WEBVTT 00:00:01.624 --> 00:00:01.965 Hey, what up? 00:00:01.965 --> 00:00:03.830 It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:04.871 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.871 --> 00:00:07.185 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.185 --> 00:00:16.707 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. 00:00:16.707 --> 00:00:17.850 Enjoy the message. 00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:22.617 We're going to go back deep into the Bible and I want to start with a story. 00:00:22.998 --> 00:00:27.617 When I was about 12, I was with my friends two friends at the movie theater. 00:00:27.617 --> 00:00:33.241 I don't even remember what we were watching, but as we were watching it was about to start there were two other guys in the theater. 00:00:33.241 --> 00:00:39.124 They're a little bit older than us, we could tell they were behind us and I don't remember who started it. 00:00:39.124 --> 00:00:44.286 I don't remember who said what first, but essentially we kind of threw down and said how about this? 00:00:44.286 --> 00:00:46.017 After the movie we're going to go outside and fight. 00:00:46.017 --> 00:00:47.302 We wanted to watch the movie first. 00:00:47.302 --> 00:00:48.328 So let's get through the movie. 00:00:48.328 --> 00:00:52.265 And guys, I had just gotten off several wins, Like I'd gotten in several fights. 00:00:52.265 --> 00:00:53.369 I was the. 00:00:53.369 --> 00:01:00.871 If you look, if there was a Wikipedia and you looked up me on Wikipedia at that point, you would have found my picture under the word punk. 00:01:00.871 --> 00:01:02.601 That's what I was, man, I was a punk. 00:01:02.601 --> 00:01:04.406 And so I challenged these two. 00:01:04.406 --> 00:01:05.611 I'm like I got two buddies with me. 00:01:05.611 --> 00:01:08.427 These guys are toast man, even though they're a little older, it'll be fine. 00:01:08.427 --> 00:01:09.329 And so we wait. 00:01:09.329 --> 00:01:16.521 You know, we watch the movie, go out into the parking lot and guys, I was ready and I was like my boys are ready. 00:01:16.521 --> 00:01:22.677 And we went in and the dude just gets me in a headlock and my boys do nothing. 00:01:22.677 --> 00:01:24.402 They do nothing. 00:01:24.402 --> 00:01:27.513 And I'm like, guys, what is going on here? 00:01:27.513 --> 00:01:29.179 I'm like looking at, what are you doing? 00:01:29.179 --> 00:01:30.262 And here's the problem. 00:01:30.262 --> 00:01:33.147 I had too much confidence in my guys. 00:01:33.147 --> 00:01:35.112 I thought we were on the same plan. 00:01:35.112 --> 00:01:41.305 I thought that we were going to do the same thing, and they did not have the power that I thought they were going to bring to the table. 00:01:42.128 --> 00:01:47.587 Well, isn't it good to know that God actually has more power to bring to the table than we could ever need or hope. 00:01:47.587 --> 00:01:51.444 If we have our faith in the wrong thing, it's going to let us down, like my boys did. 00:01:51.444 --> 00:01:57.108 If we ever faith in the right thing and we understand God the right way, my friends, he's never going to let us down. 00:01:57.108 --> 00:01:58.921 He's going to be way more than we ever thought. 00:01:58.921 --> 00:02:05.126 And so we're going to learn today how the Israelites are beginning to understand this God who has revealed himself to them. 00:02:05.126 --> 00:02:11.194 Remember, they don't really know a ton about this God of the Hebrews who sent Moses to Pharaoh and said, hey, let my people go. 00:02:11.194 --> 00:02:14.586 They know that this was the God of their ancestors, but they don't know it. 00:02:14.586 --> 00:02:16.561 They don't have all the revelation that we have. 00:02:16.561 --> 00:02:24.775 And so they're learning a lot, as God commands Pharaoh to let them out of slavery, and God begins to bring all these plagues to show that he's really got the muscle. 00:02:24.775 --> 00:02:28.691 He's really got you know, he can talk, to talk and walk the walk. 00:02:29.233 --> 00:02:39.508 And so these, these folks, we're going to look at the, the three plagues from their perspective today and we're going to learn what they're learning so we can understand their God and our God better. 00:02:39.508 --> 00:02:41.652 And we're going to learn about worship. 00:02:41.652 --> 00:02:43.568 See that we're learned with it. 00:02:43.568 --> 00:02:45.074 We're going to see it in just a second. 00:02:45.074 --> 00:02:48.770 They were being called out of slavery to come worship God. 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:49.956 That was what they're supposed to do. 00:02:49.956 --> 00:02:56.820 They were to serve him and worship him, and they need to worship him according to who he actually is, not who they might think he's not. 00:02:56.820 --> 00:03:01.912 He's not just a God of the now, he's not a God of somewhere in the desert, he is very God, of very God. 00:03:01.912 --> 00:03:02.814 He is God almighty. 