The Very Bad Day | The Road Out 7

Hi.

What up is Mark Carter on the pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

What's up, Church?

Hi.

Thanks for coming out everybody.

For those of you who are coming out again, thank you so much for being here for those who it's your very first time.

Hey, welcome.

We're super pumped that you're here.

And we're just trying to give you good time and help you encountered a little bit of Jesus, and we're believing that's gonna happen.

One of the things I pray for, everybody, everyone who comes in, everybody who's watching online, I pray that you would have revelation when the preaching happens.

That that's a strange word maybe, but what I mean is there's a version of listening to a sermon where you get intellectually stimulated like, oh, I understand what is being said, but there's a different version that happens here.

It's when my heart begins to understand what God is saying to me.

It's it's a very different process and you know it when it happens.

It's like the the preacher is just preaching to this and I'm like, oh my gosh.

I feel like this is more relevant to me than I could could have imagined.

That's what I pray for you.

And that's what I'm believing is gonna happen today and every weekend.

So If you ever want that, you should just come back every weekend.

We're talking today about what to do, what to do when we're experiencing opposition that is trying to shut us down.

That is trying to get us to stop.

I know that everybody's probably experienced something like this.

I certainly have When I was twenty one years old, my wife and I have planted a church that's really, really young.

And we did it for about a year, and then there was an event that it was kind of a catalyst that brought the whole thing down.

Now, I had been praying for two weeks up to the end the the split of that church.

I've been praying, God would you give me your corrections?

That's that's a scary for don't fret that unless you really mean it.

Okay?

I I felt like my heart had grown cold.

I started ministry for fire and excitement and yet something had happened and really ministry became the point rather than God was the point.

And so I said, God would, you know, bring correction to my heart.

Well, he did.

Thank God.

And it was it was painful.

It was hard.

It was like, here we'd we'd started I didn't totally make that connection, by the way, while that that was happening.

We we started this thing.

We felt like, god, it's told us to do something.

Like, we're we're, hey, we're trying to do the right thing out.

And then the opposite of what we thought was gonna happen happened.

And that's really hard, man.

When you're trying to do the right thing, And then all of the wrong things are happening to you.

It's like, what's the use?

Why should I even do this if this is what I'm going to get?

Here's what I wanna submit to everybody today.

What's up online?

People wherever you are?

Hey, we see you guys.

Hey, do me a favor and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you're on YouTube because we don't just put sermons and other stuff we say throughout the week sometimes and you're gonna wanna get it.

Here's what I wanna submit to everybody on a very bad day.

Talking about a very bad day today.

On a very bad day when everyone has left you.

Keep trusting that God will fulfill his promise to you and fulfill his purpose to the to the earth.

He's gonna say fulfill his promise to you and his purpose on your you can count on that.

And some folks that needed to count on that was Moses and Aaron.

Okay.

So we've been in this story.

We've been in in the exodus book that wrote out And we've we've taken multiple weeks now and the whole thing has just kind of been getting ready.

Moses hasn't even done anything yet.

He's been called back to God.

He's been called to go out and demand from Faroe, hey, let the let the Egypt let the Islamic slaves of Egyptians go And he hasn't even done anything yet.

He he took a long time getting ready.

And now he's ready.

And right before he goes, it's kinda like the day before the bad day.

He meets his brother, Aaron.

And and he's his older brother, so you can imagine they're giving each other big hugs.

You know, hey, it's so cool when we have somebody to do life with.

It's so cool when somebody else understands the the the weight of our burden at all.

Like, even if you don't have that right now, if you've ever had that, That's a gift.

And that's what Moses is happening right now.

But it just doesn't just stay with Moses and Aaron.

Check this out.

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of these rights.

And Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses.

So God tells Moses Moses, tell Aaron Aaron's kind of the communicator for now.

He also performed signs before the people and they believed.

And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

So so picture this, guys.

Moses and Aaron, they gather together, like all the the leaders of the different clans of Israel.

And this is a lot of people in case there's two million Egyptian or Israel slaves right now.

So you they they got a big crowd as they're getting these people together.

And they'd say everything that God had told to Moses and then they even show signs.

So so all the signs that God told Moses, hey man, turn your, you know, put your your your staff down is gonna turn into a snake.

Poor some water out on the ground is gonna turn into blood.

So all these people who for four hundred years haven't heard anything from God.

They're like, oh my gosh.

This is going great.

Wow.

Look at this.

I mean, this is a done deal.

God raised up these prophets.

