Don't reject the voice of God.
D.L. Moody said there will be no
peace in any soul until it's ready to
obey the voice of the Lord.
I thought about that being the sermon and
just going into worship because that is so
true.
There will be no peace in any soul
until it's ready to obey the voice of
the Lord.
We had an interesting memorial here yesterday.
A lot of people from North Hollywood came
and I'm sure you know that area.
They're caught in a certain lifestyle and I
preached the gospel and I told them there's
no peace.
There's no peace until we listen to God's
voice of truth.
But it also applies to us because I
see so many people caught in misery, depression.
I don't really want to be here today.
Can't the game be starting now?
Just this lack of passion for God.
We can see it in our worship.
We're not meant to be statues during worship.
Bored to death.
There's something that should be engaged in our
heart.
We were singing that last song, Lorne Daigle,
and that's why God, I believe, gives people
new voices for every generation.
Those truths in that song are powerful.
It reminds me of a person, their house
is on fire, their leg is stuck, and
the fireman runs in, grabs them right before
the roof caves in, and this saves their
life.
It's like the person saying, thanks for that,
whatever, and they go eat lunch.
Is there a problem with that picture?
I love you, what can I do for
you the rest of my life?
That's what Jesus did for us, but sometimes
we come in like, thank you.
It's okay, it's hard.
We need to hear the hard things.
There are turning points in our lives.
Abraham had a turning point.
Moses had a turning point.
The children of Israel could have took a
turning point.
This council that is interviewing Stephen is given
the opportunity to turn to God, but instead
of turning to God, they reject him.
And there will be turning points in our
lives as well.
The older I get, the more I realize
that when I first came to the Lord,
I thought I was looking for that lightning
bolt in the sky.
Or Lord, just make it crystal clear what
you want me to do.
Come on, guide me so I know for
certain it's you.
Now, the more I realize there are critical
times in our lives where it's the little
choices sometimes, or it's the turning points.
Don't do that.
And he guides us as we listen to
his voice, because that's trust.
If God just said, Shane, go start a
church here.
Oh, okay, that's you.
There's not a lot of faith involved.
So stepping out, and looking back at my
life, there were critical junctions.
There will be critical junctions in your life,
and it's important that we listen to the
voice of God.
And obey it.
Right?
There's that word people don't want to hear.
Obey.
Oh, here you go again.
And as I was talking about obeying God's
word, a few people did get up and
walk out yesterday.
You know, it usually happens.
You guys are gracious here.
But there have been times when people don't
want to hear certain things.
And when you get to that word obedience,
and obeying God's word and his truth, it
seems to set something off in us that
we don't want to hear.
However, there are a group of people that
love that word.
Because they know it draws them closer to
God.
So let me set the framework for those
of you who have not been here in
the last few weeks.
And I would encourage you to listen to
the last few messages on this topic.
But Stephen was a man full of faith,
full of power.
When you've got the Holy Spirit all over
you.
And I'm not talking about weirdness.
I'm talking about people can sense the Spirit's
power.
You're going and you're praying for people.
You're pulling down strongholds.
You're taking strong, loving stances.
And you're filled with faith and with boldness.
The world and many around you will not
like you.
He was standing up for God.
And so they accused him of blasphemy.
Blasphemy.
And the council, the religious leaders, pulled Stephen
from the crowd and said, What do you
say about this?
So Stephen is about ready to lay out
the nation of Israel, their history.
And he began with Abraham last week.
And as he gets to the end, he's
going to call them out and challenge their
stiff neck and their hard hearts.
And they're going to kill him.
I mean, of all the ways to die,
I don't think stoning is up there on
the top of my list.
Because what they would do often, they would
throw you down.
Maybe even something like this further down, you'd
be down there.
And these big rocks.
And they're just throwing, all these people are
throwing rocks at you.
It has to be often the accusers who
are accusing you.
Jesus, whoever cast the first stone.
And they're throwing these.
And whatever you could find, boulders, rocks, there's
nothing you could do.
That's stoning.
That's how they would stone a person to
death.
Man, this is just, this guy.
This story just touched my heart.
Because I see me down there trying to
catch the rocks and throw them back.
And Stephen said, Father, hold this not against
them.
And he saw God.
He saw Christ sitting on the right hand
of the power of God as he was
dying.
He said, Father, don't hold this ignorance against
them.
See, that's a person filled with the Spirit.
Mightily filled with the Spirit.
