Finding Truth in Consequences

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Speak to us from your word today, Lord, as we see the truth in consequences and get us ready and remind us, orient ourselves around what really is home.

That doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves here.

That doesn't mean we can't have stuff here.

It just means we're not home here.

That's why the Bible says we're aliens and strangers.

We're just passing through.

So let's not mistake where home is.

Now, Lord, use the truth to reorient us around home.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it over up to Exodus chapter 7.

Exodus 7 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 7.

Exodus 7 · chapter mention

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

I'm on page 49.

We are going to the book of Exodus kind of episodically.

We've kind of been laying the foundation.

And now we're up to the part where, now let me just give you some background.

What's happened?

God set his affection on a man named Moses.

Moses was a guy who was born in the royalty, realized that's not who I am.

I'm a Hebrew.

And so he turns his back on all the privilege of the palace and he identifies with the people of God.

But he he got mad one day and he killed a guy.

And so he was embarrassed and he ran off and hid like we do.

And God found him out in the wilderness, and God said, Hey, I'm not done with you.

I use broken people.

You don't have to be perfect to be used of God.

Do you know that?

Let me say that again.

You don't have to be perfect or have it all together to be used of God.

Last week a guy came up to me.

He goes, Hey, you always say to us, hey, you can wear whatever you want here at our church, but do you always kind of dress up?

And I said, I don't always try it.

He says, Yeah, you always wear slacks and a nice shirt.

He goes, You never wear blue jeans.

Anytime I never see you wear blue jeans.

So if you're here today, bam.

You want to watch me whip?

Watch me nay-nay?

Uh anyway, uh, ask your kids.

Uh uh anyway, and so we're up to the point where God says to Moses and Aaron, because Moses is like, oh God, I'm kind of got a bad past, and God's like, I got that.

And he said, Well, I can't talk real good.

He goes, Yeah, I'm my brother.

No, no, no.

And so he he goes and and and and Moses goes to Pharaoh like God says, and it doesn't go well.

Uh by the way, not when you're a Christian, not everything is gonna go your way.

It's just not.

It's just not because Christianity is not how you use it.

Oh, I'm a Christian, all of a sudden, get out of jail free card.

It's all gonna be uphill from here.

It's gonna be easy.

No.

As a matter of fact, Moses gets kind of upset with God and says, hey God, ever since we start talking to Pharaoh, this has gotten harder down here.

And and where we left off last time was God kind of re-re-reforms it and testimonies, hey, by the way, just do what I tell you to do.

Just trust me, trust me, trust me.

And so now we come to the point because God says, Hey, I'm I'm about to make it obvious.

I told you that I am the Lord.

I'm about to make it obvious to everybody else.

Now, let me just give you a little bit of background because I want to talk to you today about finding truth in consequences.

Uh, we were on vacation this past summer in Boston.

We're walking around, we'll go up to Harvard Square, and we're walking through, and they're on the sidewalk, right across the street, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, or a bunch of drug addicts on the sidewalk, and they can't even sit up.

They're just so, and my wife has got my wife's got good manners.

She's like, girls, just look forward.

Do not look keep walking.

We walk past it, and I turned my kids around.

I said, Look at that.

Stare upon that right there, girls, and they're like.

I said, Yeah, look at that.

Now, when your stupid friends tell you drugs should be legalized because drugs aren't a problem, remember that picture.

Because there's a little girl on the sidewalk, her shirt's falling off, and she can't even sit up, she's so high.

And I said, just stare at that.

Not to judge those people, not to hate on those people, but just to see how goofy some people are when it comes to drugs.

You got that fixed in your mind?

Yeah, dad.

We're the only people looking at these people.

Yeah.

Because your dad's a bad parent.

And my wife's like, that's enough.

I want my kids to understand that there's truth and consequences.

And sometimes you don't have to go through the consequences to get the truth.

That's the that's it, that's the situation we find ourselves in when we come to this part uh of Exodus because God starts to tend plagues.

Now, by the way, by way of background, let me just kind of remind you that by bringing chaos out of order, God makes a direct assault upon the gods of Egypt.

You say, Who were some of the gods of Egypt?

