Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
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so
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so
today i want to look at an encounter
with god’s
power and this encounter with god’s
power comes in the context
of a dilemma so
a dilemma is when you’re in a no-win
situation anybody here ever been in that
dilemma
it’s no win i mean any direction that
you look in
is a lose-lose you’re in a dilemma
the most noted story in
israel’s history the crossing of the red
sea which was its biggest celebrated
miracle happened when they were
simultaneously in a dilemma
most celebrated story the one that’s
repeated over and over and over
in the old testament is the story of the
crossing of the red sea
it’s repeated in the new testament but
what i want you to catch
today is that they had their divine
encounter with god’s problem in the
context of
a dilemma so i want to prepare you today
for an encounter with god
but i also want to prepare you for a
dilemma
that provides the context for that
encounter
now the background to this
is very clear
moses has come through the 12 plagues
the 10 plagues and he’s
now leading the children of israel out
of
egypt pharaoh has responded now
finally to moses’s call to let my people
go
and so the people now are on their way
out from slavery to freedom
they’re excited they’re looking forward
they’ve been told that there’s this
promised land this purpose of god that
god is going to take them to and
things are looking rosy
as they leave
on their way out it says in verse 17 of
chapter 13
that god did not leave them by way of
the land of the philistines
even though it was near
i want you to catch verse 18 hence god
led them so watch this
their dilemma is going to come about
when god is leading them
their dilemma is going to happen when
they’re in
the will of god their dilemma is going
to occur
when they’re being obedient because it
says
god was leading them
not only was god leading them into
what would be a dilemma it says
god led them the long way around
he did not lead them in the short
distance
not only that
but god was going before them verse 21
of chapter 13 says in a pillar of cloud
by day
and a pillar of fire by night
he’s walking with him in every step of
the way
and when they are doing this zigzag
through the wilderness
it says in chapter 14 pharaoh will say
to the sons of israel verse 3
they are wandering aimlessly in the land
and the wilderness has shut them in
and the wilderness will shut them
in so when he says and the wilderness
shall shut them in they’re going to be
in a no-win situation that they can’t
get out of
without coming back toward us
and it says and god was leading them
he was leading them into a cul-de-sac
or what you and i would call a trap
see a lot of us figure god wouldn’t do
that
oh god does do that and the reason god
does that is because only in those
contexts will you see that he’s god
because the one thing about a dilemma is
you can’t get out of it
the one thing about a dilemma is you
don’t see an exit
and every direction you look in is
a trap when god
is ready to move you to a new spiritual
experience with him
he will regularly do it in the midst of
a contradiction
and a conflict and that is their
scenario
verse 4 says of chapter 14 thus i will
harden
pharaoh’s heart and he will chase after
them
hmm to harden the heart means to make
you more rebellious than you already
were
to harden the heart means to make you
meaner than you already were
to harden the heart is to make you worse
than you
already were i think the verse says and
god
harden pharaoh’s heart because when god
is ready to give you a new experience
with him
he will allow you to be put into a
situation
that only he can get you out of
when god is ready to make this move
doesn’t matter who you know what contact
you have how much money you
you possess or where you live or the car
you drive
when god is ready to give you a new
experience with him
he will regularly trap you where you
are verse 8 of chapter
14 says the lord hardened the heart
of pharaoh king of egypt and he chased
after
the sons of israel
what’s frustrating to me about god
is he will make it look like he answered
your prayer
come on anybody been there it looked
like you
you praising him you you all excited
you’re ready to give your testimony
and then he go left on you
they finally get out of egypt they’ve
been praying to get out of egypt
he lets him out of egypt then he hardens
pharaoh’s heart to come after him
looks like he changed his mind
as pharaoh junior verse 10
the sons of israel looked and behold the
egyptians were marching after them
and they became scared
it says they were very frightened and so
the sons of israel cried out to the lord
water here pharaoh and his chariots here
and they’re closing in on the jews and
so they are
terrified so they
do what many christians do they cry out
to god
help help
while simultaneously complaining to man
verse 11 they said to moses is it
because there were no graves in egypt
that you have taken us away to die in
the wilderness
why have you dealt with us in this way
bringing us out of egypt
is this not the word that we spoke to
you in egypt saying leave us alone
that we may serve the egyptians for it
would have been better for us to serve
the egyptians than to die in the
wilderness
so the conflict that they are in the red
sea
and the egyptians produces a spiritual
conflict within them
because on the one hand it says they
cried out on the god
but then on the other hand it says they
complain to moses
so i’m calling on god but i’m blaming
man
not only that but i’m confused
because the dilemma will confuse you
they said did not we tell you leave us
alone
we were happy being a slave in them
