Phil Prettyman: In Genesis 47, we have the record of the children of Israel coming down into Egypt. Now you can take this passage and you can take the story and it can be used in a number of different ways and to picture a number of different things.

I’m going to choose to use the going down into Egypt and using Egypt as that picture of temptation, the picture of the world, the picture of bondage. God’s people, a generation of God’s people, and really 400 years of bondage in Egypt.

The servant of the Lord, the firstborn of the Lord brought into service to Egypt so that they were not free to serve the Lord. And that’s still the goal today.

The goal of this world, the goal of Satan, is to bring you and me into bondage because it prevents us from being free to serve the Lord. Deliverance always has a purpose.

The purpose of deliverance is service. And usually when we don’t put those two things together, it breaks down.

There’s a short circuit where it’s like the deliverance doesn’t work. And I even heard some of that in the testimony that we heard this morning.

But when these two things are brought together, and there’s an understanding of that, God, I want to be delivered because I want to serve you, then God begins to move. Now, I’m not suggesting that even in the most shallow requests for deliverance, God doesn’t answer.

I believe that He does. I believe there are measures of blessing that God gives us to draw us into the full purpose for deliverance.

But I will say this. This would be a great day or two for you and me to so surrender to God and seek for His deliverance because we want to be fully effective in His service.

So we’re going to take it from that standpoint. as we read this.

Seven years of drought have brought the children of Israel down into Egypt.

And notice the warm welcome they received in Genesis 47 and beginning in verse 6. Pharaoh says to them, The land of Egypt is before thee.

In the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen let them dwell.

And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. Now this sounded like a really nice invitation to go down into Egypt.

He put the best land before them, the rolling green hills of Goshen, and a beautiful out-of-the-way place from the hub of Egyptian activity. And he said, hey, you know, even there might be some among you that we could even use as leaders, and that would be great as well.

Now turn to Exodus chapter 1, and this is where we’re going. We’ll read several passages in Exodus, but you know as well as I do that that warm welcome did not last long.

It changed. And notice Exodus chapter 1, and we’ll begin reading.

Let’s just read in verse number 11. This is what the Pharaoh says here, this Pharaoh that was raised up who did not know Joseph.

Verse 11 says, therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramses. Look at verse 13.

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. That is, it was harsh.

It brought much suffering. Verse 14 says, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field.

All their service wherein they made them to serve rigor. So the invitation that was initially given by Egypt, again, this very warm welcome, it sounded like a wonderful thing.

It very quickly turned. And now they were in bondage.

They were prisoners in Egypt. And they had initially said, hey, listen, we want you guys to come to Egypt.

You know, do what you want to do. Stay as long as you want to stay.

And, you know, when you want to leave, then go ahead and leave. And if you read the passage, it seems very natural.

It seems like going into Egypt was an incredibly simple thing for them to do. It wasn’t very complicated at all.

But it wasn’t long before these things changed incredibly. Look at verse number 22.

And Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born, you shall cast into the river and every daughter ye shall save a life. Now can you imagine how shocking it would have been the day that some husband comes home with the Cairo Times or some Egyptian newspaper and the headline is that we have a new law, all Jewish boys are now going to feed the God of the Nile River and they’re going to be killed.

Now that’d be shocking in any generation, in ours or in theirs. So these things have greatly changed.

The children of Israel who once enjoyed this long green pastures and the gentle breezes blowing through the trees and every day enjoying the sound of cowbells and children playing and laughter and birds singing, all of that was changed. Now they were in bondage.

And I want to give you a few things about sin, and I think probably we understand this from what we heard this morning. Sin will never be your servant.

Sin will only be your master. and at the beginning the invitation was an invitation of let us serve you we want to serve you we want to give you the very best of the land we want you to enjoy yourself and we even hey listen some of you might even be rulers among us and show us how to do things and and this is always the initial invitation of sin sin will serve you it’ll serve your pleasures and oftentimes sin comes

to us and tempts us in a low time of life and a time of distress as we we see with the famine the children of Israel we’re going through a time of lowness a time of emotional emptiness that is when we’re tempted that is when we’re drawn away and tempted with some of the things that Dr.

