VN520514 6-18-17 Doyle

Mark 11:23-24. Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” Notice the way that reads especially here in the New American Standard. It says, “Does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen.” What he says is going to happen. Now, just right previous to this Jesus had cursed the fig tree and it didn’t shrivel immediately. It took to the next day and they found it all shriveling up and dying and all that stuff. So, it’s not always an immediate thing, I want to point that out. He says but it is going to happen. If you speak to the mountain without a doubt it is going to happen and that’s just saying what?

When I get to that it’s always like, say what God? What did you say Jesus? What about, God, what about all this other stuff? What about church attendance, perfect church attendance? What about worship? Don’t we have to be there worshipping all the time? What about having those Bible studies, and what about prayer? And what about best behavior? What about meeting on a certain day and on and on? You’ll notice that there is never an end to the word and. Well, you need to do this AND that. Well, it hasn’t happened immediately right now. Well, then you need to do AND another thing and we can keep adding all these add-ons, all these ands, we can keep putting them there, but Jesus just said bluntly, you speak to that mountain. You don’t doubt in your heart. Now, He is speaking to His disciples. He’s not speaking to the world in general out there, to His disciples, that would be us. If you say to this mountain without a doubt be gone it will be moved. It will be moved. I’m not giving you a time schedule but it says it will be moved.

Now, I would like to take us back to some events to bring us up on this kind of stuff. This is an event that happened. It is pre-Mosaic law. That’s pre 10 commandments. So, this event that we’re going to talk about is an event that took a period under a covenant of grace, God’s favor. Not a legal one. Not the legal one that Moses chiseled into the stone, but rather before Moses chiseled that this is what happened. Moses goes down. He’s minding his own business. He’s st, st, st. I would stutter too if God said Doyle, I want you to go free my people from Egypt. St, st, st. I’m stuttering. I would sound like Abbott and Lou Costello. I would stutter. You want me to? Nn-nn. If I’m not going to stay in a 4 star hotel I don’t want to go anywhere and that’s the way I would approach it at that point, but God said to him I want you to go down there. Now, after we know all the plagues happened and it came upon that last evening God said, this is the Passover, this is where it gets started, I want you to go and put the blood on the doorway of your house. That was what was asked. That’s what Moses said to do, put the blood on the doorway. He never said I want you to say a prayer. He never said I want you to have a Bible study afterwards. He never said I want you to gather the family and have a worship service, I want you to have church, I want you to have a pipe organ or whatever they had at that time, I want you to have music.

All he said was put the blood on the doorway, sit down and eat and get ready to move. Put the blood on the doorway, sit down and eat, get ready to move. What can we take from this event? We are New Testament people. We are under grace and we are under a blood covenant also. This was a blood covenant. They put the blood on that doorway that God would spare them, death would pass over them. He gives us the same kind of conditions. Our blood is the blood of Jesus Christ. We celebrate that at the Lord’s Supper where He said this is the blood of the covenant. This is My blood that was shed. This is, this is what makes it a blood contract and He says for us we’ve got the same basic idea. Plead the blood of Jesus, trust in the blood of Jesus and then get ready to move on. Don’t just plead the blood of Jesus and think you’re going to sit still. When you plead the blood of Jesus eat something because you’ve got to have some nourishment for the trial. I don’t want to use trial. I want to use the word trail that you’re going to have to trod upon. I want you to know you’re going to be moving. You’re not going to be static. You’re going to be moving forward, and it’s not always literal like these guys got up and actually started walking, but we are to trust in the blood of Jesus. We’re to take that nourishment and say now I am going to start advancing because I have believed in the blood of Jesus. Here in Exodus, now this part I do want to read. Exodus 14. I’m going to read verses 10 through 18. They have had the Passover. The Pharaoh told them to leave. They headed out. Then Pharaoh changed his mind.

Verse 10. “As Pharaoh drew near,” he decided to go after them, “the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then 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.’ But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.'” That would be hard for me to do, keep silent. Anyway, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.’”

We all know what happens. He told Moses, Moses, why are you talking to me about this. Stand up, part the Red Sea, use your staff, hold it over it, tell it to part and then the kids will go across it, and once you’re doing it I will be honored because the Egyptians are going to find out even though they’ve got an army, they’ve got Pharaoh and they’ve got chariots, they’re going to find out who is in control of this situation. So, there he was. Moses was looking at this situation. The children of Israel were crying out to him saying what in the world are you doing? You brought us out here. We were better as slaves because now we’re going to die. At least there we were going to live a little longer but now we came out here and we’re going to die out here in this no-man’s land. The army is out there to get us. There’s a sea in front of us. Where are we going to flee? What are we going to do? Thanks very much Moses, and Moses basically said to shut up. Just, just stand still and shut up. Now, Moses could see the same thing. He’s looking at the army that’s behind him. Whew, a lot of people there. A Pharaoh and a lot of chariots. They’re coming towards us. He looks ahead of them and he says there’s the sea. I don’t see that as the way of escape. Just stand still. He talks to God.

