South Shore Pentecostal Church

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: Well, let's look at the scriptures here. We've got a long passage there in Exodus 14 here this morning. Amen. An exciting story, I believe. This is one of the exciting—there's many exciting stories in the Bible, but this is definitely an exciting story. God working to deliver his people. Amen. God working in their lives.

And in Exodus 14:10, it says, "And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. They were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord." Now you could put that into our lives. We look out, look around, and we've got problems, and we say the devil's coming. All right, that's the same idea.

And they said unto Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, thou hast taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."

Now, little backdrop to that. The reason Moses is there is they prayed and God sent an answer. If you back up a little bit, they pray and God hears and remembers. So sometimes the situation we're in that we don't like is a result of God answering our prayer, that God is trying to help us and deliver us to a better place. We've been comfortable even though we didn't like it. We were willing to stay there, but God's got a different place. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

And so Moses said in verse 13, and said unto them, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he shall show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

And then we want to go to verse 19 in the same chapter. "And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went before them, before their face, and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all night."

So what was darkness to the Egyptians was light to God's people. That's the word of God. People that don't know God, they read the Bible, and it's darkness to them. But people that know God, they read the Bible and they say, "I see the light. I see where I can go. I see what I can do." And God's spirit, when it's working in our lives, will give us a light that people don't understand what you're walking according to. They don't understand what is guiding your life. Amen.

Verse 21: "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left hand." Say a wall on the right and a wall on the left. Not a couple inches on the right and a couple inches on the left—a wall on the right and a wall on the left. Amen.

And the Egyptians pursued, verse 23, "and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of a cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians."

Listen, sometimes God's fighting for you and we don't even know it. Sometimes God's actually working. Just because you can see the enemy doesn't mean God's not fighting against them. Hallelujah. They see this crowd coming up, but God's taking care of it. God is fighting. God is slowing them down. Hallelujah. Amen.

And so verse 26: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as one of them, but the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left hand.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore, and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." And I'd like to talk today about "We Must Come Out of Egypt."

Amen. We must come out of Egypt. So if we think back to what has happened up to this point in the book of Exodus—hopefully you're familiar with it—but they had received an amazing experience with God through their deliverance from Egypt. The cloud that they were following that had led them out to the Red Sea moved from in front of them and it came between them and the Egyptians. That cloud was darkness to the Egyptians but light to Israel. The Red Sea opened up, a dry path was created. Israel walked into the Red Sea with the water a wall on the right hand and on the left hand. Israel came safely through the sea and the sea covered and destroyed the army of Pharaoh and Israel saw the work of the Lord and feared.

Now, the thing that the Lord wants to talk about today is many times people are hungry for more of God. People, even people that have had an experience with God, they're hungry for more of God. Amen. God has worked in their life in the past. Amen. They've seen God work or they believe or they're looking for God. But they're frustrated. They seem to be stuck in a place where they're not getting ahead in God. It's not that they don't believe; they're stuck in a place where they're not getting ahead. They want to go deeper.

The story of Exodus gives us picture ideas or pictures revealing how to have an experience with God and to go deeper. Do you believe that? Do you believe that the Bible stories are not just stories to raise our faith but they're trying to teach us something too? Amen. The book of Corinthians says that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10: "These things are ensamples or examples unto us." And it says it again in Romans.

Israel's situation: they were a people with a promise. They're a nation that has come out of God's promise. They are a people that has a promise from God. Okay? They'd already had supernatural experiences with God in Egypt, right? God sends the plagues. First three plagues, they all suffer. Plagues four through nine, God shields Israel. Pharaoh even sends people down there to see and sees that Israel's cattle is okay, but his cattle is getting all sick and boiled and dying. God shielded them there. Amen.

On the tenth plague, the tenth plague that comes out, God tells them how to escape the plague. "If you do what I tell you to do, the angel of death will pass over your house." Now again, today we think all I need is faith. I do need faith, but I need faith to do what God says to do. Amen. So even if I got the lamb of the firstborn and I put the blood on the door, if I stayed out in the street, I'm still vulnerable. I've got to get in the house where God says to get in. I've got to do what God says and I've got to be in the place that God says. Amen.

