Exodus 13-15

Day 34

Exodus 13-15

Exodus 15:22-25

²² Moses led the Israelites away from the Red Sea into the Desert of Shur. They traveled for three days in the desert but found no water.²³ Then they came to Marah, where there was water, but they could not drink it because it was too bitter. That is why the place was named Marah.

Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.
-Bertrand Russell

Why do we get bitter? What causes bitterness?

Jealousy causes bitterness…

*She can have children, but I cannot… (Example: Rachel and Leah)

Suffering causes bitterness…

*The Israelites suffered harshly under the rule of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and after Moses led them out of slavery on several occasions they wished they were slaves again…

Pride causes bitterness…  

*Pharisees and the Sadducees let their knowledge of God surpass their obedience to God…  If this is you – you probably rejoice when something negative happens to other leaders in different ministries because you are jealous of their ministry…  Dude you should celebrate – you’re on the same team!  Don’t hate – celebrate!

Greed causes bitterness…

*Acts 8:20-23 and Judas complained about the perfume poured over Jesus feet was worth a year’s salary…  He really was more interested in money than people.  If this is you, you’re on very dangerous ground.  People are the only eternal things on this Earth!!!  Look what happened to Judas…

Jesus is the answer to bitterness…  Give your bitterness to Him.  You can entrust Him with it!  He won’t always make it better, but He will never leave you bitter!  Look what HE did for the Israelites in verse 24-25!

. ²⁴ The people grumbled to Moses and asked, "What will we drink?" ²⁵ So Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw the tree into the water, the water became good to drink.

Exodus 7-12

 Day 33

Exodus 7-12

Exodus 10:3

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Have you ever felt like nothing is going right for you?  Does it ever seem like you see others being blessed, but you feel like you are being cursed?  You probably know exactly how the king of Egypt felt!

It’s very simple.  When we refuse to listen to God’s commands we open ourselves up to get what’s coming to us.  In other words, we open ourselves up to getting what we deserve!

We can’t blame God when those bad things occur…  If your parent tells you not to play in traffic and what might happen to you if you play in traffic and you do it anyway.  Is it your parents fault if you get ran over?  It’s the same way with God.  His word tells us what His boundaries are and if we stay within those boundaries of His word we are safe. Once we get outside of those boundaries; you get the picture…

So the question is…  WHAT IS YOUR BREAKING POINT?  How many times does God have to tell you to do something before you give in to His wishes…?  Each time he has to tell you he is going to do a little bit more to get your attention!    

*It could be just a sign from God – Exodus 7:10

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials and it became a snake.

*It might be God taking away your comfort – Exodus 7:20-21
²⁰ Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. ²¹ The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

*It could be God is going to make your efforts fruitless – Exodus 8:24

²⁴ And the LORD did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

*It could be that God will make it cost you something – Exodus 9:3

³ the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.

*It could be that God will take away your health – Exodus 9:10

¹⁰ So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals.

*It could be God will send a natural disaster – Exodus Chapter 10

God sent hail and locusts

*It could be God will send death – Exodus Chapter 11:4-5

⁴ So Moses said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. ⁵ Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

Personally I wound not want to be the stubborn guy when it comes to listening to God!  God does not change!  We must keep this in mind when He asks us to be obedient… 

Exodus 4-6

Day 32

Exodus 4-6

Exodus 6:9
⁹ But when Moses delivered this message to the Israelites, they didn't even hear him—they were that beaten down in spirit by the harsh slave conditions.

We cannot teach people the apologetics of our faith if they are so beaten down by the world that:
*They no longer have a home
*They lost their job
*They have lost someone close to death
*They can’t get their basic needs of their family meet…  (Clothes, medical, food)

Andy Stanley said most adults who become a Christian do so because of a tragedy in their lives…  If this is true and I believe it is, then we have to reach out to these people. 

-Not with criticism…
-Not with condemnation…
-Not with apologetics…

But offer them in this order:
(1) Get them HELP…  (Shelter, food, medical attention, clothes)
(2) Get them HOPE… Jesus is the hope of the world and we are His instruments to show his love to those without hope.
(3) Get them HEALING… (Counseling or consoling… or both if necessary)

1 John 3:17-18
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

We cannot drop the ball on this and expect God to be pleased with us!

Exodus 1-3

Day 32

Exodus 1-3

Exodus 3:11-12
¹¹ Moses answered God, "But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"  ¹² "I'll be with you," God said. "And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain."

