 Hey, man, so Exodus chapter 8, we're going to start there this evening. We're going to look at this story of Moses dealing with Pharaoh this morning and talking about how Moses is trying to... What is Moses asking Pharaoh for here to just kind of recap the pretext of the story? Remember, you know, he's trying to get the people away from Egypt, but remember back in Exodus chapter 5, Moses is actually asking a very specific thing. He never really goes to Pharaoh and says, we just want to leave forever. He goes to Pharaoh and he says, we want to go and sacrifice to the Lord. He's like, I want to take all of the people and I want to go three days' journey away from you and sacrifice to our Lord. And this is the big debate that causes the ten plagues that God sends upon Pharaoh and Egypt is this idea of letting the people go three days' journey to sacrifice to the Lord. So, we go out in Exodus chapter 5 that Moses first asked this question and then Pharaoh actually punishes them. Pharaoh punishes the people by saying, you know, not only am I not going to let you go, but apparently if you're thinking you can come and ask these favors of me, I'm going to make your lives harder. So what he does is he says, you know, what are they doing? They're slaves, they're servants and they're making bricks. So they have to mix straw with this clay and instead of Egyptians providing the straw, instead he says, you have to provide your own straw and make the bricks so they're much less productive because now they're trying to find straw and get the bricks and then the people end up getting beaten by the Egyptians. So Moses comes in Exodus chapter 5 and things get significantly worse for the children of Israel in captivity. But then it starts into these plagues that God sends upon Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt. The ten plagues, you know, we have the first starts out the things that have happened so far before Exodus chapter 8 as the river is turned to blood. Then of course we saw the frogs, the lice. The significance of the lice is that every single plague that Moses is calling, you know, God is causing to happen to the Egyptians. The magicians are able to like recreate it, right? They're doing their trickery and their magic tricks and they're able to kind of turn water to blood, you know, they're able to recreate the frogs. But the lice, they're like, we don't know how to make lice. So they couldn't come up with trickery to do this. That's why in Exodus 8 you see that they tell Pharaoh, this is the hand of God, right? So here we see the stubbornness of Pharaoh when even the magicians are like, I don't know how he's doing this. You know, Pharaoh still hardens his heart. Then of course we have the flies, the death of the livestock, the boils, the hail, the locust, the darkness, and finally the death of the first born in Israel, which is the tenth plague. But we find ourselves here in Exodus chapter 8 at this fourth plague of flies, all right? So the point of the sermon this morning and the title of the sermon this morning is I want to show you how Pharaoh, before he just lets the people go finally, Pharaoh offers three compromises to Moses. And I want to show you as an example these compromises that Pharaoh offers are the same compromises that Christians struggle with today. You talk about the Bible just applying to us. We're going to look at these three compromises of Pharaoh this morning and then we're going to apply them to us and our lives and see what we can come from this. So Exodus chapter 8, you know, in Exodus chapter 8 we're going to really be in Exodus chapter 8 and Exodus chapter 9 looking at these compromises this morning, but we're going to look at the three compromises of Pharaoh this morning. We're going to look at how those compromises are many times the same compromises that plague the Christian today. And look at how we can avoid those compromises in our lives. All right? Talk about, I mean, a book that can be written that can just apply to anybody and everybody always. And I'm going to show you that this morning. You know, why are these stories in the Bible? Well, they're four examples for us. They're examples so we can see the power of God and examples so we can learn and apply these things to our Christian life so we can run this race successfully. All right? Look at Exodus chapter 8 in verse number 25. Pharaoh is amazing. Pharaoh is an amazing person in the Bible. By amazing, maybe terrific or whatever you could say. He's off in a league by his own. I'm not saying amazing in a good way. He is just, he is very special. He's very special. And you're going to start to see that in this story. So after the flies, imagine, after, you know, the river, I mean, look, the river has already turned to blood. You know, we've already had, you know, the frogs that we just read about in Exodus chapter 8, you know, this plague of frogs. Look, I had personally been through a plague of frogs, by the way. I have experienced this. There was one year, the very first year, when we were out on the farm, there's many waters, holes and sloughs around the farm. It was a wetlands type area. And for some reason, there was one year, the very first year we were on the farm that we moved to my grandparents' farm, there was the explosion of frogs. It was insane. My wife literally made reference to Exodus chapter 8 several times that summer. She was like, we're going through a plague of frogs. Like, I remember Garrett would get on the lawnmower and mow the lawn. And it was, he was on this riding lawnmower, mowing the lawn. It