Exodus 9:1–12Scripture
We're looking at Exodus 9:1–12 today. While you're looking that up, we had a wonderful trip to Honduras. My wife was able to go with me this time. We gave away 600 of what we call Wycliffe OBSs, which is Open Bible Stories. In other words, it's the Bible, but it's illustrated as well, and so they have little bitty stories with pictures. And we were able to give that. We drove to three different locations, three different villages around Honduras. The drive was rough. Kirk would have loved it, because you had to have four-wheel drive to get there. And my back got obliterated from the drive. I mean, it was rough. It was rough. But as we were driving up, the pastor that was taking us there was telling us that his father, at the first village we were going to, his father, on his honeymoon, walked for three days to get up to that location and planted the first church, well, the only church that's still there. It was like 30 years ago. Well, it was 40 years ago, wasn't it? And so we were going to the church he originally planted from walking there and preaching just straight in the village, just door to door. And so they planted that church 40 years ago, and we were actually able to go to that church that was in the village. And they had never had anything, no party, no meal. Everything's scarce there. Food's scarce. Everything's scarce. And then the mayor of that village, the mayor of that village, shut everything down. And
Introduction
So all the kids had been waiting for, I think, three hours for us to get there, in chairs. And there were, I can't remember, like 380 kids in that first village, all sitting in chairs. It was pretty astounding. For three hours, like every chair in here filled, sitting there for three hours. And when we came in, they were still sitting there, just waiting. And then they had to wait an hour for us to set up. So it was pretty amazing, right? The attention span of the kids, that's what happens when you don't have TVs and mobile devices, I guess. Like, staring at the wall is fun. But it was pretty amazing to be able to hear all the kids reading the Bible in their language. It was pretty awesome. And so that was one of three. We went to two other places, and that was a wonderful experience. Very blessed to have done that. I'll share a video here soon with you guys, and you can watch that. Not this morning, I don't have time. But anyway, it was a wonderful opportunity. You helped and you didn't know it. You bought all the crayons for the coloring books, so thank you for that. And so let's read Exodus 9, verses 1–12. It says, "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews."'" Just kind of a side note: whenever you speak to people about the Lord and the things that the Lord says, do you know God's Word enough to speak clearly what he says? I mean, Moses knew exactly what God said, and when he went and spoke to somebody else, he was able to say exactly what God said. I wonder today, if it is true, if it is true that we live in the most biblically illiterate generation, and that seems to be what people say today, and if we're illiterate, how many of our conversations, when we speak on God's behalf, are actually speaking his words or our words? Because if you're not informed by what he says, and you're speaking to other people about God and what he feels, are you speaking clearly? And could it be that we are still instilling in the hearts of men and women false idols, based on our lack of knowledge of what God has said? It is interesting, because simple things like "Thus says the LORD." How many times have you said, "God said," and you're not really sure if he said it? I mean, one thing we know for certain is that if it came from here, we know God said it. Everything else gets a little hairy. Amen. Regardless of what you think about how God speaks, everything else outside of what's black and white. I'm not even talking about, what people tend to do in the church is we tend to base our life and build constructs out of what we consider in the margins of Scripture, not actually what's there in black and white.
For instance, much of our conversation in small groups has a tendency, and this is not bad, so I'm not saying, "Oh, bad on you," but we have a tendency to default most of our conversation to considerations, meanderings, wonderings, what-if questions, rather than what's actually in the text. "Well, I wonder why Pharaoh did this,"
And we talk about it for 15 minutes in the small group. "Well, I wonder why the bull was there." Is it bad to wonder? No. It might be fitting for us, though, to ask the question: Why is it that we avoid what's written and meander off into considerations, and then answer those questions not really knowing for fact? We just think it might be this, or we think it might be that. I have found that because we live so long in conjecture, and in the margins, and not in the black and white, most of our theological positions and our theological constructs are built off of the margins of Scripture, not what actually is there. And this then becomes problematic for the life of a believer, because we reproduce what we are, and we are reproducing then people who are not living according to God's Word but according to our meanderings about God's Word. And then we go and we disciple other people in our meanderings, and honestly, it's not truth. Truth is what we label the boring stuff that's written, that we try to avoid so we can meander into something more fun. Are you with me today? And we have a tendency to do this. But if it's in the black and white, that's the story God's trying to tell. And so then when we go and we have discussion with other people, the goal would be to say what he says, not wonder about what he didn't say. Moses then gives us instruction here, not to get too far off, because this ain't in my notes, but I just can't get past it: "Thus says the LORD." He doesn't say, "I wonder what God might have been thinking when he said this to me, Pharaoh." No, he says, "Thus says the LORD."