So God's supernaturally shielded them. They had spiritual experiences. They were believing in God. They believed it, okay? Amen. That's why they're leaving. Israel again, they are a people that were in bondage through hard labor, and Egypt was using them for slave labor. Their newborn boys were being murdered. Their newborn babies, their families were being destroyed by what was the situation they were living in, right? Pharaoh said, "Cast the boys into the water." It took faith to keep Moses out of the water. So the devil was breaking their families. Society was destroying their families. That was the society they lived in.

They had been praying for deliverance. God heard their prayers, sent Moses to deliver them, and start the process of deliverance. The Lord brings about a supernatural deliverance through the Red Sea. The events, the people, the situations are types to Christians. In other words, they're examples to us. These stories are examples. Egypt represents the sinful world. That was the world in that day. Egypt represents the sinful world—powerful, ungodly, materially rich, many idols, sinful. That's Egypt. Not too hard to bring that into our personal life here today, is it? The material world.

Pharaoh represents Satan. Even though he's a real man, he represents Satan. Even though you can have real dictators or real heads of governments, some of them are directed by evil spirits. Some are directed by God's spirit. So in Pharaoh, Pharaoh represents Satan. He's the ruler of Egypt. He does not want God's people to get ahead. And I know you get tired of it, but the Bible says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

Amen. He's looking for you, he's looking for me. Now, as long as I'm watching, he can't get me. As long as I'm watching and trusting God and living the right way, he can't get me. Doesn't matter what he says. No weapon formed shall prosper. I've got to know what God says so I can cast down his imaginations. Amen. If I don't know the Bible, he might fool me. But if I know what the Bible says, I can fight the thoughts of the enemy. I can cast them down. I can bind them. Amen. And I can receive from God. But I've got to know what the Bible says. Amen.

Pharaoh, he represents Satan. He's the ruler of Egypt, just as Satan is the ruler of this world. And we're going to read those scriptures in John 14:30, Ephesians chapter 2:1 and 2, because I think sometimes we forget or we don't really believe it. We think now that God made the world, it belongs to him. God did make the world, and ultimately it does belong to him, but God gave man dominion. And when man submitted to Satan's temptation, he sinned, he came under the dominion of Satan. And so the world is now under Satan's dominion. That's why people don't do the right thing a lot of times. That's why bad things happen a lot of times, because there's a spirit that's got authority in this world because of sin. Amen.

Now, that's why you need to know greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. So John 14:30, Jesus on the night of the Last Supper says to his disciples, "Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and has nothing in me." So he means Satan. Satan's coming, but he's got nothing in me. He can't do anything with me. But Jesus, my point there is Jesus is calling the devil the prince of the world. That's the point that we're making there.

Again, in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul talking about his experience and the Ephesians' experience before they were saved: "You hath he quickened," that means the Holy Ghost made you alive, "who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world," or the order of this world, "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Again, it's telling us that the force that's ruling this world that's working on people's minds is Satan.

All right? You want to combat Satan, don't get out and parade in the streets. Get in your prayer closet and get close to God. You bind him in you. That's one area where the Satan doesn't have control. The stronger the church is, the less power the devil has. Devil doesn't want you in church because every person that comes in church and gets right with God gives power to God and takes power from the devil. So he'll do everything he can to keep you out of church. He'll even cause you to focus on good things that God gave you and elevate those things above what God wants for you. So you've got to be careful.

So Israel again is a type of a church. They're a people with a promise. They've got a promise from God. They've got a promise from God, but they've got to come out of Egypt to obtain the promise. They've got to come out of Egypt to obtain the promise. Even though they're called of God, even though they exist because God has miraculously worked in the lives of the patriarchs, even though they still exist because God has put them down there, even though they have a promise from God, they cannot receive the promise sitting where they are. They must come out of Egypt.

Do you understand what I'm saying? You've got people frustrated sitting in churches trying to believe and receive what God's had, but they're still sitting in Egypt. They have not come out. And they're frustrated. They're wondering where God is, but they're not allowing God—they're still sitting in Egypt. Now, some people got things in their life, but sometimes they're in Egypt just in their mind. Sometimes they're in Egypt in their spirit.

Deuteronomy 18:15, again Moses is a type of Christ. So God sends Moses to bring them out. Jesus came to bring us out. Amen. You can look at those scriptures, Deuteronomy 18:15 and in Acts chapter 3 there. Now, here's the challenge of deliverance. Coming out of Egypt meant change. That's the challenge. Sometimes we don't receive what God's got for us because he wants more change or more change is required of us than we want to be involved in. Coming out of Egypt, God didn't say, "Here's how much I'm going to change it." He just said, "You've got to come out. You've got to come out."

