All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 7. Okay, Exodus chapter 7, verses 1. And as we turn there, I'd like to introduce today's sermon by thinking about things that we like to do versus things that we should do. Okay, things that we like to do versus things that we should do.

During our typically around the new year, we make a lot of resolutions and one of the things that we resolve to do is really take care of our health, right? So let's say for example, like eating, there are things we like to eat and then there are things we should eat, okay?

Truthfully, I really do for some odd reason, like everybody does, but really love the stuff that's really savory and saucy and stuff. So I actually really love gravy. Any restaurant that serves a Kentucky fried chicken with gravy on top with biscuits and gravy is like two thumbs up for me, right?

Not a lot of people are fans, but I was a huge fan of Hometown Buffet because they had that kind of like Southern cooking, you know? Huge fan. Now, there is the stuff I would like to eat and then there's the stuff you should eat, right? You should take care of your health.

Now, in the degree of the things that we should be doing, there's another degree where it's there's the things you like, there's the things that you should be doing, and there are the things that you must be doing. So for example, if not only should you eat healthy, but you actually have a certain condition, let's say severe diabetes, you have to have certain dietary restrictions or you have to even take certain medication or insulin shots, right?

And the reason why I think about this is because for us as Christians, we are given a certain liberties of the things that we should be doing, that we like to do, and then on a far degree things that we must be doing. Now, let's take it another step further.

For us as believers, our God has given us things that actually are beyond even must do. There are things that if we didn't do, it would indicate that there's something wrong with us. It would be an incredible problem of identity because that in which we must do is a part of who we are and it defines us.

An example of that is when Christ our Lord says, "You are a light. You are a light by design, by nature, and so you're not to be put under a bowl, but rather you're supposed to be seen. You're supposed to shine to the glory of God." To that degree, this is a part of who we should be, right?

In terms of us being a light of the gospel, being a reflection of God's glory, a taste of who God is, so to speak, that is something that is not on the level of, you know, me as a Christian, maybe, you know, I should kind of share a little bit.

Is this something I like to do versus other things I like to do? We realize that according to the will design of God, this is part of who we are as how God sees us. Now, as I think about this concept, I think about the book of Revelations that we just covered in our Bible study.

Many of you followed along in that study. And all the more as I think about that book, there was an impression that was made on us, right? A lot of times, like the discussion questions were very similar. There weren't lots of small detailed applications. For example, like you should go and forgive your brother.

You should speak in a certain tone. You should have this attitude among you, etc. But rather, it was a general impression. And what was that impression? The impression was, "Oh my goodness, I've got to share." The impression was, "Oh my goodness, I'm thinking about my family member, a brother, parents, you know, whoever it may be that's close to your friend, was it not?" And so likewise, as I think about this topic of being a light, all the more there is a sense in my heart as we just ended the book of Revelation, we have to do something about what we saw in the book of Revelation.

And as we saw what God was doing, as we saw what God is going to do, there was a natural response of, "We need to be the light. We have to be." And truly, that is how God has ordained it. Now what's interesting, added upon that, for me personally, we've been going through the book of Exodus with the youth group, and that sentiment has been the same.

There is so much corollary between how it feels to read the book of Revelation with how it feels to read the first and many chapters of Exodus. Many chapters of Exodus. There is this eminent disaster to come. There is an incredible succession of God's wrath and judgment. There is the warnings.

There is the stubbornness of heart. And at the end of reading the book of Exodus, I just felt like, "Oh my goodness, we need to be the light." And so today I want to share that heart with you. And the way I want to do it is, in surveying several themes of the book of Exodus, we want to think about what God is doing, how He is unfolding and revealing Himself and His plans, and then to respond appropriately, "Yes, we must be the light." This is how God has designed it.

So that we would graduate from, "I don't know if I like it, or maybe I should," to, "We must. We absolutely must." So now let's take a look at Exodus chapter 7, verses 1 and down, and look at the Word of God. It says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my hosts, my people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.

