How Comfortable Are You?

Alright, we are continuing our series, / / Ancient Faith for Modern Times. We just finished 3 weeks in the life of Abraham where we looked at the fact that / / Abraham believed for a promise he wouldn’t inherit himself. He saw past what he was promised and saw a nation of nations in the land of his inheritance, that wouldn’t even happen for another 400 years. So, by faith he journeyed, he went, he left where he was and went believing God would be faithful to the promise.

Then week two we saw the struggle of faith. We all have them. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that faith is easy peasy lemon squeezy.... it’s not. Faith is a journey and it can be a struggle. And that is ok. What matters is: / / How do we handle the course correction of God? When God comes to correct us, are we open to it, and do we allow it to change our perspective? Both Abraham and Sarah needed God to correct them. They both laughed in disbelief at the promise still being fulfilled through their lives. Yet, when corrected they believed and that faith led to the promise being fulfilled through Isaac.

And last week we tackled one of the most difficult and challenging passages of scripture in the bible. God asking Abraham to sacrifice the son of promise that he had waited 25 years for. What do you do with that? Well, if you weren’t here, go back and listen to last weeks message on our website or socials, because I think it’s an incredibly important topic to understand. You are allowed to wrestle with scripture - in fact, you should be. And we finished by asking the question, / / How well do we know the God we say we serve?

Knowing who God is, His character, His truth, His word, is absolutely imperative for us to step out in faith and follow what we believe He is asking us to do, because if we don’t know what he has asked in the past, how can we be sure he’s asking us to do it now? We use scripture and the character and heart that it expresses to be of God as our baseline for following Him now.

It’s what we call having a biblical worldview. Looking to scripture for the foundation of our lives and how we live them. And you would be surprised how many people who consider themselves to be practicing Christians are not living their lives from a biblical worldview.

To measure this, the Barna group asks these questions in their surveys:

/ / Do absolute moral truths exist?

Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?

Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?

Is God the all powerful and all-knowing creator of the universe, and does he still rule it today?

Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?

Is satan real?

Does a christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?

Is the bible accurate in all of its teachings?

If you have a biblical world-view then you answered yes to all of those questions.

Here’s the problem. Barna’s research in 2017 showed that only 17% of Christians who consider their faith important and attend church regularly actually have a biblical worldview. This is what they found:

/ / 61% of practicing Christians agree with ideas rooted in New Spirituality.

New Spirituality includes things like, “all people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being” or “meaning and purpose come from becoming one with all that is” or “if you do good, you will receive good, and if you do bad, you will receive bad” or maybe, “God helps those who help themselves.” ya, not actually biblical.

/ / 54% of practicing Christians resonate with postmodernist views.

This includes things like, “no one can know for certain what meaning and purpose there is to life.” or what is morally right or wrong depends on what an individual believes.” or “If your beliefs offend someone or hurt their feelings, they are wrong.”

/ / 36% of practicing Christians accept ideas associated with Marxism.

Like, “private property encourages greed and envy.” and “the government, rather than individuals, should control as much of the resources as necessary to ensure that everyone gets their fair share.”

/ / 29% of practicing Christians believe ideas based on secularism.

This includes ideas like, “a belief has to be proven by science to know it is true.” “A person’s life is valuable only if society sees it as valuable.” and “meaning and purpose come from working hard to earn as much as possible so you can make the most of life.”

This presents a problem because when we talk about faith, what we are really asking is, / / What informs our faith?

What do I mean by that? Well, remember, over this series I’ve been saying. / / We don’t blindly follow a God we don’t know, we live to know God as best we can so we can blindly follow his leading because we trust Him!

But you have to know someone to trust them!

When your belief system is muddied with New Spirituality, postmodern views, marxism and secularism, and whatever else the world is trying to shove down your throat, then when it comes time to make a decision for your own life, what are you basing it on? What the Bible says to be true about God, the world, humanity, and who you are, or these other worldviews that are being propagated by the current trends in culture?

