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 --> 00:00:21.071 So, hey, thank you so much for being here. 00:00:21.071 --> 00:00:22.757 Thank you for joining us folks online. 00:00:22.757 --> 00:00:23.661 I'm really excited. 00:00:23.661 --> 00:00:27.958 I'm glad that we get to talk about one final message for a little while. 00:00:27.958 --> 00:00:28.821 We're gonna come back to it. 00:00:29.141 --> 00:00:36.185 But we spent all summer on this the Road Out series and we're picking a great place to kind of have like a climax. 00:00:36.185 --> 00:00:38.920 If this was, this probably at least be a two-movie series, okay. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:41.735 If these were movies, we'd be at the end of the first movie, okay. 00:00:41.735 --> 00:00:44.246 So this is a great like cliffhanger. 00:00:44.246 --> 00:00:45.572 It's gonna be awesome. 00:00:45.572 --> 00:00:54.262 But if you're just joining us, you may not know what's going on and, to be honest, there's so much that's going on that I'm gonna try to help you pick it up as we go. 00:00:54.262 --> 00:01:03.399 But the best thing you could do is go to our YouTube page, our YouTube channel, and there's an entire like little line of featured vids and that is all about the Road Out. 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.769 So you can just go back and you can watch all of them and you'll get the big picture. 00:01:06.769 --> 00:01:08.480 But here we are. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:10.484 We're at the end of these plagues. 00:01:10.706 --> 00:01:17.293 Okay, pharaoh's been taken on God, moses has been speaking for God and there's all kinds of things are now falling apart. 00:01:17.293 --> 00:01:24.740 Whereas at first it was kind of falling apart for Moses, now it's falling apart for Pharaoh, and it was just so hard for Moses at first. 00:01:24.740 --> 00:01:28.680 You remember it was about mid-July we were talking about just how hard it was for Moses. 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:34.801 Andy Dufresne, in one of the greatest movies of all time, shawshank Redemption how many know that's true. 00:01:34.801 --> 00:01:36.486 You can say amen, that's true. 00:01:36.486 --> 00:01:37.609 It's one of the greatest movies of all time. 00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:41.608 Andy Dufresne, he spent do you know how many years he spent in jail in this story? 00:01:41.608 --> 00:01:44.341 Yeah, you might not know, you have to Google it. 00:01:44.341 --> 00:01:45.024 It's 19 years. 00:01:45.024 --> 00:01:46.808 He spent 19 years. 00:01:46.808 --> 00:01:49.745 I don't think they even say that ever, they just go by the years they're in the movie. 00:01:49.745 --> 00:01:52.150 But he spent 19 years in prison. 00:01:52.191 --> 00:02:01.850 And it's so amazing to me when you think about that character, not just that like he persevered and like chopped through the wall spoiler alert but he, just, he just kept hoping for 19 years. 00:02:01.850 --> 00:02:05.746 He kept persevering, believing someday I will get through this. 00:02:05.746 --> 00:02:10.705 And that's one of the challenges I want to talk to you about today is the long term. 00:02:10.705 --> 00:02:22.223 I'm just going to keep pushing, I'm just going to keep persevering, I'm just going to keep obeying as best I can in the same direction and I'm going to see not only the blessing of God finally break through. 00:02:22.223 --> 00:02:31.706 Sometimes we're going to see an actual reversal, like it seems like everything's going bad, and then we're going to see the glory of God and suddenly everything starts to break loose and go good. 00:02:32.007 --> 00:02:33.251 Here's what Thomas Edison said. 00:02:33.251 --> 00:02:39.552 He said many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. 00:02:39.552 --> 00:02:42.266 And I would just wonder if today some of us are not. 00:02:42.266 --> 00:02:43.852 Man, you're, you're so close right now. 00:02:43.852 --> 00:02:59.746 You're so close and your spiritual foe is trying to talk you into backing down and stepping back and saying, well, you know what, it's just not going to work anyway, and what you and I need to do, we need to decide nope, I'm going to press through, I'm going to get this thing, I'm going to win, I'm going to push through and I'm going to make it. 00:03:00.508 --> 00:03:02.936 We forget that obedience is worth it. 00:03:02.936 --> 00:03:08.110 We forget that's what Moses almost forgot, but he didn't forget and he's going to experience the rewards. 00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:09.201 That we forget. 00:03:09.201 --> 00:03:19.049 But when it's really hard is when we're called to do something, like Moses was, but we don't even totally understand why or how this is supposed to work. 00:03:19.049 --> 00:03:20.431 Like, why am I in this? 00:03:20.431 --> 00:03:21.784 Why am I pushing so hard? 00:03:21.784 --> 00:03:22.748 This is hard. 00:03:22.748 --> 00:03:27.427 I don't know why God has asked me to do this, and it's very basic stuff, okay. 00:03:27.427 --> 00:03:31.622 So maybe you're wondering sometimes about you know, I don't understand God's sexual ethic. 00:03:31.622 --> 00:03:33.687 Like why in this way? 00:03:33.687 --> 00:03:35.872 Why within the bounds of marriage? 