God set up this whole rescue operation. In a way that would enable Moses and Pharaoh and the children of Israel and the rest of the world and you and me one day to see and know. who God really was. Thanks for joining us for the Summit Life podcast with Pastor JD Greer. We are just starting off 2026 together, and right now, you can download a thoughtfully curated set of powerful Bible verses to memorize in 2026.
These passages are organized to help you hide God's word in your heart, verses that speak of hope, courage, trust, and the promises of the gospel. This guide gives you a simple, year-long way to meditate on scripture regularly and grow in gospel confidence day by day. This resource is completely free. It's our gift to you. The easiest way to get it is by signing up for our weekly email newsletter at jdgreer.com, and you'll receive the download right away.
You'll also start receiving weekly encouragement from Pastor JD, including teaching links, other free resources, and ministry updates. Again, that free download. is available today at jdgreer.com.
Now let's get to our teaching. If we're obeying God, surely everything will fall into place, right? Today, Pastor JD shows us how Moses faced this very struggle in his first confrontation with Pharaoh. Let's tackle this big question together today on the program. If you got a Bible this morning, and I hope that you do, if you will meet me in Exodus 4, Exodus 4, today's message.
is for anybody who has ever felt like God called you to something. And you started doing it. only to find that everything got a lot harder once you started obeying. And you were like, God, what is going on? And this feels like the opposite of what was supposed to happen.
You were supposed to bless me when I started to obey you. You were supposed to make it easier for me, and it almost feels like you're. resisting me. I'm thinking of a guy at our church who in his 40s. A few years ago, it felt like God was calling him to resign his high-paying corporate job.
and move overseas with one of our church planting teams. Right after he did that, incredibly bold act of faith, his teenage son got diagnosed. with a genetic disorder that was going to require really expensive medical care. And he was like, really, God? Like now?
Right after I've resigned my comfortable, high-paying corporate job with this amazing medical plan, now is when this happens? We're a pastor friend in our summit collaborative that I spent some time with this week. who started leading his church into some bold new phases of ministry. And then He got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And then they found some irregularities in his eyes and then a neuropathy in his brainstem.
By the way, that all happened in the space of one week. All those things that I mentioned are serious, but the neuropathy issue was causing this stabbing pain to shoot through his head whenever his blood pressure rose. And so the doctor told him, he said, look, for the next several months, I need you to cut out any and all stress from your life. And my friend was like, uh. I mean, our church just took on these faith commitments and stress is part of the package.
He said, plus, I got a son that's just entering middle school and going through puberty. Saying don't get stressed is like telling somebody who's about to jump in the ocean not to get wet. But it left this pastor asking God seriously, why now? Why now? Have you ever felt that way?
You started to obey God, but instead of things getting easier, the path. Instead of opening up in front of you, it just got harder. Moses feels your pain. Pick me up in verse 21 of chapter 4. Moses has agreed to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh.
He's making preparations for the journey. Verse 21, and the Lord said to Moses, When you get back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I've put into your power. Watch this. But I will harden his heart.
So that he will not let the people go. Wait, what? The point here, God, is that I need you to soften his heart. not harden his heart.
So I need you to do the softening thing, not the hardening thing. Verse 24. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought him to put him to death. But that's a part of the story you didn't see coming? Then Zippodi Dudah, which was Moses' wife, took a Flint cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.
You're like, Can this passage get any weirder? Verse 27. Verse 26, so God let Moses live. It was then that Zippara said of Moses, You are a bridegroom of blood because of. the circumcision and all God's people said.
What? Right? How many of you have read that in the story and thought, what in the world? I was tempted to skip these verses and not even read them. In fact, most Bible teachers that I consulted do skip them.
But I know how you guys are, and I did not want to deal with all the accusations that I'm a wimpy pastor who skips all the hard stuff in the Bible. Plus, this little scene illustrates something that I explained to you the first week about the book of Exodus.
So just give me three minutes, okay? Three minutes for a quick detour, all right? You remember how I said that Exodus establishes the melody line of salvation, a melody you're going to hear played over and over again throughout the rest of Exodus and then also the rest of the Bible. Think of like you're going to see a play and you hear the score early and the opening credits, and then you're going to hear that repeated throughout the play. It kind of ties it together.
