Exodus Part 2

We're so glad y'all are here, why don't you stand and worship with us. We're going to worship the God who can do all things and we're asking him to do exceedingly and abundantly more this morning. So would you sing with us? We see your Spirit move. We sing He's faithful. You are faithful. Lift it up. There's nothing my God can't do. He's more than able. He'll make a way for you. Walk by faith and not by sight. There's a fourth man in the fire. Proven faithful. There's nothing my God, nothing my God can't do. When I can see it happening now. Faith that was dead is moving a mountain. There's sure been some hoping for now. That when I can't see it. Oh I still believe that when we face our eyes on you. Oh I still believe that we will see your Spirit. Oh we'll see your Spirit move Lord. Cause you are faithful. There's nothing my God can't do. He's more than able. He'll make a way for you. Walk by faith and not by sight. There's a fourth man in the fire. He's proven faithful. There's nothing my God, nothing my God can't do.

Come on, do you believe this morning that there's nothing that our God can't do in this place today, amen? Amen, do you believe there's nothing that our God can't do today? He is a God who can do exceedingly and abundantly more. And one of the most incredible things he has done. Is by making a way for sinners to be made right. With a holy God through the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. And I'm so excited because today we get to celebrate life change. We get to celebrate people who have decided to place their faith in that God. By witnessing some baptisms today. So we're gonna celebrate them today. We don't believe that baptisms are what save us. We believe that it is by grace through faith alone. And so this morning as they come out of the water. Would you let them hear you this morning? Would you be loud? We're gonna celebrate the life change that is happening in this room. And before we jump to that, we want to share one story of life change with you. So would you check this out? Before Christ, I was lost, drifting and even drowning in what I thought was living. It was very dark. It was full of sleepless nights. After Christ has been an amazing trip. I no longer feel like I'm drowning. I no longer feel like I'm just living day by day. There's purpose to every day. I'm a pastor's kid and was raised in the church my entire life. And was saved at a young age. So, I mean, I knew salvation. I knew what it looked like, that kind of thing. but I walked in bondage for many, many years

and tried to portray salvation or a religious attitude. I have been on a healing journey for probably the last three or four years. And then last year I started REGION. REGION gave me more of a firm foundation in who God is, what Jesus did for us. I was battling depression, major church hurt, as well as multiple levels of grief. Lost my stepdad in 2020, and then I was grieving my biological father for two and a half years. And by the time I came to REGION, he had passed away. Those multiple levels of grief, the depression of not being where I wanted to be in life, were all weighing down on me on top of looking for community and not finding it. That foundation that was reiterated with walking through the program helped me find who Alicia was, but then also helped me find God. To me, salvation is a sacrifice that Jesus made for me on the cross and was crucified. That was his gift to me, that I might be able to go to heaven once I believed. To me, being baptized means an outward expression of what is going on inside of you. I was recently baptized out of Bonnet Life on December 14th, 2025. It was the first time that I actually had change occurring inside of me.

I am a person changed by Jesus, and I wanted others to see it. The A Life means to me, just as the scripture says, that we can have abundant life in Jesus. If we walk with Jesus, we will find abundance. So for me, I'm doing everything that I can, whether that's serving or whether that is giving. God gave me my story to reach the brokenhearted and the fatherless. Because I can relate to their story, you have to open your heart and let him heal you so that you can live the full life that he has given you to live. ♪ There's nothing my God can't do ♪ ♪ By faith the sea turned into dry land ♪ ♪ By faith the sun stood at your command ♪ ♪ By faith I still believe you can ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God can't do ♪ ♪ By faith you pour your spirit out ♪ ♪ By faith miracles breaking out ♪ ♪ By faith everything's changing now ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God can't do ♪ ♪ And by faith we'll stand before you through all ♪ ♪ By faith every tribe and tongue ♪ ♪ By faith we'll join in heaven's song ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God can't do ♪ ♪ You are faithful, you're so faithful ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God can't do, he's more than able ♪ ♪ He'll make a way, he'll make a way for you ♪ ♪ You are by faith, not by sight ♪

♪ There's a fourth man in the fight ♪ ♪ That's proven faithful ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God, nothing my God ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God, nothing my God ♪ ♪ There's nothing my God, nothing my God can't do ♪ We give you praise, Lord. There's nothing you can't do. ♪ You split the sea so I could walk right through it ♪ ♪ My fears are drowned in perfect love ♪ ♪ You rescued me so I could stand and sing ♪ ♪ I am a child of God ♪ Come on, sing that this morning. ♪ You split the sea so I could walk right through it ♪ ♪ My fears are drowned in perfect love ♪ You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears are drowned in perfect love. You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears are drowned in perfect love. You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I'm a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God.

