back to index2017-08-20 God's Plan of Deliverance
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The reason why I say that is because we're going to look at a very familiar story in 00:00:11.600 |
And while we're going there, you are familiar with the story, nation of Israel oppressed 00:00:19.880 |
God calls Moses and God has a plan of deliverance. 00:00:25.560 |
And in so having this plan radically changes Moses' route in life, radically changes what 00:00:39.280 |
So we're going to, sorry give me a second here. 00:00:48.400 |
Exodus chapter 3, I'm going to start reading from verse 7. 00:00:53.800 |
It says, "Then the Lord said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in 00:00:58.000 |
Egypt and I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters. 00:01:01.600 |
I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians 00:01:05.240 |
and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk 00:01:09.840 |
and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, 00:01:18.000 |
And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to Me and I have also seen the oppression 00:01:25.280 |
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, 00:01:31.520 |
But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel 00:01:37.440 |
He said, 'But I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent 00:01:43.440 |
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.'" 00:01:50.480 |
Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank You so much for Your Word. 00:01:54.160 |
It is truly Your light unto our path and God is Your wisdom to us. 00:02:00.240 |
I pray, Father Lord, that every single one of us would continue to be exposed to Your 00:02:03.960 |
Word and God, that our hearts and our minds would be transformed by it. 00:02:08.600 |
We want to pray, Lord, for the work of Your ministry. 00:02:11.440 |
God, as You lay out for us the story of Moses, I do pray that You grant to us a vision of 00:02:18.640 |
Your plan, a vision of what You are doing and God, that we would fully embrace it. 00:02:29.680 |
So, as we take a look at this passage, again, a very familiar passage that many of you have 00:02:36.000 |
heard and have read before, I want to highlight essentially three truths about God's plan. 00:02:44.320 |
And the three truths that I'm going to highlight, they are obvious. 00:02:48.240 |
So if my title headings are like really boring, I apologize. 00:02:51.360 |
They're just obvious truths, but need to highlight them because sometimes, although obvious, 00:02:57.960 |
very difficult to apply, very difficult to accept. 00:03:01.240 |
Well, as we take a look at the story, first, if I draw your attention to verse 7 through 00:03:07.400 |
9, you see the situation by which God comes to. 00:03:12.760 |
The Lord says, "I surely have seen affliction of My people who are in Egypt, heard their 00:03:17.520 |
cry of their taskmasters, and I know their suffering." 00:03:21.840 |
So, He describes their plight, their problem and dilemma in a kind of variety of ways, 00:03:27.560 |
their affliction and suffering and their cry. 00:03:30.280 |
And we know that the oppression of the Jewish people throughout their history has been intense, 00:03:38.200 |
Well, here specifically, they have been enslaved. 00:03:42.520 |
And when we read this, you know, previously, if you remember the story of Moses, there 00:03:46.560 |
was a generation when the Pharaoh actually murdered all the male babies. 00:03:52.120 |
Just think about the kind of suffering a people would go through when their children are murdered, 00:04:02.080 |
So their suffering is not only long, because for 400 years they've been in Egypt, it's 00:04:07.400 |
intense and it is impossible for them to get out of. 00:04:13.520 |
The people needed deliverance from the outside. 00:04:17.000 |
This is not one of these like good Disney movies where it's like, "Believe in yourself. 00:04:23.400 |
You've got these farmers or these slave people, you know, learning and training and it's like, 00:04:28.000 |
"Let's gather together and overpower the Egyptians." 00:04:38.040 |
So if I said, you know, "These slaves were weak," I mean, that would be an understatement, 00:04:43.240 |
They were intensely, intensely in need and so they absolutely needed deliverance. 00:04:48.480 |
And I'm just trying to repeat this idea, impossible for them to do on their own, okay? 00:04:57.160 |
