Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): When God sends us, He never sends us alone. That's next on Abounding Grace.

Whether we're in a difficult meeting at work, awaiting the results from the doctor, or your car breaks down on the side of the highway, it's important to realize we are never alone. God is right there with us, just as He was for Moses in Exodus chapter 10. Today on Abounding Grace, we'll be encouraged by this: God never sends us alone. Maybe that's just what you need to hear. Here is Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Did you notice in verse 7? It says Pharaoh's servants said to him, "Let them go. Don't you see what's happening to our country? Let them go." I know as you see things happening in our country and the leadership of our country just making decisions that are so contrary to the ways and the will of God, and we're to pray for our leaders as the Bible dictates.

But I also want to add to you, begin to pray for their close servants and what do they call them? The people that are close to them, their advisors, the people that they listen to. We pray for our president, but we need to pray for his wife, the one that can greatly influence him. We pray for those that are in the White House and in our country. We pray for our governor here, but we need to pray for the people that are close. Because here's someone close now, it's not just God speaking. Now God has convinced the servants. Just let them go. Just let them go. Make a wise decision.

Well, verse 8. "So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh and he said to them, 'Go, serve the Lord your God.'" And you're like, "Yes, yes, He's done it! Serve the Lord with your God." But who are the ones that are going? Ah. What did we learn last time? Pharaoh is a big compromiser, and he's offering these compromises. Moses said, "We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds, we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord."

And remember, Moses, when he says, "We will go," it means that we will go all the way. Three days' journey, remember? We're going to go all the way. Now he's adding to the definition, which never changed. He's just giving Pharaoh more information. Not only will we go all the way, will we go three days, but we're all going. Every single one of us, everything that we, this is all or nothing. This is all or nothing now.

And then he said, verse 10, "The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go. Beware, for evil is ahead of you." Now he tries to intimidate. If he's not going to compromise, now he's going to threaten and intimidate after all these things have happened. Like, all these plagues he's seen, everything that's happened, he's going to threaten him.

Verse 11. "Not so. Now go, you and the men, serve the Lord, for what is desired." And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Here's another compromise. He wants to know who's going and Moses is like, "Hey, we're all going, and we're all going three days." And he says, "No, leave your wife and kids." You're like, "No, my wife and kids are the most important part of me. We're all going, and everything that we've owned and everything that we've accumulated, we're all going."

And just as Pharaoh tempts Moses with compromise, so are we tempted with compromise over and over again as we learned in our time last time, if you weren't here. Like, we live in this world, we breathe in this world, but man, we've got to be careful that the world doesn't get into us, because that's where the place of compromise is. Where the enemy would tell to our souls and even our own flesh, because we have a price to pay where not so far, not too much, I'll give so much, I'll do enough just to get along and just to get by. But that's not the way of the Lord.

And again, let me read to you a couple scriptures. You can jot them down. In Psalm 9:1, it says, "I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart, and I will tell of your marvelous works." Psalm 119:2, "Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart." And you guys tell me if you can read these next words, you can say them out loud if you know them. In Psalm 119:10, "With my whole heart, I have sought You. Let me not wander from Your commands."

Twelve times in the New King James, this phrase in the English is used: whole heart. Not a compromised heart. Not a heart that's one way over here and one way over here and one way over here, but just one life, filled with authenticity and integrity. You know, that is some of the characteristics that are valued in our culture today. You'll hear it all the time.

You know, I just really, even in my own life, if I'm sharing testimony or some of even the feedback from our podcast, and I receive it for what it is, but like, the feedback in some of our podcasts has been, "You know, I just really appreciate your honesty and your authenticity." And I'm like, that's what we always should be. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to sugarcoat the reality.

But you also have to know your identity in Christ and be secure that when you share the truth of your life, no matter what the response is, you've been serving the Lord with your whole heart. You've been serving the Lord with your whole heart. And that you don't move forward with insecurity, always worried about what people are going to think about you, what they're going to say about you. You just let the people think and people say whatever they want about you, but you serve the Lord with your whole heart. You give it to Him all, and He'll protect you. And just like He told Moses, "I'll be with you, bro. You go into them, but I'm going with you. You speak to them, but they're My words. You stand strong because I'm your strength. I'm your protector. I'll preserve you. I'll keep you. You can trust Me."

