Learning Obedience Through the Plagues of Exodus

Oh, Crossing Nation, I love you and I hope you've had a great

week. But I also know there's some of

you who you've had a week that you were not planning on having.

And I want you to know that as a church, we are in your corner as

you navigate the highs and lows of life.

To those of you who are joining us for the first time or the

first time in a long time, we are so thankful that you are

here. And to those of you gathered at

our physical locations, watching online or gathering on the

inside, I'm glad that we get to hang out today.

I got to tell you this, the sermon today, I think you're

going to survive it. It's not going to be that bad.

But I've got to tell you, I am so excited about next week's

sermon. I almost want to preach it

tonight. And if if you're like me and you

have people that you care about that don't have a relationship

with Jesus, next week I'm going to be preaching a message on the

10th plague and you're going. A plague sermon does not sound

like the sermon I want to invite a friend to.

What if I told you that that sermon is not just about what

happened in Egypt and the 10th plague, but it is about Jesus on

the cross and it is about the communion that you take every

single week. And if you know a friend that

struggles with shame, if you know a friend that struggles

with guilt, if you know a friend that struggles with the past,

you could not find a better weekend to bring a friend.

And so if you're the kind of people that want to make this

region the hardest place on planet Earth to get the hell

from, next weekend will be the perfect weekend for you to bring

that friend. You will not be disappointed.

That being said, we are in a sermon series called Decisions

in the Desert. And every single one of us, at

some point in time, we are going to find ourselves in a desert.

And the decisions that you make in the desert, they end up

defining us. They determine our destiny and

during this series we are looking at one of the most

famous stories in all of the Bible and one of the most

referenced stories in all of Scripture.

We're looking at the life of Moses and the journeying of the

people of God out of the hands of the Egyptians in slavery in

Egypt, through their journey in the desert all the way to the

promised land, which is a modern day Israel.

This sermon is relevant to what's happening there and in

this series. Not only is it going to help you

understand the Old Testament better, it's also going to help

you see the New Testament and Jesus in a brand new way.

It's going to change the way you see Jesus, the way you love

Jesus, and the way you follow Jesus.

Quick recap, the first two weeks we've been focusing on Moses as

the leader. He's the one that God has chosen

to lead the people out of captivity.

And in week 1, Jerry talked about our identity, that you and

I need to see ourselves as children of God.

And that is what we are. And when we view ourselves as

children of God, it changes how we view God because God is now

seen as our Father. But it also changes how we view

other people because they are children of God too.

We also learned, and I hope you guys wrote this down, that

proximity to God is more important than productivity for

God. If you focus on proximity,

getting close to Jesus, the productivity, the things you do

on behalf of Jesus will take care of itself.

Last week we learned about the dangers of trying to do things

on our own power and on our own strength, that our confidence

should not come in our ability. Our confidence should come in

God's ability as he works through us.

And pride is the most destructive of sins.

God can't use anybody with pride.

So what God does is he tears us down to the foundation before he

begins to build us anew in Him. All of this is found in the book

of Exodus, the second book in your Bible.

Now this name, Exodus is actually taken out of the Greek

version of the Old Testament, which people call the

Septuagint. The name Exodus simply means a

going out, a departure. This is found.

This word actually shows up in Exodus chapter 19, verse one.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

So they're reading through this book and in Exodus chapter 19

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

verse one, they're like Exodus. You know what we should call

this book Exodus? Here's where it is.

On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left

the word there, they exodus Egypt.

On that very day, they came to the desert of Mount Sinai.

They left Egypt, they departed Egypt.

Now, I know that sometimes, and I'm not saying I mean you guys

do, but you know a friend who is scrolling on X or Facebook or

TikTok, and something about that algorithm likes to promote

theological morons who like to help you deconstruct your faith.

And they'll say something stupid like, well, Exodus is not in the

Jewish Bible. Well, they don't call it Exodus

in the Jewish Bible. They're correct.

In the Jewish Bible, they actually call that exact same

text, the exact same scriptures, a different word.

They call it shamat and that is a Hebrew word for the and it

means names. And the Jewish people decided to

take the very same text and they named it shamat which is found

in Exodus chapter one verse 14. And the word Exodus simply or

the word, the word shamat means names.

So why they are reading the book of Exodus, They go, these are

the names shamat of the sons of Israel who went into Egypt with

Jacob, each of his family, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,

Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan NAFTA, Lee Gadnasher.