So with that said, we go to the first truth about God's plan of deliverance. 00:05:07.400 |
First truth of God's plan of deliverance, that in God's plan of deliverance, God uses 00:05:19.600 |
I want you to think about this for a moment as we read. 00:05:23.840 |
I just try to make it very clear this is an impossible task for the people. 00:05:29.640 |
And so when you take a look at this, look at verse 10. 00:05:32.600 |
"Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, 00:05:41.320 |
Think about how Moses would have received that. 00:05:43.920 |
When Moses hears this message from God and God saying, "I have come down," he's thinking, 00:06:11.480 |
But let's observe this, again, clear and obvious truth that's been ruled throughout history. 00:06:17.480 |
God has so chosen that upon endeavoring on this impossible task, He regularly uses His 00:06:30.320 |
For example, if we look at Matthew chapter 5, starting from verse 14 through 16, okay, 00:06:37.200 |
Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 through 16, we know that the generation is wicked, depraved, 00:06:49.920 |
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a 00:06:54.640 |
Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. 00:06:57.800 |
In the same way, you let your light shine before others that they may see your good 00:07:03.200 |
deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 00:07:08.440 |
Christ's design, you know, God's plan, His program, how we should perceive the situation 00:07:21.160 |
In this decaying, dark generation, you're supposed to be the light. 00:07:26.480 |
Here's another passage, Acts chapter 1, verse 7 through 8. 00:07:30.920 |
The disciples are asking this question like, "Where's going to be the kingdom? 00:07:37.960 |
And Jesus says, or here, He says, "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, 00:07:42.080 |
saying, 'Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom of Israel?' 00:07:45.400 |
And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father 00:07:49.400 |
has fixed by His own authority, but," look at this, "but you will receive power when 00:07:53.640 |
the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, in all 00:07:58.400 |
Judea, Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth." 00:08:04.560 |
It has been a regular pattern that in God's plan of redemption overall, He uses His people. 00:08:13.480 |
That's an obvious, this is not like groundbreaking new stuff that you've never, ever heard before. 00:08:24.560 |
The problem is, although this is God's landscape for us now and then, many times we say, "Oh, 00:08:37.660 |
We have times when we just don't think that's God's will for us. 00:08:41.520 |
I don't know what it may be, but we sound a lot like Moses. 00:08:45.440 |
Take a look at chapter 4, Exodus chapter 4, when Moses is speaking with the Lord. 00:08:50.680 |
You know that there's a series of questions Moses asks the Lord. 00:08:57.760 |
And what am I going to do with da-da-da-da-da?" 00:08:59.480 |
And then eventually Moses starts to disagree with God, and this is what he says. 00:09:04.480 |
In chapter 4, let's see, passage verse 10 through 13, okay, 10 through 13, "Moses said 00:09:10.760 |
to the Lord, 'Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since You have spoken 00:09:16.600 |
to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue.' 00:09:20.040 |
Then the Lord said to him, 'Who made man's mouth? 00:09:23.080 |
Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? 00:09:27.480 |
Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth, teach you what you shall speak.' 00:09:31.760 |
But he said, 'Oh, Lord, my Lord, please send somebody else.'" 00:09:43.400 |
I mean, even in the, "I am not eloquent," and "I can't," I mean, you're pretty eloquent 00:09:47.640 |
when you're giving your excuses, you know, pretty much. 00:09:52.160 |
And I just want to say, I mean, for me too, there's so many excuses for not doing what 00:09:58.920 |
Well, you know, one of the things that I experienced out in China this year at this trip was, man, 00:10:07.520 |
We got to China just about three, four days early before the camp started, and we had 00:10:11.480 |
training and we had a chance to go to the wall and stuff. 00:10:14.160 |
And while we were doing the training, we met other, like, missionaries and workers who 00:10:23.360 |
He's just like a water sanitation worker guy working for the government in Seattle, and 00:10:32.000 |