Well, verse 12. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they might come upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land and all that the hail has left.'" So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning, the east wind brought all the locusts.

And the locusts went up all over the land of Egypt, rested on the territory of Egypt. They were very severe. Previously there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall they be after them. Verse 15. "They covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt."

And what happened? Exactly what God said would happen. The locusts came and did great destruction and darkened this land. And Moses stretched out his hand, just as he was told. And it happened, just as God had warned. Again, something you could read over very quickly. But don't. Moses was told to stretch out his hand, and what did he do? Stretched out his hand. And when Moses stretched out his hand, it happened just as God had warned.

And according to verse 14, it was very severe. And locusts are a tool that God will use again in Joel chapter 2. One of my life verses that I hold on to and I have held on to since God pulled me out of the world was in Joel chapter 2, where God promises that after the locust has come and destroyed in judgment from God, that God would restore the years that the locust has eaten.

And I have lived that promise my entire life, that I have wasted so much of my life and God promised to give it back. He promised to do even greater, exceedingly abundantly above all that I could think or ask. And locusts are used by God as judgment because they speak of devouring, destruction, darkness. And you Bible students, you know if you fast forward to Revelation chapter 8, locusts will show up again and some wild stuff during the Great Tribulation period.

But this is interesting to me. What's more important to me than locusts is Moses, and Moses' cooperation with God. What I call cooperation is really just a soft word for obedience. When you obey with God, you partner with Him. When you obey God, you partner with Him. God says, "Do this," and you say, "I will, I do." And you are with God. You are leaning on God in obedience. You're cooperating, you're partnering.

So this is interesting. Moses' outstretched hand becomes an extension of the very will of God. That hand. Just a simple hand, and a simple instruction. "Stretch out your hand." And of course, you know today you can say, "I will not stretch out my hand." I think of as we received a phone call on the live show today, of a person wrestling with addiction and how hard it was for him to hear me say, "Don't drink. Don't take the bottle, don't open it, don't lift it, don't put it in your mouth. Don't drink."

That's not on my authority, but on the authority of God. And if he can learn to do that once, he can learn to do it twice in the power of God, and three times and five times. If he can learn to do it today, God will be with him tomorrow. He'll have this revelation of the instant God gives the command is the instant God gives the power to obey the command. He'd go, "Well, I want to be sober the rest of my life." I do, I want you to be sober the rest of your life too.

But let's just start right now. Just stretch out your hand. Just stretch out your hand. Just obey God, believe Him. Because when you stretch out your hand, you become a part of the will of God. Remember the man with the withered hand? Same thing. How many times did he send the signal from his brain, down his shoulder, to his hand? "Move." And before he said, "No more. I'm not going to do it anymore. It's not going to happen."

And then Jesus shows up and He says, "You want to be healed?" "Are you kidding me, man? Do I want to be healed? Are you serious?" I mean, you can hear the cop-an-attitude on that, can't you? "I've been wanting to be healed for years." But none of that's said. None of that's said. He doesn't cop an attitude. Jesus tells him, "Stretch forth your hand." And the moment that he decided to cooperate with Jesus was the instant his hand was healed. It was that quick.

And the power of God is ours for the simple, for the mundane, for the miraculous. I mean, the power of God for you to step into someone's life, to speak the word of truth to them, to ask them about their life, to share the love of Jesus. The moment you stretch out your hand is the moment you're in the will of God. Do what God has called you to do. Jesus has given to us delegated authority.

What God desires for you and me is that we can stretch forth our hands and pray in the name of Jesus with His power and authority in people's lives. When dealing with spiritual warfare, you have to take authority and be bold in your prayers. If you are standing before Pharaoh, or what Pharaoh represents—the world, the compromise, addiction, failure, condemnation—you need to stretch forth your hand in the delegated authority of Jesus Christ and fight the good fight.

