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Song number 134, My Anchor Holds. I'm an anchor, safe and true, That can evermore endure. I will hold, my anchor holds, Your wildness and old gale. On my bark so small and frail, By His grace I shall not fail. Oh, my anchor holds, my anchor holds, Biting tides around me still. There is work within the deep, I grow clouds or shade the sky, And the tempest rises high, Still I stand the tempest shocked, For my anchor clips the rock, And holds my anchor holds. I will hold, my anchor holds, My anchor holds, I can feel the wind burst fast, As I'm leaning shot in the grass, And the cave will roll on the sea, There's a heavy stream between us, For my safely ride, Till the turning of the tide. I will hold, my anchor holds, Your wildness and old gale. On my bark so small and frail, By His grace I shall not fail. My anchor holds, my anchor holds, I can feel the wind burst fast, As I'm leaning shot in the grass, And the cave will roll on the sea, There's a cure the night of day, What a Christ, I can be bold, I've an anchor that shall hold, My anchor holds, my anchor holds, Your wildness and old gale, My bark so small and frail, By His grace I shall not fail, For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. I will hold, my anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, My anchor holds, Turn to song number 315, Take My Life and Let It Be. 315, Take My Life and Let It Be. On the first, Take my life and let it be, Consecrate it, Lord, to thee. Take my hands and let them move, At the impulse of thy love, At the impulse of thy love, Take my feet and let them be, Swift and beautiful for thee, Take my voice and let me sing, Always only for my King, Always only for my King, Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold, Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise, Let them flow in ceaseless praise, Take my will and make it nigh, It shall be no longer mine, Take my heart, it is thine own, It shall be thy royal throne, It shall be thy royal throne. Amen. Alright, well let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us again to be able to meet here this morning. And just pray you bless our service, Lord, and continue to take care of us. And just pray you bring us all back safely tonight. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, please turn your Bibles to Psalm 81. Right in the center of your Bibles you have the book of Psalms, Psalm 81. And as our custom we'll read through the entire chapter together, Psalm 81, starting at verse 1. Sing aloud unto God our strength, Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob, Take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel, And the pleasant harp with the psaltery, Blow up the trumpet and the new moon, And the time appointed on our solemn feast day, For this was a statute for Israel, And a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, When he went out through the land of Egypt, Where I heard a language that I understood not, I removed his shoulder from the burden, His hands were delivered from the pots, Thou callest in trouble, and I delivered thee, I answered thee in the secret place of thunder, I proved thee at the waters of Meribah, Selah, Here, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt harken unto me, There shall no strange god be in thee, Neither shall it thou worship any strange god. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it, But my people were not harkened to my voice, And Israel were none of me, So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, And they walked in their own counsels, O that my people had harkened unto me, And Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies, And turned my hand against their adversaries, The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, But their time should have endured forever, He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, And with honey out of the rock should I have testified thee. Brother Bradley, would you pray for us? Alright, amen, so we're in Psalm chapter 81, look at verse number 5, it says this, it says this, he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt, where I had heard a language that I understood not. Verse 6 says, I removed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were delivered from the pots. So obviously that's all a reference there to the events that transpired in Egypt, when God rescued the children of Israel and made a way for them to escape from their burdens and their bondage and so on. Now we're going to come back to this Psalm later on at the end of the sermon, I'm going to show you how it applies to what we're talking about. So keep something there so you can get back to it later on, but go to Exodus chapter number 1. Exodus chapter number 1. Now the title of the sermon this morning is Learned Helplessness. Learned helplessness, if you're wondering what that is, it's basically when we are not trying to get out of negative situations because the past has taught us that we're basically helpless. And I got this idea actually from Kayden, he told me about how I watched a video on this, and it sounded pretty interesting. And one of the things that I noticed when I would study this, because it's a psychological term, learned helplessness, one of the things I noticed is that at the end of almost every video you watch on this, there's like, hey, buy this course and we'll show you how to get out of this. Hey, buy this for 20 bucks. One was like 500, one was go to shock therapy. I mean there's all these worldly, you know, antidotes, if you will, to get out of this feeling of learned helplessness, how to overcome negative circumstances in your past. And I was just thinking, you know, I know that that's in the Bible and that we can, you know, apply this to our lives and see a way out. And this is what I'm always saying, you know, I feel bad sometimes for people out there that we meet. You know, a lot of people sometimes, they'll even call the church or they'll talk to us out soloing, and you can tell that they've just had it rough. You know, they're going through a cycle and they just feel helpless. They don't know how they're going to get out of their situation and they're like talking about all these counselors that they've paid, all this money they've dropped on, you know, psychologists and stuff like that. And it's like, man, if you would just commit yourself to just coming to church and just learning the Bible, reading the Word of God, you can really save yourself a lot of turmoil, a lot of trials, a lot of tribulations. So again, learned helplessness, what is that? It's not trying to get out of negative situations because the past has taught you that you are helpless. Now the interesting thing about this is this came to be a thing, if you will, back in the 60s. There was a psychologist who did an experiment on dogs, and what he did is he took some dogs and put a shock collar on them, and then he would ring the bell and then shock them. And then after a while when he would just ring the bell, the dogs would react like they had been shocked. And so what he did is he took those dogs and he put them into this room, okay. And on one side of the room, the floor was wired with just a mild electrical something to shock these guys, these dogs. And in the middle of the room was a wall that the dog could easily jump over and get to safety. And on the other side obviously there was no danger there. There was no threat of being shocked. And so he would put those dogs on the side of the room that would shock you, right, and then