What to Do When Life Seems Harsh | The Road Out 10

I'm so excited about today's message, like sometimes I almost can't stand it.

Sometimes I feel like I'm bringing you like this big awesome cake or pizza or pizza cake, and I was like I can't wait till y'all eat it.

So I really want to encourage you to open up your mind, open up your heart, open up your Expectation and see if God doesn't speak to you today.

You ever had this thought man, it was harsh.

That was harsh.

Like maybe you're watching two political opponents and one of them just and you're like, wow, that was harsh even for them.

Or you're online around social media and someone like post something and then someone gives them this razor sharp response.

You're like, holy cow, that was out of nowhere.

That was harsh.

Maybe you were Practicing, you were in sports, you were whatever sport you were doing and you got through a particular Practicing like dog gone.

That was a little harsher.

That one was a little bit more fierce.

Maybe you were getting feedback and you thought it was gonna be like, oh, this is gonna be great.

I think I did pretty good, I can't wait to hear this.

And you got done with.

You're like, wow, that was harsh.

Like they could have said that sweet.

I don't even know why they were so harsh.

That wasn't even that bad, except for the harshness.

If you've ever had that thought, man, that was harsh.

You might have also had that thought about a season of life.

What do we do?

When we're looking at a season of life, we're like, and I don't know, but that was harsh.

Geez, the stuff I've been going through, the stuff we've been facing, golly that was our, seems like.

Sometimes, like there's so many seasons that are just super easy and then there's other ones that dad gum, that was harsh.

So we're back in the road out series.

We're talking about coming.

The road out is is the exodus coming out of bondage.

Sometimes someone else put us in bodage, sometimes we put ourselves there, but we're gonna jump right into the middle of the story.

So I have to take you back in time and just give you some of the, the presuppositions, as we go into this.

First, you just got to know we're in the very beginning of the Bible.

Okay, so we're in the beginning.

But you got to know that the whole thing is about Jesus Christ.

Okay, so it's really.

It's like one of those movies you can't really understand until you see the ending and then you can go back to the beginning now you understand what's really happening in the movie.

The Bible is the same way.

You don't really even know what's going on in the Bible really until you go see what Jesus does.

And then you come back in time, see, oh, this was God all the time setting up this Jesus thing.

And so God reveals parts of his personality in the first part of the book, but you don't get the whole picture until you get to the last part of the book.

So I'm just gonna skip to the end and just tell you right away God is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ.

He's most fully revealed in Jesus Christ.

John 1 17 said for the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came Through Jesus Christ.

We've been talking a lot about Moses.

Moses is the one, he's the main character other than God in the book of Exodus.

He's learning a lot about God.

He's teaching a lot about God, and yet the Apostle John, through the book of John, says, um, he taught a lot about the law, but he didn't get the whole picture.

There's pieces about God that he didn't understand.

Talk about the law.

So what is that?

The law is this thing that tells us.

It can tell you hey, you're doing right or you're doing wrong.

That's good to know.

But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

It was good for us to know what is right or wrong.

The problem is just doing more and more.

Right never takes care of our wrong.

That's why we needed Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ comes, he pays the penalty for us and he gives us his gift of always doing the right thing.

And now I can get it wrong still sometimes.

And yet Jesus is always covering me as my best friend, making me right with God.

But that tells me something about God.

Tells me that he's both a lion and a lamb.

Sometimes you know, we're looking at these plagues and some of us might even be like gosh.

That's harsh, holy cow, it is harsh.

But you got to understand the whole picture.

God is like a diamond.

Sometimes there's facets of a diamond.

You look at it from different angles and it glows in different ways.

Well, god's got lots of facets and one of them is baby.

He's the very holy God and it's important for us to know that, and sometimes we just want to take that away.

I say no, he's, he's only gracious and patient.

He is, he's the most gracious and the most patient, while also maintaining his holiness and not enduring sin.

So God is most fully revealed.

He's Sometimes like, oh my gosh, that's harsh.

And other times it's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe how gentle and gracious he is.

Even so, he's always to be feared.

Even though he is the lamb, he's still the lion.

Now check this out.

This is the new, this is the New Testament, the stuff after Jesus and like for those of you who've only known Like the gentle, sweet, like carrying a lamb on his shoulders Jesus, that is the real Jesus.

We just got to know what else.

Here's what else Hebrews 10, 31.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of living God.

It's a dreadful when God is correcting us like you don't want to go picking a fight with God.

