Escaping Captivity
Notes
Transcript
A lot of you know this but it seems like Arika whenever Arika is pregnant she always has an eventful birth.
With Liam it took 4 days to induce her and during that time Liam and her had alergic reactions, and a ton of other things
And when Liam finally came he had to get vacuumed out which didn’t work so they did some other stuff
But then with Finn his birth was so smooth, I mean it was amazing, (she lost a lot of blood, but it was pretty easy, until she was recovering in the other room and she got up and said I feel dizzy, well said here let me help you to the bed
And I grab her and she kind of going in and out and I drag her to the bed
And I go Im calling the nurse, and she says no don’t call the nurse
And I say Arika Im getting a nurse you are dizzy and passing out
And so against her wishes I did and they had to do a ton of things to wake her up and she was shaking and it was eventful...
But you know out of these two births really neither of them was as eventful as the birth in the story we saw today, because at the time of Mosses was born Pharro had all Jewish boys that were born killed to keep the Jewish people oppressed
So Mosses mom had him and keeps him hidden but once she realizes Mosses could not be hidden she places him in a basket to go down the river where he is taken in by Pharaohs daughter
But its a crazy birth story that does not compare to the rest of the story, because Mosses finds himself far from Egypt as an adult, and this is where I want to pick up the story.
Starting in Exodus 3:11 becauseJoseph is out of Eygpy and God calls him to go back to free the Jewish people from the Egyptians.
And look at Moses response because God calls him to do this huge thing and Moses says:
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
You know God has called Moses to do this huge thing, but Moses says God do you realize who I am?
Do you realize my weaknesses?
Do you realize that I ran away from Egypt and now you are calling me to go back?
And Mosses is doing something where he is focusing heavily on himself, he is saying God look at what you have to work with?
Its your servant Mosses…
But whats so cool, is God does not say you are right, Im going to go to the guy down the street, but He says look your past doesn’t matter a whole lot, because I am going to be with you.
You know to often when God calls us somewhere we focus on ourselves, rather than focusing on God.
Recently (as in this past week at a retreat) I picked up a new habit where I am now a disc golfer.
And I was looking at a set to buy and its pretty complicated, because there are different numbers that mean different things,
Theres a number for speeed, stability, and a couple other things.
But I remember I wanted to find a high speed number, because me not knowing what anything means thinks the higher the number the better.
So I found a high number and I throw it as hard as I can and the disc goes 10 feet and I am thinking this is annoying
I got the best disc and chucked it as far as I could it should go far
But my friend looks at me and says Brendan the disc matters, but really what matters is your technique.
And you know I think so often as Christians and as a Church, God might place somthing on our heart.
Whether it is a calling do do somthing huge or a calling to heal in a certain area in our life.
And we say, God I can’t do it,
I can’t heal from the hurt, I can’t do the thing you asked me to do.
And I have said this before, but you are right.
Chances are you probably cannot heal from the hurt, or do what God has called you to do, but we believe that their is a God who can.
In fact look at Exodus 4:10-13 because Mosses pushes back. God tells Mosses this and it says:
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Basically Mosses comes up with all these excuses,
I mean we love excuses. Thats why when we are kids we always have a reason for why are homework didn’t get finished. whether we didn’t have enough time or our dog ate it.
And Mosses is saying look at me. I can’t talk well (since he couldn’t talk well it may have sounded like “I can’t talk good”) and you want me to go in front of potentially the most powerful man in the world and tell him to make a decision that negatively benefits him?
But I love this because we have excuses and reasons why we can’t do things, but God keeps directing us to Him
And in this passage He says Mosses, Who gave humans a mouth, Who made every person, Who can give sight?
I am God and if my hand is on you, you can do it.
You know I’ll be honest sometimes in Christians lives and the church (not this church specifically but the church universal) I get tiered of all the excuses that we come up with.
God tells us to reach the world, but we say God, I can’t. People are just not interested
We feel like we are called to do something, but we say I don’t even know where to start
Sometimes we say I want to be a good Christ follower, but my humaness is too much.
But don’t you think that if we serve a God who can who was with Mosses
A God that we see working miracles throughout the Bible
A God that brings the dead to life
A God that is still working today
Don’t you think a God like that can break down the barriers in our life if He is with us?