00:03:02.814 --> 00:03:04.830 And they're going to learn this as they watch these plagues. 00:03:04.850 --> 00:03:10.199 And you know, we learn as we keep going, as we keep walking, which is there's always more to learn. 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:12.425 And you know, thankfully we don't have to watch a bunch of plagues. 00:03:12.425 --> 00:03:15.462 We can behold the image of Christ in the scriptures. 00:03:15.462 --> 00:03:17.647 And that's where we learn more and more. 00:03:17.647 --> 00:03:19.461 And we keep walking and keep walking. 00:03:19.461 --> 00:03:21.230 And someone said well, carter, I've already read the Bible. 00:03:21.230 --> 00:03:26.014 Precious, if you've already read the Bible the right way, with the Holy Spirit, you'd keep reading it. 00:03:26.014 --> 00:03:32.251 Okay, it's not a one and done thing, because it sucks you in to relationship with God through Jesus Christ. 00:03:32.251 --> 00:03:33.560 We're always learning more. 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:40.893 If you feel like you've learned it all, oh baby, you're missing the best part you are making, missing the cake and ice, cookie dough, ice cream, man. 00:03:40.893 --> 00:03:42.659 You're missing all the great stuff. 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:45.330 So let's dive back in and keep on learning. 00:03:45.670 --> 00:03:48.080 Now, worship it's important to know what worship is. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:52.046 Worship is a steaming something higher than we are. 00:03:52.046 --> 00:04:02.112 It's regarding it as better, more perfect, more beautiful, more desirable, something that we long for, and God wants that to be us. 00:04:02.112 --> 00:04:05.245 See, god's story with us is really a story of worship. 00:04:05.245 --> 00:04:14.149 We were made to be in relationship with Him, loving Him, adoring Him, worshiping Him and receiving His perfect good love. 00:04:14.149 --> 00:04:23.548 That's how mankind was supposed to be and that's what God invites us back into now that he can get close to us again because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 00:04:23.548 --> 00:04:25.014 But the story was always. 00:04:25.014 --> 00:04:41.463 It was a story of let's be in relationship, let's enjoy intimacy, and God would say to everybody today and back then I call you into worship because I want you to enjoy me, I want you to relax and be excited about all the awesome that I am Now. 00:04:41.483 --> 00:04:44.110 The problem is we worship a ton of the wrong stuff. 00:04:44.110 --> 00:04:47.108 We were made to worship, so we just end up worshiping, no matter what. 00:04:47.108 --> 00:04:51.783 If we can't see God, we can't don't know where to find Him, then we just start worshiping anything. 00:04:51.783 --> 00:04:52.625 You know this. 00:04:52.625 --> 00:04:59.281 We serve stuff and wealth and money and things. 00:04:59.281 --> 00:05:04.699 And if you ever doubt that, do me a favor, go ahead and Google Black Friday mayhem. 00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:12.545 If you go, google that, you will see what people will do to one another just to get the latest flat screen TV or game counsel. 00:05:12.545 --> 00:05:18.262 You see people running over other humans because they're worshiping this stuff so hard. 00:05:18.262 --> 00:05:19.906 So we know this intuitively. 00:05:20.607 --> 00:05:23.151 People also worship the human body. 00:05:23.151 --> 00:05:24.634 We worship it. 00:05:24.634 --> 00:05:25.862 It's beautiful, like it's. 00:05:25.862 --> 00:05:27.127 The human body is good. 00:05:27.127 --> 00:05:29.016 God made it good, but we'll worship it. 00:05:29.016 --> 00:05:30.120 We go way beyond. 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:32.490 We're trying to preserve everything that we possibly can. 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:38.795 So we spend tons of money on makeup and tucking and exercise machines that we forget about in the corner. 00:05:38.795 --> 00:05:39.759 We spend all this money. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:43.267 There's nothing wrong with those things, but we want, we long for. 00:05:43.267 --> 00:05:52.040 We exalt this idea of this perfect human form that we either want for ourselves or we desire from others, and it's really just a form of worship. 00:05:52.702 --> 00:05:57.798 There's also just wanting to obey our feelings. 00:05:57.798 --> 00:05:59.516 We exalt our feelings. 00:05:59.516 --> 00:06:01.357 We say my feelings are the most important thing. 00:06:01.357 --> 00:06:07.137 This might be a relatively new thing on the world stage, but we worship our feelings. 