Surprising Expectations

Sermon Transcript

There is nothing quite so painful and as disappointing as unmet expectations. Unmet expectations happen in our life all the time. Perhaps you're taking a new job and you're all excited about the new job and you take the job and it didn't turn out to be what you thought the job was going to be. And you say to yourself in your heart, "I didn't know it was going to be like this." Or perhaps you're single and you got engaged and you're looking forward to marriage and you get married and about five weeks into the marriage, you say, "I didn't think it was going to be like this." Or perhaps you've been waiting for that first child to be born and you're so excited about that child that's going to be brought into the world and then the child comes, you bring the child home and shortly thereafter you say, "Didn't think it was going to be like this."

Or perhaps you have a special sports team that you like to follow and you think to yourself, "Didn't think it was going to be like this." Unmet expectations in our life happen all the time. They happen on a micro level, they happen on a macro level, when we expect something that does not produce itself in the way we think that it's going to happen. And oftentimes this especially happens when it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ, because for many of us we're told that if we simply believe the gospel, which is the fact that God the Father loved us so much that He sent His son to be the savior of the world.

Jesus Christ, the God man, died on the cross for all your sins. He was buried in a grave and three days later He rose. If you realize and recognize you're a sinner and that Jesus Christ is the only one that can forgive your sin and you repent and believe in Christ, He will come in and dwell you through His Holy Spirit, He will be with you forever and the devil can't touch you anymore. That is a fact.

However, we sometimes falsely believe that if I believe that fact, then everything in my life should line up and go well from here on out. If I'm a Christian, then my marriage should just work. If I'm a Christian, then my kid should just follow the Lord. And if I'm a Christian, my job should just succeed. And if I'm a Christian, my financial markers will continue to get better and better. And if I'm a Christian, I'll gain more influence and more friends and nothing will ever stop me if I'm a Christian. But I think there's some surprising expectations that the Bible teaches us about our relationship with Christ.

And the simple fact is this, God not only wants to see you saved, God wants to see you fully alive in Christ, completely delivered, completely walking in freedom. And to get there, there are some stages and steps that you must go through in order to see God fully alive and at work. And yet, for many of us, we are so surprised by what happens to us that many times the enemy uses that to get us to turn back and to blame the wrong people and to become upset with God, when all along we shouldn't be surprised by what God is actually saying.

Have you ever wondered what does it look like to truly follow the Lord? And what can I expect if I step forth with the Lord? I believe God has a word for you today. We're going to begin in Exodus chapter 5. We're going to cover a lot of ground this morning. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 5 and Exodus chapter 6 through verse 27. And I want to tell you about five expectations you can have that when you begin to step out in faith with the Lord, these are five expectations you can have that will happen in the life of every single believer.

They will happen to you individually. For instance, if you're here and you don't know the Lord personally and you decide you're going to take a step of faith and trust Christ, you can experience all five of these. If you're steeped in addiction or there's a habitual sin pattern and you say, "I know I'm a Christian, but I want to get free from this," and you take a step of faith, you will see this happen. This is also true for those of those you who are called by God, which is all of you by the way, to help serve others in the body of Christ. And you want to see other people set free in the way that you've experienced freedom. These are five expectations you can have too.

Moses should have been aware of these five expectations, but unfortunately, at the time of his calling, he didn't have Exodus 5 and 6 written for him. He had to write it, penned by the Holy Spirit. So we have some information here that he wasn't privy to that we can look at and understand. When I take a step of faith, when I go after God, when I'm following His calling, what are some of the expectations that I can have that are realistic? Surprising expectations that aren't always taught in the body of Christ that will be helpful to us?

And the first is this. You should expect that when you take a step of faith, you should expect extraordinary opposition, extraordinary opposition. The enemy will fortify his position. When you take a step of faith, the enemy will fortify, he'll strengthen his position and you will experience opposition. Now, notice at the end of chapter four, what happened was Moses met Aaron, they went into the people of Israel. They told this group of people that had been in bondage for 400 plus years.

"God knows your pain. God told us about your pain. God sent us to you and you're going to be delivered." And what did the people say? "Hallelujah. We've been in bondage for 400 plus years. Finally, we're going to get out." And you would think, "Great. Step two, let's go tell Pharaoh and then let's get out of this land." And that's where our story picks up. It says, "And afterward, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. Let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness."

So Moses was obedient, he told the people of Israel with Aaron, "You're going to be free." Second step, just go tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast in the wilderness." So he's being obedient in everything God's calling him to do thus far. But notice the first word of verse 2. But. But, Pharaoh said, the king of Egypt said, He's not going to go along with this. He says, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and besides, I will not let Israel go."

What's he say? "Who is this Lord? Lord who?" Moses was just revealed in the desert, the great I AM, the one who created everything, the one who sustains all things, the one who created Pharaoh, the one who put the world into existence in six literal days without any help. The one who's a covenant keeping God, that one. And what does Pharaoh say, "Lord who? Not only don't I know him, I don't care. I'm not going to let your people go." Moses is facing opposition because he's being obedient, and notice what happens.

Then they said, this is Moses and Aaron. "The God in the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." So in other words, Moses and Aaron are saying, "I don't think you're hearing us here. We just told you the God of the universe told you to let our people go, let His people go and you're not listening. You need to listen because if you don't listen, we're giving you the whole counsel of God. Pestilent or the sword is coming." In other words, "Disease or death is coming your way."