God is God.

You don't want to go picking a fight with him.

Romans 11 12.

Notice here it is.

Notice how God is both kind and severe.

He's severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness.

But if you stop trusting him, you will also be cut off.

Referring to the actual Israelites of the past.

But his point is unbelief with God is going to equal distance.

So you've got to keep trusting him.

You've come into relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

Keep trusting him to keep progressing, or you're going to have distance.

Now this is going to be hard to understand a little bit, so stick with me.

When we're talking about Pharaoh and the Egyptians, god is demonstrating his judgments to actually show forth his glory.

He's showing the entire world, in all future generations, I am powerful, I'm not to be messed with.

That's true.

That's his message to the Egyptians and his purpose for Pharaoh and all that stuff was just to show God is not to be messed around with, but his purpose for us.

If you're a Christ follower and you're looking at this, you're not an Egyptian and you're not really Pharaoh in another sense.

In this sense God is saying I'm showing you all of this to show you that when I bring hardship and when I bring difficulty unlike Pharaoh and the Egyptians for you, I've promised I'm working it together for your good.

I'm always working for your good.

I'm always your best friend.

See, god is never punishing you if you're in Christ.

He's never punishing you because Jesus Christ already took the punishment.

But he says you're still going to experience harsh times.

And when you're in those harsh times.

Understand, I'm using that for my purpose of displaying Christ likeness in you, growing you closer to Christ, working everything together for your good.

That's who our God is.

That's the whole two testaments together.

Okay, so we got to see the whole God, not just part of him.

Now here I might trip you out too.

Jesus learned obedience to the things he suffered.

That thing used to trip me out when I was here.

Jesus learned obedience.

Isn't he the Son of God?

Wasn't he like before he was even on earth?

Wasn't he the Son of God in heaven?

Why did he have to learn obedience in his Godhood in heaven?

Yes, he always did obey the Father when he was on earth.

He had to learn how to obey experientially as a human, because you and I would experientially disobey as humans.

So I'll give you an example.

He had to learn obedience to the things he suffered.

He had to learn what it meant to be obedient.

When your friend Lazarus is on the verge of death and you're like I'm going to go heal him and the Father's like, no, you're going to wait four days and you're going to let him die, and anything in him that wants to go is going to suffer a little bit and say, yes, sir, I'm going to go ahead and trust you with that.

He learned obedience through the things that he suffered.

When he's on the cross and he's experiencing the death penalty for all of us and he sees his mom there, his mom who's going to be left alone except for the apostle John, he might be so tempted I'm just going to get down, I'm just going to like nuke all of you and take my mom and she's going to be fine.

But he learned obedience through the things he suffered.

He let her go he knew, knowing she would suffer without him.

He learned obedience from the things he suffered so that he could pay for our disobedience and not embracing suffering, but also as a model to us, like, hey, dude, there's some things you can only learn through suffering.

There's some places you can only progress if you follow the Savior into suffering.

Even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things that he suffered.

So here we go.

Because God uses hardship to help us grow, we got to be quick to accept the invitation.

Because God uses hardship to help us grow, we've got to accept the invitation.

The invitation comes and God says I know it's harsh, I'm inviting you into spiritual growth.

I'm going to help you use this instead of it just be wasted.

I'm going to help you progress Now.

I don't want to give the impression I've said this before we're talking a lot about like difficulties and harsh and trials.

I don't want to give the impression to anybody that you can know in advance, always, what God is trying to teach you.

I don't think you can at all.

I think that's ridiculous.

I think there's so much that we don't understand till the rear view mirror, but there's still a heart posture while we're in it that says I don't know what you're trying to teach me and I don't like this, but I embrace it because I trust you.

So we're looking at these plagues again and from the perspective of the Old Testament.

We already went through a lot of the lessons.

Right, we said God is saying your stuff is mine, your body's mine, your heart is mine.

These next plagues are still communicating that, but I wanna look at them New Testamentally.

I wanna look at it from the perspective of okay, this is true, this is what Pharaoh and Egyptians and the Israelites are learning.

But what am I learning as a New Testament Christ follower?

We're learning that God uses harsh seasons to teach us obedience and wisdom and humility.

So today we're gonna talk about three reasons.

God allows harsh seasons into your life and we're gonna learn this it's not a punishment.

It's a platform to propel you into greater usefulness in God's purposes.

It's not a punishment.

