Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20220918 - The Three Offers of Compromise - Exodus 8:25-28
Transcript
- 0:05Welcome to the study of God's word recorded live at Calvary
- 0:09Church in Aurora, Colorado, to learn more about the many
- 0:12resources available, through abounding Grace, Media, or to
- 0:15tune into our live stream Services.
- 0:18Visit us online at Calvary. Co dot church or download our
- 0:22free Calvary Church app now. Let's open our Bibles and study
- 0:26God's word. Let's get into the word.
- 0:32You got a Bible turn to Exodus chapter 8.
- 0:35If you use an app, use an app, your iPhone, your, whatever it
- 0:38is. You use I've been a Believer for
- 0:4129 years from the very beginning.
- 0:44I kind of had this draw towards eschatology or the end times.
- 0:48We're not talking about that this morning, but, you know,
- 0:52it's one of the three things that the Bible says we're not to
- 0:54be ignorant of, right? The other two is, we're not to
- 0:56be ignorant of Satan's devices and we're not to be ignorant of
- 1:01Spiritual gifts. And one of the things that's
- 1:03very prevalent in the end times, we are told, is not only this
- 1:08abandonment of Truth, where people don't even know what the
- 1:11truth is anymore. But there's a walking away or an
- 1:14abandonment from the faith or an apostasy, but there's something
- 1:18else that doesn't get a lot of press and it's really big and
- 1:21you're living through it. Right now it's what Jesus said
- 1:24in Matthew 24 verse 12 when he said because of lawlessness and
- 1:29the increase of law Lawlessness abounding.
- 1:32The love of many is going to grow cold, and he doesn't just
- 1:37save that for for unsafe people. The love of men.
- 1:41He's going to grow cold. You guys, I'm very concerned
- 1:44like many of you about our civilization.
- 1:46I'm very concerned right now about our society, the last
- 1:50several years lawlessness, in the human heart has breached the
- 1:55surface to a point where we've always known, it's existed,
- 1:59right? We've always known the hearts
- 2:00deceitfully Take it above all else, but we've never seen
- 2:03anything like this before, right?
- 2:05The Bible calls lawlessness a mystery, the mystery of
- 2:09lawlessness and you and I scratch our head sometimes
- 2:12going, I don't get it. I don't understand why Society
- 2:16is unraveling like this. And so the other thing we see is
- 2:20the effect that it's having on everybody including the church.
- 2:24When we start hearing about people's political positions or
- 2:28new laws that are being passed or He's or worldviews that we
- 2:32don't agree with no longer, can we sit and have a discussion and
- 2:35Pat each other on the back and the end and say, okay, God bless
- 2:38you. See you next time.
- 2:39Now there's a deep hatred that is coming out of the human heart
- 2:44where there is no tolerance whatsoever and that is due to
- 2:48the very thing. Jesus said, when lawlessness
- 2:51increases the natural affection and love that people would have
- 2:54for human beings is going to dissipate as well.
- 2:57And their listen, there is no, you know, The church isn't
- 3:02preserved from that Christians aren't preserved from that.
- 3:05I got the same hatred that comes into my heart when I hear
- 3:08certain things or see certain things, Whatever though, folks
- 3:14concerns, I have you might have about society and its kind of
- 3:19spiral down to the bottomless pit of whatever is coming.
- 3:23It pales in comparison to the concern, I have for the church
- 3:28and for people that say, they love Jesus.
- 3:31Folks, the Apostle Paul said that in the last days people
- 3:35were going to have a love affair with the world.
- 3:37They were going to become one with the world and the entire
- 3:41time they were going to have a form of godliness, but they were
- 3:45going to deny the power. In other words, he says, in the
- 3:48last days, people will fill out a taureans, they will feel
- 3:51churches. They will raise their hands.
- 3:54They will have this form of godliness but their lives will
- 3:57be radically different than what they profess.
- 4:00They will be lovers of themselves.
- 4:01Alex. He says they will be boastful.
- 4:03They will be proud. All that will exist.
- 4:06And listen while they praise God and folks win in the last days
- 4:11the Christian becomes one with the world.
- 4:15There's a problem that's going to arise.
- 4:17Now this is always been the case throughout scripture.
- 4:21You can read Ezekiel chapter 8 on your own.
- 4:24God gives Ezekiel. The prophet for Visions in each
- 4:27vision is proceeded with this phrase turn.
- 4:31And see a greater Abomination than this.
- 4:34And so when he gets to the third Vision, he says, turn and see a
- 4:37greater Abomination than this Ezekiel, God takes Ezekiel into
- 4:41the doorway of the temple. And he says, to my dismay to my
- 4:46unbelievable eyes, the women were weeping for tammuz.
- 4:50Now, what to Moose stood for, who he was as a irrelevant know
- 4:53this, he was a Babylonian God and the women of Babylon had a
- 4:58worship style or a worship practice.
- 5:00Where once a year, they would get Together.
- 5:02And they would weep over Vista moose and God took Ezekiel into
- 5:06the doorway of his house. And he said, look at this
- 5:09Ezekiel. My people are crying over the
- 5:12same thing that the world is crying over.
- 5:14I can't tell the difference between those who say they
- 5:16believe and those who clearly don't, they are doing the same
- 5:19thing. They're acting the same way.
- 5:23In Jeremiah chapter 7, he gives us another example.
- 5:26He says, Jeremiah I want you to go to church.
