“Manna from Heaven” – Exodus 16:1-8

Dennis Prager is a conservative radio talk show host and every Tuesday he has what he calls the “Ultimate Issues Hour” where he talks about the things that are really and truly important to us and the things that affect us most; not usually politics. I always like that and I want to do something similar this morning by asking you a question that is one of the most-asked and most important questions ever asked but also one that continues to baffle people. That question is, why do bad things happen to good people?

It is a question that definitely has some right answers but we will never know all the answers completely until we get to Heaven. So, help me out this morning. What are some of the reasons that bad things happen? Why is there so much suffering in this world? If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving then why is there so much pain in this world?

The book of Job deals with the issue of why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Job was a righteous man (Job 1:1), yet he suffered in ways that are almost beyond belief. God allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him, and Satan did his worst. What was Job’s reaction? “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21). Job did not understand why God had allowed the things He did, but he knew God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, that should be our reaction as well.

Why do bad things happen to good people? As hard as it is to acknowledge, we must remember that there are no “good” people, in the absolute sense of the word. All of us are tainted by and infected with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). As Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). All of us feel the effects of sin in one way or another. Sometimes it’s our own personal sin; other times, it’s the sins of others. We live in a fallen world, and we experience the effects of the fall. One of those effects is injustice and seemingly senseless suffering. (GotQuestions.org)

There are actually any number of reasons why bad things happen to us but I want to show you one more in the book of Exodus this morning. If you will turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 16, we will see that one of the reasons there is suffering is because it is a test from God. That’s the bad news. The good news is that if we pass the test, there will be great blessings of protection and provision.

The Israelites found this out right after the big, huge, crazy impressive miracle God did when He parted the Red Sea and allowed them to leave Egypt. You remember that, right? It was kind of a big deal. Charlton Heston told Yul Brenner to let my people go! Wait, hang on…well, sort of. Anyway, it was a big deal. They left Egypt after 430 years with lots of people, lots of supplies and high hopes. They worshiped God as the One, True God and gave Him all the glory and it changed their lives…for about a month.

Let’s pick up the story a month after they left Egypt in Exodus 16:1-8. And before you get on your little high horse and start bad-mouthing their lack of faith and looking down on them for how they reacted, just remember that this was written down so that thousands of years later, we would see ourselves and hopefully make the changes God wants us to make. Let’s read Exodus 16:1-8.

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." 4Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." 6So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?" 8Moses also said, "You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD."

I’ll remind you that our purpose in going through Exodus has been to learn more about who God is and how He works and we will definitely see something good here in a minute but I have to give props to ol’ Moses real quick. He didn’t want this job. He didn’t ask for it. God chose him and, at this point, it’s a pretty thankless job. Oh, sure, a month ago everybody was patting him on the back and saying, “Way to go, Mo!” but that was four whole weeks ago. The people are hungry now. Their supplies are running low and there is nothing in this desert to eat and they are blaming Moses.

But if you look closely at this passage you will see that until God spoke to Moses, Moses didn’t respond to the people. He didn’t try to defend himself or set the story straight or complain back. His first response was no response. That is so hard. Our first instinct is often to lash out and set people straight. They are wrong and here is why!

If you are doing what God called you to do, you can be sure that somebody is going to complain. Somebody is going to think it needs to be done differently and somebody is going to get their feelings hurt and they are usually going to get hurt loudly, which is a shame. But unless you hear God clearly telling you what to say or how to respond, it is always best to just be quiet. It’s a lesson I’m trying to learn.

But that’s part of the test. Do you see it? Look at verse four again. 4Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” God said He allowed this as a test. Don’t you hate tests? The problem with tests is that you can pass them…or fail them.

I always hated tests. The only test I ever got an A+ on was my blood test. I guess you could say God made sure I would pass that test. But the real problem with God’s tests is that Satan always butts in and wants to make it into a temptation. Have you ever noticed that? It’s important that we know the difference between a test and a temptation and who is bringing what. But it’s interesting that the original Greek word for “test” is the same as “tempt.” That word is “peirazo,” and it can mean test or tempt depending on the usage and context.

For our study today, just know that God will never tempt you and Satan will always want to tempt you. For God, the outcome of a passed test means blessings and for Satan, the outcome of a failed temptation is sin! And both consider their outcomes a win.

In Hebrews 11:17 we read that “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.” Abraham passed the test, and God knew beforehand that he would. This test wasn’t to determine whether or not Abraham would pass or fail. It was to prove what Abraham was made of. Satan tempts us to prove that we are not who God says we are, and God tests us to prove that we are exactly who He says we are. The main difference between a “test” and a “temptation” is the one who is doing it.

Go back to verse two and look what Satan puts in the heads of the Israelites. "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

This is such a lie! Look at it closely. First, they use the name LORD like they are all pious and wonderful but they are griping the whole time and, as Moses points out, they are griping against God Himself. God chose Moses. God told them where to go and when to go. Moses is just being obedient. But that’s not even the worst of it. They reminisce about all the good times and all the good food they had back in Egypt like they just left their favorite camping spot.

