Sick world needs healthy ones. Spirit-filled people are necessary. Moses refused to remain as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He choose another way. He forsook privilege and esteemed the riches of Christ and kept faith. (Hebrews 11:24-28)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Gary Groenewold
Sermon 12272
7:00 PM on 3/23/2022

P. Gary Groenewold –

Okay. So, the Easter Play is coming up. You see the signs up front. Great time of year for all of us to
participate. Think of people we can invite to church to see a production where it will touch their
hearts. They can make decisions. It’s a great time in the world just to be thinking about others.
Those signs you can pick up in the back. We can be a part of that together.
We had Eurocon. Eurocon was held in Warsaw this year. People know that. That’s where a lot
of the church was. There may have been like 500 people from our churches over there. That
means the European churches. We had a pastor from India. There was P. Stan came over from
South America. People from all over the world.

Something that stood out in my mind. One thought before I begin. I was just thinking as we
looked out here tonight. We’re all like sheep, right? Sheep really don’t know they need a
master. They really don’t know it. They’re really not conscious of their need. But when the
shepherd shows up, they hear his voice. It makes sense and it’s security to them. It’s kind of
what you could say Eurocon is like. It makes us aware we need to be lead.

In Exodus 21, when Moses raises up the serpent, life is about perspective. All of a sudden I see
my shepherd and if I look at the brazen serpent, I’ll live. This is what our conferences are for.
We see the fruit of them or the need of them. When we’re over there, just the conversations
and people’s lives. None of us are seeking God. We need to be encouraged. We see what
encouragement does. I was thinking all of the pastors from Poland had their children there.
These guys are 40, 50 year-old guys. P. Maciek had his sons there. P. Tomasz is from Rutslav
[sp.?] and he had his two sons Gabriel and Michael, angel’s names. One’s 18 and the other is a
little bit younger. They have this podcast that they do and they minister to kids their age and
they direct it towards that. It’s amazing to see those guys and to see them seek after God.

P. Mariusz’s son came from Gdansk. And then P. Roberts two daughter’s were there. Caroline,
she plays the violin in the band and she’s a part of it. Nataliya who was in Bible school was
there. Just the value it has in a family. You see all the little kids. You saw Justin, Andy Valaitis’
son and Banga’s son playing with the Robbins’s kids. They’re making friends. I know how vital
that was for my kids. They never forget that. Kids had a little booth outside. They were turning
the house of God into a house of den and thieves! They were selling bracelets. Little kids were.
There were four of them. Three zloties for one little rubber band bracelets. They were making
memories.

Justin got to meet Hazel Robbins. It’s kind of neat to see kids get to know each other. Another
neat thing, Angela and Arby, they are from Austria. They are from way back and they brought
their two daughters. One is 18 and one is 50. They want them to see the fellowship. See the
fellowship. P. Petri brought his son, Emmanuel. He wants them to see the fellowship.

It’s beautiful to see because it’s valuable. It’s real. It’s not fake. This is what life is about. We’re not
patting ourselves on the back. This is real.
If our church can encourage another church to do the same thing, wouldn’t we glory in it and
we’d never done another thing. We’d be so happy. People got to know God. We never did
another thing but we encouraged another church to do what we did, that would be incredible.
The Robbins’s in Turkey. Erhan, is he here tonight? Just to see what’s happening in Turkey. A
secular but Muslim country. We have a ministry there. And then I saw the two disciples that
Roger brought…It was beautiful to see people bringing people. There’s a whole group of I think
15 or 18 people that came from Lithuania. Lithuania is next country up from Poland and they
came down. Kaliningrad is right in between there. They came down from Klaipeda. It’s amazing
to see. Then, I don’t know P. Speedy. Larry Speedy. I’ve always been wanting to get to know
him. Over the telephone, you don’t really get to know him. And God allowed it. Every morning, I
had breakfast with him. I got a new friend. You know what I mean? I got a brand new friend,
and now I know him. We got to eat together.

