God's Mercy Overcomes Man's Injustice part 1

We've been looking in a series here talking about a resilient life, and the importance of it, of being resilient in our lives.

And last week we finished up talking about Abraham and just his faith is how he learned that the journey is the reward.

And we learned how that could be not because of the things that happened to us, but because of how the things that happen draw us closer to the Lord.

They change us, they transform us, and they move us in a direction that God would have for us.

And so as we realize those things, we're going to continue looking in our series here this morning.

We're going to be looking here about overcoming discrimination, overcoming injustice.

You know, because you know what, no matter what happens in life, there's going to be injustices that happen.

You know, one of the problems that we have today is people think, well, there should never be any injustice.

Well, that's a good thought, but that's not a reality of how we live.

That's not the way things really play out in real life.

You know, it's a grand thought, but those things in this life are not going to happen.

And we're going to see here this morning, we're going to talk about a place that the Bible gives us some ways of dealing with injustice,

with dealing with discrimination and dealing with those things where we say, oftentimes people say it this way today,

it's not what?

Fair.

You know, how many times have you heard, it's not fair.

What are they saying?

This isn't just in what I want.

This isn't what I desired.

And we know these are the realities of the things of life.

And so if you found Exodus chapter two this morning, we're going to read a few verses here.

And as we get started this morning, because I think here in Exodus, you can definitely understand there was some injustices.

There was some discrimination that was taking place.

And we see here that the reality of this, if you look here in verse one, in Exodus chapter two, it says,

And there went a man to the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

And the woman conceived and bear a son.

And when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months and she could no longer hide him.

She took him for an ark of bulrushes and dabbed it with slime with the pitch and put the child therein.

And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

And his sister stood afar off to what would be done to him.

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the river.

And her maidens walked along the river side.

And when she saw the ark among the flag, she sent her maid to fetch it.

And when she had opened it, she saw the child.

And behold, the baby wept.

And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter,

Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women,

that she may nurse the child for thee?

And Pharaoh's daughter sent her, Go.

And the maid went and called the child's mother.

And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her,

Take this child away and nurse it for me,

and I will give thee thy wages.

And the woman took the child and nursed it.

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter,

and he became her son.

And she called his name Moses, and she said,

Because I have drew him out of the water.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Fathers, we just take a few moments here this morning

as we look into your word once again.

Lord, as we look at this lesson,

the reality of you,

of showing us how to work through injustices.

Lord, even as we've talked about our faith,

Lord, it takes great faith to trust you

when things aren't going the way we think it ought to go.

Lord, it's not going the way that we would desire it to go.

But Lord, we can trust you

even when those things in our life seem upside down.

You're still there.

You're above those things.

Lord, you're still working in and through them.

And Lord, we just thank you for that,

that we can trust you.

And Lord, we just ask it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You know, we find here a story

about Moses and just his family.

And, you know, one thing we can rest assured is,

you know, every mom wants her kids

to get a fair shot in life, you know.

Every mom wants to see their kids succeed.

You know, it's kind of an innate thing.

And we're going to see here about Jochebed here,

Moses' mom, was no different.

And what makes her story

is such an example of resilience.

Because I want you to understand,

she was not overcome with the evil around her.

You know, it's easy sometimes to,

just to give up about the evil around you

that's taking place.

And we're going to see here this morning

that here Jochebed was personally,

she had experienced discrimination

and her family was faced with it in the extreme.

When it's extreme, they try to kill people.

You know, and we see that today.

You know, we see genocides trying to take place.

And that's another overused word,

but really genocide is just wanting to wipe out

a people based on just who they are.

You know, and genocide can mean everything

from national origin to belief systems.

You know, I want you to understand,

there's that happening all over.

You know, we find that this dynamic

has happened throughout history.

It's not something new to us,

but when we come under this injustice

in our life,

we can succumb to that.

And oftentimes what happens is

people become hate-filled and bitter

because things didn't happen

or do the way they thought they wanted it to go.

And we see here this morning

as we understand how Jochebed

overcame this situation, you know.