So the Israelites had to change what they were following. Under Pharaoh, they had to follow his dictates and their own desire as much as they could. Deliverance meant following the cloud out of Egypt. The cloud represents God's spirit. Again, even if we're a child of promise, I've got to follow God's spirit to the promise. I've got to follow it where God leads to receive the promise. Amen.

Deliverance is more than believing. This is where a lot of people are deceived. In Egypt, they're down there. They believe. They've already been shielded from plagues. They've seen God move and kill the firstborn of everybody that did not have the blood on the house. They're believers, but they're still in bondage. They're still in Egypt. They cannot have what God's got for them staying in Egypt. They must come out of Egypt even though they believe. Maybe you don't believe that. To me, it's a clear picture. You had to come out of Egypt to get what God's got.

Coming out of Egypt meant change. Again, we've got people saying today all you've got to do is believe and you come into church and everything's good. God changed their calendar. He said this month of the Passover is now going to become the first month of your year. Not, "Do you think it'd be a good idea? You like it? Does that work all the way you want?" God changes their calendar.

God changes their schedule. God tells them now on the seventh day you're not working. It's going to be a Sabbath. Before they were doing whatever they wanted seven days a week when they weren't doing the work. God says now one day a week. Well, we got people that want what God's got, but they're not willing to change anything in their schedule. They're not letting God—they're not willing to let God adjust their schedule to go where God wants them to go.

And I understand sometimes our work schedules do not allow it. I get that. Been there before when I worked and got put on the third shift and they were having Bible studies and different things. Or I was on the second shift and I was missing all the Bible studies during the week. And we're at a little rally and Brother Mark and some other men are talking about "We learned this, Proverbs 6:16." I'm going, "Well, I'd like to learn that, but I'm on second shift. I can't go there."

But you know what I did? I said, "Maybe I can go ask my boss. If God's in this and I just do it nice and trust God, maybe God will do something for me." Because I was working a new job and there I am, I'm in that place working at Honeywell. Gotta work second shift for a year, you don't get to go to first shift till after you work there a year. I've been there a few months, maybe six months.

So I go to my boss and I said, "You know, I know that you got rules and I'm supposed to work for a year, but I'm on second shift, I'm new and all that stuff. But I'm in church and they're having Bible studies and I feel like God would like me to be at the Bible study." I said that to my boss. I said, "Is there any way I can get on first shift? I'd sure like it." He says, "Well, we'll see what we can do." And I left. Because if God's in it, he's going to make a way. And it wasn't too long, a week or two later, he said, "Hey, we're putting you on third shift for two weeks, but you're on first shift the other six weeks." So God made a way. Then I went on that first shift and only two or three times did I do third shift and they abolished the third shift for the first shift people.

Are you willing to let God change your schedule? Are you willing to let God have time in your life? Are you willing to let God change the way you live your life? Again, so many people think if I just believe I'll come to the altar, I'll get what God's got for me, and I'll get all the things that I believe are sin out of my life, but I'm still going to pretty much live my life the way I want to be. You're not letting God lead you out of Egypt. If God cannot affect your schedule, is he really God? If God cannot get you to budge with the way you live your life, is he really your God?

If extended family keeps you from serving God, is he really your God? God was going to change their customs. All of a sudden they got a new diet. We might all quit if they took Chick-fil-A away or something. I don't know. I don't know. But God was changing their diet. God was going to tell them you can eat this, you can't eat that. God was going to give them feast days that they're required to attend. God was going to give them a new set of moral laws.

And notice God didn't get on there and give the ten commandments and say, "Okay, now Moses, take a census and we'll keep the ones that everybody agrees with." God puts it out there. Why did they have to come out of Egypt? Because God was going to change how they were going to live. Customs, dress, thinking, food, worship, time, purpose, goals. God was working to change that.

Serving God means that God is going to change how we think. He's going to change where we go, our goals. And there may be good goals you have that you have to let go of in order to do what God wants you to do. And so you have people that they're frustrated, but they're not willing to follow God out of Egypt to the place that God has got. They had to eliminate false gods. It wasn't just add God at the top of the pantheon now. Now we know he's the best God. It's not just he's there. Get the other ones out. "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Get the false gods out.