Now, this is just gonna go great from now on, and they they just totally buy in and they start to worship him.

And and it's I'm sure it's a beautiful moment.

Ever's like, man, now we're gonna get somewhere.

Now it's gonna happen because how can Daryl say no to this?

I mean, it's obvious that God is really on our side.

This was the good day.

But they didn't consider that there's really no such thing as untested faith.

There's really no such thing as untested faith.

So a recent study in a recent issue of ink magazine estimated that communication barriers costs the average organization, now it's the average organization that Inc.

Magazine would be interviewing.

But the average organization It cost them sixty two point four million dollars per year from communication mistakes.

From communication mistakes, sixty four million dollars, do you believe that?

And they cite this quote from Steven Covey.

They said, this is what's happening.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand.

They listen with the intent to reply.

And you've done that.

Right?

Like, you've heard somebody, somebody's talking, and you're like, oh, okay.

I hear you a little, but now I'm thinking about what I'm gonna say because I wanna get my thing across.

And sometimes we miss more than we think.

And we don't totally understand what's going on.

Believe it or not, that's what happened with these elders of the Israelites.

They're listening.

They're watching the miracles.

They're listening to It's very important the wording here.

Everything the Lord had said to Moses, Aaron told them everything.

Now let's just evaluate what that was.

Okay.

Stuff like Exodus three nineteen, but I know.

That the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him, or four twenty one.

When you return to Egypt, See that you perform before Farrell, all the wonders I've given you, the power to do, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

They heard all that too.

But they didn't really hear it.

That that won't right over them.

They were so excited about the parts they liked that they didn't really absorb the parts they didn't like.

Okay.

So here's some new testament to promises.

For those of you who are Christ followers, I just want you to remember the whole deal.

Let's listen with the intent to absorb and understand, not just the intent to respond, Jesus, I have told you all I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me here on earth You'll have many trials and sorrows.

Let's just pause.

Let's not get out of the good stuff yet.

You'll have many trials and sorrows.

That's part of Jesus' agreement here.

But take hard up because I've overcome the world.

Or Peter says, you're friends.

Don't be surprised at the fiery trials you're going through.

As if something strange were happening to you, These are part of the promises too, and we've got to absorb them.

And I'm not trying to be cavalier about this because I know that there's so many of us either recently or right now, you're in a trial dude and it's ripping your heart out.

Your guts are all over the floor.

And it's hard to make it through.

So we're not saying, hey, it should be easy for you.

We're just saying, let's make sure that we're absorbing it all the way though.

That God promises ridiculously unimaginable awesome things.

But with that first, there's a bit of trial that comes with it.

So I wanna talk about stops on the road.

Up stops on the road out.

Sometimes when my family and I were going on vacation, in case we We load up the whole van.

Okay?

And there's seven of us.

We so we climb in and we get out of the driveway, and then it's like, oh, I forgot my phone.

So you gotta get out and then go on and get it.

Then we then we get going.

And we get maybe down half the street.

Hey, man.

I really gotta go to the bathroom right now.

Okay.

Well, let's let's go.

Okay.

And then we get back on the road and it's like, oh my gosh, we didn't get gas.

Now we gotta stop.

And wherever we're going, we're not getting there very fast because there's a lot of stops on the road.

You know what I'm talking about?

I was like, man, can we just get there, please?

Well, there's a lot of stops on the road out.

And what is the road out?

It's us escaping from something maybe that we caused or didn't caused, but it's bonded that we're in, whether it's bonded to sin, whether it's bonded to a situation.

Whatever it's bondage to, we're stuck in it.

And God says, I've got a road out, but there's a lot of stops on the road out.

And you've got to look at my pattern of how the road works.

And then we'll get out.

That's what the whole series is about.

So stop is on the road.

First stop is Farrell's contempt.

Farrell's contempt.

Well, we got our say about if there was a real guy, he was he was a real human, but he also is a type.

He's a representation of our spiritual enemy, the devil.

Now throughout the scripture, the bible talks about the devil and gives us more and more information about him as he goes, but we can see his personality very clearly in Faroe and people like Sam Balton to buy it from the book of Nehemiah.

But we're seeing someone who is really real, but also this is how the enemy interacts with those who would follow God.

He's called just This is gonna be weird for a second.

He's called, sometimes, the new testament, the God of this world.

That doesn't mean he's actually ruling the world It just means that he's part of the world that's in rebellion against God.

Okay?

He's kinda leading that charge.

He's he's trying to convince everybody God, you don't want anything to do with that.

Come on and join me.