Let us base our life on what he said, not on wondering why he said it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:57
Okay. "Let my people go, that they may serve me." Everybody say, "Serve me." Serve who?
God. "For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the LORD, excuse me, will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die." And everybody said, amen. Because if you're his people, if you're part of the remnant, if you've been grafted in, praise God, what does he do? He marks you with distinction. That's good news. "And the LORD set a time, saying, 'Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.' And the next day the LORD did this thing." Shocker. He did what he said he's going to do. That's why it's so important today to know what he says he's going to do. That's why it's so important we don't stay illiterate. That's why it's important that we open the Word. We don't have to wonder who God is. We don't have to wonder what he's going to do. We don't have to wonder about these things. We have it here in black and white. He has told us these things.
Our hope comes from knowing these things.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:33
"And the LORD set a time, saying, 'Tomorrow.'" "All the livestock of Egypt died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go." Oopsy daisy. "And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.'" Many think the kiln is the brick kiln that was used to make the bricks. It was part of an oppression thing. It had become a tool of oppression for the Israelites. They took soot from that tool and they threw it in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. "It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt." So far, just FYI, I think this one is the worst. That's just my opinion. You can pick whichever plague you think's the worst. I think this one's bad. I mean, all over. Can't sit down. Can't lay down. Can't stand. Can't walk. Can't do nothing. Can't even do the worm. Like, they're everywhere. Boils everywhere. This is really nasty. Really nasty. "So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses." What man does not break at this point? I've known some pretty hard men. I've known some pretty stubborn and hard-headed ladies and men. Not just men. It's not just men. Can I get an amen? It's women too, right? It's both. It's both. See what I did there? Okay, anyway. It's both. And the reality is God had hardened, because most people would break. Most people would break. But God's not done telling his story. Oh, man. Oh, to be on the side of hardening, and to know that God is still trying to tell a story, and his story is being played out through your hardening. Oh, man. What a bummer. What a bummer that would be, to be that. Oh, thank the Lord that he calls. Oh, thank the Lord that he has mercy. Oh, thank the Lord that he redeems. I have a few things I want to talk about. Three points, to keep it easy
Point 1Idol worship is service in reverse
And keep it very simple, and we'll just book our way through this real quick. First point is this, for note-takers out there: idol worship is service in reverse. Now, I think this is particularly important, because we have heard this phrase over and over again: "Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness." That's what it says here. It says, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." Now, we know that God at this particular phase comes at the herds and the livestock. There is a bull that was a very popular bull in Egypt. It was called Apis. And this bull was an idol. And here's what the bull idol accomplished for the people. Here, in fact, is how this bull, or this god, or this idol, served the people. Are you with me? Are you catching the parallel between the two?
See, God wants us to be set free from bondage that we may serve him freely.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:11
Who are we serving? God. We construct idols that those idols might serve us. And that's completely different. One, we serve God. And when we refuse to serve God, what we tend to do in that refusal to serve God is that we construct idols that would then serve us, which make us God in and of ourselves. And this idol, this bull idol, here's what it did. It was a fertility god, concerned with the propagation and, more importantly, the multiplication of grain and herds, so that the livestock would multiply. They would propagate. They would increase. They would have more. And so then God comes at this god. I think this is extremely fascinating. I think it's really fascinating, because he's not just coming at that god by attacking the herds, which they had a god for, which was supposed to serve them and multiply the herds. But he's coming at the fact that they had constructed something to serve them, when we were designed and built and created to serve God and serve him only. Now, it is easy then today, as we read this, to look at this story and say, "What kind of lunacy are we reading about, that people would have multiple gods and serve multiple gods?" And what kind of lunacy, then, after all of this, after going through the plagues, after being released from the land, we know, because we've heard the stories by seeing them played out on felt boards when we were kids, if you've been in the church any amount of time, that when they get out there and Moses goes up to the top of the mountain, they build a bull like Apis.
