Sermon Tone Analysis

The Gospel Project® for Adults, Leader Guide ESV, Unit 4, Session 4

© 2018 LifeWay Christian Resources, edited by Rev. Lex DeLong, M.A.

Permission granted to reproduce and distribute within the license agreement with purchaser.

God Hears His People

Summary and Goal

In this session we move from Genesis to Exodus and continue the story of Abraham’s family well after the days of Joseph.

Jacob, his sons, and their families arrived in Egypt as welcomed guests generations before, but now the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt.

Through our study of the Book of Exodus, we will learn much about God’s character and nature: He is a mighty God, all-knowing and all-powerful, and yet, He is also close and personal.

God heard the cries of His people in bondage, and He responded with compassion.

He was attentive to His people and faithful to keep His promises.

As God began His rescue, He revealed to the Israelites, the Egyptians, and to us that He is sovereign over all.

Session Outline:

1. God hears the prayers of His people (Ex.

3:2-10).

++2.

God reveals His identity (Ex.

3:11-15).

++3.

God shows His power (Ex.

4:1-5).

Session in a Sentence

God is fully aware of suffering and oppression and responds because He is good and just.

Christ Connection

God told Moses His name “I AM” as a revelation of His transcendent self-existence.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the great “I AM” who came to save us from sin.

Missional Application

Because God has delivered us from the oppression of sin through Christ, we strive to be conscious of the plight of the oppressed in our world as we seek justice for all and show and share the love of God.

Group Time

Introduction

Interact: Ask group members the opening question on page 47 in the DDG.

What are some common perceptions about studying the Old Testament?

(it is dry and boring; it is out of date and irrelevant; it is difficult to understand; it has no impact on me as a Christian)

It can be easy to call the Old Testament dry and boring, but the Book of Exodus is the amazing, true story of the events surrounding the children of Israel’s rescue from bondage in Egypt.

It is the story of plagues coming upon the land.

++The story of a sea being parted.

++The story of manna falling from heaven.

++The story of God’s deliverance of His people.

++It is the story of the Power of God that preserves the People of God, through the Goodness of God, for the Glory of God over hundreds and even thousands of years.

While we are prone to relegate the Old Testament to inconsequential history, it is fundamental to our understanding of who God is and what He has done, and continues to do, in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Specifically, the story of the exodus points us to Jesus in at least three ways.

· Jesus is the Rescuer God sent to free us from slavery, not to Egypt or some other foreign power but to sin.

++· Jesus is our Passover Lamb, whose blood protects us from judgment.

++· Jesus is God among us, the greater tabernacle.

In Jesus’ face, we see God’s glory.

DDG (p.

47).

The Book of Exodus isn’t just Israel’s story of how God rescued them in the past; It is also our story.

God is not distant, He is near, attentive, and personal.

In it we learn that God, despite being the sovereign Creator of the universe, is not distant; He is near, attentive, and personal.

We learn that God cares.

He sees us, hears us, responds to us, provides for us, and saves us.

And although His name is not mentioned, the exodus story cries out “Jesus!” on page after page.

It is, therefore, fundamental to the gospel.

In this session we move from Genesis to Exodus and continue the story of Abraham’s family well after the days of Joseph.

Jacob, his sons, and their families arrived in Egypt as welcomed guests generations before, but now the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt.

Through our study of the Book of Exodus, we will learn much about God’s character and nature.

As God began His rescue, He revealed to the Israelites, the Egyptians, and to us that He is sovereign over all.

Point 1: God hears the prayers of His people (Ex.

3:2-10).

In Egypt, the children of Israel multiplied so greatly that a new Pharaoh, one who did not know of Joseph, feared them and oppressed them and even ordered all their male babies to be killed.

It is against this backdrop that we are introduced to Moses.

His mother tried to protect her baby by placing him in a basket along the banks of the Nile River.

Pharaoh’s daughter happened to find him there and took him in.

Moses was spared from death and grew up in Pharaoh’s household.

But years later, Moses defended a Hebrew slave and struck down an Egyptian taskmaster, so he fled to Midian and became a shepherd in the wilderness for nearly forty years.

Read Exodus 3:2-10 (DDG p. 48).

2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 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, 8 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.

9 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.

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

DDG (p.

48) The Bible does not shy away from the reality of pain and suffering but it also teaches that God hears His people and responds, especially when they suffer.

Years before, God guided the Israelites to Egypt to deliver them from the famine.

But now they needed deliverance from that land of deliverance.

They were in pain and desperate for relief.

Here we see a scriptural truth:

Pain is real and people hurt—even the people of God.

But there is another truth:

God hears our cries and He responds.

Why might we struggle to believe God hears us when we suffer?

(help doesn’t seem forthcoming; we wonder if God is aware that we have entered into suffering; we might wonder if we have sinned to deserve it; we don’t know God as well as we should)

God’s conversation with Moses from the burning bush shows us how He responds to His people according to His infinite being and character.

God’s Infinite Being

· When the Bible says God “remembered” the covenant promises He made to His people (Ex.

2:24-25), that doesn’t mean He had forgotten those promises, for God is all-knowing, or omniscient.

Rather, it means He had determined it was time to act on those promises.

The all-powerful, or omnipotent, God would work through Moses to rescue His people from their distress and further His plan of redemption through them.

God’s Infinite Character

· God is compassionate.

God sees, cares, and acts when His children are in need.

God delights in meeting us where we are in our weakness to take us where we need to be through His power and guidance.

· God is attentive.

He hears and responds to the prayers of His children.

Despite governing every single working of the universe, our Creator God is attentive to our prayers.

· God is faithful.

He always does what He says He will do.

He is always on time.

He is always attentive.

He is always compassionate.

Because of this, He acts in faithfulness to His promises.