he would go ahead and administer the shock, and the dog wouldn't try to jump over the wall to escape it. It just had already learned that it's helpless. And then they would take dogs that they hadn't done this to and they would do that. And some of them would jump over and some of them would not, but over time all the dogs would basically just lie down and just accept their fate that they're just going to be shocked. And, you know, that is interesting and, you know, I'm not – don't call Pete on me. I'm not endorsing, you know, animal abuse or testing, whatever. I, you know, I don't care that they're dogs, but the point is a lot of times we can feel our own selves. We can find our own selves in that similar situation where something's bothering us, something's plaguing us, and we just feel like we're just never going to get out of that. And that story there or those tests, it varies based on which video you watch, which article you read, which book you read, and so on and so forth. There were some where they would try to, you know, put a treat on the other side of the room and the dog would be like, oh, I'm just not going to even bother, you know. And it's kind of like the children of Israel as they were coming out of the land of Egypt and we're going to look at that this morning. But there was another one that I read where the – over in India where they would tie like baby elephants to a pole with a rope. And as the elephant grows, you know, they never change the size of the rope. So even as it's matured and it's fully grown, the elephant could easily snap the rope but wouldn't because it's learned that it's helpless. Okay, so that's what we're talking about. We're going to talk about how to understand that and how to overcome that. And you say, well, what's the big deal? Why even go through this? Well, because what it does is it produces the victim mentality. And I think you're going to see as we go through this, this is exactly what the government is doing to us today, what they are trying to do to society. And so you're going to find that a lot of people are feeling helpless, especially in today's day and age. You know, but maybe you're sitting here and you're thinking like, man, you know, I've tried to lose fat, you know, for years. I keep falling off the wagon. I'm just always going to be fat. You know, well, that's a symptom of learned helplessness. You know, the person that says, well, I'm going to quit doing drugs. I'm going to quit drinking and so on and so forth. But they keep having, you know, pitfalls. They keep going back to that. You know, a lot of times these people in their minds are just, well, that's just how I am. I'm just always going to be like that. You know, the person that's just constantly making bad financial decisions and just bad decisions just in general. You know, there comes a point a lot of times where people are like, well, that's just my fate. That's just how it is. That's just how things are going to be. It's never going to change. Okay. And Christians oftentimes will find themselves in that situation. And the dangerous part about that, besides the victim mentality, is that a lot of times you don't even know that it's going on. Okay. You don't even realize it. You have to have that pointed out to you. And that's why I think church is so important, why I think reading the Bible is obviously so important, because it's going to highlight these things for you and help you to overcome these things. Now, you know, I've experienced this in my own life. You know, I've talked, I think it was Wednesday, I mentioned my time in the Calvary Church. Calvary Church circuit, you know. And we just get to a point where I'm like, man, how come, you know, everybody's just compromising, you know. It's just, I guess it's just always going to be like this. Maybe we should just quit going to church. Maybe we should just give up, you know. What is that? Well, that's learned helplessness is what that is, you know. And again, everybody in here can find themselves in the situation, whether maybe you said, you know what, this year, I'm going to read the Bible every single day. And you started off good, right, your New Year's resolution. And then the next thing you know, two weeks have gone by and you haven't read a single page in your Bible, right. And you're probably sitting here thinking like, man, I guess I just wasn't meant to be a reader. I just wasn't meant to learn the Bible. I just wasn't meant to do this. Well, I want to tell you and exhort to you that that's not the truth, right. You have to just accept that you're human. You're going to make mistakes. You can still get back on that wagon. God has made a way for you to prevail. It's the same thing with soul winning, right. A lot of people, you know, I'm going to get on soul winning. You know, they'll email the church. Like, what can I do to make sure that I'm always going soul winning? Well, you have to institute discipline, you know. And you have to just accept the fact that sometimes, especially in the beginning, once that motivation wears off, that you're going to have a rough time, right. I mean, as the weeks and the months and the years go by, going soul winning is not always that exciting, especially when day after day doors are being slammed in your face. People are getting extremely wicked out there. But here's the deal, right. Don't ever just accept this idea. Well, I guess I'm just always going to be like this. I'm just always going to be lazy. I'm just never going to be a talker. I'm just never going to read the Bible. So on and so forth. And children, I see this a lot in children, okay, because kids make mistakes. They, you know, a lot of times will be real hard on themselves and they'll wind up having low self esteem, low motivation, you know, not enough persistence. And they'll just grow up thinking, well, this is just how I've always been. I'm not like the other people. And that comes as a result of you comparing yourselves to other people, which is something you should never do, right. That is not the right way to be. And again, that's another danger with the public school system a lot of times is that, you know, you get a bunch of kids in a room and, you know, the ones that are, you know, gifted, if you will, or have it right, a lot of times, you know, they put up on a pedestal. And you could tend to look at that and be like, man, I'm never going to be like that. As soon as you do that, you're setting yourself up for failure. Your life will literally be in shambles if you do stuff like that, okay. I see it with preachers sometimes. You know, they start comparing themselves to other people who have more subscribers, more followers, more congregants. And then they start making compromises and they start thinking, well, there's something wrong with me. I guess I'm never going to be like that. Well, why are you trying to be like that? God made you you. You need to be you. You need to do things the way that God has prescribed them. And so I had to start out in this psalm because the psalm breaks down into memories, okay. I mean, by the time that psalm was written, it had already been a long, long time before the children of Israel had already escaped through the provision of God. And God's saying, hey, you need to remember these things. You need to remember that I had your back. I removed your shoulder from these burdens. And so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to give you the bottom line right up front this morning and we're going to talk about it, which is this. Learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness, okay. Learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness. And we're going to talk about that, what that means. It's easy to say and I made it that way because I want, when you have that feeling of helplessness, like you're in a situation, you're stuck, you can't get out, I want those words to ring into your mind. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, when you're at work or you're out in the community or you're with your kids or whatever turmoil or tribulation or trial you find yourself in, I want you to understand that learned helplessness, when you identify this, it can be overcome by learned blessedness. But here's the thing, in order to find yourself in a situation where you're experiencing learned helplessness, you have to realize that you went through a process of some kind of stress, trauma, abuse or something like that and you had to learn that behavior. So guess what, it's not necessarily going to be easy to overcome that, but you can do that by learned blessedness. You have to learn what the real blessedness of God is and what that means and what that looks like. And that's why we're going to go through some passages here in Exodus this morning to just kind of show you that it's not always gravy. When God shows up and He says, okay, I heard your cry, I heard your prayer, I'm going to do something about it, guess what? Sometimes things might just get a little bit worse before they get a little bit better, but you have to understand this, okay? So how'd you go to Exodus chapter 1? And so in this chapter here, you're going to see in the beginning of the chapter that the Pharaoh that Joseph knew is gone, he's dead, Joseph's dead. Yes, I said Joseph is dead, okay? He's dead. It's what it says. That is what it says. And that whole generation's gone. Is anybody in here confused about that? And if you're wondering why I'm saying it like that, come see me after the service, okay? It's very clear, but I don't have time to get into that. But I want to pick this up here in verse number 13. Look what it says. It says this, and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. So after the good Pharaoh is gone, after Joseph, and after all that generation has passed on, Pharaoh realizes, wait a second, you know, our land is plagued with these Hebrews. They are mightier than we are. They outnumber us. This is a problem. And so he's paranoid. So he comes up with this idea. Okay, well, let's just put them under bondage. Let's just put them under rigor. Look at verse 14. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field, all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. Okay, so what you have here in this chapter, go to chapter number two, is that you have a paranoid ruler of the land, right? What is he doing? Well, he's instituting physical abuse. He's putting these people under bondage. He's putting them under intense scrutiny. He's basically making it difficult for them to work, all so that he can control them. But what we didn't read is what's going to happen later in the chapter is he's going to institute a no-man-child policy and tell all the Hebrew midwives, hey, make sure you kill all the males that are born unto thee this day. So they're suffering from physical abuse. They're suffering from mental abuse. And you're going to see that this takes a huge toll on the children of Israel. But one thing that I think you might find interesting when you read the whole chapter is that nowhere in the chapter do they then cry out to God and ask for help. Kind of interesting. Look at chapter number two. So in chapter number two, Moses is growing up here. The story of him killing the Egyptian that smited a Hebrew is in this chapter. And then guess what happens after he does that? Two Hebrews are fighting, and he goes up to them, and he's like, hey, what are you guys doing? You're brethren. You shouldn't be like this. I'm like, what are you going to do? Kill one of us too? Right? And so they just don't want to even receive instruction. Because what Moses is trying to do is he's got a heart for these people, and he's trying to get them united. He's trying to get them to stand up and realize that God's on their side, but they don't just see it yet. Now, look at verse 23. It says this. And it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. And they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. Now, isn't that interesting there? You've got to ask yourself this question. Why do they wait until Pharaoh dies before they say, okay, now we're going to have a quick sigh of relief, and now we're going to ask God for help? Why didn't they do that before? It's a pretty interesting question. They obviously know how to do that. They've heard the stories of the fathers. They've heard the stories of the past. They know who the God of Israel is. They know who their God is. They've heard of him. They know this. Just because Joseph's dead, just because that generation died doesn't mean they don't know that, because you can see that they are crying out unto God. And guess what God does? He hears their cry, and he answers it, and he's going to help them out. But I just always thought that to be interesting. Why did they wait until Pharaoh died? And it's because they're trusting in their own human reasoning. They're like, okay, well, here's an opportunity now, right? Isn't that what we do a lot of times? You know, instead, we just kind of learn to live with abuse. We just learn to live with those negative circumstances. We don't think to stop right in the midst of it and say, Lord, I need your help. Whether you've got to fast or whether you've got to just ask people to pray for you, sign up for, you know, the prayer sheet, whatever you've got to do. A lot of times, we'll just wait until we see an opportunity, and then we try to insert God into that situation here. That's what they're doing here, and that's a result of learned helplessness. That is not the way to do business. That is not how we are called to act. And so the point that I want to make here, the first point this morning is this. Learned helplessness wastes time in your life. Because look at the verse again, look at the beginning of that verse. It says, and it came to pass in the process of time. So what does that mean? Well, that means that we can see that learned helplessness wastes time in your life. Okay, and let me just mention this right now. Go to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. Any time that you're struggling with time management in your life, you have to understand this. You are going to bring some level of anxiety in your life. Nothing produces anxiety in your life like the loss of time. And you may not even realize it. You may not even understand what's going on. But I'm telling you, if you take too much on, more than you are able to handle, or you're sucked into this learned helplessness, and the process of time is going on, the clock's ticking, I promise you, you will experience anxiety. It is a promise. It is a 100% guarantee. And so that is the biggest thing that I see so far in this is that learned helplessness wastes time in our life. You say, okay, great, what's the big deal about that? Well, that's exactly what's going on today. This is what the government is doing to us today, right? Hey, we're going to shut you down. We're going to shut you down for this amount of time here, okay? And if that wasn't enough, guess what we're going to do? We're going to make you wear a mask, right? And then now we're going to make you take this needle in your arm, and we're