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#20240508 - Jochebed: A Woman Of Faith - Exodus 2:1-10 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word, recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co To learn more about the many resources
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available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Amen. Well, God bless you.
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Pastor Ed gave me a contact saying, hey, Bob, could you fill
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in tonight? And I said sure.
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And then I went, OK, what am I going to say?
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And so because Sunday is Mother's Day, I thought about
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drawing upon one of the best mothers in Scripture, and that
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was Moses Mother, whose name was Jacobed.
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Now, you may have really not done a character study on
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Jacobed, but I think there's a lot here to explore.
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I know that Pastor Ed recently, at least in the past ten years,
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has covered the first part of Exodus, and we're making our way
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through it. But Jacobed is an amazing woman
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of faith, and no matter what has happened in your life growing up
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where you didn't, you know Mother's Day is just a day you'd
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rather not have. Maybe you take off during that
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day because you don't want to deal with the reality of all
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that happened growing up. Maybe you were abandoned or or
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it was an abusive situation messed up, messed you up and
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all. And so Mother's Day is not a day
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of of joy. On the other hand, there are
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right examples of mothers here in this room as well as in
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Scripture. And we can't just throw all
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mothers under the bus because of our bad personal experience.
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We've got to let the Lord wash our hearts.
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We've got to let the Lord make it right.
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My own mother died when I was 15 years old.
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She she died of cancer. But all of her life, well, all
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of my life anyway. But right before they got
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married at age 22, she was in a bad car accident and it damaged
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her her brain and caused grand Mal seizures for the rest of her
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life. And so she she was on
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phenobarbital all the time. That's how they dealt with it in
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the 40s and the 50s and the 60s. And so she was on Downers her
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whole life to try to stop the seizures, but it just kept
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happening every week. And so she was a bit stoic.
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And so, as I think back on my own mother, she knew the Lord.
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Her testimony before the accident was she was bubbly,
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vivacious, excited about God. And then everything changed.
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And I never knew that woman, but I will meet her because I I came
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to Lord at age 18. And so when I get to heaven,
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we're going to have fellowship together and it's just going to
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be a glorious time. Mother's Day to me is a a day of
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honor that's coming up this Sunday.
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And so when I look in the book of Exodus, I see Moses, Mother,
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Jacobed, making decisions by faith in one of the hardest
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times in her life. She is one of the three women
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that are mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11 called the Hall of
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Faith. And we have Sarah Abraham's wife
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was the first woman, Moses mother Jacob Bed, which is
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mentioned by implication, as we'll see, and also Rahab the
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harlot from Jericho, a woman of faith no matter what her past
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was. What was it about these three
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women that was so noteworthy that the writer of Hebrews
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included them in this list of examples of faith?
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And it had to do with their faith in the living God.
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Not faith in faith, or even faith in themselves, but faith
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in the living God who is true to His promises.
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And we see this in Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 6.
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This is the kind of faith they have.
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But without faith it is impossible to please Him, God.
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For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he
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is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
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Now as we read through our text here, Jacobed's name isn't
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given. We find her name coming up in
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chapter six of the Book of Exodus.
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But here we have Moses, mother and her husband Amram.
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They were a man and woman of faith.
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They led their family in faith. And I want you to kind of enter
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that world a little bit because they were alive when things
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started changing in the society. They were alive when all the
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sudden a new Pharaoh rose up which didn't know Joseph.
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And all the sudden the whole culture began to change against
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the children of Israel, and it began to get worse and worse and
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worse. And in the midst of it they hang
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on. They held on to their faith in
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their circle. Their faith didn't change
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Pharaoh immediately, but it changed their family.
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And we're going to see some of that here as we explore what
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went on in those days and consider what must that have
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been like? At least a little understanding
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of that we read in Hebrews 11/23.
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By faith, Moses, when he was born was hidden three months by
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his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they
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were not afraid of the King's command.
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I believe that we can examine her faith in the living God and
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learn that it's worth trusting God at all times, even in the
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midst of extreme difficulties. And what was true back here is
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still true today, just in looking at some of the prayer
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requests that come across that come into grace.
