ne of the hardest things to do when facing an impossible situation is one of the best things to do: stand firm. God sometimes calls us to do nothing but "stand," and then we will see His deliverance. Even when others around us start to grumble, we can be strong, telling others "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord." (Message: Eric Elder; Music: "I Stand In Awe" written by Mark Altrogge and led by Eric Elder; Running time: 23:43)

Lesson 13 - Stand Firm

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Hi, this is Eric Elder and welcome to The Ranch.

Sometimes you may feel like your back is up against the wall and you don't have anywhere to turn. You can't go to the right or the left, you're not sure which way to go, and you really feel like God has called you to do some certain thing. You feel like He's told you to do these things, and all of a sudden you're up against this wall, and you just don't know where to move next. Well, God has a special word for you in that situation, and for me, and for those of us in the room here.

He wants us to do one thing, and that is to stand firm. Stand firm. Tonight we're going to take a look at what that means to stand firm, and when God calls us to do that, how we can do that with confidence and not buckle under the pressure of what other people say or what we feel maybe is going to happen, but really just to stand firm in what God's called us to do.

Let's prepare our hearts for the word that we're going to receive tonight. Why don't you join us in singing? We're going to sing just a song to God just about how we stand in awe of Him.

(Worship song)

ERIC: Father, I just pray that you would be with us tonight, that you would be in our time; Lord, that you would speak to our hearts and that you would give us the strength and the confidence and the courage to stand firm in the things that you've called us to do. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We're taking a look tonight at Exodus Chapter 14, if you want to turn there with us. We're going to read it here in the room and you can follow along. We're looking at Exodus 14, Verses 1 through 14. And this follows last week when we were looking at the Israelites who were coming out of Egypt, and they're coming with all the plunder in their hands and they're marching out boldly, and they turn around to look behind them and somebody's coming. And this ties right into our study on freedom and staying free, because getting free is just part of the battle, but staying free, that's also a big part.

And here the Israelites were actually free, they're free people and they're walking away, and all of a sudden their captors come right after them again. And that may happen to you; I know it's happened to me. And this lesson even today applies very much to my life, to know what God wants me to do, and what He wants each of us to do when we start feeling those bonds and chains coming back around us. And the answer is here in this chapter.

So if you'll take a look here at Exodus 14 starting with Verse 1 through 14. If someone wants to read that, that'd be great.

DEE: 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. 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 [a] and troops-pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon

ERIC: Okay, keep going.

BUD: 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 . 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!"

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."

ERIC: Thanks, guys. Here we have in this passage the way that Moses is leaving and here all the Israelites are marching out boldly. They've got all this stuff of Egypt in their hands, they're free, they've been set free, and they're walking out, they're heading out. And Pharaoh, all of a sudden he has this idea strike him. "Wait, if they leave, I'm losing all my labor, I'm losing all my workers." He says, "What have I done?" So he calls all his men, gets them all on chariots, takes his best officers, puts them all out there and he starts chasing after Moses and the Israelites.

Now, Moses and the Israelites, they were heading out. This is 600,000 men or so, not counting all the women and children. And they're marching out there and they're headed in a direction which is straight toward the sea, the great sea. And it's going to back them up against the wall here, this Red Sea. And they get right up next to it and they can't go that way, and the chariots are coming this way, and there's not much option to go right or left, and they're wondering what they're going to do. And what do you think this does to the people? What do they do? Which actually is a follow-up from our last lesson, isn't it? What happens? What do the people do?

DEE: When they see the chariot, they immediately call to turn back, go back to where they came from.

ERIC: They immediately say, "We can't handle it." Which is what, exactly what we learned last week. God said "If they face battle they're not going to be ready for it and that's why I'm not taking them straight into the Promised Land." Because they're going to hightail it out of there and they're going to retreat and say "Oh, I wish I was where, back in Egypt, making bricks, chains, captivity, slavery."

