Blood On The Door

Tony Campolo tells the story of a town where all the residents are ducks. Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, and then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible.

He reads to them: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds!"

All the ducks shout, “Amen!” And then they all waddle home. (Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story, Word, 2000; www. PreachingToday.com)

That describes some believers I know. They say “amen” to the notion that they can fly, but continue to waddle around like they are tied to the ground. They’ve read in their Bibles that they can soar to great heights and overcome any obstacle, but they continue to wallow in the muddy puddles of bitterness, worry, and/or compulsive behaviors.

So how do you find freedom from such a debilitating mindset? How do you break free from the habits which keep you in bondage? How do you escape the kind of thoughts and feelings which have entrapped you for so long. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 11, Exodus 11, where we see how God set his ancient people free after they had been slaves for 430 years in Egypt.

Exodus 11:1 The LORD said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely (ESV).

But they won’t go away empty-handed.

Exodus 11:2-3 Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people (ESV).

God will take care of his people, providing them with everything they need while the Egyptians lose just about everything they have. With that assurance, Moses goes to Pharaoh one more time.

Exodus 11:4-7 So Moses said [to Pharaoh], “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel’” (ESV).

Israel’s God will protect His people, but the Egyptian gods will be impotent to protect the Egyptians. The goddess Isis, wife and sister of Osiris, supposedly protected children, but this last plague will demonstrate her total incompetence. The Egyptians will see that the god they trusted to protect their children is a total fraud. Then…

Exodus 11:8 And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger (ESV).

Even though Pharaoh has stubbornly refused to let God’s people go, his own officials will beg them to leave!

Exodus 11:9-10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land (ESV).

That’s so God could demonstrate His power over all the Egyptian gods who were nothing but worthless idols. So, if you want to be truly free…

PUT AWAY YOUR WORTHLESS IDOLS.

Turn from those things which replace the true God in your life. Reject the notion of trying to find security and significance in anything or anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Egyptians trusted in their gods, and those gods failed to save them. And that’s what happens to people, who trust in anyone or anything else but the true God of the Bible. Those idols fail to save them. In fact, those idols can and will destroy them.