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Exodus
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So the title for this morning, maybe there it is. The destiny is the journey.
[00:00:07] And really the journey has begun for us.
[00:00:13] Let's leave it there for now.
[00:00:17] This little story I'm going to start with. Our son John Mark was four years old, and he was playing in the backyard and he got a sliver in his foot. He came in and he held up his foot. He was crying, and he said, I got a sliver in my foot. And I said, sit on the couch and let's take a look at it. And so we looked at it, and then he held up his foot and I reached over to pull the sliver out because I knew that it would feel better. And he said what every kid is saying in which, you know, he says, I still say, and I say, our deck is. It's not real bad, but it's bad enough where I get. Seemed to get a couple slivers a year on that deck. And I don't like that. That hurts. But then my doctor, Karen here, goes to take them out and it's like I'm just flinching. I don't want to take them out because it's going to hurt. But like the little guy here, he says, I don't want you to touch it, you know, and what do you want me to do? He says, just take a picture of it and put it on the wall. The kid says, I've got to touch it, son.
[00:01:20] I don't levitate splinters out of your foot. There's no choice. It's going to hurt a little bit of. And he moaned like I do when Karen is taking my slivers out. It might, but it won't hurt as long. And he says, you know, I will sure feel. It will sure feel a lot better when it's out. But somehow it wasn't adequate. And so Janet held him down. And I was on top of the little guy and trying to get a sliver. And he was kicking and fussing like I do when Karen's taking my slivers, jerking in different directions and then getting the tweezers. And he says he was afraid he was going to stick the tweezers right in his foot.
[00:02:00] Like he says, you know, so don't you trust me? You know, what do you think I'm going to do? Cut your foot off? You know, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you. And you know the thinking in this. You know, just relax. Trust me. I'm your father. I love you and I care about you. And I only do this to help you, because, you know, if you don't get a sliver out, they fester. They can even get infected, and it really can lead to bad things.
[00:02:23] And that's how we are with the Lord when he comes to us. And it's like, this is just going to hurt a little bit, son, but I don't want to be hurt. But in the long run, it's going to be good. It's something that you need. And he's going to pull the slivers out of our lives. He's going to help us work the slivers out of our lives.
[00:02:43] And, you know, like, don't touch me. Don't do that, God. You know, but I've got to reach in there. I've got to touch that part of your life. I need to help you to understand that you need to face this thing. You need to look at these things. As much as it's been hard in the past, you need to face these things so that I can heal you. So we're fighting with God in our lives sometimes, and it's equivalent to a sliver, that sometimes these slivers, you know, they can be big slivers, but they must come out or infection is going to set in. And so this morning, I want to take us back to Egypt. Last week, we talked about the wilderness. And what I hope that we pick up here today is that we cannot let what we do or do not see with our physical eyes stop us from receiving what it is that God has in store for us, because we live by faith, not by sight. And Moses, being commanded by God to go back to Egypt, he met the elders of Israel and let them tell them that God has sent him to lead them out of Egypt from their abuse of slavery. And so, performing signs and wonders, he gave a divine evidence of this call that God had sent him. And the elders and the people, they recognized that God was in what Moses was saying, and they responded with this excited anticipation, and they worshiped God. It's like, wow, is this really true?
[00:04:20] A problem arose when they met the opposition from pharaoh and very much pain as a result of this. And the elders met with Moses, and they were mad at him. They were very angry. And because there was an increase of pressure, and as a result, Moses.
[00:04:42] A result of Moses demanding from pharaoh to let God's people go. And both Moses and the people had no idea how or why God was doing things the way he was doing. They had no idea. Like, we don't have any idea how God is moving in our midst a lot of the time, most of the time, probably. And it was looking like God was not doing his part. So Moses went back to God and reasoned with God, had a talk with him. He was not keeping up his end of the bargain. And the deliverance of the people didn't take place like he said it was going to. And last week, we talked about the wilderness and how it's a place where God shapes us into his image, how God uses the difficult places in our lives to reveal himself to us. We saw that in God's economy, pain experienced in the wilderness brings forth new faith.