The challenge again of coming out of Egypt, it meant change. They had to change their thinking about life and about its purpose. I mean, honestly, they'd been down here and life has basically revolved around surviving. Right? The sons are being thrown in the water. They got to build things. They're whipped if they don't build them, if they don't meet the requirements. Amen. If they don't act the way the Egyptians like, there's going to be punishments.

It's about surviving. But now God says it's not about surviving that way anymore. I'll take care of you. You've got to change your focus. You've got to change how you're looking at life. You've got to change your purpose. When you were down there, it was all about you surviving. Now it's not just about surviving, now it's about doing what I'm asking you to do, fulfilling the calling that I've got for you, the purpose that I've intended for you. This is what this is about.

He wanted them to know they're not just the offspring of Abraham anymore, but now you're the people of God. Before they might have said, "Well, we had some miracles way back there—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we know that Joseph said that God's coming again. And we're all descendants of Abraham." But God wants them to understand you're not just descendants of Abraham now, you're my people. You're my people. When God saves you, you're not just a Christian, you're God's people. You're God's people.

They were to become a kingdom of priests. That meant before you might have said, "Well, I'm in the family, the oldest is the head of the family, he's the priest, let him worry about it." But now God says even if you're not the oldest, you're involved in this. You've got a responsibility. Even if you're not the oldest anymore, now you're all going to be priests. I've called you to be a nation of priests.

And if you understand what priesthood means, priesthood means it's people that stand between God and other people for those other people. Priests are people that know how to talk to God and intercede for other people. And that's part of your prayer life. If you're saved, part of your prayer life, you're in the priesthood of intercession for other people. It's not just about you and your family. It's not just about you being right with God. It's also about taking a burden for people around you that need God.

And it's different what that burden is to each one of us, but there should be some of that burden in us where we start to intercede. You meet people at work, you meet people at the grocery store, you meet people in your family, you meet kinds of situations, and you pray for them. They don't know God, but if you know God, you know who to talk to, you know the answer, you need to be involved in the priesthood. So with the promise comes a responsibility. Change. Change.

They became organized to accomplish God's purpose. God gives them a law. God gives them a law, tells them who they are. God sets up a priesthood, sets up a tabernacle. And then he says, "Here's the way you're going to camp." You might like the west side, but that's not unless you're Benjamin, Ephraim, or Manasseh, you're not going on that side. You're going if you're Judah, you're going on the east side. If you're Simeon, Gad, you're going on the south side. If you're Dan, you're on the north side.

All the tribes had a place. The point is God was organizing the people. God was positioning the people. Again, you've got people that are frustrated looking for God, but they will not let God position them. Amen. And being positioned by God means God's got to train you too. I mean, just because you want to play tackle doesn't mean you can play the tackle on the football position—or guard. Doesn't mean you get to get that position. You've got to train and compete for that position.

Now, we're not competing for positions with God, but God does have to train us to be in the position we're in. And if we're not stable, if we're not reaching for what God's at, training takes consistency. Training is not haphazard. It's very difficult to reach the place where you can be trained to do something if you just do it a little at a time once in a while.

And so God was training them. Each tribe had its location around the tabernacle and they had an order when they traveled. So you got two and a half million people. The trumpet sounds, they don't just all pick up and blast off. They'd have congestion. They'd have chaos. But God says when the trumpet sounds to let you know, Judah goes, Issachar goes, Zebulun goes. They take down the tabernacle. Then Reuben, then Simeon, then Gad. Then they bring the rest of the tabernacle or the ark and the furniture. And then they bring Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. And then they bring Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. That's God's got an order for them. In 40 years, that order is kept.

Again, if we're going to be what God wants us to be, we've got to let God organize us. We've got to let God put us in the position that God wants us to be in. Amen. So it meant changing their thinking from what they wanted to focus on obtaining the promise of God.

Now, if what I want becomes bigger than the promise, I'm not going to get the promise because I'm focused on what I want. If what I want becomes my focus, everything that interrupts what I want is going to disturb me, upset me, throw me off balance. But if my purpose is God's promise, then I can get beyond what I want. I can get beyond what I dislike. I can get beyond what's uncomfortable. I can get beyond the moment because I'm not stuck in the moment. I'm looking for the promise. I'm looking down the road to what God has said I can have. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

So most of us know, we understand that the Israelites walked 40 years in the wilderness because they didn't change their thinking. I want you to think about it. They have been delivered. They're not in Egypt anymore. They've come out of Egypt, come to the mountain, they've heard God speak to them. All those people—two and a half million people—heard God speak the ten commandments. Wasn't just Moses. Wasn't just the elders. Two and a half million people heard God speaking those ten commandments.