Jim spoke about and sin tells us I can serve you best I can I can serve the emotional needs that you have I can serve the loneliness that you have the hurt that you’re feeling because of something that happened in your family or something that happened to you. I can serve you.

I can give you something that will please you, that will bring a sense of relief to your heart. And so sin always does this.

It starts as a servant, but it always ends as a master. The Bible says that it made the children of Israel’s lives bitter.

And if you need any testimony or example of that, you can ask so many people who have followed a path of sin and now their lives are in ruin, what has sin done for you? And they will tell you, sin has made my life bitter.

Just think of somebody right now in your life, you know, somebody who may have gone through the terrors of divorce, somebody who has followed the the path of impure addictions, and asked him, how has sin served you? What is their life like?

What is it in the process of time? Now, maybe at the beginning, it seemed like a very simple thing to do, seemed like a very easy thing to do, and of course, sin is so accessible today, as we heard, and it just seemed like the natural thing to do, and it was so easy to get into, but that which was easy for them to get into, now had become very difficult to get out of.

I imagine the children of Israel coming to Pharaoh and saying, you know, back when we made this original agreement, it sounded really good and the rolling hills and the children playing and all of that, but, you know, it’s not quite working out like that anymore. And we’ve been thinking maybe we’ll leave.

Can you kind of see Pharaoh laughing at them? No, you don’t understand.

You can’t leave. You can’t leave, but you are my servants.

You are my prisoners. we’re not here to serve you you’re here to serve us sin will never be your servant it will be your master no matter how it starts sin will make your life bitter and sin will always eventually demand a sacrifice as we see in verse number 22 pharaoh uh demanded that they give the very best that they had their first their their male sons that were born to them.

Sin will demand a sacrifice, but eventually, and again, all this doesn’t happen on day one. This is a result of a progression, but sin will eventually say to you and me, I demand a sacrifice, and maybe it’s your body.

Maybe it’s your purity. Maybe it is your mind.

Maybe it is your future marriage. And you know, every time we sin, we need to remember that our marriage is on the table as we roll the dice, as we involve ourselves in that.

we are putting at jeopardy our future.

Maybe it’s our children that the enemy is asking, are you willing to sacrifice this? You have to make a sacrifice.

It could be your peace. It is amazing to me, the Bible says that sin brings pleasure for a season, Hebrews 11, and it literally means for the occasion only.

You think about the sin that you get involved in and calculate in your mind what percentage of the day that thing brings some kind of pleasure to you. and you will realize very quickly you are getting cheated.

It is for a season.

It is for the moment only. And that’s the exchange that you’re making for freedom, for peace, for the power of God, for the sense of God’s purpose in your life that God is going to use you and God has a purpose for your family and God wants to bless your marriage and the world and Egypt and this temptation is going to demand of you to put that on the table.

That’s got to be part of the sacrifice. And I would tell you, this is an incredibly bold demand, is it not?

I mean, this is like we’re not playing games anymore. This is in your face.

Your sons are mine. Your family is mine.

Your future is mine. I mean, sin is right in your face and demanding that you give everything that has any true value to you.

And that is exactly what sin does. It starts out very simple, very easy.

but it doesn’t end that way.

Now, God obviously used the suffering that they faced there in Egypt to bring them to a point where they would say, you know, we’re finished with serving the world. We’re finished with serving Pharaoh.

We want to serve God. Well, that’s the key issue.

The key issue of the book of Exodus is that God’s servant hasn’t been serving God because he can’t, because he’s in bondage. The deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, if nothing else, has this point that God’s servant was in bondage and couldn’t do what God wanted him to do.

That’s the whole purpose for these meetings, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that. But the point is that you are the answer to this generation.

You have the power of God in your life. You can change this world, but not if you’re in bondage.

