Greg Laurie — The Danger of the Compromised Life

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TOPICS: Compromise

All right, we're gonna turn to two passages today. Hebrews 11, which is sort of our base text for this series that we're doing that we're calling world changers. But also I want you to turn to Exodus chapter five. And we're gonna be working through a few chapters in Exodus as we look at the amazing life before us and the title of the message is the Danger of the Compromised Life. You know, prior to knowing Jesus Christ, if we knew it or not, if we liked it or not, we were under the power and control of the devil. This is what the Bible teaches. The scripture tells us that this Satan, this god of this world, as he's called in the Bible, blinded the eyes of us. And we were held captive by him, taken captive by him. And the irony is, we thought we were in control of our own lives.

It makes me laugh when people say, well, I don't wanna become a Christian because I don't wanna come under the control of God. I am the captain of my own ship. I'm in control of my own life. No, you aren't. You're under the control of the devil. And he's a liar. And he ripped us off. He promised us pleasure. But he brought us misery. He promised us fun, but he brought us guilt. He promised us life, but he brought us death. And the most clever strategy of all, he had us thinking he did not even exist. But one day, in each of our lives, for those of us who have put our faith in Christ, it was like the light went on. Like a lightning bolt from heaven that hit us. Jesus Christ is the answer. Jesus Christ is the one I've been searching for. So we believed in him. And that changed our life.

Now, this is the greatest even that will happen in any human life, the day that you're born again. And I ask you today, are you born again? And are you sure you're born again? And if you're not, I'll tell you how to be at the end of the message. But listen. After we made that commitment to Christ, you need to know what's going on. The devil, well, to put it bluntly, is really ticked off. He lost one of his own. And he's gonna do everything he can to undermine you. To trip you up. To pull you back. If possible. It's been said, conversion has made our hearts a battlefield and it's true. If you're not experiencing the spiritual battle, quite honestly, something is wrong with you. And so I want you to know, you're gonna face devilish opposition. And I'm gonna talk about one of the devil's most effect strategies in this message. And that strategy is compromise. Well, as I said earlier, in this world changer series, and we're looking at the life of Moses.

Now you remember it took a while for the Lord to whip Moses into shape. It was always God's plan that Moses would be the one to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt. But Moses, well, let's just say he acted a bit premature. And took matters into his own hands. And he made a horrible mess of it. You know the story. He was raised in the court of the Pharaoh, by the daughter of Pharaoh. But one day, even though he was groomed to possibly be the next Pharaoh of Egypt, he saw an Egyptian slave driver mistreating a Hebrew and he stepped in and killed that Egyptian man. And then he ran to the hills because the Pharaoh effectively put a contract out on him. And there in the back side of the desert, 40 years later, the Lord spoke to Moses from a bush that would not stop burning. And God said, Moses, you're my man. And I'm gonna use you to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. Moses had a bunch of excuses. God responded. And the Lord told Moses, it's not gonna be easy. But what I want you to do is take them three day's journey into the wilderness.

So Moses was ready. His heart was full of faith and courage. And by the way, faith and fear cannot coexist together. One drives out the other. When faith walks in, fear walks out. So if you're filled with fear today, maybe you just need a lot more faith. Because these people that changed the world that we're talking about, they did it by faith. That's the operative word. They believed God at His Word. And here's what we learn in Hebrews 11. Excuse me, verse 27. It says that it was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt not fearing the king's anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. It was by faith, it's because he had faith he did not have fear and the thing that promoted his faith and sustained his faith was keeping his eyes on Jesus. Looking to the Lord. When you have your eyes on the Lord, you can do amazing things. And when you take your eyes off of the Lord, you're gonna face defeat.