Hey, if you trusted Christ, check this out.

It's not a punishment.

It's not a punishment, it's a platform to propel you to greater usefulness in God's purposes.

So here's number one, and then we're gonna go into this first plague.

God allows harsher seasons to produce greater obedience.

God allows harsher seasons to produce greater obedience.

Here's what we're gonna find.

Even though he's gentle always and loves you always and always is patient, god will also give us little warnings of like hey, man, don't play fast and lose with sin.

Don't do it, because it's going to hurt you and sometimes I'm so aware of how it will hurt you, how get in its way and get to you first and hurt you less so you get away from that which will hurt you more.

So we're going to the plague of Hale, verse 13.

Then the Lord said to Moses rise up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh and say to him this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says let my people go so that they may serve me.

For this time I'm gonna send all my plagues on you and all your.

For this time I'm gonna send all my plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all of the earth.

For had I now put my hand and struck you and your people with plague, you would then have been eliminated from the earth.

But indeed, for this reason, I've allowed you to remain, in order to show you my power, in order to claim my name through the earth.

Still, you exalt yourself against me by not letting them go.

Behold, by this time, tomorrow, I'll send a very heavy hail, such as not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

So now, send word, check this out, check out the grace of God.

Send word, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field in for safety.

Every person and animal that is found in the field and is not brought home when the hail comes down on them will die.

Every one of the servants of Pharaoh this is important for later every one of the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord.

They hurried to bring his servants and his livestock into the houses, but everyone who did not pay regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and livestock in the field.

This hail comes down.

We're gonna skip around a little bit.

The hail comes down and it destroys everything.

Chunks of ice coming down from the heavens and it's destroying everything and God is reminding us.

Sin destroys lives.

It destroys your life.

Sin is a hail storm and sometimes we're getting a pre-hail storm so we don't get the worst of what might come.

So you might notice this if you're ever in a season where it's like and my health is beginning to decline and it feels pretty harsh.

If you're ever in a season where you're like I don't know what, it doesn't matter what I do, I can't seem to progress, and I'll tell you, it just feels harsh after a while.

Maybe you had some academic failure, maybe your business flipped upside down.

Maybe you got the house and then lost the house.

Maybe you've had reputation pain.

You ever had this.

This is where, like everybody liked you for a minute and like everything was golden with you, and they're like yeah, look at them, go, and then and now you feel like a fool.

Plants blew up in your face and now you feel shame.

You don't want to face anybody and you're like, wow, this is harsh.

If that's you, it may be that the Lord is allowing this harsh season to grow in you Obedience and wisdom and humility.

It may be that you are feeling like man.

This is like whatever road burn feels like.

It feels like in my heart.

That's what's happening.

A few years ago, kenzie and I, for an anniversary, we went to back to the place where we had lived and had our church split, where we lived at that time, and we're kind of excited.

We hadn't been there in 12 years.

And so we're going to see all the places.

This is in our college Showns.

We go to the places you know we went to college and walking through buildings and just seeing, reminiscing.

And we went back to our old house in this super ghetto.

It was a super ghetto and when we got there I was like wow, I forgot what a super ghetto it was.

And as we're walking around and visiting some of those old places, that was really dude, it was anti-nice.

I remember just saying to Lord gosh, lord, that was harsh, holy cow, you really brought down the hammer, didn't you?

And in his mercy.

I just heard the Holy spirit whisper to me.

I was with you.

I know it's good for you.

Did you see that my flesh was tempted to feel sorry for itself?

I was like man, gosh, gee, shucks.

That was really hard God.

And he didn't give into that.

Aren't you so glad that God doesn't actually give into your pity party sometimes.

Sometimes he'll be so compassionate and so gentle with you and other times he's like, yep, fuck, fuck up, come on, don't get down now.

I know it was hard.

I was there and I was with you and I know what's good for you.

So trust if you didn't like that season.

Even so, I was with you and I know what is good for you.

That's how God rules.

That's how we always rolled Matthew 8, 19,.

Religious scholars really excited.

He's really fired up.

He wants to follow Jesus and he says he asked if he could go along with Jesus.

I'll go with you wherever he's like, full of them and vigor.

Jesus responds Jesus was curt.

Are you ready to rough it?

We're not staying in the best ends.

You know he's saying hey, buddy, just make sure you count the cost, make sure you know what it is to follow me.

It's saying easy.

My pillow is a rock.