was just like frogs just shooting out of the lawnmower. I mean, it was crazy. You'd walk, after you mowed the lawn, you'd walk through the yard and it'd be like, oh, just like, torn up frogs everywhere. You know, sorry, kids. But it was like the lawnmower was just like, we didn't bag stuff, so the frogs would just shoot out. Like, they would shoot like 20 feet, just frogs like. And it did stink. It stunk. Then it would get hot and all the frogs' bodies, you know, it would all rot. It was disgusting. It was interesting though, because the next year, there was huge snakes. And that's just how, like, nature cycles work, right? That's how this creation works. Like, because there was so, the snakes did so well that you saw these garter snakes that were like four feet long. And it was just great because they just had all this food to eat during the plague of frogs. Okay? So anyway, all that to say that this must have been terrible. Frogs everywhere. I mean, I'm sure it was fun for the kids and the fishermen for the first couple of days. But other than that, it was just, you know, crazy, right? So Pharaoh is very stubborn. He's a very stubborn person. That doesn't faze him. Then we have the lice that happens. That's the first fail of the magicians. And then during the flies, during the flies, we see this happen. Look down at verse number 25. Now we have this plague of flies. And there's just flies everywhere. I can relate to this too, but I won't derail the sermon every single time. But there was just flies everywhere. And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, go ye sacrifice to your God and the land. So now he kind of, it looks like he's giving in. He's saying, hey, just go. And Moses said, it is not. He's like, here's what he says. He says, go ye sacrifice to your God and the land. So he doesn't want him to leave. He's just like, just do your sacrifices, is what Pharaoh was saying. And Moses said it is not meat to do so. He's like, that's not good enough. For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will not stone us. He's like, the Egyptians are going to be all offended. They're going to be mad that we're sacrificing to the Lord. He said in Moses, he's basically saying no to Pharaoh to his suggestion. He's saying in verse 27, we will go three days journey into the wilderness and to sacrifice to the Lord our God as he shall command us. Look at verse number 28. This is the key verse for point number one. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go. That ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. Now underline, if you write in your Bible, underline this phrase right here. Only ye shall not go very far away in treat for me. And Moses said, behold, I go out from thee and will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people tomorrow. But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. Again, Moses says, no, you have to let us go where we want to go as far as we want to go. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people that remain not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time. Also, neither would he let the people go. Look at verse 28. The first compromise that Pharaoh offers Moses and the people is, hey, go sacrifice, but just don't go too far. This is the first compromise that Pharaoh offers to Moses. And you know what? Moses rightfully says, no, I know where I'm supposed to go and that's where we're going to go. That's why the plagues don't end at the flies. There's more plagues coming. Why? Because Moses would not take this compromise. And look, I'm telling you, this is a compromise in the Christian life. This is a compromise in the Christian life. You say, what do you mean? The compromise of stopping short in your Christian life. Of you know where God wants you to go, but you're just not willing to go that far. You know where you're supposed to go, but you're not going to, look, you're not going to go that far. People do this all the time. People do this all the time in the Christian life, especially at a church where the whole Bible is preached. Look, I mean the whole thing is preached. The entire Bible. I just had this conversation with somebody yesterday. We don't take the Bible and say, I like this part, but I don't like this part. And I don't like this part, but I like this part. No, we don't do that. We take the whole thing. And in our Christian life, when we read the Bible, we must take the whole thing. The word is Jesus. We don't. And you come here and you're like, here's what people will do though. You're like, I love this preaching. I love hard preaching from the Bible. It's great. It's awesome. It's not boring. It's not boring. You know, you go to, you know, I mean, I just heard this last week too, out soul winning. You know, we just go to this church and, you know, the bridge or the whatever it was, this church is like, they just say nothing. They go there and they just, they, they, they say the sermons and it's just like, but then you look at, what did they just say? And it's like, they said nothing. So you come to a church where the Bible is preached the whole thing. You know what that means though? If the whole Bible is preached, that means that you may come to church and 80% of the time or 90% of the time, you're like, yeah, get them. Yeah, agree, all that. But you know what? You will reach something that hits you. The Bible will get you. There will be sermons where you walk away and you feel like somebody just knocked you upside the head. And that is when you cannot stop short. That is when you will be tempted to