Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #10202 - Don’t Act Out In Your Flesh - Exodus 2

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#10202 - Don’t Act Out In Your Flesh - Exodus 2 · 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 a
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bounding 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 here's Pastor Ed to take us
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into our study. Amen.
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Open your Bibles. Exodus chapter 2 is where we
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are. Exodus chapter 2 and I've
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entitled our Bible study. Don't act out in your flesh.
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It's just a word, even in the title.
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Don't act out in your flesh, especially in difficult times.
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As we drop into Exodus Chapter 2, we've learned that the nation
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of Israel is in the middle of a very difficult time in their
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history. They're living under heavy,
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bitter bondage at the hands of the Egyptians.
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What started out so well with favour upon Joseph and the
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family coming, starting with 70 people to live in the the
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beautiful, most lush part of Egypt, has not turned out very
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well. They need deliverance.
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And isn't that like that's that's like our life so much.
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Where we have these seasons or things are going well.
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We have these seasons maybe even starting out well, but then we
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come to a place where, man, we just need deliverance.
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We need to be let out. We need so often an exodus in
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our lives, and the book of Exodus is going to remind us of
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that. The testimony of your life could
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very well be chapter one in verse 12.
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You just don't know it yet. You're just not embracing it
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yet. But this could be the testimony
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in chapter one, verse 12. But the more they afflicted
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them, the more they multiplied and grew.
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And God is developing that in your life, leading you from
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glory to glory and strength to strength.
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Or like it says in Second Corinthians in chapter 3, verse
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18 it says But we all with an unveiled face, beholding as in a
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mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same
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image from glory to glory. Just as by the Spirit of the
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Lord he'll pick up with me in verse one of chapter 2.
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And a man of the House of Levi went and took as wife a daughter
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of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore
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a son, and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid
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him three months. Why did she hide him three
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months? The edict was to throw all the
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born male babies into the river, and she sees she loves her
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child. You know, seeing that he's
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beautiful is not merely a statement about his what way he
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looks. It's that there's favor upon
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him. There's something she sees in
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her son, there's a favorable hand of God upon him, and she's
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not about to throw him in the river to die.
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We know, according to chapter 6 in verse 20, that Mom's name is
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Jacobed and she was a woman of deep, abiding faith.
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She saw so much potential in her child, so much that God wanted
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to do. She had a vision for his life.
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We're going to see that lived out.
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She's willing to put her own life on the line for her child,
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which is a maternal instinct, but it's also a gift from God
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that no greater love is anyone than this than to lay down his
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life for a friend. And here she demonstrates the
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love of a mom, a very unique love that mom has.
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Of course, as parents we love our children, but there's a
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uniqueness that God has built in to moms, and she had a hope for
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this baby. What did she choose to do?
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She chose, like the midwives, to not obey the edict, to kill her,
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to kill her child, and she took her chances.
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She trusted the Lord instead of fearing man.
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Which although the consequences or difficulties may arise from
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that, you will always benefit when you choose to obey God and
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not fear. Man doesn't mean every problem
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is going to go away. It's like, well, you know, I
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obeyed God. I did everything right, which,
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you know, there's a couple things about that.
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Number one, you can never do everything right.
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That's not possible. But #2, the results of your
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decisions are in the hands of the Lord.
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You cast the lot, the Proverbs says, But every decision is from
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the Lord and it's all drawing us these things in our lives to
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trust Him. So Jacobet has this vision.
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Parents, it's just a good reminder that you need to pray
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for your kids and pray for what's God's doing in their
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lives. Your time and with with your
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kids in prayer. Your time over your kids in
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prayer, your time with your kids in the word.
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Your time over your kids in the Word.
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Taking communion together, discipling them along the way.
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It will pay off. It will pay off.
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You study the Word and you pass it on to your kids.
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You ask God to give you insight for your kids, for your
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grandchildren, a vision for their lives to see greatness.
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Or like here she says that she saw he was a beautiful child,
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not just merely looks, but there was something special about this
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kid that she could see before he ever grew up, before his story
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is ever told. God wants us to give answers to
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life's questions to our kids, to encourage them, not as the world
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does. There's so much emphasis placed
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upon self esteem in the world today that it's LED parents to
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lie to their kids. And it's not a dishonesty that
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God is calling you with your kids, but a wisdom that he get
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that he gives. Like for example, if you tell
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your kids you can do anything you want, that's just not true.
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You can't tell that to your kids.
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They can't. You can be anything that you
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want. That's just not true.
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You can't be anything that you want.
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Their God has a plan and a purpose for your kids lives.
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Now you may be trying to tell your kids and encourage them to
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strive for their desires and their dreams and you may be
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trying to tell your kids that they can face adversity, but
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that's what you should tell them that you can face adversity that
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you can. But when you see in your kids
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you want to fan the flame of what God is doing in their
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lives. You want to encourage them what
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God has given to you for them. You you want to see.
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You want to encourage them to take chances, to step out in
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faith, certainly to discover and to see what God has.
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But it's not to inflate their self esteem.
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It is to teach them how to trust God with their lives.
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And in faith in God you will have an esteem that you go.