- 5:29I want you to go to second service and I want you to walk
- 5:31in and out the doors greet. The people, he's the, he's the
- 5:35OG greeter, well, as they walk in you tell them amend your
- 5:39ways. Will you rob commit, adultery
- 5:42steel, burn incense, unto Baal and come and stand before me in
- 5:46my house. Which is called by my name and
- 5:48say we're delivered. Do you think I don't see this?
- 5:52Is What God Says. Folks it has always been the
- 5:56case. The problem is, this is
- 5:59dangerous stuff. Really dangerous.
- 6:03There is not one instance in Scripture that I can think of
- 6:07that. When the people of God in
- 6:09thought, or in practice became one with the world, where it
- 6:13didn't end badly, really badly, you know, people look out today,
- 6:19and they want to blame Republicans, and they want to
- 6:21blame Democrats and blame politicians for the demise of a
- 6:25country. You want to blame somebody?
- 6:27Look at, Jeremiah 32 verses verse 32.
- 6:30God tells you why? Nation fell.
- 6:33He tells us in Jeremiah 32 32. There's this reason three people
- 6:38are fault. Yes, your kings and your
- 6:41officials your politicians then he says your priest and your
- 6:44profits, your pulpits. And then he says the people all
- 6:48three were guilty The kings in the politicians, they passed the
- 6:53laws, the priests and the prophets said nothing.
- 6:56They said, Peace and safety. They didn't guide people in the
- 6:58word of God. They didn't lead them the way
- 7:00they're supposed to go and the people loved it.
- 7:02So, all of them were guilty. That's how a nation Falls, it's
- 7:05not one person's fault. Folks, how does a Christian
- 7:10become one with the world? Because some of you struggle
- 7:14with this and I get it, it's real this morning, we're going
- 7:20to look at three offers of compromise that are made by the
- 7:27king of Egypt pharaoh to Moses that listen, if Moses agrees to
- 7:32any of the three 21st century experience shows us, he'll cause
- 7:37wreckage to the nation, they'll never get out of bondage and
- 7:41they will stay there for more than 400 years.
- 7:45The first offer a compromise to Pharaoh by pharaoh to Moses in
- 7:49Exodus 8, here's the picture in Exodus chapter 50 to 80 year
- 7:54olds well one eighty year old and one eighty three-year-old
- 7:57come into Pharaoh's you know Chambers let my people go just
- 8:02as a side note this is like outside of the Lord this is
- 8:04laughable right? Like like here come a hundred
- 8:07sixty three-year-old between the two of them they walk in or
- 8:11stumble in or whatever and to the mightiest Empire.
- 8:15World to the mightiest King and they say, yo, let my people go,
- 8:19like, how intimidating is an 80 year old?
- 8:21Now, if you're 80, Caleb was 80, right?
- 8:24I'm gonna pull that one back. A lot to be done when you're 80,
- 8:29but you get the picture. And so feral starts to contend
- 8:33with Moses. But the reality is pharaohs
- 8:37fight, wasn't with, Moses was it because we know that any time a
- 8:41person has an issue or they have a problem.
- 8:44With other people or they have a problem with something that's,
- 8:48you know, happening, oftentimes, it's because they have a problem
- 8:51with god. Well, the problem is my wife or
- 8:54the problem is my husband. The problem is my boss.
- 8:56The problem is my stinking kid. The problem is dot, dot dot
- 9:00know. The problem often times is us,
- 9:02and so, we need to make sure we check that the contention is in
- 9:05between us and God, because if you move Moses out of the way,
- 9:08pharaohs got a problem with God. You see there can't be two
- 9:11kings. There can't be two rulers and
- 9:15God is going to get his way because God doesn't bow to any
- 9:17man. I have a feeling in the story.
- 9:19One person is going to Bow and it's not going to be God.
- 9:23So what happens is as as God begins to interact with Pharaoh
- 9:28pharaohs knees begin to weaken as God interacts with ten
- 9:32judgments or ten plagues and after the fourth plague, which
- 9:36were told this flies it ruins the nation.
- 9:39Now flies are miserable pets, aren't they?
- 9:43How many of you guys know what I'm talking about?
- 9:46How many of you hate flies? Yes, you everybody raise your
- 9:49hand. I hate flies.
- 9:52It seems. Every time I'm doing something
- 9:53important, there's one around my head, so the the the land has
- 9:58been ruined from flies. And so Pharaoh calls Moses and
- 10:03Aaron back in to meet with them. And here is his interaction at
- 10:07his first offer. Look at Exodus 8 starting in
- 10:10verse 25, then Pharaoh Called Moses and Aaron and said go
- 10:15sacrifice to your God within the land.
- 10:17But Moses said it would not be right for us to do.
- 10:20So for the offerings we shall sacrifice.
- 10:22Twice to the Lord. Our God are an Abomination to
- 10:25the Egyptians. If we sacrifice a sacrifice
- 10:28offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes,
- 10:31will they not Stone us? We must go three days journey
- 10:34into the Wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord Our God as
- 10:38he tells us. So Pharaoh said, I'll let you go
- 10:41sacrifice to the Lord, your God in the wilderness only, you must
- 10:44not go very far away. Oftentimes, when we read
- 10:48scripture Egypt is a type of the world.
- 10:51And so Pharaoh, here is say, Look you want to go worship God?
- 10:54He's weakening go worship him. Just stay here.
- 10:57Just stay in the land. You got homes were feeding.