The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their mist.' So Moses and Aaron did it as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh." Let's take a moment to pray.

Father, we want to again thank you for the privilege of coming together, gathering as a body, joined together by your grace and the gospel of Christ, joined together by our faith and our relationship with you. And Lord, as we think about you and consider your ways, I pray, God, that today we would truly be challenged in thinking about our purpose, the mission of our lives, but what's more that we would really consider how you have been working in past and how you are working now.

I pray again, Lord, that you continue to open our eyes and give us insight into your word that's in Christ and we pray. Amen. So we're thinking about this idea of being the light. We're thinking about the idea of shining that glorious knowledge of who God is and representing him to the world, right?

And the way, again, I want to approach it was thematically, how is God working? So the very first point I want to give to you is the theme of judgment. The theme of judgment. And the command or the exhortation I want to give is you must speak to Pharaoh because God is multiplying his judgments.

Okay? And I'm going to explain that piece by piece. But the exhortation to us as a first point is you must speak to Pharaoh because God is multiplying his judgments. So as we think about this concept, one of the themes that we see in the book of Exodus is clearly the judgment of God, right?

Actually we see him laying out and predicting or foretelling what he's about to do, shedding that light upon Pharaoh through Moses and saying this is exactly what's going to happen, both on a grand scale like a nation level and the judgment also on a particular personal level to Pharaoh himself, right?

Now as we think about this idea of judgment, let's put it in a frame of mind or context by thinking about this. We've seen in recent history there has truly been lots of tragedies. There has been shootings, senseless violence. There has been lots of natural disasters of hurricanes and droughts and winter storms right now and all the like, right?

There has been the ongoing conflict of nations that causes, you know, refugees and people and families to be broken and split and all kinds of insecurities and people living in fear, okay? So there's been a lot of that. Now in thinking about some of these tragedies, we sometimes get really just, you know, really flustered and frustrated and then the sentiments of being just rattled like how can this be?

But imagine if something like let's say the Las Vegas shooting happened and an individual came to you and said that, my friend, is the judgment of God. How would you feel about that? Actually let's say if it happened to be that you had a close relative who was a victim of that kind of senseless shooting.

How would you feel about someone saying and that is a judgment of God? Naturally we would sense, like how can you say that? How do you even know, right? What's more, they would automatically be like, dude, I don't know if we can say that because then we'd be saying that that violence was intended by God, right?

That's what we'd be saying. That that kind of the number of death, that kind of number of suffering, the magnitude and the extent of that kind of pain was inflicted intentionally by God? That seems quite wild. But the thing about it is when we look at the Exodus story, we talk about it as miracles, wonders, and plagues of God.

But the extent of the death that occurred in that series of judgments, it's so severe, it's so extensive, it's so stacked on each other, not to again diminish anything about what's happening recently, but in all honesty, in comparison, it seems small. Because what God was doing to the nation of Egypt at that time, at the time of Exodus, was devastating.

I mean, it'd be an understatement to say it. It was frightening, it was terrifying, and the kind of pain and terror that the Egyptians felt is unimaginable. Let's take a moment to think about some of that by reviewing the level of intensity, the extent of how far it went by reviewing some of these plagues, so to speak, that we know of from Bible stories.

So turn your Bibles over to Exodus chapter 7, verse 20, and we're going to be kind of surveying various passages through our Bibles today, okay? So right now we're looking at the severity and extent of the judgments that God is multiplying. If you remember, Moses goes to Pharaoh, Pharaoh has this heart and heart and says, "Who's God?

I don't know your God, I'm not going to obey him," right? Paraphrasing there, but essentially he said, "I don't know you," right? That's the extent that he said. And then what happens is God gives the very first plague and it's denial turning into blood. Exodus chapter 7, verse 20 reads like this.