What kind of lunacy is this, right? And all of us can point our accusing crooked finger at the Israelites, but the reality is many of us have created false idols in our personal life, and worshiped and danced around them, and curved our life around them, and shaped our life around these things we adore, hoping that they will serve us rather than us serve God. And we have entered into the lunacy that we judge when we read this story, in our daily lives. It's a problem. It's a problem. Many of us don't want to serve the Lord because there's a cost to serving him. How many of you know that's true? I mean, eight. And you know, you're scared to hold your hand up, but it's a cost. And I personally believe, and maybe I'm crazy, I don't really believe we have an aversion to service. I don't believe we have an aversion to service at all. I don't think the issue is serving. We don't have a problem serving at all when it's us we're serving. I mean, that's easy. Time? If I'm spending that on me, ain't no problem. Money? If I'm spending that on me, if I'm getting the new thing on Amazon Prime that I want, ain't no problem. Don't even need to check the bank account. Guaranteed I'll spend it on that thing I've been hoping for. Ching! No problem. Offering time at church? "Not sure I got the money." You just paid for a $10 hot dog at the baseball game the night before. Are you with me today? And the problem is not the offering. That's not what I'm talking about. The problem is the dichotomy between you easily spending on self and having a hard time giving to the things of God. That's the problem. The problem is not the amount. It's none of that. The problem is, the evidential fruit of what you truly serve is seen in these moments.
We don't have a problem serving. We have a problem serving God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:22
We definitely don't have a problem serving self. We give much less consideration to the time we commit, the finances we invest, and all other inconveniences that come along with self-serving.
It is only when people are called to serve God that they begin to agonize over the cost of that service.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:38
That's a problem. That's idol worship.
You know what I believe? I believe the biggest idol we wrestle with is self.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:49
And that's way more lunacy than making a bull. That's way crazier than making a bull. It's worse. It's worse. Did you know that there's a nefarious nature to idol worship? Perhaps what's more nefarious about idol worship is that it is not blatantly obvious to the human perception, because we've done what Ezekiel warned us about in his 14th chapter, regarding those who came to see him for a word from the Lord. We set up idols in our hearts and still come to inquire of the Lord, because we believe that what we have put in our hearts is actually the Lord's stuff. And we've done this through self-deception and cultural acclimation, and it's a problem. 1 John 5:21 says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." John then ends his letter. In other words, don't see anything but God's glory in Christ as the source of your greatest joy, deepest satisfaction, and highest authority. Did you know that idolatry is even present inside of a church service? I mean, just listen for a little while. Idolatry can be active in the hearts even when we're gathering at church. Whenever I think I can't meet God unless X is present in a service, I'm making a profound statement. If X is anything other than Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, I've moved into idolatrous territory. Okay, moving on to the next sub-point: insufficiency and idolatry. Idolatry is birthed in a life that feels the Bible is insufficient, God doesn't do what we want, or that the Christian life proves to not be what we signed up for. That's the best way I could summarize it. Idolatry is birthed in a life that feels the Bible is not good enough. "So I need 10 ways to help me have a better marriage, because the Bible is not sufficient. God's got to say something to me outside of this, because this ain't sufficient to help me today." So we create an idol. You know what's even more bizarre? This is what's even crazier. Here's what's even crazier. What's even crazier is that we will make an idol of the Holy Spirit. "Well, how can you do that, Shawn? Because the Holy Spirit is God." But in the church, we have a tendency to worship at the foot of the Holy Spirit while rejecting God the Father and God the Son. Or there are movements that only celebrate Jesus and ignore the Holy Spirit, ignore God. Did you know you can't pick apart the part of the Godhead you want and worship at the foot of that? That's an idol. Because if you get the Holy Spirit, you get the other two parts, which are one. This is why hyper-grace movements have made Jesus the bull they dance around, while rejecting and unhitching themselves from the God of the Old Testament. Jesus was there. Jesus signed off on everything. He was there in the beginning. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the Spirit? Oh, he was there, hovering over the face of the deep. How dare we worship one part? It would be like you coming and worshiping Brook's leg, or trying to have a relationship with Brook's leg while rejecting the rest of her. And she starts talking, and you put your finger up to her lips and say, "Shh, we don't need to hear anything from you." That was a little crazy example. I should probably prepare these examples. You know what, I should probably prepare these examples. You know, it's like, "I only care about the leg. Hear nothing from those lips." You know what I mean? Like, that's crazy. You take the whole person. And another person, like, that's crazy. That's insane. But idolatry is present in the church. And idolatry is self-glory.
