(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, so at the end of chapter two in the book of Exodus, we saw Moses flee from Egypt because he had killed the Egyptian. And if you remember in Acts chapter seven, which comments back on the book of Exodus, it talked about how he thought that his brethren would have understood how that God was going to use him to deliver them. But of course they understood not, they rejected Moses as their deliverer. And so he ends up fleeing from before the face of the king because Pharaoh seeks to kill Moses. So he goes off into the wilderness and he goes and dwells with Jethro, the priest of Midian. If you look at verse 16 of chapter two, now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. And when they came to rule their father, also known as Jethro, he said, how is it that you're come so soon today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock. So we see here that Moses is thought of as an Egyptian by people that first meet him. That's obviously the way that he spoke because he was brought up and all the learning and the tongue of the Egyptians. And he was a man mighty in words and deeds in Egypt. So he spoke as an Egyptian. He probably looked as an Egyptian. And you know what's interesting is that actually throughout the Bible, the Hebrews are continually thought to be Egyptians. Okay. First of all, Joseph was able to pass for an Egyptian because his brethren thought that he was an Egyptian. Moses is able to pass for an Egyptian. And then we get all the way to the New Testament, the apostle Paul passes for an Egyptian. Because if you remember the Roman centurion asked him, can't thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian? And he thinks of him as an Egyptian. Now this goes to show you that the Hebrews, the Israelites, whether we're in the time of Moses or in the time of the New Testament, probably didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes like the so-called Jews of today, you know, in Los Angeles and New York and Hollywood and in Israel itself where they've got red hair and freckles and blonde hair and blue eyes are basically Europeans. That's because most Jews are what are known as Ashkenazi Jews. Okay. And the Ashkenazis, if you look up the person Ashkenaz in the Bible, you'll find that's a Gentile person there that is basically German Jews or Jews, quote unquote, that are from Europe. So what they are really is primarily European converts to Judaism. Okay. So, obviously, the Jews were scattered into all nations 2,000 years ago and they intermingled. Many of the Jews ended up converting and getting saved and becoming a Christian then they stopped being a Jew and then they assimilated with the local population. And then you have other white people who just want to join Judaism. They want to become Jews and there have been different movements throughout history where groups of people converted to Judaism or even today someone will marry a Jewish person so then they'll convert so that they can marry that person and they'll go through that whole process. So when we see the people today in Israel, we can just look at them and see these people are ethnically pretty far removed from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Christ and the apostles. Okay. 2,000 years later, there's been a lot of mixing and you say, well, but, you know, they're still the chosen ones. Well, why? What makes them chosen? Well, you know, they're descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Okay. They have a little bit of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob blood in them. Well, so do I and so do you. And so does everybody else since the Jews were literally scattered into all nations. And so every just like we're all part Cherokee. Amen. Well, you know what? We've all got a little bit of that Jewish blood in us to 2,000 years later of them being scattered into literally all nations. Okay. And as the Palestinians said, the thing about the Jews is that they left brown and they came back white. Okay. And the thing about that is that the Palestinians probably have more of Abraham's blood in them than the so-called Jews. Okay. So what makes them the chosen ones? Well, because they've embraced the anti-Christ, Christ-rejecting religion of Judaism. So that makes you chosen? So you're a white person, right? You're a white person living in Europe. And you renounce the Messiah, you renounce Jesus Christ and convert to Judaism. Oh, you just became the chosen people. So you renounce Christ to become chosen? Boy, isn't it amazing how the devil loves to turn things on their head, doesn't he? Now, actually, you know how you actually become the elect? You know how you actually get chosen? You know how you actually become God's chosen people? It's by believing on Jesus Christ, not by renouncing Christ. Okay. That's just crazy to think that you renounce... No, it's their ethnicity. Well, then why are they so white? Why are they so white? Well, they've always been white. Really? Then why do they keep getting confused with Egyptians? Paul, Moses, Joseph, right? Why? Because they looked like people from that region. Now, what do people from Egypt look like? Well, here's the thing about that. We have hieroglyphics that have still survived unto this day. So it's not a complete mystery what Egyptians looked like because of the fact there are hieroglyphics, and you can actually see what Egyptians looked like, and they were brown people. They weren't white. Sorry, black Hebrew Israelites. They weren't black either, okay? They're brown people, just like a lot of the people today in the Middle East are brown people, okay? They were somewhere in between. They were not sub-Saharan African blacks or Ethiopian types, and they also weren't, you know, British pale-looking people either, you know? So they are just brown people. So anyway, here's the thing about that. If God really thought it was important that we know what shade of skin color they had, he probably would have told us that somewhere in the Bible. The Bible is a pretty long book. You know what the Bible does not give us? A physical description of Jesus. You know what the Bible does not give us? A physical description of the apostles. You know what the Bible does not give us? A color chart on the children of Israel versus the Gentiles versus all that. Why? Because it doesn't matter, and people who fixate on whether Jesus was white or black or brown, you know what? They are fixating on the wrong things. Anybody who fixates on that is fixating on something that this giant book doesn't mention, okay? So we don't know what Jesus looked like. We don't know what Paul looked like. We don't know what Moses looked like. These are all just artist representations that you see, and they're just made up. They're just from the imagination. So anyway, I just wanted to point that out, how Moses is thought to be an Egyptian, but he's not the only one. Throughout the Bible, people are being mistaken for an Egyptian when they're actually a Hebrew. That's a common theme. So he is content, the Bible says. I like what it says in verse 21. Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. And you know what this shows me is that Moses is not the kind of guy that just has to be in the limelight. He has to be the star. He has to be a pastor, or he has to be this or that. He is just content to just live his life and just worship God and just do his own thing, okay? And great men of God are always that way. People who just have to be the star, they have to be the pastor, no matter what, are bad people because they're doing it for the wrong reasons. You know, being a pastor or a prophet, a preacher, an evangelist, a missionary, it should be because you're stepping in and filling a need. You know, the Lord is saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And you step up and say, well, here am I, send me. And you're willing to go, but you're also willing not to go. You're also glad to just say, oh, somebody else is doing it, great. See, the goal for going into the ministry should not be just because you want to be in the ministry. I can just really see myself in the ministry. That's the wrong way to look at it, okay? The real reason to go into the ministry is that there's a certain area that has a need or there's just something that needs to be done, some work that needs to be done. And you say, you know what? I'm willing to get in there and do the work that needs to be done. And the Bible says, he that desireth the office of a Bishop desireth a good work. We should desire the work. We should desire to accomplish something. We should desire to make up the hedge, stand in the gap, fill a void, not just like, well, this is who I am. You know, this is where I need to be. No, that's the opposite. And Moses is a great man of God, but you know what? He was willing to just be content and do his own thing. And in this chapter three that we're getting into, when God confronts him at the burning bush, he has to work hard to talk Moses into going. And in fact, he gets angry at Moses at one point and has to argue with Moses because Moses is saying, Hey, send somebody else, let someone else do it. So he's not ambitious for his own glory. He wants the children of Israel to be free. We already saw his actions that proved that in chapter two, but it doesn't have to be him. He would love it for someone else to step up and be Moses. And he could just, you know, be Jethro's son-in-law and just do that. He would have been happy with that. Other men in the Bible, same thing. How about David? Did David just have to be King? David was content to serve under Saul. He didn't want to overthrow Saul. He wanted to just be a good servant. He just thought it was cool to be the King son-in-law. That was enough for him. And you'll see that throughout the Bible that men of God, they don't just have to be the star. Okay. But there are people in this world who just have to be the star. And some of them will seek to go into the ministry for their own ego, pride, just whatever the wicked reason. And it is a wicked reason. And you'll see this when a guy doesn't meet the qualifications, but he says, well, I'm going to be pastor anyway. Now you can take it to the bank that he's doing it for the wrong reason, because if he were doing it for the right reason, he would just say, well, I'm not qualified. And it wouldn't even be a thing of, it wouldn't even be something that he would even think about. Okay. But when you see guys that don't meet the biblical qualifications, demanding to go into the ministry anyway, demanding, or when they're, let's say they're, they're fired or let's say, you know, their church refuses to ordain them. You know, instead of just saying, well, great, you know, I, you know, I was willing to do it if that's what God wanted, but apparently it's not God's will. Great. I can just live a peaceful life, serve God, win souls and do everything. But you see them say, no, I've got to be a pastor. Why? Well, God called me. You called yourself. You know, you got this and you know what, and I know I'm going off on a lot of tangents and we haven't even touched chapter three yet. You know what really gets under, you don't really get under my skin. Okay. Is people who basically come up with their own thoughts and then they say that God told them that because I think that person thinks that they're God. Well, God told me and then they just make something up. You know what they're basically saying? I'm God because they came up with that thought. They came up with that sentence. They came up, but then they're saying God said it, but God didn't say they said it. So basically they're God. You see what I'm saying? We need to be careful not to speak for God. Add thou not into his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar. You know, well, so why did you go so winning over? Well, God told me to really, how did he tell you that? Did he call you on the phone? Did he send you a postcard? Did you hear an audible voice? Well, a lot of that's your own imagination, friend. Okay. We need to trust what the word of God says. So if the word of God says, these are the qualifications for being a pastor. Well, God told me to pastor anyway. Oh, okay. Well, let me throw my Bible in the trash and let me start listening to you since you seem to supersede the Bible. You see how foolish that is? Look, the word of God is the more sure word of prophecy. And so we don't need to just go with everybody's imagination and the voices that they think that they heard. Now look, obviously God does lead us in a subtle way. The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. But it's pretty rare that God would ever speak to man. Right. And it doesn't happen very often. And in this day and age, guess what? We have the written word of God. We don't need an angel from God to come and tell us what to do. Cause this'll this is a whole lifetime to just to do everything that's written here. We don't, we don't need anything else. Okay. So be careful with this thing of just saying, well, God's telling me this and God called me and God did this and that, you know, don't be rash to say that. All right. You know, follow the Bible. Okay. And then let God lead you through the Bible, through the Holy Spirit. You're going to be led, but don't just come up with these wild eyed stories about God's calling me to be a missionary in a, in a country. And I don't even speak the language there. That doesn't make any sense. God's going to call you someplace that makes sense. And God's going to call you to a place that jives with his word. Okay. So anyway, let's get into chapter three here. It says in verse one, now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. So this is one of many Bible characters or one of many great men of God who were shepherds, right? It's a common theme in the Bible where this is the trade of a lot of godly men is that they kept cattle or sheep in this case. And so he kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Now I believe what he says here to the backside of the desert, the emphasis here is on the fact that he's out in the middle of nowhere. There's no one else around. There's no town there. There's no village. There's no city. There are no people there. He's truly isolated is what God's getting at when he says the backside of the desert there. And he sees in verse two, the angel of the Lord, it says, appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither. He's saying, don't come close to here. Do not come any closer. Draw not nigh. Nigh means near. Hither means to here. All right. Draw not nigh hither. Don't get any closer. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where on thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father. We'll come back to this in a moment. Keep your finger here and go to Acts chapter seven. Remember, the best commentary on the Old Testament is always the New Testament itself. So in Acts chapter seven, Stephen not only talks about the events of chapter two, but he also talks about the events of chapter three. And in Acts chapter number seven, beginning in verse number 30, it says, and when 40 years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. So notice Moses is content and happy and living his life for 40 years, just doing his own thing for 40 years. And all of a sudden, after 40 years, the angel of the Lord appears to him in the bush. Now, here's what I want to point out, though, about this verse is that it says here that an angel, if you look at the end of verse 30, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. So the problem with me is that I saw the movie before I read Exodus. You know, the 10 commandments with Charlton Heston, but at least the good news is that watching the 10 commandments as a kid made me go upstairs and read the book of Exodus. So as soon as I was done with it that night, I went upstairs and I read the book of Exodus, and I came down and talked to my parents about what was different from the movie. But sometimes you get an idea kind of stuck in your head from the movie, right? And then it's kind of hard to get that preconceived idea out of your head. But you see here, it's not the burning bush that's talking to him. He's not talking to the burning bush. It's not the burning bush, but it's an angel in the fire, which is in the bush. Okay. So obviously the angel's not pictured in the movie. You know, he's just like kind of just a burning bush. But actually there's an angel of God that is in the bush, that is in the burning bush, that's in the fire in the bush, right? You see that there in act seven? And that's really the way it's characterized in Exodus as well. So here's why this is important is because the angel there that is speaking to Moses out of the burning bush is Jesus. Okay. Now you say, well, why do you say this is Jesus? Because of the fact that if you go to Joshua chapter five, you'll find almost the exact same thing. And if you would keep your finger in, uh, you can get out of acts, but if you go over to, uh, Joshua chapter five and keep your finger in Exodus three, those are the two places that we're going, but you'll see something that's extremely similar to the burning bush meeting. And obviously nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental or accidental, but it says in Joshua chapter five, verse number 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man. All right. So pay special attention to that. There stood a man. So he sees a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went under him and said to him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? He said, nay, because it's not that he's for them or for their adversaries. He's there for him. He's the boss. He says, nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what sayeth my Lord unto his servant and the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place where on thou standest is holy. Now these are completely different places. It's not that Joshua is at Mount Horeb here. The thing that makes the place holy is the presence of the angel of the Lord. It's not that it's a certain geography. Okay. Because of course Mount Sinai is in Arabia. Is that a holy place? You know, to Christians or anybody else? No, but it was holy because of the fact that the angels there and then a totally different place when they're about to enter the promised land and they meet up with the captain of the host there near the Jordan river, you know, now that's the holy ground because the angel of the Lord is there. Now notice that the angel of the Lord in Joshua chapter five is the captain of the Lord's host. He is a man and he receives worship from Joshua. You see in revelation, when the apostle John goes to worship the angel that showed him these things, he said, see that do it not. I'm my fellow servant. I'm a thy brother in the prophets of them was keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. Don't worship me. Remember when they tried to worship Peter, he said, Hey, we're men here. Don't worship us. When Paul and Barnabas were worshiped, they said, don't worship us. We don't want to be worshiped. Whereas we see Jesus Christ receiving worship in the new Testament, accepting worship whenever it's proffered. And then here we see that the angel of the Lord in Joshua chapter five, not only does he receive the worship when Joshua worships, but he actually asked for more reverence by saying, okay, now you're worshiping. Okay, now take off your shoes. So he's actually upping the reverence, not scaling it back. So this man who is worshiped and is the captain of the Lord's host, that's going to lead them into promise in the promise land. This is Jesus. You know, the Bible says that they went with Jesus into the promise land, right? Obviously that's a play on words there because Joshua is the old Testament version of the new Testament named Jesus. Joshua represents Jesus in many ways, but this angel of the Lord that Joshua was confronted with in Joshua chapter five was literally Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. Anytime you see God in the form of man is Jesus. Why? Because God, the father doesn't take human form. He's not a flesh and bone person that you can see. He's a person, but he's not flesh and bone like Jesus. Okay. And nobody can see his face and live the Bible says. Okay. Whereas you can see Jesus face and live, of course. And the Holy ghost is not a flesh and bone person that you could walk up and talk to. So it's clearly Jesus Christ. Now in Exodus chapter number three, we see here in verse six, moreover, he said, this is the angel of the Lord speaking from the Bush. It says, moreover, he said, I'm the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. So he had the ability to look upon God, but he was afraid too. So he hides his face. He puts off his shoes. He doesn't come any closer and God speaks to him out of the Bush. So I believe that this is clearly Jesus Christ speaking to him out of the Bush. See Jesus Christ actually shares all of the old Testament names of God. Every old Testament name of God can be applied to Jesus. Okay. So whether we're talking about Jehovah, God, the Lord, God almighty, any of these names can be applied to Jesus Christ. Okay. Because they all refer to God in general and Jesus has all these attributes. And when Jesus Christ comes in revelation chapter 19 and he's on the white horse, he's named by all these names. He's called the Lord God omnipotent. He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. And he's called all of these things. And so he shares all of these names. Now in the new Testament, there's a differentiation made between the members of the Trinity. You know, you've got God, the father, you've got Jesus and you've got the Holy ghost. Okay. And you say, what's God, the father's name. God, the father's name is God, the father. And if you look up the word name and pretty