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FM just heart wrenching situations.
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All of us have been through difficult times.
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But then you read the list of what people are going through
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and your heart just breaks and it'd be easy just to say to lose
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hope. But you got to look at God.
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You are greater than the difficulties that are going on,
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and because you're in the middle of it, please send your strategy
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on how to deal with this. You know, every situation that
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we go through has a strategy that God wants to give to us,
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but sometimes we just want God to change it because we don't
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want to continue going through it.
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Well, if he doesn't change it, we are going to continue to go
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through it. So we better learn.
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OK God, what is it you want? What am I supposed to learn in
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the midst of this? And So what I'm going to do is
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I'm going to take our text, which is chapter 2 of Exodus
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verses 1:00 to 10:00. I'm going to break it into three
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parts. Those of you taking notes, you
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can start jotting this down. Three main sections, 3 main
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parts. The first part is verses one and
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two of chapter 2, risking having the child by faith.
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The second part is verses 3 through 6 releasing the child by
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faith. And then the third part is
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verses 7 through 10 returning the child because of faith.
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So you'll see how all this ties together and what I'm going to
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do. Actually, I want I'd like to
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start reading from chapter one of Exodus verse 15, because I
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want to catch the context as we roll into chapter 2 in those
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first 10 verses. So let's start off.
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I'll read through starting chapter one of Exodus verse 15
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and then make it through chapter 2.
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Then we'll start with the word of prayer, longest introduction
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you've ever heard. OK, then the king of Egypt spoke
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to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphra, and
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the name of the other Puah. And he said, when you do the
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duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the
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birth stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill them, and if
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it's a daughter, then she shall live.
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But the midwife speared God and did not do as the king of Egypt
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commanded them, but saved the male children alive.
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So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them,
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why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?
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And the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew
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women are not like the Egyptian women, for they're lively and
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give birth before the midwives come to them.
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Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people
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multiplied and grew very mightily.
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And so it was because the midwives feared God that he
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provided households for them. So Pharaoh commanded all his
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people, saying, Every son who is born you shall cast into the
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river, and every daughter you shall save alive.
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And a man of the House of Levi went and took his wife, a
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daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore
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a son, and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid
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him three months. But when she could no longer
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hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it
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with asphalt, and pitched, put the child in it, and laid it in
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the reeds by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off to
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know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh
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came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the
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Riverside. And when she saw the ark among
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the reeds, she sent her maid to get it, And when she opened it
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she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept.
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So she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the
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Hebrew's children. Then his sister said to
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Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from
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the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?
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And Pharaoh's daughter said to her go, So the maiden went and
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called her child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to
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her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will
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give you wages. So the woman took the child and
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nursed him. And the child grew, and she
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brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.
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So she called his name. Moses because I because I drew
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him out of the water. So, Father God, we're asking
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just as the Holy Spirit moved upon Moses to write these
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things, looking back and knowing his history, we're asking that
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the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts as well here in the
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21st century. Lord, you know what we've lived
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through. We're know you know what we're
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going through. And you know what's head what's
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ahead for us. And so, minister to us Lord, and
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we thank you for this opportunity to dig into your
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word in Jesus name. Amen.
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Well, let's take a look at the first section, the 1st 2 verses
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that we're calling risking, having the child by faith.
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We know from Exodus 620 that the man of the House of Levi was
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named Amram and his wife was Jacobeta, daughter of the
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descendant of the tribe of Levi. They were Levites.
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The Hebrew meaning for Jacobed is Jehovah is gracious.
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Amram and Jacobed had their first child, Miriam, and then
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had their second child, Aaron. And because because Amram and
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Jacobed had Aaron three years prior, we know this from from
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looking at later on in the chapters of Exodus.
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Aaron was three years older than Moses.
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We don't know when the edict came down about killing the male
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children. All we know is that Aaron was
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born, and in the next three years something changed,
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something was going down. How were they going to live?
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We don't know if that edict came while Jacob Ed was pregnant with
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Moses. We don't know the detail, the
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scripture hides it from us. But just think about what
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Jacobed had to deal with when she heard the governmental edict
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that if it's a boy, he has to be murdered, drowned in the river
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of Nile. What thoughts may have raced
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through her head and through heart and mind?