going to make it mandatory. Well, you know what that's done? That has caused people to feel the experience of helplessness. But they're doing it for a different reason. They're doing it for the reason of learned helplessness. They are trying to use this as a measure of control on the population. That is why they are doing this. Mask, vacs, mask, vacs. It's just going to keep going like that. And you know what? A lot of people just feel helpless and are just like, oh, I'll just comply. I'll just comply. They're like the dogs in that study, right? There's a wall. There's a way to escape. And they can see it. There's even a treat on the other side. But they don't take it. They're just like, I'm just going to lay down and do this. And look, if that's you, you taking it, whatever. Look, I'm not against you. I'm not trying to throw you out of church. I'm not trying to shame you or anything. Some people just don't know this stuff. Some people just don't understand the Bible. And I know what you're probably thinking. You're probably thinking like, well, great. This is a huge problem. You're talking like this is no big deal. I'm in the situation where I'm going to lose my job. But you know what? The Word of God's got the answer. The Word of God's got the answer to comfort how you feel in that helplessness. And right now, we're getting calls all the time from people. Hey, can you call my employer and just tell them that this is a sin? And I want to help these people out. But unfortunately, there's also a scam going around where people are calling churches and saying, hey, even though I don't go to your church, can you just call my boss and say that I do attend there? Or that I come on the weekends and so on and so forth. And then what they'll do is they'll call the CDC or they'll call some kind of organization. They'll turn you in for doing that. So you have to be careful in how you manage this. But what the government's doing, what these rich people, like Bill Gates, what they're doing is they're trying to make us feel helpless. And as God's people, that's not an option. You do have an option here. And here's what I want to show you here in Ephesians, chapter number five. So I'll tell people, everybody just gets focused on this. And I'm not sure why. I guess it's just the way our culture works. But hey, can you just send me some verses that it's sin. And it's just constantly about the sin. The jab is sin. Just show me this. And it's like, no, I got a better way of doing business than that. And it's found in the wisdom in Ephesians, chapter five. Look at verse number 15. It says this. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. What does circumspect mean? It means to be weary. It means to be leery. And what I want you to understand there is what type of verse is that? Is that a descriptive verse or is that a prescriptive verse? That's a prescriptive verse. That is a command. See then. Does that sound optional? See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. We are commanded to live our lives circumspectly. Right? Circumspectly. Being weary. Being cautious. Being prudent. Looking well to our going. Well, here's the thing. Is taking the vaccine really wise? No, it isn't. I mean, think about this. Does the government really care about you? Why are people dying from not being able to afford insulin? Why are people dying from not being able to afford cancer treatments? Why are people dying from, you know, drunk drivers and, I mean, why are children, unborn children, being died or being killed in the womb? Why is all manner of wickedness being promoted, but yet they care about your health enough to apparently make it mandatory for you to take whatever cocktail is in that needle? Look, that's where it's at. You see, if we just live our lives walking down this line, sin, not sin. You know what human nature wants to do, right? You'll want to get as close to that sin as possible without sinning. We are commanded to be above that because we are the children of the king. We are commanded to walk circumspectly. We need to be weary of what we are told to believe and what we are told to do, especially from the government, because I understand, look, the government of the United States is the government of the United States, but you know what? It's really not our government as Bible-believing Christians because we're of a different nation, right? We are ambassadors here. We represent the kingdom of God, and we ought to follow that wisdom, that culture, and that way of life before we ever follow the ways of the United States of America and the rest of the world. We are commanded to walk circumspectly, and he tells you why. Look at the next verse. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Look, as the masses just keep rolling over for all of this stuff, right, you give the government an inch, they will take a mile. That is how they operate. So people ask me, well, what are you going to do? You know, I do what Pastor Mendez always said. I'm just not going to comply. I'm just not going to comply. I don't have to worry about it. You know, when you make up your mind, you're going to follow the laws of God, you're going to follow the wisdom of God, and that it's not a circumspect thing to do. You might lose your job. You might lose friends. You might lose family members. You might lose something. But at least you can rest and overcome that feeling of helplessness by realizing that you're following the commandments of the Lord, that you are an ambassador to a much greater kingdom. And what's my first point? Learned helplessness wastes time in your life. And so this is the conversation that I'm trying to have with people today. Understand that we are commanded to walk circumspectly is what it says, not as fools, but as wise. I mean, Bill Gates got up and said in front of hundreds of people that if we do a good job on vaccines, that we can control the world's population. And lo and behold, a few years later, now they're trying to make it mandatory. It's no problem. I'm just not going to comply. It's that simple. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. Ephesians chapter number five. So again, point number one is learned helplessness wastes time in your life. And when you're wasting time, you are creating anxiety for yourself, which is going to cause you health problems. It will cause you physical health problems is what it will do. It's going to cause strain on your relationships. It's going to cause strain on your performance. It's going to cause strain on the work and the goals and the things that you want to do for the Lord. But look, God's saying, I've made a way out. Follow my ways. Walk circumspectively. See then that you do this. This is the way you ought to operate. And again, learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness. Hey, it's a blessed thing that Ephesians chapter five is in the Bible. It's a blessed thing that we can look and say, you know what, we're not doing anything wrong because that's what we all want to avoid. We want to avoid that because there's always this pressure, this peer pressure from the world in your jobs and your family members are going to pressure you. Well, if you want to come to the barbecue, I want to see your card. I want to see your papers. And the old man inside of you, which we all have, you're going to experience that feeling like, man, I feel helpless. There's nothing I can do. What do I do? It's all good. You've got the wisdom of God. We're commanded to follow that. And that is going to save you. That is going to help you to overcome that helplessness. So we're going to move on here. So in chapter number four, we've already gone through the burning bush situation. Moses is getting his commandments from the Lord. He's like, I can't speak well. And God's like, fine, whatever. You want to play this game? You know, your brother Aaron can speak well. So I'm going to have both of you guys go out and communicate to Pharaoh. But God tells him in chapter four, I want you to go communicate to the children of Israel that I've heard their cries and I'm here to help. And I'm going to use you guys. So what do they do? They go out and they tell the children of Israel this and they're on fire for a moment. They're excited. They're like, okay, we believe you. We believe that God has spoken. So God has given signs confirming that he's moving, that he's operating, that he's going to deliver them. And then when you get to chapter number five, do you think that that motivation continues? Well, let's find out. Look at verse number 15. Ephesians chapter five. Look at verse number 15. It says this. Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? Okay, so what happens here? Well, Moses and Aaron did what they were told and they went to Pharaoh and said, hey, let my people go. And what does he do? He says, you're idle. The reason why you want to go worship the Lord out in the wilderness is because apparently you've got too much free time on your hands. So what he does is he takes and he makes their burdens even harder. He says, you know what? We used to give you straw to make brick. Now you can go get your own straw and come back and make the brick. And by the way, we're not going to move the deadline out. We're going to keep it the same. Who's ever been in that situation before where the boss is like, hey, you know, these circumstances have happened and we're basically going to take your vehicle away, we're going to take your tools away, we're going to take all the stuff away, but we still want the product done on this day. Don't let me down or I'll write you up. That's the helplessness now that the children of Israel have found themselves in. And so these officers are going to go to Pharaoh and they're like, hey, what's going on here? We don't understand. Look at verse 16. It says, there is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, make brick, and behold, thy servants are beaten. But the fault is in thine own people. So they're like, hey, this isn't our fault. You made it harder on us. Your taskmasters are making our jobs difficult. Look at verse 17. But he said, this is Pharaoh, ye are idle, ye are idle. Therefore, ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Look at verse 18. Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. That's the world's elite's attitude right now, right? Look at verse 19. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case after it was said, you shall not menish aught from your bricks of your daily tasks. So now they're like, okay, in chapter 2, we cried unto God. God answered our prayers. You know, in chapter 4, we read, they're excited. Pharaoh's like, yeah, I'm not going to let you go. I'm going to make life harder on you. And look at verse 20. And they met Moses. And they met Moses. The same people that met Moses in chapter 4, okay? And they met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they said unto them, the Lord look upon you and judge because ye have made our savor to be a board in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. What are they saying there? They're saying, look, we want you to go away. We want to stay on the side of the room that has the electrical grid on the floor and just take the shocks because it's more pleasing to us than what you have. Why are they acting like that? It's because they have learned to accept their helplessness. That's why. Go to chapter number 6 and I'll show you this again. So keep in mind the order of events here. They pray to God when Pharaoh dies in chapter 2, right? They're like, okay, here's an opportunity to sigh. And they cry unto the Lord. And they ask for help. And God looks down and says, I'm going to help you. Sends them Moses. Sends them Aaron. They're in agreement in chapter 4. They see the signs. They see the miracles. The word is spreading. All of a sudden Pharaoh just makes a couple days, hey, I'm going to crank it up on you a little bit. Instead of getting excited and understanding, you know, the Lord's still with us, what do they do? They freak out. They accept that negativity. They accept the fact that they believe that they're helpless. Look at Exodus 6. Look at verse number 6. It says this, wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. So obviously after Moses and Aaron hear the complaining of the children of Israel, they go and they petition God. And God's like, hey, I realize you're in the infancy of this whole nation thing here. And God is merciful to them. And he says, hey, don't worry about it. I am going to help you. And you say, great, well, why bring this up? Well, how does this apply to us? Well, it's perfect because when God's helping us, he doesn't automatically always just take away your burden like that. A lot of times there's a process. A lot of times things may appear to get worse, but he's actually moving and he's actually getting you out of that negative circumstance. It goes back to trust. He wants to know who's got the faith to trust him that he's going to help you out. Look at verse number 9. Jump down to verse number 9. It says this, and Moses spake unto the children of Israel. Now look at their attitude here again. But they hearkened not unto Moses, and don't miss this, for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. So point number two is this. Over time, learned helplessness weakens your spirit. You need to realize if you get awakened to this learned helplessness in your life, you need to realize you're vulnerable. You're in a weakened state. And sometimes just having that head knowledge of that is going to get you through those ups and downs that are going to come with you overcoming this learned helplessness. Because, again, let me give you the order of events. Chapter 2, what happened? Pharaoh dies. They say, Lord, please help us. This is the perfect opportunity. He says, yes, I'm going to help you. Sends them signs, miracles, and wonders through Moses and Aaron and says, I'm going to help you out. Right? And they agree. They believe him. Go read chapter 4. That's what you're going to see. They agree. They're 100% in agreement. They see the signs. They see these miracles, which they haven't seen in many, many, many, many years. And what do they do? The first little bit of negativity that comes their way, they're just like, let's abort, abandon ship. And that's what people do with their Bible reading. That's what people do with their soul reading. That's what people do with all sorts of things when it comes to working for God. That's what you do because that's what trauma does. That's what abuse does. It has a stronghold on you. It has a stronghold on us. But what you've got to understand is that you may go through this similar process where you pray to God and you just got to trust because the Bible promises he's going to help you. Right? We're evil. We want to help our children. He's not evil. Of course he's going to want to help you. Right? But what are the patterns of his help? What does that look like? Well, sometimes it looks like an up and down roller coaster because he has his perfect timing. He has his perfect way of doing business, not only in the nation of