Exodus 7:14–25Scripture
Everybody, open your Bibles to Exodus this morning, chapter 7, and we are going to be closing out this chapter, moving on to the second plague next week. Amazingly enough, not a ton of dialogue happens in commentary about this first plague, and I thought that was particularly interesting because, you know how you pronounce the god that this first plague is coming after? Hapi. And I don't think this has any deep theological meaning to us today, necessarily. So I'm not saying, I wouldn't even write this in your notes, because I would hate for you later on to be like, "Well, Shawn said this has deep theological meaning." And so if you write it in your notes, make sure you do a parenthesis: "Shawn said it does not necessarily have deep theological meaning; it's just me rambling." But I think it's funny that this god is named Happy, and that's what we live to worship day to day, even inside the walls of the church, is our happiness. I thought that was ironic. So anyway, let's turn our Bibles to Ro— or Exodus. Romans, Exodus.
When you do that for two and a half years, it just kind of sticks in there, doesn't it? Exodus chapter 7, we're going to look at verse 14 to 25. So while you're turning there, I want to mention something. So you note-takers, you might want to write this down and consider it a little
Point 1Liberation theology quietly shapes how we read Exodus
Bit. One of the shaping theological principles that kind of begins to formulate the way we interpret Exodus is a term that you may not know the term, but it is finding its way inside the church to the degree that a lot of our opinions and ideas, and specifically the way we interpret the Bible, is becoming shaped by this idea, right? The term, just so you know, not necessarily what it stands for, but the term is liberation theology. All right, how many of you have heard of liberation theology? So two or three, right? However, every single one of you in here has been shaped by this idea. All right, it is very rampant in our culture, not only inside the walls of the church but outside the walls of the church. This really does have a shaping force on the way we interpret the Bible, the way our worldview, whether it be biblical or secular. And I'm going to mention real briefly for you five problematic things about liberation theology, okay? There's five things; you can write them down, right? The first problem with it, and I'm going to show you the problems because I want you to consider them as you read through Exodus, because there are some things that you need to, I would say, put these at the top of your Exodus notes, and every time before you go in to read, I want you to read these five things, and I want you to consider, as you then read the Scripture, how many of these things are shaping your perspective, right? Because we want to be liberated. "Liberate me from my oppressors," right? I mean, that's the whole story of Exodus, is you have the Israelites who have been oppressed and they want to be liberated. How many of you know that we have a God who liberates us from sin? Ain't that a praise? So it's not that liberation in and of itself is problematic; it is where we go with it that is problematic, okay, even as believers. So here's five problems with liberation theology. The first one is it places the temporal over the eternal. Liberation theology will always, and if not always, most often, prioritize the temporal over the eternal, okay? This becomes problematic then, because as soon as we don't get what we want here, we will question God. Everybody wants to be liberated from their problem today. "Liberate me from my issues today. Liberate me from my relational problems today. Liberate me from my financial problems today." And when God doesn't do it, then we have a problem with it. But sometimes God leaves you in a place for hundreds of years, although you're being oppressed. How does that shape your worldview? And so when we then come into Exodus, we see that we're on the cusp of liberation, but we don't consider how long people were in bondage before that, and God approved it. God orchestrated it for his glory. Now today we'll say, "God's going to get me out if I have a strong enough faith. He's going to liberate me from my problem. He's going to change my life." And he is interested in changing your life, and he is interested in saving you from your condition, and he is interested in freeing you from the sin that enslaved you, but he will do it according to his timeline, not yours. We have a tendency, those that are shaped by liberation theology, of placing the temporal over the eternal. Where does God want us to fix our eyes? Where does he want our hope to come from? From the eternal. Number two, a second problem. I just snorted. Number two, liberation theology renders evangelism moot. In other words, the goal of evangelism is not as important as people being liberated from their oppressor today. Did you know that you can still evangelize when people are still not liberated from earthly conditions? Matter of fact, the church multiplied the greatest under oppression, under persecution. Maybe God's plan is for persecution to hit the church, that revival might happen in the church. Maybe his plan is not that everything is beautiful. And it is amazing, the prophecies in Kansas City and the way that they manifest, the church growing in these days, and how many of us are still waiting for this to happen. By the way, once the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, won several times, we hadn't got caught up yet. That prophetic word hadn't quite happened yet. And I'm not saying it won't happen; I'm just saying that maybe the way God builds his church is through persecution, because that's where in the Bible we see the most multiplication happen. It isn't everything getting straightened out; it's in the midst of the greatest problems, and liberation theology just can't digest that. It doesn't go down the gullet very well, if you will. Number three, another problem is it focuses on the oppressor and forgets the oppressed. That's a problem, that all the problems, in fact, just must be the oppressor, and in case we forget, the Israelites who were oppressed had their share of problems too. Are you with me today? See, liberation theology will shape how you interpret this, and you will focus on the oppressor, how the oppressor is wrong, how Pharaoh has a problem, how the Egyptians are wrong because they killed kids, and how this is wrong and that's wrong, and how the Egyptians are terrible because they have multiple gods, and you always look at the oppressor as being the problem but never the oppressed. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let us not too quickly forget that both the oppressed and the oppressor have issues. That's good. That's really good today, because some of you feel like you can ride on the fact that you've been mistreated and abused and rejected and not taken care of, and it's then created a license for you to behave however you please. "Because I've been oppressed, I can act crazy with my life. I have permission to." But here's the problem: both the oppressor and the oppressed got problems.
