Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #10217 - Singing Songs Because God is Good - Exodus 15

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#10217 - Singing Songs Because God is Good - Exodus 15 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Open your Bibles.
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Exodus chapter 15 is where we are.
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Exodus chapter 15 and the Bible study I entitled Singing songs
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because God is good. Singing songs because God is
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good. Exodus 15 contains the song of
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Moses. The most important thing that we
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can do on earth is worship God. We were created to worship.
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We were designed to adore him. That is our natural tendency to
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worship God. And we can worship God through
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our singing. Of course, that's how we
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normally associate worship. We can worship God through our
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service, through our sacrifice, through our giving.
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Really, everything that a believer does can be done and
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should be done in worship and honor of God.
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Today we have before us a song, a song that was written in
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reflection of the faithfulness of God.
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It is a time where the gap where the children of Israel are
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gathering together to look back on God's faithfulness, to see it
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and to sing it. That's why we place such a great
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emphasis on singing, because God is able to use music to attach
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our hearts to His. It becomes a reflection or a
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growth. A growth, a response, I should
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say, you know, really growing out of our appreciation of Him.
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You know, the word worship comes from 2 words, worth and spice or
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sight. I should say worth and sight.
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It's been shortened so that we pronounce it worship.
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It means to respect and to honor and to ascribe worth to.
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The idea is to ascribe worth or value to someone or something.
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In other words, we worship what we deem worthy.
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You probably heard people say, oh, he worships money, or she
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worships her kids, or he worships his career and on it
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goes. And what's trying to be said is
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that that person is placing the highest value of their life upon
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that which they are worshipping, that that seems to be the most
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important part of their life. And so it's in our worship of
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God that we worship Him being the most important person in our
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life for no other reason that than He is worthy.
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For no other reason. We don't sing songs for what we
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can get out of it, or because it makes us feel good, or because
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encouragement comes, although all of those are included.
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The reason we sing is because God is worth it and He has
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stirred in our hearts the desire to ascribe worship to Him, the
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highest activity that we can ever attain.
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Jot it down. I like this verse in the old
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King James. Many times people will ask what
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what is my purpose in life? Why was I created?
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You might even have someone come to you just really wrestling
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with life, wrestling with a career decision or a family
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decision or singleness or marriage, and they might ask
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you, what is it? What am I created for?
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You can take them to Revelation chapter 4 in verse 11.
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And then the old King James, they translated it this way.
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Thou art worthy, old Lord, to receive glory and honor and
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power, for thou hast created all things, and listen for thy
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pleasure. They are, and they were created.
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You and I were created at the pleasure of God, and to bring
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Him pleasure, to give him our lives, which he purchased with
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his own blood. When a person follows God, you
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come to admire Him, know Him deeper, and your worship grows
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every day. Psalm 9 verse one says, I will
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praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart, and I will tell of
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all your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in
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You, and I'll sing praise to your name almost high.
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In Psalm 40 verse three, it says, He has put a new song in
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my mouth. Praise to our God.
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Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.
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Worship in song is so valuable. Church.
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You may even today have a problem with some of the worship
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music, some of what might be considered modern worship music
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or the new worship music. And some of you may have gotten
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caught up in some of the arguments.
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Well, we don't sing that song and we don't sing that song.
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And I'm, I'm asking you to step back from that for a moment and
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just come back to a simple place of worship and sing the songs
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that are before you, whether they're in this church or a
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station that you're listening to, radio station or a playlist,
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and just receive them. You can bring the old song.
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Maybe you like some of the older songs, You can bring them with
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you. That's OK.
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Bring them with you. Sing those too.
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I think I've shared this with you recently, but it's worth
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repeating. At the beginning of the year, I
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felt a burden in my heart to return to my first love, not
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because I had any gross sin, but at the end of last year, I just
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felt these this theme coming up over and over again in
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Revelation where Jesus gives that little post it note to the
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church in Ephesus. Remember from where you have
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fallen. Repent and repeat the 1st works.
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It was coming up over and over again and in my quiet time, I'm
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like, I felt like the Lord is going well, that's for you, Ed.
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I'm like, what do you mean It's for me?
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Like I don't have any major sin and I'm searching and I'm
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praying and there's nothing that I could see that I've left my
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first love. I'm in it, but the application
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really became as I was waiting upon the Lord for clarity, the
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application came that God wanted me to go back to a time in my
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life as a new believer where I had far less difficulty serving.
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I had far less complications. Like, you know how sometimes you
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wish for a simpler life because things have been complicated and
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you layer upon layer upon layer and in ministry, certainly my
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life has become a little more complicated than it was when I
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was a new believer. And so God brought me back.
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And the way that I applied that was that I wanted to listen to
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the Bible studies exclusively this year of the five men that
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affected me the most on the radio because I did a lot of
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commuting and a lot of driving as a new believer.
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And a lot of time I was listening to a radio station
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like Grace FM in Southern California called K Wave.
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And I went back to the podcast and I started listening to the
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five pastors that impacted me the most.
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So Chuck Smith was one of them. Jeff Johnson, my pastor is one
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of them. Raul Reese had a very profound
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effect in my life and his testimony.
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Ray Bentley, a great brother in the Lord.
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The pastors pastored in San Diego had a great because he
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just happened to be on the time I would come home from work.
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So he was on the radio and that's the guy I listen to.
