Main Idea: God protects his children with guidance that others cannot understand.

This morning we are going to talk about God’s guidance. Last week we talked about the things we can do to get a quick start on our year by having direction for our life. We said that if we are going to use our lives effectively, we need direction. The question is, though, where is that direction coming from? How do you know if the direction you have set out for the year is really the direction you need to go? The only way is to trust that God will guide you. How does God guide us? That’s what we are going to explore this morning.

As Christians we believe that God guides or directs our life and the events of our life. We believe that God is out there and in here moving our life toward a specific direction and purpose. We expect that God will guide us personally, that he has a personal concern for your life and mine and will express that individually. We believe as a church that God guides our church, that because he is guiding your life he in turn will guide our church as well.

The verses read to you earlier describe God’s guidance of the Hebrew people after they had left Egypt. You will recall that the Hebrews suffered as slaves of Egypt for over 400 years until God sent Moses to Egypt to command Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let them go. After a series of plagues that climaxed in the death of the first-born children of the Egyptians, Pharaoh finally relented and commanded them to leave. They left immediately, hundreds of thousands of them. The problem was: Where were they going? How would they get there? Who would lead them?

Have you ever felt that way as a Christian? Finally free but not really knowing where you are going, how you are going to get there and who will lead you where you need to go? In the Bourne Identity, Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne—a CIA agent who has suffered amnesia and is trying to figure out just who exactly he is. The fundamentals of his journey are not too different than our own.

In the mountains of Switzerland, Jason has hitched a ride to Germany with a young woman named Marie. He's running from the police—but he's not even sure why. He tries to keep quiet about his situation until the frustration overwhelms him. Finally, in response to her asking a simple question, he turns to her and says desperately, "I don't know who I am or where I am going."

At a truck stop along the snowy highway, Bourne starts to recount what little he knows about himself to her, reaching for clues to who he is. Bourne asks, "Who has a safety deposit box full of…money and six passports and a gun? I come in here, and the first thing I'm doing is I'm looking for an exit." "I see the exit sign, too, but I'm not worried," says Marie.

Bourne replies with increased desperation. "I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?"

You may have begun this year with the same sense of confusion and frustration. The truth is God doesn’t want us to stay that way. He wants to guide us out of the fog to a place where we know where we are going and who is leading us. No, we don’t have the phenomenal signs like the pillar of cloud and fire. We have the Bible and God’s Holy Spirit to guide us. We can learn something from those who had fantastic signs in the past how God can guide us today! What I want us to see from this story is that God protects his children with guidance that others can’t understand.

As you look at the story you discover that as God guides us he protects us from problems we don’t even realize are there. (Ex. 13:17-18) Exodus 13:17 requires us to understand a bit of geography about Egypt and Canaan (Israel). Egypt is in the northeast corner of Africa along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The location of the Hebrew’s deliverance was in the northeastern corner of the nation of Egypt. Moses knew that God wanted them to go to Canaan or modern-day Israel. The shortest distance was to travel along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which would have been about a three-day trip. There was only one problem: that road was well fortified by a series of forts occupied by the Philistines, who would not be excited to have a million new neighbors coming through their land! God knew also that the Hebrew people were not ready to fight and if they encountered opposition too soon they would become afraid and head back to Egypt. So in order to protect them from something they weren’t ready to face, God led them south toward the Red Sea. It was not the shortest route but it was the safest route for them.

What the Hebrew people didn’t know was what enemies were out in front of them. Neither did they know that God’s guidance was leading them toward a showdown with Pharaoh. God knew about problems they didn’t even know were there and he knew about a plan that they couldn’t even dream was possible. If he would have told them, "You can’t go that way because there is an army waiting to kill you and I’m leading you to the edge of a sea that you can’t swim across!" what would they have done? Gone straight back to Egypt! Better to be a live slave than a dead follower of Moses! Yet God’s guidance was so effective that they didn’t leave like horde of panic-driven people fleeing for their lives. No, they left in such order that they looked like a marching army determined in their direction and purpose.