Because if that’s what’s informing your worldview, then your decisions won’t be in line with what God wants for your life. Plain and simple.

This is why I argued last week that Abraham knew the heart of God, which meant when he heard God say, “go sacrifice Isaac” he knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not arguing he didn’t hear that, and not arguing that God didn’t say that, simply that Abraham knew that wasn’t the actual intent of God because it’s not the heart of God.

Also why Jonah, when God said, “Go tell Nineveh they will be destroyed in forty days” didn’t want to go because he knew the heart of God was to NOT destroy Nineveh and if he told them that they would be destroyed, they might just turn toward repentance and they’d be saved. Kind of a bad look for Jonah if you think about it.

So, the questions for us become:

/ / Do you know the heart of God?

/ / Do you know His character as defined by the Bible?

/ / Do you know God’s truth as laid out in scripture?

And / / is that how you make your decisions in life? And not just decisions, but is this what you live by?

So, all of that brought us through the life of Abraham. And this week we are going to look at a character that is just absolutely larger than life. We’re actually going to skip over a few in the timeline, and then next week we’ll come back a bit.

Let’s keep reading through our scripture in the book of Hebrews and then we’ll get into it.

Picking up right after the faith of Abraham, we are at Hebrews 11:20-30,

/ / It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.

It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.

It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.

It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.

It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.

it was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.

Alright, big bit of history right there. From Isaac to Moses is roughly 400 years, and then from Moses being born to the walls of Jericho crashing down is another 40 years from the point that Israel even leaves Egypt, and Moses is 80 years old at that point.

So, lots going on, and lots to look at. We’re going to look at 4 key moments in the life of Moses today, and then next week we’re actually going to go back to the story of Joseph, probably for a couple weeks. But today we’re going to look at these four things.

/ / Moses left the comfortable - “...he chose to share the oppression of God’s people.”

/ / Moses approached the Almighty - “his eyes were on the one who is invisible...”

/ / Moses Preached the invisible - “…not fearing the king’s anger.” “Moses commanded the people.” Those are the two moments Moses “preached”

/ / Moses Accomplished the impossible - “…by faith the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea...”

Now, this is something we’ve been saying all along, that there is an obvious difference between our lives and the lives of the people we are reading about. But that does not mean that what they exhibited and what they went through don’t have meaning and value for us. Actually, think of it this way. We read the stories of Abraham, Moses, Noah, and can easily say, “Ya, but they are the biblical heroes, I can’t have faith like them.”

Turn it around… You don’t have to have faith like they did. If anything we have it easier. I’m not trying to build a boat to save the world. I’m not trying to have a child at the age of 99 when my wife has been barren for 90 years and is calling me as good as dead. I’m not Moses, raised in the king’s palace, talking to shrubbery and walking through a desert! I’m not. I’m Robert Augi, 41 years old, going to university in the evenings, preaching and teaching, loving my family, and trying to do what’s right by them, my church and myself.

Come on. If these guys had faith for what they had faith for, don’t look at them as super humans, look at your own life and say, “wow, if they can do it to that extent, maybe I can do it for the little bit I need here.”

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, / / “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

You don’t need massive faith. Just a little will do and God can move the mountains in your life!

The faith these men and women in the bible had is the same faith you have. It doesn’t take much. This is why it’s Ancient Faith for Modern Times, because the faith is the same. We believe in a mighty God who is capable, and He is no less capable today than he was the day Abraham welcomed Isaac into the world!

/ / 1. Moses Left The Comfortable

“…he chose the oppression of God’s people.”

Ok, Hebrews starts this section about Moses by talking about his parents. They hid him for three months. If you know the story, Israel has been slaves in Egypt for 3-400 years. At the time of this story the Pharaoh, who is the king of Egypt, had decreed that no male children in Israel were allowed to live, because he was afraid of how big the Hebrew community was getting. So when Moses was born his life was in immediate jeopardy. But his parents hid him, and then put him in a basket and set him afloat down a river and was picked up by Pharaoh’s daughter who essentially ends up adopting him. So, he grows up in the palace. And was there a long time. In fact, Acts 7:23 says, / / “One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel.”

