**Spirit of the Living God**
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Called Exodus. We're just going right through the book of Exodus where he draws us out to draw us in. Today's message is called "Days of Darkness." I saw this announcement: due to inflation, to save on energy costs, the light at the end of the tunnel is going to be turned off.
If you've ever had any dark days in your life, or if you have some that come up even without you expecting them, this is a message that I think is going to really be good for you today. If you got your Bibles, be turning to Exodus chapter 1. We are still in chapter 1, three weeks into this series. We are just going to cover the second half of chapter 1 of Exodus today.
Now, I think the text we're going to look at today is a very difficult text in a lot of ways. It's hard to read about what was going on. But I think it's also a really beautiful text when we navigate through it and understand where God is and what God is doing in the midst of what were really dark days for the Israelites.
We said so far in our study that Exodus is the second book in the first five books of the Bible, which together are referred to as the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is really telling one story, and each book has some information, some revelation, some information that the other books may not have. And so if you look at all of them together as a whole, you could get the whole picture, the big picture of everything that's going on there. But then we could go to Exodus and draw out of it the teachings that we find there that are connected to those other four books as well.
Last week, we looked at the fact that in the big overview of what we see going on in Exodus in the first chapter, God has a plan, and it is a good plan. It may not always feel like it. It may not always seem like it. But God does have a plan that he's working, and it is a good plan. It's for his glory, and it's for our provision and joy in God's plan.
But we also learned last week that God's plan rarely works out like we think it's going to. We get these ideas of what we think God ought to do and how God ought to do it. And we get these ideas of what we think God ought to do and how God ought to do it. And the timing God ought to have with it. And it very rarely fits into our little box that we make for God and how God works.
And so we have to understand that even though the plan is good, it rarely works out the way we think it's going to. But we learn something, or I've learned it years ago thankfully, and we were reminded of it last week, and that's this: the infinite God of the universe is smarter than me. He's smarter than you. And so we have to learn to accept our limitations and our ability to understand everything that's going on out there and how God is at work in his good plan and all of those things.
Sometimes we'll see it clearly, but there are going to be times where we just cannot see how this is God and cannot see what God is doing. I cannot feel his presence or his provision at the moment, and we have to accept that. We have to accept our limitation that we can't always know the mind of God because the mind of God is so far greater than ours. And so we have to accept by faith that we can trust his plan to be good and that we can know that he's at work even when we don't seem to see it at the moment.
One of the things I love about the Bible is how honest it is about things. Some people who are critics of the Bible like to say, "Oh, it's just a man-made book. It's just written by human beings." Well, so are the science books, by the way. But beyond that, there's some other things we need to know about the Bible.
One of the things I think that really supports evidence for the truth of the Bible is how honest it is about the flaws and the failures of God's people. And even the people that are writing tell about their own limitations, their own flaws, their own sins, their own downfalls. If I was making up something, I would make myself look really good, wouldn't you? But the Bible reveals the struggles, the hardships. Jesus said, and it's recorded for us in Scripture, "In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart because I've overcome the world."
The Bible is honest about the fact that even in God's plan, because of the flaws, their own sins, their own downfalls, if I was making up something, I would make myself look really good, wouldn't you? And the curse of sin, there is struggle, there is heartache, there is loss, there is pain, there is suffering in this world, but God's good plan is to heal the brokenness that came with sin.
So while we're here, while we're going through this process of the healing, there's going to be some struggle along the way. Many times, healing requires some pain and some struggle. If any of you have had to have surgery before, I have. I had a cancerous tumor removed from my leg, and it was one of the most painful things I've ever gone through. They kept me awake. I told them to put me to sleep. They said, "No, we're just going to do a local anesthesia." And they did shots in my leg where they were going to take out the tumor. And those were the most painful shots. I had 16 shots around that area in my leg. And every one, I thought, surely the painkiller will cover the next one. But no. They went far enough out that it didn't cover the next one, right?
