All right. Well, hey guys, welcome this morning. Hey, at all of our locations, I'm going to call for our awesome volunteers to take up of our tithes and offerings now. Man, if you guys are new to Mercy Hill, I want you to know we put a big emphasis on giving in this church because it fuels the mission and it forms the heart of the believer. When we do this and open our hands with one of those things that can be an incredible idol in our life, money, man, it opens us up for God to do a lot of other things in our life. I pray that you guys will jump into giving. You can give in three different ways at Mercy Hill.
So I hope you can jump into that. If you are newer, you might say, well, it takes, you know, it takes a while to jump into giving and I don't know about that. And that's really true, y'all. The rule of thumb in churches is that when someone starts coming to a church, I know we have a lot of new people here across our campuses as well.
It can take like six to 10 months for people to want to jump into giving. And I'm here to tell you, we don't have that long to wait. Okay, we got way too much ministry to happen. And we got way too many things that are going on. So we say all the time at Mercy Hill, man, don't get on the merry-go-round without pushing.
And what I mean by that, just so you'll know when I say that, this is what that means. When I was a kid, the pinnacle of the recess playground was the merry-go-round, okay, the rusty, sharp death trap of an awesome machine for kids, okay. It was the merry-go-round. And of course, the entire point of the merry-go-round is to see if you can get it going fast enough so that you can throw other kids off, right. I don't even know if they do that now because, you know, little Johnny skin his knee. And then you got to fill out an incident report, okay, or whatever.
So I mean, it's a whole different world. But what you guys understand what I mean, you jump on the merry-go-round. If a lot of people get on, but they refuse to push, what happens?
It slows way down. And so man, if you're getting in, great. We're awesome. We're excited you're here. Jump in.
But man, don't be one who gets on the bus without wanting to push. Okay. And so I hope you guys will take that in the spirit in which I mean it. And man, I just it's going to be incredible thing for you to jump into giving as well.
Right. Exodus chapter 10 is where we're going to be today. Y'all, I'm excited about today's message. I'll be honest with you.
It's a bit of a sledgehammer. And so and that's been that way for me from my heart. I mean this, I want this to hit our elders, the hardest and cascade down group leaders and people in leadership at Mercy, our staff. My point in saying that is every one of us probably has areas in our life today that we need to hear this.
I know that I do. It's a hard message, but it's a good message. We came here to grow. Part of growing is hearing the hard stuff. It's hearing the truth. It's repenting. And that's what today is going to be.
Here's the big idea of the message today. Negotiating is not obeying. Negotiating with God is not the same thing as obeying.
God calls us to give up firstfruits. A tithe is sort of the bottom of that. Many of us say, well, I'm not going to do that, but I'll at least tip you. That's a negotiation. I'll tip God week in and week out.
Man, I'm not going to marry an unbeliever, but I'll sure date one. It's a negotiation. It's us saying, God, I'm not going to go all the way, but I'm also not going to go none of the way. I'm going to kind of stay in this weird middle, right on the fence, and I'm going to kind of deal and cut deals and negotiate with you.
What we're going to see today is that that is not obedience. Negotiation is not obedience. I know you can read books on negotiation. I have. I've read multiple.
I actually enjoy them. Many companies have a lot of training around negotiation for sales and whatnot, obviously. I think that all you need to know about negotiation, you can learn from watching a toddler when their parents say it's time to go to bed. Is that not right?
About everything you need to learn, you can learn right there. We have a daughter in our home. She's not a toddler, but she kind of functions a little bit like a toddler, Faith Ann. She has Down syndrome. She doesn't speak. It's so funny to me how someone that is nonverbal, can negotiate with the best of them.
She can negotiate, manipulate. Faith Ann, it's time to go to bed. She's saying, I want milk. Here's some milk.
I need music. I want my guitar. Now I need daddy time. Let's do that. Now I need mommy time. Now what? Now I need to eat. Now what? Now I need some ice cream. Now what?
It's funny. When she runs out, you know what she does? I need some more milk.
