Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Today on Abounding Grace, be encouraged by this. He's fighting our battles for us. Can I get an amen on that? I know it doesn't feel like that sometimes, but God has promised to be your protector, to guard you, to never leave you or forsake you.

You've been called to go speak to Pharaoh, the Lord is with you. You've got a big meeting coming up tomorrow, the Lord is with you. You're going in for a job interview, the Lord's not with you for that. Of course he is. The Lord is with you. You've got some tension in your marriage, the Lord is with you. Your kids have gone sideways, the Lord is with you. You've gone sideways, the Lord is with you, drawing you back to himself.

Guest (Male): It is good to be reminded that wherever we go, whatever we're called to do, we are not alone. God is very much with his children each step of the way. Today on Abounding Grace, we'll draw encouragement from that as we dig a little deeper into Exodus. In chapter 10, Moses has a mission from God to go to Pharaoh, but God would be with him. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor to tell us more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Exodus chapter 10, and I've entitled our Bible study, "God Never Sends Us Alone." Isn't that good to consider? God never sends us alone. We have Moses here having just finished 40 years in the wilderness, a wilderness experience. 40 years is a long time to think about things, especially in the desert. Moses had a long time to think about his past, to think about his future, to consider his mistakes, and to dream about successes and second chances. I mean, a lot to consider. He's married in the wilderness, he has a family, he's settled down.

But he soon learned that the desert wasn't his final destination. He soon learned that he wasn't in the desert to settle down, but to learn and to be trained and truly to be undone. The desert was not his final destination, and it reminded me that the desert's not your final destination either. This wilderness experience or these wandering times or these feelings of being unsettled, it's a place for training and development, a time where God is drawing you to himself away from everything. You didn't know your life was so cluttered and filled with stuff and things and people and desires until God brought you to the wilderness and you began to understand the intimacy that was lost and the sweetness of fellowship with God.

Moses' life reminds us of a couple things if you want to jot them down as we open up into chapter 10, just considering where he is and what has happened in his life coming up to chapter 10. But number one, we learn in Moses' life that everything today is preparing you for what's up ahead. Everything today, as you live life to its fullest, is preparing you for what's up ahead. And certainly, God is using you in the moment, he is fashioning and molding you, but he also has more for us until he calls us home. Number one, everything today is preparing you for what's up ahead.

Number two, while God does give us seasons of rest, times where there's less going on and we can take a breather, in the rest, listen, God never pauses his discipleship and development of us. So sometimes we define rest as just, hey, just let up, Lord, and I don't need to learn anything more, I don't want to learn anything more, I just need a breather. And God says, I'll give you the breather, but you're going to continue to learn and grow. And so while God does give us rest, he never pauses discipleship.

And then thirdly, this is so good. Thirdly, we learn this with Moses very clearly. Once you're ready, once God determines you're ready, things happen very fast, very, very quickly. Where you're kind of lingering in the wilderness, lingering in the, I mean, some right now I'm speaking to you and you're in what you might consider a real dry season, a real wilderness experience, 40 minutes, 40 days, 40 weeks, 40 years, you name it. And you're just wondering if it will ever end. You were wondering that yesterday, you were wondering that last year, you were wondering.

And sometimes even the wondering is getting your eyes off the Lord and forgetting that he's developing you and discipling you. And just know this, when you stop wondering and you start abiding again, if you just like, Lord, I cast myself upon you, when God is done, things happen very, very, very fast. And Moses was enlisted quickly into the depth of what God had called him to. D.L. Moody put it this way, and I quote, "Moses spent 40 years in Pharaoh's court thinking that he was somebody, 40 years in the desert learning he was a nobody, and 40 years showing what God can do with somebody who found out he was a nobody."

And so quickly God can do that work. Once God started, there's this rapid succession of God's power on display. I know that Pharaoh's getting a lot of the attention, and the Egyptian people and the plagues are getting a lot of attention, but the attention, remember when we're reading through the scriptures, needs to be focused on what God is doing and how he's preparing a people for the coming of Messiah and how he has a plan that each one of us fit in very perfectly and beautifully.

And things happen quickly. Notice in verse 1 of chapter 10 now. Now the Lord said to Moses, "Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt and my signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord." You see how many times God, in communicating with Moses, refers to himself.

Moses, this is about me. This is what I'm doing. I know it feels like it's all on your shoulders, and I know you don't, God could be saying to him, I know you don't really want to do this, I know that you're at a place now, eight different plagues, and now God's even telling them, I'm hardening the heart of Pharaoh again, where you can just think then, what am I going, why should I do this if you're just going to harden his heart? If you put yourself in Moses' shoes for a moment and in his sandals and you just think, man, this is not working out the way I thought.

God's answer to you and to me will be this: I'm doing something. I'm doing something, Moses. And you can either be a part of it or not be a part of it, but I'm doing something. Which reminds me in my own personal walk with the Lord to remind you in your own personal walk with the Lord to really get along with what God's doing in your life. He is doing something. And he's involving you.

