Skip to content Thou Shalt Not Negotiate - INFLUENCED, Part 2 Sep 22 · 1 hr 1 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 Alright. Take out your notes. They look like this as we do part 2 of this series. Part 2 of this series, influenced. And the theme of this series is to come under the influence of the Lord,0:26 out of the influence of God. And the title of the message today is thou shalt not negotiate. Thou shalt not negotiate. Coming to our0:37 church soon is a class that we are putting together right now called growth track. We used to do something similar, but it is reimagined, completely reimagined from the ground up, and we want0:49 everyone to take the class. Growth track, 3 weeks, and we will provide food for everybody who takes all 3 parts all 3 parts of food1:01 available to you. But the point of this class is to un help you understand who we are, what we believe, what our church is about, what our purpose is, but none not just that. We want you to understand who you are.1:13 We want you to understand and identify your gifts, your personality traits, and then where we can plug you in to flourish in the ministry of Waters Church.1:24 I'm particularly excited. That's why I say, even if you've been here with us for 20 years, I want you to take this class. And it's gonna be part of our permanent, you know, our permanent1:36 program, if you will, of making disciples. You know, how many know Jesus didn't say go and make churchgoers? He said go and make disciples, people who are under the1:48 leadership, the influence of Jesus, under the influence of God. And so today is we're gonna talk about that. We want you to be prepared for that. The class will be rolled out in November. This series is
1:59 to build a case up for it, and we're putting it all together. Prayers for that as we continue putting it together for you so that it benefits your life. Okay? Sound good?
2:11 Turn to your neighbor and say, you need to take the class. Turn to your other neighbor and say, even though you are my second choice, you also need to take the class.
2:26 Alright. We're looking at the story of the Exodus. Somebody say Exodus. Exodus. Now this is when God miraculously delivers the people of Israel out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt
2:38 into their purposes in God. And I said to you last week that this story is our story. These are types and shadows of our story in Christ. If you were here last week,
2:49 you should know this. If you forget, it's okay. That's why I re up a little bit from the last week's message to just kind of drill this into you. But the players of the Exodus story are pictures for you and I
3:02 in our salvation experience in Christ. So I said that Egypt was a picture of what? Does anybody remember? The world. Egypt is a picture of the world or,
3:13 sin, if you will. Now the Israelites had been in Egypt for 430 years. That means that everybody that was presently in Egypt when they get delivered was born
3:25 in Egypt. A picture for you and for me, every 1 of us naturally, was born in the world. Born in sin.
3:37 Every person born is born in sin. This is a picture. I said Egypt, a picture of the world. Pharaoh is a picture of? The The world, just like Egypt has, a king,
3:49 an authority, a god, if you will. Second Corinthians tells us he is the god of this world. Ephesians 2 says he is the prince of the power of the air. He is the god of this age, the prince
4:01 of darkness. So he is at work right now amongst all those who are born in sin. And and and and Jesus would tell the Pharisees, you are your you are of your father, the devil.
4:13 So the devil has children. People who are in darkness, in bondage to sin, in slavery, to the desires of their flesh, the desires of their hearts, their eyes, and the pride of life.
4:25 So that's picture of worlds. Egypt picture of the devil. Devil is pharaoh. Israel is a picture of The flesh. The flesh. There you go. Good. The flesh, which is that
4:36 internal struggle that even Christians will have. Even Christians will have the struggle with the old nature, that old carnality that wants to bring us back to
4:48 Egypt. And we'll see this in Israel's wandering through the wilderness is that they often as soon as they hit a roadblock, as soon as they hit some friction with God's plan, they just immediately
5:00 start saying, well, I want we wanna go back to Egypt. And that's just like us. We get a little bit of friction, a little bit of frustration with the walk with the Lord, and then we start to look back, maybe my old life
5:10 was better. Maybe I'm not really saved. Maybe I'm not really cut out for this. And that flesh battle is real. Can somebody say amen? Amen. We know it. We feel it. But then Moses is a picture of who? Our
5:22 deliverer. The 1 who sets us free. And hear me, he doesn't give up on you. He doesn't give up on you. In fact, even when you give up, he doesn't give up.