If you don't follow God's command, there is a punishment for that. It's much like when we share the gospel. It is fact to tell people that God loved the world so much that He sent His son to die in the cross for all your sins, that you can be completely forgiven, that you can be completely redeemed, and that you don't have to do anything to earn it. You just repent, admit that you're a sinner and turn to Christ and Christ will come running to you and fill you with forgiveness. That's fact.

However, when people say, "Yeah, I don't want that." Then we go on and say, "If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, either passively or aggressively and you don't trust Him on this side of heaven, He will say, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you." There is a punishment for your sin. There is hell, a real place where real people go by the droves every single day who don't believe that Jesus is the Christ."

We tell them the whole truth. That's what Moses and Aaron are telling Pharaoh. Are they telling the truth? You're going to see in the coming chapters, they're telling the truth. You're going to see 10 plagues poured out on Egypt because of Pharaoh's hardness of heart. But that doesn't do anything for Pharaoh right now. Notice what it says in verse 4, "But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work?" Get back to your labors." What's he saying? "Quit wasting my time, you work for me."

As a matter of he's going to double down. Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors." Here's what he's saying. "Those people are not God's people. Those people are my people. They work for me." Many times people are oppressed by people in this world because if you're not living for God, you'll think that other people owe you something. Some of you have a boss that thinks that they own you. Some of you have a teacher that think that they own you.

Some of you have a neighbor or an HOA, they think they own you. Nobody owns anybody. Pharaoh falsely believe that those people belong to him. All people belong to whom? God. He's telling Moses and Aaron, even though he's hearing, "Hey, God's talking to you," He's like, "I'm not listening. I don't know your God and I don't care about your God. Here's what I do know. Those people work for me. Get back to work. I'm tired of your little rallies you're having behind my back. I'm tired of you telling them they're going to be delivered. I'm telling you right now that's not going to happen."

And notice what he does in verse six. "So the same day the Pharaoh commanded the task masters over the people and their foreman saying, "You are no longer to give the people straw to make bricks as previously, let them go and gather straw for themselves." But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall still impose on them. You are not to reduce any of it because they are lazy. Therefore, they cry out. "Let us go sacrifice to our God." Let the labor be heavier on men and let them work as it so that they will pay no attention to false words."

Here's what he was saying. "If Israel's been obedient and quiet already, if we turn the heat up, they'll be even more obedient and quiet. I'm going to oppress them even more." That's what he says. In other words, "Same quota of bricks, you just don't get straw to make bricks." Straw help fortify the bricks and make it stronger. "Now you get the same quota of bricks, but you get your own straw. We're not going to provide straw for you." So now they got double duty. Now they not only have to make the same amount of bricks every day, they got to go find straw to make their bricks.

Now, let me ask you a question before we get into the text a little more. Who is the one that's oppressing Israel? Is it Moses and Aaron or is it Pharaoh? It's Pharaoh. He's the one that's oppressing them. Now Pharaoh is making it worse saying, "I'm taking your straw away, but you're still required to do the same amount of stuff." Here's the reality. He says, "Don't listen to their false words." What does Pharaoh consider false words? The word of God. All nonbelievers consider the word of God false words.

We could talk about any single topic that the Bible makes clear about what the truth is. Jesus said in John 8:31 and 32, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." It's truth that sets people free. It's error that puts people in, non believing people believe error, non believing people think that true words are actually false words. That Pharaoh is saying what God is saying through Aaron and Moses are false words. They're not false words. No truer words have ever been spoken.

And what happens is, and you'll see it in life, when nonbelievers are confronted with the true God, oftentimes nonbelievers get defiant. And when nonbelievers get defiant, they live in oppression and try to keep other people in oppression too. You'll see it in our world politically, you'll see it in our world in the educational system. You'll see it in our world in sports. You'll see it in our world in your neighborhood, you'll see it everywhere. When truth confronts a person that doesn't want the truth, they get defiant. And because they get scared of the truth, they're living in oppression and they want other people to live in oppression, so they make it harder for them.

That's exactly what Pharaoh was doing here. You need to understand when you step out in faith, there's extraordinary opposition, extraordinary opposition. Notice what happens next, versus 10 and following. "So the task masters of the people and their foreman went out and spoke to the people." Now they're going to deliver the message that Pharaoh's telling them, "Thus says, Pharaoh, "I'm not going to give you any straw. You can go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but none of your labor will be reduced." So the people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmaster pressed them saying, "Complete your work quota, your daily amount just as when you had straw."

Now here's where it's going to get worse. "Moreover, the foreman of the sons of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmaster had set over them were beaten and were asked, "Why have you not completed the required amount either yesterday or today in making bricks as previously?" So Pharaoh tells his foreman, "Go out and tell Israel my command." They go out and tell Israel the command. And those under them, the Israelite foreman that are watching over them are getting beaten and yelled at because the people of God can't complete the work. It's impossible. They don't have the resources necessary to do it. What's he doing? He's putting them in greater and greater oppression. He's keeping them down.

Let me just tell you something. When you take a step of faith, I don't care what it is, you could be leaving an addiction, you could sense hope coming in your life, you're you're getting free. You want to follow Christ, you want to trust God with your marriage. You want to trust God with your singleness and live for Him. Wherever you take a step, I guarantee you that's the place where Satan will turn up the heat.

