here's a time to stand firm and a time to take action. When God commands it, taking action, even the simplest of actions like raising your arms, can split the sea in two. In this most spectacular display of God's power, God still enlists the arms of his servant Moses to bring it about. (Message: Eric Elder; Music: "Step By Step" written by David “Beaker” Strasser and led by Eric Elder; Running time: 33:35)

Lesson 14 - Take Action

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ERIC: Hi; this is Eric Elder and welcome to The Ranch.

Last time we took a look at standing firm, and how sometimes God calls us just to stand firm when our back is up against a wall and we don't know what else to do. But tonight we're going to take a look at what to do next, because God doesn't have us stand firm forever. There comes a point where He wants us to take action, and that's what we're going to look at tonight. It's really one of the most climactic passages in the whole Bible that we're going to look at tonight, so I hope you'll join us for that.

We like to start with a song, Step By Step, and I just encourage you to sing along with us and just recommit yourself to following God in all things at all times. So if you want to sing along with us, feel free. Oh God, you are my God.

(Worship Song)

Dear Lord, we just pray that you would help us to follow You. Lord, when You call us to do something, help us to do it and be obedient right away. Lord, as small or as big as it might be, I pray that You would help us to do the things You call us to do and to take action when You want us to take action. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

If you want to open with me to Exodus Chapter 14, we're going to finish this chapter. If you remember last time, we took a look at how Moses was backed up against the wall of the Red Sea and he couldn't go any direction. He had the chariots coming from in front of him and he had the Sea behind him. And maybe they could have scattered off to the side, but it would have been devastating if they had tried to run with all those horses and chariots. So God told him to stand firm. But it wasn't very long before God told him what to do next and that's what we're looking at this week, when we need to take action. And what was that thing God said back in Verse 15? I'm going to have you guys read that if you would. Just read Exodus Chapter 14 starting with Verse 15 through the end of the chapter.

BUD: 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

DEE: 23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."

26 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen -- the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

ERIC: Thanks, guys. So what was it back in Verse 15 that God told Moses to do? What did He tell him, the action that Moses had to do? I mean, he could have done all kinds of things. Moses could have had to do all kinds of things and do battle and see God's hand of deliverance. But what did God tell him to do?

SCOTT: Raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the water.

ERIC: Raise his staff and stretch out his hand. That was it. That's all Moses had to do. But that would have looked like the silliest thing to do. Nobody had seen anybody split the Red Sea before. This was a totally unheard of thing to do. But here Moses had to lead all his people and he told them all to stand firm. And it's sort of funny what God says; He says at the beginning, "Why are you crying out to me, raise your staff and go through the water." As if that was the most obvious thing in the world to do. Which it wasn't, of course, the most obvious thing in the world. But God just tells him, "Why are you crying out to me. Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the Sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the Sea on dry ground."

To me it's interesting that God does give us specific things to do. I'm not quite sure why God needed Moses to even raise his staff. Why didn't God just split the Sea? I don't know.

DEE: I would say that it's to show that He displayed his power on cue instead of just all of a sudden something happened and there's nothing that -- nothing to correlate with.

ERIC: It wasn't just a coincidence. It was something very specific. God said do this and you will see what happens. That's a good point. God really wants it to stick in our minds that He's in charge and He's actually doing this on their behalf, doesn't He? That's good.

Also I think it's probably like almost anything else God calls us to do. I mean, really, He's got to do it anyway. Any time we pray for healing for somebody or we pray to see something great happen or even when we step out and actually try to do something great, our power is pretty pathetic and weak, compared to what God can do and what God brings about.

So whether it's raising your arms or whether it's actually fighting the battle or whatever it might be, God wants us involved. And maybe that's exactly for that reason. To show us that we do have a role in it, and He's working on our behalf on cue at His command. Moses does exactly that. He raises his staff, and what happens? The Sea splits. Just like He said it would.

We come back to this theme also in this passage that God has a reason for why He does what He does. And what was this? Why did God want to split the Sea and save them in this way? What was He trying to do through this particular demonstration of power? What did He want them to do? Check Verse 18.

SCOTT: He wanted the Egyptians to know that He's the Lord.

ERIC: Right. All the Egyptians, even back in Egypt. Of course, these Egyptians would know He's the Lord, they'll all be dead in a few hours. But it's the Egyptians back in Egypt, when they get this news, they will too know that He is the Lord. Also in Verse 25 -

DALE: Did He want the Israelites to fear him too, also?

ERIC: And the Israelites as well.

DALE: He wanted the Israelites to fear Him, right?

ERIC: Right, right. He wanted the Israelites to know that He was God. Verse 25, the Egyptians say "Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." So they started to see it, didn't they? They knew that God was doing it. And all the way down in Verse 31, what happens when the Israelites saw the great power?

DEE: The Egyptians feared the Lord and put their trust in Him.

ERIC: Right. Actually, the Israelites, when they saw the great power against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in who else?

SCOTT: Moses.

DEE: And His servant Moses.