So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. He lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. The fish that were in the Nile died and the Nile became foul so that the Egyptians could not drink the water from the Nile, and the blood was through all the land of Egypt.

Imagine that. See, the thing is sometimes because we've never been to the Nile, we think, "Oh, wow, the river turned to blood." Do you guys know that some portions of the Nile is over two and a half miles wide? I mean, think about a body of water, I mean, one of the biggest bodies of water you've ever seen.

The Nile is huge. You know your geography, how long it runs. For the Nile to turn to blood is devastating. There's source of fishing, there's source of commerce, there's source of transportation. The Nile to them was like their provider, and so they worship the Nile as the life giver.

But here's the crazy thing. The reason why I say this is so intense is because through reading again, I caught this detail. In verse 19, it says that the extent of the water turning to blood was pervasive. What does it say? "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, over their pools, over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood.

And there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in the vessels of wood and the vessels of stone.'" Did you catch that detail? You see, I would just assume like, okay, the Nile turned to blood, wow, it's a devastating thing. But every source of water that they had, even the reservoirs in their home, even their baskets, they turned to blood.

And then later it talks about how this miracle, this devastating plague that God has sent on them, it lasted for seven days. So what I didn't realize was initially there's a sentiment where I looked at the plagues and thought of it as like just small inflictions that started to ramp up from the very beginning, I bet there was death.

Why? Try going seven days without water. Scientifically, after two and a half days, you're going to start hallucinating because of dehydration. You cannot last that long. And so it says in the scripture that as God inflicted that kind of plague on the people, they became mad and they were starting to dig the ground for any kind of water they could find.

That was the kind of devastation that God is inflicting on the people. But you guys know the story goes and goes, that He starts to stack and multiply these judgments. And there was the infestation of the frogs, which is super gross. And it says it was in their bed, in their kneading bowls, and everywhere.

And then there were flies, which I think were like mosquitoes probably. Because there's actually for our youth group, we started studying some ancient manuscripts from the Egyptians about like swarms of these bugs that would actually bite them and they would have infection and stuff. So there were these flies that were biting them, maybe they were mosquitoes, but there was also gnats.

There was boils on their skin, so severe and painful, it says that the men could not stand. When was the last time you were in so much pain, you just keeled over and could not get up? It's rare for us to experience pain like that. Another one, please turn over to chapter 9, verse 18 through 19.

Chapter 9, 18 through 19. It says, "Behold, about this time tomorrow I will send a heavy hail such has never been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now." That's so epic, right? "Now therefore send, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety.

Every man and beast that is found in the field that is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die." So this is crazy, the surmounting kind of the plague and judgment that is coming upon them, because this hail was crushing the trees, it was killing the livestock, and even the servants in the field.

In a previous plague was that God was actually, he sent a plague that killed all the cattle and the flocks of the Egyptians, but saved the cattle and the flock of the Jews. And even if that wasn't enough, God sends a swarm of locusts. It's a swarm so big, he says that it was covering the land and a cloud of darkness went over them.

If you actually Google videos of locust swarm, it's crazy. They have them out in Australia right now and people are frightened because of them. Why? The locust swarm can be 30 miles wide. That's like from here to Cerritos, you know, it's crazy. Imagine locust swarm that big. And what's more, if it is unhindered, in even just a small plot of land, like a hundred square foot, there could be over 200,000 locusts.

Isn't that crazy? If you Google it, you can find videos of it that happen even now, but it's past, the scripture says it was like never before. And the people were so, so distraught by that they started going to Pharaoh and saying, "Listen, we're your servants, but you're crazy." They say this in Exodus chapter 10, 7.

They said, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the man go, that they may serve their Lord God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" The next plague was a darkness, a darkness so severe it says they could feel it. It's almost like they could touch the darkness.

A lot of people think like, "Oh yeah, there was an eclipse." No, no. It was a kind of darkness, the scripture says man could not get out of bed because he couldn't move. He couldn't see the man in front of him. It was a supernatural, complete pitch darkness where they could not operate.