If you don't believe me, try this. For those of you that would say, "I need to read my Bible just a little bit more, I need to pray just a little bit more. I need to give just a little bit more." Start doing it and see what happens. Start doing it. "I need to begin tithing. Tithe." By the end of this month you'll say, "Where's all the promises? How come my bank account's not filled?" "Hey, step out and serve in children's as God prompts you to do that." And you'll step into it and you'll feel oppression and you'll ask yourself the question, "I didn't think it was going to be like this. I don't know why I got involved in that."

Join a small group where you're going to experience blissful community in the body of Christ and you'll ask yourself, "Why did I get involved in this?" Every time you take a step of faith, the enemy will do something to pull you back and oppress you. Don't think something strange is happening to you. Just keep on believing. And here's the reason why. When God's going to do something big, the enemy turns up the heat even more. I've been told that big giants don't guard small treasures. The bigger the calling is, the bigger the activity is, the more God wants to do, the more heat that you'll feel from the enemy being turned up.

The more you take a deeper walk in your faith, the greater oppression you'll feel. You'll see tangible warfare, discouragement, despair, confusion. That's just the way the enemy works. And just so you know, in case you grew up in a church like I did that never talked about Satan, didn't really consider Satan, a lot of people said he's not really a being. Let me tell you this. He's a real being. That is a fallen being, that is a powerful being, but is not nearly as powerful as the Almighty God. Not even on the same par. But he is real, which means you don't need to fear him, but you do need to be aware of him because he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

And I'm telling you, wherever it is that you take a step in your faith, "I'm going to honor God like this." The enemy will turn up the heat and make it harder for you, just like he did for Israel when Moses and Aaron got there to set the people free.

Second thing you shouldn't be surprised by is this. You should expect elaborate deception. Just elaborate deception because the enemy will lie to God's people. The enemy's always lying to God's people. Now, we're aware because John 8:44 says that, "The enemy is the father of lies." Every time he opens his mouth, he lies. That's his superpower. If you're a believer he can't touch you, but he can lie to you. And we realize he's always lying to nonbelievers and blinding them to the truth and plugging their ears so they can't see the light and the glory of God.

But I want to tell you this, he lies to believers all the time. You know how I know that? Because he is lying to you right now. He constantly lies to us to get us to get a motive about things that aren't even true. That's why we need to be so aware of what the word of God says and be obedient to it. Notice what happens here, "Then the foreman, the sons of Israel came and they cried out to Pharaoh." Again, who's the one keeping them in bondage? Pharaoh or Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh's keeping them in bondage. When the straw gets taken away, who do they cry to? Pharaoh. Pharaoh's the one's keeping them in bonded.

Just weird that they would go there, isn't it? Satan's deceived them in getting them to think that Moses and Aaron caused their problem. So now they're going to go complain to the very one that's made it hard on them. And so they're going to complain. They say, "Why do you deal with us in this way as your servants? There is no straw given to your servants yet they keep saying to us, "Make bricks," and behold your servants are being beaten but it is the fault of your own people." And this is Pharaoh's response. But he said, "You're lazy, very lazy. Therefore, you say, "Let us go sacrifice to the Lord." He's taunting them. He's like, "Hey, quit this sacrifice to the Lord stuff. You're just being lazy. Don't blame me for getting beaten. Don't blame me for not doing your job. You're the one that brought all this on yourself."

So he says, "So now go and work for you will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of the bricks." And notice what happens? "The foreman of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, "You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks." When they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them." So Moses and Aaron are waiting outside. They leave Pharaoh and look who they're upset with. They said to Moses and Aaron, "May the Lord look upon you and judge you for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hands to kill us."

Now, just at the end of last chapter, they were all rejoicing that Moses and Aaron had arrived. Moses and Aaron did exactly what the Lord told them to do. Moses and Aaron loved the people of God. Moses and Aaron wanted to see the people delivered. They did what God wanted. Pharaoh turns up the heat, opposition happens. And guess what happens? When opposition started, deception began. And what did the Israelites begin to think? They began to think, "This bad stuff happened because of Moses and Aaron." If they're for God, I'm not for God. Sometimes we begin to think, as we step out in faith, "If God were so good, then why is all this bad stuff happening? If I'm following the Lord the way I should, then why am I having to go through all this? I'm doing what God wants me to do. If I'm doing what God wants me to do, then why are all these bad things happening? I've been told prosperity awaits me."

Friends, oftentimes when you are doing what God tells you to do, you are going to face opposition and deception from God's people. God's people are being lied to by the enemy. The enemy's telling them it's Moses's is in Aaron's fault. Why is the enemy saying that? Because he wants Moses and Aaron to leave. Because if Moses and Aaron to leave, 2 million Israel act will remain in and God won't get his plan done to deliver the people. And because they're chosen servants, that's who he goes after.

Here's the problem. You have to realize that when you are serving the Lord, people will be deceived. Sometimes when you're serving people and you want their marriage to go better, you want it more than they do. Sometimes when you're helping people come to Christ, you want it more than they do. Sometimes when you want to see people get out addiction, you want it more than they do. And sometimes because of your good efforts and because of you telling the truth and because of your prayers and because of your love, who are they going to blame? They're going to blame you because their life was a lot better before they had to start thinking about the truth when you walked into it.

