Tri-State District Campmeeting
by Steve Smith
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Exodus 14:8-13, Isaiah 61:1-2, Luke 4:18-19, Exodus 1, Exodus 11:3, Exodus 38, Exodus 12:35-36, Exodus 3:21-22, Isaiah 61:7, Exodus 14:19-31, Exodus 15:20-21

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/steve-smith--tri-state-district-campmeeting-7
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I invite your attention to Exodus 14 beginning with verse number eight while you're turning there let me say how grateful my family and I are for all of your tremendous Hospitality uh the comfortable rooms tremendous Hospitality basket the great meals brother Vickers gave me a text of what he's done to lose weight I I'm going to have to get out of trate before I apply most of that uh I don't know that Memphis is much better but it's it's going to take some discipline thank you so much thank you for the leadership uh of this District as it's already been said and the national leaders I want to give a shout out to brother Roger gray um love brother gray he was the man who hired D sister Smith at headquarters and so uh she loves it's a passion of hers and you had a hand in that I thank you for that and also want to give a shout out to a dear friend of mine who is here tonight uh Pastor Jolly from flintville Tennessee also Pastors in Lynchburg Tennessee uh he and his sons are here would you help me welcome him to the tri state camp meeting glad you're here my friend now I feel like I need to give a disclaimer before we get started tonight um toward the end of tonight's service you're going to have the opportunity to participate in worship with little tambourines that you could take home now I've been informed that I was mistaken until I got here I thought I was the pastor who hated tambourines in the church more than anybody else I've been told that Bishop M outranks me on that so my oldest son is graduating from law school next year I had him read over this fake legal disclaimer and he said it would work for fake legal disclaimer by obtaining one of these tambourines I hereby agree to take said tambourine off of the property tonight and to never take it to your local church unless your pastor asked you to do so so if you can't agree with that don't get one of them just leave them right here and we'll see what God does in this room tonight Exodus 14 beginning with verse number 8 going through verse 13 and the Lord hardened the heart of pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued after the children of Israel and the children of Israel went out with a high hand as you already know we're a family of smack talkers and the Bible just takes it to another level boy I'm going to beat you with a high hand you know you going to play basketball I'm I'm going to beat you with a high hand but the egyp Ians pursued after them all the horses and Chariots of pharaoh and his Horsemen and his army and overtook them and camping by the Sea verse number 10 and when Pharaoh Drew nigh the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians marched after them and they were sore afraid and the children of Israel Cried Out unto the Lord and they said unto Moses because there were no graves in Egypt have thou taken us away to die in the wilderness wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt is this not the word that we did tell thee in Egypt saying let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness and Moses said unto the people fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the the Lord which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today ye shall see them again no more forever I want to talk to you for a little while tonight on four dimensions of Deliverance you know the drill by now turn to three people smile as big as you could smile smile so big they could see your tonsils or where they used to be and say four dimensions of Deliverance let's ask God to anoint our time together in his word God you've been so good to us during this entire camp meeting you have met us in every service and God we expect you to do the same you've already done it tonight and we know that you've met us here your word is Anointed but we pray that you will anoint our time together in your word god iind anything that is unlike you in the name of Jesus and I pray that your word will have its perfect work we will give you praise and honor and glory for what you're about to do in this room in the name of Jesus we pray why don't you put your hands together and give God praise for what he's about to do in this room and you may be seated four dimensions of Deliverance on the west side of the Hudson River just 12 miles north of the town where where we lived in New York set Stony Point Battlefield on this piece of land a battle was fought during the Revolutionary War while this conflict was not immediately significant to the outcome of the war it Illustrated to the world the prowess and bravery of American troops and served as a much-needed morale boost for the young American Army who had just come out of Valley Forge General Anthony Wayne the commander of this expedition was determined to capture Stony Point or die Trine he was nicknamed Mad Anthony Wayne because of his passion and bravery in battle an hour before the assault Wayne wrote a letter to a friend saying this will not reach you until the writer is no more asking his friend to look after his children he wrote that he would be eating breakfast either with the Enemy behind the Enemy Lines in Triumph or in another world a British musketball hit Wayne in the head as the battle began he fell to the ground wounded the ball had luckily only grazed his head I wrote this before last Saturday and though bloody and dazed he cried march on Boys carry me into the fort for should the wound be mortal I will die at the head of the column the American troops won a decisive battle that day largely fought hand to hand and with bayonets as a Victorious and bloody Wayne was carried into Stony Point a cheer went up among the American troops Wayne quickly jotted a note to General George Washington he wrote the fort and Garrison are ours our officers and Men behaved like men who are determined to be free I am convinced that the brave are rarely bound and the fearful are seldom free