# Just Obey

Key Passage: Exodus 7:6
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter number seven. Exodus chapter number seven. We are going to continue on this study of the life of Moses, and we’ve been into it for a while now. We are just going to start off with this one verse, and then we’ll pray and we’ll go back and rehearse just a bit and try to catch us up here. We are just going to try to pull out one thing tonight. The title would be, Just Obey. Just obey. That’s it. I think of old Bob Jones; he used to say, “Do right, do right, till the star is full.” Just do right. It is a little similar to that: just obey. Just obey. Exodus chapter number seven.

And just one verse, verse number six.

The Bible says, “And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; so did they.”

I really believe this is a little bit of a turning point for Moses. I will be honest with you, I do not think Moses’ batting average to this point is very good at all. It is really not. It seems like things begin to change a little here, an upward swing. I love how the Bible emphasizes: they just obeyed. They just did what was commanded to them.

For a little bit, I do not think we will be long tonight. We want to focus on that tonight: just obey. Just obey.

Over there in chapter three, you maybe just want to flip over there, chapter three. Moses, that is where the Lord appeared unto him in the burning bush. The Lord said, “Now Moses, I’ve seen the affliction of the children of Israel over there in Egypt, and I am going to use you; you are the lucky man. I am going to use you to deliver the children of Israel.”

Once you see Moses’ response, verse number 11. And Moses said unto God, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Not like his humility; I think it was better than 40 years ago when he thought he was all that, if you will. It can get a little old after a while, if you will.

Verse number 12, and He said, “Certainly I will be with thee.” That was God’s answer.

Verse number 13, and Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I Am That I Am.” And God gives them instructions. He tells them about what all He is going to do, and He is going to deliver them, and gives him just some great promises He is going to do for him.

Look in chapter four. I just want you to kind of notice Moses’ responses. Well, who am I? And they are going to ask me, who are you? And chapter four, and God answers very well. Chapter four, verse number one. And Moses answered and said, “But—” Have you ever heard them? No buts. You know, I mean, just—Moses is giving a lot of buts here. “But, behold! They will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. They will say, ‘The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.’”

And that is when the Lord says, “Well, watch in your hand.” He said, “Well, I got this rod.” Remember we talked about Pharaoh; he often had a rod. It pictured his rulership and his power over them. God said, “No, you are not going to be on the world’s power anymore. You are going to be under My power through My man.”

He took that rod and he cast it down. We took a whole Wednesday night and talked about all that. And grabbed it up by the tail. Then he said, “Moses, put your hand in your bosom,” in your pocket if you will, pulled it out. He was missing a thumb or a finger. I mean, what about that, you know? And you remember the story. He had leprosy. Put it back in there, you know. And by the way, man has a sinful heart; that is why we do sinful things with our hands. God can change your heart, amen. Put your hand back in and pull it out, and boy, it is clean. God can change your heart and what we do with our hands.

He said, “Now if they do not listen to the first two things, then take that water, pour it out, and it will turn to blood.” It will be the river by now later on. He gave him all these wonderful signs.

Now look at Moses’ response to that. Look at verse number 10. Chapter 4, verse number 10. And Moses said unto the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent.” Man, excuse after excuse after excuse. “Neither heretofore nor since hast Thou spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.”

And of course God said, “Well, who made your mouth, Moses? I can handle that. You just go and do what I told you to do.”

Look in verse number 13. This is Moses’ response to it. And he said, “Oh, my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of whom Thou wilt send.” Can I paraphrase? “Oh, Lord, send somebody else.” I mean, just excuse after complaint, after butt, you know. Moses’ batting about zero.

Actually, verse number 14, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Wow, that is saying something, what the Bible says. The Lord was not happy with him. Now he went ahead and said, “All right, I will give you Aaron.” By the way, Aaron helped him sometimes, and Aaron hurt him sometimes. Both are true. But the anger of the Lord was kindled against him.