- 11:01You just stay here and Moses says, yeah.
- 11:03That's impossible. And here's why it's impossible
- 11:06Pharaoh because we're going to worship God, according to how he
- 11:11describes and the focus of our worship is going to be the blood
- 11:17and when we take an oxen, which your people worship and we kill
- 11:22it. What do you think your people
- 11:24are going to do to us? They're going to kill us.
- 11:27They're going to Stone us because we are sacrificing
- 11:30something that is precious to them.
- 11:33Now, I know Pharaoh, you want to be tolerant and I know you got
- 11:36this whole coexisting going on, but here's the reality Farrell,
- 11:40the land cannot bear up under the burden and the weight and
- 11:45the divisiveness of both groups when both whole to their form of
- 11:49worship. It isn't going to happen if the
- 11:53people of God, stick to how God describes.
- 11:56They are to worship, both their worship, and their message will
- 12:00be an affront to the world, not an invitation.
- 12:03And if the world holds to their form of ideology and they press
- 12:07in at the church, you got a collision and there's nothing
- 12:10you can do about it. It's not going to be the way you
- 12:14think it's too heavy. Listen, unless one compromises
- 12:20their convictions. If one backs off their
- 12:24convictions, if one kind of dims they're they're you know,
- 12:30they're light, then it will work.
- 12:33But if both hold to their guns, it is not going to happen.
- 12:37Church. I asked the question when we
- 12:39began, how does a Believer become one with the world?
- 12:44Number one by watering down our convictions, out of fear of
- 12:49offending, the unsaved. Out of fear of offending, the
- 12:54unsaved will Steve. The most important thing is the
- 12:57Harvest and it's white in. If we offend the Harvest they
- 13:00won't come to church. They won't listen, they'll run
- 13:03away brothers and sisters, they're already running away.
- 13:07They're already running. And the world cannot afford the
- 13:13church to compromise convictions, so it can win the
- 13:17world to what? To who?
- 13:22We become one with the World by telling Farrell.
- 13:25Okay listen we'll stay here in. Egypt will worship here in Egypt
- 13:29and if there's a part of our worship that offends, you will
- 13:31just change it. We in fact, will will just get
- 13:35rid of it altogether because the most important part of this is
- 13:39that you're not offended and so will allow you to tell us what
- 13:44faithful worship to God. Looks like we'll, let you tell
- 13:46us. You know what?
- 13:48Love is, even though our God is love and it's his nature.
- 13:51You tell us what? Version of Love, is you tell us
- 13:54what marriage is you tell us, what gender is you tell us what
- 13:58pronouns are in fact? Why don't we do this?
- 14:01Why don't you just tell us what sin is?
- 14:03And you lead us. Because we don't want you to be
- 14:08offended. That's the most important part.
- 14:14That's great. That we're willing to make that
- 14:17type of concession. Because the world isn't did, you
- 14:22know that? The world doesn't give a rip
- 14:25about your convictions, they don't care about offending you.
- 14:28They're going to pass their laws and their going to pass their
- 14:31curriculum in school and they're not going to care if you're
- 14:35offended at all, the world is going to be faithful to stand in
- 14:39its ideology. Because the God of this world is
- 14:42fueling them and I don't mean Yahweh, he's not backing down.
- 14:51Can I be blunt? Since when did the church become
- 14:55such snowflakes? Since when did the image bearers
- 15:00of God? The Holy One of Israel?
- 15:02The Ancient of Days. The one who spoke into
- 15:05existence. Everything that is and then
- 15:07said, go, I'm with you always even to the end of the world.
- 15:11Since when did we become such pumps that were allowing the
- 15:15world? Now to tell the church what
- 15:17worship looks like Folks, we don't have the right to preserve
- 15:22people from the offense of the Gospel.
- 15:24We don't have that, right? First, Peter 28 says, Jesus is a
- 15:28stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and we can't keep people
- 15:34back from that. God has an empowered us with
- 15:37that. And the truth is you are going
- 15:39to have two reactions and it might come in your own home.
- 15:43It might come from the people that you love the most but just
- 15:46because they're offended, doesn't mean that we now change
- 15:49our Kitchen, so we can accommodate them to show them.
- 15:52A love that scripture never prescribed ever.
- 15:58When Peter shared the gospel and acts 2:37, we're told that when
- 16:02those people heard the message, they were cut to the heart.
- 16:07And three thousand Souls gave their life to Jesus.
- 16:13But not long after Stephen shared the gospel and it didn't
- 16:17go real well for him. An act 754, it says, when
- 16:21Stephen shared the gospel, they were enraged and they ground
- 16:24their teeth, and they stopped up their ears, two different
- 16:28responses. But to necessary response is
- 16:32because God doesn't force a person to love him.
- 16:36He doesn't force a person to accept him.
- 16:39So, when the gospel is shared, understand this, you are going
- 16:42to have opposing views. And you and I do not have the
- 16:47right to preserve people from either the conviction and hopes
- 16:52of conviction or from the offense.
- 16:56When Paul shared the gospel in Acts 7, 32, it says that some
- 17:00mock but others joined in believe.
- 17:02That's our reality. Folks, we know we're too close
- 17:06to the world when we're willing to change our message in order
- 17:11to accommodate their sins, so they won't be offended and we
- 17:13won't be stoned. That's when you're too close.
- 17:19Moses told Pharaoh, there's no way we can't stay here.
- 17:23We have to cut the tie. We got to go three days.