You first have to see deliverance in your life, and when you see that deliverance, there’s no end to what God can do in and through your life. Now I want you to turn to chapter 2.

We’re just going to run through very quickly. I really want to leave time at the very end if we can, but look at verse number 23.

The Bible says, It came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. And they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

Now look at verse 24. And God heard their groan, their groaning.

And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect.

That is, he paid attention or he acknowledged them. Now, this is at least 80 years of children being the sons of being born, being cast into the Nile.

Do you think this is the first time that the children of Israel cried to the Lord? Well, I don’t think so.

I think probably every time something like this happened, there were families crying to the Lord. And one of the difficulties that you and I will face, and you may say, well, Brother Phil, I identified with that testimony that I heard earlier that I have cried to the Lord, and it’s like it didn’t work.

And I don’t know what was wrong.

And by the way, it’s not to say that there wasn’t something in that cry that God did do something in, that led to the second cry. but the bible says that this time when they cried god heard them i don’t think that again that he didn’t hear their other cries but there was something specific about this cry for deliverance that god heard wouldn’t you like to know how to cry in a way that god would deliver you now there was a

problem with their cry and i want to really deal with that it’s really the main reason for this message.

And because I don’t want you to be confused and I don’t want your faith to be hurt. I want you to believe that you could cry out to God today and receive deliverance like you have never known in your life.

It doesn’t have to take a process of time. And obviously there may be battles that you will face.

I believe that’s practical, but you can receive deliverance today if that cry is the cry that God will hear. Oh, well, what are we talking about?

Well, let me see if I can illustrate it from the story and that might help us a little bit. You remember that there was a group of people who left with the children of Israel from Egypt who we know of as the mixed multitude.

And by the way, every Christian here who has saved and left Egypt, you left with a mixed multitude inside of you. As surely as Jacob and Esau wrestled in the same womb, you have two natures in your body, the spirit of God and that old flesh nature.

And that’s where the problems come from. We probably wouldn’t have the book of Exodus if that weren’t the so.

And these people represent for us kind of like the flesh side of us. And it’s very interesting, they wanted to be delivered along with the children of Israel, but their motives were not very good.

And here’s what had happened. These mixed multitude had just crunched the numbers on a life calculator and said, you know what?

I think this departure is going to work better than staying here. I mean, Egypt’s a mess.

Look at what sin has done to this terrible country, and it’s in shambles, and boy, I just tell you, I don’t know if it’s really worth it here, and they’re crunching the numbers here, and their minds, they figure out that there’s something to be gained by leaving with these Israelites that’s better than what they could have by staying. Now we would call that Christian humanism.

Humanism is the philosophy that the purpose of life is getting as much pleasure for myself as I can, is having a very pleasing life and cramming as much enjoyment into my life as I possibly can, that the purpose of life is my own enjoyment. And by the way, you and I are growing up in a generation that is seeing the culminating effects of Christian humanism.

You know, little girls grow up wanting to be Little Mermaid and Cinderella and whoever the actor, the lead character in Frozen. And boys grow up, they think they’re the characters in the Marvel comic books.

You know, you’ve seen these kids throwing imaginary fireballs at me and stuff. You know, it’s pretty serious.

And it’s just the end result of humanism, that I’m a god.

And really, the purpose of life is me. you say well brother phil i i’ve been protected from that you know i didn’t grow up watching disney movies listen friend you could your parents could no more protect you from humanism than they could keep you from breathing oxygen the culture that we live in today breathes the air of humanism the language we speak today all around us in the media the video games everything it is humanism the culture is just completely saturated.

That’s why the stories of missionaries from the 1800s are so incredibly different than the ones in the 21st century. Because they weren’t saturated by humanism that said, I’m important, my life is important, my enjoyment is important, and they died for the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, we don’t hear as many stories about that in the 21st century. Not that there aren’t those stories.

