Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] You believe God is a way maker.
[00:00:04] Have you experienced that in your own life, man? If you haven't, you're going to.
[00:00:11] You keep holding on, keep leaning in, keep focusing on Jesus, and you will.
[00:00:16] You'll see him come through.
[00:00:18] You see him be your way maker.
[00:00:20] Father God, we say thank you for who you are.
[00:00:27] Forgive us sometimes in our humanness, our smallness, where we get too caught up in ourselves and in the circumstances and forget, you are the way maker. You are the one who is good.
[00:00:45] You're the one who is working. Even when we don't see it, even when we're worn out and we're battling our own sense of discouragement. And in the waiting and sometimes in the sin and the consequences, maybe even the circumstances, God, you are still working things out.
[00:01:01] And I pray, God, that we hold on. We keep leaning into trust and obedience to you.
[00:01:09] In Jesus name, God, teach us. This morning, as we open your word, let us see.
[00:01:14] Let us look into a mirror as if we're looking into one in the example of Moses, God revealing who we are, but also God moving more importantly, who you are. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:01:27] Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. Thank you for being here.
[00:01:30] Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
[00:01:32] This morning, as I was preparing, I was thinking the question, when have you found it hard to do the right thing?
[00:01:44] A situation presented itself and you wanted to do the right thing. Yet when you thought about it, you go, man, this is gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult. It might not. Well, I might get some pushback.
[00:01:58] But you went ahead and you did it anyway. I mean, realistically, we could probably spend the whole worship hour just hearing stories of man. We were really being resistant to doing what God wanted us to do in the right moment. And just hearing how God came through and showed up and how we walked through those moments. I asked Google, the great Google in the sky, that question. I asked the question, what do people do? Why do people do the hard thing?
[00:02:32] And I got this response. People do the right thing even when it's hard, because success requires courage and the willingness to face discomfort, this commitment of a person who will do right in the face of.
[00:02:50] And despite the challenges, it's fundamental to a.
[00:02:56] Sorry, fundamental to a successful, healthy Christ following life not only in leaders, but in every individual who will dare walk through those moments. Today we're going to look at an occasion, the first interaction actually with Moses and Aaron in their confrontation. They're looking to Pharaoh, and I hope to help us see that obedience takes courage to say yes to God, to follow through, to stick with it. Obedience takes courage. And I would suggest always, I don't know that it's ever really easy. Maybe it gets easier, but in the face, in the world that we live in as a Christ following person, to still do the right thing, to still follow God, to still follow through on the assignment, the thing he's invited me or you into, always takes courage, to surrender and do it.
[00:03:48] So we're going to continue to look at Moses.
[00:03:51] He's certainly a biblical Old Testament hero, but he was not a perfect man by any stretch.
[00:03:57] But he is still known that he was faithful, he was a prayerful, he was a servant of God even in his imperfection. And that's good news for people like me, and I think it's good news for people like you. We too can be known as faithful, prayerful servants who follow after God. Now, the book of Exodus, you know, is the story of Israel and their escape from the oppression of Egypt. Now, Moses, after 40 years, we learned last week, 40 years in the Median desert.
[00:04:27] He was out tending to the flock of his father in law, and he happened upon this amazing sight, a bush that appeared to be on fire, but yet it wasn't consumed by its flames. And as he approached it, as he was amazed by it, God then spoke through that bush. And God gave him the assignment, his assignment to deliver God's people.
[00:04:53] Last week, as we ended the message, we ended it with Moses own confession, his own words, where he disclosed really the rustle of his heart in wanting to fulfill the assignment, to step into the assignment God gave him. And he said these words, lord, please send anyone else.
[00:05:13] See, Moses comes clean and he states plainly, I don't want to do it, God, I don't want to do it.
[00:05:22] So he resisted the surrender to obedience to God's assignment. Not unlike many of us sometimes. But as we read that story last week, we noticed that Moses protested. At least that's how the new living translation translated. It says that Moses said, or Moses protested. He questioned God's assignment.
[00:05:45] He questioned if he was really the right man for the job because he was a man on the run. He was a fugitive from Egypt and he had no credibility left.
[00:05:55] He ran off to the desert of Midian. So he had no credibility left with the Hebrew people back in Egypt, nor with Pharaoh.