They've come out, they've seen the miracle of the Red Sea, they've seen the manna, they've seen God working in their lives. God doing miracles. They've heard the voice of God. They've seen the cloud of God of fire on the mount. They've had the cloud every day leading them and a fire on the tabernacle at night. They've had miraculous sacrifice when Moses sets up the tabernacle and everything's set up the way it's supposed to be and he offers that first offering. God with fire answers on the sacrifice.

But when it comes to the day of obtaining the promise, they cannot obtain the promise because their thinking has not been changed. They're still thinking the way they thought in Egypt. They sent out spies by the word of God. Numbers 13, God says send them out. Choose you out. He says it twice. It's not somebody else's idea. God said send them out. They send out spies, they spy out the land. They bring back and say the land truly is a land of milk and honey. It is definitely good. They bring back a big cluster of grapes on a pole. Must have been pretty big if they had to put it on a pole between two people. Not just a little thing like we buy in the store.

They come back, but they say it's a land of giants, of strong people, of walled cities, and we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers. We were grasshoppers in their eyes and in our own eyes. In other words, we're not big enough to do it. Well, that's true, but God's going to help you do it.

See, they're thinking the way of Egypt. They're thinking how they were in Egypt. They had not let all the things that God had done change their thinking. Every problem was a problem that seemed insurmountable. Every time something happened—"Where's the water, Moses? Why'd you bring us out here? Where's the food, Moses? Why'd you bring us out here? God, where's the water now, Moses? Why'd you bring us out here? What's going on out here, Moses? This is more than we can bear." Every time something happened, "Moses, what's going on?"

We do the same thing. Every time we got a trial, every time we got a problem—"Jesus, why'd you save me? Jesus, why am I here? Jesus, what's going on in my life?" Amen. If I don't change my thinking to understand that living for God I'm going to have to go through some places that are going to be a challenge, but God is greater than the challenge. God wants me to come with him. God wants me to be lifted up. God wants me to come through the challenge and know that he is God, that he's with me, that he's for me, that he'll keep me, that he's able to deliver, that he can bring me through to the promise and that he's not going to forsake me. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. They had a daily leading, but they didn't let their thinking be changed. That led to 40 years in the wilderness. So again, sometimes we're going through the same thing repetitively because we have not let God change our thinking. Doesn't mean God's cancelled the promise out for you, but you're facing the same problem again and again and you've prayed, but you won't let God change your thinking so you can't see that there's another way to look at it. You can't see that maybe God is working and fixing it. You can't see it the way God sees it. You just know that you got a problem.

And unless my thinking changes to believe God, to believe that he is able, to believe that he is for me and not against me, to believe that he's able to keep what's committed unto him against that day, to believe that he's going to perfect what he started in me, to believe that he's got a reason for me, to believe that he wants me to be saved, to believe that he's going to give me what I need, to believe that he's not going to let more come upon me than I'm able to bear, unless I start to think that way, I will be overwhelmed by the circumstances of life that come as you try to follow the path that God has got for you.

Let's give him some praise. Just stand up and praise him. Come on. Hallelujah. Lord God, we thank you. Lord, we praise you. Lord God, help us to understand. Lord God, help us to know, Lord, that you're for us and you're not against us. We give you praise. Lord, your ways are good. Lord, your mercy is everlasting, Lord God. Hallelujah. You're not against us, but you're for us. You've got an expected end for us, Lord God. Even though it seems bad, you know what we're going through and you're going to be faithful to keep the promise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord God. We thank you, Lord God. We praise you, Lord God. We magnify you, Lord God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Now I need you to sit down for a little bit. We got a little more to go here. Amen. Amen. It feels good to praise God. Yes, it does. Amen. Amen.

So again, the challenge of deliverance: it requires a change of our thinking. Salvation is deliverance from sin by being born again. We need to become new creatures, the Bible says. Bible says if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are come new. We need to be new creatures in Christ. Israel needed to change their thinking and realize they were the people of God, not just some people that God pulled out of nowhere. They were a part of God's purpose. God had a reason for them.

Getting born again, staying saved requires a change of thinking. Saved people should have different goals. When they were in Egypt, the goal is survive. When God's delivered them out of Egypt, the goal is not survive. The goal now is follow God. The goal is do what God wants you to do. Don't worry about surviving. God says, "I'll take care of that part. Follow me."

