Guidance, Secured In Our Journey Exodus Series #17

And I believe the answer is clearly yes. I was reminded while I was gone of the importance of our books and tapes. What a ministry several people in this body have, who give their time every week to make tapes and send out the tapes and the printed books. There may be a lot of folks who just stand around and moan about the condition of the nation, but PCC is actively involved in changing things, and God bless you because we’re making a difference.

There’s an interesting verse in Isaiah 8:11. It really comes out better in the Rotherham translation, a rarely used but very significant translation about the beginning of the century. “The Lord spoke to me,” Isaiah writes, “like the firm grasp of the hand.” Before I get specific with today’s teaching from Exodus 13, God wants you to have a firm hand clasp this morning.

He wants you to be secured, and He wants you to be enabled in your journey. And what you need more than anything else, if He gives you a firm grasp of the hand, is trust. Trust in His direction, trust in His word. And the word trust, again in the Hebrew, actually means to lean on. It means to just kind of melt into, to put the weight of your confidence upon.

That’s the real issue for all of us. Does the Lord have your confidence this morning? Are you really leaning upon Him despite any circumstance that you’re in at this point? Have you placed your weight on Him, on the Lord? Because that’s where true peace comes from. Amy Carmichael, one of my favorite writers and a missionary to India, who literally saved thousands of boys and girls from temple prostitution, but who about midway in her career, through a crippling fall, became an invalid for the rest of her life, spent much of that time writing literature that has far outlived her life.

I was reviewing her book this week, “Thou givest, and they gather.” It’s a book I’ve quoted from on a number of occasions. She says, “So I may say, ‘That loving kindness, which has loved me with an everlasting love, which forgives and cleanses me, and will never tire of me, that loving kindness, Lord, I lean on.'”

And by the way, God loves that kind of leaning. It isn’t objectionable to the Lord; He welcomes it. In fact, He says in the Psalm through the psalmist in Psalm 32, “the Lord’s unfailing love will surround that man who leans on the Lord or who trusts in Him.” This principle is so important because as we’ve been studying for several months now, God wants to bring His people out of Egypt.

I don’t know what the House of Bondage means to you, but I know it has an image in all of our lives. God invites us to come out of that bondage, to be fulfilled and released, to have an exciting inheritance and fullness. But God’s deliverance in our life demands change. And we’re not comfortable with change.

We’re not comfortable with the process that God has to use to bring change to pass. Right after the Passover in Exodus 12, God gets His people out of the house of bondage. In fact, the scripture says in Exodus 12:51, “And it came to pass on that very same day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.”

Hooray. Hallelujah. They’re out. The series can end, but wait. Because that chapter is followed by chapter 13. I text again this morning. This redemption of deliverance is meant to reorder your life. Nothing’s ever to be the same again. Everything is meant to change. God didn’t bring you out simply because your shoes fit too tight.

God didn’t bring you out simply because you were uncomfortable. Redemption is an intervention toward usefulness, not just release. In other words, God says, “My redemption, the cost and the price that I pay to bring you, to make you free, it’s meant to bring you into usefulness, not just release you.” So Exodus 13 seems like an interruption.

In fact, we know it didn’t happen there. Moses puts it there after he’s writing this story, long after it happened. God certainly didn’t take time, right in the middle of the events of getting them out of Egypt before the Red Sea, to stop them and give them instructions. But Moses, in writing this, knows you need to understand the principle.

As soon as He brings the deliverance, He sets in course what that’s supposed to mean to you. Exodus 13 isn’t an interruption. It’s not, in some way, unnecessary. It’s not even just a parenthesis. I won’t take time to read the whole chapter this morning, but as we saw two weeks ago, there are five basic issues that are talked about.

First is the law of the firstborn. God has the firstborn. Every cattle, every household. It didn’t die in the Passover, so it’s God’s. And God wants to unalterably change the fruit of your life if you’ve truly been delivered. Secondly, the principle of unleavened bread, which is to be followed as long as they live.

This means that God wants to change your appetites, and He wants control over your appetites. The third is the principle that God gave about keeping this night before their minds, between their eyes, on their hands, and thus in their mouth. Of course, they made up the idea of phylacteries out of this, or tefillin.