So if somebody ever comes up to you with a little Exodus quiz,

whether you see something says someone stupid, you just send

them this link to this sermon, OK?

And you'll be surprised. I'm going to start giving you

more and more of those because when I scroll through, I see

people saying stupid stuff. I'm like, I don't have all day

to just dismantle all the stupid that's out on social media.

By God's grace, I'll take it down 1 brick at a time.

OK, now let's catch up on the real story.

Moses and Aaron have been commissioned by God.

God tells them you are supposed to go to Pharaoh and say let my

people go. I want my people to be taken out

of slavery and I want them to come and worship me in the

promised land and so they go to Pharaoh.

God told us that you're supposed to let us go.

And you know what they were thinking?

Probably the same thing you're thinking.

If God says it, it's going to be pretty stinking easy.

Pharaoh, let us go. Guess what Pharaoh says.

Huge surprise. Pharaoh goes no.

Imagine you're Moses and Aaron. You heard God, right?

He said we. Yeah, He just said no.

Pharaoh not only says no, he turns to all the Israelites and

he says, because you guys are trying to leave, I'm going to

make you keep having to make, since you're in slavery, the

same amount of bricks that you've always had to make.

Except this time we're not going to deliver the straw to you.

You're going to have to go out and gather the straw and make

the same amount of bricks. This frustrated the Israelites.

And so the Israelites go, hey Pharaoh, cut us some slack.

We can't do this. We can't keep making the same

number of bricks everyday and have to go out and gather the

straw in order to do so. And Pharaoh said, keep making

the same number of bricks that I told you and you have to go get

and they're going. Hold on a second, Moses, Aaron,

you showed up. You said you were going to

deliver us. You didn't deliver us.

You said Pharaoh's going to let us go.

He didn't let us go and he made our job harder.

We went to Pharaoh to say, hey, you've made our job harder and

you got to stop making our job harder.

And he said no to that. Exodus chapter 5, verse 22.

Exodus 5:22

Moses turned to the Lord and said, why Lord, have you brought

trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?

How many of you have prayed a similar prayer?

Glad you came to church. Verse 20, two or three.

Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has

brought trouble on this people and you have not rescued your

people at all. Anybody here ever frustrated

with the timing of God? Glad you came to church.

Let's keep going. Next chapter.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Ready?

This is going to help you explain everything that happens

in the next 9 plagues. 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.

Pharaoh is not going to let you go.

He's going to kick you out. Let's keep going.

God said to Moses, I am the Lord.

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob as God Almighty, but by

my name, the Lord. I did not make myself fully

known to them. Keep going.

I also established my covenant, my agreement, my relationship

with them, to give them the land of Canaan, modern day Israel,

where they resided as foreigners.

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites.

Israelites were in slavery, and if you were in slavery, you'd be

doing a lot of groaning. How many of you you've been in a

situation that stinks if you didn't raise your hand?

We don't understand you. OK, I'll ask it again.

You've been in a situation that stinks and you've wondered, does

God hear me complaining about my stinky situation?

Glad you came to church, God says.

I have heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians

are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

I made an agreement with your great great grandpa.

I made an agreement with your great grandpa.

I made an agreement with your grandpa about my relationship to

this family. And I've heard the groanings.

I've heard what's going on, and I have not forgotten the

relationship and the promise that I made.

Keep going. Therefore Moses and Aaron.

Go back to the people that are frustrated about making the

extra bricks. Go back to the people that are

frustrated that they're still enslaved.

Go back to the people that are tired of being in this situation

and say I am the Lord, I'm God, and I will bring you out from

under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being

slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched

arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

I will take you as my own people and I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you

out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Verse 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with an

uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

I will give it to you as a possession.

I am the Lord. Let's keep going.

Moses reported this to the Israelites, but the Israelites

did not listen to him. Been there because of their

discouragement and harsh labor. Let's keep going.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to

let the Israelites go out of this country.

Verse 12 But Moses said to the Lord, if the Israelites will not

listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me?

Since I speak with faltering lips, let me teach for a bit and

then I'll preach. Moses was not responsible for

the results. He was responsible for being

obedient. He was responsible for telling

the Israelites that God was going to let the people go.

He was responsible for telling Pharaoh let the people go.

And when God says it, you can trust it.

When God says it, it will come to pass.

It may not be on your timetable, but you can count, you can mark

it. It will happen.