We'd rather have a god we can readily understand, easily appease, and instantly command.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:59
Idolatry is about self-glory as much as it's about rejection of God's glory. Everyone in here today is guilty of using their imaginary redaction pen. And for those of you who don't know what that is, if you've ever seen on TV, a lawyer will ask the FBI for information for a case they have, and the FBI will send them documents that are classified, documents with a bunch of black marks from a black pen, redacting everything in the document. Have you ever seen that? Like 90% of the document's redacted, and you can't read it, but you got what you needed. The rest is classified. I don't think that any of us here who've been in the church for any amount of time, even if it's more than one week, would be guilty of going, "Don't like that," and ripping that out of our Bible. That's a little too bold, to be like, "Don't like that page. Don't like that page. Don't like half that page." You know what I mean? Like, we're not going to do that. But we use our imaginary redaction pen.
And the reality is we lift high Scriptures that we like, and we forget about, we redact, those that don't line up with what we want to believe.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:25
I would ask how many of you are guilty of that, but all of you are guilty of that. I'm guilty of that. We're all guilty of that.
You know what is important? It's not to be perfect, but to realize where we're broken.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:48
And many of us, through our imaginary redaction pen, are guilty of building a belief system that makes us comfortable. That's idol worship. It's idol worship. It's making an idol of the Bible, because it's not his truth. It's your redacted truth. Did you know that idolatry is a rabbit hole? Tim Keller says this: "We never break the other commandments without first breaking the first one." I would go on to further say, it's pretty much, I mean, the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So what does that tell us? All of us have an idol problem. So how come he saves Israel and not Egypt? They got an idol problem too, in case you didn't know. Because he just decided to. That's just his, it wasn't because they were so much better and the Egyptians were so much worse. Don't get caught in that kind of trap. God just does what he wants. If you put it on merit, none of you will be saved. If we put it on merit, none of us will be saved. You'd better believe none of us. I mean, I kind of hang out with myself a lot. Hold on, that will hit you when you go home. You all hang out with yourself a lot, right? You're around yourself a lot, which means you know you, and you know there is no hope based on the merit of you. I mean, not only do you know you, but if you're married, you definitely are known. Not the ambassador of you that you send out in the world, that wears his Sunday best and always is smiling and is always on. He's always on. Your spouse sees the off part of you. And in case you didn't know, if you have children, you've all been outed at the most inopportune time. I mean, because they have no filter. Like, kids have no filter. They will out you in front of the people that you want to impress the most. They will make you look like a Neanderthal in three seconds. And then you will get on to them as if it's their fault that you're messed up, because what they said wasn't wrong. It was truth. And the reality is, in life we have an aversion to truth, because we would rather continue to live in the lie.
And the longer we live the lie, and the longer we tell the lie, the easier it is for us to believe the lie.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:14
It's a problem. Point number two, now that I'm out of my sub-points: Why do they have to be let go to serve God? That's my question. And I don't believe this is a margin contemplation. I think we have biblical proof and protocol that teach us about why. Now, I know, because I listened back to J.R.'s sermon, and I had already prepared to say this, maybe not before him, but I said it, I prepared it before he said it. But then I found out Cameron also said it, so evidently we need to say it three times. So I know Pastor J.R. Already talked about this, and I just decided I'd take out most of it, and I know Cameron talked about it on Wednesday night, and maybe some of you talked about it in small group, but I'm going to talk about it again. Why do they have to be let go?