But let's give a little background

because we know about Moses and the bull rush.

But, you know, we need a little understanding here

before we get going.

Because as you remember,

the Israelites first entered Egypt

when Joseph allowed them to come into Canaan

or to come in because of the famine

that was in Canaan.

And over the centuries,

we find that God told Abraham

that the people were going to spend 400 years there

before he would bring them out.

And so they began to settle in

and they were God-blessed

and they began to multiply.

You know, and we see this population begin to grow.

But the Bible tells us that a new Pharaoh

came to power.

One that knew not Joseph.

Because, you know, the ones that knew Joseph,

they knew what?

Joseph had proved himself what?

Loyal.

They understood the loyalty.

They understood that they were not a threat.

But you know what?

Sometimes we find here

that when one grew up and knew not Joseph,

he was fearful of the population.

He was fearful of the Hebrews.

He was fearful because of the number

that they had grown to.

And he became so overwhelmed by it

that he became insecure.

And we find here that he began to oppress the people.

You know, I want you to understand

something very clear here

because oftentimes insecurity causes us

to oppress somebody else

because we're trying to keep them down.

Because of our own insecurity sometimes.

This leader of Egypt, the Pharaoh,

knew not Joseph, knew nothing about him.

And if you study Egyptian history,

you'll find that there was kind of a whole

coup d'etat that happened through this sequence.

And we find that the Hebrews, though,

just remained faithful to what they were supposed to do.

But this new Pharaoh was afraid.

And so what he did, he says,

I'm going to keep them so busy

that they don't have time to do something else.

I'm going to keep them so tied up in their job

and their task.

And it tells us that, therefore,

he set what?

Taskmasters to afflict them with burdens.

And they built Pharaoh's cities.

I mean, Pithom and Ramses were among that.

We find that in Exodus chapter 1 in verse 11,

Exodus 1 · chapter mention

that he had them begin to build these cities within Egypt.

And they were busy.

And the nation that had been given a home to Joseph

had now changed and became an oppressor to them.

And we see here, even though that Egypt survived

because of the policies and things that God gave unto Joseph,

they forgot the reality of that.

And so we see here that Pharaoh began to increase their labor

and their responsibility.

You know, as we see and we look through these things,

this oppressive nature that was put forth

in the midst of this oppressive culture,

we find a young couple.

You know, oftentimes, how many times have you heard today?

Well, we don't want, I hear today,

young couples say, well, I don't want to get married.

You know, there's so much evil.

You know what?

You're never going to find a time there's not evil.

I want you to understand that you have to trust God

in every generation.

But we see Amran and Jochebed got married.

They were a young couple under this oppression

and decided to get married.

They said, we're going to do what's right.

We're going to do what God has instructed us to do.

And then we're going to trust God in it.

And we find that he took a wife.

And we find that he was being obedient

to what God had told them to do,

to continue to multiply.

And what we find here,

that not only did Pharaoh enslave the nation of Israel,

but enforced them to build his cities,

he began to oppress them greatly.

And then he came to the point where they kept multiplying.

If you remember what he told them,

he told them, look up in the chapter one there

in the scripture.

Look here in verse 16.

We see this and it says,

And they sent a messenger unto Joseph saying,

Thy father did command before he died,

saying, oh, I got, that's back over in Genesis.

Page stuck, sorry.

I'm like, that's not the right one.

And he said,

What ye do to the office of midwife to the Hebrew women

and see them upon the stools.

If it be a son, then ye shall kill him.

But if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

We find here that Pharaoh commands the midwives,

he says,

When the kids are being born,

if it's a female child, let it live.

If it's a male child,

that's born to kill it on the spot.

And if you're familiar with Genesis chapter one,

you know that the Hebrew midwives were like,

Hey, well, the Hebrew women are too strong

and they just have these babies

and they're gone before we get there, you know.

And Pharaoh changes into a new plan.

He says,

We're going to gather up all the sons when they're born

and we're going to cast them into the river.