I’m sure that there are, but not particularly among American culture. why because this philosophy has permeated into our hearts and the problem is if that philosophy permeates into your prayer of deliverance you’re going to run into difficulty in other words it’s possible for you to say hey you know this this christian thing i think it works you know i don’t want to end up in three divorces and going through all the difficulty and the heartache of that and i can see

the blessings of a good marriage and i can see the blessings of up in a controlled environment.

My children are learning music, and there’s stability there, and then certainly they sure seem to be happier than this world that is rotting on the vine. And Egypt, man, this world is a mess.

Isn’t it a mess? I mean, do we have to point that out?

It would be very easy for the cry to become, Lord, deliver me so that I can live a happy American life. Now, I believe that they made that cry many times.

Suffering caused anybody to say, I want to be delivered, wouldn’t it? And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it’s not what God’s after. Now, this is just the bottom line.

What God wants to produce through these two days is young ladies and young men who will say, Lord, I want to be delivered because I can’t serve you like this. I can’t serve Egypt and serve you.

I’m in bondage. I’m chained to these things.

And yes, a pornographic addiction will destroy your mind and destroy your body and destroy your marriage and destroy your future family. But it will do something far worse than that.

will keep you from fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.

And I’m not going to breathe humanism into you that says, do these things so that you can be happy, so that you can live the American dream, so that you can have a family that’s prosperous and successful. All those things are good as they relate to our service for the king who died for us.

Apart from that, it is exactly what Dr. Jim said, it is selfishness and the worst kind.

Because at the very end of all of it is a very simple subconscious desire to keep myself on the throne of my personal happiness. That was what was wrong with their cry.

If I’m going to make a statement in a few moments, and I want it to be qualified with what I just told you, because I believe it’s true, I believe it’s real, but outside of this dynamic, I don’t want you to be disappointed if a cry of Christian humanism comes out of your lips and you sense that there’s no answer. Now, notice what it says in verse 24.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant. Now, do you think that God forgets things?

We know the answer to that. God doesn’t forget anything.

It’s not like God said, oh, you know what? I cannot believe that covenant I made with Abraham some 400 years ago.

It just skipped my mind. I haven’t been thinking about that for a long time.

Well, that’s not the idea at all. I think you know that.

The covenant that God made with Abraham was that Abraham would be a blessing to all the nations. That is, Genesis chapter 11, you have the distribution of the peoples by changing their languages at the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 12, the first missionary is sent. Abraham is told, pack your bags and leave your home.

You’re going to have a nomadic life. You’re going to be my missionary.

Deuteronomy 32.8 tells us that God set the limits of the people, the limits of the boundaries of habitation, according to the number of the children of Abraham. Why?

There will never be more people than Abraham’s families will not be able to reach. Isn’t God merciful?

And this is the covenant, the human side of the covenant, that this was the ultimate purpose for which God called Abraham. Well, what’s about to happen to Egypt, we could find a lot of really good information if we read in Romans chapter 9 that this is the point that God desired to make his name known throughout all the earth.

Right? So that the vessels of mercy would hear the truth and be saved.

The idea is there was something in this cry that resonated with that covenant. That brought it to the top of the mind of God.

if we can say it that way.

In other words, God, through the suffering, through the bondage, somehow brought the children of Israel to remember their purpose. What a glorious purpose it is.

We have been called to represent God. We have been called to shine forth the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When God heard that in their cry, he heard it. and he immediately began to move toward their deliverance.

I like chapter 3, verse 7, what the Lord tells Moses.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters For I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them. When this cry from our hearts goes up, God comes down.

The simple reality. When I was 17, 18 years of age, I could share much of a very similar testimony to what Brother Joe shared this morning in his testimony time.

I had spent some two, three years completely devastated by impurity and failure. And I was a wreck.

I was a wreck. And I remember when God began to shine the lights on my bondage and show me where I was and what I’d done in my life, I remember thinking to myself, man, I am an idiot.

The Bible says everyone has drawn away of his own lust. The word own there is idios.

We get the word idiot from that word and idiosyncrasy and a few others. You ever been there before?

