The Mighty Hand of God

Pharaoh was the leader of a nation, and his rebellion against God had far-reaching consequences for many people. Whether on a large scale or a smaller one, sin destroys. In this message, Dr. Stanley explores the Egyptian leader’s disobedience and talks about how important it is to identify our weaknesses and pursue genuine repentance—both as individuals and as a nation. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

God’s Messages

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

Sometimes we read the Bible and we know that this story is true, but somehow we don’t get the message very important.
You get the message of this passage of scripture because all of us could be guilty of doing the same thing that these Egyptians did.
And so when we look at this passage, do not look at it just as uh some historical fact.
But is God saying something to me, is there a pattern here that was found in the life of Pharaoh?
That could be a pattern I find in my own life.
So let me catch you up on where we are.
God spoke to Joseph who is in prison who interpreted it.
A dream ended up Pharaoh of Egypt freedom, took him his family of about 70 put him in, go in Egypt the best of the land and now almost 400 years have gone by.
So a number of pharaohs, this particular pharaoh looked around and thought those Israelites, those Hebrews are growing and growing and they’re probably somewhere around two million by now.
And uh they’re in the best of the land.
If we were to have an enemy, they may side up with their enemies.
So in order to prevent any problem here, I’m just gonna enslave that whole crowd.
And so he put Israel into enslavement, building him monuments to himself and so forth.
Well, somebody grew up in his family that is in the family of Pharaoh’s daughter and uh he happened to be a Hebrew.
He grew up and was educated in Pharaoh’s palace. Then he made a mistake.
He got banished on the other side of the desert.
And now God is speaking to his heart and as a burning bush, God gave him his next big task.
That is you to go back to Egypt. I’m gonna set my people free.
Now, naturally, Moses had lots of questions to ask. But the truth is that was his commandment.
So what we have here is God using Moses to work in the life of Pharaoh in a way that isn’t just something distant from the way you and I live, but it should be a lesson to us.
And so I want us to notice what’s happening. God says to him.
He said, um Lord said to Moses and when you go back to Egypt, uh see that you perform before Pharaoh, all the wonders which I put on your, in your power, I will harden his heart so that He will not let the people go.
Now, what kind of a command is that?
That doesn’t sound very fair, but God is not a matter of fair, not being fair.
That’s his command because he wanted to do something.
He wanted to subject Egypt the submission to Almighty God.
And to know that he’s the one true God. So that’s exactly what happens after us.
Moses and Aaron came and said, the pharaoh thus says, the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.
And so pharaoh said, who is this Lord? That I should obey his voice to let people go.
I do not know the Lord.
And besides, I will not let Israel go when I God knew that what was gonna happen.
In fact, God begins his work in Pharaoh’s life and begins his whole process of liberating the Jews.
That is Israel, the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage.
And what happens is that hearing this pharaoh increases their labor, causes them to make bricks without straw.
So everything is getting worse. And naturally Moses is not very popular for making this happen.
But God says four times in the sixth chapter, I am the Lord, I am the Lord, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. I’m gonna, I’m gonna fix all of this.
And so as a result, God begins to send pestilences, the word is uh that is he sends like an error on the Egyptians.
And so one by one, he begins to work in Pharaoh’s heart in order for him to let the people go and you and I know the end result is that they were released.
So I wanna notice what happens here.
And that is Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, here’s what God said, let my people go.
And um as a result, he naturally says, I’m not gonna let him go.
And so God says, all right, and what happens is God turns the waters of the Nile river to blood.
Now, the Nile was like a live stream for them. It was for food and for transportation.
And uh the Nile river they worshiped. And so here’s what he did.
He turned it into blood and the people had to dig around the edge of the river to find water to drink.
Seven days passed a after that and then God sent Moses back again, said, look, I want you to let my people go and if you’re not, uh here’s what you can expect.
And so they naturally said, no, I’m not letting them go.
So then that came this flock of frogs.
And so the Bible says that there were frogs come coming from everywhere, the people, everywhere they went.
Moses said that Allah is yours to tell me, when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people that the frogs be destroyed from you and your house.
And so what happens is frogs were everywhere. Can you imagine going to bed at night?
And all of a sudden you feel something down your feet then on your legs, frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs on the floor, frogs in the street, frogs, frogs, frogs everywhere.
And so what does Pharaoh do?
He calls for Moses and says, you know, get these critters out of here and I’ll let him go.
And what does he do? He decides not to now watch this, the lessons here about making a decision and then not keeping your word.
He says I will let them go get rid of the frogs.
I’ll let them go, but he didn’t let them go.
And so Moses had to confront him again in spite of all the things that were going on.
And so the next thing that happened was he sent nets and so all of a sudden all over Egypt nets just think about nats, all of you and this is what was happening.
It had to be so bad that even Pharaoh said, you know, they get rid of the nets and I’ll, I’ll let them go.
Well, he didn’t mean that. So over and over and over again.
God gives Pharaoh an opportunity to do the right thing, but Pharaoh does what a lot of people do.
They make God promises when they are really hurting badly and they keep them about two weeks, maybe a month.