So let's see what happens now when Moses has his first confrontation with the great Pharaoh of Egypt. Now let's flip over to Exodus chapter five. Starting in verse one. Afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. That they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. The Pharaoh said, who is the Lord? Why should I obey his voice to let Israel go? I don't know the Lord. Nor will I let Israel go. And they said the God of the Hebrews has met with us, please let us go three day's journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. We'll stop there. So now, the big moment has come. Moses walks into the court of the Pharaoh and says, let my people go. This angered the Pharaoh for a number of reasons. First of all, no one talked like this to the Pharaoh. He was a powerful man. Worshiped as a god by the Egyptians. The landscape was dotted with monuments erected to Pharaoh. With just a word he could have a man or a woman executed on the spot. And who is this shepherd that comes into his court and by the way, back in this day, the Egyptians regarded this shepherds as the lowest of the low. They were sort of the telemarketers of their day. I don't know what to compare 'em to. But...

And so for Moses to come in as a shepherd, and just to confirm the fact he has been a shepherd the Lord tells him, take your staff in to see Pharaoh. 'Cause his staff was gonna do a super cool trick in a few moments. It was gonna turn into a snake. Let my people go. And the Pharaoh thought there's no way I'm gonna do this and he opposed Moses. And he hit him where it hurt. Because he made the slavery of the Jews even worse. Saying take the straw out of the brick make 'em go get their own straw. So now the Israelites are ticked off at Moses. Pharaoh is not responding to Moses. Ever have one of those days where you think you're doing the will of God and all the doors shut in your face? And you're saying, what went wrong? Well, that's just the way it goes sometimes. But Moses was not gonna back down. Now flip over to Exodus Seven verse 10. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and they did so just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down the rod, this is the shepherd's staff now. Before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a snake. But Pharaoh, they had wise men and sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt. They did the same thing with their enchantments. Every man threw down his rod and they became snakes. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said.

So now a series of judgments are gonna come upon Egypt. Each one of is gonna be directed specifically against a god of Egypt. You see, the Egyptians worshiped Pharaoh as god. They worshiped the Nile river as god. They worshiped animals as god. They worshiped frogs as god. They worshiped all kinds of crazy things. And so God's gonna bring a series of 10 judgments or plagues against Egypt. Each leveled at one of the gods they worshiped. The first thing that happens is Moses' rod becomes a serpent, presumably a cobra. Which by the way, was a symbol of Egypt. You can look at ancient Egyptian antiquities today and see the cobra was a part of their whole look and their whole kingdom. And so the kingdom, but also the magicians, these guys on the payroll of the Pharaoh, are able to replicate this miracle. Now, this is very interesting that they have this power. Which shows us the devil has certain power. Satan is not the equal of God.

Sometimes people think whatever God can do, the devil can do. That's not true. God's all powerful. The devil's power is limited. God is all knowing. The devil's knowledge is limited. God can be everywhere at one time. The devil can only be in one place at one time. But having said that, he's very powerful. And he can do certain signs and even what we might call false miracles. And here one is done. The Pharaoh's magicians do the same miracle in quotes that Moses and Aaron do. Which reminds us one of the devil's most effective tactics is imitation. You know, he'll try to stop a work outright, but he often will imitate, and this will minimize the power and glory of God and divert us. You know, sometimes people stand up and they say, I'm a follower of Jesus. And they make a public proclamation. And then they'll maybe fall away. Or do something that would contradict what they said and we will respond, well why did they come to Christ and fall away from Christ? Here's a thought. Maybe they never came to Christ at all. Just because someone said they're a Christian, doesn't mean they're a Christian. The only way I will know if a person is Christian is by the way they live. I can't see their heart. I can't see their faith. I can only see their actions. And if their actions contradict what they have said, are they really a Christian?