This isn't the cruise version, this is the hard version.

And, my friend, sometimes that's what Jesus responds to us with.

He's like dude, I know it's harsh, yeah, it was harsh on the cross it was harsh and you said you wanted to follow me.

So can I just challenge us all?

Maybe it would be good at some point soon to take inventory and to say are there places where I'm playing fast and loose with sin?

Are there places where I'm really pretending I'm skating the edges, I'm like this is never gonna hurt me, I'm fine, everything's good, no one's ever gonna say anything about this to me and I'll move right along.

Take some inventory.

Sometimes we even want to obey.

We just don't even necessarily know how.

Maybe ask God.

God, I don't even know how to do this, we just show me how to do it.

Give me your heart to do it and show me how to do it.

Or maybe, if you're really brave, ask somebody close to you.

Ask maybe someone who's a little bit more advanced than you might think spiritually.

Just say where does it look to you Like I'm playing it fast and loose?

You have people in your life where you're like I ain't telling them cause I ain't gonna hear it anyway.

You have those people.

Here's the thing.

For a few people, you're that person about something, maybe not about everything, but there's places everybody in your circle knows.

I won't talk to them about that because they don't want to hear it.

You'll just go right over their head.

Well, that's what you want to ask about.

That's what you want to ask.

Trusted people say, hey, what are the things?

Everyone is afraid to tell me, but it looks like I'm playing fast and loose with sin.

Take inventory Now just to clarify.

I don't want us to think that we're talking about legalism, about doing the right things in order to keep God happy.

That's called legalism.

That's where I'm saying I'm only right with God if I am doing better and not failing at all.

That's a lie.

You're only right with God because of Jesus Christ.

If you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior and as your forgiver, you don't need to keep getting right with God.

You're right with God permanently.

That's your passive righteousness.

However, jesus does want us to focus on because we're friends.

I'm going to keep trying to please his heart more and more by walking in obedience.

And here's what's awesome, here's what's positive.

You know, jesus works everything together for our good, even harsh.

Well, the thing that he eventually does is he gets into us this awesome character trait of resilience.

Yeah, he'll take you through and it's going to be a little harsh, but you're going to come out stronger, you're going to come out better and you're going to remember that it's not a punishment.

It's a platform to propel you to greater usefulness and God's purposes.

So, number one God allows harsher seasons to produce greater obedience.

Number two God allows harsher seasons to produce greater wisdom, wisdom.

Let's get some water.

We're going into the plague of locusts.

So Moses and Aaron, okay, so it's already about to happen.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him this is what the Lord, the God of Hebrews, says how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Let my people go so they may serve me, but if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I'll bring locusts into your territory and they will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land.

They will also eat the rest of what has survived, what has left to you from the hail, and they will eat every tree of yours which grows in the field.

Then your houses would be filled with them, together with the houses of all the servants and all the houses of all the Egyptians, something which neither your fathers nor grandfathers have seen from the day they came upon the earth until this day.

And he turned and left Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh's servant said to him now check this out.

This might be my favorite moment in all the plagues.

It's a weird thing to have a favorite moment in all the plagues, but this is mine.

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

Let the people go so they may serve the Lord, their God.

Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?

You couldn't hear it, though you couldn't hear it.

Verse 14.

So the locusts came over all the land and settled in all the territory of Egypt.

There were very numerous.

There had never been so many locusts.

No, would there be so many again?

They covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened and they ate every plant of the land and the fruit of the trees, and that the hail had left.

Therefore, nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.

They still came.

They came just the same.

Because Pharaoh wouldn't listen to counsel.

Because he wouldn't listen to counsel, he had lack.

Never had lack so severe that you're like doggone.

This is harsh.

There's just things that seem to have disappeared or we didn't get or we don't have.

We just have lack.

We open the cupboard.

This is like nothing.

We're looking around for where's the stuff and it's not there.

There's just empty and there's just lack.

Some of us.

The reason that's happening is because we've been slow to attend the wisdom parade.

Wisdom is one of the ways God pushes back against lack.

But see, if we're like Pharaoh and we can't hear wisdom, lack, like locusts, will get themselves into everything.

So we gotta speed it up here a little bit.

Wisdom, the wisdom, is everything.

Wisdom is the shortcut.

Wisdom gets you through the dark.

It gets you through the places where you can't see.

All right, I need two volunteers and if you don't volunteer soon, I'm just gonna pick you.

