“Stand Still Before the Lord”

**INTRODUCTION 

Hello and welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” My name is Bret McCasland. There are many times in my life when I feel overwhelmed. Things happen which appear to be too great for me to handle. For example, I sometimes have too many commitments and obligations, or I experience lots of challenges and obstacles for which there seem to be no answers. Sometimes you might find yourself in similar situations, and I guess that's just part of life. Well, in those times, we need help. We need some solutions. We try to come up with a plan or some answers on our own, and yet we don't seem to get very far. There is something, however, we may tend to overlook; that is, our Father in heaven, who is more than able to provide what we need. On “Key to the Kingdom,” today, we will look at some stories from the Bible about people who felt overwhelmed. They did not know what to do in the midst of some challenging times; and in each case, they were told to stand still before the Lord. That is some really good advice; not only when we feel overwhelmed by life, but when we simply need some solutions to the challenges we face. I hope you will join us for this Bible study today, as we now open up our hearts and our Bibles to study together.

**LESSON

Have you ever felt as if your back was up against a wall? You found yourself in a situation and you don't know for sure how you got there and you don't know how, for sure, to get out of that situation. I suppose at one time or another we have all been in places and in situations like that. But what did you do when you found yourself in that situation? A number of years ago I read a book entitled “Don't Just Stand There Pray Something.” No doubt it was a good book. It was a book about the power of intercessory prayer. And no doubt there are times when we need to do just that. And yet there are also times when we need to just stand there. There are times when we are to simply let God do His work and watch Him do it. One of the most reassuring thoughts I believe any of us can have is this: God knows my struggles and He already has a solution. And that's true, isn't it; that God is way ahead of you and me. God is already in place or putting together in place a plan for your life and for mine. For the next few minutes, I want us to look at three ways in which we are to just simply stand still and to watch God work. The first one is this: We are to stand still and allow God to deliver us from the disaster that is about to strike. In Exodus chapter 14, we read the story of the Israelites leaving out of Egyptian captivity. And as they're going out, they're excited about going into the Promised Land. But very soon they realize they can't go any further because the Red Sea stands in the way. And they look back behind them and recognize that the Egyptian soldiers are after them and they are between, what we might say, a rock and a hard place. They don't know what to do. Well, here's what happened. After the people have cried out to Moses and Moses has cried out to the Lord, here's what takes place in verses 13-14. <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 see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to stand still.”> They were in a bad situation. And Moses, by the voice of God, told the people, just stand still and watch God work. And indeed, God did the rest. In verse 15, we find these words.<”Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”> Well, the time for crying out to God was over. God had a plan. They couldn't see the outcome of it, but He said just start moving forward. And that's what they did. And with that, God, as we know, parted the waters. The people walked across on dry land, and then the waters came on top of the Egyptian soldiers as they began to do the very same thing. But it was only when they stood still before the Lord could the people hear God say move forward. And with that, they escaped disaster. In Isaiah chapter 43, we find something similar. God told His prophet to share with the people, who were in Babylonian captivity, a very reassuring message. And here's what he told them in chapter 43, beginning with verse 1. <“Thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass thru the waters, I will be with you; and thru the rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk thru fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you…;”> These people were frustrated. They did not know what was going to happen in the future. They even felt as if God had abandoned them in the midst of their captivity. And so Isaiah says the rivers and the waters and the flames and the fire are really no match for the Lord. Whatever appears to be so overwhelming in their lives, God said, I've got this covered. And why is that? Because He reminded them through His prophet, I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. I know who you are. I see the situation in your life. You are mine. You belong to Me, and I, in essence, belong to you. You know, the very same reassurances Isaiah gave to those people then are reassurances we can count on, still today. God sees us. He formed us. He created us. He redeems us. He calls us by our name. And when we go through the floods and the fires, when we go through all of the flames and the rivers and everything else that seems to be so overwhelming in our life, we know that God is still with us all the time. We might think about the four D’s; maybe you remember these, disaster, disease, divorce and death. Those are overwhelming things, no matter who we are. And even in the midst of those overwhelming and problematic things, we know that the Lord is watching over us and cares for us. And so the first thing we might consider today is that we are to stand still and allow God to deliver us from the disaster that is about to strike. Here's a second thing: We are to stand still and allow God to show us the error of our ways. In 1st Samuel, the Israelites cried out for a king. They wanted to be like all of the other nations around them. They wanted a king to rule over them. Well, God's prophet, Samuel, told the king, that's not going to work. You're not going to like it. And chapter 8 said that king will not help you, but rather he will harm you. He will take from you your children. He will take from you your servants. He will take from you your animals, your livestock and everything, and you will be left with nothing. That did not faze the people. They continued to cry out to God for a king to rule over them; and so, God finally gave them a king. And sure enough, it did not work out very well. But yet God was in the midst of that, and He provided a solution. Well, toward the end of Samuel's work with the people, he gave somewhat of a farewell speech to them, in chapter 12. He retold the stories how God had intervened and saved them through all of those bad decisions and the demands that they made from God. And he encouraged them to continually and faithfully follow King Saul, whom God had placed before them as the king. And even though that did not make sense, God still had a plan for them. And in that message, in the 12th chapter, there are two places where Samuel tells the people to simply stand still before the Lord. Here are these words from verse 7. <“Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that He performed for you and for your fathers.”> And then verse 16: <"Now therefore, stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes."> Samuel's message to the people was quite simple: Stand still and watch God work. Stand still and trust in His power to deliver you out of captivity, out of all of those problems, out of those bad situations where you feel as if you are held captive by a mean and ungodly ruler. And sure enough, that is exactly what took place. In spite of their prideful spirit in demanding a king, the Lord worked through all of that to bring about something good. They remained faithful to the Lord, the Lord God placed before them another king; and that was much better. They simply stood still. And that's the message again, for us to consider today. When we recognize that we have some sin in our life, some problems. We are doing things that are against God's Word. We're demanding from Him something that is not good for us. God's going to show us, perhaps in some very difficult ways, that His way is best, and He's still going to love us. He will still take care of and protect us, but we are to stand still and see what God is going to do with us, to put us on the right track. There's another story along that very line. It's found in Acts chapter 9. There we read about a man named Saul who is persecuting Christians. He was going from house to house, from place to place, beating and abusing, perhaps even putting put to death those who are following Jesus Christ. One day, as he was traveling on the road to Damascus, a great light from heaven shined down upon him. It knocked him to the ground. Those men who were with him saw all of that; they were there as well. And on that occasion, God said I want you to get up and I want you to change directions. What you have been doing in the past, you were working against Me and not working with Me, but now I have a new plan and a new direction for your life. You know, God basically told Saul to get up. You've been knocked to your knees, get up, and I have a new direction for you. Well, sure enough, Saul later became the Apostle Paul, and he did great things for the cause of Jesus Christ. And we find many of those stories there in the middle part of the Book of Acts. Well, toward the end of Saul's life, or Paul's life, in Acts chapter 26, he is standing on trial before the king, and he retells part of this story from his own perspective, of what happened back on that occasion in Acts chapter 9; that this is what God told him: <"Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of Me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”> As Paul recounts that story, he remembers how God told him to get up, to stand before the Lord. Saul at that time was fully aware of the sin in his life, the mistakes he had made. And now God was telling him, you have a new direction. Stand still. Listen to these words. I'm going to give you a new purpose and direction; and that was to turn many people from darkness to the light of Jesus Christ. God does the same thing with us, on occasion; maybe not such in a dramatic way, as with Saul, here in the 9th chapter, but by His grace He forgives our sin. We recognize we made a mistake; we stumble, we fall, we sin, we fall short of God's glory. And yet, God never gives up on us. His grace is always sufficient for us. He gets us back on our feet. And now we have a new purpose and a new direction for our life. We have a hope, just like Paul had. He had a hope of a better life in his service to the Lord. The third thing, well, first of all let me just summarize again. The second thing is that we are to stand still and allow God to show us the error of our way. And so that leads us to the third thing, and that is we are to stand still and allow God to defeat the enemies in our life. The Old Testament Book called 2nd Chronicles, in chapter 20, we find a story about a king, the King of Judah. His name is Jehoshaphat. And the King was ruling over God's people, but they really did not like all of that. They were frustrated. They were trying to deal with all the problems in their life; and that stemmed from the foreign nations all around them. All the foreign nations had a king that was very powerful, and they had armies that were very powerful. And the armies and the people there in Judah were no match for all of those foreign armies. And so the king recognizes that. Jehoshaphat prays to God for help and for deliverance, because he doesn't know what to do with that situation. He offers this prayer, in chapter 20, beginning in verse 12: <“We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." And all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord…;”> The people of Judah were wise enough to recognize they had no power to stand against the foreign armies. And so the king said, Lord, we don't know what to do, but we're going to wait upon you. And so every man, woman and child stood there before the Lord, and they waited to see what God was going to do on their behalf. How would He defeat those enemies? How would He deliver them from those foreign influences, which were no good for them? And as they were standing before the Lord and waiting, a prophet from God, by the name of Jahaziel, spoke these words in verse 15: <“Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s."> And then verse 17 <“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.”> Those must have been some very comforting words for those people. To hear the prophet of God say this battle doesn't belong to you, but rather it belongs to the Lord. You're never going to see these people again. You're going to watch the deliverance of God. There's no need for you to be afraid. No need for you to be discouraged. But go out and watch God work. And no doubt they may have been a little bit anxious and nervous about going out in front of all of these foreign armies, wondering what's going to happen. But once they did, once they obeyed the voice of the Lord, He responded and blessed them in a very powerful way, as all of those enemies were defeated. You know, those are some of the very same comforting words we can hear today. As we face the enemies in our life, we are to realize this is God's battle and I'm going to watch God work. I am going to see His deliverance on my behalf. Here's one final story that relates to standing still and watching God do His work against the enemies in our life. It is found in Joshua chapter 6. As the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Joshua was the leader. He was leading them into that land to conquer and take possession of it. And the first place God sends Joshua is to a place called Jericho. And as they get to Jericho they recognize that the people are like giants. They are powerful. They are mighty in number, and they are far superior to the small group of these Israelites going in to take possession. And those people must have thought, well, why is God bringing us to this point? There's no way we can take charge and defeat this enemy. Surely we will be defeated. But that wasn't the case at all. Listen to these words in chapter 6 and verse 2; they come from God: <“See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.”> Before Joshua and the people even arrived on the scene, God had already solved the solution, or solved the problem. And God wanted Joshua and the people to see Him. He said, “See, I have provided.” God wanted the people to see that He was powerful enough to defeat that army. They did not have to worry. They did not have to fret or be concerned about what was going to take place, as long as their eyes were upon Him. And sure enough, Joshua and all the people did that, and God brought about a great deliverance, as the people began to make their way into that Promised Land. Some of us might have a few enemies in our life. We may or may not even know it. They may be in the form of difficult people with whom we live, with whom we work, or in various other situations in our life. We struggle to know how to deal with those difficult people. We see them as great big armies and enemies in our life, and we need help. And I understand that. But the best thing that we can do is the very same thing God told the people to do, and that is to keep our eyes focused on Him. We are to see the Lord. We are to remember the battle belongs to Him. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, we find these words: <“Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint…;”> For all of those who wait upon the Lord, for all of those who stand still before God, for all of those who are willing to trust Him enough to defeat the enemies and to provide the victories in our life, good things happen. Our strength is renewed. We are able to run and not be weary and tired. We're able to move ahead in our life because we know that God always provides. Several years ago, I went through some very hard and difficult times in my life. I was in a situation I had never been in before and I did not know for sure how to respond to it. Oh, I did everything I knew to solve the problem. I made some changes and I made some adjustments. I did everything within my power and in my mind to get out of that bad situation. But it wasn't until a friend came along and told me this: There’s nothing you can do to fix it. Then I realized indeed he was right. And more than ever, on that occasion, I needed to simply stand still before the Lord and watch God work in my life. When you find yourself in what seems to be an impossible situation, when you realize there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it, when the enemy stands strong against you, when you are dealing with some sin in your life, maybe it's time that you simply stand still before the Lord God Almighty and allow Him to work out a solution in your life. And I hope that you will do just that.

