He's Brought You Out and He's Taking You In . .

So What Now?

by

Adrian Yuen, Ph.D.

Read Judges 2

God made a covenant with Israel.

To take them out of Egypt and indeed He did.

Jesus has taken us out of Egypt.

From the world.

From worldly thinking, worldly values, worldliness.

We are no longer in Egypt.

He has brought us out!

He has delivered us from the curse of the law being made a tree.

He has saved us,

Forgiven us,

Redeemed us,

Restored us,

Set us free.

We are to stand in our deliverance.

Jesus died that we might have life and life more abundantly.

Whosoever will may come.

We have come to Him,

Now we are taken out from Egypt.

Not to go back there again.

Not like Lot's wife.

Not like Lot.

Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom before he went there.

The pitched tent and the direction is the sin nature.

We are born with our hearts pitched towards the world, Sodom.

But when God drove Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah,

Lot's wife turned back,

And she became a pillar of salt.

One was already pitched before he got there.

The other was taken out but still had affections for the place of exit.

Sentiments and obligations to the world.

She became a pillar of salt even though she was not quite in the place of judgment,

But her heart was not out of the place where evil lived.

We can be in church.

Some of us have our tents, our attitudes, our values, our ways, our habits,

THEY ARE ALL PITCHED TOWARD SODOM.

And others, delivered yes,

But deep inside, if we could get by with it, we would.

Maybe it is because it is a church rule,

Or a professional standard,

Or a policy of employment.

We serve and do, not because we believe,

Only because we comply,

But like Lot's wife, our hearts are still wishing we had access, secretly,

to the place we need to leave, not just physically, but emotionally.

Then God said,

I took you out of Egypt.

I am bringing you into the Promised Land.

There in Canaan, there will be enemy nations too.

Do not make a covenant with the people of THE LAND.

Tear down their altars.

We go from sinful Egypt to religious facades of THE LAND.

Where once we were in Egypt, hooked on sin, addicted to self, owned by the sin nature, a slave to sin.

Now in Canaan, there are vulnerabilities too.

Like pride.

Like jealousy of others.

Like needing to be right,

Needing to be liked.

Needing to be in control at all times.

Loving oneself,

Using others for personal gain or control.

Positioning and power.

Now that we are being blessed, we become self-righteous.

Students now judge the teachers.

Members now judge their spiritual leaders.

Satan fell with his desire to be LIKE THE MOST HIGH (Isaiah 14:12-14)

He said to Eve.

If you eat this, you will be like GOD (Genesis 3:5).

The King of the Mountain is the need to be number one.

Yet throughout the ages, it has become the need to be THE ONLY ONE.

From number one to ONLY ONE. Sin is still mutating. . .

From eating the forbidden fruit, a simple act, yet with deep consequences,

To mocking God and defying Him.

From wanting to be NUMBER ONE to now wanting to be the ONLY ONE.

I Timothy 3:6-7 speak about a new leader falling into the trap of Satan.

That's where we have the need to be number one.

Worse yet.

The King of the Mountain Syndrome is the need to be number one and the only one.

That's the trap of Satan.

God begins to bless us in Canaan.

We get the applause of others.

And we become intoxicated with our fame, our popularity, our favor, our miracles.

We begin to judge the unfortunate,

We show little mercy to others.

We feel empowered and powerful.

Unknown to us,

In our religious pride.

We are making a covenant with the people of THE LAND.

Tear down their altars.

We value what "the world values."

We value what "the religious world is doing."

We copy.

Like Israel in I Samuel 8.

GIVE US A KING LIKE EVERY OTHER NATION.

We look at the largest church in town.

We abandon our arduous vision,

We adopt the vision of another church.

We want to have a king like all other nations.

When God has called us to be a DISTINCTIVE VOICE.

Not to compete,

Not to be jealous,

But to speak the truth in love.

We watch American I, we want to sing like the world

Their altars are still erected.

We watch how the world dances and we bring in the sensual side of the body in our creative expressions and call that worship.

Their altars are still in place.

We imitate Hollywood,

How they dress, how they look, how they act.

We admire the entertainers.

They live too often in promiscuity and yet they sing songs of love and romance,

While on their fourth marriage or going through a huge and nasty divorce.

They sing what they little know.

And yet we admire them.

We want to be like them.

We want to sing like them.

We want their fame and popularity.