00:03:35.872 --> 00:03:37.765 Like why is that a thing I'm wrestling with? 00:03:37.765 --> 00:03:39.174 The world doesn't seem like they care about that. 00:03:39.174 --> 00:03:41.925 Why is that a thing that I need to be worried about? 00:03:41.925 --> 00:03:45.478 Maybe for you it is about why do I need to be generous? 00:03:45.478 --> 00:03:46.762 I mean, it's my money. 00:03:46.762 --> 00:03:48.025 Why does God care? 00:03:48.025 --> 00:03:48.466 Isn't it? 00:03:48.466 --> 00:03:49.549 Doesn't God own the universe? 00:03:49.549 --> 00:03:50.912 Why does he need me to be? 00:03:50.912 --> 00:03:52.623 And we just ask the question why? 00:03:52.623 --> 00:03:54.262 The why is getting in the way. 00:03:54.262 --> 00:03:57.103 This is hard to, because I don't understand the why. 00:03:58.205 --> 00:04:03.784 Maybe you've been a part of a marriage and you're looking at this dude and you're like you know it just be. 00:04:03.784 --> 00:04:08.914 Just as he just sends you out with the trash this week, you just you just go and sit there by the, by the edge of the driveway. 00:04:08.914 --> 00:04:11.932 They'll pick you up and you can just go, because you're so tired of it. 00:04:11.932 --> 00:04:15.985 And you're like why, god, why am I still in this? 00:04:15.985 --> 00:04:20.526 Why are you asking me to stay when this has been so bad so long? 00:04:20.526 --> 00:04:30.369 Maybe you're somebody and you've got a real opinion about a lot of stuff and you're used to sharing your opinions and, as time goes by, you keep getting prompted. 00:04:30.369 --> 00:04:31.904 Don't share your opinion anymore. 00:04:31.904 --> 00:04:33.483 Hold that to yourself. 00:04:33.483 --> 00:04:37.744 I know you think you're right You're probably not, by the way, but I know you think you're right. 00:04:37.744 --> 00:04:42.533 But God, he just wants even if you are, he just wants you to just be quiet. 00:04:42.533 --> 00:04:43.721 And you're like why, though? 00:04:43.721 --> 00:04:43.983 Why? 00:04:43.983 --> 00:04:46.726 I feel like it would go so good if I could just say something. 00:04:46.726 --> 00:04:59.067 Or maybe you're at a brand new life stage, maybe you're at retirement, and you're saying wow, I really thought by this age I was gonna be going this way, and I feel like I'm being pulled this direction, and I don't understand why. 00:04:59.067 --> 00:05:01.026 The why makes it harder sometimes. 00:05:01.026 --> 00:05:03.588 It's harder to obey when I don't understand why? 00:05:03.588 --> 00:05:04.584 But here's what we're gonna find out. 00:05:04.584 --> 00:05:14.666 Radical blessing and reversal of favor sometimes comes when we're persistently obedient, even when we don't understand why. 00:05:14.666 --> 00:05:17.742 Well, it's good anyway. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:20.225 In the middle of July, we were talking about Moses. 00:05:20.225 --> 00:05:24.906 The message was called a very bad day, and it was a very bad day for Moses. 00:05:24.906 --> 00:05:30.548 Everything was going wrong, pharaoh was against him, god had sent him and it was already like, are you sure? 00:05:30.548 --> 00:05:35.362 And then he goes, and at first it seems like the entire nation of the Hebrews, the Israelites, they're all with him. 00:05:35.362 --> 00:05:44.699 And then Pharaoh turns on him and so all of his, his family of Israelites, they turn on him, and it just seems like things are going from bad to worse. 00:05:44.699 --> 00:05:45.904 He keeps getting opposed. 00:05:45.904 --> 00:05:53.665 He had a very bad day and one of the things we talked about that during that message was there's no such thing as untested faith. 00:05:53.665 --> 00:05:55.644 There's no such thing. 00:05:55.644 --> 00:05:58.420 There is no such thing as untested faith. 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:01.466 If it's not tested, then you haven't really had to believe very hard. 00:06:01.466 --> 00:06:04.663 But here's what we're gonna find out Matthew 11, 19,. 00:06:04.663 --> 00:06:06.410 This is Jesus speaking, and he was right. 00:06:06.410 --> 00:06:10.812 Wisdom is shown to be right by its results, by its results. 00:06:10.812 --> 00:06:15.130 See, at the end of the day, here's Moses, and it's beginning to pay off. 00:06:15.130 --> 00:06:15.915 Now let's check it out. 00:06:15.935 --> 00:06:18.846 We're gonna dive right in Exodus 11, one. 00:06:18.846 --> 00:06:22.988 Now the Lord had said to Moses I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. 00:06:22.988 --> 00:06:28.269 After that he will let you go from here and when he does, he will drive you out completely. 00:06:28.269 --> 00:06:37.055 Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold, which is a humorous thing. 00:06:37.055 --> 00:06:40.528 To command Moses, I would be a little bit like, wow, that's strange. 00:06:40.901 --> 00:06:49.259 Verse three the Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people. 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:51.627 Oh, now he's highly regarded. 00:06:51.627 --> 00:06:57.079 At first he was hated by everybody and now even Pharaoh's servants are like not as dog. 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:00.180 I mean, just watch out for him, he's awesome. 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:09.608 You better respect him because stuff goes wrong, because livestock start dying, because flies and gnats and frogs are still bubbling up, because he talks to God and he's serious. 