I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. so so true faith in christ is just believing the unseen you know the unknown and really banking on it it's not about only the big picture things the big picture decisions or big picture moves we make in life it's so much more about the little steps the little things when they life have broken the chain of shame i think it's so easy for us as humans to feel shame in our life he takes the shackles off of us we no longer have to feel shame when i am believing christ's words and his words are present active participle it looks like resurrection church give jesus the glory today would you he is so worthy of our worship and i'm so grateful you're here hey i want to celebrate a couple things with you we don't celebrate attendance at abundant life like that's the old scoreboard church has had well how many came that's not the win the win is lives that are changed we exist see lives changed by jesus that's what we celebrate so i want to celebrate this with you last year in 2025 we baptized more than we ever have almost a thousand people said yes went public with their faith got baptized in 2025 last week we preached on the passover in this new series on the exodus more than 70 of you texted jesus to 68618 saying yes to jesus i want him to be my savior my king and i could not be more excited to celebrate that with you so many people saying yes following jesus it all begins with salvation he wants to forgive you of your sin to make you one with him but that's not the end that's just the beginning we're in a journey now it's a journey of faith in fact you've come at a great time we're entering into the heart of a two-year discipleship journey we call the a life it comes from john 10

and verse 10 jesus said the thief comes to steal kill and destroy but i've come to give you life you're going to have it more abundantly and it's a spiritual journey not unlike an ancient journey and i want you to turn once again the book of exodus exodus 13 and 14 as we examine the exodus story the ancient hebrews who came out of egyptian captivity under pharaoh's tyranny god delivers them from slavery and then leads them on a journey to some place god promised them a promised land that he said would flow with milk and honey you see like the ancient hebrews as christians we're a band of liberated slaves that is our story and that's why we're now studying the exodus story as a part of our a life discipleship journey because the apostle paul would write 1400 years later in first corinthians 10 that while this journey of these ancient hebrews is real history in some way it's a picture of our journey personally this entire journey becomes a metaphor of what god wants to do in all of our lives now 70 of you a week ago said yes to the passover lamb on the night before god delivers them from captivity god was sending the 10th and final plague upon the egyptians it's a power encounter where god is literally stepping in and he is by his own power delivering his ancient people the hebrews from captivity and the worst plague of all was that the death angel was going to come over the land the wages of sin is death romans 6 23 and the firstborn of all the land would die that night but god said on this passover i want you to take a passover lamb it's a male lamb without spot or blemish because it prophetically pictured another lamb john 1 29 jesus behold the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world and they were to take the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost of their home and god said when i see the blood i will pass over you and life will come to your home death will not come to your home and you understand that the picture of what jesus the lamb of god did for us because when god sees the blood of the lamb he passes over your sin he forgives you of your sin and he gives you a home in heaven now listen that's where it begins but that's not the ending i want you to understand now there's a journey in the same way that god sent moses to deliver his people out of captivity Moses didn't simply deliver them and then walk away and abandon them, he now is leading them on a journey to a promised land, a real piece of real estate that God promised Abraham's descendants as an everlasting possession. Genesis chapter 17. Now listen carefully, you and I don't have a piece of real estate God has given us, but we have a real estate. As a child of God, it's the abundant life. And I want you to see where we're going in

this journey. Christ has set us free from sin's captivity and Satan's tyranny. That's where we are without Christ. We're born into sin, sin's prison. We're born already in captivity spiritually under sin's penalty. But Jesus said, if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. 2 Corinthians 3, 17, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And the implication is this. God has delivered us from the bondage of this broken, fallen world. He delivered us out of Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt is a picture of the world. In the same way God delivered his people out of Egypt, he's now delivered you and I from this broken, fallen creation. See we are in this world, but we're no longer of the world. And I want you to understand the implication. He's now leading us on a journey to the promised land spiritually, what Jesus called life abundantly. Now I want you to understand historically what's happening. Moses is now leading them on this journey to this little piece of real estate, the promised land. And God described it as a land that would flow with milk and honey. If you come with me sometime on the Holy Land tour, we will stand on top of the ancient city of Megiddo and we will look over the valley of Armageddon. That's right, I said Armageddon, the Jezreel Valley. And it is to this day a land that flows with milk and honey. Beautiful, bountiful, a land that is agricultural, a land that is plenty. God described it in that capacity and it still is to this day. And I want you to understand the implication. In some way that's a picture of what Jesus wants to do in your life. He wants it to be fruitful. He wants it to be bountiful. He wants you to have the promised land spiritually that flows with milk and honey. Life triumphantly, life lived victoriously. And I want you to understand the first significant moment now of the ancient Hebrews after they left Egypt was the Red Sea. Very famous story of God parting the waters of the Red Sea for his people. And understand what that means now for you and me. We all have to go through the Red Sea to get to the promised land where God has taken us. So what does the Red Sea moment look like? It's a metaphor. The Red Sea moment is when you find yourself in a situation, some trial, some tribulation over which you have no control. Some situation, some headache, some heartbreak that you can't move, that you can't go through, that you can't go around. And that's where the Hebrews find themselves now. Their back is to the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army is bearing down on them. You see, at some point, Pharaoh said

