Finding Truth in Consequences - Part 2

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The Bible says that this day that he talks about, there's going to be a day when this is all going to go down, just like the Bible says.

You know that, right?

Hello.

Some of you are like, well, easy now.

The Bible also says this.

It says we should look forward to that day and speed its coming.

Sometimes the Bible says things in kind of an irregular way.

We don't talk that way anymore.

Like there's things you used to say a long time ago, like 18 months ago, that aren't cool anymore.

When it says and speed its coming, what it means is live in such a way that that day gets more obvious to everybody around you.

And that's our privilege.

And so in just a minute, I'm going to open the Bible and I'm going to talk to you in a way that I'm going to say to you with different words, and the Bible's going to say to all of us in different words, hey, I want you to live this way.

Integrate this into your life and live this way.

Take these lessons away from other people's consequences.

So everyone around you will be reminded there's more to this life than just right now.

We live in a world that says you only live once, but we read a Bible that says, No, you live twice.

And so you gotta think about that.

Okay?

So here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna read the Bible and I'm gonna point out some things, and at the end I'm gonna say, let's think about this.

And Clyde will come and just kind of sing a song over us.

Uh you may be, why do you do that?

Uh because I think music says things in a way that words can't.

Sometimes I just need to get in my truck and go to Austin and hear live music in a live music environment with real sinners.

Like you and me.

Alright?

Let me voice a prayer and we'll do it we'll do this.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thanks that uh you got many ways to say things, God, but the way you say them is always the same.

It's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So help us, God, to hear the truth today.

We don't need more religious nonsense.

We've got enough of that in our world today.

We don't need to be beat with a guilt stick, made to feel bad.

We know what screw-ups we are and what we're capable of.

What we don't understand is it what you're capable of.

Because if we did understand that, we wouldn't live like a lot of us do.

And so, Lord, uh, we're open up our heads today and pour the truth in, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it, open it up to Exodus chapter 9.

Exodus 9 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your roll.

I'm on page 51, page 51, and I want to talk to you.

I'll finish what we started last week.

We started a two-part sermon series uh entitled Truth from Consequences.

We're preaching through the book of Exodus, and we're to the point where the the the the God starts pouring out the ten the plagues, the ten plagues upon uh the nation of Egypt.

And so let me ask this question.

Uh how many of y'all in this in this room saw the movie uh uh The Ten Commandments?

Charlton Heston and do you remember who played Pharaoh in the Ten Commandments?

Thank you.

I don't know who they are.

Yule Brenner was a ball-headed guy, remembering that?

And when I think about truth from consequences, you say, What do you mean?

Last week I told you about when my family and I were on vacation, I made my kids look at drug addicts and say, hey, when you're when your goofy friends go, drugs aren't a big problem, remember this.

Here's a girl on the sidewalker can't even set up.

Uh when I think about truth from consequences, I think about the Ten Commandments of the movie, and I think about Yul Brenner, I don't think about Yul Brenner, I mean the ten the movie The Ten Commandments, when I think about Yul Brenner.

You know what I think about when I think about Yul Brenner?

I think about the commercial he made at the end of his life.

Where he looks into the camera who smoked his whole life, he's dying of lung cancer.

They brought himself by smoking, and he looks into the camera and he says, Don't smoke.

As a little kid, now I never smoked a cigarette.

I'd smoked other things, though.

I I don't say that to brag or whatever.

I just say that because too many times preachers sound self-righteous.

Like I'm talking to you people that sin because I've never sinned.

No, I did, I did plenty of sinning.

Uh, and so I never smoked cigarettes, but I remember thinking when I saw that guy look at the camera and go, Don't I'm begging you, don't smoke.

Something clicked at me, and I just thought, you know what, I don't think I I don't think I want to smoke, because that doesn't look like it's a very good decision right there.

And it wasn't long after that, Joel Brenner died.

So the truth I take away from his consequence is, hey, I don't think I want to do that.

In the same way, the Bible speaks to us, and there's some truth we can take away from the consequences.

And so we're gonna kind of read a couple different places.

In the first place we're gonna read, we're gonna read about four of the plagues today.

We did five last week, we'll do four this morning.

The first one is in Exodus chapter nine, starting in verse eight.

This is the sixth plague.