The apostle Paul asked the question in Corinthians, check up on yourselves. Are you really a Christian? Or are you just pretending to be a Christian when you really aren't one at all? So this is an imitation that the devil brings in to dilute, to confuse, to deceive. And sure enough, the Pharaoh's heart gets hard. Here comes plague number one. The Nile river is turned to blood. That's one in Exodus seven 14 to 18. God directs Moses to go over with his staff and he calls Pharaoh to come and watch. And he puts his staff in the water. And it turns to blood. Now, not only did the Egyptians worship the Nile, but that was also the source of food supply. It was a source of drinking water. They would use that water for bathing, for cooking, for cleaning, laundry. And of course, drinking. Plus they got fish out of that Nile river. And now it's all turned to blood. But the magicians come, oh, that's no big deal. We can do it too. And they take what little clear water there is and turn that to blood.

It almost seem to be a bit more logical if the magicians of Pharaoh could turn the bloody water back to clear, that would be helpful. But they took what little clear water was left and turned that to blood. Whoever said sin made sense. Here's something I've discovered after years of walking with the Lord. Sin makes you stupid. It does. Sin makes you stupid. I know clear thinking people, or at least I thought they were clear thinking, intelligent people, do the most irrational things under the control of sin. As the great theologian, Forrest Gump once said. Stupid is as stupid does. Really bad Forrest Gump imitation. And because of this devilish imitation, the Pharaoh hardens his heart. But really what was happening was, God was striking down their God. He was saying, you worship the Nile as a god, your god just failed you. Your god isn't real. Where's your god now? You know, we can have gods too with a small g. A god, an idol, is anything or anyone that takes a place of the Lord God in our life.

You know, some people make gods out of careers. Some even ministries. Some make gods out of relationships. Some make gods out of possessions. That becomes the most important thing to them. And sometimes something will happen to remove that god, that is blocked the true Lord out of our lives. Maybe your terminated from your job. Maybe the relationship unravels. Maybe the object you worship gets stolen. Or damaged. Or whatever it is. Your god is knocked over and you realize it was never a true god at all. It opens your eyes to see your need for the true and living God. Here's Pharaoh, he's seen the Nile river turned to blood. But still, his heart gets hard. In fact, Exodus 7:23 says, he returned to his palace. He put the whole thing out of his mind. Saying oh, big deal.

Now plague number two comes. An invasion of frogs. That's in Exodus 8. And this is a crazy plague, frogs everywhere. You know when I lived in Hawaii years ago as a kid, we used to walk around everywhere barefoot. And so at night you'd walk around barefoot and sometimes step on frogs. There's lots of frogs in Hawaii. And they're big frogs. And I'll tell you, that is gross. You know, if you've stepped on a snail barefoot, that's so bad. You just go. A frog's worse. It's like ribbit. Oh. Is there a frog on my foot? Oh no, you know. There were frogs everywhere, the Bible says. There frogs on the floor, there were frogs in the chairs, there were frogs in the ovens, there were frogs in the bed. You know, you kiss your wife good night, good night, honey I love you. Ribbit. Oh. And it's a funny thing because the Egyptians worshiped a frog god. His name in Egyptian was kermoto. And... I made that up, that was...

Remember Kermit, Kermit the frog, Sesame Street News, you know. It was actually called Heket. H-E-K-E-T. They worshiped a frog. What a stupid thing to worship. God says you want frogs? Is this your god? Here's a whole bunch of gods to worship, have fun, gang. Yeah, there were frogs everywhere. And then the Pharaoh goes to Moses, he says, make these frogs go away. And then Moses prays and the frogs all die. The only thing worse than a living frog is a dead frog. And it's stinking. And coming back to my childhood in Hawaii, we would get up in the morning, there would be all these frogs laying on the street that were run over by cars. They were like in this little like this position. And they make great little frisbees. Frog frisbee. They're only good for one throw. They poof, fall apart. But this is all true. But... And the Bible says the land stank. I love that word stank. That's a good biblical word if someone isn't smelling well. You know, you need to take a shower, bro man. You be stanking. The land stank.