to Moses, I'll let your people go. But then once they went, Pharaoh said, oh no, I need to go get those people, bring them back again. And that's a picture very much the pattern in our life as Christians. Listen, every single day Jesus comes to set the captive free, and every single day Satan comes to take the free back into captivity. And that's what's happening now in Exodus chapter 13, Exodus chapter 14. Pharaoh is now pursuing them to bring them back into captivity. In the very same way, Satan will pursue you and me. Why? Because he knows as a child of God, you've been set free from Egypt. You're no longer in this bondage to sin, and the bondage of this broken, fallen creation. He knows you no longer under sin's penalty, but he doesn't want you to live freely. He wants you to live like you're still in captivity. And that's what the A-life is really all about. Pharaoh pursues them now to bring them back into Egypt, and every single day Satan pursues you to bring you back under his bondage. Stand fast, therefore, Galatians 5, 1, in the freedom with which Christ has set you free, and do not be entangled again in this yoke of bondage. There's a pattern here. You have the nation of Hebrews, this band of liberated slaves, and immediately Pharaoh begins pursuing them, kind of like the life of a new believer. I'm telling you, I've seen this pattern over and over again. You come to faith in Christ, become a Christian, and your life actually gets harder, not easier. Satan wants to convince you you're still in captivity, even though Jesus says, I've set you free. I literally just had this conversation a few months ago with a young man in our church, Pastor Phil. I became a Christian, and now my wife wants to divorce me. I've had this conversation over and over again. Pastor Phil, I got baptized, and that same week I lost my job. See, there's this pattern here where Pharaoh, Satan, pursues you, and your life actually gets harder. It doesn't actually get easier now that you're following Jesus. He wants to convince you at this Red Sea moment of your life that it's not true, that you go back to Egypt, that you're still in bondage to sin, you're still in bondage to him. And I want you to understand what God is trying to teach us at the Red Sea. Sometimes people have their first crisis of faith, to go forward or go back. I look at my own life, my own journey spiritually, 21 years of age, many, many years ago, I'd been in bondage to sin.

I was a young man in bondage to Egypt. I was in sin's prison, and I was trying to come out of Egypt. I didn't want to stay in Egypt, but when you've been in the bondage to sin, I mean, sometimes it's really hard to come out again. And it would be like for me, two steps forward, three steps back, two steps forward, three steps back. I'm trying to leave Egypt. I want to follow Jesus. I'm not really able to, still wrestling with God. I won't give up, won't give in. I'd gone off to the University of Kansas, living the dream to play football. Now, I need to be honest about something. When Jesus said, take up your cross, one of the crosses I carry is I played football at a basketball school, okay? It's a heavy cross I carry to this day. And honestly, we're not a very good basketball school right now either, so it's a double heavy cross, okay, I carry now. But what happened when I got there? Listen, God began to strip me of my idols. I mean, for me, this was about self-glory. It's my self-idolatry. Football was the key to my future. It was my everything. Like I was naive enough to think my next stop was the NFL. I hadn't thought ahead, past the NFL, and I'm going to be set for life, just playing the NFL. That was my plan for my life. Incidentally, I did play in the NFL after I left college, Nerf Football League, that is. Yeah, that was the extent of my career.

Listen, my body starts falling apart. I had some devastating injuries. God begins to strip me from my ability. I want you to know this is part of the process in my own life at the Red Sea, out of my control. Everything looks like I thought that it would, isn't turning out like I thought it should. God's trying to strip me of my idols, and when I didn't think things could get any worse, I find myself underneath an 18-wheeler semi, in 1989. I should have died. I was in a 78 Camaro. Now I don't have my Camaro. Don't have a car. I'm still alive, but should have. These were things God was doing in my life at the time. I don't know where you find yourself. Maybe as a new follower of Jesus, you're at the Red Sea. Some situation, some trial, some tribulation. Maybe you've been following Jesus a long time, but you're at the Red Sea again, meaning some trial, tribulation, headache, or heartache. You can't change it. It's not in your control. I want you to understand what God is trying to do. Listen carefully. There's always two agendas for everything we face in life. Jesus, in John 10, in verse 10, gives us the two agendas. The battle lines are clear. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come to give you life. You can have them more abundantly, and at the Red Sea, God's trying to teach you. You can live abundantly, even in the face of adversity. You can live triumphantly, even in the face of tears and trials. I want you to understand God is trying to do something that Satan's trying to do, too.

Satan will tempt you, but God will test you. Satan tempts, and God tests. Never forget, Satan tempts, but God tests. Satan tempts you with that situation to turn back from following Jesus, but the very same situation Satan is tempting your faith, God is using to test your faith in the same way fire tests metal, and that metal goes through the fire, and it makes that metal stronger and better. Listen very carefully. There's always two agendas. The same situation in your life that Satan wants to use to weaken your faith is the very same situation God wants to use to strengthen your faith. The only question is this, will you allow Satan to ruin your faith, or will you allow Jesus to refine your faith? The same fire can ruin somebody's faith if it's not true faith, but true faith is only refined in the fire, it's not ruined in the fire, and God is trying to do this in your life. When you face this Red Sea situation, your back is to the sea, and Pharaoh is coming down on you with his army, and it seems there's no way out, there's no way around it, there's no way through it, I don't know what I'm going to do. I get that debilitating diagnosis, I never dreamed it would be me, and now my life has changed. You get that call from a child at two o'clock in the morning. You never dreamed you'd get that call. Tragedy strikes your family. What will you do? I've lost my job. How am I going to make ends meet? Understand what God is trying to do at the Red Sea. The only question is this. Will you allow your situation to conquer your faith,