They were slaves in Egypt! I guarantee they rarely had enough to eat but Satan always wants to make us remember the good times of where we used to be. Does he do that to you? If God has taken you out of something or somewhere; if God has taken something away from you or taken you away from something; if God has delivered you from a habit or a place or a person or a thing, Satan wants you to remember it like it was the best of times.

Years ago, God delivered me from a lifestyle that was not pleasing to Him. I am glad y’all don’t know and will hopefully never know all the gory details. Like Billy says it was blah, blah, blah – not necessary to repeat. And sometimes I remember those old times and Satan will come and whisper in my ear, “Hey, let’s go do that stuff we used to do! That was fun, right?”

And I remember that, yes, I did have some fun back in those days but I also remember that it was during those times that I would lay in bed at night so miserable that I would wish I was dead! I don’t want to go back to any of that old lifestyle that God delivered me from. But Satan wants nothing more than for me to remember the laughs and the fun but not the pain and the hurt and the heartache.

If God has delivered you from alcohol, drugs, smoking, cussing, immorality, being Methodist, 😊 whatever it is then don’t allow the father of lies to convince you to go back! God has delivered you from that and for some people it was an overnight change and for some it was a long process but either way, don’t let Satan convince you to go back. That’s not you anymore. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

That’s one way to fail the test that God allows you to go through. Another way to fail is to not recognize the glory of God and you do that by grumbling and murmuring like the Israelites were doing. Look closely at verses 6-7. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"

There are a couple of things in tension here. First, if you choose to see the glory of God, you won’t be complaining about your circumstances. Secondly, Moses rightfully says here, “Why are you complaining about me. I don’t have any glory. I’m just a guy just like you.”

So, what does it mean to choose to see the glory of God? I looked that word up to see exactly what “glory” means and the Hebrew word is “kabod” and it literally means a heavy weight of goodness; a whole bunch of power and majesty and honor and reputation. And the only way you can miss it is if you want to miss it. You have to try to not see God’s glory.

That’s just what happens when we start complaining about the circumstances we are in. We overlook all the heavy goodness and power of Almighty Jehova God. We close our eyes to all that God has done and is doing and we concentrate on what there is bad in our lives. When you focus on your problems, your problems eclipse God’s glory but when you focus on God’s glory, your problems are eclipsed.

That’s why God decides to just show them a glimpse of His glory by giving them manna and quail. Now, again, some people want to minimize God’s miracles here. They say that the flight path of the quail would naturally bring them to this area in the spring and after flying over the Red Sea they are exhausted and easy to catch. Really? Every day for forty straight years? C’mon.

Oh, and the manna was the residue from certain trees that grow over there and would just naturally fall to the ground. Is that right? Well, I looked up the Sinai Peninsula and from the pictures I saw, you can count the number of trees in the whole place on one hand so don’t give me that. I read a commentary that said it would take about 12 tons of manna to fall every day to feed that many people. It was a miracle of provision and protection by God. And that’s what happens when you pass the test. God protects and provides.

God gets the glory and His people are blessed. God tests us, not because He wants us to fail, but just the opposite, He wants us to pass so He can bless us. That is what all-creative, all-powerful and all-loving God does. He makes up excuses to bless His kids.

Most of you know Michael and Liz got some good news this week. And we give God all the glory for it. He answered our prayers and proved once again that He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). I believe Michael and Liz passed God’s test and I believe this church passed God’s test in this and were rewarded by God’s protection and provision.

So, obviously, all you have to do is be obedient to God and God will answer all your prayers just like you ask Him to, right? I mean, isn’t that the lesson we are to learn here? The only problem is that we all know that’s not true. How many times have you prayed for something and done what God told you to do and you had no unforgiven sin in your life and things just went from bad to worse? We have all been there.

Ask the Apostle Paul. Even he didn’t always get his prayers answered like he wanted. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul says he prayed three times for God to heal him. Three times! The Apostle Paul, Mr. Obedience. Mr. Faith. And nothing. Well, not exactly nothing because he said that God answered his prayer by telling him, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.”

My grace! My power! My presence! My glory! Is enough! My heavy glory that is obvious if you will look, God says, I have made more obvious. This life is not about being more comfortable. It’s not about having our prayers answered as we want. It’s not about having no needs. It is about – this whole life for us believers – is about knowing God better.

Moses said later in Exodus, “God, I want to see your glory.” And God showed him. That’s a prayer we ought to all pray when we have needs. “God, here is my need. I know you to be heavy with glory. I see it in all of creation. I see it in the Old Testament, the New Testament and I see it in my life and all around me and as the One who has the glory, I want you to be revealed and made known and made famous in this struggle.”

Bless me or don’t bless me. Heal me or don’t heal me. I want you to get the glory in my life whether I am happy or sad, in poverty or in a mansion, sick or healthy. This life is not about me. I want it to be about you. You are the One who provides and protects and you always have been. We see it in our passage today and we see it in our own lives.