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And and of course, Skip Heitzik was a brother.
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So I've been listening to them all year, just soaking, soaking
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it in. And I'm being built up in the
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Lord. But also remembering, you know,
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Ed, when you were a new believer, you didn't ask so many
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questions. You didn't ask so many questions
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when I told you to do something. You didn't put up so much
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resistance when I told you to do something.
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You didn't wait so long to apply that scripture to share that
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word and, and just the Lord's refreshing me.
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And on top of that, the second thing that I did is now I also
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began to listen to the music that had a profound effect on me
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in the early 90s when I was saved.
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And let me just say, the music of the early 90s is very
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different than the music today. And so Henry, who has let us in
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worship today, he knows his music very well.
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I asked him to help me put together a playlist.
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So I have Henry's playlist. I have my playlist of music that
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profoundly affected my new believer life.
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It's what my kids had to listen to when they were in my car.
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It's what was on around the house.
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It's what replaced all the cassette tapes that I destroyed
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and threw into the trash as a new believer.
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And it's bringing up memories and it's bringing up thoughts,
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and it's ministering to my soul because they were formative.
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And I'm finding myself playing that playlist over and over
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again. And God ministering to my heart
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in a new way. In addition to singing all the
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stuff that we're singing now, where God has broadened my heart
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of how He wants to speak to me in His Word and how He wants to
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speak to me in worship. This in Exodus chapter 15 is the
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first song recorded in the Bible, and it has great meaning,
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of course, to the children of Israel in this season of their
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life. You'll recall as you've been
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studying with us, that the place where the nation is right now,
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the people are very grateful people.
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They're no longer slaves. They're relieved.
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They were led into this place of a trap, remember, and God made a
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way where there there was no way.
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And he delivered them and they're relieved and excited.
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Deliverance is theirs. God's word has come through.
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Not only that, but they have a new identity.
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They are no longer slaves. They're not waking up in the
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morning and having to, to go to work and work 15/16/17 hour
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days. They, they, they look and now
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they have a new identity. They are no longer slaves, but
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children of God. They have a new authority.
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Pharaoh is no longer number one in charge.
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They don't need to worry about what Pharaoh has to say.
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They're done with him. They can look directly to God.
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Now, even though they did call out to God, they did call out to
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God because remember, that's how God responded.
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They heard, He heard their cries.
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So it wasn't Diskin, but they had layers in between them and
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God. But no longer, not at this
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point. It's just now, man, we look to
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you, Lord, we're ready. We see your power.
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They also have a new location. They're headed to the promised
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land. It's going to be theirs.
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They are no longer living in Egypt.
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Can you imagine the sound of this song?
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A couple of things I want you to notice before we get into the
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essence of the song and the chapter.
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But notice in verse one of chapter 15, it says then Moses
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and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke
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saying, and I want you to notice a couple things.
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Number one, I want you to notice when they sang, they sang to the
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Lord. Don't ever forget that you're
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singing to the Lord. You're not singing to the person
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next to you or the person in front of you or to the worship
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team or whoever's up on the stage or leading you with a with
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a piano or you're singing to the Lord.
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When we sing in worship, the focus and emphasis is upon God.
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And although we may have a band up here, or we may have stage
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presence or an atmosphere to create, or the lights might be
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on, or lights might be off, or there may be haze on the stage
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or color, whatever that is in order to enhance the and to
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enhance or even create the environment in the room.
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You are only singing to the Lord.
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Don't forget that. And I believe He is well pleased
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with our worship here in our church.
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I believe that with all my heart.
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I believe that He's well pleased when you come in and you don't
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want to sing at all, so you sing in your heart.
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You're just making melody in your heart to the Lord.
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Why? Because you're down.
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Maybe you're even embarrassed right now, you know?
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And I don't, I just don't sing. I don't sing here, I don't sing
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there. I don't sing in the shower.
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I do not sing. I will never sing and I would
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just challenge you. Say that out loud.
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Send me an e-mail and tell me you'll never.
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I love to see the nevers in life where the Lord will melt your
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heart and they'll be coming a day where your heart is so in
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tune with the Lord that you can't help but sing because of
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his faithfulness. So it's OK.
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Let the Lord draw out from you. It's good that you're in the
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atmosphere. Other people are singing.
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We're singing for you right now. We're singing for you.
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You can lean on us during this time.
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You know, I think of, I think at the times where you're singing,
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you don't know the words and you're just making them up.
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The Lord's well pleased with that.
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Or the times where you're just humming along and you go, well,
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you know, I'm not really singing.
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No, you're, you're singing just fine.
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You're making a joyful noise under the Lord.
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He's well pleased with that. I think of the time of when
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you're criticizing the lyrics, He's not well pleased with that.
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No, just kidding. You know, you're just like, I
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don't like this song. Well, you know what the Lord's
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like, you know, the song's not for you, it's for me.
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Have you ever thought of that? I don't like this song.
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Well, who said the song was for you to begin with?
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The song is for the Lord. And he's well pleased with these
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songs. They're they're vetted and
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prayed over or careful to make sure the lyrics honor God.
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There's even debate today on the lyrics of songs.
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Well, you know, that's just an emotional song.
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Well, wait a minute, aren't we emotional?
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Give me an Amen if you're emotional.