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You know what? I've been created in the image
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of God. There's something special about
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me. I mean, Can you imagine if Moses
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ever sat around and go? You will not believe what my mom
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did to me. You will not believe she put me
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and she made this little ark. And we're going to see it in a
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moment. Drop me into it and then floated
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me down the river. What?
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But then you would have to hear the rest of the story.
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That's how I tell it. To get you all worked up and go
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yeah, but you don't understand. There was a death threat upon my
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life as a baby. What did you do as a baby that
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required a death threat? Like, you know, like what's
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happened and you won't put. And what happens when you share
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that story? When you share that story, who
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gets all the glory? Not Mom, although she was
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admirable and not Moses, because he was just a baby and not Dad.
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He's not even mentioned here. Who gets all the glory?
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God, for the great things he has done.
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And you're not teaching your kids to go, you know, look what
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I have done. Although it's admirable to say,
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look, look what I've done. Look what I've Look what God has
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led me to. Look what he's doing in my life.
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Listen, parents, parents, listen.
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It's so important that you get your kids connected to the Lord
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as as young as possible. You go like right now.
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My kids like 60 years old. It's never too late.
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They can understand a lot more 60 years old now.
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But at the same time, you know, praying over your child in the
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womb and and playing music right on the womb and praying and
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bringing them to the church. You know, some of these kids
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leap at my voice. You know why?
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Because they've been sitting in here for nine months before they
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ever came out. And you can see it.
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You can see they know my voice because they'd sit under the
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Bible studies for 45 minutes every week.
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Every week it's like I'm hungry. I'm hungry and Mom says I'm
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listening and it's amazing. You know, you want to lead your
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kids. I know there's a lot of warfare
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for the kids. I know the world is so upside
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down and but you know, it's the home church.
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It's the home where kids are formed.
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It's the home. It's the home.
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You know where it's at. It's the home.
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It's not even the church. We're a supplement.
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The Church of Jesus Christ is to create an environment so that
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you as parents will be so connected to God that you
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disciple your kids. You know where at home.
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But it's not just at home, it's on the way.
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That's what Deuteronomy says. The mandate in Deuteronomy is
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parents. Make sure God is your part is
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the wholeness of your life. Talk about him on the way.
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Make sure that he is all you're All in all not allowing these
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other things that knowing that you're going to one day, you're
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going to have to maybe not at 3 months, but you're going to have
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to launch your kids off. That's scary and that's hard.
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But we trust the Lord. We trust them when they're just
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a few weeks, and we few months and a few years, because they
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belonged to the Lord. Notice verse three, it says.
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But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of
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bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the
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child in it, laid it in the reeds by the river's bank, and
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his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him.
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After a few months, they couldn't hide him anymore.
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Most likely his lungs are developing and he's screaming
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and crying and being what babies do, and they couldn't hide him
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anymore. And what is she supposed to do?
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Should she yield to Pharaoh and put him in the river?
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Well, she ended up kind of sort of obeying Pharaoh in some
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degree. She did end up putting her son
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in the river, except that she prepared a little boat for him
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and hit him in the reeds. And it's interesting, you know,
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the if you like to write in your Bibles right there next to verse
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three, I just want you to write the word faith.
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I think in every season of our lives, those of us that have
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have the privilege of being parents.
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We've had to come to a faith moment with our kids.
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Sometimes it's in the pregnancy, sometimes it's in the, you know,
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PEDs, ICU. Sometimes it's a catastrophe,
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sometimes it's a difficulty. Sometimes it's college.
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But you can see that faith is built upon faith.
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And Jacob Bed trusted God. What do you call putting your
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baby in a box that you built and put pitch around it and put him
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in the river and leave? What do you call that?
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Well, you know what the world calls that out of your mind.
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What are you thinking? Wait, listen and listen.
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You know, the world calls it a lot of things, but this is what
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God calls it, faith. She, like Hannah, trusted her
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kid to the Lord, and she lived that way by faith.
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And I'm sure looking at this, it's been very challenging.
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She committed Moses to God. She's trusting God to direct
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that river and take care of her son.
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She doesn't know what's going to happen.
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It's worth reminding us as we're reading through the Scripture.
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She doesn't know the future of her baby.
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She has no idea what's going to happen.
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But she senses it. She sees it, but she doesn't
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know. She gets this man.
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There's something special about this guy and the time that he
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was born instead of, you know, sometimes we look around.
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I can't believe it. Why couldn't I have a son
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earlier? I can't believe he's born right
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now. I hear parents, like, right now
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are not wanting to have children because look at the world.
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Look at the world. Look at the world.
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And there's like, well, what does God want you to do?
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Stop looking at the world and look to the Lord.
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He'll give you wisdom. Because I just don't want to
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bring up a child in this. I mean, I can respect that.
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I I don't. I'm, I'm not in your shoes.
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OK, so I'm not speaking on your behalf.
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But what does God want? That's the real question.
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Does God want you to step in and raise a child for such a time as
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this? I mean, is it in your womb, the
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next Moses? Who knows?
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Who knows what God has in store? That's why we advocate for life,
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don't we? We advocate for life.
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Life begins in the womb and at conception.
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It begins very early on and we advocate for life.
