As we finish our four-part summer series looking at God's part and our part, what role does God play in our day-to-day lives, and what role do we play in our day-to-day lives? We're going to ask the question, can we be still and get moving? We see this in Exodus 14. I think you're going to really enjoy this. But can we be still and yet get moving? It sounds like an oxymoron. But I think you'll see that the answer is yes. That is what we're going to look at today. I think you're going to find this really interesting and helpful. I'm Sam Hunter. This is 721 Live, the video arm of 721 Ministries. You can find out all about us at 721ministries.org, 721ministries.org. I'm glad you joined us today. Thank you for being with us. Before we get started, if you'll hit that subscribe button, you'll get these videos as soon as they come out, as soon as we get them produced. Now, this summer, we have been looking at God's part and our part, or we could say the Holy Spirit's part and our part, and how do we find a balance between those who say, it's all about grace, and I really do not need to put forth any effort, and those who most of us at least started at the point of, I gotta do all of it. I gotta put forth all the effort. If it's to be, it's up to me. If I want it to happen, I gotta make it happen. Where is the balance and I I think we've answered that in these first three videos But today we'll put the icing on the cake. I have a graphic that we used last in our last lesson I want you to take a look at this because I think it helps us You see on this end. We've got Those who say it's all about grace. There's no real effort on our part. There's no real action We should take we should live in a sea of grace and you know, that is a nice place to be for a season Now, on the far end of the spectrum, we've got those, and most of us were raised this way, and certainly men were raised this way, that I have to do it. If I don't, it won't. If this to be, it's up to me. I've got to make everything happen. I've got to press. I've got to control. If this is going to happen, I'm not going to sit in a closet and pray and expect God to take care of it. I'm going to do it myself. Now, along this spectrum, there are those who would say, well, I know that I have a part to play, and so I'm going to be in control of my business, maybe even my family, the day-to-day details of life, but I'll let God, I'll let Jesus, I'll even ask the Holy Spirit to come into the spiritual side of my life. but i don't think either any of those are the answer i think the answer we find here in the middle the balance is as eugene peterson would say from his is the message translation the unforced rhythms of grace the unforced rhythms of grace you see there is a rhythm which means there is movement But it's unforced. It's not forced. It's not controlled. It's not white-knuckled It's not I got to make it happen the unforced rhythms of grace and then dallas willard says living with the power of the holy spirit Looks like within our actions beyond our powers within our actions. See there is action. There is a rhythm. There is movement We we are responsible for taking action But when we learn the balance of the Holy Spirit moving inside of us as we get ready to take the next step, then we begin to see that the Holy Spirit will do things that we've done in our own actions but beyond our own power. So I just want you to look at this for a minute and think about where you are on this graph that we've got. Have you found the balance of, yes, I'm doing my part, I'm working hard, I'm getting after it, I'm doing all I can, I really am digging in on all levels of my life, and yet I'm not forcing it, I found a rhythm, and I'm watching the Holy Spirit move with me. We're working together, and now things are happening beyond my own powers. See, that's where you wanna live. That's where you wanna live, and that's not just for super Christians. That's for all of us. That's for everyone who has the Holy Spirit indwelling them, who has surrendered their life to Jesus, who has been born again, to live with this power to where when we bring the Holy Spirit into all of our details of our lives, Then we'll see him do things that we realized we could have never done that We had these weekly meetings men's meetings around the state and the one in Greenville my hometown has 50 to 55 men and they pile in we don't serve lunch and it is you just feel the Holy Spirit moving and my friend Irv Philpot and I usually have lunch afterwards and we'll always look at each other and say there's no way we made that happen and Yeah, Sam prepared. I brought an outline. I was ready. I brought my a-game best I could But we watch we watch the Holy Spirit do things We could never have accomplished and we've seen this over and over with 721 ministries over these last 20 years I hope that you have seen it also Within our actions we take action we have an unforced rhythm but then beyond anything we could have done and Oswald Chambers in his devotional, My Outmost for His Highest, August 5th, my favorite quotation by him. I want to just put it up on the screen. A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. Let's get that now. I trust in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in my own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, in Matthew 16, Jesus says, if you try to save your life, you'll lose it. If you're willing to lose it for me, you'll find it. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace. Notice there is a pace which should be characteristic of the children of God. Now, I wanna ask you, is this observation correct? Should we, as a child of God, have a calm, relaxed pace. A pace, the unforced rhythms of grace, should we have that? And I think we want that answer to be yes. And the answer is yes, but it's not easy to get there. It is a process. And I've made great progress in that process over the last 10 to 15 years, but it takes putting it into practice. It takes actually applying this into the details. When I have a business meeting, when I have a conflict, when I have something I'm not sure how to resolve, I'm training myself. I'm learning to put into practice what Jesus said, to wait, to seek the Holy Spirit, to ask for his guidance, Ask him to give me green lights or red lights or yellow lights to show me to give me that energy that clarity that creativity That's the way we like to think of Holy Spirit power energy There's an