Thank you for the chance to be here again. I've been looking forward to coming. Let's see. Let's put it on the first blank slide there. Bob, there we go. We'll get her here. My wife so wanted to be here with you today. When I told her I was coming here to speak, she says, oh, I like that church. I'm not sure what that says about the other churches that I speak at, but I like that church, and this is a delightful church. You are delightful people. I thoroughly enjoyed the Prelude, one of my favorite newer songs. He is worthy, and hearing it instrumentally, and knowing the words, of course, made that a very, very powerful thing. I will be preaching today from one of my favorite Old Testament passages. It's one of the nice things when you don't speak somewhere all the time. You go somewhere else, they haven't heard all your stories, and you can actually This is not a brand new sermon. I've preached this before, but it is one of my favorite passages of Scripture, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. I'd like us to begin by reading the Scripture, and if you're able, I'd like you to stand with me and read the text aloud together. This is from Exodus chapter 13, beginning in verse 17. Read with me. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place. After leaving Succoth, they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. Thank you. You may be seated. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Somewhere around probably grades four or five, You learned a mathematical law that went like this, you know it. The shortest distance between two points is? A straight line, a straight line. So if I'm standing at point A here, And I wanna get over here to point B. The shortest distance between point A, point B is always a straight line. That is a fundamental, provable law of mathematics. No exceptions to it. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But today, from the Bible, we're going to see that many times in God's dealings with his people, both in ancient times and in your lives, the shortest distance between two points is seldom a straight line. More often than not, with God, the shortest distance between two points is a zigzag course." Now, that seems to contradict what you learned in school. Point A may be a no job or an unfulfilling job. Point B is a satisfying job. It's a career. It pays well. This is what you train for. This is what you look for. And you look around and All your friends, it seems like, have made it over to point B, but you're still struggling. You're zigging and zagging from job to job, and putting out resumes, and following up on contacts, but you cannot seem to get to point B. You pray about it, and quite frankly, it feels like your prayers are not even getting out of the room. Your point A may be, maybe it's retirement. I did that three years ago. It's retirement. And before retirement, you look forward to point B, when you would be free to serve the Lord in greater ways. You could maybe do some travel. You could spend much more time with your children or your grandchildren. Maybe look forward to volunteering at a local nonprofit, those kinds of things. You may have got a new set of golf clubs and look forward to playing golf and you had that retirement party and then your spouse got sick. And it seems like the only travel you're ever gonna be able to do is to doctor appointments. And you're much less free now. in retirement than you were before. Point A might be singleness. Point B is marriage. I mean, God's plan for the majority of people is marriage. I know many very well-adjusted single people. In fact, one of our closest friends in the church is a 71-year-old lady who was just delightful. She says, well, when she was young, she kind of thought it'd be kind of nice to get married. And then she looked at these people getting married and she goes, yeah, maybe it's not so nice. She has enjoyed her life. She's 71. She's full of joy. She volunteers. She mentors high schoolers in our high school youth group. She's just tremendous. But if you're single and you really wanna be married and you wanna get over to point B, you wanna get there as quickly and as easily as possible. I mean, you believe God has someone for you and you know that God can make your paths cross, your motives are right, you're doing everything, but it's not happening. And it just feels like you're zigging and zagging all over the place. What's going on? Well, I hope that if you find yourself in a situation where there's some frustration between where you are at point A and what you wanna get to at point B, I think you will be encouraged by what we see in Exodus chapter 13. Because what you've observed in your own life was also true of God's people long ago. You know, about 3,500 years ago, God wanted to move his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, but God did not take them on a straight line. Instead, he deliberately took them on a zigzag course. It's an ancient story, but it feels like it's fresh today