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Every life matters, every life. That's our heart's desire.
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And you don't know what God's going to do through your kids,
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even as we pray, you know, for prodigals and such like, it's
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super hard season, but we pray for them, right?
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Because prodigals come home. We just want him to come home.
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All of your prodigals, I want him to come home.
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I want you to have the desire of your heart.
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I want them to be rescued from their sin.
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I want them to reconcile. That's our desire.
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Pray for your kids. Step out on faith for your kids.
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And in a very real way Jacob Bed did obey Pharaoh to throw the
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baby boy in the river. She just found a unique way to
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both honour God and obey Pharaoh to some degree.
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Verse five. Then the daughter of Pharaoh
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came down to wash herself at the river, which would have been
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customary, and her maidens walked along the Riverside.
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And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to
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get it. And when she had opened it she
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saw the child and behold, the baby wept.
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So she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews
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children, can you see the hand of God?
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God makes sure he wants us to understand that his hand is all
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over this. It's hard for you to see that
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right now in your own life, isn't it?
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I could see it in Moses eye but I don't see it in mine.
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I can see now looking back, the more they were afflicted, the
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more they multiply. But I just don't see that in my
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life right now. And that's a challenge for us
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because of what you don't see. It's challenging you to live by
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faith, but you see faith always precedes what you see.
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Otherwise it wouldn't be faith. Jacob Bed started in faith and
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now we get to see this is a story of faith.
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How do we know this is faith? Not just because we're labeling
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it, not just because we're looking at it.
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That's what Hebrews Chapter 11 says.
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Hebrews 11 says this happened by faith.
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It was one of the Hall of Faith stories.
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Moses. He gets a lot of attention in
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Hebrews 11. We know it's faith.
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We're not just making it up or trying to read into it or trying
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to apply some principle to it. The Bible is very clear and we
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can see the hand of God all in this.
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In Moses life, that's the thing that troubles us.
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The thing that troubles us today is we have such a hard time
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seeing God's hand in the present tense so we can see it in the
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past tense, and we can even have hope for it in the future tense.
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But right now, with what you brought in the room, or what
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you've been dealing with today, or what the last week has been,
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or what you need courage for, or what you need hoopomone for,
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that's a different story. It undermines our faith.
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We start out in faith, but like Paul warned us in Galatians, say
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don't begin in the Spirit and then perfect in the flesh.
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Don't do it. Don't do it.
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It'll ruin everything. Your flesh.
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You can't please God in the flesh.
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Turn over to Romans. Let me show you this.
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So this is in my just in my DeVos this morning turn over to
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Romans. I want to say it's about chapter
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6 or so. Let me get to it with you.
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You know, we already know in Hebrews that we were taught that
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it's impossible to please God without faith.
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But here in Romans, it's somewhere in Romans.
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I was reading on my iPad. So I don't know where which one
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it is. I even looked it up.
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So someone if I you find it before me, just yell it out at
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me. Even on the radio.
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I can't hear you. But it's good for you to get it
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out and yell or in your kitchen. I want to find it.
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But you got to read it because this you got to mark this one.
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Maybe you already have it marked, but it says that when
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you're in the flesh you can't please God.
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How's that? Is that clear enough for you?
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When you're in the flesh, you can't please God.
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And it's in there. So you can find it somewhere in
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Romans in the beginning. What is it?
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Romans 8? What?
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Well, thank you very much. I will find it here.
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I'm just going to find it on my iPad.
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So while I'm looking, you guys 813, no 812, no 81888.
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That's it. Thank you.
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And you guys are listening right now on the radio.
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Go. What kind of pastor is that?
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Yeah, you make up your own mind. Thank you. 88 and all the other
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numbers that I either heard or just said out loud.
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I don't know. It's hard to hear up there.
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OK, Romans 88, you ready? So then those who are in the
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flesh cannot please God. Isn't that powerful?
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We know the wrath of man doesn't produce the righteousness of
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God. We know without faith it's
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impossible to please God. We know that the flesh doesn't
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please God, but here it is. If you're in the flesh, you're
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not going to please God. We see an example of this right
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here in Exodus chapter 2. But for the sake of who we are
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and where we are now, just know that your flesh doesn't please
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God and neither can we please God.
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That's our problem. The present tense difficulties,
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they they break up our equilibrium and then our natural
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response is to try to solve the problem in the flesh.
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And then it gets worse. Then it gets worse.
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And I got to figure this out. And what about this?
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And what if this happens and I needed this, and this is what I
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want and never wants you to go. God, this my life is yours.
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What? What happened to me?
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And can't you hear? Can't you hear heaven say you're
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in the flesh? No, no, no, no, I'm not.
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No, I'm not. I'm trying to figure it out.
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I'm here. I'm crying to you.
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Yes. Listen to me.
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You're in the flesh. No, no, no, no, I'm not.
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I'm going to. And you just keep freaking out
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and freaking out and freaking out and freaking out, even with
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your prayer life until you finally surrender like, oh Lord,
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I've been in the flesh. You know, you could say it now
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or you can say it in a month from now, but you're going to
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say it. It's going to come.
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Those who are in the flesh can't please God.