stop short. That is when you'll be tempted to say, yeah, like most of the preaching, but you know, that part right there, I just don't want to go that far in my Christian life. And look, you harden up against the Lord just as Pharaoh hardened up against Moses. It's exactly the same thing. That's why you see these compromises in the Bible from this king, from this man. It applies exactly to us. Let me give you some common examples of this. Just some common examples in the Christian life that you will see about this. How about this? Staying in a place that has no good church. You're like, I know what a good church is. I have YouTube. I know what a pastor sounds like that literally preaches the whole Bible. I know what that sounds like. I like that. But staying in a place. But I'm just not going to go as far as God wants me to go, literally in that case. Look, and here's the thing. I'm a hardliner on this one. I'm a hardliner on this one because I do not believe that it is healthy for your spiritual life to stay in a church that you do not agree with. I do not believe that's healthy. I do not believe that that's healthy to be like, well, you know, I'm going to go soul winning on my own and maybe I can convince this pastor that doesn't like to go soul winning, but maybe I can convince him to let me go soul winning. And all this, I'm not for that. I understand that I differ a little bit. I'm a little bit more of a hardliner on this one than even many of my friends. Because here's the thing. You have the ability to move. This is America, Jack. Nobody's like saying you can't cross state lines. There's no show me your papers here. You can move wherever you want to go. It is damaging. It is damaging to, I mean, you can kind of become a church sociopath to a degree where you can train yourself to never really be satisfied in a church. Then what happens when you actually get into a church that is correct? If that ever happens, look, you may just train yourself to find, I mean, you will find people that just can't be happy in any church. Because they have trained themselves to find something wrong with every church, every pastor, whatever. Here's the thing, and we heard this Friday night. Churches are filled with people. Churches are filled with people, and people have problems. Churches are led by pastors. Guess what? I am not without sin. Guess what? I am not going to judge every situation exactly perfectly, especially according to how everyone thinks it should be judged. I mean, I may make mistakes running a church. I mean, there may be situations. Look, you know, going into the ministry before I even started going into the ministry, I just kind of felt like I had a decent sense of judgment. But let me tell you something. You get some weird situations to deal with as a pastor. And, you know, it's kind of just like, well, you kind of really have to refer to the Bible and hope you make the right call in certain scenarios. But a pastor is human. There's going to be a problem with every single pastor. And you could literally train yourself and your family to not be satisfied in any church. But here's ultimately why I'm really a hardliner on if you don't have a good church in your area, you literally should move. Here's the big reason. What about the next generation? What about them? That was honestly the one question that I could not answer. When I was in North Dakota and I was like, well, you know, instead of uprooting my whole life and throwing everything to the wind, you know what I could do? I could put aside some money. I could put aside some things. And we could visit California. We could visit Arizona two, three times, maybe even four times a year. I could put, I could just change my life to a degree and really set aside some things. And we could go and we could visit these places several times a year. And, but you know what? I would just be a perpetual visitor. That's all I would ever be. But you know what ultimately it came down to? There was no answer for my kids. Who are my kids gonna marry? What kind of example are my kids going to take into their Christian lives? There's no answer. There is no answer for the next generation unless you actually go. Don't stop short on that one and go to where God wants you to be. There's no answer. How about this one? Here's another one. Here's another one. I'll give you just, I mean I could go all day on this one. But look, here's another one. Raising kids. Raising kids. If you are in a church that is preaching the whole Bible about how children should be raised, there is going to be some places that God needs you to go that you are probably not there. You are probably not at. Look, the Bible way of raising children is a lot of work. And it is going to require a lot of sacrifice. And when you start going down that road to raise kids according to what the Bible says, there's gonna be a lot of social societal pressure on you. Many times, this one thing is what will literally put people against you. As you start to say, you know what? I'm taking my family in this direction. My family, my wife, my children, we're going this way and you know what? We're gonna go. That, you're gonna get a lot of resistance to that because the vast majority of people are not doing it. You know what? I'm gonna live on one income. That's a real thing that needs to be traveled to. That's a real sacrifice. You know what? My wife, she's gonna be a keeper at home. People will come after you for that decision. People will attack you for that decision. But you know what? There's real life change required there. Turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 25. This is one of those areas where following the Bible, I hate to break it to you folks, following the Bible may not make you the most amount of money. This is one of those areas. Turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 25. Look, you will be tempted to stop short. You will be tempted as you see that, you know what? This is gonna take more than just going to church. This is gonna take more. I'm gonna have to change my family. I'm gonna change the dynamics of how I actually lead my home. Look, people are gonna stop short. They're gonna be tempted to stop short because they don't wanna go that far. They don't wanna make those actual changes in their life. Turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 25. What is the context of this story? The context of this story is that Amaziah is gathering Judah together for war against the Edomites. There's war coming to him. He knows there's a fight coming. So what does he do? What does he do? He's like, there's a fight coming. I know how many people are coming to fight me. I need help. What does he do? So he goes and he hires help. Look at verse number 5 of 2 Chronicles, chapter 25. It says, moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together and made them captains over thousands, captains over hundreds according to the houses of their fathers throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from 20 years old and above and found them 300,000 choice men able to go forth to war that can handle spear and shield. Look at verse number 6. He's like, he knows how many he has. He's like, I need more. And then he hired 100,000 mighty men of valor out of Israel. So now, remember, we're dealing with the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. There are two different nations at this point. The northern kingdom of Israel went wicked right away. So these are wicked people. These are wicked people. He hires a bunch of mercenaries to help them out in this coming war with the Edomites. He hired them out of Israel for 100 talents of silver. I mean, it seems smart. It seems smart. He wants to have a bigger army, a bigger force. He wants to be stronger going into this fight that he knows is coming. Look at verse 7. There's even a man of God to him saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee. For the Lord is not with Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim. Ephraim is many times, you know, kind of encompasses the northern kingdom of Israel. So when they talk about the children of Ephraim, many times they're just talking about people in the northern kingdom, all right? So the man of God, the prophet comes to him and says, God doesn't want these people fighting with you. But if that will go, do it. Be strong for the battle. It's still the man of God speaking here, O king. Let not the army of Israel go with thee. I'm sorry. Be strong for the battle. God shall make thee fall before the enemy. For God has power to help and to cast down. So the man of God basically tells him like, hey, if you're not going to listen to me, go ahead and go. You're all going to die. You're going to lose. With these 100,000 men from Ephraim, from Israel that you've hired. Amaziah, he's a logical person. He's a logical person. He's a thinker. He's a planner. Look at this. He said unto the man of God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I gave to the army of Israel? He's already spent all this money to hire this 100,000 people and the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. See, this is what people miss, especially when it comes to, you know, am I going to take this leap of faith and raise my family this way? Am I going to take this leap of faith and have my wife not go out into the world and make money and use her career? The point that people miss is it's not the money. It's not the resources. You need God on your side. That is the difference. It's like the difference of salvation. I mean, there's no works involved. It's John 3 we're going to look at it. The only difference is somebody goes to heaven, is one not believed and one did believe. The difference between winning in battle is whether or not God is on your side, not how much money you have, not how much people you have. The difference is God, somebody that has a wife that has a college degree, just as an example. And they're like, well man my wife can't waste her her college degree. First of all, everybody wastes their college degree. You know what the stats are on this? It varies depending on what you look at it, you can't waste their college degree. It's something like 27% of people are using their college degree. I'm not saying you can't go to college and get a job in that degree, but the vast majority of people have just been ripped off. That's it. It's like one of the biggest scams in America today. So this idea like, oh she needs to use her college degree. The vast majority of people that have college degrees are using it. Not for the Lord but just in general. The point is, don't make bad decisions to prop up past bad decisions. That's what this is teaching us here. So you have to take that step of faith you have to go and just do what God wants you to do, because it's not important how much money is going to be put over here and how much we need for this. What is important is if God is with you or if he's not with you. And if God is not with you just like the man of God told Amaziah it doesn't matter how many resources you have. The key to success is getting right with what God wants you