Well, hallelujah.
They do that on purpose.
Amen.
Mmm.
Yeah, it's tempting.
But I better preach this morning.
I'll leave the singing to Tim Hill.
Well, hallelujah.
I do have a word from the Lord, I think, for us this morning.
If you'll turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10,
I'm just going to read a couple passages of scripture here.
This message came about a week and a half ago, Sister Katharine,
actually, after our anniversary went up to
the mountains for just a couple days.
We'd ridden through Cades Cove with all the traffic.
And, yeah,
I think I could have walked it quicker than we drove it.
And we were discussing walking through there, driving through there, I said,
you know, we can get off Lower River Road and see some of this stuff.
I understand the amazement of people that don't get to see it all the time,
but you and I, amen, we're clothed with the beauty of the Lord.
It's all around us.
And after the little bear came by the car and we got to see him,
he went on his way, we came out and driving through and
was headed back over to Pigeon Forge and the thought came to me.
We were just, you know how conversation just
addles on and rambles and we got off on the
political dilemma of our day.
The thought came, I told such guys, you know, all people
are looking for, they're just looking for a way out.
And when I said that, hair stood up on my arm and
cold chills went up my back. And I've been
waiting for two weeks to get to try
and share this word with you. I don't know how long it's going to take me, maybe short.
You wish.
It may not be, but we're just going to see what the Spirit of the Lord
says to us through this passage and that thought today. Amen.
First Corinthians 10,
look at verse 12.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he stand, take he
lest he fall. There hath no temptation
taken you, but such as is common to men.
But God is faithful.
Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are
able, but
will with the temptation also make a way
to escape that you may be able
to bear it. Looking for
a way out. Father, I love you today.
Thank you so much for your goodness and grace and the touch of your Spirit.
Lord, I thank you for our worshiping people. It took us a little bit this morning, but
we told ourselves to get up and praise you and we did.
And you've honored their praise because your word declares that
where your people praise you there, you'll be with them and you have and you've been
here and are here. And I ask now you help us. Help me Lord today
just to share my heart and what you've placed in it. And Lord, we that got
the ears to hear, we're going to hear what you're trying to say to us.
And Lord, encourage us through the power of your word in Christ's name.
And everybody's saying, hey man, ask your neighbor, are you looking for a way out?
That little phrase
has been around for quite some time. In reading and
looking at it,
in the boxing world, in the MMA world,
it meant that a fighter was
trying to get out before it was finished.
And for them, it's really not a very positive term.
And as I said, we're looking today at our
nation. I hope and pray that you're concerned about your nation.
Amen. As your pastor,
I do not use this podium as a political forum.
But as the church of the living God, we cannot be
non-political because we're in this world.
We're not of it. Amen. The instructions of the
word of God are to pray for those who rule over us.
The instruction of the word of God, he calls his kings to rise and he
brings them down. Amen. So our
involvement, and I spoke to some the other day, they were talking about, well I just don't know if I can
vote for that man. I said, well just between me and you, I'm not voting for
that man.
That's not, sometimes it's not what you're voting for
as much as what you're voting against.
Now I'm not really concerned about your political affiliations today.
I'm concerned about the affiliation that we have with God.
And I know that God is concerned about this nation. Amen.
And so we're going to see
what is on the mind of God concerning this nation in November.
And if it goes one way, you better buckle down your
hatches and hang on honey because there's some stuff about
to come and we're going to need this word today. Amen.
We're going to need it. I'm just giving you a little encouragement
and fore-back. It's not what you're voting for as much as what you're voting against.
Amen. So just put that down in your prayer
list and pray over it. So that's where we are today.
I don't know about you, but politically I'm looking for a way of
escape. I'm thinking over 300 million people and this is the best we
can do. I can see a few people in this room that can do better than what we got.
I'm just saying. Put Danelle up there. She can
do this. I vote for her.
Because I know what she stands for.
We better get our
hatches battened down church. Because we're going to
be looking for a way out. We're going to be looking for an escape.
Now as Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, they was one of the most
difficult churches I think that he had to
keep his hand on. He had to keep a tight rein on them.