A liberation theology will work itself into the heart of an individual until that individual weaponizes their hurts of yesterday for their convenience today.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:30
That's good stuff. That's good stuff. And that's rampant in the church. Number four, sin loses its punch. You know why it loses its punch in liberation theology? And I'm going to get to the Scripture, so just, but we got to understand what's shaping how we read the Scripture. Sin loses its punch because in liberation theology, sin becomes corporate, not individual. Man, is that ever present in the church today, where everything is, we have pushed it out to this corporate place, and everyone then easily gets to a place where it is easy to not focus on our personal issues at hand. How many of you, whenever you feel like the pressure is on, you will shift the pressure, even unknowingly and unwittingly, to somebody else? I have found that the biggest complainers, and the most nasty people, and those who bicker about other people and their problems tend to have the most sin in their life individually, because it's easy to identify problems in other people when you're unwilling to identify the problems in you, right? I mean, nobody here; all the other churches in town do that. I mean, how many of you have seen kids? "But the sister, but he, but she, but the teacher." We push blame away. We use excuses. Man, do we use excuses. Isn't it amazing that some people always have a reason to continue in sin? Here's a good one. Here's a good one, in a very sexualized world in which we live: "But we love each other and we're going to get married." Young people, yep. And in case you think I'm just picking on young people, old people, right? Some of the old people are going, "Yeah, man, I'm glad Shawn's saying that, 'cause young people are in here." You just did it. You just pushed it off, like you don't have a problem. You just did it right here in church. You did it.
Are you with me? How many of you have ever been guilty of going, you're in a sermon, you're in a sermon, and you're like, "Oh dang, I hope so-and-so's here," or, "I know they're not here, but I hear what Pastor Shawn's saying, and I wish they were here"? How many of you have ever been guilty of doing that? Just honestly, let's be honest in here today. Yeah, because we want to push it off instead of actually growing ourselves. It's liberation theology.
"It's their problem, not my problem." Number five, we make everything political. Sound familiar? Liberation theology is very political. "So what policies can we put in place to protect the oppressed because of the oppressor?" Here's a good one: we hate cops. And honestly, there are some cops that are bad cops that should not have a job as a cop ever, much less be in society with other human beings where they can hurt them. Are you with me? But just because you have a bad apple doesn't mean you cancel a whole system to bring law and order. But it is amazing that when one person in a system that's supposed to bring law and order does something horrific, by the way, I don't endorse it, horrific, terrible, and not only is it terrible, but then it's televised for the whole world to see, that does not give us permission to throw bottles of alcohol lit with fire into buildings and run in and steal stuff just because we've been oppressed. Are you with me today? I know this is a hard conversation, but can we have it? Because what happens then is pandemonium happens, and we have prioritized our liberation to the degree that we no longer then take ownership for anything we do from that point forward. We create permission for us to continue in the sins of yesterday "because I've been oppressed." It's a problem. I'll be honest, I kind of feel scared even talking about this right now, but this isn't God's plan, is it? So we cannot prioritize liberation over the orchestration of what God intended. God has a plan. God has a plan. Some of us understand that Jesus liberated us from the consequence of sin, so we continue in sin and we don't give a rip. Some of you are in here today feeling conviction right now because you don't care. And here, don't take this wrong: you would never give God the middle finger up in the air, but your life is one. Are you with me? And how is one not okay and your life being one okay? One time on a Sunday, i'd like to come and not seem like an angry P. I'm not. I'm a nice person, I am. But we have a problem, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not here to make you comfortable. I'm not.
If you came for comfort, you came to the wrong place.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:45
Exodus 7:14–20 says, "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.' But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the LORD, 'By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.'"' and the LORD said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, "Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt," I love this, "even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone."'" Somebody say, "What about the Tupperware?" That was a good question. We had a great conversation about that. "Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts." How many great, interesting conversations do we have about that? Where did they find the water? "So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile." It said the Nile a lot, didn't it? Did you know, and I think this is really, really important, and it should be encouraging to us, particularly in our particular cultural context, where many of us will have multiple bibles in our house. Now, for many of us, if you don't even have a Bible in your house, you might have a Bible app, right?
So you can get access to the Word all the time. This is particularly important because we see a few things happen in Exodus. One of them is that we have signs that come, but notice that signs come after the word, okay? And there are several things, and I only named a few of them. I named them here, and here they are really quick. Signs follow the word.
The point of signs was to validate the word.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:12
The point of signs was not to amaze people about God, because there are people who saw the signs and didn't believe. That's not the point of signs. The point of signs is to validate the word. All right, here's another thing that follows the word: judgment. "I thought only good things followed the word." Well, see, you don't get to determine whether judgment's good or bad, because to God it's good. How do you know that to God judgment is good? Because God is good, and nothing but good comes from him, okay? And because he is marked by goodness, then that which proceeds out of the mouth, mind, and hands of God is good.
