulation going in the legs; will talk to the sheep, kind of in reassuring tones, that is what you are taught as a lifesaver when you go to save someone. You have to say, “Everything is going to be alright.” That is what the shepherd does. Then as he gets ready to turn the sheep over, the sheep still can’t stand. So when he begins to roll the sheep over, he actually has to hold the sheep and support it until the blood begins to circulate and the equilibrium of the sheep begins to reestablish itself. Then, at that point, when the shepherd thinks he is ready, he can let the sheep begin to kind of stand on their own. When it is able to stand on its own, at that point then the shepherd is able to lead it back home.
We have had our shepherding class today. You know, as I think about that and I think about that process, you know I think if I was a sheep, I would want that kind of shepherd to shepherd over me. And the truth is we have that kind of Shepherd. We have that kind of Shepherd who will take care of us when we are cast down and care for us with the same level of care that a shepherd will and that is our heavenly Father. God acts to rescue us. God acts on our behalf, and that’s our course today. When we are in difficult circumstances, when we are in uncertain places, we have a God who acts on our behalf.
We are continuing our series of “Up Against the Wall” where we are looking at the Israelites up against the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army right on top of them. At this point as we read in the Scripture, we reached the climax in the story. And as we reached the climax in the story, what do we normally think of? Don’t we normally think off this (a picture on the screen of Charlton Heston as Moses at the Red Sea); Charlton Heston with his arms raised and the water parting. That is what we typically think of when we get to this part of the story. Yet, when we look at the text, what is our text telling us? It talks about a pillar of a cloud and the angel of the Lord; and what is he talking about here? The place to start to begin to unpack that is by going back to the end of Chapter 13; because at the end of Chapter 13, it tells us that the Lord was leading the Israelites out into the wilderness and it was a pillar of a cloud during the day and then it became a pillar of fire at night. So what our text is telling us is that the Lord is still there. The Lord now, instead of being in front of them against the water, has now come behind them and is standing between the Israelites and the army of Pharaoh. He is protecting his sheep. He is guarding them. He is surrounding them, if you will. I think that is an important piece for us. Listen to the words of Psalm 139:5-6. It says,
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
God acts on our behalf. God acts on our behalf, first and foremost, to surround us with his presence. God surrounds us with his presence. God will always be with his people no matter where we go, no matter what happens, there is no place that we can escape God’s presence. Let’s read the next couple verses out of Psalm 139 and see how these resonate with that.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, (guess what?) you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol (hell), you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
(if I jump on a plane and just get out of here, he is saying),
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
God is with us. We can’t escape God’s presence. There is no place in this creation or anywhere else, that we can escape God. Now the question I think for all of us is do we believe that? Do we believe that? Really? And if we do, then we can take verses from Scripture to heart. I want to read some from the Psalms that reinforce this. If you believe that, if you believe that you cannot escape God’s presence,
Psalm 23:
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;Then Psalm 32:
You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.Psalm 5:12
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover them with favour as with a shield.And then in Psalm 32:10
…steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
If God acts to be present in our lives at all times and in all places and in all situations, then what do we do with that? How do we take that knowledge and apply it practically into our lives? Well, I think one of the things we can do is we can affirm his nearness in our hearts. The way we do that is by claiming and memorizing Scripture. I will give you a couple references here:
Philippians 4:5-6
Isaiah 41:10
Genesis 28:15
Acts 18:9-10
Hebrews 13:5
Memorizing Scriptures like these give us an opportunity to claim them when we get into a tough situation. It buoys us up. It helps us when we are in those kinds of situations. We talked about memorizing last year. Another reason to memorize Scripture, it becomes a part of our soul as we memorize them.