00:06:07.137 --> 00:06:07.358 Now. 00:06:07.358 --> 00:06:11.052 Once upon a time, people had wisdom to understand that your feelings are kind of fickle and they go back and forth. 00:06:11.052 --> 00:06:14.853 But now we say, hey, man, whatever your feelings tell you, that's what you should do. 00:06:14.853 --> 00:06:16.495 You should obey it. 00:06:16.495 --> 00:06:24.935 You should get down on your knees and say yes, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, feelings, I'll do whatever you say, because you're my feelings and dear heart. 00:06:24.935 --> 00:06:29.434 Your feelings might be right and they might be good, they might be bad, but they ain't no God. 00:06:29.434 --> 00:06:35.394 God is God, and so when we worship the wrong things, we end up empty and we rob ourselves. 00:06:35.394 --> 00:06:41.057 We forfeit intimacy with Jesus Christ, we forfeit eternal perspective. 00:06:41.057 --> 00:06:50.237 We forfeit the peace that God wants to have with us because he wants us to enjoy himself in the experience of worship. 00:06:50.237 --> 00:06:51.535 That's what he wants. 00:06:51.535 --> 00:06:54.559 That's what he's teaching these Israelites. 00:06:54.559 --> 00:06:57.432 They're kind of like the good guys, so to speak, in the story. 00:06:57.432 --> 00:07:02.697 Them and Moses, and really God, pharaoh and the Egyptians are seen as the bad characters in the story. 00:07:02.769 --> 00:07:04.617 Let's start with the plague of flies. 00:07:04.617 --> 00:07:06.269 We're back here, exodus 820. 00:07:06.269 --> 00:07:09.754 Then the Lord said to Moses Moses, we've done this before. 00:07:09.754 --> 00:07:15.774 Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him this is what the Lord says let my people go so that they may worship me. 00:07:15.774 --> 00:07:23.538 If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials and people into your houses. 00:07:23.538 --> 00:07:25.416 The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies. 00:07:25.416 --> 00:07:27.035 Even the ground will be covered them. 00:07:27.035 --> 00:07:30.860 Can you imagine the ground black, covered with flies. 00:07:30.860 --> 00:07:37.458 But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live. 00:07:37.458 --> 00:07:40.077 The Israelites were separated from the Egyptians. 00:07:40.077 --> 00:07:45.077 The Egyptians didn't want to be around the Israelites, so they had their own separation in Goshen. 00:07:45.077 --> 00:07:51.500 No swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:55.413 So, pharaoh, you think this land is yours, but this land is mine. 00:07:55.413 --> 00:07:57.413 I decide what happens here. 00:07:57.413 --> 00:07:58.598 I'm the creator, god. 00:07:58.598 --> 00:08:05.336 I gave you good animals, I gave you good creation, but I can mess with that pattern a little bit to make you have a very headachey day. 00:08:05.336 --> 00:08:06.660 And the Lord did this. 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:12.194 Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials throughout Egypt. 00:08:12.194 --> 00:08:15.475 The land was ruined, was ruined by the flies. 00:08:16.857 --> 00:08:21.250 Early this summer I went on a little rafting trip with my dad, my daughter and my son. 00:08:21.250 --> 00:08:27.290 You see us there, john and I just went over a little waterfall and we're taking a pic. 00:08:27.290 --> 00:08:33.136 If you've ever been on one of these little rafting rides, you've been in some place where you're kind of wet apart of the day. 00:08:33.136 --> 00:08:37.650 What can really mess with it is when you get even one little biting fly. 00:08:37.650 --> 00:08:38.809 Have you seen this? 00:08:38.809 --> 00:08:47.337 You've been on the beach and they just start to go at your shins and it's just like one or two and you swat them and then you know maybe you get them, but then three more come. 00:08:47.337 --> 00:08:54.900 I had one on that rafting trip and it was just like it was landing on me and you know I smack it and it goes away and it comes back and it's like fly. 00:08:54.961 --> 00:08:56.009 You're out in the middle of nowhere. 00:08:56.009 --> 00:08:57.556 Why are you out here? 00:08:57.556 --> 00:09:00.157 It's beginning to drive me insane. 00:09:00.157 --> 00:09:02.297 And it's one. 00:09:02.297 --> 00:09:05.909 Can you imagine? 00:09:05.909 --> 00:09:07.529 There's flies all over your bed. 00:09:07.529 --> 00:09:15.519 As you're trying to like get in, get in, you wake up into like a cloud of flies as you're trying to make any food. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:16.673 There's flies everywhere. 00:09:16.673 --> 00:09:17.336 Can you imagine? 00:09:17.336 --> 00:09:22.297 It's not just that it's weird and ugly, it's insanity producing. 00:09:22.297 --> 00:09:25.379 How could you possibly even think in such a place? 00:09:25.490 --> 00:09:27.015 And so the pattern continues. 