What he does is he takes two weeks of his pay time off, and then he asks his boss, "Can 00:10:36.160 |
I take two more weeks without pay off so I can go to China?" 00:10:44.480 |
By the end of the trip, he was kind of wheezing and stuff, and I was like, "Oh, are you okay?" 00:10:50.520 |
He goes to dorms with us, visits at night after dinner's over. 00:10:58.940 |
But there were 16 and 17, youth group students. 00:11:04.160 |
I don't even know what the Netherlands—like, are you Dutch, Holland? 00:11:09.160 |
You know, but they were there, and we were engaging, and they told me that, yeah, one 00:11:12.600 |
of them got saved, like, you know, at a youth camp. 00:11:19.480 |
The family that is orchestrating this whole thing—they were the facilitators, kind of 00:11:22.960 |
the program directors of this camp—like, amazing people. 00:11:33.720 |
Super humble, super, like, like-minded, godly. 00:11:40.280 |
Four kids—five, three, one and a half, and one six weeks old. 00:11:45.320 |
I was like, "Dude, nothing's stopping you guys." 00:11:48.360 |
So I had, like, there were moments—I had a lot of mosquito bites, and some days I was 00:11:52.640 |
just drowsy, and I was just, you know, the itch in me to complain, like, "Oh, no, no, 00:11:57.280 |
Oh, no, no, no, itchy mosquitoes, and na, na, na, na, na, na, na," right? 00:12:03.360 |
People around you, you just can't say anything, because if you do, you're just going to look 00:12:08.240 |
I've been through that, and that just inspired me. 00:12:10.440 |
Now, I say that not to be like, like, "Every one of you, get out there!" 00:12:15.280 |
Like, no, I don't believe that it's for every single one of us to be missionaries, because 00:12:21.160 |
Not every single one of us is called to go out to the mission field, you know, et cetera, 00:12:28.480 |
However, certain callings are absolutely clear, and we are without excuse. 00:12:35.800 |
And although it is obvious, many times we push it afar, like, "That's nice. 00:12:46.000 |
But I know every single one of us, no matter what stage of life you're in, God has called 00:12:56.400 |
God has called you to be vocal about His grace, about His glory, and all that He has done 00:13:00.680 |
for you, to speak in thanksgiving, to sing songs. 00:13:05.760 |
God I know, God has called every single one of you, even if you don't have to go all the 00:13:09.880 |
way out to China or some remote part of the world, God has clearly called you, amen? 00:13:18.960 |
Like, we have to accept that and say, "That's for me." 00:13:23.920 |
And so, there is a progression of thought there. 00:13:27.520 |
Have you guys ever prayed something like this? 00:13:29.360 |
"Lord, if it be Your will, use me to minister to my coworkers." 00:13:44.400 |
There's a bad way to apologize to somebody, especially you men, I'm giving you a tip of 00:13:50.400 |
If your girlfriend, wife is upset, do not say, "You know, if I hurt you in any way, 00:14:06.120 |
"Well, if you're going to make a big deal about it, then here." 00:14:24.280 |
If you come to the Lord like, "If this happens to be Your will." 00:14:31.840 |
God uses His people for His glory and His work and His kingdom and His ministry. 00:14:37.120 |
So it's not for you to say, "If it be Your will." 00:14:39.920 |
It's for you to say, "I know this is Your will." 00:14:43.840 |
Now again, the practical applications of that, whether you should go out on the mission field, 00:14:48.800 |
whether you should take initiative to do a certain kind of ministry, that's yes, for 00:14:53.160 |
you to work out with fear and trembling, for you to pray and take the lead of God. 00:14:57.560 |
But when it comes to the overall ministry of God, for you to evangelize and be a light, 00:15:09.440 |
And let us not be wishy and washy about that. 00:15:12.120 |
Here's an interesting passage I would like you to go to, John chapter 17, verse 14 through 00:15:20.360 |
Jesus is praying before He goes to the cross. 00:15:23.720 |
This is famously known as Jesus' high priestly prayer. 00:15:28.420 |
And in that moment, Jesus prays for His disciples in this fashion, okay? 00:15:38.480 |
Jesus says, "I have given them Your word and the world has hated them because they 00:15:46.520 |
Current landscape, your ministry, is it always going to be successful? 00:15:51.320 |
Jesus told you already what it's going to be like. 00:15:53.600 |
"Just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that 00:16:00.960 |