This is referencing Exodus 2:11-12 which says, / / Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.

Alright, so if you didn’t know, Moses was a killer.

Now, let’s just address some things here.

First, Moses has obviously come to a point where the palace is not enough. The lap of luxury isn’t keeping his attention. And by his actions, we can tell that this isn’t just a, “Ahhh, Tuesday morning. Let me go see how horrible it is for the Hebrews.” because he’s concerned enough to kill someone over the situation.

This is the first thing, Moses left the comfortable. He’s going outside of the palace. Why? Because he wants to be near the people of God. Oh, pastor, that will preach! If only the Christians of today would feel uncomfortable enough in the pleasantries of their lives to force themselves to go be with the people of God! But that’s beside the point.

Moses begins to feel uncomfortable in his current surroundings. It’s not him. The palace, the people. This is not his home. And something is drawing him. Oh sure, he’s on easy street, but it’s not what he wants.

Second thing we need to address here is that Hebrews says, / / “It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.”

But, as you continue reading Exodus two, Moses goes out the next day again, and while he’s walking around he runs into two Hebrews arguing, and he says to them, “Guys, why are you arguing, you’re brothers.” And they say, “Who made you are master? Are you going to kill one of us like you did the Egyptian yesterday?”

And here’s what Exodus 2:14-15 says, / / Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.” And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.

Ok, So why does Hebrews say he wasn’t afraid, wasn’t running from Pharaoh and was chasing after the invisible God instead?

And this is simply a matter of making sure we are reading scripture properly. Moses leaves Egypt two times. The first time IS in fear. Pharaoh is out to kill him. And Moses has NOT yet encountered the living God. So he isn’t looking toward the invisible God. Hebrews isn’t talking about this first time, but this is all a part of the story, and we’ll get to this more in a bit.

In Egypt, in the palace, Moses finds himself uncomfortable, curious and uncontrollably pulled toward his people. And instead of trying to hold on to Egypt, he lets go of Egypt and all of its riches, and in so doing marks himself for death by the Pharaoh and has to flee Egypt itself.

Moses is 40 years old at the time, and for the next 40 years he lives in this place called Midian. And this is where he has his encounter.

/ / 2. Moses Approached the Almighty

“his eyes were on the one who is invisible...”

In this forty years away, Moses encounters the one who is invisible. Not to get ahead of ourselves in the story, but it’s Exodus 7:7 that says, / / Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three when they made their demands to Pharaoh. But we’ll get there. All that’s important for the moment is that he was 40 years old when he left Egypt, and he was 80 when he went back.

And all of this, the story of Moses can be read in the book of Exodus, if you want some homework, you can read that book and it gives you the whole story in great detail.

But I want you to see the progression of Moses’ life and what it means for us. To approach the Almighty we often need to leave the comfortable.

So, at forty years old, Moses leaves Egypt, goes to a place called Midian. Gets married to a woman named Zipporah, and has a child named Gershom. And Exodus 2:23-25 says, / / Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

Like I said, Moses DID leave Egypt in fear the first time. And God is not going to send a scared Moses back to Egypt to try and free his people, right? How many know we rarely do great things when we are afraid? And most people find it very hard to act on anything when they are living in fear. Sure, we often get the advice, “Just get over your fear.” But I think it’s better advice to say, “This is why you don’t need to be afraid.” If you can help someone by helping them remove the fear, they can accomplish incredible things.

Alright, so one day Moses was out looking after his father-in-law’s sheep, and he had led them far into the wilderness, and he ends up coming to a mountain called Sinai. Now, if that sounds familiar, it’s because Mt. Sinai is a hospital here in Miami…no, just kidding. Mt Sinai is where Moses leads the entire nation of Israel to an encounter with God and is where he receives the 10 commandments and the rest of the law. And that will preach right there, Once you’ve had an encounter you can lead people to the place of encounter! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, while Moses is out there by himself and his sheep Exodus 3:2-6 says, / / There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

“Here I am!” Moses replied.