00:07:09.608 --> 00:07:14.300 And now they all respect him and he gives them this strange command already, go out and ask these people. 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:15.725 You're going soon. 00:07:15.725 --> 00:07:16.824 Go ask these people. 00:07:16.824 --> 00:07:25.865 Hey, we need some stuff, we need some gold, we need some stuff because we're about to go and what they don't know is some of this very stuff that they're gonna be given. 00:07:25.865 --> 00:07:27.826 We're gonna find out later in the book of Exodus. 00:07:27.826 --> 00:07:31.399 They don't know it, but this is for the building of the tabernacle. 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:33.459 This is a portable temple of God. 00:07:33.459 --> 00:07:36.810 Everyone's gonna get really ridiculously generous to build the tabernacle. 00:07:36.810 --> 00:07:40.548 They don't know that's coming, but often God asks us to do stuff and we don't know why. 00:07:40.548 --> 00:07:42.906 We don't know why we're doing this. 00:07:42.906 --> 00:07:47.139 I don't know why I'm in this season, and it guys say well, I know why, I know the whole story. 00:07:47.139 --> 00:07:48.365 You just see a little part right here. 00:07:48.365 --> 00:07:52.886 Just go ahead and trust me and it's all gonna be good. 00:07:53.862 --> 00:08:01.148 Obedience is often harder at first, but then it pays off nicely, just like it does for Moses here. 00:08:01.148 --> 00:08:04.348 Now, remember, it's been slow for Moses, hasn't it? 00:08:04.348 --> 00:08:08.783 That's been a long time, man and God seems slow A lot of the time. 00:08:08.783 --> 00:08:13.608 We're like God you are slow and he's not slow, but he knows just the right time. 00:08:13.608 --> 00:08:17.588 God knows just the right time to break through Some of it. 00:08:17.588 --> 00:08:21.591 I need a little bit more amens to know that you're really processing what I'm saying here. 00:08:21.591 --> 00:08:23.567 You're in the right place already. 00:08:23.567 --> 00:08:27.060 God's already positioned you where you're supposed to be Now. 00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:31.326 It's just a matter of waiting, because he knows how to reverse it at exactly the right time. 00:08:31.326 --> 00:08:37.827 I mean, baby Moses didn't have a friend in a half before, and now he's got all kinds of favor. 00:08:37.827 --> 00:08:46.087 That's because Proverbs 16, 7 is true when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him, eventually, eventually. 00:08:46.087 --> 00:08:47.666 So you just keep on walking. 00:08:47.666 --> 00:08:49.043 Here's what I figured out. 00:08:49.043 --> 00:08:51.804 It's true for you, it's true for me. 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:56.145 God has a special obedience curriculum for every individual person. 00:08:56.145 --> 00:09:03.750 Wherever you are, there's a curriculum God is trying to take you through, and the way you pass this course is just to obey. 00:09:03.750 --> 00:09:08.346 Often, when you don't understand the why, I don't know why God would command people to do this. 00:09:08.346 --> 00:09:08.821 I don't know why. 00:09:08.821 --> 00:09:10.145 This is God's perspective about it. 00:09:10.145 --> 00:09:10.967 Does it matter? 00:09:10.967 --> 00:09:17.283 Sometimes he'll tell you and it's awesome, and he's a friend, and he'll do stuff like that, and sometimes it's like, no, that's part of the test, man, there is no faith. 00:09:17.283 --> 00:09:17.926 That's untested. 00:09:17.926 --> 00:09:19.144 And so here's the test. 00:09:19.144 --> 00:09:20.163 Will you just do it? 00:09:20.163 --> 00:09:24.688 Because I'm asking you to, instead of always need to know everything God is doing. 00:09:25.059 --> 00:09:46.688 And here's what's powerful If we will just keep on pushing forward, if we will just keep on pushing through with all the obedience you can muster, which means you're not gonna do perfect, you're not gonna make it through all the way perfectly, and yet if you just do the best you can when you don't understand what is going on, god's gonna bring that favor and that radical blessing and that reversal. 00:09:46.688 --> 00:09:48.927 So here's number one keep pushing forward in obedience. 00:09:48.927 --> 00:09:51.365 Keep pushing forward in obedience. 00:09:51.365 --> 00:09:57.907 And if I was dude, if I was watching online right now, or if I was in this auditorium, I would be like dancing on the seats. 00:09:57.907 --> 00:09:59.585 Okay, I'd be up shouting around. 00:09:59.585 --> 00:10:09.044 Maybe my life has just been way harder than some of y'all, but the idea that God has got a right time and if I just keep on pushing it's going to pay off is shouting news. 00:10:09.044 --> 00:10:11.924 So if you're comfortable with it, you just go ahead and shout. 00:10:12.299 --> 00:10:21.370 And what's awesome is, if we keep pushing forward at the sanctification level we're at, god will break through. 00:10:21.370 --> 00:10:22.263 That's really important. 00:10:22.263 --> 00:10:25.927 We're gonna see in a second that Moses is gonna do something a little bit wrong. 00:10:25.927 --> 00:10:33.182 That is ultimately gonna negatively pay off in his life ultimately, but he's still someone who's in the middle of his sanctification. 