Fourth is the principle of guidance. We’re going to look at this morning. Tonight, we’re going to look at the principle of the Holy Spirit, the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, and what that signifies. The statement fifth is the idea of Joseph’s bones, but it’s not a parenthesis.

Exodus 13 isn’t a parenthesis. It’s an imperative in spiritual warfare, and it says that believers who get delivered had better find out what they’re supposed to do. They’d better get into an understanding of their purpose or they’re in great danger. In fact, the religious bondages are worse than the original bondages to sin.

And we see this in the evangelical church everywhere, and among holiness in Pentecostal churches especially. It’s one thing to get out of Egypt, but it’s another thing to understand the principles of God’s intention. In fact, our Lord Jesus, in the New Testament, specifically spoke to this when he said in the twelfth chapter of Matthew, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none, and he says, “I’ll go back to my house from which I came.”

And he finds it empty, swept, put in order. But he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and he enters and dwells there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Now understand the context, sir. It’s the Pharisees he’s talking about. It’s the church, it’s religious people he’s talking about.

Who are in a worse state at the end than they were formerly, and of course, he adds, such is this wicked generation. Again, a direct reference to those folks to whom he was speaking. I believe we have a generation like that in the Evangelical Church. I believe America’s Evangelical Church is under a religious spirit.

I definitely believe that we’re completely off the course of God’s direction. We’ve become angry and hostile against the world, instead of being compassionate and an agency of healing. We’ve begun to politicize every issue we can get our hands on to try to give us a reason for being. You need to understand with me that a believer is in a worse place when he’s swept and discipled but he’s never entered into his purpose than if the process had not begun.

In fact, deliverance and redemption have to lead to purpose, or the last state is worse than the former state, and that’s exactly what Jesus is saying. In fact, the very central proposition of Exodus 13 is Passover deliverance must lead to a proclamation of life purpose and to redemption. We have to reorder our life.

And the danger is when we don’t, our bondage is worse in the end than in the beginning. Some of you may say, “Okay, I get the point. What are the practices of this? How is this reordering stuff supposed to be done in my life?” And we said Exodus 13 really speaks to five basic issues. First, it speaks to the issue of fruit.

If you’ve really been delivered and redeemed, then what comes out of your life, the fruit of your life, should be unalterably changed. As to where that fruit goes and how that fruit is invested. Secondly, we’ve said your appetites are to be changed. And the principle of leaven, as we saw, is not that you don’t ever have leaven again.

It’s that if God can’t put his finger on everything in your life at some point and say, “Lay this aside,” as Paul says, “All things are lawful, but they do not edify me.” And again, Paul says, “I will not be brought under the power of any.” So God constantly seeks the right to put his finger on anything in your life and say, “Give it up for 40 days.”

Don’t do this for a period of time. And by the way, that’s why temperance is the basic principle and not abstinence. The principle of the scripture is control of everything in your life and nothing taking power over you. And then, of course, we saw the emphasis of the eyes, between the eyes, on the hands, and out of the mouth, which is our personality.

If you didn’t get that message, you need to, because God, if he delivered you, wants you to look different. And this idea of saying, “Well, that’s the way I am, it’s always been that way,” that’s not an excuse spiritually. God wants to change your personhood. He wants to redirect your personality so that people will say, “That’s not the way he would have been other than for the work of God in your life.”

That’s exactly what the Word wants to do. And then today we look at this directions issue, and tonight at the issue of the presence of the Spirit, which again, provides not only guidance but assurance in our lives. So last time we looked at three of these. We’ve looked at the fruit issue, the appetite issue, and the personhood issue.

Two of them on a Sunday morning, and one of them on a Sunday night. But we come this morning to the fourth of these. This is exposed in the verses of chapter 13, and I invite you to turn there: Exodus 13, 17 through 19. Thus, it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, and God did not lead them.

By way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. Now the old King James has a better translation of this. God led them about because it’s not just talking about this moment of decision, but the whole process of the wilderness.

God led the people about through the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under a solemn oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

That, by the way, is where we started this series: Joseph as the bridge into God’s deliverance by his faithfulness. Now, what do these two verses speak concerning the reordered life? What is the practicality in these verses that answers the question, “What should we expect next from God?” Well, it’s this fourth principle: the reordering of our lives from deliverance or Passover will radically affect the direction of our lives.