The Nile River was a god, they had a name for it.

They were like, oh, it's we prayed to this god.

Hekat, the frog god, was the goddess of fertility.

Uh, and so when women were pregnant, they would wear this amulet around their neck uh in the shape of a frog to ward off evil spirits.

Ra was the sun god.

Rashid Wallace used to play power forward for the Detroit Pistons, had a Ra tattoo on his arm.

He prayed to Ra, the sun god, and he said it protected his children.

Uh that that was one of their gods.

Uh Pharaoh is also considered a god.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because Egyptians believed that Pharaoh had the power to maintain cosmic order, which they called Ma'at.

Ma'at was this universal equilibrium, this cosmic force of harmony, order, stability, and security.

Let me read that again.

It was this, quote, cosmic force.

Ma'at is this cosmic force of harmony, order, stability, and security.

And it was Pharaoh's responsibility to maintain Ma'at by controlling the climate, regulating the seasons, and generally per preserving order in the world.

That's the way people thought about their rulers.

That's the way some of you think about Donald Trump.

Or your favorite politician.

They're gonna bring Ma'at.

That's what you're passionate about.

You're gonna write checks to those people, and that's your business, what you do with your money.

But let me just tell you something.

Nobody on earth, no human being can be is in charge of cosmic equilibrium.

But we believe that.

Do you know that we believe that, beloved?

Some of you are like, no, we don't.

I brought a picture.

This is on the internet.

You could buy this shirt today.

Now, let me speak to the obvious.

I'm not a racist, don't roll up on me and play the race card.

I'm not all about Democrats versus Republican.

This is myat.

What it says, if you can't see, is Barack Obama, the Messiah we can believe in.

That is a t-shirt you can buy on the internet today for$24.95.

That's myat.

I just want you to see how relevant the Bible is.

Take that down because some of y'all's blood's starting to boil.

I saw one of you reaching your back for that knife, you got clipped on your back pocket.

Uh I just, so, so what does God do?

I mean, God kind of demonstrates, hey, hey, this is this is what I'm capable of.

And and then Pharaoh gets magicians and they kind of duplicate the first two plagues, and they miss the whole point because hear this, beloved, God's not trying to do a magic trick.

He's trying to warn a nation that trusts in false gods and doesn't believe in him, which is a big deal.

And don't just think Egypt, think America.

God's trying to warn a nation that trusts in false gods and doesn't believe in him, which is a big deal.

Unbelief.

See, we've created a culture.

Unbelief is not that big of a deal in America.

And if you don't believe, okay, so what?

Uh you'll probably go to heaven when you die because you're a good person.

Really, the only consequence of unbelief here on earth in America is you don't go to church and sometimes your wife gets frustrated at you because you love other things and you're not really into God, quote unquote.

Let me just say this.

This culture that we created where there's little consequence to unbelief, it's most manifest in the church where uh the American church has pretty much structured itself around the felt needs of lost people.

And so what happens is you can feel better, get better, and be motivated to do better, but really, never really know God.

Never really have to face the truth claims of Christianity, never has to ask yourself if you've ever repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus because it's always about you.

And beloved, that's the way Pharaoh thought.

And in the plagues, God has sending a message to Pharaoh and all of Egypt, and then their responses, we're being sent a message today.

And so what I want to do is we'll just kind of skip through and read different sections over the first five plagues, and we'll just look at the truth we find in consequences.

This is the first plague is found in Exodus chapter 7, verse 14.

Exodus 7:14

The Bible says this the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened.

He refuses to let the people go.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent, and you shall say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.

But so far you have not obeyed.

Thus says the Lord, by this you shall know that I am the Lord.

Underline that in your Bible, if you're given to writing in your Bible, because that's the rationale for everything it's going to follow.

By this you shall know that I am the Lord.

Behold, with the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.

The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.

Now, what do you mean?

Truth from consequences.

With every plague we read, I'm gonna give you a one here's the truth we take away from that.

And the first plague, here's the truth we take away.

God acts from a big agenda.

God acts from a big agenda.

And the big agenda is what he says there in verse 17 when he says, By this you shall know that I am the Lord.