You look back and you see what you’ve done and what it’s done to your mind and what it’s done to your freedom and what it’s done to your peace and go, man, I am an idiot. That’s not a bad place to be.

Might be a good thing to say right now if you’re involved in some of this. What have I done?

What have I done?

I came to that place in my life, and I remember distinctly, of course, I’d cried to God for deliverance before, but on that particular night, sitting Indian-style on a bed at 507 Bayless Court in Pensacola, Florida, before I ever entered into my freshman year of Bible college, I remember sitting there on that bed and thinking through what I’d done, and the light of truth was just penetrating and shining, and what I had done to myself and my future.

And I remember saying to God, God, I’ve just wrecked everything. Don’t ever ask me to get married.

How can I be married? My mind is a sewer.

How could I even be faithful to somebody? Two, three years of constantly putting this junk into my head.

I remember telling God, please don’t ever ask me to preach. And I’m glad my dad’s a pastor.

My three brothers are pastor. Lord, don’t call me to preach.

Let me work at Walmart. I’ll be the best checkout Walmart person.

that ever did that kind of a job.

And I was dead serious. But I said to God, Lord, I’m so bound.

And I felt that. I mean, if you’re involved in this, you know what I’m talking about.

You just feel this immense weight. And what our dear brother said, that it’s just like you’re trapped.

I mean, it’s not like you don’t even want to get out. You just, you feel like you can’t.

And I realized that God had a purpose for my life. And in the moment, I felt like I had ruined it.

And from that bed, sitting Indian style, at some late hours of the morning, I cried out to God. And I said, God, can you deliver me?

God, look at me. God, I’m in a mess.

God, deliver me. These chains are on me.

It’s so powerful, God. Oh, God, I beg you, God, deliver me.

And I want to tell you, I’m not exaggerating. I’m not in any way embellishing.

If a door had opened and Jesus himself had walked in the room, it would have made no different effect than what happened that night. What happened?

The cry went up and God came down. Friends, if you’re in bondage, that is what you need.

Amen. A deliverance that is divine.

A deliverance that is a visitation from God and the presence of God made manifest to you. And there’s only one thing that can conquer that kind of sin.

I believe it’s the love of Christ manifest to you and you realize what kind of a love you’ve sinned against. And God delivers.

And I want to say to you, if you today have come to that place where you’re tired of the bondage, and we’ve talked about one subject, but we could also talk about the bondage of fear and insecurity and jealousy and rebellion and all these other many things we could talk about.

But if you come to a place where it’s like, God, I do realize there’s a great privilege to serve you, and you’re trying to liberate me, This is a generation that needs liberated Christians who can make an impact on this world. And I realize that.

And I realize the choices that I have made have put me in a position where I’m hampered. I deal with regret and grief, and I deal with shame.

And it’s just a weight that is upon me, and I put all in the face, but in my heart I know I’m just buried under all this. I am telling you, friend, if in your heart you just want to be delivered so you can serve the Lord.

You cry out today. I promise you, God will answer today.

I promise you, you cry out to God. Listen, as Hannah and Hernandez said, Jesus loves you far too well to leave you in your self-made hell.

A Savior is thy Lord. Do you know what a baker does?

He bakes. I know, you’re thinking I’m a genius now.

And if he’s a good baker, he enjoys baking, and he bakes things that actually taste good, like Brother Forrester. A sculptor is someone who does what?

He sculpts. In other words, the Word defines the characteristic of what they do and what they enjoy doing and what they’re good at doing.

The Bible says that Jesus is a deliverer. You know what that means?

He delivers. And I want to tell you, He is able to deliver you.

He is able to deliver thee. Although by sin oppressed, go to Him for rest.

Our God is able to deliver thee. And that cry coming from your heart that says, man, I heard what Dr.

Jim said. Man, that was me.