00:09:27.015 --> 00:09:31.581 Pharaoh essentially says no, I'll tell you what, moses, I'll try to make a deal. 00:09:31.581 --> 00:09:33.455 I'll try to cut a deal with God. 00:09:33.455 --> 00:09:34.778 I'll try to negotiate. 00:09:34.778 --> 00:09:35.259 How about this? 00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:39.995 How about just a few of you go, or just the men go, or just everybody, but the children go? 00:09:39.995 --> 00:09:40.717 Or how far are you gonna? 00:09:40.717 --> 00:09:42.918 The pattern is he keeps making excuses. 00:09:42.918 --> 00:09:47.600 He keeps trying to negotiate with God and God's like no, no, I really don't negotiate, pharaoh. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:51.697 And this is one of the things that the Israelites are learning as they're watching as God interacts with the Egyptians. 00:09:51.697 --> 00:09:58.375 They're learning, oh, and they're gonna remember this for centuries to come oh, god's not a God that you really negotiate with. 00:09:58.375 --> 00:10:04.572 He answers your prayer, he's good to you, he's gracious, but you don't like give him half obedience and say is this good? 00:10:04.572 --> 00:10:08.735 No, you give him all obedience because he doesn't negotiate about it. 00:10:08.735 --> 00:10:10.232 He says I'm God. 00:10:10.232 --> 00:10:12.375 When I tell you what to do, I'm not gonna change it. 00:10:14.110 --> 00:10:18.158 Moving on to the plague of livestock Okay, so verse two, if you were, moses, comes again. 00:10:18.158 --> 00:10:31.339 Hey, pharaoh, if you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field, on your houses Sorry, your horses, thank you, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats. 00:10:31.339 --> 00:10:37.457 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die. 00:10:37.457 --> 00:10:41.736 The Lord said a time and said tomorrow the Lord will do this in that land. 00:10:41.736 --> 00:10:44.538 And the next day the Lord did it. 00:10:44.538 --> 00:10:45.413 There's not even like a. 00:10:45.413 --> 00:10:46.798 So, pharaoh, will you turn around? 00:10:46.798 --> 00:10:48.532 He's just like Pharaoh, it's coming Like no warning. 00:10:48.532 --> 00:10:58.019 Again, here it comes, verse six again all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the animals belonging to the Israelites died. 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:02.029 So God's not giving Pharaoh much of a choice here. 00:11:02.029 --> 00:11:03.736 He's saying Pharaoh, your indecision is the choice. 00:11:03.736 --> 00:11:06.595 Okay, now here it comes again and the text says all. 00:11:06.990 --> 00:11:08.917 And we've gotta know that that's hyperbolic. 00:11:08.917 --> 00:11:16.995 Okay, often in the Bible people use hyperbole just like we use it today, that we see more livestock is still there in the very next plague. 00:11:16.995 --> 00:11:21.642 But biblical writers, just like writers today, used hyperbole. 00:11:21.642 --> 00:11:23.856 Jesus used hyperbole all the time. 00:11:23.856 --> 00:11:35.809 So when I say I have told you one million times to shut that refrigerator door, you know that I haven't actually told a child one million times to close door. 00:11:35.809 --> 00:11:36.754 You just know that's hyperbole. 00:11:36.754 --> 00:11:41.057 He's just saying it's a lot, and that's what the biblical writer is saying here. 00:11:41.309 --> 00:11:44.379 So don't let it throw you, because God wrote a book. 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:48.840 God wrote this book and he used men to do it. 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:51.643 He inspired them to write it down. 00:11:51.643 --> 00:11:53.693 And some people say well, cardi, that's just a book written by men. 00:11:53.693 --> 00:11:55.514 Yo, it totally is. 00:11:55.514 --> 00:11:57.576 It's a book written by men and God. 00:11:57.576 --> 00:12:00.075 It's the God man book. 00:12:00.075 --> 00:12:00.878 That's what it is. 00:12:00.878 --> 00:12:01.551 Now. 00:12:01.551 --> 00:12:04.455 See, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you already know this to be true. 00:12:04.455 --> 00:12:05.914 Jesus is the God man. 00:12:05.914 --> 00:12:09.895 He is a hundred percent man and he's a hundred percent God. 00:12:09.895 --> 00:12:15.437 He needed to be God in order to be able to do the crucifixion, to get through it. 00:12:15.437 --> 00:12:20.999 He needed to be God for his blood to count for all the people of the earth of all time. 00:12:20.999 --> 00:12:27.677 But he needed to be a man in order to be a right substitution for actual people. 00:12:27.677 --> 00:12:30.376 He's a hundred percent God, a hundred percent man. 00:12:30.376 --> 00:12:35.657 The Bible is a hundred percent written by men, oh yeah, and a hundred percent written by God. 00:12:35.657 --> 00:12:36.359 That's where it is. 00:12:36.359 --> 00:12:39.918 So, in case you're wondering, this is the most unique book on the face of the earth. 