A Really Bad Day

I think one of my favorite, all-time favorite stories is the story of Larry Walters, sometimes known as Lawn Chair Larry. Larry had always had a dream of flying, but he was unable to become a pilot in the Air Force because of poor eyesight. But even before he tried out for that, he had developed a love also of weather balloons, from the first time at age 13 or 14, when he had seen some of them hanging from the ceiling of a military surplus store. He had developed a love for that as well, and so he decided as an adult, the thought came to him. I'm going to try to put those two loves together, and I'm going to hook up some weather balloons and fly. I can't fly for the Air Force, so I'm going to do my own flying. I'm going to make my own aircraft. Well, his intention was to attach a few helium-filled weather balloons to his Lawn Chair, cut the anchor, and then float above his backyard 30 or 40 feet. Kind of survey a landscape, watch what's going on, and join himself for a little while. Maybe drift around a little bit, and then with a pellet gun burst a few of the balloons and float gently to the ground. This is mid-1982, and this is an actual picture of him, and this second picture is one just after he took off. What happened? It didn't go quite according to plan. He and his girlfriend, Carol Van Duesen purchased 42 8-foot weather balloons and obtained helium tanks from California Toytime Balloons. They used a forged requisition from the employer he worked for, film fair studios, that requisition said these balloons were for a television commercial. So he attached on July 2, 1982, attached the balloons to his Lawn Chair, filled them with helium, strapped himself into the chair in the backyard of his girlfriend's home, guys pellet gun, Duesen which is a couple of beers, and decided he's going to have a great day of it. Well, things didn't go quite as planned when friends cut the cord that was attached to one of his friend's vehicles and was holding him down. He did not just drift lazily up a 30 or 40 feet. He shot up like a missile and stopped at 16,000 feet. He began to drift around so terrified that he couldn't shoot any balloons. He was afraid he would tip himself over, didn't want to fall from that distance, and so he just drifting through airspace. He drifted, you'll see the map of where he went. He went all over Los Angeles and Long Beach. Finally, drifted into the primary approach corridor of Long Beach Airport. A TWA pilot radios in to the tower. You will never believe this, he said. But I'm flying right by at 16,000 feet, a guy in a Lawn Chair. And the pilot even said he really doesn't look dangerous. Actually, the news account is that the pilot had the veer a little bit to keep from his wings, snapping the guys' cords over his weather balloons. Or for 45 minutes, he's too terrified to do anything. Finally, he got the courage to shoot a few balloons, but then he accidentally dropped his pellet gun overboard. But he had shot enough of them, where he did start slowly descending from 16,000 feet. When he got close to ground, his dangling cables from the balloons got tangled up in a power line causing a 20 minute electricity blackout in Long Beach. So when he finally got to the ground, he was immediately arrested by the Long Beach Police Department, but they didn't know what to charge him with. I mean, what law has he broken? The policeman said, we know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed. If you had a pilot's license, we'd suspend that, but he doesn't. So finally, they came up with this charge, a charge of operating a civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate. Well, that didn't stick. So finally, they just dropped the whole thing and the guy went free. What a day. Can you imagine starting out the day with a few friends thinking, this is going to be great. You know, I'm going to sit up here in my perch above my neighborhood, and then for it to turn out like this, the amazing thing about this story is that it spawned a new extreme sport called cluster ballooning, and that still is what some crazy people do even today. Amazing story. Can you imagine a bad day like that? Let me ask you. Have you ever had a bad day? Maybe not quite like that, but have you ever had a bad day? Maybe I should rephrase the question. When was the last time you had a really bad day? This week, this past month, yesterday? We're in a series of messages on the life of Abraham, and sometimes I think when we look at Bible characters, we get the impression that they're superheroes. They're not like us, and nothing could be further from the truth. And so I'm so grateful that the Bible includes the whole story of these men's lives and some of the high spots and triumphs and victories, but also some of the very low points, some of the real difficulties and struggles and self-doubt and questioning that they had. That is true with Moses. We tend to see Moses as kind of a superhero figure, maybe because of the way Cecil B. Demille cast him in the infamous film, well-known film, the Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston, who was the Hollywood actor in his day. That's Moses. Well, I would like to think that Moses was really a man's man. I prefer that image to Disney's Prince of Egypt image, but nonetheless, whatever he looked like, whatever kind of man he was, he had the same strengths and weaknesses we do. He had good days and bad days just like we do. He had highs and lows, ups and downs, just like we do. Moses got up every morning, crawled out of bed, putty sandals on one foot at a time, just like we do. Really no different. Sometimes when we see great men of God or women of God in the Bible, we have a tendency to think they're