We're do things my way.

And it says that right in second Corinthians four forty.

Satan, who is the God of this world?

Has blinded the minds of those who don't believe.

They're unable to see the glorious light of the good news.

They don't understand the message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

What is our spiritual enemies number one thing that he wants to do?

Whatever whatever happens.

He says, I wanna fog up anybody's understanding that God loves them and that Jesus is offering to forgive them.

I want them to have the wrong ideas about God.

I want them to think God's always mattered them.

I want them to think Jesus is annoyed them.

I want to think, Jesus can't really do nothing.

He was just a good man.

What?

He doesn't care which which one it is, but he's trying to shut down the gospel.

The the open armed God, this has come to me, and I'll forgive your sin, and I'll restore you.

The devil hates that, and he's trying to shut it down.

Okay.

Apparel's contempt.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Farrell.

Here they go.

Here it is.

I said, this is what the Lord.

The God of Israel says.

Let my people go.

So they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.

Pharaoh said, who is the lord that I should obey him?

And let Israel go.

I do not know the lord, and I will not let Israel go.

Okay.

So just pause here.

Ferro thinks of himself as a god, so do all of his people, and he's very open to lots of other gods.

He's very open to the entire pantheon of other gods, you're like, hey man, Yep.

Yep.

It's okay to worship this God and this God and this God, but as soon as the Hebrews bring up their God, he's like, he's he's disrespecting that God.

This is what he's he's taken a stand against this God and saying, I don't know him.

If if he were a real God, I would know him because I'm a God.

It says, by the way, I don't like being told what to do.

So I don't like this God.

Now this is a front not to Moses and Aaron, it's a front tip to the God that has sent them.

Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.

Now, let let us take a three day journey into the wilderness offer sacrifices to Lord, the God, or he might strike us with plagues or with the sword, this kind of a little bit of a veiled threat.

He's like, I don't know, man.

God might get mad, and then we might get in trouble.

And then because proximity, y'all might get in trouble.

I'm just saying, Farrell, watch out.

But the king of Europe said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor?

Get back to work.

Then Farrell said, look, the people of the land are now numerous and you're stopping them from working.

The spiritual enemy doesn't want to have a conversation about it.

He just wanna give you any favors.

He says, hey, shut it and get back to what I told you to do.

If you're gonna talk about God, You're talking about Jesus.

What what he wants?

Because what what are they doing?

They're bringing they're bringing FARO God's word.

I don't wanna hear that.

Shut it.

This is really Farrell's first encounter with Moses and Aaron and with the God of the Hebrews.

And part of the purpose of this seems to show Ferro's heart that he's a hard, hard villain, that he wants nothing to do with obedience to God.

That he's the opposition to God.

And as he encounters him, what did you say?

He said, who is the Lord that I should obey him?

Now here's Just think about this with me.

See, I never said that precisely to God, but no, when I was a kid, there were there were some like, I knew that there were ten commandments I saw of them and I was like, okay.

Yeah.

Some of those.

But then his life went on.

I would get in situations where I would have this compulsion of like you should do what God wants in this situation.

And my heart would say, who is the Lord that I should do what he says?

Who says I should do that?

Why should I do that?

Aren't I free?

Don't I have a free will?

Can I just do whatever I want?

I do not really know that Lord that is saying that.

And so I'll just do whatever the heck I feel like It sounds villainous, but my friends were all that way.

Now notice this.

This is a little this is my It's a little bit contemporary.

Okay?

So I'm not I'm not getting out of soapbox.

I just want you to notice something.

Just notice how wise the scriptures are.

What FARO is doing here, just for a minute, is he saying, Moses Aaron, that's not my truth.

He says, that's not my truth.

Mattruth is Amagon.

And Mattruth is, I make the decisions around here.

Can I encourage you?

Those of you who wanna honor Christ and especially Christ's word I would offer a a humble suggestion to do something different.

When you wanna say, well, this is my truth.

Maybe try something like, this is my voice.

This is my perspective.

This is how I see it.

And the reason why is because the truth is you don't have any truth anymore than Farrell has any truth.

And and see the people that say, well, I'm gonna do my truth, you're gonna see how it ends for pharaoh.

And when our truth comes against God's truth, which is what is going to happen throughout the entire story, God's gonna win that battle.

And so and so even, you know, I I don't think anybody means any harm by it, but I just think if if you're a maturing Christian, it's it's important to guard the sacredness of what God's word is.

And it's a very different thing than somebody's opinion or somebody's perspective.

Come on somebody.