So Pharaoh of course, now his heart softened and he responded, no. Exodus 8:15. Pharaoh saw there was relief, and he hardened his heart. This is so typical of non believers. Pharaoh asked Moses to call on God. And Moses did. And once the crisis was one, Pharaoh said great, now go back to being hard again. Heard about a hospital chaplain who kept a record of some 2000 patients all of whom were near death. Or at least thought they were. And what he found was, of those who were sorry and repentant for their sins, when they were restored back to health, he felt only two out of 2000 showed a marked change in their spiritual lives after their recovery. In other words, when they thought they were dying, oh, God, help me. Oh, God I turn to you. And then when they recovered, oh, thanks, God. See you later. That's what the Pharaoh was doing. Oh, you got me out of this mess, well, I'll just go back to hardening my heart.

So what's going on with this heart of Pharaoh? And this raises one of the apparent contradictions in the Bible. Because we read here that Pharaoh hardened his heart. But then later on in Exodus 10:1 we read, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Contradiction. Who hardened the heart, was it God or was it Pharaoh? The answer, both. It's not a contradiction. It's two sides of the same coin. Initially Pharaoh hardened his heart. Listen, God has given to you a free will. The choice is yours. You decide if you will go to heaven or hell. You decide if you will follow Christ or Satan. You decide if your sins will be forgiven or you'll have to give an account for them. That's all up to you. But once you've made that decision, God in effect will strengthen you in it. If it's a decision to follow Christ, he will strengthen you in that decision. Because a better translation of the word used when it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart would be God strengthened or stiffed Pharaoh's heart.

So Pharaoh initially hardened his heart. And God confirmed him in that hardness. So you're the one who decides ultimately. But then the Lord will confirm you in the position you hold. He will not violate your free will. He will not overrule your free will. And that's exactly what happened to Pharaoh and his heart got harder and harder and the more signs that were done before him, the harder his heart got. And that sort of addresses the idea of people believing if they see a miracle. You know, you're thinking, man if I could perform a miracle, I know all of my non believing friends would come to Christ. Like at my Superbowl party after church, if I could like have the burgers out in the grill, and if I can call fire from heaven on the burgers, they'd believe right there in the spot. No, they wouldn't. They wouldn't believe. Because miracle after miracle was done for Pharaoh.

And more to the point, when Christ walked this earth, he healed people of leprosy. He restored sight to the blind. Hearing to the deaf. He even raised people from the dead. He walked on water, man, what more do you want? And by and large, almost all of the people turned against him. Demanding his crucifixion. And his death. No, we don't need to do a miracle to cause people to believe. Here's what Jesus said. A wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign but no sign will be given to them but that of the prophet Jonah. And as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man, speaking of himself, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What does that mean? Let me loosely paraphrase that.

And I think I'm doing justice to what he was saying. People don't need a miracle. They don't need a sign. Here's the sign they need. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's our message to this culture. Jesus loves you, Jesus died for you. Jesus rose again from the dead. And Jesus will come and take residence in your heart. That's a sign we need backed up by a godly lifestyle. Listen to this. How does one get a hardened heart? You might be surprised by my answer. You get a hardened heart by continued exposure to the truth of God and a refusal to obey and respond to it. Let me say that again. You get a hard heart by continued exposure to the word of God, or the truth of God. And a refusal on your part to obey and respond to it. We might think that the worst thing that can happen to a person is if they get in to some sexual lifestyle, be it drinking or partying or drugs or whatever it is. But listen, there's more chance for the person who's in the grip of some specific sin and still retains a heart and a conscience than for the man or woman who is hardened.

And where is the easiest place to get a hardened heart? Right here. Yes, you heard me right. Right here in church. Because some will hear the word of God and they'll receive the word of God. And they'll obey the word of God. And they'll be changed by God. And others will hear the word of God, they may not even hear it, they may have earplugs in. Or doing something else. But they'll just blow it off. And then their heart will get hard, hearing God's word. See, here's the interesting thing, the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay. Look, I don't know why you're here today at church. I was walking around early in this service and watching all y'all worshiping. And it was beautiful. I went up to the balcony there and I went here and looked around. A lot of people worshiping. And you know, other people are just standing there.