It may not be good to you. You might label it bad, but it's still good.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:03
How many of you would say, "Praise the Lord that we don't get to determine and weigh out what is good and bad"? It might feel bad but be good. And we can see this 20/20 when we look back, because there's some things in my life that in the midst of that moment I felt terrible and bad, but now that I look back, I realize it was for my good. How many of you could testify to that? Like, even things that in the moment I would have said, "Bad. That's really bad. Double bad, triple bad, not good at all.
That's bad." Now I would say that was for my good. Thank goodness that I don't get to go, "That's bad," and then prevent that from completing its work in me for my good. We are justified by the word. The word justifies. We are glorified, you can go find Scripture on all these; I didn't feel like I had time to talk about them all. We're glorified by the word, and we are perfected by the word. It is amazing how much the word really does the work, okay? Now this should be encouraging to us, because it is not you who do the work, but it is the word that does the work. Why is it so important today that we understand that we live in the most biblically illiterate generation the world has ever known? Why is that particularly important, and we live in an Information Age like no other? Why is that so important? Because all of these things come from his word, and if the Lord can cut you off from the word, he can cut these things off from completing their work in you. Are you with me? Guess how people are saved. By a cool story? An emotional service with neat lights? No, by his word. Not your manipulation of the word to flatter them. And there are people all around the world today that use the Word of God to flatter people, and it makes them flatter in their life. Are you with me? They can't roll anywhere because they're flattened by a flattered word. We're perfected by the word. All these things validate the authority of God's word. That's the first thing. So we hear God gives a word, Moses gives a word to Pharaoh, and then following this, or last week, we see signs that validate the word, that God means business, with the snakes, and now we see plagues, which follow the word, which are acts of judgment against Egypt. But notice that God always warns. Notice, when God gives a prophetic warning to people, he sends a prophet in to give a word, and then the judgment follows. And there are some places that he would give a word and the judgment came, and there are some places he gave a word and gave an opportunity for repentance. But don't think that God didn't know what the people would do before they went there. He knew that Pharaoh would not let the people go. Matter of fact, he strengthened, the actual word is "strengthen," him in the condition of his heart, strengthened him in that. "Well, that's unfair. Why would God strengthen somebody in the condition of a hardened state?" When all of us are born in a hardened state. How dare him? He's God. You know what they believed the Nile was? And I love this:
Point 2What is your lifeblood when no one's looking
They believed the Nile was the lifeblood of Egypt. How many of you have ever heard that phrase? I mean, they loved the Nile. It was the lifeblood of the town, of the nation. It was the lifeblood. It was everything to them and gave them sustenance and gave them life. It quenched their thirst. Let me ask you a question: what's your lifeblood? What's your lifeblood? Is it Christ? No, not what you say when you go to small group.
What's your lifeblood when no one's looking?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:48
Okay, let me rephrase it another way: what do you turn to when all hell breaks loose? Is Christ your lifeblood, or is pornography your lifeblood? "Shawn, why do you keep bringing that up occasionally?" Because, I mean, like 80% of the church does it, men- wise. It's like 78% now. Isn't that sad? So is that your lifeblood? Is that it? What about your kids? What about your kids? Is your whole life set by the course of your kids? Is that your lifeblood? Here's one; this will be funny. What about the church? Is the church your lifeblood, or is Christ your lifeblood? Because they're not the same. What about your paycheck? What about your paycheck? Is your paycheck your lifeblood? I wonder what would happen if all of us stopped getting a paycheck next week, and we continued to not get a paycheck for four months. We'll get an idea of whether or not your paycheck is your lifeblood. Let's just track with me here. Just track with me. Where does your hope come from?
