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

Amen. Amen. If you would go back to Exodus chapter number 2. This morning we talked about Moses and we focused on his achievements and his life up until he was 40 years old and about how he was very learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in words and in deeds and how he chose rather at age 40 to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So we talked about all that leading up to him being 40 years old and now we're going to talk about more of Moses' character starting out when he is 40 and he actually goes to be among the Israelites and if you go back to chapter number 2 it says in verse 11, it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew one of his brethren and he looked this way and that way and when he saw that there was no man he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. So here we see Moses basically seemingly killing someone with his bare hands, right? He goes down there and he sees this Egyptian beating up on a Hebrew and so he looks this way, he looks that way, he thinks that nobody's around and so Moses just kills the guy, right? Now keep your finger here and actually I do want to take you back to Acts chapter 7 and show you the way this is worded in Acts chapter 7 because what's interesting is that when Moses is 40 years old we have this episode where he goes down and he sees the Egyptian that's beating up on the Hebrew and then he kills the Egyptian, defends the Hebrew but then very shortly thereafter he goes and flees in the land of Midian, he's out in the desert and when he first gets there he ends up actually defending his future father-in-law's daughters against the shepherds, okay? Now look at Acts chapter number 7 in verse number 23 it says and when he was full 40 years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong, so remember this is a guy that's getting beat up by the Egyptian, seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended him, and this is the wording I want to focus in on, and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood not, and so the thing that I really want to focus in on about Moses is his character as a deliverer, as someone who stands up for those who are oppressed, those who are being afflicted or bullied or downtrodden, he actually wants to help those that are oppressed and stop them from being mistreated, okay? And then back in Exodus chapter number 2 if you jump forward to the story about his future father-in-law's daughters it says in verse 16 of Exodus 2, 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, so here we have women going to a well to get water, what could be more natural than that, but yet you have these shepherds that don't seem to be very good gentlemen because they're actually chasing the women away, and it says but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. Now remember nothing in the Bible is incidental coincidental or accidental, it's interesting that these two stories back to back and really there's not a lot about Moses when he's 40 years old, right? Most of the Moses story starts when he's 80 and so we have just these little bits from when he's 40 and isn't it interesting how both of these stories both go together because if you think about it when he's in Egypt he doesn't like the fact that this Egyptian is beating up on the Hebrew and so he wants to get in there and defend the person who's being oppressed, then when he goes to Midian in a totally different country but it's just a few verses later he gets there and the daughters of Jethro are being oppressed in a sense by the shepherds and he defends them against the shepherds. So this shows that this is in his character. Now both of these incidents involve some fighting if you think about it. Obviously he kills the Egyptian and obviously in order for him to deliver the women from these shepherds he obviously had to get in there and physically assert himself in some way and either threaten something or maybe even get in a fight, whatever. He had to get in there and physically assert himself in both of these situations. But what's interesting about that is that even though we see that Moses is apparently able to handle himself in a fight, he apparently has the ability to fight and even to kill someone probably with his bare hands, he's not one that's fighting for ego or pride. You don't see him getting insulted or getting in there and fighting for his own honor. He's fighting in both situations to defend other people because remember Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth so he's not out there for his own ego or pride but he's actually out there to defend other people in both situations. So if you're there in Exodus chapter 2, back up, so he kills the Egyptian first of all but then it says in verse 13, when he went out the second day Behold two men of the Hebrews strove together, and notice this next phrase, and he said to him that did the wrong. So again, the way Moses is looking at the world, he's seeing one person oppressing another. One person is right and one person is wrong and he wants to get in there and defend the person who's being mistreated. And so he goes in there and he says to him that did the wrong, wherefore mightest thou thy fellow? And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? And tendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. Then he flees to Midian and then he defends the daughters of Jethro. So again, we can see a pattern here in actually three incidents, two in Egypt and one in Midian where Moses is a defender of the oppressed. He's a deliverer, right? He delivers the Hebrew out of the hand of the Egyptian. He delivers the one Hebrew from the other Hebrew who's doing him wrong. He delivers the seven daughters of Jethro from the shepherds. And what they say to him here, or what the guy who's wrong says in verse 13, you know, he says, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? And in Acts chapter 7 it says that they said of Moses, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? But then it says that God actually made him a ruler and a deliverer for them. So in Acts chapter 7, God replaces the words ruler and a judge, prince and a judge with ruler and a