to do in the Bible. This is the key to everything you're going to hear from the Bible is just following through on what the Bible wants you to do. That's step one. Then you have God with you. Because you don't figure out, look this used to be me. This used to be me in my 20's and early 30's. I had every plan in the world. I had it all figured out. It all figured out. And I'm just beating my head against the wall. I'm just spinning my wheels spinning my wheels spinning my wheels because it wasn't doing what God wanted me to do. It wasn't in the will of the Lord. You're praying for something. You need to get in the will of the Lord. Step one. Get in the will of the Lord and then if God's with you there is no limits. But what about forget about all that? God is able to give the victory. The difference is whether he's with you or not. You're like, I don't know how the plan would work out. You're here as Pastor Anderson said. God is here. You don't have to work the plan out. Just do what he tells you to do. His ways are so much higher than our ways. You'll have to look back and see how he did it. You'll have to look back and say, oh yeah, I didn't see that. Of course you didn't because you're here and he's here. But the key is to have him on your side. Here's another one. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. What you have to ask yourself when you stiffen up against the word of God and say, you know what? I'm not going to go that far. And then refuse and then refuse to go as far as he wants you to go. You just have to ask yourself you know, why am I stiffening up against this? Do I not have the faith that his higher ways can get me to where I need to be? By the way, most of the ways that God has for us as in this example are for our own good anyway. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Most of the time we stop short. It is to our immediate detriment anyway. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse number 18. The Bible says fornication is a perfect example of this. Flea fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. He that committed fornication sineth against his own body. People are like, you know what, this is such a common sin today. People could hear preaching against this and be like, you know what, I'm just not going to go that far though. That's just too much. I'm not going to stop fornicating because everybody fornicates. But here's the thing, you're literally, God is for you and you're against yourself is what the Bible is saying. If that is you. So look, just to make this first point, people use this compromise all the time. And if you're in a church where the whole Bible is preached, you will be tempted with this compromise at some point, for sure. This can end people's Christian life. This can end people's Christian life They hear things preached and they stiffen up against the Word of God and finally they stiffen up against the Word of God They get bitter against the Word of God They get bitter against a church that tells them the truth. They get bitter against a pastor that actually loves them that actually cares about them. You know what's the church that says nothing, they hate you. The church that stands up and preach is nothing, it hates their congregation. That's why many times, you know, after I ask people, you know, people have gone to church 20 years to a church and they don't know how to go to heaven. And then they get saved. You know what, I'll tell them, I'll say, you know what, you've been in that church for 20 years and they didn't even tell you how to get to heaven. I mean, I don't take it this far, but you know what, I'm thinking that church hates you. Why would you go to a church that hates you? But you can't stop short. If you want to be successful in your Christian life, you want to be successful in a church that preaches the Bible that has hard preaching and you love 80% of the sermons, 90% of the sermons, but certain things come up and they kick you in the head like a mule and you're stiffen up against it, you got to stop doing that and you got to go the whole way, even when it's uncomfortable. If it's in the Bible, don't stop short. Turn to Exodus, chapter 10. I mean, if you're trying to stay, you know, you don't want to go that far, that means you're trying to stay closer to something. Closer to what? Closer to who? If you find something in the Bible that hits you and you're like, you know what? I don't want to go that far. What are you trying to stay close to? Maybe ask yourself that question. Maybe it's not like, hey, I don't want to go that far. Maybe the answer to your question is, what am I trying to stay close to? And I can tell you, it's not a good thing if it's stopping you from going where you need to go, according to the Bible. Go to Exodus, chapter 10. Let's look at the second compromise. The second compromise. Look at Exodus, chapter 10. Look at verse number 7. So now we've had the livestock die. We've had the boils. Think about how terrible this must be. We've had the hail happen. And now we've got the locust. Like grasshopper, like massive grasshoppers everywhere. You know, massive. I mean, you know, in the 80s, in North Dakota, I can still remember, we kind of had a plague of locusts. There was a big drought and there was locusts everywhere. It's crazy. They jump on you. Who's ever had a grasshopper land on them? It's just like, they kind of like grab you and they get this stuff coming out of their mouth. It's disgusting. This is terrible stuff that has happened. And, I mean, just think about all these plagues that have