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What if my child is a boy? What will happen if we choose to
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or disobey the king? I mean all of these things.
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But because Amram and Jacobed live their life by faith in the
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promises of God, they took the risk because it's worth it.
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To trust God because he's faithful to trust that the
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circumstances will change, or to trust that people will come to
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the right reason, That's a weak faith, really.
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But to trust in God's sovereignty over our life,
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although I don't know what's going on, this doesn't make
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sense. This isn't fair.
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This is so Injustice is so wrong.
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We can get so wrapped up in it, we don't ever go to place faith
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in the God who's absolutely in control.
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We so want to understand everything, and if we don't
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understand it, then we don't want to go with it.
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But listen, our faith is a reasonable faith.
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It's a very reasonable faith, but it only goes so far.
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Or else it's not called faith, because that reason will take
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you up to a certain point. And then there's that God room
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where, I mean, I don't know how it's going to work out, but you
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got to put God in that space. He'll work it out, He'll
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surprise you. But he wants you to trust him
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and not let your reasoning and your understanding of every
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detail be the rule. So they didn't have all the
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answers, but instead they trusted God step by step.
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And we're going to talk about that living by faith, step by
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step. And we're going to see this
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often here. And so in verse 2B, we see that
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when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him
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three months, three months. We don't know.
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I mean, I seriously doubt if there was some kind of, oh, you
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know, when he was born, you know, or there was a Halo over
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his head. But but there was this sense
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there was something about this baby and the Holy Spirit was
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working in their hearts. So because when it says, oh,
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they thought he was a beautiful child.
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I mean really don't all mothers say that when their baby's born?
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I mean really but this is something different When she saw
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you see the emphasis is Jacobet. When she saw that he was a
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beautiful child, which gives us the gives us the sense that
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there was something unique and special about the purpose of
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this child In the days that he was born.
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So she hid him. Three months she hid the child.
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Eight days later they circumcised the child,
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circumcised the child and gave him a Hebrew name.
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Actually Moses is an Egyptian name.
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John Wesley mentioned in his commentary that there was a
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Jewish tradition that they gave the babe the name Joaquin at his
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circumcision. But while for the rest of the
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history, Moses, that name was used, and think about it, Moses
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is writing this probably during the time in the wilderness
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because he had 40 years. I mean, he had a long time to,
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you know, just jot a few things. Let's see Leviticus, OK, let's
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let's get that done. And so, but in this special
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section, he's talking about himself as the Holy Spirit
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brought all those stories back to him.
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And also think of this. Remember when Moses was 40 years
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old, he tried to to rescue his Hebrew brethren, and then it got
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out because it killed the Egyptian who was persecuting
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him. Then he ran.
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So for the next 40 years, he wasn't there to see his family
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at all. It's quite possible that Amram
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and Jacobed never lived to see the deliverance.
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Sometimes we need to take steps of faith because they're the
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right thing to do at the time. We may never see the full
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outcome of that step of faith and the impact that it has, but
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you have to do what's right in the moment.
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It's so important. Imagine keeping your three-year
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old son and your elementary school age daughter from telling
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others about this new addition, trying to hide a three month
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old. That's amazing.
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I just want to say that making a decision by faith means that
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you're trusting God no matter what happens.
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There's a scripture in Hebrews chapter 13 verses five and six.
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Although the context is not living by covetousness, the
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reality of the principle in there talks about I will not
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fear man because God's my helper here.
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Here's those verses Hebrews 13, five through 6.
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Let your conduct be without covetousness.
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Be content with such things as you have, for he himself has
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said I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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What that means is God thinks that if you have him, you have
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everything you will need because he will take care of it in his
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own way and in his own time. And then he goes on and has a
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conclusion of verse 6 and says so We may boldly say the Lord is
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my helper. I will not fear what can man do
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to me. So much of our sinful actions
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has to do with fear of man or fear of lost opportunity.
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And all the sudden we think that man, if I don't do this, then,
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then I'll miss the chance of a lifetime.