deliverer, prince and a deliverer. So the word judge is replaced by deliverer. So the guy who's doing wrong, the guy who's in sin, the guy who's oppressing someone else, he sees Moses as judgmental, you know, who made you a judge over us, right? But the way God looks at it and the way righteous people would look at it is, well, no, no, Moses isn't a judge, he's not being judgmental, he's a deliverer, right? He's delivering people in all three episodes when he's 40 years old, he's delivering someone, okay? Now Moses the person obviously has this in his character that this is the kind of guy that he is. But also Moses the person represents the law of God itself, right? Moses pictures the law, right, because the law is given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And if you think about it, the Mosaic law itself is one that stands up for those that are being oppressed and delivers the afflicted, okay? And we could go through tons of scriptures on this, but if you look at the laws of God, and I'm just gonna read you a couple of verses as examples, but Exodus chapter 22 verse 21 for example, you don't have to turn to these, but it says, Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Chapter 23 verse 9, also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Leviticus 25 14, and if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor or biased ought of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. So these are the type of laws that we find in Exodus and Leviticus saying, don't oppress foreigners, don't oppress each other. When you're doing business dealings, don't rip people off and oppress the buyer or oppress the seller. It says in verse 17 of chapter 25, ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 23 16, he shall dwell with thee even among you in the place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, talking about a foreigner who comes in, where it liketh him best, thou shalt not oppress him. Deuteronomy 24 14, thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gate. And so on and on throughout the scripture here, we have all these laws defending people from being oppressed or mistreated or abused. And a lot of people, of course, criticize God's law and say, you know, that, well, it condones slavery or something like that, or that condones polygamy or something like that. But the reality is that God has always been for freedom and liberty. And it's always been God's plan for marriage to be between one man and one woman. And God has never taught that it was right for a man to have two wives. It's never been right in God's sight. He always from the beginning has said that a man shall leave his father and mother and they too shall be one flesh and so forth. But what the law of God does is it recognizes the fact that these realities exist in our world. Polygamy exists. Slavery exists. People have servants. There are masters and servants and everything like that. And if you actually read the laws where God brings up polygamy or where God brings up servants and masters, he's actually constantly defending the servants and saying that they have rights and that they can't be mistreated in certain ways. And he's actually defending the servants from being oppressed or used vigorously or rigorously by their masters. Also, the laws about polygamy have to do with making sure that these multiple wives aren't mistreated or oppressed. You know, God's always sticking up for the little guy and always defending those who are weak and need help and so forth. You know, the Bible says, we then that are strong in the New Testament ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. So God cares about the weak and the oppressed and he sticks up for them and the law of God looks out for people that are being oppressed just like Moses himself as a person was the kind of guy who looked out for those who were oppressed. Here's the thing about the law of God. The law of God is perfect. That's what the Bible says. You know, I get so sick of this attitude even among Christians that stands in judgment of God's law. It blows my mind. The arrogance, the hubris to get up and actually judge God's law. Like you're so smart, Mr. 2022 Baptist preacher, you're so smart and you're so enlightened and you're so cosmopolitan and worldly wise that you're going to stand up and be all smug about the laws of God and actually stand in judgment of God's laws. You know, we should be humble and realize that everything in the Bible is right and everything in the Mosaic law is right on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. These books are right on. It's like, oh, well, you know, I mean, this law is kind of strict, you know. I don't know why it's like this. This bozo, I mean, this bozo preached against me a couple of weeks ago and somebody sent it to me and I recorded it as an episode of Steven Anderson exposed part 16 and I really was just hungry for cereal that night. So that's why I recorded it. And I haven't, I haven't had a chance to upload it yet. You know, I guess I need to find a channel to upload it to. But anyway, I haven't had a chance to upload it yet. But this guy, you know, I'll upload it tomorrow or something. But this guy, I tell you what, I mean the guy, you could just tell, you could just listen to what the guy's saying that the guy doesn't like God's laws and he acts like, oh, these laws are really strict, but you know what I mean? I guess it's all they had back then. It's all they had back then. It's the perfect law of almighty God written by the finger of God. He's acting like, oh, well, that's what they had back then. And then he's like, you know, you get to heaven, you can argue with God about it, you know, or ask God. It's like, why would I want to argue with God about it when it's right on? And the law that he was specifically talking about was Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10 that was speaking about how if a man lays with his neighbor's wife, you know, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterous and the adulterous are both going to be put to death, right? And he's just acting like, you know, he didn't really understand that and that it was just, it was just, it just seemed overkill, but you know, we'll just have