way out there. I could never be like that. And so we're in a series entitled Becoming a Servant of God. And maybe many of you are sitting out there thinking of us for somebody else. Shirley John can't be talking about me. Just plain old me, you know, the kind of life I live, highs, lows, up and down, self-doubt, questioning myself all the time. Shirley, not talking about me. Yes, I am. I'm talking about you and I'm talking about me too. Because all of us, God wants to become his servants, his people, living out our faith in this world in a way that impacts people around us. He wants us to become his servants. And a part of that is learning how to deal with the ups and downs of life. So what we're going to do this morning is we come to Exodus chapter 5 and our story. We're going to look at a really bad day in the life of Moses. In fact, a whole stretch of really bad days. Seriously, this is a time of deep trial for Moses. This is a time of self-doubt and questioning of confusion and pain. It is a time when I am convinced he wanted to give up and certainly did not understand what God was doing. It was a time when the day started out bad and quickly got worse and he couldn't figure out what was going on. Now, to get the full impact of what Moses was going through and to be able to identify him, we're going to walk in his sandals with him through chapters 5 and 6. Now you're really glad we let you sit down for this message, right? We're going to kind of zip through these two chapters and then draw some practical lessons from them. In chapter 5 of the book of Exodus, as we begin the story of Moses's trial, we see in verses 1 through 9, Moses' message and Pharaoh's response. In verse 1, afterward. Now that's a key word. I mean afterward, you've got to go back and see after what? What's that there for? Remember when we last left Moses last week? He was appearing before the elders of Israel. He had finally made it to Egypt with Aaron and he calls the elders together and he explains to them what God has put in his heart to do to deliver the people. And not only that, he does the miracles, the sign gets that God told him would prove his credentials. And the end of chapter 4 says that they believe, they believe Moses and they believe God and they fell down and worshipped God. So Moses is on a real high. You know, he's really thinking God's in this and God's working. I just can't believe he's using me and Pharaoh gives him an audience and they go into Pharaoh afterward. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, let my people go so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness. That's exactly what God had told Moses to tell Pharaoh back in chapter 3 and verse 18. He'll expand on it just a little bit, but that's exactly the message God told him to deliver. He's not holding back. He's not wimping out here. He's delivering the message that God told him to deliver. So it's going great so far. He's got the support of the elders and I'm sure the elders are back there going, okay, Moses, wait a minute, that's great. You gave him the message. Now let's hear what he says. We're getting ready. Our bags are packed. We're ready to go. But verse 2, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go. Now that's like a slap in the face. Wait a second. Wasn't God in this? Didn't God send me here to deliver this message? Yeah, God told me that Pharaoh would be resistant. But I didn't expect this. I thought after the elders meeting it was going to go great. So let's try this again. Verse 3, then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword. In other words, now Pharaoh, I don't think you're getting this. The Lord, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews has met with us and he's told us to go out to a three-day journey in the wilderness, offer sacrifices to him. If we don't do that, then he may strike us in plocation being the whole country, including you guys, you Egyptians, he may strike us with plagues or with the sword. Now surely that's going to get through to Pharaoh. Pharaoh is going to say, well, I didn't realize it was that tough. I didn't realize you were really saying that. Look at verse 4, but the king of Egypt said Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work. Then Pharaoh said, look, the people of the land are now numerous and you are stopping them from working. Verse 6 through 9 say that very day, that same day he instructed the Egyptian supervisors to tell the Hebrew foreman, here's what you do. These people are lazy. They feel like they've got enough time to go out and worship in the wilderness. They're not doing enough work. So tell them that from now on they've got to gather their own straw rather than having it provided for them to serve as the binder for the clay bricks they're making. They got to get their own straw, but they can't cut back any on their quota of bricks. They still have to produce the same number of bricks. Well, that's impossible. They can't scour across the land, finding the straw, bringing the straw to the side of the brick making, and then be able to get all of that done. Still have the same quota they'd had impossible. And so the foreman, the foreman are beaten because of this. Things are not working out, and I can just imagine that all of Moses hopes for an Exodus are starting to crumble like a sandcastle right in front of his eyes. He went into this with very little self confidence to start with, but now that God has given him an audience with the elders, and that's gone well. I'm sure he's spending like God's at work. Can I contrast him? I believe it will work, but now the whole thing seems to be crumbling right before his eyes. And that leads me to verses 10 through 21, where we see the