00:12:39.918 --> 00:12:42.217 There's no other book that is the God man book. 00:12:42.217 --> 00:12:43.933 There's only men book other than this. 00:12:43.933 --> 00:12:46.380 Thank you, I'll take an amen there. 00:12:48.049 --> 00:12:50.351 And if you don't know yet, dude, that's okay, I didn't always know. 00:12:50.351 --> 00:12:51.554 Here's what you do. 00:12:51.554 --> 00:12:53.299 Read it. 00:12:53.299 --> 00:12:56.356 Read it with the help of the Holy Spirit. 00:12:56.356 --> 00:12:57.475 I remember the morning I woke up. 00:12:57.475 --> 00:13:01.538 I just woke up and the Spirit of God, one of the first times ever, felt God actually talking to me. 00:13:01.538 --> 00:13:03.695 He just whispered to me the whole Bible's true, just believe it. 00:13:03.695 --> 00:13:14.822 And I was like, okay, but when he said it, there was like a release of faith into my spirit, like I'd been wrestling with that idea and there's just a release of like, oh well, if you say so, I mean you would know You've been here the whole time, I haven't. 00:13:14.822 --> 00:13:16.363 Okay, that sounds good. 00:13:16.363 --> 00:13:18.730 So that was a total tangent. 00:13:19.111 --> 00:13:20.899 Let's go back to the sermon that we're in. 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:25.577 God kills all this livestock through this plague. 00:13:25.577 --> 00:13:31.336 God, the one who created all these animals to be gentle and good, he tells Pharaoh I can uncreate them too. 00:13:31.336 --> 00:13:36.239 Can you imagine what this did to the economy of Egypt? 00:13:36.239 --> 00:13:40.474 Now remember, scholars tell us that all the plagues took about a year. 00:13:40.474 --> 00:13:41.456 Altogether. 00:13:41.456 --> 00:13:43.730 They've already had the Nile turn to blood. 00:13:43.730 --> 00:13:45.081 All the fish died. 00:13:45.081 --> 00:13:46.029 So there's a big component. 00:13:46.029 --> 00:13:52.817 A lot of their food is gone, a lot of their ability to make money is gone, and now all the livestock are dying. 00:13:52.817 --> 00:13:53.975 Let's just think about this. 00:13:53.975 --> 00:13:55.193 This is crippling. 00:13:56.009 --> 00:13:57.777 Livestock help cultivate the land. 00:13:57.777 --> 00:14:02.359 Livestock make cheese and milk. 00:14:02.359 --> 00:14:05.597 Livestock is a way for people to travel. 00:14:05.597 --> 00:14:08.115 Livestock is really just money. 00:14:08.115 --> 00:14:11.359 So back in that day you didn't have money. 00:14:11.359 --> 00:14:13.216 You had livestock, flocks and herds. 00:14:13.216 --> 00:14:15.437 And when you had a lot of flocks and herds you were considered rich. 00:14:15.437 --> 00:14:18.111 And if you were a nation that had lots of flocks and herds, you were man. 00:14:18.111 --> 00:14:19.177 That's a stable nation. 00:14:19.177 --> 00:14:22.398 That's what people would think, because they can lose a lot and they're still fine. 00:14:22.398 --> 00:14:25.134 Just like if we have a lot of money, we can lose a lot and we're still fine. 00:14:25.134 --> 00:14:31.676 But if you get down to one or two sheep left, people are like, oh no, you're three steps away from real danger. 00:14:31.676 --> 00:14:34.777 Man and all these livestock are now dead. 00:14:34.777 --> 00:14:36.655 Do you see what God is doing? 00:14:36.655 --> 00:14:43.855 He's crippling this nation because of the stubbornness of this dude that dares defy him. 00:14:46.049 --> 00:14:47.475 Verse seven Pharaoh investigated. 00:14:47.475 --> 00:14:51.472 He sent officials and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. 00:14:51.472 --> 00:14:55.456 Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go. 00:14:55.456 --> 00:14:57.955 Let's do one more of the plague of boils. 00:14:57.955 --> 00:15:00.537 We'll just skip to verse eight. 00:15:00.769 --> 00:15:01.774 Moses confronts him again. 00:15:01.774 --> 00:15:02.933 He's it's a no go. 00:15:02.933 --> 00:15:10.477 Then the Lord said to Moses Sinarene, take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses tossed into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. 00:15:10.477 --> 00:15:18.095 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and festering boils will break out on the people and animals throughout the land. 00:15:18.095 --> 00:15:21.259 So they took soot from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh. 00:15:21.259 --> 00:15:27.554 Moses tossed it into the air and festering boils broke out on people and animals. 00:15:29.149 --> 00:15:37.198 Yikes, I really think this was one of the first moments that many Egyptians, they got a lot more nervous. 00:15:37.198 --> 00:15:50.537 Okay, because, okay, so this God of the Israelites, supposedly, I guess, yeah, he can mess with the river and he can mess with you know livestock and he can mess with flies and pests. 