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I mean, you remember it's a wonderful life.
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That's it's a chance of a lifetime, you know.
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And right. That's when they end up, you
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know, getting married. I tell you what, if there's not
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a peace in your heart, don't go against your peace.
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It's just God's way of trying to help you and to look to him to
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be the one that will fulfill what the need is, His way and in
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his time. We need to make our life choices
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based upon what would be pleasing to God as revealed in
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His Word, the Bible, rather than what is merely convenient or
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safe or least expensive or politically correct.
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As a believer in Jesus Christ, our goal is to be pleasing to
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God by walking by faith, trusting Him moment by moment,
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step by step. OK, let's take a look at the
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second section here, verses 3 through 6.
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She was hiding the child three months.
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And by the way, three months. I mean, you know, babies develop
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at different levels and all, but, you know, I went, I went
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and did a search on, OK, I haven't had a baby for a while
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in my life, OK. But you know, what goes on at
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three months? What?
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What's the kind of normal action of a baby at three months?
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Well, here's what I found. First of all, at three months
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old, the baby typically begins to exhibit several developmental
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milestones and behaviours. Head control.
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They can hold their head steady when upright or supported,
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improves vision. They can track moving objects
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with their eyes and may start to recognize familiar faces. #3
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There are hand movements. They might swipe at objects and
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bring hands to mouth. #4 Social interaction.
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They may start to smile responsibly and engage in more
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vocalizations. Motor skills is another thing.
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They start kicking their legs vigorously and may begin to push
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up when lying on their tummy. Sleep patterns, Forget it.
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No sleep patterns. They start to establish more
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regular sleep patterns, though they still require frequent naps
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and night time feeds. So she's hiding Moses and he's
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starting to get active and all the sudden it says here, but
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when she could no longer hide him.
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And we don't know what that incident of discovery was.
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I mean, she could have, Well, you know, when you're changing
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the diapers as a Hebrew little boy and somebody walks by kind
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of figures out that that must be a Hebrew because things look
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different. Maybe one of the Egyptian
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taskmasters masters happened by when Jacobin was changing his
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diapers. Now there's no other course of
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action for her to take. And she could have said why now?
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It wasn't like she has said. I think I'll hide him for three
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months and then and then we'll deal with things.
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No, I don't. I think it took her by surprise.
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How many things take us by surprise?
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You get that phone call or you get that situation or that thing
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happens and all this and it changes everything.
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But here's the thing. God is still in control.
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Why don't you warn me then? It's his business.
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We'll find out later. But I know it's a surprise to
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you. And I know it's a shock.
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And I put you into major drama. So what do you do?
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Maybe she felt guilty. How could I be so careless as to
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make him known? But now it's out in the open and
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and it's in those times in our life we have to fall back on the
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grace of God and the sovereignty of God over our life and go God.
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Although I didn't see this coming, you knew about it and
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you knew what to do and you're going to tell me step by step.
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I remember I was thinking back in 2012, it was a 3 1/2 month
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mission, taking over helping out in this little church in Exeter,
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just helping out for two months and then going over to Austria,
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then going down to Italy and then going up to Manchester,
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England, then going up to Scotland, going out to South
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Africa. It was a big deal and it was all
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making sense. So we made it through the two
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months and then went down to Austria.
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Then we went over to Italy, and right before we were ready to
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return the rental car back to Germany, I had my passport and
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everything else stolen. And I I found out when I went to
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pay the toll leaving Venice. And fortunately the pastor was
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driving the car and he paid the toll.
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But there's that weird, weird feeling when you've been ripped
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off, and it's a feeling that starts low and then starts
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rising like this. I hate those freak out moments.
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It's not that I have them all the time, but I'm.
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I'm feeling around and it's nowhere.
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It's it's my passport, my driver's license, my credit
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cards, my SIM card. I mean everything.
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I didn't have much money and I started freaking out and the
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Holy Spirit stepped in at that moment and just gave me this
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word. Just do the next most important
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thing. Just do the next most important
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thing. And this led to a two week, day
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by day, miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle.