[00:05:40] And we saw that God will send supernatural encouragement. We saw the example in Jesus life. We saw the example in the apostle Paul's life that God will send those supernatural encouragement to us when we need it. And we learned that the wilderness is a place of uncertainty, a place where our faith is tested, and that it has pushed us to the limits of our endurance. And that that's what the wilderness is meant to do. And as much as we don't like it, we have to allow God to work in our lives like this and yield to the working of his spirit. And that throughout the pages of scripture, the wilderness plays a crucial role in the spiritual journey of all of God's people. And how critical it is that we understand the significance of the wilderness in the context of our faith. And we need to try to discover why it is that God leads us to these barren places, because he does, and he will. And this is where I want to pick up on the story.
[00:06:43] You see, we can't let these things that we see with our natural eyes affect and stop us from doing what God wants us to do. The things that we see, you know, because we live by faith, not by sight. It's not by what we see.
[00:07:00] And Moses was talking, was walking in the wilderness when he come upon the bush that was burning. And he noticed it. And it says that he stared at this bush in wonder, seeing that the bush was burning, but it was not being consumed. Unique thing to see.
[00:07:17] When God noticed that he had gotten Moses attention, it says that. Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It's a land flowing of milk and honey.
[00:07:48] And look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me. And I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them.
[00:07:58] Now go. For I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people of Israel out of Egypt. So after a lot of resistance on Moses part, he's convinced, and he does what God has called him to do, and he accepts the call, and he heads back to Egypt. He meets his brother. God sent Aaron to meet him on his way to Egypt.
[00:08:22] And Moses and Aaron arrive back in Egypt. They're calling a meeting with the elders. And then Moses and Aaron, they returned back to Egypt and called all the elders together. Aaron told them everything the Lord had told Moses. And Moses performed the miraculous signs before them as they watched.
[00:08:42] And at the good news that God saw how they were suffering and was going to set them free, the elders and the people bowed down and worshiped. They have all of a sudden got a hope that they never probably even imagined. Who knows? You know, like Joseph when he was in the prison, you know, it's just like out of the blue, one day, he was in prison for the two years with no hope, nothing in sight. And then, just like that, he's taken and cleaned up and to share with his captor. Anyways, then the people of Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron. And when they had heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. You know, imagine this.
[00:09:37] Every one of these people knew nothing but abuse of slavery. They'd been enslaved for 400 years. So this particular generation knew nothing but slavery. They were born into it. And as they're born into slavery, we are born into slavery. You know, we're born into sin. Our world, that's the way it is. Until you become a Christian, you don't understand what that even means because you think, okay, I'm just doing what I want to do, you know? But you're not. You're bound by sin. You are bound by that. But they were born into this, which is a parallel of us being born into the slavery and bondage of sin. And the abusive, ruthless taskmaster, the egyptian slave driver.
[00:10:24] Sin is no different. It's an abusive, ruthless taskmaster in our lives. Before we come to know the Lord, sin no longer has its hold on us. When we come to know the Lord, it says that we will know the truth, and that truth will set us free. So if you know the truth, you are no longer bound by sin. You don't have to subject yourself to sin and sin. It became very apparent that God has heard their cry and that they were about to be set free. I can imagine these people hearing that and dreaming about what it would mean to be free, being able to come and go as they pleased and do as they pleased, do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, making their own decisions, and maybe even actually being appreciated, being able to properly take care of their kids, the elderly. And at the end of a hard day's work, being able to just go and to rest and put up your feet and enjoy your family, enjoy, you know, a big, tall orange juice on ice.
[00:11:26] It says. Then the people of Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and they worshiped, at least, you know, they knew where to turn. They worshiped God, you know, obviously they had been hearing us throughout the generation. The promise from Abraham, their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because God promised Abraham that his lineage would be brought into slavery for 400 years and then they would be set free. And so they've been told this story probably for 400 years, and all of a sudden here it is. It's coming to pass. And one thing that they never counted on was the struggle against evil powers. You know, Satan was not about to let the people go that easily. And it was, interesting thing is that God permits the resistance.