Because we are told that the God who did all these things, is not just with us, but when we accept Him into our life His Spirit literally lives in us and because of that we can accomplish the things He has called us to do.
And look what happens because Mosses ends up going back to Egypt and he goes to Pharaoh
and instead of things getting better, it actually says Pharro is not happy with them and things get worse.
Look at Exodus 5:22-23 because I believe there are times where we have felt like Mosses.
Exodus 5:22–23 (NIV)
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
You know I love the honesty that Mosses approaches God with, because He goes God you called me to do this!
I originally said no, but you told me I should do it
And now we are worse off then we started,
The Egyptians are angry and making us work harder
and not only that but my own people are mad at me for even coming!
And you can really picture Mosses just frustrated at God because he carried out what God asked him to but it feels like God didn’t deliver.
But have you ever felt like that?
Where you are faithful to God, but then you look at the situation you are in, and you say “God it does not seem like you are very faithful”
I’ve been faithful to you my entire life but now you take my spouse and I feel alone
You asked me to start this ministry and I did and I put myself out there, just for it to flop.
You asked me to love this person and I did, but they ended up hurting me.
I mean where you say Iv’e been faithful but it feels like you have not been.
But look how God responds here, in verse 6:1-5
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.” 2 God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
So there are three things God says here:
Before anything else He says Mosses, I am going to do what I said. I will deliver on my promise.
You know human parents are not perfect.
I am not a perfect parent.
The other day I told Liam we were going to go to a pool and Liam was so excited.
We got his bathing suit on
We got his floaties
We packed a bag
And Liam was so excited.
And so we pulled into where the indoor pool was and discovered that they actually do not allow children to swim there.
And so Liam was rightfully a little upset with me.
But heres what I want you to get, because aren’t you God does not do that?
and God says I am going to deliver on my promise
And not only that but the second thing he says is I am the same God that was with Abraham, Issac and Jacob
Basically saying I have been with you all this entire time, I’ve heard your crying.
How could I abandon you now?
You know we serve a God who will not abandon you.
In fact a little later God says “I will take you in as my own people, and I will be your God.”
Basically you are my children.
And when you have a child you never abandon them, how much more is this true with God.
When things are going wrong He will never abandon you,
And look what happens because I think a lot of us remember watching that kids cartoon “Prince of Egypt” growing up and Mosses approaches Pharoah with different plaugues.
until Pharoah finally decides to let the people go.
Now Here is the issue
Everyone gets away and Pharoah changes his mind and pursues them with an army.
and the Israelites are cornered between a body of water and the Egyptian army
So the people are saying “we should have stayed in Egypt, because now we are going to die in the middle of no where!”
Thanks Mosses
But look what it says, because all of this is happening and God says this in Exodus 14:15-16
15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
So God says why are you crying out to me?
It is time to move forward. I am going to fight for you.
stop worrying at start planning for me to move.
But you know I love that line “move on” or “move forward”
Because I just imagine some of us are stuck in a place where we know God will fight for us, we know He will not abandon us, but we are stuck crying out to Him paralysed in fear,
But this morning God might be telling us those two words.
“Move Forward”
But here is the issue we see the raging water on one side and we see an angry army on the other.
And we tell God we can’t.
Some of us would say my mental health is out of control,
Others might say a situation is out of control
Some of us would say I just look at my past and its challenging, I do not know if there is a way to move forward
But heres the thing if we have the God who created all of this living in you, I can promise there is a way.
You are not a lost cause and God can move in your situation.
You know the Israelites escape from Eygpt, but somthing more powerful occurs a little over 1000 years later.
Because Jesus comes along and ends up dying for us, because we were trapped in sin, bit Jesus made a way out.
And really it is beaitful what happens the night before Jesus is betrayed because He is having a meal (that actually celebrated in remembrance of the Isralites being freed from the eygiptions.
But Jesus is about to free them from somthing even bigger,
Because He hands them the bread and the drink (representing His grace) and now he is extending it to you.
And in a moment we will be celebrating and recieving communion, but right now I would invite you top prepare your heart to recieve the elements.