00:10:33.182 --> 00:10:34.427 That word sanctification. 00:10:34.427 --> 00:10:37.369 That just means the process of becoming more like Jesus. 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:40.706 Okay, so we start, many of us, we come to know Jesus Christ. 00:10:40.706 --> 00:10:41.730 We're forgiven of our sins. 00:10:41.730 --> 00:10:42.611 He fills us with his spirit. 00:10:42.611 --> 00:10:49.549 That gives us power now to be walking relationally with him, and we're slowly becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:53.885 Well, the thing is, you're not really gonna be totally like Jesus until you're with him in heaven. 00:10:53.885 --> 00:10:57.371 So from here to there you're becoming more like it. 00:10:57.371 --> 00:10:59.120 But You're right in the middle right now. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:02.355 Everybody who you know, who is a Christ follower. 00:11:02.355 --> 00:11:04.602 They're in the middle of their sanctification, not at the end. 00:11:04.602 --> 00:11:06.294 That means there's gonna be obedience. 00:11:06.355 --> 00:11:11.383 As you don't get right because you're in the middle, you don't need to get it all right, you don't need to be perfect. 00:11:11.383 --> 00:11:13.634 You're in the middle of your sanctification. 00:11:13.634 --> 00:11:15.995 So just keep walking, knowing that you're gonna get it wrong. 00:11:15.995 --> 00:11:17.260 See, god is really a God of hearts. 00:11:17.260 --> 00:11:19.534 Man, he's looking at you know, is there a heart right? 00:11:19.534 --> 00:11:24.465 And what that means is dude, sometimes you just gotta forgive yourself and get over it. 00:11:24.465 --> 00:11:27.403 Okay, here's what your spiritual enemy wants. 00:11:27.403 --> 00:11:29.562 He just wants you to beat down for a month. 00:11:29.562 --> 00:11:31.761 Oh man, I feel man, I'm just pretty bad. 00:11:31.761 --> 00:11:32.181 I don't know. 00:11:32.181 --> 00:11:35.042 I just I better just lay, I better just sit here and not do anything. 00:11:35.042 --> 00:11:36.822 No, get up. 00:11:36.822 --> 00:11:39.577 You're in the middle of your sanctification, so get up. 00:11:39.577 --> 00:11:44.404 No one expects you to be perfect and keep pushing forward in obedience. 00:11:45.095 --> 00:11:46.179 Here's what Albert Einstein said. 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:50.100 It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:56.461 Now, of course, that's not true he was so smart, but there's something smart right there he stays with problems longer. 00:11:56.461 --> 00:12:05.423 Maybe it's for the sake, maybe it's for the sake of your future, that you can just think well, I don't understand now, but I'd sure like a better future than I'm in right now. 00:12:05.423 --> 00:12:09.375 So I'm just going to obey when I don't understand Now. 00:12:09.395 --> 00:12:10.639 Here's what we gotta understand about obedience. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:14.683 It's rarely something that you feel like doing. 00:12:14.683 --> 00:12:21.120 If you're waiting for your feelings before you're ready to obey, oh, dear heart, you're gonna be waiting a long time. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:30.581 Okay, feelings are rarely a part of it, and occasionally you'll get this woo Zeal, I'm gonna obey, but a lot of the time you're working against feelings and you gotta keep pressing through. 00:12:30.581 --> 00:12:31.378 You know one of the most. 00:12:31.378 --> 00:12:32.763 It sounds weird. 00:12:32.794 --> 00:12:36.941 Sometimes people ask me what's your favorite part about being a pastor, and there's a lot of cool parts. 00:12:36.941 --> 00:12:54.340 One of my favorite parts is preaching, but one of the parts you might not suspect is when I'm sitting across from somebody, we're at coffee or we're in my office and I'm watching them process like I'm seeing it behind their eyes, and they're thinking through oh okay, I see this resolve come into their mind. 00:12:54.340 --> 00:13:08.024 Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and obey, even though I don't like it, even though I don't feel like it and even though I don't understand it, because Jesus is worth it and the reward is worth it. 00:13:08.024 --> 00:13:11.164 That's like the coolest moment of pastoring ever. 00:13:11.164 --> 00:13:14.322 When you see people do that, you just wanna like jump up and start. 00:13:14.322 --> 00:13:16.181 You start away, but nobody joins you. 00:13:16.181 --> 00:13:19.183 But it's one of the coolest parts. 00:13:19.183 --> 00:13:26.423 And, my friends, that's the payoff day for Jesus and he's gonna send us a payoff day if we keep on going. 00:13:26.423 --> 00:13:29.524 So, yes, keep on pushing forward. 00:13:30.014 --> 00:13:34.145 Yet the time comes when it's too late. 00:13:34.145 --> 00:13:37.221 The time comes when it's too late. 00:13:37.221 --> 00:13:44.878 See, now Moses goes and he gives Pharaoh a stone cold warning he's had all this time and Moses has brought all these kinds of warnings. 00:13:44.878 --> 00:13:47.926 But now he walks in and he essentially comes up to Pharaoh. 