“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

This is the encounter with the Almighty that Moses needs. And, this is the encounter with the Almighty that you and I need.

Not a burning bush. I wouldn’t expect that, alright. But we can encounter the presence of God everyday. Simply ask the Holy Spirit to be with you. Open up your bible and read the word of God for your life. I am always amazed that both when I read scripture, I experience something greater than just words on a page, and when I invite the presence of God to be with me, I always feel something. Whether that is peace, or comfort, or just a recognition of the truth that He is there. Doesn’t necessarily feel like anything sometimes. Just that I know God is with me. And that changes everything. Feeling that… might as well have been a burning bush.

Now, it is generally believed that Moses is the one who wrote the first five books of the Bible, what is called the Torah, in Hebrew, or the Pentateuch in Greek. That’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So whether he knows at this point, or later realizes as he’s collecting information to write what we now call Genesis 12, he’s getting the same promise that Abraham got. Exodus 3:8, / / “So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey - the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.”

God tells Moses he wants him to go back and be the catalyst for Israel being freed from slavery. Moses argues with God for a good 27 verses. Finally he gets it. God wants to work through him. So he goes home with the sheep, drops them off, tells his father-in-law that he’s wants to go back to Egypt to see his relatives and packs up his family on some donkeys.

I believe there are two things drive the fear out of Moses.

First, read Exodus 3. / / God outlines why Moses can trust Him. He gives Him evidence of His power. First, a burning bush, then his staff turns into a snake and he picks it up by the tail and it turns back into a staff. He tells him to stick his hand into his cloak and pull it out - its fully of leprosy. Sticks it back in, pulls it out, it’s completely healed. Super powerful things.

And this is what happens. / / God replaces the fear of threat with the fear of God. And I don’t mean fear like he was afraid, but fear like he’s in awe of who God is.

When you know what God is capable of… Paul says in Romans 8:31, / / If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

This is why I’m constantly telling you to be in the word of God and in the face of God, His presence, inviting the Holy Spirit to be with you and reveal Himself to you.. When you know what God is capable of, the awe of God begins to root out the fear that the world lives under.

Exodus 3:6 says Moses covers his face because of the awesome presence of God.

And then Exodus 4:19 says, / / Before Moses left Midian, the Lord said to him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you have died.”

Do you know how many people live under a fear that just simply does not exist?

No, I can’t do it, it’ll break me.

I can’t. I’ve failed before.

I can’t, it’s too scary.

I can’t, I might get hurt.

I can’t, what will happen to me if I do?

God’s dealing with this attitude in Moses. “Moses, there’s nothing to fear. First, I am with you. Second, the fear you were living under, doesn’t actually exist.”

You need this too. And God has done this for you. Like Moses we need God to remove the fear from where we’ve come from so that we can embrace walking in His freedom! / / You can’t walk in freedom and live in fear, the two are not compatible. But an encounter with God will free you from your fear so you can walk the road of freedom. Remember we said last week. Faithfulness to the teaching and ways of Jesus is what makes the truth come alive and produces freedom. You are free when you apply the truth. Moses needed an encounter with the God of truth.

Let me just say this to you this morning. If you are afraid of change. If you are afraid of the things you have to do to experience the things you want in life. Invite God to give you an encounter with Him. He is what you need to overcome fear.

And God can do in you what He did with Moses.

Replace the fear of your past with the fear, the awe of the Lord.

And reassure you that the thing that wanted you dead no longer has power over you!

And you ask, “How’s that? What or who wanted me dead? And how is it gone?”

Paul says in Romans 6:23, / / For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sin was out to get you. Sin was like Pharaoh, it wanted you dead because of what you’d done. And it had every right to take your life. But God. But Jesus Christ. Through him sacrificing his own flesh on the cross, He made a way for you to be free from the threat of death.