They are not of the world, just as I'm not of the world, but sanctify them in Your truth. 00:16:05.800 |
Your word is truth, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 00:16:11.680 |
And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. 00:16:16.600 |
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their 00:16:26.320 |
I'm just talking about like current circumstance. 00:16:28.600 |
You should have a worldview of how you fit your role in God's program. 00:16:35.640 |
God uses His people to accomplish the impossible. 00:16:42.920 |
So for us, I don't want to hear stuff like, "I don't want to do this because I..." 00:16:53.720 |
"I don't want to do this because God has only called me to be sender, never speaker. 00:17:00.840 |
I don't want to do this because I know it's not going to work. 00:17:26.680 |
Well, when you look at Moses' words after the Lord, God, speaks to him and tells him, 00:17:37.080 |
And he says, "So therefore, I'm going to send you." 00:17:43.480 |
Moses says to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel 00:17:55.480 |
Now, Moses receives a lot of criticism for that question and partially rightly so. 00:18:02.000 |
When God says, "Go," it's not for you to all of a sudden be like, "Not me. 00:18:09.520 |
You know, like to throw a pity party for yourself because that's not trusting in God's plan. 00:18:16.280 |
You should have confidence in God's plan, but you saying, "Who am I?" 00:18:21.040 |
That just means you're way too much thinking about yourself, right? 00:18:24.960 |
So rightly so, Moses receives a ton of criticism. 00:18:29.280 |
He receives a ton of criticism for saying, "Who am I?" 00:18:32.040 |
However, I was thinking about it and every single one of us would say the exact same 00:18:38.760 |
Because the story goes, Moses at this time is not a young man saying, "Yeah, let's do 00:18:46.320 |
So when you see the photos where he's all gray, that's accurate. 00:18:50.360 |
Scripture says that he spent 40 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness of the Midianites. 00:18:57.920 |
So here's a weathered man with lots of sorrow in his life. 00:19:03.160 |
You know, he's like, "I don't belong anywhere." 00:19:05.840 |
And he names his son a sojourner and all this kind of stuff. 00:19:11.080 |
He's like, "Yeah, I'm going to lead these people." 00:19:15.840 |
Because he lived his life in Egypt as an Egyptian. 00:19:21.220 |
So imagine he coming to the Hebrews and saying, "I'm going to lead you guys." 00:19:36.880 |
What's more, the Egyptians don't like him because remember, when he left Egypt, he killed 00:19:47.360 |
So he's hated by the Egyptians, hated by the Hebrews. 00:20:03.520 |
He's failed prince, murderer, dropout, so to speak. 00:20:11.000 |
Every time we're doing a work of God, like a ministry of the Lord, we're going to get 00:20:14.900 |
a quick, like a really quick rush of looking at our resume and realizing, "I am not qualified 00:20:29.760 |
It's like give up, throw your hands up and like, "Yeah, this is impossible." 00:20:34.360 |
But God expects us, knowing we're not qualified, to still have confidence. 00:20:41.360 |
So first part of God's plan, in God's plan of deliverance, He uses people to do the impossible. 00:20:47.620 |
In that circumstance, you're going to feel like, "I'm not qualified," but He expects 00:20:54.060 |
How in the world do you have confidence when the task is impossible and you don't feel 00:21:02.140 |
You have to have confidence in God's golden plan. 00:21:09.140 |
Verse 12, "God says to Moses, 'But I will be with you, and this shall be a sign for 00:21:18.080 |
Is this where He does the miracles of the snake and the hand and the bosom and it comes 00:21:24.660 |
"This will be a sign for you, that I have sent you. 00:21:27.700 |
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." 00:21:41.800 |
And God says, "I'm going to give you a sign that you can." 00:21:45.520 |
And God doesn't say, "I raised you up in Egypt. 00:21:51.960 |
You're trained in military arts of the Egyptians. 00:21:59.440 |
You know, like that would be a great movie, you know? 00:22:10.440 |
God says, "The proof that you are sent by me is after the fact. 00:22:16.760 |
When this plan is accomplished and you're going to stand on this mountain and worship." 00:22:29.400 |
After God's golden plan works to the T, Moses is then going to know, "My goodness." 00:22:37.920 |