Now here is the interesting thing. Here is the interesting thing. Look at verse number 18. And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, “Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.” Because the Lord sent me on a great mission, I have to obey the Lord. He did not even tell Jethro what God said. It is not recorded. He just said, “Let me go back and find out if they are living or not.” Probably his family he is referring to. I do not know, at least some of his family. He does not even tell his father-in-law, “God has called me to do this.”

On the way back to Egypt, you remember we studied it out. God said, “If I am going to use you to deliver My firstborn, and I am going to take their firstborn, you better get your boys right too, Moses.” Remember that? Moses is not doing real good.

And Moses gets in town and he meets—he does meet with the elders of the children of Israel. Well, they like him. “Woo, we like this deliverance! Well, that sounds good to us,” you know. And so chapter 5, verse number one, Moses goes into Pharaoh and he takes his long, bony finger and he says, “Hey, Jehovah said, ‘Let My people go.’” And Pharaoh said, “Who is this Jehovah you are talking about? We are not letting anybody go.” In fact, in fact, the children of Israel have got to produce the same amount of bricks, and they do not get any raw material.

And the children of Israel could not keep up. And we have told it that the foreman’s on the job were beaten. And so they go to Pharaoh and complain, “Hey, Pharaoh, it is not our fault. It is your people’s fault. They are not giving us the raw material, no straw.” And Pharaoh said, “Yeah, you have been—you have got too much time on your hands. You are talking about going to worshiping in the wilderness and whatnot. You are going to produce the same amount. You are not going to get anything. You better go get working.”

And they leave, the children of Israel. As they are leaving, they see Moses. Well, they are happy with Moses. People can change real quick. But be careful just following people too much. I mean, “Be followed me even as I follow Christ,” but be careful. Everybody changes from time to time. And, hey, Moses, you got us in all this mess. “And the Lord be the judge, what is going on here?”

Now I like this. I like parts of it. Last part of chapter 5, verse 22, and Moses returned unto the Lord and said, “Lord, wherefore hast Thou so evil entreated this people?” He asks his prayer to God, and he said, “God, the people, the people.” And I like it; what a selfish prayer is about the people, not about Moses. I like that. Maybe, maybe he—all right, maybe he hit an RBI at least, you know. I mean, got on base or something there, you know. But I am just saying Moses is not doing real good.

And so the Lord says, “Hey, all right, Moses, I am telling you, you are going to deliver the children of Israel, and I am going to be with you.” And He gives them those seven “I wills” there in chapter number six.

Look in verse number nine, verse number nine of chapter number six. And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, for cruel bondage. Moses is kind of striking out with the people. He is not been doing super good with the Lord.

And so the Lord says, “Hey, Moses, the people won’t listen. Go in there to Pharaoh.” And look what Moses says in verse number 12 there of chapter number 6. Moses spake to the Lord, saying, “Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me: how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?” If God’s people won’t listen, why do you think Pharaoh is going to listen to me? I mean, Moses argues with the Lord, you know. I understand just kind of trying to show you here: Moses, he is not doing real good. He is, um, maybe got one hit. He is swinging sometimes, but he is striking out, you know.

Verse number 13, the Lord charged him. “I am telling you, Moses, you are going to do this thing. You are going to do it.” And it kind of goes to his lineage a little bit. And, oh, verse number 30, verse number 30, verse number 30. And Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips; how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?” Again, he says, he is not going to listen to me, Lord. It is just not going to work.

And I am just telling you, Moses kind of sounds like us every once in a while, right? Not doing real good. Last week we talked about the first five verses or so of chapter 7. God said, “I have got a reason for this.” God always has a reason for the thing you are going through, for allowing it. It always does. Not trying to teach us and grow us, not we talked about, always has a reason for allowing it.

Then we come to verse number six. It just seems like things begin to change a little bit. Verse number six: “And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; so did they.”