because when you take the grid of your life and you put it on the grid, on the story of Exodus 13, you're going, oh, amazing. We're gonna see how God leads And we're going to see what he does for his people in the process of getting them between point A and point B. Now in Genesis chapter 12, God had talked to a guy named Abraham. And he gave Abraham this Abrahamic covenant, Abram, actually, at that time. He said, God says, Abram, I wanna bless you and your descendants. I wanna give you a land. I wanna make your people great. And then I'm going to bless the entire earth through your descendants. But here's the catch, Abram. You have to leave your home in Ur and you have to head up the Euphrates River, but that's all I'm going to tell you. Just go up the Euphrates River. Not even going to tell you how far you're going to go. I'm not going to reveal to you your destination. Just pack up and go. And so Abram did. And following his own kind of zigzag course, Abram left point A in Ur and traveled up to Haran. And when he got to Horeb, he lived there for 75 years, but it wasn't the destination. That was not point B. Sometimes these zigs and these zags can be very long. And finally, Abraham arrives in Shechem, in Canaan. Now stay with me. We're going to do a little Bible quiz. This is going to test what you learned in Sunday school many, many years ago. So here's our quiz. This is question number one. After Abraham got to Canaan, he and Sarah had a son whose name was Isaac. Okay, good. Even if you got the wrong answer, just yell it out and everybody will laugh at you, okay? It's okay. All right. Isaac married. Rebecca, okay, and they had two sons and their names were? Jacob and Esau, okay. So Jacob grew up and he married, get a little harder. Leah and then Rachel, okay. And Jacob and Rachel had a son, their first son's name was? Huh? Nope. Joseph. Okay. We had to go to the ultimate authority on that one. Sorry. Okay. So we got Joseph. And Joseph had, okay, this is a bonus. He had 10 half-brothers. Okay, let's see how many of these we can do. I'm giving you the first letter as a hint. First one starts with R. Reuben, okay. S. Simeon, good job. L. Levi, who got that? Good for you. J. Judah, okay. D. Dan. Boy, this is good. You guys are awesome. N. Naftali, isn't that a great word? I mean, great name, I love that name. G is? Gad. Gad, okay. A is? Asher. Asher. Man, how do you know this? I mean, you're in the top 3%. I is? Issachar. Issachar. You're not Googling this now, are you? Okay. And Zed is what? Zebulon. Zebulon, okay, great. Well, the half-brothers did not appreciate the special attention that dad gave to their brother, their half-brother Joseph, all right? So they did what? Yes. Yeah, that's right. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay, put him in the well, and then what happened after that? And they took him, okay, good, you got this. They took him out, and then what did they do to get rid of him? They sold him. Where did he go then? Yeah, right, okay, very good. So he sends him to this caravan headed south to Egypt. Now, I'm gonna come back to Joseph at the very end of the message, but let's skip forward a whole bunch of time, a bunch of events in Joseph's life, and just say that by divine arrangement then, in Egypt, Joseph rose to a very influential position in the Egyptian government. And God used him, not just to save a lot of Egyptian lives, but also the lives of his own family. I mean, it's quite an amazing story. So when famine stalked the land of Joseph's birth, Canaan, Joseph invited his brothers and his father to come down and to live in Egypt where there was plenty of food. Little did any of them know that it would be 400 years before their descendants got to return home. 400 difficult years because the pharaohs who followed, the pharaoh who elevated Joseph, were not benevolent to these succeeding pharaohs. The Israelites were an inferior race. They were foreigners without rights. And as has happened throughout human history, stronger people dominate weaker people. They made slaves of the weaker people. But still, the Hebrews continued to multiply, eventually totaling a million and a half, two million people, maybe even. There was one particular pharaoh who panicked worse than all the others, and he took the extreme measure of ordering Egyptian midwives to do what? Kill the babies. Kill the male babies at birth. And so then the Egyptian taskmasters increased the workloads and compounded their cruelty. So Joseph's descendants cried out to Yahweh. And answering that cry, Yahweh strapped some really big sandals on a very reluctant leader named Moses, and he said to Moses, Moses, I want you to lead my people out of Egypt. Now, we're in Exodus 11, and God's plan was to take his people from Egypt back to the land that he had given Abram. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Point A is Egypt, point B is the promised land, but God did not take his people in a straight line. to the promised land. Sometimes this is important because sometimes we have the impression that the wilderness experience was all a result of Israel's disobedience. That is not true. The wilderness was always God's plan. His zigzag plan to get his people back to their destination. Instead of leading his people 200 miles northeast up the easily traveled, well-traveled coastal route, God led them in the opposite direction to Sinai. Here's Exodus 13, 17 again. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the coastal route up through Philistine country. Though that was shorter, and now we get to point one, God deliberately took Israel on a zigzag course. And number two, the reason God did this is because he knew if they went in the straight line, they would never arrive. Very important. Second half of verse 17. For God said, if they face war, if they run into the fierce Philistine resistance, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the desert toward the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. God knows that sometimes the straight line is too dangerous, too hazardous. When I retired from Cornerstone, some really good friends secretly collected money, a lot of money, And they bought me a boat, I couldn't believe this, a 16-foot boat. Now, they knew I would never approve of using any church funds for such a silly thing. So they did it behind my back, okay, they just collected me, I didn't go through church or anything, they just went and got this boat, I couldn't believe it. Now, I'm not much of a fisherman, but I love crabbing in Tillamook Bay, and I've been going there every two weeks all this winter. And my grandkids have had a blast tubing behind this boat on the Columbia River. But one reason I enjoy the boat so much is I grew up in boats. I mean, I grew up in interior Alaska, 300 miles from the nearest road. We had a highway, but it was called the Yukon River. There were no highways. Boats were just how we got around. In fact, when my wife and I lived up there for 13 years, in an average summer, we would travel 3,000 to 4,000 miles on the Yukon River by boat. So when they gave me this boat, I wanted to go somewhere. I said, hey, anybody want to go to Astoria? And they looked at me like I was crazy. It's 100 miles. I mean, who goes 100 miles in a boat? Well, I do, I like going in boats. Well, three guys said that they would go with me, and so we took off for Astoria. We had a great time. This is the NOAA chart just above Astoria, and this is the route we took. It stayed in the channel. It shows you where the channel is. Yukon doesn't have any charts like this. You have to know where you're going. We get to Astoria. It took about four hours. We tied up at a dock and walked to a restaurant, and we had some lunch. But heading home, I thought, you know, instead of staying in the deep water and turning left when we get up past Tongue Point, I think I'm gonna go straight. Because the chart said there's a minimum of three feet of water, and we'd save some time. But what I didn't take into consideration was the tide. We don't have any tides on the Yukon 500 miles from the mouth. And, well, we got stuck. And instead of saving time, we spent more than an hour getting unstuck and making our way back to the channel. The shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line. God knew that the straight line would take his people past these walled Philistine cities and battle-hardened warriors. I mean, none of the Israelites were trained for battle. The text says they left Egypt armed, but it's kind of like, you know, putting you in a M1 tank and you're going, okay, go ahead. Okay, I got the arms, I got the firepower, but I have no idea what to do with this. These Israelites, they weren't trained for battle. They weren't soldiers, they were slaves. They had a slave mentality. They only knew about making bricks. They didn't know anything about warfare. And they weren't organized at all. I mean, here is their organizational chart. God knew that this would never work. This would never work. God knew that they needed a constitution. They needed some governance. They needed to know more about him. So God led them away from point A to Sinai. God knew that their faith was not sufficiently seasoned. And God's plan in taking them to Sinai was to mature their faith, was to teach them how to submit to leaders. How to trust God for their daily needs instead of their taskmasters. They needed to eat manna. that only God could provide. They needed to see water gush out of this rock when they were thirsty. They needed to listen to their leaders when their leader says, no, actually, God wants you to look at that bronze serpent if you want to get well. They needed to clash with the foot soldiers of Sihon and Og before they ran into Philistine chariots. That wouldn't have worked. So God takes us on these zigs and zags where he knows the straight line journey would overwhelm us. Now I have lots of zigs and zags in my own life. Some of you know I grew up in a tiny village on the Yukon. My