Have you ever told God if he’d take the pressure off you? And here’s what you would do.
Did you ever make out a promise? Amen. Did you have a break? At saving.
That’s exactly right. And so that’s what Pharo did think about the pattern.
We followed the pattern of a pagan. We made promises to God and don’t keep them.
And so he’s confronted again with uh Moses Moses says, you gotta let my people go.
And so he says, uh I’m not gonna let him go.
And the Bible says, then he sends insects, all kinds of insects begin to penetrate all over Egypt.
And so what does he do? He and eggs again, he doesn’t let them go.
So they have a confrontation and then uh there are difficult problems coming because what happens?
He says, if you don’t let him go, I’m gonna kill all your livestock, all the Egyptian livestock gonna kill all of your cows, not you gonna have anything to eat, you’re gonna suffer the results.
And so watch this Pharaoh and his arrogance. He says, I’m not gonna do it.
And so they suffer the results.
Now, all the people in Egypt are suffering the results of all of these things as a result of one man’s decision that is to have his way to deny God his command and to deny God’s people their freedom.
Because what they asked Cape Pharaoh was we wanna, we wanna go for a season and uh uh worship and praise to God.
He won’t let them go. And so session after session with Pharaoh, they confront Pharaoh with the fact that he’s disobeying almighty God So then Moses confronts him again and says, God says, let his people go.
You’re gonna let them go or not. And the Bible says that God lets boils break out.
So all over Egypt, this is not just moms and dads and grandfathers but Children, everybody’s breaking out with boils.
So imagine what they’ve gone through by now.
And that is uh the water is turned to blood, got frogs and nets and insects and livestock and boils and still nothing’s happening.
And then of course, he’s confronted again.
And this time they hail storms, hail storms everywhere, which would beat down the crops and beat the animals, whatever.
It’s all a matter of devastation to say to Pharaoh let my people go.
Now, God knows he’s not going to, he knows he’s not going to.
And so he keeps giving him an opportunity and he keeps saying he will, but then he does not.
So then of course comes the grasshoppers and I think about, you know, grasshoppers everywhere, grasshoppers covered there, it’s covered everything.
Think of all the innocent people who are suffering because of one man’s decision.
And I think about sometimes how whole families suffer because either it’s just the dad or the mother or the son or the daughter.
It’s hard to disobey God privately.
It’s hard to disobey God alone because all of us have influenced our relationships in life or testimony and we disobey God it isn’t.
You may think it’s private but it’s not. And everybody in the family suffers when somebody disobeys God.
Well, here’s the head of Egypt pharaoh himself and he refuses to let God’s people go.
And so everybody suffers as a result. He’s made promise after promise, after promise.
And God knows that all these promises are gonna fall apart, that’s not gonna be true.
And then he comes to the last one I want to mention in this message and that is people wake up one morning and they think this is a long night and God has cast darkness all over Egypt except down in Goshen where God’s people are.
And it’s interesting what he says about it because it is so dark, listen to this um is so dark that when the people reached out to touch each other, they, they couldn’t, nobody could see anything.
Absolute total blackness, total darkness. Now, I would think of all the things that happened.
That would be one of the most frightening. Am I blind? Is this that I can’t see?
And then your husband or your wife, your Children, what’s wrong with it? We can’t see anything for three days.
Could nobody could see anything? Did he let them go? No, he did not.
And then of course, there’s one last one which I will not deal with today on purpose.
And so nine of these strikes, that’s what a plague was called. Have happened to all of Egypt.
Everybody has suffered except that band of Hebrews down in Goshen.
So let’s think about this for a moment when God confronts you with something or when He tells you something or you pray and you ask him about something and he’s required something of you.
Do you take that really seriously? Most people think?
Well, yeah, I did pray about it. I asked God to forgive me and on and on.
They had no intention of changing their activity, no intention of changing their behavior.
But they said, Lord, please forgive me in Jesus name, amen.
God knew that you did not mean to change or you may have had a momentary feeling where yes, I will change.
I, I I want things to get better but you don’t.
Is God showing us the fallacy of making promises to God.
We do not intend to keep or even if we intend to keep them, we don’t keep them.
In other words, let’s call it what it is willful, deliberate disobedience to God when he has made his way clear of what he’s required of me.
And it’s amazing how people think they can make promises to God and just move on and act like nothing ever happened.
Making a promise to God is serious business and we watch this happen all through these chapters.
Pharaoh is not going to live up to his promise because that’s his heart and God knows it.
What does it take to finally convince Pharaoh to let the people of God go a major, major, major challenge.
But the important thing is this, what’s our lesson here? What is God saying to us?
And I think probably all of us have said it some time. No. Yes Lord. Yes, sir.
Thank you very much and thank you for, for giving me. You can count on me, God.
And in our hearts, we might think we possibly would, but we’re not all that convinced, we’re gonna be obedient to Him.
How many times do we have to confess our sins before we are forgiven?
How many? Well, most people don’t know the answer to that.
If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But if my confession is only this deep God doesn’t, he didn’t recognize that if my confession is heart, deep, soul, deep spirit deep, that’s one thing.
But if I just say, well, you say, well, now this in the Bible, say confession means to agree with yes.