All right, come on up.

Come on up.

Is that Kim?

Got any stuff?

Steve?

Yes, kim and Steve, you guys are just right for this.

Okay, kim, if you can take this side right here.

Thank you, steve.

You're gonna take this side.

Now, guys, just pull it.

Pull it so that it's taught between you two.

Okay, nice and tight.

Now actually you gotta come up here, but you gotta hold it like, right, this high, there you go.

It's a big rope, right, thank God.

Okay, this is wisdom, it's the line of wisdom.

This is actually following wisdom.

Here's the thing.

When we're on earth, when you shave your head, you have to have a hat like this, because you don't have your hair to like calibrate your hotness and coldness.

So I always got this little doohickey, but it also helps you when you want to take a nap, you just put it right over your eyes, and when you want to do a rope illustration at church, you just blindfold yourself, just like that.

When we're going through life, guys, we don't know always the way to go.

We never got that lesson, or we think we know, we're very confident, but as we're going through, we're stumbling over stuff because we don't know the way of wisdom.

Now we find in God's Word oh, here's wisdom.

Now, every step I take, I have an opportunity.

I can hang on to wisdom, or I can be like what's over here, not wisdom.

Come back here my own way.

My own mind, my own pride will tell me leave that.

Just do what's fast, do what's easy, do what's convenient, do what your flesh says.

God says no baby, whatever you get, get wisdom, hang on to it, don't let go, keep on going.

So I keep on going and keep, and as long as I stay on this thing, I'm safe.

As soon as I don't, I guess that's what's supposed to happen, isn't it?

Because I didn't hang on to wisdom, give him a round of applause.

That didn't really good, didn't they?

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Give that to you, buddy.

Thank you.

Y'all still hearing me.

Okay, I broke my microphone.

It's God's plan that we grow in wisdom throughout life.

That's what he wants, and sometimes we're so young maybe we didn't even know that was one of the curriculums.

We're supposed to be growing in wisdom.

If you didn't know, I'm here to tell you today we're supposed to be growing in wisdom.

That means growing in.

Maybe, maybe the way you spend your money, you're growing in wisdom.

See, nobody wants to just miss spend money.

The problem is we never chased wisdom, we never got a plan for our money or we never planned not to be frivolous with it.

And so now we have lack because we didn't have wisdom, or maybe there's other decisions that you're making.

Maybe you're experiencing lack because you decided okay, I know that God's word actually tells me that generosity helps me.

It actually gives me back more than I give.

But because you didn't follow wisdom and hang on to the rope, now you've got lack and God's trying to get you back to the rope.

You're saying I know it's harsh, maybe grab that stinking rope.

Grab the rope, it'll get easier, it'll get better.

Maybe, like you just didn't know how to talk to people in a way that helps you.

Maybe you're one of the folks that just you know you go to work and you just hide from everybody Instead of build relational networks.

They're not all going to be great, but at least there'll be some wisdom of having other people that can be a benefit to you throughout life.

That's wisdom.

We got to grow in wisdom and sometimes God uses lack.

That's really he's saying, like, go study this dude, you're having a hard time here.

Go figure out what really smart people see.

There's really smart people that don't have your problem because they have wisdom.

Where you don't Go, get their wisdom Sometimes, really, when's God going to move?

God says remember Proverbs, go get wisdom yourself.

I told you to get it.

Go get it, get the wisdom, and you won't have lack.

Sometimes we're just we're going through different seasons and there's a special thing that God's trying to teach us in that season.

Maybe you're in a season God's trying to teach you the wisdom of like okay, god, how do I calibrate this?

How do I calibrate family and work?

What's the balance here?

How do I figure that out?

Or maybe I'm a student and I'm trying to figure out what's the balance of fun but also study.

I need the wisdom of God to calibrate that just right for me.

Maybe I've had a significant failure recently and now I need to learn the lesson of wisdom that, hey, baby, you can either let that defeat you or you can make that an opportunity.

It's all about how you frame it and that's the point of bringing you into that season.

Maybe you're in a place of yeah, there's a little bit more lack, but that's because you're spoiled, you're having a bunch of stuff and God's like you actually need less.

Let's turn it down.

You just need less.

America's I hear you all screaming in your hearts Need less.

God's like yeah, you just need less.

You just need to be less addicted to this world so that you're more addicted to me and he might be teaching you that those who you attach yourselves to can bless your life or curse it Sometimes it's, but I just like them.