And the last one, and the last one, as you guys know, is the one where God said, "I am precisely inflicting this miracle on you, this plague on you, because you would not let my firstborn go, my people Israel." And so he says, "I will kill the firstborn of this land." Turn to Exodus 11, verse 4-6.

Exodus 11, verse 4-6. Moses said, "Thus says the Lord, 'About midnight I am going out in the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstone, all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such shall never be again.'" That's just incredible to think about. Did you know that right now in America there are 325.6 million people, okay? 325.6 million people in America.

We are not the biggest country in the world, but we are a superpower, yes? Likewise, so is Egypt. Not necessarily the biggest landmass, but they were the superpower of their day. And so statistically, according to the Census Bureau, there are 325 million people, but in terms of households that have children, there's about 115 million households.

I want you to just imagine just for a moment. Actually it's almost unfathomable to think that in one dark night, every single household, every parent would experience the tremendous pain of finding that their firstborn, their precious child, the one that would carry their legacy, the one that they treasure, would die in their arms that night.

And in one single night, an entire nation from every household, there would be a cry. Can you imagine that? That's so severe, so intense. And the fact of the matter is, to me, it shatters our expectations because we would not be even willing to attribute a small, small tragedy to God and say, "Okay, maybe God caused that." Do you understand that God killed a generation of Egyptians?

It shatters our expectations. The fact of the matter is, this kind of judgment was a righteous judgment from God as He was multiplying His wonders before the people of the Egyptians. And for us now, as we think about that, we think about us being a light. We read the book of Revelation.

Is it any less than this? No. As a matter of fact, the book of Exodus in the 10 plagues is probably a smaller version, a microcosm of what is actually to come. So actually, what we know is coming is a million times worse than this. We're supernaturally almost in cosmic fashion.

God is going to cause the sun to burn. God is going to cause a third of the world. God is going to cause supernatural heavenly beings to come down, stand on mountain and sea and kill a third of the people in one fell swoop. Like locusts, 200 million of the soldiers of the pits are going to come out and destroy and kill men.

I mean, the things that we read in Revelation, part of it is just like truly unimaginable. So then it begs us this question, should we not warn people? Should we not warn people of the judgment to come? Should we not prepare people of the kind of things God is going to do in our midst because we realize what's next on the timeline, what's next on the agenda is exactly what's already written for us?

Are we going to say like, "Oh shoot, I didn't know." What are we going to say? And that's why I say we have to speak. We must speak because God is multiplying his judgments and that's exactly what he's doing in this generation as well. Scripture is teaching us that God is storing up his wrath.

He's allowing the fullness of times to come up, the fullness of the sins of man, the fullness of the rejection and as we preach the gospel and people reject, God is bearing that up until he deems it the right time to pour out his judgment on this generation. That's what we believe.

Now part of the reason why I said that weird sentence of you need to speak to Pharaoh because that's not new to us. We've learned that. If you didn't know God is going to ultimately judge this world, then you just missed the whole part of the gospels, the epistles and revelation and prophecies and everything about the Bible, right?

But the hard part about that sharing is not so much because we don't know the content of the message of warning of the consequence of sin, warning of the consequence of entering into the presence of a holy God. It's because we have to talk to Pharaohs, stubborn people who are resilient, who believe they are the masters of their own kingdom and domain, who just like the king and Pharaoh said, "Who's your God?

I don't know him. Why should I listen to him?" Those are the people we need to talk to and my bet is nine out of ten times you go out to share the gospel message of Christ, you go out to warn people about the pending doom and devastation that's coming, you're going to feel like you're talking to a bunch of Pharaohs who are self-confident, arrogant, unwilling to yield.

But the challenge to us is, but did God command something different? Did God tell Moses like, "Okay, better plan. What's more efficient is they're your enemies, I just squash them, I'll go talk to them myself." No, God has so ordained that we speak. How is God going to multiply these miracles?