5:35 Praise God. Because Jesus sorry. I I did a lot of shouting in the first 2 services. I don't know if
5:43 I can
5:44 get a bottle of water out there from my stagehand today. But, so I I got some shouting to do this service as well. But but Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is stronger than
5:55 Moses. Jesus is able to do what Moses could not do. Bring us out of Egypt completely and all the way into the promises of God. And my
6:07 salvation, and listen to me, and your salvation depends on Jesus. This is so important for you to get. If my salvation depended
6:19 on me, I wouldn't stay saved. My salvation depends on the faithfulness of Jesus. And he is able, Hebrews says, to save to the uttermost
6:31 those who are come who come to him. Praise God. I'm so glad he doesn't half save me. I'm so glad he doesn't kinda save me. I'm glad that Jesus
6:43 thoroughly saves me. And he thoroughly saves you. So the important thing that we're gonna talk about today is don't negotiate with the enemy. The enemy wants to negotiate
6:55 with you and keep you from the purposes of God because you didn't get saved just to go to heaven. If you got saved just to go to heaven, then the moment that you said yes to Jesus, God would just zap you up to heaven.
7:07 But you come you come to Christ, and you're still here. Because that means you've got a purpose. You've got a plan. You not you, but God has a plan for you. And everyone, wherever
7:19 you are, in whatever area of life oh, thank you so much. And it's a Fiji. How did you know Fiji was my favorite? Thank you,
7:31 Lord. God bless Fiji. Okay. Where was I? Oh, God has a purpose for you to live out now. Now. The eternal life begins now
7:43 when you come to Christ. You're now in eternal life. Now there's 4 purposes that God, talks about in delivering Israel from Egypt, and they are parallel truths for
7:54 what God does for you in delivering you from sin and from the world. So let's talk about this. Let's build the case before we get to the negotiation part that the devil wants to have with you. The devil does not want you
8:05 to live and thrive in the purposes of God. There are 4 purposes. Let's write these down. God's purpose in deliverance, number 1, God sets us free from the world to serve him. Now this is we're picking up where we left
8:16 off last week. Exodus chapter 8 verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go. This is deliverance. If you got your paper bible out,
8:28 this is why I love this bible, you know, screen. You just mark up with me. You gotta get into the habit of marking up your bible. In fact, I think you should have a a main
8:39 bible that you underline, highlight, that you wear out, that the cover starts to, like, disintegrate. You know what I'm talking about? Because a bible that is worn out is in the hands of a life
8:51 that's not. Whoo. That was good preaching. Let my people go. Circle this next word. That, there's a purpose to my
9:03 deliverance that they may serve me. You are called to serve God. Everybody serves somebody. You are not autonomous. No
9:15 human being is fully set free to their own ideation of themselves. Everyone is serving someone. The question is, who are you
9:27 serving? As the great theologian Bob Dylan once said, you gonna serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the lord, but everybody's gonna serve
9:39 somebody. What does that mean to serve? Well, the word for serve in Hebrew is abad. Abad. And that means not just to serve,
9:51 but it also means to worship. Here here's what I would stipulate. Here's what I would specify here. That whatever, there we go, whatever you worship is what you
10:03 serve. What does that mean? Well, worship comes from the old English, worship. What is worth the most in your life? For some of you, friend's opinion about
10:15 you is the carries the greatest worth in your life. So you will serve their opinion by doing things that you normally wouldn't do, maybe even things that are unhealthy for you because you want them to
10:27 think well of you. Let's let's just have a moment of confession. I'm in this with you and my hands going up. But raise your hand if you ever did something stupid just because you wanted somebody to like
10:38 you. Alright. I mean, we're all in that. We have all been through. We've all been in that environment. K. When you're young, it's maybe, you know, drinking, partying, smoking something.
10:51 When you get older, it's maybe you're chasing a certain career path because you want your father to appreciate or approve of you, or or you're chasing some kind of life and marriage because you want other people to
11:03 think well of you. You chase a neighborhood. You wanna live in that neighborhood because you wanna feel like you belong in that special neighborhood. Or maybe when you have a job, you wanna earn a lot of money because
11:13 you want people to think well of you because you got a lot of money, lot of stuff, and you buy things that you don't need to impress people that don't really care. And then you spend money that you don't have. And what
11:22 you've done is you've enslaved yourself. You're serving something. When you have children, be careful about this, you will serve your children. You will be you will be you will you will come under the the slavery of
11:34 gaining your children's approval. And parents do not need their children's approval. Parents, Parents, you do not need your children to like you. Your children are not your friends.