So, just like he did with Moses, let God remove from you the fear of your past or whatever it is that is trying to hold on to you, or that you are holding on to, and replace it with an awe and wonder of who He is, and what He can do in and through you. Allow the presence of Almighty God to convince you that all things are possible through Him who gives you strength! And know that the thing that wanted you dead, your sin, no longer has power over you!

/ / 3. Moses Preached the Promise

“…not fearing the king’s anger.” “Moses commanded the people.”

Remember, Hebrews wraps all of these things up in “it was by faith...”. This is the Ancient Faith for Modern Times. These are the things that convince us of who God is so that our faith leads us to faithfulness. Right? Not blindly following a God we don’t know. Knowing God so we can follow Him blindly because we trust Him.

So, the next thing Moses did is that he takes the promise God has given him, and he starts telling it to the people that matter. Because the promise without the action isn’t really all that powerful, is it? Moses argued pretty hard with God in the wilderness. He tried to convince God he wasn’t the right man for the job. So, God sends Aaron, Moses’ big brother, to help him out.

The two people that need to hear the promise are Pharaoh, and the people of Israel. They both need to be convinced.

Here’s a side note: Be careful who you tell about the promises God has given you.

There are people that matter, that are either instrumental in seeing that promise fulfilled, or will encourage you in it. And there are unfortunately people who will simply try to talk you out of it, or discourage your faith. There is wisdom I knowing who to “preach to.”

So, Moses knows who he needs to talk to:

First, Israel has to see that they should follow him out of Egypt.

Second, Pharaoh has to let his slave labor leave his country.

And both of those are not going to be easy tasks.

Moses and Aaron go to the elders of Israel and Moses performs the miraculous signs that God had told him to do. Turns his staff into a snake, and puts his hand inside his cloak, takes it out, it’s full of leprosy, then puts it back in his cloak, takes it out, it’s clean again. So Exodus 4:31 says, / / Then the people of Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Alright, step one done, the people are convinced.

Next, Pharaoh. But this one, if you know the story, takes 11 conversations. And the first conversation produces zero results.

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say that the God of Israel has said to let his people go so they can have a festival in the wilderness. And the Pharaoh responds in Exodus 5:2, / / “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

Then he says, “Oh, and why are you distracting my slaves?” and he tells the slave masters to stop supplying straw for the Israelites to make bricks, making their work way harder. That’s conversation #1. No results what-so-ever.

There’s something to be said about persistence. How deeply do you believe God has called you to do something? Will you try more than once?

Then the next 10 conversations, if you know the story, come with consequences. And you might think, “Is God that cruel?” and to that I would say, “God gave every chance possible to the king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go.”

They go back to Pharaoh and ask again. Pharaoh says, “Show me a sign or some miracle that I should believe you.”

Another Side note. And I’m calling them side notes instead of rabbit trails because it sounds better. But, listen, if you don’t believe in the power of the enemy, think again. We are coming up on Halloween, and in no way, shape or form am I saying this is a point of fear, we’ve already covered that. God is bigger than the boogyman. But you have to be aware that the enemy doesn’t play games, and as much as the world tries to make this “holiday” all fun and games, there is real, dark, evil in the belly of it.

Why do I say that? Let’s keep reading about Moses and his experience:

Exodus 7:10-12, / / Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

Through their “magic” these Egyptian sorcerers also made snakes out of sticks! You think God gave them that power? … Again, not a point of fear, but a point of reality. God always shows himself more powerful, Aaron’s snake ate the other snakes. But that didn’t convince Pharaoh.

Even when we get into the plagues… There’s a moment where Moses is preaching this promise, trying to get Pharaoh to let the people of God go and he’s getting major pushback. I don’t know if any of you can relate? You believe the promise, but it’s just like everything is pushing back at you.

Exodus 7:14-25 describes the first plague. And this is still to my point where were need to be aware of the power that is in this world. Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, “Listen, you really gotta let my people go. I don’t want to do this, but if you don’t, the Lord said he’s going to turn all the water in Egypt to blood. It’s gonna be a bloody mess....see what I did there? But seriously. The rivers, canals, ponds and all the reservoirs. Even the water in wooden bowls and stone pots is going to turn to blood.”