We go all the way back to the beginning. What's good for her is to sleep. That's what she needs. Our kids, they need it more than just about anything. They need that in their body.
They need it to grow. She needs sleep, but she doesn't want that. She doesn't want what we want. She wants what she wants.
When she realizes, okay, but you're stronger than me. I'm going to negotiate this. I want this to happen on my terms.
Many of us are in that boat right now. We're negotiating something before the Lord. What we're saying is, I'm coming to church.
I'm sort of doing the thing. I'm not going to be known. I'm not going to get all the way in. I'll go to a group, but I'm not going to get baptized.
Nobody knows I'm not baptized. God, here's the deal. God, I'll give you a little bit. You give me a little bit. I'll give you a little bit.
I'll go to group, but you've got to give me a little bit and get off my back about being baptized. You understand? It's almost obeying. Almost obeying has a name.
It's called disobeying. What we want to talk about today is how the almost obedience of Pharaoh ends up leading him all the way down into the final plague and ultimately into the Red Sea. We have a chance today to wake up from that, y'all.
It's hard. This is a sledgehammer of a sermon. It is, okay, for all of us, but man, it's so good because God is compassionate and kind.
He wants us to wake up. Look at Exodus chapter 10, verse 21. Then the Lord says to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt. Listen, a darkness to be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. Hey, not four days, not two days, but for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
How crazy is this, man? Darkness falls. Now, you could be looking over the kingdom.
There's some light over there where the Israelites are, but everywhere else is a darkness that the Bible says can be felt. Now, I don't know about you, but the funny thing is I mentioned, hey, these plagues, they get worse as they go, right? I mentioned that last week, but if you're like me with our modern bias, you're like, well, why is darkness worse than frogs? I mean, eating a sandwich and finding out there was a frog in it is pretty bad, okay?
That seems almost worse to me. Here's why, y'all, we live in a modern time where projectile light is a thing, okay? Imagine going to the ancient world where nobody can project light of any kind. I mean, all you have for light is a lamp or a fire or something like that. You don't have the ability to get light out and light up the darkness. There's nothing more terrifying than true darkness, especially when you're thinking about, man, is the sun even gonna come up? I mean, if you're the Egyptians, it's like, hey, the greatest god is Ra, and now he's like hiding, and he's not even coming up, and if the sun don't come up, we all die. There is no way to get around that.
Because the animals can't, the plants can't. Like, there's a lot going on here that I wanna try to get you to feel, but we have this modern bias of projectile light, and so we don't feel it the way the ancient world would have felt it. I know for me, if you guys come to my house at about eight o'clock every other night for the last two weeks, okay, here's what you're gonna find. Me and the boys are armed to the teeth, okay? I'm in the ATV, I'm driving, Benaiah's job is the spotlight, he's spotlighting, and AP's got the shotgun, and we're going after the skunk that came up in my yard and sprayed my dog. You come up and spray my dog in my own yard, and we're coming for you. And that's what we're doing. And it's so funny to me, right, because, I mean, I'm driving, he's shining, he can shine that light 100 yards.
And you can see anything that's there. I'm trying to get you to see, this is a world where that's not a thing. All of a sudden, the sun not coming up one day is a really, really scary big deal. You know what it did?
What did it say? The Bible says that it did two things to the people. It immobilized them, and it isolated them. They weren't able to rise, they didn't go anywhere, and they couldn't even see each other. And that's what darkness does, doesn't it?
It immobilizes us. I don't know where to turn. I don't know where to go. I'm scared to take a step. Should I go this way?
Should I go that way? We all of a sudden become the person in the book of Proverbs. What does Proverbs say? People are stumbling around in the darkness, tripping over what they know not. Can't see, man.
I don't know where to go. Second thing is it isolates us. You know, I don't want to talk to you about what's going on in my life, because there's this darkness that's felt over me.
I mean, look what it says in verse 21. It is a darkness, there may be a darkness over the land, a darkness to be felt. I mean, what does that mean? Well, people say, well, it means that it's so dark that people are felt feeling around.