11:46 If they're your friends, you're doing something wrong. Get real friends. Get into LifeGroup water church, meet some real friends so that you can lead your children and do things that upset them regularly.
11:58 When you're married, be careful about this 1. When you're married, be careful that you don't serve your spouse. Or if you're dating someone, serving the person that you're dating because you're living with them when God
12:09 clearly calls that sin. Who who's carrying the worst ship of your life? Because whoever is carrying the worst ship of your life is who you're gonna serve. God comes to set you free
12:21 so that you can serve him. And when you know what he thinks about you, he accepts you. He loves you. He forgives you. He he will never let you go. He has
12:32 accepted you in the beloved. You are now a member of his home, his family. You are his possession. You are his precious chosen child. There's no 1 that that will ever separate you from him.
12:44 That sets you free. I don't need your approval anymore. Don't need people to like me anymore because why? Because the father who created me loves me with an everlasting love. Now I am free to serve
12:56 him. And in serving him, I can serve others without a what's in it for me mindset. This is why Jesus said, even the son of man, Matthew 20 28, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. And I
13:08 would suggest this, you're never as much like Jesus as when you serve. So when we talk about growth track, getting into growth track is gonna find out where do you fit in in serving in this community,
13:20 in giving of your time, in giving of your talents so that you can help other people come to know Jesus. Number 2, God's purpose and deliverance. God sets us free from the world to enjoy him.
13:33 Now this might be new territory for some people today, But Exodus chapter 5 tells us the purpose of the deliverance of Egypt Israel out of Egypt. He says in
13:45 Exodus 5 verse 1, go and say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. Again, let my people go, circle the word that, they may hold a what? To
13:58 me in the wilderness. Feast. K. Real quick. Raise your hand if you're into food. Raise your hand
14:10 if you miss buffets. I used to love buffets. Oh, my wife hates buffets, but I love buffets. Why have 1 entree when I could have 6?
14:23 And God is into feasts. In the law, in the book of Leviticus, God enumerates 3 annual feasts for Israel once they come out of Egypt. He says 3 times a
14:35 year, every 1 of you is gonna come and celebrate with me a feast, and the feast lasts for 7 days. God's into partying. God likes a good meal.
14:47 By the way, they were supposed to slaughter their oxen, their calves, their sheep, their goats. They're supposed to fry that up on the altar sacrifice, and then they're supposed to eat the meat in the presence of the
14:58 Lord. God is not a vegan. Come on. That's the best news someone's heard this say in a long time. Praise the
15:10 Lord. Said the the fat offerings, give it to me. Let's deal with this. I like a lot I like a line of fat with my meat. Anybody with me on that? I'm so glad for the,
15:22 the series we did on health. You eat that red meat and you eat that fat in Jesus' name. Feasts are are what God wants.
15:34 He wants to celebrate with his people. 4 things that you can celebrate about God. Number 1, you can celebrate his presence. When we gather in the presence of each other, in this place and in our life groups, we are
15:45 experiencing the presence of God. There's something supernatural that's happening right now. God is in this place. The Lord Jesus is with us. The Holy Spirit is working through your hearts in my
15:57 mouth, through my life right now. The Holy Spirit is here. Amen. You know it's a different place in this isn't is an atmosphere of the presence of the Lord here. Yeah? And I believe when we
16:09 worship the Lord, the Holy Spirit just comes. The presence of the Lord comes when we worship. Number 2, we we we can enjoy his, his people. Christians,
16:22 learn learn this. There's no person there's no people on this earth like Christians. The people that drive me nuts are the people who say, well, I don't like Christians. And
16:34 the reason why they don't like Christians is 2 reasons. Number 1, they may not be a Christian even though they think they are. And number 2, they've never met real Christians. If you met real Christians, these people
16:45 that salt of the earth my best friends are true sold out Christians. They love the Lord. Real Christians are the most down to earth people, by the way. Real Christians are the most
16:57 and here's another thing. Real Christians are the most humble people because real Christians are aware more about their faults than the faults of others. Real Christians have done what Jesus said, is
17:09 take the log out of your own eye before you worry about the speck in your brother's eye. Real Christians are the best people on the world to be around. And to some of you, you've never experienced this because you've
17:21 never jumped in with both feet into what we're doing here. You're still treading water. You're still dipping your toe. Time to jump in, see what real faith is all about. So you can enjoy the presence of God, the people
17:32 of God. How about this, the purpose of God? To know Jesus is to know to live with purpose. No longer wandering through life, aimless with no direction. No God God God calls you to
17:44 great purposes, and those purposes can be lived out in your daily life, in your family life, in your private life, in your public life, wherever you are, purpose. You're not just a janitor. You're a janitor for the Lord.