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Pharaoh's daughter sees baby Moses, and it's just
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interesting. We read this and we're smiling
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and it's kind of there's a lightness in the room right now.
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But just take a deep breath for a second as a mom under the
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edict, pregnant, ready to give birth, full term, and there's an
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edict in the country that you live in.
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And it's happened to your friends, and it's happened to
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your neighbors. And in our contacts, it's all
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over the news, it's all over social media, It's all the
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warnings that the government is going to kill your baby if it's
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a boy. She has to live with that.
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And I wonder what the anticipation must have been
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leading up to the delivery. Boy or girl?
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Boy or girl? What's going to happen?
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We don't know. And she goes through, as many of
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you ladies know, and I know nothing of the weight of Labor.
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Maybe it was a long one. Maybe it was a hard one.
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You got the midwives. They're going, it's going to be
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OK. It's going to be OK.
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And you got all this going. But then you, you have the
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delivery of a boy and your heart sinks.
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What am I going to do? What am I supposed to do?
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How can I? And then you hide him.
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OK, that's what we'll do. We'll hide him.
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But then he gets too loud or too rambunctious as the baby that he
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is. You know, there's a special
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anointing on his life, something you just see in him.
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It's not like God spoke it to you, But you've got that
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internal maternal instinct, like there's something special.
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God's going to do something through this kid.
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There's no way I can listen to Pharaoh.
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There's just no way. I think I'll build an ark.
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Where did she get that idea to begin with?
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An ark? She knows about Noah.
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She knows how God saves. She knows, as we know today,
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that that ark represented Jesus Christ, that the only way to be
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saved from the worldwide flood was to beware in the ark, in the
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ark with the door fastened and shut.
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And So what does she do? Says, well, you know what?
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I know what Noah did. I think I'll build myself, build
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my little. I only want MO.
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I just want my baby saved. I'll build him a Little Rock.
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I'll build him a little arc. I'll cover it up, make it so it
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can float, Make sure that he's unseen.
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I'll just put it over there and so I can decide.
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But I'll probably never see him again.
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Oh, she knows the true story of Joseph too, doesn't she?
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Or Joseph was gone for all those years, Jacob thinking so.
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She doesn't know what's going to happen.
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She just knows she's probably never going to see him again.
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Or maybe she will. And that fuels faith, right?
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You can be like if you are the pessimist in the room tonight,
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You can think of the worst, the worst, the worst.
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But then there's somebody in your life.
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But maybe not. That fuels faith.
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All your pessimism's not fueling any faith.
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But then God sends somebody here.
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But wait a minute. Maybe God, maybe this.
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Do you remember this scripture? Let's go to church.
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Let's sing a song together. Like let's go get some coffee
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and talk about that fuels faith. And so here she is, perhaps in
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her mind, remembering the things that she was discipled with.
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And she remembers Noah and she remembers Jacob and she
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remembers Joseph. For goodness sake, she's in
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Egypt because of Joseph faithfulness.
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And yet she steps in and says, this is my son's best shot, but
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it's not without emotion. It's not like she went home and
23:09
said, oh, everything's fine. She had to live with this every
23:11
day, every day. And don't you just know that God
23:17
knows that? Can you picture Jacob Ed there
23:21
with her final goodbye to her son?
23:25
Like thinking I'm not going to see him ever again.
23:27
Kissing him and putting the lid on and he's got tears in her
23:30
eyes. Maybe convulsively crying, maybe
23:32
holding it in so nobody sees so she can get back home.
23:35
And there she is, praying from her heart.
23:40
Lord, somebody find my baby. Give him life.
23:44
Lord, it's not his fault. I trust you with my life.
23:52
And you know that prayer. If she only knew the answer, If
23:54
she only knew the rest of Exodus, she would have went home
23:58
and throw a party. You won't believe what God's
24:00
going to do through my son, but she doesn't have all that.
24:03
Isn't that your life? Different circumstances, same
24:08
story. Pessimism, faith, fear, anxiety.
24:15
I remember what God says. But, you know, that's Noah.
24:18
Oh, you know, And then you might have gone through the, the
24:20
college system here and they've undermined Noah like it's no big
24:23
deal. And don't pay attention to
24:24
Genesis. It's all just myth.
24:26
Even though Peter warned us there's going to be people that
24:29
call the Bible mythology. Don't you believe them?
24:31
But, you know, you kind of believe it.
24:32
Yeah, I don't think so. I don't really think God could
24:34
do it all in seven days. I don't really think if we mix a
24:37
little sign and it's all jacking up your faith, you're so smart
24:43
that you don't trust God anymore.
24:47
You don't. Look, let a story, a true story
24:49
of Noah inspire you. That no matter the worst
24:53
circumstance that you do not know the outcome.
24:56
You don't let the word of God inspire you just to trust God in
24:59
the moment. I'm telling you, church, whether
25:01
you admitted it right now or not, we are all in that place
25:05
from time to time. And that's where faith grows
25:09
like tests us and we'd grow this situation and we grow.
25:13
And you know, we may not always respond the right way, but we
25:16
can because God has taken us where from glory to glory.
25:22
Yeah, so good. So notice what I mean.
