Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 777 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Do you understand the role of fear, and how...and what a hold the devil has on so many of us through fear? Hebrews chapter 2 talks about how the Lord was sent to deliver those "...who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."(KJV).

Destroy him that had the power of death and deliver us. I tell you what, fear is a terrible thing and God does not call us to simply get saved, quote-unquote, and sit here and live comfortable lives and go to heaven one day. It's not just a ticket to heaven and you live your life and that's all there is to it. There is a spiritual journey upon which God wants every one of us to embark. He means to change us.

His people were in Egypt, but Egypt was in them, too. And they were full of idolatry, and rebellion, and unbelief, and 1,001 bad things that God wanted to get out of them before He could ever bring them into the wonderful land of promise that He had given to them, or that He had promised to them. And so, here they were and the first reaction to the first little bit of trouble that came along was sheer terror. It was fear. My God!

Have you ever experienced that? You set out and all of a sudden instead of getting better, instead of getting stronger, all of a sudden you've got a spiritual attack. And your first reaction is to be afraid. Why? And listen though, to what they said. 'Course they cried out to the Lord, but then they said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?" (NIV).

Of course now it's all Moses' fault. "Didn't we say to you in Egypt, Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" I mean...anybody here ever set out to really serve God and to gain victory in a certain area of your life or something that's part of your spiritual journey and the first time the devil jumps up into your face and says, "Boo," he says, why do I do...why did I try this? This is stupid. I had it all right back there.

Now back there, they were crying out, oh God, get us out of this terrible bondage. Now it sounds better than where they're at. You know we are creatures of habit.

( congregational amens ).

We are creatures who learn to tolerate about any situation we find ourselves in. And one of the biggest things the Lord has to do is to uproot us and get us moving. We don't move very easily. And here they are, the first time they face trouble they say, we had it better back there. They look back and say, you know that wasn't so bad."

( laughter ).

I kind of had a handle on it. I knew what was gonna happen everyday. Yeah, we worked hard but we had a place to lay our head at night, and we had some food. We had...we just had a routine, we were comfortable in our little routine. But you know God is not willing to leave us in the condition in which He finds us. And it means we're gonna have to do some moving, and we're gonna have to go against everything the enemy would throw up in our faces.

But I'll tell you, we've got somebody with us, and that's what God wanted to teach His people on this occasion. I mean, you think about that mentality. I'll guarantee there's not a person here who knows the Lord and has been with the Lord any length of time who hasn't experienced what I'm talking about. I was better off. The preacher got me all stirred up, and I wanted to go forth and just grow in Christ, I wanted to learn more things and go on with God, and the first thing I did...

( clapping hands ).

It got worse. I said, why did I stick my head up and get it chopped off? There I was so...I had it okay, everything was okay. Yeah, I didn't have a whole lot of victory and my life wasn't...I griped and complained and I moaned a lot, but you know basically it was okay.

I tell you it's not okay. God has called His people out of Egypt, and He means to take us where He's going to take us. And we just need to reckon on what the situation is. God is not satisfied to leave you and me in Egypt, or to leave Egypt in us for that matter. He is absolutely...if Jesus...did Jesus win it all?

( congregational response ).

There's the song we just sang...Jesus won it all. He didn't just win a ticket out of Egypt, and a ticket to Heaven someday, He actually won all the victories in between.

( congregational amens ).

Every enemy that we have in this world was paraded in defeat as a result of the cross.

( congregational amens ).

I'll tell you when they succeeded in putting Him to...well they didn't succeed in putting Him to death...He said that nobody takes my life from me, I lay it down.

( congregational amens ).

The devil couldn't even kill Him. He says, I lay my life down, nobody takes it from me. Not only do I lay my life down voluntarily, I've got the power to take it again. And the devil couldn't do one single thing to stop what Jesus did when He came forth from that grave.

Can you imagine what the devil...when he saw what had happened...the terror that gripped him and he realized he had lost forever the battle? Oh praise God, it was just a matter of time before all that victory was going to be completely expressed, all the kingdoms of this world would be done away, and become of the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ and He's gonna reign forever and ever.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! Praise God, He's won it all. But the thing is, part of that victory has to be won in our lives on the field of battle. He involves us in that. And that's something that He wanted to teach His people at that time.

Listen to their voices. Oh, we were better off back there. "Moses answered the people, Do not be afraid." Boy, how many times do you run into that phrase in the Scripture. There's hardly a thing that happens in our lives that does not immediately evoke in us fear, because there's something that challenges the status quo. We've kind of got a handle on things, now we've got to deal with this. Now we've got to deal with that.