people's suffering and the leader's response, verses 10 through 14, then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, in other words, they're delivering Pharaoh's message, this is what Pharaoh says. I will not give you any more straw. Tells him to go ahead and find it on their own. Continue to make their bricks. Keep the same quota. You've got to still keep producing the same amount of bricks. There's a very interesting contrast here between what's said in verse 10, and what is said in verse 1. Go back to verse 1. Moses and Aaron speaking to Pharaoh say, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. Verse 10, this is what Pharaoh says. In other words, Pharaoh's response is, I don't care who your God is. I don't care what he says. I'm the God of Egypt, and this is what this God says. This is what Pharaoh said. This is what I say. And in this land, what I say is what goes. Not what some cheap, too bit God of the Hebrew says. That's basically the thrust here. It's basically what he's saying. Wow. So they carry it out. The Hebrew workmen are trying their best. They can't make quota. And so in verse 14, the Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers. They had appointed demanding, why haven't you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today as before? So the people are suffering, and the leader's response is just to pour more on them and to beat them into submission. Well, that leads in verses 15 to 18 to a labor management meeting. The labor says, we got to have a meeting here to talk this thing through. Verse 15, then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh. Why have you created your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw. Yet we are told, make bricks. Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people. You see, that that that clues me into the fact they were they were absolutely in the dark about why this had happened. They're surprised. They're shocked that they're being required to get their own straw and still maintain the same quota brick making. And so they go to Pharaoh and say, listen, there's been some kind of misunderstanding here. It's not our fault. You used to provide us with the straw. It's your people's fault. We're not getting any more straw. It's not our fault. It's their fault. And Pharaoh slaps them in the face with his response. Verse 17, Pharaoh said, lazy. That's what you are lazy. That is why you keep saying, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks. Well, the light bulb comes on now. When Pharaoh repeats what Moses and Aaron have been saying, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. It becomes clear to the Israelite task masters, the Israelite overseers, Moses and Aaron are to blame for this. So they're the ones that asked Pharaoh for us to go out. It's their fault. And that leads to frustration which boils over to anger. Look at verse 19. The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told you are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you each day. When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. And they said, may the Lord look on you and judge you. Now that may sound like kind of a mild statement to us, but it's not. It's a curse. It would be the same thing as someone looking at us and cursing us out. With the strongest profanity and using God's name. That's what they're saying here. May the Lord look on you and judge you. It would be the same as someone saying to us, may God condemn you, but not using the word condemn. It would be the same thing as someone cursing at us using God's name. They are angry at Moses and Aaron. They're blaming them for this new hardship on the people. You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and to put a sword in their hand to kill us. Can you imagine how Moses must feel at this point? I will bake God. I've done what he asked me to do. And this whole thing is falling apart. First, Pharaoh won't recognize you and blames us and makes it harder for the people. And now your people, God, are upset and cursing me. And accusing me, I am confident that Moses probably had a flashback to 40 years before. When he had tried in his own fleshly energy to be Israel's delivery, remember when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster and Axe tells us that he thought the Israelites would recognize he was there deliver her. And it all came crumbling down in front of him and he sees it happening again. It's been 40 years. He's thinking he's doing it the right way now. He's following God. He really didn't want to do this in the first place. But God pushed him into this. And now the same thing is happening, the same result. What is going on here, God? Well, that leads us beginning of verse 22 and going all the way through chapter 6 to Moses questioning and God's response. Moses does question God. Look at verse 22. Moses returned to the Lord and said, why, Lord, have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people. And you have not rescued your people at all. I don't think I've dramatized the frustration and anger in Moses' voice. He is so confused and pained by what's happened here. He cries out to God and three times he asks him, why? Why? Why, God? He pours out his heart, his anger, his frustration, his disappointment in God. I'm sure there were more than a few tears. I'm sure there was some self doubt and questioning of himself, not only questioning of God. He does not understand what's going on. But I love God's response to him. Beginning in verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country. I love the fact this is so comforting to me that God does not push Moses aside. He doesn't even rebuke him. He doesn't try to shame him. He doesn't call