The next word, behold, which means look.

Don't miss this.

Check this out.

By this, by what I'm fixing to do, you will know that I am the Lord.

Because God is seeking to establish, hey, this is the truth.

Now, by the way, people sought to explain away things that the Bible says as natural phenomena.

So the past month I've had to read archaeologists and geologists, and people say, well, that time of year, there was all these rains, and basically the Nile River would undulate, it would turn over, and there's these microorganisms that make the water turn kind of red and this, that, and the other.

And I'm not saying that doesn't happen.

The Bible is not at odds with science.

The Bible's not odd at odds with nature, but the Bible says that God teaches very clearly God is over science and God is over nature.

Do you hear the difference?

They're not at odds.

They're not like this.

And God says, no, I'm over this.

But if you think, like some people do, I had to read a paper a guy wrote.

And he said, Well, this is all explainable because it's microorganism, blah, blah, blah.

I would just draw your attention to the last part of verse 19.

If you got your Bible open, because he says, take your staff and stretch it over all the waters of Egypt so they may become blood.

Then the last part of verse 19, he says, And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Here's the last part even in the vessels of wood and in the vessels of stone.

Now, what microorganism or what undulating river affects the water that's in a bucket a woman's got in her kitchen?

Because basically when it says, even in the in the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, people would go down to the river and they would draw water.

They had water in a bucket in their house.

And when God said, hey, strike the waters of the Nile and the water's going to turn to blood, not only did the water in the Nile turn to blood, but if they had water in a bucket in their house, it turned to blood as well.

So the question is, what natural phenomenon takes place in the bucket that explains how that happened?

See, and here's what I'm saying: God acts from a much bigger agenda than we have the capacity to kind of get our head around.

God says, by this you shall know that I am the Lord.

Translation, I want everyone to know that I am the Lord.

Now, let's just stop and acknowledge the obvious.

Either this is radically conceited and self-centered, or it's unmitigated mercy.

Let me say it again because you're going to see a theme as we walk through the book of Exodus.

Over and over and over, God says this, I'm doing this so that you will know that I am the Lord.

So either God is radically self-centered and he's just stuck on himself, which begs the question, who else do you want God to be stuck on?

I mean, for God to love anything more than God loves himself makes God an idolater, but that's a whole nother sermon.

But when it comes to him saying, Hey, by this, you shall know that I am the Lord.

Either he's radically conceited or it's unmitigated mercy.

And it's God saying to not just Pharaoh and to the all the nation of Egypt and everybody that would come after them, hey, I don't want you to waste your life going through these empty religious rituals and get to the end and it all turn out to be nothing.

To put the question down where we live, I would just ask this how much do you have to hate someone to let them live and die without ever hearing the truth?

And so God says, Hey, I by this you shall know that I am the Lord.

By the way, this is the first time this has been spoken to a non-Israelite.

This was a very early announcement of the gospel to the Gentiles.

It's also a declaration of God's capacity to save.

I said earlier now either this is God is just really selfish or incredibly merciful.

I'm gonna say to you that he's incredibly merciful.

Let me demonstrate.

Let's just suppose that you went home today after the service and you can turn on the TV because the Texans kick off at noon.

Amen?

Uh and they got round mallet starting today, and he's gonna make it all better.

Amen?

No, he's not.

Anyway, uh, y'all in to be disappointed.

Uh and so let's just say that they break in with a news, uh, ABC, our CBS has a news flash, and they got to break in, and they just say, uh, we just confirmed that last night on some remote barrier island off the coast of Japan, they found an American soldier.

He is 90 years old, and this whole time he's been living as if World War II is still going on.

He enlisted when he was 18.

The war ended on October the 2nd, 19, excuse me, September 2nd, 1945, when he was 20 years old, and for 70 years he has kind of lived the subsistence living on this remote barrier island, kind of holding down his ford and his outpost like what's his name in in dances with wolves.

The guy probably had a pet wolf out there.

And and for so we found him, and he's 90 years old, and he's lived this whole time as if the war is just been going on.

And so we we're bringing him back, and and we want to, he, there they're he's at uh hospital, he's getting tests run, he's in pretty good health, uh considering, but just think just for a minute.