Simply because of where they were and what went on in their city and what they were called out
of. They needed a continual word to encourage them to
remain faithful and to stay faithful. That's what Paul is writing
and telling them now. He said, look, let him that thinks he stands
take heed lest he fall. Pay attention to your relationship with God.
You haven't arrived until we've arrived.
Amen. And the moment we start to take ease and the moment we start to
let up, the enemy will seize us and he will surround you.
Because you've separated yourself and you set yourself aside, you're not
praying like you should. You're not in the word like you should. You're not in the church house
like you should. And before you know it, the enemy's got you cut off. He's got you
surrounded and he's ready to take you for everything you're worth.
And when a man thinks he's standing strong, be very careful.
Because you're just about to go down. The scripture talks about the prideful heart
and the prideful spirit. A haughty spirit goes before destruction and pride
before a fall. So we have to maintain our humility for the
Lord and we've got to maintain our fervor in service to him.
So he said, whoever let him take heed if he thinks he's standing.
There have no temptation that is coming against you that isn't common to
you. It's not uncommon what is going on in your life.
Mankind at some point, somewhere along the way, someone
has faced the exact thing that you are facing.
So when the devil tries to single you out and tell you that you are all alone
and God has forsaken you and left you to your trial, left you to your affliction
and left you with his temptation, he is a lie. Say that with me, the devil
is a lie. Because it's not uncommon what has come
against you and what is coming to destroy you and what is coming to take you out.
It's not uncommon. Thank God that he's on the throne. Amen.
Thank God this is the part I love, that God is faithful.
The temptation is coming against you. It's not uncommon. But know
this church, God is faithful. Amen.
God is faithful. He had to tell you that before he's not going to let
more come on you than you can bear up under. He had to let you know that
before he would tell you that he's going to make a way for you to escape.
So when we begin to think about this thought and this thing
this looking for the way out, it literally means by which
a predicament, the means by which a predicament, a dilemma, a
situation may be solved or avoided.
And many today are looking for a way out. But I'm here to share with you this
morning, there's some things in life that you cannot avoid. There's some
situations that you simply can't get away from. So one man put it
this way, the way out is through. Amen. The way out
is through. And I love that statement. The way out is through. If you're
looking for a way out, it's through. Whatever your dilemma is, whatever
the situation, whatever the predicament is, you got to go through it. Amen.
But thank God we don't go through it alone. We've not been left
to go through it alone. We've not been left to go through it without
the situation. God has given us a word to go through it with. When he said
look, there's nothing coming against you that hasn't come against someone else
and God is faithful in the middle of your dilemma,
in the middle of your predicament, in the middle of your situation. Never forget
that God is faithful. He's not going to forsake you.
He's not going to let you down. You may have to walk through it, but he's not going to let you
walk through it alone. And the way out is the way through.
It's on the other side of your predicament.
So how many times throughout scripture do we see people in predicaments,
various situations and various dilemmas, and that God
was faithful over their dilemma and that he provided
a way of escape. I love that. He said I'm not going to let more
come on you than you can bear, but in the process of the temptation
he's going to make a way for you to escape.
I found something. Remember that there is a way
and there's the way. And what you and I want is the way,
not just any way, because there will be options that present themselves
in every predicament. There will be options that show up in every situation,
every trial, every affliction. There will be options that pop themselves up.
But that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for the way, the way
of escape, the way that God is going to open up before you. That's the
one I'm looking for. I've looked over my life and I've had some
thought processing over predicaments and I've seen options that have
come up, but I wouldn't just take the option. I wanted the way that
God had. Amen? And that's the faithful way. The way that God will present
before you will always be the way that determines
your faith. The only way you're going to get through the escape
is you're going to have to trust God who's faithful. It's not just any
way. He's going to open before you a way that requires
you to believe in who He is. And by virtue of
that, I'm telling you, it's not always the easy way,
but it is His way. It's the way that He is determined
that you escape, get away from, and are released from the predicament
and situation that is in your heart. I know that doesn't encourage us a whole
lot, but the way out and the way through may be a little more
difficult than the way in which you're standing, but that's okay because
it's God who opens the access to the way out. And if God
opens the way of access out, then God will provide
for you everything you need.
