Encountering God (4)

This morning it’s important to remember that God still loves you. In our world it hard to believe that someone so pure and holy could love us or that we have anything to be loved for, but God sees you and he loves you in ways your couldn’t imagine.

This morning’s text is a direct reflection of Jesus Christ so as we read it keep this mind and we will come back to it.

Exodus 3:7–9 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Matthew 1:21 ESV

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

We need to understand something in both cases:

Moses’ And Jesus’ call wasn’t just to free Israel from slavery. Freeing good people from bad situations is a relatively easy choice.

Moses’ and Jesus call was:

To break the chains of physical slavery brought on by purposeful Spiritual Neglect.

Enslaved

We enslave ourselves when we give into sin-filled desires. Each desire we submit to brings us further and further into slavery.

In both cases Moses and Jesus were sent because God saw what we had done

TO OUR SELVES

and felt compassion for our pain

Nothing bugs me more than when people blame God for either their sin or their suffering.

James 1:13 ESV

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

At this point or really any point in Jewish history or even currently Israel can not blame God for their slavery.

Israel/We put ourselves into slavery when we choose momentary satisfaction instead of lasting obedience.

2. Set Free

Now here’s the kicker: God has a plan to rescue them.

Romans 5:8 ESV

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

God has a plan in place to rescue you from your current troubles. He has a plan in place to rescue you from your self inflicted slavery. God desires to reach out to you and heal you of our own stupidity.

It doesn’t matter if we are saved or unsaved. If you haven’t admitted that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and you haven’t invited him into your life than God has a plan if you will receive it.

If you are saved God has a plan when we voluntarily submit ourselves back into slavery of sin.

But wait Pastor. If I’m saved then I can’t be enslaved by Satan. I can mess up, but that’s what grace is for. This is true, but just because you’re married doesn’t mean you can’t willingly end up in someone else’s bed.

Hosea married a prostitute. Despite their marriage vows numerous times Hosea had to go retrieve his wife out of the arms of another man.

Israel was still God’s chosen people when they enslaved themselves to Egypt, however; God heard their cry and stretched out his arm of grace to bring them back to Him.

God has a plan for your mess. He didn’t create the mess, but God has a plan to clean up your mess, but understand:

He will use you to clean up your mess

And He will use you to clean up the mess of others. Israel had to submit to the authority of God. Go where God told them to Go, stop when God told them to stop. Eat what God told them to eat.

Salvation requires obedience. You cannot fight your savior tooth and nail and be rescued. There are countless stories of life guards dying because the one they went to save didn’t surrender to lifeguards rescue and that person ended up drowning them both.

3. Free others

In Exodus 13 Moses started the consecration of the first born.

When an animal was born the first male to come out of the womb must be slaughtered and given to God.

Exodus 13:14 (ESV)

And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’

When your child comes and says Dad: I notice your have this bad habbit, you might not even know your doing it, but every time an animal gives birth you kill the first one that comes out. Now we are farmers. And we make money through our animals. I think we really need to stop doing this as we are loosing out a lot of money.

Exodus 13:14 (ESV)

you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

At that time you shall say to Him: Son this is what God rescued us from. Your story is your greatest tool to help people receive freedom from sin. There is a reason why Sunday is first on the Calendar and why we, in our culture, are called to take Sunday’s off.

So when my kids ask, and they have, Dad why don’t you work (aside from church) on Sunday’s. I can tell them This is what God rescued me from. This is why I set apart the first day of the week for Him. Could I make more money today yes. Could I get more done. Yes. Are there sacrifices I had to make to take today off. Yes, but God made the ultimate sacrifice and today is the day God choose for us to remember it.