Many of you
have had a difficult week and it’s still going on. Some of you
are in pain right now. When we are in constant pain, going
through extreme trials, or in prison, it is difficult to keep
our perspective. But, when we focus back on God, we become
aware of His Presence and, in His presence is fullness of
joy---no matter what is going on. Keep your mind stayed on HIM
and He will cause you to see things in perspective and show you
how to pray. The pain may return, but if we stay focused on God,
it will not triumph—WE will triumph.
THE ENEMY
MAY TRY TO KEEP US FROM OUR PURPOSE---BUT HE CAN’T.
WE ARE ALL CREATED
FOR A PURPOSE AND WHEN WE FIND IT AND WALK IN IT—OUR LIVES
CHANGE.
MOSES WAS TOLD OF HIS PURPOSE BY GOD. THIS WAS HIS CALLING—TO
BE A PROPHET SPEAKING IN GOD’S STEAD
Exodus 7:1Then
the LORD said to Moses, "See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and
your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2"You
shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall
speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his
land. 3"But I will harden Pharaoh's
heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land
of Egypt.
THIS WAS HIS PURPOSE- TO BRING THE SONS OF ISRAEL
OUT OF EGYPT AND TO SHOW THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT WHO GOD IS. God is
not willing for any to perish. He wants everyone to know who He
is.
"When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people
the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great
judgments. 5"The
Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I
stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel
from their midst." 6So Moses and Aaron
did it; as the LORD commanded them, thus they did.
JUST IN CASE YOU THINK IT’S TOO LATE FOR YOU TO
FULFILL YOUR CALLING AND PURPOSE:
EXODUS 7:7Moses was eighty years old
and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh. OKAY, BUT I’M NOT MOSES—THAT’S WHAT I’D SAY. BUT YOU ARE YOU—JUST WHO GOD
CREATED YOU TO BE.
In some way, you will speak for God, like Moses did. In some
way, you will lead people to deliverance, like Moses did. And in
someway, you will show God’s power—just like Moses did.
GOD will show His might through YOU to show HIS Glory to the
World.
Last week, we
got right up to the tenth plague. Moses had told Pharaoh to let
God’s people go and Pharaoh said “Who is this God of yours that
I should obey Him?” And God, through Moses, began to show him.
Just as God had
said, one plague after another struck Egypt. The people of
Egypt watched as God struck down all their false gods. They were
scared to death and wanted the Israelites to go, but pharaoh’s
heart was stubborn and he would not let them go—even through
nine plagues.
So there would be one more, and this time, pharaoh would let them
go.
Exodus 11:1Now the LORD
said to Moses, "One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on
Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you
go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.
This plague would be the death of the first-born of everyone
(human or animal) in Egypt AND in the Land of Goshen where the
Israelites lived.
NO ONE WOULD BE EXEMPT FROM THIS PLAGUE UNLESS THEY FOLLOWED
GODS INSRUCTIONS---TO PUT THE BLOOD OF A LAMB ON THE LINTELS AND
DOORPOSTS OF THEIR HOMES.
YOU SEE NOTHING COULD STOP GOD’S PURPOSE—NOT THEN AND NOT NOW.
People may come against your purpose, sickness may come against
your purpose—all the forces of darkness might come against your
purpose (and sometimes, that’s just what it feels like, doesn’t
it) BUT NOTHING CAN STOP YOUR PURPOSE
EXCEPT…YOU. I am the only one that can stop my purpose from
people fulfilled and I certainly did a good job of this for many
years, but God worked in me both to “will and to do”. Thank God
HE is the author and finisher of our faith.
BUT, OUTSIDE FORCES CAN NEVER STOP YOU FROM GOING FORWARD AND
FULFILLING GO’S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE. Everything and everyone that
tries will just be used to FURTHER God’s purpose. God can “make
the wrath of man to praise Him”
Pharaoh
had a purpose—through
his hardness God would show His Glory. If Pharaoh had understood
God and His purpose to begin with, he would not have been
destroyed. But even what satan means for evil can be used for
God’s purpose. Two kings of Egypt had tried to destroy, enslave,
and keep Israel, God’s people from their purpose—this pharaoh
and the pharaoh before him who tried to kill all the boy babies
2 years old and under.