It's it's it's it's boils.

And here's, we'll read this before we read it.

Let me just tell you what we can take away from this.

Here's what we take away.

This will get personal.

This will get personal.

Exodus chapter 9, verse 8.

Exodus 9:8

And the Lord said to Moses in the Aaron, take handfuls of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the side of Pharaoh.

It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.

So they took soot from the kiln and they stood before Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh and Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast.

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all of the Egyptians.

Now, what I mean when I say this will get personal, up to this point, uh God has dealt with the God of gods of Egypt.

You know, he he's kind of said, Hey, you believe this, you believe that this God controls this, this God controls this, and this God controls this.

Uh, and God says, No, no, no.

I'm gonna demonstrate to you that I control all of this.

And so, so far, God has kind of dealt with the gods of Egypt, the idols that they trust in, and that gave them confidence, and their response was they just hardened their hearts to God's will.

And so, up to this point, it's been external things like God turned the water into blood, so he messes with the water supply.

It's been discomfort, inconvenience, pest and pestilence and possessions, but now it takes a turn and it begins to affect their bodies, okay?

Now, if you were, I teach a class on Wednesday nights back here in the fellowship hall.

We're kind of just kind of we're trying to sync up what we believe with who we're becoming.

And every night, we every Wednesday we look at a different topic.

And this past week I was I just said, hey, when you read the Bible, don't just read the Bible.

There's a three-step process.

See the see the text, hear the text, and then grasp the text, okay?

So when it comes to seeing the text, uh, reading the Bible is kind of like a 3D movie.

I don't know if you've been to a 3D movie lately.

Anybody been to a 3D movie in the past year?

You would raise your hand?

Yes, yes, yes.

Does anybody remember when 3D movies first came out and you got there and what they handed you is not what they hand you now.

Remember they hand you those little paper glasses and had a red lens and a blue lens.

I remember those are on the back of a cereal box at one point.

It was kind of like, and you tried, you try to get them on, they'd fall off, and 30 minutes into the movie, you just take them off and throw them away like, ah, I'm not missing anything.

But now you go to a movie, they hand you sunglasses, okay, like Ray-Bans, and it come their own individual package, and you pull them out, and at the end of the movie, they say, Would you like to recycle your glasses?

And I'm like, Did I just put on some glasses that somebody else had worn?

Oh, no, no, no.

I'm taking these things home.

But you put on the glasses, and not only have the glasses changed, but have you been to a movie theater lately?

Holy crow! I mean, it's like an outer body experience.

They got bowling out.

I remember we had drive-ins.

Anyone been to a drive-in lately?

You hang that big metal speaker on the window, and it was so loud, and you're just like, this is painful, Dad.

Come and go home.

Now you go to a movie theater.

Of course, it's 90 bucks, but anyway, they got gelato and coffee and escalators and all this stuff, and they got an IMAX screen that wraps around and it's three stories tall.

And you're like, oh! And if you go see IMAX 3D, like the movie Everest, I mean, it's got your seat shake, you got surround sound.

It is a visceral, whole body experience.

Now, at this point, if you're a visitor, you should be thinking, what are you so excited about?

Stop drinking Mountain Dew.

You're not the boss of me.

Here's why I'm excited because the Bible's so subtle.

Because, see, when he says, hey, take soot from a kiln and throw it in the air, you kind of just think, What?

If you hear anything today, hear this.

God doesn't waste anything.

God doesn't waste anything.

There are things that we experience in life and we're just thinking, I'd like to forget about that.

No, God's not gonna waste that.

He's gonna use that.

What do you mean?

So remember that the Israelites, God's people were slaves in Egypt.

And one of the things they made them do is make bricks.

Remember that?

He said, make bricks.

Now Pharaoh said, make them without straw.

And they'd make bricks and they'd put them in these things called the kiln, which is a big oven where they'd cook and dry the bricks, and they'd take them out.

They'd build stuff with them, okay?

So just think if you were a slave at a brick factory, you would hate the smell of that kiln, you would hate the thought of that kiln, you would hate the soot that was left over after they burned the bricks and cooked them where they would harden.

You would just be like, gosh, it's kind of like what you would do if you won the lottery, what you would do at work the next day.