00:13:47.926 --> 00:13:49.384 He says, hey, pharaoh, verse four. 00:13:49.384 --> 00:13:52.844 He says something's gonna happen at midnight and it's gonna be bad. 00:13:52.844 --> 00:14:08.428 The angel of death is going to come and he's going to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians and you're gonna hear a cry and a sorrow like has never been heard before in Egypt in the middle of the night, because all of these firstborns are going to die. 00:14:08.428 --> 00:14:12.606 And check it out, pharaoh, just like before, the Hebrews are going to be protected. 00:14:12.606 --> 00:14:13.884 It's not going to happen to them. 00:14:13.884 --> 00:14:26.347 Verse eight, all these officials this is how he kind of ends it all these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying go, you and all your people who follow you. 00:14:26.347 --> 00:14:28.767 After that I will leave. 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:31.649 Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. 00:14:31.649 --> 00:14:37.283 So whoa, that's gonna be bad, but there's a little hint right there. 00:14:37.283 --> 00:14:38.945 Moses, hot with anger. 00:14:38.945 --> 00:14:48.683 Do you know that 40 years from here, moses is unable to enter the promised land that he spent all this time bringing these Israelites to because of his anger? 00:14:48.683 --> 00:14:56.826 Because that's his one little place that he did not allow to be taken control of by the Holy Spirit, or somehow it slipped from him. 00:14:56.826 --> 00:14:58.846 And we all have that stuff. 00:14:58.846 --> 00:14:59.388 We've all got stuff. 00:14:59.388 --> 00:15:06.511 Okay, I'm not doing perfect, but I keep moving forward, keep pushing through with what you know to do. 00:15:06.511 --> 00:15:17.349 Keep pushing through with what you know to do, even when you get it wrong, even when you have a hot flare of anger, even when you say the wrong thing, even when you put your foot in your mouth, even when you feel like a dope, even when that happens. 00:15:17.349 --> 00:15:22.682 Keep pushing through with what you know to do, but remember you don't have forever. 00:15:22.682 --> 00:15:25.149 Remember you don't have forever. 00:15:25.149 --> 00:15:26.004 This is what Pharaoh found out. 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:37.926 So many of you know that when Apple Computer Company was founded, there was Steve Jobs, steve Wozniak, but there was a third guy who was part of the founding of Apple. 00:15:37.926 --> 00:15:43.947 You probably haven't heard of him because after 12 days, he sold all of his shares for $800. 00:15:43.947 --> 00:15:44.823 His name's Ron Wayne. 00:15:44.823 --> 00:15:51.506 12 days in to Apple sells all of his shares Today and I checked yesterday what this would be worth. 00:15:51.506 --> 00:15:57.732 986.67 billion is what that would be worth today. 00:15:57.732 --> 00:16:07.946 Bro, you gave up too early Like, wow, $800 compared to all that Dude, star Wars was only four billion. 00:16:08.779 --> 00:16:13.363 Okay, that's a lot of dog gone money, but now it's too late. 00:16:13.363 --> 00:16:15.323 There's nothing you do about it now. 00:16:15.323 --> 00:16:16.984 He missed the opportunity. 00:16:16.984 --> 00:16:22.364 You know there's stuff that a little from now it's gonna be too late to do. 00:16:22.364 --> 00:16:28.106 If you're a young person, there's gonna come a time where, okay, now it's too late to go to youth group. 00:16:28.106 --> 00:16:32.892 Whatever God wanted to do there, now he can't do Cause that's over, and I think I was not still with you. 00:16:32.892 --> 00:16:35.227 I thought that he might not still do awesome stuff. 00:16:35.227 --> 00:16:38.124 He'll take it from where you are, but he can't do that anymore. 00:16:38.124 --> 00:16:39.765 There's gonna come a time for some of us. 00:16:39.765 --> 00:16:51.990 Okay, well, now you know, dude, I know you were busy, I know you had a lot to do, but now you know people aren't gonna really be asking you to mentor them quite as much because you were just never around and you know you said no in kind of the season when they needed it. 00:16:51.990 --> 00:16:54.067 Now they just they're not looking to you in the same way. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:08.467 There might be a time where it's kind of okay, well, it's not that you can't be a spiritual leader, but you didn't start down here Like you didn't wanna just carry the chair, you didn't wanna just help out, you know, with what needed then, what we needed then. 00:17:08.467 --> 00:17:18.486 And so now God's like well, I mean, dude, it's not that I'll start wherever you are, but there's things you missed, because now is I was telling you to obey back then and you're like no, god, no, I'll get to it. 00:17:18.486 --> 00:17:19.102 I'll get to it later. 00:17:19.102 --> 00:17:21.787 Years go by, years go by, years go by. 00:17:21.787 --> 00:17:25.288 There comes a time when it's too late. 00:17:25.288 --> 00:17:30.008 I mean, you know this, even with your health, right, you can start eating healthier at any age. 00:17:30.008 --> 00:17:36.542 But there's a time when it's like, well, this doesn't gonna undo anything though, okay, it'll make it a little bit better for the rest of the time. 00:17:36.542 --> 00:17:43.424 But there's a time when it's time to obey, and what I'm trying to say is there's a procrastination. 00:17:43.424 --> 00:17:45.224 Sometimes we're just like, well, it doesn't matter when I obey. 00:17:45.224 --> 00:17:51.683 No, it matters, it's specific with God when he's dealing with you about it. 00:17:51.683 --> 00:17:52.667 It's then. 