I'm not saying I'm going to act perfect, but when you get cut off from something and it changes your whole personality, you have to ask the question: is that more my lifeblood than Christ?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:33
I think it's funny that it's their lifeblood and he turns it into actual blood and makes them drink it. I think that's crazy. I think that's fascinating, actually. I think it's fascinating. If we go to Leviticus, and this is jumping ahead, right, we will see that life is in the blood. We go all the way back to Genesis. Let's just go back to Genesis before all this came down, right here in the story we're reading now, where Moses goes down and Aaron uses his rod and turns the water to blood in the Nile, right? Let's go all the way back to Genesis. You know, one of the crazy things, there's more to this blood, this Nile being turned to blood. It's the lifeblood of Egypt, and he turns it into blood. And then we see the story of blood when Cain kills Abel. What does God say when he comes walking, looking for Cain? He says, "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." Did you know blood has a voice? Like, what must the blood have sounded like when Pharaoh started killing boys and throwing them into the nile? What must that have sounded like to God? If Abel was slain and his blood cried out, it has, there's life in the blood. Are you with me today? I wonder what it sounded like to God when he turned the Nile into blood, and what was that. Be very careful. Let me say this: be very careful to not think that the lifeblood of your life, to long to be quenched by those things, because they are never quenching. And if you long to be quenched by stuff that doesn't quench, God will allow that to become the lifeblood that quenches, and it does not bring life. What does it do? It brings death. Notice what's floating in that once the blood hits it: dead fish, dead everything. Death is there. Some of you are trying to figure out how to find life and how to find it more abundantly, but the lifeblood is not Christ for you. The lifeblood is stuff and entertainment and feelings. Some of us have a Nile right through the middle of our churches. Are you with me today? And we think we're rallying people around a cause that is Christ, when in actuality it is our wants, our desires, our longings that are not about Christ at all. They're about us. I don't know how else to say it. It's problematic. Leviticus says, "For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off." So when Egypt began to drink it, what did that mean for them? Could it mean that this was a sign that God was cutting them off? Do you see the gravity of what is happening here in Egypt? Oh, let our prayer be that we would not be cut off. "The thing that is most important to the continuing success and existence of something else": that's the definition of lifeblood. And it gives an example on Google, because that's, you know, where all facts remain: "Tourism is the lifeblood of hawaii's economy." What's the lifeblood of your home economy? Is it Christlikeness? Okay, let me meddle, since I'm on a roll anyway and I've made half of everybody mad in here. So let me just say this: we have arm wrestling on Sunday at 12:00. I leave right here, we rush over to arm wrestling, and then I rush back out of there so I can get to small group, and they never move it, because it's the best day of the week for everybody, because people work sometimes on Saturday, and so Sunday afternoons is the best. Not necessarily the best for me, but best for most people. And so how many of you know that arm wrestling practices are not going to be centered around the pastor's schedule? So it is then convenient then, when football season comes along, because everything gets moved around football. Just track with me. And in case you don't know, I don't hate football, contrary to what you might think. I hate the worship of football. I don't hate football. I don't necessarily like going and sitting on the bleachers, because my tail, like, I did a Katy Trail connector and then went on the Missouri Katy Trail so long that I have forever damaged my tailbone.
Like, it's broke. I think I broke it. I think I'm broke. I'm a broke individual. I heard it. So when I sit on a bleacher for five minutes, it's like somebody... It's bad. It's bad. Yeah, right. I do need that; that would be perfect. I need to eat more biscuits. True. Make more good biscuits here. I even, no, there's some there. I actually have found a couple really good places that have biscuits. Anyway, I digress. So anyway, I will say this, though, that's really important. I'm not against football. I'm not against sports. Matter of fact, I enjoy it. I go to arm wrestling; I enjoy it.
I played basketball in high school. I enjoy it. I still watch it. We have an NBA pass; we watch when the basketball season starts. We watch it all the time. I'm not necessarily, I don't like football as much as basketball, but I like football. Matter of fact, I like falling asleep to football as much as I like falling asleep to golf. I know that sounds like sacrilege in here, but I'm just saying, it's like a thing running in the background, and you have snacks, and I love when people come over and you have the snacks and everything. That's fun. But it is amazing that in this season you can't walk into a store without seeing a football jersey. It is a little crazy how our whole life is centered around football. Okay, so let me really meddle, and I'm going to do this. Okay, I'm going to do this, because my small group knows I love them. I'm picking on my small group, okay, which I'm in there, so I'm one of them. But it is amazing, and a lot of times there's jokes, right? But how many of you know that we use jokes, and there's truth in jest? Okay, but it is amazing, during football season there will be a crack every single week, especially on the weeks where the Chiefs play, okay?
There'll be a crack about, "How quick will this group be? We got a game to watch." Because our group's on Sunday, in case you're wondering, right? Track with me. Are you with me? How many of you know I don't hate football? How many of you know I'm not being judgmental? And how many of you know I can only use examples with people that I'm in relationship with? So I apologize to those who come to my small group, okay? And ultimately, I know the heart of every individual in my small group; they love the Lord. But it is interesting, because whether it be football or any sport, okay, particularly, we just came out of the olympics, so there's sports circling around that, there's always cracks, and it almost seems as if we are diminishing the things of God, his word, and elevating sports. How does that become a joke? How does God become a joke to us? Is God a joke to us? Are you with me today? So this is an opportunity for self-reflection. And we can get mad at Egypt and Pharaoh because they have many gods they worship. So do we. It just so happens we come and worship a God on Sunday morning, and then we worship another one when the football game starts. Did you know that you can watch football and it not be your god? But did you know that there's a lot of people in the church today that worship many gods, just like the Egyptians? The God of the Bible is just one of them. "Shawn, that's meddling, man. Man, you're meddling. I can't believe it. You're putting the pedal to the meddling. How dare you? How dare you do that?" How dare us belittle the things of God? How dare us sacrifice God on the altar of what we love more and make a joke of it to
Point 3We worship many gods, just like Egypt
Boot?
Okay, what you put in second place often becomes the butt of your joke.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:20
Okay, there are many things we worship today other than the God of the Bible on Sunday morning. First, our identity. Our identity might be one of the biggest idols worshiped today. We have largely abandoned who we are in Christ and placed our identity in other things. Number two, money, material things. Western culture has bowed to money and possessions for generations. The pursuit of money, the acquisition of things, is a guiding force for many. It's an idol. It's not for everyone; it is for some. And listen, you don't have to have money for money to be an idol to you. And how many of you know, furthermore than that, money's not bad; you making it an idol is. How many of you know the Nile wasn't bad? Turning it into an idol to worship, that's what's bad. Number three, jobs and status. Jobs used to just be a means to an end for most people. It was just what you did to provide for your family. Now what you do has become the essence of who you are. Job dissatisfaction is at an all-time high.
