WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.800 Good morning. 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:01.760 How are you guys? 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:02.399 Good? 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:06.400 Okay, so we're gonna head into Exodus chapter 7 this morning. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:11.519 If you haven't been with us, I'm so tempted to just re-preach everything because this is a story. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.679 The book of Exodus is a is a story. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:17.359 So I feel like jumping in in the middle of a story a little bit. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:29.519 And so perhaps if you're new to church, maybe you want to go and read Exodus 1 through 6, or maybe you want to go online and listen to the sermons uh leading up to this one because I'm gonna attempt to not re-preach, um, although it's so very tempting. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:34.960 So there is this uh movie when I was about 10 years old or so, it came out, it was called Three Men and a Baby. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:37.200 Anybody see this movie, Three Men and a Baby, right? 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:45.679 Uh and so it was Tom Selleck, you know, uh really short shorts is back when he was real, really uncomfortably short shorts. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:57.439 And I was about 10 years old, and uh basically in this movie, uh he and his roommates, two other guys, bachelors, they end up with this baby, and they end up sort of having to raise this baby. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:06.799 And so, anyways, my neighbor, Michael, he had uh they had HBO, and so uh they had a VCR, and so they would illegally just like record like every movie that came on. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.359 So we had this huge, like, you know, just shelves and shelves and shelves of movies. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:16.560 And so this was actually one of the few movies that that my sister and I we would agree upon to watch. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:23.519 So we watched this movie, my sister and I, over and over and over and over and over again. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:25.840 A hundred times we watched this thing. 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:33.359 We we've heard we had heard these words spoken, we had seen every scene so many times. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:39.760 Not particularly because I love the movie or she loved the movie, but just because we could agree upon this movie. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:46.640 And so then it so there's this one scene, and a friend told us about this, and we we had never seen this before. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:52.159 There's this one scene in the movie, and maybe you don't even know, maybe you've seen that movie ten times, you don't you don't even know this. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:02:12.400 And a friend told us, said, Hey, in this scene, you know, the camera pans across their apartment, and there's these curtains on the windows, and it's kind of like translucent curtains that you can see through, and the camera pans across, and you see the curtains, and the camera comes back across, and there's a little boy hiding behind the curtains. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.000 Does anybody anybody know this? 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:15.039 Anybody remember this? 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:18.319 It was like a big deal, like late 80s, like if you found this, you know. 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.199 And it was like kind of spooky, like who's the little boy? 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.400 You know, and it's like some cameraman's kid or something, probably. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:27.680 But all right, so very, very silly example. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:31.039 And here's my one point out of that whole example is this. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:40.319 Um, you know this feeling where you have seen something a hundred times, but you never saw that. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.680 I had seen that scene a hundred times. 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:47.599 I'd never seen that little boy hiding behind that curtain. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:55.680 Or maybe you've heard something, you've heard it a hundred times, but you've never heard that. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:57.840 Right? 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:06.639 I mean, your your wife, your significant other, your mom, or whoever says, you know, sweetheart, you've got to eat less cholesterol. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:16.719 You've heard it a hundred, a doctor tells you, you hear it in health class, you've heard it a hundred times, and then all of a sudden, at some point in your life, at some day, you finally hear it. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:25.120 Or you're reading scriptures, like you read a particular scripture, you have read this passage a hundred times. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:37.439 And then one day, for whatever magical reason in the universe and in spirituality, all of a sudden, it's like I've never read that before. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:39.199 How have I missed that? 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:40.960 I've read this a hundred times. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.520 How have I never seen that? 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:46.479 How have I never heard that? 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:53.599 It's like all of a sudden, this time with this viewing, with this word spoken, now it's different. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:56.159 Now you see it, now you hear it. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:00.400 This is where we come in in Exodus 7 is this exact feeling. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:03.120 This is what Moses is about to experience. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:12.639 Because Exodus 1 through 6, it's all these conversations, God and Moses, God kind of keeps saying the same thing over and over again to him. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:16.800 And it's like he's hearing it, but he's not hearing it. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:22.800 And then all of a sudden in Exodus 7, he hears it. 