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.584 So now Moses is gonna give some these Israelites the notes for the trip. 00:17:57.584 --> 00:17:59.205 He's gonna say, okay, guys, this is it. 00:17:59.205 --> 00:18:01.939 Now we're gonna go, I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna do. 00:18:01.939 --> 00:18:08.128 And he's even telling them stuff they're gonna commemorate and do again in the future, kind of on the anniversary of this Passover. 00:18:08.128 --> 00:18:12.268 But here's how he starts, verse one of Exodus 12. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:19.586 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 00:18:19.586 --> 00:18:23.261 He says, hey, moses and Aaron, as you go, I just want you to understand. 00:18:23.261 --> 00:18:24.626 This is now the marker. 00:18:24.626 --> 00:18:26.747 This is how I want you to understand your reality. 00:18:26.747 --> 00:18:28.807 Everything started with me bringing you out. 00:18:28.807 --> 00:18:33.244 Everything now points back to this or points forward to this in the year. 00:18:33.244 --> 00:18:40.445 This is gonna be the thing in the year that always the year is returning to or coming from, and we know how this goes right, like we have probably for many of us. 00:18:40.445 --> 00:18:44.287 Like that's Christmas, you're always thinking about what is this month in relation to Christmas. 00:18:44.287 --> 00:18:49.807 Like Christmas is just like a marker of the year, and then we keep going and God is telling them this is so important. 00:18:49.807 --> 00:19:00.684 You've never done anything like this that I want you to think about yourselves as you were birthed in this moment, and that's a lot like coming to know Jesus Christ or being born again. 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:03.567 For some of us, that kind of happens gradually over time. 00:19:03.567 --> 00:19:04.805 For me, it happened very suddenly. 00:19:04.805 --> 00:19:17.565 Okay, I was raised in a religious home and we understood some things, but we didn't understand everything about personal relationship with Jesus, and so when I was 18, I came to know him in a much more personal way and I began to understand my life of. 00:19:17.565 --> 00:19:22.689 This was everything before I knew Christ, and this is everything that has happened since I knew Christ. 00:19:22.689 --> 00:19:26.069 But that one marker, dude, that was the explosion that changed everything. 00:19:26.069 --> 00:19:32.868 That's when the fire started and that's a little bit what's happening with Moses and Aaron about the Hebrew future calendar right now. 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:39.884 And then he gets super specific about some really confusing stuff that they're gonna do with a lamb. 00:19:39.884 --> 00:19:42.807 So verses three through five. 00:19:42.807 --> 00:19:44.164 I'm just gonna run you through them very quickly. 00:19:44.164 --> 00:19:52.963 First he says okay, I want you to tell the whole community, every one of you is to take a lamb and bring it into your house, bring it in for your family. 00:19:52.963 --> 00:19:56.028 And, really important, it's gotta be a lamb without defect. 00:19:56.028 --> 00:20:06.692 That's really important because one of the things he's talking about right now he's talking about them, but he's also talking about the lamb, jesus Christ, the lamb. 00:20:06.692 --> 00:20:08.305 It's a lamb without defect. 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:18.470 That's why Pilate could say about Jesus in Luke 23, I find nothing wrong with this man, because there was nothing wrong with him, because he was without defect. 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:19.700 He was without sin. 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:23.705 That's why, hundreds of years earlier, isaiah could prophesy about Jesus. 00:20:23.705 --> 00:20:27.630 He had done no wrong and never deceived anyone. 00:20:27.630 --> 00:20:29.200 But he was buried like a criminal. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:31.180 He was put in a rich man's grave. 00:20:31.180 --> 00:20:33.743 But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. 00:20:33.743 --> 00:20:38.559 Yet when his life has made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.788 That's everyone who trusts in his name. 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:42.005 So you're all families. 00:20:42.005 --> 00:20:42.727 You're gonna take a lamb. 00:20:42.727 --> 00:21:02.127 You're going to then slaughter and emit twilight this is this perfect, without blemish lamb and then verse seven to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where you're gonna eat that lamb within the house You're going to we're gonna come back to this in a little bit You're going to ingest this lamb entirely. 00:21:02.127 --> 00:21:03.141 Okay. 00:21:03.141 --> 00:21:06.183 So, hebrew families, get in your houses, put this blood on the door. 00:21:06.183 --> 00:21:11.846 You're gonna eat this lamb and you're gonna eat everything and it's really specific and you're gonna get ready to go. 00:21:11.846 --> 00:21:13.045 You're gonna be ready to leave. 