cornfields we were
we were happy being a slave picking that
cotton we were we were we were just
we were just swing low sweet chariots we
were just
happy slaves
never mind that they had been crying out
to god all the time
for god to get them out of here
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so let me give you something you must do
when you’re caught
in a dilemma and god himself is
confusing you
you must appeal to someone if you cannot
appeal to yourself
who has a spiritual perspective
see if you’re confused and you’re only
talking to
other confused people
who do not share a proper view
of god then all you’re going to do is
reinforce the frustration of your
dilemma
if god has allowed you to be there
because you’re
in the will of god even though you are
confused
then god alone has to give you
clarity
and so even though they were complaining
about moses
only moses could give them the proper
perspective
because moses was in touch with god
so moses said to the people because
they’re crying out to god
and complaining at the same time
so moses says to the people do
not fear okay
stop worrying be calm it’s going to be
okay
stand by and see the salvation
of the lord so he brings in a spiritual
perspective
to their human dilemma which he will
accomplish for you
the egyptians whom you have seen today
you will never see them again
the lord will fight for you
while you are silent
not while you are talking
what he is referring to was the
complaining they were doing
not the crying out to god but the
complaining
god will fight for you while you keep
silent
they were now in the position
of submitting the spiritual authority
you must have spiritual authority in
your life
spiritual people to whom you can appeal
when you don’t have spiritual answers
yourself
and all you can see are the
circumstances
ah verse 15 then the lord said to mo
the lord said to moses
why are you crying out to me
tell the sons of israel
to go forward he says to moses
why are you crying out to me
tell israel to go forward
now the problem with that verse
is there’s nothing stated about moses
crying out to him
there’s no statement about moses crying
is that the people cried out
but then god turns to moses and says why
are
you crying out
says what i want you to do is tell
people now it’s time to move
tell them to move forward now here is
a principle he had just said
stand still do nothing
but now he gets another message that
says tell a man to go forward
so here it is when god puts you in a
dilemma
and there is nothing that you can
do or should do you do nothing
when god hasn’t given you something to
do that means he
there is not something he wants you to
do yet
but now he tells him to move forward
it says by faith they cross the red sea
remember faith is in your feet not in
your feelings
hebrews 11 29 says they did it by faith
because faith often has to operate
when fear is present
okay faith does not automatically
eradicate fear but
faith when it is operating
overrides fear because fear immobilizes
faith moves even when you are
fearful but when he gives you something
to do
you move he says tell the people to move
and so the people move moses lift up
your staff he lifts up the rod
now called the rod of god
he says i will again this word in verse
17 harden
the heart of the egyptians i’m gonna
make them harder
i’m gonna make them hate you more i’m
gonna make them come after you
worse than before so that they will go
in after them and i will be honored
through pharaoh and his army
through his chariots and his horsemen
so moses stretches out his hand with the
rod verse 21
and the lord swept the sea back by a
strong wind
all night and turned the sea into dry
land
so the waters were divided the sons of
israel went through
verse 23 then the egyptians took up
pursuit
to see a sea open up
the water wall on both sides
this whole army of almost two million
people
walking through and you go in there
after them you got to be crazy
but they were made crazy by god
hardening their heart
so god may be hardening the heart of
your coworker
making them treat you bad worse
he may be hardening the heart of your
boss
making him treat you worse or that
person
in your life or that circumstance see
that’s why you’ve got to be in the will
of god because when he makes it worse
he’s using it
i will harden pharaoh’s heart and the
egyptians will come
after you it says in verse 31
when israel saw say saul
see not they heard they saw when israel
saw the great
power which the lord had used against
the egyptians
the people feared the lord and they
believed in the lord
and in his servant moses
why does god put you in a dilemma
when you’re in his will so you can see
something
it says when they saw the power of the
lord
they encountered god’s power
they said you know what those people are
saying they’re saying take us back to
egypt
you know what god was trying to do he
was trying to deliver them from
something in their past
egypt was their past but you can get so
used to yesterday
that when the day goes bad on you you
want to go back
he says i’m going to deliver you from
yesterday
because i have a different tomorrow but
for me
to deliver you from yesterday to take
you to a different tomorrow i’m going to
create confusion today
so i want you to look at your dilemma
that you’re either in or that you will
face
differently if you’re not
in the will of god get in the will of
god so that he can turn it
into something he can use if you’re not
walking by faith but only walking by
sight
begin to walk by faith and no longer
live a life of complaining
acknowledging the reality but not
blaming man for something god has done
because you now have this bigger view of
god
who wants to show you his power so that
he can blow your mind in a catch 22.