Now, before you go too far and just let this sink in, uh think about all the things that have been invented while this man was living as if the war was still going on, with no idea of what the truth was.

Things like cell phones, Starbucks, microwave oven, jet airliner, polio vaccine, cordless tools.

Remember when your drill had a cord on it?

Uh cordless tools, AIDS, the personal computer, video games, smoke detector, ATM, Sony Walkman, microwave popcorn, glory to his name, uh MP3 player, M R I, GPS, DNA, LeBron James, the internet, genetic sequencing, the music of Johnny Cash, paws, electric cars, and bluebell ice cream.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Just stay with me.

I'm just pretending here, but just stay with me.

They just found a man who, since uh he was for the past 70 years, has has lived totally apart from all of that because he didn't know it existed.

Now, when you take all this in, ask yourself, would you be mad at this guy for not knowing that the war was over and spending his entire life living apart from all that was possible?

Or would your heart just break for him?

Would your heart just be like, oh dude?

Are you kidding me?

See, that's mercy.

This is why I say that God's a merciful God.

And he comes and says the war's over.

Ollie, oli, and free.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

But here's the stipulation: you have to bow down to the fact that God is says, I am the Lord.

And if God is the Lord, that means you and I can't be.

If God is God, then you and I don't get to be God.

And so somewhere you gotta ask yourself, hey, is is is God mean?

Is God selfish?

Or is in reality is God deeply merciful?

See, that's what the first uh plague invites us to think about is simply, hey, let me let me ask the question that maybe I haven't thought about in a while, and it's simply this hey, God acts from a really big agenda.

God's not out to get Pharaoh.

God, because as the plagues go on, God says, hey, this is gonna be severe.

There's a gradual intensity to these things.

And so if God was out to get him, why didn't he just get him in the first place?

See, see, God acts with mercy.

He's not trying to punish him or a nation.

God's trying to establish the fact I am the Lord.

Well, why didn't I get established?

Because deep in the DNA of human nature, we believe the same thing about ourselves.

It comes out like this.

What's in my body?

I can do what I want.

You're not the boss of me.

So the second plague comes along.

Exodus chapter 8, verse 1.

Exodus 8:1

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, let my people go, they may serve me.

But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all of your country with frogs.

The now shall swarm with frogs, and they shall come into your house and into your bedroom, and on your bed, and your houses, and your servants, and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls, and the frogs shall come upon you, and on your people, and all your servants.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your hand with the staff, over the rivers, over the canals, over the pools, and make frogs come upon the land of Egypt.

And so Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

But the magicians did the same by their secret arch and made frogs come upon the land of Egypt.

And then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

Moses said to Pharaoh, Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.

And he said, Tomorrow.

Moses said, Be it as you say, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

There it is again.

Same thing.

Verse 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people, and they shall be left only in the Nile.

See, how you think about something determines how you approach it.

And like us, Pharaoh wanted an explanation so he could explain it all away.

And so his magicians were able to kind of make the same thing.

Oh, it may make frogs come up, but they can't seem to make the frog stop.

And so Pharaoh says, Hey, you know what?

Okay, okay, make it stop, and and and I'll give you what God wants.

Look down at verse 15 of Exodus chapter 8.

Exodus 8 · chapter mention

But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, there was a break, that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them as the Lord had said.

See, the truth we take away from the consequence of the second plague is simply this that relief is a vain substitute for the truth.

Relief is a vain substitute for the truth.

How does that look in our life?

When your wife says to you, I don't think I know you anymore.

I think we need to get marriage counseling.

You go to marriage counseling for two sessions, and after that, the guy goes, We're good, I think we're good.

And your wife lays there in the bed long after you're asleep and cries those kind of tears that go back into her hair because she's just staring at the ceiling thinking, What did I do?

She's married to a man who wants relief but doesn't want the truth.

Relief makes you feel better, but truth sets you free.

And Pharaoh is like, okay, God, I'll give you whatever you want.

Let me ask you a question.

When's the last time you made a deal with God?

You ever make a deal with God?

Oh Lord, if you get me out of this, I'll do anything.