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I mean, aren't we emotional? Isn't Isn't worship of God going
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to elicit some kind of emotion? Well, you know, the song's all
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about us now. Nobody's singing songs around
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here. I'll tell you this right now,
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Nobody's singing songs. It's all about me, Lord.
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Nobody's singing songs like that.
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So you don't need to worry about that.
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It's all about you, Lord. Now in your heart, it might be
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all about me, but the Lord's going to deal with that.
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But we're not singing songs about me, however there may be
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in songs as the writer of the song was sitting down just
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thinking, you know what, I really have an expression of
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life to God right now. I want to write it down.
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This is my expression and we're reading it and we're reading the
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lyrics and singing the song. We go, man, I think that would
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resonate. Just sensing that the church,
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like Pastor Ian or Pastor Sean or even Henry, like I think the
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church is going through this right now, would be a really
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good song for us to respond to the Lord.
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Because I want you to notice also secondly, in verse one of
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chapter 15 #1 they sang to the Lord, but also #2 it comes after
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A then. Do you notice that?
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Then it starts right there. Then Moses and the children of
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Israel sang this song to the Lord.
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So notice that the worship began after A then worship of God.
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True worship of God is a spontaneous response of what God
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has already done. We're not trying to work
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anything up. We're not trying to stir anybody
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up. We've come into the sanctuary of
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God. We've set our hearts toward Him
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and we want to respond to who He is.
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Some of you, you're responding because he had a great day or he
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was faithful today, or you're responding because of something
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that the Lord is just. You're just responding.
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Some of you are responding to the presence of God, but some of
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the lyrics of the song are going to they're by faith.
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You're singing them by faith. You ever sing a song by faith?
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He's like, man, I'm not really experiencing that right now,
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Lord, but I want it. It's going to be all about you,
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Lord. Last week it's been all about
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me, but it's about all about you, Lord.
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You're our God and it's a ven. You want to look for the vens in
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your life. God gave me a scripture.
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I meant to share it before service, but I'll share it as a
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part of the message. Turn over.
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This is a scripture for someone today.
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Turn over to First Samuel Chapter 7 and you may just
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respond to this. This may be what you're
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responding to and you needed to put it into words.
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But Lord, the Lord was just really ministering to me in
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First Samuel Chapter 7, and it came back to me in our prayer
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time and it's First Samuel Chapter 7, verse 12.
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I'm praying about teaching this study again that I taught a
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couple years ago. But it's so good.
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It says in verse 12, then Samuel took a stone and he set it up
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between Miss Paw and Shen and he called its name Ebenezer, which
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means the stone of help. And then he says this thus far
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the Lord has helped us. Or another way of saying that
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is, look how far God has brought you.
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He's brought you this far. That's how you made it today.
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He's brought you this far. It hasn't been your devote life
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and your faithfulness and your obedience and your good works,
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although those are all great in response to the Lord.
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You know who's brought you this far?
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The Lord and you set up those Ebenezer stones along the way
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that are reminders that you go back and go, no, God brought me
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this far and I'm going to the next one.
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God brought me this far. I'm going to the next one.
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God brought me this far. And it's our pastor taught us,
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Pastor Chuck, he would say God hasn't brought you this far just
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to drop you that what he has begun in you.
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He is faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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And when we worship, we're responding.
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It's a response. It's a response.
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They're delivered. There's joy in the Lord.
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The third thing I want you to notice, and then we'll jump into
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the text itself. I want you to notice that this
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worship is a declaration of God's goodness.
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And you'll just see it throughout the rest of the song.
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There's a declaration, but there's also a like God, look
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what you've done. This is what we're experiencing,
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but you're so good. We're experiencing, You're so
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good. With that in mind, pick up in
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verse one. I will sing to the Lord, for he
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has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider, He is
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thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength in song,
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and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise
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him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him.
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The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name.
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Pharaoh's Chariots in his army he's cast into the sea.
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His chosen captains are also drowned in the Red Sea.
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The depths have covered them, and they sank to the bottom like
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a stone. Your right hand, oh Lord, has
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become glorious in power. Your right hand, oh Lord, has
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dashed the enemies in pieces, and in the greatness of your
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excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.
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You sent forth your wrath, which consumed them like stubble, and
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with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered
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together, the flood stood upright like a heap, and the
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depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
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The enemy said, I'll pursue, I'll overtake, I'll divide the
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spoil. My desire shall be satisfied on
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them, and I'll draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them.
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You blew with your wind. The sea covered them.
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They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
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Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods, Who is like you,
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glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.
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You stretched out your hand, and the earth swallowed them.
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Your mercy of lead forth, and you in mercy have led forth the
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people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your
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strength to your holy habitation.
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We've even sang songs that are derived right from here.
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As I'm reading it through, I'm reminded of some of the songs
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that we've sang throughout the years that come right from this
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text. But it's such an encouraging
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song. It's so encouraging as they're
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looking back on their present condition, extolling and
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worshipping God for all that He's done.
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What's encouraging and what's interesting is that in the
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Hebrew, this is both a song that looks backwards, but in some of
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the words in the Hebrew, there's a future tense attached to it.
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A future tense. Moses is singing it, but also
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this will be a song that's sung in the future.
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Let me show you go over to Revelation chapter 15.
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So there's a sense where Moses gets to look at it and sing this
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song in his own present condition, but there's also a
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prophetic part to it that he doesn't even know.