[00:06:04] And he questioned, no doubt, his own ability and his worthiness.
[00:06:08] I mean, that's not really any different for any of us when we get a call or assignment or we need to do the right thing.
[00:06:16] In following God, sometimes we can question ourselves.
[00:06:21] But I suggested last week that the problem with Moses is that he didn't have the right perspective because he didn't hold on to the God perspective. And every opportunity he had to have that perspective. Because if you remember, Moses seemingly failed to hear God clearly say, moses, I will be with you.
[00:06:44] I will be with you.
[00:06:46] I'm not going to send you to Pharaoh to do this on your own.
[00:06:50] I will be with you.
[00:06:53] He then explained his name and he basically said, moses, Moses me, Yahweh, the self existent one, the one with no equal.
[00:07:02] It is I, Moses, who is sending you on this assignment. And through you I will deliver the people of Israel again. The problem with Moses is after all this time, he may have just been too weak in his confidence and too defeated.
[00:07:20] But we're going to see how God continues to work in him, even in his imperfection. Let me pray for us. Father God, we take a moment, we open up your word.
[00:07:30] We pray that God we will see how sometimes we face situations that we get exhausted, we get tired, we want to, we want to step away, step back, we want to quit.
[00:07:43] But God, you continue to reassure, to let us know you are with us. You've got this.
[00:07:49] And you invite us into your work, to be part of your plan.
[00:07:55] And so you do a work in us, you continue to work things out in us, in our relationship with you, God, because you want to use us somehow in our world.
[00:08:04] And I pray God, we continue to be encouraged and to grow as we look at Exodus chapter 5 and 6 this morning. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right, if you want to, you can open up your copy. You can follow along in your copy of God's word. In Exodus chapter five, we're going to go through chapter five and in part of chapter six we're going to begin. In verse one of chapter five it says this.
[00:08:29] After this presentation to Israel's leaders, we'll pause here for a minute because back in chapter four in verse 29 or so, Moses after saying, God, send somebody else. I'm just, I'm a clumsy talker. I can't do it. I'm not good with words.
[00:08:44] God will meet us where we're at, no matter what our reasoning is for hesitating.
[00:08:50] So God set up a meeting between Moses and Aaron. And in that conversation, Moses shared with Aaron what God had told him in that encounter with the, with the burning bush.
[00:09:01] And then it tells us then that Moses and Aaron then returned to Egypt and then gathered the religious or The Israelite leaders together.
[00:09:09] And then Aaron shared with them the experience that Moses had had.
[00:09:15] And then Moses, if he required God, gave him three different miracles he would perform in front of the people, just to demonstrate God is with them.
[00:09:22] And those were that first he would. He had a staff in his hand. He was a shepherd. And God said, throw it on the ground. And it turned into a snake. And he grabbed it by the tail, picked it back up. Then he said again, moses, stick your hand inside your cloak. He did. He pulled it out and was white with leprosy. Then he said, put it back in. It came back out perfectly healthy.
[00:09:42] And then the last miracle was to take some water and a pitcher from the Nile, then to pour it out onto the dry ground. And then as it hit the ground, it would turn blood. And as the people watched Moses, he did perform these miracles. And they were amazed at it and were told that the people of Israel were convinced, they were convinced that the Lord had seen their misery and that he had sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them. So we pick up in verse one, after the presentation to Israelite leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh.
[00:10:21] They told him, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, let my people go. That's how he. That's a famous line, right? Let my people go. Charlton Heston in the old Time film Ten Commandments. Let my people go so that they can make holy festival in my honor in the wilderness.
[00:10:41] Now it's easy to read right past those verses and miss the words of what's happening here.
[00:10:47] This confrontation that Moses and Aaron had with Pharaoh was no small thing.
[00:10:53] It took incredible courage to obey God's assignment, to go and say these words to Pharaoh, because who are they that they would go and ask for an audience of Pharaoh, the ruler of the land, and demand that God that Pharaoh let God's people go took tremendous courage. And so they should be commended for what they did. And I would say, any moment, any of us step out in obedience to God, and we say, yes to God. God, we're going to do the right thing. We're going to live. We're going to make choices. We're going to do what you ask us to do. The assignment you've given us in our lives, anytime any one of us step forward, obedience to what God has asked is to be applauded.