17:55 You're not just a doctor. You're a doctor for the Lord. You're not just a teacher. You're a teacher for the Lord. You're not just a student. You're a tea you're you're a student absorbing information so that you can take
18:04 that information and serve the Lord in whatever God has called you to do. How about this 1? The possessions. So God wants you to enjoy, his presence, his people, his purpose, and his possessions. Yes. God shares his
18:16 possessions with us. Proverbs 10 22 says, the blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it. Oh, I like that 1. There's 2 kinds of wealth. There's wealth with trouble. There's wealth without trouble.
18:28 And without God, wealth just becomes trouble, headaches, problems, frustrations. But with the Lord at the center of your life, I believe he adds abundance.
18:40 Abundance to your life. And it's not troublesome abundance. It's blessed abundance. So God has delivered you to enjoy him. So God delivers you to
18:52 serve him. God delivers you to enjoy him. Here's number 3. God sets us free from sin to represent him. You're representing God. When you're saved when you're
19:03 saved, you represent the Lord in your life. Exodus 11. Let's skip ahead. The Lord said to Moses, yet 1 more plague. This is after the plague of darkness, the last the ninth
19:15 plague. There's 10 plagues. 1 more plague, I will bring upon Pharaoh in Egypt, and afterward, he will let you go from here. And when he lets you go, he will drive you away, and what's this word?
19:27 Completely. Complete separation is the way that we represent God in the world. Complete separation from the world is the way that we represent God in the world.
19:39 Hey. A church that lives like the world cannot affect the world. The world needs a church that is different than the world. Different
19:51 in how we act, different in how we talk, different in how we relate to each other, different in how we manage our money, different in how we train our children, different in our schedules, different in our entertainment
20:02 options, different in what jokes we entertain, in what conversations we get involved in, different in how we respond to those who hurt us and abuse us and mistreat us. Different. Amen.
20:14 Completely different. You ought to understand something that this is what God wants for you. He wants you completely different than the world. 2 realities about this. Number 1, in Christ Jesus, the moment you become
20:25 saved, you are already completely different than the world. And that is called justification. That is called justification. You have been justified
20:37 by faith in Christ Jesus, and no 1 takes that away from you. You're different than the world. Set apart. There's a word for what I'm talking about here that gets a lot of Christians very
20:49 nervous. The world is the word is holiness. Oh, holiness. I know I don't got that. Yes. You do. If you're in Christ Jesus, you already are made holy.
21:03 Positionally before the father, you have been brought into the holy family of God. Now you say, well, I don't live up to that. That's right. That's that's for that second phase of the Christian life, which we will talk
21:14 about a lot next week, which is called sanctification. Living up to what God has already made you to be. You see, you don't earn your justification. That's a free gift of faith. You don't earn it. But now that
21:25 you are it, you are lit you are called to live up to it. Does that make sense? Yeah. All over the New Testament, you see this. Let us live up to what we have already attained. Since you are already a child of God, live
21:37 like it. Because he has announced a newness of your life. Now at the last plague, does anybody remember what this last plague is? The last plague in that sets the people of Israel
21:49 free? The death of the firstborn. The death of the firstborn and the blood of the lamb on their dwarf poison lintels is what sets them free finally from Egypt. It is pointing to Christ,
22:01 the firstborn son of God, the true son of God who was put on a cross, shed his blood, and put to death. And through being put to death, he said on that cross, it is finished.