All right. Saved people should have different goals, different purposes. Again, they're just trying to survive, just trying to meet the day, just looking for a little bit of happiness. But our purpose if you're saved should be different. Amen. You got to—your purpose, you should be checking with God. "God, what's your purpose for me?" Amen.

Our habits. I mean, again, if their purpose was surviving, their habits were all built around performing that survival. A lot of times we got habits in our life that have to change if we're going to serve God. You know, you might have a habit that on Saturday and Sunday, this is what I do and this is what I like to do and I relax, but you might have to change your habit to serve God. You might have a habit I like to sleep in, and God's not against sleep—he made it so we need that—but I might have to change my habit of sleeping to find God and to hear God and to have God work so that I can have some prayer time. If you got a busy schedule, you're going to have to figure out what can go out so that God can get in.

Amen. Do you understand that? I don't care if you got a busy schedule. Okay? God knows if you got a busy schedule, but a lot of times we find time to do what we want to do. And so sometimes we've got to take some times out of our time what we want to do to find God. That's how God finds out if you're serious about him.

And again our thinking. We are to become servants of the Lord. Romans 6:17, Paul writing to the church at Rome, believers in Rome, he says, "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you." So in other words, there's some amount of teaching that was delivered to them and they obeyed that teaching. He says, "Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness," or we could say servants of God, right?

All right. So I heard somebody say recently, "Well, you know, I'm just a sinner saved." If you're saved, you're not a sinner anymore. You're not a sinner anymore. You're a new creature. A sinner is somebody that is bound by sin. They're going to sin some place whether they want to or not. A person that's saved is not bound by sin anymore. They are a new creature. Amen. You're a new creature. You might sin, but that does not make you a sinner as long as you don't stay in that. You confess your sins, God forgives you. So it's not we're just all a sinner. You got to get that mentality out of there. That's changing the thinking. You got some places you go, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, always a disease. Well, even if it is a disease, God can heal the disease. You're not stuck there forever. So we become servants to the Lord, not servants of sin.

So now again these are—it's a picture that God's giving us: the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. When Israel passed through the Red Sea, it's a type of salvation. So we'll look in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1, 2, and 3 so you can see that I'm not making it up. It's not my theology; it's what the Bible says.

Passing through that Red Sea was a type of salvation. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:1: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea." So he's saying the nation, the nation had this experience. Not some of them, not just the leaders, not just the patriarchs, not just the prophets, all our fathers. He's saying that whole generation had this experience. He said were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did drink from the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

Now, it's not talking about a rock following them in the wilderness, and it's not talking about the rock that was smitten by the staff. It's looking forward to Jesus who is the rock, and we drink of the well of salvation through him. Them by faith following the spirit, going through the Red Sea, it's a type of water baptism and Holy Ghost baptism that delivered them out of Egypt. They had to have that experience to be delivered from Egypt. Before that, they still had belief, they still had seen miracles, but they were bound till they passed through that water and had that cloud baptize them unto Moses.

And you must—you might have experience with God, but you're not going to have the liberty. Listen, the devil may back off because you have an experience for a while, but if you don't get out of Egypt, he's coming just like Pharaoh was. He's coming again to get you. And unless God intervenes by delivering you, amen, you're going back, right?

If God had—if they had not passed through that sea, the cloud passed over them from the front to the back, that's a type of Holy Ghost baptism. The cloud represents the spirit. Moses represents Jesus. And the water represents water baptism. They're baptized unto Moses who's a type of Christ. That means when you're going to get delivered in water baptism, you need to be baptized in the name of Jesus because he's your deliverer. And having titles Father, Son, Holy Ghost is not baptism in Jesus' name. That's anonymous. Those are titles.

You got to get out of Egypt to get what God's got for you. Again, many people have got a promise from God and they're struggling to get the promise, but they won't come out of Egypt. They got a special calling in their life. God wants to do something. God wants to save them besides that, but they're struggling because they won't come out of Egypt. They're letting that hold on, they're holding on to old thinking. They're holding on to thinking that's not going to save them.

That's one of the ways I was able to come out from where I came from into this apostolic thing. Because for a while I was on the fence. One church on Sunday morning, another church on Sunday night. And finally I realized I've been in that other place and nothing happened all my life. Let's try this all the way. And guess what? I found God. I got delivered. I got baptized in Jesus' name, got the Holy Ghost and God kept me since 1977. God is faithful.

