WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:02.640 Welcome to the City Covenant Podcast. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:11.599 We are a warm, welcoming church located in downtown Spokane, dedicated to practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:15.679 Please join us as we dive into the Word of God together. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:38.560 Welcome to City Covenant. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:40.240 My name's Asher. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.759 I'm glad to meet you guys if you're new here. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.759 We are in the fifth week of a 10-week series right now on the book of Exodus. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:01.039 And we're in the fifth week of a 10-week series on the book of Exodus, going from Exodus 1 through Exodus 12, right? 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:03.920 From the beginning of Exodus until the Passover. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:13.439 So if you brought a Bible from home or didn't have one and you have one in front of you in the Pew Bible, turn there to Exodus 5 today. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.079 If you're in the Pew Bible, it's page 51. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:18.879 We're looking at a people that are a broken people. 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:21.599 And that's where we find ourselves this morning. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:27.599 In in Exodus 5, we're going to look at Exodus 5 and a little bit of the beginning of Exodus 6. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:29.840 And don't worry, we're not reading all of it. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.920 I mean, I know some of you guys think scriptural readings get a little too long sometimes, but don't worry. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.840 So we're looking at a portion of Exodus 5 and then beginning of Exodus 6. 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:39.200 Here's what you have to know. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:42.000 These are a deeply broken, hurting people. 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:45.439 These are folks that are barely hanging on, right? 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.719 And um and God is calling them to worship Him, right? 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:49.920 And we're gonna see what happens. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:51.920 They really try to do things the right way, but you know what? 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.400 It doesn't turn out um the way they hoped, right? 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.879 Um, this is a lot like the lives of so many of us day in and day out, right? 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:00.480 This is the life of the Christian. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.040 This is the life of the Christian church, right? 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:08.000 It's a life that's full of both celebration and sorrow, right? 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:12.560 It's why Jesus calls us to celebrate with those who celebrate, right? 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.280 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:15.680 Why? 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:19.680 Because that's the life actually of the Christian, that we actually have both. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:20.479 Amen. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:20.879 Right? 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:22.159 That's what it is. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:24.479 Um, and and that's what we're gonna see this morning. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:35.120 I think we're gonna see this morning, um, and we're gonna be equipped to better live out that Christian life, and honestly, better live out the human life being informed here by Exodus 5. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:36.159 And so let's read. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:37.039 Here's what we're gonna do. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:50.080 We're gonna look at Exodus 5, 1 through 2, and then 6 through Exodus 5, um, 6 through 14, and then just the first um, just a verse in Exodus 6, Exodus 6, 9. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:54.719 And so if you want to stick with me, we're gonna start on page 51 of your pew Bibles. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:56.400 Exodus 5.1. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:08.240 Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:13.439 Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:17.199 I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:23.520 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and the overseers in charge of the people. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:28.159 You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:34.800 Let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:36.479 Don't reduce the quota. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:37.840 They are lazy. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.919 That is why they're crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:47.840 Make the work harder for the people, so that they keep working and they pay no attention to lies. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:56.319 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, This is what Pharaoh says I will not give you any more straw. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.840 Go and get your own straw, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:06.960 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for the straw. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:14.800 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, Complete the work required of you each day, just as when you had straw. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:26.240 And Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelites, uh overseers they had appointed, demanding, why haven't you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today as before? 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:41.439 And going to chapter 9, Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they didn't listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and the harsh slavery. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.240 Friends, this is the word of the Lord. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.000 Father in heaven, you are our keeper. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.720 You're the one who loves us and supports us. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:57.519 You're with us in the midst of incredible sorrow, incredible hardness. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:03.600 And Lord, would you would you help us this morning so we might know that you're with us? 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.319 Lord, we might understand Exodus 5 better and understand the whole story that we live in as a result of it. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:13.120 Lord, and ultimately that it would point us toward Jesus. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:16.000 It's in and it's in Jesus' strong name we pray. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:16.959 Amen. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:25.439 Um, what we're gonna see later, if you stick with us in this series, what we're gonna see later um is this miracle in our own way, right? 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:35.920 Something of this encounter between Pharaoh to show that ultimately the Lord, right, the the God of heaven and earth is to be reckoned with. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:57.360 Even in Egypt, even though the Pharaoh, just so you know, the Pharaoh thinks that the God of Israel doesn't have any skill or ability in Egypt, because um back then um actually the pagan nations believed that there were all these gods and that um all these different gods across the globe, or they probably didn't call it a globe back then, right? 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:01.279 But whatever they thought of the world, um, they thought that gods were localized. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:13.680 And so um here you have the God of Israel kind of going outside of um, you know, going outside of his lane, which is only in geographic Israel, and saying, I'm in charge here as well. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.319 And Pharaoh says, No, I'm in charge here. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:20.399 So that's what we're actually just so you know, that's the background of really what's happening here. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:32.480 Is this a in and we'll get there more in the next few weeks, but this is in some ways this beginning of a battle between Pharaoh, who functions and acts like he's a God, and the true God, uh Yahweh, right? 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:45.120 Um but the thing is, what Pharaoh is doing in this is Pharaoh is just always pushing for more and more and more, always more, always pressuring, always trying to extract everything out of people that he can. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:53.600 And the thing is, we look at this and we realize at times um this is the the world hasn't necessarily changed all that much, right? 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:57.600 Um, even this morning or this week, this might have been your experience, right? 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:03.600 Even before you get out of bed, Ferris already whisper in your in your ear, right? 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:05.439 You've got unread emails, right? 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:08.000 You've got at work maybe performance metrics, right? 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:10.639 You've got on your phone, you've got productivity apps, right? 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:12.879 You've got social comparison, right? 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:27.279 Everything you're supposed to do in life is supposed to get better, improve, move ahead, and always with this insidious little lie from Pharaoh, which is ultimately from the devil, saying, you're not enough. 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:29.120 You're behind everybody else. 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.319 Work faster, work harder, be better. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:35.519 This is the world that we live in. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:40.560 This is the world that Israel lived in in Egypt thousands of years ago, right? 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:41.439 What happens? 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.600 You go to work, you finish a project. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:48.240 The next one is even harder, shorter deadlines, harsher expectation. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:53.040 It doesn't matter even if you have it, even if you haven't had this experience at work. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:55.199 You may have had it somewhere else, right? 00:07:55.600 --> 00:08:02.319 Um, and and the longer you uh function in the slave state, the harder it is actually to get out of it, right? 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:10.720 Whether it's addiction, slavery, idolatry, when we're when we get used to it, freedom ends up becoming terrifying, right? 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:11.839 And so we what do we do? 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:13.199 We retreat. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:24.240 And what's happening here is God is speaking and saying, I don't want you to just see yourselves and how you're relating to how much production you can do. 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:28.000 I don't want you looking just at what you can do for work. 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:31.519 And this is our first point is I want you to worship before work. 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:37.360 I want the primacy of your life to be not about what you can, what you can build, right? 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:38.960 But about who you can be. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:45.519 And you can only do that when you know the author and creator and the finisher of all things, right? 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:47.600 That's what we see here, right? 00:08:47.759 --> 00:09:01.279 And what happens is here's what's amazing is you have all of that constant low-level rumble that's causing um you know, causing constant stimulus in our brains that says, I'm I'm never enough, I'm never gonna be able to finish everything that I have to do. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.679 And you know what happens is worship ends up putting that type of anxiety on a diet. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:10.480 It starves out of calories because all of a sudden you know what things are really about, right? 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:12.879 You re-center and you know, oh, that's right. 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:15.440 The world is ultimately about Yahweh. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:18.720 I thought it was about work, but really ultimately it's about worship. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.799 And so God calls these folks into worship first, right? 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:27.039 And what happens in that is worship starts rewiring their identities. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:27.360 Right? 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.679 When we worship, it rewires who we are, who we understand ourselves to be. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:33.360 Right? 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:37.840 Um, all of a sudden, no longer primarily about work, right? 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:47.519 First here in Exodus 5, they look and say, they're seeing if they're gonna be worshipers of Yahweh, that the one they ultimately serve isn't ultimately Pharaoh. 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:48.000 Right? 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.080 The one they serve is the Lord. 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.480 And you know what happens is when you serve the Lord first, you become more like him. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:55.039 You know why? 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:00.399 Because whatever we worship is what were formed into that image. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.080 We start looking like whatever we worship. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:09.360 There's these photos I saw, um, I it must have been on like on Instagram or Pinterest or something like this. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:14.159 And it was all these folks that um it's pictures of them and their dogs. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:20.480 And you know, it turns out if you spend enough time with an animal, you start looking like this animal, right? 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:24.480 I I wish, I don't know, Mason, do you have the picture of me and our dog Stout? 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:26.480 No, okay, I'm teasing. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:28.960 No, I have this horrible black dog named Stout. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:30.559 He has big black curly hair. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:31.600 We don't look alike. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:36.879 But I'm just saying, it was all these photos of people that look like their dogs. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:38.000 And you're looking, why? 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:39.840 Because their dogs become everything to them. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.360 Somehow their lives are morphed into becoming like their dog, right? 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:48.399 And and here's the thing ultimately we become like whatever's the most important to us. 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:50.639 Please don't become like your dog, right? 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:52.480 Please don't become like Pharaoh. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:57.759 Please don't form your image into the thing that is so small. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:10:58.799 Right? 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.639 God's the only one that's big enough for us to be conformed into his image. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.639 Anything else ends up being crushed under its own weight, right? 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:09.679 Exodus 5 is asking this question. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:10.960 Who's bigger? 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:12.240 Who's the real God? 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:14.879 Is it Pharaoh or is it Yahweh? 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:17.279 Who's big enough? 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:24.879 Years ago, we got this chance to stay at this um this little Airbnb. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:34.559 It was in um this rural part of Oahu in this town called Waimanalo, and when our kids were really little, and every day we would go on this pretty secluded beach. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:36.639 It was a really long beach, but not many people were there. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:53.919 And so we'd walk a couple blocks, we'd go to the beach, and and in between times of getting stung by a jellyfish, our kids would um go and they would dig, you know, like kids do, you go to a beach, and I don't know why, but there's this um apparently a human need to see how big of a hole you can dig, right? 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:55.600 This is what people do when they go to the ocean. 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:58.320 You either you either dig down or you build up, right? 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.600 The beaches are littered with holes and castles. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:12.799 And so um, you know, inevitably, um, we, along with many other people, if you'd see over the miles of beach, is you'd see these large holes and large sand castles. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:13.919 Every day, people build them. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:17.759 They spend all day working to see how much we could do, right? 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:21.679 It's like living with Pharaoh, except you're getting a sunburn. 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:22.240 Okay? 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.000 And so you're doing all this work in the sand. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.799 And Units Wild is every day without fail. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:33.679 You'd come back in the morning, and the ocean is so much larger than you. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:41.360 As it would just come up with the rising tide, the ocean would sweep away anything that you built the day before. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:43.440 It didn't matter how big the hole was. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:45.759 It didn't matter how big the castle was. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.080 It was always gone the next day. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:50.399 You know why? 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.159 Because it was so much bigger than us. 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:56.320 The thing is, we need a God that's so much bigger than us. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:12:57.440 You know why? 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:03.200 Because sometimes we build things that are so big that we think we're big. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:03.840 Right? 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:09.279 Or sometimes we do things and that we dig a hole that's so deep we think we can't get out of it. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:09.919 Amen. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.039 And here's our challenge. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.720 Because as we're building these things, often we realize we don't really want to keep them after all. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:19.279 Right? 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:23.600 We're building these lives maybe that we don't even tell anybody about, right? 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:31.360 There are these things like, you know, hitting other people, hurting others, kicking your dog, right? 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:37.919 Being enslaved to pornography, lying, deceit, not caring about the needs of the vulnerable. 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:38.960 Right? 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:43.840 Oh, these are all these things that we confess when we pray our prayer confession, right? 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:52.639 And all these things are the are the things that are the out of the sand of our lives that we're that are being formed. 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:53.120 Right? 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:58.720 And rather than building these sand castles of hope and humility, right? 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:08.799 Forming the sand into something beautiful, you and I know that we have oftentimes spent our time, our energy, our focus on building vanity, building monuments to ourselves. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.960 And like Pharaoh, we have kept people oppressed rather than liberated. 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:19.440 And oftentimes we've built, because as humans we build, we we built the wrong things. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:21.919 And that's why you need a God that's bigger than Pharaoh. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.080 That's why you need a God that's bigger than Trump. 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:28.080 It's why you need a God that's bigger than Obama or the Clintons or anybody, right? 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.399 You need a God who's bigger. 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:46.240 Because the God that is so large like the ocean that can wipe away all the sand castles and all the giant sandholes, he's the one who wipes away the dirt and the filth and the grime as this flood of grace rises, right? 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:54.480 As the the as the ocean tide rises over, and he takes all these things that that we built that shouldn't sand, and he pulls them away from us. 00:14:55.519 --> 00:15:01.919 And you show up and you look at the sandy and you realize that the sandy in your life, that only one thing is left. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:08.960 And everything else gets wiped away, and there's only one thing left on the beach that you're looking at. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.080 And it's just this old wooden cross. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:13.919 There's only one thing that's left. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.000 And he's wiped everything else away. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:22.799 Everything else is cleansed except the cross, and it and it reminds you of what Jesus did for you. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:25.440 That's what happens when we worship. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:26.960 It recenters us. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:31.840 It recenters us on the God who's a true God. 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:36.240 And these folks they worshiped. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:37.919 That's what they wanted to do. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:39.759 They tried to do the right thing. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:41.120 And this is our second point. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:44.399 What happens though is that it gets worse before it gets better. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:50.159 Like the first one is that they they worship, and they're called to worship before work. 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:54.480 But then it gets worse before it gets better. 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:56.960 Let me ask you guys a question real fast. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:15:58.240 Just like a little check-in. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:02.320 Have you ever just worked on something really, really hard? 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.799 It feels like it should all work out, but it didn't. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:08.399 Right? 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:10.960 Maybe if you ever even maybe you take it a step further. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:15.840 Have you ever felt like you did everything right as far as God is concerned? 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:18.799 And you didn't get what you thought you would get? 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:20.320 Has that ever happened to anyone? 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:22.960 It's happened to me, right? 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:24.399 It's probably happened to you. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:29.200 Here's the thing, these folks, they followed all the rules. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.039 And their wheels came off. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:38.159 You know, years ago, I was in this triathlon down in Oregon, and um, it was right in the Sun River area. 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:44.399 And we did this, the swim was in this kind of not glacial lake, because there's not glaciers there, but it's very, very cold. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.480 And literally, it's like a mile swim. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:58.720 And every stroke I took is I looked to my right, it was this loop, and for the first half of the swim, the whole every time I would look to my right, I would literally see this snow-covered mountain coming directly into the lake. 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.240 And I was already very cold. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:11.200 And um, even with a wetsuit on, and I'm looking, and every time I, you know, I see my hand go in, and then boom, there's this like snowy mountain coming into the lake, which I will tell you makes you feel colder. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:19.119 Okay, if you already weren't feeling pretty chilly in cold water, when you can see a snowy mountain, that makes you feel colder, right? 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:26.559 Get out of the water finally, go on a long bike ride, have literally, it turns out, like the best ride of any race I've ever done. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:26.799 Right? 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:28.160 I'm feeling amazing. 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:33.359 We get into Sun River, you know, it's a 13-mile run, and and you know what happens? 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:37.119 It turns out they ran out of water and Gatorade on the run. 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:39.759 And the wheels came off. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:42.079 I did everything I thought I was supposed to do. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:45.119 Still couldn't fit do it well, right? 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:47.200 I had to almost walk it in, right? 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:48.720 Because I was feeling so horrible. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:51.519 Because there, you know, I thought I did everything right. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:56.000 Sometimes you feel like you do everything right and it still doesn't turn out right. 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:57.440 Right? 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:01.039 And you look and say, I thought I thought I did the right thing. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:04.079 And why is God not doing what he was supposed to do? 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:04.559 Right? 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:12.240 Because what religion teaches us is that if if I do my part, the great news is that if I do my part, God will do his part. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:12.720 Right? 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:15.839 You get half the way and God will take it from there. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:17.920 Friends, that's not the gospel. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:21.519 It sounds like fantastic news when things are going well for you. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:22.799 I'm just gonna tell you this. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:30.720 When things are going poorly for you, trust me, you do not actually want a faith that says you take it halfway and God will take it the rest of the way. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:37.279 What you need ultimately is a God who comes in to rescue you as a deliverer, like the book of Exodus. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:37.920 Right? 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:43.359 Too often we think all the good things we have in life are because of our own hard work. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:50.799 I'll just tell you, friends, if that's true, if it's true that all of the good things you have, just follow me logically, okay? 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.799 If all the good things you have are because of your hard work, then guess what? 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:59.440 All of the bad things you have is because of all the bad things you've done. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:01.759 That's actually religion. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.880 The gospel is a gospel of grace. 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:14.960 Uh, the gospel is about a God who gives you unmerited favor, not because of what you can earn, but because of his very um nature, right? 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:20.799 Because of God's personality, because of who God is in his innermost being. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:22.640 That's the gospel. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:24.000 Right? 