22:13 Tetelestai, meaning paid in full. God has purchased you back to himself through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Permanently fixed in
22:25 the heavens forever. Hallelujah. And no 1 can take that away from you if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Now you are made holy.
22:37 Now holy just means that you're set apart. Holy means that you have been set apart for purposes that belong to God, special purposes. There's a special purpose to your
22:49 life that's different than the people of this world. Understand that's what holiness is about. So that you can represent him to the people around you. How are people gonna know what Jesus is like? Are you ready? Take
22:59 your finger and put it like this. Everybody take your finger and put it like this. How are people gonna know in my life what Jesus is like? Are you ready? Now do this. They're gonna look at my life and they're see, oh,
23:11 that's what Jesus is like. They're they're gonna look at how when there's dirty jokes told about the girl in the office, I don't join in. When they
23:22 gossip about the boss, I don't contribute. In fact, I walk away. Simple small stuff. When everybody gangs up on somebody on the Facebook
23:34 neighborhood page, I don't join in. Got it? That when when people tell me that
23:46 I gotta live for myself, I say no. I don't live for myself. I live for him. I have been set apart to represent Jesus.
23:58 This is what you are in Christ if you're delivered by faith in Jesus Christ. Number 4, God's purpose in deliverance. God sets us free from sin to rule with him. This is a big 1, and this brings us this brings us to
24:10 the passage that we just read when we were standing together for the reading of God's word. So they gather at Sinai. They are fully out of Egypt. They're in the wilderness, and they're gathered at the mountain
24:22 of the Lord. And Moses goes up to God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, and he said, I need you to tell my people something about who they are. I need you to tell them this.
24:33 You saw what I did to the Egyptian, how I bore you on eagle's wings. Underline eagle's wings. Now this is a very important picture of who we are in God. God chooses this
24:45 terminology here. And in Isaiah chapter 40, a very famous passage, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with what? Eagles wings. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk
24:56 and not faint. It is a beautiful picture, and here's why. Because the eagle is 1 of the highest flying birds in all creation. Very few. I don't even know if there's more than 2 species that can fly higher than the eagle,
25:08 and it's even suspect as to whether or not that's true. Eagles can fly higher than all the other predators of the air. Now what's unique about eagles is that they will carry their young on their back or on their
25:20 wings, what God says here about Israel. And it's important as you get this. What what eagles do is they take their young and they bring them up when they teach them to fly, because this is a little bit of a
25:30 sanctification process for you and for me. As God puts this on his on his back, just like the eagle puts his eaglets on his back, and the mom eagle just flies all the way up to the very highest height of her ability. And
25:40 then what she does to teach that eaglet to fly is she just goes, whoop. And the eaglet goes, woah, woah, like a bungee jump without a bungee cord.
25:53 And what the eagle mommy does is she watches and if she can tell that the eagle is not able to catch his flight yet because he's not fully grown yet, do you know that the eagle has the ability to dive bomb
26:05 faster than the baby eagle can fall? And she will dive bomb under him, catch him, and bring him right back up. You've got a God in heaven who can meet you while you're falling,
26:17 who sees you when you're stumbling, and he comes up underneath you, and he catches you says, you're my child. I'm not gonna let you go. I'm not done with you yet. Has anybody has God ever
26:29 flipped you over and let you fall for a little while? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's God's process of growing you up. Now this is another thing. They carry them on their back, and they carry them on their back because they
26:41 know that there there's no other predator that can fly higher than them. Other birds carry their young in their talons because they're fearful of higher flying birds that
26:52 can capture their young. Hey. No 1 flies higher than your father. He carries you on his back because he knows
27:04 you're out of the you're out of the grip of any predator, and you reign. You reign with God because this is what he says. Now, therefore, if you'll obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasure possession
27:15 among all the peoples. For the earth is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Notice these words. These are the words I need you to tell my people. They are
27:27 special. They are unique. Christians, listen to me. God says in Christ Jesus, you are special. You are unique. You are chosen and set apart for great and mighty purposes, to
27:38 reign with Christ. There's a passage in Romans that talks about this. Romans chapter 5 verse 17, Paul
27:50 says, because of 1 man's trespass, and this 1 man is Adam, because of Adam's trespass, death, what, reigned, which means
28:02 fear reigned. We are all born in Egypt. We're all born in sin. We are born with a natural fear. This is why when you came out of your
28:13 mother's womb, you were crying. You were already filled with fear. Who robbed me from the comfortable confines of that womb?
