This Week's Sunday School Lesson, "Change May Cost You", Exodus 7:14-24, 10/9/2019

CHANGE MAY COST YOU

    

Ex 7:14-24

GOD’S PLAN FOR EVIL DOERS

God has a way of making us do what He wants us to do. He can change our hearts to draw us to himself.

You and I are not here because we chose to be here. We are here

because God predestined us to be here. Jesus said you did not

chose Me, I chose you.

He can also hardened a persons heart, so they want come to Him

And be left in their unredeemed state, headed to hell.

It is this text. In Chapter 5, the Pharaoh said, he did not know the Lord of the Hebrews and would not listen to Him.

In Chapter 7:3. God said I will harden the Pharaoh’s heart so that

he will not let the Hebrews go. God had a plan for what He does. His reason for hardening Pharaoh’s heart was to bring about hardships through miracles and signs, so the Egypt would know that He is God.

THE HARDSHIPS OF DENYING GOD

V:14 Then the Lord  said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The Lord , the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened.

A. Notice when God commission Moses to go to Egypt to

Free the Israelites, He said I have heard their cry by reason

Of their hardship.

1.     God did not say I heard their prayers.

2.     Somewhere between the time of Joseph and 400 years

Later, they had forgotten how to pray.

3.     Not only did the Israelites not know how to pray, but they

Did not know how to worship the Lord.

4.     God said, He wanted His people released to the desert

So they could worship Him.

5.     Israel, born in slavery had not learned to worship the Lord.

6.     The testimonies from Abraham to Joseph about the

     goodness of the Lord had been lost in slavery.

B. It is our job to teach our children, how to pray.

      1. It is our job to teach our children how to worship the Lord.

      2. If we don’t teach God, the world will teach Satan.

      3. If we don’t teach our children hope in the Lord, the

          world will teach them doom and gloom.

C. Moses, through following God commands was learning to

    Trust the Word of God.

1.  Our leaders must trust God to lead them, so they can

Lead us to trust God.

2.  God equips us with the tools to be successful in our

Leadership.

3.  Moses staff, at his command through the power of God turned

Into a snake.

D. Moses using only his staff showed Pharaoh the power of

     God.

1.    We must at all time be prepared to be a witness to

Goodness of the Lord.

2.    We are gifted by God to be an instrument of His glory. 

V:17 This is what the Lord  says: By this you will know that I am the Lord : With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'"

A. The more we reject God’s commands the more hardships He

     will put on us.

1. The Lord knows, the best time and place to meet you to

     show you that He is God.

2. God met the Pharaoh early in the morning with a plan to

    show His power over nature using Moses staff.

B. God uses what we have to show His glory through us to

     others.

GOD WORKS MIRACLES USING US

V.19 The Lord  said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt — over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs' — and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars."

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.

A. God does not have use and chemicals to accomplish His desires.

    1. In presence of the Pharaoh and his officials Aaron touch the

        water of the Nile with Moses staff and water became blood.

    2. The fish in the river died with a touch from God.

    3. The smell of the river immediately change to a stink.

B. God does not need an army to kill an army.

     1. At His command His plan is complete.

     2. We must recognize, that everything we see and

         hear is at the command of God.

     3. God’s glory is all around us every moment of our lives.

C. Let me suggest that the plagues represent death.

1.    The snake  represents the attitude of sinful man

2.    In the Garden of Eden, Satan was reduced to a serpent.

3.    Moses’ snake swallowed up the magicians snakes                      Exodus 7:12

a.    God controls life and death. 

b.   Life begins under God’s control and ends under His

control. 

          

         1 Cor 15:54

     When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,   

    and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is

    written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in  

    victory."

2. The Water represents life. Jesus is the living water

     a. Without the living water life stinks.

3. The Blood is the life of the flesh.

    a. Jesus Blood is the atonement of sins.

    b. It is the blood of Jesus that provides eternal life.

4. The fish represents Jesus as the fisherman of men.

    Without the fishing of Jesus, we can’t come to the

    Father and we all would die.

BE AWARE OF THE IMMITATORS OF CHRIST

V:22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord  had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

A.   There will always be those who reject God and refuse to give Him credit for the miracles that are in plain sight.

    1. There will always be imitators of Christ.

         a.  There are churches around the world who claim

              the power of Christ through deception.

b.   There are TV evangelists who claim healing power

  with the touch of their hands.

2.   There are false evangelist who claimed the exact date

Of the end of the world and are proven wrong.

B. We have to be careful of the ministers we listen to.

    1. If their words contradict the Bible, they are engaged in   

        false teaching.

    2. Because of the Pharaoh’s harden heart, he was blinded

   To the miracles of God.

    3. Because of Pharaoh’s harden heart, he could not recognize

    The power of God.

4. Like Pharaoh, the Israelites, the ones God sent Moses to

    rescue, did not want to listen to Moses because of their

    increased hardships.

5. In their hardships, the Israelites couldn’t see God working

    on their behalf.

6. No matter what our circumstances are, God is working in

    our lives for our good.

C. For the Israelites to be delivered, they also had to

    see the power of God through miracles that brought on their

    hardships.

  1. They knew about God, but had never seen the power of

      God working for them.

  2. God is in all of our hardship with us.

  3. It is through our hardships that we are drawn to God

     and come to know him.

 4. It is our hardships that force us to trust God.

 5. It was the hardships of slavery that kept the Israelites  

     together until God got ready to delivery them to the

     land He promise Abraham.  Exodus 6:2-8.

THANK GOD FOR THE GOOD AND THE BAD TIMES

Rev. M. Mitchell

Assistant Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church

5510 West Sam Houston Parkway North

Houston, Texas 77041

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