For us, we have to have absolute confidence in the power of God, the power of His plan, 00:22:49.240 |
So shaky people, all of you who are nervous, all of you who are fearful, because to tell 00:22:55.240 |
That many of us, the reason why we don't evangelize as we ought, we don't speak up, is because 00:23:05.000 |
We're afraid it's not going to bear the kind of result we want to have. 00:23:13.400 |
Like when I was working in the secular field, not Pastor Peter or the elders, like why am 00:23:17.200 |
I so afraid of talking to like, you know, in your workplace environment, your managers 00:23:21.760 |
and your coworkers, because you're afraid exactly of what's going to happen when all 00:23:29.560 |
They're going to reject me, and we're just afraid. 00:23:34.360 |
The fact of the matter is when we do that, we've lost confidence in God's golden plan. 00:23:38.520 |
Part of the reason why even those of you who are shaky in your voice, even those of you 00:23:43.440 |
who are timid and all introverted, why you can still go and evangelize is because you 00:23:47.880 |
can bank all of your confidence and boast on Christ and His power. 00:23:53.720 |
You believe the gospel to be powerful, so powerful it'll transform and save people, 00:24:05.520 |
Christians, Christians have this weird, weird balance. 00:24:09.880 |
Absolute no confidence in the flesh or my own ability. 00:24:14.760 |
We know our resume is horrendous, but we have absolute boldness because of Christ. 00:24:25.000 |
I want to point you to a passage, 2 Peter chapter 3. 00:24:36.680 |
It's a little bit lengthy passage, but in line with our theme of thinking about God's 00:24:43.920 |
plan of deliverance, how you fit into that role, but also how much confidence we can 00:24:51.120 |
have on God's Word, how much confidence we can have on God's plan, this passage fits 00:24:59.480 |
He says this, starting from verse 1, it's a little bit of a lengthy passage, please 00:25:06.040 |
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved, in both of them, I am stirring 00:25:11.680 |
up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the 00:25:15.400 |
holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing 00:25:20.280 |
first of all, listen to this, the scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, 00:25:27.000 |
They will say, "Where is the promise of His coming? 00:25:30.600 |
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the 00:25:35.880 |
For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the 00:25:40.720 |
earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God and that by means 00:25:45.800 |
of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 00:25:51.000 |
But by the same Word of the heavens and earth that now exists are stored up for fire being 00:25:55.120 |
kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 00:26:00.000 |
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years 00:26:06.200 |
The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards 00:26:11.480 |
you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 00:26:17.200 |
The day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a 00:26:20.880 |
roar and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolve and the earth and the works 00:26:29.160 |
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you be in lives 00:26:39.440 |
Because the scoffers all around you, the people of unbelief are going to tell you God's plan 00:26:48.520 |
God is not coming, Christ is not returning, look how long it's been. 00:26:52.040 |
I bet you the time of Moses, 400 years, you know people are probably saying God's plan 00:26:58.360 |
God's forgotten us, He has rejected us, He has nowhere to be found. 00:27:06.160 |
To the degree, Apostle Peter says, just like God through the power of His Word already 00:27:12.800 |
judged the world with water, God will judge the world with fire. 00:27:18.240 |
And you know this for certain, do not, do not forget this fact, God's Word will stand 00:27:24.800 |
That's the same thing for us, that's the same challenge. 00:27:28.880 |
God's plan will work, not the way that we think, not what the kind of results that you 00:27:33.240 |
want to see, but according to His way and His design, God's plan will work and you can 00:27:40.880 |
So with that kind of encouragement, we have confidence to be witnesses for the Lord. 00:27:47.840 |
Next and the final point, God's plan was, is, and will always be for His glory. 00:28:00.440 |