Well, that's what's happening here. In this story, Moses starts to follow God. But he fails to obey the Lord's instructions about circumcision. You see, in Genesis 17, God had established circumcision for the male as the sign of his covenant with Abraham. And God commanded that every male descendant of Abraham from that day forward should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth.
This was serious. God had said, Genesis 17, any uncircumcised male will be cut off from my people.
Well, up until this moment in Moses' life, until the burning bush, Moses had not really been obeying God. But all that changed at the burning bush, where he surrendered to God, and God had given him space to obey him, and Moses had ignored him. And obedience is a really big deal to God.
So God is coming literally to destroy Moses. Then Zippara, his wife, steps in, obeys in Moses' place, and then touches Moses' feet with the bloody. Orla is the Hebrew word for that. When we just use that word, that's less awkward. And God delivers Moses and does not destroy him.
We're going to see that melody line repeated again in the actual Passover. As they're leaving Egypt to follow God, they have to smear the blood of a sacrificed lamb on the doorpost of their houses so that the death angel who was coming down to strike Egypt's firstborn sons will not come into the Jewish houses and strike their firstborns because in truth, Israel was guilty of the same sins as the Egyptians. And it was only by putting the blood of a sacrificed lamb on the doorposts of their houses that they could be saved. Interestingly, the word touched right here in Hebrew in verse 25, where it says Zippara touched Moses' feet with her son's foreskin, that's the same word. used in Exodus 12 for how they applied the blood to the doorpost during the Passover.
It's one of the only times it's used in the Bible. It says they touched the doorpost with the blood of the Lamb. The author is drawing a direct parallel between these two things.
Now you say, okay, but look, I am just still so confused about circumcision, and this all seems gross. And I'm pretty sure I've never heard the word foreskin used in public. I get it. I get it. I share that because there is a melody being established.
In this quick little scene, God's people try to obey. And they can't, so somebody obeys in their place and then intercedes for them with a blood offering. The ultimate version of that melody line is going to be Jesus, who touches our hearts with his blood after he obeys in our place, since none of us obeys God sufficiently. Jesus is the truer and better Zipperah, obeying for us and then interceding on our behalf so that we can escape the curse of death. And when, what happens, y'all, when you get to the New Testament and you start reading it, is that you've got all these pictures in the Old Testament, dozens, hundreds of them, some you didn't even know about that Jesus suddenly steps into and fulfills perfectly.
As you encounter Jesus' life, you're like, that's it. That's that melody. That's that melody I've been hearing the whole time. It's him. He's the melody.
He's the one that is answering all these things that we've seen all these times.
Okay, let's keep reading because we can get back to the main point for today because that's not the main point. Chapter 5, verse 1. Afterwards Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Verse 2, but Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice and let Israel go.
I do not know the Lord. Moreover, I will not let Israel go. That question right there is the thesis for the next six chapters. Who is the Lord? And why should we obey him?
Now, watch this, verse 6. The same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen.
Some of you got nervous because you thought we're going to use that word again. Four men, okay?
Okay. And he said, verse 7: you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks. As in the past, let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall continue to impose that quota on them. The Israelites would be given a specific quota of bricks they had to make every day.
So when Moses made this request, Pharaoh was like, oh, you want to go in the wilderness to worship God? You must have a lot of extra time on your hands.
So from now on, I'm not going to give you straw to make the bricks. You're going to have to go gather that for yourselves, but you still got to keep up the same quota of bricks that you had to begin with. Israel's job was already hard enough. Moses has just made it a lot harder. This is going the opposite way of deliverance.
So verse 20, the Israelite leaders met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh. And they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge, because you've made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and all of his servants. You've put a sword in their hand to kill us. You've made things a lot harder.
So Moses turned to the Lord, verse 22, and said, Oh Lord, why are you doing? Why did you do evil to this people? Why did you even send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he's done evil to this people. Things haven't gotten easier.
They've gotten harder. You have not delivered up your people at all. There's that feeling I was talking about at the beginning. God, I said yes to obeying you. But instead of getting easier, you made stuff harder.
I'm doing what you asked me to do, and it seems like now you're doing the opposite. of what I'm asking you to do.
So what do you do? When you start obeying God, and instead of succeeding, You start failing. Instead of thriving. You start struggling. Y'all, I talk to lots of people who feel this way and they don't know what to do with that feeling.
