Good morning to each one of you. Its good to be sharing with you once again in worship. I pray God's blessing upon you. This morning we will be looking at just one verse of scripture taken from the book of Isaiah: For you shall not go out in haste and you shall not go in flight for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. God is with us in all our situations. We have Trust In Him.
Let us begin our time together by singing: I know Not Why God's Wonderous Grace
Isaiah chapter 52, verse 12:
For you shall not go out in haste and you shall not go in flight for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
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Let us join together as we sing with our hearts in tune with God's; In moments like these
Time Of prayer
O God, my Strength, I put my trust in You. You have never forsaken those who seek You. You have never let me down. I know that You never will let me down because my life so far has been a testimony of Your greatness. Mould me into Your image, and hold me close to You. Show me how to mature as a Christian and improve on my walk of faith. Steady my trust in You so that it never wavers, no matter what battles I face on this earth. I declare that my faithfulness to You will be strong at all times. Amen.
Let us share together in the lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Let us sing; A wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord
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Just before we go to the word, please sit back and enjoy the Staff Songsters as they bring to us; With All My Hart
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Trust In God
Anyone who believes in God has heard the theory about trusting in God. The theory is easy. It’s the practice that takes some learning. So how can we learn to trust Him – not in theory, in practice?
Many times, I’m confronted with situations that really test my faith. You see, I don’t want you to think just because I happen to be the Pastor, Minister, Officer, whatever you’re comfortable with, that I, somehow get an exemption stamp on my passport from the turbulence of the journey that we are all on. In fact, probably the opposite is the case because I’m there sharing the fantastic news of Jesus with people all over the place. And at times, I reckon the devil’s got me in his sights. Sometimes, I think I’ve got a target painted on my back, as far as he’s concerned.
So let’s take a look at what Isaiah has to say into situations just like these.
As you know, Israel, has now been in slavery in Babylon for seventy years, since about 586 587 BC. And God comes to them through His Prophet Isaiah and He brings them some good news, the news that He’s about to set them free, that they were about to return to the Promised Land. Hallelujah, you would think. But just like you and me when everything is bleak, they struggled to digest the good news. As I know I would.
You know what it’s like when all your circumstances are screaming doom and gloom at you? It’s very hard to believe that something good is about to happen. Even if you believe in God, even if you’ve put your trust in Jesus, even if you’ve heard a million sermons on trusting God, when your Goliath comes stomping into your life with weapons of mass destruction pointed right at you, believing that God is there to protect you, that God has a good plan for your life is not an easy thing to do.
It wasn’t easy for Israel way back then and it’s not easy for you and me today. So, here’s what God says to His people through the Prophet Isaiah.
Have a listen, Isaiah chapter 52, verse 12:
For you shall not go out in haste and you shall not go in flight for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
You see they were going to leave Babylon and their slavery behind, but they were thinking, how is all this going to happen? Babylon is the world’s global power of the day, the superpower, the most fearsome and powerful army on the planet. Are we going to have to run for our lives? Are some of us going to be killed? How is it going to happen? It’s all well and good for Isaiah to be carrying on about this good news from God, but what if he’s wrong, what if God doesn’t show up?
Have you ever had those thoughts? Have they crossed your mind when you have been between a rock and a hard place? You have read God’s word and heard the good news and you thought, but how’s all that going to work? Well, that’s what Israel was going through and so God points back to a time when He’s done exactly that same thing for them before. He’s pointing back to a time in their history that every man, woman and child knows from top to bottom, inside out, back to front because it’s been handed down from generation to generation for centuries.
He’s pointing back to the Exodus of course, their escape from Egypt. Remember they fled and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and so the greatest army of that time, Egypt, came after them. In front of them was the Red Sea – a totally uncrossable body of water for a million men, women and children – and behind them coming up fast was the mightiest army on the planet. Here it is, Exodus chapter 13, verses 21 and 22. This is the story the Israelites were remembering when Isaiah was speaking to them.
The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them along the way and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night ever left its place at the front of the people.
So, God went ahead of them but what about the rear as the Egyptians closed in?
Exodus chapter 14, verses 19 to 21:
The angel of the Lord who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel and so the cloud was there with the darkness and it lit up the night and one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all the night and it turned the sea into dry land and the waters were divided.
There it is, God went ahead of them and when they had trouble behind God moved and went behind them, between them and the Egyptian army, He led them and opened the way and He protected them from attack from the rear. So when God promises all these centuries later to do exactly the same, what’s He doing? Is He asking the Israelites to rely on blind faith? Is He asking them to conjure up a courage that they don’t have? No. He’s asking them to look back at what He’s already done.
That’s the amazing thing with God; He never takes us to a point where we can’t take it. With each challenge God shines through. So next time when a challenge is bigger and scarier than the last time He says to us, ‘look back on what I’ve already done in your life’. I think we forget that. We forget He’s already proven Himself faithful and true. If I look back, I can see He’s always come through, He’s always been there, He’s always somehow made a way and made it happen and there is the bedrock of our faith. God goes ahead of us.
There have been so many times when I thought that my ministry would go under because the obstacles were too high for me to climb, but God went ahead of me and made the rough path straight. He trained me to trust Him over and over again by putting me deliberately between a rock and a hard place and showing me that He would show up and make things happen.
You know what, after a while even someone who is as spiritually thick as me starts to get it. We don’t have to listen to the theory because God has a plan to show us in practice over and over again and when He does, He proves Himself true. He teaches us in our experience that this verse is absolutely true.
For you shall not go out in haste and you shall not go in flight for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. God is teaching us to stop sweating it, He’s teaching us that at each and every transition and trial and temptation that He is faithful and true. What an awesome, awesome God we serve. Amen
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Let us rededicate our lives to Jesus. A life dedicated to serving and saving the lost.
Please sit enjoy and say with the Staff Songsters:
Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee;
take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
at the impulse of thy love;
take my feet, and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
always, only, for my King;
take my lips, and let them be
filled with messages from thee.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
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