happened so far. We've got these locusts covering the land. Even the people at this point in Egypt are like, what in the world, let's get rid of these people? But Pharaoh, I told you he's special. I told you he's amazing in this sense. Look at Exodus, chapter 10 and verse number 7 as locusts are just covering the land. The Bible says in Pharaoh's servant said unto him, how long shall this man be a snare on us? Let the men go. That they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not that Egypt is destroyed? They're saying to Pharaoh, the whole nation is destroyed. What are you doing? Let him go. Get rid of these people. Look at verse 8. He's stubborn. He's stubborn. This is why God used him. This is why God put Pharaoh in this role. Because he's such a great example of the power of the Lord. Look at verse 8. And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh and he said unto them, go serve the Lord your God. Pharaoh said unto him. So Pharaoh's speaking now. Go serve the Lord your God, but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old, our sons and our daughters, our flocks with our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And Moses says, everybody's going. Who's going? Everybody. And he said unto them, let the Lord, Pharaoh again talking, let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones, look to it, for evil is before you. Not so, go now ye that are men and serve the Lord. For ye, for that, ye did desire and they were driven from Pharaoh's presence. So what does Pharaoh say in verse 11? He offers the second compromise. You know what he says? He's like, only take the men. Pharaoh's second compromise is this, don't take everyone with you. Just have the men go. And of course he's thinking, he doesn't want the people to all escape. He wants them to have a reason to come back. So what does he say? He offers the second compromise. He first offered the compromise of don't go that far, stop short. The second compromise he offers is, leave some people behind. Don't take everyone with you. How does that apply to us? I'm going to give you three examples, three ways that that applies to us. Literally it applies to us by leaving those that we love behind. It applies to us by leaving those that we love behind. And who should we love? We should be out there and we should be loving the community. We should be loving to even people that are not saved in the world. We're not to love reprobates and wicked people, but the vast majority of people in the world we should be loving to. We heard on Friday night. So how do people, people that are saved but don't go and tell anyone how to be saved they're leaving all those people behind. They're leaving all of those people behind. I mean turn to Psalm 96, I'll just read for you, go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost. We're supposed to be going out and bringing everyone we can with us. You're going to Psalm 96, Acts 1, 8 but you should receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You should be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. We're supposed to go and take all these people that we can with us. We're not supposed to leave these people back in spiritual Egypt. Look at Psalm 96 in verse number 3. Look at one from the Old Testament. The Bible says declare his glory among the heathen. His wonders among all the people. So look, people that are saved and just do not act upon these commands to go out and preach the gospel to the lost. They're compromising in their Christian life. The second compromise of Pharaoh. Why? Because they're leaving the heathen behind. They have an attitude towards the heathen saying, you know what? They're the heathen. I got mine and they're just going off by themselves. They're just going off by themselves. How about our own loved ones? You say, yeah, but I would never leave my family behind though. How about this? Living a hypocritical life. Living a hypocritical life will leave your family behind. If you don't, turn to Psalm 145. If you don't live your faith, that's exactly what you were doing. If you don't live your faith and have works that go along with your faith, you're not going to become unsaved, but you're going to leave your family behind. Because the hypocrite, you know, this is why, I believe this is why God made kids hypocrite detectors. Kids that are 3 and 4 years old are hypocrite detectors. Well, but dad, what are you talking about? That's why I just saw you doing that. And then, sooner or later, when they get older, they'll stop telling you that they see that you're a hypocrite. They'll just know though. And what will you do? You will spiritually leave them behind. I don't want to have works. I don't need to go to church. I'm saved. But when it comes to you trying to explain to your children how this is the simplest way you leave them behind. When it comes to you opening a Bible and as you never go to church, you don't care about the Bible. Then you're going to open the Bible and show your kids how to get saved. They're going to laugh in your face. You're going to leave them behind. Look at Psalm 145, verse number 4. You can leave those that you love behind. The Bible says, one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. What is the next generation going to praise about you? What is the next generation if you have no, you know, people of your faith, if people can't see your faith, you're going to leave all these people behind. There'll be nothing for them to see. This is getting saved and having no works. It's not a good plan. You say, yeah, but