to take it up with God. What do you mean take it up with God? Why? Why don't we just look at it and be like, okay, all right. In fact, I'm not even okay with that law, I like it. I like it. You know, I read the law of God and I'm not just like, oh man, you know, thank God we're in the New Testament. You know, I'm, when I'm reading God's law, I'm thinking how smart it is, how much sense it makes, how the laws are so righteous and just, you know, I just can't understand this arrogant mentality that stands in judgment of God or that makes fun of the laws of God and acts like, you know, and you, you'll hear Christian preachers in 2022 making fun of the law of God and say, and literally this same guy, I'm pretty sure he did this, but if not, a whole bunch of other people have done it where they'll act like, oh, you know, you believe God's laws are right. You're the Taliban, you know, you're, you're like a fundamentalist Muslim, you're this radical Muslim. You know, you want, uh, what's that thing called, uh, Sharia. Yeah. You know, you're talking Sharia law. No, no, no. It's called the Bible. Like just because Sharia law and Sharia law is filled with all kinds of stupid and wicked and ungodly things, but it does borrow a couple of right things from the Bible. So just because it has 99 stupid, ridiculous things, and then a couple of right things from the Bible, and then you're going to say that those right things from the Bible are now Sharia now or something like, wait, no, because long before that illiterate pedophile Mohammed started the religion of Islam, you know, this book already existed like 2200 years before that, right? So over 2000 years before Mohammed ever came up with his perverted garbage, this book already existed. Exodus and Leviticus were already there with these perfect righteous laws of God, but yet I've heard people mock and attack Muslim. Can you believe that, you know, Muslims believe in the death penalty for adultery? Can you believe that the Muslims want to put homos to death? It's like, well, okay. I guess a broken clock is even right two times per day, but to sit there and act like that's something unique to them or that something and it's like, Oh, well, how are you going to force that? Huh? We do go around peeking in people's bedrooms, you know, you're doing you're making fun of God's law, because God is the one who said that the adulterer and adulteress are to be put to death. God is the one who said that a man who lies with another man, they should both be put to death. It's like, well, how are you going to force that? I don't know. Why don't you figure that out? But the Bible says that that's the law. You have to sit there and say like, what are you gonna do peeking people's windows? Let me just put it this way. You know, if the if it were a matter of peeking into people's windows, I'll say this, you know, if these bunch of homos did what they did behind closed doors, and nobody ever knew about it, and nobody ever found out about it, then you know what, we could all just go to the grave happy not knowing about their filth. But it isn't amazing that now that it's legal, they rub our noses in it every chance they get and they can't stop talking about it publicly. And putting it in every movie, every TV show, every book, all in the school curriculums and all these different things. Hey, you know, it's like, what do you care what people do behind closed doors? I don't because if no one ever knew about it, then you're right, it wouldn't be punished because no one would find out about it. And no one would know about it. And then they would just get what was coming to them in hell. But I could just be happy and just live my life and not have to be exposed to that garbage. But no, because it's legal now since 2003, everywhere in the United States, it's legal that now it just gets rubbed in our faces constantly. So maybe God's law was right after all. Maybe God was right on the money. And pastors need to repent in sackcloth and ashes for mocking and making fun of God's law or even just standing in judgment of it in the first. That's not how I read my Bible. I don't read my Bible like, hmm, I wonder if this is right. Is this true? Is this really the way it's supposed to be? You know, I look at the Bible like, am I right? Is what I think true? Do I need to change? The Bible is the boss. I'm not going to sit there and look at it like, well, let's see what God's doing here in Exodus chapter 21. No, I'm looking at it like, okay, yes, sir. All right. Oh, I didn't. Oh, I didn't realize that better change. That's the right way to read the Bible. But you see, when I look at God's law, I see God's law as a deliverer, right? Because Moses himself was a deliverer. So the Bible says, but some people look at him and say, you're a judge, you're judging, you're judgmental. And he was a judge as well. But the more important aspect for those that are actually right with God is to look at him as a deliverer. You know, you look at the book of Judges, right? We have a whole book in the Bible called Judges. But if we actually read the book as Bible-believing Christians, it doesn't really feel like you're reading a book about judges, does it? You know what it feels like? You're reading a book about deliverers. It's like a list of deliverers, right? Othniel is a deliverer, right? Ehud is a deliverer, Barak is a deliverer, Deborah is a deliverer, right? You're going down the list of Gideon acting as a deliverer. Samson delivers the Israelites, right? And sure, they're judging, but is that really what stands out? No, because from God's perspective, they're deliverers. Well, the word of God, and specifically the law of God itself, yeah, does the law of God judge us? Of course. But you know, those that actually love the Lord and those that actually have the right attitude toward God, they see God's law as a deliverer, right? God's law delivers the oppressed. God's law protects the foreigner, protects the fatherless, protects the widow, protects the one who's abused or mistreated or a victim of crime. God's law protects the oppressed and delivers the downtrodden, but also God's laws deliver us from the bondage of sin. Just as Moses brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, you