ERIC: And His servant Moses, right. Because they were starting to grumble a little against Moses, weren't they? Why'd you bring us out here? What are you doing? Did you bring us out here against this wall to kill us? We could have died back there, why don't we go back to Egypt? They were grumbling, just not very much for this.

But then Moses says, "Stand firm, don't be afraid. You will see the deliverance of the Lord." God speaks to Moses, says "Raise your staff." Moses raises his staff; the Israelites see something they've never ever seen before. And all of a sudden, the Israelites say, "All right, we're with you, Moses, we'll follow you, we'll follow you and we'll follow your God." They put their faith both in God and in Moses, His servant.

I think it's important for us as Christians that we take action when God says to take action, and that we do it the way God says to do it. You know, if we try to turn around and fight that battle in our strength or try to, you know, it's just going to fail miserably. But if God says you stand firm until I tell you what to do next and the thing that is next is the silliest thing in the world, stand there and hold your arm up with this staff. But if we do that and we're obedient to what God calls us to do, people will see that there is a God who is our God, they will fear Him, they will put their faith in Him, and they'll put their faith in us as well as Christian leaders.

So I think as Christians one of the hardest things we have to do is to stand firm when God tells us to stand firm, and then to take action when He calls us to take action. I think the story of splitting the Sea, though, is pretty powerful. That's an amazing thing if you see the movie like The Prince of Egypt, the cartoon version. And even, I mean, the old Ten Commandments movie with the wall of water on the right and the left. And there have been some specials on TV and things where they say, well, there was a tide and maybe the waves would just sort of split and maybe it was just like three inches of water at that point where you had to cross over, you know, which really is a miracle that all those chariots would get drowned in three inches of water. So I don't know how that happens. But the text says that they crossed over on dry ground, that the ground was actually dry, which is a pretty tremendous wind storm I would think, the breath of God really, breathing back and holding back the water in a way that the ground could actually dry up in that short of time. And then it says they had what on their right and on their left? A wall of water on their right and on their left. Now, this was no trickle of a stream that they're crossing through. In The Prince of Egypt they actually show a whale flowing through on the right and on the left. I mean, this is an ocean, you know, that mammoth. It's the Red Sea but it's that mammoth of a structure with the wall of water on your right and on your left. Man, I would put my fear in the Lord. I'd say, "All right, I'm following You."

Sometimes we wonder why we don't see those kinds of miracles today or why can't we command the sea to part or why can't we walk on water. And it sort of struck me over time, because I have actually had experiences where I've seen God answer prayers over the weather and over the wind and over the rain in ways that are convincing to me that we actually even have the ability to do that.

But can you think of some other places in the Bible where these things happened, where there was -- someone did something or commanded the waters to split or to have some other occurrence over nature, some other action over nature? I want to take a look at a couple of these and see -

DALE: Jesus calmed the storm.

ERIC: Jesus calming the storm, yeah. The storm was out at sea and Jesus said be still to the wave and it was still. The disciples put their fear in the Lord at that time. Any others come to mind?

SCOTT: You mentioned Jesus walking on the water.

ERIC: Jesus walks on the water, which is pretty miraculous, right.

DEE: It's not water related, but there's the battle, of course, where as long as the arms were held up God's army was winning. And actually the people ended up helping him hold his arms up.

ERIC: Right. Somehow Moses holding his arms up packed a lot of power. He could drive the storm back or he could hold the army at bay.

DALE: Elijah stopped the rain for a few years.

ERIC: Elijah prayed that the rain would stop.

DALE: And he prayed that it would start up again.

ERIC: Started up again. And the Bible says that Elijah was a man just like us. Goes out of the way to say, "This was not some spectacular super-saint. Elijah was a man just like us."

DALE: He was taken up; that's a miracle, in the whirlwind.

ERIC: Yeah. There's another passage where Elijah actually split some water, if you want to flip over to 2 Kings Chapter 2. Chapter 2, Verse 7 through 8. This is Elijah just really shortly before he died, before he was actually taken up into heaven I guess is the more accurate way to say it. He didn't ever actually die here on earth. But he was going places. He had Elisha, his servant, with him. Elisha wanted to follow him and Elijah had to go and visit the various places around Israel. He needed to go talk to some people in different places. He knew he was going to be taken up shortly and he had some places to go, and he had to get there soon.

And it says in Verse 7 of Chapter 2,

7 Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Because they had come up to the Jordan River.

8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Dry ground.

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?"

"Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.

Give me a double of whatever you got. That's some kind of power there. He had seen it, of course, throughout Elijah's whole life. In verse 10,

"You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours-otherwise not."

11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. 13 He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.

15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha." And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

They put their faith in him as well

But as I look through these miracles, I see that people don't just do it just to see some cool thing happen. Sometime with praying, we just want to stop the rain just because we think it'd be cool, or just because we want to have a picnic. But these people weren't having a picnic. The Israelites weren't having a picnic. They were going to die if they didn't get an answer from God. And they got it and they went across on dry land. Elijah had to visit so many communities before he was taken away so suddenly that he didn't have time to walk around and look for the bridge. He said I gotta get there and I gotta get there now. He takes off his coat, walks across, and gets to where he needs to go.

