0:07 Good morning family. Um It's a wonderful reminder that the promise of the Holy Spirit was not something new in the new covenant. 0:24 We received it in the new covenant, but all the way in the book of Proverbs you see the very first chapter that God said "I will pour out my spirit upon you." And 0:41 uh let's let's just turn there. To begin, Proverbs chapter 1 verse 23 says "I will pour out my spirit upon you and I will make my words known to you." But before that he says, "Turn to my rebuke." And through this week I've been thinking 1:04 about that verse and been challenged that perhaps the times when I longed for the Lord to pour out his spirit upon me and prayed fervently 1:22 the reason that he couldn't do that was because I hadn't turned to his rebuke. That he wanted to correct me about something, reprove me about something, and I resisted it and he wasn't able to pour out his spirit upon us. 1:37 But his longing is to fill us with the Holy Spirit. And so if the Lord is rebuking you in some way, often he'll use um earthly means, parents, uh children. If your parents correct you submit to it, receive it because God 1:57 wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit. Adults, if the Lord rebukes you through elders in the church or through your bosses at work or in other ways, sometimes the Lord's rebuke is him allowing sickness in our lives. 2:15 I know at times in my life when I know a sickness was a specific rebuke from the Lord. I'm not saying all of it is. But when some of those things happen, I say, "Lord, help me to receive your rebuke, because I want you to receive to give me 2:29 your Holy Spirit." And it's a promise also that He will make known His words to us. That's more than just hearing a sermon. Anybody can hear a sermon. Anybody can listen to sermons, but to 2:45 have the Lord make His words known to us is such a precious, precious thing. When God Himself makes His words known to you, it's precious. I hope that's a longing of your heart, and it starts, dear family, with rebuke. 3:04 "Turn to my rebuke," He says, "and I will make my words known to you. I will pour out my spirit upon you." We also sang earlier, you know, how often I feel that by the time we get to this time of the meeting, we don't need a sermon anymore. If 3:19 you've been worshipping the Lord in song, paying attention to the words, you've already heard the sermon. And if you heard the memory verse, you've already heard a sermon. We sang, and I want to ask I asked myself this question that I found the Holy Spirit 3:37 asking me this question, "What cares do you have today?" Are there cares that you're carrying today? We sang in that song. I hope we didn't miss it. I have How many cares? Zero. I hope that was a 3:58 a song of faith. If you came here and you sang that song, I have 10 cares. I hope you sang it in faith. Lord Lord sang it honestly. Lord, I have 10 cares. Today. Or maybe you have three cares. Or I have one care. But Lord, I want to be able to sing in 4:16 faith, I have no cares. Oh blessed will. Why? Because I've given you all my cares. All my cares are thine. He knows your name. He sees every thought. He sees every tear. 4:33 He hears you when you call. If you will lay your care, lay your burden at his feet, the life that God wants you to live, dear family, please listen to this. The life God wants us to live this week, if you've never experienced it up to this 4:49 point, is that at least from today onwards, you will have zero cares. It's very simple. You give it to him. And when you find that circumstances and trials tend to put those cares back on your plate, you take it and cast your 5:05 care on him. Cuz he cares. He will sustain your burden. He told us all the way in the book of Psalms. So shall we make that at least our prayer for this week? Our testimony, Lord, today I walked in this door with however 5:22 number of cares, but I'm leaving this door with zero cares. And I'm determined that I shall not take on any more cares. And we'll keep it at zero. Keep the cares at zero. It's a good word. Frederick Faber sure knew how to write 5:40 prophetic words hundreds of years ago. Uh let's turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Family, I hope you believe that these are the end times. And not because you're reading the news or seeing what's happening in the Middle East or anything like that. 5:58 That's going to happen. Jesus said it would. But because you read your Bible more than you read the newspaper. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, we are told that difficult times would come in the last days. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, 6:17 "Realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. And the characteristic of that was not what Jesus said in Matthew 24 that there will be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famine. We'll continue to see that. And yes, 6:36 that will be the sign of the times. But in the new Testament, we're told that long before that, we ought to be able to see things happening before the wars and rumors of wars and before the earthquakes and all of that, 6:55 the church ought to know that it's the end times long before that. Through what? Through 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 onwards. That people will love themselves. Did you know that the mark of the end times is not that there's bombing going 7:14 on or war with Israel, but people love themselves. People will be lovers of self. He goes on to say a whole bunch of other things, but the characteristic of that is people will love themselves. And this is a deception. People will churches and preachers will 7:36 preach in churches that there's nothing wrong with loving yourself. You can love God and love yourself. But these verses make it clear you cannot. You cannot love God and love yourself. And the deception of self-love will 7:50 become more and more rampant. It will increase, and it will increase in churches as the time of Christ's return draws near. That's the mark that it's the end times. But, I would like to focus on a specific aspect of this, this 8:08 self-love that these this passage talks about. So, let's read that, and please read with me carefully. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. Because men will be lovers of self, and 8:24 if I could paraphrase, as a result of that love of self, they will love money, they'll be boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents. That means it's even speaking about children loving themselves. Children, do 8:42 you know that when you disobey daddy and mommy, that's coming from a love of self? And it's a dangerous, dangerous thing. For you children, the simplest act you could do, I mean, that's what the J.B. Phillips paraphrases Colossians 8:59 3:20. The best way you can show God that you love him is obey your parents. And if you're living at home with your parents, I hope you see that that's a very, very important, simple thing. Just simply obey daddy and mommy. God looks down from 9:16 heaven, and he's pleased with that. Brings him great delight when you obey. But, the lovers of self will be disobedient to parents, they'll be ungrateful. Did you know that ungratefulness is a mark that you love yourself? 9:33 When you When somebody does something for you and cares for you and and provide something for you. If you're ungrateful, if you haven't taken the time to say thank you, to have a grateful heart, but also to express that gratitude 9:48 to to those who have done good to you. Children, if you thank to your parents for say thank you dad, mom for your care for me. The world is headed towards more and more ungratefulness. The world is full of people who receive a lot 10:03 and don't say thank you. Ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, 10:23 conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And but the deception here is that these people will continue to sit in churches. This It's not talking about the worldly children who are disobedient, 10:41 the worldly people who are ungrateful, the worldly people who love themselves and love money. It's talking about people sitting in churches. Why? Because verse 5 says, "While they love money and love pleasure and are malicious gossips and 10:58 unloving and irreconcilable and lovers of pleasure, they will hold to a form of godliness. They will hold the Bible and they will pride themselves in their conservative lifestyle and they will pride themselves in the good church that they go to and 11:16 all these things. They'll hold to a form of godliness and inside they will be lovers of self. Holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power. Avoid such as these. So, they'll hold to a form of 11:36 godliness, but they will deny its power. They won't have the actual power inside. I speak I've spoken on this verse often, but the Lord's been challenging me afresh from this passage in a new way. And not in a new way, in a way 11:52 in a in a fresh way that's old. It's always been there, but it's it's fresh for me and I hope it'll be fresh for you all as well. See, the greatest enemy of the spirit-filled life is not the devil or anything like that. 12:05 It's your self life. And that's why he started by saying there will be lovers of self. The greatest enemy of the spirit-filled life is the self life. And if you have that love of self, if you if you have a desire to preserve 12:22 your life in some way on this earth, God can never fill you with the Holy Spirit. Cuz he sees that ultimately you love yourself. And you could pray and fast and pray and pray all night and go to prayer meetings and tarrying meetings 12:34 like they call them in some circles and say, "Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit." But the Lord will say, "I cannot. You love yourself too much. You love pleasure too much. You love money too much. You love your sleep too much. You 12:47 love good food too much." He can't fill such a person with his Holy Spirit. And in a deeper way, you can say also that the greatest enemy of the spirit-filled life is this phrase. Back in the '70s, there was a phrase that became popular. I think 13:04 that's when it became popular. And that is this, fake it till you make it. I think there are many Christians that are faking it in the hope that they will make it someday. Maybe you attend a good church or you know the truth. You've heard the 13:21 truth. You know you've been taught. You've You've heard enough sermons that you know the life that you're supposed to live, but you don't have the power to live it. And so, self, because self is not really crucified, will come up with a way to 13:37 fake it in the hope that you'll make it someday. The world is world teaches this doctrine, okay? You you don't really have it, but you fake it till you make it. You pretend like, "Yeah, I have it all together." Put on a good smile. In fact, 13:52 I heard recently about this experiment they tried back in in the '70s, I think, where somebody uh had uh the people in the experiment put a pencil between their teeth and hold it like that as if your our smile as if you're smiling. Force yourself to smile 14:10 to see if that would actually make them happy. I He claimed to think that it did, that by faking the smile, they actually uh were happy till some years later somebody else did the same experiment and found that it didn't actually do 14:23 that. So, that I think that proved the point that you cannot actually fake it till you make it. Now, that's true in the world actually, but it's especially true in the Christian life. The Lord's been asking me the question 14:36 that I want to pose to you all, dear family, as well, and for those of you watching online, are you faking it hoping that you'll make it in some way? Deep down, you know that you don't really have the power, you don't really have the life of 14:50 Christ, and you're hoping if I smile enough, if I read my Bible enough, if I do this right enough, if I try enough, if I come to enough meetings, if I do this or move here or do that other thing, somehow it will happen. 15:05 I want to set you free from that burden today. You cannot fake it enough that you will make it. And if you've been trying to fake it and trying to make it by faking it for many years, the good news is God has come to give you his real power. 15:24 This form of godliness, I think even though there may be some who very deceitfully pretend, there are others who who simply deep down they're afraid to admit. That here we are sitting at RLCF and we hear such high teachings and we hear 15:37 such high truths and yet I have to acknowledge I don't have that power within. I'm defeated by lust, I'm defeated by anger, I'm defeated by the love of money, I'm defeated by the love of self. These things that he describes 15:49 in these first few verses are speaking about me. But what do I do? And if that longing within your heart is causing you to fake it, let's be done with that. God wants to give you a real power where you don't have to fake it at all. 16:06 And here he talks about in verse Let's continue reading verse six. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins led by various impulses, always learning and never able to come 16:25 to the knowledge of the truth. They're always learning. They're coming and hearing more sermons, more messages, but the more messages they hear, the wider the gap between what they're hearing and the reality of the life that 16:39 they're living. My dear family, this was my testimony for many years. I want you to know that. I'll start by saying that. That was my life. I grew up hearing the highest standard of teaching that I've heard anywhere in the world, I'll tell 16:51 you honestly. And the more I heard, the more I heard another truth that I hadn't heard before, the more it simply widened the gap between what God's word said and the reality of my experience. And when I came to God in honesty and 17:05 said, "Lord, I either I have to go to some other church where this gap becomes less and the standard is lower." That's what a lot of people do. They get tired of hearing such a high standard and say, "Nah, let's just go to 17:17 another church where the standard is low. You don't feel as guilty because your life doesn't match up to the standard because the gap is much lower, and you have an outward form of godliness, but you never really receive 17:28 the power." The good news is that the standard is actually much higher than we've ever heard, and God wants to give you the power that matches it. Everything that he has promised in his word of the life of Christ is yours by the power of 17:44 the Holy Spirit. He wants to give you such a life. He will give you such a life, but it begins with honesty. It begins with honestly saying, "Lord, I'm done with trying to fake it. I'm done with the plastic smile and dressing myself up to look nice on a 17:58 Sunday morning so that everybody thinks I am actually that holy person that we hear about in this church, but Lord, I want you to change me from the from within. And I no longer care what people think about me. I no longer care about 18:11 the impression that others have of me. I want the power." And what I see in this passage is that in the last days, that gap will just get wider. More and more people will continue to hear good teaching and strong teaching and high teaching, but 18:29 they will deny its power. They won't have its power. And then he uses as an example two men. Just as verse 8, Jannes and Jambres. You know who Jannes and Jambres are? If you've been following our reading uh by a Bible reading plan that we're 18:48 doing as a church, you heard about them. They opposed Moses, so these people also. So, he's saying this opposite this extreme hypocrisy where it will be fake it till you make it. The classic examples of fake it till you 19:06 make it are Jannes and Jambres, who opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, just 19:22 as Jannes and Jambres' folly was also." So, this fake it till you make it, before I we look into who Jannes and Jambres were briefly, the fake it till you make it, we must remember, dear family, is the enemy of the true power. 19:39 The more you continue to buy into this, "Okay, I'll just pretend and I'll continue to pretend and continue to pretend continue to pretend," it will prevent you from actually having that power. And you and I must come to the place, 19:53 like I did actually at some point, where it finally started to become a reality for me, where I said, "Lord, I I can't fake it anymore. I need something. The Christian life that you died and rose again to give me and have ascended on 20:06 high to give me through the power of the Holy Spirit is much more than what I'm having, what I'm experiencing." And I realized that this pretense, this trying to do it, this faking it till I make it, was actually the enemy 20:21 of actually receiving the power. So, let's turn to book of Exodus chapter 7. Jannes and Jambres were the two chief magicians who were in Pharaoh's court. We read in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that they opposed Moses. But it's interesting, if you've been 20:39 reading the Bible carefully as we've been going through this week in Exodus, how do they oppose Moses? We know how Pharaoh opposed Moses. He's resisted them. Every time um Moses and Aaron came, Pharaoh was in their face. He pretended, but 20:56 then he went back on his word and did that nine times with each of the plagues, perhaps even more. But Jannes and Jambres' opposition to the work of God was different. Their opposition to the work of God was by copying. 21:11 Please listen carefully. Their opposition to the true work of God was by imitating it. As we saw, and I'll we'll look at that again, that the opposition is not always like Pharaoh. And the opposition to the true work of 21:26 God is not necessarily the devil coming in opposing that. Go live a sinful life. Go do evil things. The danger that we face at our LCF especially, I would say, is not that you and I will be like, "Oh, I'm done with this. Let me go live a 21:40 worldly, self-loving, filthy, um, sexual, depraved, money-loving, living for myself life." That's not the danger. The danger is that we will be prevented from experiencing the power of God through a pretense, through a copy. 21:58 And when we see that the copy is an opposition to the power of God itself, we see the warning that we're given in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Jannes and Jambres opposed the work of God by copying it. And that's the danger that you and I 22:13 will then realize that maybe like the verse we heard already this morning, maybe we don't want to receive the rebuke from the Lord. And so we don't have the power of his Holy Spirit. And he hasn't made known his words to 22:26 us, Proverbs 1:23. And as a result, since we don't have the power, I think, "Well, but I've still got to try to live a good life, right?" So I'll copy it. I'll try in my own strength to overcome lusting with my eyes and overcoming 22:39 overcome speaking in a harsh tone to my spouse or, uh, loving money. I'll copy it in some way. And that is perhaps a greater enemy to the work of God. So Exodus chapter 7, we read here first of all in verse 11. Let's read in verse 22:59 8. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'" Now, yeah, let's let's finish reading it. 23:14 We'll look at this here. So, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Could a staff become a serpent? Yes. I 23:30 mean, you you would have to admit that's a miracle. So, picture of the work of God, that God miraculously allowed this stick. He did it first of all with Moses. Remember, in front of the burning bush? He said, "Moses, how will you know that 23:44 I that I am God? How will they know that you are God?" He says, "Here's a proof. Nobody else can do this, right?" So, here's here's a proof of the power of God. You take the staff, throw it down, it'll become a serpent. Then grab its 23:56 tail, it'll become a staff again. That was that happened in the presence of God. And now, this staff, I believe it was the same staff, even though it was given to Aaron. I believe I don't think scripture's clear on that, but my 24:08 understanding is that Moses brought that staff. And because Aaron was going to be the spokesperson and the representative, um that was the staff that he had. Regardless, this staff represented the true authority and the power of God. 24:22 The true knowledge of God, the true power of God that we read in 2 Timothy 3 as well. So, they threw it down, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh says, "Oh, you can do that? I can do that, too. I can copy that." Verse 11, "Then 24:39 Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. 24:58 But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. I think God has a sense of humor. You know, as if to show now as I was reading this again, it's not a new story for us. I think you've known this story if you've read your Bible from the 25:09 time you were a child. I remember reading in a picture Bible seeing the drawing of Aaron's staff and the serpent swallowing up the other staff. But I asked the Lord, Lord, show me why did you allow this? Why did I mean why God had to allow the magicians 25:27 to have their staffs also become serpents. It God had to allow it. And why did God allow it? I believe it's because of what we read in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that God was showing us a picture that you will be able to to some 25:42 extent copy the work of God. Make an imitation of it. To some extent. God's power will still be greater than it. The serpent swallowed up Aaron's rod. Serpent swallowed up the others. And but there will be some extent to which 26:00 by your own strength and by your own ability you will be able to produce something that looks like the Christ life. And then it became a revelation for me. I was like, Lord, that's been true. I have been trying to copy what I see in 26:18 the lives of others. When I read the life of Jesus, when I read the life of Paul, when I read the biographies of godly men and women and how you use them, how they actually had the power of God that came from seeking you before 26:30 the burning bush that each of them had. I thought, well, I want that too, Lord. Help me to be able to pray like they did and intercede for them. Help me be able to be a bold witness. And so I copied it. I came up with an imitation as it were 26:45 just like Jannes and Jambres did. We'll continue reading. We'll skip down to verse 22. After that, God says, "Okay, we're going to the next miracle that they did was to turn water to blood." Verse 20, "Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had 27:02 commanded, and he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood." "The fish that were in the Nile died and 27:15 the Nile became foul so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile, and the blood was through all the land of Egypt." But, verse 22, "The magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts." Now, what's fascinating about this is 27:32 like that just compounds the problem. They couldn't solve the problem. They couldn't They couldn't turn the blood back to water. And that deception, that imitation will only make your problems worse like it did for me. Brothers and sisters, 27:46 children, I'm speaking from my testimony. The more I tried to copy the Christ life, it didn't solve my problem. It made my problem worse. It When When the magicians also turned water into blood, what did it It just made the problem even worse. If that 28:02 area was not yet turned to blood, it turned to blood. It compounded the problem. "The magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said." 28:18 All right, we'll skip down to chapter 8. Verse This next plague is the plague of frogs. Verse 5, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams, over the pools, and make frogs come up on the 28:33 land of Egypt.' So, Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. Verse 7, "The magicians did the same." Again, I mean, anybody with common sense, Pharaoh have 28:48 been like, "Hey guys, I don't need you to add frogs. I need you to to remove the frogs. Can you do that?" No. That takes real power. But you can you compound the problem? Yeah, we can do that, Pharaoh. We can make it worse. 29:01 Now, it's funny to think about it, but it's sad that many Christians are bound in the same way. That the more they try, the more we try, the more we try to copy it by dressing up this and fixing that and doing a little bit more of that and thinking, 29:16 "Well, okay, I'll fix it by doing this." It just compounds the problem. It makes me more discouraged, more burdened, more heavy-hearted. Like it did for the people of Egypt. That with all their magic, it only made things worse. 29:32 The magicians did the same with their secret arts making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Let's go down to chapter nine. No, further down in chapter eight. 29:49 Chapter eight, verse 18. Uh verse verse 16. The Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt." They did so, and Aaron stretched out his 30:05 hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. Now, listen to this. Verse 18, "The magicians tried with their secret arts 30:18 to bring forth gnats, but they could not." Praise God that he allowed things to go on for a while, that copying, that imitation to go on for a while. And again, this is my testimony, that he allowed it in his mercy. But it reached a point where I 30:37 couldn't do it anymore. The standard just kept getting higher and higher and higher and higher and I says, I've been able to you know, it's kind of like you raise the bar for the high jump. You know, the high jump event in the Olympics, okay, if you 30:51 The other day I was watching some of the kids trying to jump over these hurdles. If you've ever seen a hurdle, you can actually adjust the height of the hurdles and you know, you started with about maybe 2 ft. Anybody can jump 