But you see I had to come out of Egypt. I had to let go of some ways of thinking and habits and doing things that I had been raised in, that my family did. And they did not understand me. But I had been through the night season enough, I wasn't going through another one. Here's a way out, I'm following God. Amen. They were not delivered till they came through that Red Sea and had that cloud pass over them.

So God's deliverance and salvation requires coming out of Egypt. Spiritual experiences and believing in God don't necessarily mean a person is born again or saved. How can I say that? I'm looking at the people of Israel in Egypt, how God was working and doing miracles and plagues and delivering them, but they were not saved out of Egypt yet. They had supernatural protection during the plagues, deliverance from the death of the firstborn, but they're still in Egypt.

So they had to have a baptism of the cloud, spirit, and a baptism of the Red Sea, water, to pass out of Egypt. See, Pharaoh couldn't come through that place. You need a deliverance that the devil can't come through. You need a deliverance that the devil can't follow you through. If you get born again the Bible way, the devil can't come in and come into where you're at. God's closing up the door.

You come out the other side a different person. You come out a new creature. You come out with new power. Amen. You come out with ability. You come out with new hope. You come out with new insight. You come out with new strength. You come out with a new vision of what God has got for you. You come out with new joy. You come out feeling clean in the spirit. Hallelujah. You come out and you want to shout Hallelujah. You might be a little shy about it, but you want to shout Hallelujah.

That's sometimes the thinking that God's got to change. Amen. Don't let God put your ethnicity on you. Amen. That's the way I was, you know, I'm Italian, I'm Romanian, I'm Nigerian. Don't buy that. Amen. You're a person of God. God wants to fill you. It doesn't matter what your heritage is. You're a new creature in Christ. You don't have to assume a personality or a mannerism that came from something else. You need to assume what God has got for you. Hallelujah.

So again we have people today, many, I see it all the time, experience something from the Lord, they're looking for something deeper, but they're frustrated. And you got to come out of the world and follow God. And we're not talking about going to the moon or going to Mars when we say come out of the world. We're not talking about let's make a commune out in the mountains or out in the wilderness, it's not that. The coming out is in our thinking. It's in our purpose. It's in our goals. It's in now what what we're doing with our life, why we're here.

So until a person obeys that plan, you're still stuck. You're stuck. Even if you got the Holy Ghost, you still got to go through the Red Sea. Got to go through the Red Sea. You got to repent, you got to be baptized in Jesus' name, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, receive the Holy Ghost, amen, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost doesn't mean because you got water baptized you automatically got the Holy Ghost, it just means you're ready to get the Holy Ghost. And you can see that by looking at the book of Acts. We need those baptism to pass through those waters. Amen.

So receiving more. Just as the people of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, we need to acknowledge that we are pilgrims. See, that's part of the thinking. God can save us and bless us and put our family back together, and all of a sudden we start camping right here. We start camping right here. And we still believe in God, but we're not understanding this is just a temporary place.

Hebrews 11:10, talking about Abraham: "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." In other words, he's not just looking for a city where God is. He's looking for a city that God is there, but God has built it. It's built on his foundation. That means his word, his principles. He looked for a city, Hebrews 11:10, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Those that followed in his footsteps, Abraham's, Isaac, Jacob, they looked at the promises and not the problems. So in Hebrews 11:13: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them." Have you been persuaded of the word of God? Is the word of God persuading your life? Or is the world persuading your life? Is the word of God persuading you to act and to think and to change? Or is your own desires persuading you? They died in faith. They didn't even have them, they saw them off in the distance by what they had seen God do, by what they believed about God, they could see that God had more.

They saw them in the distance and they were persuaded of them and they embraced them. In other words, they were saying even if I don't receive it, I'm reaching for it. I believe it. And they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In other words, by me reaching for that, anybody else that's in this world that doesn't know God is not going to understand what I'm reaching for. They're going to think I'm from another country, and I am. They're going to think you're from another country, and you are. And they that say things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return. They died in faith. They were reaching for the promise.

They realized that we can't stay in Egypt. Abraham realized I can't stay in Canaan. Abraham realized I can't go back to Canaan, get back to Padan-aram. Don't send Isaac there. I can't stay down in Egypt. I can't really stay in the land of the Philistines. I'm looking for a city that God is building. I'm reaching for promises that God has let me understand.