00:15:50.537 --> 00:15:53.294 But now I'm realizing he can touch me. 00:15:53.294 --> 00:15:55.461 I'm in danger. 00:15:55.461 --> 00:16:00.273 He can touch my body, he can give me boils just out of nothing, out of soot in the air. 00:16:00.273 --> 00:16:06.096 Now the panic is a little bit beginning to set in the people not Pharaoh yet, but in the people. 00:16:06.096 --> 00:16:09.557 Now, this is really important that he took soot from a furnace. 00:16:09.576 --> 00:16:10.239 What are these furnaces? 00:16:10.239 --> 00:16:14.760 These furnaces are where the Israelites would bring their straw to have them cooked. 00:16:14.760 --> 00:16:18.475 Remember, at the beginning of the story, that's what was happening, and then Pharaoh took away their straw. 00:16:18.475 --> 00:16:24.736 They had to go find their own straw and bring it back to these kilns, these furnaces, where they would bake these bricks. 00:16:24.736 --> 00:16:27.437 These furnaces are a sign. 00:16:27.437 --> 00:16:29.736 They're a remembrance to every Israelite who sees them. 00:16:29.736 --> 00:16:35.636 You're in slavery, you're in agony, you do backbreaking labor. 00:16:35.636 --> 00:16:39.756 It's got to be a hard thing to even see every day. 00:16:40.950 --> 00:16:47.336 When I was, just when we were very young, we just had my first daughter, kenzie, and I I worked at a place called Sherlock. 00:16:47.336 --> 00:16:50.539 It was a truck tarp system place. 00:16:50.539 --> 00:16:55.135 Okay, so trucks come in and they put tarps on the top for trucks that need to be filled with grain. 00:16:55.135 --> 00:16:57.096 And you got a picture there, just so you know what I'm talking about. 00:16:57.096 --> 00:16:58.674 See that tarp that's on the top there. 00:16:58.674 --> 00:17:03.057 People would bring those in and I was on the team that would repair them and sew them up. 00:17:03.057 --> 00:17:08.516 Well, they'd come in full of, like you know, all kinds of cornmeal and road dust and all kinds of just nasty stuff. 00:17:08.516 --> 00:17:09.594 We lay them out on the floor. 00:17:09.594 --> 00:17:24.674 You know we're cutting with these big industrial scissors and sewing them and cause I'm breathing in these nasty fumes and, honestly, people you know they didn't care, like they didn't care, that this was maybe doing some damage to the employees and it was painful and it stuck with me for a long time. 00:17:24.674 --> 00:17:30.436 But you know what, every time I see a truck like that on the road, it's not that I get PTSD or something like that. 00:17:30.436 --> 00:17:31.776 But I just kind of get the heebie-jeebies. 00:17:31.776 --> 00:17:34.898 I'm like ugh, that was a bad time. 00:17:34.898 --> 00:17:36.573 I don't like that time. 00:17:36.573 --> 00:17:37.616 That was bad. 00:17:38.069 --> 00:17:41.534 Can you imagine what the Israelites think about every time they see one of those ovens? 00:17:41.534 --> 00:17:45.136 This is a reminder you're in slavery forever. 00:17:45.136 --> 00:17:46.676 What does God do? 00:17:46.676 --> 00:18:01.574 God takes the very thing that the Egyptians were using to torture the Israelites and he says Egyptians, I'm going to use that thing against you to demonstrate you're going to reap what you sow Evil with this God. 00:18:01.574 --> 00:18:03.420 Evil has a way of boomeranging. 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:04.053 Maybe other gods? 00:18:04.053 --> 00:18:07.699 You get away with evil, not with Yahweh, not with the God of the Hebrews. 00:18:07.699 --> 00:18:08.874 Evil boomerangs. 00:18:08.874 --> 00:18:18.001 You sow evil into my people and it's going to whip back right at you and turn your furnaces into boils. 00:18:18.001 --> 00:18:19.954 That's pretty doggone awesome. 00:18:19.954 --> 00:18:21.877 You can say amen anytime just for that one. 00:18:21.877 --> 00:18:22.894 I mean that was pretty good right there. 00:18:23.670 --> 00:18:24.092 Verse 11,. 00:18:24.092 --> 00:18:28.679 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them, and all the Egyptians. 00:18:28.679 --> 00:18:36.532 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses A few weeks back. 00:18:36.532 --> 00:18:40.178 We talked about some things that were very encouraging about who God is. 00:18:40.178 --> 00:18:46.455 God said I am your comforter, I am your warner, or the person who warns you, gives you a heads up, and I'm your defender. 00:18:47.250 --> 00:18:49.738 Today we're going to focus a little bit more on God's power. 00:18:49.738 --> 00:18:56.893 We're going to look at some of the the sterner but just as maybe even more appreciated components of his personality. 00:18:56.893 --> 00:18:58.317 Four reasons to worship God. 00:18:58.317 --> 00:18:59.319 Why should we worship God? 00:18:59.319 --> 00:18:59.932 God would say. 00:18:59.932 --> 00:19:01.777 Number one your stuff is mine. 00:19:01.777 --> 00:19:05.356 Your stuff is mine. 00:19:05.356 --> 00:19:07.615 See, the land and the livestock. 