or will you allow your faith to conquer your situation? Let me say that again. Will you allow your situation to conquer your faith, or will your faith conquer your situation? That's always the choice. What will you do? What will the Hebrews do? Their story in some way. It's a picture of our story. At the Red Sea, God's people had their first crisis of faith to go forward or go back. I want you to see historically the map. This is real history. Remember, real people. Now, it's so important you understand the travel route they took to the promised land. The promised land is up here. The ancient land of Canaan. Modern day Israel. The land God promised Abraham's descendants as an everlasting possession, Genesis 17. It's so clear in Scripture. I don't know why this is so debatable, so controversial, even in the body of Christ. But God made a promise as an everlasting possession to Abraham and his descendants. It's here. It's the promised land. It's called the promised land for a reason, because God promised it to them.

Now, understand, they lived 400 years in Goshen, northern Egypt. For 400 years, they were there, generation after generation, captivity and slavery. Moses now delivers them and leads them now on this journey. Now, the direct route would have been to go against the Mediterranean Sea. Just follow this. This was the travel route in the ancient days, right along the Mediterranean seashore. This was the direct route you would have thought they would have taken, the closest route, the fastest route. But you can't see this, so let me read this for you. Along this route, you have the land of the Philistines. You have the city of Ashkelon. You have this Philistine city of Gaza. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, that should. The same Gaza Strip that is so hotly contested today. I don't think that's accidental. I actually think it's providential. Now, God doesn't take them this way. The ancient Philistines, I'm gonna share maybe on a Well podcast coming up, who were they? These ancient people, they're kind of a mystery. They were not Canaanites. Anthropologists believe they came from across the Mediterranean, probably from the island of Crete. They were ancient Minoans.

They too were making conquest of this very same land, the promised land. All the ancient people wanted it. It was a land that flowed with milk and honey. God doesn't bring them this way. He takes them the long way. They actually go south, and they cross the Red Sea right here, continued going south down the Sinai Peninsula to Mount Sinai. This is where we're gonna be next week. You gotta come back. Because every stop along the way, in some way, is a picture of what God wants to do in our life personally. They're gonna be at Mount Sinai. They're gonna camp here. Then Moses will turn north, where they will come to a place called Kadesh Barnea. We'll be here, number 13, just a few weeks. They make a critical decision there as God, as Moses sends 12 spies into the land at Kadesh Barnea, telling them to come back and say, oh no, we won't go. We'll get there. I want you to see, though, historically, the map. It doesn't make sense they would go all this way to get there. God tells us why right here, Exodus 13, 17. Watch this. Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

Although that was near, for God said, let's perhaps the people change their mind when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. I want you to notice something. Moses wasn't simply leading them. God was leading Moses. God tells him, Moses, listen, Mo, this band of liberated slaves, they're not ready for the Philistines yet. They're not ready for battle yet. The Philistines are a warlike people. When they see the Philistines, they're big, they're scary. They're gonna turn tail and run back to Egypt. So I don't want you going through the land of the Philistines. They're not ready for battle yet. I want you to take them the long way. There's some things I need to do along the way. I want you to notice something right now about your journey spiritually. Listen, God's detours in the journey are providential delays, not permanent denials. See, promises delayed are not promises denied. God had promised them this land, and he was taking them the long way around specifically for a reason, not to deny them, but to delay them, why?

Because it's in the journey, God is preparing you for your destiny. Hey, I had no idea eight years in the 90s on the KCPD, I thought I'd found my destination. That was my career, a lifelong career. career. I had no idea that was not the destination. That was just the preparation. See, God is more about the journey than he is about your destiny. We're always about the destiny. Where am I going? God is about the journey because in the journey, he's preparing you for your destiny. That's what God was doing in my life at the time. That detour today was simply a purposeful delay preparing me for the promised land of my life, my destiny, what I was going to do with the rest of my life. You think to yourself, why hasn't God brought me a spouse yet? I want to be married. God, why haven't you? Listen carefully. He's preparing you along the way. Just stay patient. It may seem like a detour. It's a providential delay, not necessarily a permanent denial. God, why haven't you given me a job yet? Listen, he's preparing you. You can't see everything that God sees. Just trust God, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. Now there's a second thing. Listen, it's in the Red Sea situations, God is preparing you for battle. Listen, this band of liberated slaves, they were not yet ready for battle. It's in the Red Sea moments of your life that he is preparing you for battle. Listen very carefully. When they would cross over the Jordan finally, 40 years later, it'd become one battle after another, after another. They fought more battles in the promised land than they ever did in the journey getting there. They fought one battle on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness. Otherwise, it was battle, after battle, after battle. Listen carefully. As a child of God, you were born for battle. You were made for battle. But God knows how to prepare you for battle. In the Red Sea, he's purposely delaying you getting where you want to be because you're not yet ready for those battles. He prepares you through this battle. I want you to understand, I crossed the Jordan metaphorically in my life 26 years ago when I died to what was to live for all that could be. I burnt the bridge to my career to answer my calling. Check this out. My life since then has been one battle after another. I don't remember one day of rest. It's been