By the way, when I was 17 and thought I'd OD'd, I was hallucinating, thought my teeth were melting, I said to God in the bathroom floor, my mom's bathroom and my mom's house, oh Lord, if you get me out of this, I'll do anything.

Don't let me die.

I'll even be a preacher.

You should probably ask yourself, when's the last time you made a deal with God?

Because Pharaoh made a deal.

Oh, hey, I'm, hey, hey, okay, okay, you can go.

It gets better, boom.

Why?

Because relief is a vain substitute for truth.

Third plague is in Exodus chapter 8, verse 16.

Exodus 8:16

Then the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.

And they did so.

And Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth.

And there were gnats on man and beast, and all the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.

The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.

So there were gnats on man and beast.

Then the magician said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God.

But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

See, the the truth we take away from this consequence is that God says very clearly, My capacity exceeds yours.

Because up to this point, the magicians have been able to duplicate, oh, you turn water into blood, we can do that.

Oh, you made a bunch of frogs, we can do that.

We got a bunch of frogs, we got them all gathered up here, and we're gonna loose them.

See there, big deal.

And God just kind of keeps up in the ante, so it becomes obvious I can do things you cannot do.

My capacity exceeds yours.

Now, if you want to think just a little bit, realize this that in creation, God created man from the dust of the ground, right?

Hello?

God creates man from the dust of the earth and he gives him dominion over the earth.

In the third plague, God creates insects from the dust of the earth and he gives them dominion over man.

It's almost as if God is decreating Egypt and kind of saying, Don't jerk with me.

Have no idea what I'm capable of.

You don't want to go there with me.

You think you do, but you don't, because my capacity exceeds yours.

That's why the magicians tap out and kind of say, hey, we've reached the end of our deception, but God has just begun to demonstrate what He is capable of and display His power.

Let me ask you another question.

When's the last time you experienced something that you knew was the hand of God?

That you just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.

This was the hand of God.

I traveled before I became the pastor and preached all over.

And one of the things I loved about that is I got to meet different people, different places all the place.

And people would come up and say, hey, you're in town for the week.

You want to come to our house and have dinner?

I was like, sure.

Usually it was, hey, our kids really enjoy you.

They don't fall asleep in church.

They want to know if the funny guy can come to our house for supper.

And I'm like, yeah, if I can punch your kid in the neck when I get there, that's great.

And so we would go and I said people's houses.

And so that's where I got in the good, bad habit of asking questions.

If you go to coffee with me or lunch with me, I will probably ask you questions.

Not like Bible, God and Jesus questions, just random questions that come to my mind, okay?

Like I remember I was in this family, simple middle class family, and we're getting ready to sit down and have dinner, and they're passing food around.

We've prayed and everything.

And I just said to the dad, we're talking, I said, I said, How long have you been in church?

And blah, blah, blah how long you've been a Christian?

And I just, it just popped out like a conversational burp.

And I said, Hey, when did God become real to you?

And the guy just kind of looked at me and went, just started sobbing.

I was like, oh, great.

And his kids just lit up.

They were like.

And I was like, what just happened?

Okay.

And the kids were like, tell him, Dad, tell him.

And I was like, tell me what?

And the guy's like, I mean, he is snotting himself.

And I'm like, I don't want to know.

Just keep it to yourself if it's that bad.

And finally the guy composed himself and he's like, okay, hang on just a second.

And his wife's just over there, just if she'd had pearls on and a dress and been vacuuming, she'd have been June Cleaver, okay?

And I'm like, what is fixing to happen?

Can somebody tell me?

And the kids are like, and I said, and the guy proceeds to tell me, when did God become real to him?

And he said, uh about three or four years ago, I lost my job.

And we we we'd sold everything, we'd burned through our savings, we were just down to nothing.

And my wife's like, we don't have anything to eat.

I mean, we we're we we are like broker than broke.

Uh by the way, broke doesn't mean you may have to dip into your savings.

If you've got a savings account, you're not broke, you're a liar.

And that's free.

Uh and and and so he said, My wife, he said, the Lord just said, Hey, get ready for supper.

And and sit down.