Now think about this. I've seen these six stages of opposition and six stages of bondage that I've seen over and over in my life and in the lives of other people. And I'm just going to spell them out for you because this is how Satan works.

Stage one is this, there's somebody, maybe it's you or somebody else or maybe you want to help others to desire freedom and choose to follow God. That's what you want. God's called you to help others do that. God's called you to Himself and you decide that that's right. "I'm going to take a step towards God."

Step two is this. Once you make a step towards God and doing what God wants you to do, you can guarantee, step two, problems will begin and it's going to get difficult. Let me say it again. When you hear the Lord and He gives you something on your heart to get going on, it may not be the thing you want to talk to God about. It can be a real minuscule thing, but I promise you when you take a step in that direction and it's crystal clear, this is where God wants you to go. There'll be things all around your life that will oppose that very step. And you'll begin to question like, "Well why did I step here? Did I hear right? Do I know right? I mean what happened?" Nothing. The enemy turned up the heat because he doesn't want you to go that way.

And then three, he'll continue to talk to you until you feel totally hopeless. Totally hopeless where you say, "I don't think I should have gone this way. This is not the way I should have gone. I don't know what's going on. Where's God? This is terrible. I was better off before I got here."

Which comes to stage four. You start blaming God and you start blaming people that are helping lead you towards God. You'll blame God. Some of you here would say, "I'm mad at God right now." Truly you're not. He's the one who created you. He loves you with an unconditional love. If He was to show up in all of His glory, you would feel his warmth. You would want to be... You're not mad at God. You may be mad at the circumstances you're going at. You may be uncertain and confused about why you're going through it.

It's the enemy that's lying to you and saying, "If your God was so good, then why are you going through this?" It's because you're God is so good that you're going through this. He's strengthening you. He's taking you through a season maybe nobody else is going through because He's entrusting you with something special. Once the enemy gets you to a place of hopelessness and you blame God for others, then step five comes.

That's where you beg God for your original circumstances rather than for freedom. You want to go back, you want to go back. You know what Israel's doing right now? For 400 plus years they've been slaves. They've been making brick every single day. They hate every aspect of their life. Moses and Aaron come say, "God sent us, you're going to be free." They rejoice, a few days later they tell Pharaoh, "This is what's going to happen."

Pharaoh says, "No way that's going to happen. I don't know your God. Now your people can make brick but they don't get their own straw and we're going to beat them." So what's Israel say? "Please just give a straw. If you just give a straw, we would never complain ever again. We love it here. Egypt's so wonderful." That's step five, where you want to go back to where you were.

And then come step six, you become more entrenched and more frustrated with where you were than where you even started. Those are deeper steps of bondage. You can see it everywhere in your life. Some of you date people and you know shouldn't be dating them because you're a believer and they're not a believer and you break up and then when you break up it's like, "Well who is there to date? And I'm all alone and there's nothing to do on Friday night. Now I'm totally hopeless and I'm blaming God because if God was so good he would've brought my spouse by now. And I blame all these pastors for telling me to break up with him. I'm mad at Pastor Jeff and now I beg to go back to the person I was dating or somebody worse off. And then I become even more entrenched in my single life than I was before."

Or we do it in marriage. God tells us about being the type of spouse we need to be and we become that type of spouse. But just because we do doesn't mean our spouse does. And then problems begin and it gets difficult and then we feel hopeless and then we blame God because we say, "I'm doing my part but she's not doing hers." Or "I'm doing my part but he's not doing his." And then we're like, "I'm just wanting to go back to the original, it was so much better before I got married." And then we become more entrenched.

It happens in every area of life. We can talk about it with addiction and everything. That's what Satan does. Don't be surprised by elaborate deception. Anytime you get to a place where you're blaming God and wanting comfort, know Satan's got a stronghold in your life. God doesn't call you to be comfortable. God calls you to be godly. Amen. So don't be surprised when you come across extraordinary opposition and elaborate deception.

And then this third one, guarantee you'll experience this if you walk with the Lord. The third thing that you can expect is extreme disappointment. Extreme disappointment. The enemy will discourage you. He's a master at it. He comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Notice what Moses says in verse 22 and 23. I think this highlights the heart of this entire passage.

"Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Oh Lord, why have you brought harm to this people? And why did you send me. Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, He has done harm to this people and you have not delivered your people at all." What's he saying? "I don't get what's going on here. I reluctantly came, you told me to go. I did what you told me to do. Now the people I'm serving are more upset with me. And you haven't done a dog gone thing." Like, "God, you're not good at what you said you're good at. I did what you wanted and instead of getting better, it got worse."

Now that may sound unchristian to you, but if you've taken steps of faith, you've been there. There's a reality to our walk with Christ that when we're walking with Him, the enemy has a way to discourage us at a depth of who we are that we didn't even know possible that existed.

And who's the ones that are discouraging Moses and Aaron? It's God's people, the ones that they're trying to free. Can I show you this and go on record of saying this? About 99% of the discouragement that you will feel in following the Lord will come from God's people and not pagans. I'll say it again because you didn't hear me. About 99% of the discouragement that you will feel come from believers, not pagans. It's people that you truly love. It's people that you're pouring into. It's that person caught an addiction you're trying to bring out. It's that person whose marriage is going hard that you're trying to help. It's that single person that's disgruntled that you're trying to love.