And they definitely don't think they can talk about it in church. And if they do admit it in small group. They feel like they're suggesting that somehow Christianity doesn't work. Or Even worse for them, they're admitting something's fatally wrong with them and it's never going to work for them.
Something else happened in these initial encounters that made no sense. In Exodus 4, God had told Moses that. If Pharaoh were to ask Moses to prove that he was really from God, He should take the staff that he carried around like a you know think like a you know for leading sheep made out of wood, throw it down, and God would miraculously transform it into a snake. And when Moses picked it back up, it would turn back into a staff.
So sure enough, Exodus 7, Moses says to Pharaoh, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no way. And Moses says, Yahweh, and throws his staff on the ground. And it turns into a snake. But.
Instead of being impressed by this, Pharaoh summons one of his magicians who comes over and does the same thing. Scholars say it was likely a magic trick. Snake charming was a big deal in Egypt, and they could charm these snakes, they say, to make them really rigid so that they looked like a staff, like a stick. And when they threw them down, it would break the charm. The snake would just kind of slither off.
So Pharaoh mimics the miracle that Moses does, then he yawned. Is that what else you got, Moses? And Moses is like, ah. God, did I just get played? The plan was simple, God.
I throw down my staff, it becomes a snake. Right? Then Pharaoh is impressed by this and a little terrified, and he lets us go free. Very simple. I did my part, God, and it failed.
And it not just failed, it backfired. Instead of Pharaoh letting us go, he's making things harder for us. God, what are you doing? Again, have you been there? You start trying to obey God, and things with your kids get really difficult.
Where your marriage really starts to struggle. Or your health falls apart. Or you just meet obstacle after obstacle. Chapter 6, verse 1, but the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see. what I will do to Pharaoh.
For with a strong hand he will send them out. With a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. Verse 6: Say, therefore, to the people of Israel. I am the Lord. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them.
And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know, you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Here's the big idea of these chapters. God set up this whole rescue operation. In a way.
That would enable Moses. And Pharaoh and the children of Israel and the rest of the world, and you and me one day to see. And no who God really was. This whole deal was not just about getting Israel out of slavery. There are lots of ways God could have done that.
This whole deal is about letting people see and know who God really is. That is the point. of God's work in the world, all of it.
So what was it about God that he specifically wanted them to know? Yahweh wants them to know That he is, number one, the only God who can rescue. In order for them to really understand that God is the only Savior who can rescue, watch. God had to let Moses and Aaron fail a few times so that when it was all said and done, nobody would be in doubt as to who pulled this thing off. He didn't want Moses or Aaron taking any of the glory that belongs to him.
He didn't want anybody talking about how awesome they were, how brave they were when they stood up in front of Pharaoh, how amazing their speeches were, how cool their magic tricks were.
So he lets their first few attempts fail. Here's how Paul would say it about his own life in 2 Corinthians. We don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters. about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were out doing what God told us to do.
We were serving Him. He told us to go to Asia. We went there. We were under great pressure there, far beyond our ability to endure. In fact, it was so bad we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt like we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves. It all happened so that we would rely on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and we know because he did it once, he'll do it again.
So on him we set our hope, and on him we want you to set your hope that he will continue to deliver us.
Now look at those phrases. It was only when we experienced great pressure. Far beyond our ability to endure. When it was just like medium pressure within our ability to endure, well, that wasn't getting the point across. It had to get to the point that we were scared of life itself, like we'd received the sentence of death.
Only then could we learn to rely on a God who raises the dead, and only then could we testify to a God who raises the dead. Before we could demonstrate that the power to rescue and heal was in God alone, God had to establish thoroughly that the power was definitely not in us. Because no flesh listen No flesh will glory in his presence. Not mine? Not yours?
Not Billy Grahams? Not your godly grandmother? Nobody.
So he will let J.D. Greer fail.
So that your hope won't be in J.D. Greer, but in God. Does that make sense? Because Moses will let you down and J.D. Greer will let you down and your dad and your coach and your spouse and your friends or your godly grandmother will all let you down, but God never will.
So, God allows us to experience hardship and failure and struggle because he's trying to show you that he alone is the God who saves. He alone is the God with the power of resurrection. And he can't really show that until you feel like you despair of life and you're overwhelmed with the sentence of death. Number two. Yahweh wants them to know that he is, number two, the God of true freedom.