[00:11:41] This is no small thing, because obedience always takes courage.
[00:11:46] Verse two, Pharaoh retorted, is that so?
[00:11:51] Who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go?
[00:11:58] I don't know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.
[00:12:04] Pharaoh is basically saying that whoever this Yahweh is, he's not one of the Egyptian gods.
[00:12:12] I don't know him, he has no authority over me.
[00:12:16] At best he's your God, but to me he's nothing. And so I will not let you go.
[00:12:25] Verse 3. But Aaron and Moses persisted in making their case.
[00:12:30] They said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
[00:12:33] They declared, so let us take a three day journey into the wilderness so that we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don't, he will kill us with a plague or with a sword. You remember last week we talked about when Moses was having the conversation and God was giving him the plan.
[00:12:55] Last week Moses, I mean Moses heard from God, you'll go and ask Pharaoh for a three day retreat. So now here Moses is actually telling Moses what God said, ask for a three day retreat.
[00:13:08] And we talked about why did, why would he only go and ask for this smaller three day. When ultimately God's plan was to deliver the people completely out of Egypt and out of oppression.
[00:13:21] And we learned that the three day request was to make it as appealing as possible and easy for Pharaoh to say, okay, you can take a long weekend.
[00:13:33] But ultimately it would reveal which God knew the stubbornness of Pharaoh's heart.
[00:13:39] Then if we were to read. It's not on your screen. Verses 4 and 5. Basically Pharaoh says, why are you distracting the people from the work? Get out of here, get out of my face.
[00:13:48] Because this three day retreat request, it appears to really have irritated Pharaoh.
[00:13:54] And he thought to himself, if the Israelites have enough time to take a three day weekend, they have enough time for more work.
[00:14:06] So things got harder in verse 6. That same day, Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foreman, do not supply any more straw for making bricks.
[00:14:21] Make the people get it themselves, but still require them to make the same number of bricks as before.
[00:14:29] Don't reduce that quota.
[00:14:31] They are lazy.
[00:14:33] That's why they are crying out, let us go and offer sacrifices to our God, to their God.
[00:14:40] Load them down with more work, make them sweat.
[00:14:44] That will teach them to listen to lies.
[00:14:50] See, now the Israelites must gather all the materials they need to make bricks. They didn't have the extra help of the Egyptian workforce in growing and supplying the straw, and yet they were to be held accountable for the same level of production, which really is impossible.
[00:15:05] It's impossible for them. And that is exactly the point.
[00:15:08] Pharaoh was making a power move meant to humiliate the Hebrews, but also to remind them of their place in his rule.
[00:15:20] And he also wanted the burden to intimidate them and keep them from listening to people like Moses. So verse 10 goes on and says, so the slave divers and the foreman went out and they told the people, this is what Pharaoh says, I will not provide any more straw for you. Go and get it yourselves.
[00:15:39] Find it wherever you can, but you must produce just as many bricks as before.
[00:15:44] So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use a straw.
[00:15:50] Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard.
[00:15:53] Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did when we provided you with straw, they demanded. So here the people, they're frantic.
[00:16:02] They're scrambling to find anything that they can use in order to mix with the mud and the sand to make their bricks.
[00:16:09] Understand, the Egyptians were competent farmers and they were supplying the grass, the straw that was necessary. But the land of Egypt wasn't naturally lush, not in all places. It really called for some intentional growth by those Egyptian farmers.
[00:16:25] So now, as the Israelites had to go find whatever they could, they didn't have access directly to continue to grow the crop they needed.
[00:16:35] They realized they had no chance to scavenge enough on their own, which is again really the point.
[00:16:42] And when they didn't meet their quotas, verse 14 says they whipped the Israelite foreman they had put in charge of the work. Cruz, why haven't you met your quotas either yesterday or today?
[00:16:57] They demanded.
[00:16:58] You see, the short term effect of Moses and Aaron going and confronting Pharaoh was to make things worse, not better.
[00:17:07] But think about it in your life, I mean, is that proved true for you?