These are the things that we see. Sophia Minichiello. Is she here tonight? I don’t know, but she
had a great time there. She was in the band. She was doing ministry at the train station. It was
great to see. She’s a teenager and she was there. These are the things God did there.
Then we had the pastors meetings. The perspective. I remember the last day, Saturday, P.
Schaller. This is a good lesson. It’s not just pastors. I’ll share something that happened. Where
do you start your ministry? When you minister to a person, do you minister as I have to correct
them and change them? Is that where you start at? They’re bad and I have to change them. Or
do you start where they’re good and I’m going to encourage them. Isn’t that a great lesson
about friendships, about raising children, about family life, about interactions, how to show
yourself friendly, how to renew your mind so you don’t think evil about people. You know you
could be wrong.

Why don’t I have friends or why aren’t things going so well? Everybody is bad. Everybody is bad
that I see. I see their faults all the time. That’s what’s first in my mind. Don’t start there. We
start over here. We start over here in an even place and we encourage people because we are
all like sheep. Of course, people go astray, but we can start there and take people in the other
direction. So many things happen at these and you can just go to a conference and you can just
let the wind blow you and the Spirit will take you where he wants you to go and God will use
you. It’s so beautiful to see how God uses people.

P. Jason is here and his brother Chris, their hearts for the Ukrainians. P. Chris and P. Jason just
to see them love the church, churches, the people of Ukraine and to pastor them. They know
their names. They know where they come from. They know their kids. They are taking care of the people in our churches that are from Ukraine. You see the Ukrainians with their kids. One
boy not wanting to go back. He’s 8 years old. His mom wants to go back and be in L’viv and he’s
afraid and doesn’t want to go back. They have to deal with these things. All the women coming.
And the children.

We went down to the train station. The church was down there every day just ministering to
people going to places and handing out food and giving them the gospel. These are the things
that we are doing. These things are fundamental in our life. These things are so fundamental in
our life that we have not about ourselves. We gravitate towards others in our life. It’s so
beautiful to have that aspect in our lives. So, thanks for being a part of it. That’s what we do. So
many people went. You prayed. You were here. There’s another one planning next year. This is
our church throughout the world. Amen.

P. Schaller –

Thank you. That was unique, wasn’t it? And was it a drum? The clicking? Yeah? I
feel so honored that you are here tonight. I feel honored to be with you. I feel honor before
God. We honor God by assembling, to pay attention to his Word. I feel honored that we are
prayed for, so many people praying for each other. I feel honored that we were in Europe and
felt the reality of what P. Gary said. I’m very built up. I’d love to build you up tonight. I would
really love to do that. What do you think the possibilities are? It would be amazing that we
would end in 15-20 minutes or whatever the time and just say I was glad. I was glad that I went
to the church tonight. Isn’t that amazing? So, there’s a couple of Scriptures.

The first one I want you to turn to is Isaiah 52. I’ll point this out to you. Isaiah 52:3-5, I think many
of us have images on the TV of what is happening in the war, the war in Europe. The cold face
of war. The masks are down and we see the cold face of the human race. Proverbs 6, there are six
things, yeah seven that are an abomination to the Lord. And they all go along with the nature of
man, what is in our hearts. When you judge people, be careful because wherein you judge, you
are guilty of the same. Romans 2:1, we are all part of this race of men that make war. We have
war in our hearts in James 4. All of us. It’s in our family. It’s in our neighborhood. It’s in our
community. It’s in the world. It’s the nature of man. There is one that is the Prince of Peace.
There is one that you need to get to know.

With the war that we see in Europe, we are all concerned that it would not develop into a
world war. Einstein said that famous statement. They asked him because he was horrified by
the power of the atomic bomb. At conferences he attended, they would ask him what would
World War III look like? He said I don’t know but I know that World War IV will be with sticks
and stones. We could destroy ourselves. I think this is a good message for all of us. It's a good
message. Why not enjoy it cause you and I are connected with Christ. That’s our joy. I would
love for you to feel important before God and to feel and think that you have a relationship
with the living God who loves you, who is your Father, who cares about you, who speaks to you.

Look at this vs. 3. What do you mean for nothing? I sold myself for a woman. I sold myself for
$10,000 or $100,000 or a million or for $10. I sold myself for a drug, for a connection, for a
relationship. God said to the Jews, you have sold yourself for nothing. You got nothing in return.
You got nothing but problems, problem upon problem. But then he said vs. 3. It’s kind of a play
on words. You sold yourself for nothing, and I will redeem you and he says without money.
What he means is I will redeem you by blood, by the blood of my Son. I will redeem you by
myself, by my strong arm. I make bare my holy arm it says in Isaiah. Okay.