I have often felt just like Moses!  God, can you really use someone like me?  I’m not an impressive speaker, I have no degree from seminary, and I’ve been divorced… 

Look at our friend Moses…  He killed a person and tried to cover it up then fled the scene… (Genesis 2:11-15) The only thing he did not do was drive the get-away-car.   God used Moses to confront the Egyptian King with only a rod in hand to lead an entire Nation out of bondage.  An entire nation!  Not church, not a school, not even a business, but an entire nation…  Okay you got the scope of it!

God was at work in Moses' life far before he ever killed an Egyptian!  You can trace it back to when Moses was born.  His mother put Moses in a basket and sent him down the Nile River so he would not have been killed by Pharaoh’s decree to kill all male Hebrew children.  Moses eventually ends up being raised in the palace.  Just as God was at work in Moses life long before he had any idea, God is working in your life right now to bring you to a place where he can use you!  Your past cannot stop God’s plans for your future.  As of matter of fact, He likes using people with a past.  He likes using unlikely people to accomplish His plan…  It only brings him more Glory in the end!!!

Genesis 46-50

Day 31

Genesis 46-50

Genesis 50:15-17
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 “This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

Grudges are the gangrene of our souls!  I am a firm believer in this!  The spirit of person holding a grudge is slowly being eaten away because of their unwillingness to forgive.  Sometimes forgiveness is hard.  Sometimes the person we have to forgive hurt us deeply.  Sometimes the person who hurt us is dead.  No matter what the situation we have NO room for grudges in the body of Christ.  God is very clear in His word concerning grudges

(Leviticus 19:18) "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord"


Joseph wept when he became aware of his brothers’ fear that he may hold a grudge against them after their father had died.  Why did he do that?  Because Joseph new the danger of grudges.  Here are 3 things grudges will do to the person that holds them…
NON-SPIRITUAL EFFECTS

• Grudges make you BITTER…
(Holding resentment is like drinking a poison and hoping the other person dies)
• Holding a grudge BOUNDS you to the person who wronged you
• Grudges impact our future far BEYOND the event itself…
(Sometimes even causing health issues to incur)

Here are 3 SPRITUAL EFFECTS• Holding grudges will put a BARRIER between you and God because grudges are sin…
• Grudges cause your sin to not to be BLOTTED out…  (Matthew 6:15)
15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 
• Grudges makes us BLIND to God's love (John 4:20) If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

The only way to release a grudge is to forgive the offender…  Not all relationships you may want to restore.  Obviously you don’t want to give someone an open door to continue any abuse.   Forgiveness is mandated, but if you want to restore the relationship that is up to you…

Genesis 42-45

Day 30

Genesis 42-45

Genesis 45:4-7
⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵ And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. ⁶ For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. ⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

How can God allow evil?  What did Joseph do to deserve being sold into slavery by his own brothers?  When people do things to us that we see as evil or hurtful the common reaction is to wonder why God allowed that to happen to us? 

·         Maybe you were a rape victim

·         Maybe you were a victim of domestic abuse

·         Maybe you were a victim of child abuse

·         Maybe you were a victim of sexual abuse

No matter what man has done to you or will do to you, God intends to use it for good…  (Genesis 50:20)  ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

You see we can’t do anything that God can’t use for good!   That victim of domestic violence might be the one God uses to start a ministry that helps other victims.  Then the one act of violence saves the lives of many people…  Just as the act committed by Joseph's brothers; God used to save the lives of his Joseph's own family and an entire nation!

Genesis 41

Day 29

Genesis 41

Genesis 41:9
⁹ Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings.

I hate being reminded of my shortcomings.  You’ll often hear things like…

“I would of….”      or        “You should of…”

The problem with “I would of(s)….” and “You should of(s)…” is
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO TO LISTEN TO?

Look we are going to have shortcomings…  It’s inevitable!  When we do it’s important that I get a good perspective on how I can do it right or better in some cases.  It’s important to be able to FILTER who you let advise you on how to correct your shortcomings.  I have a simple strategy that I turn to in these circumstances…  I ask these 3 questions before I will listen to anyone giving me advice about my shortcomings:

1) Does this person genuinely love Jesus Christ?
2) Does this person genuinely love me and want God's BEST for me?
3) Does this person’s background suggest he/or she genuinely knows what they are talking about!
     - In other words, “are they smoking what they are selling?”

If they meet these requirements I will genuinely listen to their thoughts and opinions about how to rectify a shortcoming of mine…

Genesis 38-40

Day 28
Genesis 38-40
Genesis 39:2-3
 ² The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

Have you ever known someone whom everything they touch seems to turn to gold?  Their business is thriving in a tough economy.  Their marriage is thriving when ½ of marriages end in divorce.  Like Will Smith in Men In Black – “You know what the difference between me and you is…  I make this look good!"