[00:17:12] Isn't it that way? Many times, confronting the thing that is, is morally wrong or spiritually wrong, or standing with God, or following the conviction that God has placed on your heart is not always quick and it's not always easy. And the reality is sometimes it can bring short term pain.
[00:17:33] Give up is what we often do.
[00:17:38] We question, were we wrong to do what we did? Were we wrong to obey? We were wrong to do that thing.
[00:17:45] Maybe we even think we must have not heard God, we must have not understood God's word, right?
[00:17:53] And that's exactly the kind of confusion Pharaoh had hoped would come.
[00:17:59] So in the middle of this circumstance of the extra burden, the question for the Israelites is, where do you turn when you're hoping for deliverance, for that, for that momentum to begin? And yet, whenever the word is given, let my people go.
[00:18:17] And it turns into something worse and things get harder. Where do you go? Where do you turn when that happens?
[00:18:25] When things get hard? Verse 15.
[00:18:28] So the Israelite foremen, they went where?
[00:18:34] Where'd they go?
[00:18:36] They went to Pharaoh and they pleaded with him. They didn't go to God. They didn't go back to Moses. They went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. Please don't treat your servants like this, they begged.
[00:18:47] We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, make bricks. Make bricks.
[00:18:54] We are being beaten, but it isn't our fault.
[00:18:59] Your people are to blame. They're blaming the Egyptian workforce which came at Pharaoh's command. But Pharaoh, he shouted, you just. You're just lazy. You're lazy. You're lazy.
[00:19:14] That's why you're saying, let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.
[00:19:18] Now get back to work.
[00:19:21] No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.
[00:19:31] In is right. The leaders in their trouble, in their concern over how things had escalated, they did not turn to God.
[00:19:41] They did not even turn back to Moses. You remember the story in chapter five began with after the miracles, they believed that God had heard their misery and had sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them.
[00:19:55] But when things don't start, aren't going right, they don't turn to God. And they don't even go back to Moses and say, moses, what's up?
[00:20:03] Instead they turned to Pharaoh.
[00:20:07] They felt maybe that their previous arrangement, you know, where they had to just make bricks with straw, that that arrangement was better than their current misery.
[00:20:19] They seemingly would settle for that life than the promise of freedom that they had just momentarily begin to embrace.
[00:20:32] But can I ask, in humanity or even in your own life, has freedom from anything ever come easy?
[00:20:42] Always. Is work always has to be an intentional pursuit.
[00:20:47] Verse 19.
[00:20:48] The Israelite foreman could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, you must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.
[00:20:58] So verse 20. As they left Pharaoh's court, look what they did.
[00:21:02] As they left Pharaoh's court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting, perhaps expectantly outside for them.
[00:21:12] The foreman of Israel said to them, may the Lord judge and punish you, Aaron, you, Moses, for making us stink to high heavens. Before Pharaoh and his officials.
[00:21:27] You have put a sword into their hands and an excuse to kill us.
[00:21:33] You see, when Israel was an obedient slave to Pharaoh, they perceive Pharaoh as a friend. You know, we just keep doing our thing. He kind of leaves us alone. It's not the best. We're still Suffering, we're in bondage.
[00:21:49] But at least it's not as bad as it is now.
[00:21:52] But now the idea of this three day retreat is suggested. And now Pharaoh showed them really what he thought of them.
[00:22:05] But they turned on Moses and Aaron. They didn't turn back to Moses and say, hey, what's going on? They turned on Moses and Aaron and blamed them for what was happening.
[00:22:15] Friends, I think anytime God is doing something, he's working something out in our life and we're moving towards freedom.
[00:22:24] Freedom in Jesus. Maybe we take a stand where Jesus and where God's word stands. When we do that, too often it seems the enemy will come along and try to make life difficult, to cause us to back away.
[00:22:41] And I would say even in those moments when the enemy is doing that, I would say maybe God even allows it.
[00:22:48] He allows it. Okay, think about it for a minute.
[00:22:51] God could have freed, he could have set free the Israelites without a struggle, without any part of the Israelite people playing in it. God could have just done it. I'm not sure how he would have done it.
[00:23:06] We could talk about it and see how God might have, but he could have.
[00:23:11] But God knew that would not be good for the people.
[00:23:17] He knew it would not be best for them.