And all of that pain, guess what it led to? Healing. That's the way God's plan often works. It's not what we think. It's not what we want always. But it's the plan that leads to the healing of the brokenness that needs to happen. And so we have to learn throughout human history that we've got to accept the fact that even in the dark days, God's plan is still at work.
Lastly, last week, we also talked about this. In view of the fact that God has this plan that we don't always understand and there's suffering and there's trials, we need to always look to the cross when we want to know what God is like and who God is and how God loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave. Here's one: if you're ever doubting God's love in the plan, the way it's working, look to the cross every time. It's the perfect, most complete demonstration of God's love for us that you could ever find. That's why I love coming around the Lord's table at every service on Sundays at Lakeshore, because it takes us back to the cross every time.
So regardless of what challenges we're facing, we can know God's love. It's true and steadfast and real. And with that in mind, I want us to look at this next section of Exodus chapter one. We've gone through the first seven verses last week. If you missed it, you could go back and catch that. Let's pick up with verse eight, because the thing about God's plan is it changes. It changes dramatically sometimes like it does here.
It says, "Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. Look," he said to his people, "The Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous. And if war breaks out, we'll join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."
So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. And they built Pithom and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. And so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor and brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields. And all their harsh labor, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Now, again, you have to see the Pentateuch as the whole thing and know the whole story. If you know the story of Joseph, you know the story of the Pentateuch. If you know the story of Joseph being taken to Egypt, it was not under good circumstances that Joseph was taken there. We did a whole series on Joseph's life not too long ago, so you can go back. It's on our YouTube channel if you want to go back and go through that series a little bit; you'll learn more about that story.
But part of what God's plan was is even though Joseph ended up in Egypt under terrible circumstances, and he had bad things happen to him while he was there, God worked through every bad thing that happened to bring Joseph to a better place and to bring blessing to his people every time. Joseph ended up being second in command in Egypt. He had the favor of the Pharaoh while he was alive.
But notice verse 8. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. The first point I want you to see today is that God is working behind the scenes even in dark days like this. Even in the dark days. Even when a new king comes along that doesn't show favor to God's people, that doesn't remember what Joseph did for Egypt and how he saved them from the famine, who has no regard for Joseph or for his people there in his land.
In fact, instead of seeing them as a blessing, he now sees them as a problem that needs to be dealt with, that needs to be eliminated. For Egypt to prosper the way he wants Egypt to prosper, for him personally, as Pharaoh, the way he wants to prosper, he sees that the Israelites, in his mind, are a threat to everything he wants. So he comes up with this plan.
And friends, the one mistake we can make when reading scripture is to not read it honestly, right? It's to not be honest with what's being talked about. And the temptation would be to kind of sanitize what we're reading here as if it's not all that big a deal, as if it's not that bad. But friends, these were awful. Awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful.
When this decision was made to put a slave master over them, you see, up until then, even though there were foreigners in the land, they weren't being treated as slaves yet. But now, everything changes. And now, what Pharaoh is doing is psychological warfare along with the physical treatment that he's bringing to these Israelites.
See, Pharaoh knows that in order to enslave a people and treat them ruthlessly, he's got to convince his own people that they are a threat to them and that they don't deserve to be in their land and that they don't have their best interest at heart. In fact, to see them as the enemy is what Pharaoh has to get his people to do. He wants the people of Egypt to see the Israelites as enemies of Egypt that need to be put in their place, that need to be oppressed and held down.
You see, that's the game plan of every civilization throughout history that has ever enslaved or tried to eliminate a group or a race of people from the world. It's been that same game plan every time. You get your own people to think of them as less than you. You get your own people to think of them as less than human. They don't deserve to be here. They don't deserve the same rights and privileges you have.
If you go back and read the propaganda that Hitler put out, this is exactly the game plan that Hitler used against the Jews. If you looked at the game plan that Chairman Mao did in China against Christians, it's exactly the same game plan that Pharaoh was using in Egypt. And when you look at what happened in Europe and then was brought to America in the slave trade, it's exactly the same game plan.