Some over 50%. and God I want to serve you I don’t want my my family to be an example and a testimony of of the evils of this world I want to be a testimony for Christ I want to be delivered if you right now I’m trying to impress this in your hearts that you can really be confident about this I mean this is just like a 100 across the board kind of thing now if you in your heart are saying

well I don’t really want to serve the Lord but yeah these sins are really hampering my style I’m hampering my life.

And yeah, I would like to have a happy family too. I’m not going to give you the same confidence.

I’m not going to give you the same assurance. I’m not saying don’t try it.

That’s fine. But I will say 100% across the board, every individual here right now who says, God, I want to serve you and I can’t do it while I’m in bondage to this world and to this sin.

God, deliver me. God will come down.

He will hear your voice. He will deliver you today.

day.

It will be a great day. The Bible says in Exodus 12, it was a night much to be remembered.

Even considering my own salvation, my own marriage, I told my wife that, but the night of my deliverance on that bed, 507 Bayless Court in the fall of 1994, is the most memorable light of my life. God delivered me.

You remember what Moses’ response was? Like, he’s not going to hear me, God.

This isn’t going to work, God. And the Lord told him, the Pharaoh will not deliver you, no, not by a strong hand.

You know, it’s not going to be you. He said this to them after Moses gave all his complaints and Moses said, you haven’t helped us at all.

Then God said, now shalt thou see what I will do. So you know what?

We can’t do it. If you’ve been thinking in your head, oh, man, Dr.

Jim’s message, man, that hit me so hard, but I’m trying to think through my mind how I would even go about this. Don’t do that.

God’s going to do it. I mean, it’s miraculous.

Now, there’ll be steps that you’re going to automatically take as a result of that because of the work the Lord has done in you. That’s what I did.

He talked about being honest with your parents. Hey, listen, don’t make a compromise deal with Pharaoh.

Many times, six, seven times, Pharaoh got down with Moses and said, okay, yeah, let’s talk. Now he wants to put Moses on a tether just long enough that he can pull him back when he wants.

So don’t do that. Dump all the garbage, as he said.

Go wholesale. Don’t settle for a half break.

This half-calf coffee. What in the world is that all about?

You’re going to drink coffee. Do it.

But the fact of the matter is, same thing here. Don’t go halfway.

Just say to God, full scale. Maybe you have a boyfriend back home.

You need to call before you leave this meeting and say, we’re done. We’re over.

It’s over. No more.

Don’t make a compromise. Just say, God, I want delivered or whatever steps I need to take.

Hey, friends, there was a lot of battles after this cry was heard, right? The stories of Pharaoh and the stories of all of these things that took place are only to teach you and I that your cry for deliverance has been heard, but it will be strongly contested.

It will be strongly resisted, but don’t worry. Once God starts to move, I don’t care what kind of a lousy Christian you are, he will do it.

You think about the people he was dealing with in Israelites here. How many days journeyed were they before they said they wanted to come back?

Three. Three days.

Good thing Moses was with them, but they’d have been in a lot of trouble. They started saying, Lord, we remember the leeks and the garlics of Egypt.

We remember all the good things that we had there. Boy, they had a short-term memory, didn’t they?

They couldn’t remember the sound of chains rattling. They couldn’t remember the snap of the whip.

They couldn’t remember the sounds of babies screaming as they’re thrown into the Nile River. Well, I tell you, every time Satan, and boy, believe me, I’m human.

There have been times where I’ve been so low I had to scrape myself off the sidewalk with a spatula. There have been times I’ve been so low and Satan whispers in my ear, boy, you remember the old life.

And whenever he does that, I always do the same thing. I close my eyes and I listen.

You know what I always hear? I always hear the sound of change.

every time.

And if I listen long enough, then I also hear the crack of the whip. And I think, why in the world would I go back to that?

We’re going to close just right now because I want to give you an opportunity before lunch. There’s no need to wait.

If you already know the decision that God’s put on your heart, there’s no reason right now that you cannot cry out to God in your heart and say, God, This is where I’m at. I trust you.

I don’t know all my motives, but I know that you want me to serve you. This sin is a bondage in my life right now, and I want you to live on me.