know, Jesus said, verily I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is a servant of sin. You know, and sin has a bondage that comes with it. Whatever, it doesn't matter what sin, it brings you into bondage, okay? Think about how many different ways sin could bring you into bondage. I mean, it could bring you literally into bondage. For example, if you go out and steal or kill or do these things, you know, you could actually be arrested and then put in literal bonds because you're in prison. You're actually shackled and handcuffed and put in prison. So in that sense, yeah, sin could put you into bondage because you face consequences for it with the law. You know, that's one bondage of sin. Also there's the bondage of addiction. You know, you'd be a slave to the bottle and people are addicted to alcohol. They're addicted to drugs. They're addicted to smoking. They're addicted to pornography. They're addicted to gambling, right? These sins have a way of grabbing hold of you and bringing you under their power and putting you in bondage. And then God's law comes along and tells you how to live your life as a free person. In fact, it's called the law of liberty, right? God's law is called the law of liberty. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, okay? And so God's word comes in and brings light and it brings freedom and it delivers the oppressed. Ah, you're judgmental, you're judging me. You know, this is the mantra of those who turn away their ear from hearing the law. They just can't stop talking about how judgmental Christians are and how judgmental God is and how judgmental the Bible is. And sure, hey, is there an element of truth in that? Of course. Of course God is our judge. Of course the Bible judges us. Of course the law condemns the unsaved. It condemns all mankind, but those of us that are saved through Jesus Christ, we're now free from that condemnation because our sins have been forgiven and forgotten because we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and so now we're saved. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But in general, the law of God, yeah, it condemns people. It really condemns everyone in a sense. Is God a judge? Do Christians judge? Yes, of course they do. But this attitude that gets upset and gets bent out of shape and says, oh, you're judging and oh, you need to stop judging and you know, God's so judgmental and church is judgmental. I would be a Christian if it weren't for Christians and all this junk. It's really just a wrong attitude instead of saying, you know what, Christians are trying to deliver me. They're trying to teach me a more excellent way. They're trying to deliver me from a life of sin. Instead of that, they just focus on the negative that, oh, you're judgmental. No, God's word delivers. Just as Moses was personally a guy who delivered the oppressed, so does God's law do the exact same thing. The Bible says in Psalm 9 verse 9, the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Psalm 10 verse 18 talks about judging the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. Notice that verse, judge the fatherless and the oppressed. But that's a positive thing. Judging the fatherless and the oppressed has to do with delivering them from oppression. Psalm 12 verse 5, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. Psalm 103 verse 6, the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. So God is the God that defends the oppressed and goes to bat for those that are being oppressed. And that's what we see very early in the life of Moses, that that's his character. That's what he's like. So why did God pick Moses? Well first of all, we know that God greatly used Moses because he was humble and meek, and because he was the meekest man on the earth, God values humility, and God is not going to use a prideful, arrogant person. So part of the reason why God used Moses is because he's humble. Also, Moses had certain skills that he had picked up in Egypt, all the learning and language and so forth of the Egyptians, so that he was able to put God's laws into writing. Because we know that of course God wrote the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone with his finger, right, written with the finger of God in tables of stone. But that's not the whole Bible, that's not the whole law, is it? No because the rest of it is written in a book, and it's written by Moses, that book of the law that was written in Mount Sinai. And so they had to have that ability to write that down. But then also I believe that Moses was chosen because he's a deliverer by nature. This is the kind of guy that he is. You know, he sees some women being mistreated at the well, he jumps in there and he fixes things. He defends the oppressed. He sees the Egyptian, he sees the Hebrew, etc. This is just who he is as a person. So if you would go back to Exodus chapter number 2, and you know what, we need to be the same way. Don't become the kind of person that picks on the weak and just looks for people that are easy targets to just make fun of and bully and push around and mistreat. You know, don't pick on that person at your job who's maybe a little bit dorky or maybe they're kind of dumb or whatever, maybe there's something wrong with them. You know, don't jump in and pick on that person. You know, why don't you treat that person well? Why don't you treat them the way you'd like to be treated? The Bible says, therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. And I know most of you kids are homeschooled, but you know what, when you're out on the school playground, don't pick on the kid who's small or, you know, ugly or dumb or has problems, you know, don't pick on that kid. Treat him well, defend him, deliver him, and don't just kind of join in the crowd of just picking on the one kid because, you know, this one kid's black or something or because this one kid is, you know, from a different demographic than you or this one kid, you know, he's either doing too well in school or he's not doing well enough or whatever. Let's pick on him, right? Wrong. You know, we need to treat other people the way that we want to be treated and that should even start when you're a kid, but you know what, even those of you that