Where you get people to look at a certain group of people for whatever reason, and you start thinking of them as less than and not worthy and not deserving of what you are and who you are and what you deserve. And so he gets the people of Egypt to start thinking of the Israelites as animals to be enslaved and used for their own purposes. And so they start treating them like animals, beasts of burden in their country.
That's how evil the heart of man can be. And the mistake we make is when we see evil like this in the world is we tend to blame God instead of who's really behind it. You see, God was not behind any brutal treatment of his people. But God knew this is what Egypt was going to do. And in God's good plan for us, he was able to even use this for his purposes to execute his plan of healing the brokenness that sin had brought into the world and even bringing some good things out of it.
Here's what Pharaoh is doing. He's creating this narrative that the downfall of the Egyptian Empire is actually tied to the Hebrew people, that they're the real problem. You see, the Egyptian Empire was already declining some when he took this step. And he saw the decline coming. And he didn't want to look bad himself. He didn't want it to look like it was his fault. So he's casting the blame on the Hebrew people and getting his whole nation to turn against them.
How do you talk them into treating people like slaves? You have to convince them. You have to convince them that they are. You have to convince them that they are not going to be a threat unless you do this. That they will take from you what you want for yourself if you don't do this. That it will so inconvenience your life if they are able to prosper here that you won't have the good life that you want to have for yourself.
But instead, we can do this and they can help us have the good life that we want to have. Now, keep that in mind because that's the game plan that's still being played today all over the world and even to some point in the United States of America. There's still some of this game plan that's being played out even among us today. And you think, "Oh, we're too advanced as a civilization for that to happen." Friends, you have to remember Egypt was the most advanced powerful civilization in the world when this happened in Egypt.
So don't think that we're beyond this kind of thing happening to us. And so it becomes important for us to remember when we read the turning of the tide against the Hebrew people, when we see them being enslaved, when we see them being treated so unjustly and so unfairly, when we see the suffering that they're going through, we need to be honest about it and real about it. But we also need to see that God is still working behind the scenes even while that's going on.
He's not left the scene. He's not left his people. He's not forgotten about them. He sees what's going on. He understands what's going on. He's not caught off guard by what's going on. God's not making this happen, but God in his good plan can work even with this happening in the world. That's what we have to remember with the evil in the world today. God's not making the evil happen. He's not making the evil happen. Human beings are doing that as we let Satan rule in our hearts and minds.
God's got a plan. It's a good plan for the healing of the brokenness that comes from the suffering that his people might endure. He's working behind the scenes even while this is happening. It reminds me of what Paul said in Romans 8. Remember Romans 8:28? We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who've been called according to his purpose.
Now, when he says all things, what does he mean? All things. Even the dark days. Yeah, you see, in all things, it doesn't mean he's the one doing all those things. It means he's at work even while all those things are going on. He's still at work behind the scenes even when you don't see him at work. You see, when the tide turned against the Hebrew people in Egypt, they probably wondered, "Where is God?" In all things, he's still at work behind the scenes even when you don't see him.
"Why does he allow all of this? Why is he allowing this to happen?" You see, they have human nature like us, and they tended to blame God like we do for the evil that happens in the world, especially when it happens to them. They wanted to blame God for that evil, and they questioned where God was. But when we see the big picture in the whole story, here's what we realize: oh, God is at work behind the scenes. He is still at work behind the scenes, still accomplishing his plan, even with this bad thing that's going on in the lives of his people.
So God is working behind the scenes, even when it's too dark to see it. And we need to remember that when things get dark for us today, when we go through some dark times, some evil things in our lives, that God hasn't left us or forsaken us during those times.
But the second thing we need to see is this, and I love this part because it includes all of us, and that is that God often reveals his glory through the weak during those times. That his strength is often revealed and seen in the weakness of his people in the moment of the dark days that they're going through.
