Today is a day that so many in the Washington DC metro area have been waiting for. Football Sunday. Both of our local teams are playing today, the Washington Red Skins and the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens game started at 1:00 pm and the Redskins game is later today. Both teams have done well this season and the fans are loving it.
People love football. At church today people were wearing their Baltimore Ravens jerseys and people where wearing purple, the team's color. Excitement was in the air. We were at church, and it was full to the brim. I think almost all of the 4,000 seats were taken. It may be because everybody wanted to get home to see the Ravens, but no matter the reason, Bishop Thomas was ready for the masses.
He took his text from Exodus chapters 13 and 14. Those chapters refer to when Moses lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt where they had been slaves. They had prayed for freedom and it had come, the only problem was, that freedom wasn't exactly what they thought it was going to be. The people of Egypt had suffered 10 plagues because they would not "let the people go" as God had commanded through Moses.
Can you imagine Moses a dirty tired shepherd , who was a murderer, demanding of Pharaoh to let his people go? Pharaoh was the wealthiest, most powerful ruler on the planet, he wasn't afraid of a man with a big stick and an invisible God. Well, ten plagues later Pharaoh and the people of Egypt changed their minds. The only thing is, once their slaves, their cash cows, the reason they were so rich were gone, they went after their slaves.
We are just like the children of Israel. We are slaves to people, things or habits in our lives, and we ask for freedom. Once we have our freedom, we have to realize that there's going to be a fight after that victory. We can lose our victory due to doubt. When the people of Israel saw Pharaoh's army behind them they turned on Moses and made him the bad guy. Wrong response. All they had to do was trust God. If God got them out of Egypt, he had want it took to get them into the Promised Land. They just didn't know how he was going to do it. He did not tell them because they would not have believed him. They would not have believed him because their minds were too small at the time. They would not have been able to handle the limitless power of God.
We may be just like the Israelites, but we can learn from their mistakes. We can have the right reaction. We can choose to stay calm and trust God. He has our backs. Even in football, the team members have each other's back. No one player can win the game alone. Each position has a job to do. It is the coach that decides which player has what position and how that person is to perform in that position. There is the defense and the offense.
As Christians we play way too much defense Christianity, God has put us on the offense, that is the only way to score a touch down, unless the defense pulls off an interception, which is possible, but that is not how most football games are won. We are the offense, we make plays that God has given us to win, and he protects us because he is our defense. He's got our back, and sides, and any where else he needs to cover us. All we have to do is trust him.
Bible Verse
Exodus 14:14
New International Version (NIV)
14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
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