You would just show up and tell everybody off and go, see ya, boom, and spike the mic and walk out.

That's the way the Egyptians and the Israelites felt about these brick factories.

They were like, we hate this place.

And yet, God, who doesn't waste anything, regardless of how painful it's been in our life, God comes along and says to them, I'll tell you what, you go to this kiln and you take a handful of soot and you throw it in the air, and it's got all of a sudden that dust is gonna spread all over the land of Egypt and it's gonna be boils on these people.

And you're like, what in the world?

Here's where you've got to have the glasses on and surround sound to see the text.

You don't know this, but what the Egyptian priests would do when they were these these false, they worship false gods, they would, as a form of blessing, they would throw soot in the air.

And it was a way of saying, you know, thank you that we have other people that are our servants.

And God, what was a blessing to the Egyptians becomes a curse to them, and what was a curse to the Israelites becomes a blessing to them.

God's kind of saying, I know this was a painful memory for you, but watch how I'm gonna use this.

Why?

Because this at some point this gets personal.

Up to now it's just been God affecting the Nile River and their fish and their frogs and some and they've had some gnats and they've had some flies and they've had some of this and some of that, and now it begins to affect their body.

Don't turn there, but if you're in the book of Job, Satan comes before God in chapter one and says, Hey, you know, hey, does God, does Job fear God for anything?

For no reason?

I tell you what, if you make it hard on him, he's gonna deny you to your face.

And so he makes it hard on him.

Chapter one does not end well.

The Bible says that Job lost all of his sons and daughters in one day.

And one after another, his servants kept coming and saying, This tragedy happened, and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you about it.

And the Bible says that Job fell to the ground and worshiped God.

And in all this, he didn't sin against God.

Chapter 2, Satan comes back and says, Oh, yeah, you're just messing with his stuff.

You made oil go down to like$19 a barrel, okay?

But he's okay.

He's got money in the bank.

Touch his body.

Matter of fact, the quote was Satan says, skin for skin, you touch his body, and Job will curse you to your face.

And so God says, you know what?

If you read the Bible, you'll see that there are themes that recur over and over because God knows how to get our attention.

Like here's how you kind of sober up and you kind of get serious.

When something happens to your kids, you become the most spiritual person anybody knows.

True or false?

When something happens to your kids, when the doctor says, We need to run another test because we're not sure about this.

You will make a deal with God.

You'll tell God, hey, God, I'll do anything.

God, take me, not my kid.

Please.

Um, so it gets personal.

And that's what God does with these people.

God says, Hey, I'm not trying to destroy you, I'm trying to make a point here, and you keep hardening your heart.

And so the first thing we take away, the first truth we take away from this sixth consequence is this will get personal.

And when it does, by the way, I sent out an email this week to my church just to say, because I get this sense that there's a lot of us who are just kind of living just on the edge of being overwhelmed.

Okay?

And that's not a bad thing.

Everybody's got a lot going on.

It's crazy.

There's this kind of uncertainty going on in our culture.

Uh and when you get this way, and when it gets overwhelming, let me give you a Bible verse just to remember.

This is 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.

1 Corinthians 10:13

It says, No temptation has taken, has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Now, you say, What do you mean?

Now just let me draw your attention to that last part.

He says, But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape.

In other words, you never, you and I never get tempted that we don't also have a way of escape.

It's never like, well, I just had to, I just couldn't help myself, you know.

Oh man, the devil made me do it.

No, no, with the temptation, there's a way of escape.

How do you know that?

Because God is faithful.

Because God is faithful.

And so why do I say that?

So when it gets personal in your life and things get hard, that may be all you can say.

So just let's just say that together that God is faithful.

Say that with me.

God is faithful.

You say, what do you mean?

You go to work tomorrow, people have, oh man, it's horrible.

We get to the end of the month, we got more bills than money.

Our marriage is kind of stretched in, our kids are just killing us.

We're just, I mean, we're just overwhelmed.

And if that's all you say, and by the way, everybody needs to blow off steam.

Everybody needs to just kind of say, gosh, somebody listened to my life because it's killing me.

But at the end of that, if that's all we say, and we say what everybody else says, how are our coworkers and our friends and our Facebook friends gonna know that God is faithful?