If you were gonna say, amen, that would have been a great time.

But all the world says it.

They say, I will not follow the Lord.

If you're gonna be a Christ follow her on the way out.

And I'm not saying everybody is.

But if you are, you're gonna be called upon from time to time to speak truth into a situation that is not particularly comfortable with people that don't necessarily want to hear it.

And you're not really called to be mean about it or bludgeon people with it, but you're gonna find that you're called to do it.

In fifteen twenty one, Martin Luther was summoned by the diet of worms.

He had been challenging some of the doctrines of the Catholic church.

Including stuff like indulgences, which is paying a sum of money so you can get a certificate to get your uncle out of purgatory or stuff like that.

It's important to know, we're not talking about today's Catholic church.

We're talking about during the reformation, what the catalyst for the reformation.

We're not talking about people today.

People are very different today.

The church has learned a lot of different stuff since then.

But at that time, they were doing some stuff that was wrong, and everybody knew it.

Martin Luther was just the only one that said it.

As far as he says that he summoned and he summoned to this council essentially where his faith's gonna be decided.

And not only is he likely gonna be excommunicated, but no one's gonna protect him from being assassinated, which was very likely going to happen.

And so he he's told, hey, you gotta recant from these things, man.

You can't say this.

But he's been studying God's word.

He's like, what?

I thought y'all would see this obviously.

This is what y'all's word said.

I don't know what the problem is.

I don't know that I can take this back.

And so they give him a a chance.

Hey, man.

Why don't you think about it overnight?

Then come back and you're going to recant.

So he goes, he prays all night.

And he comes back the next day, and this is what he says.

Unless I'm convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason for I do not trust either in the pope or the councils alone since it is well known that they've often aired and contradict themselves.

I'm bound by the scriptures I have quoted.

And my conscience is captive to the word of God.

I cannot and will not recant anything since this is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.

May God help me.

Amen.

That's a powerful true story.

And we can see it.

Someone's very much in danger and yet they choose, I'm gonna speak truth into a situation that dramatically needed that truth.

And that's how so much that that was the catalyst for so much good that has happened ever since because he decided to be courageous and stand up and say it.

Are there places that we need to be courageous?

I'm not talking about rants on Facebook.

See, the thing about Martin Luther, his his little speech right there, like, you heard that five hundred years later and you're like, oh, gong, that's pretty good.

Right?

I mean, you're like, that age well.

Wow.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, it sounds true and it's like you said it well.

That's really good.

Now, I've got stuff that I've posted on social media that even an hour later, I'm like, that did not age well.

That does not look good from here.

Okay?

And so we're not talking about rants and just being the one.

I guess I'm gonna have to tell them the truth gauntlet thrown down.

We're not talking about that.

Okay?

We're talking about toys.

Come about kindness.

How about respect?

And then in the right places, at the right times, and we even as we as we're gonna see, we learn how to do this over time.

Nope.

I don't think you necessarily get this right all the time.

We speak the truth when we knew, maybe it's about bullying at school.

Maybe you see somebody doing something and and you feel like you're supposed to say something about it.

Maybe your entire family is like, we don't tiding, you know, we don't do that.

And you're like, I feel compelled on the scriptures about the spirit of God.

I need to start tiding.

Maybe for you, you know, everyone's kind of pressuring you into having sex before you get married and yet there's something in your spirit that's like, I know what God's word says about this.

And I've gotta stand back.

I've gotta stand up for this.

Or maybe you see the organization, you see the company doing something that you're like, I I can't get comfortable with this.

I keep trying to and I can't get comfortable with this.

And it might be that you need to say something.

It might even be sometimes that you need to move on.

But whatever it is, Sometimes, my friends, you're gonna be called to say the truth into a into a situation.

Not a rant, but the truth.

And when you do, You're gonna not only have pharaoh's contempt, you're gonna have pharaoh's consequences potentially.

See, opposing the God of this world is gonna produce ridicule and hardship in many cases.

If we're actually doing it.

First time, make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.

You see what he just did there?

He said Moses and Aaron, what you're saying is lies.

And all your people don't pay attention to the Word of God.

Don't pay attention to what they're saying.

And that is one of the things that our spiritual enemy is trying to do the most.

Shut down the Word of God.

Man, call it into question.

Don't let anyone actually explore.

Don't let anyone look for evidence and see if God will speak to them through it.

Like, hey, just just believe platitudes and just just ignore the whole thing and besides this?

What about this?

And what about this?

And what about this?