There are some of you today that God has told you to do

something. He has revealed something to

you. He has convicted you of

something. He has given you a word and you

are presently not seeing any deliverance.

You're not seeing any change or you're not seeing the change

that you thought you would see. You're not seeing the harvest

from the seed that you planted. However, you are not responsible

for the fruit. You are not responsible for the

growth. You are responsible for your

obedience to what God has told you to do.

And out of this, God says, I'm going to show everybody,

everybody, look to everybody and say everybody, everybody.

I'm going to show everybody that I am God.

And how does God do it? How does he bring about these

mighty acts to reveal not just to Pharaoh, not just to the

Egyptians, not just to the Israelites, but to Aaron and

Moses that he is God? He does it through something we

call the plagues. Now the plagues, there's a

softer word for them, signs and wonders.

When Jesus shows up and reveals himself on earth, he does so

with signs and wonders. We call them the plagues in the

Old Testament because they're called the plagues.

But the plagues are also called by the Old Testament signs and

wonders. You might not believe me, but I

just want to quote God for a second.

Exodus Chapter 7. This is God talking.

Exodus 7 · chapter mention

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

And though I multiply my I told you, I told you I wasn't in

Egypt, He will not listen to you.

Then I will lay my hand on Egypt with mighty acts of judgement.

OK, That's where we get plagues. And I will bring out my

divisions and my people, the Israelites and the Egyptians

will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand

against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.

These plagues are miracles with a message.

These plagues were designed to teach and to punish.

It was to teach Israel. I am the Lord your God.

I can be trusted. I should be worshipped and I

should be followed. And it is an act of punishment

on the cruelty that the Egyptians have been inflicting

upon the Israelite people. It begins with a crazy story.

God tells Aaron to throw down his staff, his big stick down in

front of Pharaoh and it was going to turn into a snake.

Listen, This is why I am not in the Old Testament because the

God could tell me to throw my staff down and it could turn

into a snake. But when he says pick it back

up, I'd be like, got to go K, I'll beat Usain Bolton out of

that place. So no here, think about this.

Put yourself in Aaron in Moses shoes.

You throw it down, it turns into a big snake, like a cobra, OK.

And then Pharaoh's sorcerer's magicians, they throw their

sticks on the ground and they become snakes, too.

What? I thought you were supposed to

show off, and these guys can do what you can do.

Would you be a little frustrated by that?

But then Aaron's snake, obviously, it's kind of have a

little bit of a hensel in him because he eats all the other

snakes. Like these are Fruity pebbles.

We're eating them up now. Then they start a a series of 10

plagues. We're only going to talk about

nine. Now.

These plagues happened over a period of about six months from

October to March. We would call this winter.

How many here? You don't like winter?

You're going to love the plagues then.

OK, So the first plague is he turns the water or water of the

Nile into blood. This plague got the attention of

everybody all at once. This is like COVID, no toilet

paper. Like everybody's going, we got

to do something about this. Everywhere they turned, the

water has been turned into blood.

This affected the Israelites and it affected the Egyptians.

Crazy thing is, guess what the sorcerer's of Egypt were able to

do? They also were to take water and

able to turn it into blood. This is really interesting.

Plague 2 Frogs Seven days after the water of the Nile is turned

to blood, there is a plague of frogs that come up into their

palace, into their homes, into their beds, among their kitchen

instruments. Frogs are absolutely everywhere.

Check this out. The Egyptian sorcerers are also

able to make frogs, and you've got to be going.

How come these people can keep doing everything that's

happening? Interestingly enough, though,

the Egyptian magicians can make frogs, but they can't make them

go away. So Pharaoh has to come to Moses

and go, hey, can you stop with the frogs, please?

So the next day Moses asked God, and God said OK, and all the

frogs died. They died in their houses, in

their courtyards, in their beds, in their kitchens.

And so they went around and scooped them all up.

The Bible tells us this. They piled them in heaps, and

the land wreaked of all the dead frogs.

Plague 3 gnats. Our American word would be lice.

Ladies, if you know somebody who's had lice, you know this

ain't good. We could take a cue from the

Egyptians here. The Egyptians hated gnats.

They hated lice, and so they would shave their bodies so that

way the lice would not be attracted to them or determined.

But it did not help one bit. One God sent lice and gnats all

over the land, and the magicians tried to produce the gnats, but

they couldn't. Now here's an interesting little

side note. This is why I love the Bible.

If you're going through some plagues, do you want Pharaoh's

Sorcerer's making more of the bad thing?