So he said, We got ready, kids.

Wash your hands.

We sit down.

My wife's banging pots and pans around the kitchen.

We're like, what are we gonna do?

And we sit down and we start praying.

We let's thank the Lord for the food.

We start praying, doorbell rings, our neighbor says, You know what?

I made this new recipe and it was more than I could imagine.

And it basically doubled.

I made twice as much as I thought.

I have a whole nother casserole.

I just want to give it to you.

While they're praying, the doorbell rings.

And he said, That was my moment, Neil.

God just kind of said, You don't think I got this?

And he said, It was after that I got a job, and we kind of paid off, and we got dug out of debt, and we've never been the same since.

And so I just try to explain to people how real God is, and I'm like, you don't have any idea.

So, see, if I was having lunch with all you today, I'd look at you and say, When did God become real to you?

And by real I mean, oh no, there's nothing there's a cosmic being up there.

I mean, when did God demonstrate himself in such a way that you can no longer go back and think like you used to think about God?

That's what I mean by real.

I don't mean, hey, did God exist?

If you're still grappling with that, that's a whole nother question.

We have an alpha class that'll start here.

After a while, we can get into that.

But God says to these people, and by the way, the past month, everywhere I go, because the Bible says in the third plague, God strikes the earth, and all the dust of the earth becomes these gnats.

You know how much dust there is in the earth?

The past month, every time every time I go to a restaurant, I just look around.

Do not look at a ceiling fan.

It'll kill you.

Because I'm just sitting there going, man, dust that thing.

And the Bible says, all the dust of the earth.

Why?

Because God's capacity exceeds yours and mine.

Fourth plague, Exodus chapter 8, verse 20.

Exodus 8:20

Here's what the Bible says.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, By the way, that's about the second or third time as he goes to the water.

He will go down to the Nile and bathe in the Nile.

Can you imagine your Pharaoh?

You're the most powerful man in the world.

You got your just your bathrobe on, you got your rubber duck, you got your little puff and your body wash, and you're walking down with your entourage, and you're like, oh great, Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes is here.

What do you want now?

He says, Thus says the Lord, let my people go, they may serve me, or else if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses, and the houses of the Egyptians will be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

Thus, verse 23, I will put a division between my people and your people, and tomorrow this sign shall happen.

Fourth plague tells us simply this that God is a caring personal God.

God is a caring personal God.

Uh I I don't watch a whole lot of TV, not that that's bad, uh, but but every once in a while there's something on TV that's just absolutely fascinating.

And this past week I was walking through the kitchen to get something, and my youngest was watching a show called America's Got Talent.

Uh I'm not sure that's a true statement, but in this case it was, because I stood there as a 51-year-old man and watched a man called the Regurgitator.

Please tell me somebody saw this besides me.

Hello.

There's a man who he swallows.

And on this night, he had in his hand five thumbtacks and he had a magnet.

And he said, I'm gonna swallow these five thumbtacks, and then I'm gonna swallow this magnet.

And I was like, no way.

And when he puts it in his mouth, he makes this weird sucking, and I'm like, whoo, dude, you're gonna pull something.

And he did, and then he popped the magnet in, and then he he has this like jacket on, like, what are you, a figure skater?

Get that off, dude.

Uh, with no shirt, and he starts rolling his stomach, and he walks over to the judges and he says, if you saw it, I'm not making this up.

He says, How many thumbtacks do you want me to bring up on the magnet?

And now it's like, shut up.

Shut up.

Somebody after the first episode came up to me and said, Hey, on one episode, he swallowed a film canister and a lid and a goldfish, and he put the goldfish in the canister and put the lid on it, popped it up, and handed it to one of the judges.

And I was like, You shut up.

No.

But he walks to the judges and he goes, How many tax do you want me to bring up?

And they said, four.

And he went, There's one, two, three.

And the whole time I'm thinking, how do you distinguish between the thumb, what you got going on in there?

Now, at some point, probably about now, you should be asking yourself, why does our pastor tell us things like this?

To point to verse 22 of Exodus chapter 8, where God says that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

Exodus 8 · chapter mention

Hello.

I'm right down here in the nitty-gritty details of life.