Hey, God, you know, here we are. We’re kind of trapped and You are kind of the one that brought us out here. What are we going to do? And what does God say? He said worship. No. He said behave yourself. No. He said I want you to have a Bible study right now. No. He basically said Moses, raise up your staff, speak to that sea and split it. Now go through it and the children will do it and you’re going to see Me honored because you’re never going to see these Egyptians again. He didn’t tell them to do anything except speak to it and get ready to go through it because it’s going to move. Why are you crying to Me He said, and basically that’s where we are, back to Mark 11:23-24. He said speak to that mountain. There’s a time that we’re supposed to be praying and church attending and all that stuff, but when we get ourselves into some hard core situation that really looks like it’s not going to be a good situation then He says to us speak to it. Don’t waste your time dilly-dallying. You should have already had your prayers all prayed up. You should have had your Bible studies all done. You’re in a situation now where you need to step forward and speak to your situation and yes, folks, there are times we do need to do that, and sometimes quite literally we, sometimes we need to hear other people speak to our situation too. I’m sure I’ve told you before this one girl I was talking to felt very guilty about everything. She said oh, everybody is judging me and I feel condemned and blah blah blah blah blah, and I just looked at her and I spoke to her situation. You are forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ has washed away your sin. Get over it. You are forgiven. There, now you heard it. Did you have to hear it from somebody?

She looked like I just slapped her upside the head. Later she said you know, I really did need to hear somebody say that, and her attitude toward her past life had changed, and her attitude toward other people changed. She didn’t skulk around and go oh, geez, I can’t go to church because they all know me. They’re all going to think bad things. It was my sins are forgiven. The only one that brings my sins up to me is the devil. He is the accuser and I’m not going to listen to him. I’m not going to let him pound me back into a situation. It didn’t look like her idea of going to a church was the proper way to go, but there was this speaking to the situation and from then on she became a person who could go to church freely and openly at any church she ever wanted to go to from then on. Still does go to the church. I’m just saying that sometimes we look trapped. The devil, the accuser, the things that we think are so bad is behind us and that’s where it goes. Did you know the things that are in our past they are dead? We can’t change them. It’s dead. Our past is dead. Did you know our present is dying because here it is, it’s past, it’s gone, it’s dead. It’s past, it’s gone, it’s dead. There can be no changing of it. The only thing we’ve got is our future ahead of us and it looks like a sea is there in front of us, or a mountain is there in front of us, something that is impossible, something that is impassable, and God says speak to it and it will move out of the way and you keep moving forward because that mountain will be plucked up and thrown into the sea. It will crumble, it will fall flat.

Every valley shall be filled and every mountain shall be brought low. It’s just meaning that God will put before us a straight way. Now, to make this more practical especially on this day and I hope I can clarify how this can be practical. Men, you’re being picked on today. Men, you can say to me but, Pastor Doyle, you don’t know the problem I have. The thing that’s insurmountable in my life is not a mountain, it’s not an ocean, it’s not a sea, it’s nothing physical. What is impossible to me is my family. My family is what I see as impossible. Here is a bit of scripture. It’s 1 Corinthians 11:7. The very last phrase of that verse says, “but the woman is the glory of man.” Okay? If you’re standing there or I’m standing there with the family and I’m going oh, the family is what’s the problem God says, “but the woman is the glory of man.” How does this play here? The church is the glory of Jesus Christ. The woman, the wife is the glory of the man. Jesus shines His love down on His church. If you’re having major issues let me ask you this question men. Have you been shining on your wife? Have you been shining on the lady of your life? Are you glowing forth on her? Because if you remember, I remember when I dated, whew, a long time ago, when I was dating I was oh, yeah, she’s beautiful, she’s good looking, she’s witty, she’s smart, blah blah blah, and I was just like wow, and you know the girls I dated at that time were looking at me wow. I shined on them and they were shining back.

Now, as time went on I quit shining and they quit shining back, and then God answered my prayer and delivered me. Yes. Or maybe I should say God answered their prayer and delivered them. It goes either way but it’s my story so I’m telling it. The question is, men, are you shining on your wives? Are you shining on the ladies of your life? Are you glowing on them and letting them know how much you appreciate them. You say but Doyle, I said family. Right, okay, let’s bring it down to parents, are you shining on your kids or are you just always pick, pick, pick, bicker, bicker, bicker, focus on every little thing. Is there something that you’re jumping on them about? Is your jumping in proportion to what they have done? I know people that somebody can do something very small, and I mean nothing major, just a little bitty thing, and they can spend the next two to three weeks just coming back and hammering that one point. But they did that, they did that, they did that, they did that. I’m like let it go. Think about this. Your anger, your disgust, and the look at all the wonderful things in that person’s life and you’ve got this one little bitty thing like they cut you off in traffic. One little bitty thing going on and you hold that against them whenever they’ve done all this other wonderful stuff for you or other people and you know they’re really good people, but this time they… let it go.