- 17:26So, Pharaoh replies and exodus 8:28 and he says, okay, fine.
- 17:31If you want to do that, go worship your God, but don't go
- 17:34too far. You don't have to sever yourself
- 17:39completely from Egypt, I mean, don't go too far.
- 17:43Stay close. You want to be a Christian, be a
- 17:50Christian. Don't go too far though.
- 17:54I know you got those friends and every time you hang out with
- 17:57him, you do bonehead things. I get that but you don't need a
- 18:01whole new group of friends. I mean, don't go that far.
- 18:05That's kind of lame. I mean, stay close.
- 18:07I mean, you don't want to be more holier-than-thou.
- 18:09All right, even though they're crushing and ruining your life,
- 18:12that's too far. Way too far.
- 18:14I know you have that job where the the person you work with.
- 18:18You look forward to see every day.
- 18:19Unfortunately, they're not your spouse and God's convicted you
- 18:22and he said, hey, you know, you need to get another job.
- 18:24Another job that's too far. Do you know how hard jobs are to
- 18:27come by? That's way too far.
- 18:29Come on, seriously. And the last thing.
- 18:34In the world that you should be doing is opening up your mouth
- 18:39and telling other people about Jesus.
- 18:41Hey listen, religion is a personal thing, it's a closed
- 18:44thing. You be quiet.
- 18:47You be quiet. You who are you to be intrusive
- 18:50to them. Don't go too far.
- 18:53Keep it inside. You fill in the Gap, there's a
- 18:57lot of spaces. There's a lot of areas where we
- 19:01can go too far. But what is too far to the
- 19:03world? Is normal, Christian Living to
- 19:06God? But Moses says something here,
- 19:13folks, that is huge. He says something that is
- 19:19massively important in verse 27, for us to understand the
- 19:25Believers relationship to Egypt to the world.
- 19:29He says, we must go three days journey into the world Earnest
- 19:33to sacrifice to our God. Three days folks, you know,
- 19:38Hosea 62. The prophet is speaking about
- 19:41the Revival of a nation and bringing a nation back to life.
- 19:45Here's what he says. After two days, he will revive
- 19:49us on the third day, he will raise us up that we may live and
- 19:54John 2:19. Jesus says, if you destroy this
- 19:58Temple his body and three days he will rise up again.
- 20:03So what is he talking about folks often times the The
- 20:06three-day Mark speaks of new life, it speaks of a new
- 20:10beginning, it speaks of a restart.
- 20:13And so what Moses is saying to Pharaoh's first offer of
- 20:16compromise here is we're not going to stay in.
- 20:19Egypt were not going to stay too close to Egypt to worship.
- 20:22God, we can't we got to go three days.
- 20:25We need a new life, we need a start.
- 20:28We need a rebirth. We're not staying here.
- 20:32And folks, I want to suggest to you.
- 20:35That the reason some of us have problems today is because we've
- 20:40stayed too close to the thing. We were supposed to leave.
- 20:44We're struggling and I get it folks.
- 20:46I die, I struggled the first two years of my walk with God.
- 20:51I remember it was, it was tragedy after tragedy.
- 20:55My I got saved on a, on a Sunday that this the night before, you
- 21:00know, I had my girlfriend is my wife now.
- 21:02And we did what girlfriends and boyfriends do that are saved and
- 21:04Sunday came and now everything's not.
- 21:06Okay. And I'm just kind of like gosh
- 21:08what a Christians do like for fun and so I went to the Pastor
- 21:13Jeff Johnson. He's my pastor at the time out
- 21:15in the foyer out there and after church, and I had my pen and my
- 21:18pad and I was dead serious and I said, okay look man, I'm new to
- 21:22this whole Christian thing. I get the whole not sleeping
- 21:24with your girlfriend before you get married thing.
- 21:25What can I do? And he kind of looked at me and
- 21:32he's like, you need to treat her like your sister.
- 21:35I'm like dude, that is sick. You understand, right?
- 21:40Like, I don't know, what kind of church you got going here.
- 21:41We're not in the South like in Alabama and he Alabama fans,
- 21:45good, but we don't do that. So I go to the guy at night the
- 21:52night service and I say, hey the guy in the morning, you know,
- 21:57like he told me I need to treat her like my sister in the whole
- 22:00time. My wife.
- 22:01Who's my girlfriend? The time was just like, oh my
- 22:03gosh, I can't believe he's doing this.
- 22:04I was serious, man. Like, tell me what I can do,
- 22:07what was I really asking? I was asking You please tell me
- 22:10where the line is where sin technically become sin, because
- 22:14I want to walk just this side of it.
- 22:16So I can experience all of God and all of the world and still
- 22:20have both. How many of you know what I'm
- 22:21talking about? How did that work out for you?
- 22:27It didn't. If you walked with Jesus long
- 22:30enough, your beginning years probably until that you wanted
- 22:33both. You were coming out.
- 22:34Here's the amazing thing. God was gracious to walk with
- 22:37you. God was gracious.
- 22:39And I can just imagine the Lord's favor like, oh, my word.
- 22:42Here we go. Like dude, you've got to get
- 22:45this together. Yeah, we really emptied the
- 22:48grace tank when we were younger and the Lord and we're still in
- 22:52King it You guys, I've tried that.
- 22:57You've tried that for those of you that are there this morning
- 23:01and you're trying that, let me just bind together with the
- 23:04other brothers and sisters in here and give you a humble bit
- 23:07of advice. It doesn't work.