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He's not even sure yet what during the time of the great
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tribulation, when the glory of the Lord's ready to come from
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heaven to the earth, we find that there's going to be a time
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that we'll be singing the song of Moses, the glorious time.
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Notice it says in verse three of chapter 15, and they sing the
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song of Moses. They sing the song of Moses, the
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servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and
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marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are
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your ways, O King of the same, who shall not fear you, O Lord,
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and glorify your name. You alone are holy, for all the
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nations shall come before you. Your judgments have been
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manifested. These things I looked, and
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behold, the temple of the Tabernacle of the testimony in
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heaven was open. And on with Revelation 15.
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They're going to be a time in the future that this song is
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going to be sung. And the idea is because there's
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a greater exodus to come. So there's a prophetic word in
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this exodus. That's God saying, I'm showing
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you a pattern of deliverance. I want you to get this very
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early on in the Bible that I am a God that delivers, and I am a
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God that defends, and I am a God that shows himself faithful, and
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I am a God that you can rely upon.
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But also there's a greater exodus that's going to be
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experienced, that's happening in the future, a greater
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deliverance than what the children of Israel experienced.
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It'll be the deliverance of all God's people around the world, a
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deliverance from the kingdoms of this world.
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Do you ever get, you know, as of all the emotions and certainly
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they've been rising late in this later latest political realm,
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this latest generation, what's going on?
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And all the emotions that you have, you know, the angst, the
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frustration, the fears, all the emotions they have you ever had
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the emotion of anticipating the soon return of the Lord, not
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just God, please come, but the reality that he is coming and
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that God is going to deliver whoever's alive at the time of
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the rapture. He is going to deliver the men
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and women, the boys and girls at the time of the rapture from the
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kingdoms of this world. Don't you want to be delivered
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from the kingdoms of this world, from the political leaders of
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this world, from the nonsense of this world, from all the rules
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and all the just The Kingdom of this world will pass and be
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replaced with the Kingdom of God.
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And you're going to sing the song of Moses.
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You better learn it and you better be ready for it and you
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better start living it out. It's going to be a song that we
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have in the future. So I thought that was really
23:18
cool. Moses doesn't know this yet.
23:21
He's just singing, just writing song.
23:23
Miriam leading him in worship. He doesn't know this yet, which
23:27
also speaks to me. Just thinking about a life
23:29
lesson for us, right? It speaks to me is what you're
23:32
doing right now. What you're involved in right
23:33
now is for now and could be for the future.
23:37
It could be you don't know. You don't know what God's doing.
23:39
That's why you want to be faithful today.
23:41
You have a song to be written. Write that song because that's
23:44
how you are right now. But I wonder how God might use
23:47
it in the future. You, you need to make a phone
23:49
call. Make the phone call and reach
23:50
out and God uses it now. But how will God use it in the
23:52
future? You need to send that text
23:54
message. Be faithful, send the text
23:56
message. God could use it now, but who
23:58
knows, He might be moving you for now and in the future.
24:02
Imagine that what God wants to do with your life, how He wants
24:07
to use you and grow you and mature you, He wants to use your
24:12
gifts and your talents. He wants to see you not only
24:15
enjoy today, but be a blessing to the future.
24:19
And Moses doesn't have any idea that this will be the song sang
24:24
during the great at the great, great tribulation period.
24:28
In the middle, in the midst of the great tribulation period,
24:31
they're going to sing the song of Moses looking to the
24:34
deliverance from the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms of
24:39
our Lord. Notice again back, come back.
24:42
In Exodus 15, it says, the Lord is my strength.
24:48
He is my God. This is a reminder that when we
24:53
worship, we remember that it's relational.
24:57
Worship is not singing is not service is not before our time,
25:02
before we open up imperative. I invite you to be a part of
25:04
something really important to us, something that God has
25:07
entrusted to us that we need some special help for our
25:10
conference. This is something God has given
25:12
to us. So we have been faithful with it
25:14
and we believe he will provide all that's necessary for
25:17
something he led us to do. And I shared that with you and
25:21
in the response is if, if, if and when you step into serving,
25:25
it is not transactional. Even though you might feel like
25:28
you got to sign up, you got to show up.
25:30
It's not transactional, It's relational.
25:34
That becomes a worship of the Lord.
25:36
It's relational because God has touched your heart.
25:39
I mean, if you think about it, you may not think about the
25:41
fullness of it, but think about this.
25:42
I want to step away from song just for a second because it
25:45
happens in song too. But service, your service.
25:48
Like first of all, you're born again.
25:50
So God has brought you into the family of God.
25:52
You're adopted, and then he's filled you with this Holy
25:54
Spirit, some of you baptized by the Holy Spirit, and now you've
25:58
got the newness of life. You're a new creation in Christ.
26:01
Old things have passed away. You got new thoughts, new
26:03
habits, new direction. Everything about your life is
26:06
new. You make some progress, you
26:08
stumble, you have some victories, you have a few
26:10
failures along the way, but your life is under the Lord.
26:13
It's totally change. You're not living for the world
26:15
anymore, you're not partying anymore, you're not involved.
26:18
You're you're completely changed.
26:20
Not a perfect life, always looking to grow, but the Lord is
26:22
doing things. Why not Because of a bunch of
26:25
minor transactions. It's because God loves you.