Now you imagine being a mom

and giving birth to a child,

knowing that somebody was going to try to take him

and put him in the river.

Because we understood what that meant.

We understood that it meant certain death.

But look in verse 22,

and he says this,

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying,

Every son that was born,

you shall cast into the river,

and every daughter you shall save alive.

Now, the implication of this is pretty broad.

Because basically, it says,

Pharaoh said unto the people,

So if an Egyptian saw a Hebrew mom with a male child,

they could take the male child and throw it in the river.

It's basically a license to slaughter young children.

That's about as discriminatory

and about as unjust as you can get in it.

This is the culture,

this is the dynamic

that Amron and Jacobed were faced with.

But yet they were willing to trust God.

You know, there was kill the children.

They were targeted for death.

And it was oppression and hatred

that was the day in which Moses was born.

You know, today we find that prejudice isn't any different.

People get insecure.

You find that people, for all sorts of reasons,

will discriminate against others

and have issues because of all sorts of different things.

I mean, everything from their ethnicity

to physical appearances

or even levels of education.

You know, there's often a move amongst people

that you have this standard of,

well, if you're not as educated as me,

you're subbed to me.

You know what that is?

That's a false idea that somebody has less value

because of what level of schooling

or degree that they might have.

You know?

One of my favorite sayings when it comes to that,

you just got to remember

that the number of curls in the pigtail

don't make the pork any better.

The number of degrees behind your name

doesn't make you a better person.

It doesn't make you a righteous person.

You know?

I want you to understand

that these things happen throughout history

and it's an ugly dynamic that happens throughout.

But prejudice isn't confined to one location or time.

You know?

I want you to understand

sometimes they try to paint in our society today

that, well, we're the only generation that faces this.

You know what?

Every generation faces it in some form.

But as believers,

we ought to be able to identify

and even trust God

even when it's directed and it's difficult.

To trust God in these things

because it's not just one area that happens.

You know, you can go back throughout history.

You'll find people who preached the word of God

were discriminated against

and many of them were burned at the stake.

They were killed.

They were drowned.

Why?

Because of what they believed.

It was counter to what those in command,

they didn't want that to be available to them

and to others to know.

You know, as a matter of fact,

the Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3,

it says,

Yea, all and all that live godly

in Christ Jesus shall what?

Suffer persecution.

In other words,

you're going to find that

those that are sinful, wicked people,

those that want to hold to the standard of the world

are always going to stand in contrast

to those who want to stand with the word of God.

There's always going to be that tension.

That tension is going to be real

around us.

And I want you to understand

that these things are happening

and you see a shift even in our culture.

You know?

We see a shift of things

towards even belief systems.

There's a big conflict right now, isn't it?

There's a big conflict between belief systems

and people want to oppress

and to put others out.

And there's all sorts of different levels of this.

But you know,

we need to ask ourselves

not why is it happening.

But our real question is,

is Lord,

what do you want us to do?

How do we deal with

and live in a day

that we have to walk?

In our day,

because every day is a little different,

but I think there's some godly principles

that we're going to see here this morning

that are going to be beneficial for us

as we understand these things

because we need to respond correctly.

You know,

one of Satan's tricks

is to not only cause

the initial hurt

that is caused by discrimination

and prejudice,

but also to get people bitter

and sidetracked.

You know,

sometimes we can grab a hold

of what happened

and we get camped there.

We're camped on the event

instead of saying,

yes, it happened,

but we need to move forward from it.

You know,

a couple of Wednesday nights ago,

we had a lesson about grief

and you know,

one of the things with grief

and somebody,

it's a journey

and what happens in grief,

if you don't continue moving,

you camp

and when you camp in grief,

you know what happens?

You become angry and bitter

about what happened.

Same thing when wrong

or injustice is done to us.

We can camp at the moment of injustice

and it'll cause you

to become bitter and angry.

And those are things

that God tells us not to be

and they show up

through things that happen

throughout our life.

So the question isn't is,

when it is,

or what,

if it's going to happen,

the question is,

how are we going to deal with it?