- 23:10You're going to have to choose, you're going to have to choose
- 23:14which one Pharaoh can't be king. And listen, God can't be king in
- 23:19your life one or the other, make the decision because when I made
- 23:23the decision to break the tie, no, it doesn't mean that I don't
- 23:26struggle like you, it just means that the life of living in
- 23:30proximity to the world, when that decision was made to break
- 23:34it, life changed in God, took me serious and my whole life, and I
- 23:38mean to put a kind of a spring. Of humor into a God said, now
- 23:42going to the ministry. You're going to have to make a
- 23:45choice. And some of you in here are
- 23:47struggling this morning, maybe, because you're living too close
- 23:51to what you're supposed to have walked away from It won't work.
- 23:56The second offer of compromise by pharaoh, to Moses, in Exodus
- 24:0010, verse 8, when God sends Locust, has it ruins the land.
- 24:05And so, Pharaoh summons, Moses back into his presence and the
- 24:09aftermath and he says, okay go worship God, you got me But
- 24:15who's going to be going with you, who's going?
- 24:18And Moses replies in verse 9? He says, we'll all of us are
- 24:21going and Pharaoh lashes back in verse 10, with his kind of, you
- 24:26know, snarky thing that says, yeah, kind of Over My Dead Body.
- 24:30I know you got a plan to hurt me so no, the kids stay, you can go
- 24:33worship. What was he saying?
- 24:35Pharaoh was saying give me the Next Generation.
- 24:37You go worship God. But your kids stay behind.
- 24:41I get the Next Generation. Church listen.
- 24:46This is a compromise that we cannot afford to absorb.
- 24:53We cannot give the Next Generation to the king of Egypt.
- 24:58To the God of this world. You will not like what comes out
- 25:03the other side. It's always puzzled me folks
- 25:08that some of the greatest people in the Bible with the greatest
- 25:11Faith really struggled in this area.
- 25:13I think a David David had an idiot son who raped his sister
- 25:17davidsdottir and then he had another idiot son who decided to
- 25:20take matters into his own hands and kill his brother.
- 25:23And then later on take his kingdom, Samuel had two sons
- 25:28that were worthless. When Samuel got old being the
- 25:30last judge, he decided to make his two sons judges and
- 25:33Israel's. I forget this, they were taking
- 25:34advantage there. Like This is what a theocracy is
- 25:37if this is what it means to have mediators over us.
- 25:41Then shine that give us a man like all the other nations
- 25:44because we don't want this. They were dorks.
- 25:48You guys Eli had two sons, they sat at the temple and they
- 25:52ripped the people off and they took their money and they slept
- 25:55with the women and Aaron had two sons named AB in a by who, and
- 26:00they decided they wanted to worship their own way.
- 26:02And lot had two daughters, and they decided to get their dad
- 26:05drunk and take advantage of him. Folks, if you're a parent.
- 26:13And you choose to worship God. Satan can't stop you.
- 26:18But please don't, leave the Next Generation to the king of Egypt.
- 26:23They go with you. Moses rejected this offer.
- 26:29He said our kids are coming with us.
- 26:32Now, I understand that that you know, they may not want to go, I
- 26:35have a 14 year old girl. And you know, she told me cop,
- 26:39probably a couple months ago, she said, dad on board and the
- 26:42lord it's like I don't want to go to youth group.
- 26:46Now, I could have said, what do you mean?
- 26:48You don't want to go to youth group?
- 26:50You reprobate? Like like what do you mean?
- 26:53I'm with you, you're a PK, you gotta go.
- 26:55Do you know what the church is going to say?
- 26:57You know how bad that's going to look.
- 27:00So, I sat down and talked with her and I said, Emma, what's
- 27:04going on? She said, I don't understand the
- 27:07Bible and it's boring when I read it.
- 27:11And they're in anybody to teach me.
- 27:15So while I'm off, ministering to other people's marriages and
- 27:19teaching other people. My kid comes and tells me God, I
- 27:22don't understand the Bible. And man, I had to apologize and
- 27:27say, well, let's sit down right now and let's start this.
- 27:32Pharaoh's not going to teacher. He's going to teach her
- 27:35something completely different. Your kids go with you, no matter
- 27:40what, there will come a point where they will have to make a
- 27:43decision to serve God themselves.
- 27:45But until then, as for you and your house, you serve the Lord.
- 27:49And you be an example and you take them with you, you don't
- 27:52give them to YouTube, you don't give them to social media, you
- 27:54will not like the product that comes out.
- 27:59I want to say something else real quick to young people that
- 28:02are here. You can't stay behind.
- 28:07You can't stay behind. And here's why you can go places
- 28:13that we can't. And there's people that need
- 28:17your faith. There's people that need folks.
- 28:19We don't start Christianity when someone turns 18.
- 28:23They're being trained at the youngest of Ages.
- 28:26And we have got a group of young people.
- 28:28That if you will separate yourself from Egypt, you can go
- 28:32into a place and you can be a witness in a way that can save
- 28:35lives. Amen.
- 28:40Four years ago, you can look it up on the internet in a place
- 28:44called Herriman Utah, about six miles down the road from us.
- 28:47It made national news. 8 students took their life in one
- 28:51school year. Separate not mass, one after
- 28:53another. After another I wonder what
- 28:57would happen by the way, in a place where 80% for claim to
- 29:03believe God, I wonder what would have happened.