It could be a circumstance. It could be something that's part of your inward nature and your inward spiritual life that nobody else knows about it. But whatever it is, I'll tell you, we're gonna have to deal with it and we're gonna have to face it. But the thing is, we absolutely...God wants us to know, don't be afraid. That's your first reaction, and that was the first answer that God gave through Moses. Don't be afraid!

I tell you, I can think of things that I have seen in my own heart and it's caused me to have terrible fear at times...almost like it was too big for God. And I believe in a sense, God allowed me to feel that because He wanted me to know how serious it was. But I'll tell you in the end, there is nothing too big for God.

( congregational amens ).

There is nothing that is impossible to God. Oh, I thank God that He shows us our need of Him. But then I thank God He lifts our eyes and He turns them to Jesus...grace that is greater than all of our sin. You just can't pile your sins so high...and don't try, by the way.

( laughter ).

But I'll tell you, no matter what it is, His grace is so much beyond that, that it's just...there's no comparison. It's not even a question. It's not even an issue. God has just absolutely taken care of it if we'll put our hope and trust in Him.

It says, "...Do not be afraid. Stand firm..." Just plant your feet and say, all right, this is how it is. I'm in this situation, but I am not going to allow my spirit to be deterred from what I have set out to do. Notice what the reaction of the Israelites was. Here we've met with trouble, with difficulty...they immediately turn around and say, let's go back. I tell you there's no such thing as going back.

( congregational amens ).

Those who enter the kingdom of God, they set their face like a flint to serve God, and there is no such thing as going back. Praise God! You think of what Paul said...I think we referred to this recently. He said, "...this one thing I do..." One thing...characterized Paul's life, one thing...forget what's behind, reach forth--reach forth.

There's an absolute effort that's being put forth because God has set things in front of us. They're not back there. They are out there as prizes to be won in battle and we're going to have to press ahead. He says, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God." (KJV). There is stuff out there as surely as there was a land to conquer for the Israelites. It's there, the giants are not going to leave willingly, but they will leave if we will stand and take our stand against them and believe God. Praise God!

Don't be afraid! Stand firm! This was the first time that they had been called upon to do that since they had left Egypt...the very first difficulty. Don't be afraid, stand firm. Don't you give up now. God didn't bring you this far to leave you. Praise God! We sing the song so much, God has...and don't you ever forget that. If God has brought you out, He has never brought you out to leave you!

( congregational amens ).

Boy, the devil will jump in your face and say, well, what a fool you are. You put your trust in God, and here you are, and He's gone off and left you...and He may allow you to feel that way. He doesn't always make Himself known to our emotions, because He wants us to trust what He said. He wants us to trust His Word. Praise God! He hasn't gone anywhere, just 'cause you can't detect Him. Praise God!

Listen to what He says. You will stand firm "...and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." (NIV). Now God has a different battle plan for every situation. There's one time they sent the choir out ahead of the army. Another time they marched around the walls of Jericho. But whatever the plan is, God can make it known what our responsibility is and that's all we have to worry about. All we do is just say, God, by faith I'm gonna do what You said, but my hope is in You.

( congregational amens ).

I'm not trusting the fact that I've got this great new sword I ordered from Sears & Roebuck catalog, which doesn't exist anymore I guess.

( laughter ).

But anyway...I'm not trusting in this armament that I've got. I'm not trusting in how smart I was in school and all these things. I'm trusting in one thing...that's You, You promised and You're gonna bring me through 'this'...whatever 'this' is for you right now.

God has brought you in your spiritual journey to certain things. He wants you to not be afraid, and to stand firm, and see what kind of a salvation the Lord has. You know one brother in South Carolina likes to say, I can't wait to see how the Lord's gonna work this one out. That's a good attitude! Praise God! That's a wonderful, positive attitude, because God loves to surprise us.

( laughter ).

I don't know if it's a sense of humor, a sense of joy, whatever it is but God is...you know we're like, we were created in His image, we've got all these characteristics in us. I believe there's a delight in the heart of God to surprise us, not just to do things for us like He's some kind of robot. But He's a real person who just loves...and we're sitting here looking for the answer and all of a sudden it comes from a place we never thought. He says, see I had it under control, you didn't have to worry. Praise the Lord!

Just remember in all of this story, God engineered this. God deliberately put them in a place that looked impossible. Has God put you in such a place. When you face forward in your spiritual journey, do you see nothing, do you see no way through? I tell you we've got a God who can make a way where there is no way.

( congregational amens ).

He is never without the resources to get us through. If He says go this way, and there's a mountain standing in the way, or a sea in this case, whatever it is, those are not obstacles to God. They seem to be obstacles to our eyes of unbelief, but there's no obstacle to God. All right, so the Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. "Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?" You know people are crying to him, I'm sure he said, oh, God help me here.

( laughter ).

You know he was human. But what did the Lord say? Don't cry out to me, tell 'em to move on! But Lord, there's a sea there. Where are we gonna go? But you know I believe somehow that God gave them faith to say all right collect your stuff, let's get ready to move.

You know I believe that's part of God's message today. There are steps of faith that we need to take when we're able to do it. If God says move, you don't wait for the sea to move, you don't wait for the mountain to move, you move, you get ready, and you take the step. Look what happened when they crossed Jordan finally to go into the land. When did the waters move?

( congregational response ).

When they put their foot in it. You know it's like we've said so many times, our nature would be to say, all right Lord, you move the water and I'll step. But that wasn't what it was! He says, you step and I'll move the water. That's faith. That's saying, God, I don't see the answer to this situation, but I am going to obey You and trust You to take care of the situation.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! And so they got ready, didn't they? "Raise your staff...." Here's Moses with a stick and he's gonna part the waters. Well, I tell you what, there was a God behind that stick. Praise the Lord! "Raise you 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." You know something, there's a shepherd over us, too. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Great Shepherd, and His staff...His rod and His staff, they comfort us, don't they?

( congregational amens ).

He's got the authority from the highest throne in the universe in His hands, and He can stretch it out when it needs to be stretched out. And if it isn't, praise God, we just trust Him anyway and we look to Him. We look to God. God is wanting us to come to a place of simple childlike trust in Him. That's what all these things are about, and the more we learn to trust Him in specific circumstances, the more the old 'you' dies and the more the new 'you' begins to grow and become strong. Praise God! There's not one of us this doesn't apply to in one way or another. Wherever you're at in your spiritual journey this applies...these principles apply. Praise God!

But listen to what God says. He doesn't say, turn around and go back, you've run into some trouble here. He says, move on. I believe every one of us needs to have that attitude. Is your face set like a flint? It said that of Jesus on one occasion, He knew...going to Jerusalem, He knew what was going to happen. He knew he was gonna have to give His life to be tortured to death for you and me. But oh, He didn't consider any of that. He set his face like a flint, and He went and nothing...I mean they even took note of it...His disciples took note, this Guy's got His purpose fixed! There is nothing gonna turn Him aside from what He has set out to do.

And I'll tell you, God will honor you and He will honor me if we will have that kind of a confidence toward Him. Lord, I have committed my life into your hands and I am going to trust you regardless of the way that I go. As long as I know You're leading and providing, I'm okay. It may not look like I'm okay. It, many times, will not feel like I'm okay, but I know that Your purpose is being served and I'm gonna trust you to make a way where there is no way. Praise God!

So in this case, he raised his staff, stretched out his hand over the sea to divide the waters. He told Moses, I'm gonna harden the hearts of the Egyptians. They'll go in after you. "...I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."

It's like I said earlier, you know, people don't see God in wonderful, sunshiny experiences, they see God in trouble. They see God when it's difficult. They see God in concentration camps when a woman stands her ground, and keeps her spirit right, and becomes a light to so many. Praise God! In all the circumstances of life that we know in the contemporary world and in history, where Christians have been called to stand fast in times of difficulty, that's when their light shines.

That's what God is wanting to do in our lives. We talk about...let Jesus be seen me, that's when He is seen. Everybody can complain! Everybody can bellyache! Everybody can spout out all the bitterness and all the...oh, I should have done this, I shouldn't have done that...it's their fault, and all the negative thoughts that come...all the fearful thoughts. But I tell you, by the grace of God we can be different.

The one who called them out of Egypt, led them, went with them. In this circumstance, He even went around and stood between them and the army. The Egyptian army was in darkness for a good period of time. They didn't know what to do. All they could do was sit...they were in darkness! But on the other side of the cloud, there was light.

You know, the Israelites had all the light they needed to make their preparations to get ready to go. Meanwhile the wind came up, didn't it? I'll tell you the Lord brought an east wind and He divided the waters. I ain't gonna try to explain it. You know people got all kind of explanations about how this happened. As far as I'm concerned, God did it. He didn't need means. Whether He used means or not, I don't know, but He did it.

( congregational amens ).

And He says here, there was an east wind and they absolutely...there was a path through the waters, and it said there was a wall of water on both sides. And they walked through. And all of this happened at night, by the way. So I'll tell you, night time is not a barrier to God. If you're in a dark time of your life, that may be the time of the greatest deliverance.

