Exodus chapter number seven, and continuing our march through the book of Exodus. And we're at the beginning of all the excitement that begins to swirl and unfold for us here in the book of Exodus. A lot of things are about to take place, and we want to be careful as we march through the book of Exodus to take note and don't miss the very important things that are applicable to our lives. And that's one of the things that we'll find here in Exodus chapter 7. When you find your place, if you'll stand. And we'll read a few verses and dive into the message this morning. Exodus chapter 7, beginning in verse number 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, bring and bring forth mine enemies and my people the children of israel out of the land of egypt by great judgments and the egyptians shall know that i am the lord when i stretch forth my hand upon egypt and bring out the children of israel from among them and moses and aaron did as the lord commanded them so did they and moses was four score years old and aaron four score and three years old when they spake Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we turn now to your holy word in the preaching hour. I pray, Lord, God, give me an unction to preach your word. Help us now to turn our attention toward heaven. Turn our hearts and minds toward heaven to blot out the distractions of life, the thoughts of life. And help us, Lord God, to receive your word. I pray that you would be magnified and glorified in everything said and done in this building. We lift high the wonderful, most precious name of Jesus, and we pray it in his name. Amen. You may be seated. I quit reading there at verse number 7. But there in verse number eight and verse number nine, the Bible says that the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and then he records for us how Pharaoh is going to respond or reply when Aaron and Moses go before him. And he says, here's what he's gonna say to you. Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron, take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. Show a miracle. for your Pharaoh is hard-hearted and he is looking at these two men who've come and Moses being there is within itself a miracle. Of course, he's kind of ignored those things. He's not paid any attention to it, but he says, listen, if you really are who you say you are, show a miracle that proves just exactly who you are. That's what I want to preach on over the next few minutes, is a miracle for you. You see, the real miracle on display to this world is you and I. I'm reminded of an illustration I came across, I probably used before. It was in an article of the Sunday School Times, a story is told of an Eastern king which illustrates at once our delusion respecting natural processes and also God's work and presence in them. The king was seated in a garden and one of his counselors was speaking of his wonderful works of God. Show me a sign, said the king, and I will believe. Here are four acorns, said the counselor. Will you, majesty, plant them in the ground and then stoop down for a minute and look into this clear pool of water? The king did so. Now, said the other, look up. The king looked up and saw four oak trees where he had planted acorns. Wonderful, he explained. This is indeed the work of God. How long were you looking into the water, asked the counselor. Only a second, said the king. Eighty years have passed as a second, said the other. The king looked at his garments, and they were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the water. He had become an old man. There is no miracle here then, he said angrily. Yes, said the other. It is God's work, whether he did it in one second or in 80 years. You see, dear friend, whether God pulled you out of a very poor place in life and cleaned you up, or maybe you were in church most of your life and God saved you, either way, you are a miracle for the world to behold. Now I want you to see a few things by way of introduction here, the first few verses of chapter 7, and then we'll dive into the application that we can find here. who he is and what he represents and how his heart is hardened against the things of God. But I want you to see, first of all, here in verse number one, the messenger. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. You see, Pharaoh rejected any dealing with God back in chapter 5 and verse number 2 when he said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? So now God will speak to Pharaoh through Moses. Like Pharaoh, much of the world has rejected God speaking to them through his Word, so he has chosen earthen vessels to take the message to the people. Here in Exodus 7, Moses and Aaron have arrived at the instruction of God, and he has a plan for them, a purpose for them, and he has a parting that is just in the near future. And these messengers are coming before Pharaoh, the king of the world at the time. I mean, he ruled everything. The world feared his army. As a matter of fact, if you look at the timeline of what has transpired from the time that Joseph entered into Egypt into the time that Israel is going to exit, there is a timeline there of some turbulence inside the country. As a matter of fact, there's some men who come to power, and then they're going to be overthrown just before all this takes place. And we're several days away from that. people into, several rulers, we'll call them pharaohs, into their dwelling here in Egypt. And let me just say I put that in there as a side note because there is speculation out there, some new things out there being taught that the Israel, their being in Egypt for 400 years. It was not entirely 400 years in Egypt. They said that it began with Abraham sojourning in a land that wasn't yet his and the journey that all took place there. That's not correct. When you study out the Egyptian timeline and Hebrew history, you find out that they were in fact in Egypt alone for 400 years, which is exactly what the