If you put your life in the hands of God, don't worry.
He's got you. Jonathan Evans says surrendering our cares and challenges to God is more prudent than trying to work things out on our own. Your survival is not going to be contingent on what you're able to hold on to, but rather what you're willing to let go of. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. We're eager to nurture and protect our children, doing whatever's necessary to make sure they come to no harm. But the reality we eventually face is that we can't control everything, no matter how hard we try. Today, Pastor Jonathan Evans explores why putting our blessings into God's hands is far safer and wiser than trying to hang on to them with our own strength.
Let's join him as he begins. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, every son who is born you ought to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you ought to keep alive. For today's message, I want to talk to you about surviving Pharaoh, surviving Pharaoh. You see, Pharaoh had a problem. Pharaoh's problem is that God's people were becoming too mighty. God's people were spreading out a little bit too much.
God's people were becoming a threat against his kingdom. See, Pharaoh doesn't care about what you lose. Pharaoh only cares about what he gains in your loss. Pharaoh is trying to gain, and what he wants to do in order to gain is he wants to take that which God has conceived that you have given birth to. He only cares about the expansion of his kingdom and what he gains in your loss.
I don't know if you've ever met people like that. We don't understand that this is a spiritual warfare that we're going on to, and that's why this thing is becoming a burden for me that was a blessing to me. I was ready to go. I was excited to go to college for the young people. I was excited for the next grade. I was excited for what God was doing.
I was progressing in my life, and then when I got to college, it became a burden. You need to know, young people, that Pharaoh is on you. He wants to take that which you have given birth to, and he wants to rip it away, and I want to show you something.
I'm going to jump over here in parentheses for a second, but I got to because when I saw it, I said, ooh. So I'm going to take you back up just for a second to Exodus 1.15, and he said, then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one who was named Shiphrah and one other was named Pua. And he said to them, when you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, you shall let her live. Same plan.
Take the boys. But he tried something else in verse 15 and 16 before he got to verse 22. He said, come here, Hebrew midwives. I need to ask you something.
Matter of fact, I'm going to tell you something. Hebrew midwives, when the Hebrew women give birth, if it's a boy, I want you to put him to death. Pharaoh went to God's women and he said, I want you to help me kill God's men. I want you to take the strength of the nation away. I want you to take the strength of what God uses. I want you to rip it away because if I can get God's women to go kill God's men, and evidently these women had power to do it.
They had experiences to do it. They could go take out God's men, but the Hebrew midwives, it says in verse 17, they feared God. They said, there's no way I am using my experiences or my power to go take out God's men. Now, I know I've gone through some things. I know I've had some struggles.
There are some true things that I could say. There are some things that I could do, but because, and for the sake of the kingdom of God, I'm not taking out God's men because I know what that means for civilization. I know what that means for the advancement of God's kingdom. They refused to take out God's men, and so Pharaoh had to come up with another plan because God's women said no. And look at verse 21. Because the midwives fear God, he established households for them. These are the two lead midwives. He's not asking two women to go kill all of the Hebrew boys.
That would be, they couldn't do it. It's just two of them. He's asking the Hebrew midwives, who are the lead Hebrew midwives, to teach all of the other midwives what to do. So he's taking Titus 2 and turning it upside down. He doesn't want you to tell these girls the right thing to do. He wants you to use your experiences with what he's whispering in your ears to tell these girls the wrong thing to do so that they can replicate his kingdom, not replicate God's kingdom. And it says because the Hebrew midwives refused to turn Titus 2 upside down, because they refused to listen to the voice of Pharaoh, because they feared God more than they feared him, it said God established a household for them. That means heritage. That means legacy.
That means husband. That means that God is the one who blessed them. High ranking in Egypt, Pharaoh could bless them for doing the job. But because they feared God, God had a higher blessing. He had a destiny and a legacy and a purpose. And then you get to verse 22 where it says, well, that plan didn't work.