[00:23:20] Because God knows that their transition for the number of years they had been away from the promised land, they had been in Egypt 400 years. Remember when the famine and Joseph and they moved the family there. And then the Nation has grown 400 years ago. Now they've been living in these later years under a second or third Pharaoh, under oppression.
[00:23:41] God knew that making the transition from a life of slavery to the Egyptians to a life of free people, that would require some testing and stretching.
[00:23:56] It was going to be necessary to make that transition in the heart.
[00:24:00] Because if they were just given it, they would not necessarily appreciate it. And I think that's true for you and I too. If God just does it and we don't have to wrestle with him, we don't have to remain faithful and trusting in him that maybe we don't appreciate. When God does a miraculous work in our lives or through our lives. God knew they needed some testing and some stretching.
[00:24:30] But where do they turn?
[00:24:31] They didn't turn back to Moses. They certainly didn't turn to God. The people turned to Pharaoh and again he showed his true colors. So again I asked the question. As we move to verse 22, we where do you turn?
[00:24:44] Moses turned to God.
[00:24:47] Look at verse 22. Then Moses went back to God and he Protested. Okay, I get it. But let's give Moses credit, okay? Moses did go back to God.
[00:25:00] Yeah, maybe he had a little bit of an attitude, but he went back to God and he said, why, God? Why?
[00:25:11] Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord?
[00:25:17] You know, Moses, in saying this, he's forgetting about the encounter that he had with God at the burning bush.
[00:25:27] And one of the things God said is that, yeah, Pharaoh would not let Israel go easily, but. But ultimately God would deliver the people.
[00:25:37] So Moses had mustard enough faith encouraged to go and confront Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron confronting Pharaoh. And it turned out badly.
[00:25:46] So for Moses, the same doubts, the same fears begin to raise up and come crashing in on him. And so he says, God, why have you brought all this trouble on your people, Lord?
[00:25:59] And he asked the question, why did you send me?
[00:26:02] Why? Why send me? What's the point of this? Why send me to do this in order to make it worse?
[00:26:11] Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people.
[00:26:21] And you've done nothing.
[00:26:26] And I don't think when Moses said that, I don't think Moses said, you've done nothing. I don't think that's what he did. I think he was in God's face. God, you've done nothing to rescue them.
[00:26:36] Those are strong words, right?
[00:26:41] Sometimes that's how we feel.
[00:26:45] And if we're going to feel that way and we're going to use those strong words and we're going to question God, let me first say God can handle your questions.
[00:26:55] God is not intimidated. He doesn't become insecure because you're challenging him. God is secure in who he is and he can take our challenges. The problem is sometimes we use those strong words and we talk about God to other people.
[00:27:10] No, let's just go to God.
[00:27:13] Let's just lay obey our heart before him with our concerns about God. It's not working out like I thought. I thought if I just obeyed you and it took a lot of courage to do that, that you would show up right there and he didn't see. Moses is clearly a little discouraged and confused.
[00:27:34] Because if following God's will and doing it and taking the courage that it takes to do it, how come things got worse?
[00:27:44] I don't want to do this thing because it's already proved to not work.
[00:27:50] The reality is, yes, sometimes it's difficult to do the will of God, to obey God, to stay in the will of God. It's difficult. It's hard.
[00:28:04] But friends, they Meaning the Israelites and Moses. They will soon see how much worse it could be when you stand against God's will, which is what Pharaoh will soon experience.
[00:28:26] So we turn to chapter six, verse one.
[00:28:32] Then the Lord told Moses, and this is a way of trying to encourage him, remind him.
[00:28:42] Then the Lord told Moses, Moses, now.
[00:28:46] Now's the time.
[00:28:47] Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh when he feels the force of my strong hand.
[00:28:56] He will let the people go.
[00:29:00] Not just on a three day retreat.
[00:29:03] In fact, he will force them to leave his land.
[00:29:08] See, God is reassuring Moses.
[00:29:11] Moses, I got this.
[00:29:13] I got this.
[00:29:14] Just believe, Moses. Stay the course.
[00:29:17] Hold on to the promise of the word that I gave you.
[00:29:22] Believe that I am in control.
[00:29:27] Moses, not only he saw him, not only will Pharaoh let the people go, he will force them to leave his land. Amen.