[00:12:24] You know, he does not permit this resistance for no reason or because he's unfair. Maybe he has a little bit of a mean streak. I think sometimes we wonder, you know, we do that because, you know, you hear people say, and I've even said in the days gone by, you know, am I being punished for something? You know, I don't think God likes me or God's not happy with me because of what I'm going through. That's not the case. You know, God allowed this resistance and Israel, they just crumbled under this resistance of pharaoh coming down on them. He permits the resistance to help us exercise our faith, learn the discipline of the Lord. And he allowed the resistance for the brilliant display of his power where Satan has reigned.
[00:13:11] You know, we have to learn to perhaps painfully learn that if we're going to walk according to the sinful nature. Romans chapter eight talks about those that have their mindset on the sinful nature will be led by the passions of their sinful nature. And those who have their mindset on the spirit will be led by the spirit. And we have to recognize that if we're going to walk according to our sinful nature, the flesh, we will be operating in Satan's domain. He's the prince of the air.
[00:13:41] We have to learn that in and of ourselves, we do not have the power to affect our own deliverance. We're not going to be set free in and of ourselves.
[00:13:52] And it's the power, let's see.
[00:13:56] It is the redemption of God in Christ's death, the resurrection that comes to life by the power of the spirit. And it is the power of the spirit that was given when Jesus had accomplished the redemption. And then he sat down at the right hand of the father. You see, then deliverance takes place, and forgiveness is acquired in our lives. Only then, when we recognize that our escape from judgment is given, we're no longer. When we get to heaven. You know, that's why we got to. I mentioned just probably every time I preach, but keeping these short accounts, walking with the Lord and repenting right away for what we've stumbled in the. And you know, what's going on because we're not going to be judged when we get there because our judgment, we're just, we're daily taking care of that as we go along. So what's there going to be judged for? That's the great thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ and his grace and his mercy and all the good things that he has for us. That's not the issue. So then we can focus on, okay, Lord. And that relationship with him and walking with him and talking with him, that's what we want to focus on. Anything that comes my way in a negative sense, a pressure of some kind.
[00:15:10] I don't give the enemy one bit of credit. I just try to live my life as if the enemy doesn't even exist in the sense that I talk to my father about what's coming my direction. If there's pressure coming on me, Lord, what's this about?
[00:15:26] I discuss it with him. I don't give the enemy, say, oh, the enemy, forget him.
[00:15:31] My father has to allow anything to come my way that comes my way. He's the one I talk to.
[00:15:38] One of the first things that becomes very obvious here is that God's divine judgment against Pharaoh himself.
[00:15:46] He says, I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. Now, this seems crazy. Okay, I'll harden his heart. And, you know, you can see through the scripture as you're reading it. Pharaoh was a very hard Mandev, very stubborn man. And I think it says that very clearly through the text. You think, okay, that's not fair. God's hardening his heart, but it's already hard. He's hardening what's already hard. He's a very stubborn man. There are very stubborn leadership in that organization of the egyptian authorities. And God knew that. And you see that as you read the story, in spite of miracles and threats of judgment, Pharaoh's heart and mind will not bend to the things of goddesse. In spite of everything he saw, everything that went on, his heart did not bend right to his demise.
[00:16:38] Following the confrontation with Pharaoh, however, in which God's message was faithfully delivered by Moses, things only got worse for the people here. See, this is where we tend to crumble. And this is where they really crumbled. And this shows how broken they were. They were so broken, this little bit of a resistance comes their way. And all of a sudden now they have to make their bricks without straw. They're told, go out and get your own straw, but keep going on the same quota. They were whipped and they were beaten. The pressure was put on them and they were saying, why are you not meeting your quota?
[00:17:12] And it's not something that's not possible. And all of a sudden this pressure, amazing pressure's on them. They know nothing about God and his ways and they don't recognize, okay, the battle, not against the flesh and the blood. It's the principalities and powers of darkness that are influencing Pharaoh and his army and his soldiers and the people that are oppressing the Israelites. That's the enemy side of things.