Men, you've been learning that on Saturdays. You've been learning to fight the good fight. You've been learning to pray, to put on the spiritual armor. When you enter into prayer, you're entering into warfare. You're inviting God to come into the situation. You're asking for His help. You're committing that situation to Him, and to fight on your behalf. God, you want me to stretch out my hand? It's done.

It wasn't his hand that brought the locusts. It was his obedience that brought him into a place of the will and the power of God. It was all God. Moses just got to be a part of it. Don't you want to be a part of it, church? Or do you just want to keep being religious? I know it may not be to you, this Bible study could be heard in ten years from now, and it could be you in ten years.

You just want to dabble in church, you just want to play around, you want to have a little earthly kingdom, and you just want to get by, you want the American dream. Is that all you want in life? You can settle for that. But God wants you to stretch out your hand. He wants you to cooperate with Him. He wants you to go from here to there by faith.

He doesn't want some little religious church that just kind of gathers in that building on the corner and sing a few songs, have our conscience kind of dealt with, and we feel a little bit better, but no life change. That is not God's will for your life. No life change. No transformation. He wants you to truly, literally, like he told Moses earlier, to have such a transformative life day by day by grace that when you tell people your testimony, they don't believe you.

They don't believe. Which what, what's the big deal? What's the big deal? Because in that lack of unbelief, it generates—and that lack of belief, I should say—generates questions to continue to point your friends and family to the finished work of the cross. That's the life. He doesn't want tomorrow, when you go to work—listen, I'm challenging you, the Lord's challenging you right now.

He doesn't want you to go, "What'd you do yesterday?" "Oh, I went to church." "What'd you do?" "I went to the bar." "How was it?" "Oh, you know, whatever. We sang a song and hey, did you get that report for me?" He wants you to walk into work tomorrow, or maybe with your kids at home, or perhaps you have a day off and you're going to go shopping. He wants you to walk into those places with the authority to share the power and the privilege of the will of God for your life.

He wants you to care for that person in front of you so much that you open your mouth even with great fear. That your heart breaks for the lostness of your coworker, of your mom. That apart from Christ, what awaits them is an eternity apart from Christ. Eternal judgment. That our hearts would break.

He doesn't want you going to work tomorrow with a loaf of bread and standing up on your desk, "I am the bread of life!" And everybody's drawing, and then HR comes and you're fired and it's like, "Well, you know, they told me to preach the gospel." No, you are living the gospel. Your testimony is the gospel. It's the pathway to bring about the full message of the good news. Your living testimony of the gospel.

What is the gospel? That God so loved you that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. What is the gospel? That Jesus lived, died, and rose again, and by His blood that was shed for you, your sins can be forgiven. That's the gospel. But we are living proof of the gospel. We are living proof.

And it's okay when people say, "You know, I just like your authenticity and I like your honesty," because eventually, you're going to be able to say, "But that's what following Jesus is about. You're going to get the real deal and it's not so pretty. And it's I'm not the hero of the story." You know, that's another mistake that people make with the gospel. You're not the hero of your testimony. God is. "Well, you know, I was so messed up, but then I'm the one, and I'm the one." But we already learned that. You're not the hero. God's the hero. And we follow a great God who's been so gracious and is gracious to us now.

I mean, you look at this coming back to the text, delegated authority. Stretch out your hand, church. Get involved. Step into the story of what God's doing in this world today. Let the Lord heal you. Let the Lord restore you. Give up your plans as we were learning today in our time of discipleship as a team here this morning, learning how to deny ourselves.

That's how it started, and that's how it continues. And the final breath before you meet Jesus will be a denial of self and an elevation of Him. It'll just be a beautiful, beautiful reunion and union with God. Well, notice with me, verse 16. "Now Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron in haste. 'I've sinned against the Lord your God and against you.'"

By now you know, this is not real. It might be an emotional thing, but it's not real. "Now therefore, please forgive my sin, only this once, and entreat the Lord God that He may take away from me this death only." And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. And the Lord turned a very strong west wind, which took the locust away and blew them into the Red Sea.