They're groping around, literally. They can't, some people say, no, what felt means is that they're this darkness was like, imagine the sand and the dunes kind of all of a sudden blocking out the sun in Egypt, and now that hot sand, burning sand is all over you. It's like you're in the movie Dune or something, you know? And maybe that's what's going on.
I don't know. But either way, there is this physical darkness that can be felt. And what I want to tell you today is, man, that that darkness and darkness is always this way in the scripture. It is always meant to push us to the greater spiritual darkness and the application that we are seeking.
And that's what we're supposed to see. Because the spiritual darkness is so evident when you think about it like this. Okay, there is God and his people, and what's happening with them?
Light. And then there is the Egyptians who are walking in rebellion and trying to negotiate their obedience before God. And what is there? It is a darkness to be felt. And here's what I want to tell you today, y'all, negotiated obedience will always bring a darkness that can be felt.
In your life. And some of us are there right now. You're like, man, you're walking, you're heading towards a divorce, you're refusing to confess a sin.
Maybe it's pornography. There is uncontrolled anger in the home. And this is to be felt. Man, the darkness, the isolation, the immobilization. Some of you are beginning to look down that long tunnel. And you've been in the darkest places of depression. Maybe that's, maybe that's something physical. Maybe it's something that's out of your control. Maybe it's a consequence of continued negotiated obedience.
That is disobedience. And you're eating the fruit of that tree that you have planted, and you're beginning to look down that long corridor today. Maybe you're, you don't see that flickering light at the end of the tunnel anymore.
I don't know. Maybe you're starting to think things are hopeless. You have got to hear this today. Y'all, there is a God who saw the great darkness and in it shined a great light. In the felt darkness and continue to negotiate my obedience, or I walk into the light.
First John one five tells us God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Maybe you feel hopeless today. I want to tell you there is a light there is a hope.
Maybe you're walking toward one of these things I mentioned in sin and there's a felt darkness. There is a light there is a hope. And I prayed today that you will wake up. This is my prayer. My prayer for our message today. We're starting with our leaders. Starting with the ones that are elders, community group leaders, people who serve, volunteer, flooded altars to say God, where are the areas in my life that are negotiated obedience? And I want to give you why we sing this song.
This stuff is all put together every week for a reason. I surrender. I surrender, right that we go fully into obedience. Well, let's see what Pharaoh is going to do. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, go serve the Lord. go with you now that was that's a concession because if you've been reading this like in your quiet times that was one of the bargaining chips that he had used before but then he says this only let your flocks and your herds remain behind but Moses said no you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God our livestock also must go with us not a hoof shall be left behind for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there now this is what Moses says this is very important because our greater Moses will say the same thing about us we're not compromising with the Exodus we will all go we will not lose a one we will get out and all of us will get out and every bit of us will get out you don't leave stuff behind that's what Moses is saying to him here now you know it's Pharaoh I think it's starting to wake up all right it's like well this is you know the reason I say that is he doesn't try to get his magicians to to conjure up darkness I think he's starting to realize at this point like okay you know we've now gone after the God of Ra who all of a sudden Yahweh can just say the Sun doesn't come up today well that's different you know that's a little different even than the other things that we've seen and so he is like okay fine I'm gonna let you go but I'm gonna do it on my terms and I'm gonna get something in exchange and I'm gonna make sure that I have negotiated my best possible deal and that's what he's doing at the heart of it he is cutting a deal maybe he wants the Hebrews eventually to come back and get their stuff so he can enslave them again maybe maybe he just wants payment hey you guys are gonna leave I need your stuff so that I can have payment for my slaves being gone I don't know but either way it's a deal that he's trying to cut I get it in my head this is what I can't understand about Pharaoh until I realize we do the same thing it's like he's trying to haggle with God at a flea market or something I love flea markets okay I don't know if you do the cool some of the craziest things I have ever seen in my entire life have been in flea markets in Florida okay you know I'm walking out by the flea market one time when I was in high school this dude if I'm lying I'm dying this dude's got a Florida panther chained up in the