New Beginnings (Morning)

New Beginning’s – Getting Egypt Out Of You Pastor Matt Davis – Long Valley Bible Church So on that note, if you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Exodus chapter three. This is our first Sunday of 2021. And this is the third day of the year. With a new year, there's a tradition of making a new year's resolution. Personally, I have decided not to make any because I've never made more than a week into a new year's resolution. But every year people had their new year's resolutions they want to lose weight or get on a better sleep schedule, or do better about keeping up with their schoolwork or their chores, or grow closer to God. Maybe it's a new year and they say, "this year I want to actually read the Bible cover to cover." We have all these new year's resolutions that we don't meet. We have high expectations that you know this year is, it's going to be that year. So, 2021, that's a new year and a new you. But I want to discuss a group of people who also had a new beginning and parallel it to our lives today. In verses seven through ten we read, "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt." Exodus chapter three takes place some 430 years after the Israelites first went into the Egyptian captivity. Now this 430 years covers a period from when Abraham first sojourned in Egypt. And then, Joseph was in Egypt. Until Moses leads them out is a period of 430 years. For 430 years they've been in a land that was not promised to them, a man that was not their home, they were oppressed. They were captive. They were treated harshly by their slave masters, so much so that we read in the chapter, the two chapters prior to this, that they actually slayed the newborn boys, because they wanted to prevent the growth of the Israelite people. But the Israelites cried out unto God. They cried out to the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they pled for deliverance. They pled to be brought out. They remembered that God had promised Abraham, and then promised again to Isaac and again to Jacob, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they pled with God, to bring them out of where they were and this text tells us that God heard their cries. He says, "I have seen the reflection of their cries, and I know their sorrows." And he sent for them, a prophet Moses to deliver them from the Egyptian captivity. They finally got what they want and give us is in a skewed way their new year's resolution. They want out of the Egyptian captivity. But for as much as they wanted out of the captivity. They were not willing to stick with the resolution. In Exodus 14 verses 10 through 12, this is after Moses through the power of God brought upon the Egyptian people the ten plagues. The firstborns were slain. The Nile River was turned to blood, health, film, and reading from the sky and destroying their crops in foreign lands. Pharaoh finally allowed the Egyptian people to go. And they fled and they come to the Red Sea. We pick up in verse 10 here says, "And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness." If you turn over three chapters with me to Exodus 17, I'm going to read verse three. ays "And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" So they come to the Red Sea, and they're trapped to the sea on one side, and they're trapped by Pharaoh's army this massive army marching toward them on the other side they have nowhere to go. During their flight from Pharaoh's army. The Israelites, lacked faith when confronted by the sight of obstacles in their path. It's like they came up to this wall and immediately their faith crumbled. Rather than trusting in the power of God to get them through it, rather than crying out, "Oh Lord, there's an obstacle here that you can remove and we're trusting in you" they cry out "Were there not graves in Egypt that you could bury us in? You and break us out to the desert to die!" Now, when we face obstacles in our path today. We have the word of God to look back on. We have seen the God who split the Red Sea; the God who caused heavenly manna to rain from the sky. We saw the God who sprang up wells in the desert where there was no water, and who caused the soles on their sandals do not wear out for 40 years. We have seen a God who has worked miracle after miracle. We saw the battles in the desert where Moses held up his hands and for as long as his hands are in the air they were winning the war. We have seen the God who opened the eyes of the Prophet, The Prophets, so that they could see that their enemy were out number by an army of angels in the spiritual realm. But when we get confronted with obstacles all too often that becomes a stumbling block in our faith. For us to be successful in our dreams and our visions and then what God envisions for us in 2021, we must not allow these obstacles to be bigger than our God, because our God is bigger than them, and they are only as big as we put our faith in them to be. Now, I've heard people say that fear is the opposite of faith. And I think that is incorrect fear is faith in the wrong thing. See faith is nothing more than what you believe, will come to pass. Faith is nothing more than what you put your trust in. So if you fear that an obstacle was bigger than God's ability to overcome it. Then what you are saying is I have more faith in