Then women weren't having it. So let me then call all my people. So now he moves from the Hebrew women to the Egyptians. He says, let me call all my people and I need you to go out there and take what God has conceived in these people and they have given birth to. And I need you to rip it away so that I can keep them enslaved to what I'm calling them to do.
So what do you do? How in the world do you survive an edict like that? Is there anybody in here that feels like you have something that you're holding on to and there's a lot of tension with it? You got tension with this child and you're trying to tell them everything.
You wish you could just take your brain out and stick it in their head. You're doing the best that you can and there's just so much tension. That business, there's tension. You thought God gave it to you and yes he did, but there's some things coming against it.
Knocking it out, the finances, there's tension in all these areas and I'm trying to hold it in my hand. Moses' mother had this tension because at the same time that this edict was out in the land, it says in verse 2 of Exodus 2, it says, the woman conceived. She gave birth to a son and when she saw that it was beautiful, she hid him for three months. She had something beautiful. The word beautiful there means healthy.
She had something that was healthy and many of you have given birth to something that's healthy. You have something that you have conceived and given birth to and you're excited about it. So what do you do when you're excited about what you have in your hands? You try to protect it. You want to make sure it grows. You want to make sure it develops. You want to be the one who nurses it.
You want to be the one who develops it and grows it. You want to see that thing mature. You don't want to see it go away. You don't want to see it die. You don't want to see it get smaller.
You want to see the baby grow. And so she did everything she can to protect it and many of you are doing everything you can to protect it. You're doing everything you can to survive it. You're holding on for dear life to make sure that it is hidden in such a way that it doesn't get ripped out of your hands. That's what Moses' mother was trying to do with this beautiful, healthy boy that she had given birth to.
But verse 3 says, but when she could hold him no longer, when she could do it no more, she put the baby in a wicker basket and covered it with tar and pitch and she put that baby in the Nile. There are some of you holding some burdens and you're saying, I don't know how much longer I can hold it. You're living life right now and you're saying to yourself, I just don't know how, Lord, I can't.
I'm tired. I'm trying to hold on to this marriage. I'm trying to hold on to my mind.
I'm trying to hold on to this business. I'm trying to hold on to this, but I'm being drained. And what you're experiencing is the powerful hands of Pharaoh who's coming after what you have.
That's why you're being drained. You think life is just happening. No, you're dealing with a powerful being that's coming against you. Jonathan will have more on how we can turn a place of dying into a place of surviving when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I wanted to let you know that today's lesson comes from Pastor Jonathan Evans' ten-part series called Survivor. It's a collection of lessons that will show you how to face hardship with strength and hope, confident that God will use your trials for His glory. If you're facing struggles in life that seem unbeatable, this series will help you see those struggles from God's point of view, empowering you to overcome and endure as you grow in your faith and draw closer to the Lord. Because this is such an important teaching, we want to give you all ten messages from the audio series as our gift when you make a financial contribution to keep the ministry of the alternative coming your way.
And for a limited time, we have an added bonus. It's a popular, concise devotional book, meant to be read daily, that explores the core themes of Dr. Tony Evans' legacy work on the Kingdom agenda. This 365-day devotional book is called Life Under God, and we're including it right now with every request for Jonathan's Survivor audio collection. You can get both of these resources when you visit tonyevans.org or give one of our friendly resource team members a call at 1-800-800-3222.
They're happy to help you. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. We'll get back to today's message from Jonathan right after this. What if you could unlock the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything in between? Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for everything. The Tony Evans Training Center presents a transformative course from special guest lecturer Ken Ham, founder CEO of Answers in Genesis. If you want to understand anything about the universe and anything about life and this earth, we have to jump into God's Word. This course dives deep into the origins of life, the harmony of science and Scripture, and how to build a solid biblical worldview. Do science conflict with the Bible?