In other words, having been delivered, God will take us in a way that we don’t expect. But let me be clear about this. When God brings a point of deliverance or breaks things that have bound us (ties, influences, bondages), then He asks us to trust Him with a decision of what the next step will be.

Because that next step will not be what you expect. And here’s where the issue of our trust and our leaning on the Lord really comes in. God wants to get a firm grasp of your hand because He knows what needs to come next. You don’t know what needs to come next. You don’t have any idea what has to come next.

In fact, most of us think we’re going to waltz into the promised land with a lively two-step. And that is not the way it’s going to be. Let us look at a map of this area of the exodus to see what God is saying. There was a very simple way: the Land of Goshen is where the Israelites were, a very easy way for them to get into Canaan by a way called the Via Maris, the way of the sea, well-marked and easy, a 10-day journey, protected by the Roman Empire.

It was an easy road. In fact, this is the road that the children of Israel had come with Jacob into Goshen to begin with. And when Jacob died, it’s that road that Joseph and the other brothers took Jacob’s body back to bury it in the land of the Canaanites. Why didn’t God take this well-traveled, safe, secure route?

Especially, why didn’t God finish this project in a month? I know the people of God; that’s about all they can take. Why not finish it in a month? God says very, very clearly, “I couldn’t take you by that way because the Philistines were there. They’re a ferocious people, and you’re not yet organized in your own spirit and heart. I feared that when you heard the sound of war, you’d retreat, and I couldn’t take you the direct route. There had to be a circuitous route by which I would lead you.”

Well, one great Bible teacher of another generation, C. H. McIntosh, asks some very interesting questions and gives us some answers to this Exodus 13 quandary. Why did not the God, who made strong the hearts of the Egyptians, make them strong enough that they would plunge into the bed of the Philistines?

The answer is striking and solemn. Neither God in the Old Testament nor God manifested in the flesh is ever recorded to have wrought a miracle of spiritual advancement or overthrow. I want to stop there for a moment because I don’t think it’s easy to get the principle of these words. Neither in the Old Testament nor the New Testament is God ever recorded as doing one miracle that has to do with spiritual advancement or overthrow.

Thus, the Egyptians were but confirmed in their own choice. And the decision was carried further, and even Saul of Tarsus was illuminated, never coerced. He might have disobeyed the heavenly vision. He was not an insincere man who was suddenly coerced into earnestness. He wasn’t a coward who was suddenly made brave.

Now, those words are very important. That’s so vital. How can I make this clear to you? We are often insincere, and we want God to provide a miracle that will coerce us into earnestness. We are cowards, and we think there must be a miracle by which God will make us brave. We are self-centered, and we want a miracle to become compassionate.

We want God to be the miraculous to make us self-controlled and victorious. We’re standing here—many of us sitting here, some of us sleeping here—saying, “God, give us a miracle!” We want to be compassionate, self-controlled; we want to be earnest and brave. Make us this!

Almost everybody in this auditorium thinks that God will perform a miracle in these areas. And I want to tell you something: this is a principle you better grasp now because you’re going to need it. That principle is that God’s choice of direction for Israel indicates that in the moral sphere of our lives, in other words, in the character sphere of our lives, God never, ever, ever, ever works through miracles.

He always operates in the moral sphere of our lives through means and methods. In the moral sphere of our lives, He uses means and not methods. Now, that’s a very simple statement, but I know from our language and our prayer meetings that we don’t understand this principle. We want a miracle; we want God to transform us.

God never works miracles in these areas. He works through means. You need to accept this in the next few moments. In other words, God is saying to Israel, “In order to transform you and make you what I want you to be, it’s absolutely necessary for me, number one, to block certain paths for your life—certain things you think you should be able to go into immediately.”

These are things you think should happen quickly, and God says it’s imperative for me to block the way because I need to change this moral aspect of your life, and that requires that I operate in your life by means. So there will be no miracle. This is the first reason for the strange direction from God. He cannot and will not work miraculously to change you in the area of moral and spiritual character.