- 29:07If there would have been young people, that would have been
- 29:09gauged. I wonder if one or three or five
- 29:12might have rethought their decision.
- 29:15This is a matter of life and death.
- 29:18Let me give you a practical example.
- 29:21My oldest daughter Makenna when she was 16 years old.
- 29:25She was in a high school where there was her and maybe one
- 29:28other Christian, the rest were of the predominant religion in
- 29:32Utah. And she would constantly invite
- 29:36people to youth group in many kids, would come to know the
- 29:39Lord. This one girl, in particular,
- 29:41her name was Karen. She met Karen when she was 16, I
- 29:45believe, and they kind of struck up a friendship.
- 29:47And then, as high school ended Corrine went her way and
- 29:50McKenna. Never heard from her for about
- 29:52three years and then mechanic gets a phone call from Karin one
- 29:55day and Karin starts telling her story and she starts saying, my
- 29:58life is so messed up. I've been raped.
- 30:01I tried to commit suicide twice. I've been Addicted to drugs and
- 30:05alcohol and I'm calling you because I remember that when we
- 30:08were in school, you were the only one that I ever believed
- 30:10new God. And so they started talking on
- 30:14the phone and and, and, you know, she started started, you
- 30:17know, talking with her, you know, every other day.
- 30:19And all of a sudden we don't hear from Karin anymore.
- 30:22Two weeks goes by, and then McKenna gets a call from Karen
- 30:26and she's upset and she's saying I don't want to live anymore.
- 30:29I'm in Mexico City, my mom didn't want me anymore so she
- 30:33sent me to an Uncle's house in Mexico City and my daughter at
- 30:36the time was going to Calvary Chapel Bible College in Marietta
- 30:40and so she worked it out with the Bible college to get her in
- 30:42to a summer program. For people like that.
- 30:45She had nowhere to live, she had nothing And so she called me and
- 30:49she said, dad, I worked it out to get it to get Karin into the
- 30:53into the Bible College summer thing.
- 30:55The problem is that she's in Mexico City.
- 30:57And I don't know how to get here and I said, what what do you
- 30:59mean? I'm in.
- 31:00Mexico City at McKenna. I scheduled a business trip
- 31:04three months ago and she's like what I said?
- 31:07Yeah, if you can get her to the airport, I will get her a plane
- 31:10ticket ticket and get her to you.
- 31:12And so on that Friday at Terminal 26, I was I roll up and
- 31:17there's this Young 20 year old girl wrecked because that's what
- 31:21sin does. It wrecks?
- 31:23You not just your sin but other people sin.
- 31:25It wrecks, your life. And is she sitting there in a
- 31:29hoodie? She starts telling me her story
- 31:32and she asked me this question. I'll never forget it for the
- 31:34rest of my life. Do you believe God could love a
- 31:36person like me? We got on the plane.
- 31:40I sent her to California. She got into the program in the
- 31:44Summer. She gave her life to Jesus
- 31:46Christ and then listen, they gave her a two-year scholarship
- 31:49to stay in the Bible College. In two years later I was at a
- 31:53Pastors conference eating lunch at the round table and I get
- 31:56this tap on my shoulder and I hear mr.
- 31:58Pearson I turn around and it's Karin dressed in her right mind.
- 32:05All because a sixteen-year-old chose to separate themselves
- 32:11from. What was, you know, permissible
- 32:13in school. You can't talk to people about
- 32:15God and pray in school, who says pharaoh.
- 32:21Young people. You have no idea how many
- 32:26Koreans are in your life. If you will, just say no to this
- 32:31offer and you will separate yourself from Egypt and make
- 32:34yourself. Available to God.
- 32:39The last offer Pharaoh makes might be the most damaging.
- 32:44Exodus chapter 10 verse 24. The most ridiculous at least.
- 32:50But for a lot of people today it's not Darkness has just hit,
- 32:55the plague has hit. And so here we are again.
- 32:58In Exodus verse 10:24, Pharaoh Called Moses in and he said, go
- 33:05serve the Lord. You and your little ones, you
- 33:08guys could all go. Only let your flocks and your
- 33:12herds remain. Ferris is go worship.
- 33:16God can't stop you but leave your herds behind.
- 33:22This is the worst of them all. You say why Moses says Pharaoh
- 33:27that's impossible because our herds are what we use to
- 33:31sacrifice. And so what you're really asking
- 33:34us to do is to go worship God, but leave out the sacrifice.
- 33:39How were we supposed to worship God if there's no blood because
- 33:44that's what God as a foreshadow of what's to come?
- 33:48That's what God is saying, is the center of the worship.
- 33:51You want us to go worship God and leave out the sacrifice?
- 33:54But you know what? Folks, people do that all the
- 33:56time today. The Cross isn't the most
- 33:59important thing, you know, what is?
- 34:04You. Many churches.
- 34:08And I know it's not this one because I know what it Taylor
- 34:10teaches, many churches, you're the most important thing.
- 34:15Oh man, the Lord really hears the gospel.
- 34:17The Lord really loves you and he's just, you bet your
- 34:20suffering and your pain and he just really wants to hug you and
- 34:23he understands your pain and he wants to touch you.
- 34:27And so if you'll come to Jesus, he'll take care of you and that
- 34:31pain, okay? What about his pain?
- 34:37What about his scars? What about his nails that he
- 34:42didn't deserve and his feet, that were pierced that he didn't
- 34:47deserve. And the crowns on his head?