No, not at all. Observational science confirms the Bible over and over and over again. Equip yourself to face today's toughest cultural challenges with clarity and confidence. If we're going to deal with issues in our culture, we need to start from our foundation, first of all, to understand what we should believe. Discover faith-strengthening truths from Genesis and explore more courses to deepen your understanding of God's Word at tonyevanstraining.org.
Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. You see, to grow up, kids, when you grow up, they teach you independence. But in the kingdom of God, to grow up means dependence. And God is saying, no, I need you to look at what Moses' mother did. She said, I can't do it anymore. I'm not in my territory. This is beyond me. I'm losing my cool.
I'm losing my mind. Yes, the baby is healthy. Yes, the baby is beautiful. But that blessing has now turned into a burden. And now that the blessing has turned into a burden, I've got to do something different.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to put this baby, put this purpose, put this ministry, put this marriage, put this dream, put this idea, put this business in the hands of God. I'm no longer going to hold it. I'm no longer going to try to manipulate the outcome. I'm no longer going to be burdened by it.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put this thing in the hands of God. Now, you may be asking me, you may be asking me, well, how do you know that she put the baby in the hands of God? Well, that's a great question.
I'm glad you asked. The Bible says in verse 3, but when she could hold him no longer, she put him in a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Wicker basket is translated ark.
I went back over to Genesis 6. Once I figured that out, because Noah built one of those. And I went back over there, and I know that the ark represents Jesus Christ, because he is the ark of our salvation.
So all those who are in him are saved. So her idea, giving it to God, was not to throw it, but to save it, because she put it in the hands of God, because ark represents Jesus Christ, who is the ark of our salvation. But then I looked up pitch, and I went to Genesis 6.14. Genesis 6.14 says, Noah, make yourself an ark, and make the ark of gopher wood.
Make it with many rooms, and seal it inside and out with pitch. So he sealed it the same way she sealed it. She sealed it the same way he sealed it. So I had to look up pitch, and the Hebrew word for pitch is keifer. Watch this. But the root word of the Hebrew word is atonement.
Come on, man. She sealed it with atonement. She put the baby in the hands of Jesus, and said, I'm going to seal this thing. Why did she have to seal it? The same reason Noah had to seal it, so that the judgment could not get through to whoever's in it.
She wanted with all of her strength and might to make sure that that purpose lived. She put that thing in the hands of God. That's why it says in Romans 8.1, there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's why Ephesians 1.13 says those who believe are sealed by the spirit of truth, because if you put your life in the hands of God, don't worry. You going to be saved. If you put your life in the hands of God, don't worry.
He's got you. If you put your ministry in the hands of God, don't worry. It's sealed. If you put your purpose in the hands of God, don't worry. It's sealed. If you put your college career in the hands of God, don't worry.
It's sealed. What Moses' mother is saying, I can't hold it anymore, So the only option I have is to put this baby in an ark, seal it with pitch, and put it in the hands of God. And I want to tell you what your grandmama told you. Baby, you better let go and let God. Moses' mother put it in the hands of God. And she prayed about it. She hoped for it, had faith in it. But she put it in the hands of God in denial. So she believed, evidently, that the place of disaster in the hands of God will now become the place of deliverance. She believed, evidently, that in the hands of God, the place where everybody else is dying is the place where I'm surviving.
She didn't go anywhere different. She just stayed in the edict. And inside of the edict, put the baby in the hands of God. So that means that there can be an edict that you're living in and living through that you can still survive if the baby is in the right hands.
She put the baby in the same place where everybody else was drowning. She was delivered. That's what happens when you give it over to the Lord. You can see him work things out for your good.
Your survival is not going to be contingent on what you're able to hold on to, but rather what you're willing to let go of. And as soon as she put the baby down, God's sovereignty came and picked the baby up. God's sovereignty was always there. But her experience of God's sovereignty showed up at the moment she put the baby in the Nile. Verse 5 says, Pharaoh's daughter suddenly decided she didn't smell good and decided to go take a bath in the Nile. Then she gets there and sees the basket, tells her maid to go get the basket.