So, back up a little bit.
Stephen is addressing the council.
He's still addressing the council.
And this is a whole chapter in the
book of Acts.
And a lot of theologians are divided.
Why did Stephen spend this much time going
back over their history?
Why did he do this?
And the point, I believe, that he's getting
at is look at Abraham.
God called Abraham.
He called Moses.
He called the children of Israel.
But when they were with Moses, they wanted
to go back to Egypt.
They were rejecting Moses.
The Holy Spirit has been calling you people.
Look out through all of your history and
you've been rejecting the voice of God.
And then he said, you stiff-necked people.
Always resisting the Holy Spirit.
And that did it.
That's it.
That's all it took to kill him.
So, I think he's showing them this history
of rejecting God's voice.
A little grace in there right now.
Let me just infuse a little grace.
All of us have rejected God's voice.
You, Shane?
Yes.
And that's a daily challenge sometimes when God
says to go and do something.
God wants your heart redirected.
See, that's the wonderful thing about realizing we've
been rejecting his voice.
That's what I told the audience yesterday.
Okay, now what are you going to do
with the knowledge you have?
See, you've been rejecting it and this confrontation.
Speaking the truth in love.
It should cause something within us to say,
that's right.
According to God's word, I have been rejecting
his voice.
Lord, I'm turning to you now because of
it.
So, something that was meant for evil can
turn into something that was very good.
If it repositions us in the center of
God's will.
Through most of my life, here's how I've
walked in God's will.
Here's God's will.
Here's where Shane's going.
Oh, that's right.
I love your will, Lord.
Here's where Shane's going.
Oh, that's right.
Lord, that's the path we take often.
It's getting us back on path and following
his will.
So, on one hand, the word of God
convicts.
It rebukes.
Paul told Timothy, rebuke, exhort, challenge, but also
understand that God's loving grace comes in and
helps to direct.
It's an interesting combination there of truth and
love.
And that's how God directs us to listen
to his voice.
So, Acts 7, 17.
But when the time of the promise drew
near, which God had sworn to Abraham, what
was that?
That God told Abraham many, many years from
now, your descendants will go into a foreign
nation, and they will actually go into bondage
and become slaves because Joseph had wonderful favor
with the Pharaoh.
You remember Joseph?
Put into prison and then came from the
prison to a palace?
That's God's will.
That's God's sovereignty.
So, if you're in the prison right now,
don't worry.
Don't worry.
Often God is just positioning there for the
palace.
Shane, you're becoming one of those TV preachers.
Blessings.
No, I believe when God repositions you, and
you're sometimes in a downward spiral, and you've
done all you can do, that God is
using that and will use that to propel
you up.
Our past often helps to propel us into
our future.
So, when the time of the promise drew
near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the
people, the children of Israel, I might add
some things in here just to help you
understand where the story is because really the
Bible is meant to be read, not chapter
and verse necessarily.
It's written as an entire book.
The chapters and the verses were added about
500 years ago.
So, anytime you read the Bible, we thank
God for them because now it would be
like, what did he say?
Where's that at?
But back then they just said, Thus saith
the Lord.
It is written.
Jesus said, It is written.
It is written.
So, if you just read this, I would
encourage you to go home and read Acts,
actually up to Acts 7 and Acts 8.
So, the people of Israel grew and they
multiplied in Egypt till another king arose who
did not know Joseph.
So, Joseph was highly favored with the Pharaoh,
second in charge.
Joseph dies.
Another Pharaoh comes in and says, I don't
know this Joseph person.
I don't know about the children of Israel,
but they're growing strong, and we don't want
an enemy growing strong, or we don't want
a different group of people growing stronger than
us.
So, they put the children of Israel into
bondage and slavery, and God said, For 400
years your people will go through this.
This man, Pharaoh, dealt treacherously with our people
and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their
babies so that they might not live.
He killed the children.
Pharaoh did.
As the males were being born, they killed
the children by throwing them into the river.
The Old Testament is brutal.
Right?
We say, Oh, that's so brutal.
What's any difference today from the abortion industry?
I mean, if we think about it, and
I tell people, Oh, the Old Testament, I
don't know.
How do you believe that?
Well, why is it okay today?
Well, it's different.
No, it's not different.
As soon as that heartbeat is beating, that's
life.
Pharaoh rejected Joseph's family.
And what happened?
The favor dried up.
And I want to bring this point up,
because this is a difficult part for many
Christians.