How is God going to multiply these judgments and strikes that he has for the generation? He's going to use us. He's going to use us to speak, to warn, and to continue to again in many ways reveal even what's in the heart of man. And so that's why again earlier I read you the passage in chapter seven when he says, "I am going to harden Pharaoh's heart." And he specifically says, "That as a purpose I may multiply my signs and my wonders.

And when Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt to bring out my host and my sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by great judgments." And then he says, "The Egyptians shall know I am the Lord." So even if we feel like, "Oh my goodness, they're not going to receive this.

Oh my goodness, they're not going to take this. Oh my goodness, they're going to reject us." He's still in the plan of God. He desires to multiply his judgments. Amen? Okay. So that being said, we move to the second theme that we see as we work through just a survey of the book of Exodus.

And the second theme that we normally think of when we think of book of Exodus is deliverance. And the statement of exhortation I want to say to you is you must speak to Israel because God is sovereignly delivering his people. Because God is sovereignly delivering his people. So one of the things we know to do when we read our Bibles is if there is a repetition of terms, things like, "I may multiply my wonders." He says that again and again so that you may know that I am the one true God who judges, right?

That's repeated. But there's another theme that's repeated in the book of Exodus that a lot of people miss, and it's the word distinction. It's the word distinction. And what I mean by that is God says very explicitly, "I make a distinction between the Egyptians and my people." For example, in Exodus chapter 9 verse 4, okay?

Let's work through some references here. Exodus chapter 9 verse 4, he says, "But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel." And then even later when the hail strikes, the land of Goshen is the only area in which the hail doesn't strike, but everything else is devastated.

Another passage, Exodus chapter 10, okay? Exodus chapter 10 verse 22 says, "So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings." You see the distinction?

And then even in chapter 11 verse 7, okay? Even in chapter 11 verse 7, "But against any of the sons of Israel, a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel." You see, when I look at the past, the story of the book of Exodus, one thing that is very clear, neither Pharaoh, the Egyptian servants, or the people of God are very receptive to God's plans.

You guys remember when Moses goes to Pharaoh, the Pharaoh rejects, and the Pharaoh inflicts harder kind of like workload on the Israelites, and the Israelites look at Moses and say, "Good job, buddy." It's like, "Way to go. We were fine." They weren't fine, but that's what they say, because they're all mad.

And then they start to reject Moses, and then Moses is like, "I told you they're not going to listen to me." And that's why Moses keeps going back and forth. "They're not going to even believe me." So the one thing that's very clear is it's not because Israel was better than Egypt, but the fact of the matter is God being merciful is protecting, guarding, preserving, providing for the nation of Israel according to His kind intention of mercy.

And that's why later on in the book of Romans, when it describes Pharaoh versus Israel and what's happening, Apostle Paul is the one to say, "God chooses, and He has prerogative. He has sovereignty to decide. I have mercy on whom I have mercy. And if I choose you to be a vessel to show my judgment, then I'm glorious for that.

But if I choose you to show my mercy, then I'm glorious for that." And so when we think about this, we think about the nation of Israel and how God has treated them. You guys remember the story of the last plague. The last plague comes where God predicts and foretells and says, "I am going to kill the firstborn." You know what's really interesting about that scenario?

If you were an Israelite, you'd be already thinking by like the fifth plague, "We win. Look at this. By the fifth plague, a bunch of the Egyptians have died. They're devastated. Their power in terms of their wealth, a lot of it's being destroyed. They've got animals that are dead.

They have people that are sick. I mean, the Israelites should have been thinking, "We win. Let's take over the palace. Let's make Moses our leader. Let's go." Right? But no. They were still in need of deliverance. And God provided for them and said, "Shed the blood of a blameless lamb.