Sometimes God leads us the long way. It may seem to us that the long way is the wrong way. Haven’t you ever wondered if God wants to do something in your life, why doesn’t he just do it? Why, if God wants to cure my illness, do I have to take medicine? Why, if he wants me to get married, do I have to get involved in dead-end relationships? Why, if God wants me to be successful in a job, do I have to endure so much stress? It’s all the long way. It may seem the wrong way but God is the one leading.

Why does he lead the long way? The reason is because it is the safer way. Just like the Hebrews were not ready to fight the Philistines, God knows what we are not ready to face. It may seem like we are on a detour that is going to be nothing but a dead end. Yet God is guiding our lives so carefully because he knows what we can handle and what we can’t. Jesus took a lot of detours before he went to the cross. When he turned thirty he could have gone to Jerusalem, started telling people he was God and, believe me, someone would have been glad to have killed him. But it was not his time that was important—it was God’s. If you seem to be going the long way, believe that God is protecting you from problems that you are not ready to face.

God also guides us by reminding us of faithfulness we cannot forget. (Ex. 13:19) Exodus 13:19 seems really strange to us. With all the things that Moses and the people would need for their journey why would he bother to go dig up the bones of one of his ancestors? Especially one who had been dead for 400 years! In fact Acts 7:16 indicates that each one of the bones of the twelve Hebrew patriarchs were carried out of Egypt to be placed in the Promised Land. Why? Why would they bother to carry the bones of the dead into a land of new life? They did it because the bones were a reminder of those who had been faithful in the past and they could not be forgotten.

To understand this you have to go back to Genesis 50:25. Joseph was the favorite son of his father Jacob. Joseph, you remember, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. His home was Canaan or the Promised Land. Everyone in Joseph’s family assumed Joseph was dead. When a famine came in Canaan, all of Joseph’s family would end up in Egypt looking for food. Joseph, his father, his eleven brothers and their families are all reunited. Joseph, however, has become the second most powerful person in Egypt. After Jacob dies Joseph and his brothers live for a long time in Egypt. In fact Joseph lived for a total of 110 years. At his death he told his family " Soon I will die," Joseph told his brothers, "but God will surely come for you, to lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he vowed to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, "When God comes to lead us back to Canaan, you must take my body back with you." Joseph knew he was in a place that he didn’t belong. He was faithful to God and believed that sometime in the future God would take the people out and he wanted his bones to go with them! Moses did what Joseph asked because he knew that they wouldn’t be where they were or where they were going without the faithfulness of the past.

On Sunday, December 18, while Carrie Williams and her family were at church and her husband John was working out of town, their house burned. So much was lost and only those who have endured such a tragedy can understand the scope of what was lost. One thing that was burned was their son Chance’s backpack, which had his nametag from school inside. Chance was not supposed to have brought his nametag home but being a third grader and it being the last day of school before Christmas—you can’t remember everything! Someone from the school assured Carrie and Chance that he would have a new backpack. Chance, however, was concerned about replacing his burned and damaged nametag.

Before school started Monday Chance remembered that he had been given $5 as a Christmas gift, which was in his room at his house. He went back into his burned room, found the blackened $5 bill and his melted nametag and was prepared to pay for a replacement. Of course the school wouldn’t let him pay for his nametag and had a new backpack for him. When he got into the car at the end of the day, he excitedly told his mom about the backpack and the nametag and said, "We sure are blessed, aren’t we, Mom?" In the loss of so much, this little guy remembered that God was faithful and that wasn’t about to change. What is significant is that in the years to come when Chance is worried about far more than a singed nametag he will remember that God was faithful!

God has been faithful to you! There are places in your lives that are like the bones of Joseph crying out for you to remember God’s faithfulness. It may seem like today while you are on the long way that you are forgotten. Yet you have significant memories of God’s guidance from the past that assure you of his guidance in the future. Do you need to go back to a place in your mind where God has answered your prayers and those answers are like the bones of Joseph saying to you, "Remember I have been faithful and I will be faithful!" As God guides us he does so with a faithfulness we cannot forget.