Point 2There is a protocol to serving God
Number one, sub-point A: there is a protocol to service. You don't just serve any old way you please, any old time you please, any old way you please. In case I want to just repeat it: any way you please. There's a protocol. There's a protocol. When God, there's one, God heals groups of 4,000, groups of 5,000. He does this several times. Not heals, when he feeds. There's several feedings in the Bible, right? And in one of the feedings, he actually tells the disciples to sit people down in groups of 50. There's protocol. And then he gives instruction about how they should be fed, about who should be feeding and who should be, and then what is to be done with the leftovers. There is a protocol to the miracle. Now, the good news is, before we go off into crazy land and be like, "Well, the reason I haven't received my healing is I haven't identified the protocol, and once I do the protocol, then i'll get my healing," be careful with that. Careful with that, because that's not necessarily the case. Don't use your redaction pen and redact everything else in the Bible, when God just heals people because he wants to heal people, and there is no protocol, because God just decided to do it. He didn't give a command first. When he sees the man with the withered hand, what does he tell the man with the withered hand? He gives him protocol: "Stretch out your hand." There's protocol. There's a command.
Listen, we only have an aversion to commands when it doesn't serve us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:58
We have no problem stretching out our hand when it's withered and we need it healed. Why is it that we want to unhitch from commands? Because it's us serving him and not him serving us. Are you with me today? There's a protocol. There's a protocol to worship. There's a protocol to prayer. There's a protocol. Some of you don't know the protocol. Some of you have built your own protocol, and that's why you can't get through in prayer, because you don't know the protocol. That's why you can't get through in worship, because you don't know the protocol. That's why your worship doesn't hit higher than the ceiling, because you don't know the protocol. What's the protocol? "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise." There's a protocol. But many people in the church don't know the protocol, and we live in a very unthankful generation. Can I get an amen? We're ungrateful. I mean, you don't go on Twitter and see a bunch of people going, "Oh, thank you. I want to thank the Lord today for this, that and the other."
No, we have grumpy, crotchety people. Listen, people, you don't have to wait till you're 80 to get crotchety. I'm not saying every 80-year-old is crotchety, but that's who we attribute crotchetiness to, the older generation. People are crotchety at 15 now. We don't know how to thank. It didn't say, "Hey, wait till you feel thankful, and then praise him." No, he says, "Thank me," period. "Well, I don't feel it." Sorry about you. Thank him. Thanksgiving does
Point 3You can't serve two masters
Something. It does something.
It identifies who's worthy of glory. Not you. Him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:11
Why do they have to be let go to serve God? Because you can't serve two masters. Oh, man.
Some of you are incapable of serving God because you're still serving Satan.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:32
Are you with me today? And God is a jealous God, and there will be no other before him. And your service isn't service to God if you're trying to serve God while you're serving Satan.
Point 4God marks his people with distinction
Sorry. Not popular preaching. Sorry. I mean, you know what I mean. Number three, I called it a marked distinction. These are just the three things that I pulled out of this. There's hundreds more that we could talk about in here. It says, "But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die." John Piper says this: "The most basic distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is not new decisions of the will, deeds of the hand, or doctrines in the mind, but a new delight in the heart." I'm going to say it again: "The most basic distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is not new decisions of the will, deeds of the hand, or doctrines of the mind, but a new delight in the heart." Notice the distinction. Who is it that gives us a new heart? God. Oh, come on now. We're like, "You know what? I'm a Christian. I'm going to be distinct. I'm going to be set apart. Now I'm going to quit this. I'm going to quit that. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to do this. I'm going to be distinct." Distinct, or distinct, I don't know. "That's what I'm going to be." It's not an act of the will. It's not an act of contrition. It's none of those things. God does it. God distinguishes. Notice here, even in the Old Testament, God distinguishes. He creates the distinction. It is not you willing yourself there. He does it. And we understand that he's created a distinction with the people, but furthermore, he's created a distinction with the possessions of the people. Are you with me? That there's a distinction. It is not just that the people are distinct, but everything that's attached to the people has become distinct. Why? You can't do this by will. God does this. He does it. Your house, if you're a believer, not only are you distinct, but everything attached to you is distinct. Come on. Have you ever had somebody come into your house and say, "It just feels peaceful in here"? What is that? It's distinction. The house in and of itself, the drywall, the wood, it ain't special. That wood that built your house wasn't pulled off the ark, and now, oh, it's holy and safe from every storm, now that you have ark wood, gopher wood, that made your house, literally ripped off the ark. They found the archaeological remains of the ark, Noah's ark, and they built your house, and now whenever there's a storm, just come to my house, because you won't even notice the storm is there, 'cause my house has got special wood and special drywall and special electric and special everything. It's a special house, and that's why you feel it. Matter of fact, we put a lot of stuff in the air to make people feel like they're happy. No. A believer is not just distinct, but their house is distinct. Why? Because different things happen in that house. Different conversations happen in that house.