2 ft 31:03 high. And then you raise it more and more and more and more and more and imagine if the bar was being raised. Okay, you Oh, you want me to do that? 2 ft high uh spiritual 2 ft spiritual height. Yeah, I can do that. Okay, first couple times I failed, but 31:19 I'm going to work out. I'm going to get some leg muscles and jump over that. Okay, now I got that, but then God says, "No, I'm going to raise it up at 3 ft now." Then you try and finally you jump over that hurdle. Okay, now I'm going to 31:30 raise it to 5 ft. I don't know if anybody here can jump 5 ft. I think the world record's over 7 ft or something like 6 ft something like that high jump. And then you come come to the place where you're at an end of yourself, "Hey 31:41 Lord, I I I just when I thought I could reach the standard, you showed me the standard was even higher. Why?" Cuz in his love he's saying, "I'm going to do something far more than you." If you and I try to jump 10 ft, that's 31:55 all that's impossible. I don't think any human being will ever be able to jump over a 10 ft bar. But imagine that you were a bird and you say, "Hey, you bird, you dove, I want you to fly over that 10 ft high bar." He says, 32:11 "No problem. Raise it 100 ft. Raise it 1,000 ft if you want. I don't care whatever the standard is. You've given me a power that can rise over that." And that's what God was wanting to show us, I believe, through this that he wanted 32:25 us to come to the place where we stopped trying in our own strength to solve that problem. Parents, with raising our children, I've had to learn that the hard way, too, that yes, we do everything right. We teach them the word 32:37 of God. We have them share their memory verses. We pray for them. We do all of that. But at the end of the day, with all the teaching that we give them, whether you home school them or send them to private school or public school, 32:49 and all those things that you're doing in the best intention of your heart, have you come to the place where you where you say, "Lord, help us. Help us, Lord. We we we care about these children. We care about the needs that 33:01 we have in our home, and we have no we don't trust in our own ability." That's an honest question the Lord's been asking me, family, and I hope you'll ask yourself that question. If you're a parent and you have children, 33:13 do you trust in your own ability that you've done everything right, and that's why your children will turn out right? We're in for a surprise. But the sooner we come to the place where you say, "Lord, yes, we'll do all of these things, and we want to raise 33:27 them right, but we cry out TO YOU FOR THE POWER OF YOUR HOLY SPIRIT, AND WE NEED SOMETHING THAT'S FAR BEYOND ANYTHING YOU WE could ever do in our own strength." We need that power like the dove has to fly over. Because the time's going to come when 33:43 our children are going to face things outside of our homes. And they're going to face the world coming at them. I've spoken often about Moses' own parents, Amram and Jochebed, and how especially his mother, I believe, she knew, "I've 33:57 got a short amount of time before Moses is going to go to Pharaoh's palace, which is probably the darkest, most evil place on the face of the earth at that time." Think about all the sorcery and magic and darkness and evil that was 34:11 going on in Pharaoh's palace. We're just reading some of that. And all the sexual deviant behavior that was going on in his palace, and all the amount of money and pleasure and good food, and Jochebed knows, "I've got a 34:23 short amount of time before this son of mine is going to be there in the midst of that dark place. And how is he going to say, 'I refuse the pleasures of Egypt for the reproach of Christ and to identify myself with the people of God. 34:37 She cried out to God for help, I believe. I mean, could you imagine what Jochebed did when she put Moses in that basket and put him in the bulrushes? She said, Lord, watch over this child of mine. Watch over this child in in 34:50 reverence for God, she put him there. And and God was watching. She heard he heard her prayers and found a way for Moses to come back home and gave him 18 years maybe if that. In the short amount of time, she planted 35:08 the fear of God in Moses so thoroughly that when he go when when grew up and went into Pharaoh's palace, he knew he was a fish out of water. I don't belong here. My people are those, the people of God and I would rather choose ill treatment 35:22 and reproach, the reproach of Christ with them than have all this stuff. And I imagine all the women that were come falling at Moses' feet as a prince in the palace and in his mind he's saying, no, I don't want this. I don't want all this pleasure and all 35:38 this food and he's seeing his his stepbrothers and others in the palace enjoying all of that and seemingly to have a good time. And yet he knew deep down, I I can't be part of this. Those are my people. Christ is my example. Christ is who I want to be 35:54 with. Read that in Hebrews 11:25-26. The reproach of Christ as far greater than the pleasures of Egypt because he was looking to the reward. That's what we want to do. But it takes coming to this place where I realize I 36:12 cannot do this in my own strength. And the magicians finally couldn't do it and look at what they said. Verse 19. Exodus 8:19. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. This is This is power. Do you want to come have when we read 2 36:31 Timothy 3 the first those verses first eight verses and you saw that and and the Lord showed you perhaps areas in which you had a form of godliness. You see it's come down to for me very simply if the opinion of people 36:49 about me is even a little bit higher than the reality on the inside. Please listen to this carefully. If the opinion that people have about me is even a little bit higher than the reality on the inside, then I have a form of 37:03 godliness to some extent. That extra difference is a form. It's a pretense. It's somehow I have presented myself in such a way by the way I talk or how I speak or what they see about me on the outside that they think that I'm a 37:16 pretty religious holy person. When the reality on the inside is is not that. And so to if if we have this radical attitude and that's how I pray dear family. Lord, do people think about me even a little bit more highly than the 37:32 reality of who I am on the inside, then Lord, that's a form of godliness. It's a deception. It's a manufactured