And I'm thinking, man, there's so many different kinds of people here. Watching, listening. Some are here because they wanna be here. Because man, they look forward to worshiping. Others are here, well, because they are supposed to be here. Their parents brought them. And they didn't really have a choice in the matter. Some husbands are here because the wife wanted them here. Some wives are here because the husband wanted them here. Some people are here because maybe it's a tradition. I don't know, but look, all I can say is, you're here, right? So let's hear God's word as we ought to hear it. And let it change our life. Because if we don't hear it the way we ought to hear it, it can harden our heart. And you can end up like Pharaoh. That's scary.

And actually over in the book of Hebrews, we read these words in Hebrews three. Don't harden your heart, brothers. Speaking to Christians. And walking away from the living God. But stand firm in the faith, while it's still called today. So it's basically saying, we as believers can harden our heart, let's not let that happen. Well, now comes plague number three. A bunch of gnats. Gnats all folks! Okay, you're not responding to the Nile turning to blood. You're not responding to the frogs everywhere. Here's a bunch of bugs. Gnats, gnats are horrible, aren't they? And this particular plague included all kinds of insects, winged insects, primarily. We have spiders and ticks. And beetles. It was the first case of beetle mania. Ladies and gentlemen, the beetles. And then in come the beetles. If you got that joke, you're really old. Most if you didn't get it. So maybe that's good.

Shall I explain the joke? That was Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles on his television show. Remember the Beatles, they were from England, right? They're a British band, the four lads from Liverpool. Anyway, forget all this. But that didn't cause Pharaoh to respond. His heart just gets harder. But now this is interesting. He knows what Moses is trying to do. So he's gonna change his strategy. And that really brings us to the heart of this message. He brings a series of compromises to Moses. So he'll not do what is right. Look at Exodus 8:25. Read this with me. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. All right, he said. Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God but do it here in the land. Moses replied, well that wouldn't be right. The Egyptians detested sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God. Look, if we offer sacrifices here where the Egyptians can see us, they will stone us. We must take a three day trip into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. Just as he commanded us. Pharaoh replied, all right. Go ahead. I'll let you go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God. But don't go too far away. Now hurry and pray for me.

So the Pharaoh said okay, okay already. Go, leave. But don't go too far. Hey and don't forget, pray for me. Intercede for me. Now what's going on? He's trying to get them to compromise. First of all, he says, go sacrifice here in the land. But what did God tell 'em to do? He said go three days into the wilderness, why? 'Cause God wanted them to put as much distance between them and Egypt as possible. So they wouldn't be tempted to go back. And in this same way, when we become a Christian, God tells us to make a break with our past. And our sinful activities and begin to follow Jesus Christ. Because you see, if you make a deal with the devil, you're gonna ultimately lose. You know the devil will say, all right, all right, if you have to be a Christian, be one. But be practical. Don't get fanatical.

You know when I first became a believer, I hung around with a bunch of low life guys. And I was one of 'em. And we did drugs together. And Christ had come into my life. And I remember what I said to one of my friends right after I became a Christian, I said, Gregg, he had the same name as I do, but he had two Gs in his name. I said Gregg, don't worry. The last thing you're ever gonna see is Laurie becoming a fanatic. Said, you're never gonna see me walking around carrying a Bible talking about Jesus. I'm still gonna be cool, but I'll believe in God too. Famous last words. And I'm thankful they were famous last words. Because for a little bit of time, I tried to fit in with these guys. And I realized, I have to walk away from this life completely. And you know, it was hard 'cause these were my friends as low life as they were. They were my friends. And now I have to go and hang out with a bunch of people that seemed a little odd to me, quite frankly. Because it's Jesus this and Jesus that and the Bible this and the Bible that. And I'm thinking, I don't know, that's a little too intense for me. But I realize that I needed to walk away from that old life and start a new one with Christian brothers and sisters around me. See that's the way to do it.