And we never get down to But but what if God speaks to me through his book that he wrote to me because he cared about me, and he wanted me to know the things that he thought and required, and he definitely wanted me to know about his love.

The enemy is trying to shut us up all the time.

Wanna say us, I just mean anybody that's going to speak truth into the situation.

And today, I mean, it's it's worse than it's been in a while.

Okay?

It's like, hey, you shut up.

If you say anything that the majority of the people don't say, you you are only allowed to say this.

If you say anything outside of our our guardrails here.

You're going down.

You're getting canceled.

We're to shut you up.

You're gonna be ostracized because we only want one version of an opinion.

And you know God's not like that at all.

God is the God that says come, let us reason together.

It's okay to talk this out.

It's okay to hear multiple sides because multiple people have multiple perspectives that can weigh in on this truth.

So I want you to to recognize in the culture when the when the the shout is, hey, shut up or else.

That's the spirit of pharaoh talking.

That's the spirit of the enemy.

I'm not even saying that what someone would spell is good.

I'm saying, I'm just saying, the enemy works one way.

Shut them up.

We don't wanna hear it or there's gonna be consequences.

And when you do speak the truth, I mean, sometimes it'll go really well.

Get a lot of likes and hearts on that thing.

Most of the time, you don't even get this.

You didn't even get a golf cart, man, because it's scary.

It's scary to speak the truth.

And so there is a reaction from Pharrell, and he he creates oppressive conditions now.

He's like, alright, man, we y'all y'all get all this free straw.

Now these were these were straw bricks that if you got a lot of straw, you could bake it into a brick.

But if you have to go find the straw, then you're gonna find less.

It's not strong straw that's kind of been picked out and given to you, you're gonna might find weak straw.

And so now these Israeli slaves, now they wake up in the morning, not only do they need to get get over there, get to work, man, they better wake up earlier because not like it would go find the straw themselves.

Not only that, they're in competition with all the other iswides.

So there's hardship that happens because of obedience and there's physical affliction.

So the foreman of the Israelites lives.

Okay?

These are Israelites.

They go to their slave masters, and they're like, hey, Why are you guys doing this again?

Because it seems like we're getting beat up, but you're not providing the straw.

And they're like, and they bring it to Fairless and feel to Fairl.

But you know, you can't appeal to the enemy because he don't care and he's got no mercy.

And so he just he tells him, you're lazy, go back.

Get out of here.

And then maybe the clincher man.

Because earlier on the good day, everyone was together.

Everyone was worshiping.

They're like, oh man, this is a done deal.

We're we're out of here.

This is really Oversears realized that they were in trouble when they were told you will not reduce the number of bricks required of you each day.

When they left Farrell, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them and they said, and the Lord look on you and judge you.

You've made us obnoxious to pharaoh and his officials and have put the sword in their hand to kill us.

I had to stay, man.

These are the people like, probably they were like, gosh, at least these guys believe in me.

Nope.

No.

They don't anymore.

Their their faith was up and down.

Now they're like, hey man, not only are we not with you, you suck.

You're probably doing the opposite of what God wants.

You're from the devil.

I gotta tell you, man, from time to time, you you know this.

You've seen you've said something true or good.

And you're the response was, you're from the devil.

You're the bad guy.

You're the person that's trying to bring everything down.

We hate you.

Get out of here.

And it stings, yo.

Sometimes, I mean, I've I've I've experienced my share of this.

Even when you're sent to a people, you're sent to an organization, you're sent to a church.

In other words, the Lord is sending you.

He puts you in an environment to be a like, to be, be the the carrier of the fire.

And when you get there, people like, we hate you.

We don't want you here.

Hey, shut it.

Keep that stuff down.

We don't want to hear about that.

And you know, that's a lot like Joseph.

Joseph came four hundred years earlier.

He's the guy who during famine.

He he saved the entire, not only the surrounding nations, but he saved the family of Israelites.

Awesome privilege, second in charge in Egypt.

Of course, to get to that position He'd be betrayed.

He'd be falsely accused of rape thrown into a dungeon and forgotten into obscurity.

For a long time, never really knowing if this thing God had told him about was ever going to happen.

He had to do that.

I love I love the way Psalm one zero five summarizes this.

It says he, meeting God, sent a man before them, the Israelites, Joseph, who'd been sold as a slave, they bound his feet with feathers and placed an iron collar on his neck.

Until the time his prediction came true, as the word of the Lord refined him.

He had him in a dark difficult place.

But there was a day.

The Lord always knew what the day was.