Let's look at verse 15, because it gets worse than just enslavement. Remember while they were being enslaved? What were they still doing? They were still increasing in number, right? They're being beaten, they're being tortured, they're still increasing in number. And Pharaoh sees, "Oh no, the threat is getting even bigger, even with the enslavement of these people."
So it says in verse 15, "The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Sifra and Pua, 'When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, do what? Kill him. But if it is a girl, let her live.'"
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Oh, this is a story they came up with. Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwives could get there." So God was kind to the midwives, and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."
Now friends, there's crazy and there's a special kind of crazy, and Pharaoh has crossed over into the special kind of crazy where the evil in his heart is so great, his desire for power and control is so strong that he's convinced that the way to handle this is to kill the baby boys that are born to the Hebrew people.
And he starts out by wanting to do it through his midwives that work in his kingdom. He has two in his kingdom that were heading up the midwife program there evidently in Egypt who would go help the Hebrew women as they gave delivery to their babies. And he said, "Now when you go in to help with the delivery, if it's a boy, you make sure that baby dies. If it's a girl, you let the baby live."
Now why let the girls live and kill the boys? Where the boys would be more of a threat if there were to be a war and they would go to battle. The boys are also more of a threat because in their system of rule, they would be more of a threat if they were to go to school. Women had no authority, could even testify in court; their testimony wasn't accepted. They had no ability to overthrow or control the Egyptian government, so they were not as much of a threat as the boys would be.
There's another reason though that's part of the evil of what they were doing: their girls could be traded and sold into sex slavery to benefit the Egyptians, and that's part of what was happening too during this period of slavery. So let the girls live; they can benefit us, but make sure you kill the baby boys.
Now you think, how evil can you get that they could talk you into thinking that killing babies would benefit you as a people? Does that sound familiar at all? That they could convince women this is what Pharaoh thought he could convince these women midwives that their job would be to help their country if they made sure these babies were killed at birth instead of allowed to live because these babies are a threat.
And they would keep you from having what you want to see. He went to the Egyptian people and he said, "These people are multiplying too much, and so these babies being born are a threat to your lifestyle that you want to have. So what's the answer? You kill the babies so you don't have that threat to your lifestyle that you want to have for yourself."
Does that sound like a familiar story? Do you think even in an advanced society like ours, people might be deceived and convinced that that's a good approach to take? So you could have the life you want to have, live the way you want to live, have the benefits and the blessings you want to have for yourself. Let's kill the babies so we can make sure we have that.
You see, it's an old story. It's been around a long time, and I'm convinced Satan is behind it. I can't think of anything more evil than women deciding the best thing to do here is kill our own babies. I know I'm going to get a lot of emails; I'm okay with that. But I want you to hear this part.
You see, because they're now enslaved and because they have no authority in the government at all and no representation in the Egyptian government, they are powerless to stop this. The Hebrew people are. They've got no way to keep this from happening. But by the power of God, the most powerful nation on earth at that point in human history ends up falling and being destroyed and going to the grave by the power of God working through five women in that culture.
They were in the weakest position you could be in. These five women changed everything, and God used them in one of the most powerful ways you can imagine to take that power and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy it and destroy that thing they just made a house of stone and nicely cut it down.
The nation of Egypt because of the evil place they had gotten to and what they were doing, those five women—the two midwives, right? He lists them by name: Moses' mother, Moses' sister, and get this, Pharaoh's own daughter is going to use this man's own daughter to take him down, to execute judgment and punishment against a man that wants to do this kind of evil to the people that God wanted to bless.
So in your darkest days, when you feel the weakest, understand this: God often works through the weakest among us. Even people who don't believe in him and families that don't honor him at all to accomplish his good plan for his glory and for our good. God is that powerful, and he's that true to his promises, and he's that amazing in accomplishing what he says he's going to accomplish.