much any dictionary, you will see that the term God, the father is a name that is the name of God, the father. That's what he's known by. Yeah. Now some people erroneously will make the mistake of saying, Oh, well, Jehovah, that's God, the father. No, Jehovah is the name of God in general, which includes the father, the son and the Holy ghost, all of the old Testament names, any old Testament name of God that you find can be applied to God in general, including Jesus Christ. So and, and by the way, since it's Jesus, who's talking to Moses out of the burning Bush, well, what happens when Moses asked his name, look at verse 13 and Moses said unto God specifically, we know that this is the son of God, Jesus, because he is in human form in the Bush, just like the angel that Joshua is going to run into in chapter five. And Moses said unto God, behold, when I come into the children of Israel and they shall and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers had sent me unto you. And they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, and we know specifically, this is the angel of the Lord speaking. I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am have sent me unto you as Jesus that's saying that. And of course, Jesus says the same thing in the new Testament. He says, before Abraham was, I am. And of course, Jesus makes the great seven. I am statements in the book of John where he says, I am the door. I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection of the life. I am the way, the truth in the life. I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the son of God. So these seven statements that he makes in the book of John, these I am statements are an allusion to the fact that he is the, I am from the burning bush. He is God in the flesh. And so we see that he says, I am has sent me unto you. And God said, moreover, unto Moses, thus shalt the sand of the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers verse 15, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is my name forever. And this is my Memorial unto all generations. So we see that when God reveals a new name, he doesn't lose the old name. He says, that's my name forever. God, the Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's my name forever. That's never going to change. Now look at Exodus chapter six, Exodus chapter number six, and look at verse number two. It says in God's spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. So he appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God almighty. But by his name of Jehovah, he was not known to them. Now he doesn't cease being God almighty and switch to being Jehovah. He's still got almighty, but he's also known as Jehovah. And he picks up new names, but he does not lose the old name. And there are still new names coming in the future, at least one new name, because it says in Revelation, I'll write upon him my new name. Okay, so there's going to be a new name that we're given, and then he's going to reveal a new name to us. And so God has multiple names, and he reveals different names at different periods in history to emphasize certain attributes about himself, but the names are collective. That's why it's so weird that anybody would think, oh, well, someday he's not going to be called Jesus anymore. Like Sam Gip taught one of the bizarre, weird heresies that Sam Gip teaches. But guess what? It doesn't matter because as long as he's pre-trib and pro-Israel and King James, well, he can just preach in any independent Baptist church and nobody cares. As long as he, you know, toes the party line on those couple of issues that they care about, as long as he's a good Fox News Republican Christian on his Twitter feed, then everything's fine. It's okay if he gets up and says, hey, Jesus is not going to be called Jesus anymore. Hey, let me tell you something. Jesus is always going to be called Jesus. Jesus is never going to stop being Jesus. Jehovah is never going to stop being Jehovah. God's never going to stop being God Almighty, right? These names are revelations of God that are cumulative. They add up. It's not that they replace because God is the same. He doesn't change. So if he ever was Jehovah, he'll always be Jehovah. If he ever was God Almighty, he'll always be God Almighty because this is who he is and his nature doesn't change. Okay. So you get some weird doctrines out there that could be debunked by understanding that when God has a name, he has that name forever. Never changes. Okay. He just adds other names to reveal other aspects of his character. So the name Jehovah is what's being rolled out here in Exodus chapter three. And the name Jehovah is derived from the phrase I am that I am or what we would say in our modern vernacular is I am what I am is what he means there. Okay. This is an older form of English in our King James Bible. I am that I am. And you'll notice that the word that is used that way throughout the Bible. And today we would use the word what I am what I am or I am who I am is what we would say, but that's what's being said there. And the word Jehovah is derived from that. Basically it means he is. And I think what this is referring to is the fact that God exists of his own accord. He's eternal. He has always existed. He always will exist. So he's just present tense. He exists. Right. Because he didn't have a beginning. He doesn't have an end. He's always the same. He dwells outside of time. So it's just, I am, you know, where did God come from? Who created God? Right there. They're missing the point here when he says, I just am. I am that I am. This is who I am. And so we see here that God appears to Moses in the bush, in the form of an angel or messenger, or what appears as a man in the fire, in the bush, speaking to Moses. And he reveals his name later in the chapter. But let's back up a little bit and cover some of these other things. It says in verse seven, and the Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows and I'm come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land under a good land and a large under a land flowing with milk and honey under the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Parisites and the Ivites and the Jebusites. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me. And I've also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, well, where have you been for the last 40 years? I was trying to do this like 40 years ago. It's about time you got on my program here. No, actually, what he says here is, well, who am I that I should go onto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Right now, after Moses has been shepherding out in the desert for 40 years, we see his attribute coming through loud and clear humility. The Bible says that he was the meekest man on the face of the earth. He says, well, who am I? Why me? I'm nothing special. This is the view that we should have of ourselves, folks, and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We need to understand that other people could do the same thing that we're doing. Now, here's why we have to do our work, though. It's not that someone else couldn't do my job. It's that other people aren't doing my job. Why do I have to exist here? Why do I, Pastor Steven Anderson, have to exist today in 2019? Why can't I just go off and just kind of live my life and let someone else do it? It's not that other people couldn't do it because there are many people that are far more intelligent than me, more talented than me. They would have more raw preaching ability than me. They would have better people skills than me, more character than me, more discipline than me. There are people that could outdo me in every possible area. But the problem is no one is doing what I'm doing. So I'm stepping in and doing something that needs to be done. Now, if someone else steps in and does that, then I can sit back and let them do it. This is why it doesn't break my heart about being banned from Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden. Now, you know what would break my heart is if the event didn't happen. That would break my heart because of the fact that I really wanted to see God work in these places. You know, I want to see the light shine in the darkness, and these places where these events are happening over the next week are some of the darkest places spiritually. I mean, these are places where spiritually the lights are pretty much out, okay? And it would just be so amazing to see God do a great work in 2019 in the least likely places, in places like the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, just to see God work. Because it would be so inspiring to people to see that God can work anywhere. Even in a place that you would think, boy, this is the last place that soul winning is going to work. The Netherlands, Sweden, are you serious? But what if a bunch of people got saved in the Netherlands? What if a bunch of people got saved in Sweden? What if there's great revival in these places? What if fundamental fire-breathing Baptist churches are established in these places? Boy, wouldn't that just be a miracle? Wouldn't that just be the work of God, and we could get excited about it? And so that's what I find exciting about it. The fact that I can't go and be the big healer, so what? Lord, send by the hand of him who now will send. What do I care? I'm glad to just stay home in Arizona. You know, someday if they put an ankle bracelet on me and I can't even leave within X amount of miles from my house, I'm fine with that. Everything I need is within a few miles of my house for the rest of my life. You know, so who cares, right? Because it's not about me, it's about the work of God. And you know what? God can fill with the Holy Spirit the three guys that we've sent to do this work just as much as he can fill me with the Holy Spirit. Am I right? I mean those three guys could get on their knees and pray and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and people could still show up and hear a powerful message. They can go out and do soul winning and God can use them and lead them. It's not about the personality and Moses understood that. Moses wasn't in this for himself. Moses is saying, look, I don't want to do this. If somebody else can do it, that'd be great. But you know what? If he has to be the one to do it, he ends up doing it. Not because he wants to, but because he's the only guy that can get it done or that God wants to do it through, right? And so that we ought to make sure that we have the right attitude, not an attitude that says, oh, it's all about me, but rather an attitude that says it's all about him. And we're willing to step in and be used if need be. And you know, it makes me a little nervous sometimes when guys are a little too ambitious to go into the ministry. Look, I appreciate your zeal. I want you to be excited about going into the ministry, but let's make sure that you're doing it for the right reason. You know, why don't you just be willing to serve and work? And when the time comes, believe me, there's always a prepared place for a prepared person. There's no shortage of opportunities for guys that are prepared and qualified and ready to roll. Boy, the harvest is plenty. It's the laborers that are few. So you don't have to worry about, oh, I just don't know if I get myself all prepared and ready. You know, and sometimes it's funny when you hear somebody say something along the lines of, well, you know, I just don't want to put all this work into preparing for the ministry. And then it turns out there's no slot in the ministry for me. Well, what are you doing to prepare yourself with ministry? Reading your Bible? Going soul winning? Winning souls to Christ, preaching sermons, leading songs? Don't you want to do that stuff anyway? I mean, isn't that just stuff that you do anyway? It's like, well, I don't want to waste my time reading my Bible. Well, you know, if that's your attitude, you're the exact person we don't want in the ministry. Well, you know, I mean, if I'm going to put all this effort and work and sacrifice into, you know, learning my Bible and going so, folks is never a waste when you're serving God. Okay. But the people who are just hell bent on being in the ministry, well, they're the wrong people for the ministry. Okay. And so yes, it's great to desire that work. If you desire that work, you desire a good work, but you know what? Put your nose to the grindstone, be faithful. And you know what? God will put you in the ministry. It is not hard for God to put you in the ministry. And if anything, we're too eager to put people into the ministry because we're just so excited about getting the work of God done. God has to constantly reign us in because we're so eager to put people. Folks, just do the work that God gives you. And you say, well, this isn't the most glamorous job. Folks, whatever the job that you're doing for the work of the Lord is a great job. And don't act like, well, you know, I want to be in the limelight. Then you're wicked. You're wicked. If you want to be in the limelight, then go be in the limelight at the karaoke bar, because this is not the place to be in the limelight right here. If you're that ego driven and egocentric, I'm sure there'll be a whole bunch of drunks down at the karaoke bar. They'll tell you how great you are. You can get on stage and perform and everybody's going to praise you and love you. You know, fill your appetite for ego somewhere else because the ministry has no place for that. In the ministry, you have to be willing to get up and preach stuff that people don't want to hear. You have to preach stuff that people don't like. Stuff that's going to get you attacked and ridiculed and hated and mocked. And you have to make sacrifices and suffer. It's not about ego, okay? I mean, Moses, boy, was he the star when he showed up to Egypt, right? No, when he showed up to Egypt, it's not just Pharaoh that wants him dead. His own people wanted him dead. The children of Israel want him dead. They don't like what he's doing when he comes as the deliverer. They didn't like him 40 years ago. They don't like him 40 years later when he comes back either. And how many times they murmur against him in the wilderness. Boy, it was such a pain in the neck. I mean, Moses got depressed at times when he's just saying, why did you do this to me? Putting me in charge of these stiff-necked, wicked people. So it wasn't always a fun job and everything. Then you're going to come worship God in this mountain. Then it'll be evident that, you know, that I'm with you, that I've sent you. See, God expects us