Here we are. We're looking at Almighty God choosing Moses. You know, Moses was a murderer. He was a murderer. And God chose him to lead his people out of bondage. So don't tell me that God can't use you because of your past sin. All right? Nobody can tell me that. And Moses tried to get out of serving because he had a disability. He was slow of speech. That was his own admission. He said, God, you can't use me because I'm slow of speech. So don't tell me that God can't use you because of your disability. All right? Nobody can tell me that. I'm not buying it. Remember, God said, we learned last week in our message in Genesis chapter 18 and verse 14, we hear God say, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Nothing is too hard for the Lord. And I implored our congregation last week to remember this continually. Every time you face a difficulty in your life, you have to say, ask yourself the question, is anything too hard for the Lord? And then answer it. No, nothing is too hard for the Lord. Not even this, whatever this happens to be at that particular moment. Moses led the people out of Egypt, but not before God hit Egypt with plagues. Plagues. He sent plagues upon Egypt. First he had Moses go to the pharaoh. This is the king, okay? This is the president, we'll say. He goes to the big guy and he says, look, you gotta let my people go. And the big guy says, no, no, no, we're not going there, okay? And he says, God, he said, no, I know you can go back. OK, so Moses goes back and he says, look, God said you need to let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no, no, no, no. We like this slave labor. We're keeping them here. Well, then God hit him with plague after plague after plague to the last one, the big one. OK, the big one. That's the most memorable. When God had the people mark the doorposts and the lentils over the doors with the blood of a spotless lamb. Each and every family that did that was spared because God sent a messenger of death. He sent an angel of death. And the firstborn was killed in the households that did not have the blood. And this points us, okay, this points us to Christ. It's the event that's called the Passover, and it's still celebrated to this day. In fact, we celebrate it with communion, and we celebrate it with Resurrection Day, because Jesus is our Passover. This is all just background information to get you to the point where we're at with the text that we're gonna look at. We had a hopeless situation. Our situation was death. We were owed That was the payment for our sin. Okay, we were up against the wall. Nowhere to go. God sent Christ. We received His atonement. We were saved by Him. We couldn't save ourselves. There was nothing we could do. He took away the curse of death from all who believe. continually tests us. There's nobody in this room and nobody who will listen to this message whenever it's recorded that can tell me that life doesn't test them one way or another. Each and every one of us get hit with tests. And we have to remember that Almighty God is always with his people. We're going to see that when we look at this account of the Israelites. Even as they were leaving Egypt, God was with them. He went before them. as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of smoke, fire. He led them in the dark and he led them in the daylight, okay? He was with them. But sometimes, as we saw with Abraham and Isaac last week, we don't see God with us. We find ourselves in some circumstances that we just don't see a way out of. And like we saw with Abraham and Isaac last week, God shows up right on time, sometimes at the very last possible moment. The wrestling and the wrangling and the battles that we endure can distract us from paying attention to our Creator, take our attention away. Those battles are intended to make things look bad. And the enemy of souls uses the circumstances to tempt you and me to take our eyes off of our Creator. God never gives us more than we can handle, even when we think it is too much to handle. I want you to remember what's written in 1 Corinthians 10, in verse 13. There has no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. You're not being tempted more than anybody else, okay? God is faithful. who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to withstand it, to endure it, to overcome it. That's implied there. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it? Now, when we look at the Israelites, we're gonna see they were tempted. They were up against the water. The mightiest army in the world at that time was bearing down on them. And they were tempted to lose hope. And in fact, many of them did. But we have to remember, just like they have to learn, we've got to keep our eyes on the Lord. I want you to open your Bibles to the 14th chapter of Exodus. We're going to look at the account of Moses and the Israelites being tempted in many ways. In that passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, there's the word temptation. There has no temptation taken you. That temptation word means the trial of man's fidelity. It means integrity, the trial of our integrity, the trial of our virtue, the trial of our constancy. And it means the adversity, affliction, and trouble sent by God that serves to test or prove one's character faith and holiness. That's what that word temptation means. Something God says. It also includes the condition of things or a mental state by which we're enticed to sin or to lapse from the faith and holiness. And of course, that is the Satan. That's the devil's work. The word tempted, when he says here, you will not be able, you will not be tempted above that you are able. That word tempted means to try. You won't be tried, you won't be trialed. You won't be tested beyond what you're able. And why are we tested? Why are we tested? The meaning of the word is for the purpose of ascertaining our quantity. The meaning is that we are being tested on what we think or how we will behave. That's what it is. And as we look at Moses and the Israelites being tempted in these ways as they led either left Egypt, they fled Egypt. Things looked like they went from bad to worse, and they were overcome with the temptations to doubt. We're going to hear that in the text. They didn't see a way out. They saw no way for relief. It was a dead end, literally. And so, again, page 47 in the Pew Bible, if you want to follow along there. We're going to begin with verse 1, and we're going to read through verse 31. And it's Exodus chapter 14, beginning at verse 1. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before high Hirath. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi-hi-rah, between Migdal and the sea, opposite Baal-ziphon. We shall camp before it by the sea." Now, let me ask you there, just for a moment. Who was speaking to Moses? The Lord was speaking to Moses. Who was giving him directions? The Lord was giving him directions. Who told him to camp by the sea? The Lord told them to camp by the sea. And then the Lord tells them, for Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land. The wilderness has closed them in. God knew what the Pharaoh was going to say. He said, then I'll harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. God said he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will go after them. He's going to go after the children of Israel. Okay. He's telling Moses this. Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. And they said, why have we done this? That we've let Israel go from serving us. So he made ready his chariot, took his people with him. Also, he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. Now remember, chariots was like, that was the top line of transportation back then. And he had 600 of the best ones, plus all the other chariots, and he's pursuing these people who were on foot. Now with a chariot, a man with a sword, he could lop off a lot of heads, okay? As he goes along, boom, boom, boom, okay? They had no choice, there was nothing they could do. They had no way to fight back. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi-Har-Rah before Baal-Zaphon. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. They saw them. They saw them coming. They saw the cloud probably of dust. from the chariots ripping up the ground, okay, and the horses, and they heard this thunderous noise of this army pursuing them. Now we're talking about nearly two million people, because there's three passages of Scripture that tell us there were more than 600,000 men. So we know there were probably 600 or more thousand women, and we know that there were more than 600,000 children. We're talking about a lot of people. and they see this thunderous army coming bearing down on them, okay? And they say to Moses, what, because there were no graves in Egypt, you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? They're saying, what, there weren't enough cemeteries in Egypt? We couldn't have got killed there? Well, you brought us out in the wilderness to die? I mean, they lost hope. They see the army coming, They see that they're camped out by the sea. There's nowhere to go Okay, they are stuck Nothing they can do And then they go on to say is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying let us alone or we may serve the Egyptians now you have to know the Backstory here too because they didn't want to leave they were comfortable They didn't want to be troubled. They didn't want to be bothered. They didn't want to go for a walk out into the wilderness. They didn't want to leave Egypt. They wanted to stay right there. And that's a picture of everybody and anybody who wants to stay in their sin. That's what it is. They're comfortable. They don't want to go out of their sin. It's hard to get out of sin. And they knew it. They knew it. And then they say the death blow here. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. They're saying it'd be better for us to stay in our sin than for us to come out here and follow God and get into this trouble. They'd rather stay in slavery. They would rather stay enslaved than to be free. That's what they're saying. And Moses says to the people, now, they were crying out. There was a lot of noise, okay? Do not be afraid. And each of us can hear that, folks. Each and every one of us can hear that. Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever." Forever. He said, you're not going to see these Egyptians anymore. They're going to be gone. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. Move over my spirit forever, I pray, in bounteous rhythms of love. You shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand. This is the Lord, okay? Because now Moses turned to God, and God says to Moses, what are you crying to me about? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea of diviners. That had never been done before. This was something completely new, never been heard of before, that the sea would part. They're up again, the last minute. The army's bearing down on them. And this is the last minute. And God says, okay, stretch out your rod, part the water. What did Moses do? He said, the children of Israel, God tells Moses, the children of Israel go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. That's almost an impossible, how many of us would believe that was impossible? If we're in their position, we're standing with our back to the sea, we're up against the sea, the army's bearing down on us, and God says, okay, part the water if you're gonna go across on dry ground. How many of us are gonna be able to accept the word of God? I don't know. But God says, I, indeed, will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I'll gain honor over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. And the angel of God, this is the messenger, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all night." In other words, the Egyptians couldn't see, and the Israelites could, and the Egyptians stayed camped. They didn't move forward. The Israelites were on the edge of the water. They're staying there, and they could see. Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground. God opened that water up. The light is shining on them. They're walking through the water. The Egyptians are stuck on the ground, and they can't see the Israelites are moving. But then the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea. Now, let me pause there for a moment. I heard a preacher one time say, that ain't pharaoh school. There ain't no pharaoh that's gonna say, okay, yeah, go into the midst of the water there, okay? God parted the water so you can go too, right? No. It isn't there. There's no way that this guy, this mighty military leader, is gonna lead his people in the midst of these walls of water, okay? But he did, because God hardened his heart. He had a burning desire in his heart to recapture those people and kill anybody who resisted. That was his reason. That's where he was. It came to pass in the morning watch that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians. He took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them with difficulty. God knocks off a wheel here, knocks off a wheel there, maybe a couple of wheels. They're dragging them on the ground, okay? Yeah. The Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Now they get the message. God's fighting against them. And the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen. I heard somebody say one time, oh, that water's only about three feet deep. And I said, well, that makes God a mighty, powerful God, because he drowned them all in three feet of water. Okay. Moses stressed out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, when the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on the right hand and on the left. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord to serve Moses. Reading God's Word, I trusted him. I had his blessing to it. This account is vital to every believer, just as the account of Abraham and Isaac was. Abraham was standing over his son. God said he was going to have him sacrifice him. He's standing over him with a knife in his hand. And God stopped him. God never intended for him to kill his son. He wanted him to be faithful, to take him right to that point. It was the very last moment when God stepped in and said, no, threw a messenger toward him, don't kill your boy. And here the Israelites are up against the water. You got the army bearing down on them. At the last possible minute, John steps in, the 11th hour, and he says, okay, we're going to make a way for you. They cried out to Him in lack of faith, and God opened up the sea, and suddenly their faith was renewed, because they had to have faith to walk between that water, just like the Pharaoh had to have his heart part. They were caught between that mightiest military force on earth and the raging sea, and they were no match for either one. There was nothing they could do of their own accord. And how many times do we find ourselves in circumstances where we're caught between that proverbial rock and a hard place, when we can do nothing? There's nothing we can do. God makes a way. He gave them the solution at the last moment. I want you to hear what's written in Isaiah 43 verses 16 through 19, in case you might doubt that this was real. The prophet Isaiah says, thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power. They shall lie down together. They shall not rise. They are extinguished. They are quenched like a wick. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." And as I was reading that, I remembered the living water. For God said that everybody who's thirsty can come and drink of that life-giving water. God made a path through the sea. God sent an army to chase it with chariots and horses. God was the one who snuffed out the horses and the men in the water. And he tells us all not to dwell on the past, because he's doing something new and he wants his people to see it. Even here, I believe. Even here. Those three passages of Scripture that tell us there's more than 600,000 men also imply that there's that many women, at least, and children. Probably more than two million people, it's estimated. But they were absolutely no match for that Egyptian army. They'd have been slaughtered. They had nowhere to go. They could do nothing. They had to rely on God. And sometimes God allows us to get in tough circumstances so that we will rely on Him. Not on ourselves, not on a bank account, not on whatever we think we can do or whatever we want to do. Those people were outgunned in modern terms. They didn't have the military skill. They didn't have the weapons, and they didn't have the equipment that the Egyptians had. They weren't running on chariots. They got to that water, and I'm thinking maybe some of them thought they might go in. And I called this message to swim or not to swim. You get to the edge, and you say, OK, what can I do? What am I going to do? God makes a way. People complain. They were helplessly stuck. They saw no way out of their predicament. They thought they were going to die right there