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And looking back on it, I see it was God's way of preparing
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Jeannie and I to make a move to the UK to live there.
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Because we were going to have to draw upon that same faith that
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we learned lessons that we learned during those two weeks
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of major intense drama. And then watching God just do
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amazing things, stepping in and doing amazing things just enough
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to get us through the next day for 14 days.
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Dude, I shall shiver thinking about that time.
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But here's the thing. Step by step, you don't have to
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know Step 2 to take step one. But you come to points in your
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life where you've got to take step one to to the point where
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to not take step one would almost be sin, disobedience.
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And then what am I going to do? Well, I I that's that's what
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that was her world. Well, they found out.
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What are we going to do? It's not that she had this cool
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little scheme when he was born. It was immediate.
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Lord, give me the strategy. And that's what we have to ask
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the Lord for the strategy in our situation right now that came
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upon us without our choice. So getting back to our text
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here, Jacob bed now faced a very difficult decision, She may have
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thought, All right, Pharaoh wants him in the Nile.
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I'll place him in the Nile, in a box, in an ark, because she may
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have remembered the account of Noah and his family being hidden
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in the ark through the midst of the flood of judgment.
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And what's fascinating is there's only two places in the
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entire Old Testament where the Hebrew word for this kind of ark
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occurs here and Noah's ark. And the Hebrew word is tebah.
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You want to know some Hebrew? Just say it with me.
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Tabaa. Ready.
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Tabaa. So she made this art by faith.
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She fashioned it probably with more diligence than she had ever
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made anything before. She took the time to put
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together sound, reasoning, and practical action.
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She used bulrushes, asphalt, and pitch materials that were nearby
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in the Nile and made it waterproof and sturdy.
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Bulrushes were used for many kinds of vessels, including
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small boats. When she gathered the bulrushes,
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she also collected asphalt, which is believed to be the very
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sticky mud around the Nile River and pitch.
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The asphalt was used as an adhesive to hold the bulrushes
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together, and the pitch was to waterproof both the outside and
31:37
the inside. She had to have gathered the
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materials from the Nile River. So in other words, she put faith
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and action together. Because James tells us faith
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without works is dead. She put action to her faith in
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seeking to do everything she could to preserve her precious
32:00
son's life. And you know, when those steps
32:03
of faith that we take, it doesn't mean we check out common
32:08
sense. We do all that we can, But
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ultimately, our trust is God. You've got to work this out.
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I I can only see things reasonable up to a certain
32:21
point, and I'll do what I can that I want, but I'm not going
32:25
to sin. I'll do what I can.
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But man, you got to step in and do the rest.
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That's what she did. She put action to her faith to
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do everything she could to preserve her son's precious
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life. You see, faith in God is active.
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It's not passive. It's an active faith where you
32:52
put your life on the line with it.
32:56
It's if you try to put one foot on the pier, one foot on the
32:59
boat, have your foot in the world, have your foot in the
33:02
Lord, and you think, well, I'll just ride both things.
33:05
That's not going to happen. You're going to end up on the
33:07
lake because the boat moves. You either got to be all in or
33:12
forget it and just stay on the pier.
33:16
And then you watch other people get on the boat, they don't
33:18
sink. So what's your problem?
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Why don't you get in the boat? Well, what if it doesn't hold me
33:24
up? Well, how many people have to
33:26
get in the boat and you go, well, it's it's really my issue.
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I don't want to give up my life, dude.
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Just get on the boat. Just take the step of faith
33:40
because there's venture after that, but you got to do the next
33:46
most important thing. And some of you tonight, some of
33:52
you listening online, you're coming up with all kinds of
33:56
excuses because you don't want to take that step.
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But what is the next most important thing that you need to
34:04
do? And I would say if you're not a
34:07
believer, the very next most important thing is for you to
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surrender your life to Christ and he'll take care of it.
34:15
Get in the boat, get off the pier, stop living in both
34:18
worlds. Waiting on God's timing is an
34:24
active waiting, moment by moment, life of obedience,
34:29
pleasing God within the boundaries of his word.
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Let's take a look at verses 4 through 6.