One of God's faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, "While God gives me strength, failure will not daunt me." In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, "I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God." (sermonillustrations.com)

If you are here today and you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus and you don’t understand that kind of thinking, don’t be surprised. Unbelievers can’t understand that. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior then God’s Spirit comes to live inside your life guiding you and helping you and allowing you to understand that kind of thing. If you would like that then don’t even wait until the music starts playing. Come down here right now and I want to pray with you and explain what scripture says about how to be saved; how to have peace and joy in this life even in the hard times but also how to have eternal life with Jesus in Heaven as co-heirs with Jesus to all the good things Heaven has to offer. It’s a free gift but it’s not cheap. Jesus paid the price with His life so you don’t have to. All you have to do is accept it. Do it right now as the music plays.

 

“Crossing the Red Sea” – Exodus 14

Have you ever been watching a movie that seems real enough and all the sudden they do something impossible? My favorite is the classic scene where the guy breaks the car window, opens the door, pulls down a couple of wires under the dash and in two seconds, hot wires the car by sparking two wires together. Drives me crazy. Do you know how impossible that is? 

Number one, that window doesn’t break like that. I know. I locked my keys in my car once so I wrapped my hand in my t-shirt and punched the window as hard as I could. Do you know what happened? The window didn’t even crack but my hand did. I couldn’t use my arm for three days. Also, I have worked on cars and trucks enough to know that there are hundreds of wires under the dash and they are all different colors and all do different things and you can’t just pull them down like that.

 I hate it when Hollywood thinks I’m stupid. Like when the cowboy shoots 25 times without reloading his six-shooter or the bus jumps over the gap in the highway. Don’t get me started on the laugh track they use on these so-called comedies. Those jokes aren’t near that funny. You know what I mean, right? 

So, it’s always amazing to me that the people that put out these ridiculous movies and the people that watch them and have no trouble with them then want to explain away the real miracles of God. Our text this morning is from Exodus 14 where we read about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land. You know the story. The Israelites finally left Egypt but Pharaoh changed his mind and went after them and found them trapped next to the massive Red Sea so he attacked and God caused the sea to divide and the Israelites walked over but when the Egyptians followed, God closed the gap in the water and they all drowned.

 It’s a story most of us have heard since we were little kids and we just believe it. The Bible says it. It’s true. That’s enough. I was watching a documentary a while back and several scientists have finally “figured out” how it happened. See, if they went at just the right spot across the Red Sea at just the right time of year and the right time of day, and if there was an earthquake and the wind was really blowing at just the right speed and if they hurried, then there is a chance this really happened.

 That is what they believe. But here is another option. Now, keep in mind I am not a scientist nor do I play one on TV but here is my theory. God performed a miracle. You know what? If they did go at just the right time and place and there was an earthquake and the wind blew, that is still a miracle. But I believe it happened just like the Bible says. God led the people to this spot, allowed them to be part of it and caused several incredible things to happen so that all the people had to do was be obedient and God would get the glory. That is called a miracle any way you slice it. 

Why do you think that is? Why do people want to minimize the miracles of God? I’ve told you before that even some of my Christian commentaries do it sometimes.

 You may remember from the book of Genesis that there had been a famine in Israel, which was part of God’s whole plan, and Joseph, an Israelite had become second in command of Egypt where there was plenty of food. His family finally came over to Egypt to live and pretty soon the whole country of Israel had pretty much done the same and the Egyptians made them slaves for 430 years. But, again, God heard their groaning and called Moses to bring them out of slavery. There are about twenty other major miracles in all that story (all part of God’s plan) but moving right along, we see the Israelites finally getting to leave Egypt. They are gone just a little while and Pharaoh has a change of heart when he hears they are wandering lost in the desert. Our main passage is in Exodus 14 but I want to start with a couple of verses at the end of 13. 

We will read Exodus 13:17-18 and 20-22 and then all of chapter 14. It sounds long but it’s a great story and fun to read. 

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. ²⁰ After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this. ⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” ⁶ So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. ⁸ The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. ¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” ¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. ¹⁶ Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” ¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. ²⁹ But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

 When I was a little kid, I had an illustrated story book of the Bible and I remember it had an illustration of this story that showed the people walking through the Red Sea with a wall of water on both sides and on one side the people were looking up at a whale swimming right beside them like they were looking at a huge aquarium. We don’t know that anything like that happened but I like that way of thinking. If God can do a small miracle, then He can do a big miracle!

 I think everybody here would say they believe that. But I think the problem most of us have is believing that God can do the small miracles in our lives, at least we don’t live like it. Oh, sure you believe God can part the sea or make a donkey talk or even speak the universe into existence but when the doctor gives bad news, it’s time to worry. When that temptation comes at you from what used to be an addiction, that’s too much for God. When the bills start piling up, you know what the Bible says, but you still quit tithing and start working on Sunday so you can fix the problem. 