if you and I are going to live in the four dimensions of deliverance we must act like people determined to be free Liberty may make you free but make no mistake it will cost you everything bondage is free but freedom is expensive you can be a captive with absolutely no effort yet Deliverance only comes to the Brave the passionate and the determined but I want to declare to you this evening that it is God's plan it is his hope it is his desire for all of us to live in Freedom he has provided everything that we need to live above Temptation depression and abuse God is a god of emancipation he is a god of Deliverance and freedom we used to sing he that the son has set free is free indeed no more chains of slavery truth has triumphed with Liberty he that the son has set free is free indeed Jesus echoed the words of Isaiah 61 which declared in Luke 4 the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach Deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at Liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord God still heals broken hearts hallah God still restores blind eyes he still opens prison doors he's a pain taker a way maker he is a chainbreaker you don't have to live in bondage God is the god of [Applause] Freedom there are at least three reasons why we find ourselves in situations where we need spiritual Deliverance one is addictive behaviors second is abusive relationships and third are adverse circumstances addictive behaviors are caused by us abusive relationships are done to us yet adverse circumstances can be caused by us done to us or orchestrated by God sometimes we find ourselves in adverse circumstances because God led us into a situation that he never intended for us to stay in Exodus 1 declares that God LED 70 Israelites into the land of Egypt 430 years later roughly two million Jews marched out of Egypt loaded down with unspeakable wealth God intended for them to enter Egypt but he never intended for them to stay there he simply used Egypt as a safe place for Jacob's family to grow into a mighty nation in like manner there are times when God leads us into places for our advancement for our promotion and for our growth sometimes these places are Pleasant other times they are painful but the purpose of the process is always growth Jacob entered into Heron as a broke destitute lonely individual running for his life 20 years later he leaves Heron with a large family and great wealth prepared to face his past in other words God led him to Heron but what happened to Jacob in Heron didn't need to stay in Heron he came out with a large family and with great wealth God led the children of Israel into Egypt but what happened in Egypt didn't have to stay in Egypt God brought them out with a high hand they entered a hungry family of nomadic herdsmen and they left a multitude loaded down with gold and silver and all kinds of wealth it is God's intention to bring us out into deliverance and typically we only recognize and celebrate one dimension of Deliverance but God intends for us to walk in all four dimensions of Deliverance the one that we celebrate is when God releases us from what is holding us captive the children of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years they weren't in slavery the whole time in fact it was pretty good for quite a while until there was a king that arose that did not know Joseph some commentators believe that they were in slavery for the last 86 to 116 years of their time in Egypt 86 to 116 years ago from today is is between 1908 to 1938 there are people in this room here today who were born during that time period that's long enough for three to four generations of people to have all been born into slavery their forefathers had been free in fact their forefathers had been highly favored because of Joseph but all they had known is bricks whips and taskmasters and then the Lord said I will I have surely seen the oppression of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows God said I see your oppression I hear your cries and I know your pain let me tell every individual in this room if you are caught in a cycle of addictive behavior if you are chained to an abusive relationship if you are trapped in an adverse circumstance God sees your oppression God hears your cry and God knows your pain Bishop Don Johnson sang it well when he said from the depths of the pit I tried so hard but I couldn't touch him there in my despair I cried so loud yet it seemed he did not hear me lost and undone full of sin and so corrupt God's hand reached further down than I could reach up if you are in an indictive relationship if you are in an addictive habit and abusive relationship if you are in an adverse circumstance God wants to release you from that in this place tonight that's what we celebrate and we should if you were ever addicted and anymore thank God we celebrate that if you ever in an abusive situation and you're released from it thank God if you were ever in a an adverse circumstance and you really thank God but but that's typically all we celebrate God said there's three more things I want you to move into the second is God not only wants You released he wants you respected for 86 to 116 years they had been enslaved all of their lives they were considered worthless valueless no bodies all they could remember was being teased taunted and tortured did you ever say as a kid sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me you hadn't said that in a while have you you know why because it's just not true your body will heal much crooker than your mind and your emotion the physical pain we will will will be long gone but the emotional pain May last a life lifetime over 80 years of slavery but Exodus 11:3 says and the lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of his people one translation says the Lord has caused the Egyptians to respect the Israelites and both the king's officers and the Egyptian people could considered Moses to be a great man so we've got this group of people that have been the butt of every joke for 80 plus years and now God is not only about to release them but he has made sure that they are respected I've got to believe that if they're teenage boys in that time that they've got posters of Moses up in their tent bedroom I mean