folks were missionaries. All I wanted to do growing up was to build a cabin in the woods and train my dog team and trap fur bearers. That's what I thought my life would be. And I went from that village to another village where there was a high school. Then I came down here to Multnomah and to Western Seminary. I met a girl at Multnomah that I was sure was the mate that God had for me. We started dating, and then when I went back to Alaska to do construction for a summer job, while I was gone, she dumped me for another guy. His name was Steve. I always say, Steve. I still don't like that name. Steve, you know. So when I came back down to Multnomah that fall, this girl, she wanted to meet with me. I'm going, yeah, right. So reluctantly and angrily, I agreed to meet with her, and she's wearing the cross necklace that I gave her, of course, manipulative little thing. And she said, I made a mistake. She said, I care about you. I want you back. And I mocked her. I told her that she cared about me like I cared about a moose I shot. Pretty brutal. I said, never, I never ever want anything to do with you. So we got married. And we got involved in this brand new church in Gresham called Good Shepherd Community Church. It was 1977, the church had just started. And Vicki and I led the high school youth group. And I taught the adult Sunday school class. But I was impatient because I wanted to get to point B. We were going into missions. I wanted to do church planting back where I grew up in Alaska. I mean, I was working a minimum wage job. She was working a minimum wage job. But I learned auto and truck mechanics in that minimum wage job that served me really well, continues to serve me well today. And in this new church that started, I got to rub shoulders with godly leaders like Stu Weber and Randy Alcorn, who taught me things that Bible college and seminary couldn't begin to teach, like how to shepherd people. how to lead a church, how to resolve conflicts, how to achieve consensus on an elder board when there's disagreement, so important. I wouldn't trade those years for anything. So Vicki and I spent 12 years in an isolated Alaskan village doing church planting and also opening up other villages around to the gospel. Then when the church was ready to be on their own, their transition from missionary-led to calling their own pastor, we came back here on furlough. And while we're here, Good Shepherd's elders asked me to join the staff and to be on the preaching team and also to lead missions. So Vicki and I prayed, but this is, you know, we did what you always do. You pray, you search the scriptures, you talk to people who could counsel you, you look at the desires of your heart. And after weeks of that, we said, yes, okay, we will come back and I will go on staff. So I drove to the elder meeting and I walk into the meeting and told him, yes, this is what God wants us to do. We will join staff. So I drove home after the meeting and I walked in the door and I broke down crying at the front door. Vicki was confused. She asked what happened in the meeting. And I said, well, I told them, yes, She says, then why are you crying? I said, because I should have told them no. The moment I said yes in that meeting, I knew I should have said no. You talk about confusing and zigzagging all over the place. I was a mess. I cried for two weeks. I did. You could ask my wife. After a couple weeks, I had to go back to the elders and say, I'm sorry, can't do it. We're just not done training leaders in Alaska yet. I mean, I felt embarrassed to the point of shame. I mean, here I was a missionary. I'm supposed to have a direct line to God, you know? Missionary. And I'm blubbering and I'm zigzagging all over and I should have known better. I mean, I'm the guy people come to when they wanna know God's will and I'm such a loser. So I told the elders, I can't do it. And I was shocked when they said, well, okay, go back to Alaska and return when the Lord tells you you can come back. Two years later, the time was right. But oh, what a path. It's much easier to see God's will looking backward, isn't it? So much easier. The good thing is God does not, he doesn't berate us when we're confused. Point three, since God knows, since God knows the zigzags can be discouraging, he does two things for people in the course of the journey. First of all, he gives periodic reminders of his intentions. Look at this in verse 19. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place. So Joseph's coffin was a constant reminder of Jesus. Point B, their destination. I mean, you can imagine a seven-year-old boy walking along next to his dad. Hey, dad, what are those guys carrying that box for? Well, son, inside that box are the bones of your great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph. Before he died, Joseph asked that his bones be carried back and buried in Canaan when God took us all back there. And the kid goes, but Dad, we're not headed to Canaan. Oh, yes, we are, son. Oh, yes, we are. God is taking us to Canaan. You just wait. See, you don't carry around a box of old bones in the desert without a reason. And every day, when people looked at that box of Joseph's bones, it reminded them of their destination, God's intentions. See, God is really good at reminders. It's all through Scripture. He's always doing memorials. He's having them stack up stones. He does all kinds of things to remind people of his goodness. The tabernacle itself was a reminder. I mean, when you think about it, does it make sense that to carry gold lampstands gold-plated hardwood furniture, heavy curtains, and huge pieces of leather all over the desert. I mean, when you're camping and when you're hiking, you go light. So why did God have his people work so hard to set up the tabernacle and take it down again, again, and again, and again? Why didn't God just say, hey, I created all this, I'm everywhere, worship me, any old sand dune will do? Because every time they looked at this tabernacle, whether it was assembled or in pieces, or suspended between poles on carts, It was a constant reminder that God has a plan for us. Yahweh has a plan for us. He has a future for us. We have a unique relationship to Yahweh God. I have an old box of bones, reminders. You may have one too, I hope you do. I kept a broken piston ring. It was about that big around. It's just a little thin piece of metal that goes on a, it's a very small airplane part, but it was the part on my airplane that broke and caused the engine to quit when we were flying in the Alaska Range. I keep that. It's one of my bones. It's in my box. Every time I look at that piston ring, I'm reminded that, yeah, piston rings can fail, but God doesn't fail. My box of bones has some notes and cards from my wife. I have the card that Vicki gave me the day after I stumbled in the door blubbering and crying. And the card says, I love you and I will go with you wherever God takes us. I have pictures that my kids drew in church when they were bored. I have lots of pictures from my kids. Our son Brian drew one of the bear that came into our tent while we were sleeping. It's a wonderful reminder of God's protection. I have a note from my dad. Very nice note. He's now with the Lord, but I treasure that. It's in my box of bones. So what's in your box of bones? God provides reminders of where you're headed. There's a second thing that God does to keep us from discouragement, and it's this. Throughout the zigzag course, God provides a tangible sense of his presence. Exodus 13, verse 20. After leaving Succoth, they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to guide them, to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. In the desert, as far as they could get from civilization in that part of the world, God was there. And he provided these visual reminders. Yahweh was their guide. He was their protector. The promise that God made to Abram was just as fresh in this desert as the day he spoke the words to Abram. Here's point four. God will always choose the best path between two points. I mean, think about the questions that Moses surely got as they left Egypt. I mean, Moses wasn't stupid. He was very well educated. He knew the difference between Northeast and South. He knew God wasn't taking them toward Canaan. But here's what's interesting to me. There's no record, we don't have any record of God taking Moses aside and saying, by the way, Moses, you're going to get a lot of flack on where we're going here. Let me just lay out for you my master plan for this whole experience. Here's what I intend to do, Moses. God never revealed to Moses all the zigs and zags ahead, just like God hasn't revealed them to you. Moses had to trust God when, quite frankly, it didn't make any sense. And so does every disciple of Christ. It's actually a critical part of discipleship. I mean, think about those 11 disciples on Good Friday. I mean, these guys have given everything to follow Jesus. For years, they had trusted Him. learned about this kingdom that Jesus talked about, over which he would reign. Jesus was their whole reason for living. They had worked long days without pay. They'd left their families. They lacked adequate food sometimes. Sometimes they didn't have a place to sleep. because they believed that Jesus was the chosen one, the Messiah, the Son of God. And then in the space of just a few hours, all their plans, all their hopes, all their aspirations zigzagged off the cliff. And Jesus' death marked the darkest day ever. So they're scared. They fled. They hid in an upper room. hoping that they wouldn't be discovered because they had lost sight. They had lost sight of the periodic reminders that God had planted along the way, and they had disregarded the unmistakable signs of his presence. So in your life, the zig that you're experiencing may not be It may not be a place, it could be time. It could be a period of time. It's been too long. Your zag may be a health problem. Maybe cancer. Could be an overbearing