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The Ark was finished. She laid it, she laid the Ark in
34:42
the reeds by the river's bank, and she let go.
34:51
She let go by Faith and his sister Miriam stood afar off To
35:00
know what would be done to him. Must had air holes in the
35:03
covering of the Ark and the gentle waves.
35:06
She's probably fed him to the full, you know, So like he went
35:09
into a major food coma, you know, at that time.
35:12
So he's in the arc. There's probably holes in the
35:14
top of the arc just for breathing and he's just snoozing
35:19
away and the just the the, you know, the rocking of the waves
35:23
and stuff, just he's out. That's good.
35:28
But how heartbreaking this some must have been for Jacobin.
35:32
But she knew that God had appointed her to do this work of
35:36
faith, and she obeyed, although it was so difficult, and she
35:43
released him to the province of God.
35:51
Sometimes with our children, we have to stop trying to control
35:55
them and release them to the province of God, Providence of
35:59
God. We did this with our boys.
36:05
There was a time when we had to, oh boy, we had to let them go
36:12
into public high school. And your your mind is just going
36:17
crazy because as a parent you want to protect them.
36:22
I remember Micah when he was going into public high school
36:27
and every morning we laid hands on him and prayed over him
36:30
before he went to high school. And then and then what was
36:34
amazing is God brought to him Christian teachers in the public
36:38
high school. And there was also one lady who
36:42
was just Satan's servant. But that's another that's
36:49
another issue, OK. But all, you know with all of
36:52
them, there comes that point when you're going, am I going to
36:55
trust God or am I going to just want to be in control of
36:58
everything. And they and they all three of
37:02
them turned out OK, actually, you know actually all three of
37:08
them are my Timothy's. And just realized that the other
37:12
day when I was asked who's your Timothy?
37:16
And he went, well, actually all three of them are just in
37:19
different ways. It's amazing.
37:23
Jacobed trusted the invisible God to do very visible things.
37:28
Let me restate that Jacobed trusted the invisible God to do
37:34
very visible things, even under conditions of slavery and
37:39
hardship. That's what God wants us to do
37:44
as well. She didn't let the limitations
37:48
of her, of her outward life, block the expression of her
37:52
inward faith. And this little, this little
37:57
girl, Miriam and tradition says that she was six years old.
38:00
The Bible doesn't say. And by the way, if she's six
38:06
years old and Moses is born, then when Moses is 80, she's 86.
38:15
And so after they crossed the Red Sea, she at 86 leads all the
38:19
women in dancing. I'm not sure what that looked
38:23
like, but she had a tambourine and she went on to it as Exodus
38:28
15. Sorry about the visual.
38:33
Now you. I can't Unsee that.
38:35
Why did you say that? But what was so cool here?
38:43
How God orchestrated this whole thing, that merit that Jacobed
38:48
could have never orchestrated it says in verse 6 when she opened
38:57
the ark she saw the child. This is Pharaoh's daughter and
39:02
behold the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and
39:09
said this is one of the Hebrews children.
39:13
Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go
39:16
and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may
39:19
nurse the child for you? Man, this is like, I mean for a
39:23
6-7 year old girl, this is like amazing.
39:27
This is very cool. And so we see that not only did
39:37
Jacobed have to risk having the child by faith, and then she had
39:42
to release the child by faith into the Nile, all of a sudden
39:50
she's going to get a return back and get paid by the government
39:56
for raising her own kid. I'm really impressed with this
40:02
little girl, Miriam, because Jacob Ed invested in their lives
40:10
in a young age. Don't ever, ever, ever go along
40:17
with the philosophy that you should never communicate the
40:23
truths of God's word to your little children.
40:28
That's so strong in the word of God that that must happen.
40:33
And I know the philosophy, and I know the reasoning, but I want
40:39
to operate within the word of God and in the heart of God.
40:46
Where did Miriam and Aaron get that sense of presence of who
40:51
the Lord is? What their history was as a
40:54
people, even with Moses, because she was Jacobed, was given Moses
41:02
back to her to to raise him, to feed him until he was weaned,
41:08
which could have been three or four years.