energy that you start to live with this an unforced rhythms. It's a calm relaxed pace energy clarity we see things so much more clearly and then creativity and I'm not a particularly creative person, but when I seek the Holy Spirit, there seems to be some creative aspects that come out that I didn't even know were there. So this is how we find this balance, and this is what we want for you. This is what Jesus wants for you. And again, this is not for super Christians. This is for all of us. But it takes practicing it and starting the process to get to where we find that balance. Now, what I want to do is I want to go to this passage in Exodus 14. It's really kind of a funny passage when you read it and you make sure you get this direction from Moses and then God. So let's just take it. I'm just going to read from Judges 14, starting at verse 10. The setting is the Israelites have now escaped Egypt. Of course, Pharaoh let them go. He now has second thoughts. He shouldn't have done it. And he's coming after them with his army. And they've come up on the Red Sea. And they're stuck. They've got the Red Sea in front of them. They cannot go forward. They've got Pharaoh's army coming up behind them. I'm sure you can see the dust of the chariots. And they are scared to death. And they rightfully should be. It's going to be really ugly for them. Now let's just pick this up in Exodus 14, 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. They said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? It's kind of comical if you're not in their position. What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 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. Now that's almost comical in how ridiculous it is. They were miserable. They were slaves. They were being beaten with rods. They were being given barely enough food. They had to make bricks without straw. Pharaoh was a terrible taskmaster after them. They were working all day. Their only livelihood, their only purpose in life was to make bricks. But it is a very real situation there. And the reason I wanted to start is because we find ourselves in real situations. Situations that create fear, they create anxiety, and many situations that just are not going to fix themselves. They are not going to resolve themselves. We must take some action. These situations occur all the time in our lives. Where do we find the balance? Walking with that God's part in our part and I see that I think we see this in the sex is 14 But I do want to continue to make this point. Yes, there are times in our lives where things are scary There is anxiety. There is fear. There's unknown We don't know what to do and it is not going to fix itself. There must be some action taken I'll always Council pausing first waiting for the Holy Spirit to move but at some point yes, we do have to take some action So we see the next statement Moses answered the people do not be afraid Stand firm and you will see the deliverance. The Lord will bring to you today the Egyptians you see today You will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still and Wait a minute. You need only to be still? Put yourself in the Israelites' place. Pharaoh's coming down on them. They got no place to go with the Red Sea on this side. They are probably getting ready to be slaughtered, and it's not like they'll get shot with a bullet and they die. This is a gruesome way to die. And Moses says, just be still. Now what does he mean by that? How would we be still? Let's just continue this and then come back and tease it out Verse 15 then the Lord said to Moses. Why are you crying out to me tell the Israelites to move on? Well, is that an opposite statement there Moses who we who we know as we read the scriptures is speaking for the Lord he says be still and Then God comes along and says no more crying out to me get moving So let's just examine that. Let's break that down for just a moment. What would it look like to be still? And I think I've got it here on the screen for us. This is our part. See, there's God's part and there's our part. Now Moses told them that God is going to fight for them. He says, He will fight for you, so just be still. But the first thing is we respond in faith, not react in fear. We respond in faith, not react in fear. We learn to abandon the outcome to God. But the way we do these two things is we go back to the facts. The facts first, faith follows that, feelings a distant third. Now I want you, we've talked about this many times, facts first. Faith second. Feelings a different, a distant third. Feelings are okay as servants, but they are disastrous masters. So they find themselves in a terrible situation. You find yourself in a terrible situation. What do we do? After we have panicked and worried ourselves sick, Hopefully, sooner than later, we can bring ourselves back to the facts. What are the facts? Well, my Heavenly Father loves me perfectly. If there's someone in my family that I'm worried about, He loves them perfectly. You know, I learned over in my prayer life, say I'm talking about my wife, Dina, or my daughter, Britton, or Brooke, or Victoria. I might would have originally said, Heavenly Father, I want to talk to you about Dina, or Brooke, or Victoria, or Britton. I want to talk to you about them. I'm concerned about it. Here are the things that I'm worried about. But I've learned to say, I want to talk to you. I want to lift up your daughter, whom you love perfectly. I want to talk to you about, I want to lift up your daughter whom you love perfectly. Now what happens to my anxiety when I start that prayer that way? Because that is a fact. She is his daughter first. I even prayed about this with my ninety-something year old mother as she moved to ninety-six and ultimately left this world, but I would say your daughter. You're a little girl, Father, whom you love perfectly. So the first fact is he loves me perfectly. He loves them perfectly. He's perfectly powerful. Nothing is happening apart from his permission, certainly not apart from his understanding. He's perfectly present. He knows what's happening. He's always involved in the details. He knows everything going on in your life. Jesus himself said, he knows the very number of hairs on your head. Jesus said in that same passage, Matthew 10, 29 and 30, two sparrows worth a nickel. Not one falls from the sky apart from your Father's will. So we go back to the facts. He loves me perfectly. He loves