Are you ever walking in the favor of
God?
I mean, most of you are if you
look at your checkbooks.
Right?
I mean, we are so blessed.
You know, I've talked about it before, and
I'll talk about it again, but to go
in your house and set a little thermostat
to 72, and you have a little thing
in your garage that keeps your water nice
and hot for your shower.
I mean, that is a luxury.
We are so blessed.
And we walk often in the favor of
God, and when the favor has dried up,
we start crying.
And God will, Elisha, I remember reading about
Elisha, who was fed by the ravens, and
he sat by a brook, drinking water, wonderful
place, and then the brook dried up.
And God said, okay, it's time to go.
Often the favor, God will remove that favor
to test our hearts.
So when that favor dries up, don't run
away from him, run to him.
When it dries up, don't get bitter, get
better.
I've got a lot of good sayings this
morning, so get ready.
Right?
So don't, if it's his will, it's his
bill, right?
All those things, where he guides, he provides.
But it's all true.
The favor, when the favor dried, that's what
happened.
The children of Israel came into this wonderful
land.
Joseph's in charge.
We're the man.
We're second in command.
We're known to Pharaoh.
And then all that favor dried up, and
they went in bondage.
Because it was part of God's will.
And basically, Pharaoh wanted to extinguish the threat.
That's why he killed the male children.
To extinguish the threat.
And another good point on this, the devil
doesn't want you to hear God's voice.
He doesn't want you to listen to God,
so he will also attempt to extinguish that
threat.
When you decide to threaten Satan's kingdom, often
all hell will break loose.
He'll use certain things, so you don't hear
God's voice anymore.
So look at your life right now.
What is threatening your pride?
What is inconveniencing your flesh?
Those are usually where the enemy is going
to come in and try to stop you
from hearing God's voice.
Well, how does pride work?
Pride works in everything.
I don't want to hear God's voice.
And what about the flesh?
When God wants to work in certain areas
of our flesh, you hear His voice.
Most of us right now in this room,
God is wanting us to crucify certain areas
of the flesh.
Are you sure, Shane?
Yeah.
Because if it's this hard for me, I
can imagine how everybody's, the flesh wants to
eat too much.
It wants to drink too much.
Right?
It wants to do this.
And the flesh, watch this area because the
flesh, and the enemy will use the flesh
against you to pull you away from hearing
God's voice.
Verse 20, At this time Moses was born
and was well pleasing to God, and he
was brought up in his father's house for
three months.
But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter
took him away and brought him up as
her own son.
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians and was mighty in words
and deeds.
Now, Moses was born and he was in
his father's house for three months.
What happened after that?
They were worried that he was going to
be killed, so they put him in a
little thing in the reeds and put him
out into the water.
Pharaoh's daughter saw this little cute baby.
If you've ever seen a little cute baby,
you're not going to just push it away
in the reeds again.
You're going to grab that little baby.
Oh, isn't that so cute?
Can it be mine?
That's what she did.
She took that baby, raised him in Pharaoh's
court.
See, this is all part of God's will
because you can't leave people where you've never
been.
So God took Moses, the Israelite, and put
him into Egypt to learn the customs of
Egypt, to be groomed in the area of
Egypt because he was going to deliver his
people from Egypt.
Don't ever despise your past.
Learn from it.
There's a lot of regret, but God will
use your past to help you in your
future.
Because before I planted the church, I'm like,
why in the world did I waste my
time in construction?
Why in the world did I waste my
time in this?
Why in the world did I waste my
time in this?
And I could break it all down for
you.
Now I know why.
But God will use all of that, the
learning experience, what you went through.
You know, those who have had an abortion
can minister to those who've had one much
easily.
Those who have been through a divorce, an
adultery, and what was that about God?
They're usually the best people that can point
people in the right direction.
Those who have overcome a difficult marriage, well,
they're about ready to walk out.
You get that couple hooked up with a
couple that's going through the same thing, you'll
see.
But you get somebody in there, well, I
don't know, I went through seminary.
I don't really know anything.
I've never had any challenges.
I don't know what you're going through.
I can't relate.
My dad left me a million dollars in
a trust fund.
I don't really know.
What can I do?
You can't do much.
You can't relate.
Not only can you not relate, you don't
have a broken heart towards what they're going
through.
Because those who can weep with you and
feel the pain, they're the best comforters.
So God will often use your past.