How are we going to avoid

the pitfalls

of being angry and bitter

about what happens in life?

You know,

this is important

because I want you to understand

it starts here

when we learn these questions

from the lives of Jochebed.

We're going to look at Jochebed

because I think

we're going to see here first,

the ministry of a mom

has a great impact.

The ministry of mom

is important

because there's no greater opportunity

to make an impact

on the life of a child

than a mom.

You know,

motherhood is downplayed

today greatly,

but I tell you what,

motherhood

and being a mom

is probably one of the most

influential,

if not the most influential

position anybody could be in.

You directly shape

the lives

of the next generation.

What a mom spends

and invests in her children

directly impacts

the generations to come.

Now,

we know that dads

are important,

but today

we want you to see her

because Jochebed

does something

as a mom

that gives us

from her actions

we can see

these things

in her life

that Jochebed

was a remarkable mom

who had an opportunity

to have a remarkable

influence

on her son's life.

Even in the midst

because notice how

first she lovingly

protects Moses.

take a look here

in verse 2

in chapter 2

of Exodus.

It says,

And the woman

conceived

and bare a son

and she saw him

that he was

a goodly child

and she hid him

three months.

You know,

we find here

that she saw

something about

a child.

A child,

the Bible tells us,

is a blessing

from the Lord.

You know,

children are not

something that is just

something that's required.

I want you to understand

your children

are a blessing.

You know,

what we've been taught

today that sometimes

today we find

that's being taught

is children are a hindrance.

Children hold you back.

It almost puts the place

of children

as secondary

instead of the blessing

that God says

that they are.

And if we understand

they are a blessing

that God gives to us,

it changes

what we do

and how we do it.

Because you ever notice

how you think about something

influences how you work through

or how you do things?

You know,

if you think

something's a burden

from the very beginning,

what's your attitude?

You know,

usually it's

you grumble

and you complain

and you,

but if you consider

and begin with

that,

hey,

this is a blessing,

this is something

that's great,

it's something

important,

something of value

that I've been given

to protect,

you know what?

It changes your perspective.

You know,

I want you to understand

that she saw him

as a goodly child.

Now,

I want you to understand

because sometimes

we read these words

and we don't really connect

what's being spoken about.

The word goodly here

talks about having value.

It's a value statement

about children.

It was a goodly child.

Refers to that

they saw value

and worth

in Moses.

You know,

even in the midst

of a time

when they were killing

all the baby boys,

we see here

this young couple

recognized

this little child

was a gift

from God.

You know,

to understand

that they are

a heritage,

Psalm tells us

in 127 verse 3,

it says,

low children

are what?

A heritage of the Lord

and the fruit of the womb

is his reward.

You know,

your reward,

we look at reward

as value,

don't we?

When we get a reward

for something,

we say,

hey,

this is something

of value

and we understand

the value of life

because life

is not given

and shouldn't be taken

by people deciding

those things.

It's a gift of God

and needs to be valued

as such.

You know,

today we live

in a generation

where life

is not valued

but death

is promoted.

You see a shift

in our culture.

That's the reason

you'll even see

individuals that,

and you'll probably

notice this,

have you ever noticed

that most tattoos

that are given

all deal with death?

They're either celebrating

somebody's death

or they have skulls,

they have all sorts

of things

that are symbols

of death

associated with them.

And we see an uprise

of that in our society.

You see an uprise

in things that promote

death

and evil spirits

and that's the reason

you see all these

vampire shows

and you see all the witches

and you see all this.

This is all associated

with death.

It's a celebration

of death

because you know

what is contrast

to God

because God says

he's about life.

death is a consequence

of sin.

God is always

about life.

It says that Jesus

gave us life

and that we might

have it more what?

Abundantly.

To understand

that thought

is important

because we live

in a day

where they want

to just kill children.

You know?

I want you to understand

that today

in which we live

that people promote death.

I mean there's people

that actually go out

into foreign nations.

That's one of the things

that now I'm debling here

but we'll step in here.