this obstacle to stop the power of God then I have faith in God's power to overcome it. The Israelites are confronted with the army on one side of the Red Sea on the other, and they said "Oh god we have no faith in you. Why did he bring us here to die?" Do we do the same? Or will we allow our God, to be the God of miracles, to be the way maker? You know that miracle worker and promise keeper? The thing that the Israelites do not take into consideration, that we fail to see, is when they came to that Red Sea that wasn't a surprise to God. When God sent Moses to pull them out of Egypt, he already knew they'd be confronted by the waters. When God calls us into purpose in his kingdom and life. He already knows the obstacles that we will faith... face! (laughter) Faith. It's not a surprise to God, even though it may be a surprise to us. So God has already planned for the obstacles in our path. He is only waiting for us to allow him to show himself. In the case of the Israelites fleeing the Egyptian army, He split the Red Sea. It says so that they could walk through on dry water. Turn with me, if you would, to Numbers chapter 13. We're going to read verses 31 through verse five in chapter 14. I promise that's only a few verses; it just spans two chapters. Numbers 13 verse 31, through Numbers 14 verse five. This here is after they have, they left Egypt they've crossed the Red Sea, they have wandered of the desert, they have fought battles, they have seen the miracles, and God says to Moses to assign spies from each of the tribes, and they sent the spies into the land of Canaan, and their job was to bring back and report of what the land contained and the people that are in. Numbers 13:31 contains this ungodly report. It says, "But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Verse one in chapter 14, "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel." So they sent these spies in to bring back a report and the report they bring back is evil. It says, it says they gave an evil report. So what was evil about this report? The report was true they weren't little compared to them. Their numbers and strength were great compared to theirs. But then he won the report was that they called the inhabitants of Canaan, greater than God. That was the evil, was that they said they have more faith in the power of men to destroy them they have faith in God to protect. When faced with the difficulty of the desert, the difficulties of the battles, the difficulties of the travels, and the difficulties of conquering the land they were sent to overtake they quickly forgot about the harsh conditions from their taskmasters in Egypt; they quickly forgot about their crying and pleading with God to remove them from Egypt. When faced with the giants in Canaan, they quickly forgot that it was God that split the sea, and they walked across on dry land and it's like it vanished; they forgot. Instead they found comfort in what they had once cried out to be delivered from. Think about that! They said, "This is cruel God get us out of here!" And then they said "Oh it's more comfortable there." Okay. For those of you who want to lose weight. Matt.. Me. This is... These are the people who found comfort in eating everything they desire to being overweight, because it was too hard to diet. It was too hard to restrict themselves. These are the people who say this year I want to finish the Bible cover to cover, but they find comfort in saying I can do it tomorrow. I can do it tomorrow, because it's too difficult to take the 10 minutes a day required to finish the Bible. This is the people who say, I will be better about keeping my house clean, but they take comfort in their Grey's Anatomy. And so they allow their dishes to pile up. These people cry out for deliverance. They cried out for help. These are the people who are addicted to drugs, and they want freedom from it, and they cry out for deliverance, and when they get the help they find that it's too hard and take comfort in what they wanted to be delivered from. What they did is they lost sight of the bigger picture. They lost sight of the power of God and His ability to deliver. They forgot not only that he is the one that split the sea, but they forgot that he was a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar smoke by day; they forgot that he conquered their enemies when they got to Oasis so that they can have water. And what they ultimately lost was the right to enter the promised land because they lost faith, in their God. How sad is that, these are the people they were delivered from Egypt. It says in Exodus three God says to him, "I will send you into Pharaoh that thou will bring the people out of Israel to Egypt" and he says, "unto a land flowing with milk and honey." They were called out unto a beautiful place; a rich place: rich in food and water, and blessed of God. And they lost the right to it because they could not have the faith of their God to carry through. Exodus, is a story of God's great deliverance of a people group against all odds. God's power is shown greatly in every obstacle, at every corner, you know, as I just mentioned by day a pillar of smoke and by night a pillar of fire. He took his people from a place of captivity, from their Egypt, into a place of promise and restoration, and they rejected it out of