Pharaoh would not be the only one who would fight
against God’s purpose. Many other nations would down through the
centuries. But God already knew and had a plan:
MICAH 4:11-12 GOD SPOKE OF ZION—NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL
11"And
now )many nations have been assembled against
you Who say, 'Let her be polluted, And let our eyes gloat over
Zion.' 12"But they do not know the
thoughts of the LORD, And they do not understand His purpose; For
He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
Micah 4;13"Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, For your
horn I will make iron And your hoofs I will make bronze, That
you may pulverize many peoples, That you may devote to the
LORD their unjust gain And their wealth to the Lord of all the
earth.
THE WICKED LAYS UP WEALTH AND THE RIGHTEOUS INHERIT IT. It is so
important to understand God’s purpose or we might find ourselves
fighting against it. Joseph of Arimethea warned the religious
leaders who wanted to TRY to stop the apostles from preaching
the Good News:
Acts
5:38Now
in the present case let me say to you, stand off (withdraw) from
these men and let them alone. For if this doctrine or purpose or
undertaking or movement is of human origin, it will fail (be
overthrown and come to nothing); 39But
if it is of God, you will not be able to stop or overthrow or
destroy them; you might even be found fighting against God!
GOD HAD HIS
OWN PURPOSE…to be worked out though Moses—the
deliverance of His people to worship Him and spread His Name and
His Word throughout the earth. GOD’S PURPOSE FOR MOSES WAS TO
LEAD HIS PEOPLE OUT OF EGYPT. GOD’S PURPOSE FOR HIS PEOPLE WAS
TO SERVE AND WORSHIP HIM.
THAT IS STILL GOD’S PURPOSE FOR ALL HIS PEOPLE…to worship
and serve Him and declare His praises.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
Isaiah 66:6
And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named
ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of
nations, and in their riches you will boast.
God gave specific instructions to prepare His
people to leave Egypt:
FIRST:
EXODUS 11:2 (NIV) Tell the people that
men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of
silver and gold." 3 (The LORD made the
Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses
himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and
by the people.)
Just as God
told Israel to take the wealth of the Egyptians (as payment for
their years of slavery) and bring it with them for the building
of the Tabernacle of God and later the Temple of God—God, in
these last days is going to see to it that wealth accumulated by
the wicked unjustly will end up being devoted to GOD’S PURPOSE.We see parallel scripture in Isaiah 45.Isaiah 45: 2
I will go before you and will level the mountains I will break
down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. …VS3
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in
secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God
of Israel, who summons you by name.
YOU MAY HAVE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES, BUT GOD
HAS TREASURES STORED UP FOR YOU IN SECRET PLACES. I FEEL LIKE
GOD IS SPEAKING TO SOMEONE TODAY.
SECOND INSTRUCTION FROM GOD: He told the people
of Israel…
EXODUS 11:4 So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will
go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn
son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who
sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who
is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as
well. 6 There will be loud wailing
throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be
again. 7 But among the Israelites not a
dog will bark at any man or animal.'
SO FAR, ISRAEL WOULD BE PROTECTED BECAUSE THEY
WERE GOD’S PEOPLE…BUT THEN, THINGS CHANGED. NO ONE WOULD BE
EXEMPT FROM THE DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN UNLESS THEY HAD THE
BLOOD OF THE LAMB ON THEIR DOORS.
EXODUS 12:7 Then they are to take some of the
blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the
houses where they eat the lambs.
GOD PEPARES THEM AND TELLS THEM EXACTLY WHAT WILL
HAPPEN, HOW BAD IT WOULD BE FOR THE DISOBEDIENT, AND HOW SAFE IT
WOULD BE FOR THOSE WHO HAD THE BLOOD ON THEIR DOORPOSTS.
Exodus 12
"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down
every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment
on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are;
and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive
plague will touch you when I strike Egypt
THIS WOULD BE A NIGHT THAT WOULD CHANGE
HISTORY—BEGIN THE FEASTS OF THE LORD AND FORSHADOW THE DEATH OF
JESUS—THE LAMB OF GOD WHO WOULD TAKE AWAY THE SINS OF THE
WORLD—WHICH WAS GOD’S ULTIMATE PURPOSE. HE WAS CALLING OUT A
PEOPLE THOUGH WHICH HE COULD SEND HIS MESSIAH—HIS SAVIOR—JESUS
CHRIST AND THIS WOULD BE CELEBRATED THROUGHOUT ALL TIME.
14
"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to
come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting
ordinance.
WHAT A PURPOSE GOD HAD FOR MOSES—AND WHAT A
PURPOSE FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD. YOU HAVE PURPOSE JUST AS
IMPORTANT.