holiness that is the enemy of true holiness. And if you allow even that little bit of produced holiness to remain there, that will grow. 37:51 And you'll find that more and more what you have is a manufactured holiness. And the real power of God is is not there because the manufactured righteousness is the enemy of the true righteousness of Christ. Please remember 38:06 that. That's in essence what I've said. Any righteousness you produce, any holiness that you produce is the enemy. It'll consistently push out the righteousness of Christ. The two can't coexist. Chapter 9 we'll skip down 38:22 in verse 11. Finally, you read that the next plague that comes later on is the plague of boils, verse 11. The magicians could not even stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the 38:40 on as well as on all the Egyptians. The power of God was so manifest there. You know, I wonder what happened with Moses and Aaron when they saw the magicians also reproduce that. I think it was a surprise. I mean, when I first saw that story, I was kind 38:56 of shocked, like, really? You mean these magicians can actually turn the staff into snakes? And I'm sure for Moses and Aaron it was a shock. And they stopped short. Just like, huh. Maybe we don't really need the power of 39:11 God after all. Then it happens a second time. And then it happens a third time with the frogs as well. What do you think happened to them? I'll tell you what happened to me. I was like, oh, maybe I can do this after all. Maybe I can produce this 39:25 righteousness. Maybe I can over time Yeah, maybe I failed enough, but over time I can work on it. I can improve myself enough that I will reach that standard. And God allowed me to reach a certain level of what I thought was righteousness. 39:44 But eventually it will fade. Eventually you won't be able to. And this what happened there. Moses' rod, the rod that Aaron and Moses had had the authority of God behind it. And dear brothers, dear sisters, the righteousness and the holiness that we 39:59 are seeking, that we're longing for, must have the authority of God behind it. Paul puts it this way in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3 40:27 Paul's longing in his heart was this. I probably Philippians chapter 3 verse 9. I longed I longed to be found in him not having a righteousness. Have you read that? 40:45 Philippians chapter 3 verse 9. I long to be found in God not having a righteousness. Now, that's not the whole sentence, but that's what Paul was saying essentially. I would rather have no righteousness at all than have this 41:01 false righteousness. And may be found in him not having a righteousness. Have you heard that? This is the truth of the new covenant that you don't have a righteousness if it is a righteousness of your own. That I may be found in him not having a 41:17 righteousness of my own derived from the law. Not having a righteousness that I produced, that I worked for. Not raising godly children that somehow I did everything right so they turned out right. Is that a challenge for us parents? I 41:33 would rather not do everything right and produce children that look good on the outside. What I want is as a father and a mother to be relying on the power of God. Where I'm continually praying, "Lord, help me as a father. Lord, help me as a mother. 41:48 Fill me with your Holy Spirit. If I have been raising my children without the power of the Holy Spirit within me, then Lord, I forsake all of that. I would rather my children turn out badly than to produce a righteousness that looks good on the 42:00 outside. Lord, give me your power and give them that same power." I would rather my children receive the power of God and the righteousness come from the inside than something that looks good on the outside. And the same for all of us as as adults 42:16 as well. I would rather I would I don't want to be found at the end of my life having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of 42:35 faith. This was Paul's ambition. So and you know, Jesus was the greatest example of this of living by faith. You know that Jesus was the only human being that was born free of sin? All of us are born in sin. Psalm 51 says 42:50 that you you've conceived me in sin. I've conceived I've been conceived in iniquity. I'm born in sin. Jesus was the only one born without sin, and yet even he received that life from the Father. He didn't try to produce that life on his 43:05 own. Imagine if you had never sinned. There's nobody that's like that, but just imagine if you were in Jesus' place and you knew you'd never sinned. You're born free from sin. There would be very easily within you that thinking, "Well, I was born without 43:19 sin. I have no sin. I've done it well so far, so let me just continue to do that." But Jesus knew and Jesus showed us the perfect example even as one who had never sinned of constant complete dependence on the Father. We read that 43:32 in John chapter 5. Let's look at that. John 5 verse 19 "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can 43:54 do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." Verse 30, he says the same thing, I can do nothing. 44:11 The perfect man who never sinned in his entire life, however old he is at this point, maybe 31 years old, says, I can do nothing. I cannot produce righteousness. Think about what I'm saying, dear family. If you had lived 31 years of 44:26 perfect life, never having sinned even once in thought, in motive, in attitude, indeed, in any way, in word, never sinned at all. What would be the greatest danger to you? That now suddenly you lust with your eyes, or suddenly you'll go commit 44:41 adultery? No. The danger would be to think THAT YOU PRODUCED THAT. And that is sin in itself. Self, that thinking that I was able to produce that. And yet Jesus, showing us the secret of his victorious perfect life, showed us that it comes through saying, 45:00 I cannot. And so if you went to Jesus at the age of 31, Jesus, I hear you've never sinned your whole life. Have you ever sinned? No, I've never sinned. And you say, how do you do it? Give me the secret, he says. I can do nothing. 