completely all war. I'm not saying that for you to feel sorry for me. I'm blessed. I'm the most blessed man I know. But understand, with great blessing comes great battles. You need to know you are made for this. The people of God are a people of conquest. I want you to know God is preparing you for greater battles. With those greater battles comes yet greater blessings. God is doing that at the Red Sea. So regardless of your situation, this seems like an impossibility. Every Red Sea looks like an impossibility. God, there's no way through it. There's no way around it. I have nowhere to go. I want you to see what God wants you to see. Two things very quickly. Number one is this. What God wants you to see in your Red Sea situations, number one is his promise. He wants you to remember his promise. The promises he has made to you. That God will absolutely perform whatever he has promised. I'm telling you why this is important, church, because sometimes what you see is contrary to what God has said. The Hebrews saw an impossibility, the Red Sea. But what you see is sometimes contrary to what God has said. What you believe is what will be. I want you to see the promise that God made. It says in Exodus 14, 13, And Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid. Understand historically what's happening. They can all see Pharaoh's army. They're coming quickly. Their backs are to the Red Sea. The army is coming quickly. They're trapped by mountains on either side. They've got nowhere to go. They're completely trapped. They're thinking in this moment we're all going to die. About a million people have left Egypt in the Exodus, and it's absolute panic in the camp. Pandemonium. What are we going to do? Pharaoh's army is coming. You can almost just hear the inflection in Moses' voice. Stop being afraid. Calm down. Just calm down. Don't be afraid. I want you to notice something. This is one of more than 300 times in the Bible God says, Fear not. Don't be afraid. Or some other variation of that. You know why? Because God knows our first tendency is to panic. Fear. Hey, I'm telling you guys, we are slaves to fear. Slaves to anxiety. Slaves to worry. Do you understand? The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Often how he does that is through fear, anxiety, worry. Statistically, it's true. The data is in. This generation has an epidemic of anxiety. Worry. Fear. Insecurity. That is always a tool of the enemy. enemy. That is why more than 300 times God says, don't be afraid. Fear not. Check this out. You hear me say this now more than once in this series. The opposite of

faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear. See, first comes fear, then comes doubt. And after doubt comes disobedience. After disobedience comes captivity. And that's why he says first. He doesn't say don't doubt. He says don't fear. Because we all have a tendency to fear. Insecurity, anxiety, and the Red Sea, impossibilities. And I want you to understand why Moses said don't be afraid. I'll tell you why. Because God, he knew what God had promised. And he knew that God would perform that which he promised. He records those words of God to Abraham in Genesis 15 and then Genesis 17. He knew the promise God had made them. God had promised us a land. Abraham's descendants will possess this land. We're not going to die here. We're not going back to captivity. Stand still. Calm down. Be not afraid. What do you do in the Red Sea of your own life? Like you carry this cross. Let's just say you carry this backpack. We all carry, every one of us, an invisible backpack. 24-7, 365. This invisible backpack of stress, duress, headache, heartbreak. We all carry that backpack. And the longer you live, the heavier it gets. What do you do in the face of that diagnosis? What do you do when you've lost your job? What do you do when your spouse has walked away in spite of your best efforts? In that moment, you decide, I will either conquer my situation with my faith or I will allow my situation to conquer my faith. Which will it be? Do you know what God has promised you? You think, Phil, I can't keep doing this. I mean, what I'm carrying is just too hard. I just want to give up. I just want to give in. No, you can do this. I'll tell you why you can do this. God has made a promise, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. See, I can carry this. I can do this. As long as I have to. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Check this out. You don't got this. No, if it's up to you, you're in big trouble. This is why we hear lies everywhere, guys. I saw a billboard recently. Believe in yourself. Man, if it's up to me to believe in myself, I'm in trouble. Listen, that's a lie of modern society. Believe in yourself. No, better yet, don't believe in yourself because you don't got this. No, believe in Jesus. He got this. You can do this with Jesus. That's where your hope is. Think about it. The anxiety comes from thinking it all depends on me. No wonder the world is in such anxiety with this modern self-idolatry. Just believe in myself. I can do anything if I want to bad enough. We all know that's not true. It's no wonder we have such worry and anxiety.