him up short for questioning him. You know, you see it throughout the Bible. You see it with Job. You see it with the disciples. God can take some honest questioning from your heart. He will not rebuke you or shame you for that. And when we are confused and so deeply hurt, we don't know what's going on. And we're crying out to God. Why? God will never push you aside, my friend. But what he does with Moses is so instructive for us today. What he does in these next few verses, verses 2 through 8 is several times he will say to Moses, I am the Lord. You'll say it to him four times here and then another time later in the chapter. Five times at all, he will say, I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. So Moses, Moses, stop trying to figure out what's going on. Get your eyes back on me. I am the Lord. Focus on me. And then eight times he says, I will. He said it in verse 1, you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. And through verse 80 says it eight times. I will. I will. I will. I will deliver my people. I will take them out of the land. I will bring them to the land. I promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I will. I will. I will keep my promises. So here's how God deals with how he answers Moses' question. And God's response is to draw his mind back to who he is and what he has promised. And that's where we always need to come back to. Who God is and what he has promised even when the circumstances around us make no sense at all. And we can't figure out what God is doing. The bedrock foundation of our faith is not our things going well for me. Am I experiencing happiness in my life? God's purpose in life is not to make you happy and content. His purpose in life is to make you more like himself. And so he's always wanting to draw your attention back to him. And to his promises, that's the foundation we have to land on. So he's posturing Moses up here with those promises and that perspective. And so in verse 9, Moses reported this to the Israelites. You're a guessing good news to tell you. God spoke to me again. And I know how to refocus now. So he reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. So it's like it's like Moses got really down and now he's starting to get back up and see the Lord again and then boom, he's back down again. Because now he tries to explain it to the people, people won't even listen to him. They won't even listen to him because of their discouragement. That's an interesting word. It doesn't mean that they were just hanging their heads. The word is literally short spirit. It means to be curt, resentful, angry. These people were fed up with Moses. I would say they probably hear between the lines somewhere and say, won't you go back to midi in any way and leave us alone? Are we any better off because you came here? No, get out of here. I'm convinced some of that probably happened. So they are fed up with Moses. So Moses really doesn't know what to do now. Look what happens next. Verse 10, God's still dealing with Moses. The Lord said to Moses, go tell Pharaoh King of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country. You put yourself in Moses' sandals. Are you serious, God? My own people won't even listen to me. That's what he says in verse 12. But Moses said to the Lord, if the Israelites don't listen to me, why should Pharaoh listen to me since I speak with faltering lips? You see the self-doubt beginning to creep back in? You see the self-incriminating Lord? I can't do this. I can't talk well enough to do this. That was one of the excuses he had used before. And God said, I won't take that. I won't listen to that. But that self-doubt is creeping back in. You know, that's what pain does to us. That's what trouble does to us. That's what trials will tend to do to us. And Moses is thinking, this is one of those days that will never end. This is horrible. It started out bad. It's gotten worse. And a whole string of days like this. Now the story is not over. We have to stop there today. God still got a lot of work to do, both in Egypt and on Moses. But for now, let's pause. And let's just ask ourselves, Lord, what can we learn from what Moses is going through here? What can we learn that will help us with the trials that we're going through? The lessons for our trials, Lord, what can we learn? I think there are at least three clear lessons from this experience in Moses' life, this downtime in his life. The first one's pretty obvious. Trials can be very painful and confusing. Very painful and confusing. Some of you are in Moses' sandals today, right now, in your life. You know what it's like for life to seem utterly unjust for you. You know what it's like to be convinced that something is God's will, or at least this is the right direction you should go, and you've made this decision, you plan things out. Maybe you've even presented it to your family or to your boss, or to your class, or whatever. And the response just cuts you off. And wants nothing to do with what you're suggesting, with the direction you're going. How discouraging that is, how painful that is. And then on top of that, to be misunderstood, to be labeled the cause of everybody else's problems and the trouble in this place. You mean God, you put me in this position for this? That's painful. That hurts. It hurts deeply when you feel like you've done the right thing. The best way you knew how. You sought to follow God's leading. You felt you were doing what he wanted you to do. And now you've been misjudged. People are even reading motives that you never had, and accusing you of doing things for reasons you never even thought of. Much less had as your motives, but you're under a cloud. There's no way to really defend