Could it be because we've elevated what we do to who we are? It's a problem. Physical appearance. You don't have to look very far to see an advertisement of some Photoshopped girl or boy that promises to fix our physical appearance, to make us look better, younger, and like your favorite celebrity, which none of you are going to look like, because they don't even look like that. They're edited. Why are those so common? Because they work. Many of us worship our physical appearance. We spend hours in the gym, thousands on products, and constantly think about what others are thinking about us, because we worship our physical form.
Your form was meant to carry Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:23
Entertainment. We're obsessed with being entertained, from Netflix to vacations and podcasts. It is amazing: people will go tens of thousands of dollars into debt spending money on vacations that they don't have because they love to be entertained. All right, can you imagine, okay, I'll go back to football here, because this is better. Imagine we're at the Chiefs stadium. By the way, I do want to go to the Chiefs stadium and feel that, right? I want to feel the boom, you know. But I can't; I haven't done that yet. So one day I'll be able to do that, to see what that environment's like. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when Christ returns? Just to feel the camaraderie, and everybody, like, heart rooting together in unison, to think what the heavens must sound like. And honestly, a football stadium, I just want to go to see and consider what it might be like when the Lord returns. What I cannot imagine is the Lord returning right in the middle of the Chiefs stadium and people go, "Hold on, God. Hold on, Christ. The game's almost over." That I can't imagine, because the Bible says that every tongue will confess and every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. Like, it's not even a question. Here's another god: sex. Sex might be the only thing we think about more than money today. It's everywhere in our culture. You can't even go window shopping with your wife; if you walk by too many stores, you're going to see scantily dressed women in some advertisement. And most of your time, if you're not averting your eyes from the girls walking around in public, you're averting your eyes from the mannequins and the posters of women in lingerie shops. Are you with me today? It's everywhere, and what used to be not okay to be in public, we bring the bedroom to audiences around the world. I mean, guys, you know why Fifty Shades of Grey had several movies, and they just keep pumping them out? They just put another one out or something like that, right? You're like, "How do you know?" Now, I read articles in Christianity today, okay, so just in case you didn't know. And you know why that's successful? Because the church goes and pays for it as much as the world, because if those so-called Christians, evangelical Christians in America, didn't pay and foot the bill for it, they wouldn't keep making it. How many of you have noticed how difficult it is to not watch a rated-mature TV show? Matter of fact, if you want to watch TV today, you can't watch any new shows being produced, because they're completely inappropriate. There's nudity in everything. Just look up what you're taking in. And I would say the only way you can watch TV anymore at this point is to go watch Andy Griffith, right? It's rough, man. It's rough. I mean, I like Andy Griffith, so I'm not hating on Andy Griffith. Like, I like it, but sometimes, guys, you just want to watch a new show. There ain't one. Yeah, and you know what I'm wrestling with now? Some of you are wrestling with whether you should buy VidAngel so you don't have to put that filth in your brain. Some of you won't even break down and pay $9, because $9 isn't worth it.
You'd just rather digest that nudity and 250 F-words in one 30-minute episode. You'd rather just do that than pay the $9. Your soul is not worth that $9 a month? For me, I'm kind of at a place where I'm trying to figure out if it's even ethical to pay for a device to cut that off, because they're getting view counts from me watching stuff. Are you with me? And making decisions on whether they should actually produce another season of that filth because I'm watching it. And although I'm cutting out all the bad stuff, I'm still supporting it. Okay, all right.
Sex. Sex sells. It's really sad. It sells inside the church, but that seems to be the condition even for God's called in the Bible. That's why we need Jesus. Can I get an amen up in here? Comfort, that's a god. There's an endless list of products promising to simplify and add comfort to your life. We've made our lives much easier and much more comfortable than at any time in history. Tasks that used to take all day can take minutes. Many menial tasks are now automated. While that's a good thing, our pursuit in life should not be comfort alone.
The call that Jesus gives his followers is a life of calling, not primarily of comfort.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:10
Jesus promises that his followers will, in fact, face trials, persecution, and difficulty. It is not referenced; it is guaranteed. While comfort isn't bad, it can become damaging when it becomes the main pursuit in life, especially in the church. That's why the seeker-sensitive movement is a dangerous one, because we adapt the gospel for the comfort of those who are far from Christ, and we give the illusion that Christ brings comfort. So they come in through a door that we've jammed our foot in to try to get them in through evangelism techniques, and then they realize, when they get on the other side of it, through a profession of Christ, it is not Christ; it is a god we have fashioned and made them worship around, much like the golden calf the Israelites worshiped at the bottom of the mountain. That was not God. It's a problem. And then the success of our church is measured by our ability to create a comfortable environment for people, and the number of people coming through the door becomes the success of our church, when really many of those people aren't saved to begin with, because they didn't hear the gospel; they heard a false gospel. I've been guilty. Phones and technology: just look for a moment, if you will, at your screen time. That'll tell the whole story. Family and children. I don't have time. We have gods. You're no better than the Egyptians. And the moment you declare God is your God because he did something good for you, it won't take nothing but a couple more weeks for you to be worshiping another god at the foot of the mountain. We have always been a people that, when he was going to be our King, we cried out for another king. It is not just the oppressor that has a problem with worshiping idols. All mankind does this. It's sobering to consider it, but it's healthy to consider that we got problems, because it is in the midst of us having problems that we reach out to the one who can save us from ourselves. If you get to a place where you're reading through this and you look at everybody else and say, "They need saving," but you are unwilling to look at yourself and go, "I need saving," then you will never be saved, because only people who need salvation, who have a problem, reach out to the Savior who can save them from
It. Self-righteousness will get you further away from God than anything else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:20
And finally, the judgment. Well, it's not finally; it's almost finally. The
Point 4Judgment is not a scalpel but a shotgun
Judgment.