King James Bible records. And it is without error, and we don't need to dispute that, yet there's a lot of good churches and men who are now propagating this false teaching because they think that they've uncovered something new. There is nothing new under the sun. Now back to the text. We find that now these two men are standing before Pharaoh, and they are getting ready to do some miraculous things under the power and the inspiration of of the Holy Ghost who is guiding them and directing them and leading them along. And all the while, they are a picture for Pharaoh and for Egypt as Hebrew nation looks on as they're observing these people who are standing in the presence of this great and mighty king. Here are these men who are the messengers of God Almighty. And we want to be very careful to take note here as we consider the fact that you and I are, in fact, messengers to the world around us from God Almighty. The same thing that Moses and Aaron represent to the nation of Israel, coming out of bondage, I would say this morning, friend, that you and I, by way of application, are messengers to the world. We bring the message that was once delivered to us. And now it is you and I who have become the messengers to deliver the message to a lost and dying world and against people who are strong and powerful and who hate the message and the messenger. It's important for us to take notice of these similarities. The Pharaoh has rejected the Word of God, and he won't receive the Word of God, and so now God is using these men to come, and these earthen vessels, if you will, to bring the message to them. Friend, that's exactly what you are. The world around us, especially in our day and our time with all the controversy that's going on, much like the day that Jesus was born on the earth, there is a complete and total rejection for the Word of God. They don't want anything to do with it. They just, I won't hear if it's the Word of God. But when you come, And you, in your changed, renewed mind and spirit and being, as you've become this new creature and you present a love that they cannot comprehend, you present that to them, you now become, for them, the messenger from God to deliver the message of righteousness to their ears. Here's the way Guzik said, people that won't look to God, look at us. Those who won't read the Bible, read our life. Interestingly enough, God chose a man whom he had already brought out of bondage to be the mouthpiece and example that would lead others out. He was not a perfect man. He had murdered a man. He had sat still for 40 years, complacent, full of apathy. Some would remind him of his insufficiencies and even his inabilities. He himself had doubts and fears of God's doing what he said he could and would through him. Nevertheless, he was the chosen vessel. I wonder this morning, friend, are you still stuck on the backside of the wilderness watching the sheep? Or are you doing what God has called every blood-bought child to do, and that is to be the messenger of the glorious gospel? Now, here's what Paul said, and I want you to go with me. I know I usually don't do this because I preach so fast, but I want you to look at just how perfectly God's Word just lays out for us the instruction that God has for us. Go to 2 Corinthians and chapter number 5. Keep your place here. We are coming back. But I want you to read for yourselves the very Word of God concerning this idea, this topic, that we are a messenger to the world. Now, it's important that we get this and we grab hold of this as we begin in from chapter 7 onward as he is, these two men are confronting Pharaoh because there's going to be some controversies and there's going to be some times when Moses and Aaron really, they're in kind of a troubling position. If it's not for God and if it's not done by God, their lives are in danger. And that's very similar to you and I as we walk through a world of just pilgrims passing through. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I trust you found your place there. The Bible says in verse number 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new." We're very familiar with that verse. But I want you to watch as these next verses lay something out for us. In the beginning of verse number 18 now, and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given, what's the next two words? to us, the ministry of reconciliation. Verse number 19, to wit, what God, that God, what's the next two words? Was in Christ. Now you get that? What God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, hath committed, what's the next two words? unto us, here it is, the word of reconciliation. Now verse number 20, now then, next two words, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you, what's the next two words? By us, we pray you, here it is, you in Christ's stead. Now if I were you, I'd underline those four words right there. You in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God. So here's Paul in his second epistle to the church of Corinth. And he says, listen, friend, you have been given this ministry, the same ministry that Christ was for God to us and reconnecting or reconciling us back to God. That word reconcile means to want something that was at enmity or at war has been made and brought back to friendship, it's been joined back together, that enmity gone. And so he says there, he has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. And then he said there in verse number 9 that God was in Christ The end of the verse, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. And then he says, we are ambassadors for Christ. Now, we're talking about the messenger, and we're going to get back to the Genesis here, or Exodus here in just a moment, but we're talking about being that messenger. We are ambassadors. That ambassador plays a part. in representing the nation or the people to another nation for the interest and goods of their nation. You are ambassadors for Christ, meaning