This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're looking together at Exodus chapter 8 today. That means we're in week 2,
day 3, and we're looking at the plagues that came upon the people of Egypt as
God set the people of Israel free. We've already seen very briefly the plague of
frogs that came upon the people of Egypt, the plague of gnats, and Pharaoh just
won't budge.

And now there come some more. In verse 20, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Get up
early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to
him, 'This is what the Lord says. Let my people go so that they may worship me.

If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your
officials, on your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians
will be full of flies and even the ground where they are. But on that day I will
deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live.

No swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I the Lord am in
this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This
miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.

' 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. Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Go, sacrifice to
your God here in the land.

' But Moses said, 'That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our
God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are
detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us?

We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord
our God as he commands us. ' Now here you see, as this plague of flies comes
upon Egypt, here you see a fourth barrier. We've seen the barrier of
intensification when we face our biggest obstacle.

It gets worse before it gets better. Of doubt, we have to deal with our own
inadequacies. Of confusion, the fact that it seems so slow at first.

And now comes this fourth barrier, and I believe it's the worst of all. It's the
barrier of compromise. Let's just compromise for less than what God is really
asking.

Less than what God could really do. Compromise is so tempting after you've been
through so much. So we settle for less than God's best.

We remain captives to our thoughts and our fears and our habits because we
settle for less. What was the temptation to compromise here? It was the
temptation to sacrifice in the land.

To sacrifice to God, but to do it in Egypt. To sacrifice to God while still in
bondage. To accept God's will on Satan's terms.

It's the same kind of temptations that Satan gave to Jesus. To accept God's will
on his terms. And it's the same kind of temptations that are going to come into
my life and into your life.

The question is, when it comes to change in my life, when it comes to freedom in
my life, am I settling for sacrificing within the land? So you go to church, but
your lifestyle is still totally in your control. There's nothing of God really
in your lifestyle, except the fact that you go to the church on the weekend.

So you give up a habit, but you stay with the exact same friends in the exact
same places that you know will eventually draw you back into those exact same
habits. Instead of staying away from evil, turning away, you try to get as close
to evil as you possibly can without really getting burned. That's sacrificing in
the land.

And Moses says no, we will not do that. And quickly there comes another
opportunity for compromise. That's what happens with compromise, it just keeps
coming at you.

First sacrifice in the land, and then there's the compromise, well maybe you
should sacrifice not far from the land. Listen to verses 28 to 32. Pharaoh said,
"I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert, but
you must not go very far.

Now pray for me. " Moses answered, "As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the
Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his
people. Be sure that Pharaoh does not act deceitfully again by not letting the
people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.

" Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord did what Moses
asked. The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people, not a fly
remained. But this time also, Pharaoh hardened his heart, and he would not let
the people go.

Pharaoh didn't let the people go, but even if he had, you see what his intention
was back in verse 28, don't go very far. First the compromise is sacrifice
within the land, and now the compromise is sacrifice within sight of the land,
so I can still see you. Satan will tempt you to stay in sight of Egypt, to stay
in sight of that which imprisons you.

To stay close to that which imprisons you. Two, keep your options open. To keep
one foot in the door.

Don't let yourself get too far out on a limb. Those are the kinds of things that
Satan tempts us with. How do you do this in a practical way?

We do this when we decide to keep old friends, never really letting them know
about our Christian commitment. We don't let them know, why? Because the minute
we let them know, that means I've gone out of the limb.

That means I'm not staying inside of the land of Egypt. I've cut off some
options in my life. How do we sacrifice within sight of Egypt?

We continue old habits, never really trusting that God will fulfill us as we set
those things aside. Or we keep up with old character flaws, lack of integrity in
our lives, not really believing that love and forgiveness and grace will get
things done the way that we want. If I really want to get things done, then I've
got to be different in my business than I am when I'm talking about my worship
of God.

I've got to be different in my family than in the way that I talk about who God
is in my life. It's the temptation to follow Jesus, but not very far. The
problem is, it's hard to follow Jesus with one foot in Satan's door.

The problem is, it's hard to take up your cross without going out on a limb.
It's hard to say Jesus is Lord and to keep all the other options open in your
life. You see, this barrier of compromise, it just keeps coming at you and
coming at you and coming at you.

You'll be constantly tempted to compromise when it comes to the biggest obstacle
to freedom in your life. So just back off a little bit. And sometimes in life
you'll find that you come to a place of freedom and then after that you get to a
place of compromise again.

So my question of you, and we're going to come up against this again this week,
my question of you is, where is there compromise in your life right now? Instead
of running away from it, just look at it, admit it freely, openly. Moses faced
it.

Moses struggled with it. You and I are going to face it and struggle with it.
Jesus was tempted to compromise himself.

So in the temptation, there is no wrong. It's what I do when the temptation
comes. And maybe you've gone the wrong way for far too long.

How could change begin to happen in your life even today? We begin to say, I'm
going to stop living with one foot in Satan's door. I'm going to start living
out on the limb, taking up my cross, Jesus is Lord.

Those are all great words, but what does that mean in your life? What does that
mean in my life today? What relationship needs to stop?

What place that you're going, you need to never go there again. What person that
you're talking to online, you need to cut that off. What recovery group do you
need to join?

Who else do you need to tell about this decision to change so that once and for
all you've really made the commitment? Where are you not changing in life,
continually not changing? It's just not happening.

If that's true, my life, your life, it's most likely that there's some point of
compromise where you're just not allowing God to do what he is working to do. As
you and I think about his power to change us, what we're really thinking about
is the power of Jesus Christ. He has the power to make a difference, and where
am I compromising and so living with my power in my world rather than living
with his power in the world, in the great joy that he has to give to me?

Take a minute to pray together, and Jesus says we pray, we realize none of us
are perfect. We all struggle. We all compromise at times, but show us, please
show us.

Show us where we're compromising, keeping something in our lives that should not
be in our lives or holding something at arm's length that needs to be in our
lives. Show us where we're compromising by being with the wrong people in the
wrong places or by not being with the right people in the right places. Show us
where and how, and then by your spirit, give us strength to make a different
decision.

Give us strength to follow you instead. Give us strength to know that you will
be with us in everything. Lord, we want to change, but when the temptation to
compromise comes, we find ourselves backing away again and again and again.

Help us to see it for what it is that we're losing out. We're losing out on the
joy that you want to give us, the peace that you want to give us, the
significance that you want to give us. Help us to see it for what it is, a
compromise that keeps us from the freedom that could be ours.

Help us to see that now. Today we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're
going to look together at the deeper significance behind the plagues that came
upon Egypt.