When an alcoholic became a believer, he was asked how he could possibly believe all the nonsense in the Bible about miracles. "You don't believe that Jesus changed the water into wine do you?" "I sure do, because in our house Jesus changed the whiskey into furniture."  R. Stedman, Authentic Christianity, p. 36. 

I look around here this morning and I see a lot of miracles. I see the prisoner who was set free and now goes back to the prison to share Jesus. I see the spiritually blind, the physically sick and the emotionally abused who are healed. I see the drunk who hasn’t had a drop in 30-something years. I see the immoral and the ugly, the wasteful and mean man who now stands up here to preach. But the question is, can God handle the attack you are going through right now? When Satan attacks, is God really going to fight for you?

 Oh, I know what you’re thinking. “If I saw God do a huge miracle like parting the Red Sea, then I would believe.” No, you wouldn’t. Do you know why I say that? In the very next chapter, right after the big celebration and the long, wonderful prayer of thanksgiving, it says the people started groaning when they didn’t have enough water. The last person to cross over is just barely on the other side good and it’s already, “Oh, no! What are we going to do now? I mean, what has God done for us lately?” 

There are several things I want us to see in this wonderful passage that will help us when Satan attacks. First, we need to look at it from an overview. Was it God’s will that Joseph went to Egypt back in Genesis? Yes, it was. Was it God’s will that the people would follow Joseph and even be enslaved? Yes, it was. Was it God’s will that Moses deliver them? Absolutely. But look closer. In chapter 13, verse 17, God led them out of Egypt and into the desert right up to the Red Sea. God did that on purpose. 

He didn’t take them the quickest way but led them in a way that would go around the crazy–mean Philistines and make it look like they were lost so that Pharaoh would chase them. God set all of this up. Why? For His glory. Why does God do anything? For His glory. Why does God allow or even cause what we think are bad things to happen to us? For His glory. 

Read verses 2, 3 and 4 again.  “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” 

I bet they were groaning then, too. “That Moses! He is getting us lost. Where’s the GPS?” But God was telling Moses, in fact, He was showing Moses which way to go. It wasn’t Moses’s fault. God was in control of where they went the whole time just like He is today with your problem. So, that leads us to this question, how do we know where God is leading us? Look at chapter 13, verses 21-22. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

 Don’t you wish you had something like that? Don’t you wish you had something to guide you and to help you make wise choices? You do! In Isaiah 30:21 it says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Do you know what that voice is? For us as believers, that voice is the Holy Spirit. 

In John 16:7, Jesus said, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” He calls Him the Advocate here or the Comforter. The Holy Spirit is our Guide and He wants us to know which way to go. He wants what is best for us and wherever He guides, it will be for our best and for God to get the glory through it.

 So, when Satan attacks you, either by temptation or causing something bad in your life, we see in this passage what God’s part is in it. He allows it. He may even cause it. In John chapter 9, Jesus and His disciples come to a man born blind and His disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.” Sometimes God allows or causes what we consider to be bad things to come into our lives but God is still in control. He is sovereign but He also loves us and wants us to do the right thing, to be obedient even in the midst of the trial. 

It is fascinating to me to read verse 13 of chapter 14 that says, “¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm (does that sound familiar? Stand firm? Stand. Put on the armor of God and stand? Ephesians 6) and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

God will fight for you. Just be still. But then in just the very next verse, God tells Moses to tell the people to move on. Do you see that in verse 15? Well, which is it? Be still or move on? The answer is “yes.” Psalm 46:10 uses the same words. “Be still and know He is God.” I love that verse and I know we have talked about it before. It literally means to let your hands hang down. Quit trying to solve the problem and to fix everything. Relax. God’s got this.

 When you do that, you just keep moving on. Keep living life. The battle’s not over. Don’t give up and freak out and fall over. It’s gonna be ok. God’s in control and He loves you. His job is to fight the battle in a way that is best for you and brings Him glory. You just be obedient, keep going, be still in your heart and mind. Make Him look good in every season of your life, good or bad and watch Him work. Then watch the miracles.

 I believe the greatest miracle God ever performed was making us justified and righteous and holy and His friends and He did that through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. On that cross He died for your sins to pay the price we could never pay and all we have to do is believe. If you have never done that today, then let Him work that miracle in you right now. Ask Him for forgiveness of your sins and then repent or turn away from those sins. Let God change your life for your good and His glory today. Do it right now as the music plays. 

The Passover – Exodus 12:1-13 & 21-23

Kenneth Clark lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. "My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before." But it created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So, he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course." (Our Daily Bread, February 15, 1994)

Those are tragic words. He thought he was too deeply embedded in the world to change course. It would have taken a miracle for Clark to see that he was, in fact, not too deeply embedded in the world. But a miracle was not the problem. The problem was that he couldn’t see or admit that a miracle had already happened that provided him a way out of the world. All he had to do was accept it. That was the problem.