Israel's life, but also in your individual lives. It's the same exact thing. And what we need to learn is that over time learned helplessness weakens your spirit. So you need to just realize that because we all like to think we're super tough, don't we? Oh, we're tough. I prayed to God. I got this help coming. And then the first time somebody, your boss is like, oh, yeah, well, you're still working Saturday. You're still working Sunday. You're not going to church. You're idle. That's why you want Sundays off. You're lazy. Right? And you just give up. And you become double-blinded, which causes you to be what? Unstable. That's right. Unstable. And that's exactly what we don't want. Because when you're unstable, you're off balance. Guess what? It's going to be extremely difficult to get over that negativity and that helplessness that you feel. Now go to Exodus chapter number 14. So, again, a weakened spirit means no zeal, no motivation. And so now you're going to start to experience these symptoms, you know, of anxiety, depression, or possibly even both. And, again, because now you're seeing that all of your time is devoted to worry, to stress. How am I going to get through this? That's the whole thing that we see here, especially in chapter 2 with the children of Israel. You know, they're in bondage. Instead of just saying, hey, you know, we need to do something here. We need to call out to our God. They wait until they see a humanistic opportunity. Oh, wait. Pharaoh's dead. Now's the time that we can insert God into our lives. Is that what we're doing? That's what we do all the time. And what that does is causes instability. It causes anxiety. Look, we need to be a people that trusts that God will help us to overcome our trials, our tribulations, and our adversities because everybody in here has been subject to some sort of abuse, whether it's from your job. Look, your jobs convex you, especially in today's day and age. People are getting nasty out there, downright horrible, and it's only going to get worse. Right? But when you know that, you can brace for that. When you understand that, you can overcome that. And that is the whole point. So, again, point number one was what? What does learned helplessness do? Wastes time. It wastes time, which causes anxiety on some level. It's going to cause anxiety. Point number two, over time, learned helplessness weakens your spirit. It's what it does. It weakens who you are. You say, well, great. You're telling me I'm weak? Well, yeah. You know, to some aspect. But when you understand that, now you can expect to be a little bit sensitive as you go through the days. Right? Because God is trying to build up your faith and your trust in Him. That's what He's trying to do to the nation of Israel here. But they're just like every little negative thing. Just shock us some more, God. Just keep us down. And really, I mean, we could go all morning. We could go into the afternoon and we could go to all the chapters of Exodus and just follow them all the way to the days of Joshua. And that's what it is. Every little negative thing. We don't have water. Kill us. Moses, you brought us out here to die. Just kill me. Stab me. Shoot me. You know, whatever it is. It's a terrible way to live your life, isn't it? It produces a negative type person that nobody really wants to be around. But this is the day and age that we're living in. This is what our culture is trying to do to us. And we need to be able to recognize it so that we can overcome that, so that we can help out here. So we're going to move on from that. Actually, you know, I've got to mention this. You know, these apartment managers and the Barney Fives, these apartment complexes, they try to cause learned helplessness. I'm calling the police. They try to produce some sort of trauma so that we'll never come back. Because it works for the Mormons. And it works for the Jehovah Witnesses. And it works for the Apostolics. Right? They kick those people out. You know what they do? What we've heard that they do? They send a gift card. They try to make peace. What do we do? We'll come back Thursday night. We'll come back Thursday night. It's no problem. But that is what gets it done. When you realize, I'd rather obey God than man. You know what? It takes away that guilt that you have in the flesh. Right? It takes that all away. It takes that negativity. And it takes all the negative comments and all the haters. And it's just, it makes it so that you don't even care about what they think. You know what? The reason why those people have such a problem with our lives is because they don't have a life. They're in that little office playing games. And that's all they do all day long. And they're just so mad that someone called them that they've got to get up out of the chair and tell some people with Bibles that they're devils and that they're ruining and killing millions of people because they don't have masks or whatever it is. That's ridiculous. So again, over time, learned helplessness weakens your spirit. And again, it is so important to understand this because when you understand this, now you know what to expect. Right? You're just going to be a little sensitive for a while. But don't give up. Keep going forward. So Exodus chapter 14. So by now, all the plagues and so on that God has told Moses to do to the Egyptians, to Pharaoh, have come to pass. God has already killed all the firstborn in the land. And Pharaoh's like, OK, that was it. That was a bad one. I'm going to let you go. OK? But as Pharaoh at this point is a reprobate, he's like, you know what? No, I'm going to go get them. I'm going to go get these people back. I want them to work for me some more. OK? Look at verse number 11. Exodus 14. So Pharaoh's already let them go. And now he's decided, well, I'm going to go pursue them. I'm going to get them back. I don't care what your God says. I don't care what he's done. Look at verse 11. And they said unto Moses, so they hear this. And they're like, uh-oh. I'm scared. Verse 11. And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt us with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? I mean, look at this. I mean, how many times in your life do you see just these heaps of flies plaguing your enemies and they don't plague you? I mean, all the plagues. Think about all the plagues that we've talked about, that you've all read in Exodus. All those signs that Moses did, how he overcame Pharaoh's magicians. They saw the signs. They saw the miracles. I mean, if we saw that, like in the physical, I mean, I think we'd be motivated for the rest of our lives. I mean, because we have the word of God. But they're actually seeing miracles, seeing these things. And what do they do? That's the next sign of negativity. They just hear. They just hear Pharaoh's coming. What do they do? They just want to run right back to that shocker, don't they? Just tie me up in Egypt to the pole. You can use three-pound tests. I don't even care. I won't break it. Just get me back to Egypt. Just put me back in abuse. Is it starting to make sense now why some people stay in abusive relationships? It's because they have learned through experience to just be helpless. It's just at that point, this is the danger here. Another danger is you just get so comfortable in that that the thought of effort is just sickening to you. The thought of effort, the thought of confrontation, the thought of battle, it just becomes too much. And that's the goal of the enemy. That's what he wants to do to us. Look at verse 12. Is not this the world that, or I'm