You don't know how gutsy these ladies are right there, right? I mean, think of Moses' mother. When she gives birth to a son, what's the law? What are you supposed to do with that boy? Kill him. But she hides him instead. It took guts to do that. But then when he gets too big to hide anymore, she gets his sister to take him down to the Nile and put him in that basket that she had made, coated with tar and pitch so that it wouldn't sink, and placed him in there.
And so the sister is part of the story now. And then Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe in the river and brings her servants with her. They find the baby in the basket. That baby happens to be Moses, who's going to lead the people out of Egypt and destroy Egypt as a process. They're going to fall as a result of what happened.
And that's what happens with all of this big story that God is already working in his plan. And he uses his sister so that when Pharaoh's daughter comes down, he uses the daughter and the sister so that the sister says, "You want me to get a Hebrew mother to nurse the baby for you?" She says, "Oh yeah, that'd be great."
So Moses' own mother gets to nurse him, raise him up, and then presents him to Pharaoh's daughter. And that baby that was supposed to be killed ends up being raised as a baby. And that baby is a member of Pharaoh's family and rises to great prominence there in Egypt.
You think God was still at work? Even in the dark days? Even when everything seemed to be going the wrong way? Even when everything seemed to be lost and there was no hope? And these people felt so weak and helpless and unable to do anything about it.
The key was these women, it says in Scripture, they feared God more than they feared who? Pharaoh. They understood it's wrong to kill these babies. We're willing to stand up and say, "We're not going to do this. We're not going to participate in the killing of these babies. We are going to stand up against the most powerful man in the world at that time because we believe we've got to answer to God for this."
You see, that's a lesson that we all need to learn. The Apostle Paul says he learned it. He talks about it in 2 Corinthians 12. He talks about the fact that because of his revelations God had given him, God gave him a thorn in the flesh so he wouldn't get too puffed up and conceited about what God had allowed him to see and to know.
And so, it says in verse 8, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, 'Listen to God's message, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in what? Weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am what? Strong."
And it's not my strength. Whose strength is it? It's God's. You see, so God is working behind the scenes even when it's too dark to see it. And God often reveals his glory and his power through the weak and the ones who seem to have no ability from a worldly viewpoint to accomplish anything great for God.
I'm so glad of that. I saw this saying the other day and I really liked it. "When God called me, he figured in my stupidity. He already knew my weaknesses. He already knew my flaws. And guess what he did? He called me anyway, right? Why? Because his strength, he was strong enough for me to make this scene in my weaknesses. He's not dependent on me being strong. He's strong enough for the both of us, right?
He's not dependent on me to be the wisest person in the world. His wisdom is enough for both of us. He's not dependent on me to be the most articulate person in the world because his message is what cuts through into the hearts and the minds of the people that he's communicating with.
You see, we can be used by God even in our weaknesses, our failures, our shortcomings. They don't disqualify us from God's good plan to heal the brokenness of the world. He wants to use you and me.
And that's the last thing I want us to see, and that's this. We see it in these midwives and those five women that God used in a powerful way there. A proper fear of God is what really produces courage to do what God is calling us to do. A proper fear of God is what leads to being courageous for God.
I love this quote from Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher a generation or two ago. He said this: "God is too good to be unkind. He's too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart."
I want to read it again. "He's too good to be unkind. He's too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart." We as the people of God today need to learn to trust the heart of God. And part of trusting the heart of God is having the proper fear of the Lord.
Now when we use the term "the fear of the Lord," so many people just don't understand how to get their head around that idea. What does it mean to have a proper fear of the Lord? And a fear of the Lord is not where, "Oh no, if I mess up, he's going to strike me with lightning." No, that's not the fear of the Lord in Scripture. Okay? He could do that, but one reason we're in awe of him is he doesn't do that. We mess up all the time, and he doesn't do that, right?
A proper fear of the Lord is where we're so struck by his majesty, we have so much awe for who he is, and we're far more anxious about that awe than we are the awe of anything else. See, I'm not so in awe of our government. I'm not so in awe of whoever's president. I'm not so in awe of whoever the entertainer that's popular is right now.