See, in the midst of it, when you're telling everybody how hard it is, don't forget to stop and go, hey, by the way, God is faithful.

I don't know how this is gonna come out, but God's not gonna waste anything.

He's gonna see me through this, he's not gonna tempt me, he's not gonna give me more than I can handle, he's not gonna be tempt me beyond what I'm able.

God didn't bring me this far to leave me.

He didn't kind of bait me along.

He's not been going, hey, you're warmer, warmer, warmer, oh, you're burning hot.

Never mind, you're cold.

You're not out in the world kind of going, Marco, Marco, and waiting for someone to say back, that's not the way God does it.

Why?

Because God is faithful.

When this gets personal, and it will, not just for them, but for us, remember that God is faithful.

The second thing we take away, Exodus chapter 9, verse 13, the seventh plague that God sends.

Exodus 9:13

The Bible says this in verse 13.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me.

For this time I will send all my plagues on yourself and on your servants and on your people, so that you will know that there is none like me in all the earth.

That's we said last week that God operates from a bigger agenda.

That's God's agenda.

It's not to punish, it's to proclaim.

There's no one like me in all the earth.

I want you to think about me in a way that you don't think about anybody or anything else.

Pharaoh's problem was that he thought about himself in those same terms.

Verse 15, for by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

But for this purpose I've raised you up to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

You're still exalting yourself against my people, will not let them go.

Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause a very heavy hail to fall, such as never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

Now therefore, send.

Get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter.

For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.

And then whoever feared the word of the Lord among his servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses.

But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

Now, if you're here this morning, you think, I just I just can't believe in a God that would do that kind of stuff.

I just I that's just not the God.

My God's a God of love.

My God would never, blah, blah, blah.

God is a God of love.

He's also a God of justice, but he's also a God of mercy.

If you think God is too harsh, then why does God warn these people?

Why does God say, hey, by the way, tomorrow you had, uh, I'm about to set it off in here.

You haven't seen anything like this since your since your country was founded.

And so, because I'm not just out to to get you, I want you to know you need to get your servants and all your animals in and out of the field because if anything's left out there, it's going to be killed.

Because they just can't, it just steps up from here on out.

It just gets harder and harder and harder and harder.

You say, Well, what happens?

Here's the truth we take away from this consequence.

There's a difference in having sinned and being a sinner.

There's a difference in having sinned and being a sinner.

You say, What do you mean?

Look down in chapter 9 and verse 27.

Because God says, This is what's going to happen.

I'm warning you, get your people in.

Some do, some don't.

The ones that did, they were they were saved.

The ones that didn't, they were killed.

And then this is Pharaoh's response, verse 27.

Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, This time I have sinned.

The Lord is in the right, and my people are in the wrong.

I and my people are in the wrong.

Plead with the Lord, for there's been enough of God's thunder and hail.

I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.

Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord.

The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail.

So you may know that the earth is the Lord's, but as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.

The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax and the bud, but the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.

Now you have any idea what that means?

What he's saying is, hey, you guys, you know, you you lost these crops, but the wheat and the emmer, they're still kind of growing up, and so they weren't bud, they weren't flourishing, so when the hell came, it didn't destroy them.

Translation, you still got some money in the bank that you're trusting in.

You still got a plan B, okay?

God says, I know your heart.

I know that you're kind of mad and you're upset and you're like, oh, I've sinned.

But deep in your heart, the place that you don't talk about at parties, you know, hey, you know what?

We lost these two crops.

We got the wheat and the ember.

They're coming.

We're gonna be okay.

Let's just tell God, hey, we feel bad and call it even.

Why?

Because there's a difference in having sinned and being a sinner.

Verse 33.

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.

But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

Now, what do I mean when I say there's a difference in having sinned and being a sinner?

When he says, I've sinned, he's speaking about his behavior.

That's not hard.

When a person says, I'm a sinner, they're speaking of their nature.

There's a difference in talking about your behavior, what you've done.

Because Pharaoh, he sounds contrite, man, I've sinned.

Uh God, you know, the Lord is in the right, and me and my people are in the wrong.

But here's basically the biggest difference.

Uh someone who's sinned, you just need a second chance.

But a sinner needs a savior.

And it's actually, if you're in the room today and you're getting uncomfortable and you're kind of thinking, hey man, are you saying I'm a sinner?