and then. It was over for them. Some of them might have thought to swim, but with that many people and no boats, no rafts, no water skis, okay, they weren't getting across that water without an act of God. They could do nothing of their own power. That sea would have just swallowed them, just like it did that mighty military force that was pursuing them. And do you know, it used to be thought that this was a fable, but there's modern archaeological evidence that has actually found a place where there are chariots under the sea. They found it. They found the crossing place. Because it was never... Nobody mapped it out and said, well, here's where it was exactly. And so for thousands of years, nobody knew where the spot was. And then it was speculated that this was all just made up to lead us to faith. You know, that we would trust in God, because after all, this is a really good story. You know, the people were in trouble. God came along. He opens up a way, and He makes a way out when there is no way. At the last minute, mind you. He's always on time. God separated them from the Egyptians by moving the cloud of smoke and fire that led them there. He put a smoke screen between them and the army. And sometimes when we're in trouble, we don't know it, but God has put a smoke screen between us and that trouble, because we can still see. The light is still shining around us, but the trouble is bearing down on us and being held back, and we don't even know it. And it was God that led them to that impossible place. He brought them to that place of despair. Why? Why would He do that? Is He some cosmic meanie? I'm going to make those people suffer. No. He did it for their own good. He did it so they would turn to Him because He knew their hearts were wrong. They wanted to stay in Egypt. They wanted to stay in comfort. They wanted to stay enslaved. And He wanted them to be free. Almighty God is the one who can always make a way. He's the eternal way maker. How many of us know that? He has absolute power to remove any obstacles, no matter how big they are, no matter how insurmountable they might seem to us. In the fourth verse of the text that we read, we heard God foretell how he'd make the Pharaohs stubborn to come after them. God did that. God made the Pharaoh come after them. He said that the Pharaoh would try to catch and destroy his people, and as a result, God would destroy the Pharaoh and his army. But why? Why? Why does it have to be so hard all the time? Can't we just get a break once in a while? Why do we have to have so much trouble? God says in this, it was so that the people everywhere would praise God for His victory. And in this, He said that the Egyptians would know that He's the Almighty. The same as when we're being pursued by enemies. God allows them to back us up to the wall, and He'll take them out. God will. We don't have to. God will. The Israelites obeyed God by camping where He told them. He wanted them to trust Him to do the impossible, and they still didn't get it. They resisted. They grumbled. They mumbled. They were upset. Well, there were not graveyards in Egypt for us! You had to bring us out here to die? I mean, you can imagine millions of people raising their voices. Some number of them were hollering. You know, we have to trust God for a bold new thing that he's going to do in our lives sometimes. And in the life of our church, in our fragile human weakness, we want to jump in. When we're backed up against that water, we want to jump in and we want to start swimming. We want to do it under our power. We want to make a way. Sometimes God wants us to stand still so he can make the way. We simply need to walk His way. We know our own strength is nothing in comparison to God's might and power, but still, we're tempted to do it our way. We start hearing Frank Sinatra singing in our heads, I did it my way! That or we become discouraged. We want things to go back to the way that they used to be. We want to be comfortable. You want to just be comfortable, right? Why do we have to do? Why does it have to be like, God, can't you just make it? Let us go back into slavery. It was easier there. That's what the Israelites did. They complained because they believed they were going to die, and they preferred slavery over death. But remember the miracles that God has done in the past, even in your own life. He'll make a way where no way exists. He'll make a way where we can't see a way. They couldn't see a way. They're looking at this vast body of water. It's not like a pond, okay? They can walk around. The army's bearing down on them. They're up against the water. They saw no way out of it, and God made a way. God provided everything they needed, and he'll do the same for us, no matter what it is. It might look like we need strong arms to swim, right? We gotta be able to get in there and just start tearing up that water. Might think we need to have boats or ships. Might think we need to have weapons and equipment to fight back. God provides a way we cannot see. Why would Almighty God, who the Scriptures tell us is love, by the way, why would he try his people so severely? Could it be that he has them in spiritual boot camp? These are training exercises? Could it be that each of us is being trained to be strengthened to serve him greater and greater? Why allow the people that he loves to get so stressed out over impossible-looking situations until the very last minute? Why can't he just swoop in a little sooner? Why has it got to get like where we're right at the edge? And there's nowhere to go. There's no place to turn. There's nothing we can do. Why can't he help us out a little sooner? He wants us to turn our eyes on him. Don't take our eyes