The miracle was that God had provided a way, not just out of this world but also into Heaven by His Son Jesus who died on a cross to provide that way. That’s the miracle and it is still the way. Jesus said, “I am the way and nobody gets to Heaven without Me.” (John 14:6) Maybe today you are sitting hear listening to this or reading this and you think you need a miracle. Well, I have Good News! God knew you would need a miracle and so He provided it a couple thousand years ago and that miracle is just waiting for you to accept it.

Do it right now. I’m not kidding. Right now! Don’t wait until the end of the service. This is the most important decision you will ever make and nothing is more important. You think you need a miracle to get you out of what you have gotten yourself into. Well, one miracle coming up! Here it is and His name is Jesus. His name is not religion. His name is not sacrifice. His name is not good works. Those things without Jesus get you to Hell.

God is the miracle-worker, the way-maker, the chain-breaker and the pain-taker. John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He is the only One you need and I can prove it by showing you in scripture even way back in the Old Testament that even way back then and all the way to today, it is all about the Lamb.

Turn to Exodus chapter 12 and let’s read about the nation of Israel needing a miracle. If anybody needed a miracle it was them. You think your life is bad. They had been in slavery for hundreds of years and were ruled by a Pharoah who had the hardest of hearts. They had already seen nine miracles but Pharoah wasn’t budging. He wasn’t giving in. He was not going to let the Israelites out of Egypt no matter what.

So God performed a huge miracle! It was incredible! It was amazing! It was deadly and it was unforgettable and it worked. And do you know what He used to perform this incredible miracle? A young lamb. You would think He would use a lion or a snake or at least a big mean white dog like Bo! But God used a small, defenseless, year-old lamb and this story, like the rest of the entire Bible…is all about the Lamb.

Preaching through this part of Exodus is somewhat difficult because there are so many things going on in these chapters. There is the 10^th plague that we talked about last week. But there is also the Passover, the instructions for celebrating the Passover for the years to come. There is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the consecration of the first-born and there is – don’t forget – the crossing over the Red Sea miracle (which is kind of a big deal too). So, there is a lot going on.

But this morning, let’s focus on the Passover. It has enough importance and symbolism to last us for a while. So, let’s turn to Exodus 12 and let’s read verses 1-13 and then we will skip over and read 21-23. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. Go to verse 21:

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

If you could, how many of you would like to have a fresh, new start? When I was in my twenties, I decided I was going to move to Australia and start my life anew. I had made so many mistakes that I thought I just needed to start over. That seemed like the answer. Unfortunately for me, Australia didn’t agree.

That didn’t happen for me but it did happen for the Israelites. In verse 2, God tells them they are to start a new month and a new year. Their lives are about to become all new and God wants them to remember every aspect of what He is about to do, starting with making a new year.

Then verse 3 sounds like something that would be popular today. Have you noticed that all the cool people online have baby goats and sheep now? They dress the little goats up in pajamas and they run around and jump around and you can’t help but say, “Aww! Look at the little baby goats in pajamas! They’re so cute!” Right? Then there are the fainting goats. Have you seen those? That’s hilarious!

Well, unfortunately for the goats and the sheep, our story today doesn’t end that way. Did you see what they were supposed to do with the little one year old lambs? They bring them inside, into their homes and they make them a part of their family. Don’t you know the kids would want to name their lamb? For four days, the lamb would be part of the family and taken great care of.

These lambs were physically perfect. They could have no defect. Nothing more, nothing less than perfection; not a scab, scar, wound or discoloration. And for four days, these little perfect lambs would be given everything they wanted and needed and more. But then on the fifth day they were to sacrifice that little lamb and drain his blood into a basin or bowl of some kind.

I know. I know. That’s horrible. That had to traumatize some of those poor kids to see their dad do that to a perfect little lamb that had basically become a pet. Then they would take that blood from that little lamb and with a handful of hyssop (which is basically just wild-growing weeds available everywhere over there) they would put the blood over the top and sides of the outside of the door of their house. That was the sign for God to see and He would pass over that house and not kill the first-born.

Anybody else have any questions about this procedure or is it just me? I’m thinking instead of killing an animal, why not just use paint? I think some candy apple red Krylon from a rattle can would look real nice, don’t you? Or even better, why not some precious jewels or some gold and silver? Here’s an idea. Why not just put the live little critter out there? Tie him up to the door post over night and go back for him in the morning and take him with you out of Egypt. That’s the ticket right there.

There’s only one problem. As we learned last week, scripture says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and I want you to see this week that Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Why? Because in the blood is the life and the wages of sin is death and so there must be an atonement for sin; a reparation for sin and that is the taking of innocent life. (Adrian Rogers, LET’S CELEBRATE PASSOVER)

For family devotions, Martin Luther once read the account of Abraham offering Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. His wife, Katie, said, "I do not believe it. God would not have treated his son like that!" "But, Katie," Luther replied, "He did." (W. Wiersbe, The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers,  p. 191.)