Can I be honest with you? I do not think—I do not think they felt like it. I do not think their faith was real high. I do not think they were on a spiritual high. I think by this point, Moses’ wife and his sons were already sent back over there to Jethro, his father-in-law. I do not think everything was going their way. I do not think they are having the best prayer time. I do not think they are reading their Bible maybe like they ought to do what they had. I do not think everything was wonderful in their spiritual life, but they obeyed.

Now, friend, there are going to be times that you are not going to feel like obeying. You are not going to have all the right feelings. You are not going to have the warm and fuzzies inside. You are not going to have tears in your eyes during your prayer time. You are not going to go to church and think, “Woo, that is a good message.” You are just going to be walking through mud, but what do you do? You just obey. That is what you do. Nobody likes those times in the Christian life. Nobody wants those times in the Christian life, but if you are going to live for the Lord over the long haul, you will have those times. And you just obey. You just simply do what you know God has told you to do. You just obey.

I like it when feelings are there. Man, I like that. Woo-hoo! Man, I like it when you hear that song and, man, it brings tears in your eyes and you just kind of shout. I love all those feelings. I love it when in church people get excited. I see somebody the other day raising their hand. Nothing is wrong with that. They are doing it for a show; that is wrong. But if they are doing it to the Lord, nothing is wrong with that. That is biblical for him. Nothing is wrong with that. Nothing is wrong with that. Nothing is wrong with that.

I like it when you feel it. I like it when to preach it; man, it is exciting. I love all those feelings, but the Bible says be instant in season, out of season. The best of Christians have an out of season. All of us have an out of season. And Moses and Aaron, they just did what was commanded to do. They just did it.

You know, I like it when you go to church; man, it is just wonderful and sweet fellowship and everything about just hunky-dory. But, you know, sometimes Ted irritates—well, not me ever, you know. And Brother Frank, oh, my goodness, wow, we do not have enough time to talk about that, you know. And Brother Marlin, wow, you know, I mean, goodness gracious. And I am being facetious here, but I am just saying there are going to be times you do not feel wonderful like going to church. You have heard it, I know you probably heard it about ten times, about the fellow that woke up and talked to his wife, “I do not feel like going to church, and nobody likes me out of the church. You all talk about me, all staring out and judging me. Give me one good reason why I should go to that church.” And she says, “Because you are the pastor.” You know, you have heard it before.

Why do you go to church? Because He said, “Not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.” Now, yes, exhort, and I love it when all that is on top side. But, friend, when it is not on top side, just obey.

They just did what was commanded to them. I do not think, to be honest with you, I do not think they thought, “Well, this is going to turn out right.” It had not been good so far, and I have told you, Lord, about, you know, how many times they are not going to listen to these lips of mine, that uncircumcised, you know. He will listen to us, but they obeyed. You just obey.

Can I say this? Obey in the midst of fear. Look, if you will, over in Hebrews, I believe it is Hebrews 11 and verse number 7, if I remember right, Hebrews chapter number 11. And I want you to see this. It is Hebrews 11 and verse number 7.

Hebrews 11 and verse number 7: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with—” what is the next word? Fear. Fear. There was fear involved. Can I just say here, faith is not equal absence of fear. Faith obeys in the midst of fear. Sometimes the greater the fear, the greater the faith it takes to obey. Perfect love casts out fear.

Let me tell my faith here. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house: by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Now, do not get this saying, “Well, you know, I have no faith that won’t have any fear.” Here is salvation. Sometimes I will talk to people about it when they do not want to get saved, and you can kind of tell they have got some kind of fear. Maybe they do not think they can live up to it—by the way, nobody can—or whatever the fear may be. But you hear the gospel: Jesus saves, only Jesus, nothing you can do. It is all Him. There is a sinner, and it is only Jesus, and you say, “Wow, I like that. I mean, that makes sense, and that is biblical.” You show me from the Word of God, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And you see and hear all those things.