Judgment is not a scalpel; it's a shotgun.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:31
I wrote this down: judgment is not a scalpel. It doesn't just hit the Egyptians. The first three plagues hit everyone. Judgment is not a scalpel; it is a shotgun fired off the bow of a swiftly moving ship. We say we would, let me tell you this, guys, and in case you think, "Well, believers are not ever judged." Wrong. Everyone's going to be judged. Everyone. "Believers are hidden in Christ, so you come out unscathed." Well, you don't even come out unscathed, because he judges all of your works, and whatever was not good gets burned up, and whatever was good remains, right? So you don't even get out unscathed. So if you're going to try to create this narrative, "Well, I'm a believer, and I'm not going to be judged, and he doesn't judge me," I don't know where you get that theological idea. You don't come out unscathed. "Well, only the Egyptians deserve this treatment." Everyone deserved God's judgment unleashed fully on them, but God showed mercy on a remnant because it was his privilege to, not because the Israelites were goody- goody. They were baddy-baddy too. And we say we would lay our life down for our wives and children, but our disobedience, our continual and willful disobedience to God, impacts them like a shotgun fired off the bow of a moving ship, and we don't care, as long as we get what we want when we want it. There was a story of a pastor, and I'm going to try to close, right? There's a story of a pastor; it's one of my favorite stories. I actually did this visual in a sermon, one of the first sermons Brook ever heard me preach at school. I'm surprised we still dated. But there was a pastor; he was at a big church. They had a huge choir loft, 200 choir seats behind him, and he was talking about how we will get what we want, and we don't care what the consequences are, not only to ourselves but to everyone around us.
Did you know that consequences affect everyone in the home? And there's just some built-in consequences of sin. Can I get an amen? There's just built- in, and then there's God-invoked. There's both. The God-invoked one is called discipline. That ain't fun. How many of you remember having a real fun and cool discipline time from your parent? You're like, "Woo, yeah, that was awesome. Praise his holy name." You know, no. No, discipline's not fun, in case you didn't know. And so this guy was talking about our selfishness. He takes a chair from behind him, and with all the force in the world comes swinging this chair and begins smashing it and smashing it and smashing it and smashing it, and picking up more pieces and smashing it, until everyone was aghast, 'cause it was an older man, and he was really sweet. Not like me. He smiled a lot; his temperance was awesome. He was lovey-dovey, and he just went buck wild on this chair that did nothing to him. Did nothing to him. And everyone was aghast, and he kneels down, and he begins to try to peel one of the splinters off of the chair. He peels the splinter off, he puts it in his mouth, and he said, "All I really wanted was a toothpick anyway." For many of us, that's our life.
For many of us, this is how we treat our family and our friends and our church. We'll get what we want at the jeopardy of everyone around us. We will stand on our kids to be satisfied in a moment, and we don't care where the splinters go. Are you with me? Because we're selfish. If you're going to try to put it off on the past, or "I was mistreated," or a multitude of other reasons to give yourself a pass, it's best that you just take a good, hard look at yourself and realize, "I'm selfish, and I need help." You know what today is?
Today is an opportunity to identify your selfishness and call on someone who can help you in spite of you, and his name is Jesus Christ, because as far as it's up to you'll destroy everything around you, and all you really wanted was a toothpick anyway.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 54:27
Are you with me today? And you need help. You need help. And the more you try to do it on your own, the more it will create this behavior of desperation. "Well, how do we not do it on our own?" The word saves. The word purifies. The word glorifies. "Well, I read the word yesterday. I don't feel so glorified." When in life have you done anything once and been perfected in a moment? Like, you know, "Yeah, I need to cut some pounds, and I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill once."
And how many, I was on Instagram the other day. There was this boy; he was a cute little boy, and he was sitting on this, like, leg press, you know, the one that you lay back and you do the leg press. And it was a chubby, cute boy, like, chubby, cute boy. And he does this one leg press, like, and then he racks it, and then he lifts his shirt up and he pushes his belly, and he went like, it didn't fix it. "I did a leg press. I still got the..." It don't work that way. It says, let your word be on your lips; meditate on it day and night. How many of you know that if you tried to live a week, seven days, with one glass of water and one snack, how far would that take you? Would you start feeling puny? Would you start getting hangry? Whenever my wife gets hungry, I'm like, "Eat a biscuit. Eat a Triscuit. Eat something.