It's that person at work that you're trying to help them out with their family. It's the person you're pouring into and they're the ones that get mad at you for meddling in their life, when all you're doing is trying to love them. And that's what the enemy does. Because if he can get you to a place of discouragement, guess what happens? If you're hopeless and discouraged and guess what you'll do? "I'm done with this thing." And if you're honest with yourself and if we're clear with one another, there are times in your life, if you follow God, you'll want to quit.

I've been in ministry for 30 plus years. I can promise I can't even count how many times I've been before the Lord and, "Seriously, there's so many other people, this is way too hard. I can't take this anymore. One more thing that happens is too much weight. It's too hard. I'm not the right person. I see what you're calling me to do. I'm not the one you want. Get somebody else. Let me have a real job. Let me do something else. Let me do..." That happens in everybody's life on a micro scale and on a macro scale, if you follow the Lord.

That's what's going on here. Now aren't you glad you came to church today? I've told you boldly from the word of God that if you follow the Lord, you're going to have extraordinary oppression, elaborate deception and extreme disappointment. Who's in? We have to realize that when we follow the Lord, we are not getting on the love boat and cruising away to bliss. We got on a warship and we are battling for Jesus. The enemy hates what we do. Amen.

And it's okay to feel discourage. You read any biblical character, there's discouragement. Even Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, never sinned but he was still calling out to his dad, "Is this the only way?" He was always asking His disciples, "Are you still so dull? Do you not get it? How long must I put up with you? Why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't do what I say?" Jesus' entire ministry, in his flesh, He was talking to his dad, "Are you sure you got this right?"

And if that was true of Jesus, how much more is that going to be true of us? He's the Son of God. Who are we but dust. When God puts you on a mission, I would say it this way, if you're going to live for God, you're going to have to develop a very tender heart and very thick skin. And by that what I mean is this. Developing thick skin means you can handle the abuse that comes from people that you love, either words or actions or pain that's going to happen.

But at the same time, you got to develop a tender heart, because if you develop a hardened heart, then you won't love the very people God's trying to get you to love. And God's doing both simultaneously. He's telling you, "Don't worry about what other people think, just love me and keep your heart really tender and soft and continue to love them even when they're acting unlovable, because Jeff, that's how I treat you." That's how he treats you. He loves you with a tender heart even when you're unlovable. And He's had thick enough skin to handle all of your misbehavior's and all of your words towards Him.

That's who our God is and that's what he's developing in us. Moses is asking, "Why me?" When you ask that question, "God, why me?" The answer better be, "Because He told me to." That's why a call to ministry or a call to serve is not because, "I think I better try this. This sounds like a good career." Don't do that. Make sure it's the Lord that calls you to do something and be obedient to what He shows you and then entrust yourself to Him. Because I find that ministry, when we talk about vision and what we're going to build and we get all excited about what God's going to do, it's not just building things. That we build this and we build this and we build this and it's new small groups and it's more buildings and it's schools and it's campuses. I find it more like building sandcastles on the beach.

Ever see somebody build sandcastles on the beach? Even the people that are really good at it that make these elaborate ones, everybody's coming in and taking pictures of. You know it's not going to stand. I mean the only way that what we're building stands is because Jesus Christ is still building His church. It's not our efforts, it's what God's going to do. He's doing two different things here. Do you see it? You're going to see it play out. He's teaching Moses, "There's nothing in you that I can use. It's me in you that I can use."

He's also teaching the people of Israel, "I'm toughening you up because you're going to spend a long time in the wilderness and you won't survive if I'm not." So He's even using this bad experience in their life to get them ready for what's coming. Did you know that God uses bad experiences in your life to get you ready for what's coming? When you think about all the bad experiences in your life, all the ones that you would go back and hit a rewind switch and say, "I would never choose that one."

You may be in one of those right now. But if you can look back on it, for those of you that come through it, you would say, "I don't ever want to repeat that again. But I would say this, that hard situation, may be the closest I ever felt to the Lord. May be the most growth I've ever had in the Lord. And he used that awful situation to grow me in Christ." Don't despise opposition. Don't despise the deception around you. Don't despise the disappointment. It's okay. Oftentimes it's our disappointment that brings us back to the Lord. It's our disappointment that has us pursue the Lord. It's when we're down and out where we're saying, "Lord, I need you. Yes I need you."

Some of the greatest Psalms come out of disappointment. Some of the greatest hymns come out of disappointment. Jesus said this, "In this world you will have tribulation." You know what that means? Listen up. You follow Jesus in this world you're going to be disappointed. There is never a perfect utopia until Jesus Christ returns. But when he returns it is going to be awesome. That's what you should be looking forward to. Amen. It's what's coming.

Now as I was writing this, I was finishing this up on Friday and I got really upset because I was reading all this. I'm like, "I've lived this for 30 years." And I was thinking, "When's this end?" And the answer is never, not until we meet Jesus face-to-face. But isn't it true that the more we go through this and cycle through this, the more we yearn for Him, the more we desire His return, the more we say, "Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's why God takes us through this.