I can imagine just being one of the sorcerer's.

Like just assumed you're the jacked up messed up person who

has access to secret arts. You showed up for work one day

and you threw your stuff on the ground and it turned into a

snake. It was your favorite staff.

And then Moses or Aaron's staff ate your stick.

And so you walked home without your cane.

Like, what in the world? I like that cane.

It's gone. It's now Aaron's and Aaron's

snake's, cane's mouth. OK, then you have the you have

the plague of blood. Don't you think you'd want to

make clean drinking water? But what did the sorcerer's do?

They made more bad water. Doo Doo Doo.

Like, what are you? What are you doing?

Oh, plague of frogs. You know what?

We could use more of more frogs. So they made more frogs.

All of a sudden you get to the gnats and the lice and they're

like, you know what? We can't do this anymore.

I don't know if they couldn't do it.

If they're like, listen, man, we got to get out of here.

This is getting out of hands. Now, here's what's crazy.

You need to know this. There are indeed dark arts.

There are indeed demonic powers at work in this world.

There are times when there are demonic powers at work in you

and around you, but I want you to know something.

They are not at any moment in time, something to be feared

because they in no way, shape or form have any power against

prayer, the presence of the Holy Spirit, or the name of Jesus

Christ. We can walk into the darkest of

places over equipped for whatever it is that we face.

Plague #4 at which plague would you start to go?

Something's going on. The Egyptians are slow learners.

So are the Israelites. Plague 4 flies.

There are probably all kinds of different insects, but one of

the insects that was most likely a part of it was the scarab

beetle. The reason why this is kind of

interesting is because the Egyptians worship the scarab

beetle as a sign of immortality and all of a sudden you are

covered in them. In many ways, the plagues that

God does on the Egyptians are an attack on the gods of the

Egyptians. The the Egyptians were

polytheists. They believed in all kinds of

gods. They had gods for absolutely

everything. And through the plagues, God

starts basically taking a sniper rifle to each of their gods and

going what about that? What about that?

You can draw a pretty strong connection to the different gods

of Egypt and the plagues that took place.

However, while this is happening, the Egyptian gods are

silent. They offer no help, no reprieve,

no rebuttal, no protection. He is showing them that the

thing that you are worshiping did not sustain you, the thing

that you are worshiping did not create you, and the thing that

you are worshiping cannot take care of you.

God is showing the Egyptians and the Israelites that there is

only one true God and He shouldn't be messed with, but He

should be obeyed and He should be followed in many ways.

As you come to faith in Christ, you will have the exact same

experience. You will have to dismantle your

own gods and start seeing them for what they really are.

Now your gods look different, but they're just as devastating

for you. It might be your worship of your

body, the worship of your money, the worship of your relational

status, the relation, the worship of your health, the

worship of your possessions, the worship of your position.

And you have a hard time following Jesus because your

true allegiance is to a false God.

And just so you know, false gods are no gods and no God will save

you. But something special happens

during this plague. God deals differently with the

people of Israel. You see, the people of Israel,

they lived in Egypt, but they have their own place in Egypt

and it was called the land of Goshen.

It was where all the slaves lived, their barracks.

It's where they eights raised. Their family was in the land of

Goshen. And in the land of Goshen there

were no flies. Where the people of God were,

there was no plague. If you were standing on the line

of Egypt and Goshen, you'd be covered in flies.

No flies. He was showing them that there

is something uncommon about these people who called on the

name of Jehovah. Here we find ourselves with a

little bit more in common with Pharaoh than we want to admit,

because here Pharaoh actually begins to try to compromise with

God and compromise with Moses. He goes, listen, don't go away

forever, but if you want to go away for a little while, that's

fine. Just don't go too far and, and

just take the men, don't take the families.

He starts to enter into a negotiation with God and that's

what we do, isn't it? We want an aspect of God, but we

don't want the whole thing. We want to be somewhat faithful,

but not completely faithful. We want to give him ground, but

we don't want to completely surrender.

We want to give him the room in our lives, but we don't want to

give him the whole house. And partial obedience is

disobedience. How many of you raise your hands

if you as a parent, you counted when you were dealing with your

kids? I'm going to count to three.

One, I'm super serious. Two, don't make me get there.

Two and one quarter. You know what that is?

We are manufacturing disobedience.

We are telling them you can obey.

Just don't obey until the last possible moment.