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:28.240 These folks have done everything right in this moment. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:30.160 Yet it's not working out for them. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:31.839 It's actually getting worse. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:33.759 Right? 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:40.160 And now God has to pull them out of Egypt. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:42.240 Right? 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:46.079 I mean, you have to recognize something is life is getting worse for them. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:56.799 As Christians, when we expect the easy life, what's happening is maybe we're telling Jesus that we think he's a spiritual piggy bank. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:19:58.240 Right? 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:01.359 That if we do our stuff, he'll do his stuff. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:02.319 Right? 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:08.480 In response, Jesus says, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet lose their soul? 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:10.799 Friends, it's not easy to be a Christian. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.440 It's not easy to follow the Lord, but it's worth it. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:14.960 Right? 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:26.960 See, there's an incredible myth in the world that we inhabit, which is that the way to determine one's faithfulness to God is by seeing or perceiving how much God has blessed them. 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:30.559 Yet, look at Jesus. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:35.440 Why would we think that when we see how poor Jesus is? 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.440 His family was poor, his followers were poor. 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:46.160 And even his followers not only were poor, but bad things kept happening to them, right? 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:49.039 Even though they were faithfully following after God. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.279 Paul kept getting whipped, right? 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:54.000 That you know, he people threw rocks at him. 00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:56.640 Peter got crucified upside down. 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:00.720 Friends, this is not the prosperity gospel, okay? 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:02.319 Right? 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:03.440 But that that's the thing. 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:09.920 This is the gospel instead of grace, of actually God gives us incredible gifts that we don't actually deserve. 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.680 In the midst of deep trials. 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:25.279 See the thing is, we have this overarching belief in society that if you work hard enough, you'll get the good things that you deserve. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:26.319 Right? 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:31.039 And this unfortunately, sadly, has infiltrated portions of the church. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:31.759 Right? 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:34.240 There's the prosperity gospel of wealth, right? 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:47.519 That says if you keep following them, if you keep tithing, right, if you if you're honest in business, if you care for the poor, then God will bless you abundantly, financially, overflowing. 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:51.680 Here's the problem sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:59.119 Sometimes, in the words of scripture, it's actually the wicked that prosper instead. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.640 How do you reconcile that with the prosperity gospel? 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:03.599 You can't. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:04.000 Right? 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:06.640 There's the prosperity gospel of health, right? 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:10.480 The secular version of it, uh, you might start being familiar with, right? 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:27.039 Depending on how much you like to work out, is if you eat right, you take your supplements, you have enough shaker jars worth of creatine and few supergreens, and you do the right workouts while oh while overall reducing your cortisol levels, you live until you're 120. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:27.920 Right? 00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:32.000 Or there's like the spiritual Christian version of this, right? 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:34.000 You you name it, you claim your healing. 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:34.400 Right? 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:37.519 If you have enough faith, you'll be healed. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:38.319 Right? 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:39.359 Bad news. 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:42.799 If you aren't healed, it was probably probably because of you. 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:43.599 Right? 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:48.319 This solves, here's what it does: it solves the problem, it solves a theological problem. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.880 It solves the problem of God's omnipotence and his benevolence, right? 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:53.519 His love. 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.119 It erases the mystery of why sometimes really bad things happen to good people. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:01.119 Okay, that feels like a win. 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:05.119 But you give up everything else with it. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:06.319 Right? 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:08.799 Because you know what happens? 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:16.799 Is it doesn't solve the problem of why some folks lived in '99 on a steady diet of like Marlborough's and Miklobultras. 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:17.359 Right? 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:22.400 You're like, hold on, I thought God rewarded people who like did the right thing and He's helping them. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:23.279 Why? 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:31.599 See, the real problem with the prosperity gospel of health is that people just keep on dying no matter how faithful they are. 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:33.440 Every year, more of us die. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:35.359 This is how it works. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:36.240 Right? 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:38.640 This is life as a human under the sun. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:39.440 Right? 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:43.599 Or there's like the um the prosperity gospel of purity culture. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.480 You guys, you know, some of you guys remember what I'm talking about here. 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:47.519 Right? 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:49.759 It says these incredible speakers. 