[00:29:38] We know the rest of the story. It's always good when you know the rest of the story right? But in the moment, Moses was confused. He didn't know what was happening. And yet God is saying, you're going to see this. You're going to see something mighty. Then he goes on in verses six through eight, and he tells Moses ultimately the beauty of what he's going to do in the deliverance. Therefore, remind the people. Say to the people, Moses say this to them, I am the Lord and I will. He gives three statements that are connected to deliverance. I will free you from your oppression. That means the yoke of bondage will be broken. And I will rescue you from your slave in Egypt. You will walk away.
[00:30:26] You'll literally just be able to walk, drop everything and walk away.
[00:30:31] And I will redeem you.
[00:30:34] I will purchase you. I will get you out of there with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment.
[00:30:43] You'll no longer be the slaves or the possession of Egypt. You will be mine.
[00:30:48] You will be mine.
[00:30:51] Then he gives a transition to some of the relationship that God will have with his people. He goes in verse seven, I will claim you as my own people.
[00:31:00] I will adopt you. You belong to me. I will choose you.
[00:31:04] Every day.
[00:31:07] I will choose you.
[00:31:08] And I will be your God.
[00:31:12] He said, I will be your personal.
[00:31:14] It's personal. I'll be your intimate.
[00:31:17] I'll be your bestie. I'll be your God.
[00:31:22] And in this commitment of I will be your God, there is an anticipation, there's an expectation that there'll be a reciprocal devotion back because of the beauty of a relationship with the one who has no equal.
[00:31:39] Then he says, then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who freed you from your oppression.
[00:31:48] Then he shifts to the fulfillment of his covenant with a couple of more I wills. He says in verse eight, I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[00:32:02] And you remember Israel.
[00:32:05] They lived in the promised land that God first gave, but then they moved to Egypt during a time of famine. But God says, I will return you, Israel, to the land that you lived in 400 years ago.
[00:32:21] He says, I will give it to you as your very own possession.
[00:32:28] I am the Lord.
[00:32:30] See, he is going to give it to the people of Israel, not because they've earned it. Not because their great dedication and surrender and obedience to God, because they really hadn't been.
[00:32:41] They had drifted from attention and devotion to Yahweh. But God's going to return them to that place and give it to them as their possession that belonged to their forefathers.
[00:32:55] I believe that land that God is speaking about is still the land that Israel is in today. And it's still their land given by God. Not because they earned it, because God said so.
[00:33:07] And so here in this phrase, God tells Moses, tell the people what I will do.
[00:33:14] For the first time, Moses says to the people what God's ultimate promise is. And it's not just to deliver them out of Egypt, away from Pharaoh and slavery, but to return them to the land that was promised to their nation's forefathers.
[00:33:31] Then we get to verse nine. God says, what I'm gonna do?
[00:33:36] And then he. So Moses, he told the people of Israel what the Lord had said.
[00:33:42] He told the people what the Lord said. I will do. This I will do. He told the people what the Lord said, and they were ecstatic.
[00:33:49] They renewed their faith in Yahweh. They stood firmly with Moses and Aaron. Right?
[00:33:56] Is that what it says?
[00:33:58] No.
[00:33:59] When he told them, they refused to listen anymore.
[00:34:05] I'm done. We're done not doing it.
[00:34:08] Shut up. We don't want to hear one more word out of your mouth.
[00:34:12] They refused to listen anymore because they had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.
[00:34:21] I get it. That can happen to us, right?
[00:34:24] We can be so pushed down and oppressed by whatever is happening in our world. Maybe it comes because we're trying to live out the assignment God has given us, the relationship that God has invited us into. And yet, as we do that, things don't seem to be going smoothly.
[00:34:43] We hit some rough spots and we become discouraged because it's just too hard.
[00:34:50] And that's what Happens when we take our eyes off of God.
[00:34:56] And I'm not just talking about just. Okay, well, just attending worship. I mean, you can attend worship, but still take your eyes off of God. Praise God, you're here.
[00:35:04] But God wants more than your attendance in a worship service or in a Bible study.
[00:35:09] God wants a genuine pursuit of a relationship with him.