Exodus 7:20-21 says, / / As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron raised his staff and struck the water of the Nile. Suddenly, the whole river turned to blood! The first in the river died, and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it. There was blood everywhere throughout the land of Egypt.

But listen to this...

vs. 22 / / But again the magicians of Egypt used their magic, and they, too, turned water into blood. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron...

Ok, again, not a point of fear, because the power of the Lord is far greater than any other power that might try to stand against us. 1 John 4:4 says, / / …you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

But the reason I say that is because we have to use wisdom and discernment about what the world would project as normal and cute. It’s not cute. It’s not fun. For the simple fact that I spend all day everyday protecting my child from fear and building her up to be a healthy person that knows she’s loved. The fact that the world wants to take a month, and even longer now, gosh, I saw halloween decorations on people’s lawns the first week of September. Do you see what’s happening. Halloween is quickly becoming the longest celebrated holiday of the year… And the fact that the world wants to embrace fear and celebrate fear and scaring our kids when we do everything we can to raise strong, healthy, confident kids....it blows my mind. I honestly hate halloween. Yes, hate is a strong word. That’s how I feel.

I tell my daughter. I have no issues with candy. I love candy. Too much, but I love candy. I have no issue with dressing up. Go for it, any day, all day. But the moment you try to force fear into my child is the moment I get a bit mad about it.

And so sometimes you gotta preach the promise like Moses did. 2 Timothy 1:7-8, / / For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.

The standoff continues. The second plague is frogs. Frogs everywhere. All over the land of Egypt. But Exodus 8:7 says, / / But the magicians were able to do the same thing with their magic. They, too, caused frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

And I think this is the turning point maybe. They were able to make more frogs, but couldn’t get rid of them or something because Pharaoh comes to Moses and Aaron and begs them to get the Lord to remove the frogs and if they can do that, he’ll let the people go.

Moses has shown that the Lord is powerful. And no one has been hurt yet. Just inconvenienced. I assume the water is back to normal. The frogs all die, they pile them up into heaps and it says they stink, but it’ll go away.

We can read about these plagues and argue why God would do this to people. But there is such a slow progression toward the end of the story. How far are you willing to go to save your children? I don’t think we always remember, ultimately, God is the Lord Almighty, and to stop Pharaoh from keeping that stranglehold on God’s children, he puts his foot down in the slowest, most gracious way possible, yet, Pharaoh chose to sit under that foot, and drag all of his people under there too.

And this is where we get to the last point for today.

/ / 4. Moses Accomplished the Impossible

Hebrews says, “…by faith the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea...”

So, before the point where they walk through the Red Sea, there are eight more plagues in Egypt that demonstrate the power of God, and this time, the magicians of Egypt can’t replicate what God does.

The next is gnats, so gross. I imagine this as the sand fleas we get here…imagine swarms of them....

Exodus 8:16 the Lord says to Moses and Aaron, “Raise your staff and strike the ground. The dust will turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.”

vs 19 says, / / “This is the finger of God!” the magicians exclaimed to Pharaoh. Even they are out of their depth now...

And to further share my point on the graciousness of God in the process. I know grace and plagues don’t sound like they mix. But the first five plagues are all really not good fun, but not a single person has been hurt. Water into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock… Then the sixth plague is the first time, and again, with ample warning, that the people of Egypt are physically, personally affected. And even then, it’s not fatal, but it’s nasty. Moses takes a handful of soot and throws it into the air, and it spreads through the land and everyone breaks out in boils, except the Israelites of course.

This is the impossible Moses is working in, as Hebrews says, through faith.

And the magicians are done, they can’t do it, they’re covered in boils too.

Eventually the tenth plague is devastating for Egypt, and at the same time is a show of God’s promise to come as Moses tells the people of Israel to mark their homes with the blood of a sacrificed lamb, which would become the festival of passover, a symbol of Christ on the cross, and our lives covered by the blood of the pure spotless lamb. Man, if I could go into all of that this morning, but for sake of time we will leave it there.