back of his truck you could take a picture with it for five bucks do you have any idea how illegal that is okay I took Pastor Bobby and Pastor Jeremy okay Jeremy's now a church planter in Halifax Nova Scotia but these the three of our families planted Mercy Hill together we were the kind of leaders at the very beginning now Jeremy's gone but Pastor Bobby's still here I took them to a flea market in Waldo now what everybody's gonna say is where's Waldo don't fall for that okay don't fall for that Waldo Florida all right and and I'm walking through I mean I could tell you the stories about you know they had never really especially Jeremy Jeremy's from up north okay he was like dude this is this is crazy all right and so we're walking by one of the things we saw though that I'll never forget there's a dude that's got a wolf on a leash okay he's walking him around and and we're like you know and the guy is so the guy is selling if I'm lying I'm dying organic wolf repellent because we all need that right we all need that in the truck right and so he asked us if we would like to see a demonstration of the wolf repellent organic wolf repellent and we're like well yeah okay I'll definitely want to see it who doesn't want to see that he goes to spray his own wolf with it now I didn't realize that was about what was gonna happen but he had the thing turn the wrong way and he sprayed pastor Jeremy right in the face I'm talking up in his nose mouth coughing snotting the whole thing all right I mean you don't get that anywhere else but out of flea market okay so it's awesome but here's what here's what I get in my head Pharaoh it's like Pharaoh is trying to barter with God over a pair of fake Ray bans not understanding no this is the god of the universe who really could have jumped all the way to the end of this story but as we see in Exodus 9 he is doing something for his own glory that his name will be proclaimed thousands of years later like we're doing right now like we're doing today he's writing this story in the way that he wants now the way I want to apply this is just and this is the whole y'all this is a heartbeat of the sermon okay we think I know I do as prideful as I am I think how in the world could just see nine plagues and still try to negotiate with God and then I think to myself well wait a minute I'm a Christian which means I believe this is this is what it means to be a believer okay I believe that God created this world for his glory and in sin we broke it and to fix it what God has done is sent his son a member of the Trinity into this world to live as a human hundred percent God hundred percent man at the end of his life he took death on a cross because that's what I deserve and three days of darkness after that he burst forth into the light and in his resurrection I have the chance to walk in the newness of light now here's what we do here's what we all do if you're a Christian if you're not a Christian you know this is not exactly you yet okay but for a believer we say how in the world could Pharaoh see nine plagues and negotiate obedience let me ask you a question how in the world could we see the gospel and negotiate our obedience because we do man I know I do I mean think about it how many times do we want to negotiate rather than obey God I know the best thing for me is to listen to you you told me to go to bed but I need milk I need a song I need to do this on my terms okay let the people go but leave the flocks and leave the herds I'm not going I'm not saying no but I'm also not saying full surrender yes I'm gonna stay right here in my little Lane and I do it and you do it and today is a day we get a chance to repent of it all right I mean some of us it's like this there's a sin in your life that you keep babying instead of killing that's it man you know one of the older one of the old theologians either be killing it or it be killing you and we're not killing the sin you know instead we're kind of babying it we're negotiating with it we're playing with it well God I'm gonna stop doing this so much but I'm not gonna maybe in your home it's a sin of gossip and here's what you say you say man we gossip and we talk negative about people in church and people around us and leadership and all that but we're not gonna do it outside of our family but we're also not gonna kill it it's a negotiate it's negotiated man I'm gonna tip instead of time I'm not gonna get baptized but I will join a community group it you're a teenager and you're like well we're not going all the way that is pretty it's getting pretty it's getting pretty close honestly it's a lot more than I'd want to admit to anybody else you understand this is what we do we negotiate it's like a little bit of a give-and-take y'all my wife does great man she makes awesome meals for us and tries to keep our family healthy and clean and all that and then every once in a while a little cheat meal or whatever we can I come home the other night and she has made chicken Alfredo which we don't do this very much okay and I crushed it okay I mean I mean crushed it and and you know we have we have a motto we do like we say like hey everything you know all things in moderation that's kind of our motto there was nothing moderate about what I did to the chicken Alfredo okay you're laughing because you've been