Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction:
-We’ve been looking at Deuteronomy 6 the past 3 weeks, and we’ll be finishing up this evening
**give brief background to the passage*
As a parent, your kids ask you some strange questions sometimes, don’t they?
-I was looking up some of the most interesting questions kids ask today
-Things like:
“Why do I have two eyes if I only see one thing?”
“Mom…my belly hurts…am I pregnant?”
asked by 5 year old boy
While cookies are baking, “Are the cookies loading?
“Why are you buying beer, Dad? Do you know how much candy we could get with that money?”
Kids ask questions! They’re inquisitive
And if you look at our text this evening, the passage opens up with a question that a child will ask
Vs. 20
How should the Israelite parent answer?
-How they answer will show how they view the entirety of God’s commands and covenant
And from this answer that is prescribed by Moses, we see 4 key things that Moses wants the Israelites to understand and remember about the covenant:
1.
Their Past Slavery (21a)
-The covenant theology of Israel begins with their slavery to the Egyptians
-They weren’t some privileged group of individuals who were doing great and God came along and kind of made things better for them
-Kind of like a nice add-on or bonus
-No, they were slaves
-A people who was oppressed and ruled over against their own will
-It’s not like someone who works a job they don’t like
-At least in that situation, they chose to work there and they are getting compensated and earning a living, so that’s why they stay
-No the Israelites were slaves against their will
-And they weren’t really given a choice in the matter
-Notice who they were a slave to:
-They were a slave to Pharaoh
-Pharaoh was the Egyptian ruler
-But he was more than just a leader
-Pharaoh was a god in this Egyptian culture of the day
-He was the link between the people of Egypt and the gods they served, and therefore was himself given a deity-like status
And Pharaoh was cruel
-He enslaved the Israelites against their will
-He tried to commit genocide against them by having their sons killed as babies
-Now, why was it important that an explanation of the significance of the commands and covenant of Israel begin in the past?
-Why couldn’t they have just “cut to the chase” and give a straight-forward, textbook explanation instead of all of this backstory?
-Because it’s important for God’s people to remember who they were before God
-It’s important to remember what state they were in before God sovereignly and powerfully rescued them
-On December 9th, 2014, Cam Newton, QB of the Carolina Panthers, was driving his truck to work to watch game film
-Another car pulled out in front of him on 277 and they crashed
-Cam’s car flipped several times, and the pictures of the truck afterwards looked gruesome
-Cam was taken to the hospital where it was determined he had broken 2 bones in his back, but he was alive
-For at a long time after that, Cam Newton wore the hospital bracelet he received while being treated after that accident
-Cam wore it as a reminder of what had happened and how he could have almost lost his life in that accident that day
-It helped keep his life in perspective, reminding him to be grateful to be alive
-He said “It's a constant reminder -- never take nothing for granted”
-Brothers and sisters, do you think it’s important for us to be constantly reminded of what we’ve been saved from?
Brothers and sisters, do we take time to remember what we were before salvation?
-I’m not talking about morbid introspection
-I’m not talking about living in the guilt and discouragement of past failures and sins that have been dealt with
-But I am talking about what the NT writers do in making sure that we understand who we were before Christ
-That we remember what state we were in before salvation
-If we’re not careful, we can slip into thinking about “man, remember when I didn’t have to tithe?
Or when I could sleep in on Sunday?”
-And if we’re not careful, we’ll fall into the lies of thinking that things weren’t so bad back then
-That I wasn’t such a bad person
Brothers and sisters, we need to remember that we were dead in our sins and trespasses, sons of disobedience, under the reign of Satan
-before God stepped in
-Do we remember these things?
But the past slavery of the Israelites was not the only thing they remembered
2. Their Past Rescue by Yahweh (21b-22)
It’s through the lens of the their past slavery, the rescue of Yahweh is shown to be all the more glorious!
Vs. 21-22
Yahweh’s rescue of them out of slavery to Pharaoh was central to their understanding of the covenant and the laws of God
-God looked upon their the helpless state
-He reached out and sovereignly rescued them
-This wasn’t some joint effort
-It wasn’t God teaming up with the Israelites to fight together against Pharaoh
-The Israelites weren’t very courageous or obedient a lot of times
-And yet God sovereignly brought them out by His power and might
It began with God pitying them:
-And because of God’s love and mercy, He effectually works on their behalf to bring them out!
-Aren’t you so thankful that God isn’t just some kind-hearted being who really is sympathetic, but is unable to do much?
-Aren’t you so thankful that God isn’t a worried grandfather figure who wrings his hands and hopes that somehow things will turn out ok for His people?
No, God powerfully acted and delivered!
-He brought them out with a mighty hand!
-Through the 10 plagues, God showed the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh Himself to be insignificant, impotent, unfit, and useless to the fight
-God demanded that Pharaoh release His people, or else
-And no matter how stubborn Pharaoh was or how hard he tried to hang on, he was no match for Almighty
And brothers and sisters, is this not the same for us?
God pitied us:
And God sovereignly acted to bring us to salvation:
Aren’t you so thankful that we can look back and wonder at our own salvation against the backdrop of our horrible slavery?
-Aren’t you thankful that God has powerfully saved us, not by killing the son of a foreign ruler, but by killing His own Son for our freedom?
What a wonderful salvation we who are God’s people today have experienced!
-Do you think of your redemption?
-Do you think of the act of God in saving you?
-Do you spend your day reminding yourself and others of God’s powerful act of redemption on your behalf, the giving of His Son, to powerfully and decisively set you free from your slavery to sin?
-Do we remind ourselves of these truths daily?
That brings us to our third point:
3. Their New Master (23-24a)
Look at verse 23
-Why had God brought them out of Egypt?
-To “that He might bring them in”
-Does everyone see that?
God has brought them out for a purpose!
-And that is to bring them into the land that God promised to their ancestors
-This wasn’t just purely a rescue operation like we think of it
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