The plagues that Moses brought on Egypt were designed to show the kind of rescue that God alone could pull off. See, the plagues were not just glorified magic tricks that God did to get Pharaoh's attention. If all God was trying to do was get Pharaoh's attention, there were lots of ways he could have done that. I mean, Moses could have, you know, turned a couple of Egyptian soldiers into tiny green men and then squashed a couple of them and then put Pharaoh in a Darth Vader chokehold until he relented. That would have made the point that God had power.
But see, these plagues are entirely too systematic to be mere magic tricks. The plagues follow a progression. The Nile turns to blood. Frogs come out of the Nile. Then come the gnats, then come the dead cows.
Then comes the darkness. They represent an unraveling of creation. They're like the opposite of Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, God brings order out of chaos. Here in Exodus 6, with the plagues, order descends back into chaos.
It's the anti-creation. What God is demonstrating is that he's the kind of God where obedience to him brings life and freedom. And here's the thing. God couldn't teach that lesson unless he had the opportunity.
So Pharaoh's resistance to Moses provides that opportunity, which is why God let it get harder.
Okay, one more thing, number three. Yahweh wants them to know he is. The God who is greater than all other gods. Chapter 9, verse 14, God tells Pharaoh right before the last plague. This time.
I'm going to send all my plagues on you yourself.
So that you may know, Pharaoh, that there is none like me in all the earth. These plagues are also a systematic attack on Egypt's gods. You can just go through and kind of tick them off. Egypt worshiped the Nile, God turns it to blood. Egypt worships the frog, God covers the land with frogs.
Egypt worships the cow, God kills the cows. It was utter devastation on their gods.
Okay? Anybody? I'm totally on my game this morning. They worshipped the sun. God darkens it.
The plagues come to a climax in the final plague. With the killing of Pharaoh's son, because the Egyptian Pharaoh thought he was God, which made his son God's son. God eviscerates that claim and says, no, you are not, and no, he is not. See, God couldn't have shown that. unless Pharaoh had given him the opportunity.
In fact, there's a little scene tucked into Moses and Pharaoh's first encounter that is so next level savage. that I gotta point it out. Because it's easy to rewrite over top of it. When Pharaoh's magicians mimic Moses' miracle of his staff becoming a snake with their little charming technique. Chapter 7, verse 12 says that Moses and Aaron's snake goes over and literally swallows up Pharaoh's snake.
Which is next level savage Godflex, right? But nobody noticed it, because they're all focused on Moses and the controversy. Also, Pharaoh's headdress had that little snake on front of it, which denoted the goddess Wadjet. Another one of their deities.
So, Moses' snake eating up Pharaoh's snake was a pretty clear symbol. God was like, hey, pal, you're not the real king python here. I am. We'll see in order to show that. God had to have the opportunity.
Which brings us back to that statement in chapter four that I highlighted for you that was so confusing. Chapter 4, verse 21, God said to Moses, when you go back down to Egypt. See that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. And I'm doing that, God said. Watch so that I have the opportunity to show off some things about me that I won't be able to do unless he does harden his heart.
But see, I know that raises a couple of questions for you, doesn't it? First, you're like, well, how's that fair to Pharaoh? I mean, if God hardened Pharaoh's heart, how is it fair to punish Pharaoh for something God made him do? That's a great question. But If you read the story carefully.
You will see that God hardening Pharaoh's heart was merely a calcification of a decision Pharaoh had already made. You see, the first time this story tells us Pharaoh's heart was hardened. was Exodus 8.13 after plague number five. And here's what it says. But Pharaoh hardened his heart.
And would not listen to God. See that? Who's the subject here? Who hardened his heart? Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
It's only after Pharaoh hardens his own heart multiple times that God hardens it.
So, in other words, God simply solidified Pharaoh in a choice that he's already made. It's exactly what Romans 1 says. God gave a sinful generation over to its sinful desires. The sinful desires did not come from God. The sinful desires were already theirs.
God just solidified them in them. And y'all, listen, that is a scary thing. It is a scary thing that you can get to a point where God says, okay, you want to reject me again and again and again and again, then as you wish. It's like C.S. Lewis says: hell is simply God answering our prayers to get out of our lives and let us be in charge.