There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt. And Pharaoh softened his heart, sent them out, gave him every—no, that's not actually what verse 20 said. How do we know that Pharaoh was being a liar? Well, verse 20. It says the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. He didn't let the children of Israel go. You go, "Wait a minute, it says the Lord hardened his heart." That's because we've already seen the pattern. Pharaoh has a hardened heart and God is affirming that hardened heart.

Remember what we learned? We learned as parents, the best illustration I can think of is with parents. You've got like a hundred bucks in your pocket, but your kid found a quarter and you say, "Give me that quarter." And the kid said, "No way, finders keepers, losers weepers, Mom. I found this quarter. Hey, that quarter's mine, son, just give it to me." "No, I'm not giving it to you, Mom."

And then you start, "Well, you want to keep it?" "Yeah, I'm keeping it." "Are you sure you want to keep it? Like don't, like it's Mom's, like give it to me, it's Dad's." "No, finders keepers, losers weepers. I'm spending this quarter when next time we go to the market, I'm getting my bubblegum and I'm keeping this quarter." "Are you sure?" "I'm sure." And you go into your back pocket and you take out the $100 bill and say, "If you would have given me the quarter, I would have given you more. But because you wanted to keep it, I'm going to affirm that. Keep it."

"Wait, if I would have known that!" No, no, no. You don't need to know that. You need to know me. I'm your dad. I love you. I've got way more than a quarter for you. But if that's what you want, that's what you get. And what happens with the kid? Doesn't get broken, gets more angry, gets more frustrated, buys a piece of gum at the market just like they said, all mad at you, all upset.

"I'm going to take this!" And they take it and it's like ten years old and breaks a tooth and it's just constantly, just constantly. That's where Pharaoh is here. He hasn't softened. And so God comes alongside. Why? Don't forget. So that I might show these signs. I'm revealing Myself, God says. I'm going to be known.

And when it comes to repentance, I did an in-depth study—we're almost out of time, but I did an in-depth study looking at godly sorrow, worldly sorrow when we studied through 1 Corinthians. If repentance, turning away from sin, is something that you're wrestling with or really wanting to know what it means, I suggest you go on the app or on the website, calvaryco.church and look those studies up in 1 Corinthians because just because you have an emotional response and you feel bad about something doesn't mean you've repented. Because godly sorrow will lead to repentance. Worldly sorrow leads to condemnation and death. And Pharaoh here, he's not real.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and you're listening to a message from pastor and Bible teacher Ed Taylor. Simply go online to hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com. Again, we're at aboundinggraceradio.com. If you haven't already downloaded our free app, simply search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play. It's a great way to take in a steady dose of God's Word. Pastor Ed, here at the beginning of a new year, it's a good time to begin a new devotional. And we've picked out a good one for our listeners, haven't we?

Pastor Ed Taylor: This is a great devotional from Jim Cymbala called Jesus Every Day. Not only am I enjoying the devotional personally, but it's short. It's only 100 days. It is an achievable goal. You can connect with the Lord for 100 days in a row, which is basically three months. The daily devotional is going to inspire you to experience Jesus anew each and every day.

Find strength in the promises of Jesus, place your trust wholeheartedly in Christ, and so much more. Pastor Jim Cymbala has this gift of exhortation and stirring us up in love and good works. So I encourage you, pick it up, whether you're supporting the ministry here or you're just supporting your own personal spiritual growth. Get the book, support Abounding Grace, grow in grace as the Lord brings us to the place of depth and maturity by the Spirit. Jesus Every Day by Jim Cymbala, it will bless you.

Guest (Male): That is Jesus Every Day. When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, request a copy. Give us a call at 877-30-GRACE. That number again is 877-30-GRACE. You can also order online at calvaryco.store. Also please remember it is your financial support that helps us continue Abounding Grace on this station and many others like it.

We're constantly hearing great reports of what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and your support helps to make that possible. So thank you. You can make a secure donation online at aboundinggraceradio.com. We have new service times here at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado. We meet together Saturdays at 6:00 PM, Sundays at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:45 in the morning.

For more information call 877-30-GRACE or log into calvaryco.church. Glad you're taking time out to study the Word with us, and be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor tomorrow for Abounding Grace when we continue our series in Exodus.