I love that line…  It’s one of my all time favorites!  This brings me back to Joseph…  Here is a man that got sold into slavery by his brothers, wrongfully accused by his master’s wife, and thrown into a prison while being an upstanding man of God.  At least when bad things happen to me, it’s usually my fault… right! 

But no matter what happened to Joseph, no matter where he ended up or who he ended up with the Lord gave him success in EVERYTHING he did…  EVERYTHING…?  Yes EVERYTHING he did…  God gave him favor with his father at home.  He gave him success and put him over all things at Potiphar’s house.  While in jail as a prisoner Joseph was put in charge of all the King’s prisoners by the warden… 

Why was Joseph successful everywhere he went with everyone he met to the point that everyone put EVERYTHING in his care?  I believe there are three reasons…

·         He was a child of God  (Genesis 39:2) The Lord was with Joseph

·         He showed the character of God (Genesis 39:8) He would not sleep with Potiphar’s wife…

·         He had the capacity and competence to win favor with man (Genesis 39:4 and 39:21)

If you are a follower of Christ you already have the most powerful asset for success…  God does not want you to be unsuccessful…  Would you want your child to fail?  Of course not!

If you are like me the things I must constantly work on are working on my character – which takes accountability from other godly men in my case…  You would not want someone who has a worse character than yours, holding you accountable…

I also have to work on my ability to win favor with men! 

Well I don’t need man’s favor – I got God’s favor… 

You very well may have God’s favor, but if you have NO FAVOR from MAN, you have NO INFLUENCE with MAN either.  

-Well I’m just not willing to compromise any of my convictions in order to win any man’s favor…

God does not ask us to compromise…  HE asks us to show people HIS love!  LOVE GOD and LOVE PEOPLE… Summary of the 2 greatest commandments in the words of Jesus himself!  You know what the next question I’m going to ask is?

Are we doing that?

- Does the gay community know that I love them, or do they hear me say awful things about them as I condemn their lifestyle…?

- Does the homeless people know that I love them, or do they see me complain about not having enough while they have nothing…?

- Does the fatherless know that I love them, or do they see me barely spending enough time investing in the lives of my own children – much less someone else’s?

These are just 3 of the communities of people the church of America has lost influence with.  Unless we change something quick and drastically we will lose even more than these… 

Genesis 36-37

Day: 27

Genesis 36-37

Genesis 37:5-8

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

 ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

If God has given you a big vision for your life, don’t count on your family buying into it…  In most cases the opposite is true.  Joseph found this out quick when his brothers mocked him and tried to end his life.

¹⁹ “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. ²⁰ “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

After telling his family not one of them supported him.  Sure Rueben talked his brother’s out of killing Joseph, but He went along with the plan of his brothers to sell his brother to Midianite merchants…  Guess he went with the less of the two evils.

The importance of family to Jesus is revealed in his rejection of his own immediate family in

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”  ³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. ³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The same thing is said in Matthew 12:46-50 and in Luke 8:19- 21.

 NO, NO, NO… I’m not trying to tell you your family does not love you or that they don’t love God!  That’s probably not the case at all. 

Whatever God has called you to do no matter how big or ridiculous it seems, you have to be willing to do it with or with the support of your family.  Don’t stop because they may not be onboard right away…  Don’t argue with your family about it either.  They don’t understand now, but they might understand later… 

Genesis 33-35

Day 26

Genesis 33-35

Genesis 35:2-3
² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³ Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”

What is a revival?  Have you ever experienced true revival?  What causes a revival?  Can a revival be planned?  These are some of the many questions that come to mind when you hear of a revival… 

Dictionary.com defines revival as a spiritual awakening in a church or community.  History is always the best teacher so I looked at recent revivals to see what they had in common…  Here is what I found out…

·         Revivals always start with an act of obedience. (Genesis 35:1) ¹ God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau."  Think about the revival that took place at Nineveh.  Jonah’s obedience to go to Nineveh that led to that outpouring of God’s mercy.

·         Revivals always lead to purification (Genesis 35:2) Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we're going to Bethel.  Martin Luther basted the Roman Catholic Church concerning the authority of the church and the Pope…  His thesis helped purify the church, even though it cost him everything!  The same thing happened with Jacob…  He immediately told his family to – get rid of the foreign gods and purify yourselves and change your clothes.  Revivals always led to purity…  When Jacob told his family to change their clothes – This was an outward symbol of an inward cleansing.

You can schedule a revival on a church calendar, but if you really want a revival start with yourself.  Do what God’s is calling you to do… Pray for God to show you what your “Foreign gods” are and get rid of them.  Then look for God to begin a revival in you!