Too many times we find ourselves looking for
the way out. And we,
any deer hunters in the house, know that deers take the least path of
resistance to get to where they want to go. They're going to find
if you'll cut a trail, they'll walk a trail. Just to keep from going through
the thick. Sounds like us a little bit, doesn't it?
Sometimes the devil will go through and cut away that seems like the right
way, but it's the easy way. And then God's got a way over here
that looks like it may be through some thick. It may be through a wilderness. It may be
over a mountain, hello. It may be over a sea. It may be over
a raging river. And that's not the, what worse
the way out here. It's the way of faith. Hear me, child of God,
if we're going to make it through, it'll only be because of the faith that we have
in God who is faithful. He's not going to present to us always
the easy way because where, if we just take the easy
way out, where then do we require the grace and the strength
and the power of God? Give me the power of God over the easy
way any day because I have found that in the wilderness of the
wandering, I have never been forsaken. I have found in the way
of the wilderness, he's always provided for me. What I simply
have to do is trust him and live for him because he
is faithful.
The way will always require faith.
The psalmist said in 71 and 2, deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape.
Incline thine ear unto me and save me.
Cause me to escape.
There are multiple times the word escape is used
in scripture. The theme for you and I not to be
bound and to be trapped is God's idea for you and I.
That's his plan. That's the plan that he has for you. That's the plan
that he has for me. That's the plan that he has for us. It's not, he gets
no glory out of you being trapped. Oh, come on somebody.
He gets no glory out of you being bound and
unchanged but his glory is received when you and I walk through in
liberty. His glory is elevated when you and I trust him
and know that by his strife we are healed and that
by his authority we have authority over what is before
us and he gets glory when you and I lift up our heads
and square our shoulders back and look at the path through the most difficult journey
but it's the door that he opened. It's the way that he's opened and we
enter in that way. It's nonetheless like Moses
when he's getting ready to leave Egypt. It's nonetheless like
Jacob as he is on his journey to escape from his brother
Esau but God is calling him back toward his dilemma.
God is moving Jacob back toward his predicament.
God has called him back to where his situation was
and if you'll go and look in Genesis 32 you'll
see Jacob in a very tight spot looking for a
way out. He's making his way back.
His family's grown. Herdsmen have grown.
His herds are large and God is calling him
back home and he's at the river the night of
before his crossing. He divides his family
his holdings into two bands.
He separates them because he's looking for a way out and this is what Jacob
actually said. He divides his company so that if
one is attacked one could escape.
In other words if Esau sets out and attacks his family he
won't get us all. There's at least hope to escape
so he sends the first group over. He sends presents out
and stuff to honor Esau and to let him know.
This is what Jacob told us. When you come up to him you present to him the
gifts that I'm giving and you tell him that your brother Jacob and his family
they are coming up behind us. If you run into him before we do
you tell him I'm coming. You tell him I'm on my way and I'm bringing more
gifts behind me because we want to honor my brother Esau
and it would be in that night, that night, the very night that he sent the first
band over that the angel of the Lord would come and he would wrestle with him
throughout the night and it would be the morning that he determined there is a
way out because the blessing of the Lord is about to be put
upon Jacob. I'm here to tell somebody you feel like you're wrestling
all night long but the dawning of the day
is coming and the way of escape is coming to you. He's
about to make a way.
The hand of the Lord is about to bless you.
Don't stop now. It's not the easy way.
The easy way would have been to stay with Laban
away from Esau but God
don't always keep you away. He wants you to go through.
So what does he do? He opens the
door of escape
and you get right to where he's called you to
and it's not the easy way. That was not easy for
Jacob to do. You can hear as you can feel
as you read the text there in
Genesis 32, the struggle as the author pens
the struggle that was in Jacob
to separate his family and his holdings. You could hear
how it was agonizing to him. Should the one
be attacked then one could escape.
How do you pick?
Sometimes you and I are forced to
make some choices that aren't very pleasant are they?