God is the best parent of all time and he doesn't count plague

5 the death of the livestock. He kills all the livestock in

Egypt, but none of the livestock in Goshen.

No cows, no sheep. I don't.

That's it, That's all I got. If you are an Egyptian and

you're just walking through all the dead animals, you got heaps

of frogs smelling up the place, Fluffy gone.

But over here kids are still playing with their dogs.

You'd be going. What is going on here?

Plague 6 boils, the boyles show up, these warts that are oozing

and hurt and they land on the livestock and on the people and

you might be going hold on a second.

Didn't God just kill all the livestock?

How are the Egyptians having livestock with boyles?

Great question. TikTok.

Here's a couple things. One, they could have stolen from

the Israelites because the Israelites were their slaves.

So like, hey, glad you guys got all your livestock.

We'll take some two. They could have gone to the

neighboring countries and bought them, which have been incredibly

expensive. Third, remember, these things

happened over a period of six months.

So these animals get absolutely pelted with boils.

The magicians get mentioned in the text again.

This time the magicians can't stand because they're so

afflicted with boils. So now the magicians are coming

in after like Wheeling themselves in on their little

Egyptian wheelchair. They're they're skiing, they're

skiing in Egypt and they can't even stand.

So they used to be mimicking everything that God did and now

they can't even stand in the presence of God's man.

Here's where God hardens Pharaoh's heart.

Throughout the 1st 5 plagues, Pharaoh could have turned at any

moment in time, but he didn't. And so at this point in time,

because he chose the cruel and God denying path, God hardened

Pharaoh's heart. This is a subtle reminder for

every single one of us. You have time to get your heart

right until you don't. So don't waste your time or your

choice. When my kids threaten to leave

the house, we move them out. I've told you guys this story

before, Maddox. One time is like, I'm leaving

this house. I don't want to be here anymore.

Like, OK. And he starts running up the

stairs. I'm like, what are you doing?

He goes, I'm getting my clothes. I'm like, you don't have

clothes? He's like, what?

I go, those are all my clothes. You can't be a thief too.

So if you're leaving, you're leaving without any clothes on.

So he comes downstairs. I'm thinking I solved it.

I'm eating free pebbles. He comes down butt naked, walks

outside with a towel around and throws the towel inside and

shuts the door. I'm like, Oh my goodness, so

much like your mother-in-law. Like what do I do with this?

And but then he couple minutes later he opens the door.

He's like, I'm staying here one more night because I don't want

do I want my kids to leave? Of course I don't, but I'm not

going to let them barter and have me live in fear constantly

that they can move out at any moments notice and that somehow

I'm going to not be the father I'm supposed to be in those

moments. So you'll harden their heart.

If you want to go, go put them outside, shut the door.

And as soon as they say, I want to be in this family again, I

love you. OK.

Now this time because the magicians, they're going through

all their boil stuff. So they're having next plague

hail. Now almost no rainfalls in Egypt

because Egypt is is in the Mediterranean coast and it's

primarily desert. So hail would have been an

almost unknown to them. And they worshipped the sky

goddess and she could not stop the storm from coming.

The hail beat down what was in the crops and the, and, and

through the process of that, it made it incredibly hard for them

to take care of their families because the food had been

decimated Recently, just two weeks ago, I did a wedding out

in Colorado, an absolutely beautiful wedding for a couple

that used to be a part of our church.

And if you're watching from Denver, we love you.

We had a great time. And on the way out I was like,

you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take my family to

the top of Pikes Peak. And if you have not done Pikes

Peak, you start off in Colorado Springs at about 6000 feet above

sea level and then you drive over about 10 miles, 8000 feet

in the air. And my family doesn't do well

with heights or my driving. And so it was a real pucker

moment for everybody in our family.

And you, you start driving up and like, all of a sudden you're

up high enough at 11,000 feet where there's no more trees, no

more grass. And you just keep going and you

come to the edge and you can look over the edge and you go,

if we go off here, we're going straight to Jesus, like this is

an exit ramp straight to him. And so you, we get to the top.

My family's been, we're, you know, they're, they're soft.

And so they've got those little oxygen tanks that you like, sell

at the gas station trying to get all the way up and like, you

guys are a bunch of wimps. And so we get all the way to the

top, we go, we take pictures, we go to the little place inside,

we buy the stupid souvenirs and the stickers and all that stuff.