Now notice this, because if you can make it through those three, there's a couple things that you can expect that are actually really good. As we get to chapter six, here's what you're going to see. You can expect this. You can expect established intimacy. Established intimacy. The enemy will require you to know the Lord. The enemy was going to require you to know the Lord. Now that may sound strange, but listen up. So Moses is desperate. That's when the Lord visits him.

Notice in chapter six, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for under compulsion he will let them go and under compulsion he will drive them out of the land." God's saying, "Listen, it's not your words. I'm going to turn his heart in such a way that Pharaoh himself will send everybody away." God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord." Have we heard that before? "I am. I Am Yahweh. I've always been. I will always be. I'm the covenant keeping God that created everything. And I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them."

He's saying, "Moses, I'm giving you special revelation. I'm giving you new revelation. I'm showing you things I didn't show them." Do you realize in this dispensation after Jesus rose from the dead and dispensed his Holy Spirit, we live in a dispensation where the Holy Spirit indwells us in a way that everybody we read about in the Old Testament, that's not true.

I mean there's special things going on in every generation that God is doing. He's telling Moses, "I'm going to do this. I told you I was going to do this. Don't get frustrated, don't get upset. Just keep on demonstrating faith. Keep on trusting Me. Keep on believing in Me."

He said this, "I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land which they sojourned." What's he saying? He says, "I'm a promise keeping God. I promised them I was going to give them the land. I'm a promise keeping God. If I said I'm going to do it and guess what? I'm going to do it." We sang a song today in church. All of his promises are yes and Amen. If God says he's going to do it, guess what He's going to do. Just what He said he's going to do. And notice this. "Furthermore," verse five, "I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage and I have remembered my covenant."

So there's this intimacy going on when Moses is like, "What's going on? I did what you told me to do and it's getting worse. I did what you told me to do and I don't like this anymore." And God's like, "Listen, you need to know who I am. I'm revealing things to you I didn't even tell your forefathers. I'm doing things through you that nobody's ever seen before. I know my word. I'm true to my word. I told people I'd give them the land of Canaan. Israel will have the land of Canaan, it will be theirs. I'm God. I'm faithful to my promises. Furthermore, I told you I heard other moanings. I know they're crying. They were crying long before you got there, Moses. Just because they're crying now is nothing new to me. I'm going to take care of it."

So he commissions them. He says, "Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you up out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm with great judgements. Then I will take you for my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord who brought you out of the land, under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I will give it to you for a possession, for I am the Lord." He says this, "Do what I told you to do because I promise you I'll be faithful to my word."

"So Moses thus spoke to the sons of Israel." Then, "All right, okay, I'll tell them. I'll let them know." "But they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage." They're in the hopelessness stage. "Moses, you can tell us whatever you want. We don't believe you anymore. We don't trust you as a leader. You don't have any integrity with us. We don't have any following for you." So the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land." God's not going to change His mind. Moses is going to say, "I already did that." Guess what God's going to say? "Well, go do it again."

"But I already tried serving you." "Well, go do it again." "But I already tried serving in kids." "Well, go do it again." "But I already gave some money." "Give us some more." God doesn't change His mind on what He calls you to do. Did you ever notice that? Sometimes we think that when God shows us something and we hear Him clearly that we think, "Well, if I don't do that, that'll go away." How many of you know it never goes away. A week later, a month later, five years. It doesn't go away. If God says, "This is what I want you to do," He's going to bring it about and make sure that you do it again, and again, and again. To the point where you realize, "It's not me doing the work, it's the Lord doing the work." Amen.

So Moses is going to go to Pharaoh. That's what God tells him to do. But Moses got a problem again, verse 12 and 13. "But Moses spoke before the Lord saying, "Behold the sons of Israel have not listened to me. How then will Pharaoh listen to me? For I am unskilled in speech?" Has he talked this way before? "God told you I'm not a good talker and now you're sending me back again. I'm still not a good talker. Nothing's going to change. I don't have anything in me that will change Pharaoh's mind. I'm not good at what you're calling me to do."

What's God going to say? "You know what? You're right. I never thought about that before." That's not what He's going to say. "The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Egypt out the land." "I told you what to do now go do it. Quit whining, quit complaining, just go." Now here's what happens. The enemy will require that you know the Lord. And here's what I mean by that. If you've trusted in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you know the Lord. But there's a deepening of knowing the Lord that God wants you to get to.

And there's a deepening of knowing the Lord that you have to experience before you can really see the authority of the Lord in your life. When you come to know the Lord, the Bible would call you a babe in Christ or an infant, because you have new birth and yes you know the Lord, but there are some ways in which God wants you to grow so that He can use you in an authoritative and powerful way so that He can work in and through you.

Let me give you a couple case studies. Do you remember in Matthew chapter 17 when Jesus came off the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John? They had just seen him transfigured in all of his glory. He comes down off the mountain and He sees this skirmishing over in the distance and He asks his disciples, "What's going on?" And this man comes out from the disciples and he says, "Hey, here's what's going on. I have a son that's got all these challenges. He's throwing himself in the fire. I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't do a dog gone thing. But if you could do something that would be helpful." And what does Jesus say? "If I can." "I can do all things for him who believes? Bring the boy to me." And he brings the boy to Jesus and cast the evil spirit out of him, the demonic influence out of him. It's gone. The boys in his right mind.