that you are a representation to the world of what Christ has done in and through you in reconciling you back to God. That's very important that we take notice as we move forward. Every born-again, blood-bought child of God is doing one of two things. Either you are striving against God or you are walking in the Spirit of God. You're striving against God. Ephesians 2, 15 and 16 says this. And you can turn over there and look at this. The Bible says in Ephesians 2.15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile, verse 16, both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. So God tells us in Ephesians that he has abolished the flesh, the enmity with God, that the flesh has with God. He says that he has slain that enmity and through Christ Jesus we are joined back together. So when you and I are not walking in answering to the Word of God the way that we ought to, then we are striving against God. We're going back to that old And we're embracing that old man again, which, of course, we know is sin. Here's what Romans 8, 7 says. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So the Bible is instructing us and it's telling us that if we are not walking according to the Word of God, then we are at enmity with God. Now, when you study out that word enmity, you'll find it used in two contexts. Most often times it is referring to the lost man and the one who is without God and does not know God. But then you'll find a few little where it's dealing with man who has put his attention back on his carnal self and back to the things of this world, having forgotten what God has done. That's what Paul often has to deal with as he writes these epistles to the churches there. And we remember when this Bible's being written, as it's being inspired by God, that this is a new age. It's a new time. It's a new period in life. It hasn't been that long since the Lord Jesus Christ has gone off the Savior. Now we're 2,000 years into the future and we still have those problems, but there's an issue that Paul's addressing. He's saying you cannot be both. It's either one or the other. Go over to James chapter 4 and let me show you a couple things out of these verses to demonstrate what I'm talking about. In James chapter number 4, James is writing in the beginning of verse number one, the Bible says, from whence comes war and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lust that war in your members? Verse number two, you lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own lust, upon your lust. So, we got the context as we lead down to verse number four. He's dealing with this, there's a fight going on, there's this war going on, there's something's not right, and when you're asking, you're not receiving, and there's lusts there that are not what they should be. And then you get to verse number four, and he's still dealing with that topic. He makes a statement and says, ye adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Now, verse 5 on, he describes that. Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain that the Spirit dwelleth in us, lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hearts, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded." James is dealing with the man who has gone back to his old ways, gone back to embracing the things of this world, and he says, understand that you are adulterers and adulteresses. You are in a relationship that is not good, and it's destructive, and it's destroying you, and it's keeping you from being the messenger that God has intended for you to be. Jesus Christ went back to heaven as he ascended back into the clouds. The Bible says he will descend again, and he'll call us up out of this world. But we are given these details here to remind us that you and I have been left as messengers. to Pharaoh in Egypt, to a lost and dying world. The kind of messenger you are is very important. So we have to identify that first thing. Are we at enmity with God or are we walking in the Spirit? We said that's where a Christian is. One of two things. You're either at enmity with God, I'm talking about as a saved person, or you are walking in the Spirit of God. Now, I believe that there's not a sane person anyways in this room that would not want to be walking with God. That's the desire of every Christian. We know what Christ has done for us, but through the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and the things that are around us and the things that draw our attention elsewhere, we can find ourselves out of sync with God, away from God, at enmity with God. Here's what the Bible speaks of concerning walking in the Spirit of God. You know that in Galatians 5, verse 16, the Bible says this, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Two verses later, it says, but if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. So how do we identify whether we're walking in the Spirit or we're walking in enmity with God? Well, we find ourselves not falling victim to the sins that doth so easily beset us. Now, the Bible says that if you're maintaining a relationship with Christ, you will walk in the Spirit. First John 2 tells us this in verse number 6. He that saith, he abideth in himself also so to walk even as he walked. Now, let me ask you something. Did Jesus walk in the Spirit of God? It would be reasonable to conclude that you are commanded to walk in the Spirit according to 1 John 2, 6 then. Because the Bible says, he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. And so we find in this opening verse, as you make your way back to Exodus chapter 7, and we are gonna go back to 1 Corinthians here in just a moment, but, or excuse me, 2 Corinthians, but we find that we are a messenger. Here the messenger comes. God says, I'm not speaking to Pharaoh anymore. Pharaoh won't receive me. He's hardened his heart. And in the sovereignty of God and the greater picture, God has illustrated this so that man might understand the need and