But you have a little fear. “Well, I do not know. Is it that easy? I mean, I do not know if I can live up to it. I am not sure about this thing. I do not know what I should do.” And they are standing—they are standing at the fork of the road. And either they go down the road of fear and doubt, or they step out even with fear in faith and they accept Jesus. And that is how they get saved. Satan is going to put fear there for them. He is going to have it there. But you just obey, even when fear or feelings are not right.

You know the verse over there. Help me out with it. Over there in Corinthians, God loveth a what? A cheerful giver. Okay, so if you are not cheerful, should you still give? You just obey.

Can I be honest with you? For—I do not know how long it was, but for the first part of my adult life, I would say, or married life I would say, man, writing that tithe check when I did not know how I was going to live off the rest—can I be honest with you? I was not real cheerful. That is like, “Oh, this is hard to write this crazy check.” Oh. You know, and the offering plate comes by and you are like, “Oh, all right,” you know. I was not cheerful. I am just being honest with you.

But I obeyed because God told me, “Hey, do not you rob Me in tithes and offerings.” So I tithed. Now, here is the wonderful thing. Over the years, I do not know exactly when it happened. I really do not. But over the years, God has just changed my old sinful heart in that area. Still got a lot of areas He is working on, amen, you know. But that area is something about it. I do not know, but God changed my heart. And I actually—and I mean, I think I am sincere here—I like to give. Man, it is awesome. I enjoy it. I think it is a little bit more. I am a little closer to God love with the cheer. You heard it, hilarious. God loveth a cheerful giver. A little bit closer to that, but I was not there at first. I just obeyed.

That is what the Bible means in Proverbs when it says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Guide thine heart in the way. Do not let your heart guide you because there is a good chance it is going to lead you down the wrong road. You guide your heart and you do right, and you obey the commandments like Moses and Aaron did, and God over time—by the way, that is what the Bible means when it says, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” It does not mean whatever you desire God is going to give it to you. It means you delight in Him. You are very soft, tenderhearted. You allow Him to change you. You will do whatever He says to do. And you do that, you delight in Him. God says, “I will give you the right desires.”

Now the next verse, after He changes your heart, you want the right thing. The next verse, verse number five, He says, well, let us go over there to look at it because I will misquote it. Amen. Psalm 37. Psalm 37. “Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,” I believe. Let us look at this thing. Make sure I get it right. I missed part, I would have got it wrong. Verse number four: You delight in Him, and He changes your heart, gives you the right desires. Verse number five: Over time, you commit your way, you trust in Him. He will bring those desires to pass that He gave to you. But there is going to be times your heart is not there, and you just delight in Him. You just obey Him. You just follow what He said to do. There will be times that is hard to do.

Can you imagine Abraham? Help me out. Abraham. Hey, Abraham, you are going to have a son with your wife, Sarah. Over how many years, at least how many years did Abraham have to wait for that to be fulfilled? At least 25. There may be at least 25 years. Can you imagine all that? And remember that? At one point, he said, “Hey, Lord, let it be of my senior servant, Eliezer.” And God said, “No, no, that is not My plan.” And then Sarah said, “Hey, Abraham, I am not—I am old. You are old too. We are not—hey, won’t you take the handmaiden, Hagar?” you know. And boy, that is where a lot of wars and battles and problems came from. Twenty-five years they waited, even after all that. And they had the son, and God said, “Hey, Abraham, let us see how good you are at obeying.” Remember that? What would God ask Abraham to do? Yeah, give me your son.

Look, if you will, over in Genesis chapter number 22, if you would, please. I believe that is where it is. Genesis 22. And God has already gave us covenant. And, oh, let me see here. I may be in the wrong place. Chapter number 22. Let us go over chapter number 22. Chapter number 22. And I do not want you to see verse number one. Genesis 22 and verse number one: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here am I.” And we are not going to go through the thing. I just want you to see, God is testing him. Are you going to obey Me?