Now, later the disciples, not right at that moment because they were too embarrassed. But later they're asking, Jesus, "Why couldn't we do that? If we have all your authority to go preach and teach and heal, how come we couldn't do that one?" And what does you just tell them? He said, "This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting." He wasn't saying this is just a religious thing. "Pray a little more and make sure you fast a meal and then it will happen." Here's what he was saying. "This happens for those who hunger and thirst for me. This happens for those who have a deep relationship with me. There are deeper things in the Kingdom that you can do, the closer that you get to God." That's what he was saying.

The same thing happened in Acts chapter 19. You remember the story about a priest named Skiva and he had seven sons and the seven sons had seen Paul do miracles with handkerchiefs and cast out demonic influence and all that. And they decided, "We'll do the same thing." So they started trying to cast out demons by the name that Paul proclaimed. And do you remember what happened? In Acts chapter 19 in verse 15 the Demon spoke and said, "I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you?" And gave them a whooping and those seven sons fled naked. They got beat to death almost. Why? Because you can't be cavalier with the power of God. There's a depth that you can go with God where He can unleash more power and authority through you. "For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled."

Spiritual disciplines are not some trite religious activities just to go through our day. They're really the practice fields of champions who want to liberate people for Christ. Quiet time, if you have quiet time with a Bible and coffee, that's great. I'm glad you enjoy your coffee and I'm glad you sit around with your Bible and pray. You do it your way. But quiet times are really wartime practices, not lighthearted religious rituals to act cool and fit in. In other words, not like, "Well, I got my quiet time in today. Prayed a little more."

And if you're really being obedient to Christ, you will cry out and pour out your heart to God and say, "What's going on? Show me something in your word. I need a fresh word from you today to get through what I'm going through. This here in my marriage, this is hard. I got to hear you clearly. This here with my kids, this is hard. I need a word from you that I can bank on. This here in my job, this is hard. This here with our finances, this is hard. This here are my singleness, this is hard. This situation in my small group, this is hard."

When you have quiet times like that, where you're stepping out into faith and you're asking God, "Reveal yourself to me. I need you to come through." That's where God shows up in power. And the enemy will require you to know the Lord, because if you're going to claim the power and the glory and the authority of Jesus, you need to be walking into power and authority and glory of Jesus. Which means you can't be steeped in habitual sin on one hand and then claim the power and authority of God on the other.

That's what the devil loves, because he knows when you're walking in sin and you're trying to claim his power and you don't experience it, then guess what happens? That cycle of bondage, "Yeah, God doesn't do that stuff anymore. He doesn't heal. He's not going to provide for me. He's not going to..." The reason is because you're not freed yet. The reason is you may belong to Him, but He's trying to completely free you from the bondage that you have and liberate you so that you can walk in the power and authority of Christ. It's your identity. You can have it. God wants to see established intimacy in your life.

And I would tell you this, oftentimes God takes us through those hard times, those difficult times to grow a center intimacy with Him. You think about your life, you just think about all those times that if you could go back and say, "I would never want to go through that again, that again, that again or that again." And two of the four you chose and two of the four happened to you. And you would say, "None of it." And some of you were going through one of those right now. But if you'll faith your way through and trust your way through, you will see how God used it to grow the authority and power that you have in Christ. And you will see His goodness come pouring through. That's who our God is. Don't be surprised, this is the way that God works.

And then this final one, and I love this. This Final one that you can expect when you walk with Christ, our enduring generations. Enduring generations of those who will are faithful, the enemy will lose to God's faithful people. Did you know that? The enemy was defeated at the cross, he's already a defeated foe, he just poses as a winner. He's a total loser, but he poses as a winner. But he's not only losing now, but he's ultimately going to lose. God's people will be victorious.

We see it back in Genesis chapter 3:15 after the fall where God says he is going to enmity between the man's seed and the woman's seed, between Satan seed and between God's seed and God's seed is going to win. God's seed is always faithful. And what you see here in the next section of the Bible, really from verses 14 through 27 is a genealogy. And if you were studying this on your own, you would probably go through it in about one second. "Yeah, I see all those names that I can't pronounce, good, done."

But I believe God puts everything in the Bible for a reason. And the reason I'm going to read it to you, and the reason I'm going to stumble across words that I can't pronounce either is because it's in the Bible for a reason and what you're going to see is how God used Jacob's sons, three of them specifically, He's going to talk about. He's going to talk about Ruben, Simeon and Levi. And from the tribe of Levi, you're going to see how Moses and Aaron came. What you're going to see is God has always been faithful to the generations who worship Him. And if God's faithful to that generation, He'll be faithful to this.

And if you'll be faithful in this generation, God will be faithful to the ones that follow. That's why this is here. So here this this morning, it says, "These are the heads of their fathers households. The sons of Reuben, Israels firstborn; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These be the families of Reuben." Then he talks about the sons of Simeon, "Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman, these are the families of Simeon."

Now he's going to go through Levi. "These are the sons of Levi. According to the generations, Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari, and the length of the Levi's life was 137 year." Now we're in Levi's tribe. "So the sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimiy according to their families. The Sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel and he the length of Kohath's days and life were 133 years." Then you have the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi." How about that as a name. You guys are always looking for biblical names to name your kids. Those are two that don't get picked. Mahali and Mushi, if you have twins.