26:30
You are out in the middle of the world doing your own thing and
26:34
you know, generally OK with it. You weren't too happy with the
26:38
reflexive sin, but you were generally OK with a life lived
26:41
apart from God. This is the way you were.
26:43
It's the way you were raised, the home you were in, whatever
26:45
it might be. You adapted yourself.
26:47
You learned how to cope with things.
26:49
And you know, maybe it got bad, maybe start drinking.
26:51
Maybe, you know, have a messed up home, you know, like it got
26:54
bad, but you, you learn how to live with it.
26:57
And in the middle of that, God opened your heart and your eyes
27:01
to a real love, I mean real love, sacrificial love, that
27:07
your creator God reached down in time from eternity into time to
27:13
open your eyes and your heart to him.
27:15
And you responded and everything started in relationship and
27:19
continues in relationship. So that when you're sitting in a
27:22
church now, so many years later or so many months later and
27:25
you're hearing your hearing you go, yeah, I want to give to God
27:28
was how what can I get back to him?
27:31
What can I get back? But if you only look at your
27:33
life as transactional, you'll hear a response, you'll hear an
27:36
invitation go, no, that's not for me.
27:39
How could you say that so quickly?
27:40
How do you even know? How do you know what the Lord
27:43
has for what? Why?
27:44
That's because I don't want to do it and I'm just not ready and
27:50
I don't. So your worship songs are still
27:52
it's all about me, Lord. That's where you're at right now
27:57
because it's all transactional. It's just so I'm going to do it.
28:00
What am I going to get back? I'm going to do it.
28:01
I'm going to get back. And what am I going?
28:03
And it's all about transaction. But that's not, that's not the
28:05
joy of minutes. And so song is like that.
28:07
OK, I'll do it. I'll just sit through the music
28:09
because that's part of my church service.
28:11
But I don't run over. It's all transactional.
28:13
You may have so quickly forgotten what God has done for
28:16
you and so you're not worshipping.
28:19
You may have so quickly forgotten the Ebenezer Stone.
28:21
The Ebenezer Ebenezer. How many stones?
28:23
Yeah. You just forgotten the
28:24
faithfulness of God, even if you don't have anything else since
28:28
the moment you were born again, which you do.
28:29
But let's just say you don't, I'll go.
28:31
You've forgotten that you were taken from darkness into light.
28:36
And it becomes just you know, I'm going to do what I want,
28:39
when I want, how I want. And that's not how you began.
28:41
And that's not God's will for you, the future.
28:46
And that's a miserable religious experience where the Lord God
28:50
has so much more. He's my God, and you can say
28:54
that just as much as I can. He's my God.
28:58
I worship my God who called me out of darkness.
29:02
I worship my God. And these songs, if you notice,
29:06
there's such great words of faith where songs, they inspire
29:13
us, they encourage us. True worship builds the faith
29:19
that builds the faith of the believer.
29:20
It's true that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
29:23
of God. But it's also true that when you
29:27
sing and you rehearse the goodness of God, your faith is
29:30
built. Some of you may say, well prove
29:34
that biblically. Pastor, I'm glad that you
29:36
challenged me to do such. I will.
29:38
When you read through the book of Psalms, which is the Bible's
29:42
song book, notice what it did to the author.
29:47
He starts out, you know, David so often will start out.
29:49
I am so it's so hard. I'm so tired.
29:53
I don't know what I'm going to do.
29:55
And then people are after me. Have so many enemies break their
29:59
teeth, Lord, That's how he starts many of his Psalms.
30:03
But by the time he ends, he's like, but Lord, you're so good,
30:06
You're so faithful. Don't break their teeth.
30:09
That's not in the Bible. But he changed his mind.
30:11
You know, it's like, don't break their teeth, Lord, Like I just
30:14
commit them to you. You do whatever you want, but as
30:17
his faith was built just by sitting down and writing at
30:21
writing it out the hymn book of the Bible worship never replaces
30:27
His word. You can't substitute a diet of
30:32
music for the digestion of his word, but you can add it to your
30:38
life. That's why I I'm so convinced
30:41
more and more every single year that for us and our little
30:44
church who's been given the stewardship of Grace FMI,
30:48
believe that Grace FM is absolutely essential for the
30:52
spiritual life of this city. That it was God's will that it,
30:56
that it'd be here, and it was God's will that we steward it.
30:58
Why? Because we place a great
31:00
emphasis upon the Word of God, but there's also worship on it.
31:04
There's also music in between the songs.
31:07
You might get a few little worship snippets in there all
31:09
day Saturday. In the landscape of YouTube and
31:13
the landscape of podcasts, in the landscape of all the
31:16
technology today that seemed to be gaining greater audiences.
31:21
And for good reason. There's still a place for that
31:25
little radio, radio in your car that you're just flipping
31:29
through the dial and some dudes on there and you're like, what
31:32
is this? And then you're like, oh man,
31:36
it's not some dude like God is speaking to me and God is
31:40
ministering to me. And through the teaching of the
31:43
Word, your faith is built up. Notice come back to Acts 15.
31:45
Now it says in verse 14, The people will hear and be afraid.
