Redemptive History: Moses -pt4

Invocation || Host Time || Call to Worship through Prayer (no music)-led by Stephen

Invocation: Hebrews 4:14-16

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:

One of the glories of the gospel is that—despite our lack of merit—we all have access to the throne room of God. The invitation to confidently approach God and receive mercy and grace is what sets Christianity apart in the clutter of all the world religions. This call perfectly captures this privilege.

Welcome

Welcome

It’s awesome to have all of you here, whether guest or covenant member…, I hope you have been made to feel welcome today.

This church is about worshiping Jesus, experiencing and learning of His radical grace, and to walk with each other as the local church in that grace together.

​ ESVfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

​ ESVfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And because of that, it’s our heart, that here a Concord, you are made to feel “Known, Loved, and that you Belong.”

And because of that it’s our heart that here a Concord you are made to feel “Know, Loved, and that you Belong.” No matter where you are on your faith journey: thinking about taking a step, just starting to take baby steps; the point is if that’s you…know this you don’t have to clean up to come here. As a matter of fact Scripture echos that:

We are also a Church where we understand the “radical grace” received through faith in Jesus Christ. And because of that it’s our heart that here a Concord you are made to feel “Know, Loved, and that you Belong.”

No matter where you are on your faith journey: thinking about taking a step; just starting to take a steps; or you’ve been stepping for a while and are deep into your journey with Jesus; the point is, if that’s you…know this: You don’t have to clean up to come here. As a matter of fact Scripture echos that:

​ ESV but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

​ ESVbut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

No matter where you are on your faith journey: thinking about taking a step, just starting to take baby steps; the point is if that’s you…know this you don’t have to clean up to come here. You come and we figure out together that it’s Jesus and only Jesus who can clean up our mess.

So you don’t have to get it all figured out before you come. You come and we figure it out together…no matter where you are in your spiritual journey. Whatever season you are in, we know the struggle of this sinful world…but we also know that our God is bigger than our circumstances.

So you don’t have to get it all figured out before you come. You come and we figure it out together…no matter where you are in your spiritual journey. Whatever season you are in, we know the struggle of this sinful world…but we also know that our God is bigger than our circumstances.

Whatever season you are in, we know the struggle of this sinful world…but, we also know that our God is bigger than our circumstances.

connect:

connect:

With that said, I hope you received a program this morning you’ll notice in that program there more info about who we are and what we offer as a church. On the back you’ll find contact info. Now the insert is promoting some awesome things coming up like: this Wednesday we are starting Concord U. This is a Wednesday night group time offered in a college style atmosphere for our adults while we have gatherings for kids and students at the same time. Our Wednesday nights are designed for the whole family. On that insert you can sign up for some various class options. Later on in our service we will worship through a time of offering.Also, if you notice along with the insert there is a connection card envelope in your program. During our offering worship we will give you a moment to fill out the connect cards and the envelopes also serve as a place you can give any money or gift that you would give. Simply place your gift in the envelope; fill out the connection card and during our offering worship we will you to place the insert with the Wed night Concord U class selection and your offering. Regardless, we desire to connect with you and help you get plugged in.

With that said, I hope you received a program this morning you’ll notice in that program there more info about who we are and what we offer as a church. Now the insert is promoting some awesome things going on like: this Wednesday we Concord U classes. Concord U is a Wednesday night group time offered in a college style atmosphere for our adults while we have gatherings for kids and students at the same time. Our Wednesday nights are designed for the whole family. On that insert you can sign up for some various class options. Later on in our service we will worship through a time of offering. During this time you can place that filled insert in the plate as it passes. Also, if you notice along with the insert there is a connection card envelope in your program. We want to connect with you. So we will give you time to fill out both the insert and the connect envelope later in the service. The envelopes also serve as a place you can give any money or financial gift that you would give to the Lord through the local church. Simply place your gift in the envelope; fill out the connection card and the Concord U insert, and during the offering portion of our worship we’ll give you a time to fill those out pray over your financial gift to God and just place the in the plate as it passes.

Regardless, we desire to connect with you and help you get plugged in.