45:13 That righteousness that you see in me, even though I am the son of God, that righteousness that you see in me, I didn't I didn't produce it. As a man, I received it from the Father. I He gave me life, and I have it. And then Paul challenges us in Galatians 45:29 chapter 2 to to this same life. Galatians chapter 2. Verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. This 45:49 I that used to do bad things or good things. Did you get it? This I that sometimes did good things and sometimes did bad things. Doesn't say, well, I did more good things than bad things, so what's wrong with me? That's how most 46:05 people in the world, even many Christians think, well, yeah, you know, I look at all those bad people, they've done a whole bunch of evil things, but I've done all these good things, man. And the bad things that I've done are 46:15 relatively smaller, much less than the good things I've done. So, what's wrong with me? Paul says, that I has to be crucified. The good and the bad producing I has been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I. And the problem that I faced, and I 46:34 think many Christians faced, is that for many for for many years, we tried to say, okay, this I, this love this self that I love, who doesn't want to be crucified. I hope you know that. Your biggest enemy is not the devil, it's 46:47 your I, it's yourself. He doesn't She doesn't like to be crucified. Self hates being on the cross. And so, what self will do is says, okay, you don't want me to do bad things, right? So, how about I do a bunch of good things? I'll clean up my act a little 47:01 bit. I'll make myself look good, and I'll start to do some good things instead. Is that okay? See, self will do anything to avoid the cross. It will even pretend to be good. That's how That's how much self-preservation is in our system. That 47:17 we learn how to be good just to avoid self being on the cross. And Paul says, I, the good and the bad producing I, have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is his life that's in in me. And 47:33 we're told in Hebrews 12, run this race fixing your eyes on Jesus. Let's look at that. We saw that even yesterday when we broke bread together. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 11, as you know, is a picture of faith, the chapter on faith. Hebrews 12 47:51 tells us how we can apply that to ourselves. You've heard that very often. Hebrews 11 says how faith worked in the Old Testament. Hebrews 12 starts out by telling us how faith works in the new covenant. And what is that? 48:06 We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is the example we're given, Jesus who could 48:23 say, "I can do nothing. I can produce no righteousness on my own." Nothing that Jesus did in his life, in his outward life and in his inner life, came on his own. Everything that he did came through the 48:41 power of the Father. We saw that in John chapter 5. And the proof of that was that it was seen in his prayer life. Have you thought about why Jesus needed to pray? You and I need to pray because we fall, we need forgiveness, we need to 48:59 repent, we want to be more wholehearted. Jesus didn't need to be more wholehearted. He was wholehearted his entire life. Why did Jesus pray? He prayed because he recognized the pull. We read that in Hebrews chapter 5. Turn back a couple of pages. 49:12 Hebrews 5, verse 7. Sometime I want to encourage you to go and look at where all Jesus prayed. He prayed in the morning, he prayed all night, he prayed in the evening, he prayed all times of the day. He prayed continually. 49:27 When it says pray without ceasing, that's because Jesus prayed without ceasing. And here we see even that he prayed with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. What was that death? Dear brothers and sisters, dear 49:44 children, that death was that I can do it on my own. I can produce that. Jesus knew that pull. He knew that is if if if he fails that test, if he falls into that death, it's a matter of time before all the other sins manifest themselves. And we 50:00 don't have to probe too much into the nature of Christ and his temptation, but we know this that he did everything through dependence on the Father and that's why he prayed. Are you praying, dear brother, dear sister? Do you need to be told to pray? 50:13 Do you need to be reminded, "Hey, you need to pray?" If so, it's probably because you don't realize that you can do nothing on your own. A person who realizes that they can do absolutely nothing on their own, that whatever goodness they produce, whatever 50:28 good behavior they produce is an enemy of the true goodness of God, will say, "Lord, I've been doing it on my own too long. I cry out to you for help." This is the life that's pleasing to God. And um I'll give you one more example of that 50:45 in Jesus' life. If you turn with me to Luke 22. Luke 22, we read in um you know the story where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. I 51:03 often find myself in temptation. Whenever I'm facing a difficult time or trying to know the will of God, going to this passage, the passages in scripture that tell us about Jesus in Gethsemane. Because you know, the battle on Calvary 51:18 was really won long before that. It was settled, as it were, even though he defeated Satan on the cross, on Calvary, that victory was settled the night before in Gethsemane. Very often when you and I face battles, Calvary battles, perhaps, where we're 51:36 battling against Satan, the reason we don't have power, the reason we fall in temptation is because we haven't gone through that Gethsemane experience. For Jesus, it was settled in Gethsemane, and that's why whatever he experienced on 51:49 Calvary, he could face. And what is that? There's a secret there. And here in Gethsemane, we read in Luke 22:39, he went there to um Verse 40, he he tells them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." And then in verse he goes away by himself, 52:07 and he says in verse 42, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup." You see the question there? What I hear Jesus saying is, "Father, I don't know." Three very powerful words that anybody who has self-confidence that the world 52:27 trains you not to say. Right? Think about it. This is Jesus at the end of his life. He's lived the He's the perfect template, the perfect example of a human being. It's not the person who's the richest in the world or the most successful business person or 52:42 the best doctor or even the best missionary. The greatest example of a human being is Jesus, who at on the last night of his life says, "I don't know." Are you on that journey, brother, sister, child? Well, the world is telling you, "Oh, you 52:59 don't know? Well, go and learn it." You Oh, you don't know how to do math? Go learn how to do math. You don't know how to program in Python? Go learn how to