off of him. He seems to wait for the last minute to come through because he enjoys seeing us exhibit our faith toward him. He wants us to exhibit our faith toward him. not rely on our own strength, not to rely on our own power, not to rely on our own intellect, not to rely on anything that has to do with us, but to rely on Him. He enjoys rewarding us when we honestly seek Him and we want to have our faith increased. And you know that last minute, the last minute situation, it shows our heart to God. He sees the depth of our heart, what's really in there. Are we really trusting Him? Or are we trying to trust ourselves? Are we trying to be the one that makes it all better? Drives those who love God to believe in Him even deeper. The last minute rescue, it delivers us. Not only from the impossible, oh, it'll get us out of the jam that we're in. It looks impossible to us. It's not only getting us out of that thing that looks impossible, but also from doubt. It rescues us from doubt. It strengthens our faith. It gives us the ability to trust Almighty God. It strengthens our faith and trust in our Creator. Those trials and those tests are training exercises, like boot camp. Boot camp for Christ, who's our Redeemer. The hard part is refocusing our attention onto God instead of the seemingly insurmountable circumstances we find ourselves in. Sure, it's hard to appreciate the last-minute rescue beforehand. We're not standing there at the edge of the water with the army bearing down on us saying, boy, this is going to be great! No! This is going to be amazing, right? Let's see how God gets us out of this one! No, that's not usually our response. Now our response is, how are we gonna get the water out of the basement, right? The water was filled up in the basement down here. I'm thinking, okay, how are we gonna get the water out of it? God took it away. The Israelites were not thinking this was gonna be a glorious thing. Let me ask you what the scripture says. Can anyone, add even an inch to their height by worrying? Can any of us add a day to our life by worrying? Jesus didn't think so. In the sixth chapter of Matthew's Gospel record, we hear Jesus saying this, okay? He's teaching his followers not to worry about their lives. He told them not to worry about having something to eat. Don't worry about what you're going to wear. He said, isn't life more than food or clothing? Now, okay, there's nobody in this room that's hungry, right? We've all had something to eat in the last week or so, the last day or so, probably the last four hours or so. We don't worry about those things, do we? We don't worry about clothes, food, drink, or do we? Maybe that's the core of our problem. Maybe somehow deep within ourselves, maybe we're not recognizing that we are actually not trusting God to provide what we need to survive. Maybe that's the heart of our concern when we worry about our finances, for example. Maybe we're just masking that concern with other things. Or maybe some people were covetous, like the rich young ruler who Jesus chided for having too much, told him to sell it all, give it away, and then come follow. There's people like that, people who follow Christ like that. For them, there's never enough. They always want more. Whenever there's a little bit of trouble that's going to take a little bit of their finances away, then suddenly they have a crisis of faith. Where are you, God? I heard a preacher yesterday, David Gravenhill, and in one of the passages he was reading and talking about, he said, we pray for God to help us. And sometimes God will bless somebody to bless somebody else. He said there was a woman that said she needed prayer because she needed $500 to take care of some rent or a bill or something. Another lady stood up and she said, oh, you got to have faith, sister. She said, I needed $500 last month, and God came through. He gave me $1,000. And David said, well, you know, God gave this one $1,000 so that both of them could have $500. But the one that got the $1,000, she wasn't kicking the $500 to the other one. And that's not how we are. We come up against the wall. God comes through with more than we need. And we see somebody else up against the wall. We say, good luck to you. God bless you. Hope you get what you need. Israelites wanted comfort, safety, and they wanted food. They had plenty of food back in Egypt. One of the things they complained about out in the wilderness. That's why God let them all die out there. Eventually, he got them through the water, raised their children. They wandered around for 40 years and ended up dead out there anyway. All they had to do, instead of complaining and grumbling, was acknowledge that God would take care of them. They had to acknowledge God in their despair. God came through. The last moments. They just had to trust Him to do it. That's the same with all of us. We simply need to trust Him. We need to turn our hearts to our Creator. Tell Him He's our only hope. When we're up against the wall of circumstances, and we've got other circumstances bearing down on us, we need to tell Him we need Him. He's the only one that can make the way. I had a situation this past week. Now, you all know last week it was negative 19 or something. And this week, what was it? I don't know what it was this morning. Negative what? Three, four, two? Yeah, different places we had different degrees of negative numbers. And Tuesday and Wednesday, what'd we have? Or Wednesday and Thursday, was it? The temperatures in the 60s! Now, I am not so arrogant as to think that God did that for me, okay? But let me tell you. I got a call from the electrician last Monday, hey, it's going to be nice this week. Do you want to get that