God's plan was, is, will always be for His glory. 00:28:08.240 |
Well, let's head back to Exodus chapter 3 and start looking from verse 13. 00:28:14.040 |
Okay, Exodus chapter 3, starting from verse 13. 00:28:21.640 |
So after God encourages Moses' heart, God says this, starting from verse 13 down to 00:28:27.720 |
verse 17, "Then Moses said to God, 'If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 00:28:33.360 |
'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' 00:28:40.560 |
God said to Moses, 'I am who I am,' and he says, 'Say this to the people of Israel, 00:28:47.760 |
God also said to Moses, 'Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your 00:28:50.720 |
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. 00:28:55.360 |
This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.'" 00:29:04.680 |
God's plan was, is, and will always be for His glory. 00:29:12.120 |
God is saying, "Moses, earlier you asked, 'Who am I?' 00:29:17.120 |
And I'm showing you it's not really about you. 00:29:22.560 |
And now He's directing the attention, Moses essentially asks, "Who do I say you are?" 00:29:29.440 |
I wish we could spend a whole lot of time there because you know that the name that 00:29:33.320 |
God has revealed is so packed with rich theology, that He is eternal, He's self-sufficient, 00:29:42.840 |
But as we're talking about truths of God's plan, likewise, then God's plan serves His 00:29:52.200 |
He is the glorious One who has been working long before Moses ever entered on the scene. 00:29:57.680 |
He is working now, and He is going to work out His plan into the future, and all of that, 00:30:02.360 |
the whole entirety of His plan is absolutely going to be for His glory. 00:30:10.000 |
Many of us, by subtle and maybe unintending ways, sometimes diminish or try to diminish 00:30:31.720 |
What do I mean Moses is trying to play chess? 00:30:37.120 |
Well the fact of the matter is, Moses, when he starts to ask these questions, he says 00:30:41.720 |
he's starting to roll his brain and saying, "Well, okay, but if I go and I say, 'God 00:30:48.800 |
sent me to you,' they're going to be like, 'What God? 00:30:52.600 |
Remember, you're an Egyptian dropout, so he's like anticipating their move, and then 00:30:56.640 |
he's anticipating His move, and then he's anticipating God's move, and then God's 00:31:03.240 |
I have detailed every single part of this plan to the degree that God has said, 'This 00:31:11.320 |
This is how a Pharaoh is going to reject you, and this is what you're going to say, and 00:31:14.720 |
God has detailed every single part of that plan, but Moses is still doing what? 00:31:18.880 |
He's still doubting, and he's still trying to play chess. 00:31:26.600 |
We have said that God has, okay, I'm just saying now, okay, there is an impossible task 00:31:42.120 |
Imagine if you're at work, some of you guys work for engineering firms, or maybe you guys 00:31:45.680 |
work for accounting firms, you guys work for whoever it may be, your business, okay? 00:31:50.120 |
Imagine that your senior CEO or president or whatever constantly assigns you tasks that 00:31:55.640 |
are absolutely impossible, and then He assigns it to people who are incapable, and maybe 00:32:02.640 |
you never feel like you're equipped, and you never feel like He's properly training you, 00:32:13.240 |
You would feel all of a sudden an incredible amount of distrust for your boss. 00:32:26.880 |
See, that would all, and in everything, that would be appropriate, I guess, in the work 00:32:33.320 |
environment, in a business environment where your objective is to produce, or your objective 00:32:37.600 |
is to make money, your objective is to grow your business. 00:32:44.120 |
Our mentality is so skewed when all of a sudden we're like, "This is impossible. 00:32:57.960 |
This is not going to work, and in so saying that, he diminishes the glory of God. 00:33:05.080 |
Because God's plan, His plan of deliverance was, is, and will always be for God's glory. 00:33:11.960 |
God has said that whether the Egyptians know Him, repent, turn around, even you guys, whether 00:33:18.780 |
you repent, turn around, whatever you do, regardless, what's going to happen? 00:33:26.000 |
Turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 14, verse 17 through 18. 00:33:32.640 |
It changes our paradigm of how we're interpreting success and failure. 00:33:38.720 |