Eat something." And I will never say that out loud, because I will be, you know, I mean, I like my life. I like it. But I might look at my wife and be like, "You want to get something to eat?" She knows. She knows it's time. It's eating time. It's eating time. Because sustenance affects your behavior.
This is the bread of life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 57:32
You know why he calls it that? It's your sustenance. And some of you are kind of cranky because you ain't been, you're hangry. You're hangry. How many of you know, and I'm just going to go on, it said that Pharaoh
Point 5We return to what is familiar, even when it kills
Walked home. Just a couple of things that I believe: that some people get into a cycle of behavior, and they don't even know how to get out, because they enjoy the cycle. The reality is Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go. This is my belief system, and I'm not certain about this, but we have the sovereign thing going on, which God hardened or strengthened him in the condition that he's in. But then we also have, you just, because God is sovereignly at work doesn't take away human responsibility. Can I get an amen? And this is the great struggle theologically in the church, is that when we talk about God's sovereignty, then we must strip people of their responsibility. But the Bible doesn't create allowance for that. What the Bible says is that it is God's sovereignty and human responsibility. But what it doesn't allow is that human responsibility reigns over God's sovereignty, okay? It's always God's sovereignty first, but it is not devoid of human responsibility, right? So I'm going to speak to man's responsibility, knowing that God is sovereign. So let's speak to that without just dismantling what I've been saying about God's sovereignty, okay? So just track with me here. All right, let's speak to man's responsibility. We as a person have the tendency to get into cycles of behavior that bring comfort to us, and even when these cycles of behavior are bad, we've lived in them so long we don't know how to get out of them, because comfort is found in what is familiar. All right, I ain't trying to do no psycho-Bible psychology stuff, human secularist stuff, but it's just the nature of mankind.
We are creatures of comfort, and sometimes pain becomes our comfort.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 59:37
All right, we're not averse to pain; we're averse to different kinds of pain. And so I've really been thinking about this week, because I realized in myself that I'm a person who's not averse to pain, but I ran into something this week that was a different pain, and I was averse to that. Oh, just track with me here. And I realized the pain wasn't the issue in and of itself; it was the comfort I had found in what was familiar. And I believe that Pharaoh had found comfort in worshiping certain gods and a lifestyle that he had created, living the way he had lived. And sometimes, even if you are faced with a different reality that is more real than the reality you're living in, that could provide more freedom than the freedom you're living in, that could be more helpful and make you more happy than the happiness you're living in, what was the name of that god? Happy, of the Nile. We will stay in what does not bring life because we're familiar with it.
The longer that I have been in church ministry, the more I realize people hate change, even if that change is for the better, because people will find comfort in misery.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:00:58
That's why, listen to me now, that's why marriages will stay miserable and never move out of a place of being miserable, because they have found comfort in it. They don't know how to get out of it. And honestly, it's less peaceful to actually find true peace. Can I get an amen? And it's subconscious; you don't even know you're doing it. There are certain behaviors, just track with me here, listen to this. Pharaoh walked home like it was no big deal. Why did he return home? That was the question in our small group. Why did he just turn around and walk home after all this? Like, what? That's crazy. He was returning to what comforted him, what he was familiar with. And although he was faced with a reality that could provide that, and with a God that could provide true freedom and true help for him, he turned from that and returned to his vomit like a dog. Why do people keep returning to their vomit like a dog? Because we're familiar with it.
We've made a diet of it, and we don't know how to eat anything else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:02:13
Come on. It's crazy, but it's just normal. Here's a couple points I read by a Christian psychologist. I love these things. They're not for me. Just track with me. Five of them; there was like 25 of them, about why people stay in cycles of pain and behavior. Number one, it becomes a distraction from focusing on the things in their life that God wants them to focus on pertaining to them. Oh man, that was a big one right there. It becomes a distraction. Your misery and the continuation of it becomes a distraction from self-evaluation. Okay, that was a big one; I'll just move on. Number two, drama is something familiar. Unfortunately, some people grew up in dysfunctional homes and within families where addiction and trauma were present. This will create chaos, unclear boundaries, and teach people that engaging in conflict dysfunctionally is the way to behave and live your life. That's all they know. We're drawn to what we know. It is not unusual for people to find themselves in these emotionally loaded scenarios again and again, because they are drawn back into this old stuff, and they may not know how to disengage and detach from all they've known. That's sad. I want people like this to know something different. Number three, chemicals are released in anger and breed an addiction-forming behavior to more anger. Did you know that the levels of chemicals released in a moment of anger are as high as a lot of drugs that are hard drugs? Did you know that the number one cause of cancer is anger? You didn't know that. Fascinating, right? Fascinating. There's a lot of other things that cause cancer, but anger is, it's the chemicals there. It is doing something that's damaging your body. I'm not saying today, if you have cancer, you're an angry person. I'm just saying it's a big cause of it. Today we have stressed-out, angry people in the world. That's why some of you need to get off social media, just so you won't be so angry. Some of you aren't addicted to social media because you like Twitter; some of you are addicted to social media