I hope that's for somebody this morning, because
that point was really in my spirit, in
my heart this week.
Because this whole group yesterday, they're regretting their
past.
How can God use, well, let me tell
you how God can use your past.
Let me tell you how God can use
your challenges.
Let me tell you that God can use
that brokenness.
And often our past, God, look at this,
I'm so broken.
I made so many mistakes.
Right, now those who have been forgiven much
love much.
Now run to your Savior, not away.
So don't regret your past.
Don't repeat it.
I talked to a man yesterday who's interesting.
He said he really doesn't have a testimony.
He knew the Lord at a young age,
and I told him, good, good.
The Bible encourages us not to have a
testimony, a big one.
It says, walk in these ways, serve the
Lord with all your heart.
But if you become the prodigal son, there's
still hope.
So you want to have that testimony.
You don't want to have the testimony of
falling from God and living in sin.
You want to walk with God all of
your life, but stay humble and broken.
Because that's another problem I've often seen.
Those who cannot relate to a lot of
what we went through become very prideful.
How could you?
Just obey the Bible.
Just how?
And there's a sense of superiority and Phariseeism,
and they look up instead of equal.
Or they look down at you instead of
equal.
So that's why I think brokenness is so
important, because it gets us in a right
position to hear from God.
Now when he was 40 years old, it
came into his heart.
Listen to this.
Moses is with Pharaoh.
The children of Israel are outside of that
area.
So it came into Moses' heart to go
visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he
defended and avenged him who was oppressed and
struck down the Egyptian.
For he supposed that his brethren would have
understood that God would deliver them by his
hand, but they did not understand.
So Moses, huh, I have this great idea.
I'm supposed to deliver the children of Israel.
So I'm going to go down to them.
I go down to them.
I see an Egyptian fighting with one of
them.
And I'm going to kill the Egyptian.
Surely they'll see that I'm the deliverer.
And they didn't.
They did not at all.
And the next day he appeared to two
of them as they were fighting and tried
to reconcile them, saying, men, you are brethren.
Why do you wrong one another?
But he who did this to his neighbor
pushed him away saying, who made you a
ruler and judge over us?
Do you want to kill me as you
also killed the Egyptian yesterday?
Then at this saying, Moses fled and became
a dweller in the land of Midian where
he had two sons.
So this is interesting.
Did God call him to be the deliverer,
which of course he did.
Moses went to do it.
What happened?
Guess what?
He doesn't come back for 40 more years.
Something happened.
Well, I have a thought here.
Moses should have rejected his feelings.
It came into his heart, it says.
It came into his heart versus if you
look at Kings, Jeremiah, Revelation, you'll often read
that God placed it in his heart.
When God places something in your heart versus
something came in my heart.
You know what came in my heart this
morning?
I don't feel good.
I'm not going to church.
That must be God, right?
No, no, no, no.
Now, if you cross-reference verse 35, it
does say that the people, let me read
it so you have the context.
This Moses whom they rejected saying, who made
you a ruler and judge?
So Stephen is showing that they rejected Moses,
but also we have here, I don't think
it was God's timing.
It came into Moses' heart to go down
and go ahead of God's will, but God
did not place this in his heart just
yet.
Again, paraphrasing my interpretation, this of course is
all according to God's sovereign plan.
Maybe he had him go there and get
rejected, go back and come back 40 years
later, but it's interesting because you'll see when
it came into his heart, it's not always
a good thing.
It came into David's heart to number the
children of Israel, and God plagued them because
of it.
It just came into my heart.
You know, you hear people say that.
God just wants me to be happy.
It just came into my heart.
Well, here's what comes into people's hearts.
I feel like eating that.
I feel like doing that.
I feel like saying that.
I feel like leaving that.
I feel like giving up on that.
So feelings often take the course of least
resistance.
So it could have been the more Moses,
little, arrogant, 40 years old.
Oh, God's called me to be delivered.
I'm time.
I'm ready.
I'm ready for this.
Whenever you say that, be careful.
Be careful.
If you say I'm ready for this, you
could fall, and God will humble you very
easily.
To truly hear God's voice, you will need
to stop listening to the flesh.
Get that sentence in your head.
If you leave here with anything, it's that
if you want to hear God's voice, you
need to stop always listening to the flesh.
I mean, perfect example.
I want to hear from God, Shane.
I want to hear from God.
Right?