I guarantee you Abraham did not feel like giving his son. And Abraham told us, “And God will provide Himself a lamb.” You know all that. But I want you to see this. Look in verse number 17. Verse number 17. Abraham has passed the test. And, oh, let us start in verse number 16. This is the Lord—the angel of the Lord—talking to him and said, “By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because—” watch it here it is. I hope you have underlined it—“because thou hast what?” Obeyed My voice.

Do you think Abraham felt like grabbing that knife to kill his son? No way. Do you think Abraham felt like putting his son on that altar? No way. But he obeyed. And because he obeyed—now, you know the story. God had that ram caught in the thicket. And God said, “No, no, no, Abraham. I do not want you to follow through that. I just wanted to see if you obey.” And because you obey—Frank, you understand the importance of obedience. You know the story of Samuel when he came over there to Saul and Saul said, “Well, I partially obeyed.” And what did Samuel say? No. God had rather have obedience than sacrifice. Amen. Just obey. Obey in the midst of fear.

Obey when you do not feel like obeying. Let us take it to your prayer time in the morning. How many of you—now be honest. Be honest, you do not have to raise your hand. Don’t raise your hand. You will be tempted to tell me a story if you raise your hand. I do not want you to do that if you raise your hand. But how many of you when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, you just want to—you just feel like hopping out of bed and read your Bible? How many are like that? My hand in the half is not up, I guarantee you. But God does not hear my prayers and God does not speak to my heart because of how I feel. He speaks to my heart from His Word, and He answers prayers because of obedience.

There was a good day when a pastor told me one time, he said, “Hey, Brother Paul, God does not answer your prayers because how you feel in that prayer closet. God answers your prayers because of His promises.” You just obey.

Now, when I obey so often, the feelings come along. You heard Curtis Sutton used to tell it so good. He said, “I woke up one morning, and will wanted to go over there in that prayer closet, but feelings said, ‘No, no.’ And Will said, ‘I am going anyway.’ And feelings said, ‘I ain’t going.’” And Will went over there to the prayer closet, he shut the door, and he just out of obedience prayed. And a little while later, he heard a little knock on the door, and Will went to the door, and feelings said, “Hey, can I join you?” Yeah. Guide thine heart in the way.

I do not think Moses and Aaron at this point felt like it. I do not think maybe their heart was tender about it all. They have been told, “God, I do not have any time.” Hey, they are not going to listen to us, but they did what was commanded them to do. That is so important.

Hey, look over in Psalms 126, would you please? Psalms 126. Psalms 100 and verse number 26. I thought we were going to be short tonight, and y’all are just taking too long for everything. I will tell you what, it is all y’all. Look at this. Psalms 126, would you look at verse number six? Psalms 126, look at verse number six.

I want you to notice the order: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” One of our first soul-winning campaigns, if you will, we were in a second building over there on the—it is the vape shop now, unfortunately, there in Laverne. I hate it. They stole our store. That is not fair, you know. We were in that building, and we were going to have a soul-winning campaign, and an older lady was going to their church in time. Good lady, good lady. I cannot remember her name. Maybe my wife knows who I am talking about, but she came to me. She said, “Pastor, I am thinking about this, but I am going to go soul winning when I get the burden. I am going to go when God burdens my heart for the loss. I am waiting for the burden, and then I am going to go.”

And I showed her that verse, that verse right there. Maybe I just quoted it; I cannot remember. But notice the order. What does it say? He that what—what is the first thing? He that what—what is the first thing? Go forth. You just obey. And then what happens? He that goes forth and what—and there is the burden? No, no, no, no, no. We do not wait for the burden. We just obey. And once I obey, then the burden comes. Because I am going to be—I am guiding my heart.