are homeschooled, don't oppress your siblings. Don't oppress your little brother. Don't oppress your little sister. Don't have this attitude that because you're two years older or four years older or something that you have the right to just mistreat and mishandle your younger siblings, right? Treat other people well. Be like Moses, go to bat for the person who needs defending instead of being one that oppresses and mistreats them. And so that's the kind of guy that Exodus was, or excuse me, that's the kind of guy that Moses was here in Exodus chapter two, and it's also the character of God's law, which Moses represents, you know, the books of Exodus, Leviticus that have these laws. Those are represented by Moses as a person. God's word in the Mosaic law is kind of reflective of the man as well because God picked a person that had this character of being a deliverer. So Moses goes through these different episodes that we see here when he's 40 years old. And of course, when he delivers the Hebrew on the first day and then he delivers the other guy on the second day, people don't rally behind him. People don't understand him. And so he ends up having to flee Egypt for his life because basically he's killed someone. You know, he killed the Egyptian. And so the thing is known and he doesn't want to have to face the consequences of that with the law, whether that would be prison or execution or whatever, so he flees Egypt and he flees out into the desert, into the wilderness, and he gets to Midian, and of course the Bible says in verse number 16, 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, and this is another name for Jethro, he has a couple different names in the Bible, when they came to rule their father, he said unto them, how is it that ye are 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 that Moses is confused for an Egyptian because obviously he's dressing and acting and looking like an Egyptian because that's where he's lived for the last 40 years. But isn't it interesting that rule asked them, how is it that ye are come so soon today? And then they say, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds. You know, this shows that this problem that they're dealing with with the shepherds is an ongoing thing. Their father knew about it and it was something that happens every day. Every day they end up getting harassed and mistreated and bullied by these shepherds and every day their job of drawing water ends up taking a lot longer because of these idiots that are messing with them down at the well. And their dad's like surprised, like wow, how did things go so well today? Well, you know, this guy delivered us. He helped us out. And then of course, you know, he's really thankful. And so it says in verse 20, and he said unto his daughters, and where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter and she bare him a son and he called his name Gershom for he said, I've been a stranger in a strange land and it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them. Now look what God specifically says in Exodus chapter 3 verse 9, it says, Now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me and I have also seen, watch this, the oppression wherewith 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. So again the emphasis is on the fact that the children of Israel are being oppressed in Egypt and Moses is going to deliver them from that oppression. You know I think it's interesting also that there's some symbolism here of the fact that these women here are oppressed by the shepherds, right, and if you think about what's another word for a shepherd in the Bible, a pastor, right, sometimes there are bad shepherds in the Bible and they represent like bad pastors, okay, that would basically oppress the flock and serve themselves of the flock, misuse and abuse the flock, or even keep God's people away from the living water, you know, represented by the well, you know, because the well could represent the water of life, salvation, eternal life. You know there's some shepherds out there that are actually not only did they not enter in to salvation, but they're also keeping others from entering in, like the Pharisees where they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither do they themselves enter in, and then they prevent those that would. You know the false teachers, the false prophets that are out there, and Moses makes short work of the false prophets as it were, you know, symbolically God's word just basically dispels the false prophets and allows people to get to the water of life and get what they need. And so all that to say this, Moses is a godly man, he's humble, he has a lot of knowledge, a lot of skills, a lot of achievements, but he's willing to give up all the worldly accolades and bring his talents and abilities and intellect to God so that God can use him, right, and use his talents for the Lord. But another aspect of his character that's so important is the fact that he is one who is a deliverer, and he doesn't like to see people being oppressed, he gets involved and puts a stop to people being oppressed. You know he gets in there and defends people who need defending, let alone being one who's actually participating in abuse and oppressing and bullying people that are weak or people that are disadvantaged or whatever, you know just don't get involved in it, you may think like oh well you know that's what kids do, but we need to teach our kids not to do that. Teach our kids not to pick on their younger siblings, not to pick on people that aren't as cool as them or whatever, not to tear others down in order to lift themselves up, but rather be one who defends people who are being mistreated because that's how God feels about it, that's how Moses was, and if we're good Christians we're going to be the same way where we think about the fatherless, we think about the widow, we think about the foreigners, and we're not just thinking foreigners, you know, is that really what the Bible teaches or is that just something you heard on talk radio, right? I mean what does the Bible say? Look up the word stranger, the word stranger is foreigner, look up the word stranger and see what the Bible says. So God's constantly saying hey treat the