No, don't believe in yourself. Believe in Jesus. He's got this. Or how about this one, man? I've lost my job. I don't know how I'm going to pay the bills. Okay, here's a promise you can take to the bank. Philippians 4.19, my God has supplied all my needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. He has promised to supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. Not all your wants, but all of your needs. These are promises. Listen, when God makes a promise, he will perform it regardless of what you see at the Red Sea. Even when it's contrary to what God has said, if God has said it, he will do it. You'll hear me say this more than once in this series, faith. What is faith? Faith is acting like something is so when it isn't so, so it'll be so because God said it's so. Now it's not because you say it's so. That's the old name it and claim it theology. This is not the prosperity gospel. Just name it and then you can claim it. Forget it. Okay, you can't name what God hadn't first named. You can't claim it until God has named it, but if God has named it, now you can claim it. It's acting like something is so when it isn't so, so it'll be so because God said it's so. That's what Moses is doing. Moses is acting like something is so. God promised us that land when it wasn't so, so it would be so because God said it's so. That's why I don't have to fear. I don't have to worry. Listen, sometimes I have to remind myself of this before I ever preach it to you. I preach it to myself. Sometimes when I start to worry, it's because I think it's my job to carry our church forward. Man, it's up to me. me. Oh, you talk about anxiety? Wait a minute. This isn't my church to carry. Here's a promise I've applied to my life over and over again in 26 years as your pastor, Matthew 16. Jesus said that upon this rock, himself, not Phil, but himself, he'd build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail. Yeah, I'll take that to the bank. Jesus, your church. Build your church because I can't do it. See, it's applying the promises he's made you specifically to your situation. And when you do, you don't need to worry. You don't need to be anxious. You don't need to fear because God has this. And that which God has promised, even if it seems like a detour and a delay, he will do. Now, look, he goes on here. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. Now, skeptics of the Bible like to say, well, where the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, it was only knee deep. This wasn't a miracle. They just crossed in knee deep water, which of course makes this a bigger

miracle because God would have drowned the Egyptian army in knee deep water. Talk about a miracle. He says, now, you won't see the Egyptians anymore forever. We're leaving them behind. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Here it is, guys. The Lord will fight for you. The Lord will fight for you. What is the promise? The Lord will fight for you. He's not going to ban you and leave you, so you've got to fight for yourself. Now, listen, you've got to have a little personal grit in life. I mean, really, some people got no grit. Like Satan's like, take them out forever, down for the count. One little thing, I'm out. Seriously? Christians before us have sailed through bloody seas, but we think we deserve beds of flowery ease. Where do we get off thinking that? That's not in the Bible. Christians right now in Nigeria, in South Sudan, are being butchered by the tens of thousands for nothing more than being Christians. We think we got it hard? That is the record of church history for generations. You've got to have a little personal grit, but listen carefully. Grit is finite. Determination is limited. You know why? Because you're limited. You're finite. The grace of God is what magnifies your grit. When grit ends, because we all have a threshold, we tap out. What happens? Grace multiplies it. Grace magnifies that grit, so you suffer long. You can suffer well. It's not natural. It's now supernatural. The Lord will fight for you. What is the promise? Listen carefully. God promises salvation in the Red Sea situations. He does not promise to save you from the Red Sea. He promised to save you through the Red Sea. See, He has not promised to keep you from pain in life. He has promised to save you in the pain in life and through the pain in life. He has not promised to keep you out of tribulation. He has promised to save you through the tribulation. This is when the waters start to part in your life. Listen, it's when you begin allowing God to change you, even when you can't change your situation, now the Red Sea begins to part. Not because your situation has changed, but because you've changed. Your faith is now conquering your situation instead of your situation conquering your faith. Here's the promise. Listen carefully. Jesus said it in John 16, 33. You need to memorize it. You need to repeat it. In that moment at the Red Sea, you need to remember that God will do it. He said, that in me, that's Jesus, you may have peace. In this world going insane. I mean, I feel like we live in a world going crazy. Is it just me? This world's going crazy. When the world's going crazy, you don't have to. When everybody

around you is going crazy, you don't have to. You know why? Because in me, you may have peace. When the world is raging, you're going to have peace. Look what it says, in me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I've overcome the world. Listen very carefully. Jesus suffered, but he overcame. That means if you're in Christ, even when you suffer, you too can be an overcomer. There's the promise. Now listen, how do you overcome the fear, the anxiety, the insecurity? Satan wants to work in you fear. Fear is paralyzing at the Red Sea. Listen very carefully. Romans 8, 27, and 38, write this down if you're taking notes. You're made to be a conqueror. You're no longer a slave to fear. Watch this Romans 8 37 and all these things were more than conquerors through him who loved us in all these things What things the headaches the heartaches the heartbreaks? The situations the sadness the suffering in all these things were more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am persuaded That neither death nor life nor angels nor powers or principalities or things present or things to come No height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus See what Paul was teaching is the love of God is a weapon when I'm convinced. I'm loved perfectly I need to fear nothing This is how fear is overcome and you become a conqueror at the Red Sea Jot this one down first John For 18 there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear See when you're convinced I'm loved perfectly Then I'm also convinced God's plan is perfect for me Which means I need not fear anything in the journey Now what happens anxiety comes when you're longer convinced God loves me perfectly and this is the work of the enemy You start to doubt God's sufficiency you start to doubt his supremacy and all of a sudden it's up to you again to figure a way through I Want you to see this is how you overcome? your fear in This world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer For I've overcome the world the second thing is his power. He wants you to remember his promise. He wants you to see his power