boss. Maybe your company got bought out and you have a different boss now. Maybe some of the hardest zigs and zags are wayward children. Could be depression. Could be deep emotional pain, maybe divorce. And by the way, it's also possible that your zigzag may be a result of sin. I need to say that. Listen, if God is bigger than the boogeyman, he's bigger than your sin. Now that's a whole nother sermon. probably a whole sermon series, but our sovereign God can even use sin to move you toward point B. Isn't that amazing? It's incredible. And if you've messed up big time, you may wonder, is God done with me? No, don't go there. Even if you mess up, God can take you to point B. I mean, exhibit A is Moses. God goes, Moses, I'd like to use you, but you murdered a guy many years ago, and I'm done with you. Nope. David, you broke your wedding vows, and you committed adultery. You murdered. Was that the end for David? Nope. Jonah, I wanted you to preach in Nineveh. You went the opposite direction. You said you hated those people. You wanted nothing to do with them. You're forever disqualified, Jonah, right? Nope. Paul, Peter, Rahab, God not only wants you at point B, but He's more intent on getting you there than you are. But let me repeat a caution that I alluded to earlier. This is point five. What looks to you like a tantalizing shortcut may in fact be the longest distance between two points. Pastor Rob read a number of passages right before the message, assuring us of God's intention. There's a reason that many of the verses he read you have memorized because we cling to those verses. They're valuable reminders when we are zigzagging all over the place. Now, I want to go back to Joseph. Joseph was a victim. He was a true victim, wasn't he? And it had to be quite a shock. for Jacob's pampered son to be thrust into Egyptian servitude. Arriving in Egypt, Joseph becomes the property of Potiphar, the head of the pharaoh's security forces. And in Potiphar's house, Joseph worked hard and he served God with integrity and righteousness. And what did he get for it? Prison, prison. Here's Genesis 20, uh, 39. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison in a dungeon, a place where the king's prisoners were confined. What a raw deal. What a raw deal. But, as Crawford Luritz says, God is much more concerned with your character than your comfort. God says, Joseph, I know the plans that I have for you, plans for good and not for evil. His plans are always, always for our ultimate good, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a cakewalk. Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you need to what? Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. So in Jacob's house, Joseph learned obedience in the pit. He learned helplessness in Potiphar's house. He learned faithfulness in prison. He learned perseverance. And just like God knew his people would never make it to Canaan, if he sent them on the shortest route, It would have been impossible for Joseph to go straight from Jacob's house to second in command in Egypt. He couldn't have done it. God was working a plan. Now, I'm sure that many of you can look back and you can testify that your greatest spiritual growth took place in some of the most difficult spots in your life, when you're going through awful stuff. That's the way it works. When you're in the dungeon, you are much more aware of God's presence. Your faith gets refined, which leads me to my final point. Your zigzag course is communicating a message about God to people around you. I love this from Chuck Swindoll. The inescapable platform of pain provides the undeniable proof of faith. One of the verses that Pastor Rob read, which I'm sure most of you have had memorized, is this one from Proverbs 3. Now, the word straight is a good translation. The best translations use the word straight. But it's interesting to me that there are other places in the Hebrew Bible, in the Hebrew Scriptures, where the word is translated right, not straight. And maybe for our purposes, that's even better. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all the zigs and the zags of your life, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths right. Right. Let's bow our heads together. I don't know the path that the Lord has you on. I can only say that I know my own, and it's been anything but straight. But I know it's right because it's from God. The psalmist wrote, as for God, his way is perfect, his way is better. Our Father in heaven, your name is holy. Your ways are perfect. Forgive us for ever doubting your goodness or your intentions in getting us to point B. Grant us the faith and the courage to to follow you wholeheartedly and joyfully, even when we can't even see point B from where we're standing. We submit to you as your children and your humble servants, and we ask that you would make us into divine trophies that display your love, your power, your grace. And we pray these things in the name of Christ Jesus, our Savior and Lord. Amen.