Now, what goes second with that, as was quoted in the previous quote, and as displayed on the screen, is that God’s means, His primary means of changing us, only works through means in changing the moral sphere of our lives. He only works through means in the character issues of our lives. His primary means in the moral sphere of our lives is through the blocked path.

Let me remind you, when you grasp this principle, that’s the very thing most of us resist, like this. Instead of solid paths, it’s hard to kick against the pricks—the pricks being the goads used for horses and other animals. The horse kicks against those things; it doesn’t want that guidance.

And that’s exactly how it is in most of our lives. The blocked path is the thing we resist. Now, let me give you the principle that’s imperative for all guidance. It’s the principle from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13: “God never permits us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. And He will always provide a way of escape with every temptation.”

He never lets us down; He never pushes us past our limits. God is leading Israel in mercy into the desert because He knows them. In most of our lives, when God is doing this, we mistakenly think He’s judging us. We say, “What have I done wrong? Why is this happening to me?” It’s just the opposite of judgment.

God wants to radically change the direction of your life after deliverance for several reasons. Let me give you some examples. Men born with silver spoons in their mouths almost inevitably end up being men who have to be spoon-fed for the rest of their lives. They never become independent and men who can take charge of their own lives.

Let me tell you something: the barriers in your life will ultimately be ranked among your greatest blessings. It may take some time—kicking and screaming—before you come to realize this. Not too long ago, I was back with my brother, and this experience is mentioned in the new book that will be released in another month.

I was with him because I happened to be back there for a few days and was ministering at the church he was pastoring. We went to visit someone—an old friend of my father’s, whom I’ve known since I was a kid. I was really looking forward to this, even though I knew it would involve more afternoons of being called “Ricky” and reminded of how naughty I was as a kid.

As we walked into the hospital grounds, my brother casually mentioned, “You know, this is where you lost your eye. This is where they took out your eye.” What hit me was that I hadn’t even realized it was that city. My memory had associated this event with another city. From that moment on, I don’t recall much of what happened.

I excused myself from the conversation with this old associate of my father’s and left my brother to continue. He’s always better at that anyway. I just walked the grounds for a few moments. I want to say something to you: I know that my parents walked those grounds for hours, praying, “God, save our son’s eye. Give us a miracle.”

I now understand who Rick Howard is, and I know how imperative God’s direction has been to change the course of my life by closing the door of the miraculous and opening the door to a method or means by which God would humble me and keep His word true in my life.

The barriers in our life ultimately become our greatest blessings. And the barred path is not a closed path. Most people who’ve had hard experiences in their early life turn back to realize that it wasn’t barring them from something good. It was creating in them something very special. And if you’re passing through that kind of experience this morning, be of courage.

The barred path is not a closed door. God will go before you, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the rough places will be made smooth, and soon His glory will be revealed. Storms are the triumph of God’s art, and storms are for the purpose of preparing sailors who will later cross the stormiest seas.

I was a chaplain for years in the Foster City Police force, which was the first one to acknowledge the place of ministers in that place. And the Foster City Chief of Police, who was quite nationally known at that point, had over the back of his desk that slogan, “Good mariners are not produced on calm seas.”

You need to understand that when God refused for Israel the quick path, the easy path, the ten-day journey into Canaan, He wasn’t leading them into waste or desert. Boy, do you ever misunderstand this. There’s almost no sand in that wilderness. In fact, it is perhaps the most beautiful mountain range that exists in the entire world.

Between those highest peaks, which reached the elevation of 10,000 feet, it’s a scene of solemn grandeur, with great, rich, red sandstone that’s modeled with granite. And you need to understand that wilderness was able to sustain the people of Israel in that whole period of time, with great, vast ranges for cattle and sheep.

One writer said it this way, “A free life, The desert air, the rejection of the unfit, the growth of a new generation amid thrilling events in a soul-stirring region under the pure influences of the law, these were necessary before Israel could cross steel with the warlike children of the Philistines, and even then, it was not with him that he would begin, or not with them that he would begin.”

I want to share at this point a poem that Irene Ingram from Our Congregation sent me this week. She sent it with a thank you for this series. By the way, I’ve gotten more letters from folk. It’s interesting to see the division in the church in a series like this when God’s really getting down to it. A great vast response, and then the opposite response.