That wasn't a pleasant choice for Jacob but it was a choice he made
because he's endeavoring to spare his family
so that one might escape. Moses had the same encounter
in Exodus 14. After the plagues have been unleashed
upon Pharaoh in Egypt he's finally driving
the children of Israel out. They're making their
journey. God hardens Pharaoh's heart
causes him to rise up again, get his chariots
and get in pursuit of the children of Israel.
So here is Moses the man of God leading God's
people toward the promise that has been made.
So he makes his way to a very
difficult portion of land. Look what Pharaoh
says about where they are. As he
encounters Moses and Israel. Verse 3 Exodus 14
he says they are entangled
in the land. Pharaoh knew
the geography of his holding in kingdom.
He knew where they were. He knew there were mountains on both
sides of them. He knew the Red Sea was before them and he was coming
up behind them. I will take advantage and attack them
why because they're in the place of hardship. They're
in between a rock and a hard place with nowhere else to go
and I am going to get them and I'm going to bring them back.
But little does Pharaoh understand that God had
directed their pathway through the hardship to the
rock of the hard place to the sea that was before them so that
he would be glorified. I wish somebody would go home and look
in a mirror and say you are where you are so that God may
be glorified.
Oh I think I'm going
straight to the bathroom when I get home.
I just preached myself a good
shout hallelujah. You go look at yourself
and you say you are where you are by divine direction and divine
plan. You are where God wants you so that he
gets glory.
Looking for the way out.
The children of Israel said you brought us out here to die.
They're murmuring, complaining, griping at
Moses. You brought us out here. We could have died in Egypt. We didn't have
to come all the way out here to die.
He's getting aggravated.
He begins to shout at my socks down. That's aggravating.
I need to
hock him up. I'm going to throw this
pair away. They stretched. Hello, come on somebody.
You hang in here with me. I told that brown sire I was preaching to
yesterday. I said look, I didn't come here to give you
theological exploit. I'm not here to talk about
hermeneutics and all that stuff. I said you're just going to get me today. I was talking
to a bunch of men. I'm preaching to a bunch of men. I'm preaching to y'all today.
My socks fell down. I'm sorry.
I'm fighting my britches.
The last thing I need is my socks.
I'm
telling you I'm heading home. I'm going to look in the mirror.
We are where we are. You are where you are. If the steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord, can I tell you you're not in the middle of a mistake?
God doesn't make mistakes. You're divinely
appointed for the trouble that you're looking at. You're divinely appointed
for the affliction that's on your body. You're divinely
appointed for the trouble that you're looking at.
So lift up your head. Talk to your soul. Get up
and praise the Lord. He has ordered my
steps. Stop looking for any way out.
Fat man's getting hot.
I
just about quit right there.
Youngin, you are facing what you're facing.
No strange matter to God. No strange
matter. He knows where you are. He knows whether
you're entangled in the land and what's going on in your body. It's okay.
It ain't uncommon
somebody else has laid out jerking in church somewhere before.
Don't be embarrassed, honey. You can't help it.
Hello.
We put on way too many airs anyhow.
Hello.
I just appreciate you keeping on coming.
A lot of folks said, yeah, you let them tell you
you've got epilepsy or something. Whether they even know what you got or not.
And it hits you in church. I didn't know she had the one last week.
I was keyed in on the preacher.
It ain't caught God by surprise.
What we're dealing with
ain't caught God by surprise. If our steps
are ordered, we are where we are destined to
be. And I'm not looking for
the easy way out. There's only one option. That's
his option. I'm looking for the way.
Not just any old way. The way of escape
that he opens for me. Pharaoh says they are entangled in the land.
Moses is entreating the
aggravation of the people as they're whining about where they are.
He goes to the
Lord. The Lord says, what you got in your hand? Well, I got
this staff. You mean the one that
I had you cast down and it turned into a serpent?
Yeah, that's the one. Oh, you mean the one that swallowed all them other ones up?
And when you took it by the tail, it become your staff again?
That's the one. Well, hold that out.
You tell that bunch, I can see God getting
frustrated with us sometimes. I'm just glad he don't get fully mad.
You tell them to stand
still. How many remember telling you youngins to stand still?
Now, when I said stand still, I meant still.