And as we're getting ready to leave Pikes Peak, and if we

don't know, I got to say this Pikes Peak is so dangerous that

they check the temperature at the halfway point down, going

down to make sure that your brakes aren't too hot so you

don't die. We're at the very top as bad as

it can possibly get. We're walking out of the gift

shop and on the way up, they said, hey, we might have some

bad weather today. So, you know, make sure you have

your tank full of gas all the way up and take your pictures on

the way down. Just drive to the top because

it, you know, it might get a little spotty up there.

OK, We drive all the way to the top.

Everything's fine. Walk out of the gift and we're

walking to our vehicle and it starts to hail.

I'm not talking like, Oh my goodness, I wonder if my car got

hit. I'm saying hail as we're running

to our car. I've just got on an uncommon

shirt next weekend and I've got on a pair of shorts my wife's

got on flip flops. My kids are just wearing

T-shirts and shorts because we're from the Midwest and a

little cold air doesn't bother us none and we're getting

absolutely hammered by hail. As I get to my vehicle to unlock

it, lightning strikes the ground about 15 feet from us.

We get in the car. As we are driving down, the hail

is exploding on the pavement and turning to ice.

This is my wife. Going down tight.

Check it out. What up?

It's bad enough I might grow up. There were 14,000 feet up, hard

to breathe, and then we came out of the gift shop and we're

pelted by hail. But we made it to the truck.

Oh my gosh. See.

It's sloping off. It's not good.

Yeah, we just have to make it back down.

Kids in the back are like it's party time. $2.00 Panic attack.

Take this oxygen. OK, so we go.

Check back. In 10 minutes from here, 10,000

feet, 10 minutes on the same drive, we are not more than a

mile from where we just were and my wife picks up the phone at

10,000 feet in elevation. OK.

Where are we at, boys? We're at miles.

We're at 10,000 feet. That's ridiculous.

It's totally different weather. Check this out.

Hey, the only way I can describe that is on top of the mountain.

We were in Egypt and at 10,000 feet we were in Goshen.

People were walking around with their shirts off taking

pictures. People were crying out to God

for help. Plague 8 Locusts.

Whatever was not destroyed by the hail gets consumed by the

locusts. He has robbed their present

savings, their future supply, and their present supply, or

their future supply and their present supply.

Plague 9 Darkness Darkness was especially significant because

the chief God was a God of the sun.

The Bible says it was so dark it could be felt, but there was no

darkness in Goshen. God kept showing the people of

Israel that He is the Lord Almighty, He can be trusted and

should be followed and obeyed. And the people in Egypt kept

saying sign and wonder and sign and wonder and God's Providence

and protection. What's happening in these

plagues is a reversal of the creation narrative.

You guys know Genesis chapter one, In Genesis chapter one it

begins to unfold and we have God making three dominions and then

he fills these dominions with inhabitants.

Day one we get domain number one, we get light and dark and

day four he populates it with the sun, the moon and the stars.

And day two we get a second dominion.

This one we get sky and water, and on day five he populates

this dominion with birds and fish.

On day three we get the third dominion, we get land, and on

day six God populates it with animals and humans.

And you have the whole world going from disorder to order.

And during the plagues you have the unraveling of all of this.

It is no longer good. It is no longer very good.

In fact, it is very bad. And the lines between the

dominions are dissolved. And you have frogs in the beds

and flies everywhere, and darkness is felt instead of you.

Not only can you not see, but you can feel the darkness.

There's no more boundaries between the domains.

We're no longer calling this good.

The waters and drinkable people are sick.

The cattle are dying, the crops are destroyed.

The plagues are a disruption of all of this order.

God is saying I am the one who brought all of this into

existence and I am the one who can take it all away.

I am Jehovah, I am your God, and if I can do this with the land,

imagine what I can do with you. I am Yahweh.

The plagues are a sign and wonder to everybody to worship

God. It reminds me of when I used to

work out in Oklahoma as a rancher.

I worked for a kids camp and my job was to teach horseback

riding to all the kids. And we had received a wild

Mustang from Nevada. And we were in the process of

breaking this horse. And the way you break a horse,

if you're going to do it the the sweet way, which is what we did,

just so you know, so I don't get any emails, is you enter into a

round pin, which is a round pin of about 20 to 30 feet wide.

It's a big round pin and you put the the the horse in there and

then you go in with what's called a lunging whip.

And you don't actually hit it. You just pop it real loud.

Freaks the horse out. You'd freak out if you were in a

pin with me and I started cracking a whip, right?