He's gonna open up the key.

Outcomes Joseph, get that dude shaved, put him in charge.

He's gonna start saving stuff.

But he didn't know what was happening that day.

It had not happened for thirteen years.

So how was he to know that it was going to happen this day?

But for all of us, there's a pattern you see.

There's a pattern.

Just like moses just like the word originally told Moses, hey Moses, you're gonna go, tell, throw this, and it's not gonna work.

It's not gonna seem like it's happening.

And yet, I'm still doing it.

This this is where it's it's always to get discouraged because some of you you've been through this.

Maybe some of you are in this right now.

And what is being communicated to you?

What's being whispered in your ear from your spiritual foe is, you see?

These are the consequences for your obedience.

Pretty good.

You like that?

Because that's all you're gonna get.

What's the use of following God?

What's the use of saying anything about Jesus of standing up for righteousness and your generation?

These are the consequences.

And you know just like the devil.

Often, he tells us half the truth.

It tells us part of it so that we won't think through the rest of it.

Because while it's true that those were the initial negative consequences of obedience, They're not the final consequences of obedience.

And that's where a lot of us live right now.

Okay.

I'm getting the initial consequences.

But I haven't yet gotten the good final consequences.

And can I go through this difficult dark place and come out on the other side Believe in God?

That's why we're saying, on a very bad day, when everybody's left you, when everybody's left you, when you are alone in this thing, Keep trusting that God will fulfill his promise to you and fulfill his purposes and the earth.

Because how many know God's still gonna do it?

God's still gonna do it.

And, like, we're looking at Moses, like, Moses, God's still gonna do it.

Like, all hope is not lost.

But here you have Moses confusion.

This is where he comes And he's like, god, what are you doing?

And I gotta honestly, man, I think this is his best one of his best moments in his higher story of Moses.

Because up until now, he's just kind of been like, alright, I'll do what I'm told.

Here, he treats God like an actual friend, and he goes to him.

He's like, I don't understand your plan, man.

What is going on here?

And you know God loves that?

God loves when we treat them like a friend.

God loves when we when we're hurt and we take a step toward him rather than a step back, God loves it.

Moses returned to the Lord and said, why lord, why have you brought trouble trouble on this people?

Is this why you said And sometimes that's what it's like.

It's like, was this why I got these circumstances.

This is why you wanted me to obey.

Ever since I went to FARO to speak in your name, he's brought trouble on this people.

And you've not rescued your people at all.

In fact, it looks like you've done the opposite.

Number one, come to God.

Come to God when you're confused.

When you're irritated, when it's time to pour your heart out like Moses's, and here's what I found.

The longer you stay away, the more painful it stays.

If we just run to gone or to get over this thing, really, that's why we talk about stuff like, how about a daily time with gone?

Or we at least for a little while, we go to the scriptures.

And we we talk to God about it.

Maybe we get out of a journal, we write down the thoughts that maybe he's bringing it to mind or maybe we're just pouring out our own mind before him and putting them somewhere.

By the way, if you went to the grove and went through the how to study the bible series, which is where we teach you how to actually study the bible for yourself, and hear from God, give me a shout if that's you and you think that was dope.

And awesome.

We're we're gonna have an online version of that ready this fall.

We're doing some other girls stuff too, but if you could never make it Wednesday night, We got you, baby.

You're gonna be able to do it online.

So that'll help you do that, but you know that's not enough.

Sometimes even when you got the discipline, even when you're doing the things.

When you're even seeking God, sometimes you will need an emergency meeting.

Sometimes it is so crazy.

You just got so spun out, but I can't wait till tomorrow.

I need to talk now.

Like, I need to cancel my next meeting and we need to talk.

And maybe that means you walk out into the woods, maybe it means you walk into the closet, whatever it is, you say, God, we gotta talk.

Because I'm tempted to run, I'm tempted to be offended at you, and yet I know running towards you is the smartest thing that I could do.

They're they're gonna a handful of times when I felt so rejected by people.

Where I went to a meeting, where I was I thought I was bringing good news, and I got so torn up by church people.

That I that it was like, oh, my guts were all over the floor.

And you know, like life is hard and stuff is difficult and But there's only one man who could fix that and his name is Jesus.

You know what I'm saying?

He's where you gotta go to get fixed when you've been when you've been through the slaughterhouse.

And if you will, you might have Moses' confusion, but that you're gonna get God's comfort.

That's the next stop.

We're stopping at God's comfort.

And I love what God does here.

Because he doesn't.