to go in faith. You get the token after you do the work. Do the work, then I'll give you the proof. Do the work, then I'll give you the token. You say, well, I'll believe in Christ when there's hard evidence. Okay, enjoy hell then. Because you know what? There's not going to be any hard evidence shown unto you. But I'll tell you this, once you believe in Christ, boy, your faith will be confirmed. The proof of Christ will be confirmed over and over again. Every doubt will be removed as you go through life communing with Christ, seeing the evidence of Christ over and over and over again. But you know what? Not before you're saved. Man, there were people that got to stick their finger in the holes in Jesus' hands. There were people that got to thrust their hand into his side. Their hands handled him. But guess what? They were all saved. We were all saved people. Jesus did not reveal himself to unsaved people. Well, he revealed himself to over 500 people at once. Nope, he revealed himself to over 500 brethren at once. What's a brother? Somebody who's saved. He revealed himself to the saved. You say, I want to see Christ, then I'll believe in him. Okay, get saved and you'll see Christ. But you're not going to see Christ until after you're saved. You're not going to get the token, Moses, until you do all the work and come back. Then you get the token. Then you will get to see the proof right here. So he says, you'll come back and you'll worship God in this mountain. And then, of course, there's the discussion about the name. And we already talked about that at the end of verse 15. It says, this is my name forever. This is my memorial unto all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto them, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, appeared unto me saying, I've surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, under the land of the Canaanites. And here's the thing. When God says he's going to do something, he's going to do it. So this right here should be enough. When God says, I'm bringing you out and I'm bringing you into the promised land, done. It's as good as done at that point. So they should never doubt him again. Yet they doubt that he can get them out of Egypt. Then once they're out of Egypt, they doubt that he can furnish a table in the wilderness, which of course he furnishes the table in the wilderness. And then they doubt that he can bring them into the promised land. When the 10 spies come back with the evil report, they doubt this is the promise right here. I am going to bring you out. I'm going to bring you in no matter what happens in between. People are required to believe that promise. That's why God gets angry when they don't believe it. It's why people get punished when they don't believe it, because they're supposed to just take God at his word. When he says, look, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I'm the God of your fathers. I never change. This is my name forever. This is my memorial unto all generations. I heard you. I'm coming to get you out and to bring you in. Done. So just take it to the bank. Just like, that's why I don't doubt my salvation because I might as well already be in heaven right now. It's as good as done. I might as well already be there. It's so certain that it might as well have already happened because God said that it's going to happen. So it's just, you don't even have to think about it at that point. It's like, well, God said it, it happens. So that's the promise. This is significant because he's giving most a lot of information here. I'm going to bring them into the land so that that should stick with them. But it's easy to forget that, right? Don't you think there are probably times when they forgot that God was so explicit at the burning bush about exactly what was going to happen. And they're just in the heat of the moment. Oh man, we're out here in the desert. You know, we don't have any food. He said, he's going to bring you into the promised land. Take that to the bank. Verse 18, they shall hearken to thy voice. That's the leaders of Israel and thou shalt come down the elders of Israel under the King of Egypt. And you shall say, and then the Lord God of the Hebrews have met with us. And now let us go. We beseech thee three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. And I am sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand. Yet they're surprised when that happens. When Pharaoh says no and begins to afflict them and persecute them, like, whoa, what's going on? He already told them all this going in. It's like when the Bible tells us, we're going to be persecuted. Jesus said, you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Isn't that what Jesus said? In what? Luke chapter 21 verse 12, maybe somewhere in Luke 21. He says, you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Elsewhere, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Marvel not my brother. If the world hates you. And then it's like, you know, the world hates us. And then it's that open mouth meme. Is that a Pikachu? Yeah. It's like Jesus says, Marvel not, you know, Jesus says, you shall be hated. And then you get hated. And then it's like, that was a little, you know, meme given orally. You know, it's, it's not as much as the picture. So why are we surprised when things that God says will happen, happen? I mean, what did he tell the disciples? I'm going to die. And then three days later, I'm going to rise again. But then he dies and they're all distraught. And then he rides again. They don't believe it at first. They think, you know, they have to go run and see it for themselves before they believe they have to run and look at the tomb and see the great books. Boy is this human nature, isn't it? To be doubting. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. When you have faith, right? If God tells us you're going to be persecuted, don't get all freaked out when you get persecuted. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you here. He says, look, Pharaoh is not going to let you go. And then what happens? They get persecuted and then they all flip out and turn on Moses and they get angry at Moses. You made us to stink in front of the Egyptians or whatever. Folks, we're the saver of death under the Egyptians. We're always going to stink to the Egyptians. You made Christianity to stink. Folks, to the world, it already stinks. And you know what? The world stinks to us. You know, we're not of this world. If we were of this world, the world would listen to his own, the Bible says. But because we're not of this world, they don't hear us. They have to get saved. They have to turn to Christ. They have to be a new creature. And then now the ear is open to God's word. That's why Jesus said, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Cause some people don't have the ear to hear. You can't understand. They don't get it. So he says here, I'm sure I love this verse. This is one of the best verses in the chapter. I'm sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go. I mean, he's, he's making this really clear. Nope, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof. And after that, he will let you go. So don't expect to leave until you've seen all the wonders. Right. And they expected to just leave immediately. They haven't