I'm sure I want to hear from God,
but then we'll go lay down on the
couch for four hours, eat 3,000 calories
later today, drink a six-pack of IPA,
and watch Lady Gaga do her thing.
And we wonder, I don't hear the voice
of God.
Shane, are you saying I can't go watch
the Super Bowl?
What I'm saying is if it's a pattern
of worldly lifestyle that you keep following, you
will not hear the voice of God clearly.
See, I've learned that God will not compete,
necessarily, for our time.
It's the still, small voice you have to
listen for.
Because if God wanted to compete, He could
be the loudest voice.
He could be the most powerful voice.
He could rock.
Your car could shake like you're in an
earthquake.
Thus saith the Lord.
And you have to listen, but God wants
you to hear that still, small voice.
And I'm not joking.
I see these people get so crazy over
football and sports and all these different things,
but how crazy are you over God?
I mean, think about it.
Just think about it.
You're sitting.
Here they go, here they go.
I don't really know who's playing.
Brady, right, Patriots?
Okay, and somebody else?
Falcons, all right.
What happened to Seahawks?
Got beat.
Right, obviously.
Now, they stumbled, okay.
Now, what it is, of course, we're gonna,
I might even, I mean, I might even
watch the last half when it gets interesting,
after Lady Gaga does her thing.
And you know, the commercials, you got the
nachos commercial, all these different things that are
just ridiculous.
Now, well, that in and of itself, one
day, of course not, but it's a reflection
of a worldly lifestyle.
So that simply reflects often what's going on
in the heart.
Here comes Monday.
The things are repeated.
Here comes Tuesday.
The things are repeated.
I love the things of the world.
I don't have time for God.
And they wanna hear the voice of God.
So you can't let the flesh dominate.
The flesh has to be crucified.
That's why I'm gonna keep preaching fasting until
the day I die.
And somebody's gonna get it someday.
Because you, oh, that's, and nobody's gonna clap
on that one.
Because we're starving, what you do is you
starve the flesh, you starve the flesh, and
you get better direction from God because you're
not feeding the very thing that's trying to
destroy you.
That's all what starving the flesh means.
If I were just give everything over to
the flesh, right, give everything over to the
flesh, I would be disqualified within a week.
Who wouldn't?
Just give everything over to the flesh.
Because it's constantly, remember the good old days,
Shane?
Remember Egypt?
It's funny, when God delivers the children of
Israel out of bondage and slavery, oh, if
we were just back in Egypt, if we
were, all the leeks and the onions, if
we were a bit, but you don't remember
the chains on your ankles and the 12
-hour days, and you're praying and you're petitioning
to God, God, get us out of Egypt.
Get us out of here.
Here comes the deliverer.
Now I'm taking you to the promised land,
and you're sitting there complaining, oh, if we
could just go back to Egypt.
But that's what the devil does.
All the good old days.
If I could just be single again, right?
As soon as you have marriage, oh, if
I was just single again.
And he'll taunt you with those because he
presents the bait, not the hook and the
bait.
That's why it's called temptation.
That's why we fall.
Oh, that hook looks really good.
Right?
I mean, as soon as I throw a
little fly out on the lake, the fish
gets it.
Oh, he thought I was a little mosquito.
Not a hook where you bring him in.
That's what the enemy does.
So be careful in this area.
Don't let the flesh guide you.
Well, Shane, I don't know if I should
watch the game.
Enjoy the game.
I don't care.
Don't eat 3,000 calories and a six
-pack of IPA, though.
You're like, oh, darn it.
You just ruined my night.
Well, it's okay.
Here's the key with things like this.
Does it build me up spiritually or doesn't
it?
You can sit down with your family, watch
a game, have a nice entertaining time.
Of course, I'm trying to show you an
entire lifestyle.
So ask, does something build me up spiritually?
Or does it pull me down?
Certain things you're going to do Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday.
Because what happens, you won't hear God's voice
clearly if you're being distracted and deluded.
So now it's God's timing.
Forty years later, Stephen jumps ahead.
Verse 30, And when forty years had passed,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a flame of fire in a bush
in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
And when Moses saw it, he marveled at
the sight.
And as he drew near to observe, the
voice of the Lord came to him, saying,
I am the God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob.
And Moses trembled and dared not look.
Then the Lord said to him, Take off
your sandals on your feet, for this place
where you stand is holy ground.
I have surely seen the oppression of my
people who are in Egypt.
And I have heard their groanings.
I have come down to deliver them.