By the way, how many times those of you go with us on Saturday—there are other times you go soul winning, not just Saturday—how many times have you heard somebody on Saturday and they just—the Lord just used it either to lead some of the Lord, had a great business, somebody needed—somebody to give them assurance or pray with them, their burden. And we get back up on the bus afterwards, we share testimonies, and how many times have I heard this? Somebody would say, “Man, I had such a battle coming this morning. I did not want to come. I did not feel like coming. But is not it amazing? I got to see somebody saved. I had this great thing. So-and-so was crying. We prayed together.” It is such a—yeah, a lot of times when God is going to work, the devil is fighting.

You just obey. Either go forth and weepeth, and the burden comes. You bear the precious seed, and God says, without a doubt, I will give you fruit in My time. You just obey. What is the song? Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.

It is amazing. After this point, I want you to look forward as we study the life of Moses. How many times God says He told Moses to do something, Moses just did it. He is called the servant of the Lord more than anybody in all the Bible. “And Moses is My servant,” “Moses is My servant.” Moses, he just learned, “I am just going to obey.” I think sometimes he did not feel it, but he just did it.

Can I say another thought here? Obey every impulse of the Holy Spirit. I mean, if He tells you, “Go say you are sorry,” just obey. If He says, “Go witness to that person,” just obey. I will be honest; there have been times I have not done that. I recently met with someone yesterday morning and I did not witness to him. Boy, I was so convicted. I said, “Lord, I am so sorry. I wish I had obeyed.” I told the Lord, “Give me another chance. I am going to have another chance. I am going to talk to him.” But just obeyed.

I remember years ago we were living in Florida and had some neighbors over there. We really had not talked to them. We were renting the house, and we really did not know them at all. And Miss Tammy just got burdened to go witness. We had no idea—no, I had no idea why. She just got burdened, and she obeyed. And she went and she witnessed to—I think it was two ladies living there. And if I remember right, both ladies got saved. And they said, “You know, we are moving tomorrow.” You just obey. You just obey. Every impulse.

And here is what we want to do: we want to second-guess God. We want to analyze it every angle we can and figure it all out. No, no, no, no, no. Just obey. Sometimes we get dismayed—what the Bible calls dismayed. I have been guilty of that. “Be not dismayed; for I, the Lord thy God, am with thee.” Just obey. What did He tell Joshua? “Hey, Joshua, do not be dismayed. Just go in there and do what I told you to do.” Dismayed—what is that? That is where the squirrel is going to cross over the road at the other side, and he jumps out and he sees that big old truck or that car coming at him 90 miles an hour. Come on now, yeah, yeah. And he says, “Whoa!” And he freezes out of fear. That is dismayed.

Do not analyze it and go back and forth, try to figure it off; just obey. It did not make sense with the children of Israel marching around Jericho every day. Couldn’t say a word. I can imagine those Jerichoites on the wall. You have to study that out real hard. That was their terminology, you know. But those Jerichoites on the wall, look at them walking around. They are like, “Hey, you’re a bunch of—what in the world do you—that is crazy.” The children of Israel couldn’t say anything. They are supposed to march around in silence. And silence sure speaks real loud a lot of times, you know. They just marched around. And the next day, ha! Here they are again. I wonder if any of those Jerichoites shot spitwads at them. How many of you think so, you know? What if they had rubber bands back in that day and time? You know, I mean, I do not know. I was after I got out of high school. I do not know if I could shoot rubber bands. I think I could still find the way to shoot rubber bands, even though missing a thumb or a finger. You know, I do not know at all, but I mean, I am sure they were making fun of them down there marching around. And the seventh day, seven times. And then do, do, do, do, do. And the shout! Boy, they are supposed to shout then. And those walls came tumbling down, fell down flat.

Just obey. Just obey. It is not always going to make sense. Just obey. I do not think Moses and Aaron were doing wonderful in the Christian life. I do not think the walk with God was super strong, but they obeyed.