"These are the families of the Levites according to their generations. Amram married his father's sister Jochebed and she bore him Aaron and Moses." Here's their line. "And the length of Amram's life was 137 years. The Sons of Izhar; Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri. The sons of Uzziel; Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri. Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Naashon and she bore him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah; Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korhites."

Now listen to this. "Aaron's son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas." Now listen, men, these are the heads of the fathers household of Levites according to their families. Who's he talking about? He's talking about men leading their families for God. When men lead their families for God, it's the greatest legacy you can ever leave. That's why men, we are always trying to get tricked into our jobs or influence or other things when the most important role we play on the planet is to shepherd our wives and our families well and to help others do the same.

That is the most important work we have. The greatest return on investment. So again, he calls out the men the same way you see in Joshua when they go pick up the 12 stones before they go into the promise land. Why do they do that? So when the children ask their fathers, "Daddy, what do these stones mean?" Dads tell your children, whose job is it to lead the family spiritually? Men, it's your job. There's nothing more important. That doesn't mean we have perfect men here. We don't have any perfect men here. We don't have perfect husbands here. We don't have perfect fathers here. But here's what God's saying. "Make sure that's the number one priority in your life. Nothing's more important than that for the generations that are to come." Due to the faithful men of this text, we get Aaron and Moses that are going to deliver 2 million people.

You know what that tells me? Some of the vision that God puts on your life for what He's going to do, you may never ever see in your lifetime. It may come through your kids or their kids or their kids, but it's because you and your family turned to the Lord and changed generations that are to come. Amen. He says, "This was the same Aaron in Moses, to whom the Lord said, "Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their host, they were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, about bringing out the sons of Israel from Egypt, it was the same Moses and Aaron."

What was he saying? Men step up. Your family legacy is the most important legacy that you leave, the way you leave a legacy for Christ is the most important legacy that you leave. If you want to know what counts in eternity, that is what counts in eternity. And the beauty of the gospel is even if you mess it up, start fresh today. God's grace is new. His mercies are new every morning. He's not calling you to be perfect. He's not saying, "Hey, look at your life and it's not so good and work on it." He's saying, "As of right now, would you recommit your life to me and submit to me?"

Because there's something about generations that God cares about. It's not just us. It's what He's going to do through us for generation, after generation, after generation. Aaron, that we're reading here is going to give a blessing forward in the book of Numbers, in Number 6:24 and following, You've heard this blessing before. It's called the ironic blessing because Aaron said it. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious onto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace."

Here's what he's saying. He's like, "When generations live for God, here's what you can know." Even though the enemy's lying saying, "You're losing, you're losing, you're losing." We know the end of the story. We win. It's like watching a game on TV that you already know the outcome is victorious, but when you're watching it, your team's not winning, but you already know the outcome. Friends, we win. We need to live as victors, not victims. Amen.

And we need to understand that the blessing God wants to put on us, is to put on us not only for our sake, but the sake of our children and our children's children. Now here's an interesting thing. I heard this yesterday. It's not from me, but I'm sharing it because it was really good. Isn't it interesting when you're talking about generations? It comes from Numbers 6:24. Numbers 6:24. "It's a blessing about the generations that are to come." Isn't it interesting that on 6/4 of this year or 6/24 of this year, June 24th of this year, that's when Roe v. Wade got overturned. Isn't that interesting?

I believe God wants to set more people free. I believe God wants to set more generations free. I believe God wants to use you for this generation, for the generation that is to come. And friends, a lot of what we're doing right now, if Jesus doesn't come back in our lifetime, we want to be up in heaven seeing the fruit of how we live now played out in generation after generation, after generation, after generation. And for those of you who say, "I'm too old." Moses is 80, Aaron's 83, and they're still going to live for a long, long time to show the glory of God. It's never too late to get in the game. Amen.

God loves you. He cares for you. He wants you to be aware of these expectations that are coming so that when you see them, you don't turn and run. You keep walking forward, because one day, when Christ returns in all of His glory, He will set up at utopia for a thousand years in an eternal reign on this planet that no eye has seen, no ear is heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. Amen.

Amen. So the way we're going to end our service today is by singing a song, The Blessing. We ended our first Tuesday here in Inglewood singing that song, but it's a song about this generation and you being a blessing to the next. As we stand right now, I'm just going to pray for us, as we're singing this song, if you are here with your kids, hold their hand. If you're here with your spouse, maybe you bless them. If your kids are in kids' ministry, maybe you say a prayer for them while they're there. But let's just pray that God would use us, as a body, not only for this generation, but for the generation to come.

"Father in heaven, we give you praise, glory and honor for who you are. Lord, I know there's some here today that are being drawn into your presence that have never trusted you as Lord and Savior. And if that's you, here's how you can pray. Say, "Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I believe you died for all my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins and I believe you're the Christ. Come into my life and take over."

And Lord, for those of us who are here today, who have been called by you to take that next step of faith, Lord, as we step, let us not be surprised by the expectations. Let us just continue to keep walking so that your name and your glory would be put on display. Father, we pray that the Lord would bless us and keep us, that He'd make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. That the Lord would lift up His countenance upon us and give us His peace, both now and in generation after generation, after generation. For Your glory. We pray all these things in Jesus name.

Amen and amen.

Can we give God praise.