25:25
God's hands in all this. Notice verse seven.
25:27
Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go
25:29
and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may
25:32
nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to
25:35
her go so the maiden and went and called who?
25:39
Jacob. Bed.
25:41
Tell me God is not in this. I mean, this is an Amen moment.
25:45
What you want me to go get somebody to take care of?
25:47
Yeah, go get someone. And he went to her mom.
25:50
They're his mom. I should say verse 9.
25:52
Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and
25:54
nurse him for me, and I'll give you your wages.
25:57
So now she gets paid. Some of you moms are like, Amen,
26:00
huh. Yes, it gets paid to watch her
26:02
own kids, her own son, the Lord man, you know what the New
26:08
Testament says? You know what the New Testament
26:12
says. Just think of what you're
26:14
praying for right now and what you want in the Lord right now,
26:18
and what you desire God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly
26:25
above all that you think and ask.
26:27
Don't you think that's this from putting the baby into the water,
26:31
But now she's getting paid to take care of Moses.
26:35
God is totally in your situation too.
26:38
Is it unfair? Sure.
26:41
Is it hard? Oh yeah.
26:43
Is it in? Just perhaps.
26:46
Is it? Cut your heart out and serve it
26:47
to you on a platter. Yeah.
26:50
Is God in it? Yes.
26:53
The more you're afflicted, the more God wants to multiply you.
26:58
But He won't. In your flesh.
27:00
Your flesh is never going to get you where you want to go.
27:03
It's never going to draw more faith from the Lord.
27:06
It's never going to bring out the best in you.
27:09
It's only going to bring out the worst in you.
27:11
Because now you're fighting against the Lord.
27:15
It's amazing how the Lord works. We all have our own stories.
27:19
We have our own stories. We might not be like looking
27:22
back and not every single situation do we respond
27:24
properly. But I'll tell you, the Lord has
27:26
given us stories already. Even in your salvation
27:29
experience, you're like, well, man, I just got saved last week.
27:31
That's your story. What do you mean you just got
27:33
saved last week? That's a miracle.
27:35
Didn't you remember where you were the day before?
27:37
Don't you remember what you were dealing with?
27:38
Don't you matter how much you fought it?
27:40
Don't you remember like, man, that's your story.
27:42
God gets the glory from that. And Moses was delivered.
27:46
Why? Because God was preparing him to
27:48
be the deliverer. That's what his name means
27:51
Moses, to be drawn out. He was delivered from certain
27:55
disaster. Why?
27:57
Because God was going to use him to deliver the nation from
28:00
certain disaster. Which reminds me of this.
28:03
God is always preparing you for what he has prepared for you.
28:08
It's all part of the process. God is preparing you right now
28:12
through the current circumstances for what he has up
28:14
ahead. And this is an important truth
28:16
that you need to believe me on. Trust me from the scriptures
28:18
here, because some of you don't think you have a future.
28:23
You don't think God has anything for you because where you're
28:26
feeling right now is just there's just no way.
28:30
But I'm telling you there is. He's preparing you for what he
28:33
has prepared for you. God has a plan.
28:36
You know, he had a plan for Moses.
28:37
Moses going to touch millions of lives, billions of lives.
28:41
Moses is touching your life. This little kid that was thrown
28:43
in the river. He's touching your life right
28:45
now. That was the plan of God for
28:46
him. We learn from Moses and from his
28:49
faith. Not a perfect man, of course,
28:51
but man, we're going to learn from him in so many different
28:53
ways. The good, the bad, the ugly.
28:56
And God help us to see that he has a purpose for our lives too,
29:00
that we can live with confidence in his will for us and the
29:03
destiny that he's leading us toward.
29:05
One commentator put it this way, and I quote Several women were
29:09
involved in the events surrounding Moses birth, the
29:14
midwives, Pharaoh's daughter, her maid, Moses sister, and his
29:19
mom Jacobet. How ironic, he writes, that it
29:23
was. The women whom Egyptian
29:25
Israelite men looked down on as less significant than themselves
29:30
should have been responsible for saving Israel's savior.
29:33
Truly, the hand of the of God is evident in the affairs of Moses
29:37
preservation. The gospel writers also record
29:40
several women ministering around Jesus, the savior of the world,
29:44
during his first advent. End Quote, Don't miss the
29:50
importance of women then and now, so important to the will of
29:56
God and in Moses life His whole life is surrounded by faithful
30:00
women. And so we're grateful ourselves.
30:04
Verse 11. Now notice now it came to pass
30:06
in those days when Moses was grown.
30:08
So a lot of a lot of time has passed, about 40 years or so, 38
30:12
plus years. He's grown up now.
30:15
And he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens and
30:18
he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and which was one of his
30:27
brethren. Verse 12.
30:29
So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one he
30:33
killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
30:38
And when he went out the second day, behold 2 Hebrew men were
30:41
fighting. And he said to one who did
30:43
wrong, Why are you striking your companion?
30:45
And then he said, who made you a Prince and a judge over us?
30:48
Do you intend to kill me? As you killed the Egyptian?
30:51
So Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known now.