He doesn't really focus Moses.

Well, Moses, let me explain to you why.

I'll tell you why.

Here's all the whys.

And God typically doesn't do that.

He doesn't give us all the wise.

This is what he says.

Six one, then the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do to pharaoh.

Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go.

Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country.

God also said to Moses, I am the Lord, meaning I am the great I am.

I am that I am.

I appeared to Abraham to Isaac and Jacob as God almighty but my name but my name is the Lord, the great I am.

I did not make myself fully known to them.

What is he saying?

He's saying, Moses first, I'm not giving you any new information.

What I promised to do, I'm gonna do.

Let's review it.

Moses, let's review the promise.

I'm gonna do what I said it was gonna do.

By the way, I'm honoring you because I'm giving you more than I've given anybody before you.

And sometimes we need to come into God's presence to get his comfort about what's going right.

And what's going well?

Moreover, I've heard the groaning of the Israelis, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

He says, moreover Moses, I care, dude.

I'm with you.

I understand this and he doesn't bring it up here, but we can see By the way, I told you all this was gonna happen.

Where this is nothing has changed.

It's the exact same thing.

Therefore, say to the Israel.

She's like, Now go back go back and do what I said.

I am the Lord and I will bring you out from one of the of the egyptians.

He just he declares his word into this situation.

I know reality is telling you my word is not true, but I'm telling you my word is true.

And it's going to happen.

And I will redeem you without Strange's arm, with mighty acts of judgment.

Here, that's what I'm gonna do.

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your god, and then you will know that I'm the lord your god who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and I will bring you to Lattice for and with uplift at hand, give to to give to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob, I will give you into you as a possession, I am the Lord.

He says Moses, here's here's the privilege you get.

In the midst of your hardship and trial, you get to learn who I really am because see, I told you who I was and you got it a little.

Then you went through hardship and you came back to me, which was great.

You're gonna get it a little bit more.

You're gonna meditate on it.

It's gonna sink a little bit deeper.

As we go through trials, sometimes the answer isn't to do something different.

It's not to get a new vision.

It's not to go somewhere else.

It is keep coming to me.

Just keep coming to me.

Because when you come to me, I refine you.

And then you go back to the word and try to do your thing and you make mistakes and you mess something up and you get her, come back and God will refine it.

He says, my word is the same.

Just the day to day and forever.

I'm telling you the same things, but I'm also teaching you who I am and see, Moses can't give anybody else revelation of who God is if Moses doesn't actually have revelation.

Who God is.

And sometimes some of us were like, I really want it, you know, I wanna help people know about Jesus, and I wanna be helpful, you know, at my place of work, I wanna be helpful to my family, I was like, how much should be helpful too?

Part of being helpful though just know is you've gotta get it before you can give it.

You've gotta understand more and more who I am and not to like you understood it, you are understanding it as you go.

You're keeping it tight.

See, he he's intimate as we seek connection.

You guys you've seen this, man.

You know how this works?

Whether you whether, you know, whatever sport you played or if you're an academic, There are certain things.

If you were good, you had to do it over and over and over and over.

And now you're you're in the Jesus training camp.

And you're going through and you gotta do it over and over why do I gotta do this over and over?

Because you gotta get good.

So you know you're getting good when you go through a similar trial and you're like, I'm a little less bothered.

Like, this doesn't affect me the way that it used to.

I'm not saying there's not trials that just blow your head off, but I am saying, there there's little smaller things And what is God trying to teach?

Try to teach Moses.

Moses wanna settle this about underground stuff.

Moses, you get it, but you don't get it.

I am your rescuer.

I am your savior.

I'm your promised keeper.

I'm the one who's in charge of your generation.

I'm the one that will do it.

What does he mean doing nothing?

All you do is talking.

I would never expected you to do it.

You just you just talk.

I will do it.

I'll get them out.

But you gotta wait on my timing.

See Moses, I ain't a master key to just solve your problems the way you think they should be solved.

When do you think they should be solved?

I'm the great I am.

And I've got a great plan.

And I'm trying to let you see my heart as I work my plan.

And it's hard It was hard for me when I failed.

It was hard for me when that church fell.

But you know, I'm so encouraged by the ways God has used it to encourage others, to warn me of failure, to warn others of failure.

Don't like the test of being discontent, but I find that as I train in Jesus training camp, I get more content and life gets better.

Maybe you don't like situation you're in, but can you envision, can you look forward, can you say, but I I don't know how, but I see it by faith.

There's a moment where I'm like, man, I'm so glad God brought me through this training camp.