- 34:49What about the suffering of Jesus Christ?
- 34:52As being the premier and preeminent thing in church.
- 34:58But it's the people now. And when you come to church, you
- 35:03should come to worship Him. In what he did for you.
- 35:10If you become the focus, you will never be satisfied because
- 35:14if you can walk in to the presence of God, and you put the
- 35:18cross in the back, in your need becomes the most important.
- 35:21Listen, nothing in the world of satisfy you, nothing will take
- 35:24away your pain. but if you look at what he went through, And you
- 35:33look at him bearing, the weight of your sin.
- 35:37Suddenly all of your needs though, they may still be there,
- 35:40they become secondary and he becomes preeminent.
- 35:46In Second Kings 16:14, you can read this on your own King ahaz
- 35:50was the king of Judah. And he saw that the king of
- 35:53Israel Pekka was going to come and fight.
- 35:56And so, he reached out to the king of Assyria called
- 35:59tiglath-pileser and he said, will you come down and help me
- 36:02fight? And so tiglath-pileser does, a
- 36:04has gives them some some gold and and he takes care of his
- 36:08problem in a thank you to tour where a has goes up to Damascus.
- 36:13He sees his big wonderful beautiful take.
- 36:16An altar in Damascus. AOL, it worked for them.
- 36:20Look at how strong they are. So he takes the blueprints and
- 36:23he sends them down south to Uriah the priest.
- 36:26He says, make me one of these and when you do listen, take my
- 36:30Altar and stick it in the front of the house and take the Brazen
- 36:34Altar and stick it in the back. The Brazen altar was the bloody
- 36:40place. It was the first thing you
- 36:42encountered. When you walked into the
- 36:43Tabernacle, it was where the sacrifice was bound and where's
- 36:47where the blood was thrown up against the altar?
- 36:49It wasn't pretty. It was offensive.
- 36:51It was disgusting. But it was the first thing you
- 36:54encountered. Before you went to to the bronze
- 36:57lever before, you went to the holy place before you did
- 36:59anything else. You dealt with that Altar?
- 37:03And what this King does? He says, well, let's take that
- 37:05out and let's get it out of the way and let's This new beautiful
- 37:08one up here. This less offensive one up here.
- 37:12What? Folks.
- 37:18The sacrifice of Christ is the reason we're here.
- 37:24It has to be the main reason we're here.
- 37:30And that is going to be offensive. but if you remove
- 37:35that, all you got is four walls and a bunch of silly people that
- 37:42are wasting their time when they could be off.
- 37:45Watching the USC Trojans. Dominate the college football
- 37:47world. Sorry.
- 37:50I had to throw that in. Ed What do you want from church?
- 37:58You want some cool music? Or do you want the god in the
- 38:02music? What do you want in a message?
- 38:06Do you want to feel better about yourself and feel like you could
- 38:08really do this? Or do you want to know that you
- 38:12have this treasure in Earthen vessels?
- 38:14That the Excellency in the power is of him and not of yourself?
- 38:18Do you want to be told you're a great person?
- 38:21You can do it, you can do it. Go.
- 38:22Human. What do you want to be?
- 38:25Told that you're broken and busted but listen, you're in the
- 38:30arms of a loving God, who has lived the perfect life for you.
- 38:36That's the difference. The worship team can come up.
- 38:41Folks, I've been a Believer for almost 30 years.
- 38:47I am so incredibly thankful. That God sought me out and found
- 38:52me. And now, 30 years later, do, you
- 38:56know what I understand about Grace?
- 38:58You know, when you're a young Christian, you think you're a
- 39:01lot better than you really are. You know, you're like, oh yeah,
- 39:04Grace Grace. But you have no idea what Grace
- 39:06is and you just know that it's in the Bible and you gotta
- 39:09preach it because it sound Doctrine, but then you get older
- 39:13and you live with you for a little while and you start to
- 39:17realize man. I'm getting worse but listen
- 39:24where sin abounds Grace is abounding in, as you walk, with
- 39:27Jesus longer, you start to realize I understand Grace a
- 39:31little more because I understand how just depraved I am.
- 39:37And you get to the end and you're going to say is, Paul
- 39:40did, I'm the chief of Sinners. I was a pretty good guy when I
- 39:44was younger, but man, I really stink now.
- 39:48And then, listen the scripture that says, now to him, who is
- 39:52able to keep you and to present you blameless before his glory
- 39:56and grace will be your reality. And you will fall to your knees
- 40:01and realize God, the only reason I made it was because of you.
- 40:06Because you are that good and you're that wonderful.
- 40:10But listen, I cannot stand here and I cannot leave you.
- 40:13And make you think that somehow if you come to Christ, if you
- 40:17don't know Jesus, you come to Christ.
- 40:19The whole world is going to be better for you.
- 40:21I can promise you this because the bible promises you this, if
- 40:24you come to Christ, he'll give you eternal life and what he
- 40:27does with you. And the rest of that time is up
- 40:29to him. But if you don't come to Christ,
- 40:34John says he who has the son has life, he does not have the son
- 40:37shall not see life, but the wrath of God or main on him, you
- 40:40got no hope man. You're talking to somebody who
- 40:44tried it. You got no hope there.
- 40:45Ain't anybody else coming for you?
- 40:48Nobody else is coming to pay your price.
- 40:50Nobody else is coming to live a perfect life for you.