[00:17:40] And he says, do not supply any more straw or make for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves. Their situation worsens. It definitely does not improve. And they're wondering, okay, what's going on? What have we done? The result is the Israelites grumble against Moses. And I think it's interesting that in the text it says grumble against Moses because that word grumble follows them all the way through the wilderness for the 40 years, for this generation, blaming him and Aaron, making Israel repulsive to the Egyptians who have made their situation even more intolerable. The foreman said, may the Lord judge see, the foremen were the Israelites, foremen that were put over the Israelites. And the egyptian slave drivers were over the foreman who were over the people. The foreman said to them, may the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us. Like they felt the pressure and like there was no end in sight as far as they were concerned, there was no sign of any deliverance going to be taking place. And so they were concerned and probably rightfully so they didn't know the Lord. They didn't know what was going on, but it didn't look good. And this section contains a series of actions that reaches into Moses. The reactions between Moses and Pharaoh, and the sequence that's peppered all through this is two key thoughts that God already told was going to come about and happen in Egypt. And one was that God was fulfilling. God would fulfill, without doubt, his promise of deliverance. And that pharaoh number two, that Pharaoh would not let deliverance happen except under great compulsion. And so, exodus three eight so I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians. And lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile, spacious land. I promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land that is flowing with milk and honey. Then the Lord told Moses, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Okay? They have already met once, and they had this big resistance come against him. Israel is mad at Moses and Aaron. Moses is questioning God, what is going on. Then God says to Moses, as they are talking, as he goes back to the Lord, he says, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave the land. One translation says, when Pharaoh sees the fist of see my fist come down on Egypt, he'll let those people go. You know, the enemy cannot resist the lord. The Lord, God of heaven and earth. He's the one in charge. Our father is the boss of this planet. And everything that's going on around us. He's the boss. We are his people, his children. And thank goodness that he's the boss. It's so good that it's not a tug of war. And there are equal powers. And the enemy can do whatever he wants. But God's going to fight them. Praise God. It's God who's in charge. And he's the one who permits anything that goes on.
[00:20:58] And he has a purpose to it all.
[00:21:01] All the forces of egyptian might were against the Israelites released from bondage. But God's might was working to break that bondage. And what God could have done in an instant did by many degrees. He did by many degrees. In order to detail his great power and Pharaoh's great defiance. And so Exodus 915 16 says, by now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the face of the earth. So God is or Moses. God is speaking through Moses to Pharaoh here. And that's pretty strong words if you think of the superpower of the day and, like, you know, like, praise God, you know, like Moses speaking the word of God boldly. But I have spared you for a purpose, to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth. What an amazing story. The book is so full of amazing stories. God is just and does not waste time. Everything that he is doing has a purpose to it, and we are so privileged to be a part of that. And we are so privileged that we can learn from him and be a part of the wisdom that he is doing. You know? He is wisdom, and we can be a part of that. You know? Will you trust me?
[00:22:35] Our understanding in every matter is irrelevant. You know, like, we don't need to totally figure things out and understand exactly what's going on, because we never will. Like, when he says, lean not on your own understanding, he means, lean not on your own understanding. Trust in me and do good. You know, that's our call. And following his lead, remember last week's question?
[00:22:59] Will you trust me when all the fundamentals for survival are not in sight? That's a great question for us. When everything is nothing is looking like it should look, will you still trust me? The Lord says, everything God is doing is calculated and has a purpose. We can be working with God and struggling against him, or we can be working with him or struggling against him. And this detail is a record of God's power and grace and acts as a continual warning to those who resist him and as a display of his faithfulness and ability to save those whom he promises redemption. And that is now started here in this story. Then the Lord said to Moses, return to Pharaoh and make these demands. Make your demands again.
[00:23:54] I have made him and his officials stubborn so that I can display the miraculous powers among them. I have also done it so that you can tell your children and your grandchildren about how I made a mockery out of the Egyptians and about the signs I displayed among them. And so you will know that I am the Lord.