When you find out

that U.S. tax dollars

went to kill children

in foreign countries

we ought to be appalled

at that.

We ought to be appalled

that it's used

to kill children

in our country.

Let alone

someplace else.

That's even worse.

That's exporting it.

But I want you

to see here

that this mom

made a difference.

You know look back

over to the book

of Hebrews for a moment.

Hebrews chapter 23.

We find here

in Hebrews chapter 23

as we find

Jochebed here

she was protecting him

but we find here

in Hebrews chapter 11

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

in verse 23

it says

by faith Moses

when he was born

was hid three months

of his parents

because

they saw

he was a proper child

and they were not afraid

of the king's commandment.

You know that's

a powerful statement.

They were not afraid

of what Pharaoh

said was going

to happen.

Their faith

was in God.

You know

it took faith

to do what they did.

But I want you

to understand

their faith

isn't something

abnormal.

It ought to be

something normal

for a believer

to say

I'm going to trust God.

I appreciate David's

message this morning

it kind of blended in

real good

to say

on all this

and you know

God works

those things

through.

I think God

has an important

message of

we need to

increase our faith.

We need to have

a faith of longevity

and I think

you see some faith

that has some longevity

here in the life

of Moses' mother

and the investment

that she made.

You know

life is that

it's a gift

of God

and when we try

to distort

those things

we're going

counter to the

things of God

and God

has given

parents

the responsibility

to raise up

children.

You know

it's important

that God

gives us

that.

It's God's

place

that we oversee

those things

in our life

their instruction.

You know

we see today

often times

the state

stepping in

trying to

take children.

That's a whole

other dynamic.

I could spend

too much time

on some of this

stuff for a lesson

for another day.

But I want you

to see here

that they wanted

to interject

but she lovingly

protects Moses.

Parents today

I want to encourage

you you need

to lovingly

protect your kids.

They're valuable.

You know

things we see

value with

we protect.

But consider here

when protecting

Moses

you know

we have a lot

of little kids

around here.

You know

there's one thing

you know

when there's little

kids

and how you know

they're there.

How do you know

little kids are around?

Noise.

They cry

they squeak

they make

all sorts

of weird noises.

Can you imagine

trying to hide

a child

for three months?

Because you've got

to understand

that everybody

around them

was under

an order

to cast him

into the river.

I imagine

Moses' mom

put in a lot

of effort

and took a lot

of effort

and care

to protect

Moses

in those first

three months.

but when it

was impossible

to hide

him

because you know

sooner or later

you're not

going to be able

to hide him.

Sooner or later

it's going to

come out.

But what did

she do?

Because not only

does she lovingly

protect

we find

she also

trusts in

God's providence.

Now we talked

about that

a few weeks

ago

of God's

providence

that God's

providence

is that

which God

will work

things through

for his

purpose.

and we

have to

trust

God's

providence

because

sometimes

things in

life

don't make

sense

to us.

I mean

when you

read the

scripture

you'll find

a lot

of things

didn't make

sense.

Earlier

we just

talked

about

Joseph.

Did

Joseph's

life

begin

the way

he thought

it was

going to

begin

or even

his parents?

No it

was all

upside down.

His

brothers

sold him

instead of

killing him

they sold

him into

slavery.

Lied to

the parents

about his

death.

He ends

up in

Egypt.

He's

faced

with all

sorts

of

issues

all to

get him

in a

prison cell

with somebody

with an

ear of

the Pharaoh.

Have you

ever

considered

how God

worked all

those things

all those

things that

everybody

thought was

evil but

the Bible

tells us

in Genesis

that God

worked it

for good

to save

much people

alive.

That's

God's

providence.

But let's

take a look

here as we

look at

this.

Look at

verse 3.

It says

here in

chapter 2

verse 3

when she

could no

longer hide

him she

took for

him an

ark of

bulrushes

and dabbed

it with

slime and

with pitch

and put

the child

therein and

she laid

it in the

flags by

the river's

brink.