28:25 Fear. Fear. And and and and the and the enemy knows that, and he preys on our fears. And what we are looking for, all through our life is security. What can I hold on to? What can I hold on
28:37 to? What can I hold on? Because we know at the end of the day, death is coming for all of us. How do we face death without fear? Because the 1 man's death, 1 man's trespass,
28:49 death reign through that 1 man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the other 1 man,
29:01 Jesus Christ. Jesus is the second Adam. And because he undid what Adam did, we now enter into newness of
29:13 life, and death is not the end. It's a doorway to a new beginning. We walk confidently toward our death because we know that death has been defeated, and I
29:24 am no longer under the bondage of sin, hell, and death, but I am brought new into the family of the living God. It's why we're not afraid
29:36 as we see things the tragedies of our world and the death of Charlie Kirk, and we think about how terrible terrible that is, how awful that is, how scary that is. I'm not afraid. I'm
29:48 not afraid. I'm not gonna be a coward through life. I reign in life. You don't understand? You you understand the enemies that would come against our church? The worst thing that they
30:00 can do is take our life, and the day they take our life is the best day of our life. We gotta be with Jesus. Thank you. I don't have
30:12 anything to fear. Praise the Lord. That's why Hebrews says that he has he has delivered those who are enslaved to the bondage of fear.
30:25 That's what Jesus has done. And so we're back to our birthright, Genesis 1 28, when God blessed Adam and the woman, and he says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it
30:37 and have dominion. Have authority. That has been that was lost in Adam, and it was reclaimed
30:49 in Christ. So God saves me. Let's see if we remembered the 4 points so far. God saves me so that I can serve him. God saves me so that I can
31:00 enjoy him. God saved me so that I can represent him. God saved me so that I can reign or rule with him. Yes. But some of you say, I'm not there. And the reason why is because you negotiate with the enemy.
31:13 You're having a conversation with the enemy of your soul. Conversation with the enemy leads to negotiation. That's what happened with the woman in the garden. She started to have a conversation with the talking snake.
31:27 The conversation led to negotiation. She saw that the tree was good for knowledge and wisdom and make fun lies, and it was pleasurable. And she took and she ate. Conversation with the enemy leads to negotiation. The
31:38 negotiation leads to negation of your calling in Christ. Thou shalt not negotiate. And there's a beautiful picture through this plague sequence in Exodus. There's a beautiful
31:49 picture where pharaoh brings Moses in as the plague start to ravage Egypt. This is incredibly cool. As the plagues start to ravage Egypt, 4 specific moments where pharaoh's
32:01 like, come on in, Moses. And and let let's talk about this. We don't have to get crazy. Like, we don't have to get nuts here. Come on. Let's work something out. Let's negotiate. Okay. Write this down. The enemy wants to
32:11 negotiate me out of my calling. Because what pharaoh does with Moses is what the devil was gonna try to do with you, get you to negotiate your faith. So let's take a
32:23 look at these 4 movements, and then we're done. Number 1, the first negotiation is worship the lord without leaving Egypt. Worship the Lord without leaving Egypt. Okay. So let's
32:35 take a look. This is Exodus chapter 8. Oops. Look. There. Exodus chapter 8. Still learning how to do this. Okay. Here we go. We'll go
32:46 22. Verse 24. And the Lord did so, there came a great swarm of flies. And and so the flies come upon the land of Egypt, and he and Pharaoh is miserable. And then
32:58 Pharaoh calls Moses in, and here's his offer. Okay. I get it. You got some powers from the almighty. I don't like them. Listen. Let let's let's come
33:10 to an agreement. Here we go. Go sacrifice to your god where? Within the land. In other words, stay
33:23 in Egypt. Stay where you are and worship Jesus. Cut stay the way you are and worship Jesus. This is a negotiation that the
33:35 enemy wants to make with you. It's called carnal Christianity. So I got 4 kinds of Christianity that the enemy wants to negotiate you into. Number 1, the enemy wants me to settle for
33:47 carnal Christianity. Carnal comes from the Latin carnalis, which means flesh. Flesh driven Christian faith. There's a lot of
33:58 people in a lot of churches. They're carnal Christians. It means that the flesh has more pull in their life than the Lord
34:10 does. They're Christian by believing in God and believing in Jesus, but it doesn't change how they live. Now
34:21 Paul talks about this in Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter 3, he tells this church. He says, brothers, I could not address you
34:33 as spiritual people, but as people of the what? And in some translations, it says, as carnal people from carnal fleshly people. As infants in
34:45 Christ, I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you weren't ready for it. Carnal Christians can't take the true teaching of the scriptures. They bristle. When when the script when pastor calls on them to
34:57 change oh, wait a minute. Now you're meddling, pastor. Now you're meddling. Don't touch my sacred cows of my life or how I believe I should live. So the pastor comes out and says, hey.