Go to vs. 5. Howl. What does it mean? When the Babylonians came, they were like the
Ukrainians. They were devastated. They were destroyed. They were murdered. They were
raped. They were carried away to another country. They were in a lot of trouble. The Jews by
the Assyrians and Babylon. They were howling. They were howling.

So, I’m going to make this short cause I want it to be really positive. All this negative is to get us
to where we want to be. Will there be World War III? Will there be another pandemic? Will
there be fear? Will there be people howling? Will there be the anticipating of being lost? Will
there be the conviction of my sin that I’m actually in a lot of trouble. That’s one of the things we
enjoyed seeing in Eurocon. Some of our old friends from 40 years ago who were under amazing
conviction to get saved and they were under that conviction.

I was making a rough calculation that in our church and I go before the Lord like we all do in
prayer and say Lord, is everybody in our congregation saved? Is everybody saved? Is everybody
born again? And then I just make a calculation in the Scripture and say, no. There will be many
that say unto me in that day Lord, Lord, have I not prophesied in your name and done many
mighty works in your name and Jesus said I never knew you. I never knew you. I think the
percentage would be very low because we wouldn’t be coming here unless we had the Holy
Spirit drawing us. And the Holy Spirit draws us to the assembly. I want to hear a word. I want to
meet my brothers and sisters. I have love in my heart. I want to live by faith. I want to find God
in a personal way. I want to hear the voice of God in my heart. I need comfort. I need the
encouragement in my heart because of what I see in life. What I see in life is actually leading me
to trust or cling. Draw me, Jesus. Draw me. We will run after you in Song of Solomon 1.

Okay, now go to this portion in Hebrews 11. We will finish pretty soon, but we didn’t come here
just for a few minutes so we got a good text here. I preached on it in Poland. I want to do it
again here. Hebrews 11:24, it means when he grew up. When he came to years. How old was he
when this happened? Yes, he was 40 years old and what did he decide in his heart? He’s in
Egypt. What does he decide in his heart? I’m a Jew. I’m a jew. It’s like two identities. We all can
have two identities. I can have I’m a sinner. I’m depressed. I have bad habits. I’m not such a great Christian. I failed a lot. I’m not motivated. I’m not so interested. I can have that kind of
identity as a person. But then I have another one that Jesus tells me who I really am.
Who am I? I’m born of God. I’m a child of God.

I am filled with the Spirit. Who am I, God? You
are more than a conqueror. You are able. I am with you. I am God. I am your Father. Ask me
and I will answer. Knock. I will open. Seek. You will find. That’s exciting. I will find. I will knock. I
will grow. I will learn. When Moses came to years, he said, I’m a Jew. Vs. 24. Translation: I am
the son of Pharaoh’s daughter which means one day I could be Pharaoh. Pharaoh was the title
of king. He was the Caesar or the Czar. The president or the leader. He would be the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter could mean that one day he would be the king of Egypt but Moses refused.
He refused by faith.

You need to learn to refuse some things because you live by faith. You have to learn to say no.
You have to learn to walk away. You have to learn to say I’m not doing that. I’m not into that.
And if you fail in it, rebound and come back to God in faith and be drawn to God. So, we have
the first verb there, refuse.
Vs. 25. Choosing. Choosing. There are parts of the world where you don’t have choices. I
remember in Romania, one of my friends that under Communism we couldn’t even choose
what city we lived in. We couldn’t even choose what job. They gave you your job and told you
where you had to live. You couldn’t even choose. In some parts of the world, you can’t choose
who you marry. You cannot choose to get out of town. You cannot choose your education.
Others choose for you but it’s a lie. It’s a lie. Moses said, I choose. I choose to follow God.

In Islam they say you cannot change your religion. If you change your religion, you go to hell
automatically. That’s a lie. You choose Christ. You choose Christ. The devil says you can’t. We
say you can. The devil says you can’t change it. You can’t do a thing about it. We say yes we can.
Moses did. Moses made a decision and Moses chose. Vs. 25. He chose to suffer.
This is a good word for us cause usually we choose comfort. Have you chose any suffering?
Have you chose an inconvenience? Have you chose to suffer? Have you chose to make a
decision that would lead you into persecution or inconvenience or something uncomfortable?
Moses did. How did he do it? Cause he was called. And so are you. You’re called. You have a
calling. You have a calling to refuse. You have a calling to choose. You have a calling to esteem.
Look at the next verse there, vs. 26. Esteeming.