Now this

passage is

an interesting

passage because

it carries

with it when

she's describing

the ark

here it

carries a lot

of the same

word used

back in

Genesis to

describe Noah's

ark that he

built and

you find a lot

of similarities

in the

construction.

They wove it

together they

put pitch to

seal it up.

I mean you

see a lot of

things here but

we find that

here's

Jochebed she

does her best

to both obey

God and man.

It's an

interesting solution

she came up

with because

remember where

was Moses

supposed to

be cast?

In the river.

I found it

interesting as I

was thinking

through this

she literally

obeyed the

command of

Pharaoh by

putting Moses

in the river.

Now she

didn't put him

in there quite

the way that

Pharaoh intended

but I want

you to see

here that she

was obedient

both to God

and man and

consider that

she commanded

by the Pharaoh

to cast her

son into the

river.

She chose a

spot that she

hoped he would

be protected.

I can imagine

Jochebed that

day as she

laid Moses in

the river just

thinking and

said Lord I've

done everything

I can do.

Lord you have

to take care

of him.

You know it

takes a lot

of faith for

a mom to

trust that

God's providence

is going to

take care of

things outside

their control.

You know one

of the things

of faith is

giving up our

own control to

trust what God

says.

But our battle

with faith is

mostly I think

within ourselves

of trusting who

do we trust

more.

Do I trust

my thinking?

Or God's

thinking?

What do I

trust?

But I want you

to notice

something here

that throughout

all this it's

amazing that in

those three months

she didn't become

angry or bitter.

You know we have

nothing of hatred

recorded in her

life but instead

she responds

by faith.

And I want you

to understand

faith in God

leads to a

peaceful

resilience.

She was willing

to trust God

and when we

are oppressed

rather than

retaliating we

should like

David cry out

to God in

our distress.

Look over to

Psalm chapter 7

Psalms 7 · chapter mention

for a moment.

Psalm 7

in verse 1

the word of

God tells us

this as David

is writing here

he says

O Lord my

God in thee

do I put

my what?

Trust save

me from all

them that

persecute me

and deliver

me.

you know the

way people

who don't

know God

when they

deal with

something that

is uningest

or discriminatory

they take

things into

their own

hand and

they try to

expend their

energy fighting

the system

or the people

who have

mistreated

them.

You know

Jochebed could

have done

this.

I mean it's

ironic that

she you know

maybe she

could have

organized a

protest march

or something

you know

sometimes

that's our

modern generation

we'll protest

it.

You know

and there's

nothing wrong

with certain

things being

protested

but you know

the methodology

that we use

is sometimes

important

because sometimes

people put

their trust

in the protest

instead of

their trust

in God.

They're trying

to make a

big difference

here and fail

to make the

little difference

that changes

things.

Because it

wasn't her

fight to be

against Pharaoh

that was going

to make a

difference

it was her

trusting God

that made

the difference.

To trust

God

and to fight

for her son

through faith

you know

it's

counterintuitive

to us.

I mean it

goes against

who we are

because by

nature we

want to

take action

of our own.

We want

to lash

out.

We want

to try

to get

even.

You know

look over

to Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12

because here

Paul is

writing to

the church

at Rome

now if you

understand

anything about

history

Christians

in the

time of

Paul

weren't

exactly

a popular

group of

people.

They didn't

enjoy

the status

in society.

They were

outcasts.

To call

upon Christ

and to

deny

worshiping

all the

local

gods

that

everybody

wanted

them

to do

set

them

apart

and they

were

persecuted

persecuted

and prosecuted.

But look

here in

Romans 12

look at

verse 17

Paul's

telling them

in the

midst

of

persecution

in the

midst

of people

doing

wrong

against

you

he says

this

recompense

to no

man

evil

for evil

provide

things

honest

in the

sight

of all

men

if it

be

possible

as much

as

life

in

you

live

peaceably

with

all

men.