00:19:07.615 --> 00:19:12.070 They weren't pharaohs, they were gods, and that was the message Pharaoh. 00:19:12.070 --> 00:19:14.759 This land and this livestock, this is all mine. 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:15.772 I made this. 00:19:15.772 --> 00:19:17.955 I allow you to use it. 00:19:17.955 --> 00:19:19.233 It's not the other way around. 00:19:19.233 --> 00:19:26.977 Now the world has a lot of confidence in stuff, in wealth, in acquiring more. 00:19:26.977 --> 00:19:28.233 That's what everybody loves. 00:19:28.233 --> 00:19:41.019 But God wants to remind us hey, to worship me appropriately, to worship me rightly, you've got to understand that I am the God who really owns everything at all that you have. 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:47.057 Now here's some ways that you might discern that maybe you're prioritizing stuff a little bit too much. 00:19:47.057 --> 00:19:54.894 If you're more really concerned throughout your day-to-day life about things than you are about people, you might be worshiping stuff. 00:19:54.894 --> 00:20:00.032 If you can't help but kind of compare what you have with what somebody else has. 00:20:00.032 --> 00:20:05.857 You might be worshiping stuff If you have a really hard time of letting go and being generous. 00:20:05.857 --> 00:20:08.955 You might be worshiping stuff. 00:20:08.955 --> 00:20:15.914 If you're afraid always that you're going to lose something, you might be worshiping stuff. 00:20:15.914 --> 00:20:23.694 But if you will worship God with your stuff and just put it back in his hands, oh baby, that's the safest place it could ever be. 00:20:25.230 --> 00:20:25.972 Here's what do we do. 00:20:25.972 --> 00:20:29.029 We review that all the stuff is God's. 00:20:29.029 --> 00:20:30.977 All the stuff in my life is God's. 00:20:30.977 --> 00:20:32.736 One of these I've been practicing lately. 00:20:32.736 --> 00:20:38.055 I'll come out of the garage and I'll get into my car and just to practice this principle, I'll say God, thank you for letting me use your card today. 00:20:38.055 --> 00:20:43.574 Or even when I'm putting on clothes, god, thank you for this, for letting me use your shirt this is your shirt, not my shirt. 00:20:43.574 --> 00:20:47.856 Thank you for letting me use it as we just review the things in our lives. 00:20:48.170 --> 00:20:55.051 God, thank you for my house, thank you for my cubicle, thank you for the stuff I got at Goodwill, because it is actually yours. 00:20:55.051 --> 00:20:58.540 It's your stuff at Goodwill, it's your cubicle, it's your house. 00:20:58.540 --> 00:21:00.233 Everything I have is God's. 00:21:00.233 --> 00:21:01.236 God made everything. 00:21:01.236 --> 00:21:02.038 He owns everything. 00:21:02.038 --> 00:21:03.121 It's all for him. 00:21:03.121 --> 00:21:05.838 And when we do that, when we just put it back in his hand. 00:21:05.838 --> 00:21:12.240 It's safe, because we just, we just don't want God to ever think I wonder if they need a test on stuff. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:17.461 I'm just going to start taking it away so they can learn to just need me. 00:21:18.432 --> 00:21:18.532 Now. 00:21:18.532 --> 00:21:18.953 Here's the thing. 00:21:18.953 --> 00:21:23.339 Jesus, as he always does, is going to be so awesome. 00:21:23.339 --> 00:21:25.032 Jesus solves our problem. 00:21:25.032 --> 00:21:27.078 Jesus solves our problem. 00:21:27.078 --> 00:21:28.314 Let's learn. 00:21:29.309 --> 00:21:34.641 Jesus gave all of his stuff away to come to earth. 00:21:34.641 --> 00:21:36.230 So what? 00:21:36.230 --> 00:21:39.377 So you could have all of his stuff? 00:21:39.377 --> 00:21:40.654 That's what he did. 00:21:40.654 --> 00:21:43.459 He gave all of his stuff so we could have all of his stuff. 00:21:43.459 --> 00:21:46.598 So we can go to heaven and be with him and we get all of his stuff too. 00:21:46.598 --> 00:21:50.773 We're inheritors of the riches of heaven Because Jesus gave it away. 00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:58.282 Jesus had to do that and he had to embrace death and murder as the only innocent one. 00:21:58.282 --> 00:21:59.593 Here's what I think about it. 00:21:59.593 --> 00:22:05.601 The only true son is treated like the enemy, so the enemies can be treated like the sons. 00:22:05.601 --> 00:22:10.921 The only true son is treated like the enemy, so the enemies can be treated like the sons. 00:22:10.921 --> 00:22:14.210 Jesus everything was taken from Jesus at the end, even his clothes. 00:22:14.210 --> 00:22:15.173 He was crucified naked. 00:22:15.173 --> 00:22:18.757 If you didn't know, they put clothes on him in the pictures, but it was actually naked. 