them perfectly. He's perfectly powerful. Pharaoh is not going to overpower what God wants to have happen. And nor is the person in your life or the situation in your life. So the second fact is he's perfectly powerful. And then the third the one we probably struggle with the most is He's perfectly present Those are the facts you see when when a difficult situation comes when a challenge comes when a scary situation comes my faith wobbles because my feelings take over and they're they're real feelings of fear anxiety unknown Not sure what to do So as my faith is wobbling all over the place, I go back to the facts, and I drill down on the facts, and I keep talking to the Lord about the facts, and the feelings get pushed out to that distant third, my faith strengthens, my trust strengthens, and I get back to where I wanted to be. After we have gotten the facts first, now we can respond in faith, not react in fear. Now we can abandon the outcome to God. And then the ultimate, we can say and mean it, thank you now, Lord, before I see how you're going to work this out, because I know I will be thanking you later. Know I will be thanking you later So I'm gonna thank you now because I've just gone through the facts and I can abandon the outcome to God So see at this point the Israelites if they've gone through this or you if you've gone through this now They have learned to be still they are still in their hearts and their minds because they have gotten themselves back to that solid foundation of trust in his perfect love his perfect power his perfect presence so now they're still and At that point, the Lord says, okay, now it's time to move. Make a plan. Take the next step. You know, I deal with men all the time, and it can certainly happen in my life. I don't know what to do next. I don't know the next step. Well, what we say is, here's the Lord saying, then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on, 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. I will harden the hearts of the Pharisees, excuse me, of the Egyptians, so that they will go in after them and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army. That's gonna be God's part. But our part is to get moving. So, on my next slide, I've got our part and as our next part, once we've been still, now create a plan. List out what are your options. Take the next right step. Do the next right thing. List your options. Maybe sit down with a trusted friend and say, what are my, help me see my options. And now I've, you know, so often, If I look at my options, I can eliminate several of them because they're just unacceptable options. That's not the way to go. And maybe I'm left with one option, or maybe I'm left with one plan that makes sense. What do I do now? I just start moving. I take the next step. I do the next right thing. And my Heavenly Father moves in with me. He comes alongside me. The Holy Spirit is moving with me in that moment. I've waited, I've brought him into the equation, I've learned to be still. Be still and know that he is God. Psalm 46, 10. Be still and know that he is God. Now I'm moving, but I'm moving with that calm, relaxed pace. The unforced rhythms of grace. That is what I think is the answer to the can we be still and get moving at the same time? What is God's part and what is our part? I think this captures it all for us. Now I start moving. Isaiah has a beautiful, beautiful passage in Isaiah 30, and I just, I go to it, I think about it all the time. How gracious He will be when you cry for help. As soon as He hears, He will answer you. There's no, Jesus never gave any indication that there's such a thing as unanswered prayer, and He not even delayed the answer. Now the way it manifests itself in our lives may be delayed, but as soon as He hears, He will answer you, whether you turn to the right or to the left. Your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. This is the way, walk in it. Your ear, you will hear the guidance. You've taken the first step. And now he is moving with you. There's another passage in Jeremiah 616. I really encourage you to look this up Jeremiah 616 stand at the crossroads and look ask for the ancient past ask for the good way and walk in it and You will find rest for yourselves Now that should sound familiar because that's exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 11 28 29 and 30 come to me Are you a weary and burdened and he goes through that he says and you will find rest for your soul stand at the crossroads Sometimes we're at the crossroads We don't know what to do next. Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient past. Ask for where the good way is, and then walk in it, knowing that the Holy Spirit is going to move with you, directing you, but you get going. Now, my friends, I think this really answers what we've been looking at all summer. Our part and God's part. He will move with us. But often maybe more often than not he wants us to get moving on our own using the brain He gave us using the logic He gave us after we have consulted the Holy Spirit after we his way after we have waited after we have learned to be still Now we get moving and we watch him move with us How how are we going to learn to live this way? We're gonna have to put it into practice We're gonna have to put it into practice each day Think about the beginning the process putting it into practice. Jesus says this in two different times both in the Sermon on the Mount and But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 7, 24, at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount, therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Put it into practice. How do we put it into practice? There are many times in my life I've just taken yellow post-it notes and put them in my car, on my mirror, around the house to remind me to do this because until I remind myself it won't become a habit. Every now and then I'll put something on the door going from the office into the garage and it'll remind me of what it is I'm trying to do, what it is I'm trying to think about, what I'm trying to appropriate into my life. Put it into practice. It is a process. But as you begin this process and learn the balance of God's part and our part, It will change your life. You'll bump the trajectory of your life and you'll start to live with that power of the Holy Spirit and there's nothing like it. Because there's more. You know it. Come follow Jesus and find it.