Hell is the answer, he said, to a life that's been lived saying to God, God, not your will, but mine be done. There's really only two prayers you can pray in life. Either you say to God, thy will be done, or He says to you, Thy will be done. Hell is a door, C.S. Lewis said, that's locked first from the inside.
It's a new year with new challenges and opportunities on the way. But how will this year truly look different from the last? Hearing God's Word daily in your heart just might be the answer. After all, the Bible encourages us to live in obedience, fight temptation, renew our minds, and conform more to the person of Christ. It also gives us the strength to share these same truths with those we love and be a light in a dark and confusing world.
Our world is filled with lies. Every day we are bombarded by false promises about what will make us happy, false hopes about what will bring us security. We need a weapon to fight back, and the best one available is God's Word. After all, the best way to confront a lie is to know the truth. The word of God is light.
It is life. It is salvation. It was by a word that Jesus gave sight to the blind, by a word that he healed the sick, by a word that he overcame temptation. It was by a word that Jesus was raised from the dead. By a word, God will destroy the works of the enemy and eventually make all things new.
The word and the word alone prepares us to stand up to every challenge we face with courage and certainty. The word is our life. If you want to carry God's promises in your heart in a new way this year, our new Summit Life Memory Verse cards make it easy to memorize scripture. You can keep these cards or share them with others. They're small enough to put on the fridge, stick in your wallet, or give away in a greeting card, place on a bulletin board or a mirror for daily encouragement.
They're an inspiring reminder that God is always with you. He is always enough, both now and in the days to come. Request your pack of cards when you give to support the Ministry of Summit Life. Give us a call at 866-335-5220. Or go to jdgreer.com and request this resource today.
But see, that leads to a second question. You say, but okay, but I think God should have shown Pharaoh compassion and changed his heart. And God could have done that. And yet he didn't. Because God sovereignly chose.
To use Pharaoh's rejection of him as a chance to display his glory. And so the Apostle Paul in Romans 9. referencing this very story of Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus 4. What Paul says in Romans 9, thinking that he tells us he's thinking about this story. He says, so then God has mercy on whomever he wills?
And he hardens him everywhere. In mercy, God wakes some people up out of their insanity. Others he leaves in it. And he's got a purpose for that. And that purpose is showing that he's the only God who saves.
He's the God of freedom. He's the only God worth serving. But it's not unfair. Because again, when God hardens somebody, he's simply solidifying them in a decision they've already made for themselves. There's just no way that we can say God is unfair when God has merely given us what we ask for.
The old Presbyterian pastor, Dee James Kennedy, down in Coral Gables, Florida, had a great illustration for this. He basically said this. He said, say I've got five friends, five people that are planning to hold up a bank. They're friends of mine. I find out about this and I'm like, this is so dumb.
So I go over to their house and I'm like, please do not do this. I beg with him, I plead with him, finally. They're so committed to robbing this bank, they shove me out of the way and they all head out.
So I tackle the weakest looking one of the five and I wrestle him to the ground and I pin him and I won't let him get up. The others go on out, they rob the bank, and in the process they kill a guard and two civilians, and then they're captured, they're tried and convicted, and they're sentenced to life in prison. The one man who was not involved in the robbery, this weak friend. The one I tackled. He never gets put on trial.
He never gets convicted. He goes totally free.
So Dee James Kennedy said, now I ask you this question. Whose fault was it that the other men were arrested and sentenced? Could they blame me for not stopping them? And this other man who is now walking around free, the one that I tackled, could he say, well, it was because my heart was so good and I resisted the temptation that my friends were going to go rob this bank. It's because I resisted the temptation that I am free.
No. The only reason that he is free is because of me. I restrained him. Dr. Kennedy says, so it is.
That those who go to hell have no one to blame but themselves? And those who go to heaven have no one to praise but Jesus Christ. Thus, we see that salvation is all of grace from its beginning. to its end. All of us, friend, listen.
Our hearts are bent against God. We're all Pharaoh. We are the robbers who want to do our own thing. And if God has arrested your heart and opened your eyes to see how foolish that is, so that you can see and appreciate the mercy of Christ. And if you love Jesus, friend, that's mercy.