**VIDEO CLIP

There are times when I see a sunrise to the east or a sunset to the west, and I pause and think about the Lord. I think about Him creating the sun, as it rises, as it sets. I think about the creation, the skies above the seas and everything that lives, and that flies and that swims. And I think about the greatness of God. And sometimes I just go right on with my life and don't even consider such things. But I believe it's important for us to pause and to consider the greatness of God, to think about what He has done and the goodness of God and how He blesses us, time and time again; all of the good things that happen in this world in which we live, and the privileges and the blessings we enjoy all the time. And sometimes it takes an intentional effort to simply pause and to be still before the Lord and to be reminded of His goodness. One thing I do from time to time is to look at the full moon. Every 28 days the full moon shows up. And I stand on my back porch, or flying an airplane, and I look out the window and I see that full moon and I'm reminded of God. Maybe you need to find something in your life, perhaps, that reminds you of the goodness of God, that impresses you in regards to His creation, a sunset or a sunrise, whatever it might be, to be still before the Lord, to drink in His goodness, to wait upon God and to enjoy His presence in your life. I encourage you today to be still before the Lord and to enjoy His goodness.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for being part of our Bible study today on “Key to the Kingdom.” It is good to know that the Lord sees us as we deal with the problems and challenges life presents. The Bible reminds us to stand still and to allow Him to solve our problems. If you would like to hear or to view this message again, you can do so through our website, keytothekingdom.com. Many other lessons are there as well, and they can all be downloaded in several different formats. There is never a cost or obligation to do so. Short devotional thoughts and videos are also available, and they are designed to encourage you on your daily walk with the Lord. Other information about this media ministry is available, and it too is absolutely free. It is always a pleasure to share these messages with you and I thank you for tuning in to this station every week. Please consider joining us again next time as we continue to study the Bible on “Key to the Kingdom.”