Esteeming means an evaluation. You make an
evaluation. It would be better for me to be a king and be buried in a pyramid and mummified
and be surrounded by gold or would it be better for me to follow God. I don’t know where I will
be buried. I don’t know what will happen to me. And by the way, the Bible says nobody knows
where Moses was buried. Look at the comparison. If I’m Pharaoh’s daughter and I’m buried in a
pyramid, that’s like an honor. Like what is it King Tut or one of the Egyptian kings versus I don’t
know where I’m going to be buried because it really doesn’t matter. Cause if I gain God in my life cause life is about God. God loves you. God is close to you. This is the living God. This is the
God where you can say I got the world over here but I’ve got God. I’m going to choose God.
Nobody talks about God. It doesn’t sound like anybody knows God.

Nobody is really excited about God. Nobody is interested in God. Nobody is giving their all to God. Everybody is talking
about this pyramid over here and the mummies that are in it and the gold that is in it.
I heard there was an exhibition in Florida where they brought the museum treasures of a
pyramid to Florida to show to people in a museum. I was thinking about that whole picture. I
wasn’t there but I was thinking about it. I go, wow. I could care less about a pyramid, you know,
presentation in Florida when I have and you have the living God in everyday life on the beltway
in Baltimore city. In your heart on a Wednesday night. In your morning devotional in the Spirit.
In a relationship with the living God where he shows up in a prison or a hospital room or a
nursing home and the living God is there.

Moses esteemed or evaluated this. He goes basically, I’m out of here. I’m out of here. God met
me at the burning bush and I’m here in Egypt before Pharaoh and I’m making these decisions
and he hates me. Pharaoh hates me. Pharaoh is an enemy of mine. He hates me but that’s okay
with me cause he’s wrong and Christ is right. He’s of the world. Christ is not of the world. He’s
in darkness. Christ is not in darkness. Christ is the one who is our comforter and teacher. Christ
is the one that sent us many years ago over to Europe. Many hundreds of people have gone.
They’ve lived in Portugal, in Germany. They’ve lived in France and the U.K. and Sweden. They’ve
lived in Poland and Romania and Austria. We have. We actually have our people together as a
group and how did they go? They esteemed the treasures of Egypt as nothing compared to the
treasures that are gained in your personal relationship with him.

Vs. 26. He had a feeling in his heart. It’s better. It’s better. I don’t know if I will win or lose but I
believe in God that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. He will not leave me
ashamed. He will uphold me. He will care for me. He will lead us. So, they are at the Red Sea
and of course it looks very dark, but God shows up and they go over on dry land. Of course,
because God called them out.

I want to say to every one of us here in this room, that everyone of us have a calling on our
lives. Everyone of us have the visitation of Christ in our hearts. Every one of us have words of
faith. All of us have a ministry. All of us have a bright future in Christ. God is for us. Wherever
you work, your job is one thing. Your job is your vocation, but you have a calling. Are you a
teacher? You have a calling. You’re a teacher, but you have more. You have a calling. Are you a
factory worker? You’re a factory worker but you have a calling. You’re a mother but you have a
calling. You’re in the medical field but you have a calling. You’re sitting with someone in a
nursing home, you have a calling. You’re a young person. You have a calling. You’re an older
person. You have a calling. All of us. We have this calling. We have this evaluation and we live
by faith.

The last thing here is vs. 27. He forsook Egypt. I was reading an article about a man who wrote
about happiness. And he said that he had found – and he’s a pastor – he had found that active
people are happier people. He did some research on it. Active people are happier people. I
taught it in the high school today and we had a nice time in the class and we talked about three
things that he said in the article. I won’t go over that now, tonight, but I just want to say by faith
he forsook Egypt.