Another thing we that we can do is we can visualize God’s presence in our mind. I am not trying to kind of be all spooky here, but really I want us to exercise the gifts that God gives us. God gives us our mind and our imagination for a reason. So it is about imagining that God is sitting right next to you. Think of the most favorite chair you have to sit in, wherever that might be, and God is sitting next to you. It is just an opportunity to sit and talk as if you were talking with a friend. That is what it means to visualize him in our minds; that he is right here, right now; that God is sitting right next to you in the pew right this second. I think that is what Paul had in mind when he was talking in 2 Timothy 4, verses 16 and 17. He says: ” At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! (There is the pastoral encouragement; but then listen to what he says in 17, he says:) But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength…”
Visualizing God’s presence is an important part of acknowledging that he is here, not only for comfort; but think about the times when you are tempted to do something. If you visualize that God is next to you when you are tempted to do something, you might just have a second thought before you act on it. Huh? So he helps fight temptation for us, as well.
I think another way to do this is to access God’s presence through prayer. James 4:8 says: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” And prayer is the best way to do that. Those who are connected with God have deep significant prayer lives because that is the place where intimacy with God, with understanding his presence at all times and all places, that is where it is found. It builds that awareness.
One other final way that helps, I think, is this idea of reflecting God’s presence in our demeanor and how we look, how we interact, with the world. There is a story of Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence is one of the great devotional writers that talks about being closely connected with God. He started out working in the business world and then he felt this call and he decided to go to a monastery. He went to a monastery and his assignment was a very menial task within the kitchen. He is like “Really. This is what you want me to do?” He really had to fight within himself because it was one of those “You know I am more important than this. Don’t you know who I am?” But over time, his countenance changed and he began to understand: No, this is a way to worship God. It is a way to draw close to God, not only because I don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of time thinking about what I am doing and I can spend time communing with God but I can also use my hands as a way to bring worship to him. As his demeanor began to change, all of a sudden it opened up a whole new world for Brother Lawrence and all the writings that come out of his mind as a result of that.
So when we face difficulties, understand that we never face them alone, never face them alone. We have a friend, as Scripture says, who will stick closer than a brother, and that is Jesus. So if we have a God who acts by being present with us, by surrounding us with his presence, we also have a God, from our Scripture, who delivers. He delivers, but he delivers in his own way. We have a God who acts to deliver in his own way.
Now think about this moment when God is parting the Red Sea. This is a pretty visible act that was seen by everyone that was there, wasn’t it? This idea of parting a body of water with wind, just try to get your head around that idea. What kind of wind did that have to be to pile up that water to create that land to walk through? I mean, when I think of it, I think of like being in Duluth, along Canal Street, where you walk along the waterfront and you see the water after a storm how it can wipe out the waterfront. I go, “Wow, there is some power behind that!” Or, just recently the blizzard that happened in Chicago, maybe a month or so ago, where it closed Lake Shore Drive? They were talking about 14 to 18 foot waves rolling off of Lake Michigan. Just from the wind. Then you think about what God had to do to take a body of water and separate it into two, not just move it, but separate it into both directions. What kind of wind had to be blowing there? That is amazing! It was a more powerful wind than I think we have probably ever seen in any kind of F5 tornado or anything else. To separate the water and keep it apart long enough so the water that was under the water that was mud dries enough for people to walk through, the Israelites escape. So it was dried, the ground, the mud, so they could walk; but then it got the Egyptians stuck and they died. That is a powerful wind. That is a mighty act of God, isn’t it? I think it is easy to say, this is one of God’s greatest miracles, if you just try to think about the act of moving water in two different directions to the point where it separates completely.
So if God acts on behalf of his people, if we believe that God acts on behalf of his people, there are a couple things we need to remember. One is that God does not view things as we do. He doesn’t see things as you and I see them. In Isaiah, it says that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. Yeah, that’s a good thing. It is a good thing that his ways are not our ways. So God will act, but God is not necessarily going to act in a way that we think he should. He is going to act in a way that is appropriate for the situation. So remember God doesn’t see how we see; but secondly, that other piece is that when God does act, God will act in a specific way for whatever is needed in that particular situation. Every situation is different, isn’t it? Each situation, God acts in because God is surrounding us with his presence. He knows what is going on; he knows the circumstances; he knows what we are thinking; he knows what needs to happen; even if we can’t or don’t or we see it differently, he knows. So he is going to act in a way that is very specific for that particular situation and every situation will be different. He knows what we need when he acts. And he tailors his actions to our situation.