That is pure, undeserved mercy. Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but the Father in heaven revealed that to you, because nobody can even say that Jesus is Lord except for the Holy Spirit. And it's God who works in you, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. God did not owe that awakening to you. You just need to receive it when He offers it and thank Him for it.
But for those Who don't wake up, it's not unfair. Because God's just giving them what they asked for. You say, but yeah, Jay, but I just think that God should show mercy to everybody. If I were God, that's what I would do. Paul anticipated your question.
He knew you were going to ask that.
So he said, This next in Romans 9. Let's keep reading in Romans 9. But who are you, old mere man, to talk back to God? Where's the universe you created?
Well, what does form say to the one who formed it? Why did you make me like this? Or has the potter no right over the clay to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor? Another for dishonor? Watch this.
This is Paul's reflection on Exodus 4. Watch. What if God wanting to display his wrath. and to make his power known. Endured with much patience objects of wrath that were prepared for destruction.
And what if, Paul says, what if he did this to make known, see that? The riches of his glory on objects of mercy. That's us that he prepared beforehand for glory. We've already established that it's not unfair what God did because Pharaoh's original choice was to reject God, and God just hardened him in that choice. He ratified what Pharaoh had chosen.
Now, Paul explains what God is really doing in salvation, what he's really after, and admittedly, all, listen, this is one of the hardest. but most important truths in the Bible to understand.
Okay. The ultimate end that God pursues in all things, including your salvation, is his glory. And by his glory, I mean the truth about who he actually is. Chabod in Hebrew. That's the word for glory, and it literally means wait.
God wants us to feel in our souls the weightiness of who he actually is. That's what he's doing all of this rescue thing for. It's why he set things up the way that he did. It's why he caused obstacles and difficulties along the way. He's showing that he's the only God who can save.
He's the only God who brings freedom. And he's the only God we're serving in life because the ultimate end that he's pursuing in all things, including salvation, is his glory. And maybe you resent that because you think, well, that just sounds self-centered of God. I mean, we don't like it when somebody else is self-centered like that, always directing the attention back to them. And I say, yes, but you're not God.
That's why you shouldn't do it. Think of it like this. Say I'm on a Delta cross-country flight. And a man suddenly clutches his chest and starts to hyperventilate and then passes out. Everybody starts freaking out.
Trying to figure out what to do.
Well, a man identifies himself as an emergency room trauma surgeon. And he immediately puts himself at the center of all the activity, and he has the audacity. To start directing people and demanding they do what he says. He's got the audacity to start barking orders at the flight attendants. and telling them to stay out of his way.
He's not doing that out of arrogance. He's doing that out of love. A world without God at the center is chaos. It's the plagues.
So God demands that he be at the center of our worship and our affections because he knows that's how we'll thrive. His demand to be at the center comes not from arrogance, it comes from love. And so we see, friend, time and time again in Scripture that God's objective in what He is doing on earth is displaying His glory, letting people see the truth about Him. It's why God made it hard for Moses and put obstacles in His way. Because it was all about giving God glory, letting people get a clear picture of who he actually was.
It's why your Christian life often feels hard. And why you're confused because you're trying to obey him, and things just keep getting more difficult. It all happens because his work in your life is not just about making things easier for you. His work is about helping you know him more and trust him more. It's about God glorifying himself through you, not only in your eyes, but in the eyes of others.
Have you gotten your mind around this yet? But the ultimate end that if everything God is doing is to glorify himself? He said, Well, wait a minute. I think you're reading an awful lot into this story, and I'm not sure what you're saying is right.
Okay. Walk with me for a minute through Scripture, will you? Why did God create us? Tell us, Prophet Isaiah. Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, whom I created.
For my glory. Why did God create the universe? Psalm 91 tells us, King David.
Well, the heavens declare the glory of God, that's why they exist. The whole universe declares the size and awesomeness of God. One of the things that fascinates me. is how fascinated we are with the idea of extraterrestrial life. There's got to be aliens out there somewhere, right?
And part of our reasoning Right? Part of our reasoning for that. Why they got to be out there is that this universe is just too big to be a habitation for little old us. But what if the reason for the universe, what if the reason it exists is not for us? What if it exists to proclaim God's glory?