And she sent this with a letter saying, “I was reminded of your teachings in this series, and I wanted you to have a copy.” She said, “My mother read this to me. Actually, it’s from an Ann Landers column, and it’s a poem by Claudia Minton Wiest.” I asked God to take away my pride, and God said no. He said it was not for him to take away but for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole, and God said no. He said, “Her spirit is whole, and her body is only temporary.” I asked God to grant me patience, and God said no. He said that patience is a byproduct of tribulation. It isn’t granted; it’s earned. I asked God to give me happiness, and God said no.

He said, “I’ll give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.” I asked God to spare me pain, and God said no. He said, “Suffering is to draw you apart from worldly cares and bring you closer to me.” I asked God to make my spirit grow, and God said, “No, he said, I must grow that on my own. But he will prune me to make me fruitful.”

I asked God to help me love others as much as he loves me, and God said, “Ah, finally, you’ve got the idea.” Thank you, Irene. God’s no, God’s barred path, is ultimately to be ranked among our greatest blessings. But the second principle is equally interesting, and it is the principle that early delay often means quicker after progress.

I don’t know whether you know this, but let me give you a case in point. Many studies have been made on this subject. But many 4.0 students, and I’ve had a few of those, not many, who came through my classes with a 4.0, but I’ve had a few, many of them with photographic memory. You’d give a lecture, they’d remember every point.

They’d read a book overnight; they’d remember everything that was in the book. They could take any test you could give them. But the simple fact is that most of those 4.0 students, old students, don’t go anywhere in life. The studies that have been made prove, in fact, contrary to that, that the average student is a C student.

Now I’m not talking about C students who get a C because they’re too lazy to work up to what they should be working up to. I mean students who really have to work for it. But that C student in life turns out to be a more motivated and continuing person in reference to education. In other words, early delay in our life often means rapid progress later on.

And some of us have seen that very, very critically, have seen that in reference to growth. Teenagers, often in those really important years when they want to be the biggest guy in the class. And many of the kids that seem to be held up in their subject of all the jokes and the nicknames and so forth, yet they get a spurt in growth later and often bypass everybody else in the class and become the tallest or the strongest or whatever.

In reference to the class, often early delay means quick progress. For example, let me give you the case of the church. Can you imagine what a tragedy it would have been if following the resurrection, the church had just been given the world? No heroes, no missionaries, no martyrs. None of the great tales and opportunities that are presented for men to become men in reference to spiritual action. Early delay often means more rapid progress afterward. God purposes something to be dealt with in the delay. And he’s dealing with something in your life that will make it possible afterward for this to become increasingly possible for you.

Eve has sinned. And they eventually want to go back to the garden. God says, no. No, you’re not coming back into the garden again. He puts an angel there with a flaming sword. Adam and Eve must have gone through a moment of saying, everything’s lost to us. And yet, in fact, that becomes the basis and the beginning of what leads to the cross and the resurrection and the whole principle of redemption.

In Jesus’ life, He’s baptized in the Holy Spirit, and immediately after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, He’s driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Because some of us don’t learn this, and I know who I’m talking to at this point. Because some of us don’t learn this. In other words, we don’t learn that the delay and the barred door is all a part of God’s purpose.

We are filled with bitterness and resentment and anger and critical spirits and negativity. Because rather than believing in a God who would never lead us just to prove some arbitrary point, but who has every issue in His life, in our lives, want that because He’s dealing with something specifically concerning His later purposes in us.

Because we couldn’t yield to that. We wouldn’t yield to that. And we spend the rest of our life like this. That’s where most Christians are. Round in circles. Up and down, angry at God, never got into what I thought God had for me. You know, just been doing this for 30 years. Because rather than learning the lesson, accepting the delay, and then moving into the progress as God wills it.

We’ve stopped at that point. Let me talk about Paul a moment. When Saul was converted, do you have any idea how old he was?

He had to be 35, bottom line, because he was working for the Sanhedrin. Minimally he was 35. Probably he was 40 when he got converted, as we say. Now what do you say to a man who’s 40 years old when he gets converted, and he’s living in a culture in which the maximum year for most men to live at that point is about 50?