fear. Although, it only took days to remove the people of Israel from Egypt. It would take 40 years to remove Egypt from the hearts of the people. We all have our Egypt. Whether it's addictions, whether it's failure, whether it's sin or sorrow and pain; Maybe you have scars from the past and you want to be delivered. Or maybe you live a life of fear, or regret. Whatever it is, each of us carry a past that is our Egypt and like Israel, we can each have our own Exodus story. We can be delivered and set free from our bondage. But for that to happen, for us to receive that promise, We must be willing to let the Egypt out of our heart. If we want a new beginning we must be willing to let go that baggage to walk away from it. Okay, Exodus three shows us that God hears our cries. He wants to deliver us. Okay, and God is the way maker. He will make paths where all we can see is an endless sea. He will split that water for us. But we have to trust in Him, we have to put our faith in Him above our circumstance, if we want to see the blessings and fruition of the promises in our own life. Israel saw the promise, but an entire generation had a perish. They did not see that promise fulfilled in their life, because of unbelief and stubbornness. But we can have a new beginning. You know, 20% of all people who make a new year's resolution, Only 20% make it to the 30 day mark. But only 5% make it further. Why is that? How can we as Christians as a church, as people who are beloved of God, how do we overcome those odds? You know Genesis, Genesis 1:1 it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But in the beginning... we must make God, our beginning. In our beginning, God first. In the beginning of our day, there is God; in the beginning of our task, there is God; in the beginning of our planning for the future there is God first. We must make God the beginning of our life and then he will create in our life the future and the promises he envisions for us. But we must start off with him. For if we start off any other way we are starting off wrong and we are doomed to fail. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, I don't have that one written out, 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." If we are in Christ it says our old self is gone. Okay, that's not a matter of "if", it's a statement of fact. Our old self is gone, while it's gone. We do have the ability to hold on to it. We have the ability to reach out to that dead carcass and drag it back and carry that dead person with us. But as long as we hold on to our dead self, we cannot be set free from bondage. We are a new creation, we must shed the old, we must let it go. Okay, the Word tells us that he wants to redeem us. It tells us that he wants to reconcile us. It says in verse 18, "all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ..." He doesn't want us to live in that regret, in that failure, in that sin, or addiction. He wants to reconcile us. If we are in Christ we are that new creature. We only have to see it. To experience our new nature, to experience the bondage of our personal Egypt. We must allow it to escape from our heart. If you want to be that new creation if you're listening to this and saying "Well, you know, I'm not in Christ. So this doesn't apply to me." It can. It can apply. And if you are saved and you're saying, I'm held in bondage. I'm stuck in this rut. It's time to let go. We're holding on. We are out in this metaphorical desert, and we were murmuring and complaining because it's hard and it's tough. But we have to let go. When we let go and when we make God the foundation of our future we will truly be set free. For those of you who fell... fall into that first category that want this the Bible says that to be born again, we must believe in the name of the only begotten and then it says we shall be born in the spirit. To do that, Romans 10:9 says " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." If you want to do that I invite you right now to be born a new to let that bondage go. And it begins with a prayer, and I invite you to repeat it with me. Father God, Lord Jesus, more I come to you, broken. I come to you a sinner, I come to you an addict, I come to you a failure, I come to you ashamed. I come.. I am shameful. I come to you with my scars, my burdens. That whatever it is that I have when I come to you, in debt to you. And Lord, just as you delivered your people out of Egypt, I believe, you can deliver me out of my own Egypt. And so I give it to you and I confess you as Emmanuel, God with us. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. And I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and I believe you rose again, showing that your sacrifices acceptable before God. And I asked for this gift and invite into my heart, in Jesus name. Amen. That's the first part of the unsaved is the belief. The second part is confession. Matthew 10:32 says, "If thou shalt confess me before men, I'll confess it before the father." I invite for you to share with us somehow, someway be it leave a comment on Facebook, or if you're watching from the app, there's a contact card you can let us know. But let us know and confess your God and Savior before the fellow men, and we welcome you into the kingdom of God. Let's stand and close out in a time of worship.