Focus on all that good stuff out there. Shine on them and show them how much you appreciate them and they will start returning the shine back to you. Shine on your family. Speak to your wife. Shine on her. God speaks to His kids. You speak to your kids in a way that doesn’t belittle and condemn them. The Bible even says that in the New Testament. Paul says, “Father, do not provoke your children,” and I see a lot of fathers who think it’s funny to just sit there and keep pushing a kid until that kid just gets so aggravated and gets mad and then they’ll just laugh and think that’s funny, or they’ll say why did you get mad? Well, you can’t push in their button until they exploded. It’s your fault, but they can’t see it. Now, this is the way it should be done. First of all, in our lives, in your life whether you’re a guy or a girl, is God. Guys, the second place should go to the lady of your life and by extrapolation family. Number three that should be special in your life is sliced bread. This is the greatest thing since bread. Well, God is greater than slice bread, your wife and your family are greater than sliced bread so don’t put food up there. Put sliced bread at least number three. Shine on your kids, shine on your wife, shine on your family, shine on your parents. Rise up and call your mother blessed. Rise up and tell your dad how much you appreciate what he did and put up with you. You shine on him.

Here’s a story. I know another person and their family was not expressive and I was talking about this and so they started telling their mother who was older and has since passed away every time they would walk out the door they’d say goodbye, I love you. Goodbye, I love you. This was a shock to that lady’s system. After about six months the lady adjusted and she was telling the daughter uh-huh, see you later, I love you too. Then the other kids started coming in and that lady started saying to her kids reflexively, just knee-jerk goodbye, I’ll see you later, I love you. Those kids, the other siblings, were stunned because their mother was shining on them and then she started saying it to the nieces and nephews when they came in, and one of the nephews who was raised in the same kind of family, actually they were double cousins if I got the story right, had never heard that from his parents, his brothers, his sisters, his grandparents and when he got to the door and she said goodbye, I love you, he just stopped and he started crying because he said nobody in my family has ever told me that and it just made his day. Somebody in my family loves me. Even though you know it in your head say it out loud. Speak to the situation that seems impossible. If it’s your family speak to the family and start speaking words of encouragement and all that stuff will start pushing away and you keep after it because it will change.

If that is not the problem in your life and there is a literal mountain take that Bible literally and say mountain, you’re in my way. When I was down in Tennessee I heard of a church that had a mountain. They were needing to expand their parking lot but they had a mountain. Down in Tennessee in the east part you’ve got mountains. They had a mountain and they said, you know, we can’t park cars like this and the pastor said this is what the Bible says so they prayed and then they said mountain, be gone. Time passed. Time passed. A knock on the pastor’s door. A road company came and said listen, we’re getting ready to build a road and we will buy your mountain off of you, we will level it, and the guy said well, now, you know, it’s kind of our favorite mountain. It’s been there awhile. The guy said we’ll blacktop it. He said you’ve got a deal. Whether it’s true or not I do not know, but I know it’s a good story, but that’s the idea. When we’ve got a mountain in our life whether it’s our family, whether it’s employment, it doesn’t matter, it will come to us. We have to speak to it in faith believing because the Word of God says so, because we have prayed in the past. We have plead the blood is what we’ve actually done. That’s the basis and the fundamental issue. The reason the death angel passed over is it saw the blood. The reason God hears and answers our prayers is not because we’re good prayers, it’s not because I’m a good preacher, it’s not because we have great Sunday School teachers, it’s not because we have great choirs, it’s not because you all sing great, it’s not because you all even behave yourselves really well, or you’d better be behaving yourself because people will rat you out at the grocery store. I will hear about it.

But anyway, I’m just saying folks, it’s there but the reason God hears and answers our prayers is the blood of Jesus and that’s your basis to stand and to speak to that mountain. I plead the blood of Jesus. The situation that seems impassable stop right there. Get out of my way. I’m on the move. I’m going to go and eat me a Big Mac and then I’m coming back and I’m expecting this to be moved. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you are going to move out of my way. It has been determined because God said speak and it will be done.

Shall we pray? Father, in the name of Jesus I speak to the problems and the issues of this church as a congregation, and to the issues that these people are facing and myself as individuals. Mountain, get out of the way, and if it’s a sea they’re facing sea, dry up, split, get out of the way. Father, help us and lead us where You want us to go and then get us through the situations that seem impossible. Our past is dead, the present is dying, but our future is always right there with You. All glory and honor to You. Father, the baptismal today we ask that these kids that are going to be baptized will see and see the answer of this sermon and these prayers in their life, that they will have good lives and they’ll be able to say I remember. I remember the day I was prayed for at Glenwood Church and those people believed God. Therefore, I am going to be blessed always, always, always. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.