We kind of take it so nonchalant. Well, of course I'm a Christian, God uses Christians, but it is a great graceful thing for God to use you and me for the purposes for which he set before us. He could use angels, you know, and angels will never give him any lip. I mean, they've already, they've already rebelled, the rebellious angels have already rebelled against God. The angels that are loyal to God are 100% loyal. They do exactly what God desires them to do.

But God doesn't choose to use angels for the majority of the work of his ministry. He will, as we read in the book of Revelation, but for now in this age of the Gentiles, who is God using? You and me. It may help, even tonight before you turn in for the evening, to look yourself in the mirror and just say, man, I can't believe that God would use me. This is all about him, what he wants to accomplish. He says it right here, "I want to show these signs." That's why you're going. "I want to show these signs to Pharaoh."

"I also want to do this so that you will tell your kids." Moses, this is bigger than you. It's about your kids and your grandkids. There's a heritage of the legacy of faith to be passed down to generations and generations. Moses, it's more than just you. I'm giving you a testimony. And of course you know there are no testimony without the test in life. It's the very first word. As God gives you victory after victory, what stories these must have been as Moses was telling his kids and his grandkids of the great power of God. And then weaving in how, "You know, and you know, I almost didn't do it."

Can you imagine that? I almost didn't do it. I tried and I tried and I tried. I talked myself out of it. I thought I could talk God out of it, but he wouldn't let me. He compelled me. Remember what Paul said, "It's the love of God that compels me." And he's saying, "Hey look, this is bigger than you. It's for your kids, for your grandkids. And what? I want you to tell them about the mighty things. I want you to tell them that I'm real and that I'm powerful. I want you to tell your kids and your grandkids. I want your testimony to include, Moses, my mighty signs and wonders, that I'm a God of miracles, that I'm a God that can intervene in life."

But more than anything, he says in verse 2, "Moses, you're going in because I want you to know that I'm God. I want you to remember that I'm Yahweh. I'm the God of gods, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords." Now I want to show you something. This is one of the benefits when you in my program, I can just click words and look at them. I want you to see something. This is so good. Circle the word "go" in verse 1. So we read it in the English language and it is an accurate translation of the Hebrew word here.

The Hebrew word here is the Hebrew word "bo," B-O. And this word can be translated "go" and it fits the context of the direction, of the direction that God is giving to Moses here, but there is an alternative definition of this Hebrew word throughout the Old Testament. This word "go" is very key here and it can also be translated "come," or "come here," or in some instances it can be translated "come with me" or "come with." Now if this was a translation, if God was also saying at the same time because I think in the context God is very clearly reminding Moses that he is with him.

And so if you took this word and you translated it and you say, "Come with me to Pharaoh. Come with me to Pharaoh. You're going to go into Pharaoh, but I am not sending you alone. I'm going to be with you." This changes everything. I mean, what if God is saying, really saying to Moses, "Come with me. I'm going to go with you. It's going to be my words, but it's your mouth."

And in a very real way, God can certainly be saying this, even from the context of the word. God telling him, "I'll be there with you standing right behind, right by your side." You know, we need this assurance and God could say it in an even greater way for New Covenant believers because remember what Jesus said in Hebrews chapter 13, "I will never leave you or forsake you." And so that we can boldly say, as Hebrews 13 says, "The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

What you and I can experience in the sending of the Lord is that when God sends us into the world, he goes with us because he dwells in us. He is with us. This is so exciting. This is, if you kind of take back now at chapter 10, you go, "Wait a minute. This is much bigger than Moses and Pharaoh, even though they're the, Moses, Aaron, and Pharaoh and the magicians, they're getting all the attention." What's going on behind the scenes is a spiritual battle. It is a battle of the gods, little g and capital G.

And God is intervening in the battle to bring about victory. You can trust in your own spiritual battles too, that God is intervening and he's with you. And you can trust the Lord. You can trust the Lord as you look back and you look forward and telling your kids of where God has been faithful before, where God has got you through, where he has been with you, where you didn't want to or you wasn't, you weren't sure and you didn't have this assurance, but the Lord showed up. This is what our kids need to hear, what our grandkids need to hear, what our wives and our husbands and our friends, this is our testimony, the faithfulness of God, that the Lord is with us.

I was looking through for the greatest example of what this might look like in the Old Testament and I found a couple scriptures. Would you turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 8? And I want you to consider the graciousness of God as he goes with us, as he goes with us. This is in the life of David, his own testimony. This is what he wrote, 2 Samuel chapter 7, notice with me in verse 8.

Now again, this is the message of God to David, but I'm going to look, we're going to look at a few other scriptures where David also gives this testimony. Notice, "Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel.'" Now pause there for a second. Couldn't God say a very similar thing to Moses? "I took you from the wilderness and I equipped you and I made you the overseer, the ruler of my people as my deliverer."

He could say the same thing. And, verse 9, this is so good, "And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name like the name of the great men who are on the earth." I love that. You might want to mark it. "I have been with you wherever you have gone." That was God's reminder to David. Turn over to 1 Samuel now, 1 Samuel chapter 18. 1 Samuel chapter 18, when you get there, verse 14. If you don't want to be as fast turning, I'll just read them to you, but I'm going to turn for them because they're so good.