because it makes you angry. This is why I'm thinking about deleting Clash Royale off my phone, because, track with me here, track with me here, I wonder if I'm saved when I play that. I mean, seriously, it's not healthy. And then I told my wife yesterday, I was like, "I really think I need to delete this. It turns me into another human being." I would check that, because it only erupts the human being you are deep down inside. "That's getting personal, Shawn." "Well, you have the mic; you don't have to say this." "Well, then why are you saying this?" "I don't..." "Why are you talking to yourself right now?" "I don't know." And then I realized, somewhere deep down inside, I think I like being annoyed. It's doing something for me, or else I wouldn't do it anymore. Come on now. Come on. Are you with me? You ever had somebody that could take a Facebook post or a Twitter post and figure out how to get mad about it and write something toxic on there, and there ain't nothing to get mad about on that post? Because they found a release of serotonin and other kinds of chemicals in their body from being mad at stuff, so they will find something to be mad at. There are some people that can't get out of the cycle of being mad because it makes them high. Are you with me today? Track with me. Behaviors. And so we return to stuff that doesn't bring life. He returned home to the nile, at the same place, even in his house, with stones and wood filled with water, with blood. He returned to that, no big deal, flippantly, like it wasn't a big deal at all. Why did he return like it wasn't a big deal at all? Because he is more comfortable in something that doesn't bring life than something new. Number four, the drama might give one an exaggerated sense of importance. If one is the object of anger or derision, it could feed a need to be, or to feel like, a vital part of a person's life. Remember the old parent wisdom: be careful not to ignore your kid, because a child will seek bad attention versus no attention at all. Number five, some people's lives feel out of control. And I love this one; it's my favorite one. Some people feel their life is out of control. News flash: everyone's life is out of control. And because they feel like their life is out of control, and it's moving too fast, "and I can't control it's just moving too fast," they will stay in cycles they shouldn't, because it's the car accident phenomenon. Even trauma in the moment slows life down. It hits pause on all of your duties. Are you with me today? How many of you have almost been in a car accident? Trauma, and then everything goes, you know. It's like you can weave in and out. You feel like one of those people in a movie who's doing the impossible, just like stopping time and moving through. I remember we were in Colorado, and I hit my brake on the snow, which you don't do. I slammed it, and my car started sliding sideways, and I went right through traffic. It was amazing. It was slow, and Brook's like... And the car went sideways and back sideways and slipped through. I didn't touch nothing. I went through like four cars, dodging, sliding, and I was like, I looked over, I was like, "That's right." I felt awesome. Yeah, to clean my pants, yeah. I felt awesome, because in trauma, sometimes trauma slows life down, and it's the only break you can get. So then we create trauma to slow life down. Why would Pharaoh do this? I don't know. Maybe some of these, because it's just a natural behavior. Why wouldn't somebody want to move out of something that never gives life, and it isn't real, and it's fake? I don't know. People do it every day. Why wouldn't people want to turn to what really gives life, what really gives peace, what really gives joy? I don't know. There are people all across the world sitting in churches, and some of them continue to find hope in these things that don't satisfy and reject the one thing that will. I don't know. That's just what people do. We're creatures of comfort, of that which is familiar, and that which is familiar, sometimes, although painful, still provides a dividend to us that keeps us in cycles that do not help. Track with me.
It's inconvenient. The inconvenience of deliverance. The inconvenience of freedom. Oh, the inconvenience of being set free. Listen, this was inconvenient for the Israelites. He turned the sand into gnats. That's a lot of gnats. Can you imagine just the little grains of sand just start going... No, thank you. I go camping, and I sit out. My wife loves me to go sit outside. I don't understand this world where we want to go sit outside when we live in a generation where we have air conditioning. But my wife will ask me, for connection, to go sit out on the porch, and if one gnat, if one gnat, if one fly, if one mosquito comes within a 10-foot radius of me, deuces, I'm out. It's amazing that in the deliverance and in their freedom, they were inconvenienced. Don't come to church thinking you're going to give your life to Christ, submit to his ways, follow him to the promised land, and it will be convenient, an easy, paved road. It is not. That's not the gospel. But it is much better to be hidden in him. I'll close with this and I'm done, and I should have been done a long time ago. Listen to this: there was a guy that did a visual of a big glass bottle full of water, and he took an orange, and he peeled all of the peeling off of the orange, and he dropped the orange in there, and the orange went clunk and sunk to the bottom.
And then he took the orange with the orange peel on it, and he put it in there, and it floated. Did you know? And then what I noticed in this specific visual is that both oranges were in there, but one orange was hidden in something else. Both oranges did not escape the world.
There are going to be times in your life where you don't escape the storm, but if you're hidden in Christ, the way the storm affects you is different.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:13:25
So the gospel does not say to you will be saved from the world, or saved from the storm, or saved from the inconvenience, or saved from the trauma, but it promises that the way the trauma and the inconvenience and the storm affect you will be different if you're hidden in Christ. Some of you need a break. Some of you need to stop sinking and being in a sinking situation, and your hope is in Christ and Christ alone. When you're hidden in him, it affects how you navigate through the world.
All the things of the world will still affect you, just differently.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:14:15
Are you with me? Are you with me? And that's the good news of the gospel.
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