Take the blood and cover your doorpost. Go into your home with all your children as a family and have this meal to commemorate this night." And all the children would wear their tunics, almost like they're getting ready to go outside. The father would take his staff like he's ready to go on a hike.

He'd wear his shoes. They would make the unleavened bread that has no yeast. And they would eat in haste, it says. And they would eat really fast. And the children's like, "What's going on?" And the father would explain, "The Lord had mercy on us. He spared us. He has passed over us because of the lamb.

He has had grace on us and he's going to deliver us." Deliver us from what? Deliver them simply from the Egyptians? No. God's already doing that. Delivering them from the wrath of God. And so the reason why I'm making much of this is because the Exodus, the prime focal point is how God with his wonders and his miracles is delivering the people and sparing them for you now.

Does this message of being spared, does it excite you, inspire you, cause you to be passionate and say, "Look how we've been spared. Save me in this safety." And as you, you know, again, I make the mention of, yes, we need to talk to Pharaoh, we need to talk to Israelites.

Now, there isn't a clear one-to-one corollary of who are the Israelites in our day. We don't even necessarily make that kind of transition. But there are clearly people who are different from, let's say, the stubborn, hearted, arrogant Pharaoh looking for answers. There may be just like the Israelites, feeling oppressed, they're feeling pain, they're feeling like they've got nothing, they're in despair, and they're looking for hope and they're wondering, "Can I find hope in God?" Can you then experientially say to the people, "Yes, resounding yes, look at me.

Look at the grace I've received in the Lord. I want you to experience the same." And did you know, did you know that in the mass Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, there were those of the Egyptians who saw the hail coming and said, "I will duck for cover," and they found cover in God.

We need to be able to give that kind of exhortation. There is a time and place to preach judgment because that's going to glorify God, and there's a time and place to say, "God loves you." That if you repent, this holy God who would judge an entire nation will forgive repentant sinners, amen?

We have to be able to preach that. And that's why I say you must speak because God is sovereignly delivering His people. He has provided us a way to escape His wrath through the blood of His Son, to escape eternal damnation and not simply pointlessness, boredom, pain, sorrow, but to escape God's own wrath.

That is something that maybe I should. Do I like sharing that? Should we understand that that is something that we must, we must speak of, amen? Now thirdly, the last theme is that we might know God is knowledge. The way that God is unfolding the events of the book of Exodus, there is a question mark as to like, "Is this all necessary?" Like the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, Moses going over, and Moses is essentially saying that, "Is this all necessary?" But the answer is yes.

And the exhortation I want to give you is you must speak to all the peoples of the earth because God is sovereignly revealing the knowledge of Himself and desiring that all would come to repentance. Now I know that's not short or memorable, but that's so important and we're going to tackle it phrase by phrase, that we must speak to all the peoples of the earth.

We must speak to the Pharaohs, we must speak to the nation of Israel, we must speak to the nations because God is sovereignly revealing the knowledge of Himself and desiring that all would come to repentance. One of the very important thematic things that we saw, we saw when we read the initial passage in chapter 7 at the beginning of the plagues, when God says, "I'm going to multiply my judgments," and then He said, "So that the Egyptians might know I am God." The Egyptians know idols, the Egyptians know created things like the Nile, like animals, like snakes, and all that kind of stuff, and they render power.

They don't know me. And God is going to be glorified by the magnification of the knowledge of who He is. But as you guys know, that has been the heart of God for this generation as well. There's a passage in 1 Timothy 2 verse 4 that says, "God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Please turn in your Bible, since we're at Exodus, to Exodus 10 verse 1 and 2.

He says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians, and I performed my signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.'" So we asked the question earlier, there is, what is God doing?

And by seeing what is God doing, we attach ourselves and say, "That's what I must do." Not just a desire, not just that I ought to, should to, but I must. What God is doing is revealing and unfolding who He is, and He wants generations to know. He wants nations to know.