And now come, I will send you to
Egypt.
So see, he hears their groanings.
He hears their crying.
God, send us a deliverer.
And he sends them.
Then they start complaining later.
A turning point.
People speculate on the burning bush a lot.
Why this?
Why that?
It represents a fiery angel.
It represents all this.
Probably God wanted to get his attention.
It's okay to tell people.
You know what?
I'm not sure.
I don't know why it's a burning bush
other than it's a bush not consumed.
There's a fire.
I mean, you can relate the fire to
the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, the
all-consuming fire, who God is, his nature,
and that he spoke to Moses.
So Moses clearly knew this was his call.
So it's a turning point.
The turning point.
Now, he had 40 years.
Most of you, like me, probably think, why
did he wait 40 years?
Well, timing is crucial.
The waiting time is crucial.
So if you're in a waiting time, here's
what God does.
God puts you in the waiting time to
what?
To wait.
To grow.
To wait on him.
To turn to him.
To seek him.
In this waiting time.
The enemy will use that to reverse.
Come on, rush ahead.
Come on, go.
Go, go.
What are you waiting for?
Go.
Write that letter.
Send that email.
Go do that.
Get started now.
And the enemy will push, and God says,
no, wait for my perfect timing.
And how do I know if it's God's
timing?
You'll know.
Because there's peace.
There's assurance.
God opens the door.
He makes it clear.
You've waited.
You've put your flesh in submission.
And when God says, go like he did
to Moses, you go.
And then, interesting, take off your sandals.
This is holy ground.
Well, obviously, you approach God with reverence.
You ever have kids jump on your bed
with their shoes on?
Here's what I say.
Get your feet off my bed.
Get those stinky shoes off of my bed.
Go put those outside the house.
Same thing, the sandals were really dirty back
then.
You think you wear flip-flops now, that's
all they wore, basically.
Out in the desert, they're standing this reverence
before God.
It's almost like when you come before God,
there's a reverence.
And that kind of concerns me about some
churches.
I hope sometimes not here, but you just
kind of come in with that, you know,
somebody got convicted last time I said this
a year ago, but it's impertainsome.
But you kind of come in with that
baseball hat, chewing gum, you know, flip-flops,
whatever attitude.
There's no reverence for the house of God.
There's no respect for the house of God.
There's no God.
Your presence, the fear of the Lord is
not in this place.
You want the fear of the Lord to
be in that place.
When you walk in, that God's word is
going to be preached, prayer is going to
be pronounced, worship is going to descend from
the portals of heaven and pull down God's
favor and God's blessing, and you walk into
that with a holy fear and reverence.
I think it's biblical, and I think it's
important.
Later we're going to read that the church
walked in the power of the Holy Spirit
and the fear of the Lord.
That's the two things.
Why is that?
Because when you walk in the power of
the Holy Spirit, if you fear the Lord,
you won't do dumb things.
Let's try this.
Let's do this.
Let's get the crowd in here.
Let's give away $20 in a big raffle.
Let's do these crazy things.
Are you against raffles?
No, guys.
Maybe the church.
This is not fitting, but if you do
it at your community center, that's great.
You would not believe the emails I get
sometimes from people taking things out of context.
God says, I see the oppression and the
pain.
God's telling these people, let them know I've
heard their groanings and I've come down to
deliver them.
So God sees the oppression and the pain.
He says, don't reject me.
Run to me.
Anytime you're going through pain and oppression, God
says, don't reject me.
Run to me.
I hear it.
Here's the dichotomy in the Christian life.
God says, I hear your groanings and your
pains.
I hear it.
And I say, then do something.
Do something right now, today, this hour.
Do it now, God.
That's the dichotomy.
And we're like, okay, he's not a genie
in a bottle.
Right?
And I don't understand all of it.
I don't know.
God, please do something now.
But as I'm waiting, that relationship builds stronger.
That assurance is stronger.
That faith is stronger.
And I wonder, if God just did it
then, I don't think we'd be very strong
spiritually.
Stephen recaps Israel's rebellion in verse 37.
I won't be able to get through all
this today.
I knew I wouldn't.
Verse 37, this is that Moses who said
to the children of Israel, the Lord, your
God, will raise up for you a prophet
like me from your brethren.
Him you shall hear.
This is he who was in the congregation
in the wilderness with the angel who spoke
to him on Mount Sinai.
This is talking about Moses.
Stephen is bringing them back.