program in Python. You don't know how to build a house? Learn how to build a 53:09 house. You don't know how to fix the plumbing? Go learn how to do it. In a world that's telling you that what you don't know, you should know, and please do that. Please Please study hard in your school and do well in your job. Inwardly, 53:25 we're becoming more like Christ who at the end of his life says, "Father, I don't know." It's not a bad thing to to tell Father tell your Father in heaven, "Lord, I don't know. What is your will?" I'm perplexed. Paul says he was 53:37 perplexed. He didn't know. And here was Jesus on the last day his life, saying, "Father, what what is your will? I don't know. Because I'm simply clay in your hand." Do you see the beautiful picture of the Son of God? God as he was in the flesh, simply clay 53:56 in the Father's hands, saying, "Father, I don't know. What do you want me to do? I would like it if it's your will that you don't make me drink this cup. But what is your will? I don't know." Beautiful example of the crucified life. 54:13 Beautiful example for you and I who, while the world, while you're developing your mind and your body to do things that it didn't know how to do, inwardly in your spirit, you're saying, "Father, I want to be more dependent on you. If I 54:24 knew how to overcome lust yesterday, today I don't, Lord. If I knew how to control my tongue yesterday in my own strength, TODAY I DON'T, LORD. I don't know. If I knew how to be a good dad yesterday, Lord, today I don't. If I 54:37 knew how to be a good mom yesterday, today I don't." Do you see the life that's crucified? It is no longer I who knows how to do things, who's alive, but Christ, the Christ who said, "I don't know, and I can do nothing on my own 54:50 initiative." This is our example. Let's go back to 2 Timothy 3, and I'll close with this, dear family. It says here a phrase that we saw in verse 7, "Never able to come to the 55:07 knowledge of the truth." If you have a longing in hearing what I've just been sharing to have this life, to finally be done with all that self-confidence, where God has crushed you and allowed you to be defeated and raised the 55:21 standard enough where you finally come to the place of helplessness where you can't do it, and you say, "Lord, I give up. I'm I'm done trying. I need your help. We need your help as parents. I need your help as a father, 55:33 as a mother, as a husband, as a wife, as a child." Children, all that you can learn this lesson early. I want to come to the knowledge of the truth. It begins, let's go back in second the previous chapter in two chapter two 55:47 verse 24. Paul exhorts Timothy saying the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant 56:04 them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. So, that knowledge of the truth comes from repentance. Now, I I believe you and I, most of you sitting here, understand repentance. That you used to be a bad person, you did evil 56:18 things, and you repented. But, what is this repentance that brings us to the true knowledge of the truth? It is not repentance like Hebrews says from dead works, works that I produced. Will you go back from this meeting, dear 56:30 brother, dear sister, dear child, say, "Lord, today I repent of all the ways in which I tried to be a good Christian." I repent of all the ways in which I tried to copy and imitate the righteousness of Christ, and tried to 56:44 produce it in a good-looking family that looks good on the outside. And Lord, I repent of that and I turn from that to be fully yours, to receive the true knowledge of the truth. Now, if you're not willing to repent, if you're proud 56:57 of the fact that you've done some level of good, you'll never experience it. You'll become like the people that he goes on to talk about in chapter three, lovers of their self. They love themselves too much. They love the fact 57:07 that that self was actually able to produce some level of righteousness, and they don't want to acknowledge that. You know, one of the saddest things I I heard the testimony of somebody who was praying with an old woman 57:20 who was on her deathbed and trying to convince them to receive salvation before they died in Jesus Christ. And the old lady kept saying, "But, I haven't I haven't lived such a bad life. You want me to You want to treat me just like all the 57:37 other sinners, that evil person? I I I haven't done all those bad things. And I I think she was sincere. But from what I remember, this person who was sharing that story, it was just sad that here was somebody trying to 57:50 in the last few minutes of her life usher her into the kingdom of heaven, but the problem that was standing in her way was self. That hadn't done such bad things. And standing in front of you, dear family, today is a self that has been 58:06 pretty good. Standing in front of you, some of you young people, some of you children, is a self that says, "Yeah, I know the bad kid in the class, the bully, the person who uses the bad language. I'm not that. So, why do I need to repent?" 58:19 And self if you will repent today from those good things that self is able to do and say, "Lord, will you crucify this good-doing self, and let it be only Christ who lives in me." So, it begins with that repentance. And like Jesus said, "When you know the 58:35 truth, it will set you free." Here's the proof, you will truly come to a life of freedom from sin. He will set you free. Dear brothers, dear sisters, we heard it at the very beginning, "Turn to my rebuke. I will pour my spirit 58:49 within you. I will make my known my words known to you. You will have this power." Heavenly Father, we cry out to you. I cry out to you, Lord, for this need in my own life, for more of your power. Thank you for showing me layers of self-dependence and 59:05 self-reliance and areas in which self was still on the throne, trying to remain on the throne, Lord. Thank you for opening my eyes to see it. I pray that all of us, Lord, will live this life that you lived and that Paul lived 59:19 and so many others have lived, Lord, where self is crucified, not my will, but yours. Make it so, Lord. Pour out your spirit within us like you said you would. We turn Thank you for the rebuke you've spoken to our hearts this 59:31 morning. We turn to your rebuke. We receive it and we ask you Lord to fulfill your promise of pouring out your spirit within us and making your words known to us. We thank you you will in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