even seen any wonders yet. After the wonders, then he'll let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it should come to pass that when you go, you should not go empty, but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor. And of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And you shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters and you shall spoil the Egyptians are going to borrow some stuff. All right. That's why whenever you load anything to anybody, be sure to go buy a new one immediately. So what are you saying here about how they're going to spoil the Egyptians is because they've been working for hundreds of years without pay. So God always pays us for the work that we do. You know, in Ephesians, it talks about servants be obedient to your masters, according to the flesh. And he says, knowing that any good thing, knowing that whatsoever good thing, any man doeth, the same shall you receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. So whether you're bond or free, whether you are getting paid well or getting paid poorly, any work you do, God will recompense you. So no labor that you ever do is in vain. In all labor, there's profit. And so here the children of Israel are working and working and working. They're accomplishing nothing except to build Pharaoh, his treasure cities. They don't care about that, but did they really work in vain? Nope, because they got this pension. When they leave, they get the, they get this giant bonus. They get this 401k. They get this, uh, what do they call it? Parachute or lump sum distribution. Uh, they get the, they get the Rolex. They get the, the, the, the severance pay. They get the literal, you know, gold and silver and precious stones. So this isn't stealing cause they worked for all this stuff and God told them to do it. God gave them permission to do it. Obviously we shouldn't just say, well, I've been, I've been getting underpaid. So I'm just going to take stuff. I'm going to borrow some stuff myself. Obviously this is a, a, a sanctioned by God incident here where God allows them to despoil the Egyptians. He brings judgment and wrath and punishment on the gypsum. We don't need to take this into our own hands in 2019 to spoil the Egyptians. But I'll say this, God will make sure that you get taken care of. You know, I've had jobs where I felt like I was getting ripped off. I'm sure you've had situations where you didn't get paid what you were told to get paid. I had a job one time that was, that was the worst about this. I had a particular job, not going to name any names, but I worked at this company for a little over two years and they were just not honest. And so I worked at this job and almost right away I regretted switching jobs because the job I had before, I liked it. I liked the people, but the problem is I just felt like the job was going nowhere. And so I felt like, man, I'm not learning anything. I'm not going anywhere. So I switched jobs because I felt like the other job had more future. I could learn more. And right away I started realizing that the things I was told in the interview were not true. And they would say things and they wouldn't make good on it. Like I remember one time they said, hey, listen, you know, we want you to get these particular certifications. And they said for every two of these certifications that you get, we're going to give you 25 cents per hour raise or some stupid thing like that. Like maybe 50 cents for two levels or something. It was like ridiculous because it was a ton of work to get these certifications. They're going to give you this measly 25 cent or 50 cent raise or whatever. But here's the thing. I was young and poor. It was me and my wife and we got a baby and we're just scraping by, barely making enough money. So that little 25 cents an hour, 50 cents an hour, I was really going to help. That was important to me. So I actually put in a whole bunch of work and I actually went online and figured out that I could take the tests in California and then I could drive to Nevada and I could actually do testing in Nevada. And so I could actually take these tests in rapid sequence by taking some and going California, Nevada, California, Nevada. So I'm like driving in my own gas and my own car to get these certifications faster so I can get these raises because they gave me these incentives. Hey, we want you to get certified. So I went through all this trouble. I get certified. I go to my boss. I bring him the certificates and said, here you go. I figured like he's going to be like, oh wow, I'm impressed. You know, good job. You did so fast. He said, well, when we said we're going to give you those raises, we didn't know you were going to do it that fast. So we're only going to give you the raise for one of them. We're not going to give you both raises, just the one, because we didn't think you're going to do it that fast. You know what? That's wicked. And you know, the owner of the company pulled up in a super expensive automobile. I don't, it was like a Corvette. It was like a super fancy sports car that he would roll in. His brother worked for the company, pulled in every day in some sports car. I don't remember what kind, because I don't really care about cars. I don't remember what kind, because I don't really care about cars. I mean, these guys are pulling in in sports cars. They're making money hand over fist. I'm just struggling to get by. And then they lie to me and tell me, if you get this, you want to get a raise? Okay, do this. You'll get this. Oh, we didn't think you were going to do it that fast. Well, tough. You said I was right now. How do you think that made me feel? And that look, that's one example. I'm not going to bore you with all the stories of how that company treated me and treated everybody else for the couple of years that I worked there. But you know what? I will say this. That job, even though I hated it and I felt like I was constantly getting ripped off and lied to, that job gave me the skills that I needed to get my next job. And I ended up making tons of money in my next job. I was making over $100,000 a year in my next job. And it was only because of the skills that I learned at the job I hated. So even though I hated that job, God saw my affliction. And he saw me getting ripped off and lied to. And I was making a really low wage. You know, I was making like, I think they hired me at like, what, $11.50 an hour or something. And I think by the time I left, I might have gotten up to like $15 an hour or something, doing some pretty highly skilled work. But they had lied to me and told me I was going to make way more money. They told me I'm going to get all these commissions and bonuses and stuff that just never materialized. And then when I told other people that worked there, they laughed and said, oh, yeah, you actually believe that? We've never seen those commissions. We've never seen those bonuses. I'm like, oh, now you tell me. But guess what? God saw that and he's like, okay, let me help you out over here. So even though I felt like I was out of the will of God, I was literally thinking like, God must be angry at me because I got this stupid job and I was happy at the other job. But you know what? God wasn't mad at me. God was just putting me through a bad time and preparing