I'm so glad I got this skill.

I'm so glad we're better at this.

And Moses gets so good at it that eventually he says, we'll see later on, He gets over to these relates a little bit.

He's like, I'm so into God now.

I've seen so much of God God show me your glory.

I don't really care what they do for a while.

Show me your glory.

My my responsibilities are they're getting quiet because all I want is more of you.

Don't you think that's what God is trying to teach us?

So come to God number two, review the promises.

Here's a promise.

Many of many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

Some of you know, Dana Crane passed away recently.

He was here at the church for many years.

You might have seen him whether he had his cane or with his wheelchair's sweetest guy in the world man.

Always had a great smile.

You know, and he had he had a lot of challenges.

And he get discouraged after a while about, you know, the pain he was in and the progress that didn't seem like he was making and there are multiple times, you know, we'd be praying together.

And it was if you could tell us just hard on a man, like, there's a there's It's a tough situation.

Well, he's in heaven right now.

And here's what I'll tell you.

I think I think Dana would tell you.

The Lord delivers them out of them all.

And that's not trying to be like a lame excuse.

The Lord delivers them out of them all.

Whatever the trial is baby, here's awesome thing.

If you're a follower and a lover of Jesus Christ, there's an end date on every trial.

There's a reality.

You're gonna experience where you're, like, trials.

Oh, yeah.

Trials because you never have anymore, ever ever again because you're in the presence of Jesus.

That's pretty worth it.

So we declare we declare it over our lives.

God, you're gonna be faithful.

You know what you're doing.

And he leads us to our choice.

That's the final stop.

It's our choice.

You really get a choice.

You've been you've been to God.

You've been to all the stuffs.

You've gotten his comfort a little bit.

The the promises are on repeat.

You're you're reviewing them again and again.

First night Moses reported that this to the Israelites didn't go well, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

I don't believe a man.

It's it's hard.

Then the Lord said to Moses go, tell pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.

Moses Go do exactly what I said because exactly what I said is what's going to happen.

You just gotta keep going, man.

Just don't stop here.

Just keep going.

Just believe me.

When that church split, I was really discouraged.

I was like those Israelites.

I was like, god, I I suck.

And I didn't wanna hear about ever starting a church or doing much to lead a church ever again.

And over the years, I kept going to God, though, and he kept giving me his comfort.

He kept showing me different ways of like, well, you needed this corrected, and this wasn't good, and and there's a lot of skills that we needed to install you know, here and download some new stuff, and there was a lot of that over ten years.

And Lara kept telling me, Like, hey, there's gonna be another church.

And for so many years, like, I don't want another church guy.

You do a church because I've had a church.

I suck at church.

So why don't you just go ahead and do it?

But then as the years rolled on, there was just this pressure that began to come from the Lord of like, hey man, Hey, little baby Moses told you what to do.

It's time to do it.

I guess, I would tell you, I I know Moses, but there were a lot of chances to just say, not forget it.

Forget it.

I wanna challenge you to look to our master Jesus Christ.

Don't forget it.

Go ahead and obey again even when you don't understand why.

When you when you don't you don't see how it's ever gonna work out.

Go ahead.

Obey again.

When you've got the addiction, you're like, I don't even know why I try.

Go ahead and try again.

When you feel like hardening your heart, you know, I'm never gonna interact with anybody again.

No.

Go ahead and soften your heart.

And engage again because you don't know what God will do.

But here's what Jesus did.

See Jesus was in he's in a heart hard moment.

He's asking the Lord to take it away from him.

He's in the Garden of Yosemite.

And he goes head and he doesn't.

He walks up the hill of Calvary.

And I'm believe he speaks to us right now maybe and says, hey, if you're trusting with your soul, with your salvation.

Can you trust me with your steps?

Can you trust me with the plans you don't understand?

Can you believe that I understand them?

And I know where this goes.

And if I allow even a little bit of pain to hit you, It's because I love you so much and I know where you're going.

And I know who you are then is gonna be worth this fleeting and momentary pain.

So did you fail?

Did you mess something up?

Do it again.

Are you tired?

Getting the results you're getting.

Okay.

They will, you know, learn whatever you gotta learn.

But when it's time, do it again.

Here's why.

Because on a very bad day, When everyone's left you, keep trusting that God will fulfill his promise to you, and he will for fill his purposes in the earth.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

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Whatever challenges your face

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Don't give up.

Hang on to Jesus.

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of you.

Jesus loves so much and we love you.

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Thanks again for listening.