[00:24:17] You know, just on a side note, like, it's a crazy thing, but this generation's kids are the ones that will go in and possess the promised land 40 years from here. And it's those kids that go into that promised land and do amazing things through the book of Joshua. You see them go in the very first city, they make a mistake. They don't pray. The littlest town or the second after Jericho, they don't pray. And that was a big lesson for them. And then you know, after that, they sought the Lord. They asked the Lord, okay, what do we do here? And God instructed them through Canaan. And they took city after city like that. It's amazing stories of what God did through that generation. But it's crazy. Thing is, Joshua 210 deuteronomy talks about, when we do baby dedications, impress these things upon your kids. Talk about it when you're walking down the street. You know, it has to be that much a part of our lives so that it imprints on our kids hearts. It says that after that generation died, the ones that went into the promised land and did amazing things, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. That amazes me. I don't understand that, you know, because, like, I just. I don't know. Unless they were just so busy taking the nations, they didn't even think about God in the picture. They're just so amazed at their accomplishments that they never really saw, you know, the core of what was really going on.
[00:25:57] And one generation of prosperity and the following generation was robbed of the things of the spirit.
[00:26:05] And Jesus cautions us, he says in Luke 21 34, be careful of your hearts, or your hearts will be weighed down. So be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with drunkenness and anxieties of life. Pressures. There are pressures in life and how we deal with those pressures. We need to pay attention and be careful because it says that that's been weighed down by these things. If we're not careful, carousing, drunkenness, and anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly, like a trap, you know, as we're not being careful, we're just a little bit loose. We're doing fine, but have a little drink here and there. Pressures. Come on. We have a little bit more. And, you know, before and long, it's like all of a sudden you're there. You didn't even see yourself getting there. Be careful, it says, or these things will come on you. And then it's just like that. You realize you're there, and then you're trapped. But praise God for his grace and his mercy that pulls us out of that, those places. But it's not an easy task, so just don't go there. Be careful. Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life, the essence of what we're looking at here this morning.
[00:27:23] Israel's in Aaron's response. Moses when things did not go the way that they expected, God had more to teach them. About how to continue to believe and worship, even when what they were experiencing wasn't pleasant.
[00:27:42] You know, notice their immediate hostility and doubt, which were indicative of their upcoming response to the difficulties of the wilderness. Pharaoh's negative response to Moses saying, who is the Lord? That I should listen to him, would soon be answered by the Lord.
[00:28:04] I just can't believe this. My time is about up here. It's amazing. Both he and future generations of the Egyptians and Israelites would be shown who God was. And this was Israel and Moses is what they were wanting and the expecting. The first time that they went to Pharaoh, but now they're going to see it. Moses didn't get to perform the signs and wonders that God had given him. And he questioned his question, who is the Lord? And why should I listen to him? Pharaoh's question continues to be a question that troubles not only the unbeliever, but it troubles the believer. Today, Moses cry of dismay to God sums it up. The pain and the frustration of the people on whom one hand, on one hand, have the promise of God, but on the other hand have to suffer pain while they're waiting for its fulfillment.
[00:29:03] Then Moses went back and protested. Why have you brought this trouble on your people, lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people, and you have done nothing to rescue them. You see, they're looking with their eyes, and they're just, you know, they're. And understandably so. They're coming to be delivered. They have this hope, and the pressure comes on them. So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had come to the. Become so discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. You know, have you ever come to that place in your life where you've gotten so discouraged that you don't even just want to hear it anymore? You know, I was there. I remember, you know, I was a young believer, and like I've said it before, I think God just took a.
[00:29:54] I know. He just beat me down so hard and fast, and it seemed like when I was first saved the first few years, and it was like he beat me as much as he could beat me and to the point, because he knew that once he got me to the point where I was so beaten, I'd run away. And, you know, and that's what I basically did was I just started, okay, I just started ignoring the Lord, just hoping that these beatings or these difficulties would subside. I got so I was afraid of God's hand because I knew it was God's hand on my life. And so I just started to ignore him for a season, hoping that it'll all go away, you know, and all of this has happened. Hearing these scriptures, it's very relevant. You know, they say that the scriptures are not relevant. They are so relevant. It's relevant for us to hear today. It's going to be relevant till all creation ends.
[00:30:45] And the people's expectations on how things were happening. Yet they had no idea what God was doing or how he was going to go about it. And they were promised deliverance, and instead they were seeing the hand of God move and experiencing freedom instead of seeing all of that that they were so excited about receiving. Things got much worse. And as far as they could see, there was no end of the troubles in sight. Next thing you know, that they're in big trouble. And as they left Pharaoh's court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them. And the foreman said to them, may the lord judge and punish you for making us stink before pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword into their hand and given them an excuse to kill us.