I didn't mean a foot over here and three feet back there. If I put you
that's where I want you to be when I come back for you.
In the lab
training world, the first command that is taught is sit.
I've been over to the dog
trainers and new owners come in and they ask
Brian, what's the command for stay? He said sit.
I can see this confused look on their face.
Well, how's that? Sit means sit till you're told here.
Stand still
means to put your foot planted and don't move
until I tell you to move.
You tell them to stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Now, I'm going to preach right here. Are you ready?
Some of you wiggling around way too much. You're here, you're
there, you're yawning, you're everywhere but where he's told you to stand still
at. You're not going to see it. You're not going to see
what he's about to do and you're running all over tarnation trying to find it.
He said stand still if you want to see my salvation, which
is my deliverance, which is my liberation, which is my provision.
If you want to see the way out, then you've got to stand
yourself still. Too many people in and out serving
God today, back in the bar smoking and doing all this other junk. The next day
I'm here to tell you purify yourself, put your feet
flattened firm and see the way out.
Now, stretch
that rod out, Moses, and feel the cool
breeze. Whoo! Now, look
I don't know how long it took for a seed to stand at
attention, but it was taking long enough
that the army of Pharaoh was getting a little closer.
A little too close for comfort, if you will. There's a bunch of
folk got to walk over. Thankfully it wasn't
muddy and mucky. It was dry.
You'll catch that later.
So much so
that God bought them a little time to get all the way over.
You need to go read it. It's powerful. You know there's some amazing things in
scripture if you'll read it.
You see these mission groups, it's got
a lot of people in the village, pick crew on the side of their little trailers, they go around and do the work.
They got that from this occasion.
Because see, God sent an angel out of that cloud
everybody remember the cloud that they were following by day
that lit up, illuminated in a pillar of fire at night?
Well, He sent an angel out of that cloud.
He went down and took off all
of the wheels of the chariots.
Go read it. So that they drug in the sand.
Bought them a little time.
He has to buy you and I a little time to get our mind made up to see if we're going to walk through.
Well, if we get out there and it'll
fall in on us. No.
Not if He told it to stand up.
Because you see, the Red Sea has more obedience than most of us got.
That sea would still be standing today.
Had He not gave it command when they finally drug them chariots in
if the Lord hadn't commanded the Red Sea to go back
to its borders, it would still be standing. You talking about a marvel
for humanity. Where are you going? I think I'm going to see
the water that's standing in attention.
If you and I, it's the
faith walk. The way is a faith way
when He opens the way, you got to know He's
got enough to keep it open until you get through.
No matter how amazing it may appear,
you have to know that He's got enough to keep it
open until you get through.
And you know the
agnostics argue, well, it was only ankle deep
where they crossed. Okay, I'll go with ankle deep.
You tell me, what was it, 600 chariots?
An army? You tell me
how horses and chariot men drowned
in ankle deep water. You explain that one, I'll go with you.
Ankle deep.
Okay. Right?
They still hadn't found them chariots.
Why? Because look, when God does something,
He does it all the way. He didn't just halfway
do anything. I got to keep going. My Lord, this got long enough out.
Looking for a way.
The woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5.
Spent all she had, seen every doctor in town.
The scripture said, grew none the better, but grew worse.
Spent all, finally flat, busted and disgusted.
Looking for a way out.
Looking for a way out of her situation. Heard
that Jesus was coming to town.
And then confessed to herself.
If I can just touch the hem of His garment,
I won't be made whole.
That's my way.
That's my way. Can I tell you today, it's still our way.
His declaration, I am the way,
the truth and the life. No man come with Him to the Father,
but by me, He is the way. There is
no other way. So at some point in our situation,
when we've done all we can physically do,
we have to turn to the way.
He'll make
a way. He did, and He sent the way.
For you and I.
It's not uncommon what we are dealing with.
It may be uncommon to us.
How many of you are dealing with some things you've never dealt with before?
Kind of strange, like, it's like, man, I've never been here before.
But that doesn't mean Brian hadn't been there.
Brother Jeff hadn't been there, you know.
Courtney, you may have been there. I haven't been there.
But somebody's been there.