41:10
And think about all the input that it was like major
41:15
investment, major investment, because she knew there was going
41:20
to be a time to have to let go again.
41:26
It's fascinating to me that that the same edict designed to
41:30
destroy the people of God was actually used by God to be the
41:35
means of their deliverance. And So what God what?
41:39
Satan intends to tear your life down.
41:42
God wants to take and turn around and bring something
41:45
glorious from it. And the only way you can see
41:49
that is through faith in the faithful God in verse 10.
41:59
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's
42:02
daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name, Moses,
42:07
saying, because I drew him out of the water, trusting God one
42:13
more time. She had to release Moses into
42:17
Pharaoh's daughter's care and how she must have prayed so
42:23
diligently for the child, but bolstered by the memory of how
42:29
God worked all of it out. Something's going on.
42:36
And I want to say that when we look back on our our conversion
42:41
to Christ, and then we go further back and we see all the
42:47
different ways that brought us to that decision, God was
42:53
watching over us. Even before we knew the Lord,
42:58
God was watching us. God knew us even before we were
43:03
born, and God wants to prepare us by little steps of faith for
43:11
what's ahead in the future. We've got to learn to live by
43:16
faith in our life, and not merely by pure reason or pure
43:20
resources. Tonight you might be in a set of
43:26
circumstances that are requiring you to take a major step of
43:30
faith. And you've been pushing it off,
43:33
pushing it off, pushing it off. And you're here on this
43:37
Wednesday night and there's this random guy here sharing the word
43:40
with you. And all the sudden God is, is
43:43
trying to put his finger on your life and say, would you just
43:47
trust me and tell him why you don't, I'm scared to death.
43:53
God, man, if this goes bad, it's going to go really bad.
44:00
OK, you got that out. But then.
44:03
But then hear Jesus say, don't be afraid, be of good cheer.
44:09
It's me. I'm there.
44:15
But all those steps of faith have have to be in accordance
44:19
with the word of God. The Word of God sets the
44:21
boundaries. God is not going to the Holy
44:23
Spirit is not going to lead you to do things that are contrary
44:26
to the word of God. That's a fact.
44:31
But maybe God has brought you to such a time as this in your
44:35
life, and it's time for you to take that step.
44:41
So as we close our message, I just want to pray for you that
44:47
God gives you the courage and the faith to take that step.
44:53
So if you're at that point in your life where you have to
44:56
take, you're at that major step of faith in your life, I'd like
45:02
you just to stand so we can pray for you.
45:05
And just by standing up, you're saying yes, I'm at a major point
45:09
of step of faith. Are there any Anybody here?
45:12
OK, back over here. Anybody else over here.
45:22
Over here. So by standing, you're saying,
45:28
God, I've got this major step of faith in my life that I've got
45:32
to deal with, and I need your help.
45:34
So those of you, I want you to look around.
45:36
Those of you that are around, those that are standing, could
45:39
you go over to them and lay your hand on their shoulder?
45:42
Because we want to pray for you right now.
45:45
OK. Don't let anybody standing on by
45:48
themselves. I know it's kind of dark, but
45:50
take a look around. Go over to those that are
45:54
standing, because this is a a big deal right now in their
45:57
life, just like it will be in our lives in the future.
46:03
All right, join with me in praying for him.
46:08
Our Father God, we are asking you for your mercy, for your
46:15
compassion, for the power of the Holy Spirit to step into these
46:23
folks lives and give them the gift of faith that they might
46:30
follow you in the crossroads that they're at.
46:36
Lord, I pray that you'd make it strong.
46:40
I pray that you'd validate it by your word, the Scripture.
46:46
And I ask you, Lord, that you honor all of us that are praying
46:50
for them right now, that you'd give them boldness and courage
46:58
to do the next most important thing by faith trusting you.
47:05
Lord, let tonight be a watershed moment for them, and you work it
47:10
out to your glory whatever way you choose.
47:17
And we thank you God for this moment in Jesus name.
47:24
Amen. We pray that you've been
47:26
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
47:29
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
47:32
Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
47:41
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47:44
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47:50
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47:52
Be blessed as You Worship Jesus this week.