the reason of everything that's going to transpire for Israel in the future and all the prophets that would come and preach. And then there's kings and there's judges and all these things are going to take place. He's prophesying. He's demonstrating for us. And then even as you spill over into the New Testament, of course, we know that God has chosen the foolishness of preaching, that we might hear the Word of God, and God tells us that he'll give us pastors, that he'll give us knowledge and understanding of the Scripture, so God has chosen the foolishness of preaching. And so everything that is happening here in Exodus is a picture and an illustration so that as we go through life we can understand that God has ordained this way so that we might get the message from heaven to a hard-hearted man who has rejected God and who has done everything in their own power to make of themselves a great life, not realizing that their eternity is in hell, except they should repent. So you and I, to summarize all that, we are the messengers. Moses and Aaron now go before Pharaoh, and you saw those words there in verse number one. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh. And then when Pharaoh looks at you, and by the way, he said, a God, he did not say, I did not make you a God. He said, I made you a God. They had lots of gods, and they believed these gods had power. And here comes Moses, and you see the magicians. here, and they demonstrate their powers, sorceries is what they were. And Moses comes along, and the Bible says, God said, I'm making you a god unto Pharaoh. They're going to look at you, and they're going to see something is different. There's something different about the way this person is, how he talks, how he walks, and the power that is in his life. And God has made you like unto a God unto this world that people look at you. And by the way, don't get a little unnerved about that. Write these verses down. I ain't got time to preach on them. John chapter 10, verse 34. And then you could go read Psalm 82 and read how God has made you as God's in this world. And they look to you and they see the power demonstrated. It's a marvel. It's a mystery to them. They're watching and they're observing. And in all that, you are the messenger of God and what he can do. So we see through those words, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, that you are a messenger. You are the messenger of God. Secondly, I want you to see, and I can see I'm not even gonna get out of my introduction. I got my little timer counting down, otherwise we'd be here a long time. I had seven points in my message, and I ain't out of my introduction yet. So we'll probably just do the rest of that after the fellowship meal, and we'll just get back to First Samuel later. Secondly, I want you to see the message. Look at the message here in verse number two. The messenger, now we see the message, thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, and he shall send the children of Israel out of his land. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee. And so now we see a picture here, an application again, that we are the messenger to the world. But then in those words, thou shalt speak all that I command thee, we see secondly, there's a message, and you not only are a messenger, But you and I are the message. We have become the message because God hath wrought a good work in us. Would you trust a deep sea fishing boat salesman who's too afraid to step out onto a boat he was selling? Absolutely not. Now, that's probably not so applicable up here, but it resonated with me because I used to live down in Florida. Some of you travel down there. That's why I use that example. But, boy, I love to deep-sea fish. I'm not much of a fisherman in these little streams. There's too much stuff to get tangled on, all right? Out in the deep sea, you can cast that line out there, and there's nothing that gets tangled. If you get tangled up in the deep sea, you need to quit fishing. But one of those boat places down there, boat yards down in Florida, and there's many of them. And you walked in there and he said, boy, this is seaworthy. This thing is great. And you said, well, can we take it out and test it before I drop $150,000 on this? I want to see how it performs in these waves here on the Atlantic side. I want to see what it's about. And he said, no, no, I'm not getting in that boat and going out in the ocean. There's no way that you would be willing to buy that boat. You would want to see pictures of him with great catches somewhere far from the shore. Matter of fact, I've been in a few of those boat places before, and in all their offices, all those salesperson's offices, they always have pictures of them with these great marlins and tuna and boy, they got all those catches. Why? Because they're trying to entice you that you can catch that fish. I'm pretty sure they were stuffed fish and they were fake fishes, but they have all those pictures of them holding them up out there in the beautiful blue ocean. And man, just looking at those pictures makes you want to buy their boat. If you're going to catch men, You're going to have to be persuasive and willing to launch far and deep from the shore. Here's what 1 Peter 3.15 says. I want you to turn there and look at this. I've got plenty of time now. We're not going through the rest of the message. I'm going to have you look at these with me. We're talking about the message. You and I are the messenger, but we are the message. And it's important that we see that and realize that, because when we get a hold of that, it transforms the way we think and operate as a child of God, living in 2025, when you can become instantly famous, Instagram famous, or TikTok, somebody takes a picture of you, and boy, you're worldwide known immediately. Here's 1 Peter 3, you there? Verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Now, this verse here is so important to the Christian. This verse