Call to Worship

Call to Worship

We are here to worship God through song, the preaching and reading of His word and through prayer. So, I am calling each of you to engage. From this point on it’s not about us, it’s not about you, or any circumstance that is weighing on you. So I want to pray for us to enter into a time of worship where are hearts are fixed on God’s goodness and faithfulness; open to His conviction as His Word and Spirit speak into the deepest and darkest places with in us. In that tension, we call you to action and the action we are calling you to is the very purpose in which you were created. To Worship the living God for all that He is!!!! Let’s begin this action by bowing our heads in a moment of prayer as we acknowledge His presence here…let’s pray.

Prayer

(a focused prayer on God’s goodness and calling His people to worship him and those who are seeking or skeptical to awaken to the life giving knowledge of grace offered through faith in Jesus Christ…)

Amen! I invite you to stand and worship with us!

---Leave the stage----Worship team will start to play---WT—do not play until Stephen finishes prayer.

Worship Team: Leads song in a call for all to worship

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Scripture Reading || ESV

Reader takes the stage as Cole is praying- then follows the script:

Good morning church, and guests welcome to Concord. My name is Drew Bradshaw, and I serve Concord as a Deacon and as part of our Worship Team. I am passionate about the good news of Jesus and how our vision and mission as a church work to make Him known.

Our mission is that: We exist to connect people through loving community as we introduce them to Jesus and help them follow Him.

I am able to serve this church through building community in our Group life (I love my Group).

This morning I have the privilege of sharing with you the God’s holy inspired Word from the Scriptures.

Would you please turn with me in your Bibles or on your device, to the book of Hebrews (found in the New Testament), chapter 3, and we will be reading starting in verse 1. **Only mention the first verse so people won’t read ahead.

If you are joining us this morning and you do not have a Bible, you should see a White Paperback one lying around under your seats, feel free to use that one. And if you don’t own a Bible, consider that our free gift to you.

*do not read this...(take a moment—count to 3 in your head then READ—Book, Chapter, Verse, then Scripture)

Hebrews 3:1–6 ESV

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Hebrews 3:1

Say: This is the Word of the Lord. (exit stage)

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Sermon

Introduction

I’m so excited you are here with us this morning, this text is so amazing! We are going to continue pressing in to our study in Acts and our series “Deep Community.”

We’ve been looking at this simple servant (who because of his faith in Christ and his obedience), who under the conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is boldly speaking about Jesus to some religious thugs who are holding to their past traditions, rather than accepting that Jesus was the Messiah.

The irony is that their past tradition is based on the part of the same Scriptures that we cling to and teach today. They where followers of (what we know or call today) the Old Testament. In the OT, a simple servant named Moses was the vessel God used to point His people to deliverance; to the Promised Land (the land God promised Abraham). Moses gave them the law (10 commandments), and help set up the construct of the path to follow Yahweh (God as He was known in the OT).

But these thugs, who were acting in the name of religion, were so tightly bound to how they had been raised and taught that they were blind to very reality of God one day sending a better version of Moses who would deliver the people, from being oppressed by other nations. It was this oppression where in there mind they fashioned a Messiah that looked more like a champion, a conquering king, who would swoop in and rescue them from Rome in an even more impressive and galant way than Moses did. They couldn’t fathom that God would usher this King in through a simple carpenter who, was born among them and at age 30 began His public ministry to fulfill God’s rescuing purpose. They had no vision for this because tradition and their own imaginations had shaped what this Messiah looked like.

Here’s what we must start to understand today. As we look at the Stephen preaching Jewish history and Moses, as the example (just as he did Abraham, and Joseph—great patriarchs of the Jewish culture) to ultimately help others see past their own personal vision of what they thought God would do. To see past what they had been taught by the people, who took the Word of God, weaving and constructing their own dreams and stories; their own thoughts and ideas, around what true deliverance would look like. That because they were looking for someone glamorous and power, instead of someone compassionate and humble, they were blinded to the very truth that their history promised.