By the way, a lot of you stayed up for Taylor Swift's little release there, didn't you? People are so in awe. I saw some young girls they interviewed on the news and said, "It's a life-changing experience." She dropped a double album overnight. Somehow I slept through it. I don't know how that happened.
Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciate talent, and that's great that she's able to be so popular, but I'm so in awe of her. I'm so much more in awe of God than I am of any entertainer or politician, boss at work, or co-worker or neighbor. You see, our awe of God should be above everything else we have any awe of at all.
And so when we have the proper awe of God, respect for him and his position and his power and his love, then here's what happens. We're willing to engage even in the face of opposition. On behalf of that God that we awe, instead of running away from it and hiding.
How were these midwives able to do what they did? They could have been killed for it, executed for it, but they had an awe and a fear of God that was greater than their awe and their fear of the Pharaoh. That's how they were able to do it. How was Moses' mom able to do that? How was Moses' sister able to do that? Because they had a greater awe of God than they had fear of God.
Friends, I've talked about this some recently. I want to come to it again. In our culture today, Christ followers are facing more and more pushback against our faith and our walk with Christ and our testimony. Trudeau in Canada just passed a ruling or proposed a ruling to be approved that to speak publicly about Christ or to read the Scriptures out loud in public is a threat to the government.
That's just in Canada, just to the north of us, a democratic country. And even in America, some of what we teach, if we just teach the Bible, could now be labeled legally as hate speech in our country today if we just teach exactly what it says.
So who are we in awe of? Who do we fear the most? At work, school, at the supermarket, at the ball field, in our church buildings, knowing that this message is going to be online and anybody can see it and hear it and use it any way they want to. And even tweak it around and make it say things we didn't really say.
Who are we going to be more afraid of? Are we going to so fear what the government could do or what people could do to counsel us out that we won't do the right thing anymore? We won't speak up for the truth anymore. We won't stand for God anymore. Where is our awe placed today as followers of Jesus Christ?
Here's what I want to call us to do as your pastor. This is in closing, and I really want you to consider this, okay? I'm convinced more and more that we don't withdraw in the face of opposition. I'm convinced more and more that we don't withdraw because of the hostility that might come against us.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we just did an ad inviting people to our Easter services, and we were attacked online by so many people. It was amazing. It was just an invitation to come to an Easter service. That's not going to go away. It's going to get worse.
How do we respond? I'm convinced more and more that we don't withdraw, that we actually fearlessly engage, and as we engage, we engage with compassion and graciousness. Think of how powerful that will be if that's the way we respond, if that's the way we engage in the face of the opposition.
The more the temperature is heated up, the more we're gracious and compassionate, the more we are belittled and mocked and marginalized, the more we extend grace and compassion because our fear is not in what man can do to us, but in the God that we serve. Because we're in awe of God, we're going to live out His love and His graciousness and His compassion in the world today.
Hebrews 13:6 says this, "So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper. I will not be, what's that word? Afraid.'" Christians need to stop being afraid. Afraid to speak up for the truth of God. I know there will be consequences. I have no doubt there will be some.
But he went on to say this, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" You say, "Pastor Eddie, they could do a lot." Right? They could fire me. They could cancel me if I'm an entertainer. They could boycott your church if you say things that the culture doesn't agree with right now. There's all kinds of things mere mortals can do.
But he's saying, "What can mere mortals do to me?" What he's saying is, is they can't do anything to us that in God's good plan for us he's not already taken care of. So the response shouldn't be anger. And it shouldn't be a cowardice running away. It should be loving and compassionate and consistent speaking the truth in love. And let the consequences fall where they may.
Because if we can trust the heart of God, we can trust Him in the dark days. Because He's the same God in the dark days that He's been in the good, bright days too. He has not changed.
Now I don't know all the consequences that might come. I know we're not facing what the Israelites were facing in Egypt, right? Yet there were some women there who had the courage that came from having an awe of God to stand up even in that darkness and that evil. If they could do that, can't we muster up some courage as Christ followers today so that we don't withdraw but that we engage with love and compassion?