I want

you to

understand

that

he says

our

first

option

ought

to

be

how

can

we

resolve

this

and

how

can

we

live

peaceably

and

not

grab

a hold

of

everything

that

we

become

angry

and

bitter

because

angry

and

bitter

you know

we have

a word

for that

today

and people

live

today

it's

called

a

victim

mentality

a

victim

mentality

is

rooted

in

bitterness

and

anger

I'm

mad

because

this

happened

to

me

I want

you

to

be

victim

mentality

a

victim

mentality

is

your

attitude

towards

what

happens

being

a

victim

means

something

happened

to

you

you

can

have

wrong

happen

to

you

wrong

things

happen

to

us

throughout

life

things

that

aren't

fair

things

that

and

the

level

of

that

varies

but

a

victim

mentality

says

that's

where

I'm

going to camp at the event of what happened, instead of saying, God, I'm going to trust you

in light of what happened. To trust him. Paul goes on to tell him, he says, be not overcome

of evil, but overcome evil with what? Good. We live in a day that we could really enjoy the

liberty that we have in trusting Christ. Many places around the world don't enjoy the freedoms

that we have to respond. You know, as Americans, we're probably the most unique in history

for what we can do and how we respond to wrongs. I mean, right in the Constitution, we have an

opportunity to address the government for wrongs. That's a common right we have. You know, most people

in the world don't have that right. We ought to be thankful that we're born in a country that

men that founded our nation saw that that was a principle from God that says we ought to be able

to do that. It's a blessing that we have. We can do that. You know, I want you to understand that

we can work through these things. We can get these things addressed in different ways.

You know, we understand that it's important, though, to be thankful for the ability to speak

out properly. You know, many people throughout history, you know, you have people like Frederick

Douglass spoke out against the horrors of slavery and for the ideals of freedom that the United States

wasn't living up to. Now, I want you to understand our nation in no means was perfect.

You know what the problem is? People. Sin. Because let me give you a little insight,

if you haven't figured it out yet, where people are, sin is present. People do sinful things.

If people are there, there's going to be sin with it. They travel together. The Bible says it's our nature.

We're born with a sin nature. When we understand the liberties, I'm thankful for people who are willing

to stand for religious liberty, even in court. I mean, there's a lot of battles today that we find

for religious liberty. You know, we can redress the courts. We can go through a legal process. I'm not

saying just to get run over, but we need to understand we need to use the tools that God has

blessed us with, but not become bitter or angry about it, but to say, how do we resolve this in a

godly manner? Jochebed didn't throw a protest. She said, Lord, give me wisdom to resolve this or to work

through this in a godly manner. I found it ironic that she obeyed the command of Pharaoh casting Moses

into the river. It didn't make any sense. But you know what? She made a way of protection and provided

for Moses in that. The point is not that you shouldn't speak up. The point is that you should

respond with trust in God and a refusal to react out of spite or desire to get even.

You know, it's interesting. She didn't take it out on Pharaoh's daughter. Matter of fact, I want you to,

as we'll see, as we'll pick up here next week, because the preacher's out of time again. But I want you to

see here that she trusts in God's providence. And sometimes I think we try to have our own providence,

Lord, this is how I want it to work out. This is how I want it done. And say, God, let me walk by

faith doing what is right and trusting that you will make it right. That takes faith that God is over

our circumstances. Even in the life of Moses, Moses' mom was faced with some very challenging

injustice and discrimination. But she said, Lord, how do I work through? I think she probably spent a lot

of sleepless nights even praying, saying, Lord, how do I overcome this? How do I do the things that I

ought to do? Lord, how do I protect Moses? You know, we can realize the importance this morning

as we begin looking here. And we'll finish up here in a few weeks this lesson.

Because next week we've got another special guest going to be with us next week. But,

you know, overcoming these things. In the next few weeks, what I encourage you to do is think,

how am I responding to things that go wrong in my life? Sometimes done intentionally by others,

how do I respond? Do I respond in faith and trust God to say, God, I'm going to do what's right

because you've instructed me to do it? Or am I going to try to take matters into my own hands

and do it my way instead of God's way? But let's pray.