there at some point in your life right I'm being a little bit funny but honestly I mean something like that sinfully overeat all right I mean just don't care sinfully overeat what what is actually going on in that moment well I'll tell you what's going on for me I'm sitting there going well you know man I've been working out you know I'm gonna play basketball tomorrow you know I'm doing a whole I'm drinking enough water I'm doing the whole thing like God I'm I'm doing these things I'm doing these things to honor my body so how about this because I'm doing that tonight I'll just act as if my body is not a temple of the Holy Spirit of God when it comes to what I eat is it not negotiated obedience it's the same hey I'm doing this stuff so I'm gonna over here and that's what I want to get across to us today y'all our God is compassionate and merciful and loving and my prayer is in that compassion love and mercy he's gonna take his finger the Holy Spirit of God and put it on a place in our heart today where we have the chance to say that is where I'm negotiating rather than surrendering and obeying now before we get to that that's I want to I want to camp on that that is the crux of the whole sermon I want to I want to just stay on that but I do need to depart for one minute here because I want to address a theological issue that I said I would last week and it comes up right here but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart some of you have questions about this what does it mean that God would harden someone's heart what does that mean for freedom and does that mean how can he be held accountable and all this stuff okay let's get into that and he would not let them go then Pharaoh said to him get away from me take care never to see my face again for on that day you see my face you shall die no Pharaoh on that day when you see Moses your son will have died that's the end of negotiated obedience eventually is a felt darkness that is so deep and on that day you will continue in this way until you're at the bottom of the Red Sea and and that's what felt darkness is one day it's felt all the way into hell itself Moses said as you say I will not see your face again look at verse 27 with me again but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and we know that he also judged Pharaoh for this and many of us have questions around this okay we think to ourselves okay the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart that's big sovereignty of God he moves things around however he wants but then we also understand there seems like a freedom element in the scripture because what did I read last week about Pharaoh who hardened Pharaoh's heart last week it was Pharaoh so on one hand the Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart on another hand last week Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh's heart and how are we supposed to make that work well here's what I want to tell you today okay it's this idea of God's sovereignty versus our responsibility and here's what Christians do and this drives me absolutely nuts Christians want to line up on one side of this or the other and fight about it rather than marvel over it rather than say God these are what this is one of those things as Deuteronomy 29 29 says that belong it's a secret thing and it belongs to you and I'm Marvel over it how you can be sovereign and yet we can have accountability and freedom and some kind of way that works out listen I'm not saying don't have a leaning all right people have leanings on this stuff man you lean war way more sovereignty or you lean way more accountability man we have people on our staff our elders that are gonna lean one way or the other on this that's fine have your leaning don't hold it over somebody else instead take a humble posture in the way that you view these things I try to take a humble posture with this stuff man when these things are this deep in scripture when you can read one scripture and it says God hardened his heart and another scripture that says Pharaoh hardened his heart and you count both of them to be true I realize I'm in pretty deep water and I take a humble position towards that okay because here's the deal God is a God who deals with sovereignty and responsibility our God hung the stars in the sky and I know I can't figure out how to get the subtitles out of Chinese on my smart TV there's a pretty big gap is what I'm saying I'm not saying don't have a leaning but what I am saying is don't hold it over somebody else and when Christians want to line up and fight about this stuff man it's sinful it's wrong it hurts people listen my wife the church she grew up in her entire life was split in half over some people that came into the church and began to teach one side of this over the others and began to have secret meetings and began to try to rally people to their side and people begin to argue with each other and it split the church and I wonder how many students could have been hurt by that process watching the adults in the church act that way and my prayer is that we at Mercy Hill would have such a different posture around this kind of thing that we would say man we're gonna marvel over this and we're gonna learn to agree to disagree if you have a leaning in this area but what we're not gonna do is line up and