- 40:53Nobody else is coming to exchange his life for yours.
- 40:56You are on your own without Christ, all alone in this world.
- 41:00You think your husband, you think, your wife, your kids,
- 41:02your family is going to help you.
- 41:03They ain't going to be able to do nothing for you.
- 41:06The only one, the love of your soul.
- 41:08The one who made you in His image.
- 41:11If you reject him, you got nobody else in this world.
- 41:15That's how wonderful he is. Would you bow your heads?
- 41:29father met every believer in this place online, listening on
- 41:33the radio, May every believer, reject every one of those offers
- 41:41Wholeheartedly reject them. They are not from you.
- 41:45They're from the king of Egypt there from Pharaoh, there from
- 41:47the God of this world and he's been opposing you ever since the
- 41:50day that you cast him down and he wants your people to
- 41:54compromise So first listen. If you're here and you are a
- 42:03Christian, you've accepted Christ, you are saving, you know
- 42:06that. But listen you are walking way
- 42:09to hand in hand with this world, you are too close to Egypt.
- 42:14It is very evident from what you think from what you do, how you
- 42:18act in the dark, what you do with nobody else knowing your
- 42:21like Lord and it plagues you and you know that it's not like
- 42:25you're do you go home and cry? You're like God, why can't I get
- 42:28this right? And, you know you're too close.
- 42:33And you realize now, do I got to make the decision that Steve
- 42:37made and that many other people in here, made when they spent
- 42:40two years of their life, trying to please both Kings and have
- 42:43the best of both worlds and it didn't work and I need to stop
- 42:47this. Now, your time is running out,
- 42:50man. I thought the trumpet was coming
- 42:51at song to but it's coming. And you realize Steve man, I
- 42:57want to do this right now in front of my brothers and
- 42:59sisters. Listen, if you can't make a
- 43:01decision like that in family, you have no hope of going out
- 43:04and live in an open life for the Lord in the world that rejects
- 43:06them. So that's you.
- 43:08And you just say, man, I want prayer.
- 43:10I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet, you're too close to
- 43:13Egypt and, you know, it stand up wherever you're at.
- 43:19God bless you knew you and the back.
- 43:21You here all over. You're singing, I just want
- 43:24these ropes cut. On the side in the back all
- 43:28over. God bless you guys.
- 43:30You know, the Lord. But you also know.
- 43:36That man, you're way too close to what you should be separated
- 43:39from. God bless you guys.
- 43:43God bless you guys. Anyone else?
- 43:57Now listen. I was hungover.
- 44:02I was coming back. I saw a Church Calvary Chapel
- 44:05down here drove in the back. 30 years ago I sat in the very back
- 44:10row. 3,000 person sanctuary and a man told me everything about
- 44:15my life. Everything.
- 44:19And then you said it can all be different and God would separate
- 44:23everything that you've ever done wrong from you for good.
- 44:27And he offered me the gospel and the gospel wasn't Jesus could
- 44:30make me better. The gospel was this And for
- 44:34some, it will prick you to the heart for others.
- 44:37You'll stop years up. But regardless, the gospel is
- 44:40you have deeply offended. God, I have deeply offended.
- 44:44God, it is a sin. It's not all your sins.
- 44:49It's a sin of living in Rebellion to him and you can
- 44:54never save yourself. Job said, Can something unclean
- 44:58bring something clean out of itself and the answer is no and
- 45:01you will try to fix your conduct.
- 45:03You will try to It's your behavior.
- 45:05You will go to church and you'll do all the stuff that you're
- 45:07supposed to do to be good. But you will go home and you
- 45:10will live with yourself and you will know you're not right?
- 45:15A 75 year old woman? Came up to me.
- 45:17One year ago, who left the Mormon church.
- 45:19First time she ever stepped into a Christian church and she came
- 45:22up to me after the service. She said, pastor I've never
- 45:24heard the name of Jesus more in the first song than I, you know,
- 45:28in this place than I ever have ever in my 70-something years of
- 45:32being a Mormon. And, and I'm leaving and I was
- 45:36like, it's like you have a five-star general there and I'm
- 45:38like, whoa, why are you leaving if you don't mind me asking you
- 45:41here, she's here's what she said because every day that I would
- 45:44go home for 75 years always wondered.
- 45:46If I was good enough for god, well let me help you with that.
- 45:50No, you're not. You never will be your conduct
- 45:55doesn't need to be reformed, your life needs to be reborn.
- 46:01And that happens when you understand, you're a sinner and
- 46:05that Christ died for your sins and he paid a price that he did
- 46:09not owe so that you could be freed and let go.
- 46:14And if you want that by faith then is God changed this man. 30
- 46:19years ago in the back of a church where I thought nobody
- 46:22saw me. God saw me?
- 46:24He saw everything. I was going through And he said,
- 46:27here's my son, yes or no. And I'll offer you the same
- 46:30thing. If you've never received Jesus
- 46:32Christ as your savior, your sins are not forgiven.
- 46:35Let me tell you, there is only a eternity that's waiting for you.
- 46:38That is not good. We pray that you've been
- 46:41encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
- 46:44sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
- 46:47Call us at 877, 30 Grace, that's eight 77304, 2:53 to listen to
- 46:56this message. In its entirety or to join us
- 46:58for our live stream Services. Visit us online at Calvary Co
- 47:03dot church or download our free Calvary Church app be blessed as
- 47:08you worship Jesus this week.