We listen to their music and sing along with their lyrics.

Lyrics that speak about a life without morals.

Love without commitment,

Subject to change at whim.

Their altars are still in place.

Yet we say,

We are no longer in Egypt,

Barely in Canaan.

And then we go to Canaan,

And another kind of altars is present.

We are merciless to the hurting, the struggling, the weary, the bound, the addict.

Where we once we were bound in sin in Egypt,

Now in Canaan, we speak proudly of not being like them all.

We forget where we came from and that only grace, not our good works, brought us here.

We go from the sins of Egypt to the pride of Canaan.

And both extremes fail to follow the God of Holiness and of Love.

The God of Truth and of Mercy.

The God of Order and of Understanding.

The Demanding Side of God and the Gentler Side that says,

I LOVE YOU.

I BROUGHT YOU OUT.

I AM TAKING YOU IN.

NOW MAKE NO COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND.

TEAR DOWN THEIR ALTARS.

If not,

their gods will be assigned to you.

Stand in your deliverance.

Stand in the power of His might.

Stand in His faith so it becomes your faith.

Stand in His joy so it becomes your joy!

After all, STAND IN THE STANDING, STAND IN GOD.

God wants a people UNTO HIMSELF.

He will not accept a mixed breed of believers who live under the guise and confusion of two masters.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

LET GOD DELIVER YOU OUT OF EGYPT.

BE BORN AGAIN.

LET HIM TAKE YOU INTO HIS WILL, THE PROMISED LAND.

THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH YOUARE HERE.

THE WILL OF GOD.

THAT'S YOUR CANAAN.

Serve the Lord with gladness,

Come before His Presence with thanksgiving.

Do not complain of your good works.

The Pharisees bragged of their compliance to the law,

Outwardly white,

But inwardly bitter.

Rather,

Be Free.

Free when others see.

Free when alone.

Live by the deliverance of God's grace.

His mercy is everything.

His truth endures through all generations.

Walk in His anointing until it is your anointing.

And do not follow after the world.

Be a distinctive people, called unto Him,

Sanctified for purpose.

Conformed to His image,

The adopted children of God.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your lives.

Otherwise, if you compromise,

Their "gods" will be assigned to you as snares in your path.

Judges 2:3 says, THEY WILL BE THORNS TO YOUR SIDE.

May God's Spirit that wrote the Word we call the Bible,

Quicken us to obedience,

Yielding to His plan for our lives.

Live out His DELIVERANCE IN YOU.

Speak to the enemy and proclaim and declare YOUR DELIVERANCE.

SATAN, BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, I AM BROUGHT OUT OF EGYPT.

Satan, by the Holy Spirit, I am brought into God's Will for my existence and life.

I AM A PURPOSE.

I HAVE A MANDATE.

I AM ON A MISSION.

In Exodus 12,

The Lamb was slaughtered,

That's the Cross of Jesus.

But, it has to be applied.

The lamb slaughtered did not go to the doorposts of the houses and bleed there.

The owner of the house had to put the lamb's blood on the door posts.

The lamb died is Jesus on the Cross.

The blood applied is the work of the Holy Spirit that generates faith in the sinner to say,

BE MERCIFUL TO ME, SAVIOR JESUS, LORD JESUS, CHRIST JESUS.

And there the double cure.

2 Peter 2:20-22 say:

We have escaped corruption by knowing our Lord and Savior.

The corruption includes the captivity of the sin nature over our lives.

Now sanctified,

We are not to be entangled again with sin or else we will be OVERCOME by our own nature, now the human nature is overcome so that our human nature has its own sin nature or quality of control . . . OVERCOME by it.

Once sanctified so that the old man or the sin nature is crucified with Christ.

Now we are overcome by being entangled in sin again until the sin in our human nature assumes control within us as a nature of sin and not just an act of disobedience.

It would have been better never to have known this way then to return to the wallowing of the world.

But, we can be set free to STAY FREE.

Jude 1

NOW UNTO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO KEEP US FROM FALLING . . .

TO PRESENT US BLAMELESS BEFORE THE FATHER.

OUT OF EGYPT, INTO THE PROMISED LAND.

STAND IN GOD!

Be free, stay free, live free!

DO NOT GO BACK.

TEAR DOWN THE ALTARS.

STAND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT.

Yours for the Journey,

Adrian Yuen, Ph.D.