there if they've got baseball cards they've got one of Moses look here I've got one they they are respected when we are in an adverse Circumstance the last thing we are thinking of is that we will ever be respected we just want out of the mess that we're in but subconsciously we believe that we will always be seen like we are right now that people always view us the way we are right now but God I think through the scripture says I want to lift you higher than just releasing you I want to take you to a level of respect where people people don't see you the way you used to be but they see you for who you are now I once pastored a young lady in New York who was trapped in a cycle of of immorality but God released her and gave her a beautiful family and transform transformed promiscuity into Purity to my knowledge she's never told her story I wished I could tell her story because where God has taken and her family now is just amazing another day a few years later another young lady came to me who was always also struggling with the lustful lifestyle and I recommended that she go talk to the original young lady and she said oh no Pastor I could never go talk to her she would never understand what I'm going through and I smiled and inwardly said you have no idea baby but God has just turned this God has the ability have turned grains into Gardens bones into armies Seas into highways he turns mourning into dancing Beauty for Ashes he turns shame into Glory he is the only one who can God wants you not only released but he wants you respected but you don't know what they've said about me you have no idea how they've lied about me you cannot even imagine how they have trashed my name listen if you hear nothing else I say tonight time will always prove you right if your attitude doesn't prove you wrong they tried to bury you they just didn't know you were seed they might have put dirt on you but seeds grow in that environment God Wants You respected he wants you to a level beyond what you could ever imagine but he not only wants others to respect you he wants you to respect yourself roll the clock ahead several chapters to Exodus 38 and you see as they are constructing the instruments and the furniture for the Tabernacle they get to the Brazen labor and they make the Brazen labor from the mirrors from the women who served outside the Gate of the Tabernacle I think that is so awesome because every time that priest would go to that Brazen altar which is not which is not just a place to pray it's a place to die and then he would make his way of that Brazen labor to wash the blood of the sacrifice off all of his years he had looked into a Looking Glass and seen a slave every time he had looked into a mirror he saw somebody that was in Chains and in bondage but God said for the rest of your life I want you to look at yourself through the water and through the blood I don't want you to look at yourself what you think about yourself you look through the water and you look through the blood you look at yourself through what I have done for you I don't only want you to released I want you to be [Applause] respected the Bible gives us a couple of great examples of people that he turned their life around for one guy he didn't change his name we we hear this there was a book years ago written about this little obscure prayer in first chonicles the prayer of Jaz but Jaz his whole motivation was that what he was named that he will cause pain would not become a prophecy in his life all those things that we prayed about all those things that we went to God and we we mimicked his prayer God I pray that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory that your hand would be on me and that you would keep me from Evil all of those things really weren't his prayer request his prayer request was that I may not cause pain I was said to be somebody that created pain everywhere I go but God I'm asking you if you do all these things for me I don't want my name to be a self-fulfilling prophecy and the scripture says and God granted him his request I don't know what they've named you I don't know what they've called you in the past it doesn't matter what others said about you what matters is what he says about you and if your name means you're going to cause pain he will answer your request and turn it around the second name that we can look at that we all are very familiar with is the name of Jacob now if your name is Jacob in this place in 2024 it means cool dude it means awesome guy it means but in the Bible it means you can't tell the truth if you tried to I worked for a guy one time the only way you could tell he was lying was if his lips were moving I mean he would lie when it'd be easier to tell the truth that was Jacob and yet Jacob had a wrestling match with God and God changed his name from liar to Prince with God it doesn't matter how they view you today it matters what the future is not only wants You released but he also wants you respected we can't even wrap our mind around the third dimension of Deliverance but it is it is so powerful matter of fact I'm not so sure it wasn't part of God's method and part of his motivation for why he delivered the children of Israel the way that he did he not only wants You released and respected he also wants you rewarded there there's some people people in this room that are going through stuff right now the enemy is hitting you at every side but the word of God tells us that he will reward us for our difficult Seasons Exodus 12 now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver articles of gold and clothing and the Lord had given the people favor the sight of the Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested thus they plundered the Egyptians oh we think it's just deliverance and bondage but really it's Warfare you you don't plunder something that you don't defeat and so God said I have defeated them I want you to plunder them this wasn't something God just created on the moment in the SP of the moment back in Exodus 3 when he called Moses he said look I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall be when you go that you shall not go empty-handed but every woman shall ask her neighbor namely of her that dwells near her house articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing and you shall put them on your sons and your daughters so you shall plunder the Egyptians God is saying you've gone through some stuff but it's not enough to celebrate being released I also want you to be respected and I'm going to reward you for your difficult times so much so your babies are going to walk out of that land of of bondage in into the promised land and they're going to be loaded down with gold and silver they will be loaded down with the things that I have for them if you look at history we talk about Egypt being one of the greatest world greatest nations of that time it has never been since that day God plundered them God brought them to their knees and they have never come up again in 2003 the dean of a law school in one of Egypt's universities was planning to sue all the Jews of the world for stealing quote from the Egyptians gold jewelry cooking utensils silver ornaments clothing and more leaving Egypt in the middle of the night with all this wealth that today is priceless he went on to say if we assume that the weight of what was stolen was one ton doubled every 20 years even at an annual interest rate of only 5% he said one pure one time of pure gold after 1,000 years would be 1,125 trillion tons of gold and this is only for one stolen ton he said the stolen gold is actually estimated he said at 300 tons and it was not stolen for 1,000 years but at the time of this suit it was for 5,758 years according to the Jewish Reckoning he said that he got all of his statistics from Exodus 35 which details the gold and the other materials needed for the Tabernacle but one Rabbi said the boy just didn't know his history because the Talman tells of precisely such a claim lodged over 2,000 years ago in a world Court presided over by none other than Alexander the Great and the story is recorded that one man responded to the Jews on the Jews behalf and a paraphrase of the excerpt is like this he said so what is your Source he asked the Egyptian I Representatives they said well it's the Torah he said very well then I too will invoke the Torah which says the Jews spent 430 years laboring in Egypt so what I ask is a counter suit please compensate us for 600,000 men's work for 430 years I'm going to tell you that whatever has been taken from you God will give it back to you and he will give it back to you in double proportion that great passage in Isaiah 61 that talks about how that God came to heal the broken hearted the blind eyes and set at Liberty those that are are captive when you get to verse number six it says instead of Shame you shall have double honor instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their po portion therefore in their land they shall possess double Everlasting Joy shall be theirs I came to tell somebody today in the midst of a situation that when you come out on the other side God wants to give you double for your trouble he wants to make sure that whatever it cost you during this time that he is going to reward you he is going to bring it back to you he is going to restore it to you God keeps perfect rest records God keeps a perfect account and he will reward you come on and give him praise He Wants You released he wants you respected he wants you rewarded but he also wants you removed Exodus 14 when Pharaoh figured out the people were leaving Pharaoh said I tell you what get our 600 chosen chariots all the Chariots of Egypt and all the horses and let's go after them one commentator argues that chosen chariots those Choice chariots were chariots that had swords welded onto their spokes so before you look at them and say well I wish they had a little bit more courage they had human lawnmowers coming at them Bubba I mean that that if they want to afraid they weren't thinking probably I mean this was this was not a good day this was a very difficult day and the children of Israel the scripture says though went out with boldness and the Egyptians pursued them and overtook them camping by the Sea the this seemed to be Deliverance if you are walking out of bondage please understand you will be pursued the enemy is not going to leave you alone he is going to come after you and so Moses saido not be afraid easy for you to say stand still and see the salvation of the Lord for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall see them again no more forever the Lord is going to fight for you and the angel of the Lord that went before the camp moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them instead of leading it it became a rear guard so that it was like to the children of Israel but it was Darkness to the Egyptians and it did not they did not come near each other for the entire night and Moses stretched out his hand and the waters parted Over the Sea and there was dry land that appeared so that the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry land I'm going tell you you can get to a point you've struggled and you fought F and you you don't know if you can get out God releases you you become respected you become rewarded and God says no there's one more step I want you to be removed God will make what is very difficult look easy it is not possible to get people across the Red Sea but God says I will make what's difficult look easy it looks so easy that Pharaoh said I think we can do this too and they followed after them trying to get them and I wish I understood everything thing that the scripture says about this but it says in the morning watch that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of cloud and the fire he looked at them through that and he troubled the army of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels I love what the scripture says it seems kind of comical to me so they drove them with difficulty you think you think I mean that was kind of hard I mean they're they're driving and they have no wheels there and and and they're they're trying to pursue and when the morning appeared the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it so the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea when the waters returned and covered the Chariots the horsemen and all the army of pharaoh that came into the sea after them not so much as one of them remained so the Lord saved or delivered Israel out of the hand of the