God knows our hearts, doesn't He?  And He doesn't want us to go back there. So Moses, instead of listening to their grumbling, instead of giving into them and saying "Okay, all right, they got us, we'll just go back." Moses says what in Verse 13, what are the first words out of his mouth?

SCOTT: Do not be afraid.

ERIC: Do not be afraid. And the next two words?

DEE: Stand firm.

ERIC: Stand firm. "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."

As a leader and as a Christian, which we're all leaders, we're all ministers to other people, we are sometimes tempted to give into people's grumbling. But if God has called us to do something, and if God has said, "This is what I want you to do," and of course, Moses has just seen this huge miraculous thing that God has done by delivering all these 600,000 people out of Egypt, so he's got that close connection with God to know better, Moses says, "Don't be afraid, stand firm."

And that's what God calls us to do sometimes. Maybe we're ministering or we're talking to people at work or we're dealing with things in our own life, someone's going through a rough situation with their marriage or with their work or with their health, if God has spoken something clearly, what should our response be? If God has spoken to us clearly about this, "Don't be afraid. Stand firm. And you will see the deliverance of the Lord."

There are times, of course, when we're not sure that we've heard clearly from God, and we're not sure what to do. But there are other times when we know, we know, we know that this is what God has called us to do. And we need to just stand firm. It's very tempting to give into that captivity again.

We have some guys here in the group that have given up some things in the last few weeks and that's a hard thing to do. Sometimes those temptations may come right back on you and as soon as you feel like, "Okay, I'm free, I'm getting out of here, I'm free," and then they come back on you and you go, "Okay, all right, I'm going back into it because I'd rather go into it even though it's captivity." But God says, "No, don't be afraid, stand firm."

I know when we were living in Dallas we had some situations that were very difficult for us and we weren't sure what we were supposed to do. And we just came to the Lord and kept asking Him, God, what do you want us to do, what do you want us to do. And all I kept hearing from God was, "Stand firm." Stand firm. It was very difficult. We were trying to move. We were trying to sell our house. We were trying to do whatever we could to survive, really, and move on to the next phase of our life. And God said, "I will be there for you, I will take care of you, I will provide the next step." And I really felt like my back was up against the wall. I felt like there was a sea behind me and the chariots were coming in front of me and there was no way I could go. There was nothing I could do. You turn around this way and there's nothing, absolutely nothing I could do to go that direction. There was no way to get that way and there was no way back. Although it's tempting to try to go back, but back would have been captivity. And God continued to say, "Stand firm, and you will see my deliverance."

I was actually -- one morning in Dallas -- I was praying and I was really asking God, "You know, just to help me in worship, have a nice worship time." I was sitting there in front of my piano and the piano is made by Steinway so it says STEINWAY AND SONS on it. And as I was playing I was just sort of making up a song, just sort of thinking about a song. And as I was doing it, this ray of light came in through the window and just lit up the word WAY, W-A-Y. And so as I was playing around there on the piano, I just started singing about Jesus and how He is the "way" and the truth and the life. And I just thought about how Jesus is the way and I will follow Him no matter what, no matter what, I will follow Him, I will follow Him. And it was just a sweet time with the Lord; it was really precious just to sit there and just to start singing and playing and really the song just kept coming to me. I just kept saying, "You are the way, Lord, You are the way, You are the way, and I will follow You, I will follow You, I will follow You."

I had lunch with my boss at noon. He says, "Eric, we don't have any funds left, we're going to have to let you go." I was utterly shocked. Didn't see it coming, didn't have any idea, no clue that this is what was ahead of me. I thought, "God, what am I going to do?" And that song came back to me, Jesus is the way. And I kept singing, "I will follow, I will follow, I will follow, I will follow You, You are the way and I will follow You." The rest of the day I kept singing that song and I kept trying to stand firm and just say, "God, I don't know what our next step is going to be. But I know that I can't go back, and I have got to continue on and keep going forward."

