The SERMON GEN. 47:13-27

RECENT VIRGINIA CHURCH SERVICE -STIMULUS SERMON Gen 47:13-27Good morning, brothers and sisters; it's always a delight to see the pewscrowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get into God's Word. Turn withme in your Bibles, if you will to the 47th chapter of Genesis, we'll beginour reading at verse 13, and go through verse 27.Brother Ray, would you stand and read that great passage for us?....(reading)...Thank you for that fine reading, Brother Ray.... So we see that economichard times fell upon Egypt , and the people turned to the government ofPharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grainharvest, and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. Sothe people brought their money to Pharaoh, like a great tax increase, andgave it all to him willingly in return for grain. And this went on untiltheir money ran out, and they were hungry again.So when they went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock -theircattle, their horses, their sheep, and their donkey - to barter for grain,and verse 17 says that only took them through the end of that year..But the famine wasn't over, was it? So the next year, the people came before Pharaoh and admitted they hadnothing left, except their land and their own lives. "There is nothing leftin the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we diebefore your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, andwe with our land will be servants to Pharaoh." So they surrendered theirhomes, their land, and their real estate to Pharaoh's government, and thensold themselves into slavery to him, in return for grain. What can we learnfrom this, brothers and sisters?That turning to the government instead of to God to be our provider in hardtimes only leads to slavery? Yes. That the only reason government wantsto be our provider is to also become our master? Yes.But look how that passage ends, brothers and sisters! Thus Israel settledin the land of Egypt , in the land of Goshen . And they gained possessionsin it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly." God provided for Hispeople, just as always has! They didn't end up giving all their possessionsto government, no, it says they gained possessions!But I also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one. We see thesame thing happening today - the government today wants to "share the wealth"once again, to take it from us and redistribute it back to us. It wants totake control of healthcare, just as it has taken control of education, andration it back to us, and when government rations it, then governmentdecides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if we go along withit, and do it willingly, then we will wind up no differently than the peopleof Egypt did four thousand years ago - as slaves to the government, and asslaves to our leaders.What Mr. Obama's government is doing now is no different from what Pharaoh'sgovernment did then, and it will end the same. And a lot of people like tocall Mr. Obama a "Messiah," don't they? Is he a Messiah? A savior? Didn'tthe Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made them his slaves, "You have saved ourlives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh"?Well, I tell you this - I know the Messiah; the Messiah is a friend ofmine; and Mr. Obama is no Messiah! No, brothers and sisters, if Mr. Obamais a character from the Bible, then he is Pharaoh.Bow with me in prayer, if you will.Lord, You alone are worthy to be served, and we rely on You, and You alone.We confess that the government is not our deliverer, and never rightly willbe. We read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel warned thepeople of what a ruler would do, where it says "And in that day you will cryout because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORDwill not answer you in that day." And Lord, we acknowledge that day hascome. We cry out to you because of the ruler that we have chosen forourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this nation. We pray forrevival, and we pray for deliverance from those who would be our masters.Give us hearts to seek You and hands to serve You, and protect Your peoplefrom the atrocities of Pharaoh's government.In God We Trust...