Paul said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." What can mere mortals do to me? Well, they could kill you. Well, to die is gain in Christ. Right? Do you believe that or not? Do you believe that if it even came to that?
Say what? Well, I would die for Christ. Yeah, but will you speak up for them at work? At school? In the marketplace? In your family? You'll die for them. Will you live for them? That's what he needs. That's his plan. That's what he's calling us to.
It's like Peter said when they were arrested for preaching Christ. He said, "We must obey God rather than human beings." You see, God's people have, throughout all of the ages, had to face dark days and make that choice of who they fear the most. Peter said we fear God more than we fear Caesar. We're going to speak up for God.
Paul went on to say this: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." He was imprisoned several times. He was beaten several times. He was cast out to a remote island one time, shipwrecked. He said, "But for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, and I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed." That's God's good plan for all of us.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you. We thank you that in Christ we can know that even when dark times come, you're still present. You're still at work. Your love didn't change. Your promises are still true. And if we have the proper awe and respect and fear of you that we should have, then we can become the bold witnesses you called us to be because that witness stands out even more in our weakness than it could ever stand out in our strength.
So as Christians are more and more marginalized in our culture today, may we become more gracious, more loving, and at the same time more bold and courageous in our witness for you. It's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
Friends, if you're here today and you're ready to take that step of saying boldly, publicly, "I love Jesus and I want to follow Him," you've got that chance to take that step today. If you've not yet been baptized, we have everything ready for you. You can be baptized into Christ today. If you need a church home to connect with and be a part of, you can take that step today. Whatever that next step is for you of obedience, as we stand and sing, we invite you to come.
Amen.
Everybody have a seat for a moment, please. We're so thankful that you're here with us today. I'm going to have Jeremy come in a minute. He's going to bring the announcements, but before we bring those announcements that are in your bulletin today, a couple things. One is if you like to worship through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes available, one in the auditorium there and then one in the hallway.
We're going to have a time around the Lord's table before we have the announcements, and I want us to, as we come around the Lord's table, just always come back to the cross, right? I love this time when you're questioning the goodness of God. Always come back to this.
And we got someone that's leading in our communion today. Who we got? Yeah, come on, Paul told me. That's right, come on up, Paul. I knew we had somebody. It's in your name, Christ. Amen.
Amen. Before Jeremy comes to lead in the other announcements, I had one we wanted to show you a little video. There's an event tonight that we didn't have in the bulletin, but we were able to get it lined up where Johnson University has a team that's going to be at our Smyrna campus. The University of Johnson has a team that's going to be at our Smyrna campus. They're going to do a presentation of the school. There's going to be food and games and a fun time together.
Parents of teenagers and teenagers, I want to encourage you to be there tonight. Let's watch this video and get a reminder of what they're going to be doing tonight.
I mean, this is a great place to be with my children, so I'm looking forward to it. Not far from the mountains. I mean, this is nice and all, but I really like the city too.
So need anything else? No, I'm good. Think I got it. Here we go.
Yeah, they're going to be at the Smyrna campus tonight. What time is that starting? I can't remember. Six tonight. So parents, teens, and parents, please make sure you try to get there for that. You don't have to sign up ahead of time; just show up. They're going to have the whole program planned for you there, so it's going to be a really good thing.
At this time, Jeremy's going to come up and share other announcements, things that we've got coming up. Before he does, there's a special prayer request I want—no, you're good. Come on up, Jeremy. Yeah, no, you're good, man. I like having you come up. Come on up. That's good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Jeremy; he's okay. He's all right; he can come up here with me.
Cheryl Cox asked us to be praying especially for her dad. He had another scare health-wise with his heart and had to go into the hospital. He's, I think, doing a little better now, but continue to keep her family in prayer with that. I know there are many other prayer needs, and Jeremy's going to lead us in prayer.
on Apr 22, 2024