00:23:49.839 --> 00:24:05.440 I remember when I was like a teenager and in my early 20s, these incredible speakers who you know got in front of tens of thousands of people and said, you know, we did it the Lord's way, we did it the right way, you know, and because we, you know, we we waited not only to have sex until we got married, we waited to kiss until the altar, right? 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:16.079 And now God has just given us this incredible blessing of like, now we have an amazing sex life, and we have just the number of children we would like to have. 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:18.960 And it's because we did it the Lord's way. 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:21.440 You know what they're not mentioning in these? 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:23.920 Is there's plenty of people who did it that way. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.880 And that is, that's a great, absolutely, don't have sex until you get married. 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:28.319 That's very clear in the Bible, right? 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:33.839 With that said, that is not a promise that if you do that, God will do this. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:44.880 You know how many people I know who did it the right way and are now struggling with infertility, who are now struggling with you know all types of sexual um challenges, right? 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:50.640 And do you know how many people, by God's grace, didn't do it at all God's way, right? 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:56.720 They meet on Tinder, start hooking up immediately, somewhere along the lines, decide to go to church. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:58.960 God bless them, that's fantastic, right? 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:01.519 Sleep together the whole time, and guess what? 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.279 By God's grace and mercy, their lives totally get turned around. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:09.200 Praise the Lord, and God, out of his mercy, fixes um broken things. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:09.839 Amen? 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:10.240 Right? 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:19.759 So the reason I tell you all this is because we do the things we know God is calling us to do, not because it's input in, input out. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:22.880 We do the things we know we ought to do. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:28.000 We worship God, not because you automatically get something out of it, but because he's worthy. 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:28.960 Amen? 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.400 That's why we are have lives devoted to him. 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:34.000 Right? 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.519 Israelites are called to have lives devoted to him. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:44.480 And even as their lives are devoted to him, things start getting worse before they start getting better. 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:54.319 You know, it's like you go to your physical therapist, you start doing the exercises, and you start experiencing a lot more pain before it seems to start getting better. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:26:00.400 But the work is being done inside your body, even though you don't realize it, so you keep doing the exercises. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:03.359 Right? 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:08.400 And these folks, though, they've been walking this road for a long time. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.920 And it says that now they have these broken spirits. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:20.000 These are folks that are weak and dejected. 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:28.799 They they are not just being pulled out of slavery in Exodus. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:31.680 God's pulling the slavery out of them. 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:33.680 Right? 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:40.240 There's this kind of exhaustion that people experience when they just they can't even hear words of hope anymore. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:40.720 Right? 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:45.759 Not because they're rebellious, but because they're just depleted, they're exhausted. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:48.799 You might find yourself there this morning. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:51.039 Can I ask you something? 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:54.240 If you do, just ask this question. 00:26:55.119 --> 00:27:00.480 What is God transforming in you through your broken spirit? 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:12.559 You know, my friend Jerry, we're in this pastoral reading group, and my friend Jerry says that the worst time to write a book on ecclesiology, like how to do church, is when you have a thriving church. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:13.440 You know why? 00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:18.720 Because people who have, you know, thriving churches that are, you know, just kicking butt and taking names. 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:32.720 Just, you know, the folks that are like, you know, coming and talking to the other pastor friends, and the the biggest complaints they have about what's going on at church is we just don't know if we can add a fourth service on Sunday mornings, you know, because we're growing so rapidly. 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.039 It's it's so stressful for us, you know. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.319 It's so stressful having another hundred people every Sunday. 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:39.119 It's too much. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:43.279 You know, those aren't the people who should be writing books on ecclesiology. 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:43.839 You know why? 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:52.240 Because he says the challenge is when someone like that writes a book on ecclesiology, what they'll just say is, you should just emulate me, do what I'm doing. 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:59.920 No, people who the best folks often to write ecclesiology are not writing books on how to do church when their church is at its peak. 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:00.640 Right? 00:28:00.799 --> 00:28:13.119 Just like the folks, the best folks to write books on parenting are not folks who have three kids under the age of 10 and saying, listen, if you would do what I do, your kids would turn out awesome too. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:26.079 Oftentimes, I'm just telling you guys, I know every person in this room, if you've hung out with people with children, know that the best parenting advice you actually get in life is not from people who have kids at home. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:32.880 It's people who later reflect and say, oh wow, yeah, I remember those years. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:36.480 You know, let me empathize with you for a minute. 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:39.359 You know, let me let me walk with you. 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:42.079 Because they've gone through enough, right? 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:53.039 It's like the people, I remember I took this um pre- it was like a pre-premarriage class when I was an intern at UPC, um, called Before You Buy the Ring. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:54.960 And um it wasn't with Mia. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:29:00.240