Exodus - Part 5- Hard Hearts Series

Thanks to John Hamby and his sermon " Sign's of a hardened heart" for the inspiration and the excellent points for this message

Exodus – The story of God’s presence

Part 5

Hard Hearts

Exodus 5:2-----7:8-13—---8:25-28---10:8-11, 24

Many times in my life I have been called hardheaded

I have no doubt that every man and many of the women in this room fall into that same category

I have worn out a copy of the Outlaws album with Willie and Waylon in every format available

And on that Album is the song Good hearted woman

I truly believe I could rewrite that song

To she’s a hard headed woman in love with a hard headed man

And it would fit most of us

Being hard headed is not always a bad thing

Sometimes it is the very thing that keeps us out of trouble

Or causes us to get things done

But

Hardheadedness

Often leads to hardheartedness

And while

I often laugh when I am called hardheaded

But the times in my life where I have been called hardhearted ---and there have been a few

Hurt

And They

Also made me take a hard look at my life

And

How I was responding or reacting to the people and circumstances in my life

And more importantly how I was responding to God

And where I placed him in my life

For a believer a hard heart is a bad thing

We are called to love

We are called to show compassion

We are called to show mercy

We are called to obedience

We are called to be the light of Jesus

To be the salt of the earth

And there is no way we can do that effectively

With a hardened heart

So today we are going to look at a non believer

Who was notorious for having a hard heart

And see what a hard heart looks like

And prayerfully try and figure out how not to allow our hearts to harden

Or if they have already started down that road

How to soften

A hard heart

We are picking back up in our study of Exodus this morning in chapter 5, then the text will be chapters 7-10

Moses has been called back from Midian

His brother Aaron has been sent by God to help him with his mission

And God has had them go to Pharaoh and tell him to free his people the Hebrews

Just to recap quickly

Remember God had given Moses some signs so that The Hebrews would believe

A staff that turns into a snake

A magic hand

And the ability to turn water from the Nile into blood

His people believed

Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh but he refused to believe

Or even listen

In his anger at being told what to do

He made things much worse on God’s people

To the point where they now would not listen to or follow Moses either

Remember from Chapter 5 when Moses brought God’s word

Exodus 5:2

“And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”

In this verse we see the first signs of a hardened heart

But it gets worse- God tells them once again to go to Pharaoh

Please open your bibles to Exodus chapter 7: 8-13

8 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “Pharaoh will demand, ‘Show me a miracle.’ When he does this, say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent.[a]’”

10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! 11 Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. 12 They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted.

Moses and Aaron showed Pharaoh the sign from God

But

He just scoffed at them and refused to listen

He is unimpressed and remains unmoved

I can tell you

If you were in the bible study his morning

Or if you have read Exodus for yourself

Then you know that Pharaoh should have listened- it would have been in his best interest

You see

When God wants us to do something

It will get done

The easy way

Or the hard way

Pharaoh choose the hard way

And

Because of Pharaoh’s choice and his hard heart

God

Sent a series of ten plagues on Egypt