Same with Jesus. He went up on a mountainside to pray. And he saw the road ahead. John the Baptist, one of the great saints of old and someone that Jesus knew, his cousin, had just died, just been beheaded. Jesus says, "I'm going to go up on a mountain and pray, you guys go ahead and and I'll meet you on the other side of the lake." That's the fourth watch of the night, the middle of the night, and who comes walking up to the boat? It's Jesus. Why? Because he had to get back to the other side of the lake so he could meet them, so he could keep going because he didn't have a whole lot of time to do everything he needed to do. He wasn't just trying to be cool. He had places to go and things that needed to be done.

I've been in these places where I was praying; it was on the farm. I came back to help my dad farming and he had a couple bad years, really rough years, and it was springtime and it was time to plant again. And it had just been raining and raining constantly, and he was not able to get the crop in the ground. If he didn't get it in soon, it wasn't going to be ready for harvest by the time harvest was going to come. And my dad was a man that honored God, he didn't work on Sundays whether it was clear or not clear, and so his fields would sometimes get planted later than other peoples' or whatever would happen.

He was trying to do it all by himself. And one day I came home and we had this window of opportunity where it was good day to plant and the storm clouds were coming. And I got on the tractor and I was on the tractor ahead of him and I was doing some disking or whatever, all the things that you call it prior to his planting behind me. He was coming along and we were trying to do it all in the same shot. So I was going and all of a sudden I see these sprinkles start coming down on the tractor and on me. This wasn't inside a cab; I mean, you're out there in the rain. And I was just getting so discouraged by this. I was like, "God, you have got to help my dad get this crop in the ground. We really need this in now, and I don't have time for any rain to stop this right now." And I put my hand up in the air, I just said, "God, I just pray that you would stop this rain right now." You know what happened? I got drenched, just soaked, just rain, just rained so hard I was like, "Okay, God, I don't have control over the wind and rain."

DALE: You had Scott wondering. He's going to hire you. He thought you had the recipe.

ERIC: You know what I said next? You know what? "I think that's just Satan trying to discourage me." And I said, "God, I believe that You have control over this and I want my dad to get this in the ground." And I said, "I am going to put my hand back up and I am going to keep praying and I'm not going to take it down until that rain stops. I'm just going to keep driving and driving until the rain stops. I said I don't care, Satan, what you do; I don't care what you're throwing against me; I don't care if the rain is pouring down me. I believe in a God who has power over the wind and the waves and everything that's going on. And I need my dad's crop in today."

I felt like the guy with the cloak; I got places to go and things to do and I don't have time for this weather. I threw down the gauntlet and I put up my hand and you know, by the time I got to the end of the field that rain had stopped. I turned around and I kept driving back the other way and that rain was still stopped. I could see the clouds. When you're in Central Illinois, you can see the rain coming down in sheets all around us. I could see cars driving by on the road going back and forth, their windshield wipers going, but it was not touching that field and it didn't touch it the rest of day.

DALE: What did your dad say?

ERIC: "Thanks!" We were in Texas. I was moving; we were loading up all our stuff, putting it in the moving van. Some of the guys from the church were there helping us move. It was one of those windows where you've got to get it in the truck, you've got to get going. Again, I didn't have time to mess with a bunch of rain and a bunch of wet furniture and all the things that go with it. Some of these stories may seem so goofy and yet when they happen to you, when you call on the power of God...and it wasn't as dramatic as that, but I just said, "God, I really need the rain to stop right now so that we can get this done and get this taken care of." I prayed it; I just asked a couple guys to pray with me, and we just kept going. The rain stopped. The other guys were just like, "That is amazing."

I just read this week about a Billy Graham crusade in New York that Billy Graham had. The planes were flying over the stadium. This was in LaGuardia, right by LaGuardia. The planes had a direct path straight over the stadium. And as they were walking around setting up for the crusade Billy Graham just said, "This won't do, we can't have this, we need to pray that God would shift the wind so that the flight pattern would change and they would move." And he just stopped and he prayed with a couple guys. And the next day for the crusade all the planes were rerouted. In the newspaper that morning it said the winds shifted and the planes were rerouted and they had to take another route. The people standing with him said, "There is a God who has control over these things."

Sometimes there are things that are so important that need to get done when death is so eminent that we need to stand up in our faith, that we need to take action especially when God tells us to take action. There are a lot of times we do these things on our own and we just want to see it happen, it's cool. Or maybe we really need it done but God has something else in mind. I mean, there are just things that we pray for that don't actually happen; they don't come about. And we have to trust that God has something better in mind.

But I want to encourage you today to take action when God says take action. When things need to be done, don't let Satan get you down. Even when the water's pouring down your face and streaming down your face, stand up in your faith and say God, I need this done and I need it done now. "Lord, if there's any way you can move heaven and earth and the mountains in front of me, please do it." God honors the prayers. God wants us to pray in faith.

And even when things don't work out as we wish they would, you can trust that God will do everything that is for you, because He is for you. And if it doesn't work out the way you think it should, don't give up on God, but trust that He's still working