Here is what I want you to see in this teaching that these thugs missed: The story of Moses and how God used him to redeem and deliver the Israelites out of the affliction and persecution of the Egyptians was a foreshadowing of the One, True, Deliverer who we experience in Christ Jesus.

Let’s do work… let’s pick in the NT book of Acts, Chapter 7, verse 17, where Stephen continues to preach...

Exposition || Acts 7:17-22

Acts 7:17–22 ESV

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Acts 7:17-

Acts 7:17–22 ESV

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Acts 7:17-22

So last week we learned that Joseph, son of Jacob (Jacob was the father of the 12 Tribes who would become the nation of Israel once the promise land was obtained), Joseph was used by God through a powerful and unusually dark past, filled with, family issues, slavery, and abuse, was ultimately raised up as a Prince of Egypt. God allowed all this bad stuff to happen to Joseph so He could be used and influence the Pharaoh of Egypt to store grain for the coming famine, and ultimately save the family that had abused him. He redeemed them, forgave them, and brought them into Egypt so that God’s chosen people would not starve to death.

One thing that history will teach us is that as change occurs, others are raised up in power and if they do not know you or your family as well as the one who was in power before, it’s easy to feel as though you no longer belong. In the case of Joseph’s family, the Israelites, v. 17 tells us that as visitors in the nation of Egypt they started to grow and multiply and the new Pharoah did not know Joseph nor his people. All he saw was a group of people who didn’t belong, and as he became paranoid of their increase started to feel at the rate they were increasing in number, v.19. says that he dealt shrewdly with them, and basically started murdering their children for population control.

As horrid as this sounds and as vile as you think it is, take those same thoughts, those same reactions and push them forward, and realize that in our culture we do the same thing.

We just excuse it away as a woman’s right to choose. or disguise it under the language of planned parenthood and validate it because we do it before the life is born. Yet it is a life, was created by God no matter how horrid the circumstances, and we excuse away the murder of children far more brutally, and carelessly, than this disgusting example written about in Scripture. However, that’s another sermon.

So during this time of child murder we see Moses is born. He is kept in secret and when the heat raised on the Israelites. Moses family literally floated him down river in hopes that he would survive. And he did. Once again, just as Joseph we see an Israelite raised and in power in Egypt. Pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses (this picture of rescue is throughout the Bible) and Moses was raised in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and because of this it says in v.22b, “and he [Moses] was mighty in words and deeds.

Church…look right at me…God had a plan.

Exposition || Acts 7:23-36

Acts 7:

Acts 7:23–36 ESV

23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

Church lean in for a moment..

What if Moses had not been obedient to God’s call?

This last couple of verses is quite telling…and should have gave the Jews of that day pause. Because there is someone who will always reject change, even if it of God, and contrary to their own circumstances.

Acts 7:35–36 ESV

35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

Acts 7:35-36

The irony of this story should not have been wasted on the Jews hearing this retold from Stephen. The same Jews who rejected Jesus. Imagine where they would have been if not for Moses.

Exposition ||

Acts 7:37–45 ESV

37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,

Acts 7:37

The irony of this story should not have been wasted on the Jews hearing this retold from Stephen. The same Jews who rejected Jesus.

And the irony of this story should not be wasted on us today who reject Jesus as well.

Understand that word is not just for the skeptic, that word is for the church also.

For you who are skeptical are like the Jews in which Stephen is recapping their history, because you doubt, you don’t believe because, the story is old, antiquated, has you can’t see the power, or the glamor, of the rescue.

The world is just to jacked up. Why put your faith in a God who allows cruel things in this world to happen like infants being killed.

And for church, the saints, those who profess Christ with their mouths, yet reject Him with their actions…are we not the reason that their are skeptics in this room and in this community?

Are we; our lives; the lack of faith in which we live; not the reason the Good News of Christ’s finished work on the cross, is the very reason people doubt?

Christian, how can people see Christ crucified and Christ raised to life, if all they see are struggles of our flesh, yet do not see or hear the transforming grace of our rescue?