yourself without looking defensive. You pour out your heart to God. You don't understand what's happening. You can't prove that what they're saying is not true. You can't change people's minds. So what do you do? You feel all alone. There is no pain like that loneliness. Maybe you've been misunderstood that way by a boss. Maybe you've been misunderstood that way by a friend or a relative or maybe even your mate. And you feel completely alone. You feel like you were doing what God wanted you to do. And you'd sought His face and wanted Him to bless. And the whole thing's blown up in your face and you're being accused and made to look like the bad person in this deal. That hurts. That's humiliating. There is a race that is run in the eastern mountains of Tennessee called the Barclay Marathons. It's been run for 30 years and in 30 years, 1100 people have started the race. Only 14 have ended the race, finished the race in 30 years. For that reason, a 1% success rate of even finishing the race, it's often called the most difficult race in the world. Gary Ken Trail who created the event in 1986 likes to say the mountains won again. It's a 100 mile race, which is daunting enough, but it's in the mountains of Tennessee. It's a 20 mile track. You run five times. By the way, I've never done it. What wouldn't suggest anybody do it? You run it five times and the amount of climbing that you do in that race over the 100 miles is twice the height of Mount Everest. It is grueling. It is an incredibly difficult race. Here's how it works. When you start the race or you get as a handout with some race directions, you are only allowed to take a map and a compass. There are no medical age stations along the way and you're going to run to 100 miles and go twice the height of Mount Everest in that 100 miles. Good luck with that. No wonder only 14 people have finished in 30 years. In 2015, the last record I was able to find of this race, March of 2015, nobody finished. And one of the runners, Nikki Ren, a 40-year-old Australian, said this about the race. She completed 30 miles and then had to drop out. She said this, you don't come here to be victorious. You come here to be humiliated. It's lonely out there. It's eerie. You have to be comfortable being inside your own head. Everyone comes back pretty broken. When I read those words, I thought, isn't that like the race of life? Doesn't it leave us that way sometimes? And you feel like I'll never be victorious. I'm just going to be humiliated. I'm that way now you may be thinking. Broken. The race of life sometimes breaks us. It is painful. Trials can be very painful. And just as confusing. Think again of Moses. He's beginning to express himself out again. Lord, I can't go into Pharaoh again. I can't talk well enough to talk to Pharaoh. Not again, Lord, I can't do this again. And so there's this old fear, this old self-doubt creeping back up. I can just imagine him. Lord, I told you at the burning bush, I was not your guy. I told you, I gave you five reasons why I could not do this and you wouldn't accept them. And so I gave in. I gave in. And I decided I would come. I would follow you. And I left my job. I uprooted my family. I came all the way down here. And for this, I don't understand, God. I gave up everything. And now I'm in trouble with Pharaoh. And the people I came to deliver hate me. They're cursing me. Is this why you sent me, God? Is this why you want me to come to Egypt? That's the very question he asks. Fear, self-doubt. Not knowing how to handle it. I don't know if you noticed or not, but it's baseball season again. For us old guys, it can't keep up with football basketball anymore. Baseball is still pretty good sport. So predictable, though, isn't it? And slow. Guy hits 260 for his career. He has a good year, but you can pretty well imagine he'll end up batting 260. It all kind of levels out. It's predictable. Pictures are all pretty much the same. I mean, some are a little better than others. Some breaks that others don't. But everybody has fastball and a change up and a curve and a slider. That's pretty much it. And the way you twist the ball determines whether it drops or levels out or rises or which way it curves. Pretty predictable. There's only one thing about baseball that is not predictable. The knuckleball. The knuckleball is not thrown like any other pitch in baseball. You don't grab with two fingers along the seams or across the seams. You don't twist it to curve or to shade it to slide in. You don't do any of that. You hold it with your knuckles. These first knuckles. And you pitch it to where it doesn't spin at all. Charlie Huff, one of the best knuckleball pictures used to describe it this way. He said, because you don't put any spin on it, the wind currents make the ball bob around like a wipple ball. And it might break two or three different times on the way to the plate. So even the picture doesn't know what it's going to do. The catcher doesn't know what it's going to do. Poor batter. He has no clue what it's going to do. Bobby Mercer, a former player with New York Yankees and a great player once said this. He said, the challenge of hitting a knuckleball was like, and I quote, trying to eat jello with chopsticks. You talk about confusing. You try that sometime. It's impossible. Jotoria, Hall of Fame player, catcher and manager said, catchers need a big glove and a pair of rosary beads to catch a knuckleball. Knuckleball is the most confusing play in sports. Life is like that sometimes, isn't it? You have no clue what's coming at you. You can't figure it out even when it does come. You can't hit the thing. You can't seem to make any headway. Trials can be both very painful and very confusing. You say, okay, John, enough