It says in verse 14, 1 Samuel 18, "And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him." And look what it did to Saul. When Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. Again back in 2 Samuel chapter 5 in verse 10. 2 Samuel chapter 5, verse 10, "So David went on and became great, and the Lord of hosts was with him." 2 Samuel chapter 8, verse 6. Chapter 8, verse 6, "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants and brought tribute. The Lord preserved David wherever he went."

Verse 14, "He also put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord preserved David wherever he went." And we can go on and on. If you're taking notes, chapter 22 verse 30, chapter 22 verse 34, 1 Chronicles 17. And then I want you to see this one, Psalm 121. Turn over to Psalm 121.

Moses has the same promise. You and I have the same promise. The Lord is with you wherever you go. He's intervening in your life. He's fighting your battles. We even sing that song, "God fighting our battles." He's fighting our battles for us. Can I get an amen on that? I know it doesn't feel like that sometimes, but God has promised to be your protector, to guard you, to never leave you or forsake you.

You've been called to go speak to Pharaoh, the Lord is with you. You've got a big meeting coming up tomorrow, the Lord is with you. You're going in for a job interview, the Lord's not with you for that. Of course he is. The Lord is with you. You've got some tension in your marriage, the Lord is with you. Your kids have gone sideways, the Lord is with you. You've gone sideways, the Lord is with you, drawing you back to himself. The Lord is with you.

Notice what he says in Psalm 121 in verse 8. The psalmist is writing and he says, "The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore." Right after he says in verse 7, "The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. The Lord shall preserve your soul." The whole psalm is so beautiful. And Moses is getting it, you and I get it, the presence of the Lord. It's not about Moses, and it's not about Pharaoh, and it's not about the magicians. It's about the Lord. It's all pointing to him and his graciousness and his love and his mercy.

Even in the plagues, you'll look at the plagues and you go, "Wow, why so much judgment?" But the question really is is why so much mercy? Pharaoh could have ended this at the first answer. He could have yielded to the God of all creation. He could have said, "Go." But he didn't. And isn't it true for you? You could end so much of your backsliding ways if you'll just soften your heart before the Lord. You could end so much tension in your life, so much distance that you might be having from God today if you would just yield yourself to the Lord. The Bible speaks, I believe it was James, that a peace, like a real evidence of the work of God in our lives is a willingness to yield. A willingness to yield.

Well, notice now, back in Exodus in chapter 10, verse 3. So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me. Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth. And they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field. And they shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.'"

And he turned and went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh's servants, verse 7, said to him, "How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?" Locusts will come, the eighth plague will come, Pharaoh, if you don't humble yourself. That's the right path.

And you notice the question in verse 3. I'm certain there are some among us that have heard the same question. I've heard the same question. I've heard this very exact same question in my life. "How long, Ed, will you refuse to humble yourself?" I wonder if you've heard it with your name. I've heard it with your name too, Ed, you know, it's like, no, no, how long have you heard it with your name? How long? How long are you going to live that prideful, arrogant way? How long are you going to hold on to your own devices and your own plans and your own, how long?

It's not just words to an unbelieving Pharaoh, it's words to an unbelieving church. There are times where as believers we live like unbelievers. It's because of pride. I see so much in the body of Christ where as we were learning not too long ago how to resolve personal conflicts and such, that the situation of the personal conflict or the difficulties is easily remedied. But decisions are made along the way so that even if it was remedied, now we've got a problem of pride. Let's just say you let something go for a long time and then finally you break down and go, "Okay, okay, let's resolve it."

But then now you won't admit, you won't come to the place where you're just like, "It was my fault. It was my, it was on me." And there's no excuse, and there's no "but you," you know. We hear this all the time. "It was my fault, but..." Stop it.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this message from Exodus again, turn to aboundinggraceradio.com. Or you can listen through our app as well. Search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

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Well, Pastor Ed, we've got new service times going on here at Calvary Church in Aurora. Can you tell us about that and how folks can join us in person or online if they're outside the area?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, beginning this month, just a couple weeks ago, we started brand new. We added a service on the weekend. So Saturday nights we meet at 6:00 p.m. And then on Sunday mornings we now meet at 8:00 a.m., 9:45, and 11:45. Four weekend services to make room for all that God is doing. You can join us, these are Mountain Time, Saturday night at 6:00, Sunday mornings 8:00 a.m., 9:45, 11:45. You can join us online on our app or our website, Facebook, YouTube, calvaryco.church. If you're here in the metro area, we're making room for you. I know it's been crowded, it's been hard to find a parking spot, hard to get your kids in Sunday school, all of that, hard to find a seat in the sanctuary, but that all changed this month. We are making room for you so that the Lord can continue to grow the church as he sees fit. He's faithful. See you here.

Guest (Male): Again, to live stream or for more information, log on to calvaryco.church. And then be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus, right here on Abounding Grace.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.