We're distinct not because we choose to be, not because we will to be, but because he's given us a new heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:48
Your car is different. I mean, not just in the physical world, but in the spiritual one too. It's different. The reality is, physically, it smells different. It sounds different. It is different. The music is different. It's different. It's different physically, and it's different spiritually. For many of us, our car is a place of prayer. For many of us, it's a place where we meet Jesus. Then when someone who is far from Christ comes into that car is different than other cars they've ridden in. It's not just different physically. It's not just different in the way that your gates receive it, your ear gate, your eye gate, your nose gate, and your mouth gate. It's not just different in the way that your gates receive that car. It's different in the spiritual aspect, because that car, by God, has been set apart, because you have been set apart. And you won't be set apart without everything attached to you being set apart. Are you with me today? Moses was set apart. He had a staff. Everything that was attached to him was set apart, even his staff. Are you with me today? It became distinct. It was a normal staff that a shepherd would have, but God gave it distinction. Why did God give the staff distinction? Because he gave Moses distinction. How dare we think we can live in a world where we claim that God has made us a distinct people, but everything attached to us is not? Our house is like hell. Our car is like hell. Our workplace we make like hell. Our phone is treated like hell. Our TV, we use it and we pipe out hell. Our family gatherings, hell. But we're distinct? I think not. This is the promise:
God makes distinct what's attached to who he's made distinct.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:25
Oh, man. And in case you too quickly forget, the Israelites did nothing to save their livestock. It was God that prevented his wrath from destroying them. This is God's business. They could, listen, I wrote this as a joke, so I didn't know if I was going to say this or not, but I wrote it kind of as a joke to myself, for myself, and I thought I'll throw it in there, it'd be funny. Don't take this wrong, because I've prayed this. I ain't trying to hit on nobody. I mean, I'm not trying to make a hit, you know what I mean? They could not even pray, the israelites, a hedge of protection around their livestock even if they wanted to, because they didn't know the plague was coming. Mind blown. Did you know God is working things out you can't even pray a hedge of protection for?
Did you know that God is saving before you can even pray for him to save?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:50
Did you know his saving work begins before your cry? I mean, it's important. It is God who gets the glory. Not you, not me. God gets the glory. They couldn't even pray for him to help.
He was already helping. That's good. Why is this important? Because this is who he is. He's coming before you know he needs to come. He's already on the job. You can trust him. This does not guarantee that God will always protect you from hardship, because that's where we want to go with this. We start taking out our imaginary redaction pen. We start ignoring all the times that the apostles were punished, and all the hardships that people face, and we go, "Well, God's always saving, and always protecting, and always distinguishing, and always guarding." And just, he protects the livestock, he protects the people, and then he lets all of them die off in the desert. Don't redact that and then build a theological preface that says, "He'll always deliver. He'll always remove me from the storm. He'll always help. He'll always heal. He'll always do it." Where's that? Don't be guilty of taking this verse, lifting it high, and using your imaginary redaction pen to mark out the rest of Scripture that doesn't look similar to this, because that's making this an idol of your own design.
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