If that's the purpose of the universe, well, it is probably just about the right size. Because now I look up at the sky and the heavens, and I'm like, that's not a little bitty god, that is an all-caps, L-O-R-D. Why did God rescue Israel from bondage in Egypt? Tell us, David, our fathers rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea, yet God saved them. For his name's sake.
That he might make known his mighty power. Why did God save him? For his name's sake. Why did God spare Israel again and again and again in the wilderness? Tell us, prophet Ezekiel, God says, I acted for the sake of my name.
That it should not be profane in the sight of the nation in whose sight I brought them out. That was the main thing that I was doing, and why I was concerned. Why did God bring back his people from exile? Tell us that, Ezekiel, Ezekiel 36. Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act.
I'm about to act for the sake of my holy name. Can you let that sink in for a minute? I'm not even doing this primarily for you. I'm going to vindicate the holiness of my great name, and the nations are going to know that I'm the Lord. Why did God save you and me?
Ephesians 1:11, in him we have obtained, Paul says, an inheritance, that we might be to the praise of his glory.
Something, what do we do when we come together and worship? Tell us again, David Psalm 96. When you come together and worship, you should ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. And you should worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. You should tremble before him.
I mean, as you tremble, you should say among the nations through your singing and through everything you're doing, you should declare the Lord reigns. You know what's supposed to be happening when we come together on the weekend? We're supposed to be ascribing to the Lord the glory to His name so that the nations will know how glorious He is, so that they will see His value from our worship. They will feel his weightiness from our joy because knowledge of God's glory. Seeing the truth about God, that is the most valuable thing in the universe, and it's what this whole ordeal is all about.
So people say to me, well, I don't really like to worship in church today. And I always say, well, it wasn't really for you. When we worship, I'm less concerned with whether I like the music and more concerned. With whether my worship is giving other people a picture of the majesty of God. And when you stand there.
When you come in late. And you stand there singing with a bored look on your face. I'm just not sure what you're telling people about the majesty of God. You say, well, the reason I'm late is because that parking lot.
Okay. Okay. That's fair. But. Some of you late, okay?
Just not our fault. What should we be doing? That's our agenda in every second of our lives. Paul says, I'll handle that one, whether for you eat or drink or whatever you do. Even something easy like eating rape, you should do that for the glory of God.
That's why you exist. What are we going to be doing for eternity? The Apostle John says, I'll take that one. The angels and the elders fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Blessing and glory. Wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever.
They were never in us, they were always in Him. You getting the point? God does it all for his glory, all of it. And the sooner you and I know that, the sooner we'll grasp what life is all about. And you might even start to understand a little bit.
Yeah. What God does or does or doesn't do certain things. And it might make a little bit of sense to you. I don't see you understand everything, but you at least understand the bigger picture of what's happening. By the way, understanding this is also where your joy is found.
That's why God insists on being at the same time. This is where joy is. Listen, ultimate joy is not found in a problem-free life. I know you think it is. Because you get up every day and work to create a problem-free life.
That's where you think joy is, but ultimate joy real joy Is not found in a land flowing with milk and honey. Real joy, God says, is found in seeing and knowing me clearly. That's the greatest joy in the universe, and it's worth all the paths of pain that you got to go down to get you there. When your soul sees God in His glory, your soul is going to have a fullness that it has not been able to experience in any other context.
So John Piper says. Open your eyes. Open your eyes, look above at the heavens. Don't you love it? You were made for this.
This is why we exist. We exist to see that. His glory in the heavens, His glory in salvation, His glory in His mighty works. He shouts at us to the billowing clouds. He shouts at us through the endless blue breadth of the summer sky.
He shouts at us with gold on the horizon in the morning and through the breathtaking expanse of galaxies and stars at nights and all these things. He is shouting, I am glorious. Everything is pointing to that. This world is all husk and ashes. Any glory that we thought was so attractive here.
simply existed to point us there. He God, he's where the real glory is. He God, He's the one that we long to see. He's the one that we long to behold. Whether you know this or not, your soul thirsts for God.
So what do the scriptures say? In your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
So, God, why? Why when I was trying to obey you? Why'd you make it hard?
Well, because I was trying to teach you.
Something about my glory. I was letting you experience the despair of death so that you would hope in the God of the resurrection. I was letting you see the faultiness of your wisdom so you would trust in mine. I was letting you taste the bitterness of I am not so you could know me as the I am. I was letting you wander so you'd know I was the way.
