Believe, Declare, and Live out the promises of God

16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.[c] 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

EI - The promise of suffering given to Abraham is finally complete, and God, who has been present, is fulfilling His promise to take them out of Egypt.

TI - God fulfills his promises and does not forget His people, using His people for His purposes.

PI - What promises of God do we hold so firmly to that we gather the 'elders' and declare them boldly?

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Problem - When we read Scripture and study the Gospel, do we fully realize the promises given to us by God and do we depend on them as we go about our lives and interact with those who have secular power over us?

Intro: Good morning! My name is Micah and I am the pastoral resident here at GBC. I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to study Scripture with you all this morning! I wanted to ask you guys really quickly before we jump into studying the Scripture what your favorite song is? Just everybody shout it out. Okay, so I heard some ____, ____, and ____. For those of you who are curious one of my favorites is As the Deer Pants for the Water. Being able to sing Scripture, is such a wonderful thing and this song does this extremely well. When we lived in Minnesota, my wife, Melissa, and I went to a church that was actually given the building that they now use. This meant some of the people that were members of the old church now were going to a church that was primarily reaching college students. That meant music was different for them, clothing choices of the preaching staff, and a lot of other things were new to them. And for many it was too different and they left. One lady chose to stay and after one especially loud worship service she approached the worship pastor and asked if they could talk.

Now, for those of you who may be wondering why I am telling this story or what this has to do with our current series in Exodus, hold on to that question for just a little while.

Okay, we're going to be in Exodus 3:16-22 but before we dive in, let's pray.

Pray:

Read passage.

