VICTORY: COURAGE

We continue our sermon series Victory.  We are celebrating the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ over death, the grave, and hell itself! As believers, this sounds wonderful, but it is not always easy. We are confronted with numerous obstacles to living into the new life of resurrection and the possibilities that it brings into our lives.  If we are going to claim this victory more fully in our lives, it will require courage. Courage is not being completely unafraid. This is easy. However, being courageous is confronting our fear with the power of our faith. A great example of this is Exodus 14:10-20. God’s people have been set free from Egypt, but now they have come to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians are in hot pursuit.  This is a powerful lesson of God’s victory and having courage in the face of terror.  In the sermon Courage, we begin to see the elements that help us to overcome fear with faith, confront tribulation with tenacity, and conquer helplessness with hope! We pray that as you read these words, you will experience the rising tide of God’s deliverance and power parting the darkness of your soul to bring you into the glorious light of eternal hope!

Exodus 14:10-20: 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.” ¹⁵ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 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. ¹⁷ I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 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.