With our fathers.
The one who received the living oracles to
give to us, whom our fathers would not
obey but rejected.
See where he's going with this?
Rejection.
He's saying this same Moses, who said, I
will raise up a prophet from among you,
Jesus Christ, not Joseph Smith, down the street.
That's what they'll use this verse for often.
That's not proof text for a different prophet.
This is Jesus Christ coming.
The people are rejecting this other Moses, this
other prophet.
They're rejecting him.
The fathers rejected Moses.
These people are rejecting Christ, and it's a
pattern of rejection of hearing God's voice.
They're rejecting God's call.
The fathers would not obey.
What are the living oracles?
The ten commandments?
God spoke.
Here's how I want you to live.
Whom our fathers did not obey, but they
rejected, and in their hearts, they turned back
to Egypt.
So it's funny.
Moses goes up to get the ten commandments.
He's gone too long.
So people say, oh, this guy Moses is
gone.
Let's build a golden calf and worship it.
And we'll leave it at that.
That's what they did.
A golden calf and worshiped it.
Moses hears this.
He comes down, and the people are making
excuses.
Aaron's making excuses, but their hearts are turning
back to Egypt.
See, as soon as God's going to start
saying, do this, I want you to do
this, when our heart doesn't want to obey
God, we want to turn back to Egypt.
That's why many people go back to their
old ways, is they don't want to follow
in God's ways.
That's what happened here.
They turned back to Egypt in their hearts.
They turned back to the bondage, to the
oppression, and to the slavery.
This is very important in the area of
addiction.
You might not need this, but somebody else
will.
You can get them the CD or something.
But this is why people stay in addiction.
They get out of it for a day
or a week, or two weeks, or three
weeks.
Guess what?
Withdrawals hit.
The attack of the enemy coming.
The body's craving it.
All kinds of hell is breaking loose.
And I want to go back to Egypt.
If I could just take that ounce of
whatever.
That's why they'll go back to heroin, because
the pain's gone.
Temporarily.
And then the cycle of hell starts over
again.
They'll be doing good for months, and then
they'll go back to that drink that's been
beckoning.
Oh, remember then.
Isn't it so funny?
You remember the hour or two buzz, and
you forget the three-day hangover, and the
DUI, and your family leave.
You forget all those things, but remember Egypt.
Remember the good old...
If I could go back...
So that's how he keeps people in bondage.
You start to get out.
Things get difficult.
Let me go back to the thing that
temporarily relieved me.
The temporary relief is over.
Now I'm depressed.
Now I can't believe I got...
And the cycle goes again.
Back to bondage.
Back to Egypt.
The mental cycle of the mind.
And it's not easy.
I have tons of compassion for people in
this area, but as a believer, you can
seek God, be filled with His Spirit, and
with His help, with His grace, He can
pull you from that.
Yes, it's challenging.
That's why it's called a battle.
A spiritual battle.
It doesn't say your weapons of your warfare
are cotton balls and pillows.
He uses the strongest imagery you could ever
use back then.
Warfare.
The weapons of your warfare.
The sword.
What was a sword for?
A sword for cleaning their teeth?
It killed.
They killed men with their sword.
And Paul brings the highest level of warfare
and puts it into a Christian parallel.
It says, The weapons of your warfare are
not carnal, but they're mighty through God, for
they're pulling down as strongholds.
Watch out for the wiles of the devil,
the trickeries of the devil.
And having done all, stand there with your
waist girded about with truth and the breastplate
of righteousness.
And he goes over all the warfare elements
because it's war.
The sooner you realize that, the better.
Because we think it's patty cake with the
devil.
It's like, He's kind of against me, but
he's kind of just this little spooky thing.
No, he's sent to kill, steal, and to
destroy.
That's the plan.
That's the agenda.
It's to kill, to steal, and to destroy.
They rejected Moses, which was the law, and
obedience.
They rejected Christ, and they rejected the work
of the Holy Spirit.
That's what he's showing them.
You rejected Moses.
They did earlier on.
You rejected the law.
You rejected God's command.
You rejected God's call to a holier life.
You rejected the voice of truth.
You rejected Christ.
And you're rejecting now.
These people are now rejecting the convicting work
of the Holy Spirit.
So, personal application.
Are you rejecting obedience to the Father?
Are you rejecting a surrendered life to Christ?
Are you rejecting the work of the Spirit?
How long will you keep rejecting?
I talk to people.