It changes our paradigm of how we're interpreting success and failure, because take a look at 00:33:49.800 |
God says, "As for me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will 00:33:59.360 |
Honored through Pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his horsemen. 00:34:02.560 |
Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh, through 00:34:08.680 |
So God is being honored even in the hardness of the Egyptians. 00:34:12.680 |
God is being honored even when the chariots are chasing the Hebrews to the sea. 00:34:18.120 |
Then how dare we all of a sudden be like, "This is not going to work. 00:34:26.920 |
Because oftentimes we in our, I don't know what it is, but sometimes as soon as we think 00:34:36.080 |
We live in a generation, we know that the people aren't going to listen to us. 00:34:40.200 |
I don't know if some pastors or missionary has come after a mission ship and they come 00:34:43.640 |
over and they're like, "The harvest is white. 00:34:48.680 |
Let's go reap and all we need is more workers." 00:34:51.760 |
Well, the reality is many of you have tried going to share the gospel and you know it's 00:34:59.200 |
The reality is many of you have gone out and felt like, "Oh my goodness, there's nothing 00:35:07.880 |
God has called his people throughout all generations, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, everybody. 00:35:13.520 |
You go and warn the people around you that wrath is coming and if you don't warn them, 00:35:22.920 |
You have this task, this crazy huge task of warning the people around you. 00:35:32.240 |
In the New Testament, there was a rich man who lived his life to the fullest. 00:35:37.660 |
He enjoyed everything the world had to offer. 00:35:39.840 |
There was a poor man who was poor and begging, but the rich man wouldn't even give him anything. 00:35:45.640 |
The rich man is burning in hell and he looks up and he realizes the poor man is sitting 00:35:52.120 |
And the rich man says, "Please, just give me a drop to quench my thirst." 00:35:57.640 |
There is a chasm between you and me and I can't do that." 00:36:00.600 |
And so the rich man says, "Please, just send me. 00:36:07.680 |
"Even if you come back from the dead, they will not turn." 00:36:13.920 |
The scenario that we have is an interesting scenario. 00:36:18.120 |
You and I are tasked with what is seemingly an impossible task, but please remember your 00:36:24.440 |
motivation to go and persevere to be a light of the gospel to the people is not because 00:36:34.000 |
It's because it's for the glory of God and whether people repent or don't repent, God 00:36:39.280 |
will be glorified as the great holy God who had mercy, who sent his message to stubborn, 00:36:48.200 |
It reveals the nature of God's glory that even though there's a mass of people who are 00:36:53.320 |
rushing towards the wide gate, he still makes his gospel spread to his servants. 00:37:01.200 |
That's just one way by which God is glorified. 00:37:04.940 |
So my challenge to you is not get discouraged because you've been out there and you're like, 00:37:08.440 |
"Oh man, you know how hard it is and you just give up." 00:37:10.680 |
No, whether people are hardened, whether people repent, whether people come around, whether 00:37:16.720 |
they are pharaohs, people of high position, low position, whatever it may be, by us being 00:37:23.760 |
faithful to the task that God's plan of deliverance is going forward through us and his plan is 00:37:35.560 |
Lord God, we are all the more humbled that, Lord, you would reveal yourself to us. 00:37:47.120 |
And then we're then even more exceedingly humbled that you would so choose to place 00:37:52.400 |
such a gracious, precious gospel in our hands to carry to the lost. 00:37:59.200 |
I pray, Father God, that every single individual here would hear this calling and God would 00:38:04.480 |
not only just receive it but make it a part of their heart so that our hearts would be 00:38:11.480 |
We know, Father God, that you are seeking the lost, you are seeking and pursuing sinners. 00:38:17.160 |
And I pray, Father Lord, that you would give us the same spirit and the same desire. 00:38:20.960 |
Lord, use this church, use every single individual, whether young or old, rich or poor, whatever 00:38:26.520 |
life circumstances is in, that God we would truly be a light unto the dark place. 00:38:33.000 |
And in so doing, Lord, that we would give glory to you.