I know what you say. I know what he would have thought. Boy, I’ve wasted my life. I really need to get on with it now. God says, three years in the desert, Saul. Three years in the desert. I’m forty years of age. I’ve only got ten years to live. Three years in the desert. Then he comes out of the desert. Well, here I am, sir.

I’ve done what you said. Now I’m ready, God says. Go home and live with your mama in Tarsus. Eat matzo ball soup and make tents for ten years.

Can you imagine this grown man explaining to people why he has degrees from two major universities, he’s a PhD level, he’s been called of God, and he’s eating matzo ball soup and working on tents?

Not if he went to our Bible school, it wouldn’t be that way.

God knows better. I’ll tell you what, buddy. When Barnabas goes and gets Saul from his mom’s home in Tarsus, 11 years, 12 years after his conversion, and brings him back to that revival in Antioch, Paul’s life accomplishes more than most people will ever hope to see in 10 lifetimes. That’s the principle.

But it’s rarely seen. Rarely seen, where a man says, Yes to God, you know what you have to deal with in my life, and you know what the delays are for, and why the paths are blocked because you choose to lead me in this way, knowing what has to be dealt with in my life. Most of us want to hit the Philistines right now.

Bless God, I’m ready for the enemy. Send him on. The puddle you see is you. This is the sin of presumption. Do you remember when the three disciples were with Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration? Old foot-in-the-mouth Peter says, “Oh, let’s build tabernacles, three tabernacles for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.”

And the voice from heaven says, “This is my son; listen to him.” They come off the mountain. Jesus doesn’t come off the mountain. He stays up there to be in the presence of God. They come off the mountain. I’ve seen this crowd so much. They barely get to the bottom of the mountain, and here comes a man with a demon-possessed boy.

I can just see them saying, “We’ve been in the presence of God. Bless God in the name of Jesus.” The spirit grabs the kid and throws him to the ground, and he begins frothing. It throws him in the fire. The most tragic part of this story is when Jesus does come off the mountain, having stayed in the presence of the Father.

When Jesus does come off the mountain, here’s what the Father says, “I brought my son to you, and they could not.” Do you see that little inversion of pronouns? When he brought this boy to the disciples, it was bringing him to Jesus. The failure of the disciples, even though Jesus counteracted this and took control and brought deliverance to the child.

That’s us. I don’t want delay. I want it now. I’ve been delivered. I want Canaan. I want fruitfulness. I want ministry without a price. I want instant potatoes and instant spiritual maturity. Not only will you not get it because God will never do it that way, but because of your attitude in barring the door, He will send you into that position that so many believers are in, of anger and frustration.

There’s an absolute reason for the delays of God in releasing you. The great writer, Dr. F. B. Meyer, said it this way, “We think if we were to revolutionize our circumstances, we would revolutionize ourselves, but it cannot be. We may change our place, our dress, our house, our surroundings, but it will be unavailing unless we change ourselves. Power lies not without us, but within.”

Do you have any idea of what quality or qualities there are that must be developed in this principle of delay? What is it that only a barred path, that only a delay will produce in us? One great writer has said that the three most necessary qualities are self-reverence, self-knowledge, and self-control.

Those are the only three things that lead to sovereign power. I added to that: these are gained only in the wilderness. These three things are only gained in that kind of moment. How are self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self-control acquired? In the wilderness. In fact, it’s said of Jesus Christ (of course, we think we’re better than he is), that though he were a son, he learned obedience by suffering. That same passage says that with great cryings and tears and wailings, he asked to be delivered out of death, not from the experience but out of death, meaning for resurrection. It talks about his identity with man at that point, and only then did the Father say, “You are a priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

It doesn’t come with some kind of divine choice. It comes by your acceptance of a process that God is putting you through in your life. So the wilderness route is in the wilderness, the purpose of God. These Jews learned a lot about themselves. If you’ve read the rest of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, then you know that when these Jews came out of Egypt, they didn’t have the foggiest idea of what was inside them.

But they were going to discover it. I have great patience with Moses leading two million Jews through the wilderness. I’ve tried to lead forty Christians to the Holy Land. That experience just about broke me. Taking 40 Christians to the Holy Land is a very interesting experience. The people you think are going to be mature and dependable are the first to have problems when a bag gets lost, or they’re assigned to the wrong roommate, or they have a roommate who snores, or they end up in some other circumstance, or they complain about the food.