So one of the ways God acts is through mighty miracles— big miracles— like parting the Red Sea. God acts through big miracles, like removing cancer, where one day it is all over a person’s body and the next day the doctors can’t find it. Those are big miracles that God does. But miracles can also be smaller, more personal.
There is a story of a missionary who is attempting to smuggle bibles into the county of Cuba. He has got a new suitcase full of bibles and he lands at the airport going through check-through and he gets pulled aside by the guard to have his luggage inspected. And he is thinking: it’s all over. So he puts his suitcase up on the table and he begins to try to unzip it except now the zipper on a brand new suitcase doesn’t work any more. He struggles with it. He cannot get it, it is just jammed. So he is working on it and the guard is watching him. The guard is getting frustrated and finally comes in and begins to try to unzip it. He can’t get it unzipped either. So the guard finally gets frustrated enough to just say, “Move on.” So he is through. The missionary gets to his hotel. He begins to look for a knife believing he is going to have to cut his suitcase open, and, you know, the zipper works. The zipper works fine.
God can work through little miracles. God can also work through little miracles like this:
(video: Little Things, A Little Miracle)
So God acts through miracles. Because he acts through miracles, I don’t think we should be afraid to ask for miracles. God says “you do not have because you do not ask.” So ask. Ask for miracles. So God can act through miracles and God does act through miracles; but the reality is that God usually works in much more ordinary, kind of everyday circumstances. He works within the realm of creation. He works within the laws of nature. He works through medicine. He works through a surgeon. He works to change a person’s mind. He acts to align events to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. So God acts also through the ordinary.
John Harper was an ordinary pastor in Glasgow, Scotland, around the turn of the century. He had been invited to preach at a church in Chicago, Moody Memorial Church, and he accepted. So he booked passage on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. He booked his trip and he figured I will have lots of time to work on my sermons on this trans-Atlantic voyage. But Pastor John had a problem. The problem was that he had such a heart for people that he couldn’t stay in his room. So the night before the Titanic sank, we are told, he was going around the deck encouraging and imploring people to come to Christ, to make a commitment. He talked about the need to get into a spiritual lifeboat in our lives. On the night that the Titanic struck the iceberg, he was awakened by the impact; and, as he went to the deck, he could begin to see the mayhem that was beginning to happen. And as they were beginning to move to lifeboats, he was encouraging children and women and unsaved to get into the lifeboat. As we know, the mayhem that ensued that night, many people were actually thrown from the boat, and John was one of them, as it went down. So he was in the water and he was hanging onto a piece of wooden debris. As the boat went down it created currents that came back and forth over the course of the boat going down. So John came up along side another person that was in the water, a man, and John called out to him, “Sir, are you a Christian?” And the man said, “No.” Then he floated away. By God’s providence they came together again and he said, “Sir, have you been saved yet? Have you accepted Christ yet?” And the man said, “No, I can honestly say I have not.” They drifted apart again. At that point John lost his grip on the debris and he died in the water that night like so many others did. But the man that he was talking to survived and, in fact, he did make a commitment to Christ that night. And he was one of the last people to actually be plucked out of the water by the ships that came to rescue the survivors. He later landed in Hamilton, Ontario, and he was asked to give his testimony about how he had accepted Christ that night. He said, very proudly he said, “I was one of John Harper’s last converts.”
God works through the miraculous. God works through the ordinary. God works even through the mysterious, which we didn’t even touch on today. But the point for us to remember is that God does act and God will act for you and for us. So do not fear difficulty or uncertainty when it finds you, rather draw near to God. Draw near to God because he is near to you and he will act on our behalf. Amen.
Let me pray for us.
Lord God, thank you. Thank you that you are a God who acts on our behalf and Lord, we ask that you would do a mighty work in our lives, individually when we are in difficult places, but also Lord for this Church. So Lord guides us. Surround us with your presence. May we know your hand is upon us. May we feel that and may we trust you to act on our behalf. We ask that because of Jesus. And all God’s people said, Amen.