You would have to be blind to not see the correlation between the Passover lamb and Jesus. There are so many similarities and that is no accident, of course. God the Father wanted us to know something of the sacrifice that He made and that Jesus made when He died on the cross.

We sing a lot around here about the blood of Jesus. There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Just as I am - without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

That’s just gross, right? A “fountain filled with blood”? That’s a lot of blood! Maybe we should sing songs about a happy Jesus. Maybe we should sing more about His life and His miracles and how good He was instead of His bloody death. But, again, there is a problem. We aren’t saved by the life of Jesus. We aren’t saved by His goodness or His miracles. We are saved by His death. Remember? “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

I have an idea that those Israelites that truly understood what was going on were sickened and saddened by the death of their little lamb but were so grateful to be passed over that they drained that little lamb of every last drop of blood and then used every drop to drench that door frame! Get another bunch of hyssop if you need and slather that red salvation from top to bottom. Don’t miss an inch. Paint the whole door frame exactly as God said but do it liberally. Drain the bucket with coat after coat of bloody paint.

Just like John Hancock didn’t want the King of England to have to put on his glasses to read his signature. They didn’t want God to miss seeing the blood. They didn’t just put a little bit. They didn’t just dab a little here and there. For those that understood, they had sloppy red bloody paint all over the front of the house. They were thankful for the blood and it showed, not just to God but to their neighbors and to the Egyptians and to the world!

If blood is what it takes to make me right with God, yes it’s a tragedy, my sin is a tragedy, but if that’s what it takes then I want to sing about it. I want to tell the world about the blood that gave me forgiveness and righteousness. I want the world to know that it is the blood of Jesus that allows me to have peace and joy in this world but, even better, to have everlasting life with the Lamb Himself!

It is all about the Lamb. The Passover is all about the Lamb. The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, are all about the Lamb and my life should be all about the Lamb. Does the world know what you believe about the blood of the Lamb? If they don’t know then it’s not all about the Lamb for you.

Go back to verses 8-10. They were to eat all the lamb, not to leave anything. Why? Because when we receive Jesus, we don’t receive Him partially, do we? We don’t take Him as Savior now and maybe later we go back for a little bit of Lord. This isn’t a buffet where we can pick and choose. “Ooh, that peace looks good today but I’m not really in the mood for obedience. I’m trying to cut down on my obedience. That’s too hard to eat, if you know what I mean. I’m really just here for the dessert of Heaven but I guess I’ll try just a dab of holiness. Can you give me just a little slice of holiness but hold the self-control, please?”

Honey, it doesn’t work that way. You are all in or you are all out. There is no in between. God said in Revelation 3, “I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!”

Jesus said in Matthew 12, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” You don’t get to have just a little bit of Jesus. And the thing is, when you truly feast on Him, you want more and more. That’s why Paul said in Philippians so many times that he wanted to know Christ. He wanted more Jesus. He wanted all of Jesus even to death. I think that’s at least partly what David meant when He said in Psalm 34 to taste and see that the Lord is good! Yes, it is a tragedy that Jesus had to die. It’s a tragedy because we chose to sin but it is a wonderful gift that the Lamb was killed so we don’t have to die. It is all about the Lamb.

Let me close with a quick look at verse 11. This is how they were to eat the lamb. Do you see it? “Eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.” This took faith on the part of the Israelites. At this point, Pharoah was still hard-hearted and didn’t plan on the Jews going anywhere except back to work. But God said to be ready.

Some of you today need an exodus of your own. You need to be delivered from a habit, a person, a thing, an idol or a way of thinking. I don’t know what it is but God is ready for you to be delivered from it and so He is making a way where there is no way. It won’t be easy. There will be some specific steps for you to take and you have to be full of Him. Scripture calls that to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing weird about that or “charismatic” about that. I’m not talking about anything that scripture doesn’t talk about. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. He will always be there but sometimes you can grieve Him with your sins and bad decisions. But when you are filled up with Him and drained of all your fleshly wants and desires, God will do a mighty thing in your life and He is ready to do that. All you have to do is be ready for Him to show you the first step.

Maybe that first step is repentance for you. Maybe you aren’t living like a believer should. If you are a true believer then you know it when you are out of His will. That’s the most miserable place in the world. Give all that up and give in to Him. Ask Him for forgiveness right now.

If you have never done that then today is the day of salvation. The price has been paid. The Lamb has been slain and all you have to do is accept it. It is a free gift of God but it’s not cheap. Your salvation was bought and paid for with the precious blood of Jesus so you wouldn’t have to pay that price. I don’t understand that kind of love but I accept it. Do you? Call on the name of the Lord today and you can be saved. Do it right now as the music plays.

Lord’s Supper

 

 

 

 

“In the Midst of Tragedy, There is God” - Exodus 12

In the spring of 1863, 2 years before the Civil War ended, mothers went out to lay flowers on the graves of their Confederate dead. There were Union soldiers buried there also. These mothers realized that the mothers of the North could not come to the graves of their sons, and so in love that rose above the hatred of the war they put flowers on the graves of the Union soldiers as well. This practice spread all over the South and then into the North, and that's how Memorial Day began. 