I remember one lady, for example, and I’ll never reveal her name. One lady said to me as we were walking into Jerusalem, “Why don’t I speak English?” I’ll tell you what, raising kids, I learned a lot about myself. There were many times, not just one or two, when having dealt with a problem that revealed as much about me as it did about the children, I would have to go back in their rooms and ask them to forgive me. Even sometimes, though I would have to say, “What I said was right, but the manner in which I said it was wrong.”

The things that accompanied that act of discipline were wrong. God knows what it takes to bring self-revelation, self-control, and self-knowledge to you. I could no more explain to you the last ten years of my life than I could write a novel in Russian. But I know specifically how God has a process of shaving away who we are that is meant to be changed.

He exposes us. He delays. He stops us. He bars the way. He leads us around when we think we could have gone through immediately. And I want you to listen to God’s explanation later in Deuteronomy 8, 2 through 10. And I want to tell you something when I quote these verses. Number one, these are one of three verses that Jesus used against the devil.

Number two, in these four verses is the verse that gives the text for half, almost half of the writing of the Book of Hebrews. The writer says, “You remember how the Lord your God led you these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

So he humbled you, he allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor your fathers knew. That he might make you know that a man would not live by bread alone, but live by the word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Your garments didn’t wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years.

You should know in your heart as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens him. And then he continues. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord, walking in his ways. Fear him, for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. The land of Brooks of water, fountains, and springs, which flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you’ll eat bread without scarcity in which you’ll lack nothing.

A land whose stones are iron, and out of the hills, you can dig copper. And when you have eaten, when you are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God, for the good land which he has given you. We want that last portion. That’s why I read it to you. That’s the passage quoted over and over and over again. This is your promise.

Claim this.

Yeah, it’s yours. Yeah, it’s God’s purpose.

But before God could bring them there, there had to be Mara. When they had to learn in their heart was such a hatred of the way of God, that it was bitterness in their spirit that only supernaturally could be dealt with. There had to be Sinai, where they’d finally say, “We don’t want to hear this God anymore, you talk to him and come and tell us what he said.”

There would be moments when God would have to absolve, literally swallow up in the earth one-third of their leadership that was in rebellion against God-appointed leadership.

Only God knows what it’s going to take for your will to become His. When Jesus faced Satan in the wilderness, interestingly enough, Satan saw a legitimate need in his life. He was hungry. Satan said, “Aren’t you a son? Use the power of your sonship to feed your hunger.” And that’s when Jesus said, “I’m here because the Father has led me here. I’m in the wilderness right now because, and I’m hungry right now because it’s a part of the process of the will of God.

And I will not use my sonship to win the process by which the Father is teaching me obedience.” And when Satan knew he couldn’t win that battle,

He said, “Oh, you can quote scripture, so can I.” Showed him what the scripture said about stepping off in a high place, and the angels would take charge of you. And Jesus said, “Satan, you don’t understand something. I’m the Son of God, but I’ll never presume upon God’s grace. My protection is because I yield to the Lord.”

And then Satan, of course, in that final word that captures most of us, just worship me and you can have it all. Just take a little idolatry somewhere, put up this own little idol somewhere, make something else preeminent over God’s purpose in your life, and you’ll get what you were really after to begin with.

And Jesus said, “I’ll only worship God. I tell you, the grumblings and murmurings and rebellion against spiritual leadership and against God himself that was yet to happen convinces anybody who reads this Bible why God said it’s not possible for you to enter in this way. It’s got to be through the wilderness.

And Christian friend of mine, when God takes you through a process, you’re going to find out things about yourself that are ugly and hateful and detestable, but you’re going to understand why God has you there. Now let me get this straight as I close. The Philistines may, by the way, now But they’re not, by the way, always.

One day, the champion of the Philistines will fall to you in spiritual victory. And one day, as you stand your time, God will send the squadrons of the Philistines running in front of you. But as you stand against the barriers now, as you allow God to build patience, faith, hope, love, and the roots that go downward into your life, as you come to accept and wonderfully embrace the process where God leads you around or about, that’s where the victory comes.