me for the next phase where I was going to make the money I needed to start this church and do everything that I needed because that was the same job that I had. The next job I got was the job I had when I started the church. You know, so I was able to have the money to start the church and provide for my family and get into my house and everything. I was able to make the money I needed. So the point is that God looks down and he sees you working. If you're working, you'll get paid. So don't get angry and bitter and bring things up 15 years later. No, I'm just kidding. I never think about this. I'm not bitter. I forgive you. But don't get bitter because God will take care of it. And look, and then later when I own my own fire alarm business, I would say about 8% of the time, maybe 8 to 9% of the time, I just didn't get paid. And anybody who's in business knows there are times that you just don't get paid. Now, maybe not as much in residential, but I worked in commercial and you got paid 90 days later. So you do a job, and that means 90 days later, they think about paying you. That's when you can start saying, where's my money? So man, I got stiffed for thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars every year. But God will find other ways to bless you when that happens. When people steal from you, or one time there was this company in Florida that owed my boss a ton of money when I worked for another company, and that hurricane came through and the company went bankrupt, and we lost like $40,000 because they're just like, sorry, we can't pay you. We don't have any money. And then there were customers who would lie and cheat and deceive not to pay you. But guess what? God will always pay you. So when you go through life and you get ripped off and people treat you bad, look, our church just got ripped off this week. Here's an even, sorry about those tired old illustrations. Let me give you a fresh illustration. One of the conference rooms that we had booked for one of our events in Europe canceled us, okay, at the last minute. They took our money a month and a half ago. So a month and a half ago, we wired them. They sit on our money for a month and a half. And then the week of the event, they cancel us. And now they're giving us our money back. We haven't gotten it back yet. They're giving us back our money minus 300 euros. Cancellation fee because they canceled us. I mean, it's criminal and you can't even make this stuff up. And they won't even talk to me. I call down there, these bunch of liars, cowards. I call down there and they're like, Oh, uh, she's away from her desk right now. But you know, as soon as she's back at her desk, she'll call you back. Call back a half hour later. Hey, what's the deal? Am I going to go? Oh, she went home for the day, but she'll call you first thing in the morning. Call back the next day. Where's the phone? Oh, uh, she's in a meeting, uh, just for days and days. They just, they won't even talk to you. They won't even face you. They won't even respond to my emails. They won't respond to my messages. But folks, let me tell you something. God's going to punish that business. You think God's going to bless a business like that? All we have to do is just say, God, you know, Lord, do you see what they're doing here? Lord, make this right. And you know what? Take the 300 euros, take 400, but it's not going to do you any good in hell. Okay. You bunch of sodomite loving idiots. I'm telling you, you know, these, these people, they, they, they cancel our venues. They, they, they steal the money. They don't even give back all the money. Even if they did give back the money, it's still fraud to sit there and sit on our money for two months and then put us in the lurch on the, on the week of the event, the day of the event. You know, we had, you know, I'm not going to mention the details yet when it's all over. Then I'll start naming the names and we can start leaving the bad reviews. Amen. But anyway, I'll name the names shortly. But we, we had one of the events, you know, we're on like our third venue because they just keep canceling one after the other. The restaurants are doing everything to cancel us. Hotels. I mean, I'm telling you, the devil is fighting these events. All right. But the point is, I don't worry about it. You say, oh, we lost 300 euros. You don't even know how much that is in dollars. No, I'm just kidding. I don't even know how much that is. Well, I know that euros aren't that different than dollars, but it's actually, it's actually more dollars. It's actually like, I don't know the exact conversion, but it's, it's 300 some dollars. Somebody's Googling it. But, but here's the thing. You know what? Do you think our church is really just going to suffer because we missing, we're missing 400 bucks. Who cares? You know what? All we can do is be the best possible stewards of God's money that we can and use it as wisely as we can. Look, this is out of our hands. If it, you know, if, if, if God is going to allow a company to steal from us and rob us and lie to us. Well, you know what? That's on them. They won't even face us. They won't even talk to us. They can't hide from God. And I won't be surprised if that company goes bankrupt. I won't be surprised if that, if that hotel gets filled with bedbugs or black mold. You know what I mean? Think about it. You think God's going to bless because God hasn't been blessing the countries that have been banning us. God's not blessing these people. And you know what? God's going to bless us. So if somebody, let's say somebody stole $100 from you. Let's say somebody stole $200 from you. God's going to bless you. You'll get your $200. If you work, you'll get what's coming to you. And God's going to take the $200 out on that criminal's backside. So don't worry about it. You know, just go through life understanding. God's going to settle the score. Just like the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians. You're going to spoil the Egyptians in your life. You know what the Bible says? The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So God will work it out. Let's buy our words and prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word in this great chapter, Lord. Thank you for the example of Moses, Lord. And thank you for always blessing me and taking care of my needs, Lord. Thank you that I've always been able to pay my bills and feed my family, even though I had that one squirrely job for a while there, Lord. And dear God, I just thank you that our church has always had plenty of money. We've always been able to pay the bills. We've never had any debt, Lord. Help us to just continue, Lord, to be blessed. Please meet our financial needs, Lord, as you always have. Thank you for being faithful, Lord. And I just pray that every single person here would just believe your promise, just like you promised you'd get them into the promised land, Lord. You promised to take care of us and help everybody here to believe that promise, even when things are lean and when the budget's tight and when it doesn't seem like you're going to come through, Lord. Help them to just stay faithful. Keep praying. Keep reading their Bible and seek first the kingdom of God and just trust that you'll come through. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.