I was letting you suffer so that you would know I'm the life. And by the way, sometimes it wasn't even about you. It was about other people seeing me through you. I let you suffer so that through your joy and suffering, you could show them that I was a God better than health. You couldn't show them that by rejoicing in me when you were healthy because they just thought you were happy because you were healthy.
I had to make you sick so you could show them that you had a God that was better than health and better than riches and better than success. See, when you got joy in suffering, you're demonstrating to people the glory of God because why else would you be happy? I always love John Wesley's illustration here of the guy who's suddenly out of the blue gets informed that a relative he never even knew about. has died and left him in a state worth millions of dollars. All you've got to do is come to the bank and collect it.
So he makes the journey to go collect this incredible reward. this incredible inheritance and when he's about a half mile from the bank. His wagon breaks down. He doesn't get out of his wagon and kick it, you know, and start swearing at it and bemoan his broken wagon. No, John Wesley said.
He just skips with joy the rest of the way, leaving that wagon behind because what he's lost. does not compare to the treasure he's gained. The fact that he's so joyful, listen, even when his wagon broke down. Makes everybody wonder. Why is he so happy?
His wagon broke. I'd be mad if my wagon broke down. Why is he so happy? And that directs your attention to this treasure that he has just inherited. When you and I have joy, even when things are hard, when you and I have joy when things are going wrong.
When you have joy, when you're in pain, that directs people's attention to the treasure you have in God. Why are you so happy when all these things are going wrong in your life? Because I have Him. And he's better than all these empty husk and ashes. Or maybe God says, I'll let you struggle.
I even let you fail so that others would see the power within you.
So, their hope wouldn't be in you. I wanted them to see you struggle so that you could testify like Paul did. My hope's in God. That's why I got this thorn in the flesh because you weren't supposed to trust in me, supposed to trust in him.
So he let me experience the curse of death so he could demonstrate through me the power of resurrection.
Some at this building where we left off last week, didn't it? I can't give you my success. I can't give you my strengths. I can't give you my talents. There's not that many of them, anyway.
But what I can give you is my hope in God when I've struggled. I can give you that, I can give it to you every single week. What I can give you is his faithfulness when I failed. I can give you his strength when I felt weak. See, what you need in a pastor is not a model of perfection.
What you need is a broken sinner who can say, Hey, I've found the place where there's salvation and hope and wisdom, and that well is ready for you. You can go to it anytime you want.
So here's my question for you. Where are you struggling? Were you failing? And how might God be trying to glorify himself through that? Friend, will you let him?
Will you trust him? Will you trust? What God is doing in your life right now, even when you can't understand it? You know what? It doesn't take much faith to say to God, God, rescue me.
Right, I mean atheists pray that in foxholes. What takes faith? Listen. Is when God rescues you in a completely different way than you were expecting. That's what takes faith.
So, can you say to God, God, I trust, I trust that you're good.
So save me any way you want to. Can you pray that to him? Back to my pastor friend I told you about at the very beginning. who got diagnosed with four health problems in one week. just as he embarked on a new assignment.
He told me earlier this week. Here's how he ended his story to me. But JD, God is using this to make me a better leader. He's using this to force me to lean more on him. When I found out about these health challenges, I immediately prayed for healing.
I believed that God would give it. What I wanted was the zap of healing, you know, the zap, right? Oh, I'm healed, amen. But God has given me something better than a zap. And that is a season where I have to depend on him.
A season where I'm literally forced to let him carry the stress. And during which I can prove he is faithful, a season in which, when I take stress on myself, I literally get zapped. with a throb of pain. I wanted a zap of healing. And God took me through a process of healing, and the process is proving to be much more healing than the zap would have been.
I'm a better pastor now. I'm a better preacher. I'm a better counselor. I'm a better husband, a better father, and a better son of Jesus Christ for having gone through this. Can you trust God to do that in your trials?
We hope today's message encouraged you and met you right where you are. A quick reminder that you can download the 52 Bible verses to memorize in 2026 at jdgreer.com. And if you'd like the full set of printed cards, we'd love to send them to you for your gift to the ministry. Thanks again for joining us and we'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Jiddy Greer Ministries.
Yeah.