And then out of that self-knowledge and self-revelation, self-reverence, self-control, God finds a champion. The fact is a simple one. There aren’t many martyrs, there aren’t many heroes in 2,000 years of church history. And if you were to put all the figures together, most of the folks just live their lives and end them with a gravestone that says they lived from such a time to such a year, and that’s it.

But circumstances provide for the hero. They provide for the victor. They provide for the person who says, “Thank you, Lord, you know me better than I know myself, and I’m going to learn from this experience. I don’t have to repeat it 15 times. I’m going to learn it, in order that you can prepare me for what you have in my life.” This principle given to us in Exodus 13 is one of the most critical principles in the Word of God: how He leads us and how important it is, having been delivered, that you understand He knows the next step – you don’t. Let’s bow our heads in prayer.

Just in this moment, I’ll ask a couple of questions for your personal response. Number one, how many of you sense you have had or are now exposed to a barred door in reference to your life? May I see your hands? You sense the jarring reality that God is using as a means. Okay, put them down again. God bless you.

The second question that arises from that is very important to me. How many of you feel, in this moment of time, that by God’s grace, you’re accepting this direction, and God is showing you what He’s doing in you, in your character, in the moral sphere of your life, something He could never do by a miracle? How many of you see God doing something? Okay. Alright, it’s happening. I see this. I understand this principle.

Let me ask a very personal question. How many of you would have to be really honest this morning and say, this very principle has been a cause of bitterness, anger, and frustration in my life, and I really need to get beyond that before I learn what God’s trying to say? How many hands on that? Yeah. Yeah, I understand that. And you see, that’s where we start. We start by saying, “Lord, I haven’t responded to this well.” That’s where the child says to the parent, “I didn’t understand what you were trying to do, and I’m wrong. I want to learn, and I believe in you. I know you’re not going to tempt me beyond what I’m able, but you’ll provide an escape. All of this is a part, and I submit to your leadership and direction in my life.”

Would you please stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? It’s interesting how God, in just a simple way – and remember what Paul said to the Corinthians, “What happened to them is for our admonition. It’s for our warning. It’s written down for us to be warned.” Earnestly, the Scriptures contend in warning to us. It’s an amazing thing how God can erect such clear guideposts, such a clear understanding, so simple, and yet how we choose to ignore it, choosing to go into our own little paths, totally separate from that point which God would reveal to us.

I want to ask just one more question before we end this morning. How many of you are willing to say, with your hearts open, will and choice open, how many of you are willing to say, “I know God’s not going to give me a miracle because He never does it in this area of my life, but I embrace what He’s doing right now. I accept what He’s doing in my life to produce change by His method and by the means He gives of His direction.” May I see your hand? I embrace it. That’s the word. I receive it. I embrace His direction, His process of leadership in my life. Amen. Lord, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for these people, this congregation who’ve gathered in this place. We’ve come as believers to be strengthened for the purpose of our lives in the world. And one of those purposes, Lord, is that we understand and release to you the processes whereby you’re changing us in the moral sphere of our lives.

You’re changing our character, and I ask you now, Lord, to confirm these dear friends who have admitted that this process has brought them misunderstanding, bitterness, and anger. Lord, I pray for that to be released. I pray for them to let go of that like a dirty towel this morning. And by your grace, to reach their hands up to the loving Father and let the firm grasp of Jesus take them by the hand.

Take them by the hand, and may they, this morning, begin to lean upon His provision and His purpose, knowing He would never place us in any situation beyond our ability to stand. But He’s building into us that which no miracle could ever achieve. Now, friends, I want you to do this before I end this prayer.

I just want you to lift your hands and say, “Thank you, Lord. I embrace your dealings. I thank you, Lord, for who you are. I believe in you. I thank you for the firm grasp upon my hand. I thank you for denying me certain things I thought I needed. I thank you for not giving me a cheap way out. You’re going to change me, Lord.

Thank you. Can you say that in grace to Him this morning? Can you say that to Him in sincerity this morning? I thank you for the process, Lord, because you have something in my life that’s greater than even I understand. And I yield to that process. Now, Lord, just confirm in us. Establish in us. Finish in us.

Let you begin by your grace. In Jesus’ name, and everybody said, you know what that means, let it be so. Amen? God bless you. We just miss you tonight. Amen.