electrical stuff done? You got to work outside, you know, the wire's hard to work with, et cetera. And I said, yeah, sure. Let's do it. He needed two days of outdoor weather. What did we have? Two days of outdoor weather. I'm not going to say God did that for me. But I'm gonna say, God did it for a lot of reasons, and mine just happened to fit into it, okay? All right, I got two days that I needed. I was right up against the wall. The new tenants were saying that there's problems, and I said, we gotta get this fixed. And I said, Lord, just, I said a little tiny prayer. God, help me. Two days. You gotta tell God you need a miracle. You gotta tell God that He's the only one who can do it. He's always on time. When He's got your back up against the wall and He's got the army pouring down on you, you gotta turn to Him and say, God, You're the only one who can get me out of this. I can't do it. I can't swim. There's no way. The water's too deep. Tell Him you need a miracle. Ask Him to show you the way. Ask him to make the way for you clear. Now, it doesn't get any clearer than two days of good weather in the middle of negative temperatures, okay? It doesn't get any clearer than that. As far as I'm concerned, I said, thank you, Lord. Huh, imagine being out in this, bitter cold, working with number four hot wire that does not want to move in 60 degree temperatures. much less below zero temperatures. God's our only hope, folks. He's the only one who can do it, and he's the one that's always on time, even if we think he's not. Swimming into that sea of circumstances is not the answer. Doing it on our own is not the answer. Ask Him for the strength to get you through boot camp. Ask Him for strength to get you through His training program. Ask Him. If you're a believer, ask Him to be right there with you, because He is. We're all in a place like those Israelites once. We were all facing death for our sins, and Jesus made a way out of sin and eternal dying. Just as He had opened that way of death, or out of death, through the sea for them. Behold, now is the accepted time. It's written in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 2. Now is the day of salvation. Jesus preached, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's written in Matthew 4, verse 17. There's an urgency in his message. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is upon you. James 4, verse 14. We know that our lifespan is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. We're only here for a moment, folks. Oh, it might seem like a lot to us. It might seem like a long time to us. But it's only a moment in the eyes of God. And this is why we're instructed not to wait, but to believe today. This is why today is the day of salvation. If you haven't surrendered your whole life to Him, it's time. It doesn't matter what the circumstances look like. It doesn't matter what wall you're up against. It doesn't matter what army is bearing down on you. Today is the day to turn to God and let Him make the way for you out of all of that mess. And it doesn't mean that all your problems are going to go away once you say, I believe in Jesus. It doesn't happen. And as with those Israelites who stood at the sea, Nowhere to go but to God, learning what each of them needed to learn. That's what we can do. We can learn what we need. We can turn to God in every circumstance when we're up against the wall because he is always on time. Those Israelites reached the other side, they saw the depth of their problem, they rejoiced. Chapter 15 of Exodus is actually a song, or there's a song in chapter 15, that they sang out to God, they rejoiced to God, and then they turned against Him again anyway. Don't be like that. Our Creator loves to surprise us with endings that we can't see. We get into those tough spots, When we feel like we're being squeezed, sometimes we are. Sometimes it's God putting the pressure on. Sometimes He's putting the pressure on so that we will turn to Him. And He's squeezing out the junk that we don't need, folks. Sometimes He's saying, let go. Let Him have it, whatever it is. When we trust Him, He loves saving us, especially when we think all hope is lost. If we think it's over, we think it's done, we can't do anything, we feel helpless, where do we turn? Him. It's God's nature to provide for and protect you when you ask. But don't forget that. It's like I stressed last week, is anything too hard for the Lord? Nothing. He wants you to know who He is, not just in the past. But right now, He's still the same God now that He was then. He hasn't changed. And sometimes, we're in a tight spot. When we are in a tight spot, sometimes He waits to the last minute. But even then, He's right on time. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to trust You. Help us, Father. Oh God, we know that our life is just a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes away. Help us, Lord. If anybody hears this message and doesn't know you, I ask, Lord God, that you would reach through to those souls. Grab them, Lord. Pull them into your kingdom. Have them turn their lives over to you, Lord. They're up against the wall of death. There's nowhere for them to turn but to you. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. God, we know it's your nature to provide for and protect us when we ask. Help us to always remember to ask. Help us, Lord, to know who you are. Help us to know right now. Even though sometimes you wait to the last minute, Lord, help us to trust you. We pray in Christ's name and all of God's people said, amen. Let's turn our hymns to number 252, and we're gonna sing number 252, Only Trust Him, number 252. And if you will, please stand as we sing number 252.