See compromise never works. Heard a story about a hunter who went out to shoot a bear. And he found a big one. He had him in his sights. He was just getting ready to pull the trigger when the bear turned around and said, excuse me. This is a true story. Hunter was shocked, of course, it's a talking bear. Bear says, excuse me, what are you doing? Hunter says, well, I'm gonna shoot you and kill you. Bear said, wait, isn't it better to talk than to shoot? And let me ask you, what is it you want? Hunter said, well, I'm cold, I want a fur coat. Bear said, okay, maybe we can talk. Here's what I want, a full stomach. So the hunter set his gun up against a tree and the bear and the hunter disappeared in to the forest for a while. A little bit later, the bear emerged alone. Apparently the negotiations had been successful. The hunter got his fur coat. And the bear got a full stomach.

That's how compromise works. Oh, don't go too far. Don't be too fanatical. The devil says. And we compromise with him. But look at this, this is really interesting. The Pharaoh says in verse 28, I'll let you go but pray for me. Wow. Doesn't that look like he's getting closer to God? Well, maybe and maybe not. And we know of course, it was maybe not. It was a ploy. And this happens to believers. They get into relationships with non believers. Sometimes it's romantic. And sometimes it even becomes sexual. And they've totally compromised their witness. And they know it's a bad thing. And they know they need to break up with this person. So the Christian says to the non Christian, we need to terminate this relationship. And the non believer says, wait, don't give up on me. Pray for me, I'm close to coming to Christ. Yeah, you know what? They're not gonna come to Christ by you compromising. They're gonna come to Christ by you standing up for what is true. That's how you do it. I read about a dating service called Just Coffee. And supposedly you can go meet somebody, it's better than dinner or lunch. 'Cause you know, dinner can go on long. Right?

And maybe you meet this person for the first time and say, wow, I did not wanna be here with him for an hour. So just coffee. It's much simpler. You know and if they, if you meet them initially and you don't like the way they look, get a really small coffee. Just little. Can I get the smallest little cup? Okay, good to see you, poof, you're out. But you know maybe you're trying to find someone. That right person. That guy, that girl that you're gonna spend the rest of your life with. Well, instead of just coffee, I have a better idea. How about just church? Just church. Here's how it works. Yeah, go ahead and clap for that. Just church. A guy asks you out, a girl asks you out. Let's go out, are you a believer? Why do you ask? Well, because I'm a Christian and I will only get involved with a Christian. Oh yeah. Hallelujah. Even the way they say it, it's kind of sleazy. Like... Never heard it said in such a creepy way. Doesn't the Bible say something about a holy kiss or something? You know?

Here's a way to call 'em out if they're really Christian, say well, I'd like to go out with you. Great. Let's go out for a coffee. Great. At my church. Your church has coffee? Oh, we have awesome coffee, yeah. Come to, come meet me at church, we'll go to the service. And after the service I'll meet you for coffee. Lot of those people will not show up, trust me. But if they do, hey, you got 'em in church. That's good, they'll hear the word of God. And if they're really a believer, then you know, you go from there. I met my wife in church. I was speaking. I was around probably 18 years old. Maybe 19. I had long hair. I looked like one of the duck dynasty guys. Beard down to here. It's not exaggerating. I was very nervous, my leg was shaking all the time. And she was sitting there with her two sisters. And I saw her. Now, I was not like scoping girls out when I preached normally. But Cathe just sort of stood out. There was like a light coming on her. Wasn't quite like that. But boy, I noticed her. And afterwards, I started talking. And one thing led to another. And 43 years later, here we are, okay? So... What a great place to meet that person.