While Memorial Day is not in the Bible, obviously, the concept is. We are told in several places to remember things, especially the things that God has done. There is a time for forgetting some things, usually what we have done, as well. Isaiah 43:18 says to forget the former things and that’s one of my favorite verses in all the Bible because it goes on to say that God is about to do a new thing. And we will want to remember that thing.

It’s good to remember what God has done in the past because it builds our faith that God will protect and provide for us in the future. We have faith that He will because we remember how He has done it in the past. We don’t have to understand Him. He doesn’t always explain how He did it or how He is going to do it. But He is faithful and so we can have faith in Him.

We can have faith in Him even when life is painful. In fact, if you can’t have faith in God in the hard times but you say you have faith in the good times, I say that’s no faith at all. Faith is born in adversity and proven in the fire. The three Hebrew boys said, “We know God can and we know He will but even if He doesn’t, still we will praise Him.” And do you know what happened? They were thrown right into the fire!

God didn’t save them from the fire. God didn’t hear their promise and take their word for it. He allowed them to get thrown into the hottest fire imaginable. And while God didn’t save them from the fire, read in Daniel chapter three, starting in verse 22: The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” 25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Haha! King Neb, you moron! That’s not a son of the gods. That is THE Son of THE God and His name is Jesus, who was, who is and is to come! In the midst of Shadrach’s worst tragedy, there was God. There was God, not just looking. Not just watching from Heaven wondering how things were going to turn out. There was God in the midst of it and in control of it just like He is in your life and how He was in the life of Moses and the Israelites in their captivity in Egypt some thousands of years ago.

It's good to remember so let’s turn to Exodus chapter 12 and there we will see the last plague that God sends on Pharoah and Egypt. Evidently God is 0-for-9 so far, right? Nine other plagues were sent but Pharoah’s heart is hard and nothing is working. Evidently, God is up in Heaven scratching His head thinking, “I just knew the frogs would work! I mean, I sent them everywhere!”

No, no. That’s not what happened at all. It’s not that God had plan A, B and C and all those other plans and plagues didn’t work so God has to break out the big guns. No, that’s not it. This was God’s one and only plan all along. He knew Pharoah’s heart and He also knew the gods that Egypt served and God is jealous anytime somebody gives to somebody else what rightfully belongs to Him. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all creation and He wants the credit for it.

So, when the Egyptians are bowing down to some frog head idol made out of wood, God said, “I see your frog and will raise you a billion more! I AM the one, true God. Allow me to prove it.” God just went down the line of Egypt’s biggest, little g gods and said, “Ok. You think the Nile River is a god? I’ll turn it to blood. You think gnats and flies are holy? I’ll infest you with them. Rah is your sun god? I’ll turn the day black as coal.”

But there is one more plague. One more plague that will cause even Pharoah himself to believe and not only allow them to leave Egypt but Pharoah will demand that they leave and take everything valuable with them. As we continue our sermon series on seeing who God is, let’s read Exodus, starting in chapter 11. We will read a little bit there and a little bit from chapter 12.

Chapter 11, verses 1-8 says, “Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. 2 Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” 3 (The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.) 4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

I love that ending. Moses is hot with anger. Oh, yeah, Moses. You’re ten foot tall and bullet proof when you have God on your side, right? That’s great! What happened to, “I can’t speak well. I stutter. Get somebody else, God”? Yeah, he’s not stuttering now, is he?

Let’s continue reading chapter 12, starting in verse 29. At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 31During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. 32Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me." 33The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" 34So the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

Okay, let’s be honest here. How many of you read this and think, “Wow. That seems pretty harsh.”? I admit it. When I read this about how God killed innocent babies and animals, it’s hard to think about. Some of those first-born may have been adults but some of them may have just been babies. That’s hard to understand. Why would God do that?

In preparing this message, I was making notes about this passage and trying to just write what God was telling me to write down and when I wrote that question, I had to stop for a while. “Why would God do that?” That’s a good question, I thought. Uh oh. Now I have to find the answer. It’s not an answer that can be found by Googling but God lead me to Romans 6:23. There it simply says that the wages of sin is death.

We probably don’t think about the seriousness of sin like we should. What God is saying through Paul in Romans 6:23 is that what we deserve for our sins is death; death in Hell forever, separated from God and all our friends and anybody else…for all eternity. It is what we deserve and what God requires.

This last plague was not just another round of bad things that God dreamed up. It was a continuation of His attack on the false gods of Egypt and, like I said, God is jealous. The Egyptians actually believed that whoever was Pharoah was a god. He was the son of gods and his son was the son of a god. Jehovah said, “I AM WHO I AM and I AM the God and nobody will doubt that after this day.”