I want them to like me.

So I'm going to be around people that are cray-cray, people that are bringing they're literally, they're just like an open sewage channel into your life.

I ain't trying to.

Jesus loves them, but that doesn't mean they're helpful for you to be around, because they got so many things that when you're around them, something in you comes back to life.

You're like that's supposed to be dead.

This is, oh my gosh.

I guess there's big stakes for this, like, especially when you start talking wedding rings.

Like you, whoever you chain yourself to, dude.

This is what the servants of Pharaoh found out.

Okay, because they're pleading with them.

What are you doing?

And yet they can't do anything because they're his servants and there's people, there's spouses, one spouse of the other.

They're a channel of hell into the family and into the marriage and y'all stuck together.

This is hard.

I don't like swimming in this sewage and yet there's nothing they can do to get away from it, because they didn't have the wisdom, they didn't grab hold of the rope.

And I'm not condemning anybody.

God works with what you got.

Whatever you show up with to Jesus, he works with that.

But if you're not there yet, pay attention.

Pay attention to who you couple up with, because whatever hell they got, baby, it's flowing into your life.

Walk with the wise and become wise.

Associate with fools and get in trouble.

Get in trouble One of my early mentors.

He was a half mentor because he knew a bit and he taught me a bit about following Christ, but he also he had some warning stickers on him that I just really couldn't read at the time because I was so young, but they were there just the same.

There's little betrayals of integrity that he would make.

There's little places he would react to somebody.

I'm like dude, what are you doing?

You're trying to lead me spirits and that's what you do.

That's not what Jesus does.

Notice those things.

I should have noticed that A lot of hell broke into my life because I didn't.

I didn't wise up.

And here's the promise of God through James If you just pray for wisdom, you'll get it.

It ain't even that hard.

Just ask.

Ask for more wisdom daily, ask.

Here's a great prayer.

If you don't know what's pray, here's a prayer to pray, pray, god, give me a word of wisdom every day.

A word of wisdom means God sees your life and he's gonna communicate to you through the Holy Spirit, through the scripture, maybe through somebody else.

God communicate to me.

I want your direction, but I want general direction.

I want a word of wisdom.

I don't even want to just know secret things about the universe or people, I want wisdom.

God, from your perspective.

You see my life.

What's a really wise move right now?

God will give it.

Yes, he will.

Devil said no, he won't.

Well, jesus said yes, he will.

Yes, he will, he'll give it.

He'll give to anyone who asks and he'll give liberally, because he's trying to teach us in our trials.

It's not a punishment, it's a platform to propel you and to greater usefulness and God's purposes.

Here's the last one.

Do you think you can handle another one?

See, we gotta have the deal going here.

Man, if I'm gonna give you this meaty stuff, you gotta know that Jesus always loves you and he's always gentle and he's always kind and he's always overflowing with compassion and affection for you while we talk about harder issues.

So here's the next one the plague of darkness.

Yeah, god allows harsher seasons to produce greater humility To produce greater humility.

So Moses reached out with his hand he's already in the process now toward the sky.

And there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

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

But all the sons of Israel sons of Israel now, the Egyptians had light in their dwellings, but Pharaoh hardened his heart.

He's not willing to let them go.

Then Pharaoh said to him get away from me, be careful, do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.

But for Pharaoh there's consequences for not prioritizing humility.

And this plague of darkness, this is a strange one.

Again, this is not an amplification of something that already happens in nature.

This is like the Nile turning to blood.

This doesn't happen.

And God makes.

In a certain area of land it is darker than night.

It is dark as a cave.

When I was a teenager in some of the Caribbean islands, my parents would take us to different places.

One of the places we would visit was caves.

That would go like half a mile, a mile into the earth.

Okay, and you can't see nothing.

Dude, you get 20 feet in, you can't see nothing.

You put your hand right, you can't see nothing.

The only they got one little rope that kind of goes from the back of the cave up to the front, and if you don't hang out of that rope, if you ever like, lost your rope now today we've got cell phones probably would be a little bit better, but back then, dude, there was nothing.

You're just lost.

You don't know which way to go.

You are in the dark.

That's the kind of dark.

It's dark.

The Bible says that they could feel they can't just turn on the light.

They had light back then.

They didn't work.

You couldn't do that.

They're in darkness.

And there's a spiritual message.

And God said Pharaoh, your pride is blinded, you and all your people, your pride has blinded you and all your people.

Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness, before a fall.

Let's see the thing with the thing with prideful people.

They only see what they want to see, they only hear what they want to hear.

And you and I might be dealing with a spirit of pride when we just don't even think to ask other people.

Hey, I think I might be a little bit wrong with this.

What do you think?

Hey, give me your feedback on this.

I'm really kind of jutting forward fast.

Would you help me?

You know, give me a perspective.

Prideful people never have that thought.

They don't even think to think such things.

They're suspicious of any other opinion.

They're like well, that's not what I think.

If you said that in your brain recently, well, that's not what I think.

Be careful.

That's the prelude to darkness.

That's spiritual blindness.

That is it's got to be in my opinion.

And see, when we get into that place where we're just, we're just haughty dude and sometimes, like we get there naturally.

Heart once said that pride is like bad breath.

You're the last one to know that you have it, like everybody else knows that we have it.

If that is you or I, you might be experiencing that and you don't even see that.

That's the problem when you're spiritually blind.

You don't know you're spiritually blind.

You just don't have direction.

You're just.

You might be very much set up for a moral failure.

You might be very set up to lose your connection from God.

Proverbs 3,7,.

This is in here on purpose.

Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Fear the Lord and shun evil.

It's a big deal, baby, and it's especially a big deal if you lead anybody.

We're almost done.

If you lead children, if you lead employees, if you lead teammates, if you lead them, the stuff that is in you.

This is so bad.

Two things could happen.

One is better.

One is they're gonna look at you and be like I ain't never gonna be like them.

Ugh, you ever had a leader like that?

You're like you're totally telling me exactly what not to do.

I never want to be like you.

You make the whole thing bad.

I never want to do that.

That's the better of the two, because the other one is those other people inherit what you are.

They become like you.

They become evil like you.

They do the things that you do, not even really knowing they're doing it wrong.

You ever seen like the culture of the leader, whatever that is?

You've seen this on teams.

Whatever the leader's doing, that tends to be what's happening on the team, because people embrace their ways and because kind reproduces after kind.

That's how it goes.

But on the positive, if we'll embrace it, if we'll just say God, it might be that you're trying to teach me to trust in my own wisdom less, trust myself less.

If we'll embrace that, if we'll tell the Lord that, then he might actually give us humility, like he did to Peter.

See.

Peter gives us the new Testament version of what's happening to the Egyptians.

Remember what happened, peter?

He did he betrayed, he got it wrong.

He was wise in his own eyes.

He bragged about how great he was and he was never gonna go south of him.

He brags about that and then Jesus gets rest.

Jesus is rested, crucified.

Peter runs like a scared little twippo and then he's really sad.

Jesus rise from the dead.

Finally, they have this meeting.

Jesus is with Peter.

This is John, chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

And Jesus isn't scolding him.

He's not like see, you got to plague.

What is he?

He's friendly, he's affectionate.

He does talk about it, though he's like, hey, man, you were a little arrogant there, weren't you?

Do you really love me?

Cause you said you didn't even know me?

Jesus, heart to us today.

If you've made any of these mistakes, if you're experiencing the harshness and you're like I'm experiencing places where maybe I'm a little bit prideful, I'm experiencing places where I'm a little bit wise in my own eyes, I'm skating the edges of obedience, just know that Jesus's attitude toward you is the same as it is to Peter.

We see him more fully now.

It's hey, man, I'm with you, I love you.

Just turn around and I can use even this.

God uses harsh stuff to get our attention about obedience and wisdom and humility and if we'll let him, even in the pain, he will transform it into us closer to Christ and more like Christ.

It's not a punishment.

It's a platform to propel you to greater usefulness and God's purposes.

Let's pray Now for those of us who might be in it right now and it's feeling harsh.

I pray that they would know the sense of your affection.

I know you have affection for them, but I pray that they would know it better.

Feel it, god.

If there's any way in us that you're trying to correct, maybe we just we're just not seeing it, maybe we're spiritually blind.

God, would you open our eyes?

Would you gently correct us, even if we're getting close to the edge, even if we're playing fast and loose with sin.

We don't wanna walk in condemnation, but we don't wanna flirt with that.

What you say is dangerous.

Holy spirit, we ask you to do exactly what you were sent for Lead us into all truth, sanctify us by your truth, help us to know the God of all affection and compassion and yet the God who is definitely to be feared, definitely to be feared, in Jesus' name amen.