The Rescue

This is a copy of my sermon notes from the other day. It might be kinda jumbled because it was

just my personal notes, but I think it might still be useful.

Big Idea: God saves in a way that only he gets the glory.

• inability of humans
• power of God

Background

• As we learned last week Abraham has been given the covenant and in just a few generations the hebrew people moved to Egypt grown in number and we find them in Exodus one in bondage to the Egyptians. The Egyptians are so afraid of the Israelites growing to powerful that Pharaoh has issued a decree that all of the new born Israelite boys are to be killed. Here we already see that satan is trying to thwart the hereditary line of Christ; who is the fulfillment of the covenant of Abraham; more on this later.

• Okay so here we go, four scenes make up this initial story of the Exodus I will recount them to you today.

Rise and call of Moses:

part 1

As Pharaoh is trying to kill all of the Hebrew baby boys, a baby boy is born to a Hebrew family. The direct hebrew translation says that when the boys mother saw the child she saw that he was good. Now this is significant because it is the same word that is used in Genesis when God views his creation. This is symbolic and hints that this child will do something significant in God’s plan. Many of us might recognize this story as that of Moses.

Now as Moses grew his mother was no longer able to hide her child. So she devised a plan. She put together a little boat for her child, and what is curious about this boat is that it referred to as an ark in the Hebrew. Now most of us remember that God saved Noah and his family in an ark, and here we find it again. God is going yet again use an ark to serve his purpose in preserving his people. So as we might remember Pharaohs daughter comes to the waters edge and finds the boy and adopts him as her own. Moses, is then educated in the home of Pharaoh and boy is he educated. He gets the equivalent of a degree from harvard or yale. This man is now ready to roll! Or so we would think.

Now after Moses had grown up, and was about 40 years old, he was out amidst the Hebrew people and he saw a Egyptian beating a Hebrew man. Moses then deciding to act killed the Egyptian man, in hopes of showing his fellow Hebrews that he was on their side. However a few days later he encounters two Hebrews fighting and he asks why are you fighting? and the respond with an afront, what are you going to do kill one of us like you killed the Egyptian? This stung Moses, for now he knew he must flee. He had no hope now of leading his people, and Pharaoh wants to kill him. Yikes. Not a good situation. So what does Moses do? He runs away. He goes off into the desert.

-This is the first documented midlife crisis! everything Moses had based his life on has washed away and he is a man without a mission, a very dangerous place to be in. But we are about to see how even though Moses thought he knew how to get things done, God was about to lead him into an epoch of his life that would prepare him for the next 40 years of his life.

Part 2

Moses life in the desert consists of him wandering around as a shepherd until one day he notices something odd; a bush that is on fire but is not consumed. Moses thinks, hm, that’s weird lets check it out. Then out of nowhere the bush talks to him. Whoa. “Moses! Moses!” This has to be one of the most chilling moments in Moses’ life. A bush is talking to him. God speaks out of this bush and tells Moses: I have heard the cries of my people and I am sending you to rescue them from their oppression. Now what is Moses’ response... Oh not me Lord, who am I that you should send me? Under what authority do I tell them I am coming? God answers his question. Moses’ first attempt to get out this fails. So Moses tries again, What if they do not believe me or listen to me? God yet again answers this question. At this point Moses is getting a little desperate and instead of offering excuses he flat out refuses God, he says, God, I have never been good at speaking and well you know, just please send someone else! At this point God lays down the final reply. “

Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now, go I will help you...”

And with this Moses finally departs for Egypt.

- so now here we have moses with a mission again, but now he is full of fear. He is about to return to the country that once was his home ask the most powerful man in the world to let his slaves go. He has learned that he does not have things figured and even though he does not immediately agree with God choosing him, we see that ultimately he cannot reject God’s will.

Plague/confrontation of Pharaoh

So Moses returns to Egypt and comes before Pharaoh and tells him the God of Israel says Let my people go.

Now we must remember that Pharaoh considers himself to be a God, so it’s no surprise that Pharaoh refuses. Yet again we see that God is going to have to do something special to save His people, which in turn will bring Him more glory.

This commences a series of ten plagues against the Egyptian people. What is curious about these plagues is how they correspond with the disgrace of an Egyptian God. For example the first plague turns the nile into blood. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile as their livelihood. So when it turns to blood that is a big blow to the Egyptian’s pride and belief system. Yet, Pharaoh still says no. So God sends frogs. Still, nope can’t go. Then Gnats. Nope. Flies, no. Death of livestock? Nope. Horrible boils? Nope. Flaming hail? eh... no. Swarms of locusts? Heck no! Plague of darkness? Alas... no. So it comes to one final horrible and tragic plague. The Passover...

- Before we move on to the next scene I want to point out why there are so many plagues. God is using each of these plagues to prove that he is in complete control of all things. He has power of animals, the universe, weather, and as we are about to see life itself. This serves a double purpose, one it shows all the nations of the earth that the God of the Hebrew people is not to be trifled with and second it proves to the Hebrews that their God is all powerful and that He will stop at nothing to fulfill his promise to His people.

passover

So now here we are at one of the most significant points of our story. God has saved His most severe plague for the end. God tells Moses that he is going to send the Angel of Death to kill the firstborn in all of Egypt. Something different about this plague is that God wants this moment in Israelite history to be significant. God has every Hebrew family sacrifice a their best lamb and spread it’s blood across the door frame to signify allegiance to the Lord, because then God will see the blood and know that the lamb died instead of you, and if they do this the angel of death will passover that home. The night that the Angel of Death comes is a tragic night. Death is seen everywhere in Egypt and with this Pharaoh decides, finally, to let the Lord’s people go.