of that. Tell me something I don't know. I know that pretty well. Okay, let's move on. Second lesson. Not only can trials be very painful and confusing, but the second lesson is so critical. Trials should drive us to the Lord. Now that sounds a little cliché, as I know. Well, just come to the Lord. That sounds awful cliché. We've heard that for years, but I don't know that we've really heard it. I'm not sure we've really grasped what that means, because we're doing everything else but that. See, the one thing Moses did right is he came to the Lord and cried out to him. Yeah, he was confused. Yes, he was hurt. Yes, he has full of self-doubt. Yes, he quest. Yes, why? Why? Why? Yes, but at least he came to the Lord. And that's what we need to do. I want to ask you something this morning. How do you deal with pain in your life? How do you deal with the kind of trials that bring you deep pain and confusion? How do you deal with that? Because the temptation for all of us, the temptation is escapist sins, things that will give us a quick fix and make us feel better real good, real fast. And Satan has an arsenal full of tricks like that that will deaden the pain real quick and give you a quick lift. There are lots of things, Satan will throw at you to try to get you to do. He'll whisper in your ear, oh, your husband and wife or wife did that to you? What about that person over there that's shown a lot of interest in you and talks with you a lot and seems to be interested in your work and what you do? Maybe she'd go talk to them. Or your boss said what to you? You deserve a drink, you know? Or your kids treat you like garbage? I know some pills that will make you feel good real quick and forget all about that. You're feeling really down? What about that website the guys at work told you about? You're really hurting inside and just eat a bunch of the food you like best, you'll feel better real quick. That's where I struggle. All of us, all of us have a tendency to want to deaden the pain and the loneliness and the hurt and the misunderstanding. And there are lots of ways to do that, my friend. Lots of ways. Lots of ways that are not illegal. Lots of ways to deaden that pain and give you a quick hit and lift and make you feel better. And for most of us in the room, we will choose one of those options rather than going to the Lord. And just unburdening our hearts to him. Say what you will about Moses. At least he went to the Lord. You know, we can kind of be amazed at the way he went to the Lord, all of his questions and all of that. But listen, my friend, God knows how to handle honest questions. And he will never push you away and shame you for that. Please learn to come back to the Lord because when you do, you are putting yourself in the best position to get the real help that you need, to grow, to become more like him. That's where God wants you. And remember what he did for Moses? Five times, I am the Lord. Now, the worst get your eyes back on me, Moses. You are beginning to self-doubt again because you are getting your eyes on Pharaoh and on the people and their opposition to you. Get your eyes back on me. And then eight times, I will, I will, I will. My promises are still good, Moses. So that's what it means to look to the Lord. Not just some kind of glib, well, God, please help me. No, no, it's taking your eyes off of everything that's confusing you and hurting you and coming to the Lord and fixing your eyes on him. That often happens through his word where you get alone with God and you get a fresh glimpse of who he is in his word. And then you get a fresh glance of his promises. I will, I will, I will, I will. What his promises mean to you. And so get into his word. Get alone with him. That's what Caleb Mueller did. Today has been a day when churches have been called, even though we've not said anything about this yet, today churches have been called to pray for persecuted believers in the Middle East, particularly those who are being persecuted by ISIS. Caleb Mueller was a 26 year old aid worker from the United States working in Syrian refugee camps a year ago, a couple of years ago. A graduate of Northern Arizona University had involved in a very good campus ministry there. She volunteered to go to Syria to help. And on February 10th, 2015, US officials confirmed that ISIS Muslim extremists had murdered her while in captivity. But rewind the tape a year. In the spring of 2014, she was able to get a letter out to her family. And in that letter, she started with the assurance that she was being treated well. I quote, she says, I am in a safe location completely unharmed and healthy. Didn't last long. But she goes on incredibly. She goes on to apologize touchingly to her family for the suffering that she's putting them through because of her captivity. And then came the real central part of her letter where she said this, I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end, the only one you really have is God. I've come to a place in experience where in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to him as my creator because literally there is no one else. She goes on to say, and I love the way she says this. This has really struck me. She says, by God and by your prayers, I have felt tenderly cradled in free fall. I mean, she realized her plight. She probably expected what would happen. She's in free fall. All of the support has been taken out from under her. But because of God and their prayer, she says, I have felt tenderly cradled underneath of the everlasting arms the Bible tells us. I have felt tenderly cradled in free fall. She says, I've been shown in darkness light. I have learned that even in prison, you can be free. I am grateful. I've come to see that there is good in every situation. Sometimes we just have to look for it. She says, please be patient. Give your pain to God, encouraging your family to give their pain to God. She says, I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I'm doing. Do not fear for me. Continue to pray as I will. By God's will, we will be together soon. All my everything, Kayla. I don't think there's one of us in this room that's going through what that woman went through. 