'Cause here's the problem. You get involved romantically, and especially if you marry a non believer, it pulls you down. Here's a modern translation of a familiar verse, be not unequally yoked together with non believers. Second Corinthians 6:14 it says, don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership. That's war. Is light best friends with dark? Do Christ and the devil go strolling together? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? So well translated. That is so right to what that verse is saying. It doesn't work. Because you're not gonna end up pulling them up, in more cases, they're gonna end up pulling you down. You see? And so the Pharaoh's using a ploy, oh, pray for me, man. I'm close, stay close. No, no, no, we gotta get out of here.

All right. Look at Exodus 10. We're almost done. So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh and he said, all right, go serve the Lord your God. By the way, who are the ones who are going? Moses said we will go with our young. And our old. Our sons and our daughters, our flocks and our herds. And we'll hold a feast to he Lord. And he said, well the Lord will better be with you. If I let you and your little ones go, for behold, evil is ahead of you. Now Pharaoh's saying okay, I'll let you go. But I want you to leave your kids here. Wow. Did you know the devil wants your kids? And he can't have them. 'Cause we're gonna raise 'em in the way of the Lord. That's our job. That's not the church's job. And Sunday school, we'll do what we can do. Reinforce what you're doing at home. It's not the job of the Christian school. It's the job, it's the mission, it's the calling, it's the privilege of the parent, of the mother, of the father and your grandparents have a role to play in this as well. To raise those children in the way of the Lord.

I love the way Moses put it, he said, teach these truths to your child. When you get up in the morning. When you go to sleep at night. When you walk together. It's something you do all the time, teaching your children what is right. But listen to this. You gotta live it too. Because if you tell 'em one thing and you do another, and you contradict what you're saying, that's a way to drive kids away from Christ. But if you wanna draw them to Christ, show them what it is, model it for them and teach them the word of God. So Pharaoh says, okay, okay, go. Moses could've said, hey let's get out of here. He's gonna let us go. No, I want your kids. You're not gonna get our kids. And that's why it's really important to us here at Harvest. We wanna continue to reach the next generation. Because they think as we get older, and I include myself among you, I am getting older too, of course. We don't always like change. Right? We get set in our ways. You know you're getting old when at the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, and pop. But you're not eating cereal.

So that's a problem. You know you're getting older when it takes longer to rest than it did to get tired. You know you're getting older when you have more patience, but it's really that you just don't care anymore. You know you're getting older when it takes two tries to get up from the couch. I see these furniture, it's very popular these days, very low to the ground, right? And I look at that and go, I'm not sitting in that. And you know you're getting older when you're resistant to change in the church. Because everything doesn't revolve around you. And we wanna keep reaching the next generation then the next generation. That's why we, in our crusades, it's always changing. And the sound is changing. And the look is changing. But the content never changes. 'Cause we wanna reach each generation.

Okay, so now the final compromise. Exodus 10:24. Pharaoh calls Moses and says, all right, all right. Take your whiny little kids if you have to. But leave your flocks and herds. It seems like a pretty decent compromise. Okay, okay. Take your kids, leave your animals. You know. Moses could've said, this is a good deal. Let's get out while we're ahead. I mean, he's telling us we can go. We just have to leave our animals. But I love what Moses says to Pharaoh. Verse 26. No, Pharaoh, not a hoof will be left behind. Why would Pharaoh even want the animals? Because he knew if there was something left in the land it would keep them potentially coming back to the land. But here's what Moses says, no, you can't have our animals. You can't have our kids. You can't have anything. We are leaving lock, stock and barrel. And we need to say the same thing to the devil. Here's the deal, devil. Listen very carefully. You get nothing. You get zero. You get zip. You get nada. You've ripped me off. You've taken advantage of me. You ruined my life for years. And you've ruined the lives of people I know. And I am giving you nothing, there's no compromise. Good bye. And you turn your back on him and follow the Lord and you'll never regret it. That's the way to live for Christ.