So, finally Pharaoh lets the people go. And all of Israel marches out of Egypt. But as soon as they are gone, Pharaoh thinks, “What have I done, I just let my entire work force leave...” So he tries one more time and rushes after them with his army. So now the people of God find themselves pinned between the army of Egypt behind them and the Red Sea in front of them. It’s an incredible moment in the life of Moses and the people of Israel.

Exodus 14:19-22 says, / / Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.

Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!

And Hebrews said they did that by faith!… Listen, sometimes the leading of God is scary. Even when we know it’s Him at work!

Can you imagine that? There’s this massive cloud moving between you and an army and as the sun is setting it turns into a blazing ball of fire and stands there between you and certain death for the entire night!

But then the way forward is walking through these massive walls of water, trusting you can get to the other side!

There’s always been debate about where they crossed over, what body of water it was, how deep it was, how wide it was. But the story tells us two things. First, it took all night for the wind to dry the ground, and second, when the armies of Egypt tried to follow, which, I’m assuming that’s a pretty sizable army, the water collapsed on them and they all drowned. So, big enough I assume.

Listen, wherever you are at in your faith journey with God, I want to encourage you this morning through the life of Moses.

/ / 1. Allow yourself to become uncomfortable with your current surroundings

Like I said earlier, if Christians would become uncomfortable with the status quo, with the world around them, and begin to dream of a life with God’s people in the presence of God living and doing his work, this would change dramatically for them and for the church.

Allow yourself to become uncomfortable and allow yourself to desire change through God’s leading of your life.

/ / 2. Approach the Almighty

Begin to take your walk with God more seriously than you ever have before. Commit to reading your bible. Commit to prayer, spending time asking God to move in your life, change your life, have conversations with God. Commit to following the way of Christ. Commit to His body, the church. It will be so good for you.

/ / 3. Preach the Promise

When God gives you a promise, ask God who needs to hear it. When God does something in your life, ask God who you are supposed to share that with. There are the promises that you need to share because others are part of it, and there are promises God has fulfilled that others need to hear and be encouraged by!

Moses told the Israelites of the power he had seen God display, bush on fire, staff, hand etc...

Moses told Pharaoh of the promise of God in things to come, and he invited him to listen and avoid the plagues altogether. I’m not saying that so you’ll become a prophet of doom. Don’t do that. We have enough of those. But there is something God wants to do in the lives of the people around you that you are able to relay to them. Remember, God WANTS to save people. He wants that NONE should perish.

/ / 4. Let God Work in and through you!

God is not done working miracles.

God is not done changing lives.

God is not done breaking down fear and releasing captives.

That is true for you, and that is true for those around you. You might be the person someone is waiting for to lead them out of the captivity they are in.

Think about that. What if you are the one who God has gifted to be the person who leads someone out of the bondage they have suffered their entire lives. This is not impossible. This is wonderful. It might just be that a simple invitation to church, or a simple prayer, or a simple conversation is what someone needs to begin to open them up to the freedom God has for them.

Listen walking out of Egypt was the first step, not the last step. The journey to freedom isn’t always quick and short, but it is worth it, and step by step we can all become more free as we follow the leading of God, out of bondage and into freedom.

God met Moses, and the faith of Moses drew him into faithfulness which brought him to be a part of someone else’s faith journey as well.

So, I want to pray for you this morning:

First, I will invite you into a prayer of asking God to make us uncomfortable. I won’t pray that for you because you have to be ready for it.

Second, I’m going to pray that anyone who is dealing with fear of the past, or fear of threat, or fear of failure, that God would replace that fear with an awe in who He is and His power to set you free, so that you can be confident in your faithfulness in following Him into freedom!

Third, I’m going to pray for boldness, that in the promise and in gospel we would have the courage to share with others the life changing reality of Jesus Christ.

And last, that God would do great miracles in and through our lives.