Frog Biscuits
gtcotr/ws041404
A word about hard hearts
* Moses allowed divorce because of hard heartedness
Matthew 19:8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
* Pharaoh’s heart was hardened first by God then by his experiences
Exodus 4:21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
Exodus 7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
1 Samuel 6:6 Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did?
* Was God‘s heart ever hard? Why do I consider this?
> Hard hearted Pharaoh refused to let the children go from the bondage they were under until he had paid the ultimate price, the death of his firstborn.
> God also paid the ultimate price, the death of His Firstborn, before which He would not let the children go free from the bondage.
> Pharaoh had ten plagues against him
> God spoke that these ten times His children had provoked Him to anger
* Prophecy
Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
* Do not harden you hearts against the poor and needy
Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your poor brother.
* Do not harden your hearts during times of testing
Hebrews 3:8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,
I. Exodus 8 (NIV)
1 ¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
2 If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.
3 The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.
4 The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.’"
5 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’"
6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.
7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
A. The 2nd Plague
B. The magicians did the same things …
1. There always seems to be a counterfeit
2. Don’t follow signs - let signs follow you - Mark 16
C. Frogs Biscuits
II. Pharaoh Has All He Can Take
A. Pharaoh Summons Moses
Exodus 8:8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."
B. Moses Puts Pharaoh In The Driver’s Seat
Exodus 8:9 Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honour of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."
1. You decide Pharaoh
2. Just when do you want God to deliver you
C. Pharaoh’s Stupid, Short-Sighted, Idiotic Answer From His Hard Hearted Paradigm
1. Exodus 8:10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said …
2. Just one more night with those frogs
3. Just one more sleep in frog slime
4. Just one more morning with the smell of scorched frogs
5. Just one more frog biscuit
III. A Tomorrow Mentality
A. Hebrews 4:7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."
B. Psalms 95
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 ¶ for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways."
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."
C. 2 Corinthians 6:2 For God says, "At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you." Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation. (NLT)
* You will never do anything on any day that is not called ‘Today’.
* Why wait? What are you waiting for? One more frog biscuit?
* Saying no to today will serve to further harden your heart
* Let God and His will into your heart, let it in now!
* Be a person who is right: right now - right here
I want to encourage you individually & as a church body, don’t delay.
