Stimulus Sermon

A friend of mine sent this to me yesterday. I just had to post this.

I would love to give the Pastor of this predominantly black church in Virginia a high five. It is amazing to see that very little has changed in 4,000 years.

RECENT VIRGINIA CHURCH SERVICE -STIMULUS SERMON
Gen 47:13-27



Good morning, brothers and sisters;

It's always a delight to see the pews crowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get into God's Word. 
Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will to the 47th chapter of Genesis, 
we'll begin our 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 economic 
hard times fell upon Egypt , and the people turned to the government of 
Pharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grain 
harvest, and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. So 
the people brought their money to Pharaoh, like a great tax increase, 
and gave it all to him willingly in return for grain. And this went on 
until their money ran out, and they were hungry again.

So when they went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock 
-their cattle, 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 had 
nothing left, except their land and their own lives. "There is nothing 
left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we 
die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for 
food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh." So they 
surrendered their homes, their land, and their real estate to Pharaoh's government, and then sold themselves into slavery to him, in return for 
grain. What can we learn from this, brothers and sisters?

That turning to the government instead of to God to be our provider in 
hard times only leads to slavery? Yes. That the only reason government 
wants to be our provider is to also become our master? Yes.

But look how that passage ends, brothers and sisters! Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt , in the land of Goshen . And they gained 
possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly." God provided for His people, just as always has! They didn't end up giving 
all their possessions to government, no, it says they gained possessions!

But I also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one. We see the 
same 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 to take control of healthcare, just as it has taken control of 
education, and ration it back to us, and when government rations it, 
then government decides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if 
we go along with it, and do it willingly, then we will wind up no 
differently than the people of Egypt did four thousand years ago - as 
slaves to the government, and as slaves to our leaders.

What Mr. Obama's government is doing now is no different from what 
Pharaoh's government did then, and it will end the same. And a lot of 
people like to call Mr. Obama a "Messiah," don't they? Is he a Messiah? 
A savior? Didn't the Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made them his slaves, 
"You have saved our lives; 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 of mine; and Mr. Obama is no Messiah! No, brothers and sisters, if Mr. 
Obama is 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 will be. We read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel 
warned the people of what a ruler would do, where it says "And in that 
day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for 
yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." And Lord, we 
acknowledge that day has come. We cry out to you because of the ruler 
that we have chosen for ourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this 
nation. We pray for revival, 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 people from the atrocities of Pharaoh's government.
In God We Trust...

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