they're here with me, they live with me in the house, and I'm not leaving anyone behind. I support my family and they live with me. You're spiritually abandoning them is what you're doing. You are spiritually leaving them. Turn to Psalm 78. Here's the third way. You can abandon those that you love. You can leave them behind if you don't teach your faith. So the first one is if, you know, the first one is just not preaching the gospel to anyone, not having a burden to show people how to get to heaven. The second one is literally, you know, just not living your faith at all. And the people that are closest to you will be hurt the most by that. And the third one is not teaching your faith. You don't have to live your faith. You have to teach it to those that you love. Look at Psalm 78. It says, we will not hide them from their children. Look at this. Showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord. And his strength and his wonderful works that he had done. We need, if we want everyone that we love and everyone especially closest to us, our children, our family, our wives, if we want them to come with us out of Egypt, we need to show them the things of the Lord. We need to show it, but you show nothing. But then you're leaving them in Egypt. You're leaving them. You have your salvation. You have everything that you need. But you're leaving them behind if you show them nothing. A lot of people don't realize that they're leaving their family behind, their loved ones behind if they're not doing the things that God needs them to do. If you stop short, you're going to end up leaving people behind. If you stop short in your life and you're not living that faith that God wants you to live, you may not realize it, but one day you will. When they are way back there and you are over here. When you're off three days away, it will get more and more obvious as they get further and further away. You know what? There may be time if you've left them behind where you can't go back and get them. You can't go back and get them to where they need to be. You need to just take them with you. You need to just take them with you. Go back to Exodus chapter 10. So don't leave anybody behind. That's the second compromise that Pharaoh offered to Moses. That's a compromise that Satan is going to offer to you. It's a compromise that Satan is going to offer to you to try to get you out of this life, to try to get you out of church, to try to get you out of serving the Lord, try to get you out of teaching the Bible and raising your kids according to the Bible. So what? Because Satan wants you to leave the next generation behind. He can't get you to not be saved, but he can get you to walk off by yourself and leave everybody else. Look at Exodus chapter 10 and look at verse number 22. What's the third one? The third one. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven. There was a thick darkness on the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called on to Moses and said, here's the third compromise. He says, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we sacrifice unto the Lord your God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not and hoof be left behind. For therefore we must take to serve the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. So in verse number 24, Pharaoh says, just leave your flocks and your herds behind. But what were they going out in the wilderness to do? They were going out in the wilderness to sacrifice. So here's the third offering that Pharaoh gives as compromise. He's like, you know what? Go serve the Lord, but just don't sacrifice too much. What's the application? Well I'm going to serve the Lord, but I just don't want it to cost me anything. I'm going to serve the Lord as long as I don't have to sacrifice anything. People do this all the time too. Let me tell you something. The Christian life is going to cost you something. If you're going to follow, if you're going to not stop short, you're like, I'm not going to stop short. I'm going to take everybody with you, with me. I'm not going to leave anyone behind. I'm going to live my faith. It's going to cost you something. You say cost me what? Whatever you're not willing to pay. That's what it's going to cost you. That's how Satan operates. How am I supposed to win? How am I supposed to win this Christian pastor that I'm going to be living this Christian life and I could want to do what the Bible says and I can have this desire and that Satan is going to find out what I'm not willing to pay and that's what he's going to put in front of me that is going to cost me my Christian life. How am I supposed to get about that? Well here's the answer. The answer is a mindset. The answer is a mindset. I'll use myself as an example here again. Moving from North Dakota to California, I just decided that it's just going to cost me everything. I'm talking about material things. This is a material example but there's more than material examples. I figured I sat down and I tried to do all the math and I tried to do all this stuff and I'm like I guess I'm just going to start over from zero and that's what I was willing to pay everything. God didn't require it but I was ready. That is the mindset that you have to have in this Christian life because whatever you are not willing to pay that is what will be put in front of you. What are your idols is the question. Because whatever your idol is that's what will be put in front of you. That is also what God will be trying to destroy. Think about that one because God doesn't want you to have idols. So