All of these plagues have been the result of God’s mighty hand rescuing his people in such a way that they can claim none of the credit. In fact most of the time the Hebrew people doubted God. So now that the Israelites are leaving Egypt it is curious that God does not have them take the main road. Instead he has them move towards the banks of the red sea. We now move to our final scene.

Red Sea

Once the Israelites left Egypt and are long out of site, Pharaoh again regrets his decision. He draws his army around him and the go after the Israelites. So we have the Israelites with their backs against the Red Sea and the impending fury of the Egyptian army staring them in the face. The Hebrews now reach panic mode. They are groping for the panic button. Moses why did you save us! Our lives were rough in Egypt but not so bad that we would rather die in the desert! And what does Moses tell them? He says be still. Be still? Do nothing??? What!? So God tells Moses to raise his staff and the Sea parts! The Israelites then begin to cross on a dry sea bed. As they are crossing the Egyptian army begins to pursue them across. It as this moment that God releases the waters to their natural course and the Egyptian army is destroyed. The Israelites are safe! God has established his nation in a way that gives only Him the glory! Praise God!

• the Israelites were so excited to gain the freedom. They had been delivered from bondage! But yet we see that when things get tough the Israelites want to give up, they want to go back they lose sight of God’s promise so quickly just like we do, but thankfully God shows great patience with them and still delivers them from there predicament. So we see here at the red sea that God brought the Israelites to a place where they could not have saved themselves if they tried, here God showcases yet again man’s inability to save himself and claims glory for himself by proving yet again that he is all powerful and deserving of praise.

Discussion Time

1. Are someone who thinks they have it all under control and they know how to do things (like Moses when he kills the Egyptian and Pharaoh who thinks he is a god).
2. Are someone who thinks who has tried to figure life out, but now feel lost because it did not work out. And now are not sure who you are or what you are good for. (Like Moses wandering in the desert.)
3. Are someone who got excited about letting God save them, but it got harder or took longer than they expected and they are not sure why they thought following God would help. (Like the Israelites after Moses confronted Pharaoh)

Which type of person do you most identify with? Why?

You

So what is the answer? Are we asking God to rescue us but unwilling to give God control? Do we have faith that God can rescue us? Let me share with you another time I was rescued.

So here I am 4 years old again, this year was just not my year, I am sitting in the living room of my house and I am watching rescue 911 ironic huh? well as I am sitting there I am contemplating the idea of asking Gd to come into my heart. And I weighed the pros and cons.

go to hell or go to heaven

hmmm... even to a four year old this is a no brainer. So I thought I had it all figured out. Awesome okay here Goes, “ God please come into my heart.” I thought that was all I had to do. I thought to myself I’m in! sweeet!!! I was just like Moses in his first 40 years. I thought I had the whole system figured out. However... big surprise.... I was wrong.

It was not tell seven years later that I all of the sudden realized that I might have not had everything all figured out like I thought I did. The idea of sin had really started to sink into my life. I kept hearing people say that my sins were what kept me from God. and I was like ugh oh, I just asked God to come into my heart, I never repented of anything. I had never acknowledged my slavery to sin. It was after this realization that I was no longer able to sleep well at night. Worry crept in and kept me from seeking help, my pride was keeping me from reaching out. Finally the pressure became to much and I approached my father who was and is a pastor and told him all of the things that were running through my mind. I remember the Love and grace he showed me that day. My father sat and prayed with me and I felt as if a burden was lifted. I no longer carried a burden of slavery! I was free I had renounced the sin in my life that was holding me down, and I was now free to pursue a right relationship with God. I now knew that I could nothing of my own power and that I had to trust God completely to get me through every day. I had come to the same realization that Moses had when God had approached him from the burning bush. God is great and I am not.

SO in light of this I Sadly have to say there is still slavery today. It’s everywhere around us in fact. Sometimes we see it, but most often we feel it. The craziest thing about this slavery is that it is self imposed! I know it is I lived with it for years. So today I am going to implore you to come out of slavery.

Now some of you may already know where I am going with this, just wait I have something for you too.

Okay so just as God sent Moses to rescue the Hebrews, God sent His son, Jesus on the cross, to rescue everyone. Just like the lamb that was killed to provide blood to protect a household during the passover the Lamb of God had to spill his blood to wash us of the bondage to sin.

This rescue is right at your fingertips. Repent from the things in your life that you know are not satisfying and embrace the freedom that comes from Jesus Christ! Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is God and that he was sent to save you from your sins.

SO many people think that the Bible has restrictive rules and regulations designed to take away all the fun that the world offers, this point of view is wrong. The Bible shows us how to find real joy on this earth, and that joy comes from a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

More often then not there is always something we are unwilling to give up for God we want to hold on to the things that we think give our lives meaning: our jobs, family, a feeling of superiority over others, pursuit of power and wealth, the list goes on and on. We are unwilling to give these things up because we do not trust that God has something better for us.

Now for those of you who have made a decision to follow Christ I have and exhortation for you. Are you sharing the joy of your rescue? or are you hoarding the joy you have for yourself? Brothers and sisters it is imperative that we glorify God by sharing the ultimate message of redemption and deliver people from the bondage to sin that they are in.

closing

Today we have covered a lot of ground. We have seen God fulfill the promise he made to Abraham that he would make his descendants into a nation. We also have seen God exercise his glorious power to save us while highlighting the fact that we humans are completely powerless to save ourselves.