I'm saying we're all sinners.

The Bible says that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Well, I'm not a bad person.

I'm not saying you're a bad person.

I am saying that before God, me at the top of the list, when Adam and Eve sinned, the Bible says sin entered into the world.

Everyone born after that was born in sin.

My nature, my disposition, okay, was away from the truth and towards the lie of myself.

That's why when your kids are two years old and you tell them to do something, they look you in the eye and go, No.

And your thought is, oh no, you didn't.

What you're seeing is nature.

That's not behavior, that's nature.

Pharaoh says, Oh, I've sinned, okay.

I love this.

He pharaoh, verse 27, he sent and called Moses and says, This time I have sinned.

This time.

What about when you threw the baby boys in the Nile River and drowned them all?

Is that sin?

What about see, we have a see people that have just sinned, they have this infinite capacity to not see themselves as they really are.

That's why I have this, uh, I'll confess.

Can I confess my sins to you since I'm a sinner?

There's a show on AE called Intervention.

And basically it's it's sad because it it what it is is friends and family confront drug addicts and alcoholics and try to get them to go to treatment facilities, go go to rehab.

It is unbelievable how an addict cannot face the truth about themselves.

They'll be high zekai, going, I'm not have a problem.

They'll be in the stages of dying.

I do not have a problem.

One of the last ones I saw is a guy was an alcoholic.

I mean, he was severely alcoholic.

I do not have a problem.

And he would not go to rehab.

He bursts out of the room and runs down the road, okay?

And just jumps a fence and runs down an irrigation ditch.

And then it just rolled up on the screen.

Four months later, he died of cirrhosis of the liver.

And I just think, that's Pharaoh.

That's that that's Pharaoh.

Hey, I'm I I I ain't got a problem.

I this time I sinned, but it it it it's not as bad as all that.

You see, one of the things that God is doing is here is God's kind of spooling this thing out, but he's also reminding us, starting in Exodus chapter 9, that hey, there's a purpose for what I'm doing.

Exodus 9 · chapter mention

There's a purpose for what I'm doing.

So let me just give you briefly three of the reasons why God sends the plagues, okay?

Number one, he's his his power, he's reminding us that his power is.

It's unlimited and purposeful.

It's unlimited and purposeful.

You say, What do you mean?

Anyone here ever go to movies?

You like movies?

Can I see your hand?

Have you ever noticed in most movies when there's a bad guy, they want to get ultimate power, they want to destroy the earth?

No one says, Hey, I want to get nuclear weapons, I want to do this, and I just want to bring peace.

No.

But see, God's power is unlimited and it's purposeful.

Second thing, the plagues were part of God's missionary purpose to glorify his name and all the earth.

Now, let me say that again because that sounds very religious.

The plagues were part of God's missionary purpose to glorify his name and all the earth.

Remember, I said that God doesn't waste anything?

What do you mean it's part of God's missionary purpose to glorify his name and all the earth?

We think in terms of now, God thinks in terms of forever.

We think in terms of us, God thinks in terms of the world.

You say, I don't get it.

God does things in the moment that he refers to forever.

When God acts, he carves his name in eternity.

And everybody that comes after that for the rest of time knows what happened and why it happened, and they're warned.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, these things happened as a warning to us, but when God acts, it leaves this indelible impression.

You say, What do you mean?

Take the plagues, for instance.

If you just don't turn there, but I just read to you what the Bible says about what we're reading now.

This is in Joshua chapter 9, verse 9.

Joshua 9:9

The Gibeonites, these people that did not believe God, they had their own thing going on.

They come to Joshua and they said to him, From a very distant country, your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God.

For we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who are beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshmon, and to Ag the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

They said, Hey, we come, we know what your God has done, okay?

We got this.

And the Bible's subtle, it says this.

It says, We we know what he did in Egypt and and to the to the two kings who are beyond the Jordan.

In other words, before you crossed into the promised land, we can't we know what God's capable of.

Here's another one.

This is from the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter 4, verse 5 to 8.

1 Samuel 4:5–8

The Israelites, God's people, were in a battle.

They were at war with the Philistines.

And this is what happens.

As soon as the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, that's the presence of God.

If you saw uh Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, that's the Ark of the Covenant.