fight about it and here's why because we have way too many children to see get saved and baptized in this church we have way too many addictions to be broken marriages to be restored missionaries to be sent churches to be planted way more kids that need to be fostered and adopted we got way too much ministry in front of us to slow down and fight about something we should marvel over and so that's my prayer here hey have a leaning but here's the deal at the end of the day at the end of the day Exodus 9 16 says this but for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh's heart God hardened Pharaoh's heart in the end here's what we agree on it was all that God's name would be proclaimed in all the earth that he's doing some things for his own glory and man that's a position that I'm gonna fall into and trust okay I pray that you will as well but let hey but let's get back to this obedience things I don't want to let any of us off the hook me included choose full obedience today this is what we're after today not negotiated then we're talking about a full surrender we're not negotiating obedience here's what we're saying today almost obeying is disobeying almost obedience has a name it's disobedience so where in your life are you almost obeying today man on the college campus you're thinking to yourself maybe your Clifton or high point today and you're thinking to yourself man I'm not getting like blackout drunk every night but I'm pretty buzzed and I'm not 21 I mean it's it's what we think is we're negotiating no we're sinning it's it's it's not almost obeying it's disobeying like I said with teenagers we're not we're not you know we're not going all the way but we're getting pretty close I'm not gonna tie but I'm gonna tip I'm gonna be in a group but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get baptized I don't know what in your life you know God might be putting his finger on today but my prayer is that you would come with a posture of full surrender what we want is what David said in Psalm 139 God search me know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there's any grievous way in me and lead me in your way everlasting so here's the question if God begins to reveal some things to you today what is your posture toward those things gonna be is your posture gonna be cut a deal or is your posture gonna be man put my face on the altar and pray a prayer of repentance and ask God to give me the courage to stand in newfound total surrender well I pray that's what you'll find today and the only way that you're gonna find that today is if we can find what Pharaoh missed through his entire interaction Pharaoh missed out on the fact that God was committed to his foot God was committed fully to the exodus of his people because he loved them he was not gonna leave them behind and my question for us is okay I know I need to surrender to God how do I get there this is how you get there in a gospel centered way you get your heart to remember how much God loves you and how much he was committed to your full exodus to not leave you in that slavery to sin and death to not leave you in our own Egypt but he was committed to pull you out even when we were sinful and rebellious against him think about this you have a God in heaven who knows every mistake you've ever made in your life he knows every failure and yet he still said no I'm not leaving any of you not you I'm not leaving you in Egypt I'm bringing all of you out every bit of you is coming out that's our opportunity today if you're a believer listen if you're not a believer then the answer today is very serious for you it's very serious you're negotiating obedience before God but that negotiated obedience means that you are left in the darkness a darkness that can be felt and a darkness that one day will result in hell for all of eternity you need to see today that Jesus Christ has done what is necessary to bring you into the light you need to admit your sin believe in what he has done and confess him as the Lord of your life but others of us man we have different things in our life that we're negotiating obedience around see the God who is committed to your full exodus and allow your heart to be warmed to him when you listen God sends Moses to the people and he says man I'm not leaving without a full exodus what did you what did God do for us he sent his own son to come to bring us out of the darkness you know Moses man it's great Moses calls down plagues from heaven y'all Jesus took the plagues Jesus felt the darkness of death for three days so that we could feel the light of life and if he did that for us it warms our heart to want to obey it warms us to say God what you want for me is the best thing and I want to walk in that so no excuses today all right what is the negotiated obedience what's God putting his finger on in your life in your heart today and will we come out of that fully and will we surrender father we come before you right now Lord across our church and I just pray that we'll have a powerful moment of surrender and obedience here today God you can move in such miraculous and powerful ways what I pray that you will convict us as your word says your spirit will convict us of sin and righteousness God do it for the sake of your great name and your glory in Christ's name we pray amen