[00:31:31] And now the hopes of deliverance, you know, they're awakened. They saw, okay, it was awakened in them. They saw a possibility. They started to dream about this freedom. And the oppression of the slave drivers has all of a sudden become more severe than ever. And it becomes very apparent that the people would have preferred being left quiet in their slavery. And compared to this, you know, we can be the same way. Like, we can be so discouraged and we can be frustrated. And then we say, okay, we're gonna walk out of this thing. And then we start to take a step forward. And then all of a sudden, pressure comes against us and we settle back down, and we're just gonna settle for where we're at. But God wants to help us, and he wants to. He says, you can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you. It's a secret. Strengthens you spending time with him. You can do all things through him. When he gives, you strengthen, you get up and you start walking and you start resisting that pressure and keep on walking by faith, thanking God for his deliverance, you know, but we can be so the same thing. We're already beaten down, and God gives us hope. We stand up and we get slapped by pressure, and then we sit down and think, okay, I'd rather be. We're stuck, but God wants us to walk out of that.
[00:32:49] Now God uses the struggles in addiction, you know, sometimes people are set free from addictions just like that. Most of the time, I don't think so, because God uses a struggle in addiction to push us to the limits of our endurance and working to get us to the point that James writes about where the trying of our faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must have its perfect work, that we're not lacking anything.
[00:33:22] But there are some people who are instantly set free. God knows where we're at.
[00:33:27] And one man in our church, Dewey Henkel, who is helping run celebrate recovery, he has a testimony like this where God immediately set him free from alcohol. You know, he was just a heavy drinker, and he drank himself to death. And after being brought back from death's door in an instant, he woke up and he never drank again. God set him free, and he gives God all the glory and the honor. And if you want to meet Dewey, he's going to be at the celebrate recovery table. Celebrate recovery table is going to be out the back. It's got lots of literature on it if you want to see what celebrate recovery is all about.
[00:34:10] But that's an amazing story, Dewey.
[00:34:14] But I believe it's rare. But nevertheless, who cares? God will set us free, and so amen.
[00:34:33] I just can believe this.
[00:34:35] Half a sermon there. Wow, what's happening to me?
[00:34:40] I just want to end, you know, like maybe close to ending here, like, with the thought of our relationships, say, our unsaved loved ones.
[00:34:51] When we're praying for people, I can't believe that, you know, we're praying for people. We pray for loved ones, you know, that are in our home, maybe a spouse. We start to pray for them, and we're believing God that God is going to, you know, maybe they need to change because they have addictions or maybe they're abusive and we need to say them, make changes. So then we start to pray for them. Isaiah 58 is a great chapter on fasting and proper fasting and why we fast and motivations for our fasting and how you see answers to prayer when you're fasting. It's a great chapter. And so you're taking time, you know, fasting and praying and seeking God on behalf of our loved ones. And then we see all of a sudden in a spouse that's abusive or a spouse that's a drinker or something's in a marriage relationship, we start to pray, and all of a sudden they start to react. When we started to pray for my dad, for salvation, it was crazy, you know, like, he got real cranky for a while there, man, he was just miserable, you know, and it was just the spiritual warfare that was taking place in our lives. You know, we start to pray for somebody, and then all of a sudden they start to get cranky. They start to get more abusive, they start to drink more or whatever. It's not the thing to get discouraged about. That's the kind of thing to get excited about and to press in because there's something happening when there's a reaction, you know, like, we have people that are addicted. You know, we're related to our inner family, our kids. You know, that's a time to fast and to pray because God's word is true. And he says that in fasting. You know, fasting is made to break the chains of bondage, and we're doing spiritual warfare on behalf of our kids. You know, it's the enemy that has got people bound up in addictions, and he's got relationships torn, apartheid, you know, that's not God doing any of that. That's the enemy. So when we start to pray in this way, you know, we're going to see resistance just like the children of Israel. They started thinking, okay, we're free. They go to confront pharaoh because that's what God told them to do. The reaction is more oppression. You know, when we're being led by the spirit, we have got to turn on the faith eyes and live by faith. Okay? God has made it clear and God confirms what he says to us. You know, whether it's through scripture or we're talking to people, you know, listen to what they're saying, you know, just be attentive, be aware, because God speaks. And so you're on track. You know, what you're believing for. But expect the resistance. And when you expect. When you see the resistance, don't worry about it, you know, pray. Fasting is a great thing to do.
[00:37:36] You're thinking, pastor, you could do a little bit more fasting.
[00:37:41] It's a great thing to do. Fasting, it breaks the chains of bondage for our loved ones. You know, like, we got to think, how badly do we want to see our kids saved? And, like, look at this. A generation, they did the amazing things, impossible things. God showed them. And then, yet the next generation never knew the Lord and never heard the stories.
[00:38:03] We need to be like it says in deuteronomy, and we need to be talking about it with our kids when we're walking down the streets, when we're laying in bed, when we're getting up in the morning, it needs to be that much a part of our lives. And we need to care about our kids and not just, you know, say a little prayer here and there for them. We need to fast and we need to pray and we need to intercede for them. We need to be praying for them continually. The Bible talks about praying without ceasing, always being in an attitude of prayer. That's when you're gonna see the hand of God moving in your lives and in your families. Because we can pull down these strongholds. The weapons of our warfare are nothing fighting with them. The weapons of our warfare are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. And, you know, it's done in the Prayer closet, and we need to get there, you know, as God's people, because that's where it begins. And we don't want to be satisfied with the status quo of where we're going in life if we're not moving forward in the things of the spirit. Paul says about the spirit, things about the spiritual gifts. I do not want you to be ignorant. You know, God has given us gifts that we can encourage each other with. He's given us everything we need for a life of godliness. And I just want to encourage you this morning that to not let the resistance, when God speaks to you, don't let the resistance stop you from pressing in. You know, you start to fast and to pray, there's going to be, something's going to happen where there's going to be some kind of an opposition, because all of a sudden you're going to be hitting on where there's power in the spirit and the enemy is not going to let you go easily. He's not going to let you discover the Secrets of God easily. But they're there for us to discover, and he can't stop it. He can't stop us. So don't go by what you see, don't go by what you feel. But let's seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness so that he can have his way in us and in the world. There's a community around us that are really struggling. I was repenting at the prayer meeting this morning with the men because as we're praying, I seen a young guy when I was washing my son's truck, and he had on a skirt, he had his colored hair. And I just, you know, I had to repent this morning for my judgmental thoughts. Like, I just rolled my eyes and thought, oh, man, you know, but you know what? God wants us to love them, because beneath all of what we see with our eyes, there's a person heart, and we don't know any idea what this person's gone through or who they are. But if we just take time, you know, and just say, lord, you know, help me to, like he says, you know, will you let me love my people through you? You know, let God love these people through us, instead of throwing judgment, like, that's a little bit of a self righteous thinking, but love them, you know, like, just do something. Just say hi, you know.
[00:40:55] Anyways, we've got to just move forward with the Lord. There's so much God wants to do and can do and will do, and we will see so much prayer answered in our lives, you know, if we seek first his kingdom and really make him Lord of our lives.
[00:41:14] And so, Father, we just commit this message to you and pray, Lord, your will be done with this message in our hearts. Pray, Father God, that you've shown us, Lord, there will be resistance, Lord, as we step out in you. And father, I pray that we'd be willing to push through the resistance and keep our minds stayed on you, Lord God, that you can give us that perfect peace in the midst of the storms, Lord, we just commit ourselves to you and pray, Lord, have your way. Thank you, Lord, for who you are. Thank you that you want all of us to be free, Father God. And you want to be working through us to see so many other people set free. Help us to be that people. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:41:56] If you want prayer, I'd like. You know, we didn't have an altar service.
[00:42:02] I thought we would do it here. We will do it after the second song next service. But if you want prayer, I'd gladly pray with you. And if lots of people come, altar workers can come and help. Anyways, God bless you as you go this morning. Amen.