I’ll tell you. There are people that are so passive. They won’t forsake anything. They just don’t.
They’re so passive. They don’t make a decision. They won’t make choices. Their not deciding.
Sometimes we do the uncomfortable thing. Sometimes we do the hard thing. Sometimes we
choose suffering. Sometimes we do something inconvenient. And Moses by faith – of course it
was God that did it. They put the blood on the doorpost and they ate the lamb and the Holy
Spirit lead them. They come to the Red Sea and they’re out. How? It was by faith. It was by
faith. When you go home tonight, before you go to bed take a few minutes and get on your
knees if you can. Get on your knees in the kitchen or anywhere in the house by yourself, all by
yourself, and just say Lord I’m doing this. I’m raising my hands by faith. This is by faith. Does this
mean anything? It doesn’t mean anything. Maybe nothing but because God has told me to
worship him and lift up holy hands. I can do it because he said so. I just do that by faith. Does it
have any meaning? God knows.

If you can live by faith tonight, then you can live by faith tomorrow morning. If you live by faith
in the morning, it’s very possible you’ll live by faith in the afternoon and the next day. If you live
by faith and you make decisions in your own mind to live by faith, you’re going to find yourself
walking by faith. And you might find yourself with the Red Sea opening up and you say, how did
this happen? How did this happen? And the Lord says, because you walk by faith. I opened up
the Red Sea. I made this happen. And you started just by faith and from the burning bush, you
went back to Egypt and you went to talk to Pharaoh and you left and I did my thing, my
punishment and I told you to go back and you went back by faith. And then you left. Was it nine
or ten times when Moses went before Pharaoh and then Pharaoh said this is the last time I will
ever see you. And Moses said, you got that right. It’s over. And they left. What is the whole
story?

I’m trying to say that we have troubles in our world but you should not have those troubles in
your heart. We have troubles in this world on the outside but we do not have them. We do not
live in them in our hearts. That’s not God’s will. It’s his will for you to run through a troop. It’s
his will for you to be comforted. It’s his will for you to have a word in season for him that is
weary. It’s his will for you to pray for the sick. It’s his will for you to believe him. And I do not
know what door God will open up for you in your life, but he will reward those that live by faith.
He will. Why did the door open up?

Remember that story I told you about my wife and I going to the drugstore? We pull in the
parking lot. The drug store is closed. I go, Lee, it’s closed. It’s not closed. Just go. It’s open. I go,
Lee, look. It’s dark in there. The doors are closed. She said (he pointed to the door). So, I get out
and I walk across the parking lot and I come to the door and I’m just saying it’s closed, and the
door opens up. I feel her eyes on the back of my head! I turn around. It’s open! It’s open! I got
it! It’s open! Alright. It’s hard to admit. I want to finish the message here.

Listen. We have to be healthy. The world is sick and in trouble. We have to be righteous in our
hearts and true and Spirit filled and healthy people. We need that health. We don’t need the
chapter of the world in our hearts and minds. We need it in us in Jesus’ name. We only have so
much time on this earth. And we have a ministry that God gave us.

The last verb here is this verse 28. “Through faith he kept the Passover.” How did he keep the
Passover? By Faith. How do we take communion? How do we gather here? Remember P.
Scibelli when we were here with covid, he and I were here with a team of ten or fifteen people
and the audience was totally – nobody was here. The room was empty and you precious folks
were home on your TV watching or computers. How did we assemble? By faith.

We kept the Passover. How did you keep the Passover? By faith. We kept the assembly. How
did we keep the assembly? By faith. We met together. How did you meet together? By faith.
We gave money and that was a great blessing to our church and I want to thank everybody on
the internet and keep it up. Keep it coming in and keep blessing us because we can use it in so
many ways and we are. I want to say money, assembly, attendance, faith, prayers. How does
God work in your life? By you walking by faith. By faith he kept the Passover. Wow. What a
story.

Let’s go over the verbs. Refused – say it out loud with me. He refused. He chose. He esteemed.
He forsook. And he kept. He refused. He chose. He esteemed. He forsook and he kept. How did
all that goodness happen? It was in his heart as he walked by faith.
I wonder what God has for you in your life in these coming months and years? And maybe
decades. I wonder what God is going to do with you in your life? I wonder how it’s going to
work. I do not know but I know your faith is precious. God is with you. Pay attention to him.
Listen to him. Follow him. Trust him. He will show you. He will help you. He will comfort you. He
will teach you. He will open the doors that look closed. He will do it cause we walk by faith.
Amen. Let’s pray.

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