Sunday, 9th February 2020
Pastor Tan Seow How (Heart of God Church)
Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ (Exodus 3:18)
God commanded Moses to go see Pharaoh to let His people go out of Egypt, the land of slavery, but Pharaoh refused. Egypt represents the world and Pharaoh represents the devil. God’s plan is for us to be set free from the bondage of this world, but Satan will try everything to keep us. Satan often tricks us so that we will 1) not believe in God, or 2) become Christians but compromised with the world, another words, to have a deal with Satan.
1 Satan’s First Deal: Worship Here
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.” (Exodus 8:25)
Pharaoh finally agreed for the Israelite to worship God, but he was being very tricky by saying that they could worship in Egypt. This is Satan’s scheme, saying to us that we can worship God wherever we want and we don’t have to be committed in a church, because there are too many rules and restrictions in the church. If we stay in the world, we can still do many things we want to do as well as worship God. This is Satan’s lie.
2 Satan’s Second Deal: Don’t Go Too Far
So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.” (Exodus 8:28)
If we were not tricked by the first deal, the next deal the devil will make is this, ‘you can go to church but don’t go too deep, don’t get baptised, don’t go to cell group and be brainwashed.’ But this is not God’s intention, in Mark 12:30 says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”
Jesus taught us to love God with all we have and this is the greatest commandment, there is no compromise! We need to know the truth in order to find against all of Satan’s lies!
3 Satan’s Third Deal: Don’t Take Children
Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. Who are the ones that are going?” And Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.” Then he said to them, “The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you. Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the Lord, for that is what you desired.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. (Exodus 10:7-11)
Now Pharaoh let the Israelite go worship God with one condition, to leave their children behind. Satan is very clever, because if our children don’t come with us to church, then our faith wont be able to pass down from one generation to the next generation. Often we might think that our children need a rest from study, or need to go to tuition, etc. We think that as long as we go to church ourselves our children will also be saved. But God is the God of all generations. He wants we all worship Him together, young and old. The future pastors and ministers are in our children’s church right now, so don’t be tricked by Satan’s schemes!