[00:35:14] The Israelites had not a strong faith at this time. In many ways, they had been under just the culture of the Egyptians and their pantheon of gods. That even later we're going to learn, they're going to demand that Aaron build them a golden calf rather than to worship Yahweh.
[00:35:33] There's so much of it.
[00:35:35] Culture had rubbed off on them that they weren't strong followers of God. And yet God sends a deliverer, Moses, with Aaron's assistance, to bring them out into a new place.
[00:35:49] But when we get our eyes off of God, we too can become discouraged in whatever fight we're in, in pursuing God. Verse 10. Then the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, oh, great.
[00:36:03] The Lord said to Moses, go back to Pharaoh.
[00:36:07] Can you imagine hearing that? He didn't want to hear that. I don't want to do it. I didn't want to do it the first time.
[00:36:13] I know how it turned out already.
[00:36:16] Quit doing this to me. Why do you keep asking me to do this?
[00:36:21] God said to Moses, go back to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave his country.
[00:36:33] I mean, with assurance. God is speaking.
[00:36:36] Moses, are you hearing that?
[00:36:40] Verse 12. But Lord Moses objected.
[00:36:45] My own people won't listen to me anymore.
[00:36:49] I've said things, and then it doesn't happen. It gets worse.
[00:36:53] They don't listen to me.
[00:36:54] And how can I expect Pharaoh to listen?
[00:36:59] I'm just such a clumsy speaker. I just. I guess I just. I don't have the words. I can't get the words out.
[00:37:08] Apparently I can't do it well.
[00:37:10] So Moses wasn't about to repeat what clearly hadn't been working.
[00:37:15] I already mustered enough courage once.
[00:37:18] I don't think I can do it again.
[00:37:21] I can't even get the people on board, much less Pharaoh.
[00:37:26] Again. Still Moses. And sometimes we are like this. We still don't have the right perspective.
[00:37:32] God's perspective.
[00:37:35] God said to him, moses, I will be with you.
[00:37:41] You're not going to show up in front of Pharaoh by yourself.
[00:37:44] I'm going to be with you.
[00:37:47] And he also, God said, and when Pharaoh, he told Moses, when. When Pharaoh feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. Not only that, he's going to force them to leave his land. Amen. Now we know the rest of the story. We know it happened, right? Megan, I'm going to ask if you and the team would come up at this point. God gives Moses a final word, and I think maybe Moses is finally going to hear it. Verse 13.
[00:38:18] But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and he gave them orders for the Israelites and for Pharaoh, this is it. This is what you do. The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt. And that's what we're going to see in these next couple weeks. God wanted Moses to persist in his obedience, to follow through on the assignment. As scary and as daunting as it might be, obedience takes courage. Always.
[00:38:48] Don't look to Pharaoh or the children of Israel, because they'll let you down.
[00:38:53] Don't even look to your own self and what you can bring to the table. Just look to God.
[00:38:58] Look to me alone, he says, because Pharaoh and Moses and the people of Israel are about to see the hand of God act.
[00:39:12] Don't want to miss that.
[00:39:14] By not being obedient, by not surrendering.
[00:39:18] See, God wants you to persist in your obedience.
[00:39:21] Maybe to do that, you need to ask him for the courage to obey, because obedience will take courage.
[00:39:29] So whenever you're tempted to step away from the fight of whatever God is calling you into or the assignment that he's given you, one living for him, but maybe it's some other assignment he's given you in your neighborhood or your workplace, stand with him. Do not back away from it. Stay true to God and his word in your life. Because nothing that matters comes without some testing and stretching. Amen.
[00:39:56] So this morning, I'm going to be down front.
[00:39:58] Pastor Diane and Tony Hill agree. Down with me. Hey, if there's something that you're battling and you say, I just need the courage to continue on, we'd love to pray with you. If you're here this morning. Maybe you don't know Jesus, or maybe you've drifted away, you've taken your eyes off him, and life is kind of chaotic. You're not even sure how you're going to make it through this next week. We want to pray with you, too. We wanted to help you recommit your relationship to God, but also to ask for the courage to continue to live out a life of obedience to God. Amen.
[00:40:29] So would you go ahead and stand?
[00:40:31] We're going to sing a closing song called Take Courage. And if you want to pray. You come forward. Let us pray with you.