How long will you keep rejecting?
You know what they say?
Well, when God does this.
Anytime I cringe when I hear that.
Listen guys, He's not going to do anything.
He's going to love you.
Unconditionally.
I mentioned it yesterday.
I said God's love must be embraced.
God's heart is not to condemn.
Wait a minute.
I hear all the condemnation, judgment.
I hear all this.
The heart of God is not condemnation.
John.
I wrote it down for you.
John 3.17 For God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through Him.
So, the heart of God is not condemnation.
It's to save the world.
When you reject that gift of salvation, then
comes a condemnation.
That's how it works.
And if you could, this impression.
I want to really help people understand.
Yes, a holy God.
But a loving God.
A loving God.
I mean, the greatest mystery.
We talk about how many stars are out
there.
How many billions of galaxies.
The greatest mystery.
The greatest mystery to me is John 3
.16 For God so loved the world.
You, you, you, you, you.
That He gave His only Son on a
cross.
For the sins of the world.
That's a loving God.
That's not a condemning God.
That's a loving God.
Who says, come back to me.
Give me your life.
Let me rebuild.
Let me restore you.
But you listen to the wrong voice.
I heard David Jeremiah tell a story.
And I had, I pulled over, wrote it
down.
It was about a mother.
Who kept praying for her son.
Or for some of you, it could be
put into your picture.
Praying for a daughter.
In their twenties.
They came home drunk and high.
And passed out on their bed.
And the dad heard the mom get up.
And said, finally.
Finally.
We're going to get that guy out of
here.
Finally she's going to let him have it.
And then five minutes went by.
And the dad didn't hear anything.
What's going on?
So he went in there.
He saw the mom on the bed with
the child.
Holding the son.
Just caressing his, his hair as he was
passed out.
And the dad said, what are you doing?
And he said, she said, he would not
let me love him.
While he's awake.
So I will love him while he's asleep.
Guys, that's the heart of God.
I just can't believe what he's brought me
through.
And I look at the audience even yesterday.
And they're so guilty and shame filled.
And I told them, it's because you're made
in the image of God.
We're all made in God's image.
So when that image becomes marred and corrupted.
And not used for what it's supposed to
use.
The shame and the guilt are the result
of that.
But God demonstrated his own love toward us.
And that while we were still sinners.
Christ died for us.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute God.
Are you saying that my drunken binges in
Palm Springs.
And my crystal meth use in Vegas.
You died for me.
Do you realize the power.
Only somebody tuned out to the things of
God.
Will not be affected by these verses.
While you're in your sin.
And your depravity.
And your rebellion.
There's a sacrifice that still stands.
Isn't that amazing?
While you're living in sin.
Mocking God.
Cussing at God.
Living however you want.
Rebelling against God.
As if he doesn't care.
And I don't care what God says.
God says I still have a sacrifice.
When you're ready.
When you're open.
God I sent my son.
I died for you.
While you're still living in that sin.
It's not God saying.
Let me watch your life for 30 years.
And then I'll give you the cross.
The cross came 2,000 years ago on
Calvary.
A bloody mess.
Because Christ loved us that much.
The love of God should compel you to
share the truth.
It should change your worship.
I'm tired of hard hearted people.
Who don't know how to worship a loving
God that died for them.
As if we're waiting in line at Dunkin
Donuts.
I was just so broken yesterday.
Seeing people reject his truth.
And on Sunday mornings it happens.
People rejecting his truth.
What could be more clear?
I need a savior.
I can't manage this.
I'm a mess.
God thank you.
For not only saving me.
But then will fill you with the Holy
Spirit.
If you just obey and submit.
He'll say I'll lead you.
So the God of the universe is going
to say.
Shane I'll lead you.
When your son or your daughter is sick.
Hold on to me.
You don't know what to do.
Hold on to me.
I will lead you through life.
I will guide you.
I will be your shelter.
I'll be your rock.
I'll be your high tower.
I'll be everything.
I'll be your rear guard and your front
guard.
Just trust in me.
What kind of God is going to do
that?
That's a scandalous love.
That's a love I can't even comprehend.
I don't know how many of you caught
what we sang.
But let me just read it for you
in case you didn't.
I am guilty.
Ashamed of what I've done.
What I've become.
These hands are dirty.
I dare not lift them up to a
Holy One.
You plead my cause.
You right my wrongs.
You break my chains.
You gave your life to give me mine.
You say that I am free.