is the process. It's the process. I want you to look. First, in this verse, it says, you must sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. You see that? The first step of the process of being the message to a lost and dying world is that you must sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Sanctify, that means to cleanse, to separate, to make holy. to be set apart for God. That's the first step of the process. I want you to look at the next part of the verse. We'll find the second part. Secondly, you'll find those words, and be ready always. Be ready, oh, that's pretty self-explanatory. You're the message. Be ready always. There's always somebody who looks at you. It never surprises me how small this world is. Especially when you got eight kids, you just stand out no matter where you go in this world. I just, everywhere we go, we just keep running into somebody who knows this person, knows that person, they're all connected. Like Miss Sue was down at Landmark, wasn't it? And you saw it, there it was on that screen, or maybe you were hearing someone send it to you, but either way, there was a missionary I did a video with. I just found out somebody you're familiar with, Bruce Craig. And we just, The last name lined up with somebody that we were, I was a part of COME, International Mission Board, and there was Matthew Craig family was there that we loved them. We were just always so stunned. They had eight kids. We thought, man, that's a big family. We were striving for that. come to find out that's his son. But we marvel at how small the world is, and we can go places. We'll go into a store in another state just traveling. We'll stop in a gas station. This has happened several times in our life. We'll be in there, and somebody will recognize us because our big family, and they'll recognize us from some place, some camp meeting or some place where I preached or something, and they just knew who you were. and they recognize you. Maybe you've had that happen to you, especially here locally. It seems like everybody knows everybody and is related to somebody else that they already knew and it's all tangled up and yeah. But we find that we must always be ready. Why? Because your life is a message. Your life is the message of God speaking to the people around you, through you. It's what we see in this process of the verse, 1 Peter 3, 15. So first, you must sanctify the Lord. Secondly, be ready always. Now watch this, we're talking about being the message. We're gonna get back to Exodus in just a moment. Thirdly, to give an answer. You see that? To give an answer. Now here it is. You can't be ready to give an answer if you don't know the kind of questions that will be asked. However, you can help dictate most of the answers that are presented to you by being known for a particular type of knowledge. For instance, I'm going to use one that just happened here last week. If you're an electrician and people know it, then you'll get asked a lot of questions about electricity, probably not so many questions about plumbing. Just last week, Mike's brother was here, and he was walking out the door, and he said something about an electrician, and boy, I had some electricity, that word, electricity questions, and I began to ask him. And I'm sure he's had a million of those questions, just like if you're a car mechanic, you get asked all kinds of questions about cars. What am I saying? That wasn't a joke, I was just trying to summarize. Well, that threw me off here. Apparently, the Bible says here in 1 Peter 3.15 that we are to be ready always to give an answer. Not just with words, but to be able to give an answer always means that when people watch you, and they notice you, and they observe you, and they're taking notice of where you're going, and who you're hanging out with, and the crowd that you are, and the expressions on your face, and the attitude that you have, and your interactions with people, you are the message of God Almighty of the transforming power that Jesus Christ can and will do through them if they will heed the message from God. Now, why would a man ask, look at that verse before we head back. Now, why would a man ask you a reason of the hope if it was not observable in your life? You see that there in 1 Peter 3.15? Why would he ask that? The Bible says to be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, I've come to find out that if people don't ask your opinion about something, they don't care about your opinion about something. When people ask you, it's because they've observed and they recognize how you do things and they want to know how you did it so that they can understand it better because they believe that you have an answer that they have yet to discover. You're the message of God Almighty to this world. Well, I'm out of time. Let's go look 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm going to summarize this in two minutes, and then we're going to pick it up after the fellowship meal if you're able to stay around and enjoy it. If not, you can pick it up online later, all right? This idea that we're looking at, you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, this idea carries on throughout the New Testament, especially when Paul wrote that believers are like letters written by Jesus that the whole world reads. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I want to show you what I'm talking about. In verse number 2, the Bible says, ye are our what? Epistle. Paul says, here he is writing to the church in Corinth, second letter, he says, you are, that word epistle means a letter. He says, ye are our letter, our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Do you see that? Watch the next verse. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of who? Christ. Then it says, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of heart. That's some strong language that now we grab a full understanding of when we consider what was going on in Exodus chapter 7 as Moses and Aaron have arrived and have become the mouthpiece of God to this man. They are not only the messenger, but they themselves are the message. Paul writes here and says, you are the letter that we have written from our heart and all that we have poured into you, you are known and read of all men. Everything that we have taught you concerning Jesus Christ, the men of the community are watching, they're reading, they're observing, and they're knowing if that is truth that is being put through your life. Now let me say this, dear friend, everything that is preached and taught from this pulpit and put into your ears and you take it and apply it to your life, you are being known and read by this community and they will know what this church stands on and what they believe based upon what they know and read in you. You're the message to this local community. Did you know what that word there in verse number three means? It says, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ. That word manifestly means, here it is, in a way that is clear or obvious to the eye and mind. He says, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle, the letter of Christ, the epistle of Christ. He said, it is so obvious not only to the eye, it is obvious to the mind. As they think about your life, if they observe you and they wonder why it is that you do what you do and why in the world are they going to church every Sunday and they consider that, it becomes obvious that there is something of a higher power that is moving us and our love and affection towards that is obvious to them as they read our lives. Now isn't this incredible just to consider? Here's what Thomas said concerning our pastors there in Exodus 7. A prophet is one who represents God to man and as such all the Lord's people are prophets. Are we giving the, he asked this question, are we giving those around a true idea of God? Boy, and I read that and it just kind of smoked me and I read it and I have probably read it 25, 30 times before I put it in to this message. All right, let me give you this last thing and we're done. This is the last point of the introduction. In verse number four in Exodus 7, the Bible says, but Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay up my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. We find not only are we the messenger, but we are the message, and then we find the motive. He says in verse number four, to bring forth, he says, my people, and then it says, out of the land of Egypt. Do you know why God wants to use you, friend? To bring people out of bondage, to bring them out of their sins. He brought you out of your sin and out of your bondage. He has made provision for them in Jesus Christ and he has chosen you and I to bring them to him. What a marvel. The Bible says here that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. What took place here was that God revealed Pharaoh's heart and then strengthened him in his own evil. In our rebellion, we may reach the place where God will strengthen us in the evil we desire. Here's what Romans 1 tells us, verse 24 and 28. Now, friend, listen to me as we conclude this morning. There are a lot of people trapped between Pharaoh and Egypt, and if they could just get someone to lead them out of the land, they would gladly embrace the God of Israel. They would gladly embrace the God of Calvary Bible Church. They would gladly embrace your God. You are that someone. I'm reminded of Naomi leading Ruth to a land she never knew. Ezra, the Jews out of a captivity to a land which many have only ever heard of. I'm reminded of those three boys who led an entire nation in much of the known world out of the foolishness of bowing to a false idol. Maybe you're familiar with David who led Israel to victory over their oppressors. What this world needs today is willing men of God who aren't afraid to stand. There are people around every corner who are just waiting to follow someone to the place of victory that they have already been. Listen, friend, it's always hard to tell someone about having victory when you and yourself have never had it. Once you know how then it is, once you know it, how easy then it is to tell it. So my question for you, friend, is have you had victory? Ms. Jean, you can head to the piano. If so, have you told others how to have victory? You see, I used to be a drug addict and a drunk. God gave me victory through his power, and I went on to be the director and a planner of Reformers Unanimous programs to help drunks and drug addicts. Why? Because I knew the victory and how to obtain it, and I cared. The question is, do you care? Just a moment ago, I asked you if you have ever had that victory. If you could not say yes, or you began to search but could not place a finger on that victory, then I invite you to come right now without delay to ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Friend, we need to respond. to the fact that God has not only given a message and we are that messenger to deliver, but he has given the message in the fact that he has saved us and transformed our lives. And we need to respond to that each and every day as we wake up, being what Paul said, dying daily, presenting our bodies to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. This is our reasonable service. Would you stand to your feet? We'll come back to this chapter here in just a little while. But what a tremendous thought to consider as Moses and Aaron step in front of Pharaoh, and they are being shown that they are not only the messenger of the Word of God, but they themselves are the message. Everything that Aaron's about to do as a mouthpiece to Moses represents the fact that God has given them instruction and then given them the power to do it. Jesus said, I'll make you fishers of men. And then he gave you power to do it. What about you, friend? How will you respond to the Word of God? What will you do with the Word of God today?