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:24.480 Something changes. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:29.600 And so, up until this point, what we have from Moses is we have sort of like hesitant movement. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:50.639 We have sort of like he hears it and he sort of does it, and then he complains and he whines, and he's all about like his inability and his speech, and he, and God's saying, no, no, like I'm I'm with you, like that doesn't matter, like I'm going before you, and then sort of Moses like has like sort of hesitant obedience, but then he's not confident in that at all, but he kind of does it, and he comes back and he whines and complains. 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.199 He's like, I can't do it, I can't do it, and God calls him again. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.639 No, I can't do it, I can't do it. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.279 And this is sort of what's going on in one through six. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:02.959 And Moses, for Moses, it's just all this like shame and fear and disobedience. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:11.120 I mean, clearly he's this hesitant, ragamuffin leader, and he's just he's just insecure and he's afraid. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:13.600 And then something changes in chapter seven. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:29.680 And not that he becomes perfect, by no means does he become a perfect leader, but there's a hinge point that occurs in chapter seven in terms of how he moves forward from here on in the story, in terms of some measure of confidence to lead. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.079 So we're gonna see two points uh this morning. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:32.879 Actually, there's three points. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:36.000 There's a third point, I'm not gonna tell you the third point until we get to it because I think it'll throw you off. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:38.480 So I'll tell you the first two, we'll work our way through them. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:39.759 Uh, the two points is this. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:44.560 Number one is God gives unrelenting grace to stubborn people. 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:45.360 Amen. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:46.240 We need it, amen. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:47.120 You're like, oh, thank you. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.160 That's what I can leave. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:50.480 I can go ahead and leave because that's me. 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.680 Um and that's Moses, that's the story we've been seeing. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:57.120 This is what God has been pouring out to Moses. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:59.040 We've been seeing the last few weeks. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:02.240 Number one, God gives unrelenting grace to stubborn people. 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:03.519 Praise the Lord. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.680 Number two, God has unexplainable sovereignty in the created world. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:11.920 That's a little more difficult to grab hold of. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:14.399 So let's talk about these two things. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.600 Um, first, let's kind of review what uh Janine read for us. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:19.920 Uh, Exodus 6, 10 through 13. 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:29.839 So the Lord said to Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, like mighty powerful guy, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:37.439 And so, you know, to kind of just remember a little bit, Pharaoh would not have been inclined to let the Israelites go. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:38.560 They were his slaves. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:43.600 They were the manufacturing force of bricks to build the kingdom. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.079 So he's not really inclined for this. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:52.240 Moses says to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me, like my own people hadn't even listened to me. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:54.240 How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.639 For I am of uncircumcised lips. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.920 This is a poetic way of him saying, like, I can't talk. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:02.720 Like, I just can't get the job done. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:13.120 But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:18.079 So here's what we see: Moses is called again, Moses is resistant again. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:28.879 At the end of chapter 6, going through chapter 6, we get this really long genealogy, and maybe it's for historical record, perhaps to remind us that Moses came from these people. 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:30.399 Like these are his people. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:37.519 And not only these are his people, I think when we talk about history and these stories, we can lose fact, like, these are people. 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:41.680 Like moms and dads and sons and daughters. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.399 Like these are real people in horrible slavery. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.759 And maybe that's what this genealogy could be about for us. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:08:01.759 Just to read the names and go, oh, these are like, these are people, individuals that are in this, that are in this horrible, horrible, belittling, horrific life. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:05.439 And yet Moses still won't help. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.920 He's still hesitant. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:14.079 That's how much of a stronghold fear and shame has on him. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:18.639 Moses is still living in his inability and his shame and his disobedience. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:19.839 He just doesn't get it. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:21.600 He doesn't get that this isn't about him. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:22.879 That's what God keeps trying to say. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:25.120 Like, like, hey, I understand you have inability. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:26.319 Like I get that. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:30.319 But this is actually about my ability beyond your inability. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:35.039 And all Moses wants out of this is he wants his inability to turn into ability. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:35.519 Right? 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:36.720 That's how we are, right? 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:43.919 Like, like we are like, I'm I'm all for God being a part of my life as long as he just turns all my inabilities into abilities. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:50.159 But for God to actually be my ability, though I am still unable, I'm not sure if I'm interested in that. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:56.159 And that's the situation here because God's not all of a sudden transforming Moses' speech. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.159 God's just saying, hey, I'll work with you. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:08:59.600 Like I'll work through you. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.200 I'll give you Aaron, but you still, you're not going to be a great orator. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:05.919 Moses isn't there. 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:07.120 He's just not there. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:12.960 He doesn't quite have this place of freedom where we allow God to be for us what we're not. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:13.519 Right? 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.759 I mean, that is a humble act of surrender to allow God to be for you something you are not. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:26.879 And so Moses is just moping around, he's obeying at times, and then he's whining. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:29.039 It's just not clicking. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:30.799 It's like he's hearing this, right? 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:35.120 It's like he's hearing it, but he just doesn't hear it. 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:36.000 Right? 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:43.840 Like you've seen the movie a hundred times, and you never saw that spooky little boy behind the curtain. 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:49.120 So, point number one: God gives unrelenting grace to stubborn people. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:53.200 We just keep seeing this with God's actions toward Moses. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:55.440 That he just stays with Moses. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:58.879 He just does, he never gets tired of them and walks away. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:02.000 But a little bit of reflection, we go, thank you. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:02.960 Thank you for that. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:09.679 Thank you that you are that sort of God, that you you have unrelenting grace towards stubborn people. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:16.879 And then what we see, and what we'll continue to see as we go through Exodus, is then God speaks the law into creation. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:22.720 The standard of righteousness, of right and wrong, and then he speaks the sacrificial system in. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:24.080 So the law condemns us. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:30.960 It shows us how far we fall short, and then there's the sacrificial system of how do we how do we get back to God? 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:32.559 How do we have this justification? 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:38.320 All of this weird Old Testament stuff that if you're not used to the Bible, you read this, you're like, what is this? 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:42.080 All of this is to help us understand the person of Christ. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:55.679 All this is for us to understand to have a framework of an incarnate God in this world who puts himself upon the cross, our sins upon himself and his righteousness upon us. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:58.240 You want to know the richness of that. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:08.559 We start to understand the law, we start to understand the sacrificial system and the purpose, the mission, the work of Jesus gets bigger and bigger and richer and richer and richer. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:12.639 And the cross is it's the absolution of the cross. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:26.480 The fact that we are absolved of who we are, and all of the right judgment that God might have toward you, like in all your inability, all your whining and complaining and disobedience and all those mistakes, all of that is put upon Jesus. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.559 And you are absolved. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:34.799 This is God's unrelenting grace to stubborn people. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.240 Exodus 7, 3 through 5. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:47.440 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:56.159 Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.840 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:04.879 When I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:06.000 And so that's point number two. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:09.360 God has unexplainable sovereignty in the created world. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:12.799 So sovereignty, big word, big theological world word. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:17.679 What it means is it means that God has absolute control. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:21.360 It's not in question. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:24.799 There's no surprises. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:28.159 There's no evil that surprises him. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.240 Everything is under his reign. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:35.120 And this is perplexing to us. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.440 And I don't suppose to be able to solve this this morning. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:48.960 And this has been theologically debated, theologically a difficulty for humanity for all time, and yet it doesn't mean it's not true. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.360 What it means is we have a very hard time with it. 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:55.360 And part of this is because we're creatures of time and God is outside of time. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:00.159 Part of this is because we think we're the center of the universe and our self-centeredness, and we're not. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:02.480 God is the center of the universe. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.600 Our importance and glory is not the center of the universe. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:07.919 His importance and glory is the center of the universe. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:15.279 All of this is what creates our just difficulty when it comes to sovereignty over all things. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:21.919 And when I look at this, this reference, this story, what he's doing with Pharaoh, like this is hard. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.480 Like, why would you do something, uh, why would you do this when you're trying to do something good? 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:30.320 Why would you stop something good from happening? 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:37.840 And I just wonder that in this story, maybe it's just as simple as he's reminding Moses there's a larger reason at play here. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:46.000 Like I like I have a larger reason playing out for Israel, for Egypt, for Pharaoh, and for my glory than what you can see. 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:58.000 That's just sort of like maybe a pastoral question from me to you would be are you willing to consider that perhaps there could be larger reasons beyond what you see? 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:09.279 Like with that difficulty, with that wound, with that with that abuse, with that confusion? 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:13.759 Could there be a larger reason you don't see? 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:22.960 Moses has built this great construct of self-sufficiency. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:26.960 I mean, it looks like uh defeatism and pity, right? 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:31.759 I mean, that's what it comes off as, is he's always whining back to God, I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't talk. 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:33.200 I mean, that's what it looks like. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:40.000 But but in essence, it it is a love of himself and his self-sufficiency. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.960 It's quite pitiful, but it uh it's it's still self-reliance. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:15:08.320 And what what I've been I've been thinking about chapters one through six and what's going on with God and Moses, and what it feels like is it feels like uh you ever gotten like a candy bar out or like a you know a breakfast bar or something, and you you know you go to open it and you just can't quite get it to tear, and you're sort of like struggling, and you start to go back and forth, or um, I thought a banana was even better. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:15.679 So, like, you know, with a banana, uh, if it's just not quite ready, like a little too green, you know what I'm talking about? 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:17.600 And you go, I'll go for it. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:25.519 You're like, okay, you know, you're you have like a little judgment period where you look at it and you're like, yeah, I really want a banana, so I'm gonna go ahead and go for it. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:30.799 And you pick it up and you go to break you go to break it open, but it just won't, it's just bends, right? 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:31.600 And so what do you do? 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:37.440 You start going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until finally you, okay, finally you get it, right? 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:38.960 And like off you go. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:39.919 Right? 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:41.519 A little banana. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:45.600 And it's sort of like this is what's going on. 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:53.759 It's like like like Moses isn't quite ready, and it's like God's just working him in back and forth in chapters one through six and in the seven. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:55.120 It's back and forth. 00:15:55.279 --> 00:16:05.039 And the things, if you start to look at the text and you look at what God is communicating to Moses, the themes here of what he's communicating is over and over and over again, the same thing. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:34.799 He's going, he's like, the things that he's bending him with is like my grace and my sovereignty, my grace and my sovereignty, my grace and my sovereignty is just over and over and over and over again, and finally he gets that appeal to crack that hard surface around that self-sufficiency and that heart that wants to just be reliant upon itself. 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:43.120 Finally, Moses gets it a little bit, and we get this short verse tucked quietly in chapter seven, and it's a hinge point. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:50.639 And in chapter seven, verse six, it's so so small, and it just says, Moses and Aaron did so. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:54.559 They did just as the Lord commanded them. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:00.480 And it and something changes inside of Moses, and we don't know a lot about it. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:05.039 I wish we got a lot more, you know, out of this, like what was going on inside of Moses. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:19.680 I mean, I you kind of want a lot out of this, but there's some death that occurs within himself that this is this is a hinge point, not unto perfection, but like, okay, I'll move forward. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:27.359 Like, I'll I'll I'm I I'm I'm not gonna be resistant every single step of the way like he has been so far. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.119 There's some willingness that begins. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:40.720 But what I love with Moses, and we see it here, and we'll even see it in the future, because he doesn't turn into a perfect leader by any means. 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:54.400 But what we see is that Moses' stubborn, slow transformation is a great gift because we learn and we are reminded that transformation is often just that. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:56.720 And that's point number three. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:01.519 I didn't want to say at the beginning, because some of you might have got upset, and that's this is point number three. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:05.759 Transformation becomes really slow at times. 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:12.880 Like I have a friend who just built a house. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.799 It took him a year to build his house. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:22.880 You ever watch that extreme home makeover show? 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:24.480 They built a house in a week. 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:28.160 Like, that's not the house I want to live in. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:30.960 Like, I want to live in my friend's house. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:32.880 Like, it's like four-sided brick. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.319 Like, I mean, it's it's like a good, it's not going anywhere. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:39.279 Like, it's gonna be there a hundred years from now. 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.079 You're not a fast food restaurant, you're a garden. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.960 Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that all of a sudden you become this perfect, joyful, perfect person. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.240 Moses doesn't, you won't, I'm not. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:02.400 What it means is you are forgiven of your mess while you're still a mess, while you're trying not to be a mess, while you're in a messy world. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.480 That's what it means to be a Christian. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:14.319 And yes, we put ourselves in positions to hear from the Lord and for the Lord to transform us, but ultimately the work of transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:18.319 Do you see it? 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:19.279 You see it with Moses? 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:21.839 God just keeps saying it to him over and over and over again. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:24.400 Like, I'm here and I'm in control, I'm here and I'm in control. 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:28.960 He says it over and over and over again, and this is the very thing that causes transformation. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:38.000 The thing that Moses is uh really good at is just whining and complaining and staying really complacent and still in all of his disobedience. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:39.920 That's what Moses is good at. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:20:05.920 I was walking at Kennesaw Park uh this week on some of the trails and just uh just prayer walking and praying and confessing over all of my sin and my brokenness and all my insecurity and my issues, which there are a lot, and my judgment and pride toward people, none of you, of course, just other people outside this room, and toward other churches, and what's wrong with those churches, you know, and all that you know junk. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:21.680 And and then think about we had uh Christy's grandfather passed away and his funerals this week, and you know, and each each of us stood up in front of you know these great friends he had and talked about how great a man this was, and this is a man who had very little financial and material wealth. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:23.920 I mean, he had very, very little. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:33.680 And yet he had such wealth, such wealth of friendships and relationships and contentment. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:47.119 And I'm just so discontent with like what I have and what I want and what I think I need and what that will bring me the contentment, and and and you know, this is what I have to confess over to the Lord. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:21:03.519 And what I have to do is I have to appropriate the grace of Jesus' death and resurrection upon myself, that even while I live in that discontentment and I have not been transformed out of that, I have to appropriate the grace over myself. 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:04.160 Right? 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:10.319 I mean, this is that old saying, like I'm not really your preacher, I'm not your pastor, I'm not your preacher, you're your own preacher. 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:13.440 You preach to yourself more than anybody else preaches to you. 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:20.559 Doesn't matter that matter how many podcasts you listen to, you are the greatest preacher in your life. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:26.640 And you've got to learn to appropriate the grace of God over yourself. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:37.519 And so I'm just walking those trails and appropriating the grace of God over myself because if I don't, I just fall apart and I get stressed, and then marriage doesn't work, family doesn't work, church doesn't work. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:39.359 And then there's all this anxiety, right? 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:45.039 Like all the things I want to control in my life, that I want to control the outcome. 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:58.319 And then there's that side of it to have to remember that while I'll be faithful, while I'll be diligent, he is sovereign over all things. 00:21:59.440 --> 00:21:59.680 See. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:05.200 That's where the freedom comes, is in the grace and in the sovereignty. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:07.680 But there's a death. 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:12.480 There has to be a death, but only in the death of my merit, right? 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.480 Like in the love of my merit and in the love of my control. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:24.319 Only in the death of those things is there going to be a love and a need of grace and a freedom found. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:33.200 Only when finally I bow, because I'm finished working, will the work of Jesus be enough? 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:43.359 This is what Moses points us to, because Moses frees these people, and these people are the family that Jesus comes out of. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:56.240 And the only thing that makes change possible in you, any transformation, whether it's fast and quick at times, or whether it's really slow, is Christ's death and resurrection. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:02.000 Because it frees the human heart from the need to endlessly justify itself. 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:13.359 That's why Christ's death and resurrection is the only way for transformation, is because it is the only thing that frees the human heart from the endless pursuit of self-justification. 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:17.519 In this life, you and I, we're gonna see flashes of transformation. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:20.480 You're gonna see patience come where you were not patient before. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.759 You're gonna see some kindness that you were not kind before. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:26.880 You're gonna see self-control where there was no self-control. 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:35.680 You're gonna see, and then you're also gonna see some issues that you wish you were better at, and you just are just so upset that you just can't get over that. 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:43.039 And that's where you will have to appropriate the grace of God over yourself. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.599 And even in that act, there's transformation because that's humility. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:57.119 Maybe you're here and you say, I don't know, everything you just said scares me because I really think we can be better. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:23:59.519 We can be victorious in all things. 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.799 No, you cannot be victorious in all things. 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:04.880 You're not. 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:06.480 Let's just look at your record. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:08.799 We can sit down, we can write a few things out. 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:14.720 You cannot, and the people around you know, you cannot be victorious in all things, and you will not be victorious in all things. 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:16.319 Look at your mom and dad. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:20.720 Well, we can be victorious in all things in Christ. 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:25.680 That's because he was victorious, and he's victorious for us, not because we are victorious. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:38.640 We will have victory over some things, but we can have victory in all things in Christ, because he is victorious in all things, and he is our substitute. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:46.880 Maybe you'd say, ah, I don't know, it sounds a little depressing, like it sounds a little depressing. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.240 No, this is the freedom of reality. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:53.839 Not just Christian reality, reality. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:57.279 I'll tell you what's depressing. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:09.440 What's depressing is to think that from every day, from here on that you have to wake up and be a little bit better than you are today in order to justify your Christian faith. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.839 That is depressing. 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:22.720 It kills, it overwhelms, it creates fear, it creates depression, it actually limits the work of the Spirit inside of you. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:24.640 It's paradoxical. 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:33.119 The most freeing thing you can know is that you're more flawed than you ever imagined, but but you're more loved by God than you ever dared to dream. 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:38.160 It's the most freeing thing you could ever know, and that Christ's work for you is enough. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:43.519 Brothers and sisters, we are called to live better. 00:25:43.759 --> 00:26:01.039 We are called to be holy, we are called to stop that mess, whatever that is, but our motive, may it be that we are rooted in our surrender of the core of our inner beings to the grace and the sovereignty of Jesus. 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:02.480 Would you see it again? 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:04.720 Would you see how good He is? 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:14.799 And may our self-protection open up to that great rhythm of God that we see in Jesus. 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:16.799 Grace and sovereignty. 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:18.640 Grace and sovereignty. 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:21.359 Grace and sovereignty. 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:22.880 Let's pray together. 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:43.440 Father, forgive us for being our own saviors, for refusing grace as to take control and to think that we can be righteous enough today to earn or maintain a position with you. 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:50.079 Would you give us the amount of courage to be honest with ourselves? 00:26:51.119 --> 00:27:00.400 That we might come to a place of freedom of bowing before you and knowing the fullness of the work of Jesus for our behalf. 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:13.680 And those of us that are bound in anxiety, fear, would we find freedom in the great sovereignty that you have over all things? 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:32.240 That even in the things that we dread the most, that you are with us, that even while we don't understand you are with us, even while we have to face what feels like an absence from you, that you're with us. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:44.720 Help our hearts to find greater rest, deeper trust in the great rhythms of the Savior, grace and sovereignty. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:46.799 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:47.680 Amen.