you better figure out what these things are in your life. Do this thought experiment about what in my life would get me to stop. What in my life would I if I had to sacrifice that if I had to give that up I would stop. That is the choice that you will be faced with. Satan knows what they are. God knows what they are and that's where you will be stopped. Third Exodus chapter 9. You have to do that thought experiment and figure out what those idols are in your life and you need to get rid of them. Those idols could be people in your family I'm not talking about getting rid of people in your family. I'm talking about removing them from that pedestal as an idol. God needs to be on the throne in your life. Do not put somebody else something else on that top throne in your life because that's what will be used to get you and that's what God is going to be trying to knock off so he can get himself back up on the throne because guess what whatever you're putting on the throne is not on the throne God is on the throne and God needs to be there in your life or you will be tripped up in this Christian life. So look turn to Exodus chapter 9 let me show you something verse number 13 Exodus chapter 9 look at verse number 13 the Bible says and you know God used Pharaoh. God is explaining that he used Pharaoh as an example to show his power to show how powerful he is. Look at verse number 13 the Lord sent unto Moses rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say unto him thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews let my people go that they may serve me for I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people this is what Moses is supposed to say that why that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth God is saying I'm going to use this super powerful super stubborn man this especially stubborn and especially powerful man Pharaoh was the last person in the entire nation to get it he was literally the last person in the nation millions of people to say I should let him go all the people had gotten it to this point but God is saying I'm using this special man how powerful I am for now I will stretch out my hand and I might smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou should be cut off from the earth and in a very deed for this cause have I raised thee up isn't that interesting he's saying that's why I chose you to be king this is why God picked this special man for it to show in thee my power and that in my name made to be declared throughout all the earth and isn't that what happened by the way isn't that what happened when they went to the promised land what were those people fearing in the promised land you know what they were fearing you know what Rahab told them in Jericho you know what she told them these people are terrified because they heard what God did to Pharaoh all the heathen nations as they went decades later into battle feared the children of Israel because of how powerful their God is they never said you have this many people they said no no no we all know what happened to Pharaoh we all know how powerful and how stubborn he was and how your God destroyed him and that's what God is explaining but you know what Pharaoh also shows us he's also a great example for us to show us these common compromises that we have in our Christian lives we don't want to go the distance we don't want to go the distance in our Christian lives we want to stop short we don't want to take everybody with us we just want to serve ourselves that's why every skin that is just self-focused just literally just harms so many people around you because you're leaving people behind and you know what we just don't want to sacrifice anything this is why God says that there should be nothing in your life at Luke 14 I believe he's like you should hate your mother and father what in the world but then he explains it and he says what does that mean I should hate my mother and father nobody explains it a little bit further and he says you should hate your own life he's not talking about hating your life and committing suicide he's talking about nothing should be on that pedestal other than the Lord Jesus Christ and if something else is on that pedestal that's what's going to get you you got to put yourself in a mindset where you're willing to go the whole way you got to get yourself in this Christian life where you're living this Christian life or you're going to leave people behind you're like yeah but I don't care about the what about your kids though what about your kids I'm not going to go that far you're going to leave people behind and 20 years you're going to remember this I guarantee it go the whole way and nothing should be able to stop it you need to put yourself in that mindset that this is what I'm doing this is where I'm going this is who I'm bringing with me and I don't care what it cost me if it cost me everything including my life the Bible says that's quite a mindset but these are the compromises that will get you in this Christian life as you become more and more effective in this Christian life these decisions will be put in front of you 100% I guarantee say why are you telling me this so you're not offended when those times come and you're ready for it don't compromise anything be ready for everything and if you have to sacrifice something you already have the mindset like hey I'm willing to sacrifice everything Jesus is on the pedestal we know what's right we know where we're supposed to go and nothing should stop us let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer