December 31st 2019 New Year Message

Title: THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD
1. Text: Exodus - 13:3, 6-10,15-18 New International Version (NIV)
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year
15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’
16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”
17 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.” 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

2. Text: Deuteronomy 26:8 New International Version (NIV)
So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.

3. Text: Exodus – 13:18 New International Version (NIV)
So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

4. Text: Psalm 23 New International Version (NIV)

MAIN POINTS:
1. BE PREPARED TO EXIT FROM YOUR PRESENT
2. TAKE GUIDANCE AND DIRECTIONS FROM GOD
3. STAY IN CONSTANT CONNECTION WITH YOUR GOD
4. TOTAL FAITH AND TRUST IS NEEDED, AS YOU FACE THE RED SEA
5. REMEMBER THAT YOUR PAST WILL FOLLOW AND PURSUE YOU
6. THE RED SEA WILL BE PARTED
7. GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF ALL YOUR ENEMIES
8. GOD WILL BE YOUR JEHOVAH JIREH, THE I AM THAT I AM
9. HE FEEDS AND LEADS YOU UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
10. YOU WILL REACH YOUR DESTINTY ONLY ON OBEDIENCE AND FAITH

MAIN POINT:
1. BE PREPARED TO EXIT FROM YOUR PRESENT
1. God hears your cries –
Exodus 3:7 New International Version (NIV)
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

2.Your Exodus; Stage one -
Exodus 3:8 New International Version (NIV)
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

3.Leaving the past behind - '
Exodus 3:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

2.TAKE GUIDANCE AND DIRECTIONS FROM GOD
1. He is the greatest GPS
Exodus 13:18 New International Version (NIV)
18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.[a] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

2. Take directions from his appointed leaders
Exodus 3:1-15; (key vs.10) New International Version (NIV)
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

3. STAY IN CONSTANT CONNECTION WITH YOUR GOD
Exodus 13:13-14 New International Version (NIV)
1. He is your director, your road map, your guide

Exodus 13:18 New International Version (NIV)
18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

4. TOTAL FAITH AND TRUST IS NEEDED, AS YOU FACE THE RED SEA
Exodus 14:18-20 New International Version (NIV)

1. Trust in the assuring presence of God.

2. He comes between you and your enemies
Exodus - 14:18-20 New International Version (NIV)
18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

5. REMEMBER THAT YOUR PAST WILL FOLLOW AND PURSUE YOU
Exodus 14:5-10 New International Version (NIV)
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.

1. Pharaoh and his mighty host.
Exodus 14:23 New International Version (NIV)
The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.

2. You are going out harnessed ready for warfare
Exodus 13:18 New International Version (NIV)
18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

6. THE RED SEA WILL BE PARTED
1. Use what you have in your hand
Exodus 4:1-2 New International Version (NIV)
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.

2. Every obstacles will be pushed back
Exodus - 14:16; 21-22 New International Version (NIV)
16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,
22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

7. GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF ALL YOUR ENEMIES
1. He will/must go before you
Exodus 13:21-22 New International Version (NIV)
21 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.
22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

2.You must keep going forward
Exodus 14:15 New International Version (NIV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

8. GOD WILL BE YOUR JEHOVAH JIREH, THE I AM THAT I AM
Exodus 3:13-14 New International Version (NIV)
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

1. He is your main provider.

2. He is all you want Him to be

9. HE FEEDS AND LEADS YOU UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
Exodus 14:14 ‘The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

1. Follow instructions
Exodus - 14:1-4 New International Version (NIV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

2. Stop complaining, God hates it –
Exodus 14:11-12 New International Version (NIV)
11 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?
12 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!”

Exodus 16:2-3 New International Version (NIV)
2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!
There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Exodus 16:8 New International Version (NIV) 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD.”

3. Manna (God’s nourishment) will fall –
Exodus - 16:4 New International Version (NIV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.

4.Your needs will be met
Exodus - 16:11 New International Version (NIV)
The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

10. YOU WILL REACH YOUR DESTINTY ONLY ON OBEDIENCE AND FAITH
Exodus - 14-1-4 New International Version (NIV)
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon.
3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

1. Keep your eyes on your leader
Exodus 14:13-14 New International Version (NIV)
13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

2. Keep your ears open to your leader
Exodus 3:16-18 New International Version (NIV)
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’

3. Victory comes to those who hope the longest
Exodus -14:23-30 New International Version (NIV)
Exodus - 15:1-8 New International Version (NIV)

Exodus 14:23-25
The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots 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.”

Exodus 16:1-2
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.
2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

A happy and prosperous New Year 2020