30:57
Many people believe Moses was next in line to become Pharaoh,
31:01
and as such he received the highest education possible, the
31:04
the Egyptians geniuses in the realm of mathematics and
31:08
astronomy and engineering and embalming and administration and
31:12
engineering geniuses. And all these insights would be
31:16
given to Moses for free. He was educated in the world
31:20
system. He was educated in the world's
31:23
universities and still was able to remain faithful to God.
31:28
But something happened between verses 10 and 11 in the heart of
31:33
this growing young man, when it was time to take the next step
31:38
to ascending the throne. Hebrews puts it this way.
31:41
You guys remember in Hebrews 11, verse 24.
31:44
By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the
31:48
son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer
31:51
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing
31:54
pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than
31:58
the riches, than the treasures in Egypt.
32:01
For he looked to the reward. Something happened.
32:04
Could it be, could it be that in all the time that his mom got to
32:08
raise him and get paid for it, in this environment where he was
32:11
destined to be murdered by the government, that that he was
32:15
constantly his mom was telling him, God has a hand on you, son.
32:19
God has a hand on you. You're going to be used great in
32:21
this world. God's going to use I, don't you,
32:24
you. You might be the deliverer.
32:25
You you might be just constantly instilling in this child hope
32:32
and a calling upon his life, even though she didn't see the
32:34
fullness. I think perhaps that welled up
32:38
in him and then that decision. He has this sense of I want to
32:43
help my people and it says that he looked at their burdens in
32:47
verse 11, which tells us he had a sensitivity about him, what we
32:52
would call in the New Testament A discernment.
32:54
There was a discernment in him when he looked at the burns and
32:58
his heart was broken for them. This is got to end.
33:02
This has got to be changed. So notice what he does in verse
33:04
12. He looked this way and that way.
33:07
So he sees this Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, no doubt in the
33:11
process of of work. Maybe the Hebrew, this
33:14
particular Hebrew wasn't doing their job or wasn't filling the
33:17
quota and was under the oppression.
33:20
And it says in verse 12, he looked this way and that way.
33:24
And when he saw no one, he killed that Egyptian and then
33:27
hit him in the sand. Now, I don't want to minimize
33:31
this, but I do want you to understand something.
33:34
So don't take it in its simplicity, like, just dismiss
33:37
it. I want you to understand because
33:38
you make the same mistake. He looked this way and he looked
33:42
that way, but he didn't look upward.
33:48
He looked around, kind of looking, Is anybody going to see
33:50
this? I'm going to take the what's
33:52
going on? What?
33:53
He looked to the left. You could say he looked to the
33:55
right, but he didn't look up it. Isn't that our failure?
33:59
Isn't that the failure that we so often?
34:01
We got it all figured out. We've done the math, we've got
34:03
it figured out. We we know it, but we haven't
34:06
looked up and asked the Lord for wisdom.
34:08
He has the right desire, but he executes it the wrong way.
34:13
He has the right desire, but he tries to accomplish the will of
34:18
God in the flesh. Way before we even learn about
34:24
the flesh. Moses is showing us what it
34:26
looks like. All Moses has in his physical
34:29
fleshly training is what he uses, his authority.
34:34
He has a problem. What's his solution?
34:38
Kill him. Kill him.
34:43
He sees a Hebrew beaten and he kills the guy.
34:46
He defends him. He delivers that Hebrew from
34:49
that one Egyptian. But that's a problem.
34:53
He's acting prematurely here. He's doing this all in the power
34:57
of his flesh and his own wisdom and his own strength.
35:01
And it got it's a trap, and it let him into so many other
35:04
problems. It's interesting to me that
35:06
Moses in the power of his flesh, wasn't even capable of burying
35:10
one Egyptian successfully, not even one in his own strength.
35:14
You see, God wanted to bury the whole army of the Egyptians, but
35:19
Moses in his own couldn't even do it with one.
35:23
Sometimes our interpretation of failure is actually God's
35:27
revelation of you being in the flesh, that you had the right
35:31
desire, but you tried to accomplish it.
35:35
I tried to accomplish it in my own strength.
35:38
And the failure, the failure, is not fatal as you humble yourself
35:43
and repent and get back on track.
35:47
It's only fatal if you run away from the Lord.
35:52
Sometimes that's what failure is.
35:54
It's a revelation that we've been in our flesh, and here
35:59
Moses is going to pay a high price for that.
36:01
It's important for us to walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the
36:04
lusts of our flesh. Think about if we were in the
36:06
Spirit more often, I mean how many less mistakes would be
36:09
made? How many less people would be
36:11
injured? How much less confusion would be
36:13
there? How many less feelings would be
36:15
hurt if we would learn to lean on the Lord and not our own
36:17
strength, If we would learn like Zechariah, like Zebabel had to
36:23
learn in Zechariah. It's not by my not by power, but
36:26
by my spirit, says the Lord. How did he learn that?
36:28
But he was at the at the, you know, the level of this was way
36:32
out of his league. He couldn't do it, didn't know
36:35
what to do. And God came to him and said,
36:36
you know what? This mountain is nothing for me.
36:40
Nothing. Nothing.
36:42
Notice in verse 15. Now it says, well actually pick
36:48
up with me in verse 13. When he went out the second day,
36:52
behold 2 Hebrew men were fighting.