sorry, is this not the word that we did tell thee in Egypt saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. So they're like, look, we've been telling them the whole time, Moses. We didn't want to leave. We don't want to upset Pharaoh. Who's ever felt like that before? We've all been in that situation where we don't want to upset Pharaoh, our boss, our angry parents, our angry cousins, right, our angry friends from high school because we still want other people's approval. We're still addicted to other people's approval. That's another thing that will get you into a whole lot of trouble is always worrying about what other people are thinking of you. And that's really another thing that I see here. But God's rescuing them, and they're resisting. You say, why? It's because they have learned that just being helpless is better than effort. It's a tragic situation. But here's the third point. Learned helplessness causes long-term effects on your faith. That's what it does. It causes long-term effects on your faith if you don't check it, if you're not humble enough to say, this is a problem. I'm struggling with this. I've got this problem here. But when you take the position, well, I'm too strong, man. I don't have that issue. You know what? You're going to keep having it, and it's going to keep getting worse. And every time something bad happens to you, send me back to Egypt, God. I'm done with this. Who's ever been out soloing with somebody who just wants to literally physically sprint at just the mildest sign of confrontation? They're just like, we've got to go. Come on. Like he just said he wasn't interested. He slammed the door a little hard and locked it. That's not too bad. It's not too bad. We've had worse. We've had a lot worse. All right. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. So again, their learned helplessness was blinding their hearts and their minds to the better plan of God. God has told them repeatedly, hey, you're going to be a nation. I'm rescuing you. Here are the signs confirming that what I'm saying is true. Your burdens, your helplessness, that feeling that you're feeling, all of you, God's like, hey, that's about to be out the window. But I just need to bring you through a little rough terrain first. I need to build you up. I need to build faith inside of you. I need you to trust me. And they're like, OK, cool. And then someone says one thing negative or they just hear that Pharaoh's coming and they're like, we need to go back. You just brought us out here to kill Saul. Paranoia. Right? What that does is it blinds your minds. It blinds my mind. It blinds our minds and our hearts to the bigger plan that God has for us. Because the Bible is filled with promises from the front to the very end about how it's going to work out for us. So when we hear the government like, hey, we're forcing you to do this and you're going to accept it, you shouldn't be bothered by that. That's not to say if you don't feel that little twinge in your stomach that there's something wrong with you. Because we all have the old man still. We're all going to have certain emotions and stuff. But we ought to not trust on that. We need to go back to these promises. We need to learn the blessedness of God. Because that's the only way you're going to overcome learned helplessness. So we're going to wrap this up here just a quick recap here. So point number one was learned helplessness wastes time in your life, which produces anxiety and all sorts of other issues. Number two, over time, learned helplessness weakens your spirit. You need to just realize that. When you recognize this, you identify this in your life, which is a huge part of this sermon, right? When you recognize that, now you're like, okay, I just need to realize that I'm going to be a little sensitive here as time goes on, as God's working in my life. I trust him. And you just need to embrace that. And that's going to get you through that. Could you imagine the children of Israel like, okay, Lord, well, you know what? We don't like what Pharaoh said, but we're just going to trust you. Do you think they would have wasted an extra 40 years out in the wilderness? I don't think so. And point number three was learned helplessness causes long-term effects on your faith. What does that mean? It means you have to take the time, right? It took time for you to learn that helplessness. It's going to take time for you to learn that blessedness of God. It takes discipline. It takes you committing in your heart that you really want to get over this, right? What did Jesus say? Well, thou be made whole, you know? You remember that story? And again, the bottom line, learned helplessness. Learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness. So that is the idea. Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to overcome this? Or are you so far gone that you just want to stay on that side of the room where the shocker's at? Nobody wants that. God can't use that. That's the whole point. He couldn't use that nation at that time. He had to wait until that entire generation passed on. I mean, even Moses didn't get to go into the Promised Land. It wasn't until Joshua took over that the people, that next generation, were like, okay, we're going to learn from their mistakes and we're going to follow you. And they did and they conquered. That's the only way we're going to get to this community. That's the only way we're going to make a big impact for God is if we remain in a church that says, you know what? Yeah, I've had some issues in my life. I've had some abuse. I've had some stress. I've had some trauma. The government's trying to do this. They're trying to shut us down. Whatever. And we just say, you know what? We're going to trust on that learned blessedness to overcome that. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're almost done. Look at verse 13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to men. So when you fall in these trials and you have these issues, don't take that massive amount of time and you have these issues. Don't take that mentality. Oh, it's just me. God's just after me and only me. He's just trying to kill me. Send me back to Egypt. Look at the rest of the verse. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. The question is, do you believe that? Are you willing to trust that? Look, nowhere in that verse is there like, you know, this idea. Pray to God he's instantly going to give you what you want with no trials, with no rough patches. You're not going to find that anywhere in the Bible. That's Pentecostal preaching, okay? That's prosperity preaching is what that is. You need 1 Corinthians 10, 13. You need to realize whatever you're going through, God has made a way for you to escape. He's not going to give you more than you can handle. And when you learn that blessedness, guess what? You're going to be able to overcome that learned helplessness. Go to Hebrews chapter four real quick. Hebrews chapter four, and then we'll go back to where we started in Psalm chapter 81. Hebrews chapter number four. It's so important to understand these verses. Look at verse 15. Hebrews chapter four verse 15 says this. Hebrews chapter four verse 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So you have to understand that we have a Savior, we have a God who understands exactly what you're going through. He can relate to you. And he's given you an entire book filled with promises that he will help you if you'll just trust him and want that help. Now go back to Psalm chapter 81, and we're just about done here. Psalm chapter number 81. So in Psalm chapter 81, where we first started, okay, you're gonna see the importance of this. Why I'm saying learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness. Look at verse number one. Psalm chapter 81 verse one says this. Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Now why do that? Why do we sing hymns? Why don't we just get the band in here and get you all sensationalized and riled up? You know, why do we do that? Why do we sing psalms? Why do we sing hymns? It's so that God's blessedness, so that his promises, so that his provision will be at the forefront of our mind and go down into our hearts. Singing songs are very powerful. Why do you think the music industry in the world is so wealthy and so influential? It's because they understand the power of music. That's why. Look at, jump down to verse number three real quick. It says this. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. Look at verse four. For this was a statute in Israel, a law of God, I'm sorry, a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt where I heard a language that I understood not. And we can all find ourself in that position because when you go to work, when you leave here and you go back out into the world, you know what, you're hearing a language that you don't understand. You're hearing customs, you're hearing culture that you don't understand. And that can be harsh. That can be very hard. But again, verses one through five are an exhortation to sing psalms and praise to God to get that into your life. God's saying, hey, guess what? It's so important what I did in Egypt that you need to know that. You need to understand that. You need to learn that. And you ought to never forget that because that's how you're gonna overcome that helpless negativity that is being pushed on all of us. And real quick, look at verse number six. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. So what is God saying here? Well, verses six through 10, he's saying, hey, this is an exhortation to remember. Remember, we are called to remember what the children of Israel went through. That's why I went through those passages that I went through so that you could know and understand, hey, there's a pattern here. When you recognize that you're in this situation, well, first of all, hopefully you recognize it before you see an opportunity. You just instantly know, okay, you know what? I don't like this work situation that I'm in, this toxic work situation, you know what? Sometimes you get into a job, well, you just need to leave. It can get so bad, you just need to go. You know, I've been in that situation before where people are just so horrible and just so nasty that, you know what, you're just gonna have to move on. But then comes the dilemma, how am I gonna feed my family? How am I gonna pay the bills, right? No one ever said it was gonna be easy. You know, we oughta thank God that we live in Idaho because at least here, most people are like, I don't care about the stupid job, at least a lot of people that I've dealt with lately. You know, there are still plenty of places hiring that you can go to and work, they're like, we don't care, no one's telling us what to do. We oughta thank God for at least that. You know, but people in other states, they don't have it as good. But what did God say in 1 Corinthians 10? He's gonna make a way to what? To escape, that's right. Do you trust that? Why are these things written? Why are we being told to sing these? That's what the Psalms are for, to sing, to understand, to remember, so that we can learn that we're not special as far as, you know, oh, this is just happening to me. It's so that we can learn the process to overcome learned helplessness. Look, it's by learned blessings. It's a blessed thing that we have the word of God today that we can put into our hearts and minds so that we can overcome these things. It's the word of God. That's the only thing that's gonna lift your spirits. It's singing those songs, singing the hymns, it's reading the Psalms. Why do you think there's 31 proverbs? So you can read one a day. And I've promised you this before, and a lot of you have tried this. Look, you say, I'm struggling with reading the Bible. Can't you just read one proverb a day? What's today, the 19th? Can't you read Proverbs 19 today? Start there, and then after a month, you know what? You're starting to build a habit. You're starting to build a routine. And then you can increase from there. We need to start to learn that, you know what? Life just isn't always gonna be easy, especially as a Christian, because we're born into a job that God wants us to do, which is to be an ambassador. And it's to learn that, you know, when you come into this thing, there's gonna be a lot of baggage. There's gonna be a lot of stress and traumas and things that have happened to you. There's gonna be a lot of stress and traumas and things that have happened to you in your past that you have to identify and overcome. And when you can do that, we can be like it was in the days of Joshua, and we can go forth and conquer. And so I'm gonna leave you with the bottom line. Learned helplessness can be overcome by learned blessedness. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for these exhortations that are in the Bible and these patterns, Lord, and the truth that we can look to to realize and to recognize how it is that you go through helping people. Lord, it's not always just easy. It's not always instantaneous. And once we recognize that and understand that, Lord, we can have peace and we can have joy and we can actually learn to overcome all the negativity and the harshness that's been placed upon us, Lord, in our lives. Thank you for all that you do for us, Lord. Please bring us back safely tonight and bless the soul winning today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, so for our final hymn this morning, let's turn to song number 162, To God Be the Glory. Amen, song number 162, To God Be the Glory, The Great Things He Hath Done. On the first, To God be the glory, Great things He hath done, So loved be the world That He gave us His Son, Who built His life An atonement for sin, And opened the life gate That all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, To come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, Great things He hath done. Thank redemption, the purchase of blood, To every believer, The promise of God, A vilest offense, Who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, To come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, Great things He hath done, Great things He hath taught us, Great things He hath done, And great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son, All who are new and high, And great will be, Our wonder, our transport, When Jesus we see. Sing it out! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, Great things He hath done. Amen. Brother David, close with me. Thank you Father God for this day, and for this morning that we all gather together and congregate, sing praise to you, and hear where we preach holy and unfold it. We just thank you for the pastor that will give us these messages to apply to our lives, to help us grow in our Christian life, Lord. And the pastor, please walk over us as we go our separate ways, and we go back to our secular jobs this week. We pray that your kind of blessing be upon our lives, and that we will have this helpless attitude, Lord, that we will find blessing in our lives. And we pray all these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.