This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

[Music] Welcome to our last day of week two, day five of week two, and looking
through the book of Exodus. We're in chapter 10 today, and in this chapter the
battle with Pharaoh continues, and there's a question about that, this battle
with Pharaoh. Was this Moses's battle with Pharaoh?

Not really. Well, Moses is involved in it, but this is God's battle with
Pharaoh. Of course, Pharaoh is going to lose.

It's God's battle with Pharaoh, and Moses is a part of it. There's a key
question when it comes to the battles that you and I are facing with our biggest
obstacles, whether it be a person or a habit or a passion or a thing. There's a
key question.

Do you see it as your battle or as God's battle? As long as you just see it as
your battle, there's the opportunity to lose. But once you begin to see the
God's battle, you know that in the end one day he's going to win.

One day he's going to win. It may not fully come until eternity, but one day
he's going to win. So why not join him on the winning side right now?

We've seen that in this battle with whatever is your biggest obstacle to change,
it might be a person, it might be a stubbornness in your life, it might be a
habit in your life. In your battle, there is intensification, that barrier.
There's the barrier of doubt.

There's the barrier of confusion. There is the temptation to compromise. And
that temptation to compromise, it just keeps coming at you.

In fact, that temptation continues in this chapter, chapter 10. Listen to verses
7 to 11. "Worship the Lord your God," he said.

"But just who will be going? " Moses answered, "We will go with our young and
old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are
to celebrate a festival to the Lord. " Pharaoh said, "The Lord be with you.

If I let you go, along with your women and children, clearly you are bent on
evil. No. Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that's what you've
been asking for.

" And then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh's presence. Here's a third
compromise that is offered to Moses and Aaron. First was worship in the land,
then worship not far from the land, and now take only the men.

Here you see this temptation to settle. If you look at it from Moses' side, from
Aaron's side, we're looking at this from their side for you and I to learn how
to be set free. There is a temptation in this moment for them to settle, to
settle for less than freedom and to call it freedom, to settle for only a
partial victory.

Sacrifice, but take only the men. Leave the women. Leave the children behind.

For us, the idea here would be serve God, but keep your options open. Keep a
foot in the door of sin. Don't go too far out on a limb.

Here is the temptation to settle for an appearance of progress, but no change.
In fact, you see that in what Pharaoh was asking here. He asked for prayer, but
he won't let the people go.

So Moses and Aaron could have said, "Well, at least we're making progress. You
know, he's getting closer to God. He's asking for prayer.

Look how much his life has changed. " But that wasn't the issue. The issue was
freedom, and the only way to get to that was to let the people go.

We oftentimes settle for almost there when God wants to do something radically
new in our lives. What does he want to do? How does he want to change you?

And where are you settling for almost there? These temptations just keep coming,
these temptations to compromise. Listen to verses 21 to 26.

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that
darkness will spread over Egypt, darkness that can be felt. ' So Moses stretched
out his hand toward the sky and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days, yet all the
Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, 'Go worship the Lord. Even your women and
children may go with you. Only leave your flocks and herds behind.

' But Moses said, 'You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to
present to the Lord our God. Our livestock too must go with us. Not a hoof is to
be left behind.

'" Here's another opportunity for compromise. Pharaoh says, "Sacrifice. You can
take the women, you can take the children, but leave the herds behind.

" Here's the temptation to get most of the victory, to just get part of the
victory, part of the freedom. So you give God just part of your life, just the
Sunday part, just the family part, not the business part, not the thought life
part, but I'll give him this part. I'll give him all of that part.

And we fool ourselves into thinking that's freedom. No, it's not. It's just a
part.

And the idea that we can live differently in parts of our lives is a lie from
Satan. You know that to the depth of your being. You're a whole.

Everything about you. You may not think about everything at one time, but you
are all that you are in every single moment of your life. And if you are a liar
in this area of your life, you're a liar.

You're a liar. It affects every area of your life. Sacrifice, but leave the
herds behind.

You and I, when it comes to giving our lives to Christ, the goal is to not just
give part and be satisfied with that. We need to give the same part that Jesus
gave for us. He gave his whole.

He gave his all. He gave his life on a cross. And so as Romans 12 says, "We give
ourselves as a living sacrifice to him.

" Now as you read through this, Moses's answer is classic. Pharaoh says,
"Sacrifice, but not the herds. " And Moses saying, "Not one hoof is going to be
left behind.

" I read that and I think, and I hope you read that with me and think, how can I
get to that point in my life, that point of commitment, where instead of
struggling with compromise constantly, Moses grew through this struggle. As you
see him struggling with compromise, instead of him getting more and more
compromising, he gets stronger and stronger. That's the value of temptation.

You think, why does temptation come into my life? If you say yes to that
temptation, obviously it's going to take you further from God. So why would God
allow it?

The truth is, if you say no to that temptation, it brings you closer to God. The
same temptation that could weaken you, if you say yes to the temptation, can
strengthen you in your relationship with God, if you say yes to him. So the
reason the temptations come is to allow you to strengthen your relationship to
him.

Same thing about a marriage. The reason problems come into a marriage is so that
that marriage can be strengthened. Same thing about parents and children.

The reason that's not always perfect is so that that relationship can be
strengthened. If everything was always perfect, we'd have no strength at all. So
in the temptation, there is an opportunity.

In the temptation to compromise, there is an opportunity to strengthen your
faith. And Moses, you see him getting stronger and stronger and stronger. He
begins by listening to God, struggling with doubt, wondering what to do.

And here we have him at the end of these chapters we're looking at this week,
looking Pharaoh straight in the eye and saying, "Pharaoh, you've offered almost
everything, but I'm telling you, not one hoof is going to be left behind. We're
taking it all into the desert. We're taking it all into freedom.

" Where do you need to begin that process in your life? You think, "I could
never say no to that temptation. It's going to be this way the rest of my life.

" If you say no once, it strengthens you to say no the second time and the
third. Who do you need to bring into that process in your life? What recovery
group?

What strengthening partner in your life to let them know of the temptation in
your life so they can be praying for you so you're not alone in this? So you can
begin to say no to the temptation and yes to God. If you do, when I do, the same
process will happen in your life that happened in Moses's life.

You'll find yourself becoming stronger and stronger and stronger, not based on
your strength, but based on his strength. You see, Satan wants to get you at the
bottom of a pit where you feel like, "I could never do anything right. " He
wants to keep you where Moses began at the beginning of this week, doubting
yourself.

"I have faltering lips. Why would Pharaoh listen to me? " But God wants to take
you to a different place, the place where you can stare down your Pharaoh, your
biggest obstacle and say, "We're taking it all into the desert, all of us going
into freedom.

" And this happens just in five chapters in Moses's life. God through his Spirit
wants to do this in your life too. Chapter by chapter, day by day, week by week,
bring you to a place of freedom.

Our Father, we thank you for the freedom that we have in Christ. The truth will
set us free. And we know, we know we're going to have problems throughout this
life.

We know we're going to have temptations throughout this life until we get to
heaven. We can see those, Lord, as evil things that keep us from you or as
opportunities to trust in you. So Lord, I pray for myself.

I pray for every one of us this week as the temptations come, and they will,
help us to see them as opportunities to trust. And as we trust, help us to see
you strengthening us to trust even more. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well join us next week. We're going to look together at chapters 11 to 15
and see that the people are set free, and then they immediately face a Red Sea.