His supernatural power verse 15 and the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me tell the children of Israel go forward? Tell the children of Israel take a next step What is the a life journey all about taking the next step? Is what God is now telling the children of Israel go forward take a next step Oh, but we can't the sea is on our way start moving toward the sea Start moving toward that impossibility Go forward. I want you to notice something before God part of the waters the children of Israel were already in motion They were not waiting on the banks of the Red Sea going God. We believe we're ready when you make your move No, no, no as long as they are waiting on God God's gonna be waiting on them You see the condition is always the same you make your move God makes his move move forward into what seems like an impossibility I Don't want you to see your Red Sea marriage. It seems like an impossibility We'll never love each other again too much hurt too much heartache. We've injured each other too deeply. No move forward This is the year you go to reengage You say I have this past I'm a prisoner of my past you heard Alicia's baptism testimony. I loved her video Here's a lady that said I will not be a prisoner to my past no longer a prisoner to my pain. Yes I've been hurt. Yes, I've been injured, but I'm gonna take my next steps. I'm going to reach in She's moving forward. She's making conquest of the promised land taking my next step She said in serving taking my next step in giving it's not paralyzed by the past taking the next step you say listen I'm tired of being lost in the Bible. I want to grow spiritually the need to grow scripturally sign up for discipleship one That's the next step move forward. You say my family's in chaos I don't know how to raise my children take a next step sign up for the castle's curriculum get a small group of other moms and dads together start moving forward and The principle in Scripture is this when you put your faith in motion God goes in motion As long as you're waiting on God God's gonna be waiting on you Moses says Go forward and then God tells Moses lift up your ride There was something for them to do something for Moses to do there's always an action Required for faith

The church is full of people who say what they think but you will do what you believe Well, I think God could not not good enough You show me your faith by what you do Belief true belief always brings obedience faith in action obedience in motion Lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea Once you notice faith is the trigger that unleashes divine power Do you want the divine power of God released on your life faith is the trigger? But faith is not some passive thing. I do when I sit in church God, I believe no no You want to unleash the power? Take the next step. Put your faith in motion. Rick Messer said this, got that little video we set up the sermon with on faith. Faith is an active, present, participle. I told you last week, that is so far above my pay grade. I mean seriously, I'm sorry if you're an English teacher, you don't get paid near enough. I'm telling you, you don't. Because I'm telling you, when you started diagramming sentences and I was out. I'm just telling you, I was there but I was out. Like glazed over eyes. I mean, I'm just telling you, above my pay grade. But this was intriguing to me. I actually dived into this a little farther. So I told you, above my pay grade, active, present, participle. I don't know what that means. So I did what anybody would do and I checked with ChatGBT. ChatGBT says this, an active, present, participle is a verb form that describes an ongoing action. Yes, that's what faith is. And acts as an adjective, modifying a noun. It shows the action happening. Yes, your faith is in motion at the same time as the main verb and signifies an unfinished or continuous state. Yes, see the promised land spiritually, the

abundant life. It's more than a destiny. It's a journey. Your faith is something you put in motion. So I'll put it in terms I can understand. Faith in action is obedience in motion. It's what puts God's power in motion. So what am I telling you? Same thing Moses told the ancient Hebrews, go forward, move forward. Move forward with re-engage, if it's your marriage. Move forward with regen, if it's some life-controlling issue that's kept you from living the abundant life in Christ. Move forward if you want to grow spiritually. Discipleship one, let somebody mentor you scripturally. Move forward if it's your finances. We're actually going to have a class this spring on financial freedom. No, God has not promised you to be wealthy materially, but he has promised you can live abundantly. Move forward, take the next step. And when you put your faith in motion, God will go in motion. He begins to part the waters of your life. First Corinthians 10.1 is the New Testament commentary on what we're reading. Paul, 1400 years later, would tell us this journey of the Hebrews is a metaphor of our journey personally. Look at what he says. Brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers, speaking of the Hebrew fathers, were under the cloud. Remember what God did? He led them as a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. They were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, as in the Red Sea, and were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. I want you to see what Paul's teaching, what happened at the Red Sea. What did we do today? Almost a thousand people a year ago got baptized. Thirty, just here in Lee's Summit today, not including all of our other campuses, getting baptized. What's the picture of baptism? People ask sometimes at Abundant Life, why do we dump people when we baptize? All right, let me answer the question. Honestly, it was several hundred years after the time of Christ before sprinkling entered into church tradition. The reason

why is baptism is a picture of a burial. Baptize, the word is baptizo in the Greek. It means to dip, immerse, plunge, or sink completely. Why do we baptize? Because it's about a burial, completely. I want you to notice something. Every time somebody is lowered underneath the water, what they're saying is, I have died to my old life. I've been buried with Christ. Now the good news at Abundant Life, all thousand of those people a year ago were resurrected. We haven't left anybody underneath the water, ever. We promise. Because it's also a picture now of a resurrection. You're saying, I'm going to live now a new life in Christ, resurrection power, supernatural power to live a different kind of life, the A-life, the Abundant Life. This is what God was doing in the life of the Hebrews. The Hebrews' baptism was when they crossed the Red Sea, metaphorically. What is God doing in your life at the Red Sea? The power of the resurrection is on the other side of the crucifixion. When you say, yes, I will carry that cross, no matter how painful, no matter how hard, when you embrace your co-crucifixion with Christ, there's a cross on which Jesus died for you. Now there's the cross on which you must die too. Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ. who lives in me. In the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Yes, Jesus lives in me, but when I embrace the crucifixion, he now lives through me,

