Easter Weekend Service Times:
Good Friday – 5:30p & 7p
Easter Services – Saturday 4p, 5:45p Sunday 8:15a, 10a, and 11:45a
#1 Pray
#2 Invite
#3 Serve
#4 Attend
Exodus 14:9
The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
"Either go forward to freedom or die." — Harriet Tubman
It's one thing to step out in faith, it's another thing to keep walking by faith when things feel scary.
Exodus 14:13
And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
Exodus 14:15-18
The Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and I will get glory over Pharaoh and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
Exodus 14:19
Then the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them so it was between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground. The waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea.
Exodus 14:24
And in the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels with mud so that they drove heavily.
Exodus 14:26
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. Not a single one of them remained.
Exodus 14:30-31
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord, and in his servant Moses.
Exodus sketches salvation in advance, and then Jesus fills in every line.
1 Corinthians 10:1
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.
The Red Sea pictures salvation and is echoed in water baptism.
Romans 6:4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1. God Delivers All at Once
Transformation unfolds over a lifetime, but Salvation happens in a moment.
"A man may be converted in a moment, but it will take a lifetime for that conversion to work itself out in his character. God gives life instantly, but He shapes that life patiently." — A.W. Tozer
John 5:24
I tell you the truth, Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and has passed over from death into life.
John 5:24 (King James Version)
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.
Believe — pisteu — to lean your whole weight upon something. To believe on Jesus means you transfer the weight of your whole life, your entire eternity, onto Him.
Are you trusting in His finished work as your salvation? Trusting not trying.
2. God Saves All by Himself
Exodus 14:14
The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
The Hebrew people didn't contribute to their salvation; they responded to it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We don't add to salvation. We simply receive the salvation God has already accomplished.
"A man who has been rescued from drowning does not boast of the strength of his arms. He speaks of the strength of the one who pulled him from the water. So it is with the soul. If we are saved, it is not because we managed to climb into God's boat. It is because God reached down and carried us in." — C.S. Lewis
3. God's Miraculous Act Becomes Our Defining Moment
The Red Sea wasn't just a rescue. It was a reference point.
What the Red Sea was for them, the cross and resurrection is for us.
Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how would he not also with him graciously give us all things?
If you're wondering if God cares, look at the cross.
Luke 12:24
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
Luke 12:27
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you.
God didn't give His Son for birds. He didn't crucify Jesus for flowers. He gave His Son for you.
God wants the event of the cross to define your life, but so often we let the events of our past define our lives instead.
Romans 8:33-34
But who can bring a charge against God's elect? Because it's God who justifies. Who is the one to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
The only One who had the right to condemn you chose instead to save you.
"What though the accuser roar Of ills that we have done; We know them well, and thousands more; Jehovah findeth none." — Samuel Gandy, Be the Victor's Name
4. Leave Egypt Behind
External slavery can end in a moment, but internal slavery takes longer to unravel.
If you don't get serious about partnering with Jesus to walk in freedom, you slowly drift back into old patterns that just lead to death.
Some of the most miserable people on earth are half-committed Christians.
"There are few conditions more miserable than the soul that attempts to live between two masters. The man who refuses to leave Egypt will never taste the freedom of Canaan, yet he will never feel at home in Egypt again once he has heard the call of God. Such a man belongs nowhere. He is too awakened to enjoy sin, yet too unwilling to surrender to holiness. Christ does not invite us to live between two kingdoms. He calls us out of one and into the other." — Charles Spurgeon
You cannot experience Promised Land joy with an Egypt mindset.