It was the presence of God.

And so the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, and all Israel gave a mighty shout so that the earth resounded.

And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, Why does this great shouting, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?

And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, A God has come into the camp.

And they said, Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before.

Woe to us.

Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?

These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

See, people that don't know God, they can't think rightly about God because they think it's plural, gods.

They think, oh, they got a bunch of gods and their gods are bigger than our gods.

And Israel is monotheistic.

They have one God.

The Shema is Deuteronomy 6, about verse 4.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

The Lord our God is one God.

It's not gods.

It's not like, hey, you got 30 gods and we got 20 gods.

Let's negotiate.

What they heard was the sound of the one God, the one true God coming into the camp.

And look at what they said.

They said, these are the gods that struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

Again, we think of right now, God thinks of forever.

We think of us, God thinks of the world.

God says, What I'm doing right now, I'm not just doing it for you.

I'm going on record so all the world will know.

Third purpose in the plagues is that is to demonstrate to us that God has control over creation.

Mark that in your mind.

We'll come back to that on the last point here in just a minute.

The next plague is in Exodus chapter 10, verse 1.

Exodus 10:1

This is what the Bible says.

And then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians, and what signs I've done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.

Now I don't have time to go into this, but just notice that God says to Moses, Hey, you're going to tell your son and your grandsons.

Because I'm not just doing right now, I'm doing forever.

And this is what this is what happened.

So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, Hey, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Let my people go, that they may serve me.

For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts in your country, and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land, and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants, and all of your Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that came on the earth to this day.

Then he turned and he went out from Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh's servant said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us?

Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God.

Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve the Lord your God.

But which ones are to go?

And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, we will go with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.

But he said to them, The Lord be with you.

If I ever let you go and your little ones go, look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

No, go, the men among you and serve the Lord, for that is what you're asking.

And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

What do we take away from this third plague we're looking at today?

What's the truth from this consequence?

It's simply this, beloved, that God defines obedience.

God defines what obedience looks like.

This is now the second time.

It'll happen again in the next thing we'll read.

But Pharaoh will kind of, Pharaoh wants to define what it looks like for them to obey God.

They said in the beginning, back in chapter 4, hey, let us go so we can hold a feast, a festival to our God.

We can worship our God.

And Pharaoh said, you can stay in the country and worship God, which means stay close enough till you can come back and be my slaves.

And then he says, okay, I'll tell you what, the men can go, but not the women and children.

That's in this chapter.

And the next thing we'll read, he'll say, Hey, you all can go, but leave your flocks and your herds and your goats, so I'll know you'll come back.

Because Pharaoh wants to define what it looks like for them to obey God.

Now, are you listening to me?

Hello.

Because this is the point of the sermon where if you're sleepy, you're kind of like, Oh, he's reading a lot today.

He's not being funny.

Be funny because I'm sleepy.

No, no, no.

Pay attention.

Here's why I'm telling you this, okay?

You say, well, I don't know what you mean God defines obedience.

Who or what you do, or who or what?

That's it.

Who is it or what is it that you allow to define obedience in your life?

Is it expediency, money, reputation, fear, greed, lust?

Here's why I say this, because if God doesn't define obedience, then you'll let anybody define what it looks like for you to do what God's called you to do, what God's created you to do.

You say, I'm still sleepy.

You're not helping me there, preacher.

Let me help you a little bit.

Here's what it sounds like in our day and age.

Hey, well, you know, we love each other, so this is okay.

Oh, well, uh-uh-uh-uh.

I mean, it's cheaper for us to live together than to live apart, and you know, and I think we're being good stewards of our money.

You're letting somebody else define obedience for you.

Well, well, God wants you to be happy, doesn't he?

No, God wants you to be holy.

Holiness is above happiness in God's economy.

Does that mean that God didn't want you to be happy?

No, no, no.

God wants you to be joyful.

But my point is, be careful that you don't let other people define what it looks like for you to obey God.

Because this plague tells us, this eighth plague tells us, hey, only God gets to define.

God said, Hey, let my people go so they could serve me.

I didn't create my people to be slaves to some political dictator.

I created my people to worship me and have a priority relationship with me.

And then Pharaoh says, Well, okay, here's what it looks like.

