As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” 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 be still.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
How it was applied: The pastor reads this passage as presenting three distinct real-time responses to impossibility: the people's fearful desperation (it's over), Moses' well-meaning but ultimately wrong counsel (stand still), and God's corrective command (move on). He uses the contrast between Moses and God to show that even spiritually sincere advice can be wrong, and that God's call is always toward forward movement, not passive waiting.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
How it was applied: The pastor emphasizes that God's miracle of dividing the sea was contingent on Moses first stretching out his staff — illustrating the principle that divine intervention and human obedience are not mutually exclusive but sequentially linked. The miracle did not precede the action; it followed it.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
How it was applied: Rather than preaching this verse as a victory declaration, the pastor reframes Paul's 'What then shall we say in response to these things?' as a live question demanding a present-tense answer. He uses it as the hinge verse of the entire message — the listener must decide what their 'then' will be in response to their specific trial, danger, or loss.
Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
How it was applied: The pastor uses David's act of getting up, washing, and worshipping after the death of his child as the defining image of what a changed 'then' looks like after catastrophic personal failure. He does not minimize David's sin or its consequences but shows that the word 'then' — 'then David got up' — is the hinge that reopened David's story and led to Solomon.
Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other,
How it was applied: Samson's prayer in blindness and humiliation is presented as proof that the most disgraced person can still have a 'then.' The pastor focuses on the word 'then' before Samson reached toward the pillars, arguing that Samson's greatest act of deliverance came at his lowest moment — more people died in his death than in his life — to demonstrate that God can make the end greater than anything that came before.
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
How it was applied: Peter's standing up at Pentecost is held up as the definitive 'then' that followed his denial of Christ. The pastor uses it to show that no amount of prior failure disqualifies a person from a future of fruitfulness, and that the same Peter who denied Jesus three times preached so powerfully that 3,000 people were saved — because he chose to stand up.
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
How it was applied: The thief on the cross is the pastor's closing argument against the objection that there is no time left to change the end. With minutes remaining, no righteous resume, and only a single 'then' — 'Jesus, remember me' — the thief received the promise of paradise. The pastor uses this to collapse every excuse rooted in insufficient time or unworthy history.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide, via the YouVersion Platform.