31:51
Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina or
31:54
Philistia, and some of your Bible say, then the chiefs of
31:58
Edom will be dismayed. The mighty men of Moab
32:00
trembling, will take hold of them, and all the inhabitants of
32:04
Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on
32:07
them. By the greatness of your arm
32:09
they'll be as still as a stone. Till your people Passover, O
32:12
Lord, till the people Passover, whom you have purchased, verse
32:16
17, you will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of
32:21
your inheritance, in the place of the Lord which you have made
32:27
for your dwelling, your sanctuary, O Lord, which your
32:29
hands have established, the Lord shall reign forever and ever.
32:34
For the horses of Pharaoh went with his Chariots and his
32:37
horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of
32:40
the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went
32:43
on dry land in the midst of the sea.
32:45
And notice Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron,
32:51
took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after
32:54
her with timbrels and with dances, And Miriam answered.
32:58
Sing to the Lord, for he is triumphed gloriously, and he is
33:02
the horse and its rider. He is thrown into the sea, and I
33:07
just. It begs, you know.
33:10
It remains to be said again that God loves true worship.
33:14
He takes great joy in the worship of His kids in every
33:18
form and fashion, singing and dancing under the Lord.
33:22
And you know, being, being in a place where you're triumphing
33:25
over and you go, wait a minute, that dancing.
33:27
I don't see dancing around Calvary Chapel.
33:29
I don't see that around here. Why aren't we dancing?
33:31
Well, why aren't we waving flags?
33:33
Why aren't we running laps in the sanctuary?
33:36
Why aren't we running up and down the aisles during song?
33:39
And that's a good question. I mean, we want to, we want to
33:42
remind you that in those outward activities, they have a tendency
33:47
to draw attention to the person doing them.
33:52
So you bring your flags to church.
33:53
And so I want to wave my flags. Well, why?
33:57
Oh, just because I want to wave my, I want to wave my flags up
34:00
on the stage. Well, why does it have to be on
34:02
the stage? Why can't it be in the parking
34:04
lot? Well, nobody will see me in the
34:06
parking lot. Exactly.
34:09
Why can't I run? Well, it's probably not wise for
34:11
you to be running around the sanctuary while we're all
34:13
singing in the dark. However, if only a few decide to
34:20
run laps or dance and it always has to be up at the stage, you
34:24
know it's always has to be up front.
34:26
Like you want to find yourself a quiet corner in the back and and
34:30
have an emotional time with the Lord, that's probably OK.
34:34
If you want to do a little dance in your chair back in the back,
34:37
that's probably OK, especially on a midweek Bible study.
34:41
But when you start to draw attention to yourself, who's
34:45
going to who are you going to give permission to tell you
34:49
that? It's like, hey bro, like it's
34:52
all about you. It's it's all about you wanting
34:56
to be seen in your brand new flags you just bought or you
34:58
know, you want to bring your your tambourine and you want to
35:04
lead worship from the front row. No, tambourines belong outside
35:11
and just the services live in your car.
35:13
Play your tambourine in your car.
35:15
And to which some would say, well, it's not the same.
35:17
We should be able. We should have the freedom.
35:19
Yeah. Come on.
35:21
You got to really examine your heart.
35:24
Why do you want to do that? Is it really worship of the
35:27
Lord? Yeah, it's really worse.
35:28
Then go ahead and tell me when you've done it for a year in the
35:31
car and maybe we'll consider. No, pastor, I don't like this
35:35
church. You're so restrictive.
35:37
Nobody's restricted you. Play your tambourine, play both
35:41
your tambourines in the car and have your kids in the back with
35:43
the flags, whatever you want to do.
35:45
But to bring it here, to draw attention to yourself, we won't
35:48
allow that. We won't allow it.
35:51
It just won't be good. It won't be good for the flock
35:53
because you have to remember when you come together for
35:56
corporate worship, God values. He says it in his Word.
35:59
He values, He likes things done decently in an order.
36:03
That's what the Bible says. That's his heart.
36:06
It's desirous so that there's decency in an order.
36:08
And different people have different definitions of that
36:11
for sure. But I want you to examine your
36:13
heart in a service setting. When everyone's here together,
36:18
things can get out of control very quickly.
36:20
People's attention would be diverted away from Jesus.
36:23
And so our goal is to have your attention focused upon the Lord
36:27
to the best of our ability. But there is great freedom here.
36:31
If you want to find a place in the corner and we'll just see
36:34
what the Lord does, fine. Go for it.
36:36
I mean, don't. Not with the tambourine.
36:37
Don't misunderstand me. You're listening on the radio,
36:39
honey. You will not believe it.
36:41
Call our friends. We found the tambourine.
36:43
No, no, no, not here. We have a tambourine detector at
36:47
the doors. You know, it's like, can you go
36:50
back, please, Sir? Like, no.
36:52
Yeah, like, no, no, no, no. We've got the worship team is
36:54
fine here. They're great.
36:56
It's wonderful. But you can raise your hands
36:58
here. You can stand here.
37:00
You can find yourself in a place.
37:02
If you want to move and you want to sway, you have opportunity
37:05
there. There's a whole space open.
37:07
If here you want to kneel to the Lord, you want to lay face down
37:10
to the Lord, you want to express yourself, There is great
37:13
freedom. Just understand the line that
37:15
we, we try to draw the best of our ability is we won't allow
37:18
people to draw attention to themselves because even coming
37:22
up to the front to kneel before the Lord, like some people won't
37:25
come because they're so they're, they're so, you know, thinking
37:29
of themselves, they're so self-conscious.