The story of Moses and how God used him to redeem and deliver the Israelites out of the affliction and persecution of the Egyptians was a foreshadowing of the One, True, Deliverer who we experience in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion

What if the skeptic is right? What if the Jew is right?

Believer, what if Christ had not been obedient?

How would that affect our standing before God?

Imagine a religious system without forgiveness! Imagine a religion of only law, only rules; only jumping through hoops to satisfy and pacify the judgment of God and the judgment of others. Imagine if the only way to make things right with God was through daily sacrifice of animals. The endangered species list would be quite higher, would it not?

In our culture Jesus has made it easy. by becoming our sacrifice and we lazily, loosely and half-heartedly follow Him [by the way that’s a wordy way to paint a soft version of what it actually is: disobedience]. And truth be told because today we lack the conviction of a simple, faithful servant like Stephen, Christian has made it’s way to the top of the endangered species list!

Use this to build tension as it relates to our current issues with sin; create the thought of NO FORGIVENESS—only law: rules, hoops to jump through, sacrifice of animals for atonement. In our culture Jesus has made it easy yet we by becoming our sacrifice and we lazily, loosely and half-heartedly follow Him [by the way that’s wordy way to paint a soft version of what it actually is: disobedience]. How would we fare in obedience is not for Jesus? Let lead into the tension we must deal with in the final question…). How should this teaching lead us to follow Christ commands to “go” and share Jesus and help others follow His teaching? (Joe note: We can’t not answer this? The point is whether you are a professed believer or a skeptic you are in need of a rescue not only from the damage of this cruel sinful world, but from the damage of your sinful self.

What if… instead of disobedience we (the church) lived in obedience to the call that Christ took up His Cross?

The Apostle Paul…who we’ve talk about since the very first message in this series…teaches us this...

Romans 6:1 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

How should this teaching lead us to follow Christ commands to “go” and share Jesus and help others follow His teaching?

We can’t not answer this!

The point is whether you are a professed believer or a skeptic you are in need of a rescue not only from the damage of this cruel sinful world, but from the damage of your sinful self.

We reject grace, because it seems unfathomable. Yet grace has been offered to us through the work of the Holy Spirit in us that by grace, through faith we are saved in Christ alone.

What’s unfathomable is that anyone who feels the tension of this sinful world would not submit to Christ’s lordship.

What’s unfathomable is that those who need grace, turn from it, rather than there sins.

What’s unfathomable is that there are those who profess Jesus as Lord, yet treat those in which He died for as a project for someone else.

What if Christ said no to you and your messy project?

Hear the good news church! God has been pointing you to Jesus since the beginning of time. The good news is that...

the story of Moses and how God used him to redeem and deliver the Israelites out of the affliction and persecution of the Egyptians was a pointing us to the One, True, Deliverer who would save us in our mess. His name is Jesus.

Just like you He knows what it feels like to be rejected.

He knows what it feels like to not be known.

He knows what if feels like to not belong.

He knows what it feels like to not be loved.

Hebrews 4:15

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Listen to me people, we must not get entangled in our own fairytales, our own expectations; our own self-help remedies. Prescribing type of healing that is void of hope and void of truth. Just because it’s all you’ve ever known doesn’t mean that a God who is for you, and has prescribed the only cure, is not found in the person or thing or your choosing. It is only prescribed in the person and way of His choosing.

God’s prescription to a healed life is through the pain of the cross. The good news is that when you take up your cross and follow Jesus your pain is temporary. It’s only a result of a sinful flesh that is reacting to the brokenness of a sinful world.

God’s call to healing is for you to repent (turn for your sins) and let your faith shine the light of Christ crucified boldly in a world that craves to reject you just as it did Jesus and even Moses before him.

Only through Jesus do we find acceptance in God. But we must be willing to suffer the rejection of this place…though only for a little while.

1 Peter 5:10 ESV

10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This altar is open to anyone who needs it, I pray the same could be said of your hearts…because it desperately needs Jesus.

Let’s pray

As Joe prays the band comes up...

Worship

3 songs

Offering Moment

worship instrumental

Prayer for Offering (specifically)

Reflective Song

Sending Out (Joe)