When it comes to God’s guidance, he protects us from problems we don’t realize are even there and reminds us of faithfulness that we can’t afford to forget. There’s another way he guides us and that is with a guidance we cannot always explain. (Exodus 13:20-22) Verses 20-22 require us to have another geography lesson. As we said, rather than God leading them northeast, they are now headed southeast. They arrive at a place called Succoth and set up camp. Then they leave there and head further south to a place called Etham. The Bible says that Etham was at "the edge of the wilderness." In other words, they were about to leave the inhabited country for a pathless dessert. They could get to Etham without any problems; all they needed to do was follow the road. Going beyond Etham was a different matter because there were no roads and none of them except Moses and Aaron had ever been out there. How would they know where to go? They would know where to go by God providing the pillar of cloud.

The pillar of cloud and fire was a mysterious way for God to direct his people. The cloud was dark on one side and bright on the other. (Ex. 14:20). Any enemy, especially the Egyptians, would see only darkness, yet God’s people only saw the light. God’s people can always detect his guidance. What may seem to someone without faith as only darkness and confusion God’s people see his direction and purpose. What God provides us is his supernatural guidance. It is for you and me. Others may think that we are walking in foolish directions but we know that God is leading us.

The cloud obviously was in front of them normally because they could always see it. Yet there were other times that the cloud went behind them. (Ex. 14:19) What this says to us is that at times God moves us toward our future and at other times stands between us and our past. One thing that is true about God is that he is always moving us forward because forward in the present is where he is at work. He has worked in our past and he is aware of our failures in the past but his guidance is for the present. What failures you have had and mistakes you have made are not to be hindrances to the brilliant future to which God is leading you.

Today, though, we do not have such supernatural signs to guide us. If we see smoke in the distance, it means something is on fire! So we know that we can’t look for clouds and fire to guide us. Yet it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t guide us. God uses his Word to direct our steps. He uses his Spirit to teach us what we need to know. He uses other people to be his voice of direction. He will use prayer to guide our life. He uses circumstances that we may think are totally unrelated that suddenly become his voice to us. He will use his church to be a place of direction and purpose for our lives. Maybe we can’t always explain it to others but we know that when we stare out at the pathless wilderness that there is One who is guiding our lives!

Having this assurance helps us see the big picture that others can’t see. The HBO miniseries Band of Brothers follows a company of U.S. paratroopers through the preparation and experience of invading Europe on D-Day. Based on real-life interviews of survivors, the series captures both the intensity of war and the heroism of the troops.

In one scene, immediately after the paratroopers hit the ground in France, Lieutenant Winters (Damian Lewis) and Private Hall wander through the countryside before meeting up with the rest of the Americans. The private radiates fear and insecurity because he lacks the exact knowledge of where he is. The lieutenant, however, speaks with a calm confidence coming from his careful study of the maps and from the maturity of his training. He sees the big picture, and following his leadership they soon find their other comrades and make it to the rendezvous point with the rest of the Americans. This is the conversation of Lieutenant Winters and Private Hall as they walk through a dark, sparse forest with the echo of gunfire in the distance:

The private asks, "Do you have any idea where we are, sir?" "Some," Lieutenant Winters replies. "I need your help to locate some landmarks to get our bearings. Keep your eyes peeled for buildings, farmhouses, bridges, and roads." "I wonder if the rest of them are as lost as we are." "We’re not lost, Private. We’re in Normandy." When God guides our lives no one else may seem to understand our location but we know exactly where we are-in the center of his will!

In Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz he tells the story of a Navy SEAL performing a covert operation, freeing hostages from a building in some dark part of the world. The team flies in by helicopter, made their way to the compound and stormed into the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months. The room was filthy and dark. The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified. When the SEALs entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages. They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans. The SEALs asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn’t. They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear. They were not of healthy mind and didn’t believe their rescuers were really Americans.

The SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn’t possibly carry everybody out. One of the SEALs got an idea. He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs. He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He was trying to show them he was one of them. None of the prison guards would have done this. He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes. The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them. Will you follow us? He said. The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go. The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier. (p.33-34)

Jesus said, " My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27) Where are you going this year? Who is going to lead you? The answer is God, the God who guides us. He guides us away from problems we don’t know are there, with faithfulness we can’t forget, and in ways no one else seems to get and we can’t explain. You and I don’t need a cloud for the day or a fire for night. We have Jesus, who has become like us to guide us in our life. Listen for his voice and follow him!

Sunday, January 8, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org