11/11/07 - God Has and Exit Strategy

"God Has and Exit Strategy"


Ex 8:1-10
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: 3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: 4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. 5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD. 9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? 10 And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.

He will not get you into anything that he cannot get you out of
- "Always keep your fare back home" - think about how you're getting back, before you go
- Most people get in trouble and then they pray - emergency prayers
- God has already determined the end from the beginning

Exodus- how God brings his people out
- Gen 15 showed us that he allowed them to go in, "afterward they will come out with great substance"
- Abraham did not live long enough to see the fulfillment of the promise - he died
- But God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent
- God kept his word to a dead man, how much more would God keep his word to the living
- Used the famine to drive the people strategically to the place he wanted them to be
- God had orchestrated the rejection of Joseph by his brothers so that he would be in place when the brothers needed to come to Egypt
- God uses adversity to maneuver you to be in the right place for his later blessing

"God has a strategy"
- he often does not clue us in on the details
- Today, we believe that you can believe in God and reap the blessing, but you aren't taught about the peril in between
- The peril is part of the process that is going to lead you to the promise
- "There's going to be somebody there to bless you"
- You might be the one put in position to bless someone else
- Egypt was the only country with the economic structure to support the famine - all because God had given the plan to Joseph
- When God gives his people a plan - it will work regardless: it will defy the famine
- 70 members of a family, a pharaoh comes into a power who does not recognize the people of power and began to oppress them. 430 years in Egypt- 400 of them as slaves
- Every now and then, God will put a person in authority who hates the church
- Rejoice when you're falsely accused for great is your reward in heaven
- The people's tradition of worshipping God is getting weaker and weaker because when you're surrounded by heathens, you forget
- But God has not forgotten them

Ex chapter 1: a strange thing began to happen
- The harder the Pharaoh got on them, the more they multiplied
- Believers flourish in affliction - when God wants to bless you, he sends trouble
- When you see the enemy coming, start rejoicing because the increase is coming
- "I'm growing under pressure"
- The more the pharaoh took away the bricks and straw- the more children the Israelites had
- the more affliction, the deeper into relationship they go
- the values change and they start appreciating their relationships more
- God takes away one thing, the other things began to increase in importance
- The victory is not in the straw (you pray for the straw, you are just praying to be a better slave when he's trying to bring you out of the whole situation)
- poor people have the most kids
- It is good that you have been afflicted
- If there is not a great pressing, there will not be a great deliverance
- Jesus went to Gethsemane- the olive goes through a pressing

To the person that is connected, the pain tells them it's time to deliver
- When God gets ready to deliver them, it is because he has used the pressure to get them in the position for delivery
- The trouble will stop when you are in position
- He sends trouble to bless you: you can't win the battle if you don't go into it
- God brought them out, so that they could worship him - you cannot keep a worshipper down

That enemy that you see today- you shall see no more