I said earlier, you don't to be born again to enter God's kingdom. You see, this is why we're searching in life for meaning and purpose. Tom Brady is gonna play today. Pretty much the best quarterback in history. Probably gonna break more records. Inflated or not inflated, the guy's awesome, come on. Incredible quarterback no matter who you're rooting for. And you know, with all these Superbowl rings, I just looked at that ring. And that by the way was an amazing ring. I was very tempted to steal that ring. But considering he played for the Rams and he could hurt me, I decided not to. And also there's a commandment that says thou shall not steal, so I... Don't take it. But it was nice.

Now Tom Brady, he has four Superbowl rings. That's a lot. Win another potentially. Maybe, maybe not. But you know, you'd think that'd make you happy. If I had all those rings, if I had all that fame, if I had a beautiful model wife at my side, I know I would be happy. If only I were Tom Brady, some would say. But he was interviewed. And he says, why do I have these Superbowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? Maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it's gotta be more than this. I mean, this isn't what it all is, this isn't what it's cracked up to be. Wow. So the interviewer said, well, what's the answer? Brady responds, I wish I knew. I love playing football, I love being a quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there's a lot of parts about me that I'm trying to find.

No, Tom, you don't need to find parts about you. Here's what you're looking for. You're looking for Jesus Christ. He is the answer that you're looking for. The answer that Frank Carrel found. He's got Christ and a Superbowl ring, that's super cool. And that really sums it up perfectly. When you follow Jesus, he fills the void in your life. You have the hope of heaven. And you find what you were always looking for. When you reject Jesus, and have a hard heart, you walk through life with emptiness and guilt. And then you face a certain judgment, what a rip off. It's time for you to make a change. You decide if your heart will be soft or hard. We're gonna close now in prayer. And I'm gonna extend an invitation for you to break free from the power of the devil. An invitation for you to have Christ and take residence in your heart. And invitation for you to know with certainty that you will go to heaven when you die. Let's all bow our heads.

Father, thank you for your Word and now I pray for any person here, any person watching, who does not yet know you. Help them to see need for Jesus. And help them to come to you and believe now. We ask this in your name.

Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and we're praying together. How many of you would say, Greg, I need my sin forgiven. I want this relationship with God you've been talking about, I wanna go to heaven when I die. I wanna find fulfillment and purpose. I don't wanna be under the control of the devil one more day. I'm ready to say yes to Jesus. If you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna go to heaven when you die, wherever you are, I want you to lift your hand up. And I'm gonna pray for you. Lift your hand up if you want Christ to come into your life today. Lift it up high where I can see it. God bless you. Wherever you're sitting, lift your hand up. God Bless. Anybody else? God Bless you, God Bless you.

You that are watching on the screens right now, raise your hand up. I know I can't see you there, that doesn't matter. This is between you and the Lord. You're saying yes I wanna be born again. I wanna go to heaven. I wanna find the meaning and purpose of life you've been talking about with Jesus. Pray for me. Raise your hand up and let me pray for you. God Bless you. Wherever you are, raise your hand. Anybody else? Raise your hand now, God Bless. You that have raised your hand, I want you to stand to your feet right now. And I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. Just stand up. If you raised your hand, even if you did not raise your hand, but you want Jesus to come into your life today and forgive you of your sin. I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. Wherever you are, if you're watching the screen, stand up. And we're gonna pray this prayer together. God will hear this prayer. Anybody else? Stand now. I'll wait one more moment. You wanna make this commitment to Jesus. You want him to forgive you of your sins, stand up. And I'll lead you into prayer. God Bless you that are standing. You that are standing, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Again, as I pray, pray this out loud. Right where you stand. Pray this now.

Lord Jesus. I know I'm a sinner. But I know you're the Savior. Who died on the cross for my sin. And rose again from the dead. Jesus come into my life. I choose to follow you. From this moment forward. Thank you for accepting me. And forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.