I want to begin this morning with a reminder of Mitch's sermon two weeks ago that highlighted that while the personal name of God had been used often in Genesis, this chapter is the first time in Exodus where the name YHWH is used. This is important to the verse 16, as the wording here points directly back to Genesis 50:24. YHWH is pointing back to the promises he made to and through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and then also those made through Joseph. It's paramount to hear YHWH's promises coming to fruition, and God's declaration is that the elders need to hear what's happening!God is not keeping His actions quiet, nor is He instructing Moses to do so. Rather, as these promises are coming to completion Moses is instructed to gather the elders and bring them into this exciting knowledge and task.The silence that has existed in those 400 years of slavery are coming to an end, and God's ready for His people to be aware that it is coming to an end. Now, I want to pause here and highlight something that is extremely important within our church. We have a lot of elders in this church. I don't know if you knew that or not, but we have a lot of elders. Not in the sense of church leadership elders, but in the sense of OLD PEOPLE! God is not referring to a passage that will be written several thousand years later in 1 Timothy, rather He is telling Moses to gather those who have lived and survived as Israelites for the longest time, who are viewed with respect within the nation. I say this with confidence because of the word used here in the Hebrew is translated literally as the old people (zacane). It is also translated in the Septuagint with gerousia - the Greek word that we get geriatric from. Now, in the church world, it is important to highlight something at this point. We are not Israelites. Meaning, we are not born as believers. We do not become Christians by marriage. We do not become Christians by association. Thus, the elders in this room might be some of the youngest in this room. They may also include the oldest. As someone who grew up overseas because of my parents faith, I should get no special treatment. One of our members was married to a son of a pastor of GBC many years ago. Marj, you should get no special treatment. But --- like the elders of Israel, as believers, we do get the special treatment of knowing the great news! It also means we who are apart of the church, who desire to have the good news related to us have a similar task to that given to the elders. You see God doesn't instruct Moses to tell the elders the good news and then go by himself to tell Pharaoh. He says the elders will go with him! As believers, you don't get to come to church on Sunday, expect Mitch to give you a sermon filled with great news found in Scripture and then have him do all the 'church' work throughout the week. Here we also get to see Moses again as typological to Christ. Mitch mentioned this a couple weeks ago as Moses was a shepherd as Christ shepherds his flock, but here we get to see Moses using others to come along in his declaration of God fulfilling his promises. Moses is to use others to declare the freeing of the kingdom of Israel as Jesus uses the disciples to declare the freedom found in God's kingdom. With this instruction to go to the elders of Israel and bring them along to Pharaoh, let's look at v. 18. It is important that when we read Scripture we read it as those who want to learn and grow in our faith. That means questioning and examining things that at first glance may not make sense. I work to grow a mentality of faith but one that is born out of asking faithful questions with the youth, and we as adults should be no different. So, for those of you who know the story, and all those who can read, God just said he promises to bring them out of Egypt and give them their own land. So, in telling Moses to ask for three days to worship, is God instructing Moses to lie to Pharaoh? If we simply take this at face value, it sure looks like it. But… Numbers 23:19 and several other verses clearly state otherwise. We have to be able to live in the tension of difficult verses but also fully realize the truths of Scripture. So, if God is not lying here, what is being said? Some commentators argue that this request for three days would have been understood as a request for freedom. However, as I studied for this sermon, most commentators that I read and where I land myself is that God is displaying Pharaoh's hard heart by making a small request of him while knowing he will reject even that. Story of growing up and asking mom questions when she was resting. Ask for something easy leading up to the real desire. If I ask for $5 but really want $20, I'm not lying by asking for $5, I'm simply not asking for everything in one shot.This thus shows not deception, rather God displaying to Moses and all Israelites that they currently have no freedoms - even religious ones as slaves.The reason I believe this interpretation is that God follows up his instruction to Moses with the statement that He is fully aware of what Pharaoh will do next and what it will truly take to free the Israelites. Read v. 19 and 20 with me. God is fully aware of what is occurring and what will occur. From his promise to bring them out to His statement that it will take His mighty and outstretched hand, He is not coming into this blind. We have to read this text with the full understanding that God promised to Abraham that they would suffer for 400 years, He is fully confident that He will bring them out, and He knows what it is going to take to bring them out. When we read the text from this direction and some of us know the outcome of the story (spoiler - God does indeed bring them out of Egypt) we sometimes forget how glorious and powerful it must have been for Moses to hear these ultimate promises. God is speaking directly to Moses and making the promise of freedom and telling him to go share the good news with the elders who will then go with Moses to Pharaoh.This is important for several reasons: God has declared His foreknowledge over all that will happen and tells Moses to go and declare it to those waiting for the completion of those promises and then to those who are not. He is not telling Moses so that Moses can then sit silently and individually watch God work wonders, no Moses is instructed to go and proclaim what God is about to do. Now hear me out here, because this is extremely important to our own walk with the Lord. God's power is not meant to be kept silent. It's not meant to be a secret. It is suppose to be shouted from the rooftops. To be declared to our most fearsome critics. This declaration from Moses to the elders and then the elders and Moses to Pharaoh is then completed by God with another promise. Read vs. 21 and 22 with me. God doesn't say by your powerful hand Moses I am going to smite the Egyptians and win and you will be crowned king. He doesn't say all your mighty warriors and mighty men will defeat the Egyptians and you by your power will plunder them.No, he says he will give the Israelites favor with the Egyptians and the women will ask for gifts and the Egyptians will provide and thus they will be plundered. Not by a thing the Israelites do. Not by a pretty face, but by God's grace and power will he give them favor. With that in mind, I want you to consider how we declare the good news that we have. Moses' good news - freedom. Our good news - eternal freedom. Do we rely on our pretty faces? (for me that won't ever work). Do we rely on quick responses?Do we do it at all?If so, shouldn't we be in prayer that God will be working. Because we know he does!Lastly, I want to finish that story I started at the beginning of the sermon. This little old lady, who had been at this church for all of her life walked up to the worship pastor and asked if they could talk. He respectfully said yes, and so they did. She told him a little about herself. How she had grown up in the church. How she had watched Minneapolis grow and change and become a different city in many ways. She told him about her kids who now attended this church. And then she got to her real reason for talking to him. She said, in a tone many of you ladies have perfected that she hated the music that was now playing at her church. She told him it didn't sound the same as the songs she was used to - but that as she had stood there and fumed a little she observed something interesting. She observed a church of people praising God. And she told the worship pastor to keep going, because she wasn't going to stand in God's way. God would have found a way, but it would have been without those elders if Moses had come back, told them all that God was doing and instead of obeying and going with him to the Pharaoh they had told Moses to shut up and sit down. So, in closing - I want to commend you all and challenge you all:Are you believing the promises of God in your own life. That's where this conversation has to start, because if you don't fully believe that Christ came, died, and rose again for your sins and is coming again - then why not do that today. A God that is so clearly in power as seen through the reminder of promises is surely one to believe in.If you do believe the promises given to you as a child of God, are you declaring them? God obviously wants us involved in it. Exodus 3:16-22 is not a pastor's only meeting. It's not only a staff only meeting. It's a everybody who has a iron in this fire meeting - please get your iron in the fire.And lastly, that challenge. Are you so excited about the message that even if a dirty shepherd, a killer, an Egyptian trained, mama's a princess told you to declare it with you, you would? Because God works. His mighty hand works, and we either get to be a part of that elder party crew, knocking on Pharaoh's door, or we get to whine and complain and watch God work in spite of us.