You can kind of go, but just go a little ways and then come back.

Or all you men can go, but leave your women and children here.

Okay, well, okay.

Third option, you all can go, but leave your livestock here, so I know you'll come back.

Who is defining obedience in your life right now?

Last plague we'll look at this morning is in Exodus chapter 10, verse 21.

Exodus 10:21

This is what the Bible says.

You still with me?

Exodus 10, 21.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven.

There was pitch darkness in all the land, three days.

They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.

But all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

And Pharaoh called Moses and said, Go, serve the Lord.

Your little ones also may go with you.

Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.

Okay, this is what it looks like for you to obey.

I know God said this, but I mean, God didn't really mean that.

God, God, God, God understands.

God understands that you can't do that.

I mean, God's not gonna.

But Moses says, Verse 25, Moses said, You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

Our livestock also must go with us.

Not a hoof shall be left behind.

For we must take of them to serve the Lord our God.

And we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.

And Pharaoh said to him, Get away from me.

Take care never to see my face again, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die.

And Moses said, As you say, I will not see your face again.

What do we take away?

What truth do we take away from this last consequence this morning?

We all have to answer this question.

Here's the truth.

Who do you trust in now?

When the lights go out, who do you trust in?

Notice what the Bible says in verse 21.

He says that the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt.

Here's the five words I want I want to close with today.

A darkness to be felt.

It's not a darkness to be seen.

There's a darkness, beloved, that you feel in your guts that doesn't wash off in the shower.

You can't drown it with a few shiners or a jack and coke or another ambient or whatever you're into these days, or oxy, or whatever.

It's a darkness that just kind of settles in on you and it does not go away.

It's a darkness to be felt.

And when that lands on you, you've got to ask the question, who do I trust in now?

And this is especially perplexing to people who worship the sun god Ra.

That's what the Egyptians did.

And Pharaoh was supposed to be the fleshly representation of him.

He said, He controlled the sun.

He made the sun come up and the sun go down.

And God says, No, by the way, not only do I control the sun, I'm going to make it dark on you for three days.

So, so pitch dark, so overwhelming, so paralyzingly dark that you feel this, you don't even want to get out of bed.

And by the way, the sun's going to shine over here on my people.

Now, who controls the elements?

That's why the Bible says when Jesus was born, the people living in darkness have seen a great light.

And on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

When Jesus was crucified, the Bible tells us that darkness came over the whole land in the middle of the afternoon.

Whatever you're going through today, however dark your life feels, the Bible's reminding us this morning that we can trust God.

We don't have to waver or wander, but we do have to ask ourselves: who or what am I trusting in?

Who or what am I trusting in?

Because again, God's not out to punish people.

He doesn't want to punish you.

If you're here today and you're like, I don't know about this old God and Jesus thing, know this that God's heart is not about punishment.

But God wants us to feel everything that keeps us away from Him.

So nothing stands between you and Him.

Do you understand that?

That's why the darkness that you can feel.

That's a gift from God saying, hello, it's not supposed to be this way.

It can be so much different, so much better.

That's mercy, friends.

That's mercy.

So when the darkness comes, you got it.

The truth that we take from that consequence is, who do I trust in now?

Let's pray together.

Let's just ask the Lord to, hey, what had my name on it today?

What do I walk out of here this morning thinking about as I go to lunch?

Father, we're mindful today that you are with us.

When we walk to the valley in the shadow, when we find ourselves in the dark place, feeling a darkness that we sometimes can't see.

You've reminded us today that I'm there, I'm here.

I'm here, I've not I'm not giving up on you.

I know everything you've done, I'm not giving up on you.

I know that you, like Pharaoh, have said, Well, this time I've sinned.

Okay, this time I might have I might I might have gone too far, might have said too much, might have done too much, but just get me out of this and I'll do better.

Lord, the issue is not our behavior, the issue is our nature.

That's why it's breathtaking that you said to your disciples, you're the light of the world, you're the salt of the earth, you're the fleshly reminder to everyone around you that the darkness is not gonna overwhelm them.

And so you say that to us today.

And so it's with sobriety, gravity, and gladness that we hear that.

And we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Stand up, let me sing a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

You're the light of the world.

Depart now and punch holes in the darkness.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, dismiss you.