00:22:18.757 --> 00:22:24.118 Everything was taken from him so that everything could be given to you and me. 00:22:25.369 --> 00:22:33.117 Jesus is the one embracing now listen, you'll understand this better Jesus is the one embracing the judgments that you and I deserve. 00:22:33.117 --> 00:22:34.902 Are we hearing this? 00:22:34.902 --> 00:22:41.173 Because, baby, in this story we're not the Israelites, we're Pharaoh and the Egyptians. 00:22:41.173 --> 00:22:42.237 That's who we are. 00:22:42.237 --> 00:22:55.135 And Jesus is coming in and saying I'm going to embrace the plagues, I'm going to embrace the judgments so my people can be safe, away from the judgment of God, I'm going to let it fall on me on the cross. 00:22:55.135 --> 00:22:58.075 Somebody say dog gone, jesus is awesome. 00:23:00.849 --> 00:23:01.794 So why should we worship God? 00:23:01.794 --> 00:23:06.140 Well, god would say because your stuff is mine and your body is mine. 00:23:06.140 --> 00:23:19.157 So festering boils break out on all these people when we recognize that even our bodies, however good they work, however good your body works, every part of it, every cell, belongs to God. 00:23:19.157 --> 00:23:30.934 That means, when I come into worship, maybe here at Ferris or anywhere else, or in the kitchen or in the bathroom, wherever I am and I'm worshiping God, I say God, thank you for all the stuff of yours that you're allowing me to use and thank you for this body you're allowing me to live in. 00:23:30.934 --> 00:23:32.675 Thank you for every last cell. 00:23:32.675 --> 00:23:37.621 God, only you are so wise and so brilliant that you could make a body that works like this. 00:23:37.621 --> 00:23:40.220 Even when half of it doesn't work, the other half still works. 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:43.217 God, you heal my body as it goes. 00:23:43.217 --> 00:23:46.130 Wow, humans can't invent something like that. 00:23:46.130 --> 00:23:49.460 God, you alone are God and you alone are awesome. 00:23:49.460 --> 00:23:57.378 I'm going to praise you that all my appendages still work, if they do, and if they don't, you're going to praise them that you'll get new appendages someday. 00:24:00.116 --> 00:24:00.920 John Flavill wrote about this. 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:03.420 We're not going to go to any quotes or anything, but John Flavill. 00:24:03.420 --> 00:24:12.559 He's a Puritan pastor and writer, really cool, good guy, but he wrote to his people that would be reading his material. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:17.855 You know that you've used your body parts, your members he calls them. 00:24:17.855 --> 00:24:24.542 You've used your members to sin against God, and God still protects and preserves your body. 00:24:24.542 --> 00:24:34.277 You've used your body parts for treachery against heaven and God loves you so much he still protects your body because he's that gracious, he's that awesome, he's that dope. 00:24:34.277 --> 00:24:42.441 Somebody say God is that dope, and if he's that dope, then we should be careful what we put our bodies around and put in our bodies. 00:24:42.441 --> 00:24:54.563 We should be careful about things like lusting after food or lusting after flesh, or getting high or just overeating or under eating or whatever we would do that would hurt the body. 00:24:55.184 --> 00:24:56.227 This is God's temple. 00:24:56.227 --> 00:24:57.269 It was made to worship God. 00:24:57.269 --> 00:24:58.653 God's letting me it's not even mine. 00:24:58.653 --> 00:24:59.557 God's letting me borrow it. 00:24:59.557 --> 00:25:02.317 I should use it to bless his name. 00:25:02.609 --> 00:25:05.218 1 Corinthians 6, 18 says flee from sexual immorality. 00:25:05.218 --> 00:25:10.693 All other sins that a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. 00:25:10.693 --> 00:25:16.292 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? 00:25:16.292 --> 00:25:17.317 Here it is. 00:25:17.317 --> 00:25:19.494 You are not your own. 00:25:19.494 --> 00:25:20.258 You're bought with a price. 00:25:20.258 --> 00:25:22.415 Therefore, honor God with your bodies. 00:25:22.415 --> 00:25:29.494 So eat right and exercise and do everything you can to weaken lust by avoiding things that stir it up in you. 00:25:30.571 --> 00:25:42.480 And even when you're sick and I can tell you this as a guy who was sick for four and a half years there's power, even when you're sick, in praising God, not that you're sick, but that he's with you while you're sick. 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:44.153 There's power in it, baby. 00:25:44.153 --> 00:25:45.037 There's power. 00:25:45.037 --> 00:25:46.815 God deserves to be praised. 00:25:46.815 --> 00:25:50.637 God should be worshiped because my stuff is his and my body is his. 00:25:50.637 --> 00:25:52.101 And here you go my heart is his. 00:25:52.101 --> 00:25:54.945 I mean, the heart is mine, the heart is mine. 00:25:55.450 --> 00:26:01.173