And by virtue of them being there as a child of God,
He got them out.
Because if He got them out, that means
He's going to get me out. He's going to get you out.
Because thankfully He's no respecter of persons.
Hello! And He executes judgment upon our enemies.
So, vengeance belongs to Him.
And if He vindicated you,
my faith is beginning to soar. Because He loves me
more than He does you.
At least that's what I tell myself. Hopefully you're telling yourself
the same thing. Because I know how much He loves me.
You just said He's no respecter of persons.
That was sarcasm at its best.
How much did He love us?
He sent His Son.
The whosoever
would believe in Him. Would not what?
Well, if we're not going to perish in eternity, you surely don't think
He's going to let you perish here.
Her issue was taken care of.
Was it the easy way? No.
It was the only way.
Was it easy for her to get to Jesus? I don't think so. She'd been sick for 12 years.
Anemic.
Losing blood for 12 years.
And we've read various occasions
where multitudes, hundreds, thousands
surrounded Him trying to get close to Him.
And this weak, frail,
tired, hello,
how many of you get tired,
came in behind Him.
Let your mind wrap around, stand, wait a minute, I'm going to hush
after this. I think there's more, but I'm going to stop. Afraid I'm going to lose you here.
Can you imagine
the extra effort
to get to Him from behind?
Have you ever tried to walk against
a large crowd?
You could part your way, and they'll kindly do this, right? They just go out and go around you.
Doesn't work that way when you're coming up from behind.
You've got to work hard.
It's more difficult to come from behind
than it is from the front end.
The flow's going away from you. You don't have the help
of the flow.
She really had to exert all that she had left.
In my mind, I can almost see her with that last
ounce of strength.
The reason she didn't get a handful of his robe, because she couldn't get close
enough. It was that last
desperate lunge.
My God.
She touched the Hymn.
Then there was a
pile up on Jericho Avenue.
Because He stopped.
Let your mind wrap around the scene.
Can you see that crowd? They're all reaching
Jesus.
Then He just cold turkey stops.
Looks at the disciples and says,
who touched me?
No one after this much time being with Him, they
ought to understood what He was saying.
But like us, what do you mean
who touched you?
I don't know. He said, no, no, no, no.
Virtue had come out of me.
Somebody didn't touch me for what they want.
Somebody
has touched me for what they need.
It come out of me and I don't know who it is.
Are you looking for a way out?
Are you looking for the way out?
Come reach forth and let His virtue touch you
this morning. Let Him touch you.
You may feel like this is it. This is all I've got.
I don't have anything left.
I've got to touch Him. If that's you, come on.
Come on.
I'm not going to be here all day waiting on you either. You know what you need.
Come on up, darling. We've got to have Him. We've got to touch Him.
We've got to touch Him.
We're not looking for the A way. We're looking for the E way.
We've got to touch Him.
Some of you have got to touch Him.
You feel like you're at that Red Sea and mountains all around
and the devil breathing down your neck.
We've got to position ourselves so that we can stand and see
His salvation.
His deliverance.
Quit frailing around and focus
so that we can see Him.
Quit wrestling with our dilemma and wrestling with our problem.
Trying to figure out the predicament on our own.
Let God do it. Let God do it.
You're where you are.
He's led you there.
He's not going to allow more to come on you
than you can bear up under.
Look here, child. He knows the level of our faith.
Wouldn't He be a very mean, obstinate God?
Wouldn't He be if He knew what your level was
and just grinned while the weight surpassed it?
That's not the God you and I serve.
The God you and I serve is faithful.
He's faithful. What does that mean?
That means you're going to make it. You are going to make it.
We're going to survive it.
We may have to get in the wilderness.
We may have to walk through a sea.
We may have to push our way through.
But when we touch Him,
better yet, when He touches us,
stretch your hands this way. Some of these folks need some prayer warriors behind them.
Some of you are full of faith. Would you come and let's stand with one another?
I know we're all facing dilemmas of some kind or another.
Amen?
Or some kind of strife, some kind of struggle.
So if you would just take a few moments where you are
and pray for one another.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I need to see it.
I need to see that way out.
Amen.