And in this passage, Exodus chapter 10, He makes that clear commandment to Moses, "I want you to teach this to your sons and the generations after them, what I have done, that they might know I am God Almighty." And that's the way we need to think about it. So for us, when we think about us being the light, we are not simply just propagating doctrinal statements.

Not simply. We are teaching doctrine. We are giving vision. We are giving a statement of faith. We are giving a statement of the gospel. This is the gospel of Christ. God Almighty is your creator. You have sinned. You need to reconcile. And that reconciliation comes through one person, one mediator, Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for you, that you could repent and God forgive you in His name.

Those are doctrinal things, right? However, us shining the light goes beyond the doctrinal statements because we want to go beyond just educating people, but we want to show them, "Look, this is God. He's glorious. He's all the things that we read about of His holiness, of His righteousness, but of His grace, mercy, and kindness.

His patience and longsuffering with us. All of that. All of that is what we want to shine to the nations, amen?" And that's why for us, there's a sense to which the biggest problem that we face is not people just simply not going to church, but what is it that they believe about God that gives them permission to not go to church?

Every time I have these holidays, we all get together with our extended family, and it's pretty hilarious. I get together with different parts of the family, and it always seems like the older generation just wants to know, "Are you going to church?" And then maybe your cousins or distant relatives are less like, "I've been busy.

I haven't gone to church." They're like, "Go to church!" And we sometimes want to just tell people to do it, just go to church, okay? And then hopefully everything will work out. But we know it goes deeper than that. What is it that you believe about God that says to you, "Don't render to Him your time"?

What is it that you believe and how you perceive about God that says to you, "This time is my time. This money is my money. My life is mine to live and not yours"? That's what we're talking about right now. God's being a light to the nations, to everyone, is to reveal the nature of God that He is Lord of all, that He's the good Lord of all, the loving, gracious Lord of all.

And that is our evangelistic efforts. That is what we're trying to do. And therefore, the problem with people is not simply they don't have resources, they're in too much pain, they're suffering, all this kind of stuff. This problem simply is they don't know God. Likewise, for Pharaoh, what was his problem?

It was in Exodus chapter 5 when Moses went to him and says, "Let my people go that they may worship God." And Pharaoh said, "Who is your Lord? I don't know Him." That's what he said. And that's why even later on, did you know Pharaoh, after being inflicted, there were certain moments when he was just broke.

He was like, "Oh my goodness." For example, there was a moment in Exodus chapter 10 when Pharaoh hurriedly went to Moses. He sought him out and he just rushed to him and said this, "I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin.

Only this once." Doesn't that sound like a good repentant sinner? No, he was not. Why? Because he did not gain a view of God. As soon as the hail went away, as soon as the storm went away, as soon as the darkness went away, only thing he saw was his circumstance.

Only thing he saw was the removal of his pain and his suffering. And then he said, "What God?" And he hardened his heart. Likewise, for us, if in the way that we evangelize, we don't just do it any other way. We don't just do it to that which we think is most effective.

Why? Because it doesn't show that connection with the reality of who God is. If we wanted to, we could be. We could be offering all this kind of goods and services. We could say, "Hey, we'll do your taxes for free because tax season's coming up. We'll offer you coffee.

We'll offer you beverage. We'll offer you child care. We'll offer you this." And then just draw everybody in. But does that communicate, "Man, we come to worship and we serve this holy God." And that needs to be within our evangelism, amen? Because that speaks of who God is. That's what we need to do.

So in thinking about this general statement, we want to be lights. We know that it's above and beyond. It's above and beyond just a, "I don't know if I like it or not or maybe I should." It's every single one of us. We must, by nature of what God is doing, by nature of how God has made us, by nature of what amazing things God is doing both in the past and now.

And one other thing I want to tell you now as a way to look then, what other amazing thing is God doing that would inspire us to evangelize is to ask this question, "What is God's plan for the Egyptians? How did God treat them after?" Because what we know is God is sovereign over all time and space.