stranger well, you've been a stranger in the land of Egypt, you know the heart of a stranger, there should be one law for the stranger as well as him that's born in the land, right? Don't oppress the stranger. Is that what we practice today in 2022 America or do we mistreat people for being a foreigner or treat them bad or try to make them feel bad or yell that they should go home to whatever the country that they're from and try to send them home. Go back to Germany buddy, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, you know, we shouldn't mistreat foreigners. And today so many Christians, they're so influenced by politics, whether that's right wing politics or left wing politics, that stuff should always take a backseat to what we read in the word of God. And so you're not getting this attitude that's super negative toward foreigners, you're not getting it from the word of God. That's you getting caught up in politics and you getting caught up in more talk radio than in the word of God. And you know, it always blows my mind how people get so mad and get so angry at immigrants or illegal immigrants from Mexico or something, they get so mad, they get so fired up about it. I remember this was like a big deal about 12 years ago in Arizona with the SB 1070 law. You guys remember that? About maybe 11, 12 years ago that was a big deal, who knows what I'm talking about? What in the world? So five people know what I'm talking about? Hello? Is anybody? Who lived here in 2010? Okay, that's the problem. Who did not live here in 2010? Okay, well that's why you don't know about it. That's funny. Wow, that's hilarious. It's so funny, Arizona is just growing so fast and Phoenix is growing so fast, barely anybody is like from here, you know, and most people apparently don't even go back to 2010. Well back in 2010 there was this, you know, once upon a time in Arizona, in 2010 there was this law called SB 1070 and it was like the most draconian, strictest immigration law that had ever been passed in the state of Arizona. And what it was was that basically like anybody who was suspected of being here illegally or being an illegal immigrant, they could just be stopped and they had to just prove right then and there the fact that they were either a citizen or that they were documented, that they had the right to be here. So basically a cop could just literally pull them over and just say like, I need to see your immigration paperwork right now. So it was like a really strict law and it was a big, you know, contentious thing, kind of Republican versus Democrat type of a thing. And it was people were really fired up about it. And what it was was that there was like a housing market collapse that took place in Arizona, really nationwide, but it hit Arizona pretty hard around 2007, 2008, 2009, the housing prices dropped, the job market went bad. So everybody was mad at illegals and saying like illegals need to go home and they're the problem with the economy and really it didn't make a lot of sense. You know, it's really the bankers and all these other people that had screwed things up. They didn't claim the illegal immigrants on a housing market collapse. But the idea was that like, well, there aren't enough jobs to go around and these people are taking some of those jobs and blah, blah, blah. But you know what's funny is the exact same thing happened during the Great Depression as well, where basically Mexicans were scapegoated and they just started like shipping Mexicans on trains back to Mexico and saying like, you know, you guys are the reasons why there aren't enough jobs because you know, you're taking the jobs and whatever. Just people sometimes are just looking for a handy scapegoat, somebody to just kind of blame and put the blame on. So this was a big deal back in 2010. And I remember just being kind of blown away by it because I didn't really understand why people are so mad at the illegal immigrants like like it's really their fault that the economy is going bad when it clearly wasn't. And in fact, when SB 1070 was passed, a lot of the Mexicans went back to Mexico and guess what happened? They made the housing market plummet even further because the Mexicans lived in houses and they live in apartments and they are contributing to the economy. And when they all left, then that actually hurt the economy. So it kind of backfired. It didn't really help anything, of course. But but what's so at the time I I published a blog post at the time where I took the text. In fact, hold on, let me I got to pull this up. I'm sorry. This isn't part of the regularly scheduled broadcast, but let me pull this up here. Because I basically took the SB 1070 law and I made a few little alterations to it and I uploaded it to my blog. Let me see if I can find it. Because it just kind of blew me away how people they're more they get more fired up and they're more influenced sometimes by right wing politics than they are by, you know, the word of God and what the Bible says. And I've got to find this thing. This is frustrating me. All right. Just hang on a second, all right. OK, let's see here. I have to educate you guys because you guys weren't here in 2010, so you didn't you don't remember this. Well, I feel like maybe Google is just working against me here. Let's see here. So irritating. Anyway I can't I can't find it. But anyway, I published a thing called exciting new changes to Arizona's SB 1070, you know, immigration law. I don't know. I'll find it later and post it online or something so you guys can read it. But basically what I did was all I did. I didn't change anything except just everywhere it said illegal immigrants or illegal aliens or something. I just put a line through and just put homosexuals. So the whole thing was like if anybody's if anybody's caught being a homosexual, you know, this is going to happen to them. If anybody employs homosexuals, this is what's going to happen. You know, it was like just all it was just went on and on. That's why I wanted to read it to you. Because it was like it was like all this rage that was directed at the these Mexican Americans and then it was just like, I changed it out for someone that we actually should be upset about according to the word of God. Yes, I should see I should have asked you young guys to just find it for me. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. This was on my blog from July 5, 2010. Making new changes to SB 1070. Unlawful transporting stipulates it's unlawful to encourage or induce a homosexual to come and reside in Arizona. Number two specifies that it's unlawful for a person to do or attempt to do the following if the person knows or recklessly disregards the fact that the homo has come to or has entered or remains in the US. It's illegal to transport or move a homosexual in Arizona by any means of transportation. If you conceal, harbor or shield a homosexual from detection in any place in Arizona, including any building or means of transportation, it's a crime. And then it classifies that these offenses as class one misdemeanors and subjects offenders to fines of at least $1,000 except that a violation that involves 10 or more homos is a class six felony with a fine of at least $1,000 for each homo who's involved. And then there's the investigations of employers, which allows the county attorney and investigations of employers who are alleged to have knowingly or intentionally hired homos. And then all I did was I just posted the law, the SB 1070 law, and I just crossed out the word alien. That's the word that it uses. I just kept crossing out the word alien and just changing it to a homo. You know, I said, now I can get excited about this law because I don't hate Mexicans. I hate homos. But again, why are people so negative about Mexicans? It's because of the fact that they're so influenced just by right wing political talk and things like that. It's not something that they got from the word of God. So we need to make sure that we don't just get caught up in worldly philosophies, whether they be right wing or left wing, a lot of these philosophies that come from the political realm are worldly by nature. They're not actually biblical, okay? So we don't want to get caught up in oppressing a minority group like just Mexican Americans or whoever else. We don't want to get caught up in that. And I don't think it's really happening right now in 2022, but in 2010, it was happening. And people were pretty fired up about it at the time. One time I was out soul winning and I knock on this door and these three Mexican guys are there and they all start screaming and yelling at me and blaming me for SB 1070. And I told them, I said, I'm not even for SB 1070. I said, I'm against SB 1070. I'm like, I've been beaten up by the border patrol more times than you have. And I'm like, what makes you think that I'm for SB 1070? They're like, well, cause you're white. I'm like, what? I'm like, I don't. And like, no matter what I told them, they wouldn't believe me. They're like, well, you're white. It's your fault. You know, I'm just like, okay, whatever. I mean, that was, I mean, I'm just telling you like things were pretty tense there for a minute in 2010 because it was like, people were mad. People were fired up on both sides of that issue. And I was just thinking like, you know, this is the wrong issue to be fired up about. This is not what we need to be worried about. You know, we need to be worried about spiritual things. We need to be thinking about sin and righteousness. We need to think, be thinking about saved and unsaved. We need to be thinking about right and wrong, not, you know, white versus Hispanic versus black. Like those are, those aren't the lines that we need to divide along and we don't need to be thinking right versus left. And you know, I said at the time they said, well, they're undocumented. You know, I said, Hey, we should all strive to be undocumented. I said, you know, what makes me so mad about these undocumented immigrants is that they get to be undocumented and I don't, where you're just jealous that, that, you know, you pay more taxes than them or something. Maybe we're all just paying too many taxes. Don't get mad at them. But man, when I preached that kind of stuff back in 2010, like people got, people got angry because they were just, they're so into right wing talk radio and everything. And they got offended if I just spoke the truth from the word of God about how these things work. And so at the end of the day, God is on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor. And God is on the side of foreigners. And so we don't want to have this attitude that picks on foreigners, that picks on people because they're weak because they don't have resources or whatever. You know, we should treat other people the way that we want to be treated and someday we might be the one that's, that's the foreigner, right? I mean, who knows? You may be driven to some other country somewhere and then you're the foreigner and then that's going to come back and bite you. But even if it never does, you know, we should just do it because it's the right thing to do. And we should be like Moses and be like the word of God where we stand up for the oppressed and afflicted and we don't participate in abusing and oppressing and afflicting people. Don't be somebody who hurts other people, you know, be someone who helps other people, love other people, love your neighbor as yourself. That's what God's law is all about. And those of us that are saved Christians, when we read God's law, that's what we see. We see, you know, it's all about love. It's about loving God. It's about loving our neighbor. God's law is perfect. I love it. But then the worldly people, even Christian pastors, even independent Baptist pastors, because they're worldly, because they're worldly. They look at the Bible and be like, well, I don't know what God was talking about here. We have to take this up with God. I mean, I guess that's all they had back then. Give me Rush Limbaugh. Give me Glenn Beck. You know, no, give me Leviticus. God's word is perfect. And God's law is perfect. And it's a deliverer of the oppressed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you for the fact that you've delivered us, Lord, and that we've been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ by believing in Jesus. We have eternal life and that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank you so much for giving us your perfect word and your perfect law so that we could learn what right and wrong really are according to your standards. Lord, help us to be good people, loving people who treat other people well, who help out people that are struggling, people that are having a bad time. Lord, help us to help them out and defend them and try to help them succeed and not pick on people because they're a foreigner or because they're poor or because they're, you know, from a bad situation, whatever. Lord, help us to try to love and help other people. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen, let's take our psalm books please, let's go to 315. Hymn number 315, take my life and let it be. Consecrated Lord to thee, hymn number 315, let's sing it out on this first verse together, hymn number 315. Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee. Take my hand and let them move, at the impulse of thy love, at the impulse of thy love. Take my key and let them be, swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my King, always only for my King. Take my silver and my gold, not of mine could I behold. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne, it shall be thy royal throne. You know we don't want to get caught up in that and I don't think it's really happening right now in 2022, but in 2010 it was happening. People were pretty fired up about it at the time. One time I was out soul winning and I knock on this door and these three Mexican guys are there and they all start screaming and yelling at me and blaming me for SB 1070. I told them, I said, I'm not even for SB 1070. I said, I'm against SB 1070. I'm like, I've been beaten up by the border patrol more times than you have. And I'm like, what makes you think that I'm for SB 1070? They're like, well, because you're white. I'm like, what? No matter what I told them, they wouldn't believe me. They're like, well, you're white, it's your fault. You know, I'm just like, okay, whatever. I mean, that was, I mean, I'm just telling you like things were pretty tense there for a minute in 2010 because it was like people were mad. People were fired up on both sides of that issue. And I was just thinking like, you know, this is the wrong issue to be fired up about. This is not what we need to be worried about. You know, we need to be worried about spiritual things. We need to be thinking about sin and righteousness. We need to think, be thinking about saved and unsaved. We need to be thinking about right and wrong, not, you know, white versus Hispanic versus black. Like those, those, those aren't the lines that we need to divide along and we don't need to be thinking right versus left. And you know, I said at the time they said, well, they're undocumented. You know, I said, Hey, we should all strive to be undocumented. I said, you know, what makes me so mad about these undocumented immigrants is that they get to be undocumented and I don't, or you're just jealous that, that, you know, you pay more taxes than them or something. Maybe we're all just paying too many taxes. I don't get mad at them. But man, when I preached that kind of stuff back in 2010, like people got, people got angry because they were just, they're so into right wing talk radio and everything. They got offended if I just spoke the truth from the word of God about how these things work. And so at the end of the day, God is on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor. And God is on the side of foreigners. And so we don't want to have this attitude that picks on foreigners, that picks on people because they're weak because they don't have resources or whatever. You know, we should treat other people the way that we want to be treated. And someday we might be the one that's, that's the foreigner, right? I mean, who knows? You may be driven to some other country somewhere and then you're the foreigner and then that's going to come back and bite you. And even if it never does, you know, we should do it because it's the right thing to do. And we should be like Moses and be like the word of God where we stand up for the oppressed and afflicted and we don't participate in abusing and oppressing and afflicting people. Don't be somebody who hurts other people, you know, be someone who helps other people, love other people, love your neighbor as yourself. That's what God's law is all about. And those of us that are saved Christians, when we read God's law, that's what we see. We see, you know, it's all about love. It's about loving God. It's about loving our neighbor. God's laws. Perfect. I love it. But then the worldly people, even Christian pastors, even independent Baptist pastors, because they're worldly, because they're worldly, they look at the Bible and be like, well, I don't know what God was talking about here. We have to take this up with God. I mean, I guess that's all they had back then. Give me Rush Limbaugh. Give me Glenn back. You know? No, give me Leviticus. God's word is perfect, and God's law is perfect, and it's a deliverer of the oppressed. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the fact that you've delivered us, Lord, and that we've been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ by believing in Jesus. We have eternal life and that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank you so much for giving us your perfect word and your perfect law so that we could learn what right and wrong really are, according to your standards. Lord, help us to be good people, loving people who treat other people well, who help out people that are struggling, people that are having a bad time, Lord, help us to help them out and defend them and try to help them succeed and not pick on people because they're a foreigner or because they're poor or because they're from a bad situation, whatever, Lord, help us to try to love and help other people. Father, we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you for the fact that you've delivered us, Lord, and that we've been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ by believing in Jesus Christ by believing in Jesus Christ. We thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word, and we thank you so much for giving us your perfect word. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.