some of you have heard this story
because you’ve been here for a while
but the newer people may not have heard
the story and so
i want to conclude my time with telling
you
one of my dilemma moments we were
meeting
at a school in the early days of our
ministry the school board said we could
no longer meet there we would have to
in a couple of weeks find another place
we were in a catch-22 we were in a
dilemma what would we tell the people
we went back to the school board and
asked them for an extension of time
they said they do not think we can get
it because there were too many board
members
with this whole thing of church and
state that were against
the church meeting in a school
but then they said but we will have a
final official vote but
the person who we talked to said let me
tell you now there are too many people
against you
all we did was call on god
to intervene and to do something that
was out of our hands
it was now the day of the vote and we
knew the votes were against us
we’ve been told that by an insider
the meeting was supposed to happen at a
certain time
but the time went on and on and on i
guess we’re sitting out there
close to two hours when it should have
been finished in 30 minutes
waiting for a decision
finally a lady comes out of the meeting
she says i am sorry it’s taken so long
but two of our board members are missing
they have not yet gotten to the meeting
so we tried to wait for them so we could
have a
full council vote but they have not
showed up
and we have decided to go ahead with the
vote
we went ahead with the vote and by one
vote
you have gotten approval to stay in the
school
by one vote when she finished
coming out the two who were missing
rushed in
the two were missing rushed in but the
vote had already been taken
oh but that’s not the good part of the
story the good part of the story is
why they were late these two decided to
ride
together when they decided to ride
together
they got off of poke and 67
and there was an accident at the light
the accident at the light held up
traffic
for almost two hours where the traffic
could not move
so within that two hours the vote was
taken
so by the time the traffic got cleared
away
and they rushed in it was too late
because god had already
set up a block
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the story in exodus chapter 18
says that the cloud and the pillar of
fire
went from in front of the jews and went
to the back of the jews
to create a block so that pharaoh’s army
could not get to them
until they crossed over so what god did
was he took the angel of the lord and he
left from in front of old cliff
he went to the back of oak cliff he went
down to
poke and 67 allowed an accident to occur
at just the right time for just the
right amount of cars
in order to block what god’s purpose was
he created a dilemma now the good news
of that for you
is that i have never forgotten it so
anytime now we run into a dilemma
i remember what happened at the end of
the 1970s
anytime we run into a problem i remember
that god is the same yesterday today
and forever i remember to tell you
let’s move forward when god says move
even though we don’t see how it’s going
to work out because the god
who can create an accident at just the
right time
can do whatever he decides to do in the
dilemmas
in our lives as long as we are in the
center
of his will come on and praise him
somebody
because he’s worthy because he wants you
to see him
for yourself in the dilemma
of your life
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when the children of israel were at the
red sea
they were in a pickle weren’t they you
got pharaoh coming one way and you’ve
got
you’ve got a whole sea out in front of
you
and nowhere to go they were at rock
bottom but you know
when you hit bottom and you can’t go any
lower
there’s only one direction you can you
can go in isn’t it
you have to look up god will
often put us in circumstances that we
can’t fix to reveal his awesome power
when the people you know the money you
have the influence you possess
can’t get you out of it look up
when you’ve hit rock bottom it is there
that you discover he’s the rock at the
bottom
so keep your eyes on heaven when earth
can’t help you
keep your eyes on eternity when time
has confused you it is in those moments
that there is an unveiling of god’s
omnipotence his awesome power
to intervene to reverse
and to open up a way out of no way
if you haven’t been there yet keep
living you’ll get there
and if you have been there then you know
what i’m talking about
our god is a powerful god and he meets
us best with that power
when we find ourselves in circumstances
we just aren’t able to fix
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so
you