And next week we'll take a look at some of the things God tells Moses to do and some of the things God told me to do as well and what that meant to follow Him and how to take that next step when you don't see another way. But what God was telling me that day and what He's telling us today is to stand firm. When you know that God is in it, and you see the captors coming again, just stand firm, stand firm, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord. And that's what happened to the Israelites, and that's what can happen for us as well. Don't be afraid, but stand firm.

Does this relate to anything going in your lives that you would care to share, anything strike you?

DEE: Okay, I'll share. Everybody in the room is already aware but for 20 years I have used tobacco. And two weeks ago I finally gave it up for the last time and -- two weeks ago today. And that first couple days I was up against the wall, but now I'm not, I'm not anymore. I mean, every now and then I get the urge, but now it's fine. I know that doesn't sound right, you know, but it is, you know. You get that twinge that, "I want it," and I don't need it. I don't need it.

ERIC: Wow.

DEE: And I just hope that stays.

ERIC: Praise God. I do, too. And God has called you to that; He really has. It's good for you; it's freedom, true freedom.

DEE: And my daughter has stopped nagging me.

ERIC: True freedom, that's what we're shooting for. That's great.

One other little piece that I'd like to address is the response of other people sometimes when we take a firm stand. Because sometimes people will come to us and they'll say, "This was a bad idea, what you've led us into was really bad and really wrong," when you really feel and you really truly believe in your heart that this is the right thing to do. And we get plagued sometimes with doubt about our own strategy and our own what we feel that God is telling us to do.

And I think the lesson for me in that is not to be surprised when people come and change their mind. When people face the battle and think that they can't go on, that one, we can expect that and know that that's going to happen as we step out in freedom, we can be more encouraging to others around us and we can speak words of truth, not only to ourselves but to them as well.

And you may be listening to this and maybe there's someone around you who really needs that word of encouragement as well. I encourage you to go ahead and speak it out, let them know, "Do not be afraid, God is with us, He is with us." Again, it's always good to go back to the Lord, check with Him, make sure that you aren't taking a wrong turn somewhere. But if you haven't and you still feel that God is with you, then encourage someone around you with that word too, and say don't be afraid, stand firm.

When we as Christians can maintain that posture of peace, of assurance, of confidence that God is in this, it can do a world of good for the people that we're talking to, whether they're Christian or non-Christian. When we can simply and clearly say, "Don't be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord." God can work in marriages; God can work in health; God can work in finances; God can work in your ministry; God can work in your life, in your relations and your job. Stand firm in the things God has called you to do, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord.

Next time we'll take a look at what God calls Moses to do next and what He calls us to do next too. Because standing still is part of the instructions but then there comes the next step when God says, "Go forth," and we have to use the combination and know when to use which one. But there is definitely wisdom and a lot of good lessons to be learned from the characters of the Bible who stood firm even though the opposition was against them.

Let's say a prayer.

Father, I pray for each person watching this and in this room, people who may be watching this even years later, Lord, that they feel up against a wall, that you would help them to stand firm. Lord, I pray they would also be able to speak that to others who may be getting fearful, who may be having doubts, who may be questioning You, Lord, that they would not give off a sense of mistrust in You or distrust in You or not a false sense of confidence, Lord, but a true sense of trust and confidence in You.

Lord, we do put our full faith and trust in You today. We do know that You are for us, incredibly for us. Lord, we do know that You love us and that You will be with us. Lord, if we have taken a wrong turn somewhere, let us know and help us get back to the path. But God, to the best of our knowledge and abilities we are on the path that we feel that you've called us to be on, help us, Lord, to stand firm so that we can see. Thank You, Lord, for this time. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

We're going to take a little time here in the room just to talk and pray amongst ourselves. If you'd like to talk and pray with us, feel free to join us on the chat room or the discussion board at The Ranch. And I do hope you'll join us for the next lesson so that we can see the next step in what God may want you and me to do.

Thanks again for coming; hope you'll join us again here at The Ranch.