00:21:13.045 --> 00:21:14.884 Suddenly, like you're going on a trip. 00:21:14.884 --> 00:21:24.292 This is what's gonna happen, and I know this sounds strange because, hebrews, you've never been anywhere for 400 years and now you need to eat like you're moving. 00:21:24.292 --> 00:21:34.098 You ever had an experience where, like, there's a difference between everyone's kind of like sitting around the table and like, oh yeah, you know, cool, calm night and everyone's like flying out the door and grabbing a pop tart. 00:21:34.098 --> 00:21:35.558 This is much more like the latter. 00:21:35.558 --> 00:21:39.102 Okay, like dude, get your stuff on, get ready, here we go. 00:21:40.115 --> 00:21:40.557 Verse 11,. 00:21:40.557 --> 00:21:45.563 This is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. 00:21:45.563 --> 00:21:46.377 Eat it in haste. 00:21:46.377 --> 00:21:48.160 It is the Lord's Passover. 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:49.259 We're gonna understand that in a couple minutes. 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:54.163 On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, of both people and animals. 00:21:54.163 --> 00:21:55.680 That will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:56.703 I am the Lord. 00:21:56.703 --> 00:22:03.565 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. 00:22:03.565 --> 00:22:07.544 No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 00:22:07.544 --> 00:22:11.657 And then there's a terrible cry Verse 29,. 00:22:11.698 --> 00:22:20.298 At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of the livestock as well. 00:22:20.298 --> 00:22:31.246 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night and there was a loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 00:22:31.246 --> 00:22:39.545 During the night, pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said up, leave my people. 00:22:39.545 --> 00:22:50.017 You in the Israelites, go worship the Lord, as you have requested, take your flocks and herds, as you've said, and go and bless me. 00:22:50.017 --> 00:22:59.423 Also, the Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country, for otherwise, they said, we will all die. 00:22:59.423 --> 00:23:02.438 They're freaked out now. 00:23:04.474 --> 00:23:14.603 And here's, my friends, where Jesus is pointing to when he says in John 5, 46, if you really believed Moses, you would believe in me, because he wrote about me. 00:23:14.603 --> 00:23:20.242 When I see the blood, I will pass over you. 00:23:20.242 --> 00:23:25.343 When I see the blood, not when I see what a good person you are. 00:23:25.343 --> 00:23:29.044 Not when I see how you stood up for other people's rights. 00:23:29.044 --> 00:23:31.624 Not when I see how you helped the homeless. 00:23:31.624 --> 00:23:36.797 Not when I see how you helped the elderly, not when I see how much better you were than the people around you. 00:23:36.797 --> 00:23:40.321 Only when I see the blood. 00:23:40.321 --> 00:23:46.319 That means Hebrews, you've got a choice you can be out of the house that night. 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:48.737 That's up to you. 00:23:48.737 --> 00:23:53.000 Up till this point, god has done everything on his own, and now he's giving them a decision. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.602 He says but only if you're within the house. 00:23:55.602 --> 00:24:06.642 When I see the blood, I will pass over you, meaning you are not protected from the judgment of God unless you are under the blood. 00:24:07.595 --> 00:24:18.241 This lamb is a substitute, somehow that brings satisfaction to God, so that the penalty that is due soon no longer has to come on the people under the blood. 00:24:18.241 --> 00:24:21.201 And you remember what the scripture said? 00:24:21.201 --> 00:24:25.958 It said in every house there wasn't a house or someone wasn't dead. 00:24:25.958 --> 00:24:29.301 That was true even in the Hebrew houses. 00:24:29.301 --> 00:24:31.259 It was just that the lamb was dead. 00:24:31.259 --> 00:24:35.161 In their houses the lamb was dead, ok. 00:24:35.974 --> 00:24:38.458 And you might say, oh gosh, you know what, dude, that's just absurd. 00:24:38.458 --> 00:24:39.962 I don't understand that. 00:24:39.962 --> 00:24:43.083 Why does the blood of the lamb make so much difference? 00:24:43.083 --> 00:24:45.079 I don't know if I can believe that. 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:48.364 Well, I'll tell you what man put yourself in their shoes. 00:24:49.576 --> 00:24:52.361 Because not only did the Israelites believe it, but the Egyptians believed man. 00:24:52.361 --> 00:24:58.119 They'd seen all these plagues, they'd seen their friends die, they'd seen all of their crops go away, they'd seen the Nile turn to blood. 00:24:58.119 --> 00:25:02.679 They're like oh yeah, dude, I don't care how absurd it sounds, we believe this God. 00:25:02.679 --> 00:25:04.376 Now we believe him. 00:25:04.376 --> 00:25:06.818 And here's what's really true. 00:25:06.818 --> 00:25:13.125 They were saved because they were under the blood. 00:25:14.994 --> 00:25:23.443 But even before that, in a different kind of way, they were saved because they believed the words of God about the necessity of being under the blood. 