You'd be like, OK, what are we doing?

And that's exactly what the horse does.

Like, I guess we're running. I guess we're running.

And you just stand in the middle and you go and he's like, OK, we

got to go. We got to go.

And then what you do is you after you've ran it for a little

while, you kind of step over like this as it comes around the

circle. And the horse, when he sees you,

it immediately turns and it tries to get out of the gate.

It keeps its head over there and it starts running the other way.

And you do that for a little bit.

And so you let it run the other way for a little while and then

you get over in front of it to try and stop it and turn it

around. And as you do it, eventually you

start going, OK, when the horse comes around this way, I'm going

to stop. And you give the horse just a

second release, a little bit of pressure, and the horse will

start looking at you. And then you apply a little bit

of pressure. And if the horse starts to turn

away from you, you jump back over this way and you keep it

going in the exact same direction.

But if the horse, instead of turning to the outside of the

circle, if the horse starts to look at you, you back up and you

just wait a second. Then you ask it to run again and

it starts to run around and you get in front of it and you ask

it to change direction. And the horse that comes running

around, it stops. It starts to think, OK, I'm

looking this way. And every time I look this way,

I got to run a whole lot. And I'm kind of a fat horse and

I'm kind of tired of running. I think I'm going to look at

this guy and if I no, I don't trust him.

Soon as it starts to go this way, you run all this way, not

hitting a horse, just making a lot of noise.

Horse starts running again. All of a sudden it comes

running. The moment it turns to you,

you're back way off. Good.

You do that about five or six times.

All of a sudden you walk up to the horse, no bridle, no saddle,

no lead, no nothing. And you touch it on, on its

head, Good boy, good boy. And then you turn around and you

walk away, and the horse follows you.

And you can open up the pen and you can walk through the field

and the horse follows you and you can walk into the barn and

take it right back to its pen without anything on it because

it has acknowledged that you are in charge.

And the moment it stops trying to run from you, and the moment

it starts following you, it's life experiences peace.

Because a wild horse will be forever chased by predators.

A wild horse will constantly live in fear.

But a horse that has been domesticated, trained, bridled,

comes under the sphere of leadership of its owner and it's

worries dissipate. God has been showing up in your

whole life in every single one of your circumstances.

Some of them He's caused, and some of them you have caused,

and some of them the enemy has caused.

But God has promised to redeem any and every situation and

repurpose any amount of pain to get you to look to Him.

And when you do, everything changes.

We're moving to a time, a decision.

There are some of you listening to me right now and you've never

started a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You've never come into that intimate personal relationship

that is not just life altering in this life, but in the life

that is to come. And I just got a simple plea to

you. Don't put it off any longer.

Don't wait. The time is right.

The time is right now. And if you're here today and you

have questions about what that is or what that looks like?

In just a few moments, when people around you stand and sing

and people begin to raise their hands and worship and other

people come to the steps and pray, I want to encourage you to

walk right over there next to that baptistry underneath that

screen, and talk to somebody about starting the relationship.

That makes all the difference. You're going to keep

experiencing pain in this life. You're going to keep

experiencing hardship. God is continually trying to

show you, follow me, be my child, live in harmony and in

peace with me, not just in this life, but in the one that

matters the most, the one that is to come.

Don't put it off to the rest of you, those of you who call

yourselves Christians. We must follow God and worship

God so that way we are to the people around us a land of

Goshen that they see us and they see the difference of the

Providence of God in our lives. Perfect example, some would say

that we are in a political nightmare and some would say

that people are losing their ever loving minds.

And wouldn't it be cool if they said how come Christians are

going through this differently? Why do you have so much peace?

Why do you have so much hope? Why do you have so much joy?

Oh, that's because I'm in the land of Goshen.

What's the land of Goshen? Oh, I'm a part of the land of

the people who believe that God is still on his throne, that

he's not going anywhere. If he has power over plagues,

you think he doesn't have power over politicians?

You think his reign is not righteous, that he won't get us

through whatever we're about ready to go through.

And this world is not my home. So you can't really mess me up

because my world has eternal foundations and it's sustained

by God. It has no light because God is

the light. Well, this is the perfect

opportunity for you and me to be Goshen in our communities.

Would you stand? God, I'm asking you to do a work

in our church, a soul stirring work, the kind of work that

could only be attributed to you, to your might, to your power.

You got to pray that we would worship you, honor you, follow

you in every area of our life. In your name I pray.

Amen.