I'm not far off somewhere watching from a distance.

I, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

Thus, so you'll know.

Here's what I'm gonna do.

I'll put a division between my people and your people.

Tomorrow this sign shall happen.

It see, because they they thought of their gods, you know, Ra, the sun god was up there, and the God of the river, the Nile was over there, and the frog god uh Hecak was over there, and you know, you didn't you just called on them when you needed them.

And God said, Hey, I I'm everywhere.

It's why the Bible says, in all things Christ is preeminent.

It's why he says, Hey, I'm not up in the sky, I'm in the midst of the earth, which is why when Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he says, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

He says, I'm not just way off, I'm right down here in the midst of whatever you got going on.

And so ask yourself this question: Is there an area of my life where it doesn't feel like God is Lord over?

Is it doesn't, is it is there a part of my life that just get, hey, hello, have you forgotten about this?

I know you're God and you're big and you're in control, but what about this right here that I got going on?

What about the fact that we've been trying to get pregnant for three years and so far we ain't pregnant?

It's like every month I get a rejection letter from God.

Can we talk about that?

And the answer is yes, you can.

Can you feel what's going on in this room right now?

Or how about for some of you?

Hey, I've been praying for my sorry rascal husband for 15 years, and he's still not the spiritual leader.

When Stephen walked out and baptized his two sons earlier, some of you women were biting your lip, kind of thinking, man, that would be like a fantasy right there.

And maybe that's the thing.

You just, hey, God, could you just do something about this?

I want to say to you.

God says, Hey, I do this so you'll know that I'm the Lord in the midst of the earth.

Right down here where the rubber meets the road.

Last one we'll look at this morning is in Exodus chapter 9, verse 1.

Exodus 9:1

He says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me, for if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field.

The horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, the flocks.

And get a load of verse four.

But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.

The Lord set a time saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.

And the next day the Lord did this thing, and all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.

And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead, but the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Notice for those three little words in verse 7, and Pharaoh sent.

In other words, Pharaoh didn't believe that God could do or would do what God said he would do.

See, here's the truth we take away from the fifth consequence, and it's simply this that God makes a distinction.

God makes a distinction.

You say, what do you what do you mean?

Look at verse 4.

But the Lord will make distinction.

The Lord will make distinction.

That's the Hebrew word pala.

Pala, and it means to be distinct, marked out, separated, or wonderful.

Hear this again.

To be distinct, marked out, separated or wonderful.

Let me give you a little parenting advice, okay?

You open to that this morning?

Tomorrow when your kids go to school, don't look at them and say, hey, hey, don't you, don't you hang out with little Johnny?

He's a little thug, okay?

That boy's a bad influence.

You hang out with some other kids, or don't say, hey, hey, don't hang out with Lucy because she's a little thug let, okay?

She's a bad influence, you know.

Because what you do is, by the way, when you speak fear on your kids, all you do is make them curious about what you're afraid of.

Instead, when your kids walk out the door tomorrow, look at them and say, hey, be distinct.

Be wonderful.

Or if you really want to jack with their head, say, pala.

Yeah.

Go today and get you a bullhorn.

When you drop your kids off, just as you're pulling weight, roll down your window, just honk it out.

Pala! What is that?

It's my mother.

Just don't make eye contact.

She's crazy.

God makes a distinction.

By the way, the Bible never says we're better than, but it does say we're distinct.

In the New Testament, it says it like this: but you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

God makes a distinction.

The Lord will make distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt.

So nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.

Nothing of everything they possess is going to experience this.

Why?

Because God says I relate differently to my people than I do to people who don't believe in me.

So we've got to stop saying, beloved, well, we're all God's children.

No, we're not.

No, no, no.

God relates differently to people who've been born again, to people who've been converted, or to people who've come to the place where they confess and believe Jesus is Lord.

I'm not.

God is the boss of my life.

I'm not.

I've sinned against God.

I gotta repent and ask God for his forgiveness.

He doesn't have to ask me for anything.

See, the Bible says God makes distinction.

And go back where we started and we'll be done this morning.

See, there's no consequence for unbelief.