Can I say this? Obey all the way. Remember that Israelite girl over there and the—what was it?—the Syrian general, Naaman. And what did Naaman have? He had that disease. What did he have? He had leprosy. And a little, little servant girl said, “Hey, if you go back over there, the prophets of Israel, they know Jehovah, and both—they can heal you.”

And Naaman went over there. And who was it? Elisha, I believe it was. And Elisha said, “Yeah, go over there to the Jordan River and wash seven times.” And old Naaman said, “Nah, man, if you’d have told me to do some mighty feat, I would do it. But go wash in the dirty Jordan River. That thing is dirty.” They have had issues even in our day and time about people getting baptized and they are afraid they are getting things on them, you know, so that they stop—they are going back to it if they are standing right. But that is a dirty place. And his servant said, “Now, Naaman, if they had told you to go over there and get a thousand subscribers or friends on Facebook, you would have done it. But just this old dirty task nobody knows about it.”

And so Naaman said, “All right.” Naaman went over there. You have heard it, you have heard it. He said he went over there, and he dipped down there one time, and it came up nothing. And two times and three times, and Naaman said, “This stuff is crazy.” Now, imagine an old servant said, “Well, you just obey.” The old neighbor maybe said, “Shut up over there, servant,” you know. And four times and five times, but sometimes it takes some time. God blesses obedience. But it is not always better, but just obey. Six times. Seven is a number of completion. And Naaman—it was not any glorified thing about it. He was just obeying. And Naaman dipped down that seventh time. Hoo-hoo! God blesses obedience. Just obey. Just obey.

Would you go back? We are going to be done. Look at that, verse number six. Exodus chapter number seven. Exodus 7, verse number six. One more time, I want you to read it out loud with me. I do not think—I do not think they were just on cloud nine. I do not think they held a whole lot of faith. I do not think they had the best prayer time in all the world, but notice what they did. Verse number six, chapter number seven: “And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; so did they.”

You know God did not have to put that in there. You keep reading, you figure it out. I mean, you keep reading, you know what happens. The Bible tells us what happens. But God put that verse number six in there on purpose. God said, “I want to emphasize something. Moses, you have problems, and you have problems. But them boys, they did what I commanded them to do.” And so they did it. Hey, just obey.

Wedge about your heads and close your eyes, please. Their heads by the eyes are closed.

That preacher, man, I need to obey in the midst of fear. I need to obey when I do not feel like it. I need to obey when it is not easy to do. I need to obey when it, you know, it is not always turning out right in my timetable. I just need to obey. God spoke from the heart about obeying. If that is you tonight, preacher, I just want to be better about obeying. If that is you, just lift a hand. I need to be better about obeying. Me too, me too. Oh, my hands up, my hands up for sure, my hands up.

Lord, help me just to obey. Would you do that? Father, thank You that You are so patient and merciful. Thank You, Lord, for Your clear commands. Help us, help me, Lord, just obey. Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy, Your grace when I do not. My Lord, help us to get up and obey. Help us to learn from verse number six. They just did as You commanded them to do. Well, thank You, Lord, for what You do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

You know that over there in the New Testament where Paul and Silas—they’ve been beaten, preaching the gospel, and they put them in that inner prison. And remember Paul and Silas, they sang praises at what? Midnight. This is just Pastor Paulology. You know why I think it was midnight? Typically they closed down. They took their business a lot earlier than that day and time. I think it took them a couple hours just to obey. I do not think it felt like it at the beginning. Now you start singing, it is amazing how singing will change your heart. I think after a while they are into it. But I do not think at first they were. Probably at first they are complaining, “Well, it is all your fault, you big mouth Paul!” Come on now, they are just like me and you, you know. But after a while, you know, Paul and Silas, “Well, let us just praise the Lord anyhow. We get to bear these stripes for the Lord.” And by the time, I do not know what all happened, but by midnight they were singing. And God blessed them before. God blesses obedience. He really, really does.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - Just Obey - Wednesday PM 312023