( congregational amens ).

But God will part the waters before you, and you will walk through, and your enemies will be left behind. Don't you fear darkness either. This was night time when all of this happened, and God gave the light they needed it when they needed it.

Verse 19...I've actually run ahead of the story. It said, "Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them..." and so forth. That was that part about how He stood between them. It said, "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, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

"The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night...." So, anybody know when the last watch of the night is...in their scheme of things? I believe it was like between three and six o'clock in the morning. So all this took place at night.

All right, so now the Israelites are coming out the other side, the Egyptians are in the sea. Sometime between three and six o'clock in the morning. It says, "...The Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 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." I'll tell you, I don't care who's against us, when God sets Himself to fight for us, we're okay.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! God can take care of any enemy. Anyone that you think has got it in for you, or some circumstance, we need to lift our eyes a little higher and say, God, You're in control and I'm trusting you. Lord, if there's a need, if I need to go, help show me which way to go and give me the faith and strength to do it, but Lord, help me to keep my face set to go the way You want me to go. There is never a cause to go back! Praise God!

So anyway, "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. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak..."--you see all night this has been happening--"...at daybreak the sea went back to its place." And boy there was a mess then. All the Egyptian army was completely swallowed up. You know I love that story my dad was telling one time.

( laughing ).

I know most of you remember it. Some skeptic was trying to explain all this and they finally come to the conclusion that there was only two inches of water.

( laughter ).

Of course it says dry ground here, so even that's not right. But two inches of water...and so the person who was hearing this skeptic say that...well, praise God...that's a...praise the Lord...that's wonderful, that's amazing! That's even better. God drowned Pharaoh's army in two inches of water.

( laughter ).

Well...you know the skeptic is gonna find a reason not to believe regardless, and a believer is gonna believe because it's the God he's believing in. It's not a lot of issues, it's the Person behind what is being done.

"...When the Israelites...." So they saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. "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." Well, right then things were great, weren't they? But you see the purpose of God. God took an impossible situation, and said, don't be afraid, stand still, you're gonna see God's salvation in this thing, and on the other end of it, you're gonna have a greater appreciation for who I am and you're gonna trust Me more.

Now why would we be afraid of something like that? And of course, we all naturally react that way, don't we? But oh, God wants us to think and wants us to understand. He wants us to recognize that He is God, that He is in control of our spiritual journey, that we are on a journey. He's never gonna let you set up camp and be comfortable in this world. We're always gonna be gaining ground in Him.

But oh, He's gonna go before us and behind us when it's necessary. He's gonna open up a path through every sea that intervenes in your pathway. And we're gonna learn to know our God, and when it comes to the trouble later, "...the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." (KJV). How do you get to know Him? Through these experiences...through seeing Him in action in your life. I'll tell you, isn't God good?

( congregational amens ).

Isn't He wise in all that He does and loving. He knows exactly what we need to be delivered from, and He will put you in the situation you most fear sometimes to show you that you don't have to be afraid...that we can stand up and say, wait a minute. That's the devil that's bringing me all that fear. I'm gonna stand and trust God and face the things that would cause us fear, and God's gonna show us that there's nothing to them, that He's able to give us the victory in every kind of circumstance.

You know God has called us as a people to go a way that we've never gone before. That is the nature of the Kingdom of God. As I say, it's not simply handing you a ticket to Heaven and letting you go on with your life, God is calling us to a spiritual journey. It is a way we have never gone before. But we've got somebody who has promised to go with us, promised to take us to the other side. I appreciate Him this morning, don't you?

( congregational amens ).

May God give us the grace to take a stand in our spirits and to reckon on the faithfulness of God, and to say, God, You haven't called me to give up, to go back, to be afraid, but to put my hope and my trust in You in this circumstance right now. Lord, I'm looking to You to show me what to do and to give me the strength and faith to do it before I see the answer...to just trust in You and to know that You're gonna bring me through and give me the victory. Praise God!

The same God who was with them here, is with us. The same One who was literally with them there in the wilderness later went to the cross for us, and is seated on the right hand of the throne of God. But He's with us too. Praise God!

I'll tell you, I'm just filled with confidence and courage in the Lord, and I know that there are circumstances in my life, just as there are in yours, that will naturally cause me to say, oh, I don't want to go that way...oh, God, don't make me do this...oh, God, I'm afraid of this and I'm afraid of that. God's gonna say, it's okay, don't be afraid, take your stand, trust in Me, I'll give you the victory. Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

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