26-year-old woman. Who knows what they did to her before they killed her? If she, in those moments, could turn to the Lord and refocus on who He is and what He has promised, then we can too. Trials should drive us to the Lord. Last lesson quickly. Trials prepare us for future usefulness. Think of the situation that Moses is in. Pharaoh is against him. The people are accusing him and the situation looks hopeless, right? This is pretty dire circumstances. And yet, Moses will face this very same situation again at the Red Sea. Pharaoh will be against him. Come and after him. The people will be accusing him. Why did you bring us out in the wilderness so we would die like this? And the situation certainly looks hopeless. Mountains on two sides, the Egyptian army behind the Red Sea in front. Where do we go? You know what Moses response was on that occasion? It's described for us in chapter 14, verse 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 will see today. You will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. You know what he's saying? Refocus on who God is. The Lord, the Lord, Jehovah, and refocus on His promises. He will deliver us. He promised to do that. He will. He will not fail. Where did He learn that? On those bad days. That's where He learned it. Trials prepare us for future usefulness. And my friend, here's the thing. On really bad days, you will have to cry out to God to remind you of these truths because you'll forget them. I do. You will have to cry out to God on the really bad days. To please, Lord, please remind me what to do. I know what it is, Lord. I need to look to you. I need to remember who you are. I need to remember your promises. I need to get in your word and refresh my vision of you. On really bad days, you'll have to cry out to God to remind you of these truths. One of the most interesting animals in the animal kingdom is a bird called the Albatross. The Albatross has given his name to things that weigh us down. We speak of an Albatross around my neck or something. Albatross is not all that bad a bird. He just doesn't know how to land very well. When you get the Albatross landing on dry land, this is what it looks like. Let's run a video and show you what it looks like for an Albatross to try to land. Because of that kind of landing, and they all do that. They all do that. They all land when they fly in for a landing. They just like drunken sailors tumbling over and staggering around. They've gotten the nickname Gooney Birds because of that. I'm convinced that some of us here this morning probably feel like Gooney Birds. You feel like, man, that's the way I look in life. I stumble all over the place. I can't get it right. I keep failing. I have these ups and downs. What's going on, God? But you see, that's not really the full story of the Albatross. The Albatross is a majestic bird. But it stays most of its time over open water, over the sea. It will go for 18 months over open ocean and never, never land on ground. That's the reason it forgets how to do it, I guess. But it will never land to 18 months. It's a majestic bird. It has the largest wingspan of any bird. 11 feet when it spreads those majestic wings. It is a marvel to behold. But here's the thing about the Albatross. It needs heavy winds to be able to get those wings functioning right and to be able to stay aloft for hours on end because it will ride those currents and just float with a huge wingspan. And it needs not just gentle sea breezes. It needs gale-force storm winds because that's what enables it to fly and to stay aloft and not have to land even in the water. In fact, if it did not have those kind of gale-force winds, it would never make its migratory journey to where it mates and produces offspring every year. And the whole species would collapse. You see, the Albatross looks crazy landing on land, but it's not made for land. It is made to fly and to fly in storms. My friend, you were not made to struggle and flounder on this earth with trials and problems. When they come your way, they're like the storm winds, the gale winds. God made you to fly. God made you to lift those wings up and out and to soar to be all that He meant you to be, to become more like Christ, to be lifted up, to be more like Him, so that you can soar through the storms of life and not flounder on land like you are now. God made you to be an Albatross, not a Goodybird. He made you to be an Albatross, a majestic child of God who reflects his glorious image and needs the strong gale-force winds to make it through life to be more like Him. God will continue teaching Moses this lesson. My prayer for you and for me this morning is that it will continue teaching us that lesson and that we will listen and learn. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the story of Moses. Thank you for the encouragement we have from your word. And all that Moses went through and how he looked to you and trusted you and asked even in desperation for your help, your understanding. Oh God, drive us to yourself when we are in times of trial and difficulty. Help us to see you, who you are, what you promised. Help us not to flounder on this earth but to soar to the heights of being more like you through trial. We ask in Jesus' name amen.