It doesn’t seem fair to us because we don’t appreciate the seriousness of sin like we should. We have never witnessed God taking a life in such dramatic fashion as He did here, not in our lives. And so, while we know that sin is bad and we know we shouldn’t do it, we also make excuses for it. We think there are some sins that, you know, just aren’t all that bad. We don’t go around killing and raping and robbing banks so we aren’t that bad. Yea, sure, we cuss a little. We drink too much. We eat too much. We have bitterness inside of us that comes out in anger sometimes but everybody does that, right? We all sin every day, don’t we?

STOP IT! When you think like that (and we all do it) you are making yourself and your desire and your sin a little g god and Big G God is not going to put up with it. I will say it again that the very worst thing that can happen to us as Christians is sin. Cancer is awful but it’s not as bad as sin. Catching the virus can be horrible but it’s not as bad as sin in our lives. Losing a family member is traumatic but it’s not as bad as sin.

Oh, I hear ya! Todd, how can you say that? Sin is not nearly as bad as when I lost my Aunt Bessie. Well, I’m not downplaying the loss of Aunt Bessie, not at all. That can be a horrible pain. But God said, “The wages of sin is death.” He didn’t say the wages of loss is death. He didn’t say the wages of cancer is death. He didn’t say the wages of covid is death. But sin ALWAYS requires death. Those other things may kill you and they may not. But sin always requires death.

Not only does sin require death but sin puts a barrier between us and God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Having God’s face hidden from you ought to scare you to death. Not being in His good graces and under His absolute protection better scare you to repentance and if it doesn’t then something is wrong with your relationship with Him.

After his sin with Bathsheba, King David wrote in Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

 He goes on…

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart

Does your sin break your heart? It should. It breaks the heart of God. In 1986, evangelist Vance Havner said, “People used to blush when they were ashamed. Now they are ashamed if they blush. Modesty has disappeared and a brazen generation with no fear of God before its eyes mocks at sin. We are so fond of being called tolerant and broad-minded that we wink at sin when we ought to weep.”

But here we are – a nation unashamed, a state filled with pride in a county plagued with the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated, in a church that takes sin lightly and individuals who don’t understand God and sometimes pray for revival. Here we are, sinners that deserve Hell for eternity. What are we going to do?

Oh my! Aren’t you glad it’s not up to you? Aren’t you glad you don’t have to pay the price or try to be good enough or sell enough magazines or do anything else to get forgiveness, freedom and redemption? Aren’t you glad your eternity is not based on who you are or what you do or anything else about you?

Aren’t you glad that God is not just watching from afar, wondering what is going to happen next? Aren’t you glad that God, in the midst of all our tragedy and sin, is here? And He is here in a real way. He is here just like He was for Shadrach and the boys all those years ago. He is here with His Holy Spirit in this place and in our hearts and, as believers, we have His wisdom and His guidance to get us through the day, even when the day is tragic.

He is here in the person of Jesus who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless, perfect life and chose to die in our place. The wages of sin is death. That is God’s law. That is His plan and His idea. God is just and cannot overlook sin, no matter how small, no matter how rare. Your sin and my sin is an abomination to God. He hates sin. And when we choose to sin, we are in a scary place; a place where God is watching as we choose to put another nail into the hands of His precious Son Jesus on the cross every time we sin.

That is deserving of death and Hell and we choose that every time we sin. But in the midst of that tragedy, God is there to provide the perfect sacrifice. David said, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it…” And that’s right. God doesn’t need your sacrifice. The perfect sacrifice has already been made.

When we think of tragedy, we rightfully think of death, disease, poverty, or loss of any kind but when we come to know God better, we start to see things more through His eyes. We will never understand Him fully but knowing Him better makes us understand Him more and when we do, we see that the ultimate cause of all that tragedy is the ultimate tragedy itself, and that is sin. Sin is the worst tragedy that we can endure.

John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.”

The only thing in this world that we have to fear is sin. It is the ultimate tragedy. But even in that tragedy, God is there. Thank you, LORD!

Some of you need to ask for forgiveness of your sins today. You need to repent and give up that lifestyle. I know it’s hard. It’s shameful. It’s tiring sometimes to have to go back to God and ask for forgiveness of something you have done a billion times before. Maybe you need to pray a prayer like this.

Father, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I know I have hurt you and it pains me so please forgive me and restore my relationship with you. Please help me not to ever do that again. Please take that desire away from me, whatever it takes. I want nothing more than to be restored and forgiven and back in your special care.

Maybe today you have never prayed a prayer like that and have never received real forgiveness from God. That is a tragic life being lived right there. Maybe you aren’t sure of your relationship with Him. Today is the day to make sure. I’m not asking if you are a member here or if you were ever baptized or how often you sin or how bad you are or how good you are compared to somebody else.

I’m asking you if you have ever asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, admitting that you are a sinner and unable to earn forgiveness, much less Heaven. Surrender your life, your dreams, your will and your ways to Him today. Ask for forgiveness and He will give it. There is no other way to heaven but through Jesus. Ask Him today as the music plays.