But if I really and truly agree with God, out of my heart, out of my spirit, out of my soul, genuinely confessing, genuinely agreeing with God, I am going to make a change in my conduct, in my conversation, my character if I really mean that.
So all of us make mistakes, all of us at times, probably something that’s maybe brief or not really a big serious kind of situation or circumstance.
So maybe so but whatever we ask God to forgive us for and we know in our heart, we just, we just, here’s what we want, we want relief for the moment.
And so I think many people find themselves in a lifestyle of sin who’ve been confessing it for years and years and years confessing the same thing.
Well, the Bible says, if we confess our sins, which means that we agree with Him about it, agreeing with him about it and changing it two different things.
And Moses confronted Pharaoh Pharaoh would finally have to agree and yet he had no intention of changing until the final and last plague.
And even then he did not change.
You said, why do you spend all that time on, on all of that?
For the simple reason, I think many people are living a life that they think is pretty good.
But the question is, what’s the condition of your heart?
That is when, when you uh by, by yourself, you’re alone and it’s just you and God, are you genuinely truthful with God when you deal with sin in your life?
When something comes along, you know that you have to deal with it, do you just make him a promise and, and claim the promise or do you really and truly deal with it?
If I deal with sin? That means not only am I gonna confess it, but I’m and I’m going to agree with him, but I’m gonna turn away from it.
I may falter, but I’m gonna turn away from it.
If my, if my confession is all that I do and I know in my heart, I’m gonna sin again.
I’m gonna do the same thing again.
Is it, is it acceptable to God to confess and to agree knowing in your heart?
It’s gonna be right back again.
Now, look at this when you see what God did to a whole nation of people, because they would not recognize Jehovah God as God would not free God’s people in order for God to accomplish his purpose.
He was willing to cause great harm, great suffering, great trial in order to accomplish his purpose.
When I look at this passage scripture, I think God, how much gospel have we heard in America?
Who in America wants to know the truth?
They can’t hear it, they can turn on the television or the radio. I go to church.
I talk to a Godly friend if they want to know.
And are we not slipping and deliberately walking in a direction as if we know what God said, we’ve had churches and gospel preaching all these years and we keep moving in the same way, same direction.
Will we move it in a direction to a point at which God says no more, no one has ever lived in a society like this.
And yet we are gradually drifting in our attitudes and things that we accept is ok deliberate willful disobedience to God.
That God is very clear in His word about thou shalt not attitudes, dress a whole moral fiber falling apart.
And we say that we’re Christians and we say we love God and it isn’t just lost people, but God’s people compromising their convictions and saying, well, you know, if I ask God to forgive me, I’m sure he will.
And I think about our whole nation where we are headed.
If ever we needed to be revived, a genuine revival, a whole new awakening in our nation.
This is the time we, when you, when you listen to all the people who are giving their speeches and all the things that they’re promising and all the rest you think, where are we headed?
We’re headed in the wrong direction.
We’re going to suffer the consequences for deliberately willfully disobeying God his ways, His commandments, his truth, his rules and His opportunities.
And so when I read these chapters, I, I can’t stop with just these chapters as far as the truth is concerned because the truth goes all the way through this book and whether it’s a nation or an individual sin against God has a penalty.
Now, I’ll say this briefly.
We are headed in a disastrous direction in the life of this nation.
Unless the people of God begin to pray and cry out to God.
But God to change people’s minds and attitudes.
So the principle is here, you obey God and be blessed.
You disobey God as a nation and you suffer the consequences.
All of Egypt suffered the consequences of their disobedience to Almighty God.
It’s a principle, not just a story, it isn’t just an event that happened years ago.
It is also a principle.
If a nation disobeys God turns, turns their back on God and I think about it, all the nations that have and God’s people are the key in this country.
God’s people like they’re not politicians. God’s people.
God knows how ignorant many people are, but he knows that all of us have heard the truth, heard the truth and heard the truth and heard the truth.
And our prayers must, our prayers must come not from here but from our heart and our prayers must be sincere asking God to awaken the minds and hearts of people.
I think it’s just time for us to wake up to realize there are alternatives.
They are choices, we make choices, we make as individuals, choices we make as a nation and we are headed in the direction in which we’re gonna have to make a big choice.
Will we continue to be blessed or will we choose?
They do something that would deepen our hearts, we know is not right, your family, your friends, your life, everything hangs in the balance of obedience to God.
May God grant us the wisdom to make the right wise choice, whatever that may be not what suits me, not what pleases me and not what profits me.
But Lord, what pleases you, what honors you. That’s what we want to do.
Father, we thank you for loving us, for giving us.
But God open the eyes of people all across this nation.
Let us not be as stubborn as pharaoh and suffer the results as they did.
But father let us be honest, obedient, submissive, committed to your will, standing for truth in spite of what the consequences may be and thought to help us, to be honest about what we know is right.
Your precious word is the God God. We pray in Jesus name.
Don’t give us what we deserve but turned the hearts of the leadership of this nation all across this nation, people all around this nation that we would ask, what is the wisest thing to do?
What is the will of Almighty God for our nation? And we pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.