37:32
You know, if I do that, what will people think?
37:34
And I say, just get over that and use it if you can.
37:36
And the Lord would have you, But other people, you may make the
37:39
coming up the way and you make it a big deal.
37:41
And you're hopping up and it's like, oh, look, oh, look at
37:44
brother so and so is going up. You don't want people to see
37:46
brother so and so you want people to see the Lord, and
37:50
that's how we're trying to disciple you to the best of our
37:52
ability. But you see this, this was a
37:54
very emotional time, a really opportune time.
37:58
And Miriam had the authority in verse 30 to take out the
38:02
temporal in her hand, and then the women followed her and it
38:05
was just a special occasion. So it was really cool and really
38:08
great. Now I'm going to probably have
38:14
to skip the last half of this section because I want to take a
38:18
moment and I want to speak to. So we'll stop in verse 21 today
38:23
because I want to address this. This phrase or the whole Psalm
38:28
here, or the whole song here is kind of built upon verse two and
38:33
three. This is the theme.
38:36
The Lord is my strength and my song.
38:38
He's become my salvation. He's my God.
38:41
I will praise Him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him.
38:45
The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name.
38:51
Now these people are rejoicing because they thought they were
38:56
dead. Remember that moment they
39:01
thought they were done? They looked forward.
39:04
Red Sea look to either way to the left.
39:07
They have nowhere to go. And behind them is the marching
39:10
army of Egypt, ready to kill them or return them to Egypt.
39:17
They thought they were done and dead.
39:20
Instead, their enemies have perished.
39:24
That's what has inspired this song.
39:27
They thought they were done, but God came through.
39:30
Therefore, Moses speaks of and speaks of God as a man of war.
39:34
Again, this is an anthropomorphism.
39:36
It's a describing an eternal God in temporary terms.
39:40
He's ascribing human, human terms to God so that we can
39:44
understand. So he's God is not literally a
39:46
man. He's referred to as a man of
39:48
war. Now I realized that in these
39:50
times in which we live and I, I, I hadn't heard it for a while,
39:53
but it's so weird, man. Our phones listen to us.
39:56
They literally listen to us because I, I had this thing pop
40:00
up on my Instagram this week as I was putting this study
40:03
together of somebody actually saying the exact same.
40:06
I haven't heard it in so long. And they were saying how we're
40:11
just not going to sing songs about God being a man of war or
40:14
all these violent words and songs because we just don't
40:17
think God is like that. And I'm like, wow, unbelievable.
40:25
And now that everybody, all your phones are listening to me,
40:27
you're going to all get that on your algorithm right now.
40:31
And that is a popular view in very progressive churches.
40:36
Churches that do not believe in a literal interpretation of the
40:40
Bible, churches that don't believe in the relevance of the
40:44
Old Testament today, and churches that like to do
40:47
whatever they want with the Bible instead of letting the
40:51
Bible do whatever God wants in your life.
40:53
There's a big difference. Add to that a very large part of
40:58
the so-called church, whether the real church or not.
41:00
I'll leave it unto the Lord that we might refer to as very
41:03
liberal in their theology who see everything through the lens
41:08
of pacifism and never violence and never God is Jesus is very
41:15
pacifist. And you know when they say turn
41:18
the other cheek, he they think turn the other cheek.
41:21
It's actually, you know, in those theologies, it's almost
41:24
always everyone else has to turn the other cheek.
41:26
But I'll defend myself. But that never comes out that
41:28
way. But that's that theology that
41:30
they impose upon the scriptures. But church, I want you to
41:34
understand, you have to abandon the Bible in order to come to
41:38
that conclusion. You have to abandon the Bible.
41:43
I mean, churches today they've they've become so you know, some
41:46
denominations today they've they've even in their hymnals of
41:49
the old standards, the old hymns, they've stripped some of
41:52
their hymns from with of songs like onward, Christian soldier.
41:56
They don't sing it anymore. It's like, no, no, no, that's
42:00
nothing like war, nothing to enhance war but church.
42:03
We need to know our Bibles, and this is the value, whether you
42:08
realize it yet or not, you will soon enough.
42:10
But this is the value of being in a church that will teach the
42:13
Bible verse by verse, by verse, by verse, by verse all the way
42:17
through. This one is very important.
42:20
I just want you to turn back a page or two to chapter 14.
42:25
We have already studied this. So someone that would come to
42:27
you and go, no, no, God's not into war.
42:29
He's not in a man of war. You can't say that that's not
42:31
relevant anymore. No, no, no, you have to look
42:34
back and see what the promise of God was.
42:37
How did God describe himself? Well, it says right here in
42:40
chapter 14 verse 14, the Lord will fight for you.
42:47
And so now God has fought for them.
42:51
And the song in response is God is a man of war.
42:56
You have to understand that Pharaoh not only had an army,
43:00
but he had like special forces. He had implements of what he
43:04
had. Chariots are the modern day
43:05
tanks and modern day air warfare would be like the chariot of the
43:09
day. The most advanced technology of
43:12
war available to man came after the children of Israel.
43:16
The children of Israel had nothing.
43:19
They had a lot of gold and a lot of things that they took that
43:22
God gave them from from the Egyptians so that they could
43:25
start their new life. But they didn't have weapons,
43:28
weapons of war. Where they they were, they were
43:30
slaves. They weren't organized that way.
43:33
They had no general, they had no Chariots, they had no weapons of
43:37
war. Moses was a prophet.
43:40
He wasn't a general. But Moses was a spokesperson for
43:45
God. So therefore, if this was a
43:50
battle against from army against army, and Israel had no army,
43:58
God was their army. I want you to let that sink in.
44:06
God was their protector and God was their defender.
44:11
Again, we don't have time to deep into it, but one of God's
44:14
names that's mentioned 285 times in the Old Testament is the Lord
44:21
of hosts. We're the Lord of armies, the
44:27
Lord of hosts. And then when you Fast forward
44:34
in the New Covenant, how does God describe our everyday life?
44:38
Our everyday life as a spiritual war?
44:42
Ephesians chapter 6, except that God wants us to understand that
44:47
the spiritual war we're engaged in is not physical, it's
44:50
spiritual. The weapons of our warfare are
44:53
not carnal. They're mighty and God.
44:58
So still to this day, old Covenant, new Covenant, you
45:04
don't have an army, and I don't have an army in my life.
45:06
Who's your army? God?
45:10
I wonder who needs to hear that today?
45:13
You're seeking out to defend yourself and to fight all the
45:16
battles, and you feel like you got to fight every battle that
45:18
comes your way. You're just a fighter.
45:21
I'm going to fight. But God is your army.
45:24
You can trust him, you, you can lean into him.
45:27
He's your defender. That's how you sing this song.
45:30
When God has come through, when he's been your protector, when
45:34
you held your tongue, when you went to your prayer closet, when
45:40
you just committed, You know that situation.
45:41
You just know, Lord, you're just going to have to deal with them.
45:43
You're just going to have to deal with them.
45:45
I can't deal with them. Every time I talk to him, he
45:48
upsets me, he stirs. I just going to have to deal
45:49
with him. Lord, you're just going to take
45:51
care of you got to take care of her.
45:54
And you see the victory today, the desire today that what God
45:57
is doing today is, is the victory that's won today is
46:01
somebody won over to him because we're not praying that the
46:05
children of Israel were just praying to live.
46:07
They weren't asking for the armies to be destroyed.
46:10
They just wanted to live. That's it.
46:14
And God said, I'll take care of you.
46:15
I'll get you where you need to go.
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I'll fight your battles, I'll defend you, I'll protect you.
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And today we are engaged in a battle and a struggle for the
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destiny of our futures, of what God wants to do.
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It's a battle Royale, but it's not flesh and blood.
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We're at war with principalities and powers, and the Lord is our
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protector. And here's what I have found.
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Maybe you can relate. But as I commit these things to
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the Lord in my life, a couple things happen.
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Number one, people around me, they want me to fight.
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That's their advice. If I was you, I all right.
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And so that puts pressure, puts pressure on us.
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They want me to fight because that's what they would do.
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But it's not their battle. It's my battle.
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And so you feel that pressure. Secondly, second thing I find
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out in my life when I'm fighting these battles is I want to
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fight. It's not just them I want to
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fight because in my mind, I think that if I did this and
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this and said this and put this, and if everybody knew the whole
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story and they're, I mean, this is a real example.
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I, I really, if everybody knew the whole story, everybody would
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be on my side. But my story, my whole story of
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my life is not for everybody to know.
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God knows, God knows. And so he'll take care of it,
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even though at times I want to fight.
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And the third thing that I find that happens when God reminds me
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of the spiritual warfare is that I get tired of waiting.
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I just get very impatient because I mean, after all, if I
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can get through this battle, I'll get to the next one, get to
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the next one, and we'll take more ground for the Lord.
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But with the children of Israel, I just want you to know He's
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ready to give them the whole land and He's going to take care
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of them. And today, your destiny, your
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future, what's up ahead for you. The promised land is a type and
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a picture of what's to come for you, the promises of God.
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God is ready to give them all to you.
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You'll get it eventually. All of us will get the
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inheritance of God in his fullness.
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But church, you got to let him fight your battles.
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Now, this isn't a general statement for every situation
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and every because you know you'll interpret it and go, oh,
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every. So you're just going to take
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this to the Lord and pray? Sometimes it's important to
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speak up. Sometimes it's important to
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stand your ground. I'm not speaking to every single
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situation that everyone's going through.
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Just generally, if you trust the Lord as your protector, He will
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lead and guide you in the battle to make the right decisions of
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when to speak, when to stay silent, when to turn left, when
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to turn right, when to stand still and see this power and the
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victory of the Lord. Stand still, Move forward.
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He'll tell you you can trust Him, you can trust him, and
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we'll get the rest of the chapter when we get to the
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waters of Mara. The first thing that the
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children of Israel deal with is bitterness.
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You want to know why do you have to come to the next Bible study?
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So, Lord, we thank you for the songs that you give us and the
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teams that lead us and your word that speaks to us.
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We, we want to be the women of war.
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We want to be the men of war sometimes and you're just
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calling us to yourself, reminding us of your
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faithfulness that you are a protector, You are our defender
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and you'll lead and guide and guard and protect us, Lord.
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And so give us strength, wisdom, give us the beauty of of trust
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and peace, faith and peace, Lord, and we'll sing our songs
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to you, these beautiful, wonderful songs that you have
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given to your church in Jesus name.
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Amen. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer, call us at 87730 grace
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that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
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integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.