36:54
And he said to the one who did wrong, why are you striking your
36:56
companion? And then he said, who made you a
36:59
Prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as he
37:03
killed the Egyptian? Now notice he went from such
37:06
confidence in his flesh to such fear.
37:09
And this is a word in the Hebrew, like fear is gripping
37:12
him. I mean, he's got all the
37:14
emotion. It's hard, everything.
37:16
It's just he's fearful because they know about it.
37:18
He looked left and he looked right.
37:20
Didn't see anybody, but somebody was there.
37:24
Which reminds me, I don't know everything and see everything.
37:26
I need the Lord to reveal it. That's why I need to look up.
37:31
You know, I'm looking around. Nobody knows.
37:32
Nobody knows. What do you mean, nobody knows?
37:34
God knows. And maybe an Egyptian or two.
37:39
It's like I can get away with this.
37:40
You can't get away with this. The Bible says that surely you
37:44
know, you know, don't be deceived because surely your sin
37:47
will find you out. If we would just heed that one
37:51
truth in the scriptures, man, we'd stay out of so much
37:54
problems because we would know. We would abide in Christ and not
37:57
think things and take things into our own hands, thinking we
38:00
can get away with it, thinking that we can just jump in.
38:05
Moses is rejected. He is.
38:09
He's fearful now. I mean he's.
38:11
This thing is known. Notice verse 15.
38:13
Pharaoh heard of this matter and now he sought to kill Moses.
38:16
But Moses fled, which always happens in the flesh.
38:20
People run away. You never run away in the
38:24
Spirit. The Lord can lead you away in
38:27
the Spirit, but not run away. You always flee in the flesh.
38:33
Notice he has to now run away. And he dwelt in the land of
38:36
Midian. And he sat down by a well.
38:41
And the priest of Midian, he had seven daughters.
38:44
And they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water
38:46
their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove
38:49
them away. But Moses stood up and helped
38:52
them and watered their flock. Can you get Moses seven
38:54
daughters? I will help you, ladies.
38:56
You know he's got. I got nothing to do with my
38:58
time. I'm running away from a murderer
39:00
like the pharaoh wants to kill me.
39:02
So I think I can help you with some water.
39:05
Then they come to their dad in verse 18.
39:07
Again, it's just the humanity of the Bible.
39:08
It's just so human. There's such humanity in here.
39:12
Moses is in a deep difficulty. He's running away.
39:14
He doesn't know what his future is.
39:16
He's sitting there by the well. Ladies come up.
39:18
He chooses to help them. They go back in verse 18 and
39:21
tell their dad, And he's like, why'd you guys come back so
39:24
soon? Because of the time it would
39:26
take to fill their water. But, and they said an Egyptian
39:28
delivered us from the hand of the shepherds.
39:30
And he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.
39:34
So the dad said to the daughters, and where is he that
39:37
you may have that? Where is he?
39:38
And why is it that you have left the man?
39:41
And you can read between the lines?
39:42
That sounds like a good husband for one of you.
39:44
You know, like, why would you leave that guy there and call
39:47
him that? He can eat bread.
39:48
He wanted to honor him, honored his daughters.
39:51
Now his dad wants to honor him. Notice verse 21.
39:54
Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave him
39:57
Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses.
39:59
She bore him a son, and she called him Gershom.
40:03
For he said, I've been a stranger in a foreign land.
40:06
Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt
40:09
died. Then the children of Israel
40:11
groaned because of the bondage that they cried out.
40:15
Can we pause here for a second? Remember what happened with
40:17
Moses? He saw the burdens.
40:19
He was touched by it. He's feeling a sense of man,
40:22
I've got to do something about this.
40:23
He sees that fight, kills that guy, does it wrong.
40:27
And now he's been gone for about 40 years on what?
40:30
On the backside of the desert? Because of this, he had to run
40:32
away to You can look it up on your maps in the back of your
40:35
Bible. And now, 40 years later, what
40:38
Moses tried to accomplish in his flesh is worse, not better.
40:48
I'm sure he was confident that he could solve the problem, but
40:51
it's worse. It's 40 years worse.
40:55
God is still in it. God's still in it.
40:58
He's still going to use it, working all things together for
41:00
the good. But I think we could develop a
41:03
new Bible study here just with wasted years.
41:06
Anybody that has wasted years, you would stand up and yell to
41:09
everyone that hasn't had wasted years.
41:11
Don't waste your years. Every single one of us would
41:16
yell and scream. Don't do it.
41:18
Don't do it. It's not worth it.
41:21
Moses has learned that well. In the process of time the Egypt
41:25
dies, the bondages is still there, and they cry out and
41:29
notice in verse 23 their cry came up to God because of the
41:33
bondage. So God heard their groaning, and
41:36
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
41:40
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged
41:44
them. Things got worse for these 40
41:48
years, and the deserts of Midian would become yet another school
41:53
for Moses. He was educated in the Egyptian
41:56
system, which is great. You told my kids their whole
41:59
life get as much education as you can, as fast as you can, as
42:04
cheap as you can, because it's a door opener in this world.
42:09
God has called you to permeate this world.