and the resurrection power of God begins to define my life. But you don't get a resurrection without a crucifixion. And at the Red Sea situation is where God wants you to embrace the cross, full submission, full surrender. And something begins to happen when you do. Paul said, I have been crucified to the world and the world to me. Yes, the world's going crazy. World feels like it's increasing insanity, but because the world's going crazy, I don't have to, it doesn't affect me, because the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. And that's when you begin to get to the other side of the Red Sea. See, when you can't change your situation, use your situation to let God change you. And you can conquer your Red Sea situation even when your situation hadn't changed, because God has used it to do something new in you. So right now at every church house, at every other campus in Kansas City, Metro, right here in Lee's Summit, I'm gonna ask you to bow with me. I wanna pray for you. The quietness of this moment, the closing moments of this service, the crossroads of Kansas City,

Blue Springs, Independence, Johnson County, Tipton Correctional Center, church houses all over North America. There are many of us on the outset of 2026 facing the Red Sea. Impossibilities. Situation of desperation. And God wants you to see his promise and his power as never before. Resurrection power is on the other side. Miracles await where you're going. Manna from heaven, water from a rock. Right now all I wanna do is pray for you. Whatever space you're at, whatever campus, church house here in Lee's Summit, if that's you, you're at the Red Sea moment of your life, I'm gonna ask you to do something a little risky. Might feel a little scary. I'm just gonna ask you to stand right where you are. I wanna pray. I wanna pray for you. Stand up right now, would you? Stand up right now at every campus, at every church house, right here in Lee's Summit. You're at the Red Sea. Feels like an impossible situation. Takes humility right now to say, Jesus, would you meet me in this moment? Right now I want you to look up at every campus, church house.

If you see somebody near you standing, I want you to go to them, put your hand on their shoulder right now just to affirm them. I want them to know they are not alone. That their church family is with them. We've got a group fair going today at all campuses. You need community, biblical family. Satan has isolated us for far too long. And you're not alone. Jesus, you see these men and women right now, these dear sons and daughters of the living God, and Jesus, you know their situation, the sadness, the heartache, the heartbreak, the stress, that heavy backpack they carry that nobody else can see. But Jesus, you made a promise. We claim it together right now. Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest to your souls. Jesus, I pray blessing over them that this year would be a year of breakthrough, that you would. the waters of their life, that Lord you would no longer allow them to be slaves of fear and worry and anxiety, that they would stand on the promises of God, that Jesus you would perform all that you promised, and while you delay I pray that you'd remind them daily that promises delayed are not promises denied, that

you'd prepare them in the journey for their destiny life abundantly, that they would stand in the perfect love of God, that you love them perfectly, and that's why they can be confident in their story. Blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace, I pray for this bright and abundant life this year, in Jesus name, and all God's people say it, Amen. Church let's stand together and sing because we are no longer slaves to fear, we are children of the Living God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child. Sing that again, come on. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. Thank you Lord. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears were drowned in perfect love. Yes they were. You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. Come on, sing this out. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears were drowned in perfect love. You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears were drowned in perfect love. You rescued me so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear.

And I am a child of God. Yes I am, I've been adopted. I'm no longer a slave to fear. And I am a child of God. Sing that one more time. I'm no longer a slave to fear. And I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. And I am a child of God. And I'm no longer a slave to fear. Sing that church, come on. And I am a child of God. Thank you, Jesus. I'm no longer a slave to fear. And I am a child of God. Thank you, Lord. Give Him praise. Man, Joe, aren't you thankful for a pastor who just every week unapologetically brings the word and just creates spaces for us to meet with the Lord. And so, hey, I know we just had a time where pastors Phil invited us. If you're in the middle of something that's hard or challenging, or just kind of struggling, that he invited you to stand up and to be prayed over, right? You know, the parting of the Red Sea. And the way that God moved and provided for the Israelites is He wants to do the same for you. And so if you stood up today, thank you for being bold. Thank you for being courageous and saying, hey, I need, I can't do this on my own, right? I need people around me. But maybe you didn't stand up, but you kind of needed to, and there's something kind of wrestling in your heart. And if that's you and you're at a church house, I'm going to encourage you, go to your church house leader. They would love, love, love to invest in you, to pray with you. But maybe you're just watching online and you're not a part of a church house,

reach out to us. Reach out to Joe, right? That's why I know, Joe, you would love to connect with somebody. Absolutely. And so church, we just, we want to be people that we hear, we hear something God said, and we want to respond to that. So we're going to challenge you and encourage you to go do that this week. Be obedient to the Lord with whatever He said to you today. Well, church, we love you. We're thankful you joined us and we'll see you next week.