God was not sovereign over Egypt just when God was judging them. But after God delivered the nation of Israel, there's this question mark like, "What happened to the nation of Egypt and how did God treat them?" Because even authorities, rulers, now and then, they're all under the sovereignty of God.

So what happened to them? Well, there's an interesting passage. Please turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 19. We asked the question, "What is happening to the Egyptians?" And this passage, Isaiah chapter 19, answers it. It says, "This is the oracle for Egypt." It says, starting from verse 1 through 4, "Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them." Wow. "So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians. They will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor. City against city and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them." Oh my goodness.

"And I will confound their strategy so that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums of spirits. Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of cruel masters. A mighty king will rule over them, declares the Lord God of hosts." Whew. That's crazy.

"Your heart will melt. I'll demoralize you and you will be under subjection the rest of your existence." Wow. Right? You know what's crazy? That has come true. Did you know that the nation of Egypt, although they were a superpower, so powerful, they had massive slaves, all kinds of resources, you know, wonders of the world, right?

From then on, there was always internal conflict. They were subjugated by the Assyrians and then they were subjugated by the Babylonians. They were subjugated by the Persians and then later on the Greeks. And then everybody basically had a turn with them almost. It was crazy. And then we just wonder like, wow, you know, God's judgment is severe.

Let's scroll down a little bit and see if there's more though. Verse 16, it says this, "In that day, the Egyptians will become like woman and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he is going to wave over them.

The hand of Judah will become a tear of Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts, which he is purposing against them." Basically, it gets worse. It doesn't get any better. But yet still, yet still, we read on and there's more.

Scroll your eyes down to verse 19 and it says, "In that day, there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord near its borders. They will become a sign and a witness of the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors and he will send them a savior and a champion and he will deliver them." Whoa, wait, what?

Who is he talking to? Verse 21, "Thus the Lord will make himself known to Egypt and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing.

So they will return to the Lord and he will respond to them and will heal them. In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria. Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day, Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria and the blessing in the midst of the earth." See look at this, verse 25, "Whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, 'Blessed is Egypt my people and Assyria the works of my hands and Israel my inheritance.'" What?

This is crazy. You see, earlier what I was saying was I was making multiple points here, that God multiplies his judgment and he's glorified. And although he's multiplying his judgment, there's almost a frustration in our mind, if you're going to do that, just get it over with. Why do you need us to go and preach that judgment?

But we still need to do it, right? And then God is being gracious and God is going to multiply that graciousness and show it to be grand and in that graciousness and that mercy, he's going to be glorified, right? And through it all, what we're going to realize is God is using us and in all of it, God is working out his marvelous plan to which we cannot even comprehend.

What we predict might not work, God will make it work. What we predict is going to work is probably not going to work. It is all going to be according to his sovereignty, his timeline, according to his mercy, amen? But when I look at this, that God would even be merciful to the Egyptians and then call them, "They will be blessed and my people," that is amazing.

And when I see that, I automatically feel a sense of, "Therefore, I must be a light," because I know how is God going to reveal the knowledge of who he is to the people like Egyptians? How he's going to bring them to this point? How he's going to bring them along?

You know how he's going to do this. How are they going to hear? How will they see? God is going to use you, your mouth, your changed life, your passion, your love for Christ. And therefore we say, "Lord, I must speak of you." Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, your ways truly are above and beyond us.

Even in the well-known story of the plagues of Exodus, we realize you are working in multiple layers for your purposes beyond what Moses could see, the people could see, and maybe what even we could understand. That in all this, you are also both showing all the elements of your righteousness, your patience, and then ultimately your plan to save.

God, truly you are a wonderful God, and I pray that as we see you in greater light, you would help us to be able to articulate and to share about what we see. I pray, Father God, that all the more you would grant to us just deeper conviction of the things that we see and that we receive, that truly, Lord, we would be witnesses and vessels to your glory.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.