42:11
Then education can be a phenomenal door opener, and
42:14
that's great. However, you don't want to go
42:17
into the world just with the world's education.
42:20
You want to go into the world with the Lord's education.
42:24
So you can use that open door for him.
42:27
And so here Moses is going to get a couple of degrees.
42:32
He's got his Egyptian degree, but now he's going to get his
42:35
BSD degree, the backside of the desert.
42:40
And some of you have a lot of those.
42:43
I certainly do. You know, we take all the joy
42:48
and look at my degree. I've got my associates, I've got
42:50
my bachelors, I've got my masters, I've got all these
42:53
doctorates, which are fine and great.
42:55
May the Lord bless you and everything he's called you to
42:58
do. But what you really want is the
43:01
training and admonition of the Lord.
43:05
You really want to know the ways of God.
43:08
You really want to understand his plans for your life.
43:12
You really want to see your purpose?
43:15
Yeah. Maybe your life testimony isn't
43:17
all that good. It could be hard to say.
43:20
Yeah. You know, in my life, my mom put
43:22
me in a in a box and sent me away.
43:26
And some of you have a real difficult testimony like that,
43:30
but you know, you're not in that box anymore.
43:33
God has worked in your life. I had a bad past.
43:37
You had a bad past. But guess what?
43:39
We're in the same place at the same time.
43:41
Worship. Being the God of our bad past,
43:44
where he gets the glory, He does the world.
43:47
And our past doesn't get the last word.
43:49
God gets the last word. And here we are together like we
43:53
made it. We're here walking with the
43:55
Lord, praying for other people. He redeemed our life but had it
43:58
so hard. No, no, no, no.
43:59
Get out-of-the-box, man. Get out-of-the-box.
44:04
The Lord has great plans for you, and I'm sorry that you
44:07
experience that pain and trauma. I'm sorry, but you get to do it
44:13
better. You get to be a different
44:16
person. You get to follow the Lord in
44:19
the Spirit and not in your flesh.
44:21
And isn't that the word for us today?
44:24
Moses acted out in the flesh, unlike his mom, lost 40 years of
44:30
his life. But it really wasn't lost
44:33
because he went to school and he learned a lot about God, a lot
44:38
about himself, as he was faithful.
44:42
I love this because this is the thing, you know?
44:45
This is so cool for us, you. And again, this is another Bible
44:49
study altogether. But verse 21, you're in the
44:52
school desert right now. You're in a desert experience.
44:55
You know, desert experiences is all of what it sounds.
44:58
It's dry, it's sandy, you know, it's just uninhabited.
45:02
It's it's just barren. It's not like maybe an urban
45:06
metropolis or anything. It's a desert.
45:07
It's hot, it's unbearable, you know, it's just like, oh, it's
45:11
so oppressive. And I don't, man, here's what
45:14
you've got to learn to do. You need to learn to be content
45:19
where you are and learn to be a Gershom.
45:24
Gershom. You're like, what do you mean, I
45:25
don't want to be a Gershom. Yes, you do, because it means
45:28
his name means a stranger. Isn't that what the New
45:32
Testament teaches us? You want a key to success and
45:35
contentment? Then just remember, you're just
45:37
passing through. You're just coming through.
45:40
Life is like a vapor here today, gone tomorrow.
45:44
And you're learning to live by faith.
45:47
And you know, there's a day when your desert experience will end.
45:50
It could be this side of eternity, but it could be in
45:52
that final breath. You wake up in the presence of
45:54
the Lord and you go, oh, from the desert to paradise.
45:58
But even along the way, there are things to learn in the
46:00
desert, things to grow. Your experience is going to
46:03
bless someone, encourage someone.
46:05
You got to learn to be content. Like Gershom.
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You're just a stranger passing through.
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Don't act out in your flesh. You will not please God.
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Amen. Amen.
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Well, at least one baby's done with the Bible study.
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I hear you there. And it's OK.
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You be a baby because God has a great plan and future for that
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little baby. What's that baby's name?
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Josiah. I can't hear.
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It's a beautiful name. Lord, we pray for that little
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baby that you would bless him just with his healthy lungs and
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all the kids in our church. God, you just so full of energy,
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so full of future, challenging at times for sure hard.
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But God, you'll give us the strength to speak life into our
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kids, to give them high hopes, to speak to to them the truth,
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to remind them of your greatness, to teach them about
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Noah, to teach them about Jacob and Abraham.
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To teach them about Joseph and Lord, we want to build faith in
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our kids that they might rise above their current things.
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And and Lord, even if it's hard and even if it's difficult and
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even to the desert, we want to give you the glory for all the
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great things you have done. And thank you, God, that you
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would reserve for us the Scriptures, that we could be
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encouraged and that we could have Hoopa Monet that Lord.
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We could express ourselves in song and in prayer.
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We could fellowship together. We can pray for one another.
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We can have hope that you can match us up with an optimist.
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And you can send the optimist. And you could just stir up faith
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among us that all is not lost. It's not over.
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It's not the end. It's just the beginning of what
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you want to do in our lives. So pour out an anointing of
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faith upon us tonight. In Jesus name a man.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
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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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entirety 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 this week.