35:09 Listen. Living together is living in sin. It's an abomination before the Lord. Stop it. Don't live together. Absolutely not. Get married. Sign the
35:21 document. Commit. Make the vows before the present before the pastor and before your brothers and sisters in Christ and and and can covenant together. Living together is the is the flesh.
35:33 It's a carnal way to live. This is the worldly mentality. The reason why people in the church fall for this is because, again, you watch what the world does and you adopt their ways. You have to
35:45 stop. The world is not your lead. The world is not your your method. The world is not your practice. This world is lost. This world is in darkness. This world
35:57 is at odds with God. Don't follow their lead. Stand apart. Be separate in Jesus' name. So he goes, look. You're not ready for the real teaching
36:09 of God's word. You're still not ready for you are still what? Of the flesh. Now think about this word still. You know what carnal Christians are? They're Christians that never grow. They never develop. They
36:20 never they never get discipled. They're still doing the same stuff they today that they were doing last year. The same habits, the same hang ups, the same mindset,
36:33 the same level of connection to God's people in the church. You you understand God does not want you to just stay the same. Wants to change you. Then he gives us 2 2 descriptions of these
36:45 carnal people in Corinthians. In Corinth, he says, look, there's jealousy and there's strife. Jealousy is from the Greek zealous, which which means that you have the sense of entitlement. Carnality is I
36:56 deserve. Carnality is, envy. Carnality is I want what they've got. Why doesn't God bless me like he blesses them? That's just a carnal nature. It's all about your flesh and all
37:08 about your indulgences of the flesh and and the desires of the of the of the lust of of the heart. And and and and and then he says, and strife. And the word for strife here means that you're always talking badly
37:20 about other people. Carnal Christians are always complaining about other people. Watch how you talk. Listen to me, Waters Church. Ready? Watch how you
37:32 talk about other people in the church. Are you always complaining about everybody? Complaining about everybody in your life? Complaining about all the problems? Complaining about people, how they treat you, what they
37:42 said to you? Have you ever heard a guy who woke up 1 morning and he says, man, this world stinks. This room stinks. I don't know why. What's the smell? I can't get away from the smell. He goes outside. Says,
37:54 man, this this place stinks. This neighborhood stinks. He goes to work. He said, oh, this place stinks. He goes outside. He says, this this place stinks as well. Then he wipes his face and he realized that he had
38:05 gunk on his upper lip. It was his problem, not the world's problem. Some people are like that man. Always complaining about everybody else when the problem
38:17 is you. Your heart needs to be changed so that you have joy, that you can rejoice in the in the accomplishments of others, that you can praise others. Hey. Somebody else's success
38:29 is not your detriment. Somebody else's blessing is not your curse. To be joyful in all things is the heart of God. So
38:41 there's jealousy, there's strife, he says. And then you play these games about who you you know, who do you like and who do you don't like, and you're in this, you know, this kind of sectarian kind of mindset. It's
38:51 fleshly. Paul says more about this in Romans chapter 8 verse 5. He says, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. And then he says the mindset on the flesh in verse 6 is death.Show more
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