And the damning nature of there being no consequence, no distinction between those who believe and those who don't believe, it's a lot of people go to hell when they die with a clear conscience.

And they're part of churches where they have great programs.

They have mops and children's ministry and stuff that helps you be a better parent and stuff that's all great.

But you never come to Christ.

You use the church and you enjoy the church, and that's great.

And by the way, there's no pressure here.

If you're sitting in this room and you've never come to faith, keep coming.

I'm not saying don't come.

Keep coming, but understand that God relates to you differently than he does to people that have already come to a place of faith.

You say, Well, that's not what I believe.

Well, you're wrong.

And I'll demonstrate.

You ever been to a movie where a baby's crying and they don't take the baby out?

And you think, hey man, what you got the kid here for?

It's 10.30 at night.

You got a kid in here.

What kind of parent are you?

You know you think that.

Don't just think, oh, Pastor, you shouldn't think that way.

Hey, if I'm in a movie at 10:30 and your baby's crying, I'm not mad at the baby, I'm mad at you.

Stop being so selfish because when you get kids, you can't do everything you want to do anymore.

Yeah, all you single people.

Oh, that's so negative.

Shut up.

You don't even think you don't know how selfish you are.

That's why you're not married because you're selfish.

Better get up in your business before I let you out of here today.

I'm like, oh man, you're so negative.

Shut all the way up.

Because see, here's what happened.

You get married and you realize how selfish you are, and you're kind of like, dang! I know a friend of mine, he said, Hey, does your wife want to talk all the time when you get home?

Because I don't think I could live with that.

Oh, you're gonna live with that if you ever get married.

Yes, sir.

You can't walk in.

She said, How was your day?

When she says, How was your day?

What she really means is regurgitate every conversation you had today in summary form.

Like a little bird in the nest, worms, worms, worms.

And sometimes you're just like, My life's not that interesting.

But it is to them.

And then you negotiate that and you get it all figured out and you get married, you go, Oh, we got this, this is cool.

And then your wife says, I think I'm ready for a baby.

And that other, that whole little room of selfishness you had walled off, gets opened up, and you gotta kill that too.

Somebody asked my wife, what's parenting like?

It's a slow death to self.

And this lady was like.

Again, the Bible never says better than that.

It says distinct.

See, the reason you don't get up and discipline the baby that's crying in the movie theater, because it ain't your kid.

Now listen to me, we're almost done.

Don't miss this.

If you're not to the place of belief, you I ain't mad at you.

I'm loving you enough to tell you, hey, just because you appreciate or enjoy this doesn't mean that you have a relationship with Christ.

I mean, people, you know, they're like, oh man, yeah, ho.

Some of them just want relief.

They don't want the truth.

I'm just saying, God makes a distinction.

It's pala.

To be distinct, marked out, separate, wonderful.

You gotta be asking yourself, what distinguishes you as a Christian these days?

You think the fish on the back of your car does it?

I've seen the way some of you drive.

Take that thing off.

You think a bumper sticker that says my kid goes to such and such Christian academy or whatever?

We read a Becca books.

No.

We're on vacation about four years ago in Philadelphia and we did a little tour around a little horse-drawn carriage, and they tell you all the historical stuff.

And one of the things they kept pointing out, and they said, now notice this is the home of a Quaker.

And I was kind of like, whoa.

And she said, I said, How do you know it's a home of a Quaker?

And she says, they're never more than three stories tall.

And she said, It's Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

To have four stories meant to put yourself above God for a Quaker.

And I was like, I'm a nerd.

I was like geeked up.

I was like, yeah, worms, worms.

And she said, also, notice the door of a Quaker home.

It's not ornate hardware.

Quakers do not want a lot of the homes have like white marble steps and stuff.

Quakers have a little two-inch cement slab and a doorknob and a knocker.

That's it.

Not these big brass plates.

And about halfway through, she was like, you know, the Quakers live with such an integrated faith that it was always easy to distinguish them from everybody else.

That was four years ago.

Let me say it to you again, I'll be done.

The Quakers lived with such an integrated faith that it was always easy to distinguish them from everybody else.

How easy is it to distinguish you from everybody else?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.