00:25:23.443 --> 00:25:25.441 They believed it and acted on it. 00:25:25.441 --> 00:25:28.961 They heard it, they said true, I'm going to go ahead and do that. 00:25:28.961 --> 00:25:34.765 I'm going to go ahead and get under the blood, because it's none of my business how or why God does stuff. 00:25:34.765 --> 00:25:38.118 I just know here is safety If I'm under this blood. 00:25:38.159 --> 00:25:38.842 And so what do we do? 00:25:38.842 --> 00:25:44.743 Not only do we keep pushing forward in obedience here's so awesome but we appropriate Jesus' obedience. 00:25:44.743 --> 00:25:51.025 We keep pushing forward in the obedience we understand, but then we also appropriate the obedience of Jesus. 00:25:51.025 --> 00:25:57.224 First and always, we hide under the blood. 00:25:57.224 --> 00:26:06.544 Here's the irony about a message on obedience we're talking about obedience and yet we've got so much unobedience that it doesn't matter how much obedience we have. 00:26:06.544 --> 00:26:08.317 We need the obedience of another. 00:26:08.317 --> 00:26:17.625 In order to be saved from the judgment, in order for us to be safe under the blood, we need the blood of someone more righteous than us. 00:26:18.734 --> 00:26:19.298 I want to show you this. 00:26:19.298 --> 00:26:22.759 We talked about this in a little thing called the boom that we do right before church. 00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:24.180 This is for everybody who serves in the church. 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:27.559 On a Sunday morning, we come in, we have a little rally with the volunteers, called the boom. 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:34.939 A couple of weeks ago we talked about this and it was such a hit that I wanted to talk about it right here in church and it's really it's one of the most important things we'll ever talk about. 00:26:34.939 --> 00:26:37.221 So let's go ahead and put up this image on the screen. 00:26:38.015 --> 00:26:42.938 There's a difference between the active righteousness that we have and the passive righteousness that we have in Christ. 00:26:42.938 --> 00:26:50.567 Okay, so the active righteousness this is where we're doing things that emulate what God would want us to do. 00:26:50.567 --> 00:26:54.400 We're behaving and thinking in ways that God would say, yep, that's the right thing to do. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:27:03.644 And when you hear scriptures like be holy, for I am holy, or clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean, this is commands. 00:27:03.644 --> 00:27:04.798 Yes, do this thing. 00:27:04.798 --> 00:27:07.537 That is obedience and that's good. 00:27:07.537 --> 00:27:13.258 But we always need the outer covering of the blood, which is the passive righteousness that we get in Christ. 00:27:13.258 --> 00:27:18.161 Martin Luther, the great reformer, talked about these two that are always happening at the same time. 00:27:18.161 --> 00:27:25.038 Yes, we always want to have kind of an active righteousness, but just know that is not the same thing as being under the blood. 00:27:25.038 --> 00:27:27.721 That's just good stuff that you do. 00:27:27.721 --> 00:27:34.805 But when you're under the blood, yes, be holy, for I am holy, but also know there's therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ. 00:27:34.805 --> 00:27:39.157 Yes, clean the inside of the cup, but know that unless I wash you, you won't belong to me. 00:27:39.218 --> 00:27:43.463 Jesus says the passive righteousness of God is always true. 00:27:43.463 --> 00:27:51.321 If you've trusted Jesus Christ, even after you just disobeyed, you're still under the passive righteousness, perfect obedience, of Jesus Christ. 00:27:51.321 --> 00:27:53.101 You're under the Lamb's blood. 00:27:53.101 --> 00:27:54.720 It doesn't wash off. 00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:59.818 You're like, well, I feel bad, feel bad maybe, but then get back under like walk again. 00:27:59.818 --> 00:28:03.363 In the reality I am under the passive righteousness of Jesus Christ. 00:28:03.363 --> 00:28:06.741 It is mine, I have appropriated it in Jesus Christ. 00:28:06.741 --> 00:28:10.384 It's for whoever will get under the blood. 00:28:10.384 --> 00:28:13.944 It's free and it's forever and you can have it. 00:28:14.234 --> 00:28:20.737 And so if you find yourself kind of frustrated with religion and kind of frustrated with like, well, you know, I gotta obey the rules and I gotta get it right, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:28:20.737 --> 00:28:21.861 You're not understanding right. 00:28:21.861 --> 00:28:25.997 No, that's your own active righteousness and baby, that's great. 00:28:25.997 --> 00:28:26.819 But that ain't gonna work. 00:28:26.819 --> 00:28:29.046 That ain't gonna work. 00:28:29.046 --> 00:28:39.505 You're gonna need the passive righteousness that comes from the perfect righteousness that Jesus Christ bought and gave to you because you positioned yourself under the blood. 00:28:39.505 --> 00:28:40.478 Here's a way to understand it. 00:28:41.615 --> 00:28:49.042 When we come to Jesus Christ, my friends, it's kind of like we're marrying him, okay, meaning everything that he has we now have. 00:28:49.042 --> 00:28:55.682 When my wife, kenzie, and I got married, everything that one of us had, we now both had because we had one another. 00:28:55.682 --> 00:28:57.135 Check this out, jesus Christ. 00:28:57.135 --> 00:29:01.501