I'm believing that today. And we're talking about receiving more God. So receiving more God, again, our habits, our goals, our thinking must change. God's got to become, if you're going to live for God, God has got to become a priority in your life. Not an add-on. Not an add-on. It has to become the reason.

And the promise is salvation. That's the promise we got today. Just like they were a people of promise, they had to go from where they were to where God said to receive the promise. God's got a promise for all humanity, but you've got to go from where you are to where God says to go to receive the promise.

So we got to align our thinking with goals and habits that will maintain our relationship with God. Habits and thinking and attitudes that interfere with our relationship with the Lord must be changed or eliminated. Prayer, seeking God, and the church must become central to the new life. Church has got to become more than just Sunday. If church is only Sunday for you, God wants you to shift your thinking a little bit. That's right. God wants you to shift your thinking a little bit. All right, because we're living for God.

We must read the Bible and compare our thinking with the Bible. If I'm going around afraid all the time, is that God's description of a believer? If I'm going around discouraged all the time, is that God's description of a believer? If I'm going around negative and mean all the time, is that God's description of a believer? If I've got a defeatist attitude, I've always failed in the past, I'm going to fail in the future, is that God's description? I'm a new creature.

That doesn't mean I don't have to fight those things, but I don't have to accept it. What am I going to am I going to listen to the devil said that's what you were, or am I going to listen to God that says I'm a new creature?

Would you stand here this morning? Coming out of Egypt starts with obeying Acts 2:38, the plan of salvation. Our journey from Egypt to the promise will not be successful without changing our thinking about life, its purposes, and goals. Paul said we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That's means the thinking changes. Thinking changes. Amen.

Lord God, we thank you here today. We're asking, Lord, all of us, I know you're speaking to all of us here today, myself included, Lord God. Lord God, have I carried things of Egypt with me? Do I have things of Egypt in my life? Do I have things of Egypt in my spirit, in my thinking, in my emotions that need to be removed? Are there things that I brought with me even though you've saved me, filled me, raised me up, Lord God, are there things that I need to change?

Maybe maybe you're in that spot where you're frustrated, you believe God, you've seen God move, but you seem stuck. Have you come out of Egypt? Have you obeyed the plan of salvation? Have you done the things that God has asked you to do? Amen. It's not just believing but it's following the spirit of God.

Amen. This altar's open here this morning. If you just want to pray, ask God, God search me, oh Lord, know my heart, try me, know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, Lord God. Lead me in the way everlasting, Lord God. Do I have things, Lord God do I have thinking from Egypt, Lord God, that needs to be fixed, Lord God?

Lord, yes I got that thinking but I don't know what to replace it with. Show me what to replace it with. Come on, that's why we read our Bibles. The Bible will give us the replacement thinking for the Egyptian thinking. The word of God is going to give us the right way to think versus the world's way to think. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Come on reach up and believe God. Just pray to him. Ask him to help you. He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hallelujah. Come on, he wants you to be strong. He wants you to be victorious. He wants you to receive the promise. He wants you to receive the good things that you've got. He wants you to be in a position to to move through you to give good things to other people. Hallelujah.

But you've got to get to the place that God wants you to be. Oh, you got to let God deal with your thinking. Sometimes that means to let go of things, plans that we've worked on for a long time. Plans that we've held in our hands. Plans that just about seemed to be ready to come to fruition, Lord God. And we've got to let go of that because it's interfering with the way that you want us to go. Hallelujah, Lord God.

Lord, we're praying here today. Help us to open ourselves, help us to have the courage to change. Help us to understand that being delivered and staying delivered requires change in our thinking, in our habits, in our life, in our goals, in our purpose, Lord God. Lord, we're thanking you here today. Hallelujah.

Touching every one that's here at the altar, touching every one in this congregation, touching those, Lord God, that they're not sure about what I'm saying. It doesn't match the theology they've been raised with. But help them to see, Lord God, that it's in your word, that it's not by me, Lord God, but your word upholds this, Lord God. Help them to see, Lord, we've got to become the new creature. Hallelujah. And just because the change has started doesn't mean we've arrived at the place that you've got for us, Lord God. Amen.

Guest (Female): Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located in 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church, and we invite you to come and worship with us.

Sunday School for all ages begins at 10 AM, and our Sunday evening service begins at 6 PM. Adult Bible Study and Children's Church is held on Wednesdays at 7 PM. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.org, or you may call us at 781-447-1668.

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