egyp Egyptians and the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore listen God had to finish the loop on this Deliverance thing it was not enough for them to be released and respected and rewarded but he had to remove them from the thing that had held them captive I'm here to tell somebody that what has held you captive is dead tonight what has bound you is dead tonight what is abused you is dead tonight it can ever make you a slave again because it is dead tonight God wants to elevate you to above the nonsense that threaten to destroy you he wants to separate you from the people and the particulars of your past drama he desires to D distance you from the thoughts and the trauma that tried to take you out see David was not respected by his father or his brothers yet as God progressively delivered him from his father's house one day God caused a separation Saul took him to his house and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore David was still his father's son he was still related to his brothers but he was no longer under their influence or relying upon them God had removed him from his past to connect him to his future yes God wants you to be released and respected and rewarded but he is not satisfied with you coming that far and allowing the memories of your captivity to live rentree in your head for the rest of your life he's not interested in you being released and rewarded and respected but reliving the memories of the the past all of your life he wants you removed from it he wants you to understand that what caused you harm is dead to you it is dead it's on the shore of the Red Sea and it can never impact you again come on and give God praise the children of Israel went into Egypt as a family and left as a nation but now we got problems that they're going to have to fight Wars they're going to have to fight battles they don't exactly give you weapons when you're a slave where are they going to get the weapons that they need to fight their battles it is suggested that the Israelites stripped the dead Egyptians of their weapons they plundered from the battle that they won that day so that they would be able to fight again tomorrow look I know that all of us would love to take conflict off of our life and all of those stories off our life forget the details but never forget the lessons but it is in the battles of today that you get the weapons that you need to fight a battle tomorrow those soldiers were floating on the sea and many commentators believe that that's where they got their swords that's where they got their weapons to fight another day after they came out on the other side Exodus 15 records that Moses and the children of Israel sang the first song ever recorded in scripture they sang for 18 verses but in verse 20 it records then Miriam the prophetess the sister of Aaron took the timber in her hand and all the women went out after her with timberl and with dances and miam answered them sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and its Rider he has thrown into the sea I've got one simple question for you where in the world did hundreds of thousands of Jewish slave girls each get tambourines where where did they pick them up from I mean where where did they they pack those when they left Egypt where did they get those tambourines the calid is the comprehensive written version of the Jewish oral law and its subsequent commentaries according to the calman amram the father of Moses Aaron and Mariam were was the preeminent leader of his generation and according to the calman one reason that Mariam is called a prophetess in Exodus 15 is that when she was just six years old she would go around singing my mother is destined to give birth to a son who will set is is free we don't know but we know for some reason the scripture called her a prophetess but I've got a I've got a hunch if God could use her when she was six surely God could use her when she was over 86 I wonder if she started talking to the girls in the community I know we're slaves right now but we're going to be released and we're going to be respected and we're going to be rewarded and we're going to be removed oh and won't we have a time when we get over Yonder we'll sing and shout and dance about when we get over Yonder won't we have a time I could just hear saying pack your tambourine girls I know we're in slavery right now but we're not going to be there forever there's going to be a day when you're going to need a tambourine to celebrate there's going to be a day that you need a tambourine to rejoice and Shout so wherever you are on your journey of Deliverance don't wait till the Battle Is Over shout now cuz you know in the end we're going to win you might be right in the throws of your battle but you need to have a tambourine you need to shake it every once in a while and say I might be here right now but I'm not staying here I'm not staying here I'm coming out God Wants You released he wants you respected he wants you rewarded and he wants you removed he want you to live in all four dimensions of Deliverance come on everybody in this room why don't you begin to give God praise right now and celebrate him celebrate him celebrate him celebrate him as the musicians are coming just begin to celebrate him wherever I am in this process of Deliverance I'm going to celebrate you right now I'm not going to wait till I get there I'm going to be released I'm going to be respected I'm going to be rewarded I'm going to be removed I'm going to celebrate I'm going to celebrate I'm going to celebrate don't wait till the Battle Is Over shout now shout now shout now shout [Applause] now why don't you make your way to this altar if there's enough tambourines why don't you grab one why don't you lift it to God right now and begin to say God I believe that you want all four levels of Deliverance for me all four dimensions of Deliverance for me and right now in the midst of my pain right now in the midst of my circumstance right now in the midst of my trouble I'm going to go ahead and sh out I'm going to go ahead and celebrate I'm going to go ahead and do it in advance knowing that in the end we will win come on give him praise in this room right now [Applause] come on and celebrate him come on and celebrate him in this [Music] room