Then Moses' sister, looking on, goes over to Pharaoh's daughter and says, I know a Hebrew woman that can nurse this baby. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah! Pharaoh's daughter says, you do? Well, I hadn't thought about that.
That's a great idea. And this just so happens to just be happening. At the time, she puts the baby in the Nile. Then Pharaoh's daughter agrees. And she says, yeah, go ahead. Find some random Hebrew woman to nurse this baby. Having no idea, this Moses' sister, Miriam, standing there telling, this lady, I got a Hebrew woman. She agrees. She brings the baby to the original mother that just put the baby in the Nile. Before I end, you've got to see something.
Verse 9, then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, this is Pharaoh's daughter talking to the mother, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you wages. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah! I'm done. Y'all have a good Sunday. I can't keep preaching this. You mean to tell me she got compensation for her spiritual dedication?
She got paid to nurse her own baby? See, what we do is we have a blessing in our hands. And you know you have a blessing in your hands because it's slack.
It's not tension. You've got this blessing in your hands, and God has conceived something in you that you have given birth to. So you're holding on to the slack of blessing. But Pharaoh sees that. And when Pharaoh sees that you have the slack of blessing, he comes on out. When he comes out, he wants to turn that blessing into tension. He wants to make sure that you no longer are just sitting still. And all of a sudden, you've got this tension with Pharaoh.
And you're saying, I can't do this. My hands are burning. Pharaoh is strong. Y'all don't see them muscles on this dude? This dude got a tight shirt on.
Pharaoh is strong. And he's making it hard for me. My hands are burning. This is becoming a burden because there's all this tension. So I've got two options.
My only option is these two. And that is I can continue to fight with Pharaoh, who keeps pulling me and making it hard, or I can call somebody bigger the name of the Lord. And when I call on Jesus, when I call on Jesus, I need somebody bigger and stronger. I need somebody bigger and stronger to take this from me. Now, the problem is we call on Jesus, but we don't give it to him.
We call on Jesus, but we don't hand it to him. Eventually, you've got to give him this rope. And when you give him the rope, you'll see that his mighty right hand is stronger than both of Pharaoh's hands. You'll see that he's able to work while you rest. How is it that I'm resting, but this thing is still moving?
How is it that I'm resting, but this thing is still working out for my good? Because the Bible says you better cast your cares upon the Lord. And he will sustain you.
So you can see God do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that you can ask or think according to the power that works in you. Now, how do you know? How do you know when God is bringing that baby back to you?
How do you know when you can step back in? Because he'll rip it from Pharaoh. And when he rips it from Pharaoh, when he takes it from Pharaoh, when he takes it from Pharaoh, he'll give it back to you a whole new way. Let him lose. And when he gives it back to you, he gives it back to you with a slack of blessing, no longer the burden of tension. Because when God blesses, he adds no sorrow to it.
You better listen to your grandmama. You better let go and let God. And when you rest, he will work. Pastor Jonathan Evans, talking about how God can restore what you believed had been lost. Now, before we wrap up today, I want to remind you about that special double offer I mentioned earlier. Dr. Tony Evans' daily devotional book called Life Under God, plus the 10-Lesson Survivor Sermon Series from Jonathan Evans, available on CD, USB stick, or instant digital download.
They're both yours with our thanks for your donation to help make this listener-supported program possible. Make the arrangements today at 1-800-800-3222 before time runs out on this exclusive deal. Or visit our website at tonyevans.org and look for the details of this special offer right on the home page.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222, or online at tonyevans.org. No matter how much you've been through, it can sometimes feel like the next crisis is waiting right around the corner. But tomorrow, Pastor Evans reminds us that no storm is too great for God to carry us through. He'll share a powerful lesson from the life of Paul, who faced everything from shipwrecks to snakebites, yet found the faith to shake it all off. Don't miss it. We'll be back after this Sunday.
